We are now at Chapter 6! As usual I will address the reviews before moving on.
From FredFuchs86, in regards to the hostages, not exactly. How I handle each hostage may or may not be different in general from each other. That's something that will have to be seen on it's own for each one.
From Luckenhaft, hahaha. Xander Mobus is indeed the person who voices Karou in Persona 5 and is also the P5 Main Character as well. And yes a swear off between Yukimura, Mondo, and Kuzuryu definitely be something. Junko and all her followers are drinking that despair hard, considering all that messed up stuff between them from what you wrote. Poor Apollo, getting bullied by Phoenix. Mukuro and Komaru up to their usual shenanigans as usual. I enjoyed it all.
From version15, thank you for your comment. I always thought IF was interesting and it would be nice to see them officially follow up on it at some point (though not likely). As for all the hostages, that is the game plan, and is definitely a wait and see for each one eventually.
So thanks again to everyone, as I still appreciate everyone who has reviewed, and is reading my story. I hope you enjoy the next chapter!
We now reconvene on Class 78, as they were all back in the meeting room (since the previous day they were watching in the communications room with Munakata and Tengan the footage from the smiley pin camera) as they were discussing the current situation. Munakata and Tengan were busy elsewhere still trying to reestablish a signal with Towa City, desperate to try to reestablish a link with anyone with the Future Foundation in general over there.
"So, a bunch of brats took over a whole city? How does that even happen?" Toko whined out loud.
"How did they even get those Monakumas under their control though?" Sayaka asked, surprised that a bunch of children were in control of the killer bear robots.
"They're probably connected to Junko in some way," Leon stated out loud. "Well maybe,"
"Junko has demonstrated she's capable of many things. I suppose having children take over a city with Monokumas, isn't too… out of the realm considering everything that's happened so far," Celeste said wondering how she pulled it off exactly.
"But the actual question is, how are they connected to her, if that is the case?" Byakuya questioned.
"That's something that we won't know unless we can find out otherwise," Taka stated. "Still… it is utterly morally reprehensible, the actions those kids are committing!"
"Well morally reprehensible or not, they're the ones in control," Hiro pointed out. "I hope the Future Foundation dudes over there are safe,"
"Considering what we saw earlier from the smiley pin camera… I don't think so," Hifumi said uneasily.
"It doesn't help that we can't intervene," Sakura said. "According to those Warriors of Hope, if we try to intervene any more then we have, then we risk them harming our loved ones, as they mentioned in the past,"
"This whole thing is so cruel," Chihiro stated sadly, as it was indeed a very despair inducing situation.
"It'll be alright Chihiro! I know Mukuro can save all our loved ones!" Asahina pointed out, as she felt confident in their strong soldier classmate.
"We just need to have faith in her," Kyoko calmly pointed out. "She's going to do her best to find and rescue everyone. The fact she already found Makoto's younger sister is a good start,"
"Yeah… I just hope Mukuro's safe as well besides Komaru," Makoto said quietly. Everyone else in the room looked at Makoto curiously, as his face was a mix of concern and unease. "Sorry. We still haven't heard from her since yesterday. I hope she's okay,"
"You guys all need to lighten up. Here let me tell you guys a funny story from my time when I was with my biker gang," Mondo said, catching everyone's attention.
"Wow. I didn't know Mondo was the type to tell tales," Hiro said, sounding a bit surprised, while Hifumi snickered at the comment.
"So, let me tell you guys in particular about my bodyguard in the gang who was also my closest friend there… Yukimaru. He's stubborn, tough, proud and doesn't budge easy on everything with one exception. He's afraid of girls for some reason, despite having a huge fan club of girls for his looks. So, one time for one of his birthdays, we got one of those huge ass cakes, where you can hide people in. When we wheeled the cake to him, we had some of those fangirls hiding in there, and then they popped out and surprised him, he fainted right on the spot! What a guy!" Mondo said as he ended with a big hearty laugh. Everyone else looked at him with blank expressions, not sure what to say with the exception of Taka who decided to be a good sport and tried to fake a laugh at what he heard. Makoto finally decided to speak up as he tried to respond as well.
"Wow that's ummm… that's great Mondo," Makoto said with an awkward smile, trying to not sound, not sure at all at what he just heard, while Mondo smiled, at hearing that, oblivious to everyone else's silence.
"You bet it's fucking great! Though I hope he's doing alright in Towa City right now." Mondo said. "Though knowing him, he'll be alright. He was my bodyguard after all,"
"Well if he was your bodyguard, then I suppose he must have been real good then," Taka said, still trying to be a good sport for Mondo, as the biker gang leader kept smiling with a big grin. "I'm sure he'll be fine then!"
Komaru and Mukuro were now in front of the Untouchable Kendo gun shop. A sense of tension overtook Komaru as she really wondered if this was the best idea. She felt mixed as a part of her wanted to let the gun shop owner know what happened, yet another part wondered how the gun shop owner was going to react to this knowledge, and it didn't help that this person owned a store full of dangerous weapons that could be used against her and Mukuro, depending on how volatile his reaction was to this piece of information they give to him.
"I'm starting to have second thoughts about this Mukuro," Komura said. "What if he… reacts pretty badly? Plus he owns a gun shop, and well… maybe he'll use his guns in the gun shop against us?"
"He helped me out earlier. It's only fair I let him know what happened. Besides if he tries to do anything like that… I'll make sure he won't if it comes to that," Mukuro answered, as Komaru gulped in response. She opened the door to the gun shop, and she wasn't surprised to see the old man from before, pointing his shotgun at the front door, while Komaru gulped, as having a shotgun focused on you, was never a good way to be greeted unless you were into that sort of thing. The gun shop owner slowly lowered it down upon seeing Mukuro.
"Oh, it's you. Who's she?" the gun shop owner asked out of curiosity. "Also, did you find my granddaughter?"
"She's the reason why I was searching the hospitals. As for your granddaughter… I'm going to say this. I hope you're prepared for the worst," Mukuro said. She took out from her backpack the note she found in the hospital. She gave the note to the gun shop owner. He read the contents of the note in silence, and he then sighed.
"Don't tell me she's gone. Please say that isn't the case," the gun shop owner said with worry.
"I'm sorry sir but… I found her like this," Mukuro said as she took out her smartphone and then showed him the photos of the note where she found it originally, and then of his granddaughter's dead body. The gun shop owner's face remained stoic as he saw this and remained silent. He walked over to the counter and took out a couple of handgun ammo boxes, then walked back over to Mukuro and gave it to her. He simply pointed to the entrance of the door, and Mukuro immediately understood that he wanted both herself and Komaru to leave. The two just did as he wanted, as they both left the gun shop and now stood in front of it again.
"Do you think he'll be alright? I was surprised he took that as well as he did," Komaru asked both concerned and surprised.
"He just needs time alone to mourn. Everyone takes to news like that differently," Mukuro answered seriously.
"Yeah. I guess that's true," Komaru answered back quietly. "So, it looks like he got you handgun ammo. What now Mukuro?"
"Hmmm… I think for now we should- " but suddenly something landed nearby them. They both looked to the ground nearby them, and saw that it was a grenade. Komaru blinked her eyes with fear, while Mukuro immediately grabbed her hand, and ran off with Komaru in tow, as an explosion soon occurred on the spot where they were before they ran. As soon as the explosion cleared they saw multiple Monokumas of a new type. They were Monokumas that wore green bulletproof vests, green helmets, and wore silver cylindrical containers filled with many hand grenades on their backs. They were known as Bomber Monokumas.
"Now they got grenades!?" Komaru shouted out nervously. Before both her and Mukuro could do anything, the gun shop owner from before, came out of his shop and stood in the front with his shotgun, and immediately fired a shot on one of the Bomber Monokumas, knocking it down, and causing its grenades to spill out on its back, which soon exploded, taking itself out.
"You two go! Get out of here now!" the gun shop owner yelled out. Hearing this, Mukuro immediately continued to run off with Komaru's hand in tow. The gun shop owner reloaded his shotgun, and had the attention of the remaining Bomber Monokumas focused on him. "All of you bears come at me! See all you damn bears in Hell!"
The gun shop owner retreated into his gun shop, and left it open, as all the Bomber Monokuma went into it. Both Komaru and Mukuro were a significant distance away, as they rounded the corner of the street. Komaru looked concerned wondering if the gun shop owner was going to be safe.
"We should go back for him Mukuro!" Komaru suggested. Before Mukuro could respond, a huge explosion was heard. "What was that!?"
They both slowly rounded the corner back onto the main street, and what Komaru saw, immediately made her feel like her tears was ready to leak out from what she saw, while Mukuro's face turned stoic. The gun shop was now completely destroyed, as rubble laid where it was, and the neon signs of "Untouchable Kendo," no longer lit up, as it laid upon the destroyed rubble of the gun shop. The two stood in silence for a bit, as they saw this.
"Judging by his last words… he might have been feeling pretty suicidal himself," Mukuro spoke quietly. "He was wearing a belt attached with grenades,"
"He turned himself into a suicide bomber… to take out all the Monokumas with their bombs," Komaru spoke quietly, feeling terrible about what just happened. Silence befell the two as it seemed that the situation has proven to not be kind at all, and Komaru was feeling her negativity grow within her, the more horrors she witnessed. The silence was soon broken when the two heard a new voice, suddenly yell out which broke the grave mood.
"What the fuck just happened!?" shouted what sounded like a male teenager. Both Komaru and Mukuro looked confused, as they turned around behind them and saw a male teenager. He wore a white T-shirt with a black biker jacket with dragon markings, black jeans with a gray belt that had a horned demon design as a buckle, and white socks. On the back of his biker jacket, was a dragon design that held a diamond in its mouth that was golden in color. He had short spiky dirty blonde hair, had a pretty face, and was a bit short himself. He wielded a pickaxe, and on the pickaxe's handle, the words Crazy Diamonds could be seen written messily with black marker.
Komaru blinked her eyes with a blank expression, not sure what to make of this new individual while Mukuro's eyes widened as she realized this was another one of the hostages she had to rescue, connected to her classmates.
"Did you two bitches fucking blow some shit up or something!?" the teenager boy shouted. "Because that building sure as hell isn't fucking here anymore!"
"What? We didn't blow anything up!" Komaru responded, sounding a bit annoyed from what she just heard from the vulgar teenager boy.
"Is your name Takemichi Yukimura?" Mukuro asked seriously, while the boy's face contorted into one of panic and anger, while Komaru was surprised to hear that Mukuro knew the teenager's name.
"What the fuck!? How the hell do you know my name?" Yukimura yelled out, backing away from the two teenager girls. "I don't trust you two broads at all for sure now! I'm out of here!"
With this Yukimura ran off. Mukuro seeing this immediately chased after him, while Komaru was confused, as to why Mukuro was chasing after him, and soon followed after them.
"Wait! Stop! I'm part of the Future Foundation! I'm here to save you and others!" Mukuro shouted out, while running after him.
"Future Foundation? The fuck is that cheesy name bullshit!? I don't believe anything you have to say! Especially when you're armed like fucking Rambo!" Yukimura said trying to sound tough, though in all honesty, he felt a bit afraid of the two. One reason due to not gelling well with women at all, and due to Mukuro's weapons on her and the explosion from earlier. Soon the chase led to a busted up hotel that had a red carpet outside, with Yukimura speeding inside, as he proved to be a very fast runner, as if he were a motorcycle himself. As soon as Mukuro and Komaru made it inside, they both noticed he was gone from sight.
"He should still be around in this hotel somewhere. Let's try to find him Komaru," Mukuro stated.
"Is he like me? Another person that was kidnapped?" Komaru asked, as she tried to figure out how Mukuro knew Yukimura's name.
"Yes. Though unfortunately like you, he's proving to be far more uncooperative," Mukuro replied back. The two looked around, as they noticed that they were in the receptionist room of the hotel, as it was damaged with debris, blocking the doors on the current floor. They noticed a low ledge nearby that led to the upper floor of the hotel, with painted yellow paint, and a paint can with a large paintbrush dipped in yellow paint, oddly enough. "Looks like he went up,"
"Well let's find him! I'm going to teach him, that I don't blow stuff up, unless I'm playing a game of Bomberman with my brother!" Komaru exclaimed while Mukuro was now imagining herself playing a game of Bomberman with Makoto and Komaru, and her always targeting Komaru while doing so, and then letting herself lose, so Makoto could win. The two went up to the ledge, and Komaru awkwardly tried to jump and climb it herself, but found herself slipping off.
"I'll help you up Komaru. Try climbing up on the ledge, and then I'll help push you up it," Mukuro suggested as Komaru nodded. Komaru tried climbing the ledge as Mukuro helped pushed her onto it. Mukuro then leaped on and climbed the ledge herself with no issues. Soon the two continued their search as they made it to a hallway in the hotel. They slowly made their way through, seeing more debris and dead bodies. As they moved through, they found something that caught Komaru's attention.
"Look Mukuro! A pay phone! Maybe it'll work and we can call outside for help?" Komaru suggested.
"I highly doubt it considering everything that's happened so far," Mukuro stated. "Besides even if it did work, I don't have any coins and neither do you to use it,"
"Oh… that is a good point actually," Komaru said as she looked disappointed from hearing that. "You know, you don't see many of these things around much now,"
"It's because a majority of people generally have a cellphone compared to back then. No point to having these when they barely get used." Mukuro stated. "I don't mind them going away. They give me bad memories anyway, growing up anyway,"
"They give you bad memories?" Komaru asked curiously, and Mukuro cursed inwardly, as she realized that she didn't mean to talk about herself like that. "I don't understand how pay phones can give someone bad memories though,"
"It's… complicated," Mukuro said as she had memories flash back when she was much younger, searching through many payphones coin change dispensers for change, for survival related reasons. "Sorry I rather not talk about it,"
"No, it's okay. We should get back to searching for Yukimura anyway," Komaru suggested. The two continued their search and saw Monokumas with chef hats, bludgeoned to pieces as they laid on the ground, not moving anymore. "Guess those Monokumas won't be cooking anything, anytime soon,"
"He's not bad at fighting with a pickaxe it looks like," Mukuro said. "Good thing he can fend for himself,"
The two found a room to look into to search for Yukimura. It was empty aside from furniture and electronics. Curiously enough what appeared to be a manga left in the room. To this, Komaru's eyes twinkled with delight, as she immediately went up to the manga and started going through it.
"OH MY GOD MUKURO! IT'S THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE BOMB INSIDE HER!" Komaru squealed with delight.
"What?" Mukuro said blankly, surprised at Komaru's huge enthusiasm for a manga, especially one with that kind of title. "The Bomb Inside Her?"
"Yeah! It's about a girl with bombs inside her, that if she ever falls in love, they'll explode!" Komaru explained. "So she tries to not fall for anyone. But in this book a boy confesses his love for her and it goes from there,"
"How does she even have the bombs inside of her to begin with? That sounds as absurd as someone dying because they saw violence or their shadow getting stepped on," Mukuro pointed out. Komaru blinked her eyes as those sounded oddly specific. "I just said the first things that came into my head. Don't get any wrong ideas,"
"Well sometimes the best things are the ones that come to you naturally like that," Komaru said with a cheeky expression, while Mukuro rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I'm such a huge fan of manga in general. Can I take it with us?"
"Honestly? I rather you didn't. Anything that's non-essential is just going to slow us down I feel," Mukuro said. Komaru then tried to do a puppy eyed dog look, pleading with her eyes while Mukuro sighed in response. She really didn't want to go through an argument so she decided to do this. "I'll make sure that once we get out of here, I'll get you a digital copy back at Future Foundation Headquarters. Digital books are a thing now on tablets and all,"
"You promise?" Komaru asked, as Mukuro nodded back to her, to say yes. Komaru then had a cheeky grin on her face form from seeing that. "All right! Well let's continue looking for Yukimura,"
The two exited the room as they continued down the hallway, as they searched for Yukimura. Multiple rooms turned up empty as they eventually made it to an elevator, to search the lower floor. What the two found in front of the elevator doors however proved to be extremely concerning. It was a yellow card that had a black and white picture of a teenager girl, and it was labelled hit list. Mukuro picked it up and looked it over, and decided to read it over. It had a label for a demon name called "Kanondos," and a label for the person's real name being, "Kanon Nakajima," that she immediately recognized as someone being related to another of her classmates. She also noticed a description on the hit list about the person and decided to read it out.
"A demon who's real pretty and doesn't even wear much makeup. A super perverted demon who worked as a manager of the baseball team. When hunting, use a handsome Monokuma to make it feel desire for the last time before you kill it!" Mukuro read out loud, as Komaru's face had sweat dripping from hearing that, both from fear and a bit of awkwardness from the description she just heard.
"This… this isn't good," Komaru said. "They're taking this demon hunting… very seriously,"
"Children when not inhibited can possibly really follow through on what they want for better or worse," Mukuro stated quietly.
"I hope we can save her." Komaru replied. "A beautiful manager of a baseball team... and they want to use a handsome Monokuma for her?"
"Well… don't worry. I'm going to save her as well at some point, just like I did for you, and trying to do for Yukimura at the moment," Mukuro answered.
"That's good Mukuro," Komaru said, glad to be with someone who cared so much about her mission. A mission that entailed saving people, which included her. "I wonder if they made a hit list of… me?"
"I wouldn't be surprised." Mukuro answered quietly, as Komaru looked dismayed from hearing that. "Come on Komaru. Let's continue searching for Yukimura,"
Komaru nodded as they both continued on. They soon ended up in a large area, that held the doors to the exit of the hotel in, but a boy Monokuma Kid was there and present, standing next to a laptop.
"Did you see a person in a biker jacket here earlier with a pickaxe?" Komaru asked, wondering if the child be willing to answer her question.
"Tee hee," the Monokuma Kid simply said as he took out a note and handed it to Komaru, and then pointed towards the laptop, that had a wire connected to the doors leading out of the hotel in this area. Both Komaru and Mukuro went up to the laptop and saw that it a screen asking for a four-number password to open the door, to leave the hotel. Komaru and Mukuro then looked at the note.
"Challenge. If you want to know the password, try asking the upside-down bird," Komaru read out loud, as the note also depicted a bird looking upside down. Komaru sounded and looked disappointed as she said the following. "He… he didn't answer my question Mukuro,"
"I don't think this kid is interested in answering us. Looks like we have to figure out the riddle to get the password to this room if we want to leave when we input it in that laptop," Mukuro pointed out. "Though that does beg the question… if Yukimura managed to get out of this room, how did he do it?"
The Monokuma Kid pulled out a red lollipop, as if to answer Mukuro's question, while she wondered if this one would accept a small box of raisins, seeing how the kid shown he was willing to be bribed.
"Then leave it to me! This kid's riddle will be… child's play!" Komaru proclaimed with a pun.
"Good to see you take the initiative. Very well, let's do it," Mukuro said with a smirk, as they both looked around the large room, for the password. They saw many chairs arranged in a particular way, and what appeared to be a green arcade machine with the artwork depicting ball like Monokumas, a black screen with red text to insert coins, and the arcade machine was called Moku Man. Curiously enough, they saw that the arcade machine was wired to a camera that overlooked the chairs in the room.
"I wonder… " Mukuro said as she and Komaru had a realization hit them. "Try using a move bullet on the arcade machine Komaru,"
"Alright," Komaru said as she switched to the move bullet. "Let's see if what we're thinking is going to work,"
Komaru fired a green move bullet at the arcade machine, and the screen on the arcade machine soon changed into a camera feed of the room and it soon displayed a camera feed of the room, focusing on the chairs in the room.
"The chairs spell out… hell?" Komaru asked curiously. "Well this city might be like that right now, but hell isn't numbers,"
"Remember Komaru. The bird was upside down," Mukuro stated calmly. Komaru blinked her eyes for a bit but she then she realized what Mukuro was getting at, as they shone with realization. As soon as she did, she saw exactly what Mukuro meant.
"I see!" Komaru exclaimed. She then rushed over to the laptop and inputted the following numbers. "Seven, seven, three, four! Those are the numbers that you see when you see the world hell, upside down!"
With that, an unlocking sound could be heard, and the Monokuma Kid fell down from surprise, that they solved the challenge given to them.
"Yay! It's open!" Komaru cheered happily as she jumped up and down in joy.
"Boo hoo," the Monokuma Kid whined, annoyed that they managed to solve the riddle. Komaru had a huge cheeky grin as she posed dramatically, proud of her victory in the current situation.
"Awww yeah, that's right! Who's the boss now? I am, I am!" Komaru proudly boasted, while Mukuro had an awkward expression form on her face from hearing that.
"You might be taking this a bit too far now Komaru," Mukuro said, wondering if Komaru was more childish then the actual children. Komaru just cheekily grinned hearing that, as she didn't mind, while they both walked out of the hotel in a different area outside. "Now where's Yukimura?"
"Oh shit!" shouted a familiar vulgar voice. Both Mukuro and Komaru turned to face the direction of the voice as they saw Yukimura, who was resting against a large metal crate nearby who saw them. "You two again!? Fuck I'm tired of running! Man this day fucking sucks! I already had to give up a lollipop I had, to that kid to let me through his stupid challenge, and I was planning on heading down that bridge!"
Mukuro and Komaru noted that, that there was indeed a large bridge in the area close by. Though right now they were focused on the other teenager, as they both carefully walked towards Yukimura in a calm manner, trying to not make him panic. It was not working as he stood up and held his pickaxe defensively, his hands shaking. While this happened, from a distance away, we see one Monokuma Kids watching them with binoculars, and held what appeared to be a detonator, curiously enough. We go back to focusing on the three teenagers from earlier, as Yukimura was starting to shout back at them.
"Stay back bitches! Don't make me have to cave your skulls in!" Yukimura shouted, trying to sound tough, though in reality he sounded a bit nervous, trying to mask his fear by sounding tough, as this whole situation in general was just crazy for him and he wasn't good around females in general.
"Calm down. We're not here to hurt you," Mukuro stated as calmly as she could.
"How do I know that!?" Yukimura yelled out, as his hands trembled on the pickaxe he held. "You're still armed like fucking Rambo, and she's got a… megaphone she can scream in people's ears at?"
"Because if we wanted to hurt you, don't you think we would have actually… tried to hurt you by now?" Komaru said. Yukimura hearing this slowly eased up as he had to admit that was a good point.
"Alright. What do you two bitches want then? I already have to deal with enough fucking fan girls when I wasn't in this city. Do you two want to suck my damn dick too, even with all the bullshit happening at the moment?" Yukimura asked. Mukuro hearing this, gritted her teeth as she felt as if she was ready to just shoot Yukimura and report him to already being dead when she found him, while Komaru just had a very awkward expression on her face, not sure how to respond at all to what she just heard. Mukuro thankfully calmed down enough to say something back.
"I'm here to rescue you. Like I said before, I'm part of Future Foundation, which is a group trying to help repair the world, in any way we can," Mukuro explained. Yukimura's facial expression continued to calm down, as he heard her talk. "Right now, I'm trying to save individuals who were held hostage in this city in general. You're one of the people I'm here to rescue from all of this." Mukuro answered.
"She's telling the truth! She helped saved me and I was a hostage as well," Komaru added, trying to help Yukimura calm down. He slowly stopped trying to hold his pickaxe in a defensive stance, and soon sat on the ground, calming down more. He sighed, and calmed down fully as he stood up and looked at the two. He noticed the two did not seem hostile to him at all despite everything so far. He relaxed his grip, causing both Mukuro and Komaru to sigh in relief, that he wouldn't try to attack them with his pickaxe anymore at the moment.
"Huh... well sorry. I'm normally a lot more cool headed, but with everything that's happened lately, I kind of lost it. Though... I don't need you two anyway, even if you two aren't trying to blow me up or anything," Yukimura pointed out, sounding more relaxed compared to before despite still not wanting to be with them, due to his nature with women. "I'm heading down this bridge to get back to the mainland. I guess you two are alright, but I don't feel like sticking around anymore."
"Wait! That bridge leads back to the mainland?" Komaru asked, as her eyes lit up with happiness and hope from what she just heard.
"Then that's a way off Towa City, and where I can bring you and the other people I have to rescue to a safer place," Mukuro stated out loud, liking this new development she just heard.
"Yes it is and I'm leaving now." Yukimura answered calmly to Komaru. Just as he said that though, the whole ground began to shake, surprising the three teenagers. They all looked towards the bridge, as it seemed to be the source of the shaking and they all saw something that made them very concerned and surprised. Farther along the bridge they all saw a huge explosion rock the middle of the bridge. The Monokuma Kid watching the three from afar, had activated the detonator he was holding, which caused the explosion on the bridge. The bridge now broke off in the middle, preventing anyone from getting to the other side, when the smoke from the explosion cleared.
"YOU GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME!?" Yukimura exploded with rage and surprised from what he saw. Mukuro had an extremely pained expression form on her face, from seeing a way for her to bring the survivors out of Towa City blow up, while Komaru's face looked blank, as if she wasn't sure how to feel at what just happened, as it now looked as if she was holding herself back from crying, from what she just saw. "NO!"
Seeing this, Yukimura immediately ran towards the bridge, while Mukuro and Komaru chased after him again. They eventually caught up when he stood before the huge hole that separated the bridge to the other side, due to the explosion. The three took a long look at the hole that led to the ocean below, and to the other side. Komaru just dropped to the floor, her face looking blank while Mukuro looked towards her, confused. Yukimura in the meantime just cursed and yelled in frustration.
"FUCK! God damn it! Now I can't get out of here!" Yukimura yelled out of anger. "Now I'll have to search for that Resistance Base that one nice white bear I met, talked about, if I want to survive!"
"Resistance Base? Nice white bear?" Mukuro said with both a confused and curious tone in her voice. Before she could question him any further, he took off, running back to the city. She was about to run after him again, till she noticed that Komaru remained on the ground, her face now crying and leaking tears. "Komaru? We have to go after Yukimura!"
But Komaru laid still on the ground as she cried while Mukuro was confused, as Komaru began to sob loudly. Mukuro had a pained expression form on her face, as Yukimura was getting away from them, as he had become no longer calm and got away from them again. She sighed, as he was gone by sight by now and turned to face Komaru who was still crying.
"Komaru?" Mukuro asked, sounding a bit frustrated yet she couldn't help but wonder what had suddenly gotten into her all of sudden. "Why… why are you crying?"
"It's hopeless…" Komaru sobbed out as she was now on her knees on the ground, tears leaking profusely out of her eyes. "It seems… every time I try to escape… reality locks me up again like a prisoner. We could have gotten out of here, through this bridge at some point!"
"No crying. We don't have time for this," Mukuro answered her back. "The bridge to escape Towa City, became unusable because they blew it up in the middle. But that's just how it is and we'll have to accept that. Nothing's going to change that fact, no matter how hard you cry,"
Mukuro waited for Komaru to stand back up and to stop crying. But Komaru continued to cry and stay on the ground, refusing to do anything else. Mukuro decided to speak again, seeing how she still remained like this.
"Come on. If we stay here, the Monokumas will eventually find us again," Mukuro said, trying to make Komaru get up.
"It's… it's impossible," Komaru replied with tears back, as she continued to bawl.
"No it's not impossible. We're still living aren't we?" Mukuro stated calmly. "If you just choose to surrender now, then you're going to die for sure."
"Well… I'm just going… to die anyway!" Komaru answered with sobs choking her voice. "Unlike you who's way stronger then me… I'm… I'm just a normal average girl! I can't do anything! No matter what I do, or how hard I try, I'm going to die here!"
"I don't believe that you can't do anything at all," Mukuro said, while Komaru felt confused at what she just heard. "Because if you can't do anything, then we wouldn't have met at the roof of the hospital,"
"What… what do you mean?" Komaru said sobbing still, though curious of what Mukuro meant.
"Think Komaru. If you truly couldn't have done anything, you wouldn't have survived till this point, before we met each other again." Mukuro answered, trying to encourage her. Komaru however still sobbed, which caused Mukuro to sigh frustrated. "Stop wasting time. Is this really how you want things to end? Accepting how things are, and not fighting for what you want? Don't you want to see your family again?"
"Of course I don't want things to end like this! I also want… I want… to see my family again!" Komaru answered back, sniffling now. "But we've been separated for over a year! I… I don't even know where they are! It's probably too late anyway… I'll probably never see them again!"
"You don't know that for sure," Mukuro said, and she herself definitely knew that for sure, as Makoto was safe back at headquarters. "Don't give up. Keep going Komaru. Giving up like this isn't going to help you,"
"No, you don't understand… the worst despair of all comes from having hope like that. Having such strong hope and just losing it like that, in an instant. In this case… the bridge being blown up that would have let us, escape this nightmare…" Komaru answered, sobbing still.
"That attitude is not going to get you anywhere at all. There's no point in giving up, when trying at least has a chance of success. If you're going to give up, then you're basically going to let the enemy kill you and I won't stand for that. If you try, even with the odds against you, there's a chance you can succeed." Mukuro said to her. "I've lived my whole life, fighting and I've never stopped fighting. I'm here today, living and breathing because of that and from the support I've had from others. You've made it this far because of everything you've done Komaru and those who are willing to help you like me, so please don't stop trying,"
"Why? Why do you bother… trying to cheer someone like me up?" Komaru asked, as she rubbed her tear filled eyes with her hands.
"I'm a member of Future Foundation, and I won't just abandon you. I have a mission to do and I'm going to see it through," Mukuro answered. Komaru slowly began to take deeper breaths as she slowly stood up, and she let her remaining tears in her eyes fall to the ground, till her eyes were dryer compared to when she was crying, though still not fully dried yet.
"Okay… I'll try. At least a little bit longer," Komaru said. "But… what can we try next? What are our options at this point? The bridge is a no go, so even if we wanted to escape, we can't!"
"Option one is to find Yukimura, because that's what I still have to do. I still have to find and rescue some people in general," Mukuro said, as she thought about what he said about a resistance base, and oddly enough a nice white bear he mentioned. "Before he ran away again… he said something about a Resistance Base… if we find this Resistance Base, we might find him again hopefully, and maybe have a place for shelter for while we're here,"
"But… we still be stuck here in Towa City, though wouldn't we?" Komaru asked. Mukuro shook her head for a no.
"Not exactly, and this brings me to option two which explains why we wouldn't, or at least shouldn't be stuck here. I just remembered from the map I have… there should be a subway line running through this town," Mukuro said with confidence.
"A subway? Did the subway line go out of the city!?" Komaru asked with excitement in her voice again.
"I think so," Mukuro said, as she took out her map of Towa City, as she and Komaru looked at it. There was indeed a subway system for Towa City, and it did indeed go out of the city. "There's a subway station around the nearby area. We can go look into it for the time being since we lost Yukimura and see if the trains are working or not,"
"And if they aren't?" Komaru asked concerned. "The power for the trains might be out, considering the complete chaos happening,"
"Then we can just simply walk along the tracks to get out of this city." Mukuro answered, while Komaru felt as if her whole being felt more positive again from hearing that. "But keep in mind I still intend to rescue people here. So for now we're going to check and see if the trains are running or not,"
Komaru slowly felt as if she were back to her normal self, as her whole body and being felt it was back to her bubblier self from before fully, as she had a small smile on her face form now.
"Yeah… okay! Well Mukuro… I'm starting to think if we work together, we can survive together for sure," Komaru said feeling a lot better.
"If that's the case, then let's get moving already. I'm kind of annoyed as it is, since we almost had Yukimura with us earlier, before he ran off again," Mukuro answered, trying hard to not sound frustrated. "I feel like I should have taken that manga from earlier for myself, just to toss it at you whenever you get sad,"
Komaru just cheekily smiled from hearing that, while Mukuro just sighed, though she was starting to feel more calm herself, to see Komaru back to feeling better.
"Mukuro… let's get out of here together, okay?" Komaru asked, with a very sincere tone and voice. Mukuro stayed silent as she heard this from Komaru but nodded back, agreeing with her, as they slowly began to walk back to Towa City, searching for what they could do next.
To Be Continued…
So how was it? Notes as usual.
1. So you may have noticed that Yuta Asahina, who meets Komaru and Toko at the bridge that explodes in the original Danganronpa Another Episode, didn't show up in this universe's take on the events. That doesn't mean he won't show up later though, as he will.
2. In the hotel while both Mukuro and Komaru were chasing after Yukimura, the hit list they found for Leon Kuwata's cousin, was originally a hit list for Ishimaru's father in the original Danganronpa Another Episode. Things will kind of be switched around in general for reasons I have planned.
3. Mukuro talking about how someone dying because they saw violence or their shadow getting stepped on, are references to Danganronpa 3 in regards to the "forbidden actions," of the Final Killing Game in Danganronpa 3. A forbidden action is different for each of the participants in the Final Killing Game, and performing it, will have a poison injected into you, killing you. Mukuro referenced two of them (just to be clear, Danganronpa 3 didn't happen yet in this universe, and she was not involved with the original one as well from the anime).
4. Bomber Monokuma are indeed another type of Monokuma besides the normal ones. They too like the Beast Monokumas made their debut in Danganronpa Another Episode.
5. Yukimura and the way he acted towards Mukuro and Komaru references his hit list, which says he is not fond of girls, despite having a fanclub full of them.
6. Mukuro talking about her past like that is actually referencing about how she and Junko grew up, when they were younger, which is some pretty heavy stuff, that maybe delved into at a later point in this story.
7. The Resistance Base and the "white nice bear," will be familiar to anyone who played the original Danganronpa Another Episode, as some things will still remain consistent with it.
8. Yukimura saying Mukuro is dressed like Rambo, references the movie series of the same name, which involves a former soldier who seriously knows how to fight and survive like a killing machine.
Well that should be it for now. As usual, if you have anything you want to say, point out, criticize, and so on, don't be afraid to do so. I hope you guys all enjoyed this chapter and the story so far. Till the next chapter!