team suspicious

Rantaro hated modelling. He always had and, at the stubborn age of ten, decided he always would. So far, eleven years later, Rantaro was still holding onto that promise and making good work of it. He would never act up on set, or mess around - the people he worked with didn’t deserve that, but he never enjoyed it. Anyone who worked with him could tell.

The spark in his eyes had gone long ago, and anything that looked like a shine of happiness was either a camera flash or a front for the photoshoot. No-one wanted photos of a miserable model, unless he was in darker clothing. But recently, something had made him look forward to coming in. Or rather, someone had.

That person’s name was Kokichi Oma, someone who always seemed to smile so genuinely - and could light up a room as if it was second nature. Even on shoots, a spark would be in his eyes - and anytime Rantaro could work with him, he ended up enjoying it. Luckily, thanks to a Vouge cover, the two of them had become popular as a duo.

They had both ‘infectious and unmatchable energy’ said one agent when he expressed he wanted to work with Kokichi again. But Rantaro wasn't an idiot, there was a part of him that knew it was because they both were decently attractive. Both with similar hair, although Rantaro’s was slightly shorter while Kokichi’s was longer - just enough for Rantaro to have to wipe out of his eyes, and for stylists to fuss over. And Kokichi was just gorgeous.

Drop dead gorgeous, Rantaro thought. Which was rare for him, considering he worked in the modelling industry. Ranatro wrinkled his nose as he thought that, it probably didn’t make much sense. But what he meant was he saw so many people everyday, that most of them tended to blend into the background. Yet Kokichi stood out, mainly for his personality. But Rantaro could still recall that long purple hair with perfect clarity, the cheerful and joyful eyes - ones that said ‘I’m happy’ and looked almost carefree. Ones he could get lost in so, so easily.

“You know you shouldn’t scrunch your nose like that, you’ll get wrinkles.”

“Ah-” Rantaro was startled out of his thoughts, looking up and smiling as he recognised Kokichi.

“Nishishi, did I startle you?” Kokichi tilted his head slightly, like he always did when he was curious, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell.”

“Really?” Rantaro smiled before moving up slightly, gesturing for Kokichi to sit down with him.

“Well for a price.”

“For a price?”

“Well, as much as you are my beloved, I can’t do things for free - y’know?”

As Kokichi’s eyes wandered around the set, Rantaro realised he was blushing - and was immediately glad Kokichi’s eyes were averted. But he still answered easily, “Sure, what did you have in mind?”

“Braid my hair?”

“I-” Rantaro blinked in surprise, still considering the offer, “-Won’t you get in trouble?”

“I’ll just blame you,” Kokichi grinned, moving his head to make eye contact before posing again, as though he was going to leave on a moment's notice.

“Ok, I’ll do it. But, where are you going?”

“Here.”

Moving quickly, Kokichi went from the bench to sitting cross-legged on the floor, his head at roughly Ranatro’s hands. Rantaro could only imagine the sparkling mischief in his eyes as he started to use a sing-song voice, “Weelllll?”

“Just hold still, ok.”

Rantaro was practiced in braiding, and the small braid took almost no-time at all, the two of them simply sitting together and enjoying each other's company. Rantaro was aware of the slight blush he had, but he paid it no mind. He just kept focused, not even noticing the camera shots that softly clicked around them - just assuming they were from a different shoot.

He had a rather, well… Rantaro wasn’t sure how he felt about it, surprising start in the morning when he realised the latest cover of a magazine he modelled for. The front page photo was the one he and Kokichi modelled in, they were both in purple suits that Kokichi had worn beautifully, but still on the front page was an annoyingly large photo, one of him braiding Kokichi’s hair. As he stared at it closer, he noticed some discrepancies. They’d enhanced his blush. He did not normally look like that. And he’d never seen Kokichi’s face, but he was fairly sure they had added blush… ‘Kichi wouldn’t have been blushing like that, right?

But what made him frown was the article it was attached to. One full of conspiracies of them dating. And of course they’d only chosen to interview some of his deranged fan-girls. Beginning to eat, he had to stop himself from chewing on his lip - it was a bad nervous habit, especially when you were in modelling. Once he’d eaten and had some time to think, Rantaro got out his phone to text Kokichi. 

Thinking about what to do was hard, but eventually he just settled on ‘have you seen the article?’. While going to work, he kept checking. But there was still no response, even when he pulled up to the studio. Of course, he was shooting with Kokichi again today. Kaede and Korekiyo, two of his other friends who’d been involved in scandals in the past, were coming over as well. Looking around, he tried not to glare at the people around him with camera equipment - who had taken yet another relationship and tried to ruin it.

Then, a text came through. One of Kokichi’s ones, saying ‘Come meet me outside’.

Moving quickly, Rantaro sat up and started walking out - waving away photographers and looking passive-aggressively at the clock. Shutting the double-doors, he almost walked into Kokichi - who was wearing the same grin as always, and was in his purple suit. He still had Rantaro’s braid in, and something about that made Rantaro’s heart beat faster - to the point he was made aware of it.

“Kokichi, have you… seen the article?”

“Yep, I do have a media presence, Rantaro.” Kokichi was still smiling, “You have some pretty devoted fanpeople, y’know.”

“I’m so sorry about them, ‘Kichi.”

“Eh, it was bound to happen one day.” Kokichi’s shrug almost made it seem like it was no big deal, “Some people have made shipping stuff of us, y’know.”

“They-” for some reason words weren’t working for Rantaro, “They are?”

“Yeah,” Kokichi looked up at Rantaro again, and for the first time Rantaro noticed some blush on his cheeks. A more reserved, if no less genuine smile.

“Do- do you… like it?”

Kokichi’s eyes lit up, “Obviously, do you?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“There’s a reason I wore this suit, actually.”

Rantaro looked it up and down again, not finding anything immediately, “What is it?”

“I wanted to look good for the front page.”

“The front page?”

“For when I do this.”

There was a long time of darkness before he began to see the bioluminescent plants that lined the walls of the sea scar. Small things, growing out of crevices and reaching out into the darkness. Rantaro was careful to keep as much distance to them as he could, just in case they were dangerous or cursed.

He knew he wasn't alone when he began to hear a wicked laugh. "Nishishi, and then there was one."

Rantaro went still as he looked around, trying to see where the witch was hiding. He'd heard that the witch was a thief and anything you offered to her freely could be stolen. A name, a voice, even things that you didn't know someone could steal. It was dangerous to talk with such a being, but he had grown more desperate than he was afraid.

"What's a delicate little merman doing in my domain, hmm?"

The witch asking him the question first meant that he could explain, but he had to be careful. Don't offer what you are not asked for, don't give unless you will receive. He had no idea if these rules for dealing with a witch were accurate, but they sounded like good enough advice and he had very few options.

"I came to bargain," he said.

The water swirled around him. Rantaro's head jerked to the side but not fast enough to see what had moved past him. "And what are you willing to bargain?"

That question felt like a trap. He'd be offering too much for nothing, giving answers without clear questions. He stayed silent, trying to push down the thread of nerves that told him he was doing the wrong thing or that it didn't matter.

"Nothing to say?" The witch asked. When he remained silent, the witch laughed again. "Aww, and here I was hoping that you would be a fool. Guess I shouldn't be surprised though. Amami's tend to be smart."

"What?" Rantaro pressed a hand to his mouth to keep him from saying anything else.

"Nishishi!" The witch cackled again. "Curious, are you? You came here without knowing anything, did you?"

Rantaro caught sight of the witch then. White tentacles that illuminated the darkness and glowing eyes, but just for a moment before they faded to black and camouflaged to the darkness. What was this witch, he wondered. Nothing like he'd seen before, that was for sure.

"What are you?" Rantaro found himself asking. He blinked and the witch was suddenly right before, glowing eyes and wide smile much too close to his face. Rantaro flinched, finding himself with his back to the cave war before he knew it.

"I'm the sea witch," he answered. "I'm the keeper of the old words and new ways. I'm everything you fear and all that you need. Do you need a name for your nightmares?"

"Yes," Rantaro answered without thinking. He didn't want to keep calling this creature a witch though. Even if it was true, it felt a little rude.

"Name yourself first, little merman," the witch demanded.

Rantaro debated the pros and cons for a moment before deciding to just be honest. It wasn't a question, but even if the witch could steal his name, that wasn't something Rantaro really needed. Not anymore. "I'm Rantaro Amami."

The witch’s limbs became illuminated again and he could see the eight tentacles furling beneath the humanoid torso. The witch held up his hand, plucking something out of the water between them and a placing it into his other palm. "Finally, I have the full set. It was driving me crazy to be one Amami short for so long."

Rantaro moved forward, only to be grabbed by the witch’s tentacles. Both arms, his tail, and his waist were quickly wrapped, leaving him immobilized. "What do you mean?" he demanded. "Did you do something to them?"

"Hmm?" The witch tilted his head and grinned, two tentacles folding beneath his face as he made an innocent expression. "Do something to who, sweet Rantaro?"

"My sister!" he yelled. "Do you know what happened to them?"

"Oh, you sweet, silly merman," the cooed. "It seems like you're the last to know." The witch swam past him, limbs unwrapping as he moved to the other wall. There were grooves hollowed out on the shelf, lined with bottles. The bottles were filled with strange magical things; glowing swirls, oddly colored bubbles, human trinkets, and other things that he couldn't identify. There were thirteen bottles on the shelf. The witch grabbed an empty bottle and shoved his hand inside before swiftly corking it. Then he turned back to Rantaro. "Now then, Amami, what do you want to bargain for?"

Rantaro wanted to correct him, to insist that he be called by his given name. He had a lot of family after all, and being one of thirteen Amami's was a lot more complicated than being a single Rantaro. He couldn't seem to do it though. Every attempt to say his own name ended up with gasping and coughing on nothing. "What did you do?"

"Just a little souvenir," the witch said, a tentacle waving between them as if to brush off the topic. "You'd do well to answer my question if you want me to help though, before I get bored."

So the witch had stolen his name after all. Rantaro pressed his lips together and for a moment, he wanted to refuse to speak. He wanted to demand that the witch give back what he stole. But what good would it do? And did he really want to waste a potential bargain on that when he had much more important things to focus on?

He sighed. "I want to bargain for your aid to help me find my sisters. I've lost them."

"You've lost them?" the witch laughed. "The only thing you've lost is your name. You're already following the exact path that they did, a year late and a stone short."

"They've been here," he realized.

"Youngest first," the witch said, tapping one bottle in particular. "And then one by one, they all came, they all went. Some of them wanted me to wait for you, Amami. Some of them left messages and magic, some of them prayers or curses. You're all so funny. Thinking you're the only one in all the ocean to want what you want, to ask what you ask, to give what you give. It would be boring if it wasn't so funny."

"So then you know where they are?" Rantaro asked.

"Of course I do," he answered with a grin. "I'm the one that sent them there."

Rantaro swam closer, mildly surprised when he wasn't stopped again, but ignoring that as he grabbed the witch’s shoulders as tightly as he could. "Where are they? What did you do?"

He pointed upward. "They're all on the surface." He shrugged out of Rantaro's hold and moved past him. "They found that the ocean was starting to feel too small for them."

"The surface," Rantaro repeated. "Where the humans are?"

"That's right! And it's super easy to do the same thing." The witch's lips curled into a wicked grin. "For a price."

"What price?" he asked immediately.

"Nishishi, I knew you wouldn't disappoint me Amami." He swam around Rantaro, touching him with all eight tentacles, making him feel more claustrophobic than descending into this jagged crevice in the first place. "You've already paid half the price, so even if you leave now, there's one thing that you're not getting back."

"My name," he said grimly.

"That's right. And the one thing that I need from you, is to take me out of this place."

His eyes widened as he stared at the witch. "What?"

"I'm cursed," the witch answered with a frown, the first he had worn the whole encounter. Trapped to haunt this small crevice of the ocean until something and so on and so forth. The details don't matter," he waved off.

Rantaro took that to mean that he didn't trust Rantaro with the exact details. If he had been cursed though, Rantaro could understand that.

"I've gotten a promise, permission, a whole host of things to circumvent this curse and all I need now is for someone to take me away from here." His face went blank as he stared at Rantaro. "It's easy enough for me to give you legs and lungs, so that you can follow your sisters to the surface. So you take me out of here and I'll give you the path that they walked so that you can walk it too."

"What's the catch?" he asked.

The witch slowly smiled again and held out his hand. "The catch is that you'll always ask that question and never be sure you have the right answer."

Rantaro stared at the hand. This whole thing could be a lie, he was aware, or a trick. He could be abandoned on the surface or worse, in the middle of the ocean with new legs and lungs. Somehow though, looking at the witch’s face made him sure that none of those things would happen. He expected the witch's words were right on the latter, that he would always wonder and never be completely sure. Given everything that had happened, how long he had been searching, the way each of his sister's had vanished one by one with no one the wiser, he felt that this was the best way forward. He would just have to lend out his trust.

He took the witch's hand. "I agree."

The witch smiled and he looked less ominous the way his face lit up with actual joy. "Then I renounce the name of Kokichi Ouma and lay claim to the name Rantaro."

So the witch was named Kokichi. Or was? It was a little confusing, but when the witch raised an eyebrow at him, Rantaro began swimming back out of the cave floor and pulling the witch with him. He heard the clink and clank of bottles as the witch’s tentacles grabbed things off the shelf but he didn't look back. He didn't stop in fact, until he had swam full stop to the water's surface. He was unbelievably tired at the end of it, choking on air as he broke free of the water, finding himself collapsing into the tentacles of his new companion.

Cats aren't the only beings to have multiple lives. Once Kokichi had been told everything, that was one of his first coherent thoughts. He still remembered everything about his last moments in the ‘game’, and his first moments in the ‘real world’. Both worlds were real to him. Their so-called game had made him, shaped his life and personality and contained everything he loved and remembered. It made Rantaro, his Rantaro. It made Shuichi. It made everyone.

Kokichi still raised the issue of his death to Team Danganronpa, no matter how many times they would try and shame him for being petty. His main issue with it was that it had hurt. It had hurt. The feeling of bones breaking, and a small part of him glad he was dying because the pain was so bad. Kokichi raised the point they really didn’t need to make him feel that pain - he was already dying. They gave the excuse that Kaito might have saved him. Kokichi almost hit the person who said that, but Rantaro got there first.

Waking up was something Kokichi also remembered. Being in some darkened place, but without the pain. Well, there had been phantom pain for a few second - but then it went away. He felt pressure around his head, although it was barely pinching. He felt something in his arm as well, although that was more odd than painful. Yet it was the same black and oppressive darkness as the press, as his death, and Kokichi began to thrash around.

“Kokichi!” Keebo’s voice, ironically, made him too shocked to panic, “Do not worry, you are safe. You have a helmet on currently, can a friend take it off?”

Even though it was no less frightening, the presence of Keebo allowed Kokichi to gather himself. You can’t let anyone see you like this.He tried to speak loudly, cheerfully, but when he called out his voice broke, “Kee-”

Kokichi coughed, then pushed through, “Kee-boy, you reaalllly care about me? And you don’t need to lie - I know you don’t have friends!”

“That is not true! And robophobic!”

Keebo’s voice distracted Kokichi from the pain in his own, almost as if he hadn’t been talking for ages. But the pain didn’t distract him from hearing a low laugh in the background. He was just about to question it before Kee-boy spoke again, “Can I take the helmet off?”

Making sure his relief didn’t seep into his voice, Kokichi answered, “Yeah, sure. Whatevs. No big deal.”

Hands were placed by his helmet, and Kokichi shivered. The instructions came again, “This may hurt. And please do not panic!”

Kokichi remembered the helmet being pulled off, and then suddenly seeing Rantaro. Dropping the ugly thing and looking at him with eyes of love and concern. Kokichi tried to stumble out into his arms, but instead collapsed half way through - being caught by the green haired boy. A jolt of pain shot through him as he hit the floor, but it was mainly happiness. Weakly, he had looked up, “You’re… alive.”

“Yeah… hey ‘Kichi.”

“Love you.”

And on those momentous words, Kokichi had passed out. But it wasn’t all bad, Kokichi had started to recover. The group as a whole was getting better, and now they were getting matching tattoos. Or, almost matching tattoos. They had decided to get two circles, one coloured and one just an outline - to represent their lives. They had two, one was gone - but now they had a new one. Except the surviving trio, both of their circles would be silhouettes. Because they were pretty lame, surviving so long. Kokichi liked to tease them by calling them ‘try-hards’ and then hiding behind Rantaro when Maki glared at him.

“So he calls himself,” Rantaro flipped over the dossier of folders again, “A phantom thief?”

“It’s certainly pretentious.” Kaito chimed in, “I mean, leaving notes at the crime scene? What kinda thief does that? It’s like they’re trying to get caught.” “I dunno, I think it’s pretty clever,” Kokichi spoke up from the corner of the room, still looking at the criminal’s facial composite, “Also ew, who’s making these composites?”

Rantaro looked over at them, he thought they were pretty decent. Considering they had practically no eye-witnesses (someone who was on the other side of the road allegedly saw them) and had to use the details of the break in to build a profile. “Our usual guy… what’s wrong with them?”

“They- look,” Kokichi squinted at one again, then brandished it, “They’ve given him a mullet. It’s almost as bad as Kaito’s hair!”

“What’s wrong with my hair?”

“Nishsishi, what isn’t wrong with your-” “-Kaito, Kokichi,” Rantaro interrupted, “We’re detectives. Solving a case, leave this ‘till we’re off work, please?”

Moving into a more normal sitting position, Kokichi set aside the photos and began to reach for the evidence case, “Only cause you said please, y’know.” “Yeah, our bad Rantaro,” Kaito apologised, “Geez, I’m no good at thievery cases.”

“Don’t beat yourself up too much Kaito, you’re still one of the best detectives here,” Rantaro smiled, “They wouldn’t give this case to just anyone.” “Yeah, they gave it to Shuichi.” Kaito voiced the concern Rantaro had, “He’s our best detective, and he dropped the case, he dropped it!”

Kokichi looked up at this, “Well, our beloved Saihara is wanted a lot, y’know. They’ve probably sighed him over to a murder case or something boring.”

“I think he got my case,” Rantaro said, “Shouldn’t be too hard, it was pretty clear. He mainly needs to sort out the official stuff.”

“Oh, your murder one?” Kokichi lit up, “Y’know, I just finished a murder case too - want to know what the creepiest thing about it was?”

Kaito scoffed slightly, “No.”

“Awww, c’mon.” “Still no dude.”

“But it’s suuuuuper creepy,” Kokichi had spun his chair towards Kaito now, coming steadily closer, “C’mon!”

“Fine,” Rantaro broke the stalemate, “What was it, Kokichi?”

“My Rantaro cares about me!” Kokichi briefly stopped staring at Kaito to throw his boyfriend a grin, “Ok. The creepiest thing was the murder’s looks. He had a goatee!”

So used to it by now, Kaito didn’t even respond, instead flicking over the evidence and staring hard at it. Kokichi kept the eye-contact for a beat longer before also going back to his work, trying to figure out where the thief would strike next. The three worked in harmony for a while, only stopping to briefly check something with a team member or going to get something to eat. Kokichi had, rather impressively, avoided any coffee so far - although he was steadily eating an entire packet of sweets. Grape flavoured ones, of course. Rantaro still had yet to work out if his boyfriend actually liked them, or if he chose them because no-one else liked them. Both were equally as likely.

But as he pulled the case files over, Rantaro couldn’t help his mind wondering. First of all, his mind went to his boyfriend - sitting in front of him while carefully analysing his case-files, concentrating and writing rapidly, not even looking up in conversation. Then his mind went to the phantom thief, the one who was too good - potentially too good for Shuichi. The best detective here had given up the case, but why? Surely it couldn’t be because of difficulty, but if it wasn’t difficult… personal reasons? Who would he care enough about to lie for?

Eventually, Rantaro stood up - signalling everyone to stop. Kaito gave a relieved grimace as he rolled his shoulders, while Kokichi smiled as he stood up, graceful as ever. Swinging his arms slightly, Kokichi looked to Rantaro, throwing a case file his way, “Here you go, places our thief is likely to strike next. Can I get a thank you kiss?”

Kaito rolled his eyes slightly, “I’ll send you a summary of my work, you can kiss once I’ve gone.”

Watching as he left, Kokichi called after him, “You don’t want to stay and watch?”

Not bothering to dignify that with a response, Kaito continued to walk out; although Rantaro guiltily chuckled. Moving over to Kokichi, he wrapped his arms around him, “Am I meeting you tonight?”

“I wish,” Kokichi said, and Rantaro could feel his pout, “I already promised my night to something else.”

“Did you have to make it sound like that?”

“Sound like what?” Kokichi looked innocent, but his eyes were sparkling in enjoyment,”Nee-heehee, you have such a dirty mind Rantaro!”

“Sure,” Rantaro flicked Kokichi over the head, “Just don’t come home too late.” “Says you,” Kokichi looked at the schedule, “You’ve got duty today, watching one of our thief’s potential crime scenes.”

“My choice?”

“Yup! Which one are you hanging out in?”

“I’ll look over your file,” Rantaro picked it up, weighing it in his hands, “I love you!”

“Awww, love you too!”

Rantaro’s night didn’t end up being that interesting, all in all, he got home late - before immediately going to bed. Frowning slightly when he realised Kokichi wasn’t there yet, but not worried; sometimes his boyfriend would have late nights. He didn’t exactly control what was happening. Morning routines were also mainly the same as normal, Rantaro woke up slightly earlier than Kokichi and began making breakfast - laughing as his boyfriend trudged into the kitchen.

But there was something bright and fun in Kokichi’s eyes, and a hint of excitement as he hugged Rantrao before stealing the coffee. Kokichi was an intolerable coffee thief, made even worse by the fact he drank his coffee with excessive milk and sugar - just so no-one else would touch it. Although something in Rantaro admired the level of pettiness. Wriggling out of a hug Rantaro tried to trap him in, Kokichi sat down with a smile, “Good morning!”

“I’m glad to see you’re awake,” Rantaro said dryly, looking pointedly at the cup of coffee, “You could probably give the phantom thief a run for his money, y’know?”

“Ooooh, really?” Kokichi grinned, “I’m much better than him.”

“Obviously.” Rantaro said it quickly, but it was still genuine - an easy transition into the rest of their morning conversations.

The drive to work was easy enough, like it normally was, and overall pretty pleasant. As they were about to go through the door, Rantaro turned on his phone (he didn’t like to suddenly have notifications in the morning) and winced at the noise. Turning to Kokichi, he asked, “Hey, what did I miss?”

“Hm?” Kokichi looked up, and then his eyes lit up in understanding, “Oh - you mean the notifications? Our thief robbed a jewellery store, one of the faaancy ones.”

“Seriously?” Rantaro tried to run through the different locations Kokichi had given him, mentally thinking of which ones would cause a stir or which ones wouldn’t. “Tasaki?”

“Nope, Mikimoto.”

Containing the urge to swear under his breath, Rantaro instead swallowed before keeping walking, “Well, they have good security. I’m sure they’ll have captured something.”

Looking over the video evidence, they had found almost nothing. Only one camera had captured any of the events - a central one that seemed to be deliberately kept on. A figure dressed in formal white mens clothing, he even had a suit on, wore a mask as he stared at the camera and then bowed. The buttons on his suit were a darker purple, one that stood out but matched his hair - which was gelled completely upwards and sideways with spikes. An irony that Kokichi certainly didn’t fail to point out as he laughed at Kaito.

“So, the facial composite has been updated,” their chief finished saying, “And it’s Mikimoto that got broken into.”

“Mikimoto, seriously?” Kaito exclaimed, “Geez, this guy’s got balls.”

“Appropriate words in the workplace, Kaito,” Rantaro chided gently, before glaring as Kokichi immediately copied his words. “You too, ‘Kichi.”

“I’ll leave you to your work, we need to find them soon.”

This time, Kokichi waited until the person he was mocking was out of the room to mock him, “‘We need to find them soon’ - what else does he think you’ve been working on?”

“We’ve been working on,” Rantaro corrected, “I still think what we were doing works, so let’s keep the roles we were doing.”

“You got it, boss!” Kokichi put on slightly over-the-top enthusiasm, but as he sat cross-legged in the chair he certainly was dedicated. Doing mostly the same routine, the three worked together again - although it was slightly less silent than before. Ideas were thrown around this time, and Kokichi continued to find the phantom thief’s hair hilarious. Kokichi also developed a game where he would leave to get coffee/take something out of his secret sweet stash and put a picture of the culprit on Kaito’s hair - carefully balanced. It had been funny the first time and now, on the sixth try, it was still amusing.

The night began the same too, although now Rantaro was in a different location. Thankfully a second detective had been brought along with him - Kaito. Kokichi would’ve joined them, but he had another outing; it was fair enough as Kokichi had probably contributed the most to their dossier. He could always get inside the mind of the culprit, and it was honestly impressive. Just one more thing that made Rantaro more proud of his boyfriend. Smiling, he began to daydream before-

“Hey Rantaro, did you hear that?” Kaito’s whisper cut across them suddenly, his eyes wide in both nerves and determination.

“Hear what?” Rantaro asked sheepishly.

“There was a noise,” Kaito insisted, “Look - the camera’s are off!”

Following his gaze, Rantaro felt determination solidify. “You go to the jewellery room, I’ll go to the exit?”

“Sounds good!”

With surprisingly light footsteps, Kaito sped away to the main (and more expensive) rooms, while Rantaro began to go to the doors - moving quickly while also trying to be silent. Pausing between two doors, Rantaro tried to listen as he suddenly heard movement. Hushed voices, probably instructions. Taking one hand on his phone, to call for back-up, Rantaro pushed open the door, “Hands up!”

The figure was dressed in white, just like he had been in the security camera video. His hair was the same darker purple colour, almost midnight purple in the light, and down; hair swooping into spikes and wildly, yet attractively, tangled. His gloved hands were reaching for someone in the window, but jolted in fright and withdrew, his hand instead going to his pocket. Then, the hand stopped and the movement became more measured. Graceful, almost feline-like, the phantom thief stood up and took (thankfully empty) hands out of his pockets. Calling casually, almost cheerfully, he spoke to the people outside, “Don’t worry guys, meet you in a few hours?”

There must have been agreement because the masked figure turned around, but all Rantaro could focus on was that he recognized the voice. It was deeper than it normally was, but it was still unmistakably Kokichi’s.

His boyfriend, who was a detective, was also the now notorious phantom thief? They even had the same hair, the same height, the same build, the same stature. As he kept staring, Rantaro could only formulate the thoughts ‘why didn’t you figure it out sooner?’. Kokichi stayed moving lightly, rocking on the balls of his feet, “Soooo, you gonna tie me up and rough up my body, Mr. Detective?”

“I-” for some reason, that was the word that shocked Rantaro out of his slumber, “We’re in a relationship, d’you just make this offer for anyone?”

“I meannnn,” Kokichi’s acting was immaculate, even now, “Do you make an offer to date any criminal you meet?”

“I know it’s you, Kokichi.”

“Shit.”

Kokichi’s real voice had come through now, and Rantaro could imagine the pout as well as the slightly moving eyes, a symbol of his nervousness. Then his voice lost its act, and became more pleading, “‘Taro, I… I’m sorry.”

“Why are you even doing this?”

“Cause it’s fun obvi,” Kokichi responded, before quickly following up, “That was a lie. I’m helping a friend who needs money, quick. Not for anything nefarious!”

“‘Kichi, this is illegal…”

“I-” Kokichi looked away for a second, “C’mon, if the great Shuichi Saihara can’t figure this case out, can we reallllly do it?”

“We absolutely-” Rantaro reacted on instinct before he thought about what Kokichi was asking. And for some reason, love immediately won out. “No more heists.”

“No more heists.” Kokichi echoed, his smile immediately coming into his voice, “Now help me escape?”