"…What…What is this?"

It was something that could have never been expected. Something that Mukuro had never anticipated happening to her. The one thing that she had never wanted to acknowledge the possibility of.

She'd been betrayed. Stabbed in the back by the one person she had believed in the most.

In her life as a solider, she sadly wasn't naïve to betrayals. There had regrettably been a few times where one of the members of Fenrir had been less then loyal and tried to sell off either locations or secrets to their enemies for financial gain. Nine out of ten of those, she had been the one to end the traitor's life, the one out of ten being given to her commander for interrogations. They didn't last the night.

Furthermore, she herself had known the feelings of betraying someone, having destroyed the trust and faith of, not only her fellow classmates, but of several people that had trusted and depended on her, ruining their lives for no other reason than to appease the endless boredom that constantly plagued her beloved sister.

The very sister who had done this to her.

In hindsight, she knew she should have seen this coming. For years, her sister had tried to kill her off for no other reason than to feel the despair of killing someone she loved. It was something that had defined their relationship.

At first, Mukuro had found it quite irritating, constantly having to be on her guard in order to avoid yet another of her sister's attempts to kill her. But, over time, and with a conformation that Junko only tried to do this because she loved her twin sister, the solider soon excepted these assassination attempts as her daily routine. Eventually, she even started to enjoy it as, not only did it help her keep her reaction time and combat skills razor sharp, it constantly reminded her how much her sister truly loved her; as bizarre as it could be.

If she were to be honest with herself, she had admittedly started to miss her sister's creative attempts to kill her during their time at hope's peak, but she hadn't had the will to ask why the attempts had ceased. Between Junko's time unconscious, their plans to bring about the most awful, most tragic, most despair inducing incident in the world, and Junko's time suffering intentional amnesia, there hadn't been much time for her sister to devote to plans of killing her.

Mukuro had assumed that it was because there had been no need at the time. As the Ultimate Solider, she was an important asset to her sister and her plans to cause despair. In the fact, as her twin, Mukuro could handle things physically disguised as her sister, things that Junko might be unable to handle with words alone. She was everything that her sister needed.

'So then why…?' she thought to herself as she stared at the large metal spear sticking from her flesh, 'why did she … why did she do this? What happened to the plan?'

She still remembered intimately what her sister's exact plan had been, having been told several times over the course of a week before they had taken over the school. Once the rules for the trials were announced, she would make a huge fuss and be dropped into the vents they had filled with a multitude of Monokuma; the 'dungeon' as Junko called it. Once there, she would make her way through the vents till she got to the dorm rooms. Then she would have her pick of targets to choose from.

Even the exact argument they had was scripted, right down till she attempted to walk out the door.

However, then Junko changed the script.

It wasn't hard to believe, her sister had always had a finicky attention span, a constant problem she'd had since they were children. Unless she could throw her all into it, Junko rarely stayed committed to anything. It was part of the reason she would get so bored so easily.

But this wasn't a problem. Mukuro was use to these kind of changes, even when they didn't make sense. She played along before all this, she could do it again.

So she did. She feigned anger at the bear for changing the rules on them, kicking it down with a small amount of guilty satisfaction. She broke a rule to get the bear to 'punish' her, to banish her to the so called dungeon. She even threw out a bit of a taunt to enhance her role as her sister.

But, then everything went wrong. Her sister didn't send her to the vents. She tried to kill her instead.

"Why?" she muttered aloud, unable to comprehend what had happened.

Her thoughts were cut off when the bear she was standing on suddenly spoke. "Well, I'm pretty sure the reason for this is because you broke my rules. Or is that not your foot on my face?"

Slowly her sights moved from the spear to the bear her sister controlled that was still under her with a sense of dread when she continued, "… Then again, I'm also pretty sure that I said "spears" of Gungnir, as in the plural sense, not "spear" in the singular."

It was true, despite the immense amount of pain she was going through, she could easily she that there was still only one spear going through her. Specifically, it was going right through her right upper thigh from the back of her leg, just below her buttocks. It didn't look like it had gone through the bone, but there was a concerning amount of blood pouring from it. If it weren't for the spear blocking the exits it had made, she had no doubt that she would be dead from blood loss right about now.

But, there raised the question; why hadn't the other spears gone off? There was no reason that Mukuro could think of for the trap to have failed. It had been designed, built, and tested by the Ultimate Mechanic after all, and he had yet to make a device that failed unless it was designed that way; and he would never risk incurring her sister's wrath by doing that.

So, that meant that Junko had intentionally done this. She had voluntarily made it so that only one of the spears would go off. The question was, why?

Why had her sister, who'd stated several times that she'd kill Mukuro so that she could feel her beloved despair, and had even attempted countless times to do so, give up on this opportunity? Was this one of her games that she had loved to play, or had she changed the plan further without telling the solider? Was this an attempt to make Mukuro feel despair?

Mukuro didn't know. All she knew right now was the intense amount of pain that she felt that was far beyond anything she'd ever felt before. The agony in her heart from her sister all but literally stabbing her in the back combined with the liquid fire in her leg to create a symphony of anguish that locked her in place, despite every instinct in her body screaming at her to move; to get away before her life was extinguished. But, the pain was too distracting.

Vaguely, she could hear the comments of the bear below her, something about how they were going to try this again, but it was more of a white noise compared to the rhythmic pounding of her heartbeat in her ears. Her vision was starting to waver and darken, her thoughts becoming more muddled the harder she tried to focus. She watched as several panels opened up in the floor, but her consciousness fading prevented her from doing more.

In the back of her mind, she could recall a lesson she had been given in the event that she had suffered such a wound, but in her dedication to avoid upsetting her sister by being injured, she had never really had a reason to retain much of it. One thing that did click though, was that she needed to control her breathing and heartbeat to prevent herself from bleeding out faster from her increased pulse. It was a struggle to focus, but she kept her breathing steady as she continued to look at the bear below her. A deep glare formed on her face as she gazed down at her sister's puppet, idly noting that it had a splattering of her blood on its smug looking face.

If she was going down, she refused for it to be looking like a scared little girl. If this would be the last face she could give to her sister, she would make sure that the it would be something worthy of praise.

So, she was completely caught off guard when she heard her sister ask so quietly that only she could hear. "Why didn't you dodge?"

Her eyes widened in shock, never had she heard her sister use such a depressing and remorseful tone. Not when they were children, not when she had started her plans of despair, not even when she had killed her best friend and lover in the name of said despair. In was such a complete shift in character from everything Mukuro had known of her sister that she was unable to get in a word before Junko changed back into the Monokuma persona.

"Now then, without further interruptions. SPEARS OF GENGNIR, yada, yada, SAVE ME!" Mukuro braced herself for the inevitable, ready to meet her maker at the hands of her own sister' as hands. At the last moment, she closed her eyes and thought of the last happy moment she truly experienced with her sister, not wanting her last memory to be of that stupid bear splattered in her own blood. She remembered when they were young just playing together like the little children they were, none of this despair nonsense that controlled their relationship now, and a small tear escaped her eye as she remembered those innocent times. She was prepared, understanding that there was no escape and accepting it.

Only, it never happened.

"Junko! Look out!" It all happened so quickly, one minute she was stuck, held in place by the spear in her leg, then a twin shout of her sister's name startled her out her thoughts. She wasn't able to even properly register what was going on before a large weight slammed into her side and knocked her away from her inevitable death; painfully knocking the spear in her leg out of its stand and resulting in any attempt at a soft landing to become impossible. With a loud grunt of pain, she landed on her shoulder roughly as a sharp spike of renewed agony raced up her spine from the intrusion in her leg being knocked around.

Just as she was about to get up and comment on the rough handling…

*Thwack, thwa-thwack- thwack, thwack* The sounds of many sharp objects impacting and piercing through wood echoed through the gymnasium, startling her terribly. Eyes snapping wide open, she dared to risk looking back behind her at the sight that would have been her.

As expected, there were several long, black poles were jutting out of the ground where she'd just been standing, splintering the wooden flooring. Briefly, she noted with some disappointment that they had completely missed the demented bear bot by a fair margin, though the surprised expression it wore was a bit of a welcome sight.

However, the real attention grabber was the two boys on either side of her, both panting as if they had run a marathon as they looked at her with eyes filled with concern.

"Are you okay?" Asked the luck boy, Makoto, his eyes staring into hers with the most unwavering amount of concern she had ever seen. Not even her sister, not her parents, not her troop, no one person had ever looked at her like that in recent memory. If she were to be asked about it later, she would firmly deny that she had blushed a bit at the attention and would brush her lightheadedness off as a result of the blood loss.

"…That was way to close, man." Breathed the baseball-star, Leon, his hand clutching at his chest as if doing so alone would calm his raging heartbeat. His eyes were wide and his forehead was coated in sweat as he panted with shaky breaths, completely shaken up from their near brush with death. Briefly, it reminded Mukuro of times when a new recruit had their first encounter with her Sargent's special training course.

"…Ah…" she tried to respond, but she found her body unresponsive to her commands. Incidentally, she also noticed that here vision was starting to fade as the battle to remain conscious was becoming more and more of an uphill battle with each passing second.

"Oh my freaking god!"

Palming my mouth, I briefly heaved as I tried to keep my lunch down for the second time today. I'd never would have done this if I'd actually stopped to remember why she had tried to do something this stupid.

Never let it be said that she wasn't determined to stay the course, despite changes to the plan. As a solider, she would be use to the idea of modifying a plan on the fly; more so in her case since she followed Junko's finicky plans that seemed to be nothing but spontaneous most of the time. Aside from specific orders, she rarely deviated from the course.

Still, I don't know why it was that she, the Ultimate Solider, the one who had never taken so much as a scratch in the field, couldn't do the one thing I thought for sure she'd have down by now.

"Why didn't you dodge?" I mumbled softly, pulling away from the mic so that she didn't hear it. I stared at her injury, at the large spear sticking straight through her right leg. Even now, I was trying to suppress my gag reflex at the sight of what I'd done to her.

"Oh, who I'm I trying to kid." I grumbled to myself, "If it was that simple, Makoto wouldn't have needed to save her in the I.F. novel; let alone here."

I knew what the real problem was though, and it wasn't her training. In was the level of trust that she held in her sister. Junko had had this poor girl's loyalty for years now, despite whatever hiccups that I firmly believed were there. Even in that novel, it was clear that Mukuro never thought that that her sister would actually try and kill her.

I had sighed in relief as Mukuro was pulled away from the camera view of Monokuma several seconds before I'd activated the rest of the spears of Gungnir. It was a bit of a shocker to see, and I'd almost activated the spears earlier than intended as a result. It was either thanks to my fortunate pause of shock, or Makoto's B.S. luck kicking in at the right moment, but I was glad that I wouldn't be getting any metaphorical blood on my hands today.

Still, Leon joining in was far more shocking then Makoto. With the Luckster, I could at least excuse the rush to save a friend because of his caring nature; it's just how he is. Leon on the other hand was, a slacker, a hot blooded athlete, and a player who is sensitive about his hair. I mean, it wasn't that I was unthankful, far from it in fact. But I never would have expected it if I hadn't seen it happen right in front of me; and if I were to judge by his expression, I don't think he even expected to jump out like that.

However, that raised the question. Why did he rush out like that to save Mukuro- err, 'Junko'? Why would this worthless loudmouth risk his life to save someone like her; especially since he would have nothing to gain from it? I'm all for people doing the right thing, don't get me wrong, but most of the time it only happens from inherently moral people, not from players and wannabe punk rockers. I just expect some sort of consistency.

Still, it was a welcome development.

Deciding to get back into character, I slapped my cheeks to snap myself out of this depressing funk, then pulled the mic close again and started part two of my plan. "Oh my freaking god! How the hell do you idiots keep lucking out of getting killed!?"

My false anger instantly caught their attention as I continued to rant. "I mean, for Pete's sake! Two of you already lucked out last night, and now I've got to deal with this nonsense!? Seriously! Isn't three supposed to be the charm!?"

You want to know something interesting I've learned recently? Surprisingly, I rather prefer the glares to the looks of fear; such as the ones I was getting right now. It's rather concerning.

"And the worst part…?" I continued, deepening my voice to emphasize my 'rage'. "At least they have the excuse that they were at least trying to follow the rules! They at least got into a tussle beforehand! Her? The rule breaker? I'm trying to uphold the sanctity of this establishment, and here you are risking your lives for her! For what possible reason could you have to risk your own lives to save hers!?"

My false rage stated, I kept the bear's glare focused on the two rescuers and their woozy associate in disguise. For a brief moment, it looked like they would back down, their fear of death contrasting with their desires to help their friend. But, to my relief, Makoto steeled his resolve and stepped forward. "Because she's my friend."

I faked a scoff, ignoring the shocked look on Mukuro's face at her crush's admission. "Oh please. You've barely known her a week and you call her your friend? I'd be willing to bet money that the feeling isn't mutual. Hell, I'd wager she'd kill you first chance she'd get!"

She flinched at that, since we both knew that it was true. She was under orders to kill him and would have done so today if it wasn't for her classmate intervention. There was no reason for me or her to believe otherwise.

However, Makoto didn't believe that. "No, that's wrong! She would never do that; none of us would!"

"What makes you so sure? What proof do you have that she, let alone the others, wouldn't do anything?" I pressed, already knowing the answer, but wanting to hear him say it himself. I was far from disappointed when he looked at me with those eyes filled with complete resolve and stated his cause without even a hint of regret or deception.

"Because I trust them, that's all the proof I need."

I had to admit, seeing him look so determined in his trust in the others really made me want to drop this whole thing. I really wanted to give up this act and say, "I believe you." Judging by the blush forming on Mukuro's face, she clearly agreed with me in some fashion.

However, I wasn't here to play the support. I was here to hurt.

"Fine then." I said, steeling myself for what I was about to say; what I was going to do to insure that his faith would be tested to its fullest extent. "Then I guess you wouldn't mind sharing in your friend's punishment; now, would you?"

Several shades of color left his face at my proclamation, all of his confidence draining from him as I bequeathed onto him his fate for his actions. "I- "

"That's B.S.!" cried out Leon from behind Makoto, interrupting the Luckster as he stepped forward. "The dude did nothing wrong! Why the hell should he be punished for it?"

"Yeah!" followed up Hina with a similar look of outrage on her face. "you said you couldn't punish us unless we broke your stupid rules! Was that just a lie!?"

Similar cries of outrage came from the others, but I raised Monokuma's paw to silence their further outcries. "Now, now. I'm not done talking here. If you'd let me finish, I'll explain."

There were more than a few grumbles at that, as there were more than a few still upset at me, but I pushed on. "Now then, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I believe I can make a deal with you mister Makoto; just so that I can prove a point."

He was shocked at that, but he was also instantly on his guard; as he should be. "What is it?"

"You see, as I've said before, my job is to punish the rule breakers in this school. And as we've all seen today, your so called 'friend' there broke one of my rules. That means, without a doubt, she has to be punished for it. No exceptions."

Mukuro cringed at that, looking away in shame as I admitted her failing to realize what would happen to her for her actions, but I continued. "Now, she has to pay for her transgressions. That much is absolute fact no matter what she does… However, you can do something for her."

Now I had all eyes locked on me, each of them curious as to what I meant. I resumed, "See, as I mentioned before, you each have one lifeline with which you are responsible for. That also means you can do things with their lives however you wish. For example, lifelines can be exchanged to save a life."

The class of seventy-eight were quite stunned by the information, but I wasn't quite finished yet. "Of course, you can't use your own lifeline if you're being punished for breaking a rule. That wouldn't be fair to the other students. However, if someone else voluntarily exchanges their own lifeline to save your ungrateful hide, then you will be let off with a warning probation."

For a while, this seemed to settle several of the student's nerves. The knowledge that they could save someone from my wrath was a welcome peace of information. But, then Kiyoko dropped the other shoe.

"But, if we do that we'll lose our own lifeline in exchange." The fact that she stated it without any emotion in her tone was probably the worst part of that information. At least to them. I still had no intention of reveling that it wouldn't actually do anything to them or their loved ones, just giving them another avenue of safety.

With almost sadistic glee, I confirmed the amnesiac's suspicions. "That's right. If you hand in your lifeline to save another person, then your life line will be punished in their stead. Which brings us back to this. Mister Makoto. Which will it be? Will you save this girl you barely know, doomed to die for her transgressions, or will you continue to hold onto your precious person in the hopes that someone won't end up dooming you and them? Your friend, or your family?"

In that moment, Makoto was completely stuck, trapped between a decision of life and death. To decide the fate of a person's life was one thing, but this was the first time he ever had to make a decision that could change everything he knew. To pick who would die, and who would live.

It wasn't a decision to be made lightly, this wasn't simply a choice between a meal or some day to day nuance. This choice would literally dictate who would lose their very lives. That's a lot of pressure to take.

If he picked 'Junko', then in his mind he would be damning his own sister to death; his family, his own flesh and blood would die for some random stranger. The person who had looked up to him all her life, the one who he was responsible for protecting as the elder sibling, she would be killed directly by his decision.

On the other hand, if he chooses to stay his hand for his sister, then an 'innocent' women dies as well. A person he only knew for about a week, who had been abrasive and nearly got herself killed twice already; both times which he ended up saving her from her own stupidity. But, she was also someone he considered a friend, despite the attitude she had demonstrated towards everyone so far, and while he didn't know she had been plotting to kill him not to long ago, she had been the first person to come along with him when he'd been looking for his old friend.

Plus, she sat on him in her undies. That's something to consider.

But, beyond all that, he all but literally held these two girl's fates in their hands. Their very lives depended on his choice; as far as he knew. The simple fact was, he wasn't prepared for such a sudden and important choice, and it showed on his face.

Never had I seen a face so distraught, so conflicted in the two choices presented to him. There was no way around it, he was in a real losing situation. One hand costs him his sister, the other settles him with the guilt of losing a friend, and both leave him with the knowledge that he had left the other to die. There was no right answer, no good end to be gained. Just a truly hopeless choice.

He wasn't the only one. Without even turning the bear's head, I could see the others were struggling to do the same. My question may have been addressed to him, but the others knew they all could intervene at any time. However, they too were struggling to find the resolve to save their classmate from her appointment with the river Styx. Terrified at the prospect, they stayed silent, internally praying for their classmate's survival.

"I…" He started, but was unable to continue, the weight of this decision hampering his ability to talk. The sheer despair threatening to drown him in darkness. A dank pit from which he wouldn't be able to return from alone, not without several scars on his psyche at the least.

"Tic toc mister Makoto." I unhelpfully taunted, adding to the stress he was already experiencing. "Otherwise, your 'friend' over there will bleed out and die before you can decide!"

One look at her was all that someone would need to tell that she was struggling to remain conscious, let alone alive. Her breathing was becoming more labored and her eyelids were fighting her attempts to remain open. Leon was helping her keep pressure on the wound which was slowing the flow of blood, but with the spear still in her leg it was a losing battle.

Makoto could see that as well when he glanced back; I didn't need to see his expression to know that much. The poor boy was beside himself with his thoughts, not wanting to sacrifice either party.

But the worst part was her expression of dejected acceptance. It was clear from her eyes; she knew there was no way Makoto would be able to choose between her and his sister. Or rather, she knew that he would chose his sister over her; she would have done the same in his shoes. No matter how much she loved someone, no matter how many time Junko tried to kill her, Mukuro would chose her sister every time.

"I… I chose…" The poor, unfortunate luckster clenched his fist as he gathered his resolve. Staring into the eyes of his suffering classmate, he swallowed the lump in his throat, and prepared to make his choice. "I choose my f…"

So it was a bit of a shock for all of us when someone else decided to speak up, cutting him off in the process.

"Then take my lifeline." All eyes snapped towards the source of the voice, confusion and concern radiating from everyone's sight towards the speaker. Of all of them, none expected it to have come from whom it did.

"You sure about that miss Kiyoko?" Hifumi asked, just as bewildered as the rest of the students on her sudden decision. "Once you cash in your line, you won't get another one-up. It'll become an all or nothing game for you."

"That's fine." The light purple haired girl said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and closed her amethyst eyes. "I'm well aware of what this will cost me. I don't need to be reminded."

"Kirigiri." Breathed the luckster, stunned by her sudden sacrifice. To give up her precious person to save her classmate, her ability to risk that was awe inspiring.

He wasn't the only one though. From her prone position, Mukuro stared at the violet themed detective completely shocked that she would attempt such a risk for her; especially considering what would be lost by this decision. Even if you didn't know that she was suffering from amnesia and that her lifeline may have the answers she sought like Mukuro and I did, she was still giving up her family member to save the life of a classmate. That took guts.

Add in the fact that she would be giving up any chance of saving the elderly man should anything happen and you've got another despairing recipe for all to try. Completely topped with a whipped cream made of the feelings of regret the others would feel for not jumping in as she did, and a cherry of Makoto's mixed feelings from being cut off from announcing his decision.

…Darn it. Now I'm hungry.

"Sure, just come over here and I'll make the exchange." Sure enough, she walked right over without a hint of hesitation and presented her band to the bear. Extending one of Monokuma's claws, I maneuvered the bear to lightly tap the red lens on the band, careful not to damage it. It didn't actually do anything, but I made it look like it did.

"All right then. She'll be spared from execution then." I confirmed to the sighs of relief of some of the others; time to fix that. "But there's still the issue of her probationary punishment."

That caught them by surprise. "What the fuck man! You just said she was getting out of that!"

I growled at the biker for his unwanted shouting, completely sick of being interrupted so much. "Oh for the love of…Shut up and let me finish! I only said she'd be getting out being executed, she still broke a rule, so as any rule breaker should, she still needs to be punished for it! It's only fair."

"Bullshit!" responded Leon from his position next to the girl in question, not even slightly convinced that was my reason for doing this. "You're just doing this because she…!"

"Whatever she has or has not done in the past is irrelevant to the here and now!" I swiftly and loudly interrupted, not wanting him to blow my cover. "She has broken a sacred rule and is to endure to consequences of her actions! I said there would be no exceptions and I meant it!"

Taking a moment to breathe, I continued more calmly. "That is why I asked mister Makoto here if he was willing to share the punishment with her. Obviously I'll reduce the severity of the punishment if someone is willing to help foot the penalty."

In that moment something clicked in Chihiro's head. "Oh, but doesn't that mean Kirigiri-san didn't need to give up her life line at all?"

Waving my hand in dismissal, I continued. "Not so fast. That 'lifeline exchange' is the only reason I'm allowing her to live. Be thankful I'm even allowing that. Speaking of which…"

Turning to the rest of the students I walked closer to their downed comrade. Mukuro grimaced when Monokuma got closer, but she was far too week to retaliate should I have wanted to make the blood splattered half and half bear harm her. Not that I would, but still. Several of the stronger students moved in front of my puppet in case I tried such a thing. Sakura especially stood strong in this regard, which I found truly endearing, but there was no need.

"You might want to get her to the infirmary before that wound gets infected. I haven't really had time to properly sanitize the all-mighty spears in a good while."

My sickish speech delivered, Monokuma pulled an about face and headed back to the stage, all the while ignoring the other students faces of disbelief and outrage. "Now, I'm going to go get cleaned up while I think of a proper punishment for you, should you survive. I'll be back soon, so please clean yourself up a bit for my return. Chao!"

And with that, I dropped the bear back into the vents, gave it a command to find a place to get cleaned up, apparently they had a sanitizing station for them here somewhere, and moved to the monitor room to watch the rest of the students. As I did though, I made sure to grab Yasuke's journal from where I'd left it on the edge of the display monitor. With all that had been going on, I'd been neglecting my reading it for answers on my situation and I felt now would be a good time to try and catch up on it.

That, and I didn't want to watch them patch her up on the off chance that they failed and she died. I wouldn't be able to stand myself if I were to watch that.

Opening up to the page I'd left my bookmark on, with shaky breaths I began looking for the next readable page, keeping my ears open to the monitors as I did. I only hope that this goes well.

"Easy now, let her down gently."

Following the instructions of the small programmer, both Sakura and Asahina carefully set down their injured classmate down onto the last medical bed in the infirmary, being gentle so as to not aggravate the spear wound in her leg. Behind them, the others stood crowding the door way, every other student ready to assist if necessary. It hadn't taken much debate from the others to have the two more physically fit girls carry Junko to the office, despite the amount of man power they had.

Makoto, Leon, Mondo, and Kiyotaka had all volunteered to help carry her themselves, the former two more pressing then the others. However, as Aoi pointed out, they were men and it would probably be better if Junko wasn't being felt up by a guy while she was injured like this. Naturally, the guys denied that they would even think about trying anything like that, but Hina wasn't going to let it drop. So, with some persuasion from Chihiro and a vow from Sakura that she wouldn't drop the wounded fashion icon, they two athletic girls picked up their friend into the fighter's arms, and with Aoi walking alongside her just in case, they made their way to the nurse's office while the boys handled the doors for them.

"There you go, Junko." Stated the tan skinned swimmer, "Now, we just need to figure out how to get this out."

The others all crowded around as they examined the wound more closely, each trying to think of a way to remove it without causing too much more damage to her leg.

"Could we just push it back out the way it went in?" inquired Hifumi, the fan content creator scratching at his chin as he racked his brain of every Manga, movie, and fanfic he'd seen with this kind of injury and how it was dealt with there. He wasn't able to think of any just yet that didn't get healed by some kind of spell or regenerative power, but he was trying his hardest.

"What are you, dense? Do you not see how far that thing is in her?" the pompadour haired biker questioned angrily, trying to keep from blowing up at the round fanfic writer for even suggesting something so stupid. "I've seen things like this before, you got to use the shorter side."

"Where would you see something like this?" inquired Leon, legitimately confused and concerned as to the answer.

The burly biker shrugged his shoulders and stated, "You'd be surprised how many of my gang's new recruits would accidentally get something stabbed into them. It's kinda rare, but it still happens from time to time."

"I pity anyone who joins your gang then." Muttered the socially reclusive writer as she stood near the back line, trying to stay out of sight as best she could. Her hemophobia was only one of the reasons she stayed back. In all of the chaos, she had almost gotten a full on view of the wound. It was only through quick panic induced thinking that she managed to cover her eyes in time to avoid any accidence. Now, she was just trying to keep calm and in control of herself as she stayed in the back chewing on her thumbnail.

"Well, whatever you're planning to do, you'd best hurry it up. She doesn't have that much time left." Byakuya stated as he looked through the cabinets of the room with Kyoko and Sakura, trying to find some supplies to help the bleeding girl on deaths doorstep. It was a bit of a shock to the others to see him helping out with this, considering how he'd been acting like a complete tool the entire time.

"Why are you helping anyway?" asked the agitated all-star, suspicious of the rich boy's motive in all of this. It wasn't as if Leon wasn't grateful for the help, but it was a bit concerning to see the only one of them who had seemingly embraced the idea of killing to escape this game suddenly contradicting himself by going out of his way to help their fellow player. It went against everything he knew of the almost reclusive heir and caused red flags to wave in his head.

This thought of suspicion was also held by a few of the other students, but they weren't able to voice them due to the insulted scoff of the wealthy teen. "I don't need to tell you anything. The fact that I'm even lending my assistance to you half-wits should be more than enough for you. Be grateful that I'm willing to help at all."

The former pro athlete clicked his teeth together at that, but he was silent aside from a sneeringly thrown out, "Whatever man." Already sick of Togami's attitude and wanting to help out himself, he went over to the where he remembered Junko putting the sewing needle and thread last night, as well as the antiseptic, and starting sanitizing it for when it was needed.

Once he was done with that, and after he put them on a clean tray, he walked over to the miniature fridge next to where Kirigiri was investigating and proceeded to open the door and rifle through the blood bags inside. "Hey Junko? What's your blood type?"

His question was met with some raised eyebrows from the others, even from the very girl he was asking. Weakly, Junko raised her head to say something, but before she could get a word out she was interrupted by Mondo. "What are you asking for?"

Not looking away from what he was doing, Leon was about to state his reason when he was surprisingly cut off by the purple themed girl next to him. "Enoshima has lost a lot of blood already, and she's going to lose even more when we remove the spear. It would be in our best interest to have a transfusion ready to keep her steady."

"What she said." Agreed the red head as he continued to look for the right type of blood. "Now, someone tell me her blood type already. It's in her handbook."

It didn't take long for them to find the information Leon needed, and soon he was next to the barely conscious girl with the IV ready to be inserted into her wrist. Applying bit of the antiseptic to her arm at the soft point opposite of her elbow and wiping it clean, he proceeded to carefully insert the needle into her vain. As he continued his work checking to make sure the IV stand wouldn't fall over, he was suddenly acutely aware of the staring eyes of his fellow classmates upon his form. "What?"

"Wow, Leon." Stated Aoi as she stared at his work surprised, "Where'd you learn to do all of this?"

Her words were continued by Chihiro, an equal amount of shock peppering her words as she said, "I didn't know you knew about this."

Leon froze in his work, not expecting to be asked about his sudden medical skill. If he were to be honest, he didn't actually know what he was doing, he was just repeating what he'd seen Junko do last night a best as he could. But he couldn't tell them that. He had to keep his word.

It was a bit challenging to keep last night a secret from the others already. A great part of him still wanted to speak up about what had happened, to tell them that Maizono had attacked him last night and had stabbed Hiro when she had failed to kill him.

Unfortunately, he still had a promise to keep, so he slapped a smile on his face as best he could, and turned to the others trying to keep cool. "Y-Yeah, I know, right? I've seen a few doctor shows with my, uh, my cousin a few times. I guess some of it stuck."

Inwardly he cringed at his stutter, afraid that it would give him away, but it seemed to work on some of the others like Hina and Chihiro who's eyes seemed to shimmer in the light and making him feel uncomfortable. Unfortunately, a certain mistress of lies and the Affluent prodigy weren't so easily fooled, if their suspicious glares where any indication.

"Is that so?" commented the Lolita gambler one of her hands raised over her mouth as she glared at him with suspicion. "You wouldn't happen to know the name of those shows, would you?"

The baseball all-star gave her his most convincing grin that he could. "W-Well, not really. It's been awhile a-and I never really payed to the titles. I think it was called "Trauma Hospital" or something- "

"We don't have time for this." Interrupted Kyoko with a stern glare. "We still have to take care of the spear."

Thanking his lucky stars, Leon was quick to take the opportunity to change topics. "Yeah, you're right. Okay, anyone got any ideas?"

For a moment, the others were silent. Eventually, a lightbulb went off in the resident fan content creator's head as he called out, "Miss Ogami! Perhaps you could break off part of the spear so that we can slide it out quickly. With your incredible strength, it shouldn't be much of a problem, right?"

The fighter was about to respond to the chubby boy's inquiry, when the white clad moral unintentionally interrupted. "Not so fast! Even if Ogami were able to bend the rod, it could cause it to shatter and leave shards in her leg when we remove it!"

"Yeah, we know that!" rebutted Owada aggressively, his teeth grinding at the constant noise of everyone else in this stressful situation. "But we don't have any other options here right now!"

"Enough." Any further debating was quickly tossed when the muscle bound women decided to take initiative and stepped forth. Standing next to the injured girl, Sakura gently grabbed hold of the rod protruding from her leg. Turning her head, she looked the strawberry blond women in the eye with a gentle look that caught the woman off guard and softly said. "I'll make it quick, but this will hurt. Are you ready?"

'Junko' looked Sakura in the eye, momentarily confused as to what she was going to do. With her struggling to regain consciousness she had started to drown out the others in order to focus. But, when the ultimate fighter grabbed the spear with both of her massive hands, it didn't take much for her to realize what was about to happen.

Nodding grimly with understanding, 'Junko' grit her teeth and closed her eyes in preparation. Nodding back, Sakura gripped the spear even harder and with one swift movement, she snapped the thin metal rod then quickly pulled it out of the disguised girl's leg. Mukuro did her best to suppress her scream of pain, but she was only able to do so much.

After a moment, the pain settled down enough for her to open her eyes again and she slowly looked back down to look at the damage. From what she could see, it wasn't as bad as she feared. There didn't seem to be any frayed nerves or ruptured arteries. If anything, it looked like the puncture was far cleaner than anticipated. A small blessing, one could say; if she didn't already know that it was her sister's analytical skills at work that allowed her survival.

Unfortunately, that didn't stop the spots in her eyes from forming, nor did it prevent her vision from blurring even more drastically. Her strength fading, she barely registered the others coming to her side. Someone was shouting, their tone sounding very urgent, but she couldn't quite make it out through the pounding of her heart in her ears and her own heavy breathing. She was just so tired.

As her eyes closed, she wondered if this would be where her story ends. If this was how she was supposed to end her tales as the "Ultimate Soldier". Not in the fields of battle where she was at her best, mowing down enemies until she simply couldn't anymore and joined the bodies around her; but hopelessly on a gurney surrounded by the very peers she was commended to kill as they tried to save her life.

With the last of her consciousness fading, Mukuro wondered if this was the despair that her sister was so enamored with. If this was the feeling that she wanted to feel so desperately that she drove the world into the ground to feel it. She didn't know if this soul crushing feeling was what her sister truly wanted to feel, but she did know one thing.

If she survived this, she was going to make sure that her sister never experiences this kind of pain for as long as she could help it. This she swore.

"Well then. That was… interesting?"

My confusion might have come off as a bit strange to you, but I assure you that it was warranted. Not five seconds into the next legible entry in the book, I had come across a bit of information that had blown my mind wide open. The entry read as such.

"Well, I kind of expected Junko to find someone new to play with eventually, but I didn't expect her to go after the "Ultimate Gamer" already."

The "Ultimate Gamer", a title I didn't think I'd see for a long time yet. The title of someone who I's assumed didn't actually exist. This person?

Chiaki Nanami.

In the second game, Chiaki had been one of the one unfortunate enough to be dragged into another of Junko's killing games. This one specifically being made for same class that Soda, Tsumiki, and Nidai had been a part of. At the risk of spoiling things for people, she was reviled in the last couple chapters as a member for cooperation that was trying to restore hope in the world; yet, at the same time was partially responsible for their situation. But the biggest revelation came in the last chapter, where she was shown to actually be an artificially created intelligence.

A computer program. A fake person.

Now, like a lot of people, I didn't care that she was technically a fake. Throughout the whole game, she had been the rock that kept most of the group stable. Every time one of their own fell for the temptations of Monokuma's motives, she was one of the few who generally kept the others from falling off of the deep end. It didn't matter that she wasn't real, she was one of the best characters that had the unfortunate displeasure to parish from another's actions.

However, that wasn't here or now. If what I was reading was accurate, then she actually did exist as a real person at one point. That was just blowing my mind as it was, but the page continued.

"This afternoon, I had gone back to her dorm to check up on her again. The troublesome girl has been recovering quite a bit quicker then I'd expected, but I wanted to make sure she wouldn't go and die on me the one time I didn't think to check. However, when I walked in like I usually do, I didn't find her alone messing around with whatever nonsense that had grabbed her attention today, or pulling off one of her domination nonsense sessions with her sister, but she actually had invited over a guest for once.

Apparently, she had found the game chick hanging outside of the reserve course building, moping over some boy she'd been waiting for forever. Surprisingly, Junko actually decided to drag the poor girl over here to play some games. I didn't even know that she had any.

One thing that really concerned my though was her outfit. Once again, despite my attempts to get rid of that ugly blue hoodie, on her request no less, she was garbed in it once again. To make things weirder, she had apparently found or made some kind of grinning skull mask and she had it resting on the side of her head. When I asked her about it, she just said, "It was a gift for getting a ton of work done, bonehead; a skele-ton." Before winking at me while using her phone to play a rim shot sound. While I was trying to pick up the shattered remains of my physic from that stupid pun, class president Chiaki was trying to stop giggling at me. I really didn't see what was so funny.

I decided to hang around for a bit longer. Just to observe this unusual behavior that was going on. It was strange; stranger than normal. Normally, Junko would be trying to do something mean to whomever it was that was with her. Casually insulting them, degrading them, doing whatever she wanted to break their spirits. Yet, none of that was happening here. She was being nice and courteous, offering drinks and food with a smile; an actual honest smile instead of that ugly fake one that she usually gives people. She gave out helpful commentary on what they were doing instead of that passive aggressive BS she usually gives everyone. She even laughed at a few jokes they had shared that went completely over my head. She didn't even whine about being bored once.

I honestly don't know how I should feel about this. On the one hand, this was the happiest I'd ever seen her. There was a real smile on her face for the first time in our life. She was making friends without instantly stabbing them in the back, just because she could. I'd been so worried that she would end up alone by her own hands for so long that this sudden shift in character towards making friends instead of breaking them is actually starting to feel like a blessing.

But that's the problem. It's to sudden, to different. Not even her quirk of swapping out personality traits out of sheer boredom was this drastic; and even when they were, she usually dropped them within an hour or two. The longest one she'd ever kept was when she picked up pair of glasses and started acting like a stuck-up teacher for a couple of classes. She even got the actual teacher to sit down and listen.

However, this was different. This was to…genuine. To sincere. Not even her despair fetish felt as real as what I was witnessing right now. It was like I was looking at a completely different person.

And the worst part? I think I'm starting to like this Junko more."

That…That was certainly something I'd never thought I'd see in here. To think that someone I'd thought was fake was actually a real person this whole time, and that she was someone I'd actually tried a befriend. That's actually pretty cool.

But that raised the question. If she was as real as this page made her out to be, for what reason was there an AI version of her in the second instalment in the series? Did something happen to her?

I wanted to continue this train of thought, try and figure out what had happened to her, when I happened to glance at the monitor for the infirmary. From what I could see, they had managed to clean up Mukuro's leg and wrap it up tightly. I could see that the needle and thread next to the bottle of hydrogen peroxide on the operating table, so I guess that they properly stitched and sanitized her wounds as well. She wasn't conscious, which was a bit concerning, but it appeared that she was going to live through this.

However, that only momentarily held my attention as it turns out that the hobo was starting to stir. Wanting to keep up with their conversation, I reluctantly put down the journal and turned back to the cameras.

After all, I still had a job to do.

'Ugh, what happened'

Yasuhiro groaned aloud as he slowly awoke, his head pounding. Raising his hand, he placed it on the back of his skull and felt around for the cause of his splitting headache. Sure enough, he winced and pulled his hand away when his fingertips brushed up against a sizable knot on his scalp. He could only guess as to its cause.

'Did those mob guys finally find me?' he wondered briefly. It wouldn't surprise him too much. After he botched up and tried to get a loan from them, he'd been running from them. It was the main reason he had been unable to finish high school in the first place, and why only when Hope's Peak picked him up that he decided to continue his education.

After all, who'd think to look for a dead broke fortune-teller in a prestigious school like that? Exactly.

However, when his fingers felt a strip of cloth, he started to reevaluate that thought of being kidnaped.

'Hold on, since when do mob bosses patch up their victims?' he wondered to himself as he felt it, careful to avoid knocking it loose. He'd had enough bad experiences to recognize the feeling of bandages. But, unless he had it wrong, mobsters didn't tend to keep their victims patched up.

He would have jumped to the conclusion that he'd been abducted by aliens, but everything he knew about the extraterrestrial suggested that he shouldn't have been able to even attempt to move, let alone touching his head where bandages lay. The same argument could probably apply to the mobsters, but he'd already dropped that line of thought.

Now tired of this and wanting to see what the hell was going on, he attempted to sit up; only to immediately regret it when a sharp spike of pain lanced up his spine from his side and nearly caused him to scream. Another surge of panic gripped him when he thought about what that could mean.

'Did I get jumped for my kidney!?' he'd heard about things like that happening to people rarely, but he'd never thought it would happen to him any time soon.

'Wait,' he thought when he noticed something was missing for that to be the case. 'where's the bath full of ice cubes?'

Everything he heard about this kind of thing happening said that, 'if you wake up in a tub full of ice with a pain in your side, it's best to assume that you just lost a kidney.' Well, he had the pain, but none of the ice bath going on. This could mean one of two things. Either he got an incompetent organ thief who didn't know the standard process, or he didn't lose his guts and just got stabbed for no reason.

He honestly didn't know which was worst.

"Hey!" Came the startled cry of some girl with a high pitched voice that seemed a bit really familiar, yet he couldn't seem to remember. "Guys! Hiro's waking up."

Groaning when his ears began to ring from whoever it was that was shouting, Hiro regretfully forced his eyes to open to see what was going on. At first, his vision was really blurry and he couldn't make out the figures before him, and he feared he might have gone blind, but after some rapid blinking his sight began to clear up and allowed him to see the concerned gazes of his friends. He sighed in relief, happy to know that whatever happened, he at least had these guys to back him up.

Well, maybe not Byakuya.

"H-Hey guys." He stuttered weakly, trying to get a good look at the others without agitating his side. "What-what happened?"

"We were hoping you could tell us that." Kiyoko said as she stepped closer to him and grabbing his full attention.

"What do you mean?" He asked, not sure what she was talking about. The fog of sleep hadn't fully left his head yet so he was still a bit groggy.

"Hiro?" Asked another voice on the other side of the bed, forcing him to pull his gaze away from the purple themed girl to look at his other friend, Makoto. "Please, do you know what happened last night?"

'Last night? What happened last-?' His thoughts where cut off when a sharp lance of pain lanced through his skull. Flashes of the night before run across the insides of his eyelids far too fast for him to properly register it. Grabbing his head from the pain, he tried futilely to sooth his head pounding from the jumbled miss of memories bouncing around in his head.

"Whoa man, calm down." His pain momentarily settled as his buddy Leon grabbed his arm and caused him to look at the baseball player. "It's okay, dude. Relax. Just take your time. What do you remember of last night?"

Still clutching his head, Yasuhiro took a deep breath and tried to focus. It wasn't easy, even without the pain in his head and side distracting him, he'd never really been the kind of person to organize that much. In was only made more difficult when you consider the concussion he no doubt had, but he tried his hardest to try.

"I- I remember… ugh, no wait. I was just getting out of the cafeteria and I was looking for my crystal ball I'd lost the day before. I… I think I'd just found it in a pile of clothes, so I was going to go to bed, then…" He cut himself off as he tried think. He tried to come up with further information, he focused for a solid minute on that one piece of the puzzle that he hoped would reveal his attacker.

Then his hands shot up into his massive locks as he cried out, "WHY I CAN'T REMEMBER!?"

He was practically beside himself now, gripping his large afro as he tried to metaphorically pull the information out of his head. His scalp screamed at him to stop this nonsense that even he would admit was rather stupid, but he didn't care. He was desperate to remember what else had happened to cause him to be placed into this bed.

So focused on his personal crisis from memory loss, he almost didn't notice Makoto and Leon grabbing his arms. "Hiro! Calm down!"

While this all was going on, a certain heir was off to the side scoffing at the ridiculous display going on. "Such foolishness. Apparently, Yasuhiro's uselessness continues to hinder us. As usual."

"I disagree." Stated Kiyoko from her place against the wall, her comment catching the attention of those nearby. "Now we have a better idea as to where this happened. Or, at least part of it."

Almost reluctantly, Byakuya had to give her a point. "Right, the laundry room. Very well then, I shall see you pedestrians later."

No longer content to wait around anymore, the inheritor to the Togami empire started making his way to the door. Sadly, before he could even reach the halfway point, he was interrupted by the blasted moral getting in his way with another one of his spiels.

"Togami, where are you going?" the white coated annoyance questioned, as if he had the authority to actually demand anything of Byakuya. "We need to stay together to prevent another occurrence, like with what happened to our comrades!"

Byakuya scoffed at him. What a joke this bushy browed annoyance proclaimed. Comrades, allies, friends? No, there was no such thing here. As the two, now three, teens laying in the beds should have proved, they were only a bunch of baying sheep to a wolf that was hiding amongst them. Couldn't they see that?

"I don't know why I should be telling you anything, but if you must know, I'm going to investigate the crime scene." Turning so that he could address the others, he continued. "In case you plebeians haven't figured it out yet, we still have a traitor in our mites. It wouldn't be wise to just let this go without some form of investigation."

Giving the fools a chance to digest that piece of intel, he crossed his arms once more and continued. "Besides that, I have my doubts that our captor called that meeting for no reason. It would be best that we all prepare for the class trial before then."

"B-But," the purple nuisance standing by the door butted in, further irritating the blond billionaire with her insisted weakness. "M-Monokuma said t-that, there w-wouldn't b-be a trial."

"Don't be so naïve." He rebutted with a sigh at this purple witch's continued stupidity. Once again, it would seem that it would have to fall to him to educate the unwashed masses; literally in her case, judging by the retched smell wafting off of her. "If it wasn't already obvious, our captor is putting an impressive amount of effort in to make us kill one another. They have gone above and beyond the point of insanity to make sure we play along in their little game, even going so far as to capture our loved ones. So, with this in mind, I ask you. Do you honestly think they will miss out on an opportunity to have us at each other's throats with a class trial?"

He didn't even wait for her answer, already sure that his point had been made, and he brushed past her without a thought. "If it's all the same with you louts, I would rather have something to prepare for the inevitable instead of wasting time with a couple unconscious women and that shame to fortune tellers."

With his piece said, the ultimate heir left the room.