Dangan Ronpa: Gender Bender Edition

by Monokub

Ever wonder what the Mutual Killing games would be like if just ONE character happened to have a different gender? Ever wonder how the story would play out if that Gender-swapped character happened to be Makoto Naegi himself- or perhaps, Herself! Dive in to an alternate take on Dangan Ronpa, with new murders, new victims, and new interesting twists! Reviews equal bonuses! Sum yuri

38. Bonus Episode 5: Days of their lives

A/N: Omg..OMMMGGGGGGGGGGGGG! LONGEST! FREAKING! UDPATE! PIZZA- I mean EVER! POSTED!

A bonus episode as requested by Chaosrin ^^ I apologize for the delay- I can only assume this is explosivekingdom's fault X/ His fault out of the way, enjoy ^^

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The Future Foundation.

When it came to the end of the world, they were the ones who rose from the ashes. While the rest of the world gave in to despair, they were reluctant enough to pick it off from the ground, and begin rebuilding it. They were proof one could survive the despair.

If they weren't, then neither were the survivors of the Mutual Killing game that took place almost 1 year ago. A game that pitted 15 students in a mad game designed to sew despair into the world, where they had to kill one another to escape the twisted school. In a system called "Graduation", the students had to pull off the perfect murder and get away with it in a class trial.

By succeeding, the rest of the classmates would be thoroughly executed and killed, while the survivor ran free. If they failed, they would be "Punished", and pushed through an execution ironically related to their special talent. It was truly a cruel and twisted game. And that wasn't even the worst of it.

If the killer had succeeded, it wasn't just a factor of killing the remaining students in their stead. They would have escaped, right outside into a world filled with even more despair, misery, and killing. A world where they were just as likely to get killed themselves. It was truly a despicable and unholy mind that created this game.

It was thanks to the Future Foundation that the survivors of the Mutual Killing game found refuge. After thwarting the Headmaster's own scheme, and sentencing them to their own execution, the survivors were released from their school-like prison. On the outside, they found not just hope and despair, but the Future Foundation waiting for them.

With their assistance, they were taken to a refuge where the Foundation was based, a place where they could finally be free of the madness that engulfed the rest of the world. That didn't mean they were scot free, however.

Granted, it was their own choice to do so. They weren't forced by the Foundation to join their cause and work for them. If they had chosen it, they would have been allowed to simply live out their lives as normal as possible among the facility, but no. With their own approval, they found themselves once more at work, now working to better the world and pull it from the depths of despair.

Now, they worked tirelessly, with the Foundation. Just after putting their lives on the line, they found themselves once more doing so, to bring Hope and prosperity back into the world. Working with them, they worked to bring life back into terrorized cities, save lives wherever despair had them gripped. Being the survivors of the worst kind of despair, they had the hope needed to resist further despair, never again succumbing to what the rest of the world had lost to.

The most notable of said students was one particular girl, who stood as a grand symbol to all lives throughout the world. Her name, was Naegi Makoto. She stood despair in the face, even when it was wrapped around her throat, and resisted it. Despite not being the strongest, sometimes not even the bravest, she would never relent. She would always stand against those who threw despair at someone else, never backing down even if she was scared.

She became a person who everyone respected, especially those who survived. As long as she lived, everyone would know that hope was also alive. As long as she was around, there would never be a time where someone said despair was stronger than hope. And she, herself, would survive for as long as possible. If not for herself, she would do it so that no one else would lose hope, so she could do what she could to prevent others from ever falling into the depths of despair, ever again.

And now, she would start off her day, much like any other. In fact, the day was about to consist of the usual jobs and shenanigans which followed Naegi herself, and those closest to her.

Literally speaking.

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*Naegi's Day*

*Beep-Beep-Beep!*

*Beep-Beep-Beep!*

"Ugghhhh..." Naegi groaned as her alarm clock went off. She didn't necessarily mind it so much, it was the obnoxious ringing sound it made to wake her up that really got to her on a daily basis. 7:00 A.M.- the same time it would ring on a constant basis. It would never turn off no matter how much she wish it would, or at least change the ring tone, for an entire five minutes, unless she turned it off herself.

Reaching for it, she was greeted by the next thing her day would consist off, at least depending on which side they slept on for that night.

"Nghhoooooo..." Kirigiri groaned, pulling Naegi's face tightly against her chest in a hug.

"Ack-!" Naegi yelped. No matter how many times she went through this, she would never get used to the way they would greet her each morning. Here with a small smile on her lips, still looking as if asleep, Kirigiri turned to her side, dragging Naegi in the process, as she leaned on the side of her bed.

At least Naegi didn't have to deal with her shoving her face into her chest in the nude- it took forever to convince both Ikusaba and Kirigiri to at least wear their undergarments during the night.

"Five more minnnishhhhh..." She slurred with a yawn. Naegi rolled her eyes mentally as she pried herself from Kirigiri's strong arms.

"C'mon Kirigiri, I have a couple meetings I need to get t-Ahh!" Naegi let out a startled yelp again, this time completely awakening her from her slumber-like state. She didn't expect Ikusaba's strong arms wrapping around her, kneeling on the bed right behind the young girl.

"Ohhhhh meeting smheetings," Ikusaba pouted, "just skip a day and have some fun with us!" Naegi shuddered a little. There was something about the way these two kept constantly speaking about "having fun" that kept getting to her. That, added with the fact they were in the bedroom at the time, which is one of the few areas where they asked to have fun, Naegi couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.

"I mean it, I have a lot of meetings to attend today, so let me get ready." Naegi practically begged. She spoke with a mixed irritated and used-to-it kind of tone. Being nearly a year since the events that befell Hope's Peak, and living with these two girls herself, she was used to it enough to not be surprised by what they did, but still found it just as annoying from time to time.

"Well at least let me help you get washed up and ready for the day..."Ikusaba requested with a sly grin. Worse yet, that very same comment would often cause the start of an "important" argument between the two girls.

"Hey, it's my turn to shower with her, Iku!" Kirigiri grumbled, pulling Naegi closer to her. Naegi blinked herself awake, mentally sighing as she knew how this would go.

"You had her last night, Miss Body-odor!" Ikusaba grumbled, pulling Naegi back to herself again. "It's my turn for the morning!"

"Hey, unlike you, I work for my reward, and the Body-odor was from the disgusting food you made last night, not me!" Kirigiri growled back. You could practically see the fire burning from their eyes and mouth. Any normal person would be instantly destroyed if they tried to get between them and their obsession for Naegi.

"My food wouldn't be disgusting if you gave me the correct ingredients last night, dumbass!"

"Well maybe if you weren't being a drunken tramp last night, you would've wrote down the correct ingredients!"

"Then why couldn't you-!"

Naegi sighed to herself as she slid out of Iksuaba's arms carefully. If she maneuvered herself just right, she could get out of her grip in the middle of their argument with one another without either girl realizing it for the next several minutes. This would be just the amount of time she needed in order to walk her way over to the bathroom without either of the two noticing, and spend the next several minutes showering and getting ready for the day. Chances are, like hundreds of other times, she would hear the moaning and crying of the two Naegi-obsessed girls from the other side of the door, realizing by this point that Naegi was already in the bathroom.

It had been a quirky year of living together with the two girls, and she didn't really know how to describe their relationship. The two girls loved Naegi, and Naegi loved them back. However, there were two differences:

1, Naegi loved them as friends, as she did with all her other friends, while they had a more... questionable approach about "loving" her. Being the kind-hearted person she was though, she didn't want to break their spirits any more, or at least run the risk of doing it.

The 2nd thing that made it a little strange was that their love for her was unique, in that they didn't love any other girl except for Naegi. Given the circumstances there would be a certain "name" for girls like Ikusaba and Kirigiri, but their love for Naegi was just strictly that- for Naegi. There were often times with people with similar interests as theirs would often ask the girls out themselves from time to time around the facility, but as they kept stating, which confused those that asked them, they simply replied saying "they weren't lesbians".

For some people, such a strange love-factor may seem a bit quirky at times, but they simply ignored these onlookers. All they cared about was their care for Naegi, and nothing more. Which is why they were moaning outside the bathroom door like a pair of moaning cats, after scratching and roughhousing with each other for the last twelve minutes debating on who would get to wash up with Naegi.

Naegi was a little bit aware of their rivalry with one another by this point, but she had to admit it has gotten better during the last year with one another...she thinks. Most of the time they argued, they now went on without actually hitting one another back and forth, or at least not within Naegi's few. It was mostly playful banter between one another these days, which was the way Naegi liked it. The last thing she wanted was to be part of some debate that explained why they kept roughhousing with one another constantly.

As such, it was practically a daily part of her routine where she would hear the two bicker and argue about who would do stuff with her and when. She didn't mind spending time with the both of them, and as long as they both could, they didn't argue either, but the schedules they all had made it hard for them to hang out on a day-to-day basis without being preoccupied with something.

With Naegi's roles being the more prominent ones, she was constantly busy from morning to night, often at times putting her life on the line for dangerous missions. When it came to Kirigiri's, her role came to investigating strange occurrences and happenings all around the Headquarters, and sometimes off the premises too.

And Ikusaba's...hers were more of a random schedule at times. When it came to her duties, not only was she in charge of managing and ensuring nobody influenced by despair, someone with only her caliber (not talking rifles of course) could manage, being the only one who had direct contact with such despair. She was the only one who could point out a despair-like character out from a crowd of a hundred people, and that made her a valuable asset to the facility.

Unfortunately, she felt more like a guinea pig at times. When it came to her "duties", much of it just consisted of having deep therapy sessions with numerous psychologists. These psychologists were trying to study the effects of Ikusaba's despair in order to better understand what they were dealing with, as well as try to find a way in which they too could find the true members of despair like Iksuaba could. Sadly for them, they still had little-to-no understanding of how to depict a member of despair out from a crowd.

This made Ikusaba invaluable.

Sadly, the feeling was less than mutual. To her, Ikusaba felt like a constant guinea pig when in their rooms, going over repeatedly about constant events in her life and how she came to be. Considering they don't even trust her enough to be a full-fledged member of the Future Foundation, Ikusaba felt a strange uselessness about herself when compared to the other members, especially Kirigiri from time to time.

It took Naegi's kindheartedness and sweetness to convince her that she was a valuable member to them, even if the Future Foundation wouldn't admit it. Her acceptance and care was all she needed, among other things of course. This was the only reason she kept pressing on and fulfilled her duties as told. She would do anything they asked as long as it made Naegi herself happy.

With the showering and dressing done, Naegi smiled walking out the door, seeing how the other two had finally calmed down and waited patiently for her to finish, and already dressed and cleaned up for the day too. There were actually two functioning bathrooms within the household, but that didn't keep the other two girls from any possible opportunity to "bond" with Naegi. They just preferred spending any possible time with the girl in person.

To be fair, they couldn't be completely blamed for their obsession-like motivation to bond with her. Naegi knew this quite well, as she helped prepare breakfast, pancakes for today, with the other two. With all their schedules being what they were, this was practically one of the only parts of the day where the trio had any time to socialize and bond with one another. Some work days would keep the three all busy for the entire day. Some nights, it would even go on for several days before seeing each other! Given the circumstances, it was no surprise they wanted to use any opportunity to bond with their precious Naegi.

And honestly, Naegi actually didn't mind it all too much. As stated earlier, she still loved the two back, perhaps a little more than the rest of her friends but only due to their returned-infatuation for her, but she still loved them as friends like all the others.

"So what's on today's agenda?" Kirigiri asked curiously, still working on the pancakes she was cooking for herself. Naturally it was only fitting for her to cook some for Naegi first.

"Wesgh g'osh, 'ang 'oim..." Naegi paused to swallow the current serving in her mouth before talking. "Huff, I said I have a couple meetings to attend."

"Bah," Ikusaba let out a sigh-like yawn as she gulped down the juice, "what's the next meeting consist of? Hopefully it won't be any of those boring "guideline ones" they make you sit several hours through, again..." Ikusaba muttered with the roll of her eyes.

"Nah, none of that stuff." Naegi replied. "We're actually considering expanding the foundation farther out." She said with a smile. "We just received word awhile ago of a couple different cities worldwide that have survived the Despair incident."

"You mean like Towa city?" Kirigiri asked curiously. "I overheard some talk from some of the staff. Apparently Towa Cities one of the few places that managed to even purify the air."

"Awwwwwww!" Ikusaba grumbled, puffing her cheeks out. "I never get told anything around here! They don't tell me things cause I'm "not an official member" or some bullshit."

"Well you can't entirely blame them, Ikusaba," Kirigiri commented, "I mean you were a former member of Ultimate Despair."

"Yeah, emphasis on former." Ikusaba groaned, lowering her head on the table. "I'm not saying I should be forgiven for the past, but I should at least be informed enough about these things. I could help so much more if they let me in on the details..."

Naegi didn't like seeing Ikusaba frowning like this. One of the hardest things it came to was trying to get the Future Foundation to trust Ikusaba. Everything that happened was broadcasted worldwide, and the Future Foundation was more than keen on watching the program Junko displayed to everyone. Obviously, they were let in on all the details, including any of the details regarding Ikusaba's involvement with the Despair-inducing Incident.

It wasn't even enough for them that Ikusaba helped the others escape! Upon meeting with the Foundation alone, just after escaping Hope's Peak, they were ready to shoot her on sight! There was no going how well it would go between the "Ultimate Soldier" versus 10 highly trained and armed Foundation members, but thanks to Naegi's intervention, she managed to prevent any bloodbath.

With her being the "Ultimate Hope" for the world, it was no surprise that they listened to her. The Foundation desperately needed the Ultimate Hope as a symbol for their foundation. Without Naegi, they couldn't show the rest of the world that they were the "Hope for Humanity", and without Naegi, they had no claim whatsoever that they were what was best at the time. As long as Naegi was with them, they could maintain a title appropriately.

That's why, almost no one ever refused anything Naegi requested, at least not to this degree.

"Well if you want, I could tell you about some of the stuff we talk about." Naegi suggested with a smile. Ikusaba grinned briefly at this, but even coming from Naegi's generous sweet self, it wasn't, shockingly, enough to appease her.

"Thanks, but no thanks." Ikusaba mumbled with a sigh. "Last I want is for them to get mad at you because of some stupid rule or something that you didn't know."

*bip-bip-bip-bip-bi*

"Ugghhhh!" Ikusaba groaned irritantly as she glared down at the small device on her chest.

The one and absolute thing she hated most of all, was the condition that explained why she was allowed to "join", to some manner of speaking, the Foundation in the first place. For her to be trusted within the Future Foundation, they absolutely required that they had some form of contingency to keep her in check. It wasn't anything that would force her to do their bidding or anything, just something to make sure they didn't have to worry about her slipping into despair.

It was some form of "shock collar", to be accurate, except this one was more of a sphere-like device that was grafted onto her chest. It wasn't entirely a painful process or anything, in fact it was just like pressing a button to her chest, and only a slight pinch.

The device was meant to monitor her stress and emotional levels on a constant basis, never once turning off since she had it installed onto herself. If the stress levels read that it was growing to an unstable condition, it would let out a small repeated beeping noise. It was meant as a sort of "warning alarm", telling her to watch her recent stress. From here, she could take care of her own stress, and work on several different things to bring her own stress levels back down.

If things really got bad, an alarm-like warning would be sent directly to the Foundation itself via radio signals. These would be able to trace all the way back to the heads of the Foundation, who would register an immediate "Emergency Counseling Session" with the distraught girl asap.

Then there was a third and final setting, should things deeply become out of control for the distraught girl. Under circumstances where an extreme case became apparent, the warning would go off loudly, alerting anyone within several yards of Ikusaba about her condition. Under those cases, under protective and non-lethal means of course, the chest piece would deliver a moderate electric shock throughout her body. While this might seem extreme to some degree, it was the only means of not only snapping Ikusaba out of her condition at any point, but to also paralyze her to a small degree, where she wouldn't pose a danger to those subduing her.

This actually proved to be a burden at times for the young girl, as more than half the time, it would read her regular stress levels as too dangerous- this is part of the reason the foundation had such a hard time determining Despair-induced people from regularly-stressed people. Perhaps it's for such a reason that made Ikusaba an invaluable indirect-member of the Foundation. No matter how much they refused to allow her, the fact was they needed her.

And nothing would change that.

"Speaking of schedules, what are you two up to today?" Naegi asked in return.

"Another "joyous" therapy session like every other day..." Ikusaba groaned.

Now Naegi could see what the issue was. As another part of the agreement for allowing Ikusaba refuge within the Foundation, it was mandatory that she saw someone for a therapy session every other day, no exceptions, for at least four hours a day.

On some bright side of things, these were the only things she found herself preoccupied with, at least in the idea that it slowed down the feeling of time from sheer boredom. Other words, it was boring as hell, but it was the only thing she had to do that was mandatory, and only once every two days.

The down side of things, were just that- IT WAS BORING! These weren't your typical "1-therapist-only" sessions; these sessions consisted of seeing different therapists for multiple reasons, some of which extended the time of their own therapy sessions for reasons she, nor the others, could understand. And they would always preform bizarre, sometimes questionable, relaxation-sessions, some of which felt just wrong to think and see.

"Are they really that bad?" Naegi wondered.

"Even I wouldn't trade my job for her therapy sessions," Kirigiri stated, "and I work over 36 hours on some days."

"Ouch."

"As for me, I'm needed down at Sector-7." Kirigiri added. Naegi looked at her with a mix of concern and surprise.

"Sector-7?"

*bip-bip-bip-bip-bip-*

"Ghhhhhhh!" Ikusaba grumbled, looking down at her chest. Yup, just about any amount of stress could set it off. Either the people didn't know how to make a device that monitored stress-levels correctly...or Ikusaba was just proving how easy it was to slip back into despair.

Neither of way was the issue though.

Sector-7 was actually only a few sectors away from their current home, with each sector being considered a housing district within the Foundation. From Sectors 1-10, each sector was labeled and housing staff based on their reputation and/or importance to the foundation. With Sector-1 housing minorities and common civilians, all the way to Naegi's sector, which was actually Sector-11; it was a secretive sector within the Foundation which only a few new about.

The true higher ups, as well as Naegi's friends (including the other survivors of the Mutual Killings) were all housed here. Even if the other survivors weren't considered "Ultimate Hope", they had more experience than just about anyone else from the foundation, making them as valuable as Ikusaba was.

In addition to all of this there were also different facilities within each sector that prioritized in one field of work or another. For example, Sector 2, 4, and 6, 8, were in charge of security detail and maintenance, while Sector 3 and 5 were in charge of communications and internet-based operations throughout the facilities. Despite each sector being a different "grade" than the previous, they were all necessary to maintain an order throughout the entire Foundation. Each sector was just as important as the next (though, it could be argued that Sector 11 was most important for specified reasons...).

That's why it surprised Naegi that Kirigiri was investigating said Sector. When it came to Kirigiri's jobs, they revolved around investigating suspicious activity within the Foundation, and sometimes even out of it at different outposts. The kinds of things she would investigate were sometimes disturbing, but the most common things she'd investigate were murders or incidences that couldn't be explained without professional help.

She was the right girl for the job.

What did surprise Naegi was the details behind the sectors. To get to any sector, you had to pass each Sector, with the exception of Sector-11. Sector-11 required a special keycard which was to be used at the transit stations, which traveled from sector to sector. But even then, there were security checkpoints at each sector, and those checkpoints were HEAVILY guarded, naturally with higher security the higher the sectors went.

If something happened to a sector this far up, something big had to have happened.

"Why, did something happen?" Naegi asked slightly worried. Kirigiri gave her a calming smile as she shook her head.

"No, it's not anything too severe. There was just a minor break in at someone's house, probably just some thief or something." She replied. Naegi couldn't' help but to agree with that, not knowing the full details herself. She did know sometimes there were only minor things that Kirigiri had to investigate from time to time like thefts or vandalism, so it wasn't too hard for her to believe.

She just didn't know Kirigiri was lying to keep her from worrying because of how much Naegi trusted her.

"Honestly, it shouldn't take all day if anything." Kirigiri continued. "Hey, maybe after Ikusaba's therapy thing, we could all meet up for lunch! Or at least be here for dinner with the three of us." Like many other things, even having a schedule where they could have dinner each night was a hard thing to come by, but not as hard as having the same days off as each other.

"Ah," Naegi sighed in relief, finishing off her juice, "that would be nice if we all could..." She mumbled to herself as she checked clock above the kitchen stove for a brief moment. "It's about twenty minutes to Nine, so I better take off." She stated, grabbing the dishes.

"I'll clean up the dishes for you, Naegi, you just head on off to work." Kirigiri said, happily taking the dishes Naegi had finished using. Any time where Ikusaba and Kirigiri could do anything to help Naegi, they practically scrambled first to take it. It would be a lie to say there wasn't a "Point system" going on between the two, with Ikusaba being at least three points ahead of Kirigiri as of now.

"Thanks Kirigiri." Naegi thanked as she ran a little to the door.

"Stay safe, Naegi." Ikusaba said happily, waving to the running girl.

"It's just a meeting, Ikusaba, how bad could it be?"

"Oh wait, Naegi!" Kirigiri quickly spoke up, running up to the girl as she was in the doorway.

"What's wrong?" Naegi asked back.

"Just, a sec, you got a little..." Kirigiri licked her thumb lightly, rubbing a noticeable smudge on her face. Naegi blushed a little, feeling like Kirigiri was acting a little "motherly" doing something like this. After rubbing the edges of her mouth for a few seconds, Kirigiri finally finished with a satisfied smile. "Ah, there. Can't be showing up for work when people expect you to be a grand image for them."

"Hehe, t-thanks." Naegi mumbled, scratching the back of her head a little nervous.

"Oh, hold on, there's something else." Naegi raised a brow curiously, noticing the just-as-curious expression on Kirigiri's face.

"Huh? What else is there-"

*smooch!*

"A-Ack! Ki-Ki-Kirigiri!" Naegi stammered as a deep-red blush covered her face.

Ikusaba's jaw dropped in disbelief, which was soon replaced with anger, at Kirigiri's recent plan. It didn't surprise Naegi these days whenever one of the girls tried to secretly sneak a kiss in on her in one form or another, but it didn't make her feel any less awkward or embarrassed, no matter how many times she's been through this. At least they had the decency of never doing it in front of anyone else, despite most of the Future Foundation having some idea of their relationship.

It didn't make it any less embarrassing though.

"Oops, my mistake, you're fine." Kirigiri corrected, with a tiny blush on her own face. Perhaps Naegi was fine, but that didn't mean all three of them were...

*BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-!*

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"Thanks to everyone for coming, as always, and if there are no other questions beforehand, let's begin this meeting." The Head-Member, who went by the name of John, stated as he turned to the monitors.

This was what most of Naegi's days consisted of- Meetings. Meetings, meetings, and more meetings. While not all of Naegi's work consisted of just meetings, she was limited to the number of Dangerous-based jobs she could preform as a member of the Future Foundation. It wasn't that they didn't trust her skills and performance or anything, but they couldn't risk anything severe happening to her.

As the "Ultimate Symbol of Hope" within the world, the Future Foundation could never let anything tragic happen to the young girl. Without her, not only did they risk ruining their image as a result of letting the bearer of Hope die while on their watch, but they ran the risk of the world falling into an even more-dreading despair if anyone found out that she died.

Naegi could fend for herself, and she was strong in her own way. And there were a few occurrences where they did need to send her on some dangerous mission or another. During those times, she was protected by highly trained staff, as well as Ikusaba. They could not risk anything happening with Ikusaba, despair-wise, if Naegi was away from her for too long. Just being away from Naegi for a period of time made her despair/stress-levels rise to a degree. They wouldn't risk keeping her separate from Naegi for more than 12 hours at a time.

That's why, most of the meetings that were presented were made to be important matters. These weren't just run-of-the-mill "Oh, what kind of sauce should we have for Taco Tuesday next week", or some boring crap, these were actually just-as-important meetings that determined the fate of the Future Foundation, as well as those of it's civilians which they housed throughout the world.

These usually involved matters like "what to do with different housing Sectors", or "discussing matters of the prisoners or personal throughout the facility", and whatnot. Some of these even involved direct meetings with people who've fallen into Despair.

There was a certain "experiment" being ran, which involved direct interactions between Naegi, and these Despair-induced people. The Future Foundation took interest and curiosity in the fact that Naegi herself, through whatever means possible, managed to pull a member of Ultimate Despair, Mukuro Ikusaba, back into a somewhat-civilized human being. There were still issues about her that questioned the Foundation, but it was the best results they've had with anything. None of their advanced therapy techniques or mental-manipulations could twist these members of Ultimate Despair from their darkened state, yet there was something about Naegi's mere "presence" that made the impossible possible.

Whatever the issue was, Naegi eagerly took part in these sessions, not only to prove herself as someone useful to the Foundation, but wanting to help those who've fallen into Despair by any means necessary. Of course, that didn't prevent the Future Foundation from being protective in these sessions.

During these times, there were a number of factors that were set up to ensure Naegi's safety:

-The civilian Naegi was meeting with must be FULLY restrained, at least to a point where their hands and ankles were chained together at the least.

-There were always at least three fully-armed and highly trained guards with Naegi at these times, with lethal weapons at the ready in case of emergencies.

-Naegi NEVER interacted with any Despair-induced-civilians the Foundation determined to be too unstable, even if they were fully restrained.

-Each Despair Individual had a collar placed around their necks. It was like Ikusaba's in terms of measuring stress-levels, but that was just for researching measures. In this case, these collars were fully armed and ready-to-use in cases of emergencies. In the event that a individual became extremely violent and/or agitated, the collar would deliver an extreme and lethal shock. Unlike Ikusaba's, these were designed to permanently subdue the captive, easily to the point of death.

Out of 117 people Naegi has met with, only 6 of these cases ever occurred, and through reasons Naegi never could explain, or see coming. One moment they would be talking calmly, and the next thing she knew, threw explicit and bizarre reasons, they would suddenly snap and attempt to lunge at her. It could be argued that this latent means were a little extreme, but the Foundation could NEVER take chances. Naegi's life and survival was deemed too important to risk through any means.

As such, meetings were a common norm in Naegi's daily life. Throughout all the staff she's met, only six individuals were ever allowed into these meetings, not including the security guards within the room. Because of that, it did make it easier to recognize and memorize everyone's name within the room, even if they did all dress the same (black suits and optional-sunglasses).

Jessica, the highest Member of Sector-10 and the ONLY non-Sector-11 member within the room, always had long red hair with a single ponytail running down her back. She was about 24 at the time, about a good 6-7 years older than Naegi, but still had a tendency of acting childish every now and then. Jess, as she prefers to be named, was in charge of all provisions and resource-control within the Future Foundation. She always sat to the left of Naegi from the roundish rectangular-shaped table.

"Awwww!" Jess groaned, catching everyone's attention.

She appeared to be frowning with an irritated look on her face as she held her tea cup upside down. The scene of it already telling them everything they needed to know, If there was one thing Naegi learned about some of the people she worked with, it's that they all had a taste for the coffee and tea served at these meetings.

Even Naegi couldn't help but admit; the drinks around here tasted great! It was a small compensation considering the long wait everyone went through while going through these meetings. Sometimes they were just reviewing paperwork, discussing meetings, or something else that would naturally bore the life of anyone, regardless of age during these dark times.

"Hey!" She called out to one of the several security members at the door. Just like every other person around here that as part of the staff, they all wore black suits and sunglasses. Least they stood at attention and ready at all times. "Get another order of drinks, will ya?" The middle guard with plain black hair gave a firm nod before walking out the door obediently. Just seeing him doing as he was told already put Jessica back at a smile, turning her attention back to the group.

"You could at least say please or something..." Naegi mumbled.

"Hey, when you have drinks that taste this good, you gotta let them know you NEED a refill, now!" Jessica said with pride.

...Moving on.

Tom, the one in charge of supervising all managements and operations within the first 5 sectors of the Foundation. He always tended to have a spikey-topped hairstyle and seemed to act laidback in the numerous meetings Naegi's been in with him. He was always seated to the right of Naegi, and was the second youngest member of the group, first being Naegi, being a direct 21-years-old.

Korin, one of the more strict of the group, was the blue-haired guy sitting to the right of Tom at those times. Being 27, he was charged with the operations and managements from Sector-6 to Sector 10, like Tom was with the rest. Unlike Tom, he was a little more strict and forceful about the rules. Even more unlike him, Korin had a tendency to act a little brash and aggressive about all situations they dealt with. He was one of those shoot-first-and-forget-questions-completely kind of guys.

Often at times, when it came to arguments, Naegi was often found arguing with Korin's ideals and plans when it came to dealing with people of despair. Some arguments would last for several hours, but no matter how long it did, everyone would eventually side with Naegi's ideals, starting a rivalry-like issue between the two.

The 4th and last female-member of the group meeting was Eniese, one of the oldest of the female members there. Being in charge of all the facilities systems, computer programs, and communications throughout the facility, she had first-hand knowledge of just about everything dealing with computers, and managed any and all programs that were set up throughout the 11 Sectors. Being 30, she was the only one, and that goes through the entire facility, who actually had a liking for the white long hair that she had.

Like Korin, she was a little more mature than Jess, but not unruly and strict about it like Korin was. Again, she was to the right of Korin again.

The last of these people were one of the "Higher-up Heads" head of the group, John. Having a plain pitch-black-colored hair, he managed all the managements. That is to say, his job was to ensure all the other heads, managers, and several dozen other leaders of the facility were doing their job right. at 34, he was the oldest member of the group, and one of the few who believed in Naegi's ideal right off the bat.

With this, there were an even 3 boys and 3 girls, each with their own beliefs and different backgrounds. Above all else, each of them had a personal experience with Ultimate Despair more than anyone else, and were highly experienced when dealing with these situations.

"So, is it true?" Jess asked, leaning up in her chair with her palms under her chin curiously. "Are we really going to try expanding the Foundation?"

"I find that hard to believe." Korin said with the shake of his head. "You expect me to believe there's another hospitable land out there within that poisonous atmosphere, AND capable of housing numerous members of the Future Foundation too?"

"I kind of have to agree with that." Eniese commented, stirring her cup of coffee with a plastic spoon. "While I can't side with Korin's usual demeanor, I would find it hard to think of somewhere else in this world that's hospitable to for the Foundation to use."

"I understand your concerns, but I think he's willing to explain that bit..." Naegi noted.

John confirmed this with a simple nod. With the simple "flish 'n a swick" with his laser point, through the miracle of advanced tech., the lights dimmed within the room as a holographic projection displayed in the center of the meeting table. It was these kinds of advanced technologies that truly intrigued Naegi. Looking back at it, she wondered if her best friend, Fujisaki, would've loved to see this stuff if she was still around.

"Your assumption is correct." John replied. "With some technology we've purchased from the Towa City Group, we believe we can start establishing settlements across the world."

"Technologies?" Tom questioned, leaning back in his chair while chewing on a toothpick.

"Air purifiers to be specific." John added. Swishing his laser-like pen across the hologram, the holographic-image changed to an image of a ventilation-like device, somewhat in the shape of a satellite dish. "Remarkably enough, this is one of the reasons Towa City managed to prosper during the Despair-inducing Incident. They managed to purify the air of the poisonous atmosphere around the city since this started, keeping the city alive."

"Hmm, that's quite amazing!" Eniese commented, intrigued.

"So you think we can use these across the world?" Korin wondered. Despite the appeal at the start of the conversation, John shook his head a bit regrettably.

"Sadly, no. It'll still take some time to establish these city-by-city, and on top of that, it'll take even more time to purify the air, depending on the size of the city. At least several months for the average city."

"Well it's still better than nothing!" Naegi said with an enthusiastic tone. "At least this way we can start building up cities again."

"But it can't be that easy." Korin muttered, crossing his arms. "I'm not trying to sound pessimistic or anything, but we've never really had a meeting here where everything goes smoothly without some form of bad news." The other heads looked up expectantly at John, watching him sigh, once again, with regret.

"Once again, that would be correct." He replied. "The amount of money required to purchase any of these things would be substantial. Add that to the time it would take to secure a location and purify the air, we're looking at a year's time just to purify one city."

"Awwww, then why are you telling us about this now?!" Jessica pouted. "I don't see why you're bringing this up now if there's no point to it for the next year!"

"Especially if we're only taking one city back at a time." Tom agreed with a nod. "Why bring it up now if we can't do anything?"

"It was mostly just an update on our current status." John explained. "Whether this year or the next ten, I figured it would be the best to inform everyone on this matter. And, including outside of this room, only a dozen people actually know of this update."

"Really?"

"Yes. This is just a VERY recent matter that has been discovered of late. I expect many different operations in the Foundation to change based on this development. Anything to help with the expansion problems and to produce profit, a lot of changes may be made to increase our profit."

Korin rubbed his chin at this. "I see... I guess it is an important topic to bring up." He decided to agree. "If we're going to be going through numerous changes with our Operations, everyone would grow curious to our new approach."

If that was the case, then John did have the right idea in telling the numerous heads of the Future Foundation. With all their operations and future mission about to come to a change, odds were someone was bound to notice this change sooner or later. At that point, many people would be wondering and questioning what was with the new changes to the group.

As such, it would only be right to inform the heads of the different sectors and members of the Future Foundation. They knew they were officially assigned with spreading this information to the numerous inhabitants around here. They were the only ones who knew this information, henceforth, they were the ones responsible for making sure this information got around. Everyone understood this, mentally nodding to themselves, and would ensure they preformed this "information-relay" as expected.

...There was only one amongst the group who was slightly concerned.

"...B-But..." Naegi meeped, rubbing her chin gently. The others turned their attention back to the Ultimate Hope herself.

"What's wrong Naegi?" Jess asked tilting her head. Korin rolled his own eyes a little. One thing that annoyed him was that numerous things within their operations rubbed Naegi the wrong way- even if she was right about her issues.

"Doesn't anyone else find it a little...weird?" Naegi scratched her head a little. "I mean...y-you said these guys had these air purifiers at the start of all this, right? Doesn't that just seem a little...suspicious?"

For once in his life since meeting the "annoyingly-titled", at least to him, "Ultimate Hope", Korin couldn't help but find that a little bit surprising as well. He would never admit it, but she did have a point- how did this Towa Group have the necessary components and technology to purify the air right at the start of the Despair-Inducing Incident in the first place? That sounded suspicious alone, and mixed in with everything brought upon the world by the incident, none of the group members could help but grow concerned.

It was just about this time that one of the severs came in with a tray, consisting of two pictures of drinks; one consisting of tea, and the other consisting of the beloved coffee. The sight of it was enough to send stars into Jessica's eyes, eagerly taking the cup offered to her by the servant.

Unlike most of the other staff within the Future Foundation, he was one of the other staff that dressed differently. Not everyone wore the whole "black-suit thing" while working within the Foundation. There were numerous jobs within the facility, from simple janitorial duties, gardening, and a whole bunch of other random jobs. While none of them seemed as important, to build a prospering society, the Future Foundation found it necessary to seek out numerous roles and jobs to preform.

For those with different jobs, they were always dressed based on their roles, like the staff of the Future Foundation. Some wore simply gardening clothes, while others were clothed in a traditional chef's outfit. While this might not seem like such, it was actually an important matter. Within everyone's specific clothes, there were embedded microchips which were used to cross security checkpoints throughout the entire facility. No matter where someone was, be it the hallways or simply going through a door, they wouldn't be able to without setting off an alarm, unless the microchip went off as they crossed the sensors.

The security was truly impressive.

"Yeaaaah!" She cheered, scarfing down the drink immediately. The rest continued to chat as the servant placed everyone's cups at their side. Being the professionals they were, all the servants knew which drinks and food the head members of the Foundation preferred without even needing to ask. They even knew Naegi's preference of tea over coffee.

"I understand your concerns." John assured with a nod. "There's some things were investigating in the matter, but so far, there doesn't seem to be any wrong-doing."

"I'm not all too surprised to be honest." Eniese spoke up. "I've heard much about the Towa Group in the past. They have one of the most responsive companies around the world. I wouldn't be too surprised if they were on top of things since the incident occurred."

"Mmh..." Naegi moaned to herself while looking down at her drink. She couldn't agree or disagree with that, mostly due to the fact that she's never even heard of the Towa group in the past until now. She guessed it would have made some sense if that was the case, just hearing it upfront like that seemed suspicious to her.

That didn't stop the unease in her chest of course. Just hearing how some city was "conveniently" on top of things since the beginning of the "Near-End of the world", it sounded a little too good to be true. Then again, it wasn't like Towa City was the ONLY city across the world that was still thriving or anything, which is why she didn't mind it all too much.

With a sigh and a shrug, Naegi stirred her cup of tea for a brief moment before replying. "Well...I guess that makes sense." She conceded. During that brief admittance, she looked across the table for something to sweeten the tea the way she liked it. "Hey, where's the sugar?"

"Oh, my apologies." The servant apologized, digging through the chest pulled out two small cubes of sugar. With a smile, Naegi waited patiently as he placed them in her tea, stirring it herself immediately after.

"Thank you." She nodded in return, earning a replying nod as the servant began to walk away again. Smelling the sweetening smell of the warm tea, Naegi eagerly brought it up to her lips. Just imagining how well it might taste based off the aroma alone, it already gave her goosebumps just thinking about how it would taste-

*BANG!*

*shatter*

"Ack-!"

*thud!*

"Owww!"

*CRASH!*

"Oof!"

Nothing could be said for the last thirty seconds that just flew by Naegi. The sore girl could only rub her head from the soreness she felt as a daze entered her vision. She couldn't see straight for a few seconds, everything appearing blurry around her. The last thing she did remember seeing, for a split second, was her tea cup suddenly exploding in front of her, the fright from it causing her to fall backwards in her chair.

From there, the next thing she felt was the back of her head hitting, somewhat painfully, the floor behind her, and the sound of something crashing from around her. Whatever it was, it sounded like somebody collided into something or another, as to who or what though remained the mystery. And did she just hear a gunshot go off? A gunshot?! There wasn't any other screams, nor other gunfire going off, so whoever it was must've been taken down or restrained, explaining the crashing noise she heard.

With her vision slowly returning and the confusion slowly clearing up, she was met with a sight that only brought twice as much confusion back to her:

Her eyes widening in shock and surprise, there she her- Ikusaba. What the heck was she doing all the way up here? Looking closer at her, she could tell something was indefinitely wrong, the loud beeping noise on her chest going off. Naegi gulped silently to herself, fearful, not of the young girl, but of the expression on the young girl. It was a mix of sorrow, regret, fear, stress, anger, every single negative emotion that could set off the mentally-fragile girl.

What could have happened to her?

Trailing her hand she had lowered down, she was more than shocked to see her holding a pistol, her hands shaking violently as if actually trying to force herself to hold it. No, not that...from Naegi's perspective, it looked more along the lines that she was forcing herself to not shoot whatever it was pressed against. To add to her surprise, the subject of the pressing turned out to be the very same servant who had delivered the drinks to them just moments ago. His face was contorted with a mix of utmost fear and horror as Ikusaba pressed the barrel of her gun firmly against his forehead, right between his eyes.

From the wreckage she could see surrounding them, just tipping the amount of surprise Naegi already had, there appeared to be the shattered remains of the holographic-projector! Naegi was a little fearful of whatever newfound strength Ikusaba must've used up just recently, realizing she must've crashed the servant himself straight into the machine. A machine made of metal at that! And here it lied, completely shattered and broken into pieces!

Looking around herself, Naegi realized she wasn't the only one at-the-ready at this moment. Whether they came in immediately after, or were already present, it didn't matter. All of them, holding a firm grip on each of their pistols, six different Foundation members had already sprung into action, aiming their gun straight at Ikusaba. It didn't matter if Naegi was uneasy or ordered them not to shoot her, they would not take a chance if Ikusaba planned on killing the poor soul she had pinned down.

Needless to say, that very same poor soul was probably the only thing keeping Ikusaba alive at this point. If she tried or ended up killing the guy, there would be nothing holding them back from unloading all their clips into Ikusaba effectively. They knew based on her experiences, however, that if they tried to stop her now, she would indefinitely kill the defenseless soul beneath her in a heartbeat.

And there was still the matter of Ikusaba's eyes that truly got to her. Naegi had seen this look only once in her life since coming to the Future Foundation, where Ikusaba's eyes were devoid of everything but hatred and...Despair.

...

...

*Ikusaba's Day*

"Hellooooooo? Ms. Eleanor?" Ikusaba called out throughout the white room.

That's the only thing that the room did consist of- pure white. Everything within the room was bright-white. From the sofa in which Ikusaba would lay upon while going through the therapy, to the white circular table within the room, and the white chair that her instructor, Ms. Eleanor, would sit in. Given the circumstances behind these "Therapy sessions", and the fact the walls and floors themselves were made of a foam-like fabric, you would almost think this was a room that a lunatic would be kept in for "their" own safety.

Technically, that was part of the case, as delving into Ikusaba's psyche to understand her better did tend to have a small emotional break with the young girl from time to time. The pure white setting all around her was supposed to help represent a calming atmosphere psychologically. Whether or not it actually was working on her remained to be seen, seeing how Despair-induced people could hide their emotions well, but she did manage to calm down from time to time from these emotional issues.

One of the hard parts about maintaining these "Therapy Sessions" were trying to keep the broken girl from having an emotional breakdown. With Ikusaba's first-hand knowledge of those surrounded by despair, as well as knowing how they act in terms of ideals and plans, they couldn't afford to break the valuable girl while she was working for them. Aside from possibly running amok and going crazy, the last thing they wanted was to lose a valuable asset to them. Whether or not they wanted to keep Ikusaba alive at first, all things considered, she was indefinitely a precious ally to the Future Foundation.

That's why, no matter what the circumstances, they couldn't afford to have her slipping back into despair. Not only would they end up losing the valuable ally, if Ikusaba slipped back into despair and escaped, she would have knowledge of all the workings of the Future Foundation itself. She could easily relay that knowledge to any and all leaders remaining who've succumbed to Despair, and easily help them wipe out the Future Foundation and all it's workings.

She was both, an asset, and a threat.

*voom*

Ikusaba's attention turned to the other side of the wall as the door rose to the ceiling. During said time was the only possible means to see any other color from the outside hallway, which was pretty obscured by the figure walking in, and even more after the door closed immediately upon entering.

The figure definitely wasn't Ms. Eleanor, or anything she was expecting. For one thing, she, wasn't even a she, but a he. Secondly, he had crisp, clear, glasses, not like the other Foundation members tended to have. Sure, Ms. Eleanor did have a tendency of taking her glasses off when speaking to Ikusaba, but she still always kept her black glasses at all times.

Aside from that, he was pretty much dressed appropriately for his profession. Having a sweet stylish blue tie, and what appeared to be a doctor's outfit, he did seem to be someone along the lines of hospital care, whether that involved physical therapy, or the one she was supposed to be attending, psychological therapy. He did seem nice as per his profession, having a common brown hair style and a sincere smile with his clipboard and such, but there was something about this that seemed a little off to Ikusaba.

Then again, every therapy session felt like this. She absolutely HATED these things beyond all reason, so it wasn't too surprising that she found the circumstances to be a little weird.

"You're not Ms. Eleanor..." Ikusaba stated in a questionable tone.

"No, no, I'm afraid Ms. Eleanor is having a sick day. Apparently she caught a bug." The therapist proclaimed, adjusting his glasses. "I'm Mr. Torrose, I'm filling in for Eleanor while she's gone." He explained before gesturing to the sofa where Ikusaba always sat. "Please, have a seat."

Ikusaba did a brief double take between the doctor and the sofa for a minute before complying, lying calmly on her back. There was something a little odd, yet again, but she couldn't tell what it was given all that was happening. Hearing a small clicking noise from his pen, she shifted her eyes back as the doctor took a seat in his own white leather chair.

"So, based on Ms. Eleanor's previous notes, she told me she wanted to go over your past moments of stress since you came to the Future Foundation." Torrose explained, crossing his right leg over his left knee. "She said there was one event that took place here...that she said was pretty bad? Would you mind filling me in on that?"

Ikusaba frowned a little as she turned her head away. Even after all this time, being about several months since the "incident", they still continued to talk about it like it happened yesterday, not that Ikusaba could blame them or anything. It was a really big incident in the end of all things, plus given the details of what happened, Ikusaba should've been locked up by this point, if not executed, after what she did...

...

*3 1/2 Months prior*

In all her time at the Future Foundation, this incident had only occurred ever once, and only about eight months ago. During that time, on her way to another therapy session, Ikusaba overheard a strange prisoner-transfer that was taking place within the holding prisons within the foundations. With this information, not even being heard of by Naegi, she found the curiosity taking over her as she decided to investigate the matters for herself.

Traveling down to Sector-8, where the prison sector was located, she eased her way through the confines of the jail undetected- the security measures were state of the art, but for the Super High School Level Mercenary, they were nothing to her. It did still take her awhile to get down to the area of interest in doing so, of course, but it was to be expected if she was to make her way down to a secluded area.

Finally arriving at the aforementioned area, she discovered what all the fuss was about. On top of that, she discovered a scene that drove her over the edge; reaching down to the lower area of the prison, she discovered numerous Despair-induced people fro the world all-around.

Normally, the prison housed numerous enemies and traitors to the Foundation, not just Despair-induced civilians as she learned just now. These prisoners consisted of people who've either betrayed the Foundation and turned their back on them, or people who've committed terroristic-like attacks on the Foundation from within, in one form or another.

But Ikusaba had known nothing about the housing of other Despair-like civilians! And why didn't she?! Naegi was the head of a lot of organizations and operations that ran throughout the facility, but, especially something like this, Naegi should've told Ikusaba if this was going on. Did she not know it herself? Was Naegi actually kept out of the loop for this current situation? Or was she purposely keeping this issue a secret for Ikusaba's own protection for some reason?

Whatever the matter, the fact remained the same that all of these people were induced with Despair. She saw some old people, young people, others no older than Naegi and then some younger ones. All of them had that same empty look in their eyes, the one people receive when they've all but given up on any possible hope for themselves. Just thinking about it alone was enough to make Ikusaba's heart race a little.

*bip-bip-bip-bip-bip-*

"Gehhh!" Ikusaba grumbled quietly, gritting her teeth.

Looking back on it, she supposed it did make some sense once she thought about it. She remembered some of Naegi's operations involved dealing with Despair-Induced people directly in the hopes of figuring out how they succumbed to this despair in the first place. Putting the dots together in her mind, she figured this must've been where they housed some of the more dangerous Despair-induced people, knowing that Naegi didn't deal with all the Despair-induced prisoners the Foundation had captured.

...So what were these people doing here? Almost jumping at the sound, being caught off guard from her in-depth thoughts, she heard a small buzzer-like alarm go off throughout the hallways. Noticing some conveniently placed crates at the time, she quickly duck in cover, wondering if someone was coming. Had her presence been discovered? She didn't see any security cameras or alarms prior to this, and she had first-hand knowledge of any and all possible security systems they had put into place.

Looking back down the hallway, to her curiosity, she actually saw several of the cell doors opening to the prisoners' rooms. Instead of anyone going into them, she watched as they all just walked out in a zombie-like state, that look in their eyes telling her just how far "gone" they've become. It was almost like a trance, seeing how they just walked down the hallway with one another. Just catching a small glimpse in their eyes, from Ikusaba's point-of-view, it looked as if they were expecting something from wherever they were going.

The question was, what?

Waiting till the coast was completely clear, Ikusaba trailed along behind them, doing everything to keep into cover. Watching them go through a set of double doors, one specifically labeled "Off Limits!", it seemed just a bit too suspicious not to investigate further, following them along through the doors. She was just in time to see the horrific image that still scarred her to this very day.

*BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-!*

Ikusaba's heart nearly froze as the air became suffocating. This wasn't right, in fact this was far beyond right! Naegi couldn't have known this, could she?! The sight of it alone filled Ikusaba with an overwhelming sense of dread and, for the first in a long while, Despair. This was inhumane no matter how much she tried to pretend it wasn't real. It couldn't be real! It wasn't real! It had to be a fake! No matter how much she shouted these thoughts into her head, nothing would let up. The scene was real, and there was no looking away from it.

Almost immediately upon entering the room, she was met with a fairly dark room, the only lights coming into it being the one spotlight which peered at the wall the Despairing individuals found their backs pressed against. All them didn't seem to have a care in the world, all with those despairing smiles creeping upon their faces. Ikusaba had only seen that look in person ever once- when she watched her own sister die in front of her.

Then it happened.

In what could only be described as a wave of sparks, Ikusaba's entire world became suffocating as she watched a firing squad, one that had been hiding within the darkness itself, opened fired on the possibly-expecting victims against the wall. All of them, not so much as batting an eyelash or seeming bothered by this sudden genocide, unloading all of their ammo upon the defenseless civilians against the wall, not stopping in the least until all the victims had fallen over.

The only thing that was left was the smoke left over, which seeped out of the walls of the gun-hole-shaped markings in the walls. Looking at it closely, she could easily tell there were portions of it which displayed old blast marks, easily revealing to her how this wasn't the first line of sudden executions that had taken place here, and she doubted it was going to be the last to these poor souls.

Of course they were poor to her- she knew exactly what one must truly go through to succumb to despair like she once did! And here, this? They were just shooting at them like mindless animals, or criminals who had truly done something wrong! Sure, what those with despair were capable of were truly horrific, yet, they too, were the victims as much as their previous ones. It was saddening to her how people could succumb to despair like this, knowing exactly what their lives must've once been like, and then to throw all of that away for the sake of despair.

It was suffocating...it was too much! Ikusaba's heart rate skyrocketed as she began to breathe heavily. Her pupils dilated as she began holding onto her own shoulders, hugging herself as she shook violently. At the same time, the lights had suddenly came on, revealing the Foundation members that had just finished executing their victims. None of them had a single look of remorse on their faces, nor crookedness in their posture. They just carried out, what they thought to be, "justice", and hadn't a single regret about it.

To her, they looked like people, only made out of pure black shadow.

"S-Stay c-ca-calm..." She muttered to herself, falling to her knees as she began bobbing slowly back and forth. No amount of therapy had trained her for despair or stress like this. It was en endless sea, filling her with a never-ending torrent of Despair. "O-One...two...th-th-three..." She tried numerous exercises and techniques to calm herself down, like she had been trained to once before.

*Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep-!*

The alarm on her chest had suddenly gone on it's second alert system. If the loud, blaring, horn hadn't tipped off the sudden executioners of her location, then the automated systems on her chest-piece would have notified the security. Their heads turned to her almost instantly, all of them with a sudden mixed of perplexed expressions on their faces.

"Fuck, one of them got separated from the group!" She heard one of the cuss.

"Well what are you waiting for? Shoot her!" Another one of them yelled, already focusing his gun on herself. Only one of the dozen staff members knew about her true identity.

"Wait, stop-!"

*Bang!*

His plea had fallen on deaf ears as the same Foundation Member had already fired. Fortunately, he managed to pull his arm away immediately after, resulting in one shot being fired at all, but it was still one-shot-too-many for the shattering girl. On another fortunate side, the gun missed her almost completely, only scraping the side of her arm JUST slightly.

It didn't matter though, none of it did. Ikusaba would not recover from this sudden trauma.

"Egghh...ehhhhhh...aghhhh..Ahagh-ah-AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" She let out a blood curdling scream, one which nearly filled the entire prison itself with a murderous cry.

*WooOOOoooOOOoooOOOoooOOO-!*

The alarm on her chest had began blaring almost twice as loud as it once did, the sound being new to Ikusaba as something she had never heard before. She knew inside that there was only one case where she would hear this sound, but after all her past stress and times of emotional breakdowns, seeing how it appeared to require a much more potent amount of stress/Despair, she never thought it would get this bad in all her time here.

It was the third and final degree for her implanted-security piece. It was the last and final security measure on her person that would only go off if she was in a dire state of succumbing to despair. Following the alarm, she knew what would follow it almost immediately after- electrocution.

*bzzt*

...Or what it was supposed to be. Strange...that wasn't anything like she expected. If her despair had fallen too deeply, it was supposed to activate and preform a security measure to keep her from harming anyone else within the facility; a pure, lethal, electrocution, several times stronger than that of a normal Taser. Obviously, there was not meant to be any chance of survival, a factor which Naegi sadly knew, or at least told Ikusaba. It was supposed to keep her from harming anyone else, and the only factor Naegi was forced to agree too if Ikusaba was to be allowed sanctuary within the Future Foundation.

Like everything else, that didn't matter anymore. To her, she felt the shock to her chest, which felt like nothing more than a simple zap one would get when rubbing their feet over carpeting. To her though, it felt as if it never stopped zapping her, going on and on endlessly, and feeling the immense pain as it irradiated throughout her body. All of this, even the pain, was nothing more than a delusion in her mental state. She was completely broken at this point, and would need something immense to break her out of it.

Which is why it didn't help when one of the guards from the room approached her, grabbing her wrists as they pulled her to her feet.

"Nghhhhaaah! No-no! Lemme go! Let go!" She screamed frantically, trying to pry herself from the guard's surprisingly strong grip.

"Grrrr c-calm down!" He grumbled, trying to get her to stop panicking.

Idiot.

Of course this wasn't going to work, but he was just going by "protocol" to restrain her. To her, he was nothing more than a menacing monster standing before her, one who looked eager to rip out and feast upon her own beating heart. It didn't help that he pushed her against the walls, pinning her wrists to the sides with it.

She couldn't handle this! All this despair, all this horror and stress, it was unbearable! How could she possibly handle anything like this?! She didn't know what to feel, other than the endless flow of despair which slowly continued to sink into her mind.

She was too unstable from this...becoming too erratic. That's why, she couldn't help what happened next.

*CRACK*

"Holy shit, Leo!" One of the guards shouted. It was a natural reaction as they gazed upon their friend's face...who was looking at them in the same direction as his back. That shouldn't be normally possible- his head was in a full 180* angle. But, such was to be expected after how much Ikusaba warned him to let go, scaring the young girl to the point of no return.

She snapped his neck. The minute she broke his grip free, all she needed to see was for him to make even the slightest "twitch" as he grabbed for her again, and that was it. In a sudden and swift movement, she snapped his neck in a single second, his body only collapsing in front of them all just after the realization had been made- and it didn't end there.

With her nerves already unsettled, and her mind slowly slipping away, Ikusaba frantically swiped the pistol from the former-employee's remains, shakily aiming it at the other guards. None of them dare tried to raise their own guns at the hysterical girl, knowing full well how quick her reaction time was from the sudden display. Nodding slowly to one another with their eyes, they all slowly tossed aside their guns, raising their hands in the air surrendering.

"G-ege-gegh-ge-get back!" Ikusaba stuttered frantically. Ther ewas no doubt she was hysteric at the moment, and was getting more and more distraught with the surge of despair she was currently feeling. Everyone knew not to cross her in anyway.

"L-Look, j-ju-just take it easy there, Iku." One of the guards spoke softly, trying to remain calm. "T-Tell us what you want."

He seemed to be a lot more informative and analytical than the rest of the worrying guards were at that moment. He could tell right off the back, she would've easily killed them right there and then if she truly wanted to. The fact she didn't showed some form of sanity, but even that wasn't going to last long. Shaking as if she was freezing while slowly looking around, she gritted her teeth tighter as the tears poured from her eyes, squeezing her eyelids shut.

"N-Na-Naegi! Give me Naegi!" She stammered. The same guard gave a calming nod as he slowly rose his left wrist towards his face. This only seemed to agitate her further, knowing she was trailing his hand with her gun.

"O-Okay, okay, just stay calm." He pleaded, slowly clicking on the wristwatch-like device on his arm. Apparently, it seemed to double as a communicator as a small static-like noise could be heard. "H-Hey, this is Alfred in Sector-8, requesting immediate assistance." To prove himself that he wasn't up to anything, and that there weren't any tricks, he kept the communicator on speaker.

"This is Radio Control to Secotr-8. What appears to be the pro-"

"G-GIMME NAEGI!" Ikusaba shouted angrily, thinking the radio would hear her if she shouted while standing thirty feet away- which it did.

"...What was that?"

"L-Look, this is an emergency situation. Have the Heads bring Makoto Naegi down here asap-"

"N-NOW!" Ikusaba stammered angrily, apparently thinking "asap" and "now" stood for two different types of speed.

"I-I mean now, get her here now!"

"Dude, seriously, let's just-" One of the guards on his right tried to speak, leaning over to him.

*BANG!*

"Aww FUCK!" He yelped out in pain, holding his right leg where Ikusaba shot it. There was a small trickle of blood still seeping from the wound, but he was fortunate enough Ikusaba was still sane enough to avoid any vitals or arteries.

"NOW!" Ikusaba screamed again.

Thus, what appeared to be a minor "Hostage Situation" ensued for the following Half-Hour. Fortunately enough, using one of their own coats as a bandage, the lead guard managed to wrap the opened wound, stopping the bleeding to a stable degree. It was the best they could do under these situations, seeing how they couldn't move from that very spot. It took nearly fifteen minutes alone just trying to convince Ikusaba to let them sit him down and slide their guns over to her.

By the time Naegi even got there, still having little-to-no idea of what was going on, she was in shock; she actually didn't care about the dead guard in front of her, at least not entirely, as the scenery itself already spoke loud and clear for her. All she was concerned for at that time was her friend, who was now curled up on her knees, holding onto her sides while both tears and sweat dripped from her face. She hadn't uttered a single word or sniffle, however.

Looking around, while still surprised by the dead guard, she got a good assumption of what had occurred; apparently, Ikusaba stumbled upon what appeared to be a firing range, and not the kind for "sport" and whatnot either. This was one meant specifically for Executions only- Naegi had seen plenty of movies in her life to tell by this point.

While she didn't know who they were at the time, by her own guess, she figured Ikusaba must've watched some execution take place, one Naegi didn't even know was going on around here. Matter of fact, most of the Future Foundation was unaware of this situation (the execution thing, not Ikusaba's mental breakdown)!

Speaking of, Naegi was the only one who had been allowed into the room since the incident. At least several other Future Foundation members had tried to enter the room upon discovering some disturbance, all of them being shooed with a "warning shot" by Ikusaba herself. All of them were lucky that Ikusaba managed to maintain her sanity for this long, lest she end up killing the last dozen guards that had tried to enter the room. That explained why Naegi came across several of her close friends, and the near-two dozen guards waiting outside the doorway behind some form of cover.

Initially, Naegi had a specific task which the Foundation ordered her to do: Subdue Ikusaba. They gave her a syringe of some strange liquid which she was asked to inject into her as soon as she could. Naturally, her reaction was, as soon as Ikusaba glanced at her for a brief moment, was to break the syringe on the ground, unable to tell if the contents were dangerous or some form of sedative.

She still made sure she was slow as she approached the unstable girl, but she never lost the calming smile on her face as she approached Ikusaba, even if her head was lowered. By the time Naegi had finally reached her, kneeling down to her, Ikusaba seemed to have some sort of sense that Naegi was near, as she began crying audibly at this point.

"N-Na-Naegi..." Her voice trembled.

"H-Hey, Ikusaba, it's alright." She said softly, slowly patting Ikusaba's shoulder. Simply touching her was just enough to set her off.

"NAEGI!" she screamed crying, squeezing Naegi tightly with her arms wrapped around her side as she cried into her chest. Despite what Naegi was told Ikusaba did, Naegi only cared for her friend at that moment, henceforth the small smile as she slowly stroke Ikusaba's head.

Looking back to where the six remaining guards were, Naegi gave them a confident nod as a "signal". Nodding back to her in response, the head guard, and one of the other guards on the injured guard's side, helped their friend up as they slowly walked out towards the door. Waiting till they were gone at this moment, Naegi sighed as she patted her friend's head again, waiting till the fragile girl had finally calmed down. The guards awaiting outside the halls wouldn't dare come in until they were sure Ikusaba wouldn't pose a threat or endanger Naegi in any way.

This little act would end up taking several hours.

In the aftermath that followed, many issues were brought to light, and were dealt with. First off, the guards of the "execution range", and the manager of Sector-8 were both arrested the following day. It turned out this "Execution range" was a way for some of the guards to blow off steam. During many of their missions, it wasn't too uncommon for many friends to lose their lives battling despair, with just about everyone who went on these daily missions having a 80% survival rate.

On top of that, as it was one of Naegi's numerous conditions before working with the Future Foundation, more than half their missions involved "rescuing" people who've fallen into despair, bringing them back to the prison for hopes of breaking them of their Despair. You can clearly picture how numerous people would be a little irritated at the idea of sacrificing their own lives for a group of people already out there killing them and their friends.

To add to the dilemma, none of those who've fallen into Despair seemed to care about this, which made it easy for them to keep a low profile and just accept this execution. After all, the despair of Death was considered one of the highest forms of despair, so to them, it was practically a blissful heaven to them before their final moments.

Whether her luck might have played a factor to this or not, Ikusaba was, fortunately, not pressed with charges for the murder she committed, or the injured guard she ended up shooting. There was plentiful security footage which was confiscated during the Manager's arrest, helping provide solid evidence of their wrongdoing, and Ikusaba's innocence. As far as they were concerned, it was legitimate self-defense in some case, and they opened fire first.

Some of them were a little discouraged about this reality, though. Some would've happily enjoyed seeing a member of Ultimate despair behind bars, or possibly executed...

That didn't mean there weren't repercussions from the incident either. For starters, Ikusaba was heavily sedated until all the details and facts could come to light for the following week. She was bedridden in her sedation, yet still seemed to be conscious in some form as she just stared at the ceiling everyday, at least until Naegi came by to visit per day. She would've stuck around longer, but she was busy trying to find out what went wrong, and to prove Ikusaba's innocence.

Secondly, after the issue was resolved, the Foundation still didn't let up on Ikusaba lightly. For starters, for the following month that occurred, Ikusaba was still an emotional wreck. She couldn't handle being away from Naegi for more than a few minutes at a time due to the trauma she witnessed. How could she be blamed anyway? To watch as a group of people casually just execute people who were similar to you without any care would traumatize anyone!

Because of this, for the next full week after the sedation, Naegi was forced to go with Ikusaba to her latent week-long therapy session. Naturally, it lasted a week long due to the circumstances behind it. They needed to get Ikusaba back under some form of control until she could do her every-other-day therapy session like she used to.

Naegi didn't mind coming with her, of course. She wanted to be there for her friend, and she wanted to prove to Ikusaba that things were fine now. It was her time to help her for a change out of all the times she helped Naegi in the past. It did feel a little awkward seeing how the Foundation restrained her while escorting both her and Naegi to each session, wanting to make sure there weren't any chances, but it was only for a small while. Eventually, Ikusaba managed to get by just fine just by hearing Naegi's voice over radio or some form of communication until the month had passed.

...

...

...

And thus leads us to our current point in time. By now, recounting her events, like it had every session that followed, Ikusaba had a small trail of tears leaking from her eyes. The events practically scarred her, and she couldn't help but tear up each time she remembered everyone who she watched be executed in front of her. It felt like they were all executing portions of herself, making it unbearable to live with.

Whether to spite her or actually help her, she was forced to recall these events ever since at every therapy session for a full half-hour. Ms. Eleanor wanted to urge the distraught girl to push past this event in her life to help ensure she wouldn't succumb to despair just from remembering this anymore.

It did help a little and everything, seeing how she could now handle being on her own once more. As always, it still made her feel a little awkward, having to recount these events on a once-every-two-days basis.

*sniff*

"T-They didn't even do anything wrong..." Ikusaba sniffled as she lied on the bedding on her stomach.

Sadly, there was a bit of the truth in that. Not to an entire degree, but enough to make her argument valid. Not all of those executed at the Execution's range were actually guilty of doing much harm. Sure, some of them did commit some heinous act to a degree, but surprisingly enough, a good majority of them had simply given up on life itself, their despair just making them give up on doing anything.

These were the most harmless of the people that gave into despair, and the most common the Future Foundation came across. Sure, some of them did have a form of behavior that could easily upset them compared to others, but it wasn't anything that made them dangerous thereafter.

*snggggggghhhhhhhh!*

Ikusaba made sure to dispose of her tissue after she finished sneezing.

"I understand. I read much of the reports that followed the incident." Dr. Torrose gave a respectful nod. "You have my upmost sympathy."

*bzzt*

*bzzt*

Ikusaba jumped a little from the sudden buzzing noise. It's times like this, when she's in an emotional stupor, she'd often on get startled by the unexpected things in life, no matter how little they may be. This time around, instead of the small buzzing that resonated from her chest should her chest piece go off suddenly, it was the sound of her ear piece going off.

She remembered in days past when the only time she'd ever hear that was when her sister would contact her. During those times, her sister was still the person she once knew and loved, someone she didn't realize was slowly slipping away as time wore on. As part of some "coping therapy" with Dr. Eleanor, Ikusaba was forced to "come to terms" with her sister's death. While it wasn't exactly something new to her, seeing how she made peace even before Junko's death, it did give her some insight and minor ounce of additional peace.

While it was only audible for her to hear, Torrose couldn't help but notice the sudden change of look on her face. It was kind of hard NOT to make a face these days when her earpiece went off. Since coming into the Future Foundation, Ikusaba and Kirigiri have been keeping a means to communicate with each other, in one form or another.

"Is something wrong?" He asked. Ikusaba gave him a brief smile.

"I have to take this, just a sec." She replied quickly, turning on her earpiece.

It wasn't just to keep tabs on Ikusaba secretly, just to see how she's handling herself without Naegi around, but for Naegi's well being as well. While still maintaining a somewhat rivalry with one another, the two were now friends. Both of these friends had a grand fondness for Naegi, and because of that, they would do whatever means were necessary to keep her alive through all of this, hence forth the communications.

So what was she calling for?

"Hello? Hey Kirigiri, what's-..."

Mr. Torrose couldn't tell at what was going on. Considering the earpiece was, naturally, in Ikusaba's ear, he couldn't hear a lick of what was going on. To be honest, he couldn't even tell if she should be having an earpiece like this. Having some detailed report on Ikusaba's background, he was aware of some of the sessions these therapies had, and knew for a fact, she shouldn't have any outside sources, especially a weapon, and let alone a earpiece like this.

Yet, there was some change occuring in Ikusaba's expression that really got his attention. Slowly, from start to finish, he watched as her expression changed from a seemingly calm smile, to that of a worried, shocked, tone. There was something about her eyes, some look of fear and horror in them, that made her panic about something. She was only on the listening end of things, but whatever she was hearing was enough to make her fret.

"What...Are you su-..." He heard her mumble to the person on the other end. "B-But...how can...Huh!" The final gasp was enough to jump Ikusaba to her feet. Mr. Torrose responded in turn as she suddenly started to squeeze the side of her head, worrying.

*bip-bip-bip-bip-bip-bip-*

"I-I-I have to g-go!" Ikusaba stuttered, shaking. "I h-have to go somewhere, have to go... have to go..."

"H-Hey, hey, it's alright, calm down." Mr. Torrose tried to ease her tension, rubbing her shoulders. "L-Look, I have some medicine that can calm your nerves, just give me a minute." He stated, digging through his coat pocket as he pulled out a small syringe and a bottle.

It didn't seem dangerous to her just from basic appearance, and she had been rugged a few times when she panicked during these sessions by Ms. Eleanor. All it did was just relax her muscles a little, nothing major.

"B-But I have to go somewhere...I-I have to...go..." Ikusaba hugged herself trying to stay calm. She knew various methods of staying calm as practiced by Ms. Eleanor, hugging herself seeming to be the most common and simple, but it wasn't enough to fully recover from her stress, just enough to keep her at ease until she calmed down on her own.

"It's okay, it's alright," Mr. Torrose assured as he filled the syringe, "I'm sure Naegi's going to be fine."

"I-I know, b-but I have to help h-" Ikusaba suddenly froze as her eyes widened. With a blank, soulless star, she gazed into his eyes, filling him with confusion.

"What's wrong?"

"..." Ikusaba slowly began to tremble as her lips quivered, backing away a couple feet. "H-How...How did you know...it was about Naegi?"

"!"

The trap had been leaked without his knowing. Realizing it just now, she never once said anything about Naegi's life being the one in peril. Some could testify that she was talking about her own life, which was understandable at her moment of fear, but she never said anything truly about what her actual concern was. Which is why it was nearly impossible for Mr. Torrose to know the dilemma to her concern...unless he was in on it too.

Squeezing a bit of the juice out of the syringe for emphasis, the expression on his face said it all- he was in on whatever was going on all of a sudden.

"Couldn't just take your medicine, could you?" He questioned with a smug tone. "Let me fix that for you!"

"Ngh-!"

Ikusaba suddenly jumped internally as he lunged right on top of her, knocking her to the ground. With all her training behind her, the fact he had yet to inject her with whatever the strange liquid was just proved how advanced she was in her own military training. Yet, the amount of stress from her sudden fear was what caused her delayed reaction at this time. If she was at her full, she would've more than easily managed to suppress and overpower the man before he could assault her. Because of that, she was now on the defending end of his attack, as he attempted to plunge the syringe right into her eyes.

Her heart continued to race faster and faster, alerting the security on her chest piece about her condition. She grumbled to herself as she knew if this continued, the stress would continue to build up, and the alarm on her chest would go off- and that was only for the second level of security! If things became really bad, the third and last setting on her chest piece would've occurred. Despite the fact it hadn't killed her several months ago, a factor she never got the details of, or just couldn't recall from the stress that day, it did zap her a little during the crisis that occurred. Even if it was only a minor buzz, the brief zap to her would've been enough to stun her for at least a full second, and she would find herself with a syringe in her eye.

But as always, there was one thing that got to her that told her why she couldn't allow herself to fail: Naegi. She was the only thing she found life worth living for nowadays. Cheesy as it was, it was the truth. She needed Naegi the most out of all things out there. She relied on Naegi to fill her with happiness, and she would do everything to ensure she returned the same feeling. And this guy was now officially in on what Kirigiri called her for, AND trying to get in the way of hings!

That obviously set her off.

Trying to get any part of her limbs free, she managed to free her right leg, and use it in a way that could easily subdue all men; by kneeing him right between the legs. Naturally, this brought about an insurmountable pain in his lower regions, losing his sudden strength and his composure, giving Ikusaba enough time to overpower him. With a loud grumble to herself, and a strong push, she managed to kick the assailant off of her person, kicking him back and crashing into the desk a yard away from her, smashing it to pieces. It was more than enough force to do so, and added with the man's weight and Ikusaba's strength, it was not an impossible feat.

Panting heavily, trying to maintain some composure and keep her stress levels from getting too high and set off another alarm, she took the brief moment from standing to see her attacker's current state. Not surprising in some degree, it looks like he ended up accidentally stabbing himself in the stomach. Being a syringe with a near-centimeter thick needle, it wasn't anything lethal or deadly to be worried off, less it ended up in his eye like he attempted with Ikusaba moments ago. But it did seem to do what he attempted to earlier.

Looking over his condition for a brief second, not entirely "wanting" him to die seeing how much trouble a person's death at her hands caused trouble for Naegi, he appeared to be in an exhausted or disoriented state, the contents of the syringe being injected into him upon impact. At least he was being honest about the "calming nerves" thing from the injection, though by her guess, it was supposedly more potent than she expected it to be for herself.

Now wasn't the time for things like this though. With a determined expression on her face, she quickly ran through the automatic doors after opening it, sprinting down the hallways with high speed. It wasn't too surprising, but many of the different guards along the hallways saw this little event taking place, notifying security about Ikusaba's strange and sudden behavior. While they were nowhere near fast enough to catch up with her,many of the guards began giving chase as a security alert was notified to all the guards, or at least the ones in the hallways she was coming across.

None of them knew what was going on, and Ikusaba herself was partly in the same position. All she was concerned about was the details that consisted of Kirigiri's warning, about Naegi's life being in peril. Like her sudden event earlier, it was because of this small distraction that she was unaware of a fellow guard who was hiding behind a corner of the hallway before it was too late.

Taking her by surprise, he managed to jump her, tackling her to the ground and pinning her arms to the floor. It was only during this struggling that she put up did she realize the other guards from further down the hallway were finally chasing her. She grunted to herself as she struggled, knowing if she was caught there, she would be restrained and captured before she could end up saving Naegi! She couldn't let anything happen to her Naegi!

*Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep-*

With another groan and a curse, she shifted her eyes down to the chest piece, even though it was currently under her shirt, as the secondary alarm went off. By now, an alarm would be sent to HQ, which, being in the middle of it would indefinitely make things increasingly difficult, and warn them about her current status. As per protocol, several more highly trained guards would be sent to her location on a moment's notice, all of whom consisted of actual guards who would prove CHALLENGING to her, not these "lamebrains", as she described, who simply call themselves "guards" for knowing Karate.

This unfortunate turn of events, however, seemed to be a blessing in disguise. During the time the alarm was going off, the sound more than easily provided to be a useful distraction to the guard above her. With his head now lowered and his eyes focused on the strange noise, not many people ever having heard the alarm coming from her chest, Ikusaba took the initiative once again.

With a massive chomp, she bit into the guard's arm, almost hard enough to puncture it and leave a good amount of blood left over. As expected, this sudden attack was enough for him to suddenly pull himself up again, squeezing the bitten arm tightly as he tried to sooth the pain. In one swift strike, using the split second that her hand was free, she jabbed him straight in the gut, hard enough to knock the air out of him, as well as his consciousness. Not only did she, as predicted, manage to knock the guard out cold, she also found his gun the guards kept upon themselves quickly giving it a good check to be sure it was loaded and decked. With a satisfied nod and seeing the other guards nearing her, she gave a quick warning shot, scrambling the guards who quickly dove behind cover or other hallway corners, seeing how she was now fully armed. By the time they even looked back, she had already bolted out of the scene, having shoved the guard off of her, and continuing her path towards Naegi.

All in the matter of 7.93 seconds, a new record to her 8.42 second limit.

It was a harrowing chase to say the least. Throughout the last several minutes, Ikusaba was forced to use all kinds of provisions and distractions in order to avoid her capture. It wasn't just a matter of outrunning the guards, she also needed to make sure she kept the location of her goal a relative secret. That's why she kept making different turns and paths along the way to the upper levels of the building, while still making sure to keep at a fast pace, and in the same general direction. From setting off fire extinguisher's to knocking people into the guards' path, she would not allow her capture before saving Naegi.

After a grueling five minutes of running, she managed to reach her destination, also simultaneously outrunning the guards a good few minutes away from her. Opening the door quickly, panting heavily after the long run she had just pushed herself through, Ikusaba leaned her arm against the door for a brief few seconds, the door opening silently like all doors do. The sight before her told her the exact same case Kirigiri had just finished explaining to her awhile ago, and she was literally down to the last few seconds.

Naegi was about to drink the dreaded contents that would likely end her life. It was already just inches away from her lips, so there was no way she would possibly stop from a simple shot or if she lunged for it! It was moments like this where her training proved most useful, especially with the ounce of despair from worry that was filling her expression. In one, fast-paced motion, and reflexes that one could ONLY obtain from training, Ikusaba skillfully shot the cup itself, avoiding any direct contact with Naegi's hands, shattering it to bits before Naegi could so much as touch the tip of the serving itself. This did, alternatively, end with her falling backwards, but a bump on the head was nothing compared to a possible death that almost befell her.

And there, he stood- the one man who she had focused all of her anger against during the proceedings of this event.

"Youuuu!" She grumbled angrily. In only a few seconds, during the course of the gunfire confusion, she tackled him off his feet, straight into the holographic projection, slamming him down with full force.

"Oof-!" The man yelped in pain as he was slammed onto the projector.

*CRASH!*

There was dust and debris that scattered across the room, sending some of the other members of the room into a small coughing fit. While a majority of the persons' in question could be seen, some of the important detail could not be noticed until much later- like the gun being pressed against her target's forehead. It didn't matter to her if Naegi had regained her composure, sitting only a few feet away from her. Ikusaba would ever let this man out of her sights until he was either dead, or behind bars. To be honest, she deeply preferred the latter towards anyone who would hurt HER Naegi.

She had no concern or care for the guards who had finally caught up to her, all aiming their guns directly at her and ready to fire. She was too smart for them, knowing that they wouldn't dare threaten to shoot her without risking the other member's life. There was no way they would ever risk another person's life while Ikusaba's own hands were wrapped around it.

"I-Iku...Ikusaba-" Naegi muttered quietly, trying to reach over for her friend.

"STAY BACK NAEGI!" Ikusaba yelled, never taking her gaze off the man as she did. She didn't want to shout at her beloved Naegi, it pained her inside just from thinking about it. But there was no way in hell she would allow her to get near this maniac, one who she deeply considered putting an end too if he so much as twitched.

Not counting the shaking look of horror on his face.

"I-I should kill you...Kill you...!" Ikusaba grumbled to herself. That alone was enough to set the other guards and security off. If they so much as waited another minute, they knew Ikusaba would've happily pulled the trigger. If a preemptive firing would prevent that, then so be it. All of them steadied their guns, clearing their mind of all thoughts, as they steadily pulled back the trig-

"WAIT!" A voice suddenly shouted, catching everyone's attention, save for Ikusaba's of course, as they turned to the doorway again. Hearing what sounded like pattering footsteps, Naegi was even more surprised as she saw Kirigiri suddenly appear, out of breath like Ikusaba was earlier.

"K-Kirigiri?" Naegi questioned. It couldn't just be a coincidence at this point. If both Ikusaba and Kirigiri had arrived at the same relative time, then something had to be up. She didn't know the details at this point, but she trusted her friends more than anything else.

"Hold...Hold your fire..." Kirigiri panted, exhausted. She must've ran for a good several minutes, given the state she was in. "Ikusaba is innocent! She didn't do anything wrong." Naegi raised a brow at this. She knew, too, that Ikusaba would never harm anyone that was good, and would still be inclined to not hurt anyone even if she was despairing or felt threatened in some way. That still didn't clear up the confusion all of a sudden from her latest statement.

"What do you mean...?"

...

...

...

*Kirigiri's Day...*

*click*

*flash*

Kirigiri ignored the passing-by investigators and crime scene analysts as she observed the body. This is what a majority of Kirigiri's work consisted of nowadays. As the Ultimate Detective, it was no surprise that when it came to her skills, the place the Future Foundation would put her in was overseeing all crimes and investigations that the Future Foundation was involved with. Now that Kirigiri was the last of her family, at least to her knowledge, there was no concern any longer about her family remaining "neutral" to anyone who required their assistance. There was only one world they lived in nowadays, and only one side in which she worked with.

To be fair though, she didn't care about that either. As long as she could live with and be with Naegi wherever she went, she would be content with just about anything requiring her skills. That's why she didn't have any concern or problem with the Foundation asking her to assist in the Investigation department of their operations. If each case could help ensure Naegi's life, then she would take on any job. That wasn't to say the Future Foundation threatened Naegi's life or anything, but they did make a valid point to her: with the world the way it was now, Naegi's life could be put at risk at any moment. As such, Kirigiri's role and life became clear.

With this, as detailed, she was in charge of all invesitgations that took place, where her skills were never put to waste.

When it came to the job itself, a lot of it came to things that she expected. Investigations and the works like in her old life, her skills were truly sought after to have requested her for all her investigations. From simple homicide to unexplained tampering and cases where things were missing, whether that be people or items of interest, Kirigiri was always the one on the case, and always the one who managed to bring the facts to all cases to light.

She had to admit, it was a bit easier with the advanced technologies provided by the Future Foundation itself. With just basic, handheld devices that could scan a person's footprint for her, or one that could read infrared markings left at numerous crime scenes, they provided a great detail of information for the young detective. Of course, with her current level of skill, she didn't "need" these devices mind you, they just helped sped up the investigations by a couple more minutes, rarely hours.

That didn't mean some cases were easy though. Especially now within the workings of the Future Foundation, with so much advanced tech, some of which she wasn't aware of them having until further into the case, it did make things quite challenging for her. There were numerous protocols along with each of the weaponry, and so many different facts and details she had to know about each and every case. As time went on, she got better at this once she memorized all the locations and areas, but there always seemed to be something new she needed to know with each and every case.

Like this one for example. Her current case was investigating a possible homicide within this home. Not many details were given, the crime scene having been preserved until Kirigiri's arrival. From what little was known, one of Chen Pei's, the victim, friend came over for a visit, having had no communications with his friend for the last several days. Upon entering the crime scene, they discovered his friend's remains just like that, still sprawled across the floor with no clear indication of what killed him.

Within a kitchen like this, there were numerous possibilities as to what did kill him, which is saying a lot when there wasn't any evidence of his murder. The only reason it was declared a murder was due to the fact several different footprints were noticed within the crime scene after investigating. Unfortunately, there was no telling how old these prints were, as the victim hadn't cleaned his floors for several weeks, and with his friends being over on a common basis, it was hard to determine if one of them killed him.

If his death was either accidental or self-caused, then it could only be concluded that it occurred while eating, seeing how he was fallen back on his chair, and his food was still lying out.

"Is there any indication of poisoning?" Kirigiri asked, rubbing her chin as she inspected the body up close.

"We're still waiting for results." Mileena, a red-haired girl with a ponytail, replied.

She was one of several of Kirigiri's assistances, being another member that the Future Foundation hired due to her skills. Like many others, with the exception of Kirigiri, Naegi, and Ikusaba on a regular basis, she was one of the few Future Foundation members who always wore their shades. She was also one of the younger people Kirigiri actually met when it came to the staff around here, being one year younger than Kirigiri, and a few inches shorter.

"It's still a possibility, but forensics have yet to find anything."

"It couldn't have been anything accidental." Mark commented, his hands dug into his pockets as always.

He was Kirigiri's second assistant, the guy with the spikey-blue hairdo. He did seem to be somewhat more skilled in the investigations, having more knowledge of the Future Foundation gave him said edge, although those two were more neck-and-neck when it came to skill level. Being only two years older than Kirigiri, she did appear to have a skill of deduction and investigating that even put Kirigiri on the edge. While they still constantly maintained a professionalism towards one another, she did find it hard to get along with him whenever he gloated about his findings.

It wasn't too common, but it did annoy Kirigiri when he did it even once.

"This is the third case we've had around here." The statement caught Kirigiri by surprise, briefly widening her eyes.

"This is the third case we've had?" She repeated questionably. "Why wasn't I told anything about this?"

"Because we didn't know if it was a big deal or not." Mileena replied in Mark's place. "The first two cases happened one week apart in sector 2, so we just thought they were actual accidents."

"Then I also take it they were found in a similar state upon discovery?"

Mileena blinked curiously. "W-Well, yeah! How'd you know?"

"Because you wouldn't have just mentioned how this was the third case if there was no relationship between this and the other two." Kirigiri remarked. Mileena blinked once again, this time with surprise. As a fellow assistant to the "Ultimate Detective", she was amazed how much info Kirigiri could draw from a single comment.

Truly incisive... or Mileena didn't know much about common sense, either or.

"And I also assume that means nothing else was found at the crime scene of both locations?" Kirigiri continued.

"Pretty much." Mark nodded, leaning against the table with his arms crossed. "The crime scenes were all spotless and clean. Whenever each of them died, they must've been right in the middle of something."

"What makes you say that?" Kirigiri asked rubbing her chin. She was already running multiple facts and details in her head. Something about this case didn't feel right to her, her detective's Intuition going off all of a sudden.

"Well, the first guy we found was still watching TV apparently." Mileena replied tapping her chin.

"And the second guy was just reading a newspaper," Mark added, "poor sap never got to page 3."

"There wasn't any sign of struggle?" Kirigiri wondered. As expected, she earned a shake of the head from Mileena.

"Every spot was clean...you know, side from the dead body."

"And the victims themselves, did they have anything in common?"

"Not really." Mileena took the time to inspect the body again. "It's Sector-2 after all, so they only worked in foods and stuff."

"To be honest, we actually thought it was an accidental."

"But for someone else to come under the same conditions after a full week, and with the same M.O.? No way we're dealing with accidental cause anymore." Mark spoke with a small irritation in his voice. There was no way all of these occurrences could be accidental anymore. The only problem that got to him was how these "accidents" were occurring.

"Personally it sounds like a poison to me." Kirigiri suggested. "If all the victims died on the spot without any form of struggle, it had to be a quick-acting poison."

"We thought that too, but every time the autopsy reports came in, they had nothing. It was just...it was just a death according to them."

"What if they're wrong?" Mileena asked shrugging. "Nobody's perfect and all that, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were missing something."

"Normally, I'd agree with that. The only problem is the fact the first two victims only drank something, and nothing showed up." Mark retorted. "There wasn't anything in the drinks, and nothing in the stomach contents to indicate a poison."

"Well they didn't just die out of thin air either!"

"But you did say they drank something, right?" Kirigiri asked for clarification. The two of them looked at her strangely as she displayed a perplexed expression on her face. Her entire attention was directed to the body itself despite the fact she was speaking directly towards those these two. After the dozens of cases the two have worked on with her, they knew there and then, whenever Kirigiri made a face like that, she pondering something.

"Yeah...b-but like I said, there wasn't a single thing left at the crime scenes, and nothing in the autopsy reports." Mark repeated.

"...What if they didn't miss something?" Mileena looked up in her thoughts, unknowingly gathering the attention of the other two detectives.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well...I don't know, it's just...maybe there was something so obvious found that they overlooked it." Mileena suggested. "Either that or," she paused for a moment as she noticed the stares coming from the other two, "...or maybe they just didn't notice it?"

"..."

The two of them already had numerous thoughts running through their heads, but that didn't keep them from pondering MIleena's very existence itself. Mileena was mostly an average girl when it came to her life. She grew up in a similar situation of Kirigiri's, but her family wasn't as known by the world, and not because they preferred to keep a secret, as Kirigiri's were. She just grew up in an average-ish lifestyle surrounded by top investigators and detectives.

However, during the time they've spent together with her, she's always proved herself to be somewhat of an enigma to the two detectives. Whether it was through sheer dumb luck, a really well-thought-out guess, or somehow managing to come to the right conclusion all on her own, one thing she always displayed was a form of insight.

Knowing her personally, you wouldn't think so much. Out of the three, she was always the one with the least amount of skill to deal with, often on only being there to assist in the cases Kirigiri and Mark as followed. She often on appeared to be clumsy, kept forgetting things over the cases, and always managed to somehow get herself in some embarrassing situation, one way or another. On a side note, Kirigiri couldn't help but find it a little cute about how she reminded her of Naegi. She was more of a "sidekick" if anything towards the two. Yet sometimes, in situations like these, she would always manage to surprise the two by providing a sophisticated detail.

Times like this, she would offer up her own opinion or piece of advice that would strikingly shock the two, being the first one to arrive at such a conclusion without any prior thinking towards her statement. When it came to her, she just blurted out anything that pretty much came to her head. It was these "random ideas" though that proved the most useful, and one of the reasons the Foundation hired her on the Investigative Operations. Through her quick insight, whether or not she realized it herself, she always had a quick say in things that helped each case in the end.

If it wasn't for the fact she, for god-knows-why, couldn't tie her own shoes, her skill would be right up there alongside Kirigiri's and Mark's.

"Something they wouldn't notice, huh..." Kirigiri muttered to herself, thinking.

"Or something they did and just didn't care about." Mileena quickly inputted again.

"...Say Mark?"

"Yeah?" He muttered scratching his head.

"Those autopsy reports you got back...did it say if they drank anything?"

"I'm telling you, there wasn't anything in the drinks." He groaned, rolling his eyes. "All the drinks were tested and all the victims' belongings were searched. There wasn't any poison-"

"In the coffee?" Kirigiri interjected, cutting him off and surprising him.

"How did you know they had coffee?" Kirigiri smiled a little to Mileena. Her thoughts were processing some rather interesting revelations.

"You said it yourself, Mileena- about the autopsy reports missing something? I think there might be something to that." Kirigiri gave a small nod in agreement as she stated.

"You really think the Future Foundation was dumb enough to botch up the Autopsies?" Mark groaned again. He trusted their ideas and leadership to a full. It was these kinds of remarks about the Foundation that got him irritated.

"I'm not saying they missed it intentionally," Kirigiri corrected, "but what if it was something so small they ended up missing it themselves?"

"Something small?"

"Sugar." Kirigiri stated bluntly.

There were a few seconds of Mark's expression where it slowly changed into a look of bewilderment, to his eyes widening in shock and realization. The Sugar. Out of all the victims, the one and only thing he knew for sure was that they were all drinking something, and quite ironically, that something ended up being sugar in this case. Whether it was their own sugar or someone slipped it in remained a mystery, but regardless of circumstances, they all had sugar at some point before their death.

Once again, he was flabbergasted by Kirigiri's incisiveness, as well as irritated by it. To be honest, he couldn't' tell if he should be irritated by her or by Mileena, seeing how she's the one who lead up to the topic, but regardless, it still ended with Kirigiri coming out on top at the end of it. Simply by knowing how all three of the victims had coffee, she knew there had to be a common link between all of them, regardless of how small- quite literally in this case.

It would make sense too, now that he thought about it, as to why the autopsy reports wouldn't have picked up on anything. With the technology in today's world, it would be extremely easy to cook up some form of tasteless, in terms of tasting poison that is, Sugar, and slip it by into someone's drink without their knowing. Not only that, but as always, the guards at the Sector security checkpoints always checked firsthand, all the belongings, the details, and just about every single item that a person would bring with them through the Sectors. Much like him, he doubted there was absolutely anyone out there, who would come to think something as bland as sugar would be the untimely cause of three separate murders!

There was only one problem.

"...What's your point?" He eyed her as he crossed his arms. Kirigiri was a little confused by his reply.

"Come again?"

"What does that have to do with the deaths themselves? There's no relationship to the victims, remember?" Kirigiri blinked to herself at this, before letting out a silent "Oh" to herself.

She had to admit, he had a good point. So she figured out what was the cause to the victims' deaths. Point one for her. That still didn't answer any of the other questions they had to go through. It might've helped explain how, whoever the killer was, managed to sneak their "weapon" through security, but it didn't explain much else about this case.

"Yeah, exactly." He continued, perfectly reading the look on her face with a smug grin. "We have two dead members from Sector-2, and this guy in Sector-7. What's the point though?"

"...Hmm..." Kirigiri hummed to herself as she tried to think, sitting on the table near Mileena.

"Did they have any common relatives?" Mileena asked, looking back and forth between the two. "I've seen plenty of Detective and mystery movies where the kids kill their parents for their inheritance or something."

"But none of these people ARE related, Mileena." Mark pointed out, pinching between his eyes in annoyance.

"Oh...sorry..." She muttered, lowering her head with a small frown.

"Then there has to be something else they do that's relatable." Kirigiri spoke again. "If these were just confined to Sector-2, it could easily get passed off as a serial murder to some extent. But if they were only focused on two specific people and this person here, then there had to be a specific reason."

"The Sector-2 victims all work with food if that helps at all." Mileena pointed out.

"And the Sector-7 folk here are just guardsmen. If they wanted to kill the guards themselves, they would've done so in a way that took out more of them at once." Mark added. "Quite frankly, I don't think there's any notable connection between victims this time around."

"...?" Kirigiri processed that last statement he said. "Wait, say that last part again?"

"What? About this time arou-"

"Yeah, that right there." Kirigiri stood up firmly. "What did you mean "this time" around? Did this happen before?" Mark groaned to himself with his hand at his side while scratching his head. If there was another aspect about Kirigiri that he couldn't stand, it was all the questions. Questions like these that relate to the Future Foundation and stuff, it got kind of annoying when he had to explain one more thing each time to her for her to understand.

Especially if it ended up helping her get another case solved over his head.

"W-Well...yeah." He nodded. "It happened a long time ago, right around the time the Future Foundation organized and rescued you guys from that crazy school thing. There was a strange string of murders that occurred like this, which ended in the death of one of the Heads of the Sectors."

"One of the Sector Heads were killed?!" Kirigiri was actually quite amazed. With all the security she's witnessed from the Future Foundation, and all the high-tech security installments scattered throughout the base, for anyone to pull of a murder, ESPECIALLY one who was a leader of anything within the Future Foundation, that couldn't have been any easy feat.

"Like I said, it was some time ago, so don't get it stuck into your head." Mark stated, gesturing his hands in a calming-like motion. "One of the Heads just KO'ed in the middle of a meeting for no apparent reason. It was believed to be poison, but they couldn't find anything. And anyone related to the matter in some way just mysteriously vanished."

"Wouldn't that mean if this was the same case though, that the people who committed the crime would've come back?" Mileena wondered. "That would explain why it took them this long to do anything. Anyone who stumbles upon the Future Foundation and wishes to live through here has to go through a probation or waiting list thing, I don't know the details exactly. But they're mostly ran through a background check from top to bottom before being allowed Sanctuary here."

"...The first two..." Kirigiri mumbled again, the gears in her head suddenly starting to turn. "What exactly were their professions?"

"What those guys? I already told you, they just worked with foods." Mark said again.

"No, I need the specifics!" Kirigiri emphasized. "What exactly did they do?" As if to answer her question, Mileena took the opportunity to pull out a little pink handbook that she kept with herself at all times. It was filled with all sorts of various notes and information about any of the cases she was on, just like this.

"Hmm...The first one was a simple chef, Morgan Tonyo...heh, kind of a silly name." She chuckled briefly as she read the details. "It says here he was just a simple food-making chef. He worked with various kinds of foods and servings...and some drinks too..."

Kirigiri eyed her suspiciously. "He made drinks?"

"Yeah, but he didn't serve them directly." Mileena explained, turning the page over. "That was actually the previous victim before now. He always served whatever the main chef did and brought the orders to the destinations."

"And that's what makes this killing so confusing." Mark continued in her stead. "The chefs and all that were one thing, but this guy here had absolutely no relationship to either one. He was just a simple security guard."

"And he...didn't do anything in particular?" Kirigiri asked with a raised brow.

"Not that I know of."

"I have the details on him!" Mileena said with a chirp and a smile. "He managed several security sections through the Main building, Sections B, F, and J."

Like the Sectors within the Future Foundation, the main structures and buildings to the Future Foundation were also labeled with codes. This time around, the titles weren't labeling the sections as specific Operations or based on key details, but these titles were meant to symbolize the importance of each of the following sections.

From A-F, were the first level sections. They always dealt with data transmissions and relay to various parts of the world, ones that were still standing in this time. Section G-N, the secondary levels, dealt with all forms of outside Operations, such as missions, retrieval, and so on. They were also charged with keeping the peace within the Sectors, and the areas outside the Future Foundation under their control.

As for the last Sections, O-Z, they were considered the most important of the 3 sections, and were heavily guarded. Their main tasks were overseeing the various tasks of the other sections, Sectors, just about everything connected to the Future Foundation in one way or another. While it might've sound like a bunch of "behind-the-desk-Workers" type of job, these people actually ensured that the Future Foundation continued to thrive. Without them, chaos would run rampant throughout the sectors and all Foundations under their control, and it would eventually crumble.

"...Wait..." The light bulb suddenly clicked on in Kirigiri's head. There was something keeping her from gathering a full amount of details that she needed, but she couldn't tell what. The fact that she couldn't actually worried her to a small degree. "Lemme see your notebook for a second." Kirigiri instructed. No sooner did Mileena hand over the notebook did she swipe it swiftly out of her hands.

The other two detectives looked back at one another briefly as they watched the Super High School Level Sleuth work her "magic". There was some sort of brainstorm forming inside Kirigiri's head, as the only noises coming from her were the scribbling noises of whatever she was jotting down in her notebook. If it was possible, you think her pencil would've caught on fire from whatever she was writing.

And whatever she was writing, it would have to remain a mystery until she was done again. Every so often, Mark and MIleena would come about to see Kirigiri suddenly jotting down notes and ideas like this after having some spark of realization strike her. During those times, they knew it was best to leave her to her work until she was done, not able to get her attention anyway even if their lives depended on it.

Finally, after what felt like hours, despite the fact it had only been a little under 5 minutes, Kirigiri examined the contents of the journal, displaying it for the others to see on her lap.

"Ok, so if this is correct, let's say this is how the operation went with the last string of murders." Kirigiri began as she tapped the base of her chin with the pencil's eraser.

The other two examined it with bewildered curiosity. It wasn't anything like they had expected to see! What they expected were perhaps various jots and notes of whatever Kirigiir was running through her head, which would end up with the identity of the culprit. Instead, they were greeted with a rough layout of the main building, as well as various checkpoints and markings and sections that were labeled out as A, B, or C.

"What if the murder of the Head of whichever sector was the main goal?" Kirigiri pondered as she crossed it out. "Person A, who was the first victim, was the person in charge of making the food or drinks. Person B, the next victim, was the one in charge of delivering said meals to prevent forcing Person A from doing it and arouse suspicion. At the same time, Person A could do something like disappear or appear somewhere else to arouse suspicion, and draw attention away from Person B further."

"Ok, I see where you're going but what about-" Mark tried to reply. Kirigiri gave a firm pause-like gesture as she held up her hand.

"Continuing on, Person C was someone vital they needed. With the area they were going to, they needed someone else on the inside in order to ensure they could pass off the contents of whatever murdered the Head to begin with." Kirigiri continued, crossing out Person C. "Because of that, they would require three different people to help fill in for those who would miss their job."

"Are you saying the entire point of this was an entire Assassination mission?!" MIleena stammered in surprise.

"You gotta be kidding me..." Mark grumbled to himself on the inside, doing his best not to show it.

Once again, while it still left some details out, he was outdone by Kirigiri of all people. He didn't necessarily mind being shown off by someone else, the problem came in when he was shown off by someone younger than himself. You can imagine the whole insecurity issue someone would have with someone younger outdoes them...

"So that means someone's trying to assassinate another head?" Mileena questioned.

"It's the only thing I can perceive, but..." There was a look of irritation on Kirigiri's face as she rubbed her chin. "I... I just can't figure out WHERE exactly they'll strike. There's too many possibilities out there-"

"And we can't just pause every meeting going on today without either proof or a valid explanation." Mileena stated, having an idea of what was going on.

"Tch, that all? No problem then!" It was possibly the first time Kirigiri had seen Mark grin at all since the day began.

"Why's that?"

"Cause, there's only one meeting going on today." He explained.

"Only o-!"

All at once, the world seemed to slow down for Kirigiri. That one, single, utterance finally explained all the tension and unease she was feeling in her heart. Out of all the things out there, this one, grand, reason, was the sole cause for all her discomfort and unease since the case had began. And it finally gave her the sole reason why she had to fear this outcome.

"Oh shit!" She cursed, already running from the room. The other two did a near-double take at each other before running on after her.

"H-Hey! Kirigiri wait!" Mileena yelled after her.

"Hold up!" Mark shouted after.

Kirigiri paid zero attention to the two. If everything was coming full circle as she expected, which she wished wasn't the case for once, then Naegi's life was indefinitely put into trouble. At this point, she knew no security warnings could be given to the actual guards at the meeting site, nor would she be able to give any message to anyone else she knew. The worse part was, she couldn't just say anything about a murder unless she had concrete proof- considering she didn't have one, the only proof she could expect was to wait until someone ended up dead.

Only problem was it would be Naegi in this case! Like hell if she would wait till her of all people would die first!...Not that she would just wait around for anyone else to die for proof, of course.

Fortunately enough, however, there was at least 1 last person she could count on, if anything, to buy some time. Better yet, she knew that certain "someone" was located on Section-H, where her therapy sessions always took place. It was the only person she could contact at a time like this, seeing how she had a direct connection with her at almost all times.

Messing with the earpiece she had for a few seconds, she tweaked it around until she could get a signal through to the girl on the other line.

"Hello?" Ikusaba's voice came up.

"Ikusaba!" Kirigiri said firmly as she continued to run. It was still a good ways from the outside where she was to the main building itself- she needed a good chunk of time to get to Naegi in time.

"Hey Kirigiri, what's-" Ikusaba began to ask in a perky tone.

"Ikusaba, I need you to listen!" Kirigiri spoke in a firm tone, implying the seriousness of this matter. "Naegi's life is in danger, got that? Someone is going to execute her at today's Meeting on Section-J!"

There was silence on the other line, save for Ikusaba's shallow breathing. Even if she was warning Ikusaba about Naegi, she needed to be careful how much she worded her speech. It would be one thing if Ikusaba bolted immediately into action, but it would be something else entirely if she had another mental breakdown and cause "Another Episode" (get iiiit, geeet iiiiit :P...oh you guy's aren't fun X( ) like what happened down at the Sector-8 prison.

"What...Are you su-" Ikusaba mumbled, her voice already creaking.

"Ikusaba, listen- I'm on my way to the complex, but I'm barely at the first floor already. I need you to get to Naegi right now!"

"B-But how can-" Kirigiri could already tell what she was trying to ask. The natural response to a well-fortified complex like this was "how would they plan to kill someone"?

"She's going to be poisoned, Ikusaba!" Kirigiri interrupted again. "Don't let her drink anything until I get there!"

With that, she immediately hung up. She had so much more to say, but not enough time to stand or sit around and explain it all. All she could do to speed up time, was to immediately end the transmission, in the hopes Ikusaba would get off her feet and hurry on up there.

...

And her hope was not put to waste. Whatever the case may be, numerous events met Kirigiri along the way to the Section-J. For starters, she heard a security alarm going off. Part of her was worried that it might've been an alert that would detail some sudden corpse or murder occurring, fearing greatly for Naegi's life. Luckily, only by a small amount, it turned out to be come alarm about some "crazy/dangerous target running through the complex", warning all staff on the first levels to evacuate the complex. The warning wouldn't be sent to anyone through the 2nd-level Sections, out of fear for their safety with everyone running through the halls.

This "crazy girl", was no one else but Ikusaba. Kirigiri rolled her eyes at times like these, having at least several accounts of when this event would occur. It wasn't anything she could control, mind you. This warning was an automated response hooked up to her chest piece. It was bound to go off any time it reached the second level of her stress, meaning she reached her 2nd Phase in terms of "Despair/Stress". Sometimes these would activate during the Therapy Sessions she had, causing a bit of unnecessary panic among anyone within the floors.

It was also a little funny to her, but she never told anyone out loud.

Along the way, nearing up to the H-Section after several minutes, Kirigiri noticed the remains of fellow security guards that Ikusaba attacked. Perhaps saying "attacked" was the wrong way to phase it. They were only subduced to an extent where they couldn't chase anyone or fight back for the time being. Kirigiri wasn't surprised, but it must've happened while Ikusaba was on the run to Naegi.

Like Kirigiri herself, she wouldn't let anyone dare harm her beloved Naegi. Provided that she could subdue anyone without any harsh injuries, but it was to be expected if Ikusaba was already in a panicked state. For the most part, all those subdued were simply knocked out cold or groaning on the floor. It would take some time to explain the reasoning behind everything but for now, Naegi, as always, came first.

Finally after ten full minutes of running, leaving the poor girl exhausted deeply, all the while seeming to have lost track of Mileena and Mark, she finally made it to Section-J; the 28th floor of the complex. Perhaps she made it just in time too, because the next thing she knew, there was gunfire going off.

*Bang!*

The suddenness of it was enough to make Kirigiri's heart skip a beat, fearing the worst.

"N-Naegi..." She muttered in fear, pulling herself across the hallway as she stuck near the wall. Her fears were just as quickly dashed away though as she heard shouting.

"STAY BACK NAEGI!" Ikusaba shouted angrily through the doorway. It gave Kirigiri some relief of what was going on, and more distress after discovering the scene.

Upon entering the room, she was greeted by a peculiar sight: There Ikusaba was, with one pistol pressed between the eyes of whoever her target was, all in the center of a destroyed holo-projector. It wasn't the most surprising sight, and it was more or less expected that something could be destroyed if Ikusaba was getting involved.

The part that did put her slightly on edge was the sight of the six guards surrounding her. Knowing Ikusaba would've forced herself to keep a level-headed sense at all times, she obviously wouldn't have killed anyone along the way up here. At the same time, that meant everyone that had chased her all the way up here were now ready to possibly dislodge a bullet into her skull if she tried anything funny, and that was regardless of whether or not Naegi begged them not to. As much as they hated it, they wouldn't listen to the Ultimate Hope several feet away from them.

But she was a different story.

"WAIT!" Kirigiri shouted demandingly. Everyone's attention, save for Ikusaba's who was still shaking as she pinned the man down, turned to her as she spoke.

"Kirigiri?" Naegi questioned.

"Hold...Hold your fire..." Kirigiri panted, exhausted. "Ikusaba is innocent! She didn't do anything wrong..."

...

...

...

That was how the day played out amongst three separate girls. In the aftermath that followed, numerous cases and situations were explained to those who've gathered.

First off, several of the staff, who were secretly working undercover, were arrested and put until heavy surveillance, while surviving an obvious life sentence down in the Sector-8 Maximum security prison. Not only were the Chef who made the tea, the servant who brought it, and the security guard who allowed him into the meeting room arrested on spot, several more staff were brought in for questioning and for background checks of their history up to this event within the last several weeks.

In addition, several more unexpected staff members also appeared to be double-agents, working undercover as they were. Dr. Torrose, naturally, was one of them. It turned out Ms. Eleanor was found dead several hours after the incident, her body being discovered in a Janitorial closet. Torrose, turned out, was tasked with making sure Ikusaba was kept at bay while the assassination plot was being carried at hand. Naegi, as the Ultimate Hope to the world, was their true target at that time, as well as several other staff members throughout the complex that day.

Fortunately, because the plot itself was brought down, those orders were scrapped, saving other lives who were intended for assassination. While the details of exactly how many were put into jeopardy, it was safe to say that a good handful of key folk were saved by Kirigiri, as well as Ikusaba in some other manner of speaking.

Along with this, Ikusaba was, naturally, given a full pardon on her assaults on about twenty different guards who she attacked, several of which she broke the arms or legs to, seeing how she rescued an important figurehead to the Future Foundation. While this didn't excuse her for running rampant to begin with, they decided to Overlook it, seeing how much the girl had been going through for her stress, and everything she's put up with up to that point. It was a miracle at all, and a good sign of improvement, that she didn't succumb to her own despair while working towards saving Naegi.

And because of all these happenings, things were just about to get a little better for three particular girls...

"Woohoo! No school!" Ikusaba cheered on the couch, clothed in her long light-pink night shirt that stretched down to her knees.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? We don't even have school." Kirigiri questioned as she brought over the popcorn. Like Ikusaba, she was dressed in long clothing, this one consisting of a somewhat-transparent pink nightie.

"Just an expression." Ikusaba said with a grin, leaning relaxingly on the couch. "Because of all that happened, we have a total staff recall! No work for the next week! No more boring meetings or therapy sessions, and no more horrible torture from work."

"You would know a lot about horrible torture, wouldn't you?" Kirigiri teased with a small smirk, sitting on the right side of the couch. Ikusaba just gave her a smug, playful, look. Having set aside their differences for so long, and finally having the time to bond between one another while bonding with Naegi, they've gotten used to one another. Simple things like Kirigiri's crude joke no longer seemed to phase Ikusaba, even though she knew she was being smug about it.

"Heh, heh, heh, aren't you funny..." She spoke in a goofy tone.

"It would give us some time to finally hang out for awhile." Naegi spoke walking in with a tray of pop-filled glasses. Like the other two, she was dressed as if ready for bed, wearing her casual pink night shirt and pants. Even though it was only 4 in the afternoon, the girls planned on relaxing as much as they could for their week off. The other two smiled as she made her way to the middle of the couch, planting herself right between the two.

"Y'all ready for a movie-marathon?" Ikusaba asked excitedly as she grabbed the remote.

"Movie's already popped in and everything." Kirigiri added.

"Hmhm..." Naegi just gave a small chuckle as she smiled to the two, looking at them sincerely right after. "I want to thank you two again for what you did...you saved my life."

Both girls smiled at Naegi, not that they weren't whenever she's around. Her joy, her acceptance of them, her happiness, those were the only thing that ever meant anything to them in this world these days. With the tragedy that befell the world, she was their little "hope" nowadays, and they cherished every moment they could finally have with one another.

"You don't have to thank us Naegi." Ikusaba insisted. "Just because it's the 17th assassination attempt on your life, doesn't mean it's any different."

Queue the awkward sweat-dropping-moment.

"Ehhh...t-that's reassuring...I think..."

"Look, really, you don't have to worry about a thing." Kirigiri insisted. Naegi couldn't help but blink in surprise as the two leaned in closer to her face from both ends. "We always promise to be there for you and to protect you.

"We love you, Naegi."

*shmck*

*shmck*

There was a long meaningful pause as Naegi's face turned bright red. Whether through the fact they were all the same gender, or the simple act of them doing it, nothing could prevent the immense deep-red blush that filled Naegi's face as both Ikusaba and Kirigiri kissed her on her respective cheeks. No matter how many times she went through it, no matter how much she knew they both loved her, she couldn't go through any embarrassing or awkward bits like these without simply blushing. It made her feel awkward, for obvious reasons, and she'd prefer keeping these things on a low profile at all times.

...Yet, it was through these acts of heroism, the simple acts that she constantly had her life saved because of these two, that always reminded her why they meant so much to her. And they didn't ask for any reward in the end of it all, except for one measly thing. Naegi couldn't help but give a soft, still-blushing, smile to the two as she got comfortable in the couch.

"Y-Yeah...I love you girls too..."

...

...

...

A/N: HARUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OM SWEET FREAKING MONEY HOLY HANA ALACABANA MECHA MECHA HIDEY HO SWEET FREAKING FEJEBUS MONKEY ON A PLANE MONKEY JESUS! That was THE LONGEST chapter I've EVER POSTED T_TT_T_T_TT_T_T_T_T!

Part of the reason, for my rather lengthy post, is to apologize for the delay. I missed my "regular deadline" by a SINGLE DAY X* What is wrong with me?!...on second thought, I'm not apologizing XP I worked hard and diligently for this bonus chapter, and the extra length/size should more than enough make up for the 1-day-delay ^^

HUUUUUUUUFTA! Seriously people- CUT ME SOME SLACK! In fact, for those nay-sayers out there who complain about this sorta thing, find me ANYONE out there, who's posted 20K+ WORDS IN LESS THAN 8 DAYS IN A SINGLE CHP, THEN WE'll TALK!

Lol, seriously though, thanks for the constant support as always ^^ Other reason for this delay and length, is due to an unfortunate announcement: I GOT A JOB X*(! What the heck was I thinking?! Now I have a job, I might get even MORE delays X! GAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! I'm sorry I'm sorry X! It's toally blasphemous I know X(!

Then again 1-day-longer isn't too bad, and when you think about it, I got about 2 chps worth of posting in 1 chp, so that kinda makes up more than 1 chp a week ^^ Technicalities aside ,this was a bonus chapter for chaosrin who wanted a sorta "Day in their life" sorta ordeal ^^ I hope you liked it ^^!...cause if you don't...eh heh...if you don't like this...this thing I've worked to the bone for the last 8 FREAKING DAYS T_T...GAAAAAAHODSJgDOP)JHGDIGJSOIGJDSGOIDJGOJSDGJDSOF!

I will be sad and angry.

jk XP

lol, hope you all enjoyed ^^ expect main plot updates next week (lets see if me saying it'll come in a longer update-date makes me post faster actually, shall we XP?)