It was quiet.
Too quiet.
If there was one thing Mukuro had to admit that she somewhat hated, it was complete silence like what she was experiencing right now. In her profession, silence was almost always a bad sign. In the wilderness, it was a sign that there was a major problem. Animals were very perceptive, so when things were well, there was a cornucopia of animal songs, but they hid and went silent when they felt danger was near. In the city, things were mostly always well when the sounds of cars rushing by and the barks and hisses of stray dogs and cats. Rural areas all over were mostly a blend of the two, almost never silent completely.
There was never a good sign to come from silence. Silence was always a sign of things being wrong. It was unsettling, unnatural, and if she was being honest with herself, it made her feel on edge. Sound was a form of stimulant, a way to tell things were well. That was one of the reasons why interrogations were held in soundproof rooms. It was to unsettle the target with their own thoughts running wild without a thing to distract them.
There was a reason Junko had gone out of her way to convince the headmaster to allow them to soundproof the dorm rooms. The reason she had given was simple, to prevent them from bothering each other with the various occasionally noisy hobbies they employed, and to keep them all from freaking out from the sounds coming from the outside world. It was so simple but it was so effective, and it was also true. Leon and Sayaka had their musical tastes and could be quite noisy, plus the sound from Sakura and Hina's work out routines had an…interesting side effect on the males who had to hear it, while the same happened to the girls when hearing Mondo and Taka's. Even Chihiro's more reserved talent tended to be surprisingly irritating for anyone who ended up having to listen to her for too long.
Plus, there were health benefits that came from silence for a while. It allowed the mind time to wind down and relax, giving way to better internalization of the days that passed by. It hadn't taken much to convince the elder of the two Kirigiri to make the change after that.
But the real reason was to make them paranoid when the killing game began. No one could hear you scream, and that meant that no one would be able to come save you. If you needed saving, you would be completely screwed. The event with Sayaka proved that.
It was Junko's intent to use this to their advantage before the plan suddenly changed. Mukuro was going to go into one of the rooms and take out one of their classmates in their own room where no one could hear things going on and steal their key. With no one able to enter the rooms, they could freely take their time afterward to drive them insane with fear and worry.
Their plan had been simple, easy, and even she thought it would be fool proof, but then things changed and the whole thing fell apart. Mukuro messed up and Junko had to change the plan. Because of that, she had nearly died for breaking the rules.
Her hands clenched her sheets at the thought and she bit her lower lip in frustration. She hadn't meant to screw up the plan so badly, she had just done what she thought she had been asked, what she had always been told to do. She honestly thought she had been doing the right thing, but Junko clearly thought otherwise.
This was why her sister thought of her as a failure, a wash out, a pathetic flat-chested little girl. She was always disappointing her blond dyed sibling's lofty expectations, always off the mark when it came to orders. No matter what she did, it was never good enough for her despair loving sister.
But, she couldn't say she didn't deserve it. She was a the one that messed up, she knew that now. Junko was right to be upset with her, she had messed up, she had misinterpreted her orders, she was the one that screwed up and deserved to be punished. Junko had only done what she had to save the plan, and her, even though the soldier didn't deserve it.
Yes, that was right. She didn't deserve her sister's mercy. She was the one who messed up the orders, not her sister. She was a failure as a sister, and as a soldier. She was the one who betrayed Junko.
That was why she pretended to sleep when Junko had returned from saving her position among the others, and why she ignored the feeling of her sister's eyes on her as she went back out after the night time announcement and returned. She knew that her sister could tell that she wasn't actually sleeping, her analytical talent made faking it impossible. Yet, Junko did nothing, said nothing. That was something that could only mean she was unbelievably furious.
Junko was not one to be silent when she was upset. She preferred to state her opinion very openly, insulting and degrading whoever it was that insulted her, and using her analytical skills to find the cracks in their person to utterly destroy them. She was loud, ruthless, proud, and absolutely loved to ruin those dumb enough to mess with her. She was never silent, dismissive, or even stewed in her anger.
That was the other reason that Mukuro hated the quiet. If Junko was silent, then things could only be bad. That meant that she was likely plotting to destroy something in someone's life; most likely the soldiers own. True, Junko said she was more valuable alive then dead, but that was only as long as she was useful to the despair lover's plans. However, there were no doubts that she would suffer for her misdemeanor, of that she was certain.
Junko wouldn't kill her, not yet, but that option would only wait for so long. Her younger twin was obsessed with despair, thrived in it even. And the opportunity to kill her was completely too tempting for such a terrible addiction. The idea of murdering her own sister would only be the cause of incredible despair. That temptation would be very difficult for the strawberry blond to restrain against giving into.
The silence was deafening, it made it difficult to focus. It made the large room feel claustrophobic and stifling, like a huge weight was wrapped tightly around her chest and restricting her breathing. It was only her training as a soldier and her own natural ability to repress unwanted emotions that kept her from feeling paranoid and terrified. She had been born with this gift, and it had been refined from her time in Fenrir, and it was solely because of that that she could keep her imminent demise from haunting her until she became as much of a paranoid loon as Yasuhiro tended to be.
Still, she couldn't help but try and feel…restless was possibly the right term for this. Even though she knew she needed to rest and recover, and that it was impossible with the damage done to her leg, but she really wanted to get up and put on her combat boots and run a few laps around the school. It was only the fact that it was impossible and that Junko would likely kill her for exposing herself regardless that kept her from doing so.
However, that didn't stop her from feeling twitchy. She felt like jumping up and doing something, even just a basic workout would do. A simple five hundred push-ups, sit-ups, and maybe a few couple hundred non-leg required exercises. However, that would require that she get up and endure the pain in her leg.
Even now, the whole thing hurt. When Junko had been dressing it, she had seen the way the skin had become swollen and enflamed, the way the black threats weaved in and out of the flesh with the blood staining the white cloth of the compress pad. Even though, she wanted to move around, she knew she couldn't with how fresh the injury was. But the pain was the worst, even moving it a little caused the whole thing to spike with pain, though even being still hurt quite a bit. That was why she needed medicine to counteract it.
'That's right.' She thought to herself as she looked over at the counter where a small orange bottle with a white cap.
A bottle of pain killers, though that was under selling it considering it was one of the remaining special medicines made by the former Ultimate Pharmacist, Seiko Kimura. After the girl had been expelled from Hopes Peak, the school had confiscated nearly all of her medicines, supplements, and formulas. Most of them were kept at the newer campus, but quite a few of the more impressive ones had ended up here at the old campus shortly before the Tragedy along with numerous other chemicals and proteins. Obviously, Junko took great enjoyment in that since that meant more options for murders.
In this case though, it was supposedly a special brand of pain killer that also reduced swelling while also boosting the hormones and cells associated with both muscle fiber repair and growth. This would supposedly make things much easier for her to get back on her feet and back in action in record time.
However, the fact that she was given this by Junko made things iffy. There was a very real fact that swallowing one of these could end up being the cause of her death just as likely that it could help her. Mukuro wanted to eat one of them to help alleviate the pain, she really desired that, but the very real chance that it could easily poison her made her apprehensive. It was so hard to know if it was safe or not.
It only got more difficult since Junko hadn't actually handed it to her. She had just dropped it off that morning on the way to the cafeteria without a word and faked a limp off. The only reason Mukuro had any idea of what was in the bottle was because there had been a small note placed next to it claiming that it was for her pain so that she would be able to sleep along with the list of what other benefits it supposedly held. Considering the fact that the only other kind of pain med in the school was over the counter items, it had to have come from the medical cabinet in the chemical lab; of which only Junko could go at this point in time.
Poisoning her, while extreme, wasn't out of Junko's favored way ways of ending a problem. Even though she preferred to have others do it for her to see the look on their face when they fell into despair, the fashion model was far from unwilling to dirty her own hands. Hell, if anything she loved to try and come up with more bazar and twisted ways for people to die from. Poison was just one of those, and Mukuro could distinctly remember at least one conversation about how to do it secret while framing someone else.
That certainly wasn't helping her decision.
However, Junko wasn't willing to throw away potential pawns easily. Killing her now would mean that she would lose the only person willing to follow her. From a tactical stand point, this was far from a smart decision.
Yet, Junko wasn't the most logical person. She was unbelievably intelligent, but that would tend to give way for her illogical obsessions.
Bottom line, there was no way to know if this small bottle would help her or get her killed. Junko was far too unpredictable to trust one avenue over another. The only real option she had was to ignore the blasted thing.
Unfortunately, even that option was difficult to consider since the agony in her leg was unbearably high. Even without considering her very low tolerance for pain, or her masochistic thrill for being hurt by someone she loves, she still couldn't withstand the everlasting ache for much longer. She already lost most of the last night's sleep because of the fire in her limb rising whenever she so much as twitched the previously punctured limb, and if she went without some form of relief for much longer, she might just go insane.
So, she was silently sitting there, metaphorically stuck between a rock and a hard place. Does she take a risk in trusting Junko by taking a pill of what could be poison, or does she refuse and attempt to endure the pain and swelling and continue to lose sleep. She had no other options available, and if she did, she couldn't see it.
As she was contemplating the option, just staring at this one little bottle that could potentially help her, she was cut off by the sound of her door unlocking. Her mouth turned downward further, knowing that the only person that could be was her very sibling that she had been thinking about with today's breakfast. However, even as her stomach grumbled at the thought of something to fill it, she didn't want to see Junko right now after all of the contemplations she had about her. So, she pulled the sheets and covers back up and over her head, hoping that her sister wouldn't realize that she was faking sleep.
Listening to the sounds of the room, she heard the door open and the sound of someone hobbling in, undoubtedly Junko. This was only confirmed itself when the hobbled sounds were replaced by normal steps once the door closed and a plastic object smacked up against the plaster of the wall; most likely the crutch she had been faking her limp on. From there the sound was muffled by the soft carpet covering the floor, but for someone trained as she had been, it wasn't too difficult to pick out the soft pitter patter of feet walking and the slight tinkling sounds of ceramic from dishes bumping against each other. These sounds continued until they reached the table next to the bed where the pill bottle sat, and there was a small clatter as something was placed on the wooden furniture.
For a moment, Mukuro continued to listen, waiting for the sound of feet to move away to the secret hatch on the other side of the room. She waited to her the sound of the door open and the sound of metal thunking as Junko dropped down to crawl through the vents before being abruptly cut off by the door closing, leaving her alone in silence once more.
Yet, she heard nothing of the sort. All she heard was the soft sound of her twin's breathing. There was a feeling of eyes on her form that made her hair raise and her skin crawl, but she did her best to control her breathing and pretend to sleep. With any luck, the fashionista wouldn't…
*Thwap*
Mukuro's eyes shot wide open and a scream of pain erupted from her mouth as she grabbed her leg when a spike of pain burst from the limb. Her eyes just as quickly clenched shut as she tried to block out the agony in her leg were Junko's hand still lay from slapping the injury. Her teeth bit deep into her lower lip, not enough to break the skin, and the upper one quivered. With tears running down her cheeks, she forced her eye lids to open to glare vehemently at the completely blank expression on her sister's face.
"You didn't take your medicine." Junko bluntly stated as she picked up the little bottle and gave it a small shake. The contents of the small orange container rattled about like beads in a maraca as the blond dyed girl popped off the lid and withdrew one of the white pills from within. "Don't bother trying to deny it, I know it hasn't moved since I left it here."
Mukuro continued to glare at the uncaring gaze of her younger twin as she held her fist out for her to take the pill within. She really wanted to say no, to deny the blond the satisfaction of seeing her take it. She wanted to slap the hand away without a thought otherwise. However, she knew there would be consequences if she did, one far worst then a simple slap on the leg would be. So, even while desperately wishing otherwise, she reached out with an open hand and excepted the pill.
Taking a moment to look at it, she found herself feeling very concerned that there weren't any identifying markings on it that could tell her what it was. No matter how she turned it under the light of her room, there wasn't any kind of letter, number, or marking of any kind. While she had no experience in recognizing what they would have meant, it would have been a slight relief to know that it had something to tell her it actually was medicine.
Another concerning thing was the size of the darn thing. As it sat in her palm, she compared it to the size of her fingers and found that it was about the size of her thumb up to the first knuckle, and was about as wide. Just the thought of swallowing it made her gag, the image of her dying of affixation from eating this thing whole came to mind. Unfortunately for her, she wouldn't have a choice in the matter.
While she was gagging at the size of pill, Junko had apparently had enough of waiting for her to prepare herself mentally. In one swift move, the younger twin grabbed the wrist of her hand and slapped it over her open mouth, launching the pill straight to the back of her throat. With a cough, her body instinctually swallowed the mammoth pill where it quickly got lodged it her esophagus.
Immediately her hands wrapped around the windpipe, trying to force down the obstruction to little success. Her mouth gasped wildly, trying to intake air but failing to make any headway. As she was breathlessly wheezing, fearful that she would die this way, she caught sight of glass of white liquid in the corner of her sight held daintily in someone's hand, but that was irrelevant at the moment. She quickly snatched the glass and chugged down about half of it in a few big gulps.
Putting down the glass, she tried to keep from coughing the milk she'd chugged back up along with the pill she just barely avoided dying from. She already nearly died from swallowing it once, she didn't want Junko to start forcing her to swallow the damn thing a second time. Speaking of whom, she was a surprised to see her little sister sitting next to her with one hand on the soldier's back, the other one pulling the half empty glass away. Yet, that paled in comparison to what happened next.
"Sorry about that." Junko apologized, of all things, as she put the glass on the table and turned back to look into Mukuro's reddened eyes. "It's just better to swallow it quickly, if you focus on the size of it for too long you'll stop yourself from swallowing. 'Sides, I could have given you the liquid kind, and trust me when I say, that isn't a kind of torture even you deserve."
Junko shuttered with disgust at the thought and Mukuro reluctantly agreed with her on that front. For all the great revolutionary drugs that she had made, the Ultimate Pharmacist never was able to find a way to make her best products taste good. The only kind she could were ones intended for cooking purposes as additives, enhancers, vitamin supplements, and in one case, a very powerful aphrodisiac.
That had been a troubled time for anyone to be part of the seventy-seven class B.
Still, "You could have let me swallow it on my own." Mukuro pointed out with deadpanned tone, to which her sister scoffed.
"Oh please, we both know you would have hid it under your tongue and spat it right in the trash if I didn't force you to eat it." Mukuro internally cringed at the scolding she'd been given, but she couldn't deny it. It wouldn't have been the first time she had done something like that, it was how she was trained when forced to consume something like that. There was always a chance she could have been captured and forced to eat anything from a truth serum to cyanide so the ability to hide such pills under her tongue or in the back of her mouth was one of her lesser known skills that she had to know.
Didn't make it any less embarrassing to have her sister bring it up.
"…Sorry."
"Don't worry about it." Junko waved her off, which made Mukuro flinch. Every time she acted nicely, it only meant dreadful things coming up. Even trivial things like this could change for the worst at the drop of a hat.
They were both quiet for a moment, Mukuro tense and mentally preparing for whatever it was Junko was planning for her, and the fashionista silently observing the crippled women with a critical eye. No words were said, just the persistent vail of smothered sound broken by their breathing. Idly the brunette noticed that their breathing was nearly in sync, the only offset was that the blond turned redhead was a split second earlier on her inhales compared to her own.
It wasn't really anything she'd stopped to notice before, but it made sense it a way. Even though they were twins, Junko always was the one to move first compared to her, always moving to the beat of her own drum no matter what anyone else said. She was always the one to take charge of the situation and move on the offensive, where Mukuro preferred to follow orders even before her time as a mercenary.
Thinking about it, that had been the first time she had actually taken her life into her own hands, choosing to throw away her bond with her sister to pursue her own dream. That had been the turning point in the twin's relationship that made Junko really ramp up her attempts to kill the elder twin. The first time Junko sent her a care package that actually made it to her, it had been filled with twenty pounds of C4 and rigged to blow when opened.
That poor delivery man was never the same.
Mukuro resisted the urge to shake her head so as prevent her sister from noticing her brief lapse of focus. It wasn't usually like her to let her mind wander like this, reminiscing on things in the past. Usually she kept her focus on the here and now, not on events that she couldn't change.
Maybe it was a side effect of coming so close to death's door and just barely being pulled away. With her future nearly being taken from her before her time, perhaps her mind decided to focus on the events that had led up to her being in that situation in the first place. There was an expression for it, like her life was flashing before her eyes, or something like that.
Whatever the case, it was still something that she found irritating. She didn't like to focus on the past, it was something she found pointless. The past couldn't be changed, so why would you need to focus on it. Even with the expression saying that you should learn of the past or risk repeating it, there was no point in focusing exclusively on it and forgetting about the current events and the future that comes after.
…She was doing it again.
As she was thinking about this, she noticed Junko turning away finally, her expression looking grim and almost…depressed. It was different from the one she used where mushrooms seemingly grew on her head though, that one was just an act to throw people off. This one looked sincerer.
That…couldn't be. Right? Junko hadn't done anything wrong.
Yeah…that was right. Mukuro was the one who made the mistake. It was her fault. It was always her fault.
"Oh, right!" Junko suddenly interrupted, unintentionally dragging Mukuro from her thoughts, before she then turned to the tray placed on the folding table acting as an end table for her pills. Picking it up, Junko handed her the tray with a smile on her face.
"Here you go, I made us both breakfast. Hope you like it." She cringed slightly at the word 'hope', but that didn't stop the smile on the blond girl's face. It had been almost unnoticeable, but Mukuro knew her how much that one word upset her twin.
However, that was pushed aside when she saw just what Junko had prepared. On the dinner plate before her was a small, somewhat-mishmash of foods, not necessarily all proper breakfast items. On one side was the things that she would expect from a western breakfast, smoked bacon strips, sausage links, and a small cup full of butter for the flapjacks on the other side. Two glasses of milk, one of which she was still holding, had also been part of the arrangement. However, there was one item the stuck out like a sore thumb that was smack dab in the center of the plate.
A hand sized serving of omurice. A rice omelet.
The egg dish that had fluffy, golden eggs carefully wrapped around a small cup of fried rice with a small array of spices, onion, and cubed chicken tenderloin mixed in. Normally, this simple dish would be served as a dinner or lunch meal, though it wasn't like people didn't use it for a breakfast entrée. Mukuro only knew of it through Hifumi since it was something he would insist any of his classmates try who joined him for a meal outside of the school.
Of course, he also dragged them to a maid café when they went to get the dish. That certainly didn't put him in any one of the girl's favor.
However, the thing that made her pause and stare was what lay on top of the fluffy egg. On the small meal was an elaborately made heart with lace shaped against the edges drawn entirely out of ketchup, and in the same condiment made heart was a single word spelt in traditional kanji held within its curly borders.
It said, "Gomenasai".
"I'm sorry…?" the crippled soldier breathed, confused as to the reasoning for this message written in the tomato condiment. When there was movement to her side, she turned her head and bared witness to a sight she never expected to see in her life. Junko, looking honestly remorseful.
"Yeah…" Junko spoke up again when Mukuro hadn't, her tone absolutely miserable. It was so different from what the brunette had expected that it robbed her of her breath. As she tried to question what her sister meant, and failed as a result of her breathlessness, Junko continued.
"I know that I can't make it up to you, but I'm still sorry. I should have known you would interpret my vague orders in such a way." She closed her eyes for a moment, but they opened shortly after filled with so much regret that Mukuro found herself stunned silent. "I should have stayed with the original plan. I mean, you're my sister. There was no reason for me not to figure out how you would take it. So, yeah. Sorry."
Mukuro was flabbergasted, eyes wide and her jaw drooping at what she was hearing. Junko, the self-proclaimed personification of despair itself, whose sole purpose in life was to bring every single person in this forsaken world down onto their knees begging for the embrace of death, who felt untold pleasure at other people's misery, who destroyed entire civilizations for no other reason than because she could, had apologized for essentially crippling her.
That…That just doesn't happen. That wasn't something she did. Junko never apologizes for anything, to anyone, for any reason. Even when it would be advantageous for her, Junko never apologized for anything. If anything, she went out of her way to make it seem like whomever it was she inconvenienced was the one at fault and made them apologize for it in her stead.
"W…What…?" Mukuro tried to speak, to ask what was going on, but she couldn't. This pure unbelievable situation had completely wiped out her ability to think. As if to make things even harder on her, Junko reached over and after moving the tray to the side, she pulled the stunned girl's head close and pressed the brunette's head into her chest. Mukuro stiffened at the contact of her face to her sister's bosom, the sudden embrace was something that had never happened before and it stunned her into stillness. Even when they were kids Junko had never hugged her and thus it made her every sense heighten from dread. Every nerve was alight and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Her heart jumped in a mixture of fear and an unbearable sense of trepidation that jumpstarted her adrenaline and made everything feel like it was moving in slow motion. The scent of her sibling's expensive detergent mixed in with the girl's own natural musk filled her nose as the sound of both of their heartbeats filled her ears.
It was clear though that the blond hadn't been showering recently.
Ignoring that as best as she could, even though her nose crinkled at the stench, Mukuro tried to rationalize what was happening. Her despair loving sibling had apologized, claimed that she had been wrong, made her breakfast, brought her medicine to help her leg recover, and was now holding her in a warm hug as she muttered soft apologies into the soldier's hair. The whole situation was so beyond unnatural and bazar and uncomfortable, it went against everything she had known about her relationship with her sister that even though she wanted to push her twin away…she found her body unresponsive.
There was a feeling of longing to return the embrace with her younger sibling, to pull her closer and continue enjoying the moment. It was a part of her that she honestly had never realized existed, or if she had, it had been buried under her sister's desires and the time she had endured as a mercenary. It had been unneeded, unwanted, undesired by her life and had been left behind as a result.
But now that this had happened that once believed dead feeling had made its return and left her reeling from her conflicting desire to confront her twin on her actions and continue to remain silently enjoying this moment. Her mind was in turmoil, her heart trapped in a maze of uncertainty and love, and she was left lost and confused.
Was this another of her sister's tests of loyalty? Was this a new way to torment her with the desire to be given a reward that Junko would never give? Or was this genuine, an apology for her actions with a desire of repentance. Mukuro didn't know, it was far from what she had ever experienced from her sibling, even beyond the rapidly changing personalities she grew accustomed to over the last year. She was completely lost.
It took an immense amount of effort, far more so then she expected, but she managed to beat down these thoughts. No, Junko had to be testing her. She had to be. Mukuro was the one to screw up the plan, she was the one who made things harder on her sibling because she couldn't resist the urge to kick Monokuma in the face. She had been the one to make her sister have to scramble to save her from her own stupid actions. Junko had nothing to apologize for.
She did.
"No…No, I'm sorry." She managed to mutter into the cloth covered bosom of her sibling before she pulled back just enough to look her sister in her contact colored blue eyes. "You were right. I was the one who misinterpreted your orders. I made you have to punish me for ruining the plan and potentially motivating the others into rebelling against you. I deserved it."
Her heart ached as she said all of this, her pride hating her for saying all of this, but she ruthlessly stomped out these flames of rebellion before they could manifest further. It was the truth, no matter what her heart claimed. No matter what logic her mind tried to use against her belief. She would stand by the truth…
However, Junko continued to confuse her, shaking her head and stating, "No, I'm the one who should be sorry. Even if you screwed up the first plan, I should have come up with a contingency either way. Instead, I just jumped the gun and tried to execute you. I mean, for Pete's sake, I damn near crippled you for life!"
"Maybe," Mukuro agreed with that much, but was not something she would accept Junko taking the blame for. "However, I was the one who deserved it. I ruined your plan and broke your rule. I deserve everything you put me through."
"Even becoming a cripple and potentially losing your claim as the Ultimate Soldier?" Junko rebutted with a steely glare, her hands balling against said brunette's back and nearly drawing a wince from Mukuro. That certainly was something that she hadn't wanted to risk, her title and her usefulness to her sister were the only things she felt she had going for her. Even now, they had been the only things she desired as they made her feel important, useful. Without them, she didn't know what she had.
However, Mukuro stood firm in her loyalty and conviction. "Yes, even then. I want to be by your side, and if I can't, then I want to at least be useful to make your plans come together. If it is want you want, then I'll even give up my life if it'll make you happy."
Junko's glare didn't waver in the slightest to her devotion, if anything, it seemed to harden it further. Yet, Mukuro didn't take her eyes off of her sister's, knowing that if she faltered, that if she gave in and looked away first, then her beloved sister would cast her aside again. She would leave her here to rot for showing weakness, forever a disappointment.
She didn't know how long she and her sibling stared into each other's eyes, both unwavering wills waring for supremacy. A fire had been lit within them both, burning and raging beneath the surface. Both parties wanted nothing more than to prove themselves right, to take the fall for the mistakes made.
Junko's gaze wavered first, a stunning development to Mukuro, and then the blond model turned away with a scoff. "…Fine, if you're going to be a bitch about it, then I guess you can work to fix it."
Mukuro flinched at the venom in her sister's voice, but it did nothing to stop the thankful smile from appearing on her face. "Thank you, Junko."
However, any further words were cut off when Junko's arms left their place on Mukuro's back and grabbed the front of her shirt. "But, if you're so willing to risk everything for me, then don't think for a second that I'm going to let you slack off, got it!? I have no use for a tool, or a sister, that can't follow orders to the letter. Understand?"
Mukuro smiled, happy that her sister still had use for her, even though she had to push down the small voice it the back of her head screaming at her for doing so. "Understood."
Junko huffed as she pushed Mukuro away, turning away with a disappointed look in her eye. "Ugh, now hurry up and eat your breakfast. Be grateful, it was a bitch and a half to get Hina to leave me alone long enough to get it here without arousing suspicion. I'll take care of the plates after lights out, so make sure that you eat it all and put it where I can find it. Got it?"
"Understood." Mukuro confirmed with a nod of her head. "Thank you, Junko."
"Ugh, don't thank me," Junko rebutted in disgust as she grabbed the tray of food again and pushed it into the injured girl's lap. "Just focus on healing for now and I'll do what I can to cover for you till you can walk."
"I will." Mukuro nodded again, happily accepting the tray of food and began to eat. Junko stayed for only a few more minutes, silently judging her decision to accept the blame of her actions, but eventually, she got up and walked towards the door and grabbed the crutch once more. Mukuro could have sworn she heard her twin mutter something along the lines of, "This is going to be harder than I thought." Yet, she shrugged it off without a thought.
It wasn't her place to question Junko's thought process, she didn't have the rights. She was lucky enough to have her sister's love as it was, she wasn't going to push it. If it was necessary for her to know, then Junko would have said something. She had her orders, it was time to follow them.
With that thought in mind, she purposefully ignored the voice of her curiosity and put her finished tray of food to the side. Once that was done, she pulled the sheets back up over her as she laid down, glad that the medicine Junko gave her seemed to work since she no longer felt any pain from her injury. A small smile worked its way onto her face at how thoughtful her sister was, and she settled down to relax and recover.
However, it was it that moment that she realized something. Now that her sister had left, the room had become quiet once more. Too quiet. And she hated the quiet.
…This was going to be a long, stressful recovery, Mukuro could just tell.
"This is going to be harder than I thought."
I grumbled to myself as I opened the door to the room Mukuro was to recover in, making sure to check that no one was wandering close by before I closed the door, then I proceeded to wander towards the dining hall with a deep scowl on my face.
I wanted to say that I was mad at Mukuro for being so difficult to apologize to. I had spent all of last night trying to think of a way to tell her just how much I hated myself for shish-kabobbing her leg and crippling her potentially for life, and I had thought of numerous ways it would go. Several scenarios had run though my head, most of which ended up with me with either a knife in my neck or a bullet in my head, but I didn't want to believe for a second that she would just up and try and take all of the blame for herself.
Yet, that ended up being the case. Honestly, I could only blame myself for that one. When I had exploded on her the last time we had talked, I had dumped all of the blame on her in my frustration. I just hadn't handled being yelled at very well. It really wasn't something I excel at either way, I'll admit.
However, even though that was on my head, it was also a problem since she was still a victim of Junko's manipulations. With how terrible that blond pain-in-the-neck was, it wasn't hard to imagen that she had done some kind of exploitation on her elder twin to make her more subservient and receptive to taking on the blame when things went wrong. True, that wasn't even all that shocking since a lot of people growing up went through a faze where they blamed others for their problems, some never grew out of it too, but this went well and beyond that because Mukuro was fully under the belief that she was the one in the wrong because I had misguidedly told her so.
But that was wrong, she was the victim in this case, the one who had been wronged in the first place, she should be the one who deserved an apology from me. Yet, she insisted that it was her fault, used the words I hadn't meant to prevent me from taking the blame I deserved. It would have been admirable if it wasn't so stupid.
I honestly wanted to continue the conversation, to keep hammering away at her stubborn denial with the facts until it got through her thick head, but there were some things that stopped me from doing that. The first of which was my realizing my station in this conversation.
It was pretty obvious to me, but it was clear that Junko's relationship with Mukuro was very much an abusive one. Worst still, it was also one where the victim of this abuse misread it as a show of her abuser's expression of love. The ultimate despair had been the only person to stay close to her growing up, or at the least made it seem like she was the only one who ever truly loved the brunette, and made the ultimate soldier dependent on her twin's approval.
One of the best examples of this was her actions in the IF novel. When Junko's plan to kill Mukuro failed because of intervention of the ultimate luckster, Junko threw her twin under the bus and tried to pin the imprisonment of their class on both of them. Even when she fled with and saved Makoto from the injuries he sustained from saving her, even when she challenged her sister and began to defy her, even when she helped the other's escape from the school, even after everything Junko had done to her, she only did it all because she had convinced herself that it would bring Junko the despair that she always yearned for. She saved her friends and potential love interest only out of her love for her twin, not for them or herself.
She was abused, but even if she hated it, she always went back to her sister desperate to be loved. That was the problem I had to deal with right now.
Unfortunately, that wasn't something I could solve easily. Since it was through the hand of the body I currently inhabit that she had become accustomed to, that meant that I had to play that role and slowly work to remove that abusive image from her mind. I had laid the ground work for that, but until she has someone in her life who loves her without the violent tendencies of her sister, it was going to be an uphill battle to repair, or rather start, to heal the scars on her heart.
Unfortunately, I am very much not qualified for that, to say the least. I had only the barest idea of what she needed to recover from years of trauma, and that was all from the rudimentary knowledge I got from my psychology 101 class, and what I learned on the internet. I am far from earning a license in the field, and it wasn't even my major regardless. The sad fact of the matter was, there was nothing I could do for her as long as that belief that I am the one who abused her exists in her cognition of me.
I hate that I would have to be mean to her, but I needed to be to keep her loyalty. So, as much as it made my gut churn, I would be her abusive sister only where necessary until I can rid her of that desire.
The biggest reason for my haste to leave though was that I was on a time crunch. I had to rush to clean up to keep anyone from figuring out that I had gone back to make a second breakfast.
After Hina volunteered to help me retrieve the students that were still in the dorms, we had gone back to get them. That hadn't taken all that long, Sayaka and Leon had just been leaving when we found them so that hadn't been an issue. All it took was a simple, "Byakuya's being Byakuya again, so the others are getting him. Don't wait up." After that, they gave us a nod of understanding and an expression of exasperation, and left for the dining hall with barely a word. The fact that was all that I needed to say for them to figure out the situation was amusing and yet, it was kind of sad.
Regardless, after that brief interaction we had gone over to Yasuhiro's room and got Sakura and Hiro. Again, there hadn't been much of a problem, but apparently the clairvoyant had had some kind of nightmare the night before that had made it difficult to sleep, resulting in him sleeping in. I made a mental note to see if I could find him some sleeping pills as the two other girls begrudgingly helped him up and into his wheelchair. It wouldn't do for one of the people who were able to keep me entertained with his antics to be completely dead on his feet.
After that, we had all headed on our way to the dining hall where most of us waited for the others. Sakura offered to get the others and Hina went with her leaving the rest of us to gossip.
Well, I say that, but we didn't really have much to say. Hiro was completely out of it and kept nodding off, and Sayaka and Leon were still really awkward around each other. Seems that, even after their reconciliation they didn't really know just what to say to each other. The all-star wasn't dumb enough to flirt with the pop idol after that near bush with death he'd experienced, and she still had some baggage about the same affair that made any attempt at conversation die within a few minutes.
In the end, in an effort to keep at least some of my sanity intact from the shear boredom as well as some genuine curiosity, I maneuvered over to the red and blue duo and asked them how they were doing. I should have expected it the moment I tried, but I was quick to learn that neither of them were all that talkative. Leon gave me a clipped, "Fine." Which was more than Sayaka did since all she gave me was a small smile and a nod of acknowledgement before turning away. I felt a bit miffed at that, yet I continued.
"So, any idea what the others are up to?" Leon shrugged at my question while Sayaka adopted a slight thinking pose, but neither said anything. Just as my frustration was about to break through to tell these punks to stop moping about and freaking talk to me, Yasuhiro threw in a small comment, "If I had to guess, I think that Mondo is trying to pound in Byakuya's head for making Chihiro cry, and the others are holding him back. But, I think the others want to hit him as well because he keeps saying something like, "It's pointless pretending to be friends in a game like this." or something like that."
"…?" There was a brief moment of silence as the three of us slowly turn our heads to look at him with various raised brows.
"That was oddly specific." Leon commented, to which the sea-urchin headed man laughed.
"Well, I mean, Byakuya's not really a team player after all, and you know Mondo doesn't like seeing girls cry. Wouldn't be surprised if they started fighting, right?" He was laughing it off without a thought, but I couldn't help but feel impressed.
"Wow, and here I thought Sayaka was the only psychic in this place." I complimented him with one arm moved to support my head. "Ya' know, for someone who acts like a complete idiot, you're surprisingly perceptive."
"Well, it's not like it's some occult mystery or anything." He angerly pointed at me, conveniently overlooking the idiot comment as he did. "Just cuz I was held back three times, doesn't mean I doesn't mean I can't notice things!"
"Whoa, hostile." I deadpanned in response to which Sayaka followed with, "Are you doing okay?"
Hiro cringed suddenly, and to our surprise he then reached up and grabbed his head, groaning. "Sorry 'bout that. It's this stupid headache, it's nothing."
"Headache?" Leon asked, but then his eyes widened with realization. "Oh right, when you hit your head from…"
His voice trailed off as his gaze wandered over to Sayaka's before he cringed at the guilty expression on her face. It didn't even take me that long to realize the same thing they had, his concussion from when Sayaka ran into him with the kitchen knife and caused him to hit his head on the doorframe. He still had a bandage wrapped around his head after all, though I was pretty sure that the wound had scabbed over by this point. Still though, "Wasn't that, like, a couple of days ago? It should have healed up by now."
"Yeah, it has." Hiro replied to my question with a sigh, he even pulled up the bandage to show that, while clearly tender, the once bloody space on the back of his head had almost completely healed already. "But I keep getting headaches every once in a while. Plus, I keep getting these weird visions in my crystal ball that are keeping me up at night trying to figure them out."
"Wait, dude, you seriously have more of those glass balls?" Leon pointed out with a shocked expression on his face. For a second, I thought he was just taking that one thing from the conversation, but I noticed his eyes momentarily flick over to Sayaka and realized he was trying to change the conversation for her sake. It was, honestly kind of admirable, even if I thought she should have to deal with this now rather than later. However, I saw the way he almost begged me with his eyes to help with this, so with an internal sigh I followed his lead.
"Glass balls? You mean those props street fortune tellers use to swindle people with phony fortunes?" I asked with an almost bored tone, not really into the divergence of topic. Leon gave me a slightly tense glare, but it quickly died when Hiro's upset voice cut him off.
"I'll have you know that I am nothing like those fakes your talking about. My fortunes are based on my own unique inspirational stylings, that's why they are far more accurate than anyone else's." He seemed passionate about it, yet it seemed Leon couldn't avoid getting another jab in.
"Says the guy who's only right thirty percent of the time." I shook my head at that. It was a rather small number to be honest, so much so that anyone would doubt it's validity. Yet, Hiro still had a counter for it.
"Well it's not like the future's set-in stone or something, even I can't know everything! Every time I look into the future, it's like looking at a frayed rope. Yeah, I can see the whole rope, but it's got all kinds of strands and stuff splitting off all over the place, and with my ability I can easily find the biggest thread amongst them."
That…was actually kind of profound, in a way. Normally, the few times I'd gotten my fortune read, they would say that, "the future was set in stone" or, "fate was absolute", or such nonsense, and all they would tell me was the kind of vague things you'd find in a cookie. Yet, here was Hiro, the one who would benefit the most by saying such drivel, actively turn such notions down at the door with a promise that the future he saw was only a possibility. It was kind of respectable.
And then he instantly killed that bubble of respect with his next words.
"In fact, I'll prove it. I'll read your fortune right now and tell you all of the possible futures of the next month. I'll even give you a discount package, the first one is one hundred thousand yen, and every other one after will be free! How 'bout that!?" Oh Hiro, why did you have to be such a money grubber? All that ability, wasted on your greedy ass.
"Like hell!" Leon furiously denied him, and even Sayaka seemed upset with Hiro, all signs of her prior guilt completely wiped from her face. Even I couldn't help but feel all of my growing respect die just a little bit more. All he could do after that was try and fail to convince the three of us to get our fortunes told until the others finally came back, though notably without Byakuya in toe and with quite a few sour expressions. But for me, all of that became irrelevant when I saw one specific boy with puffy red eyes walk in.
"Chihiro? What's wrong?"
"What's wrong?" his friend asked, concern filling her voice, and it wasn't even a challenge to guess why. Chihiro knew he'd been crying again, it was very obvious, but he couldn't help himself. Just remembering the conversation he'd just gotten away from almost made him feel like crying all over again.
Finding their wayward member had not been a challenge in the slightest, just as Junko had said, Byakuya had holed himself up in the library with a cup of coffee. What had he been doing there was simple, reading one of the many mystery novels that were prevalent in one section of the selection of several books. Inherently, there wasn't anything wrong with that, even though he had held up the meeting because of it, and Chihiro and most of the others would have been understanding had he decided to apologize, or even make an excuse that he had been too focused on his book to hear the morning announcement; flimsy though that excuse would be.
However, that had been the furthest thing on the heir's mind apparently, as he stated that he had no intention of going to where anyone could poison his food while he wasn't looking. That wouldn't have been too bad, hell, it was even understandable given what they were calling the "Pancake fiasco" yesterday. Not a single one of them were willing to take anything from the kitchen without thoroughly examining it first for the entirety of the day after.
However, then he went farther in his comments and the things he said both horrified and disgusted the programmer and the others on a personal level. "This is a zero-sum game where only one of us can win." And, when they tried to explain that they should work together to defeat the mastermind, "Working together, fighting a common enemy? We were already working together and look what happened." Chihiro was just glad that Sayaka hadn't been there to hear that one.
"Anyone who wants to escape…will just have to follow the rules as stated." He had said so coldly, as if doing so would be no concern for him, as if that wouldn't be a risk to his life as well as theirs. Chihiro had tried to talk back to him, to remind the blond rich boy just what that would mean. They had already come close to killing Sayaka with the last trial after all, and he couldn't bare himself if they had ended up actually going through with it.
Yes, the others did have a point when they told him that they should be blaming the mastermind for forcing them into this horrible game in the first place, and he knew that. However, though he hadn't been able to say it himself, he also felt that they held just as much responsibility for voting for her in the first place. It had been them who actually listened to the mastermind in the first place. They had cast the vote even knowing that it meant her or them.
But, he still wasn't able to say anything with Byakuya continuing on to say that there was no point in believing that they could wait for the time limit to expire, simply because there would always be someone willing to give in and try to become the blackened, and even if one motive failed, there would always be others. They would all falter eventually.
The very idea was even somewhat supported by Celeste, who reminded them of her stance about wanting them all to adapt to their current environment, if they want to stay alive that is. While she had a point as well, Chihiro knew he couldn't last if this game continued like it was. They all wanted out of here, including him. They wanted to get out and save their friends and families that were being held captive by the cruel person…the monster that was making them play this game.
And Byakuya even had the gall to claim that this game was to fun, that he didn't want it to end because he was so confident that he would win. The way his face twisted into a smile as evil as a devil's when he said that, to say it unnerved them all would be underselling it. That smirk had sent a chill screaming down the petite boy's spine, and made him want to be anywhere else, away from the horror that one of his friends was becoming.
Then, as if to prove exactly how little he believed in the possibility of being killed here, Byakuya very bluntly insulted Mondo, stating that, he was surprised a, "Uneducated, brain-dead, useless piece of garbage like you has survived this long already." To say that the biker was livid would be laughable, Mondo was absolutely blood thirsty savage for a brief moment, red in the face, and had Taka and Sakura not quickly restrained him, he might have sent the arrogant heir flying.
Though, there was a small part of Chihiro that wished that had happened. Byakuya had clearly known that the two strong peace keepers of the group would stop the berserk biker gang leader from following through with his threat to kill the millionaire boy, as he hadn't even reacted to the threat, nor when the clearly stronger teen lunged for him. He just stood there, looking at Mondo like he was barely worth his notice, like the gang leader wasn't worth anything more than the gunk one might find on their shoe. Just that look in the blond boy's eye made Chihiro feel a bit anger himself for Mondo's sake.
It didn't help that Celeste brought up Byakuya's title as the Ultimate Affluent Progeny as if it was a good reason for his actions, even stating that he'd been raised to succeed since the day he was born. That didn't mean that he had any reason to act like this, did it? He even went as far as to call Celeste vulgar when she dared to suggest that they were similar in that, "I must always win" mindset. Celeste, the only one of them who had been supporting his thought pattern regarding this whole thing.
To think that he would then taunt them all further, telling them to try harder so that he could have more fun winning, even though he clearly knew that doing so would get everyone else killed. The uncaring way he stated his belief on the matter, it was horrible, deplorable even. To do such a thing to friends, allies fighting together for everyone's sake, poor Chihiro couldn't even begin to understand that twisted belief.
Then, as if just to finalize the wedge separating them from him, Byakuya went as far as to state that they never were friends, "Merely competitors fighting for some prize-we're enemies." He continued to hammer this into Chihiro's head, blatantly ignoring the meek boy's merger protests as he coldly stated his case, demanding that the programmer stop trying to force his contradictions on them and except the truth. To keep his mouth shut if he wasn't going to present a real argument.
It…It hurt, to be told all of that so bluntly, so uncaringly, that his belief in his friends was wrong and he was wrong for believing in them. That his bonds were meaningless in the long run, his hopes to get out with everyone else was pointless. It struck a chord deep down inside him, and it made his tears, which he'd somehow been holding back throughout the verbal lashing, finally flow like a waterfall down his cheeks.
He couldn't believe Byakuya would say such heartless things, to so casually throw away all of them for his own goals of escape. That he would just openly admit that he had no intention of working with them and planned to do anything, even resort to murder to win this horrible excuse for a game just hurt the boy on a deep level.
He barely even noticed Mondo standing up for him, or Hina putting a comforting hand on his back, so lost was he in his tears. Even when Byakuya finally left, once again stating his belief that working together in an elimination match was pointless and that he refused to work with any of them, Chihiro continued to cry unabated. It wasn't until they all began to make their way back to the dining hall that he was able to calm down enough to stop the flow, but leaving his eyes puffy and red. When Junko had offered her shoulder, he hadn't even thought about it, he'd just walked over and accepted the offer.
Yet, as he lay his head on his friend's shoulder and the others finished explaining what happened to the four who had been fortunate to miss out, he wanted to start crying all over again. The fact that Toko hadn't stayed with them, choosing instead to head off to her room because she was afraid that the rich boy heir might be right, only made him feel worst. To think, she would say that she would, "Never want to eat with someone who already tried to kill them" clearly referring to Sayaka and then dashing off without letting them get a single word in the bluenette's defense was almost just as heart wrenching as the verbal assault they'd just left with Byakuya.
"Tch, that bastard's going to be a real problem." Mondo stated once they had all finished with their tale completely. "If we don't keep an eye on him, he might really kill someone. You can see it in his eyes."
Leon pipped in next with an idea that made Chihiro feel uncomfortable. "We got no choice then, someone get some rope! We're gonna have to keep him tied and gagged!"
"That's going a bit too far." Makoto commented with a look of exasperation. He wasn't really wrong either, despite what he'd said, there was a limit to what they could risk doing to Byakuya with Monokuma around.
Unfortunately, Taka even threw out his own agreement to Mondo's with a loud, "He's right! In a situation like this, there is nothing more dangerous than when an ally turns loose cannon! It's just like when we we're kids and someone would go crazy on sports day or something!"
"What kinda childhood did you have?" Junko asked, clearly confused by where exactly the moral compass was going with that last comment.
Unfortunately, whatever he would have said was cut off by Mondo's interrupting rather angerly. "What the fuck are you talking about!? You gonna use the rope to play tug-a-war!? Idiot!"
"I'm not an idiot…" Taka lurched back in shock at both the unwarranted comment, but then he was quick to refute just as angerly with, "You're an idiot!"
"Seriously? What are you, five?" Leon commented on the rather juvenile response, but it was overall ignored by the continued argument devolving into a complete shouting match. Chihiro wasn't sure when, but he was sure that he heard Mondo tell the "Baseball idiot" to stay out of this. The redhead didn't seem to appreciate that as he jumped in on the name calling regardless of the context. The others couldn't help but wonder why it had devolved into something like this. But then, there was feeling of tension that was coming from their resident fashion model, who was quickly growing more and more furious by the second.
Her eyebrow was twitching rather sporadically while her grip on Chihiro's hair was slowly starting to become quite a bit rougher and clawing compared to the soft and comforting loose grip it had been before. it didn't hurt, she wasn't that harsh, but it was clear that all of the shouting was getting to her. Eventually though, she couldn't take their bickering any longer and snapped, "Would you guys kindly, SHUT UP!"
The three boys jumped at the shouted demand, their replies were cut short by the evil glare she leveled on them. "God, you guys. I can not think with all of this racket going on. Seriously, I know children that don't squabble as loud as you three do. Sheesh. I'm trying to think here, so would you kindly shut it?"
She kept her glare on the trio for a time, her will pressing against them, daring them to continue their shouting match, warning them that doing so would result in hell to pay. They tried to say something in their defense, but whenever one was about to speak, her burning gaze would quickly lock on to theirs and freeze them in place. Leon was the first to look away of them all, reluctantly rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as he apologized with a simple. "Sorry, my bad." Taka was next to give in with his own guilt apology, the comparison to being like a child striking a cord with him as the one responsible for keeping the peace.
Mondo took the longest, since he was used to being the Alpha male, and was used to such glares no doubt. The two teens continued glaring at each other for a good while, both unwilling to give in so easily to the other's. The air felt thick all of a sudden for all of the onlookers, everyone concerned that sooner than later they would turn to blows. Eventually though, Mondo's gaze dropped first, his expression hidden by his massive perm. There was a small muttering from the biker that sounded a lot like, "…Sorry." But, it was so quiet that it was hard to tell.
Still, it was enough to pacify Junko for now. She paused for a moment to rub her temple with her free hand, "Okay, now, let me see. You said that Byakuya seemed to be focusing his little, "greater than thou" speech against Chihiro an Mondo the most, yes?"
The way that she looked at the others was something that caught them by surprise and more than a few of them glanced at each other as if seeking the answer of what she was thinking of in each other's eyes. Sadly, even for the one girl who claimed to be psychic, the answer to that question wasn't clear. So, in the interest of keeping things going, Sakura confirmed, "Yes, tis what happened."
"I see." Junko stated, her voice carrying a very concerning tone that made Chihiro uncomfortable in her grasp. He couldn't pull away though, on account of sharp fake nails of her lightly digging into his scalp. "Interesting."
"The hell's interesting about it!?" Mondo, and surprisingly Leon, were quick to rebut loudly. If they were going to say anything else though was unknown, as they both turned to look at each other in shock at their synchronization, only for it to turn into a glaring match shortly after. Junko, ether not noticing the tension between them, or ignoring it entirely, continued her thought.
"Well, I find it interesting that it took him so long to fall back on the Togami lifestyle." The way she said that caught several of the teen's attention, though it was Hina that asked.
"Togami lifestyle?" Junko nodded her head and explained, "Yeah, the lifestyle of the Togami family. Their old slogan was… Oh, what was it? Something like, "target the weak, reap the strong." Something like that? It's apparently been their family moto for generations."
"Target the- Wait, what?" Leon stumbled trying to understand what she meant, and failing. Fortunately, Junko continued.
"Yeah, apparently the Togami family has always been like that. Finding people's weaknesses and exploiting them for profit, they target a person's weaknesses to see what about them is strong, then they use that knowledge to their advantage to find the best of them to either hire into their circle, or recruit for their various companies to keep them away from the competition. Quote, reaping the best of the crop. Even amongst their offspring that's no exception."
"Whatever do you mean?" Celeste asked with a very interested look in her eye, a gleam of opportunity shining through her calm expression. Junko simply shrugged, yet continued either way.
"Well, when I was in middle school me and some of my class were doing a project where we had to research the lifestyles of rich folk, and we ended up with Byakuya's family, and let me say, you do not want anything to do with them after what you hear what I found." She let Chihiro go as she spoke, her eyes becoming hardened as she told them the shocking truth of their irritating cohort. "Now, most of what I found is considered rumors so take it with a grain of salt, but there is a load of things that make it seem likely. Apparently, at the prime age of thirty, the head of the family at the time will embark on a trip around the world for one purpose. Finding themselves the people with the best genes for the next head of the family to be born."
"Jeans? Why would they want people's pants? I thought they were rich enough to buy their own." Hiro muttered aloud as he cupped his chin in thought, completely obvious to the glares on some of the other's faces from his idiocy.
"Not jeans you mook, genes as in genetics. They wanted people to keep their bloodline the strongest." Mondo growled at the fortuneteller's goof up, and said teller flinched back while Junko nodded to the gang leader in thanks.
"Exactly, only the best for them to continue the family name. The problem though is that, they don't really just find one." The fashionista's face took on a twisted grimace, like she had just bitten something sour, and it very quickly became known why. "Per their tradition, they gather multiple people of the opposite sex with promises of great riches, usually females since men then to lead the family the most, and then once they've committed themselves and bore a child, they are given a flat one million and booted out while the kid is inducted into the family."
"So, wait, they just go through all that effort to find these women, and they just kick them out when they got what they want?" Leon questioned with a disgusted look on his face, a look that was mirrored by a majority of the others as Sayaka added, "That's horrible!"
"And yet, this is something the Togami family frequently do, correct?" Celeste added, though if one were to look closely, they would see her normally perfect mask had become noticeably strained with fury. "You did say that it was a tradition after all, did you not?"
Junko nodded her head in agreement, her grim expression worsening. "Yep, and if you think that's bad, wait till you hear what they do next."
"There's more!?" Hifumi shouted in shock which was mirrored by the others. How could it get any worse? As they listened though, it turned out that it could get a lot.
"Yeah, from that point on, the kids spend the first decade of their life having the best tutors that money could buy cram as much knowledge down their throats as possible. Then once the potential successors are about a minimum of ten years old, they're all given an allowance of about a thousand, a small list of connections, and then they're kicked out of the only home they've known for years. Then, they're basically told, "Alright, go out there and don't comeback until you've made yourself a name and a fortune, do better than your siblings, and if you can do so in about three years or so you can come back." Oh, but when they do, their told that, "Surprise! We lied! Only the one you made the better fortune for themselves gets to become the heir. The rest of you can go live your lives among the ninety-nine percent and rot for all we care." Tch."
Horror ran through their minds and the very idea. To be raised under such horrible conditions was outright disgusting to them, they couldn't even imagine what it would be like to live in such a way. Taka was one of the ones most effected and was chewing in his lower lip in conflicted frustration. "I never would have imagined that he had to go through so much. He's a genius who had to work hard to get where he is, even if it meant defeating his own family. To think I was so quick to think of him as a lazy genius who never put any effort into his talent. I'm so disappointed in myself!"
Even Mondo and Leon had been affected in some way, both looked a bit troubled by the news, like they were internally debating with themselves whether they could enact their own planed act to hog-tie the bastard after hearing all that he'd been through. The others were in similar states themselves, though no one could blame them. Their entire view of the blond millionaire had been completely up ended by the words of the strawberry blond holding the crying programmer, only this time the tears were for the affluent progeny instead of for himself.
Sakura had even seemed thoroughly vexed by the news of their ally's suffering. Even though she had taken the dream of strongest fighter in the world from her father, she had always believed in the ideals of her family to protect those that couldn't fight for themselves. It was their belief that you should always fight as one without blinding yourself in the allure of winning, and to uphold the fact that at the end of every match, you are still family. To hear of how Byakuya's family would be so callous to make children fight to see which would be allowed to stay sickened her to her very core. It made her wish that she was allowed to leave this prison to speak with the blond boy's family about this sick display they dared to call a tradition.
Amongst all the sneers of disgust for the actions of the rich family, there was one who was silent.
Kyoko had her hand put against her chin in thought, and was the only one who wasn't noticeably affected by the horrible past of their fellow student. It was certain that she was considering something, but just what that was she was thinking about was unclear until she turned to look at Junko and asked, "Why are you telling us this?"
"Hmm?" Junko's questioning voice came out as she turned from comforting Chihiro to glance at the purple themed albino. Kyoko continued now knowing that she had the idol's attention.
"You said that these were rumored, yet the way you say them makes it sound less like online rumormongering and more like you've heard it from someone with actual weight. There's also the fact that you have been quite vocal in your…displeasure of Byakuya's actions so far, so why-" Whatever she was going to say was quickly shot down by Junko with a rapid response of her own.
"Yeah, I'm just gonna cut you off here with a resounding, not anything that you were gonna say!" Her words had been spoken quite quickly and had they not been paying attention they'd have misheard it. Fortunately, when she continued, it was both at a neutral volume and pace. "Don't get the wrong idea here, I hate that d-bag's guts. Hell, he's lucky that I wasn't there myself, otherwise I'd have clubbed him over the head with my crutch then and there; consequences be damned!"
To say that the sudden fire in her voice shocked the others would be an understatement. Hina was quick to comment on it as well with, "Huh!? But you just said…!"
"I know what I said." Junko once again interrupted, her expression unchanging from the glare she wore during the last time she'd cut in. "He's family sucks, boohoo, he's so freaking sad. Just because what I said could possibly be wrong in some areas means nothing, he could easily tell anyone of us if it's right or not if he wants to later. That doesn't change the fact that he's got a superiority complex a mile wide and that he pisses me off with his attitude. He's still the head of an entire corporation at his beck and call and more money than even Yasu-always in freaking debt-hiro could waste on junk."
She gave a sharp inhale, completely ignoring Hiro's scathing remark at the jab against his collection, and then sighed. "Remember what I said and his weak and strong ideology? He was using it on you and Chihiro, Mondo. He knows you two are the currently biggest threats to him right now, you for your easily provoked nature, and Chihiro being so much gentler hearted."
"The hell do you mean by that?" Mondo asked, no doubt understanding the part about him, he was well aware of his anger problems, but Chihiro? Fortunately, Celeste seemed to understand where the fashion model was going with this.
"Ah, you mean to imply that he believes that Mondo will be the next of us to fall to the mastermind's temptations." She stated, not a hint of questioning in her tone. While the biker was stunned silent, trying to come up with a response that didn't revolve around swearing his lungs out, Junko scoffed.
"Imply nothing. He knows that Mondo has the highest risk because of his anger problem; you know it, I know it, we all know it. He's also the first one to jump to the aid of the girls here when he thinks someone picking on them." Mondo flushed slightly at that remark, he hadn't realized that anyone noticed that. "That's why he was trying to provoke you into attacking him and why he berated Chihiro so much. He was making it so Mono-prick could drop the hammer on you without the need for a trial. Probably thought that it would be best to eliminate the one of us whose most likely to snap first." There was notable anger in her voice, but it paled in comparison to the outrage on Mondo's face.
To be a target of manipulation wasn't something he was exactly unfamiliar with. There had been a few times in the past that he could remember someone directing his supply of great fury at someone or another, usually in an attempt to get him to mess up and get himself arrested. However, this had been the first time that he hadn't figured that fact out as it was happening, usually resulting in said manipulator getting a beating with said fury.
What made him even more mad though, wasn't the fact that he'd almost been tricked into getting himself offed. Rather, the thing that made him most upset was Junko's reasoning behind the blond scion's insults to the programmer in her arms. That he would pick on the weakest girl here because he had realized it would further piss off the already furious biker made Mondo want nothing more than to rush out that door and pound that asshole right into the ground. He wanted so much to show that pain-in-the-neck exactly why you should never poke a lion with a stick to get a reaction.
The only thing that stopped him, however weak its hold on him was, was the realization that Junko was right. That was exactly what Byakuya wanted him to do, to fly off the handle, beat the smug bastard's face in and get executed as a result. He wanted Mondo to prove him right for calling him all of those names, and that was why he dragged the petite and weakest of them all into it all because he realized that it would make the gang leader lose it.
Well, he wasn't going to give the bastard the satisfaction. It took a great amount of strength, far more so then he ever would admit since the sight of the chick crying from that prick's words kept pissing him off even more, but Mondo managed to force his arms down into his pockets of his jacket with a grit out, "Damnit."
With Mondo temporarily pacified, Junko turned back to Kyoko with a final thought. "See, you asked me why I told you of his past. Well, while I hate the guy, I can see where he's coming from because I have an idea of the shit he's had to deal with. When you can't even trust your own family, then of course you're gonna have trouble trusting anyone else. I can't fault him for having that belief, no matter how stupid it is. I don't know about you, but for me, it's one thing to hate him for his actions, yet I can't hate someone unless I have the context behind why they were acting so stupid. I have that context, you all do now too, and I say that it's no excuse for him to be such a Jack-a-hole! You're past may make you who you are, but it doesn't give you the right to use it as an excuse to be a total jerk to others."
The purple dressed girl said nothing in response, though she did stare into the strawberry blonde's eyes for a while longer then what was probably necessary, before turning away to think on her own. As for the rest of the group, they all decided to have breakfast. The meal was rather tense due to the previous conversation and the thoughts of the students kept wandering back to the blond boy and his rather jaded world view. The words the blond girl of the group that told them of Byakuya's past, as well as the scion's words stayed at the backs of their minds as they ate.
Hello again everyone.
My, my, it seems that things are getting rather tense here. Byakuya is always quite a bit smarter then makes himself out to be, isn't he? I always thought that he wasn't stupid enough to risk his life taunting someone who could thank him like Bane did to the god-damn Batman. He may be an ass, but he's smart enough to realize that none of the others would have let Mondo attack him, even if he deserved it, and I don't know about the rest of the fandom, but I always thought the way he singled out Chihiro for calling them friends seemed a bit too focused. There's no doubt that he had said his piece on the matter the night before with Hina and Makoto, yet didn't it seem that when Chihiro said it he suddenly became much more hostile? It did to me, and it was right after he got Mondo revved and up had made Chihiro cry in that order that he chose to leave with the comment about someone possibly poisoning food. He clearly knew he had succeeded in what I think his goal was, to paint a target on his back by needlessly provoking the one of them most easily susceptible to anger, and making the one most likely to bend under pressure break down into tears. I think his aim was to make them all on guard fully knowing that they would all be betrayed again because of Monokuma's motive of the week, and wanted them all to be ready for it in his own D-bag way.
But what do you think? Was he always trying to do this for a purpose, or was he just being a dick for the sake of being one?
Also, unrelated note. I'm currently looking for a beta if anyone is interested, as all of the ones I've tried aren't big on OC driven plots. All I ask is that they look over my work once or twice to find the errors and that they have extensive experience with Danganronpa.
Until next month.