Danganronpa: B3 Hunt

Author's notes: This just came to me in a small thought watching the Future Arc of the series, due to me being extremely emotionally distressed by what I have witnessed. While I would call this a blessing, it also sucks knowing what has happened thus far, I won't spoil it for people, but if you haven't watched it do so when you can and prepare a lot of tissues.

Well, enough of me actually being depressed, let's get this idea off on its course.

Towa city ruins

The city's empty streets under the blood red skies gave a menacing overshadow of what was left of Towa city, the epicentre of the largest disaster in the known human history. Months ago, in a time that was much different from the time of the present, a large school of meritocracy once stood proudly, boasting the best of the best being trained and developed in talent for the sole purpose for constructing a future of hope. As time went on however, the ideal of hope began to waver, and thousands of people flocked towards the lure of despair. Now the land was a no man's land, conflict emerging between people who try to embody the aspects of hope and despair in a fruitless war.

The city square in Towa city, known to its residents as the Central bloc, was once in its days of glory a multi-store mall on the outside. It was known for being the hub of fashion brands, technology, cafes and generally a spot for conventions of all kinds. In its present state, that lustre and aspects of affluence was stripped away. Slabs of concrete foundation was tossed up into the air by explosive charges, broken smashed glass windows of stores and stockpiles of mannequins, and various other store goods burned in pyres or were scrapped for parts to use. To say the least, the square had seen better and brighter days of hope.

Observing their surroundings, approaching the middle of a city square with a light shuffle of a dragging shoe, a female figure arose from the dark shadow of the moon which was obscured by the clouds, a pair of black cargo pants and a green tank top covered by a modest leather jacket with tactical holsters and belts across her chest and waist complete with a padless bulletproof armor over her shirt. Her platinum blonde hair was tied into a pair of shoulder length ponytails, a set of three braids on the left side of her head draping over her cheek.

"What a mess this all is."

Anechka, Assassin

The woman's dull green eyes gleamed with a soft shine, her view focused on the results of the most recent chaos-filled reverie. In front of her was a small number of bodies, at least from what she could count around seven in total with a few missing limbs which were nowhere to be found from their original bodies. Kneeling down, she picked up a crushed can in her hand leaning down to take a whiff of the familiar smell. "Alcohol."

The corpse was female, lying face down planted on the ground with her bare ass staring up at the woman. Anechka shrugged off the apprehension as she knelt to examine the head, noticing that the top half was slightly bumpy with a small bludgeon wound to the head but didn't cave in her skull but enough to knock her out at least for a while. In addition, she was stripped bare, her stockings which were torn and shredded in places made the fabric barely covering anything to the imagination as Anechka dipped a finger in between the thighs of the woman, a light squelching noise could be heard as she wiggled her finger around the edges. Feeling a slick watery liquid sliding against her glove, Anechka brought the glove towards her nose as she took a short whiff.

"…Sexual assault from both sides, looks like she was made to withstand the ordeal for hours." Anechka eerily muttered to herself while her sleek black glove retreated from the bare ass of the dead woman, noting the look of absolute terror and what appeared to be a crooked grin on the woman's tear-stained cheeks which were absolutely red. Anechka took it as a sign of mental breakdown from the repeated successes, the woman in black flicking the gooey white residue of ejaculation while she reached for her breast pocket fishing out a small handkerchief to wipe her index and middle fingers clean. While she did so, she noticed the victim's eye shadow was bright red with what appeared to be blood leaking out of the eyelids, Anechka grabbing the cheek of the victim to look at the expression, spotting the bulging artery webs across the pupils to the light purple dried lips.

"They were just here…at least close to an hour ago. Victim also has signs of poisoning of some kind." Anechka eyeballed the street ahead, the eerie silence for a brutal crime scene disturbed her to some degree, the fate of the woman already spelling out a small portion of what Anechka would expect should she journey further.

*crunch*

Anechka's focus was torn away from the scene, her ears picking up the tiny crack of a concrete pebble against the field of smashed window pieces from a nearby fashion store, the establishment robbed clean of any clothing even leaving their previous mannequin owners stockpiled in a corner.

"Looks like our target's began the party."

A buff square-shaped meat wall of a man met her gaze as Anechka brought her gun up to aim right between his eyes, his full height standing just above her head dressed in a blue collar t-shirt and black jeans while a set of dark chocolate brown pupils hid beneath the night sky. The shirt was buttoned save for the top two, exposing a small locket on chain

Lancaster Lobos, Super High School Architect. A man devoted to building as much as designing, he was the man who designed two wings of Hope's Peak Academy when they discovered him as an apprentice to an internal designer sketching out the plans for a proposal.

Anechka lowered her gun sighing out in relief at the sight of Lancaster's giant body, the assassin replacing her wary gaze with a frown of disapproval. "Couldn't wait for me to take care of the scouting, Lobos?"

"You didn't return for more than 20 minutes so I came to check on you, with the world like this, you don't know what can happen to you." The intimidating figure spoke quietly as his black eyes fell upon the bodies past the woman, his lips curling inward as his teeth bit the skin lightly, wincing at the amount of blood which had hardened into the tar road. "Looks like the Monokuma army was busy here."

"Same occurrence as the past few instances around this district, several bodies with gore and various activities you'd expect to find at a wild stag party." Anechka gestured with an uncaring wave at the corpses, her eyes not meeting the brutalised bodies and pools of dried blood. "Also came with a lot of alcohol too, and some of the bodies seem to be like they were ritually brutalised like the previous victims but with different methods of death."

Lancaster nodded grimly, his eyes then falling over to the woman that Anechka had previously searched, squinting both eyes while a look of disgust crinkled his forehead and cheeks. "I'm guessing that she came to the afterparty phase and didn't make it past the shots."

Anechka gazed at the body once more, her eyes flickered to the bruises and markings before she glanced back at her partner. "No one deserves to die like this."

"An assassin with a conscience? That's rare."

No reply.

"So who exactly are we trying to find through following this trail of breadcrumbs?"

"A girl called Ibuki Mioda, used to be a Super High School Talent before she disappeared along with her entire class just before the world revolt happened. They said from surveillance of the district a troupe of Monokuma followers had a member who looks just like her was being dragged with them, at the behest of some crazy girl in a kimono and two big twin tails."

"The rock star from that high school band or something…heard about what happened before she got enrolled. Sad business, that one. While I'm more of a Maizono fan, Ibuki's electric rock on that guitar was a pleasure to hear," Lancaster spoke as his tone went downcast at the thought of the idol singer, Anechka saying nothing as she took the first step forward, Lancaster sighing as he stepped in line behind her.


An hour later

"Looks like we found the lair of the troupe, if the crushed cans of beer are enough evidence."

"Hmm, they haven't ambushed us both, perhaps they're further in?" Lancaster suggested to his partner, Anechka glancing at the entrance analysing the empty darkness within, her ears picking up no sound or any physical movement to indicate a person. Reaching for her waist holster, Anechka turned towards Lancaster who continued to stand in place staring at the broken down turnstiles while she unhooked her pistol, checking the clip while she patted down the rest of her ammo pouches.

"You're armed appropriately I hope? Because I find it hard to believe an architect who draws buildings can face an angry mob by themselves and come out on top so easily."

Lancaster's eyes narrowed slightly at Anechka, folding his arms while his chest seemed to rise in tandem as he thumbed his heart. "You underestimate us who come from Hope's Peak, some of us have adapted well to the new chaotic world and picked up additional skills along the way than just sticking to our talent."

"Enough that I hope you aren't dead in five minutes," Anechka replied as she moved to the broken escalator leading downwards, the woman pushing her braid aside as she raised her tactical SMG to the bottom of the escalator while she cautiously stepped down onto the metal steps. Lancaster followed in tow behind her while he cracked his knuckles the popping sensation waking his senses as he withdrew a pair of karambits with knuckle duster attachments in place of the hilts, the architect gazing at the broken lights and scattered rubbish all around them taking in the sight.

"I still can't believe that just a few years ago this place was brimming with life before the world tragedy, now it's just a no man's land where people are free to do as they please however it pleases them."

"No different from the real world before the tragic revolution then," Anechka commented dryly as she stepped over a pile of withered worn human bones, the dust-covered air choking up the oxygen she could breathe. Anechka resisted the urge to sneeze as she took shallow breaths, Lancaster doing the same pinching his nose slightly as they both reached the ground below. The sight that greeted them was dismal, the once well-lit station in its operational days was overwhelmed by rubble from broken concrete pillars and most of the shiny white square tiles were scattered all across the floor, cracked or dislodged from their roots. A glance to the right heralded an overturned bullet train with seven passenger cars chained behind, the tail end three of which had smashed onto the platform and had demolished the pillars ahead, dents and broken glass from the cockpit of the driver's car with crusted blood flakes and black smears being the only evidence of their occupants' fates.

"Ugh, this smell…"

Anechka sniffed the air unconcerned, her nose twitched as she picked up a myriad of scents which caused her to pinch the bridge. "Piss, blood, alcohol and rot…let's hope they didn't go in too far."

"With blood and alcohol this fresh? I'm feeling the joy already," Lancaster spoke warily as they began to climb the train. Landing on the other side of the wall, both operatives found themselves in an abandoned makeshift shelter, Lancaster looking at the torn sheets and spoiled mattresses laying bare stripped of any bedsheets while rusted coiled springs broke through the surface, letting out a small whistle as he stared at the small well-arranged shelter.

"Man, who lived here?"

"Whoever they are, they've moved on. Barrel only contains rust in there." Anechka replied as she moved to inspect what appeared to be a bunch of tattered sheets wrapped around a pole, something equivalent to that of a hastily made tent. Lancaster on the other hand opted to search the mattress, overturning the mattress which immediately tore the rest of the fabric holding the springs, the expulsion of dust causing him to cough and choke as he swept his hand with a swift 'shwoosh' to wipe the dust clouds away.

"Oh, that is terrible."

"It's been a long time, things rot." Anechka called out to him as he moved over to the side away from the ruined mattress.

"Thanks a lot for your concern, gal." Lancaster sarcastically remarked, rubbing his eyes which were completely snapped shut due to the particles with his palms, feeling anxious as he was robbed of his sight. As he took a few more steps, Lancaster's foot moved forwards only to hit something hard. "Ow!"

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Stupid dust!" Lancaster snapped as he blinked, his eyes teary and slightly red from irritation while his face was taut with pain at his toes. Kneeling down, he was about to massage his feet when he noticed the item that he had just kicked.

"Hmm, what's this? Some kind of box." Lancaster uttered loud enough for Anechka to hear as she stopped her search, turning to look at Lancaster's kneeling back while he lifted the rusty brown box, peeking through one of the puncture holes which littered the surface of the box. "What is it? What did you find?"

Lancaster looked at the contract killer as he lifted up a small removable hard drive from the rusted box, the feeling of plastic in his hands indicated it was sealed and packaged to avoid the same fate as the other metal items in the station. Curious, he reached for the seal, snapping the plastic zip with his fingers as he dug into the transparent bag, removing the hard drive to rest in his forefinger and thumb. "Some hard drive, with a note that says…'Watch me.'"

Anechka walked over to his side, her interest rising as she looked over his shoulder. Just as he had said, she could make out the shape of a small removable drive inside of a plastic bag with a seal which Lancaster had taken the item out of, seeing the small sticky note that laid secure onto the plastic packaging.

*Please watch me*

"…Well?" Lancaster's whisper snapped her back into reality, Anechka reaching into the confines of her jacket as she drew out a rectangular item on hand.

"You have an Ipad in that suit?" Lancaster asked surprised at the ease of which she took out the piece of technology, shooting a glance at Lancaster's dumbfounded look. "Of course I bring one, you never know when you would need to see a visual recording of something important on missions."

"Are you even sure you are an assassin?"

"Shut up."

Anechka snatched the drive from Lancaster's hand, the woman sliding the removable disk port into the Ipad as the screen lit up with a notification. Clicking yes, Anechka opened up her device folder and switched to view the files inside of the memory drive.

"Only one file, 'confession'."

"Go on, let's see what this is all about." Lancaster urged her as she clicked play, the video player window opening up as the screen was made to full. Once it was set, the screen began with a static wave.

"This is…"

Present day

Naegi Makoto was having a really bad day.

The boy known as the embodiment of hope struggled pointlessly against his restraints which were clamped around his wrists, preventing any hope of wriggling out of them while he was shoved roughly at the back by one of Munakata's 'escorts'. Makoto could only utter out a short 'oof' as he felt the metal stick into his spine, sparing him no comfort from his desperate situation.

"Keep moving, Naegi-san." One of the men ordered Makoto sharply, his voice devoid of any concern for Naegi's own discomfort as Makoto held his tongue, knowing it wasn't wise for him to say anything to trigger any sort of negative reactions amongst the group.

Beside the young man at his left, a woman in a black suit and skirt with tanned skin and ocean blue eyes curled her fists as her gaze burned into the back of the two armed men in suits, provoked by the rough treatment towards Makoto as she yelled at the man. "Makoto-kun is innocent of anything that Munakata-san and the others are accusing him of! He's not even-!"

"Asahina-san, it's okay."

"But-!"

"It's okay," Makoto replied softly, his eyes pleading for Asahina to keep silent. The moment didn't last as Makoto was met with a grunt as another shove from the barrel of the gun forced him to stay silent once more and pressured him forward in a short stumble, Asahina clenching her fists at her sides as she silently stalked behind them, her eyes cautiously glaring at the surrounding posse who surrounded them. Walking on his right, wearing a black office skirt and black suit over a white blouse with a small black choker and ribbon around her neck and collar was a woman with platinum white hair stretching to her waist while a hime cut set of bangs just above her eyebrows, a single braid on her right dangling just past her ear.

Kyouko Kirigiri kept her eyes ahead, her arms folded across one another around her breasts as her pale lavender eyes and stiff neutral frown prevented anyone from seeing the various emotions beneath her mask, all revolving around the current situation that was unfolding in front of them. A few days into the journey towards their branch, Togami had to split from the main fleet as he mentioned having to follow a lead of some kind. They had only departed no far from Togami before Munakata's fleet showed up to board their ship, wanting business with Naegi personally. When Naegi met them directly, Kyouko was surprised when they cuffed him on the spot and called him a traitor wanted for questioning regarding the Neo-World Program. Presently, they were going to an emergency meeting with Munakata…with Naegi bound up in chains.

"Asahina, have some faith in Naegi, if there's anyone who can convince them that this investigation is a complete waste of our time, it will be Naegi-san." Kyouko reasoned with the swimmer, her words calming Asahina slightly though her shoulders remained rigid at her sides along with her clenched fists. Shooting a stare at the back of one of the suits, Kyouko stole a quick glance at Naegi's back who was slightly sagged. Underneath her cold exterior of a mask, she fought the urge to protest against the charges herself, having Naegi placed under arrest was enough of a surprise already, but talk of a traitor was what was occupying her thoughts. Munakata had never been this determined before, sure he and Naegi had butted heads over the best way to approach the goal of hope, however for him to show up in their fleet and place the whole crew under lockdown was another completely different event.

She gazed at Naegi trailing behind with a sullen look at Aoi who gave a look of worry at Naegi, Kyouko tearing her gaze away from the pair as they approached the office door.

Either way, she would not let Makoto out of her hands so easily.


Bridge

"Munakata-san, the 'guests' that you've invited are at the door. Shall I invite them in?"

"Go ahead."

The man in the suit and sunglasses gave a courteous bow before he turned to open the door for Makoto and friends, his hand outstretched in a sweep to welcome the group. "You may-"

"Munakata!" Aoi shouted angrily as she elbowed the usher aside, stomping into the office with whatever anger she had left in reserve for her target. The office was locked in with four steel plates welded by large bolts holding the overlapping plates in place, the room containing a projector and a DVD player tucked at the left corner of the wall while a briefing whiteboard was located hung on the right. Sitting in a chair, dominating the centre view of the windows behind a desk with a glowing light from a laptop, sat a man in his 20's with a head of silver hair and a white suit and pants, the man busy typing away at the keyboard of his laptop for a few moments before he shut the screen, glancing up to face Aoi with a stone cold expression of apathy. "If it isn't Aoi Asahina, one of Naegi's friends. I thought you would be down at the café stuffing yourself as per usual."

Aoi grinded her teeth, the swimmer taking slow deliberate steps towards the silver-haired man watching her unperturbed by her blazing glare. "Shut up, I want to know why you have Naegi locked up in this ship! He hasn't done anything to deserve your grounds for arrest and treason!"

"Really?" Munakata drawled as he stared coldly at Aoi. "I wonder if the same could be said when he has clearly just spared a group of criminals who have done much worse than just spreading despair."

"They were classmates, just like us! The Neo-World Program was meant to change them, rehabilitate them. With that they would have-"

"The Neo-World Program failed." Munakata silenced Aoi with his words, rising from his leather chair while he adjusted the tie and a hand stuffed into his right suit pocket. "You claimed that it was for rehabilitation and that they would 'recover', yet Junko managed to once again corrupt the system and enter the alternate world, killing most of the Ultimate Despair in their beds. And now, Naegi claims that it is possible to use that very same flawed system to wake the rest of them up from their comas."

Aoi didn't flinch as Munakata walked into her personal space, his towering figure daring her to speak to his face, leaning slightly inward to intimidate Aoi into silence. "Tell me that that, does not count as a topic for concern regarding Naegi's commitment to the cause of hope."

"Naegi had the interests of hope at heart when he installed the Neo-World Program for the Ultimate Despair."

Munakata looked up from his staredown to the doorway upon hearing a third voice, facing a pair of lavender eyes staring directly at him with folded arms. Just behind her, a head of spiky messy hair and an ahoge poked out into the doorway as Munakata narrowed his eyes at Makoto, sending a shiver down Naegi's spine. "Kyouko Kirigiri. I find it hard to believe that Naegi's decision to capture the Ultimate Despair, much less attempt to change them was, at any rate, having the best interests of the Future Foundation at all."

"I was there, as his branch leader Naegi's actions count as mine. The Neo-World Program was sceptical at first but I believed that Naegi would be capable of handling it. As did Byakuya Togami despite his initial protests."

"And it is this loyalty to Naegi that is going to cost your entire branch their heads, Kirigiri. Knowing just what the Ultimate Despair are and what they have done to lead the world into their despair inducing rage, is indefinite proof of their decision to continue spreading Junko's message." Munakata countered with a stern tone, the silver-haired branch leader turning his back on the detective to walk towards the window overlooking the sea. "But we can discuss all of this later when we have the time to spare. I brought you here with a different matter in mind, one that requires the attention of two branch leaders in this. However, I suggest that Aoi and Naegi leave us in peace, they are not a part of the discussion."

Aoi moved to intercept Munakata only for Kyouko to place a hand in front of the swimmer. "I understand, if that is what you wish." Kyouko agreed giving Aoi a glance at the swimmer while her features softened for just a moment.

"Aoi, if you could." Kyouko whispered as Aoi reluctantly backed up while a pair of men surrounded Naegi escorting him towards the door, the swimmer looking at Kyouko and at Naegi who gave her a reassuring smile upon seeing her hesitance to leave Kyouko alone. "Asahina-san, it's going to be okay. We can have some donuts later at the ship's kitchen while we wait. Kyouko will be fine with Munakata-san."

"…Alright, see you later." Aoi spoke with a thin smile, the young woman stepping out of the office as the usher gave the room a curt bow of his head, shutting the door behind the pair. Hearing the door shut behind them with a loud groan Kyouko gave her attention towards the former student president. "What is it that you wished to discuss with me, Munakata-san?"

"It's in regard to Towa city, and something that we discovered there recently before we intercepted your fleet which has been kept under wraps to the other branch leaders."

"Are you going to explain?"

Munakata gave her a cold stare. "It's better to show you."

Reaching his desk, Munakata pressed a button at the side of his laptop, a tray springing out from the side carrying a single disk. Moving towards the DVD player, Munakata placed the item on the tray before pressing the close button and played it.

The screen remained black for merely a moment before it lit up brightly in the semi-dim office, the cloudy horizon obscuring most of the sunlight for the day. In it, Kyouko could make out a figure adjusting something on the camera before it refocused itself. Standing straight, the figure revealed himself in the light to be a man around her age, wearing a black hoodie with two fluffy bear ears on either side, his arms at his sides as the screen flickered into momentary static before he spoke.

"This is the testimony of Masaru Saito, to those willing to listen to my voice, and my shame."

"I've never heard of this man before." Kyouko spoke up while Munakata paused the recording, staring at the man on the screen with an intense weight. "I'm not surprised you didn't, Masaru Saito was a man who enrolled into my class and was missing throughout most of his classes doing voice acting jobs for his career. The headmaster recognised this and decided to let him practice his talent."

"He was allowed to avoid his examinations?"

"Yes, however he wasn't excused from his educational obligations." Munakata pressed the resume button, letting the rest of the recording play.

"When I first received the call to go to Hope's Peak academy, I was expectantly excited and ready to face the world of talents and show them just what I was capable of to prove my worth as a talent. To this end I did the best I could with my talent, entering various jobs to spread the message of hope through the media. I would do video game voiceovers, get involved in television shows for a one shot episode cameo to spread the word. I did my part for society, believing in the faculty and Jin Kirigiri who encouraged me into fostering my talent."

The man's mouth curled into a genuine smile, the hood covering the rest of his facial expression as the screen began to sputter as static buzzed through the speakers. Kyouko felt her expression harden, the name of her father bringing along a slightly bitter feeling in her heart while she saw what she could deduce as a genuine display of gratefulness towards the man who was her father.

"I wanted many things. Bringing smiles and hopes were my adolescent goal. That was a fatal mistake."

"To even think about having a future entirely composed of nothing but hope, was an illusion. It was a pointless thought made flesh into the physical world, a concept made into a society built upon hope and talent to shine through. It took me months to realise that the hope I have spread across was false, that I the actor was being played as a puppet on a stage, that I was deceived with the world just the way it wanted me to."

It was then that the hooded figure on screen lifted his hood back, his head still bowed allowing his hair to hide his face. After a few seconds of silence, he looked up right into the camera, exposing his true face to the world.

Even Kyouko's stoic façade could not disguise the light shock at what she was seeing, while Munakata turned his face away from the screen, gripping his palms tighter than usual. His right eye, or what used to be where his right eye was, had a circle of wrinkled burn marks from what could be suspected to have been acid with traces of a stich running across the surroundings of the burn marks. In place of the missing eye was a cybernetic implant that patched up his eye, in the shape of a red lightning streak encasing a computerised eyeball which began to flitter and whirr, giving off a red gleam.

"I admit my guilt before you, that I, without knowledge and without greater awareness, volunteered my services to Towa Industries by aiding Monaca Towa in the construction and the voice production of Despair. I admit my guilt that, in failing to shut down the facility from continuously mass producing them when the Tragedy had struck and hid like a coward, I have doomed Towa City to burn in the fire, anguish and agony of the great Despair. I admit to surrendering my voice to the program that has controlled and made the Ultimate Despair, with full extensive knowledge of what the program would have done to others I carried on with it. It was my doing that helped precipitate the grand unravelling design, the chords which made a world go on its knees."

"I am the voice of despair, the one who cheered the deaths of your loved ones, the brutality of the world, the one who cursed the name of Hope, I am Monokuma!"

The man paused, his voice hoarse and cracked as a streak of red blood trailed from his cybernetic eye as he gasped for breath, his shivering body indicating his weak resolve as he barely held back his feelings in front of the camera. He took a deep breath before he continued on with his speech.

"…People of Towa city, I admit the truth and the extent of my failings to you all. Nothing I can do, can bring all those you have lost back to yourselves…all I can offer, is my life to the Future Foundation to decide my absolute and final fate under their judgement. Whether they kill me, or they spare me, the decision in my hesitation to end the Towa threat, is in your talented hands. So to the Future Foundation I say this to you: find me, track this broadcast to the source…and when you do, do whatever you want."

The two occupants were speechless as the screen faded to a static feed, the man known as Masaru Saito disappearing from their sight as Munakata removed a disc from the video player placing it atop the desk while he leaned against the furniture, his hands leaving their pockets as he glanced at Kyouko who was registering what she had seen.

"We were scouting for the Ultimate Despair when two of our operatives came across this recording. Apparently when the forces of Despair were defeated by Genocider Shou and Komaru Naegi, the blockade of communications around the city was broken and one of our outposts picked up this message. We had little time to investigate since the Ultimate Despair were our top priority." Munakata paused as he stored the disc into a small cover slipping it into his suit. "When you were busy with the Neo-World Program, I got some of my men to investigate the area for any presence of Masaru Saito."

"And what did you find?" Kyouko spoke to the point, Munakata lifting himself off the table to hit the intercom button at his desk.

"Send them in."

The door to the office opened again, this time ushering in a woman with platinum blonde hair and a well-muscled toned man in suits and matching pants to go with it, the pair giving a crisp nod of greeting to the silver-haired president. "Munakata-san, you called for us?"

"Lancaster, Anechka." Munakata greeted the pair curtly, the two giving a short bow to their superior and at Kyouko, Lancaster giving Naegi a bright cheerful smile while Anechka and Kirigiri locked eyes, both parties staring at one another for a few seconds before they both nodded simultaneously acknowledging one another before they looked to Munakata.

"These were the two that managed to find the location which Masaru Saito was hiding in. They were also charged with bringing him back to the Future Foundation for questioning about his role in the Tragedy." Munakata glanced at Kyouko, devoid of any emotion regarding Naegi as Kyouko returned his glare impassively. "We managed to find him just as he said he was hiding at, and brought him along on this ship."

"You don't have to speak about someone in the third person when they're right here." A single voice from the doorway called out to Munakata who sent an instant glare at the direction, Kyouko tensed considerably upon hearing the high pitch tone, expressions mixed with recognition and in Makoto's case, fear as he turned around. "When I did my broadcast, I expected the adults of Towa city to have reached me first, and have lynched me in the streets. But it looks like I had some stroke of luck that the Future Foundation could welcome me with open arms."

Walking towards Munakata flanked by the two operatives who were clearly unsettled by his presence as Lancaster cleared his throat while Anechka's gloved hands squeezed into fists, a single male standing at 7 feet with dark brown hair and a mechanical eye beneath a red tinted window streak, dressed in a half-black and white shirt separated by a horizontal line set with a set of white pants looked around the room before giving a curl of a frown at Munakata.

"Munakata, should have known that you were the one who would have hunted me down. No one else that I know had the efficiency that you had in pursuing a task."

"I have told you before, I will and have been always working towards fighting and eliminating any aspect of despair that I find. Even if it includes you."

"Oh please, enough with the traitor talk. If you were in my position, you would have done the same for the name of 'Hope' and whatever propaganda campaign they cooked up for us all." Masaru retorted with as much venom and spite that he could inject to the silver-haired man, sizing up with Munakata as his dark green eyes clashed with grey orbs silently between them.

"I won't be like you."

"Hmph, one day that obsession of hope will cost you…more than your friends." Masaru spoke edgily, tearing his gaze away from the man as he noticed Kyouko in the corner. It was then upon them locking eyes that Masaru's frown took character and began to stretch deeper as he scratched the tip of his nose. Kyouko remained still, her facial expression giving nothing about her own emotions or thoughts away as Masaru gave a sweeping hand in her direction.

"So you have her here too?" Masaru glanced at Kyouko before turning back to Munakata and at Lancaster. "Having Jin killed by Hope's Peak wasn't enough for them, was it? They had to recruit you into their pot of lies?"

"I came here of my own free will." Masaru turned towards Kyouko, the man surprised at her reply as he immediately lost his dry grin. Kyouko could see a small hint of disappointment in Masaru's face as he stared at her for a moment, considering her words before his countenance began to fall into a bit tongue in cheek before he shook his head. "…Then you are as brainwashed as the rest of them are, Kirigiri. You're going to pay for this, all of you."

"Enough. Lancaster, Anechka." Munakata ordered the pair who immediately subdued Masaru by his arms and elbows, the man saying nothing more while he was forcibly escorted out of the room glaring viciously at Munakata on his forced exit.

"What are you going to do with him?"

"We're putting him on trial, get him to admit how far his involvement with Monokuma goes beyond production lines and have him confess."

"And what would you accomplish out of it?" Kyouko questioned Munakata with an emphasised resonance. "From what I've seen, he was ready to admit that he has done wrong and while I do have doubts to his sincerity, surrendering to Future Foundation for trial would be the last thing a Remnant of Despair would even do."

"He has admitted that he too is just as a part of Despair as the rest of them are." Munakata insisted, his voice upping in volume as he shot an incensed look at Kyouko. "You heard his broadcast in Towa, his sincerity as he spoke of the attacks and how he has played his part. He is no different from an accomplice."

"And so he is considered a part of your Despair." Kyouko noted sternly, making sure he could hear the punctuated emphasis as Munakata let out an altercated breath of hot air as he turned his back on her to move towards the glass. "You are dismissed, Kirigiri. We'll talk when we reach the place for the trial."

Seeing that he wasn't going to budge or pursue the topic with his obvious dismissal, Kyouko turned on her heel and left the room, the detective shutting the door behind her as she passed the doorman who gave her a crisp salute. It was only once she had turned the corner did Kyouko's shoulders sink a tad lower than her usual as she collected her thoughts on what she had heard.

"Masaru Saito…Monokuma."

Kyouko shut her eyes for a moment before she opted to walk towards the lower deck, recalling Makoto and Aoi's parting words about going to the makeshift café on the ship as she strode down the tight hallway. She hoped that the two of them were still there waiting on her.

After all of that, she desperately needed a Luwuck.

End