Author's Notes:

Just some information about this AU:
-Junko is not despair
-Pre-game/ Non-Despair AU
-I hope I got the Japanese Honorifics right...
-Enjoy!

Prologue

Makoto Naegi sat on his bed thinking about all the misfortunes that could have happened to him throughout the day. For a student who was gifted the title SHSL Lucky Student, he thought that today was anything but lucky. He thought about how he almost ended up tripping down the stairs after his last class of the day. He thought about how he almost got hit by a stray pool ball in the rec room during break or how he almost got cut by a stray piece of a ceramic pot when it shattered on the ground. He thought about seven more scenarios throughout the day at how he almost got himself injured in bizarre ways. Makoto chuckled at the amount of disasters he almost got himself into.

The keyword Makoto thought, was "almost". Every time his luck decided to betray him, someone would be there to protect him. That person, his savior and his friend, was none other than the SHSL Soldier in his class: Mukuro Ikusaba.

Makoto remembered the first day he had seen her. He had decided to go to his class early since it's the first day of school at Hope's Peak Academy, a school that housed the most talented high schoolers in the country, and he didn't want to look more average than he already was. When he opened the doors to his class, he spotted the raven haired girl sitting in one of the desks near the back returning his gaze with an expressionless face. She was wearing the school uniform up to standard with the exception of a unique kind of black boots.

He thought his first impression should be a good one so he waved "good morning" and gave her his normal bright and genuine smile. At first he was expecting a greeting of sorts but when he looked back at her, her attention has already returned to the book she was reading. However, he could have sworn that girl's cheeks were tainted light pink and that there was the slightest smile on her face as she read the book.

During introductions later that day, Makoto noticed that the raven haired girl was staring at him intensely as he introduced himself as the SHSL Lucky Student. He didn't know why he received such an intense stare and thought that maybe that was just her natural face. When it was her turn for the introductions, he also noticed that while she was facing the front, her eyes darted towards him from time to time.

Unlike most of the class however, her introduction was short: "Mukuro Ikusaba, SHSL Soldier" was all she said. Makoto was surprised to hear her talent. When he first saw her, he would have never expected her as a soldier, maybe a parkour artist from the odd boots, but not a soldier. He unconsciously smiled as he thought about how amazing she could be considering her experiences with her talent. Wanting to know more about her, he resolved to talk to her afterschool and hoped to learn more about her.

When his first school day was finally over, Makoto remembered the first time that he has been saved from his horrendous luck. He had spotted her just leaving the building as he had been waiting outside looking for her. "Ikusaba-san!" He called out and waved his hand. Once he got her attention, he started to make his way over only to be surprised as she started running at him.

The next thing he registered was that he was on the ground and a shattering sound was heard nearby. When Makoto turned to the source of the sound, he saw what he assumed to be a broken pot that must have fallen from the windowsill of a classroom. Still reeling from the shock of the impact, his eyes slowly widened as he started connecting the dots and realized that he had been standing there just earlier. It was then that he realized Mukuro was still on top of him scanning for injuries, and he started to feel slightly uncomfortable as his face started getting warmer and his pulse was a lot faster too. Not to mention that this incident also left a few bystanders still looking at the two on the ground.

Mukuro must have sensed his discomfort as she finally got off of him, and offered her hand to help him up. He was easily hoisted back onto his feet and the two stood there not saying anything as the awkwardness between them settled in. After what seemed like an eternity, the silence was finally broken by the soft but expressionless voice of the ex-soldier.

"Are you injured?"

"No.. I-I'm fine now!"

"…"

"Uhm, thanks for saving me Ikusaba-san!" Makoto gave her another bright smile.

"… Its fine." Mukuro looked to the side, hiding a blush on her face. "I-I've got to go." She said as she turned away and started walking.

"I'll see you tomorrow then!" Makoto cheered at the soldier who was walking away. What he didn't see was the tiny smile on her face as she left the area.

Ever since that incident, every time Makoto had something happen to him, Mukuro would happen to be there to save him. Before long, the two had started a unique friendship that involved one constantly saving the other, and the latter smiling and thanking the first. After a few more incidents, Mukuro decided to escort Makoto to class whenever Junko didn't need her around.

In a few weeks, Makoto would soon eat lunch with the twin sisters and if he was lucky, Junko would be messing with his other classmates leaving him alone with Mukuro. Mukuro was a quiet person, so Makoto ended up doing most of the talking whenever they were together. He didn't mind the fact that he did most of the talking, after all, he didn't want to force her to talk.

To anyone else seeing them together, it may look like Mukuro was extremely bored while Makoto would talk about his day, but no one other than themselves knew that she was actually listening, and her lips were ever so slightly curved upwards. Soon after, Makoto started to feel excited to see Mukuro. He didn't know why, but when they were together, he felt happy. And he felt especially happy whenever he was able to make Mukuro smile or even laugh since it was usually rare to see any emotion on her face.

He then recalled the events that had happened today. He remembered the relief he felt when Mukuro stopped him from falling down the stairs. He remembered turning to Mondo yelling "OH SHIT!" then seeing Mukuro's hand holding onto a white ball in front of his face. He remembered hearing something shattering in literature class and when he turned around, and saw Mukuro pinching a piece of ceramic just under his chin.

Makoto smiled as he recalled those moments. He would smile at her and she would return the gesture. It was rare to see Mukuro not wear her expressionless face but when he was around her, she'd show slightly more emotion. She'd sometimes smile, look away to hide her blush or stare at him wide-eyed with concern. While the last one made Makoto feel a little bit guilty, he couldn't help but think it was a bit cute.

"Cute? Oh boy, why did I think that?" He thought. "I mean… I suppose she is cute in her own way.. ARGH I do not need to be thinking about this right now!" He shook his head in an attempt to remove those thoughts and as he did, he remembered something else that had happened to him that didn't involve Mukuro saving him.

He was walking back to the dorm area with Mukuro when Yasuhiro came up to him looking a little more anxious than he usually did.

"Hey uh, Naegi-Chi! Can I talk to you for a bit?" He asked.

"Um, do you need help with homework again?"

"No! Nothing of that sort this time! A-Actually, I need you to accompany me afterschool tomorrow. It's important that you're with me."

"Accompany you? What for?"

"Oh it's nothing bad! I promise! I just need to pay a debt that I owe but I get really nervous so I need you to come with me."

"I.. uh.. don't know why you would choose me though... I'm just as average as anyone gets haha"

"Oh please Naegi-Chi, that's precisely the reason I need you to come with me!"

"Well...It doesn't sound too bad.. I guess I can come with you.."

"Alright! I'll see you tomorrow then! Thanks a lot Naegi-Chi!"

"Wait! Um, If I may, who do you owe this debt to? What did you do?"

"Ahahahaha! Ahhh… that's er… well.. you'll find out tomorrow! I promise we'll be done before you know it!"

And with that, Yasuhiro turned and returned to his room before Makoto had a chance to ask for more details.

"That was odd." Mukuro noted.

"I guess so, but he did seem like he really needed me. I'll just have to trust him I suppose."

"Are you having second thoughts Naegi-kun?"

"Well, I can't say I'm a little bit nervous from the lack of details but I'll be fine. I guess I'll see you tomorrow in class then!"

"If you say so. See you Naegi-Kun."

After doing his homework for three hours, Makoto has found himself on his bed reflecting upon the events of the day, especially Yasuhiro's favour as he is still slightly concerned from the lack of details. Now that he thought about it, Yasuhiro did look a little more anxious than usual. He couldn't help but wonder what has Yasuhiro done for him to owe someone something that would make him all nervous he tell a bad fortune to someone? Maybe Yasuhiro scammed someone of their money? It has to be money related right? At the idea of owing money, Makoto decided to not think about how much Yasuhiro could have possibly owed another person knowing that his fortune telling costs are through the roof.

Speaking of owing another person, Makoto then remembered how much he owed Mukuro for all the times that she had saved him. It was an incredibly large debt to owe since he would have at least three misfortunes throughout one day and he thought that he should start finding ways to repay her. What he didn't know as he grabbed his phone to message her for a hangout after dealing with Yasuhiro, was that his debt was about to skyrocket the next day.

Mukuro sat at her desk inside her room still thinking about the piece of ceramic that had almost dug itself into the back of Makoto's neck. "Close. That was too close." She thought. While at the time his smile may have lifted all her worries and concern, she couldn't stop thinking about how close Makoto was to being injured. She replayed the scene over and over in her head, each time she thought about how she could have reacted faster, or prevented the pot from shattering or at the very least, stopping the piece of ceramic before it got THAT close to him. She closed her eyes as she went through the simulation again.

It was the last class of the day and the teacher was hastily concluding her lesson due to time constraints. The clock in the room showed the time as "2:53 PM", seven minutes until school ended. Her gaze went from the clock to the back of Makoto's head, his bright smile suddenly entering her mind. She relaxed herself as she focussed on the imaginary smile that made her heart flutter. Because she was so distracted by that smile, she barely registered the breeze that entered the classroom, followed by a shattering sound to her left.

Time slowed down as her instincts kicked in. She snapped her head to the left and saw the pot already shattered on the floor, stray pieces flying in different directions. Her eyes widened at one specific piece of ceramic as it flew a certain trajectory: towards Makoto's neck. As she followed that shard of ceramic, she noticed that it was larger than the others and a pointed end was leading the flight.

She noted that if it hit its mark, it could be fatal. To make matter worse, the shard had just flew past her head as she made her analysis. Focussing entirely on the flying piece of ceramic, her right arm finally acted, dropping her pencil, and shot forward after the sharp piece of ceramic. She stared wide-eyed as she managed to pinch it with two fingers just 3 inches off of his neck.

"That was too close… just a little bit slower and that could have caused some major damage… or worse.."

She remembered the way Makoto looked at her when he finally turned around. His face was riddled with confusion at first, but quickly faded into a bright smile as he thanked her. During that moment, her inner turmoils subsided as she smiled back at him. In hindsight however, that doesn't change the fact that she almost failed to protect him.

She slammed her fist down on her desk in frustration, causing tip of her pencil to shatter and leaving pieces of graphite laying around as well as a small dark dent on her desk. She sighed as she put the pencil down and looked out the window, her lips slightly curved upwards as a faint reflection of his smile appeared on the glass. However, just as the smile appeared, it faded away as she remembered something odd throughout the day.

While she barely pays attention to anyone else that wasn't the teacher, Junko and now, Makoto, she noticed that Yasuhiro was a little more jumpy than usual. Normally, she wouldn't care but it was weird that someone would be anxious and nervous around Makoto. From her observations, everyone else in the class seemed more at ease when talking to the lucky student, even Byakuya is slightly less cold towards him.

She didn't know why she was concerned about such a small detail, but it still bothered her nonetheless. Mukuro was especially suspicious of Yasuhiro's request though. It had too many unknown factors for her. Who did Yasuhiro owe? Where are they going to meet? Why specifically Naegi? Her thoughts were interrupted by the growing sound of pounding coming from her door. She then realized that the pounding noise has been there for a little while.

"Hey sis! Open up already! How long are you gonna keep me waiting here?" Junko wailed from beyond her door.

Mukuro rose from her seat and quickly opened the door only to be greeted by a unhappy Junko.

"What the hell Mukuro? I was pounding on your door forever! God why are you so disappointing? What the FUCK were you even doing?"

Mukuro looked down. "I'm sorry. I was preoccupied with some thoughts."

"Preoccupied? That's a rare sight. I didn't know there were things out there that can make you zone out."

"It was nothing important." Mukuro bit her lower lip as those words came out.

"Oh? I didn't know you could lie sis. I could tell that it was INDEED important. Otherwise, you wouldn't have ignored me outside your door."

"I—" Mukuro instinctively took a pace back

"Was it about Naegi?" Junko inched closer as she asked the question.

"Huh? No, I –" Mukuro started, but couldn't formulate a reply

"What's this? Did you start considering Naegi to be more important than me now? To think that my disappointing older sister finally have the guts to value someone else more than her dear sister! Are you going to abandon me again Mukuro~?" Junko teased at her with sad puppy eyes.

"I.. It's not like that! I'm sorry! I—" Mukuro stopped as she realized that her twin was now laughing hysterically, clutching her stomach in an attempt to stop herself.

"J-Junko?"

It took Junko another twenty seconds to finally stop laughing and stand up again.

"Oh my god Mukuro, I was just teasing you! If there's one thing you don't disappoint in, it's your reactions!" Junko started to laugh again.

Mukuro stiffened, no longer sure what Junko was going to do.

"Jeez, relax sis. It's like you're afraid that I'm going to murder you for that thought. Well, it's not like I didn't kill you somewhere else, but that's irrelevant."

Confusion struck Mukuro at the odd comment.

"Anyways, back to the point: you like Naegi don't you?" Junko teasingly asked

A look of shock appeared on Mukuro's face as she registered the question. She instinctively took another step backwards and started:

"Wha.. I.. We're just friends Junko!"

"C'mon Muku, just about everyone knows that you've been intentionally looking out for him since day two."

"Wh..What?"

"Really? Are you sure you're not thinking about what happened during literature class?"

"I-Huh? How did you—"

"OH MY GOD! You really were thinking about him!"

Mukuro stared at Junko, completely lost at how to react.

Junko sighed "Really Mukuro? Man, you are sooooo disappointing. You can't even react like a normal girl anymore. Also, you'd think I wouldn't notice how you sometimes stare at the back of his head? You'd think I didn't see the look on your face when you pinched that piece of ceramic? How about your reaction every time he smiles at you? And not to mention, it took you eleven seconds to answer the door than your usual three seconds and I can see that dent on your desk from here. Now, being the wonderful sister than I am, that dent on the desk is telling me that you have been upset about something. Now tell me." Junko finally dropped her antics, put her hands on her hips and looked patiently at Mukuro.

"I… uh.." Mukuro struggled with the words, still trying to formulate a response in her head.

"Soldier, I asked you to give me a report now!" Junko suddenly yelled with an authoritative voice.

Mukuro's instantly snapped to attention and started to report:

"The incident happened at 1453 hours sir! A breeze blew into the classroom and knocked over a ceramic pot. The pot smashed and one of the pieces flew towards Naegi-kun's neck. I reacted and managed to stop it three inches from his neck however, I am not satisfied with my performance and was just going through simulations in my head sir!"

Upon finishing the report, Mukuro looked down, her eyes softening and muttered

"It was too close.."

Junko recoiled at the sudden remark.

"Hey hey! It's important that you did save him right? God, stop sulking! It's so despairingly depressing when you look like that!"

"But I—"

"Look. He's fine, you're fine, it's just a broken pot. Get over it jeez!"

"I—I'll try…"

"Alright, but hey… you DO like him right?"

Mukuro didn't answer. She wasn't sure how she felt about him. While she admits that she gets excited to see him, she wasn't sure if that meant she liked him in that sense. She wasn't sure if that weird feeling in her stomach was a sign that she liked him, or that her heart beating faster every time they're together is a sign that she liked him. Not to mention the warmth in her cheeks, irregular breaths, lapses in judgement and awkward fidgeting when she is with him. If those signs were to signal something, Mukuro didn't know. But at the same time, it's not like she disliked him in anyway.

"I don't know." Mukuro finally replied

"Say Muku~, what if I told you that Maizono asked him to go on a date tomorrow?" Junko teased.

For a second, there was a sharp pain in Mukuro's heart at the thought of Sayaka and Makoto together on a date. She clenched her fists and bit her lower lip as a natural response to the thought.

"Wait, that shouldn't be possible…" Mukuro thought as she remembered that Yasuhiro had asked Makoto to accompany him somewhere.

"That's impossible. Naegi-kun has agreed to go with Yasuhiro afterschool tomorrow. And I was with him the entire afternoon. There's no way she could've asked him." Mukuro stated.

Junko's eyes widened for a split second as she wasn't prepared for that reply, but quickly composed herself once she took in the new information.

"Alright you got me there. Silly me, of course you'd be with him. But! You're still not off the hook yet" Junko replied with a sly smile. "Look at you, you look like you wanna go kill someone! You're going to tell me that you don't like him after that?" She teased.

Mukuro realizing this, relaxed her hands and looked to the side, a faint blush forming on her face.

"GYAAAH! Is that a blush I see?! That settles it!"

"Junko… I—" Mukuro started but was quickly interrupted by her younger twin

"Alright Mukuro, tomorrow we are going shopping! If you're going to get into a relationship with Naegi, I can't have you disappointing me AND him with the boring crap you wear. It doesn't even make sense to wear a bulletproof vest in a school environment! UGH What is wrong with you?"

"It's efficient… it has pockets and—" Mukuro tried to explain but was once again interrupted

"STOP! I don't want to hear it. You're absolutely not going to wear that after I'm done with you tomorrow. You're coming with me and you don't have a choice, got it?"

"Aren't you just going on your usual shopping spree?" Mukuro sighed as she recognized her sister's ulterior motive.

"THAT IS BESIDES THE POINT. Also, I'm doing this for your sake. Naegi's going to be sooo disappointed with what you currently have, and I can't stand you disappointing other people. ESPECIALLY him. [Besides, he's going to love what he sees]."

"What was that?"

"NOTHING! So are you coming or not? You REALLY need more outfits if you wanna look normal."

Mukuro thought about the idea that she doesn't have enough outfits for school. It was true that she only had her school uniform, military grade gear and two "normal" outfits that Junko forced onto her but if it was a social norm to have more sets of outfits, then it shouldn't be that bad. Seeing no harm in going with Junko as she seems really eager to, Mukuro just nodded her head.

"Alright that's settled. See you tomorrow then. AND DON'T BE LATE" Junko then turned and left, excited about the trip tomorrow.

Mukuro sighed as she closed the door and walked towards her bed. As she stared down at her sheets, she thought about the idea of her and Makoto together. While she didn't understand relationships much, the idea of it alone left Mukuro subconsciously smiling at an image of Makoto and herself walking side by side.

"I suppose… I would like that." She thought. "It would be …. Nice."

She was pulled from her thoughts as her phone vibrated in her pocket. As she fished it out, there was a message from none other than Makoto himself.

"Hey Ikusaba-san! I hope I'm not bothering you but, if you're not busy tomorrow, would you like to accompany me to go with Yasuhiro? I'm sure he wouldn't mind and we can go do something fun when that's done! After all, I still kinda owe you for saving me yesterday."

Mukuro gasped as her heart skipped a beat at the message. The idea of her being able to spend time with Makoto was very tempting. It made her feel happy. Before she replied with a "That sounds like a good idea", she frowned as she remembered that she agreed to spend time with Junko instead.

"Sorry Naegi-kun. Junko wants to go look for more outfits tomorrow and I promised to accompany her"

"Ah, that's unfortunate then. I'll think of another time where I can repay you but it's getting late now so I'll talk to you later Ikusaba-san!"

Mukuro didn't know how to reply to that message so she put her phone down and looked at the time. 2157 was written on her digital alarm clock that sat on her desk. The nighttime announcement was going to happen soon and most of the school facilities are going to be closed for the night. She then decided to call it a day considering that she was mentally exhausted from everything that has happened. As she closed her eyes, her thoughts drifted to the idea that Makoto felt the need to repay her for saving him all the time. She slowly slipped into her slumber with a smile as she thought about the different ways he could possibly repay her. Little did Mukuro know that, within the next twenty-four hours, Makoto would end up owing her a lot more than he did now.