Chapter Text
Shuichi woke up on the cold concrete floor, shaking from the cold. It was really cold. He felt frozen. He should probably get up. He hugged himself, attempting to keep himself warm.
Maybe someone decided to finally try to kill the detective and shove him in a freezer.
Wait…did they even have freezers in the killing game. Shuichi didn't think so. How did they keep all of the food from expiring? He never saw a fridge in the dining hall. Now that he was really thinking about it, how did Kirumi even cook? It's not like they had any stoves. Maybe there was one in her ultimate lab and he just didn't notice? That would be a pretty hard thing to miss.
Shuichi used to be really impulsive when he was younger so he constantly touched the burning hot stove. One time he had to go to the E.R. It wasn't fun. He got yelled at, grounded, and sent to bed with no dinner that night. He never really had any injuries like that afterwards.
He should really get up…
Shuichi slowly opened his eyes to see a metal door, with a glass window on it. He looked around. He was in the freezer. The strange part about it was that it didn't have any food. It was just him, Him and nothing else. Sure, there were a couple bags of ice, and the usual monitor you'd find in the killing game, but other than that, absolutely nothing. He slowly stood up, shaking.
He decided to try the door, even though it was obviously locked. Once he did, he was proven right. He shivered over to the wall, and sat down. Was he going to die? He stared at the grey walls of the dark, cold room.
The cold was making him pretty tired. As much as he wanted to go through the ice bags, he felt too weak. Like his fingers would fall off if he did so much as move them. All he could do was sit there weakly, staring at the wall.
All of a sudden the monitor turned on, making Shuichi flinch. As soon as he appeared on the monitor, the exact moment he heard that high pitch, grading voice he heard everyday for the past few weeks. “Goodmorning, rise and shine, and welcome to the new motive! Puhuhuhu!” ‘ New motive’? What did…Oh.
Oh…
A while ago, Monokuma announced a new motive. They were not given any specifics. All Monokuma said was that if they ran out of time, it'd be worse than the killing game.
“You need to find, and solve puzzles to save your friend, or they die!” The robotic bear laughed loudly. He took a shaky breath, in and out, taking in the cold air. Monokuma’s words settled like an ice block, frozen to the cold ground. He was probably in danger. His friends were probably in danger.
Just as Shuichi opened his mouth, Monokuma cut him off. “And don't even think about talking, because I can't hear you. This first room is more of a practice round, but don't take too long! Wouldn't want your poor friend freezing to death! Puhuhuhu!” And with that, the monitor shut off.
‘Friend.’
Monokuma didn't make it plural. Was Shuichi going to have to do more than one of these? Shit. Shuichi looked around the room. How was he going to get out of here? Shuichi’s eyes darted around the room, observing every inch.. No vents, no obvious escape route! Crap! Just a locked door and–
His eyes landed on the ice packs.
Great. Right after he said he was too tired for that. He stumbled over to the ice, digging through each bag.
His hands turned red from the combination of the cold of the room, and the freezing ice his hands were digging in.
It was so cold it burned. His hands were going numb from how cold it was. It was awful. Shuichi felt like anything would be better than this. Anything.
He eventually dumped the bag out and…nothing. Absolutely nothing. And he was going to have to do it how many times? This was going to be hell. He grabbed the next bag, digging through it, his hands melting the ice a little, making them wet, making his hands even colder. Nothing. The next bag? It had nothing. Nothing…nothing…nothing…nothing. That's the only result he got.
It took a lot longer than he thought it would though and It was getting pretty cold. There was one more pile. As he sat in there, he noticed that each pile had about four bags. Four piles in each corner of the room, and one in the middle. His hands shook as he dug through the ice.
One more pile…just one more.
He told himself that over and over and over again. He could do it. Nothing. Nothing Nothing…wait. No. There was something! Oh thank god! He pulled out something small and shiny. It was a key! A key! He could leave! He ran over to the door, missing the keyhole a few times, but eventually getting in the door.
Click…
He could leave! He could get whoever was there, out of here and they could be somewhere warmer! He could–
Another freezer. There was another fucking freezer. This time it had a bunch of metal shelves and looked like a real food freezer. It was mostly empty though. There were a couple of large crates, as well as another pile of ice, but other than that, there was nothing. Maybe he shouldn't go through the ice bags. Not yet at least. Start smaller.
He attempted to open up most of the large crates, but there wasn't anything. He also checked the cold metal shelves. There wasn't anything there that he was aware of either. The vent in the floor had nothing, and he was running out of ideas. He really didn't want to go through the ice.
He had to.
He reluctantly opened up the bags of ice, going through the four in the pile. This time there wasn't anything. That was the only pile of ice in there! He was running out of ideas! Where else was he going to look!? He looked everywhere! His eyes landed on something shiny. Something small and shiny. It was the key. The key was under all of the ice bags! He snatched it and ran to the door to hopefully get out.
He opened up the door and…no. Another freezer. It lacked a human. Another stupid freezer.
This freezer had hanging meat, like a meat freezer in a butcher shop. Blood dripped beneath it, which quite frankly, made Shuichi want to throw up. He was so sick of seeing blood. Especially when all of it came from his friends.
This freezer had two large shelves on each side of the door, which were way taller than him. The height really made him pay attention to how large the room was. Shuichi was about 5 '7? That meant this room was a lot larger than any normal room. Shuichi hadn't ever been inside a walk-in freezer until today, so maybe it was normal for it to be this large.
There was a large vent on the top left corner of the right wall. It wasn't large enough to fit anyone inside, but it was larger than any normal vent. Maybe that's what the cold air was being cycled through.
What's with everything in this room being abnormally large?
Unlike the last room, there weren't any crates. There were two piles of ice bags though. He wasn't excited for those. His hands hurt a lot.
Just like the last one, he started with the shelves. These were so tall, he'd have to climb to the top shelf and, hopefully, the shelf wouldn’t topple over, and crush him in the process. He walked over to the shelf on the right side of the door, and checked every crevice. Under the shelf, on the shelf, in the small space by the angle posts, Shuichi probably wouldn't be able to see if he wasn't at the right angle.
Unfortunately, he wasn't able to find anything on the lower levels of the shelf, so he'd have to climb.
He carefully took a step onto the bottom shelf and another onto the next. He prayed that the shelf wouldn't fall. Surprisingly, the shelf seemed pretty stable. Maybe it was bolted to the wall.
The metal was freezing, which made his hands, which were clutching onto the shelf for dear life, feel even worse.
He felt around each shelf, doing exactly what he did on the lower shelves. He checked every nook and cranny of the shelf, not letting a single inch go unnoticed. The metal was poorly made, and scraping his hands, although he could barely feel it because of how numb his hands–his everything was getting.
Once he got to the top shelf, there wasn't much to check. Unfortunately, he didn't find anything. He looked over to his right, and noticed he was right next to the vent.
He carefully took his hand off the shelf, almost falling down in the process, and reached inside.
He felt around for a moment, but unfortunately found nothing.
He sighed, climbing off of the shelf. His hands hurt from holding onto the terribly made metal. He had a few scratches on his hands. His fingers hurt as well, from being forced into such a tight space.
He walked over to the next shelf. He didn't find anything. He checked just about everywhere. The ice bags, around the walls. Nothing. There was…one place he could check. It wasn't one he was looking forward to. But it was his only option. The last place he could check. He had to save his friend. Whoever they were.
He slowly walked over to the hanging meat.
He put his fingers on the moist, bloody mound of flesh. He couldn't tell what animal it was, but based on the size, it was probably a cow. It smelled. Really bad. It was like he was sticking his head into a trash can, and inhaling every scent inside.
It felt gross too. It felt like…well…meat. Shuichi hated the feeling of any kind of meat. It was moist, and sometimes slimy. It was a texture he hated.
He dug through the meat, even ripping some of it open. He was struggling to find much of anything. Just blood and guts. At some point, he saw something in the corner of his eye, fall. It brushed against his leg. It made him shudder. He slowly looked away from the meat, and down at whatever fell onto the floor.
Oh god.
Oh god.
He felt nauseous (More than before). He knew something was wrong with the meat. How it smelled. How it felt. How he had no idea what animal it was. He didn't want to do this anymore, because what he was looking at was a human finger that lacked skin. He was digging through someone's dead body.
He felt the bile rise in his throat. He didn't want to think about what he just did. He wanted to pretend that the meat didn't belong to a human being. He wanted to keep digging through it, cluelessly. He didn't want to dig through it at all!
He couldn't give up. It would be selfish to give up, when his friend–whoever they were– was clearly suffering. Even if it meant digging through countless dead bodies to save them.
His breathing was shaky and uneven, trying not to think about what he was doing. He slowly started digging through the skinned corpse.
Ew ew ew ew ew ew.
He felt even worse knowing what this was. He'd seen dead bodies before, but this was different. It wasn't some self defence case he was solving. It was a skinned body, and he didn't even know who it was. He wanted to stop. He felt so gross, but he couldn't. He had to keep going. No matter how mentally damaging it really was.
He noticed that they didn't even have a head. At least he wouldn't see any eyeball gore. That was his least favorite type. Don't get him wrong, he hated all versions of gore. It was cruel. Hurting anyone was cruel. But taking out their eye was awful.Destroying one of someone's senses.
At some point, his fingers brushed against something other than human remains. A key!
He quickly pulled his hand out, ignoring the blood on the key and rushing to the door. He prayed he wouldn't have to do anything else like that.
He opened the door and–
–another freezer. He hated freezers.
This process repeated over and over and over again. Shuichi would be lying if he said he wasn't going at least a little crazy.
––
Shuichi’s breathing was rapid as he shoved another key into the lock, clinging on to one thought. I'm almost there. He stumbled into the next freezer, only this one was different. Sure, every freezer had a different format, but this one had something new inside.
It was lumpy…purple…small and…a person! It was a person!
It wasn't just a person, it was Kokichi!
He ran over to Kokichi, lying asleep on the floor, Shuichi’s knees buckling beneath him right as he made it to Kokichi.
“Kokichi…!” Oh…he did not sound good. “W-wake up…!” He shook Kokichi. Was he too late? Was Kokichi dead? Was all of this for nothing–
–no. He's awake!
“Ugh…w-what the hell?” Kokichi muttered. The excruciating, cold pain in his hands didn't matter anymore. Kokichi. He was alive. “H-hello? E-Earth to Shuichi…?” Kokichi waved his cold pale hand in front of Shuichi's face, trying to snap Shuichi out of whatever daze he was in.
“A-ah, sorry…I’m just really happy b-because you aren't a popsicle. I w-wonder if thats p-possible…t-turning into a popsicle…” Shuichi must have been pretty out of it because Kokichi gave him a weird look.
“Okay then…?” Kokichi’s eyes glanced around the room, fully taking in his surroundings.
“C-can you walk…?”
“I don't think so, S-Saihara-chan…I think I-I’m paralyzed! Looks like you'll have to carry me!” Kokichi frowned, pouting, pointing at his legs. Shuichi looked at him with a worried expression.
“Oh no! I-I’ll help…!” Shuichi pulled Kokichi into his arms. He didn't really carry Kokichi. It was more of a hug and stand motion. “Uh oh…I d-don't remember how t-to walk.” Kokichi gave him a look that screamed moody teenager–oh wait…he was a moody teenager.
“A-are you kidding? D-does this mean t-that I have to do all the w-work?”
“A-ah! S-sorry…!” Shuichi tried to take a step but almost slipped.
“Jesus christ…” Kokichi pinched the bridge of his nose. He was probably just as out of it as Shuichi was. The only reason he could tell was because Kokichi was getting pretty cranky. Sure, Kokichi had gotten angry before. During the 4th trial.
He didn't want to think about what happened…
…what he said.
His grip on Kokichi tightened, looking around. There was nothing. Not even a door. No ice bags, no shelves, no nothing. Just the cold, gray, concrete walls, and their visible breathes in the air from the cold.
And a vent!
Shuichi stumbled over to the wall, setting Kokichi down onto the floor. He examined the vent.
It was suspiciously large. Large enough to fit a person inside. It had 6 screws, keeping it on the wall. Two in the top corners, two in the bottom corners, and two in the middle. Shuichi searched his pockets. He would have searched his jacket pockets too, but unfortunately, he woke up without it. Well, this probably wasn't a good idea.
He looked over at Kokichi.
“Hey Kokichi?” Kokichi looked up at him, still looking frustrated, but even more so because he had to rely on Shuichi for support. That's what Shuichi assumed anyways. “D-do you have anything on you? A-a pocket knife, a b-bobby pin, anything?”
Kokichi promptly started searching himself. His scarf, his shoes, his socks.
“Why aren't you just checking your pockets?” Kokichi put his socks back on, not even bothering to look at Shuichi. He was completely focussed on looking for something.
“I-if I were to find something I n-needed, I wouldn't hide it s-somewhere as obvious a-as my pockets. Especially if I’m the m-mastermind.” Shuichi had sort of forgotten about that.
He was so focused on finding one of his friends that he wasn't even thinking about the whole mastermind thing. Wait. No…no that wasn't right. He couldn't have been the mastermind. The mastermind was smart. They wouldn't put themself in a life or death challenge. It would be too risky.
“N-no you aren't.”
“Huh?”
“You're lying t-to me. You're not the m-mastermind and you k-know it. If you really were, you w-wouldn't be in this room r-right now.” Kokichi scoffed and rolled his eyes.
“T-that's a pretty n-naive point of v-view, Shuichi. That's p-probably why you were s-so easy to lie to!”
“I don't feel l-like arguing w-with you right now…” He sighed. “So d-did you find a-anything or not?” Kokichi pulled out his lock picking tools.
“These! Joe, Gerald, and Mary!” Shuichi giggled and waved at them. Kokichi looked at him weird for some reason. They had names! He figured the polite thing to do was say hi! “We need to get out of here before you lose any more brain cells.” Kokichi shoved them into Shuichi's hands. Rude.
He turned back over to the vent on the wall. He would admit that taking screws off of a vent was very difficult.
One…
Two…
Three…
“Are you done yet?” Kokichi groaned. “I think my legs are going to actually fall off!”He rubbed his hands together for warmth.
“I-I'm still w-working on it…” He said, focussing on the lock. “T-This is pretty difficult…” Shuichi was actually getting pretty hot. Too hot. He felt like he was sweating. Maybe he was sweating? Hopefully whatever room they walked into next, was a moderate temperature.
He flinched as the vent cover clattered onto the ground. “D-do you want to g-go first? Y-you've probably been here longer than m-me…” Kokichi looked him up and down.
“Have you seen yourself?” Huh? “You look like you're about to pass out on me. I wouldn’t appreciate that! But fine…If you insist.” He crawls into the vent and Shuichi follows.
The vent was cold and dark. It was even colder than the freezers! Shuichi's movements were unstable and sluggish, his knees dragging along the metal. His limbs were heavy and uncooperative. He felt nothing in his body. Every inhale stung. The cold was really starting to get to him.
Kokichi, on the other hand, seemed to be fine. Maybe it was the adrenaline rush that finally kicked in, or maybe Kokichi lied about not being able to walk. He was quick, and around 4 feet ahead of Shuichi.
Shuichi definitely wasn't complaining.
The vent seemed to go on for a very long time, but eventually they stopped.
At that point, Shuichi was barely even paying attention, until he bumped into Kokichi.
“W-why did we stop…?” It took him a moment to realize that there was another vent cover in front of them. “Oh.”
“Joe.” Kokichi murmured, holding out his hand. Shuichi tilted his head, confused. Kokichi let out an annoyed sigh. “T-the lockpick t-tools?! Joe, M-mary, Gerald!? Literally a-any of t-them are fine!” Kokichi snapped, making Shuichi flinch, as he quickly fumbled through his pocket for the tools.
“H-Here…” Shuichi handed the tools to Kokichi, who quickly snatched them away. Kokichi worked a lot more efficiently than he did on the vent cover. He was focused and seemed a lot less out of it than Shuichi was.
After a few minutes, the vent grate fell, clattering to the floor loudly. “Ha! Done! And I did it faster.” It seemed that the vent grate was also pretty close to the ground because Kokichi slid out with ease, not seeming to fall at all. Shuichi soon followed.
The second he stepped out of the vent, everything felt so much warmer. It was so warm it burned. But this was better than nothing. He needed this kind of warmth again. It felt so nice.
“Uh…you okay?” Kokichi tilted his head. “You look like this is the best thing that ever happened to you.” Shuichi looked around for a moment.
They were in a large room, more specifically, a hallway. A bunch of hallways branched off of it. The walls were still made of concrete, as well as the floor. It felt a lot less cold in here–did he already say that? He wasn't warm enough though. He still felt like he was going to pass out. As much as he wanted to sit down, he couldn't. He wasn't allowed. He was the one who was responsible for saving his friends.
He needed to respond to Kokichi.
“Yeah…I’m fine…” He paused. Wouldn't Kokichi be able to tell this was a lie? Maybe he should tell him the truth…no. “It just feels really nice here. That's all.” Kokichi gave him a look, obviously suspecting him, but he didn't push any further.
“Whatever, just don't go passing out on me okay?” Kokichi sounded genuinely concerned compared to the carefree childish boy he knew. Kokichi turned away from Shuichi. “A maze huh? At least it's not a freezer. I think I hate ice now. Actually, I hate the cold. I’m officially asking for a drink without ice at Mcdonalds!”
“Mcdonalds probably doesn't even exist anymore…” Shuichi stated bluntly. The outside world was still a bit of a touchy subject for Shuichi. Seeing the world in ruins like that did a number on him mentally.
Seeing that, meant there was no hope of anyone he cared about being alive. Not his uncle, not his aunt, not his friends, not even his parents. He would probably never see them again. Either he would die here or–well–he would die here. The outside world probably wasn't stable enough to live in at this point, so what was the point of leaving?
Kokichi scoffed. “When did you get all moody?” He rolled his eyes. Deep breathes Shuichi. Everything is fine. You can't afford to get angry. Not now. It probably wouldn't help with how light headed he was.
Speaking of, he was now on the ground. Kokichi was saying…something…but he couldn't tell what. When did it get this bad? He thought he'd be able to push through, but apparently he was wrong. Kokichi was shaking him back and forth, yelling something about sleeping was for slackers.
It wouldn't be too bad to take a nap could it?
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Well this wasn't good. Shuichi was out cold, and borderline shaking. There wasn't really anywhere he could see that was too warm, although the room–maze–whatever it was, was pretty warm. The problem would most likely solve itself.
Now that he was thinking about it, Shuichi probably passed out due to lack of energy rather than cold temperature. He had no idea what Shuichi had gone through on his way to save him, but it was safe to assume it took a lot of energy. From the moment he laid his eyes on Shuichi, he could see the exhaustion radiating off of him.
He should have seen this sooner. Kokichi was usually amazing at reading people. He was totally off his game today.
One thing Kokichi was learning was that, even though Shuichi was bony, he was heavy. Or maybe Kokichi was just weak? Who knows?
Kokichi dragged Shuichi over to a wall, propping the boy up on it. Now what? He supposed he could do another puzzle. Monokuma may have been talking to Shuichi, but he got the memo. They had to do puzzles to save their friends right? That was fine. He could do that! Hell, he convinced the rest of his friends that he was some evil mastermind!
(At the cost of his best friend…)
He stood up, and looked around, what he assumed was a maze. He couldn't tell if this was a new puzzle entirely or the maze contained different puzzles. He'd find out eventually. All he could do now was follow the left wall.
He took one final look at poor, cold, unconscious Shuichi, and reluctantly walked away.
Hopefully I'll come back.