Chapter Text
"You guys ready to get your soulmarks?" Amami Rantaro asked his best friends through a mouthful of chicken and rice.
"I can't wait, I want it to happen now!" Saihara Shuichi's excited, bouncy attitude diminished when he saw Ouma Kokichi chewing his thumb like he hadn't eaten for months. "Kokichi? What's wrong? You're never quiet."
"Huh?" Kokichi stared like a fish at the two before coming back to reality. "Oh, I just didn't care about what you were talking about. Soulmates are boring." He sighed dramatically.
Soulmates weren't boring to the purplette though, he was only pretending (like usual). Class 53 of Hope's Peak Academy for Gifted Juveniles were due for their soulmark ceremony tomorrow. Students in particular grades were given a unique medication that allowed a mark to appear permanently on their bodies. The black marks related to the person's soulmate and turned white when the two soulmates physically touched each other.
"Hah, I'd be surprised if you even got a soulmate." Kokichi looked up to see Momota Kaito, a kid who he loved to tease only because Momota tormented him. Next to him was Harukawa Maki, an outwardly emotionless girl whose only soft spot was her boyfriend, Momota. The only reason Kokichi hadn't tried to kill the two was that Shuichi would never forgive him.
"Be nice Kaito." Shuichi tried to defend Kokichi from him. He had always hated the disagreements between his best friends but understood the reason behind them.
"Why should I be nice to a liar like him?" Momota sneered at Kokichi who stuck his tongue out in response. "Anyway, we're going to go park after school. See you there Shuichi." The two walked away. 'Probably off to murder someone,' Kokichi chuckled to himself.
"Why did you have to prank them Kokichi? Why not some random?" Rantaro sighed. At the beginning of the year, Kokichi learned of Momota's fear of the occult and supernatural (ghosts in particular) and decided to use it to his advantage. Setting up a tripwire in the classroom, he called Momota in and gave him the scare of his life. Kokichi couldn't stop there though, as he was the self-proclaimed king of pranks, so he decided to throw a water balloon at the next person to come through the door (which happened to be Harukawa). After almost being choked to death by the girl, the two victims have hated Kokichi ever since. It was a shame that they were best friends with one of Kokichi's crushes.
A siren rang throughout the school halls, causing a mass collective groan from the entire cafeteria. The three packed their containers away and stood up, Shuichi and Rantaro chatting about their soulmarks on their way to class. Kokichi lagged behind in his own world, secretly dreading the inevitable ceremony.
"Do you guys wanna come to hang out with Kaito and Maki?" Shuichi invited the two friends standing in front of the school's gate with him.
"Sorry I have to teach one of my sisters to drive, she's just got her learner's." Rantaro grinned like the proud older brother he was.
"Ah okay, well I hope she does well! What about you Kokichi? I know you don't exactly like them..." Shuichi rubbed the back of his neck.
"I would love to have an excuse to be around you Shu-Shu, but my parents have a business meeting I have to go to." Kokichi teased, sighing the last part of his sentence.
"That's okay, I'll see you two tomorrow!" Shuichi grinned, waving behind him as he ran away.
Kokichi and Rantaro made their way toward home for the day. "Hey, don't you normally skip business meetings? That was a bit of a bad lie don't you think?" Rantaro questioned, seemingly concerned for the smaller boy next to him.
"Oh I'm not lying for once, I actually have to go to this one. It'll bring a lot more money to my parents so my sister and I need to be there." Kokichi grinned, watching the pavement as he walked. "Even if they'll spend it all on gambling and Kaho." He mumbled. Rantaro saw how upset Kokichi became at the mention of his sister.
"I hope the casino gets more money, maybe then you'll be able to sneak a small cut." Rantaro winked, gently nudging Kokichi with his elbow. Kokichi just laughed.
"Sure sure, then I guess you'll want 80% of my cut." The two laughed together before Rantaro waved goodbye, splitting off from Kokichi towards his own house. As soon as the greenette was out of sight, Kokichi's face drained from his happy-go-lucky expression to his inner, frightened and sad self. Kokichi shuffled towards his house, alone and tired, scared of the very important business meeting his parents were forcing him to attend.
"It's as important for you as it is for us." They had told him that morning. "You are going to be the key to our success." Kokichi wasn't ready for what he had to face, he had no clue who this meeting was with, only that they were going to be... 'Well-acquainted.'
The boy reached his large house. From the outside, anyone would think the Ouma family was rich, and they were, but Kokichi didn't look it. Both his parents and sister wore expensive clothes, only ate expensive food and behaved like entitled snobs. Kokichi on the other hand only wore cheap clothes, rarely ate and had no allowance compared to his sister's monthly 45 000 yen.
"Boo!" Kokichi's sister jumped out from the front door as Kokichi reached out to open it. The boy yelped in surprise.
"What the fuck Kaho?! You idiot!" He screamed, a grin appearing on Kaho's face as a large man appeared behind her.
"Watch your language Kokichi. Get inside and stop bothering your sister." The children's father dragged Kokichi inside by his hair, causing tears to blur his eyes from the sharp pain. "Go to your rooms and get changed. Your mother and I picked out outfits for you both." Kokichi's dad smiled at Kaho before turning to glare at his son. "We picked something that'll at least make you look decent. Try and look good for once."
Kokichi silently nodded and hurried down into the basement, slipping into his room and shutting the creaky door behind him. He sighed, dumping his bag at the foot of his stone mattress and looking around the bland excuse for a bedroom. The boy rarely complained about the room though, the basement had its own bathroom and was away from people. Unfortunately, it was easy to lock him in there when his parents grounded him.
Grabbing the clothes on the bed, Kokichi hurried to change into the tight, itchy outfit. Approaching the full-body mirror in the corner of the room, the boy stared at himself in a new, fancy white suit with a light purple undershirt. "Okay here goes..." He mumbled, shuffling his checkered tie around his collar. After a minute, Kokichi hadn't gotten anywhere with his tie and needed to be upstairs soon, so he decided to wrap it around his neck and slip it through a small golden clip to make it look intentional.
Examining his room, he realised he'd have to clean since someone was going to be in there. Kokichi was telling the truth earlier, he was attending a business meeting for his parents' casino, but the meeting was more than just money. For him at least. Both his parents wanted to find Kokichi a girlfriend, and there happened to be another gambling business wanting to find a young man to date the owner's daughter. Kokichi was finding his future wife tonight.
Just before the boy was about to leave he noticed a note taped to his mirror. Ripping it from the glass, he immediately recognised his mother's cursive. 'Use some hair gel.' "Hair gel?" Kokichi questioned out loud. He rested the note on his drawer and grabbed a small tub of expensive smelling gel that had appeared from nowhere.
Once Kokichi finished attempting to tame his weird, bouncy hair, the only difference was a second lock of hair now flopping in front of his face. Sighing, he grabbed the tub of hair gel and took it upstairs with him to return to his parents. He closed the basement stairs door behind him and found his parents, who cooed over Kaho's beauty.
Kaho stood proud as her mother fussed over her purple dress. Their father turned to see Kokichi, the excitement and proud shine in his eyes instantly faded away upon seeing his son. Kokichi mentally groaned as he carefully held the hair gel out, flinching when his dad snatched it from him. "At least you look... Human," was all he said before turning to fuss over his beautiful daughter again.
After what felt like an eternity, the doorbell finally rang, chiming through the house. Kokichi's mum grabbed Kokichi's wrist, digging her nails into it as she hissed into his ear. "Don't you dare screw this up for us." The boy nodded, holding his arms behind his back to rub his wrist and reduce the pain. "Open the door."
Not wanting to drag this on any longer than necessary, Kokichi swung open the door and smiled. "Hello!"