Baka's notes:New story, enjoy everyone...

Prologue 1: Despair…

"Juzo Sakakura, here to report, sir!"

The Ex-Boxer exclaimed after he entered the conference room where his two superiors were waiting for him.

"Ah, Sakakura-kun… I hope it's good news." Tengan, the head of Future Foundation said with calm as he stared at the man who entered.

"Sakakura, did you find the survivors?" Munakata asked his old friend.

"No, my team and I couldn't find them, Munak- I mean, Boss…" Sakakura answered with a lowered gaze as he clenched his hands.

Two sighs were heard in the room when hearing the news. Tengan looked back at the files in front of him, searching for a solution as Munakata walked towards the window and stared daggers at the red sky of the World filled with Despair. He shook his head.

"How is this even possible."

"Well there's a chance they split up, which could make things harder for us… As if it wasn't already with the Despair assholes!" Sakakura spat at mentioning the enemy.

"You'll clean that." Tengan commented without lifting his eyes from the documents, "And I don't think they did this, we saw them leaving the school building together, anyone in their right mind wouldn't want to be alone in a world like this, not without any equipment."

"Tengan-san is correct, they must be together."

"But how the fuck were they be able to dodge us or the Despair at the same time? We looked everywhere, we should have crossed paths at some point. It's been three weeks…" the boxer grunted, "A group of fifteen teenagers can't just disappear like this. It's almost like they're being guided…"

" That, or that they are either extremely lucky… or unlucky…"

It's been a year since the world fell into Despair. The last beacons of Hope, the students of Hope's Peak Academy were locked in the school for the whole year but were unaware that among them was the source of all the Despair. The students were supposed to participate in a Killing Game that was to be broadcasted to the whole world but with the courage and hope of two students, they managed to cancel the show before it even started. The doors were opened and the fifteen students, alive and mostly unharmed, left the building.

One month has gone by since that day.

Needless to say that keeping everyone morale high and the group together was extremely hard… But Naegi somehow managed that as he was 'leading' the group to their next destination…

That night, the large group was hiding on the second floor of an abandoned and damaged building, everyone was armed with at least one blunt weapon to defend themselves in case of emergency. There were no exceptions. The nights were harsh and breathing was even harsher with the polluted air…

Mukuro was keeping guard near a window that had a view on the only entrance of the building. She got rid of the wig that made her look like her sister because of how useless it was during battle, but she kept her clothes. In her hands was a rifle she took from the latest Despair the group managed to restrain.

She didn't even looked away as she said:

"Naegi-kun, you can come. I won't point my gun at you."

"Haha…" the Luckster laughed awkwardly as he entered the room, he was a bit on his guard because the few first time it happened she would always point her weapon at anyone nearby while on guard duty.

"You can't sleep?" she asked, this time looking at the Luckster.

"No… Do you mind if I keep you company?"

"...Of course not." she answered with a faint blush on her cheeks, she'd rather be alone honestly, but she never really managed to say no to the one who saved her.

"We'll need to change the bandages soon." she added, looking at his side where Gungnir skewered him instead of her.

"Y-Yeah I guess but first…"

"...We need to go where you're guiding us, you said that you're sure there will be help over there." another voice joined the conversation.

Naegi jumped but kept his scream down his throat while Mukuro just smiled at his reaction, her eyes still on the streets outside.

"You were nice enough to endure the rest of everyone's caprices, mine included." Kirigiri added as she took a seat next to him.

Before they ended where they are now, Naegi suggested going where everyone wanted to go to see if their friends, family, home were safe but no such luck. Sakura's dojo was defiled with Monokuma tags everywhere, Togami's mansion was ruined and everyone's families were nowhere to be found, and there were no hints of their whereabouts or if they were alive.

"I know… But… The thing is…"

"You don't really know where you're guiding us, don't you?" Kirigiri finished his sentence.

At hearing that, Mukuro actually stopped looking outside and stared with wide eyes at the revelation.

"Naegi-kun, is she telling the truth?"

"... Yes… I… I don't really know where exactly we're going but I can… feel?... That something is calling me there. That it's very important that I go there, that it'll help us." Naegi explained.

The girls didn't say a word, staring at the Luckster.

"I'm sorry for lying to you…"

"It's okay, Naegi-kun." Mukuro said, "It's not like we have any other choices, anyway."

"And we can always just start looking again if your… destination isn't going to help us. We don't have much to lose beside time…"

"I'll protect you if anyone starts threatening you." the soldier added before shifting back her focus on the streets.

Kirigiri nodded and Naegi smiled, reassured.

"Thank you…" he whispered.

Finding not one but three functional cars with enough fuel to transport the class was nothing short of a miracle, or an amazing luck some would say while looking at Naegi. Or almost as if they were being helped by some unknown force, Hagakure would say.

But the fact was that the 15 young adults were now leaving the last city they were hiding to go where Naegi was guiding them with Sakura, Mukuro and Mondo on the wheel. They drove for hours just to leave the city and reach what should have been a green landscape before the Tragedy but now looked like a Far West desert.

"Naegi? Are you sure we're on the right way? We really need to find something to heal our injureds." Mondo yelled out the window to speak to Naegi who was in Mukuro's car. He glanced back at Ishimaru who had a few bullet wounds on his side.

But the Moral Compass wasn't the only one hurt, Yamada got his belly sliced open by a Despair armed with a machete on the second day and Hagakure has a broken nose from Mondo for trying to run away with some food they found, thank Goodness Naegi was there to save the idiot adult from being abandoned by his classmates. Finding medical aid was extremely hard, they got lucky to find some during their first week but now it was starting to run out.

"I am. Keep going." The Luckster said, determined. This was feeling familiar…

But not only for him.

Someone else had a feeling of déjà-vu.

After a while, the survivors found a large, seemingly abandoned, warehouse near a factory.

"This is it!" Naegi exclaimed after a low grunt and a small migraine.

The cars parked near the entrance of the building.

"Naegi… This place looks abandoned." Togami noted.

"I… No I'm sure it must be here… I mean…" He didn't finish his sentence as he ran towards the entrance.

He tried opening the large door but it was chained up from the inside.

"It's locked… B-But from the inside! S-So there must be someone in there!" Naegi exclaimed, sounding a bit desperate, which was a bit unusual.

"Naegi-kun… Where are we?" Sayaka asked.

At hearing that question, he couldn't help but sweat.

"I… I don't know…" he confessed.

Time seemed to stop when those words came out of his mouth.

"What do you mean… 'you don't know'?" Mondo was the first to break the silence, fuming in anger, "Naegi… Tell me you didn't drag us here, in the middle of nowhere, with injured people, without knowing where you were going!" He yelled.

"Bro… It's oka-" Ishimaru tried to calm down the Biker.

"No it isn't." Togami cut, "Naegi. We're almost out of fuel to go back to the city. Why on Earth did you bring us here." he glared at the Luckster.

Mukuro and Kirigiri immediately could feel that the group might start to divide and that some of them might start to get hostile towards Naegi... and that wasn't what they needed at the moment. They were about to interrupt but someone else did with a yell.

"G-G-G-GUYS! Forget about that! W-W-What do we do about them!?" Hagakure yelled, pointing at a cloud of dust coming their way.

Mukuro didn't waste a second to jump on top of one of their vehicles and look through the handmade visor on top of her rifle. What she saw made her skin crawl in dread.

"Despairs incoming!" she yelled.

There was only one big truck but she could see among them three Monokuma units, the same size as Mondo, and could count at least five Despair humans wearing Monokuma masks.

The truck was armed up with blades and pointy sticks while it seemed that one Despair was on top playing a harmonica that spit fire, being held up by two of the Monokuma bots. Two Despairs were on the front seats and the last two were yelling their lungs out with machetes while grabbing on the doors. The last Monokuma was waving a pole where at the tip of it was attached a corpse.

"Three Monokumas and five Despairs!" she counted.

The students all had worried expressions, Despair people are a very dangerous bunch to take care of and Monokuma Units are even more dangerous as they were very strong. They could run but there was not enough fuel to escape by car, the factory wasn't close enough for them to get near without the Despair catching up to them and the only place to hide was in that locked warehouse.

"Alright! Everyone in position! The fight team gets ready to buy time, the rest, find a way to get inside!" Togami ordered.

The 'fight team' was composed of Mondo, Sakura, Asahina, Leon, Togami, Fukawa (who immediately left the spot for Jill) and Mukuro. Ishimaru was also part of that group but was pretty much forced to not participate in the 'operations' because of his injury.

Sakura and Asahina were both armed with slings while the rest besides Jill and Mukuro were armed with metal bars and baseball bats.

"Alright everyone, let's find a way in, quickly!" Kirigiri instructed the rest of the group before they started to search for any way inside the warehouse.

"Naegi. When all of this is over, we still have to talk. You have some explaining to do." Togami added with a glare towards the Luckster before he could leave.

"Y-Yeah…" was all that Naegi could say as he turned his back on them to help the rest of his classmates.

"Ikusaba. Can you shoot the driver from there?" the Heir asked.

"No, there's bars on the front and his driving is too crazy for me to get a clear shot." she explained.

"Then shoot the tire. It should at least give us more time."

She didn't wait for his instruction to fire, it was a good plan and the sooner the better.

She pulled the trigger and the truck, still far from their position nearly crashed to the side. She fired again and this time the truck did crash to the side. Unfortunately, there were no casualties as the Despairs and Monokumas managed to climb out of the truck and were now running towards the survivors.

"Everyone get ready!"

-Please be right about this place, Naegi-kun…- Mukuro thought as she switched from her rifle to her combat knife, as she was almost out of ammunition.

Baka's note: Where did Naegi guided them?

WOW, it's been a while, right people, maybe with the confinement, I'll be able to write a bit more? Who knows. I sure hope so! Stay safe everyone and wash your hands!