Baka's notes: Merry Christmas everyone!
Enjoy your present!
Chapter 1-1: Newcomers
Togami had a storm of questions swirling inside his brain but before he could ask anything, Mukuro beat him to the punch and asked with a rather uncertain voice.
"N-Naegi… Are you saying… That this place is Lobotomy Corporation? Where you did an internship-"
"You had an internship in Lobotomy Corporation?!" Togami exclaimed, "How?!"
"- with the monsters?" Mukuro finished her question.
"Abnormalities." Naegi corrected her, "And yeah, I thought that if anyone could help us as I guided you here it would be the employees I talked about… But what happened here?"
"Forget about that! So the rumors are true?" Leon asked the woman.
The Rabbit mercenary put back her helmet on and told them to be quiet and hold all their questions for later, they must keep moving. She asked them where the rest of their friends were.
"We made rendezvous at the room connecting the Purple Departement to the Yellow one."
"I see. So they probably encountered another Abnormality."
"What?! Are they okay!?" Naegi exclaimed in terror.
"Don't worry. I'll contact my men." The armored woman said as she turned around and brought a hand to her earpiece, "Bravo. What's the status?"
"Holy shit! LOOK AT OUR SKIN!" she heard the redhead shout.
"Yes Boss? I was about to contact you... The kids? Yeah we found them about to have a violent encounter with an Abnormality… Yeah it went well." the Rabbit Mercenary snickered at the recent corpse of the Forsaken Murderer at his feet.
Meanwhile, another Rabbit Mercenary, a much, much massive one was treating the wounded of the group.
"There you go! That should stop the bleeding for a good time!" the large armored man said with a sweet voice.
"Thanks! I almost don't feel any more pain!" Asahina smiled while the others were freaking out about the color of their skin that had turned completely white.
"What the fuck?! How?! Why?!" Mondo exclaimed.
"I don't mind." Celeste smiled.
"Alright kids, I contacted our boss, she's with your friends. We're meeting them soon. Let's go." the armored man said as he jumped down from the corpse, which disappeared from thin air a couple of seconds later.
Not really having a better option the survivors agreed, Celeste and Chihiro finally had some rest as they've been supporting Yamada ever since they got down here.
"So where exactly are we?" Taka asked.
"One of the old factories of Lobotomy Corporation."
"What? Really?"
"Yes… Didn't your friend Naegi Makoto tell you that? He used to work here."
"Say what now?" Mondo gasped, "He worked here?!"
"Well it was more of a one week internship… Anyway, we'll explain more once everyone is reunited." the Rabbit Mercenary 'Bravo' said.
After a dozen of minutes and an elevator ride down to the Central Command Departement, the whole class was reunited and guided by the three Rabbit Mercenaries. Sayaka asked where they were going and the boss who presented herself as Myo in the meantime explained they were heading to Lobotomy Corp. HQ. She then asked in return what happened outside and surprisingly wasn't very shocked when hearing about the Tragedy, but she was when hearing about Hope's Peak failed killing game and how almost everyone had their memories erased.
"I wanted to ask…" Naegi started.
"What happened here, right?" Myo said and with the Luckster's nod she let out a small sigh, "I guess we do have some time before us."
It happened pretty much at the same time as the rest of the world. 'Despair' infected a few employees around the globe and were starting to spread it throughout the Facilities. They were starting to do their work badly on purpose, getting in what seemed like a panic state despite being 'healthy' and letting Abnormalities escape their containment.
It was a damn miracle that the Abnormalities didn't get infected by Despair… But they can get very angry from it.
It was unbelievable, L. Corp is the Rabbit Mercenaries' main client but they rarely needed our help that much… This was a complete mess. Getting so many calls for help in such short intervals, we let down more than one facility like that…
After a couple of days, it was clear that something was very wrong and all Facilities were shut down.
The survivors, a very small number… were transported to the main HQ Facility which was closed until the event.
The other Facilities are as you can see now, just storage buildings for the Abnormalities.
And now we're some damn guardians for those freaks. Whenever HQ needs an Abnormality or extract one, we must take care of it.
Not only do we, the Rabbit Mercenary Team, have to keep the Abnormalities from going out, but we have to deal with the Despair scum that sometimes manage to slip inside this place. Thankfully we're not running out of locks.
"So that explains the new-looking lock…" Mukuro whispered.
"How on Earth did you guys get in by the way?" One of the Mercenaries asked.
"We entered through a broken window and broke the lock with this." Kirigiri said as she showed the red axe that she still had on her possession.
"What the- that's a EGO weapon! Where did you find that?!" Myo exclaimed as she looked at the weapon.
"Ego weapon…? It was taped under a table, Naegi found it by pure chance." the detective answered.
At hearing the answer, Myo let out a laugh.
"Aren't you worried about running out of luck soon, Makoto Naegi?" she said between laughs, "First you find the remote of the exit of your school in a gacha machine, then you somehow manage to bring your whole class here without a single casualty, then you find a Ego weapon that not even us managed to find and finally the elevator."
"What about the elevator?" asked one of the ex-students.
"It was supposed to be off-line. We erased every worker's ID from the system so no one would get out of the Facility if something happened." the large mercenary explained, "Though again, I guess we didn't think of deleting old IDs that we were sure would never come back again. We take the stairs if we need to go upstairs to clean up some Despair scum."
"Plus you survived that crash."
"There were some of Melting Love's offspring that tried to escape through the chute, they cushioned your fall. Not only did they save your life by dying, but you saved us some trouble hunting them down before they escape." Myo laughed again, "Pure. Luck. What a talent!"
Everyone looked at Naegi as he looked to the side, blushing in embarrassment. But he did wonder: how on earth was that possible? He knew that his luck wasn't that convenient. He always knew that it worked in harmony with his bad luck: when bad luck hit him, good luck would pick him up from the ground. But it could also happen the other way around… If good luck is nice to him, bad luck will punch him soon enough...
"Anyway, we're here." The leader of the Rabbit Mercenary said as she opened a secret door in the middle of a red corridor.
The group arrived at the Disciplinary Departement and thankfully didn't encounter any Abnormalities on their way there. Behind the door was a very long corridor. Myo explained that at the end of the corridor was a room with a teleporter that will bring them to HQ.
And yes, she had to do a demonstration of teleportation with her own device to shut up the skepticism of Kirigiri and Togami particularly, also surprising everyone to see such a device existing.
Everyone ignored Hagakure's exclamations about aliens and whatnot.
Asahina asked the reason for such a long corridor to the teleporter instead of just an adjacent room. The answer came from the large Mercenary who explained that like that whenever an Abnormality is detected in the corridor, they can lock the doors to the teleporter and trap the creature in the corridor for Suppression.
"Once we get there, will you be joining us?" Naegi asked the Mercenary group.
"Haha, nah, we have work here to contain the freaks. Taking care of them is the Agents' work! But sometimes they'll call us to graze the grass!" Myo laughed.
"By grass, she means the targeted monsters." the big mercenary explained in a whisper.
"But seriously… I'm just glad to be alive for more than a week…"
Before anyone could ask what she meant by that, the mercenaries received an emergency call.
"What's the matter Delta?" Myo asked in a serious voice.
"You got Abnormalities coming to your location!"
"What Threat level?"
"One ALEPH, three WAW and a HE! It's the Mountain of Smiling Bodies, the Warm-hearted Woodsman and Queen Bee's workers are approaching your group."
"Wouldn't they just kill each other?" the leader commented.
"Only if they arrive at the same time."
"...Who's closer?"
"The Bees, there's three of them. Encounter in T- one minute!"
The atmosphere changed around the group.
"What's happening?" Mondo asked.
"Abnormalities are coming… Dammit. And I didn't want to do back and forth…" Myo sighed.
"What do you me-"
Naegi didn't have the chance to finish his question as he felt something stab his neck and inject some liquid in his veins. His vision started to get blurry as he fell on the floor, unable to move or support his own weight.
He heard someone scream his name as panic exploded among his friends.
He tried to stay conscious but the drug was stronger than him.
Everything went dark.
When Naegi opened his eyes, he wasn't feeling as bad as he would have expected from the sudden drug injection earlier. But he did have a small migraine, he tried reaching for his forehead only to notice that he couldn't move his arms.
Not just that!
He couldn't move his body at all!
And that migraine wasn't a migraine! it's a metal strap wrapped tightly around his head on a metal bed! And now that he could see more clearly, he was in a white room he didn't know at all!
He tried to turn his head to the right, the friction of his skin against the metal hurting his forehead. He saw Ishimaru sleeping in the same condition as him. He didn't look hurt so that was a relief. He then turned his head left and saw Asahina in the same state, but from his left he could also smell something.
He knew that smell oh so well. It was blood.
Was it the swimmer's? Was it her injury? Or something else?
He was about to call her out but the sound of doors opening and a couple of voices coming in stopped him.
He quickly got back in the position he first started and feinted being still unconscious, knowing well that making his presence known was not a good idea at the moment.
"And that's ten! Only five more to go!" one of the people said, a woman.
"Yeah, hopefully this bunch won't be a problem." The other person, a man sighed.
"Hey, hey, did you notice that everyone except freckles had something wrong with their brain?"
"Didn't you listen to Miss Myo? All these Ultimates except for the Soldier had their memories erased… And also Spiky Hair over there, he managed to get some of them back."
Naegi almost flinched at hearing the man mentioning him.
"Anyway, let's get to wor-"
"WHAT THE-?! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!" Naegi suddenly heard Mondo shout, "LET ME GO YOU ASSHOLES! WHERE'S EVERYONE!? UUUURGH! F-FUKAWA?! WAKE UP! I SAID WAKE UP!" he yelled some more.
"Oh come on, seriously? Every batch will have a trouble maker that wakes up earlier than the others? That's the third one…" the man sighed once more and approached the biker.
"DON'T YOU TOUCH ME OR I SWEAR-!"
"Go back to sleep, please, this is important for you." the woman said in a sad tone.
"I SAID DON'T-! YOU! You…. y…" Mondo fell silent.
"Jeez! That's the third kid to wake up!"
"Make it fourth." a cool voice suddenly said right in front of Naegi.
The Luckster did let out a yelp this time, opening his eyes to see another woman with long ondulated hair looming over him.
"Oh? I didn't expect him to wake up." the other woman said.
"Olga, can you do it for us while we start on his friends?"
"Of course." the woman said.
"Wait! Why are you doing this?!" Naegi exclaimed, trying to get answers before they made him fall asleep again.
"Don't worry Makoto Naegi. This is for your own good." the woman, Olga, said before stabbing his neck with a needle and injecting him anesthesia.
"B-But…" the Luckster didn't have the time to say anything else before drifting from consciousness.
And everything went dark once more.
"Naegi-kun… Naegi-kun!"
When Naegi opened his eyes again, he immediately sat up and looked around him to be sure that everyone was alright, they were all there and looked safe, some were already awake and were trying to wake up the rest. Sayaka was the one who called him up.
Strange enough, everyone was wearing a black suit and tie that Naegi immediately recognized as the Lobotomy Corp. regular agent uniform. He then looked around.
They were in the Light Yellow main room of the Control Departement of a Lobotomy Corp. Facility. But this one wasn't in ruin and there even were a few agents walking around.
"Oh thank God you're ok!" she exclaimed and embraced him.
"U-Uh?" he blushed slightly, "Y-yeah I'm okay… Wait-"
"Bro! You're awake!" Ishimaru interrupted his train of thoughts.
"Guh… Yeah yeah… Fuckin' hell, that was worse than Hagakure's 'special drink' at Chihiro's 18th birthday…" he groaned as he scratched the back of his head.
"Hey it wasn't that bad…" Hagakure whined in a yawn.
Everyone fell silent at the last exchange.
"Wait. My memories! They're back!"
All students started to cheer at remembering their experiences, bonds and feelings that connected every member of class 78 of Hope's Peak Academy.
"Quiet!" Togami shouted.
Looks like he wasn't cheering.
"We can all talk about this later! We have something more important at hand!" he said, "First of all, Ishimaru, Yamada, Asahina and Naegi, how are you four feeling?"
"Uh? I'm alright." Asahina said with a raised eyebrow.
"Me too! I don't feel any pain at all, looks like I leveled up! Hahaha!" Yamada laughed with a raised fist, Celeste rolled her eyes in amusement next to him.
"Same for me!" Ishimaru stated.
"As for me I don't feel any pain either."
"I could tell since you're standing up as if nothing happened to your leg." Kirigiri said, crouching at his side, inspecting his leg, "Can I?" she 'asked' but was already lifting the legs of his pants.
"H-Hey!"
"That's what I thought. The wound is gone." she said.
"What? That's impossible!" Mukuro exclaimed before also crouching next to Kirigiri to examine the leg.
"H-Hey! Guys stop!" Naegi blushed harder.
Sayaka and more ex-students were about to join the Soldier until Togami exclaimed once more.
"Enough with the buffoonery! This is definitely odd but if we start talking about it we'll be at it for hours. Next topic: we are all wearing the same suit that Naegi showed us after his internship at Lobotomy Corp. so it's clear to me that we've been teleported to their HQ, like the Rabbit Mercenary explained before they backstabbed us."
"Oh that's right! Myo and the others knocked us unconscious! Even Sakura-chan and Ikusaba-san!" Asahina remembered, "Though after that I just woke up here."
"That's right!" Naegi exclaimed, "I remember tha-"
BWOOOOOOOWBWOOOOOOW
-First Trumpet-
"Wh-What the hell is that?!" Leon yelled.
"Oh no. That means an Abnormality just breached!" the Luckster paled.
"And that brings us to the next question." Togami continued, "Now that I remember everything you told us about your internship, and that I know that it wasn't stupid lies but actually the truth. Why? Why on Earth did you bring us here, Naegi?"
All the Ultimates turned their heads towards Naegi, waiting for his answer.
He opened his mouth, but no words came out, he slowly widened his eyes.
"Y-You're right! Why? Why did I bring you here?! I know how dangerous this place is! McIlton-san, even Red-san told me to not come back! Why on Earth did I think it would be a good idea? And also… How did I bring you here?! I shouldn't even know where the old Factory was supposed to be located, I always had a blindfold when going to work during my internship!"
There were many more questions left without answers but before he could shout them out the lights of the Department went off.
"AAAH!"
"What's happening?!"
"Bro! Chihiro! Stay close!"
"M-M-Master!"
"Don't come closer!"
"GUYS! Calm down!" Naegi exclaimed, somehow managing to shut up everyone before there was more panic.
"Wh-What is going on, Naegi-kun?" Sayaka asked him with a trembling voice, fear clear in her eyes.
"It means that Big Bird, the Abnormality who breached, reached our departement."
"That's bad! Very very bad!" Hagakure screamed.
"Yeah! But all we need to do is leave the departement to be safe! I'm sure that all of us here is a big mistake, so let's just leave the departement, search for a high level agent that could help us speak to the Manager. And everything will be alright, ok?" He smiled at his friends.
They didn't look certain but nodded nonetheless, Naegi's smile grew larger and gave them a nod of determination as he walked towards one of the doors that lead to the elevator to another Department. As the door opened, he turned to his friends.
"Don't worry guys!" he started, barely noticing everyone looking at him with terror.
"Everything will be o...kay?" he slowed down, finally seeing that they were looking past him, something behind him.
He slowly turned around, and met face to face with a familiar creature, it's many many red eyes glaring at him as it's beaks with sharp teeth were wide open.
Before he could even say or do anything, the monster snapped its beak close and with it, decapitated the young Luckster.
And everything went dark for good.
Baka's notes: You have no idea how much of an enormous grin is on my face right now.
I dunno what to write next between Slayers or Despair in Lobotomy, what do you guys think?