Kaede and Shuichi are hanging out somewhat, but they're not that close yet. However that may change!

Chapter Text

“Alright then, class is dismissed now, so long, bear well!” The group of five small talking teddy bears left the classroom in an odd way, by jumping through the table. Most people would be confused by this, however the Hope’s Peak Academy students had gotten used to this at this point. The class got up to leave, because that’s students do. While it is not exactly her job to look after the others, Kaede Akamastu does it anyway. After all, being the Class Rep means that you’re basically the leader.

At least that’s what she tells herself. This self-appointed role requires her to stay behind to make sure everyone else is OK. Meanwhile, another student was still in the classroom, jolting down notes and seemingly not realising the class ended. He was wearing a hat, and just had an outfit that was generally black. This student was the Ultimate Detective, and his name wasn’t Kyoko Kirigiri, it was Shuichi Saihara!

Shuichi didn’t notice as Kaede got a chair out and sat in front of the boy. “Hey Shuichi!” He looked up and reacted with shock, causing the girl to smile. “Glad to see you’re awake now at least. You got a little too invested in your work again. Let’s head out, OK?”

Shuichi was still flustered at the girl but eventually managed to shake it off. “Ok, I’m sorry for keeping you here.” He got up and packed his bags as fast as he could.

Kaede didn’t really change much in the outward expression way of things. “Hey, if I didn’t care about you, I’d just left you in here right? I’ve got to keep all of my friends happy!” This caused the detective to smile and the two left the classroom.

The two made their way to the caferitra and began to eat some fish and chips, which due to being made by the Ultimate Cook and the Ultimate Maid, was pretty good, although that’s a massive understatement.

Meanwhile, Chiaki and Hajime were hanging out together also eating the food their fellow students had prepared for them. Chiaki had given her game to Hajime to play with, for a bit of course. This led to her looking around the room, and finding the Pianist and Detective sitting at the table. She simply looked at them for a bit before smiling. “Hey, Hajime?” The male perked up, which she didn’t see due to her new found hobby of just staring at other people, but she continued regardless. “We should help Kaede and Shuichi out. Get them together!”

The boy looked concerned right away. “C-Chiaki, we really shouldn’t be getting involved in other people’s relationships! Besides, what if they don’t like each other in that way.” The valid, yet slightly panicked criticisms of the boy didn’t seem to get a reaction out of the Gamer though.

“Come on Hajime, this type of stuff always means a romance right? I mean, we’re a long lost childhood friends right? That’s in a lot of video game stories, and those two seem like the type that would make a good plot, y’know, so of course it’ll work out.” Chiaki had a soft confidence to her voice, which Hajime couldn’t really argue against, even if the logic in that wasn’t exactly sound, or if it was sound, it would be sound Kaede would get upset over.

After a while, Chiaki was entering a room, which held a small rabbit in. “Oh, hello Chiaki!” Usami was pleasantly surprised to see her class rep arrive to the scene. “What can I help you with?” The rabbit put her so called work away and turned to the girl, who was thinking.

Eventually she thought of an answer. “Hey, do you think we could put something like an escape room somewhere? I think it would be good for building bonds.” Her voice wasn’t unusual, so the rabbit didn’t realise her romantic intent, instead choosing to think about this for a minute.

However she didn’t get that minute as Monokuma popped up from under her, causing her to go flying. “That’s a great idea! After all, the intensity of trying to get out, otherwise being mocked by your peers, that would make for some great entertainment, that’s for sure! Oh, imagine if they got really upset with each other for being idiots, that would be great to watch!” While he was saying this, Usami was being affected by gravity, and eventually fell down near the bear. “Alright, me and this loser will get the Monokubz, and we’ll prepare this in a few days! Thanks for the great advice kiddo!” The two plushies left the area, which Chiaki simply accepted, since she got her way.

In the following days, Shuichi was simply hanging around the outside of the school, when he noticed the teachers doing something. Having the curiosity of a detective, he walked on over and opened his mouth. “What’s going on?”

The green bear, called Monodam, turned to the boy. “AT THE CLASS REPS SUGGESTION, WE HAVE CREATED AN ESCAPE ROOM FOR EVERYONE TO BOND AND BECOME FRIENDS.” The bear didn’t seem to give off emotion, which was weird to handle sometimes, but that’s only a problem for students who aren’t in Shuichi’s class as they are taught by the Monokubz.

This caused the boy to go into a thinking pose. “An escape room? I’ve heard of those, but why would they recommend this? It’s not that close to event.” This thinking was interrupted as two other females walked up to him.

Kaede and Chiaki. Kaede was the first to speak up. “It was apparently Chiaki’s idea. She only gave the reasoning that games bring people together though.” Judging by her answer, Kaede was just as confused as Shuichi, but Chiaki remained calm.

She didn’t seem to speak up though, so Shuichi decided to let out his thoughts. “How do we even know this isn’t a scam? After all, I’ve heard from others that Monokuma isn’t someone to be trusted.” The boy’s deductions upset the bear a lot.

“Excuse me, what the hell? I am the most trust-worthy bear around! You’re the Ultimate Detective, right kiddo? Then why don’t you prove me right? Get in there and solve the riddle!” Monokuma and the Monokubz then pushed Shuichi towards the room, which caused Kaede to visually panic.

She quickly rushed over to help out the Detective. “Hold on, you can’t do this! He doesn’t have to prove anything!” The bear turned it’s neck towards Kaede.

“Au contraire, mademoiselle, it was Shuichi who presented the case, now he must prove it. So stand back, or do you want to help him out?” He was giving off a very menacing vibe, which caused Kaede to panic, but not necessarily back down.

Then another voice from the back of the crowd decided to speak up. “I don’t see the problem with you two going in.” They all turned to see Chiaki who looked tried, and about to yawn. “This would be helpful for building relationships, plus there’s no real risk.”

Kaede had a look of thinking, but then she got a confident smile on her face. “You know what, yeah! Shuichi, let’s prove that this is possible together!” She then pushed the boy into the room, unintentionally helping the bears do their job.

Usami was still there and was beginning to panic. “W-Wait, you can’t go in…” It was too late for the rabbit as the two had entered the room, leaving everyone else in the dust. “T-The room is made for 4 people at the lowest…” Nobody paid her any mind though.

The two found themselves in a small, dark room, with seemingly nothing in it. “Huh? Were we really tricked? I can barely see!” Shuichi however remained more calm, simply decided to look around the area.

His hand flew across the wall, feeling for any inconsistencies, he then turned to Kaede. “Hey, can you walk around and listen for anything odd about the floor?” Kaede looked confused for a second before doing as her friend said.

The girl then tapped on the floor, as lightly as possible, before her ears perked up. “Hey, Shuichi! There’s something different here! Maybe it’s a secret switch?” The boy turned to the girl, a smile growing on his face.

“Alright, give me a second and we’ll-” Kaede pressed the button before he could finish the sentence, causing a sound to vibrate in the area. Before either of them could open up, the floor did so for them, sliding them both towards the middle which led to a slide.

“WOAHHH!” The pair of teenagers screamed out in a panic as they slid down the slide, and landing with an “Oof!”, creating a tangled mess of teenagers.

Shuichi was the first to snap out of his daze, to realise that he was in an awkward position, before quickly pulling himself out of it and then turning his head to the side, blushing. “S-Sorry Kaede…” The blond piano player was still in shock over what happened.

She got up, in a panic to say the least. “H-Hey, it’s OK.” Then she glanced around the room. “Guess this is the main escape room.” However that’s all she could say, as her mind was busy gathering as much information as humanly possible, otherwise she’d risk not being helpful to the duo.

Shuichi began to do the same, scanning the room. “Y-Yeah. Let me see…” He wasn’t sure how well he hid his worry from the girl standing beside him, but he hoped she didn’t find it important.

The room was small, but had so much detail it almost overwhelmed the pair, but they both got to work.

The main feature was the huge amount of red, blue, yellow and green books on a bookshelf, hogging the entirety of one wall. Kaede decided to take one book out, but it wouldn’t budge, and was bigger than anyone could have expected. “I-It’s one big book? Why would they do this, having one book look like a bunch of them!” The pianist looked annoyed, while Shuichi was looking at other ventures to work at. Next to the door, there were 16 buttons, with LEDs on them. He pressed a few, and they all turned into different colours, which includes the books from before, also had orange and purple, only missing indigo from the rainbow.

The strangest thing to both students, however was a giant clock, but missing the numbers. Both students had no issues reaching the middle numbers, so Kaede picked out a number, and against her better judgement, reached inside to pull out a small rectangular thing. “Not exactly what I was expecting. Hoped it was a clue, although it does smell nice, somehow..:” She basically mumbled to herself, although Shuichi could hear her, but he decided to not intervene as Kaede’s insintics took over and she plopped it in her mouth. She then took a second to get the taste before having a confused look. “This is a banana?”

The boy gained an even more confused, and slightly concerned look, and decided to walk towards the girl, who was getting another one out, from the very bottom. Putting it in her mouth, she then said another batch of words, “This tastes like a fruit… Eggplant!” She then looked up and saw the very top one was halfway out of the hole. “Hey Shuichi, can you lift me up?”

The boy reacted poorly to this. “W-What! Kaede, I can’t lift you up!” While he panicky shouted out his words, the body began to shiver in fright, which Kaede noticed and began to pout.

Her pout was accompanied by a crossing of the arms. “Shuichi, haven’t you been training with Kaito? Then you should be able to hold a light girl like me up.”

This caused Shuichi to panic even more. “That’s- Not- But-!”

“No buts Shuichi.” The boy relented and tried to pick Kaede up. He did manage to pick her up, but he was clearly struggling and stressing out. Kaede reached out to the peking taste, but couldn’t reach it. “Hey, can you move up a bit?” There was no response. She then decided to take it within her own hands, reaching as far as she could. However, she bit off more than she could chew, and got it, then fell off Shuichi, bringing the poor boy with her.

Neither person has physically hurt that bad, although Shuichi wasn’t in the greatest place right now. Kaede managed to get up, and saw Shuichi laying there, seemingly doing nothing. She kneeled down and looked at the tears forming in his eyes. “Oh, I messed up…” Those words quietly slipped out of her, even though Shuichi didn’t seem to notice, or care.. There was a silence between the two, which Kaede chose to interrupt. “I’m sorry about what happened back there…” His pupils moved towards Kaede, as she thought about what to say. It took a minute, but she found words that she thought could work. “I mean, even though I said I was light, lifting up anyone isn’t an easy feat. I mean, it’s not like you were lifting up Himiko or Chihiro or someone small like that.” This didn’t really affect him too much, which she took note of. “Listen, it was irresponsible of me to not take your feelings into account, plus I think I finally figured out the reason you were so panicked, and yeah, that’s completely on me.” She got her hand out towards him. “Listen, I want to look out for everyone. Kind of my job after all. But you, don’t tell anyone else I said this, but I really enjoy being around you. You’re thinking of others, and you’ve got that shyness that I just find attractive. Helping you is also helping myself in a way, I feel like I’ve become a better person by being here. But enough of that, I know I’ve been mean, made that a little too clear, but I promise to be a better leader. Can you help me with that.”

The boy quietly looked at Kaede, before grabbing her hand. She took this to mean she could get him on his feet, which they both got up together. The boy was still slightly crying, but was a much better place, before looking down at the thing Kaede worked so hard to reach. Inserting it into his mouth, he quickly took it out. “It’s orange!” He then put on a thinking pose. “If that’s orange, and the one at the bottom was an eggplant…” He walked over and turned the 6 button to purple and orange for the 12 button. Then he turned to Kaede. “Can you look at the books, and count how many there are of each colour?” Kaede then nodded enfuseically. She went over to the books and started to count. Her eyes darted to each colour, not focusing on anything else, before finishing up her part.

“3 reds, 7 blues, 15 greens and 13 yellows!” Kaede yelled out to Shuichi who nodded and inputted the code, opening the door. “That’s so cool! How did you know that would work?” Kaede got extremely excited at the boy, who was getting sheepish.

His hand rubbed the back of his head, while a blush crawled onto his face. “It wasn’t that impressive Kaede, just putting some pieces together…”

Once again, this caused Kaede to pout, and blush herself. “I didn’t figure it out, are you saying that I’m not that smart?” Her arms were folded, but she did get some sweat sneaking down her brow.

Shuichi was now forced to defend himself. “K-Kaede, that’s not what I meant…” Both of them let out a sigh, although it was for different reasons.

“Shuichi, you’ve got to stop doubting yourself. Even if something seems obvious to you, it might not be clear to others. Your better at this than you realise! Come on, let’s continue this!” Shuichi nodded along to her words, as he was slightly blushing.

They got into an elevator which when upwards. They didn’t have anything to say, as they knew they had to focus on the next trial, before time ran out. What they didn’t expect was light to shine on them from the outside world, as well as a bunch of plushies! “Congrats, kiddos! You did it, and proved me right, so thanks for that! Anyway, don’t ruin the fun for others and have a nice day!” After he finished his line, the lift tilted causing the pair to slide down outside the lift and the bears scattered, while Usami wasn’t so lucky.

This caused Kaede to smile. “You know, this is a win-win for you Shuichi.” The boy looked over to her in confusion, before she continued. “If you were right and this was unbeatable, you’d have the last laugh, but if you were wrong and did beat it, then you got to say you beat it first right?” Shuichi just looked at her. There was something about her smile that just made him feel confident, was it her eyes, her slight blush, or just the fact that the person he liked was happy?

Whatever it was, the confidence took full control for once. “H-Hey, do you want to hang out some more…?” There was still some shyness to his voice, but that was to be expected.

She only giggled, before speaking up. “I thought you’d never ask.”

The two walked off, not realising they had been watched by Chiaki, who simply smiled to herself. “Mission Accomplished…”