Archive of Our Own ^beta

It’d been two days since Tojo was executed. That meant it was about time for Monokuma to present everyone with a new motive. Plus, Shuichi doubted the bear would just sit around and let Yonaga’s Student Council run things. And, as expected, that was exactly what happened.

“I can’t think of a good one liner this time…” Monokuma mumbled as he appeared in the dining hall. “But anyway, I’ve got a new motive for everyone!”

“Great. Exactly what we needed right now.” Momota grumbled.

“This wasn’t what I originally had planned, but I ran into some logistical issues while setting up the intended motive, so I went with the backup plan. An oldie but a goodie, here ya go!” Monokuma tossed a bunch of envelopes into the air (“Where the hell was he hiding those?” Shuichi briefly wondered) each with a student’s name written on it.

Ouma was the first person to snatch the envelope with their name on, followed quickly by Harukawa. Everyone else started grabbing their envelopes after that.

“Puhuhu, what’s on those papers are some of your deepest and/or darkest secrets! The secret you’d be most willing to kill over. And if nobody dies in the next 24 hours, everyone is gonna know them all! So if you want those secrets to stay secret, you better get killing!” Monokuma disappeared after declaring that.

Shuichi’s heart started pounding. He had a sinking feeling in his stomach that he knew exactly what was in that envelope. He felt sick, but he opened it anyway. Inside was a small paper and written on it was exactly what he feared.

“Shuichi Saihara is transgender and was assigned female at birth.”

Shuichi was suddenly glad he hadn’t eaten yet because if he had, he definitely would’ve thrown it up. Everyone will know. Everyone will look at him differently, like he’s some kind of freak. Everyone is going to realize he’s not really a boy and then they’ll—

“Everyone remain calm, Atua has spoken to me!” Yonaga suddenly announced, “He has instructed us to all willingly share our secrets so no one has to die!”

Well that didn’t go over well.

“Fuck off, you can pry this from my cold, dead ass!” Iruma shouted.

“Geez, could you make a more boring suggestion?” Ouma sounded annoyed.

“I don’t care personally, but trying to force people to do that won’t end well.” Harukawa pointed out. Everyone seemed to agree with that at least.

“We cannot defy Atua though, the Student Council will confiscate any secrets not willingly handed over!”

“We will?” Yumeno looked surprised and somewhat uneasy, “I mean… if it’s Atua’s command then I guess we have to…”

“Nobody will agree to this.” Shuichi tried to reason.

Yonaga looked at him with an unreadable expression for a moment before she snatched the paper out of his hands.

“Wait, you can’t—”

“Let’s see here… ‘Shuichi Saihara is transgender and was assigned female at birth.’”

Shuichi couldn’t breathe. It was like the world froze.

Everyone was staring at him.

He didn’t know how long he spent frozen in place.

Was it 30 seconds? Maybe half an hour? It could’ve been a full day.

His skin was crawling.

It was crawling? No, it was more like something was trying to rip its way out of him.

Yes, that’s what he was feeling. Something was clawing its way out of his body. Something he wanted to keep hidden.

Shuichi turned and ran.

He didn’t stop running until he saw his dorm room. He slammed the door behind him and threw himself onto his bed. He couldn’t stop himself from bursting into tears.

…

Kokichi had no idea what to think of the shitshow going down in front of him. First Yonaga had to go and out Saihara-chan in front of everyone (which he was pretty disgusted by but he figured she didn’t know what she was revealing until it was too late) and now everyone was just staring at each other in the most painful silence he’d ever experienced.

“What… does that mean?” Momota asked, unusually quiet for him.

“What does what mean?” Harukawa gave him a look that said he better choose his words carefully.

“Transgender, what is that?”

Kokichi had never wanted to facepalm so badly. As if this wasn’t going horribly enough, the person Saihara-chan (maybe he shouldn’t call him that in this situation…) would be most willing to take comfort from didn’t even know what the hell being trans was.

“If you don’t know then don’t ask. At least you don’t know his secret.” Harukawa replied.

Kokichi noticed some of the Student Council members whispering to each other. He couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but it was something along the lines of being unsure if Yonaga heard Atua’s command correctly.

He was annoyed by how brainwashed they all were, but at least it seems like they could still doubt Yonaga, which was good. He pocketed that info away for later, right now his bigger priority was Saihara.

Clearly none of these idiots were going to help him, which meant that duty fell to Kokichi. He slipped out of the dining hall as stealthily as possible. It wasn’t too hard since he was already standing by the door, but he still had to be careful.

Now he had to find Saihara. The only places he would run to in a panic were his dorm or maybe Akamatsu’s lab. He had a feeling his room was more likely though since Saihara was clearly not thinking.

As soon as he got to the dorms, he heard Saihara’s sobbing through the door. If only the dorms were soundproof… tragic.

Kokichi knocked on the door, “Hey Saihara, open up!”

“Go… away…” Saihara forced out between sobs.

“Aww, don’t make me lockpick my way in there!” Kokichi wouldn’t force himself in if Saihara really wanted him gone, but he threatened it anyway.

Saihara was silent for a moment, “…Fine.” The door clicked from being unlocked.

Kokichi opened the door and was surprised by what he saw. Everything in the room had been thrown around wildly in what was clearly some sort of mental breakdown. Saihara himself was a wreck too. His eyes were red and puffy while tears stained his face and his hair was all over the place. Even that ahoge that seemed to never move had drooped down pathetically.

“Wow Saihara, you look great!”

“If you’re going to act like that, leave.” Well it seems Saihara wouldn’t be taking any of his shit.

“Fine.” Kokichi sat himself down on Saihara’s torn up bed. “Y’know, all those guys are total jerks!”

“What?”

“Their bestie that they all rely on so much is having a breakdown and they’re all too busy staring at each other and trying to not say something offensive instead of trying to help you.” Kokichi tried to sound condescending when talking about their classmates. He trusted Saihara to get why he was here, but he didn’t want to say it outright.

“They’re just…” Saihara trailed off, clearly not sure how to feel about his classmates at the moment.

“They’re just boring, that’s what! That’s why I’m here. You’re way more fun.”

“Ah, thank you…” Saihara sat down beside Kokichi. At least he had calmed down.

“Saihara, play a game with me!” Kokichi suddenly demanded, “You don’t even have to risk your life this time.”

“Umm, sure, but why? You don’t seem the type to give free chances.”

“And you’re right! You know me so well.” Kokichi grinned at him before his face dropped into something more serious, “But what I hate even more is kicking people when they’re down. I need you back at 100% so we can have a fair fight to the death.”

Saihara was surprised by that, “I see… then what did you have in mind?”

Kokichi pulled a deck of cards out of his scarf— he always kept them in there, don’t ask why— and began shuffling them. “Have you ever played Blackjack?”

“A little. I know the rules, at least.”

“Perfect!” Kokichi began laying cards out between him and Saihara, “The winner can have whatever prize they want.”

“Ah…” Saihara gave him a look at that. “What would you want if you win?”

“A kiss.”

“WHAT?!” Kokichi didn’t think he’d ever seen Saihara look so flabbergasted.

“Nishishi, that was a lie, duh!” Not that Kokichi didn’t want to kiss Saihara, but time and place.

Saihara just rolled his eyes and picked up a card.

…

Kaito may not know exactly what was going on with his sidekick, but he’d be damned if he let him suffer alone. Nobody else would explain to him what being ‘transgender’ was but that didn’t matter. What he needed to do was remind Saihara that they were still friends no matter what.

So, he prepared a pep talk in his mind and stormed over towards Saihara’s dorm. Soon enough, this secret revealing crap would be dealt with and everyone could go back to working together to defeat Monokuma!

What he wasn’t expecting, though, was the door to Saihara’s dorm to be cracked open already. Curious, he peered inside to see the room was a total disaster. What was more surprising though was who was in there.

Saihara and Ouma were sitting beside each other on the bed playing a card game. Kaito had been expecting to cheer Saihara up but he already looked so happy. He was laughing while Ouma grinned back at him.

“You did not call him that to his face!” Saihara said between laughs, clearly in response to something Ouma had said that Kaito hadn’t heard.

“I’m so wounded that my beloved would doubt me!” Ouma gasped dramatically and put his hand over his heart.

“You’ll live.” Saihara rolled his eyes but the way he gazed at Ouma was filled with such genuine love.

Kaito may not be the smartest, but he’s not a moron. He knew when he wasn’t needed, and this was one of those times. He backed away from the door, not wanting to invade their privacy anymore. He was relieved that Saihara was doing better; he’d have to thank Ouma for that later.

Oh, and he would definitely be questioning Saihara over his taste in boys, but he digresses.