fish?

They meet ("dO rObOts HaVe diC--") then make eye contact and there's like this mutual realization of "oh no wait wait wait why here we're like kidnapped or something why is my soulmate here?" before Kaede starts questioning their weird staring, forcing Kokichi to deflect and move on. Shuichi takes Kokichi's weird Kokichi-ism as rejection and insecurity convinces him that maybe their soulmate bond is only onesided, so he starts avoiding Kokichi bc he's embarrassed.

I imagine Kokichi even going like "ew I hate soulmates" *direct eye contact& which scared Shuichi away.

Kokichi, although I doubt that he was planning his whole weird villain thing the whole time, seems like the type of guy to distance himself away from everyone he cares about-- even people he might "hypothetically" care about.

Bc of Koichi's general demeanor, and early opposition against Shuichi, imagine Shuichi starts to think that they're not soulmates destined to be in "love"-- instead they were like predestined to be foils to each other.

But maybe they gravitate towards each other (*cough* free time events *cough*) and SHuichi starts going like "aw wait I kinda like him" and Kokichi goes "OH &%^* I'M IN LOVE"

BUT ALSO Kokichi is super paranoid!! I imagine him being unable to trust Shuichi because he's scared that Shuichi is his soulmate in the sense that he is Kokichi's complete opposite-- Kokichi has reason to believe that Shuichi is the mastermind.

This is why I love when your "soulmate" can mean either your perfect partner or your biggest enemy. Imagine Kokichi pacing around his dinky room all night trying to decide whether to trust Shuichi, under the assumption that Shuichi is his perfect partner, or if Shuichi is the world's greatest actor, who's actually mastermindingg the whole thing, making him Kokichi's worst enemy. Would he take the risk?

So Kokichi gets closer to SHuichi bc he suspects that SHuichi is the mastermind (also he has a crush tehe) while Shuichi is like "yay my soulmate likes me!

But they don't talk about the soulmate thing. They refuse.

But it felt like they were acknowledging it when, in Chapter 4, Kokichi asks Shuichi to start working together. Shuichi accepts immediately.

He retracts his acceptance as soon as when Kokichi ddi to Gonta was revealed. To Shuichi, this confirms his suspicions that they were always supposed to be rivals and enemies, nothing else.

Chapter 5 goes one of two ways.

Kokichi successfully captures Shuichi instead of Kaito. From here, he finally trusts Shuichi, and reveals his plan. From here, either Shuichi kills Kokichi (angst! angst! angst!) or, the minds of the Ultimate Supreme Leader and the Ultimate Detective think of a loophole (my preference).

Kokichi captures Kaito. I imagine there being a conversation between them like: "Kokichi, this is an impossible crime to solve. Like Shuichi's good, but there's no way he can figure out which one of us is dead." And Kokichi has to reveal to Kaito that "No, SHuichi's gonna know that I'm dead immediately. We're soulmates. All you have to do is somehow get the message to Shuichi that he needs to vote incorrectly. Shuichi walks into the trial, knowing that Kokichi is dead (from a soulmate bond. Like if it is the red string bond, I imagine the string during black or gray).

Scenario 2, I think, should actually work. Shuichi figures out Kokichi's plan because, even from beyond the grave, Shuichi and Kokichi would be an unbeatable duo.