"I wish I'd never come back from Fenrir." Mukuro thought, laying in her sister's bed that first night. "If I hadn't, maybe Junko wouldn't have gone insane." She was going through some photographs. There was the class photo taken on the first day.
. There was the class eating doughnuts together, courtesy of Hagakure's photography. Asahina occupied the center of the photograph. and there she was, eyes closed, sitting behind Makoto. There was Oowada nooging Fujasaki and Kuwata. They all looked so happy. It's a shame none of them remembered the fact that they had been classmates for two years!
. There was the track photo that Asahina had taken. The perpetual athlete seemed upset that she had to take the photo instead of being one of the runners. There was the pool photo that Togami had taken because he didn't exactly like swimming. Asahina was the lifeguard. Yamada was literally flying through the air. Celeste and Fukawa looked like they'd been photoshopped in the background. Kuwata was splashing her sister in the face. Come to think of it, with the exception of the original class photo, her sister's face didn't actually appear in any of the photos. For a model, her sister didn't like the camera, the only one where Junko actually looked at the camera was the original class photo. But who was she to criticize, she was always looking at Makoto.
. And finally after so many others, there was the one most precious to her, Makoto's classmate photo, the one he took to remember his first day with his classmates. If she remembered correctly, it was only one of two where she actually looked at the camera.
. Mukuro closed her eyes, and reflected on why she had gone to Fenrir in the first place. Her twin sister's modelling career was just taking off, and all their parents wanted to do was focus on Junko. She couldn't blame them much. The four of them needed money.
"Junko, you have to impress them. This is how we get out of poverty."
. Mukuro had been forced to place her future in her twin sister, and that just disturbed her to no end. Mukuro hated relying on others, that's why on one of her sister's fashion trips, she ran away and joined Fenrir.
"I was eliminating myself from the family's list of needs. IF there was one less person in the family, then that was one less person the family had to take care of. And plus both of my parents needed to focus on Junko, prevent the new-found fame from going to her head. Mom and Dad didn't really care about me as much anyway."
. Mukuro's assessment? Her parents hadn't let the fame go to Junko's head, which she was happy about. But the flip side came from when Mukuro finally relented and told Junko all about her experiences with Fenrir on the night after both had received their letters from Hope's Peak Academy.
"You went through all of that? I was living it up as a fashion model, showered with love and affection from our parents, and you were going through that?! How could you go through that?"
"I went through it because I never wanted to rely on your modelling career for the rest of my life. I couldn't go through my life as just your sister. I had to create my own path."
"But you didn't have to go through that! You could have asked. You should have stayed."
"Well, I didn't. And there's nothing either of us can do about that now."
"But the sounds of all those bullets..."
" 'I have heard the whistle of bullets, and believe me, there is something charming in that sound.'"
"What?"
"It's a quote from George Washington. The Fenrir leader told me on my first day."
"..."
. Ever since that conversation, Junko seemed different. She didn't relish in her modelling career like she had before. Junko appeared perpetually depressed, almost masochistic. It hurt Mukuro so much to see her sister so permanently upset, and that was why she refused to leave her sister through all of this.
. Mukuro fought back the rare tears. "If only I had refused to tell Junko my experiences, then she wouldn't have become like this. Truth be told, the only reason I even agreed to do this was that I couldn't stand by and let her do this to our classmates." She was a soldier, emotions could be deadly, hesitation could mean the end of your life.
. But soldiers trusted each other, and she trusted that she could find a way to make Junko stop this before any murders occurred. Trust was what made it an army, well, in her case, a mercenary group, not just a bunch of people firing guns.
. She closed her eyes, and a bunch of found memories of Makoto came flooding back: his brilliant smile, his happy laugh, and his ability to always cheer her up, even if he didn't realize it. Even if he never realized it. He had shown her that, contrary to all of her experiences growing up with Fenrir, emotions weren't a bad thing to have, and she wasn't relegated to trying to keep her sister's sanity together for her to succeed. But would her feelings for Makoto get in the way of her self-appointed mission?
. Upon figuring it out, Junko had teased her endlessly.
"Look at you, the military veteran who has never been wounded in battle, now falls for a boy that would probably faint if he saw a dead body."
"Don't even joke about that."
"Why? It's true."
. She remembered hearing about the plan to lock down Hope's Peak Academy. Mukuro thought about how she had learned that Makoto wasn't going to be included. She had marched with straight to the principal's office, interrupted a meeting between her classmate Kirigiri and her father, the principal, and held a loaded 22 magnum to his head.
"If you don't include Makoto with us, you'll regret it."
"Ikusaba, I'm talking to my father about this. You don't need to hold a gun to his head."
"Yeah, well, your negotiations were going a little slow for my taste."
"You didn't even know I was discussing this."
"No, and I don't particularly care. Makoto's coming with us. It's the entire class or nothing."
The principal sweat-dropped.
"Hey, as I told Maizono, it wasn't my idea for Makoto to remain on the outside. It was his."
"What? Why?"
"He figured that if this upcoming crisis gets as bad as predicted, it would be good to have someone on the outside to spread the information that Hope's Peak still continues."
"But if it gets that bad, Makoto wouldn't survive for very long!" Kirigiri said.
"He said that otherwise, he wouldn't be worthy of the title 'Super Duper High School Luckster'."
"Well, tell him, he's staying with us. No ifs, ands, or buts." Mukuro said.
"Yeah, I'll do that. Just put down the 22." the principal said.
"Alright, then, I'll tell him." Kirigiri said.
. And then that year began. That year where Junko spent all of her time building Monokuma. With the exception of Fujaski who helped with the programming of Monokuma, most of the rest of class could barely remember what she looked like, that's how much time Junko spent alone. That year had been fun in a different way. They passed the time in many different ways. Togami read his books. Fukawa stalked him in the library. Leon convinced Maizono that the two of them could become a singer and bass-guitar duet. Celeste and Kirigiri spent a lot of time playing shogi and many other games. Asahina swam, and Oogami worked out. Oowada, Ishimaru, Yamada, and Hagakure started round-robin marathons of pool. They even had a permanent record of all of their matches.
. And as for Mukuro, she spent most of her time talking with Makoto. Those conversations were the best. Before Mukuro had no idea how to make small-talk, and now she did.
"Hello, Makoto."
"Hello, Mukuro."
"So, is everybody doing what they always do?"
"Pretty Much."
"And you?"
"I'm waiting for Celeste and Kirigiri to finish their game of shogi."
"Why?"
"Well, you see, there's a Monopoly set. Say, would you like to join the three of us? It's always better with four players."
"I'm not very good at negotiating."
"So?"
Kirigiri and Celeste finished their shogi game.
"Mukuro's going to join us for Monopoly."
"I see. Are you any good at Monopoly, Mukuro?" Celeste asked.
"No. I've played exactly once, and that was because Junko insisted the two of us and our parents play it the night I returned from Fenrir."
"Do you remember the rules?" Makoto asked.
"Yes."
And that was how most of the days went. Until Junko finished Monokuma and wiped everybody else's memories for the first time. Junko had now wiped everybody's memories countless times. Mukuro closed her eyes, and fell asleep. She was going to find away to end this. It was tempting to go in there, verbal guns blazing, shouting all of her sister's secrets, but what was preventing her sister from killing her and wiping all of their memories again? The solution had to be there, it just had to be there, and yet for a Super Duper High School Soldier, she was surprising bad at strategy. Togami, Kirigiri, and Celeste were all better at making strategies than she was.
"I guess I'll just have to macguyver something like I always did on the battlefield." Mukuro thought, covering her head with her pillow. She felt like screaming, the walls of the bedroom were soundproof anyway, so nobody would hear her. Except Junko. Junko would always hear, and that's how her sister wanted it.
. She remembered first meeting Makoto. He was the first classmate to actually greet her on that first day... and not back away slowly as soon as she introduced her title.
"Hello, who are you?"
"I'm Mukuro Ikusaba, Super Duper High School Soldier."
"Okay."
"Okay? You're not going to back away like everybody else except my sister."
"No. Why should I?"
"Who are you?"
"I'm Makoto Naegi, this year's Super Duper High School Luckster." he said, rubbing the back of his head.
"I see. So we're classmates."
"Yes, we are."
She could see the look in his eyes. "I guess she's not likely to delve into small talk.", he seemed to think.
"So... who's your sister?"
"Junko Enoshima."
"I see, are you two twins?"
"Yes."
"Then why do you have different last names?"
"Mukuro Ikusaba is the name I adopted going into Fenrir. I liked it so much, that when I returned I requested that my parents to make it my legal name."
"I got to admit, 'Corpse Warblade' is pretty much an Awesome McCoolname."
"Awesome McCoolname?"
"Yeah, like the page?"
"Is that an internet website?"
"Yes. Yes, it is."
"So what's on this ?"
"A guide to acing literature classes."
. Mukuro rolled over in bed. That conversation was so far gone, and there was no hope of a repeat. Not only that, but it seemed likely that not everyone would make it through this. But strangely, Mukuro thought, as long as Naegi made it, that was all that mattered to her. She thought about her years in Fenrir, she never bothered to make friends there. It was almost guaranteed that they would be a hindrance. But here? Fenrir had been so straightforward compared to this, you were hired on a job, you did the job, and that was that. You either survived or you didn't. High School was different. High School was full of subtle maneuvering like how Kuwata had constantly tried to ask Maizono out... and failed. Or how Junko had tried to set her and Makoto up on a date ... and failed. Or how Fukawa kept going after Togami ... and failed.
"You know, on second thought, high school wasn't really that subtle."
. Mukuro chuckled slightly. It wasn't much, but it was enough to help her fall asleep, fall asleep to pleasant dreams where they all got out of here Where her sister wasn't like this, where the world was quiet.