I'm who now?

by Clemerl

Being dropped into the killing game is always a dangerous place to be as a student of Hope's Peak, not knowing what will happen or who will kill whom. But what happens when the one in charge has a change of heart? Or rather, has the mind of someone else entirely who will stop at nothing to save everyone they can. Even if it dives them to Despair.

25. Secrets of Despair

"Hahaha! What are you talking about bro!?"

The joyous question echoed out from the mouth of the rebellious biker whose eyes had closed from elation the moment Makoto stepped into the dining hall that morning, and it caused the luckster to stop in his tracks from the sheer absurdity he was witnessing. As his brain was trying to reboot, the other teen resting his arm on the biker's shoulders laughed back just as joyfully with his own reply of, "Hahaha! What are you talking about bro!?"

When he had woken up, this wasn't anything that Mokoto, Sayaka, or Leon had expected to run into that morning, resulting in them just standing there for a moment as both Taka and Mondo, the ultimate moral compass and biker gang leader, who until yesterday had been sworn enemies, hung off of each other laughing and carrying on about what they could only guess like close friends. It was such a surreal experience that it made the three to freeze in place in the face of the unusual scene before them.

They weren't the only ones stunned, the others in the cafeteria, minus Toko and Byakuya who were clearly following through with their promise not to attend the morning meeting with everyone, were also looking at the scene with looks of exasperation, having clearly had to deal with this kind of talk from the time the meeting first started to now. There was a noticeable tenseness in the air as a result, and almost everyone in the room seemed to be actively trying to stay far away from the two bros as they could, some more apparently then others.

"…Maybe we should run while we can." Leon muttered to the singer and the normal boy next to him, but that turned out to be a mistake. Before either of them could answer, the biker bro had noticed them loitering in the doorway and waved them over with a joyful cry of, "Yo, Leon, Makoto!"

Spearheaded by his bro's greeting, Taka continued with a grateful cry of his own. "Thanks for being our witnesses yesterday!"

"Huh?" that was all Makoto managed to get out from his befuddled mouth, his mind struggling to process what he was seeing. "Are they…friends now?"

"It…seems like it…?" Sayaka warily confirmed, not quite sure what exactly to make of what she was seeing. On the one hand, it was nice that they weren't fighting anymore, but compared to what they were seeing now, she almost missed the bickering.

"They've been like this all morning." Hina explained with a sigh, both hands in the air in an exasperated shrug as she slowly shook her head side to side. "They were all buddy-buddy as soon as they walked through the door. It feels gross."

Anything they could have said in response was cut off by Mondo's offended shout. "Feels gross!? Hell no! Feels great, more like!"

That got the poor swimmer recoiling back a bit, not having expected the biker to so aggressively defend the new bond he now shared. "This almost feels like sexual harassment somehow…"

"Forget about her bro," Taka responded with a slightly condescending shake of his head. "A girl like her just doesn't get our manly bond! Friendship between men is stronger than blood! A woman could never understand!"

Unknown to anyone, Sayaka had gained a slightly pensive glare at that thoughtless remark. She knew he didn't mean to be, he was far too much of a respectful boy to have actually meant any harm, but that remark was extremely offensive to the woman. Especially considering what she had nearly gone through for the sake of her own friends. Yet, she stayed quiet, knowing that there would be no good coming of bringing that fiasco up again.

Though, she did feel a bit better when she heard the light grumblings of her red-headed escort stating, "I doubt the guys would understand it either."

Fortunately, none of the two bros caught that, Mondo to focused on complimenting his bro to even consider anything else. "Dude, what you just said? Bro, that was cool as shit! I should get a tattoo of it!"

"No, bro, you mustn't!" Taka countered, even though his grin failed to fade. "Your body is a temple, you shouldn't taint it like that!"

It was in that moment that nearly all of the girls in the room did their best to contain their shudders. They couldn't help but agree with Hina assertion. There was just something uncomfortable with how much the newly christened bros were able to get along now despite how much they had almost hated each other that had them all on edge. They just got along a bit too well.

"Friendship between men seems very…simplistic." Sakura noted as she took a sip of her own special blend of protein coffee with a sigh. "Tis nothing like what I'm used to with girls."

"Yeah, for real…" Hina agreed while giving the two loudmouths a cautious glance from time to time. Most of the others in the room found themselves agreeing as well, easily finding the newfound brotherhood a bit overwhelming to say the least. However, there was one other thing that they found concerning in the beaming grin sorted by the only girl seemingly unaffected by the two loud mouths sitting next to her.

"Well, I think it's cute." Junko stated with a slight giggle as she rested her head on one palm and messed with her breakfast with her fork. "It's not often you find yourself in a real life "Breakfast Club" scenario, after all."

While the two boys were trying to come up with a rebuttal to her whole "Cute" comment, Hifumi's eyes lit up with a bit of realization. "Hoe? I never would have guessed that Miss Enoshima would have known about such an old movie. Truly unexpected."

"Huh? What are you guys talking about?" Hina asked completely confused, not getting the reference herself. Junko waved off the fanfic writer and responded to the swimmer at the same time with, "It's not that surprising, is it? It's a classic setup; bunch of teens from different social cliques get locked up in a school by an authority figure for one reason or another, and they're forced to get along. Obviously, they don't get along at first, but after a few scrapes they find common ground and eventually become friends. I would think that anyone would know of that relic."

There was a few among them who recognized the movie now that they had the summary from Junko, but with his eyes alight with realization, Makoto noted, "Doesn't that sound…?"

"Kinda like our situation?" Junko finished with a smirk, "Minus the whole, freaky ass bear wanting us to murder each other, yeah, pretty much… Still, I never expected you to know anything about it Hifumi. What with your whole fixation on 2-D and all."

"Hehehe, don't misunderstand, I much prefer 2-D over anything. However, even a connoisseur of the world of fiction like myself would be lost without at least acknowledging the classic tales of old."

Celeste made a bit of an observation of her own. "It would appear that our captor might be a fan of the classics, or at the very least, twisting them to their own nefarious purposes."

"Yeah, seems like it." the fashionista agreed with melancholy and frustration, in her tone. "That prick will even screw with our own favorite tales and make them some kind of fucked up game of theirs."

That thought wasn't very pleasant, and in made several of the teens feel a bit uneasy. How much more was the mastermind willing to go to mess with them, how far would they push them into a corner until they had no choice but to consider giving in to the outlandish decision of committing murder just to escape from this wretched school?

"Well, no matter." Taka declared "We won't falter, not now, not ever! We will overcome any of the Masterminds trials together!"

"Hell yeah, we are!" Mondo declared alongside his bro, fist raised determinedly as he agreed with the red-eyed man next to him. Both bros were so caught up in their "bro-hood" that they ended up completely missing the exasperated looks the others gave them or the look of absolute amusement on the fashionista's face.

"Say, what should we call them from now on?" Junko asked with laughter practically marinating her tone, "Should we call them, the Bros, Broforce, Bromanjaro, maybe Jabroni, or possibly the Brominaries of the stars! Or possibly…"

"Please…no more." Hiro moaned from where his head had been placed on the table, the terrible puns were worst then Monokuma's!

"Seriously! What's with you all of a sudden?" Leon asked Junko who turned to him with a loopy grin, "You weren't like this yesterday, what gives?"

Junko paused for a minute as if she didn't quite understand what he was talking about, then as he was starting to worry about her, she muttered out a concerning comment. "Maybe I should have checked those pills a bit closer."

"Pills?" Makoto asked with concern. What could she be taking pills for?

"Yeah, pain meds." Junko elaborated, "When I first woke up, I could barely move without my leg killing me, so I managed to convince Mono-prick to give me some of the pain meds in the infirmary…But now that I think of it, I think some of them might have been expired."

"Expired?" Chihiro questioned with a twinge of concern in her tone. "Whatever makes you say that?"

"Nothing in particular..." Junko stated, before she turned to look at the massive warrior woman with her head lazily lulled to one side. "…on an unrelated note, Sakura, has your hair always been orange?"

"…No. No, it has not."

"…Huh. Well, that's concerning…" She muttered. "Oh well. I just need some more water to flush it out of my system. No, big deal. In the meantime, Bro-brigade, bro-taro, Super Bros extraordinaire!"

There was a unanimous agreement in that moment when the two bros started pitching their own ideas of proper "Bro-names" that, none of them were allowed to keep any of those idiotic names. Though there was noticeable concern for their friend's potential health problems, it was slowly overwhelmed by the growing frustration of her very terrible jokes that her ailed mind kept coming up with. The rest of breakfast was unfortunately filled with a mixture of Mondo and Taka's overwhelming brotherhood, and Junko's very bad Bro name based puns.

---

"Hehehe, that was fun!"

I smiled to myself as I walked around the crutch I'd placed against the wall and all but waltzed over to the hidden door to the Monokuma vents with a noticeable skip to my step. I couldn't help it though, I had finally gotten a chance to poke fun at Mondo and Taka's bromance in person!

I know, I know, that sounds rather petty, but I couldn't help it. After the fiasco that was them trying to out man each other, I knew for a fact that they would end up as bros first thing in the morning. It was inevitable really, I couldn't have prevented it if I tried. However, that didn't mean that I couldn't poke fun at it.

More than that though, I initially wanted to make sure that nether one of them remembered the night before where I had stepped in and knocked them out. At the time, I had no idea what had come over me, but somehow hearing about them make such a moronic decision that they clearly shouldn't have inspired some kind of rage I hadn't known that I possessed. Once I had already knocked them out and had time to rationalize what I'd done though, I began to feel rather bad about it.

I knew that they were going to have their little bout that day, I had seen them all but dragging both Leon and Makoto into being their very reluctant judges for their competition, with the former being there despite their own ruling that he was to escort Sayaka everywhere outside of her room. So, it had not been a surprise that they were going to be in there for at least an hour or so since that had been around the time the luckster had given up on them the first time in game. So, when I had come up with the brilliant idea to show Chihiro just what kind of men he should strive not to be, I had thought myself in the clear.

However, not only did my plan on that front possibly backfire, it turned out that with Leon there to keep Makoto company as well as preventing the twin morons from having their time alone to bond, both of the dum-dum brothers decided to continue their little spat well over what would be considered safe. I ended up seeing red. It was one thing for them to be stupid for an hour, it was another to do so for multiple hours and at the risk of your health.

Like I had said, there was a very good reason that you were only supposed to limit your exposure to such extreme temperatures to less than twenty minutes. A sauna normally gets to be about two hundred degrees normally and to keep you from burning up, your body starts to sweat heavily to compensate. The sweat evaporates in the heat to create a cooling area around the skin that then protects it from the intense heat. The problem is that, it requires you to actually have water in your system to create the sweat in the first place.

Those two morons had been so focused on their little competition to realize that they had started to suffer from dehydration to the point that, had I not interrupted the way I had, they might have actually died from it. They had already been pushing it before then with their refusal to leave at an hour in, they were goddamn lucky that they hadn't passed out by the time I'd interrupted.

However, my frustration in their decision of machismo over brains aside, it was really rather enlightening to hear them talk about their similarities and bond. That was something I always enjoyed seeing in both stories, and in real life. It might be quite a bit rarer in the real world, but the impact of seeing it happen was always one of the few kinds of drama I could fully enjoy watching again and again.

And speaking of drama.

"What was fun, Junko?" came the honestly interested question of my beloved, kinda-not-really sister as she pulled off the covers of her blanket now that the coast was clear. It wasn't difficult to see why, Junko was rarely entertained for long so she wanted to know just what exactly her sister would find so interesting, even momentarily.

However, I was more focused on not busting out in laughter at the sight of her normally straight bob of hair sticking up all over the place. Oh, good lord, did she have a bad case of bed-head today. It almost made her look like a more stoic, female Naegi right now then a warrior of war, and that image alone made my day.

Not one to disappoint, I responded, "Oh not much, seems that Mondo and Taka just rekindled their bromance again."

"I see." She replied with a thoughtful look on her face. "I guess it was expected, they were rather close before after all."

Ah, I had figured as much myself, but the confirmation was nice. "Yeah, guess even I can't prevent those two dunderheads from hooking up." A smile worked its way across my face as I moved to sit by her side, throwing my hands over her shoulder in a surprise ranged hug that caused her to tense up in my grip.

"So, how's my favorite sister doing today? You took your meds and all that?" She stayed rather stiff in my grip, no doubt trying to anticipate when the knife or whatever instrument of death she thought I was packing would strike, but even with that completely off the mark assumption she managed to give a response.

"Yes Junko. I'm fine. I have already taken the pill." She said it so straight and bluntly that I almost believed her. However, her eyes wandered a bit to the side and instantly I was suspicious.

"Right…Open." I stated, and before she had a chance to get a word in edgewise, I used my position to my advantage to grab the small area in the back of her neck in a tight pinch. The sudden uncomfortable pain caught her off guard and made her gasp allowing me to glance inside her mouth to see that, low and behold, the soggy pill was poking out from underneath her tongue. The second she realized what I'd done and seen, her jaw slammed shut with an audible click.

"Mukuro…" I hedged with noticeable ire in my voice. Her only saving point was that she had the decency to look sheepish as she dry-swallowed the uncomfortably large pill. But I was far from convinced and had her open her mouth once more with my hand firmly grasping her jaw wide to make absolutely sure that she had swallowed the damn thing. After a minute of thoroughly checking her oral cavity, I pulled away with a look of disappointment.

"Honestly, Mukuro. Who's the little sister here? I'm the one who's supposed to act like a brat who doesn't want to take her medicine, not you." Mukuro couldn't even look me in the eye as she apologized again, a light dusting of pink on her face as she squirmed a bit in place. There was also a slightly glossy look to her eyes for some reason, but I was far too annoyed to care at the moment to care for whatever the reason was.

"Alright," I sighed at her behavior, deciding to put it out of my thoughts for now. "Now let's see how the leg's doing, shall we?"

She gave a stiff nod in return, and hesitatingly pulled off the cover and the sheets that had been covering her to give me an unrestricted view of her form. Well, I say unrestricted, but she was wearing some clothes in the form of an off-white turtleneck and her underwear. She did have a pair of pajama bottoms that she'd normally wear as well, one of the only things of her own left, but the way that they tried to catch on her bandages made wearing them in bed a problem for now. Still, I had to admit that she looked absolutely sexy the way she did now.

What? She was hot! She might not have as much going for her in the boob game as her sister did, but damn did she have that thigh game on point! Dear god, and that tight but! Even with her currently sitting on her mattress, I could tell that you could bounce a coin off of that booty it was so firm. And her legs, if she decided to call them highways, I wouldn't doubt her because they went on for miles! If I was into the idea of incest, we weren't in this forsaken killing game, and the fact that I really don't want to be doing anything to damage her already damaged mind, then I would totally try to ask her on a date.

…What the hell is wrong with me!? I'm about to redress her wounds, one that I'd caused myself no less, and here I am lusting over her freaking legs and ass! For Pete sake, where the hell are my priorities!? I blame it on being shoved into a teenager's body. All of these freaking hormones must be getting to me. Right, that's it. It has got to be the conflicting hormones of Junko's female body influencing my male brain. That's the only explanation.

No, I'm not in denial. Shut up, you're in denial!

"Junko?" I was cut from my depre- well thought out and logical argument, by Mukuro's questioning tone, and my eyes snapped right back up to look at her. "What are you…?"

I quickly cut her off to keep her from figuring out what I'd been doing, "What? I'm just checking to see how your stitches are holding up!" I hurriedly started unwrapping her wound to prove that point, purposefully ignoring the way my heart sped up from touching a girl's legs as I focused intently on the task at hand and not on the warm feeling I was getting when I accidentally bushed my hand against her bu- Focus!

"Well, I should say that it really looks a lot better now." I admitted once the bandages were removed, and I managed to calm my stupid heart. And it was true, though there was definitely going to be a scar, the inflammation had gone significantly down and there was a tender bit of flesh where was once a gaping hole. Even the underside where it had exited, though it made my freaking face betray me in glowing fashion to be all but staring at her but, was almost completely sealed with barely any blood to be seen. Pretty soon she won't need the stitches, but I wasn't going to remove them until I was absolutely certain that her wounds won't reopen.

I had to admit, whoever it was who made those pills really knew what they were doing. It was clear that they had to have been some kind of pharmacist of some sort, and that they must have been at a Super Highschool level, but that was the extent of my knowledge. I think there was going to be one in the new anime that had been about to come out, but this whole adventure happened before I could see it, so I was completely in the dark about what they would have been like.

However, if all of their stuff worked as well as this stuff had, then I really want to meet them when we all get out of here.

'If you get out of here' I quickly threw that depressing thought away and locked the door. This was no time to be thinking about that kind of thing.

"Alright, now let's get this clean and then we can move on to more important matters." I stated to myself more than anything, but Mukuro nodded along anyway and stated that she, "Understood."

It didn't take long to get everything ready, I had placed a small bowl of boiled water and a clean wash cloth in here earlier for just this reason and now it had cooled to just about a little over lukewarm temp. Positive that it was clear of nearly all of possible contaminants, I was quick to soak the small towel and proceeded to clean the stitched-up areas. It was a little awkward to get to the one just below her tushy, and I had wanted to let her handle it, unfortunately, my brain refused to let me be stupid by letting her try to clean a wound she couldn't see, so I somewhat begrudgingly and wordlessly set about the task; all while pretending that I had not in fact seen her face start to turn red. While I was working, there was a point that I could have sworn that I heard her moan, but I firmly believed that it was from the pain of her bundles of damaged nerves being touched over anything else.

Once it was clean and I was able to toss the soiled cloth back into the bowl, I starting to work wrapping up her now clean wounds. While I was doing that, I decided that it would be good to take both of our minds off of how close I was, 'Get a grip. You're a professional damnit, act like it.' I pointed out, "By the way, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to wait a bit for breakfast. I got a bit caught up in the moment and had to make them think I'd accidentally took some expired meds, so you're gonna have to wait. Honestly, if I wasn't so good at convincing people that I could sleep off most nonsense, we might have been in a spot of bother there."

"I see." She replied in a very controlled, yet understanding manner. Which was good, I would have hated for her to fly off the handle about how unfair this was for her, as unlikely as it was for her as a soldier who was probably used to having days where food wasn't given on time. But, it still did little to alleviate my slight guilt at depriving her of a meal.

"I'll have Monokuma deliver something once they clear out, don't worry your pretty head about that." I quickly promised, but I made it sound dismissive so that she wouldn't suspect anything. And now for the insult to sell the act. "Though really, you could stand to lose a few hundred pounds."

"Bwa? But if I lost that much weight, then I would die of starvation!" She oh so elegantly exclaimed, and the reaction was so different from what I was expecting that I wasn't able to form a coherent response. This had been the first real insult I'd thrown her way, and with how Junko likely threw them left and right like they were going out of season, I had expected a much tamer response or for her to even roll her eyes, not take it like an order and panic.

Deciding to put that aside for now, I turned my attention to finishing wrapping her leg. Once I had finished, and was satisfied that it was going to come undone, I tossed the old dirty bandages into the garbage and started making my way to the hidden door. I had to get back to the control room soon, lest someone realize that I wasn't there anymore.

However, just as I was about to pull out the key from my cardigan pocket, Mukuro called out, "Junko? If I may, when do you plan to introduce the next motive?"

"Oh, not too much longer." I replied automatically as I continued to fiddle with my pocket, trying to grab the key. I wasn't really all that focused on what she was saying though because of it. "Why do you ask?"

"I wanted to know which one it was you were planning on, so that I'm prepared for it." She replied, and I had to resist the urge to scoff. Of course, she would want to know what the motive was ahead of time. Her devotion to Junko practically demanded that she know this time so that she could make up for making her sister have to attempt to murder her. But, it would be best that she knows so that she doesn't mess this up for me, so I was about to turn and tell her…

I froze. My eyes widened in realization as I immediately had to keep myself from slamming my head into the wall. Of all the this I could forget, of all the this I could have forgotten to do, how the hell could I forget to come up with a new motive!?

I had to avoid crying out in frustration at my own stupidity. I had been so focused on trying to help out Chihiro with his problems, as well as the whole affairs with Byakuya, Mondo and Taka's competition, and finding out how I could best help out Mukuro with healing her leg, and pretending to be her pretending to be Junko, and all while trying to balance watching the cameras, checking on the students, coming up with chores to keep the more studious ones occupied and keeping up with all of their various investigations, Kyoko's especially. I hadn't even had much time to check the journal properly for more information on what had been happening between the past me and Junko.

God, now that I've put it all out there, it's a wonder that I haven't suffered a mental breakdown from the stress.

I was about to start panicking, but the fact that I knew that Mukuro was watching me barely managed to help me keep my cool. Now was not the time. Quickly, I slapped on my best teasing smile and said, "Now, now. You don't need to worry about that just yet. All you need to know is that, I've got a plan that'll really make these fools writhe in glorious despair. Just you wait."

"Very well. If that is your decision, I shall wait." Thank you Mukuro for being so obedient. That could have- "But you will inform me of your next actions soon, right?"

Okay, scratch that. It is still pretty bad. "Of course! After all, it wouldn't do for you to mess up again by misinterpreting what I said. Right, Mukuro?"

She flinched back and muttered an unnecessary apology that made my stomach churn with guilt, but I shoved it down just as fast as it came up. It was a necessary evil. I had to move fast, lots to do and very little time to do it. I all but threw open the door and forced my way through the cramped crawlspace as fast as I could, almost forgetting to close the door on the way. Quickly, I shimmied back up the various floors, wishing that I could just use the stairs the whole time since they'd be faster than this, rushed into the Monokuma room, down the ladder, rushed over to the filing cabinet. I yanked open the drawer labeled "Motives" and quickly started to leaf through each of them, hoping to find something, anything, that I could use as a motive that wouldn't result in a murder.

"No…No…Definitely not…no…No... Ugh, gag me. Like anyone would be willing to kill for popsicles…Naught…Forget it…" I paused for a second to focus on one in particular that left my eye twitching. "Underwear…? Really Junko? Really? How perverted do you take them for…Oh, whatever."

I kept searching, finding each one to be even worst then the last, and detailed to a frightening degree about who would be most likely affected by each one. Ever other idea was something either simple like blackmail, or extortions. Most of the others were downright cruel or unusual, like slowly rising or lowering the temperature till they were only just about at the limit to suffer from heatstroke or hypothermia respectively, to outright cutting off their food supply till they nearly starve to death, to even tricking someone into poisoning someone else without saying who was the victim or culprit and only promising the cure if someone dies.

Then there were the ones that were really way out there like promising cookies that had been laced with highly addictive substances, or even the previously mentioned promise of people's undergarments. These were clearly jokes. They had to be. No one is that stupid.

But overall, "Nothing! Not a god damned thing in here wouldn't result in death! And the only ones that would aren't worth a damn! Fluff me!"

In a rage, I threw a few of them into the air and buried my face in my hands, completely uncaring about the folders and papers fluttering around me. I could care less that I would have to clean them up later, I was to pissed right now.

What was I to do? I had to use some kind of motive to spearhead them on, but I didn't want to make them turn to killing. I needed something that would unite them, but I also needed to make it look like I was aiming to drive them apart. But I had no idea how to go about doing that in the first place, I didn't. The first time around I flubbed up so badly, I was almost afraid to try again. What if I made things worst again? What if I ended up actually getting someone killed this time?

For what had to be the hundredth time, I cursed Junko for ever being born. It was her fault that this whole stupid situation came about. If she hadn't decided to come and screw over the whole world, then none of this nonsense would have ever happened in the first place.

But what could I do? I needed to do this, or else everyone was dead. I had…I had too…I hated it, but I had too.

I just needed an idea of what to do, I just…something. I needed…

'Why not try what you did last time?' My head shot up at the sudden thought, "What?"

'Yeah, you failed last time, but that was because you underestimated Sayaka's bloodlust.' The thought continued, seemingly unburdened by my confusion. 'but this time you know not to do that, you know what the next one could end in. You can use this to your advantage, find some way to get the others to cooperate by giving them something to relate too. You've already laid the ground work, now you just need to build on it."

Build on…?

"…!" I had an idea.

---

"Attention, may I have your attention, please. Please head to the Gymnasium immediately! It's time for a round up!"

The irritating voice of their deranged captor rang out throughout the school, immediately grabbing the attention of the students wherever they had been at the time. With great reluctance, they all made their way to where they had been called, gathered in a lose cluster as they gazed up to the stage, waiting in anticipation for their captor to arrive.

"Hmm...asking us to come to the gymnasium so suddenly." Taka mused out loud as he stood at the front of the pack, his fist pressed up to his chin as he tried to rationalize the strange call from the mastermind. The others stood not that far behind him, each with their own looks of worry or concern. Some like Byakuya and Kyoko were giving the stage a look of intrigue or suspicion, concerned yet interested in what their loathable imprisoner could be plotting this time. "What could he possibly want?"

"Indeed." Celeste agreed, her gaze never wavering from the place their hated foe would arrive from. "What might await us this time?"

"I don't even want to know." Sayaka stated her complaint from her wheelchair, not wanting anything to do with this situation in the first place. Just behind her, Leon nodded in consent, his pace puckered like he had bit into something rotten and sour. Not too far off from them was the nods of others with similar looks of distaste.

Counter to them, however, an amused chuckle rang out from the blond scion. "Well, he keeps things interesting, that's for certain." That disturbing grin that stayed on Byakuya's face kept the others feeling tense, many still remembering his words from a day ago.

"How is that funny?" Hifumi asked in slight disbelief, quite unsure of how sane and stable the rich boy was ever since his proclamation yesterday. "Why can't you smile like a normal person for once? Like the housewife in one of those classic TV shows smiles at the end of an episode?"

"He could," Came a blunt reply from their fashionable oriented cripple, who was currently leaning on her crutch next to the tense form of Asahina and the stern protective figure of Sakura. "But first he'd need to know what a normal person smiles like."

Inwardly, Mukuro had to say that she didn't think anyone could get Byakuya to act like a decent human being for very long. He was too stuck in his family's pocket to even think of trying to be anything different. Though, she knew she didn't have much more room to talk, seeing as she was a mercenary who killed people for both a living at to please her own sibling.

Speaking of said sibling, Mukuro also couldn't help but wonder what was about to happen. It hadn't been more than an hour ago that Monokuma suddenly showed up in her room carrying a tray of food, before promptly telling her to hurry up and eat, and get ready. After practically force feeding the soldier without barely letting her get a word in edgewise, he all but stripped her before shoving her into her Junko disguise, and slapping on a thin layer of foundation on her face to cover her freckles, slapped on her wig, and basically threw her out the door with the crutch. She was honestly still reeling for the suddenness of the whole thing that she had barely any ability to process what had happened by the time the announcement rang out.

It was shear happenstance that she had run across both of the beefy sisters, as her sister called them, and got roped into staying with them. In Hina's own words, it was to protect her in case Monokuma tried something on her like last time. It was an unnecessary move on their part, but she couldn't deny that the extra help was appreciated since she doubted she would be able to walk there on her own.

Regardless, Hina stated her own thoughts about the scion's unwanted sense of humor. "There's something totally messed up with you to laugh at a time like this."

Byakuya was barely fazed though, if anything he looked bored from her proclamation even as his brow raised in a condescending manner. "Oh, which of us is, 'messed up', hmm?"

"Huh?" was all Hina offered in return, slightly startled that he would throw her own words back at her like that. "W-What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing in particular." He smirked back, pleased that she had taken the bate he'd left for her. "Just admiring is all. I don't want to kill anyone, however, nor do I wish to stay here, living in blind denial day after day. That was what I was admiring. How you can live like that and keep your sanity, it's amusing."

"I'm not in denial." Hina refuted with a glare, but it was ignored.

"That reminds me, remember how you kept rambling about how the police were going to come save us." Byakuya rhetorically asked. "Tell me, how is that plan going? Because, it seems to me that there's no sign whatsoever of any such rescue."

There was noticeable tensing in many of the others at his remark, though none could deny what the rich jerk was saying. It was true though, it had already been quite some time since their abduction, well over what it would take for someone to have taken notice and called the local law enforcement. By all accounts, there should have been some kind of rescue operation going on, especially considering some of their number being very famous and some that others would throw up quite a fuss over their disappearance.

"W-Well…that's just…" Hina struggled to mount a rebuttal, but even she had to concede the point. "I wonder what actually happened?"

"It's strange, that's true." Kyoko admitted, her hand to her chin in thought. "There's no way that the police wouldn't have noticed by now. We are right in the middle of a major urban area after all."

"The police suck!" Hifumi suddenly declared, completely unaware of Kyoko and Taka's eye twitching in response or the slight nod of agreement from Mondo and Leon.

"On the contrary." Celeste voiced her disagreement, her voice calm yet carrying a tone of distress. "It might be that the mastermind is just that powerful, to take control of even the police…"

That was a theory that certainly had an effect of giving them chills. The idea that their captor was really powerful enough that even the ones in charge of protecting the peace would turn a blind eye to this abduction of such a large number of students was terrifying. Most of them were quick to deny it internally, not wanting to hang on to the idea, but that didn't stop it from scaring them quite a bit.

"Oh!" Hiro suddenly spoke up with remembrance as he realized something. "This might not be related but…"

He was abruptly cut off by Toko's very blunt statement of, "Then don't say it."

"Nope, gonna say it." He continued, completely unfazed by her interruption. "So, a couple of nights ago, I was just staring off into the distance by the main hall, when suddenly…I heard it."

"Heard…what?" Chihiro asked, concerned as to what "it" could be.

"Well, I'm not completely sure…" Hiro admitted, as he grabbed his chin with his fingers, trying to think of the best way to describe what he'd heard. "It was a sound that…I don't really know what it was. But if I had to describe it, I guess it sounded kind of like…a construction site, maybe?"

"A construction site?" Makoto repeated with confusion. Why would he be hearing a construction site in a place like this?

"I mean, it might have just been my headache making me hear things. I might be wrong." Hiro admitted with a shrug of his shoulders, his voice conflicted. He was sure that he had heard something, but after saying it out loud, he wasn't feeling as confident that he had actually heard anything at all.

Toko certainly didn't think he did, quickly pointing an accusing finger at the pained clairvoyant. "You d-definitely made it up! I-it must have been the marbles rolling around in y-your hollow head clacking together."

Anything that could have been said to refute her claim was cut off with the sudden shout of a very familiar, very hated voice belonging to a certain bear. "While I wouldn't say that you're completely off the mark regarding Yasuhiro's head, I doubt that he's wrong in his claim."

As one, the student's eyes snapped over to the podium on stage just in time to watch the despised form of their half and half headmaster as he leapt onto the stage, flapping his stubby arms at the peak of his ascent before abruptly plopping down on his plush behind. Had it not been who it was, some of them might have admitted that it looked a bit goofy to watch.

"He's arrived." Kyoko was the first to speak, her expression grim as she glared at the one who claimed to be their headmaster.

"What Hiro heard could have heard was construction, but it could also have been an explosion." Monokuma hedged, his words causing the students to slowly tense up at the sickeningly joyful tone in the bear's voice. "It could also have been the sound of a machine gun! That could sound like construction in the right circumstance!"

The twisted bear then laughed his equally twisted laugh, his paws clutching his stomach as it roared and made a sliver run down the student's backs. Kyoko, the only one able to fully hide her anxiety spoke up. "What are you talking about?"

"Ah-ah-ah!" the bear reprimanded with a wave of his paw. "No spoilers! I've said all I will on the matter and that's that. It's a secret little secret."

"Fine then." The amnesiac girl stated, knowing that there would be no point in perusing the thought, though she internally filed away that little bit of information for later either way. "Let's move on to something you can tell us; why did you call us here?"

"Getting right to the point, are we?" he replied rhetorically as he finally stood up from his sitting place. "Very well, I'll tell you. But first, mind if I vent a little?"

"Do we have a choice?" Leon muttered, to which he was given a reply from the equally deadpanned Junko, "I'm thinking, no."

If Monokuma had heard them, he made no comment about it, choosing instead to begin pacing back and forth on the stage. "See, I've been having a bit of a problem staying motivated recently. I'm always feeling super low on energy, like I could just pass out and hibernate for a year. Even my stitching is starting to lose its sheen and luster. I'm thinking, maybe it's because of this whole, gung-ho attitude that's been going on for a while now. It's so, so, so super-duper boring. I need some kind of stimulation, something to get the ol' brain pumping out adrenaline from the excitement and danger."

He suddenly turned to address them with a deadpanned tone, "Listen, let me be frank, there hasn't been a blackened yet, and I am tired of waiting for you idiots to do it yourself, so I've decided that it's time to give you guys another spine-tingling motive."

As one, the entire student body tensed up. "M-Motive…?" Makoto muttered in terror as he and the others vividly recalled the last motive he'd given them. Both he and Leon's eyes unconsciously moved to glance over at the quivering form of the last person to have given in to the last of Monokuma's little motives. Justifiably, she shivered as she dropped her head, her eyes staring at the location of her wounds she'd received from when she'd given in to the sight of her friends and idols in a state of unconsciousness, and potential death.

Her mind was awash with grief even as her left hand reached over to grip her injured arm, just above the black band that signified her survival with every beat of her heart. She couldn't focus, her mind running over the events again in her mind in a rushed mess of pictures. The terrible images were too fast though, and each one started to blur together in a terrible mishmash of rage, pain, loss, suffering, and despair. The only thing that kept her from falling off of the deep end into an inky abyss of her own mind's self-made prison was when she felt someone shaking her shoulder to get her attention.

Her gaze slowly followed the arm to its source, and at the end she found the concerned gaze of the musician wannabe, his eyes full of worry and compassion. For a brief moment, she didn't know what to think. Was he asking her if she would be giving in to their captor's whims yet again? The very idea hurt her more then she wanted to admit, no matter how understandable it was.

But, it was then that she realized that he was actually looking at her broken wrist and she realized, no, he was worried about her, not what she'd do. He was worried that she was hurt, or that her injury had acted up again as it had been prone to do. He was worried for her, not of her, and that realization had her unconsciously calm down. She wasn't able to say anything, but she did still place her good hand on his in a vague sign of reassurance that, no she would be fine.

Leon gave her a slight nod in response, but said nothing. He didn't need to.

While this was all going on, Monokuma had been getting angry at Makoto for insinuating that he was trying to drive them to murder. "The cheek! The absolute gall! How can you say such a mean thing!?"

"It doesn't matter what you say!" Taka stated with absolute confidence. "We will not allow anyone to give in to your coercions of murder!"

"Yeah!" Mondo shouted as well, his fist raised proud and strong as he supported his bro in defiance of the bear. "Don't underestimate the strength of our bonds, damnit!"

Unfortunately, it had little effect on their half black, half white foe. If anything, their words seemed to bore the creature. "Uh huh, yeah, sure. Whatever you say. It'll just make it all the more exciting when you eventually give into the temptation of kill, kill, killing."

The bros both grit their teeth at the casual dismissal of their determination, but were unable to say anything about that because Monokuma continued, though with notably more pep. "Alright, I see that words won't sell you so, let's begin with this!"

From somewhere behind his back, he whipped out a thick envelope to show off for the class that carried a name in fancy calligraphy. Before anyone could even hope to read it, the automaton flicked its wrist to reveal that the one was actually many concealed behind the first. Waving his new impromptu fan before his face, Monokuma regarded the students with a hearty chuckle.

"Inside each of these little envelopes is a little something for each of you. They're named so do your best to find your own, don't want someone taking what's yours after all. You're free to do what you will with them, but if you can't hide your curiosity, then feel free to have a look see inside." With that cryptic remark, he unceremoniously tossed the pile of letters in their direction where they slowly floated to the ground. Though there was hesitation, each of the students stepped forth one by one and grabbed the one with their name on it.

It was a quiet yet tense moment for Makoto as he held his letter, wondering, yet terrified to think of what could be hidden within the envelope bearing his name. His hands, oh how they quivered as he tried not to panic, his imagination starting to run wild with theories about what could be held within the confines of his letter. He glanced about seeing many of the same expressions of uncertainty on the other's faces. No one knew what to do, nor how to act.

Should they just throw the letters away? Should they see what was inside? The uncertainty of what they should do gnawed at them. Monokuma said they could do what they wanted with them, but with how he wasn't leaving, it was clear he wanted them to open the envelopes. Did they dare listen, did they trust that this wouldn't blow up in their faces like the videos before this?

Makoto glanced over to Sayaka, her envelope held in her good hand thanks to Leon retrieving it for her. She didn't seem to know what to do with it either it looked like, her gaze lost in her thoughts. Would there be another of them to fall into their captor's manipulations like she had nearly done if they did this. He wanted to say, no. He didn't believe there would be, but unless he looked, he could ever tell for sure.

Though he was scared, Makoto swallowed down his fear as best as he could and made his decision. He quickly opened the envelope, his sweaty hands shaking hard as he tried not to rip the folded paper inside. Taking it out, he quickly unfolded it, not giving himself a chance to think lest he back down, and took a good long look at the first line on the paper.

"Makoto Naegi wet the bed till he was in fifth grade."

"Geck!" His body tensed up, his cheeks flushed with modification and shame, while the rest of his face went white with horror. How on earth did someone find out about that! That was something that only his close family members should have ever known about! "H-How…!?"

"W-What…What is it Makoto?" He was caught off guard by Hina approaching him from behind with concern in her eyes, and in an embarrassed panic he quickly slapped the paper to his chest to hide its contents. The suddenness of the action only made the girl flinch back and the others to snap their eyes to him, making him feel mortified and horrified.

Before anyone could say anything, the bear on stage gave off a loud guffaw that made his and his class's gaze wander back over to the two-toned monster as it said, "Wait, wait, wait. Keep going, it gets better."

'There's more!?' the luckster shouted in his mind as he slowly, reluctantly brought the paper back up to see if what the demented toy was saying was true. His curiosity, far out weighing his caution.

"Makoto Naegi didn't get in to Hope's Peak just by lottery, he also sabotaged the original winner of his title by burning their acceptance letter."

…What? He…he did what? He hadn't been the first one to win the lottery? What was…he didn't remember burning anyone's…

And like a flash, it hit him. The worst day he'd ever had, when his friends had conned him into getting everyone drinks. Through a series of events so convoluted that he still had trouble wrapping his mind around it, one of the cans had caused a thief, who'd stolen a mailman's motorcycle, to crash. This in turn somehow caused a spark to hit the cycle's gas which caused the entire thing to explode, taking with it whatever had been on it.

Was that what this was referring too? If it was, then it was completely off basis! It was an accident! He hadn't meant to do that, it was just a bad stroke of luck that made that happen. Yeah, it might have been his can, and yeah, he was involved, but he had nothing to do with it!

Just as he was about to fly off the handle and shout about how deliberately misleading the second line had been, he paused when he noticed that there was a third line hidden under the fold of the paper that he had almost missed. With confusion, and a bit of annoyance, he continued to read.

"Someone has a crush on Makoto Naegi."

"…Huh?" Someone…on him? What was this…?

Any further musings were once again cut short by the baleful laughter from the ever so despised Monokuma. The bear had changed positions while he wasn't looking, now laying on its plushy belly with its head propped up on its paws. "Figured it out yet?"

"Huh…?"

"I'm talking about your special letter." The bear elaborated as it lazed about, its stubby legs lazily kicking behind it as it stared at the luckster. "The one full of embarrassing secrets and memories you're holding."

The bear suddenly rolled back up into a sitting position without any preamble, and continued. "As Makoto has just discovered, inside your little letters you will find that contain three very important, very secret dark memories and secrets. The first one, is a memory that is something embarrassing that you most likely wouldn't want anyone but close friends and family to know about. Nothing too bad, obviously. Just something to keep in mind. The second one, however, is something that you did that you are ashamed of. Something that you have either done, had a hand in, or were directly involved in that would totally get you in trouble with the cops were they to get out; or at the very least would get you a few nasty looks. You might not even have been aware of doing it."

But just as the others began to glance down at their own letters, Monokuma dropped another bombshell in their laps. "The last one on the other hand, is something even more fun. It is in fact, one of the embarrassing secret or memory of someone else in this school!"

Makoto and everyone else's eyes shot wide open as his eye's drifted back to the letter in his hands. "S-Someone's…?"

"Of course, those secrets are written in a way that prevents you from knowing who they belong too." Monokuma elaborated, "But I guarantee that the secret you find, is just as real as the other two! Furthermore, the third secret may or may not be one of the ones written on one of the other's letters, but it is still someone's dark, embarrassing secret!"

For what far from the first time, every single person in the gym tensed up with fear as they looked down at their own envelopes. The idea that someone had not only dug up their secrets of the past, but that they had given away one of those secrets to someone else in this room. That certainly made them feel a bit more anxious. Even though Monokuma said that they wouldn't be named, it did nothing to limit the terror and embarrassment of having your dirty laundry exposed to others against your will.

But that still raised a question, what secrets did he have?

For some of them, that in itself was enough to root their feet in place. Many of them knew very well of what their darkest secrets might have been. Most of them had gone to incredible lengths to hide their secrets in the deepest, darkest pit they could find before burying it under a metaphorical ton of cement so that it never surfaced again. So, hearing that someone had unearthed those long thought dead relics to display them for another filled them with dread and horror.

Slowly, almost hesitantly, Kyoko was the first to make a move. Though none of the others were aware of her reasoning, she made to open her envelope. This little paper would give her a clue, a hint into her past that she was so desperate to uncover. Even if it was something she was potentially going to feel embarrassed by, it meant nothing to her. If it could solve even one little thing she had been desperate to learn the truth of, then she could handle any kind of dirt found in here.

She knew just from the sounds of paper being ruffled that some of the others had started opening their own papers, likely spurred on by a mixture of her and Makoto already opening their letters and their own morbid curiosity to learn just what was contained in their own papers. A part of her felt guilty about that, but it was ruthlessly snuffed out by the fact that, even had she not, someone else would have opened theirs to learn just what was said about them.

Pulling out her letter, and making sure that no one behind her she brought the page up to look at the first line.

"Kyoko Kirigiri has amnesia and cannot remember her talent, nor her past."

She frowned deeply at that. No, that she knew. she was very familiar with that fact, but she couldn't deny that it was true. She was rather embarrassed about that, it was true, but it was mostly frustration she felt about not having any information then a source of humiliation. Irritated, she moved on to the next one.

"Kyoko Kirigiri wares custom made gloves to hide the large amount of burns and scars she got when she was still an amateur."

That was…marginally more helpful, but it was still ultimately useless to her. She had figured that it had to be something to that effect when she had looked under her gloves at the end of the first day and found the sickly purple skinned hands underneath. At the time, she had been horrified, completely transfixed on the at least few year-old scars decorating the burned flesh. Overtime though, that horror died down for confusion and a desire to lean about why exactly her hands were like that.

This letter, while it did nothing to say what exactly happened, at the very least helped her narrow down a list. Any information is good information, no matter how small it was. Sure, it wasn't exactly what she had wanted to find, but it was better than nothing at all.

With that, there was only the secret that belonged to someone else in the room. She wanted to scoff. She had no intention of looking at it, whatever the others had hidden from the world wasn't her business to see. But just as she was about to fold it up and slip the letter into a pocket, the paper flopped open just a little bit more and her eyes instinctually followed. Then, her eyes widened at what was concealed and against her will she found herself staring at the words that told of someone's dark secret. A secret so horrible, she didn't know how to respond.

On the other side of the room, another party was looking at his own letter with nothing short of horror on his face. His hands shook as he clutched the letter in a death grip and sweat dripped down his face at was it revealed about him, the first two secrets being something he vehemently wished to hide…

"Despite his claim to the contrary, Leon Kuwata actually loves baseball. What he actually hates is practice. He just says he does to pick up chicks."

That in itself was bad in itself, he had spent a lot of time already doing everything in his power to hide that fact. He had built up his entire reputation on how much he hated the sport he was best at ever since he learned that girls liked musicians more than athletes and he had wanted to strike while the iron was hot. But as much as he really didn't want anyone to know about that, the second one was something that he truly wished to never hear again.

"Leon Kuwata has a cousin that is both obsessed with him and wishes to be his wife."

Why? Why was this coming up again? How in the world did the mastermind find out about that? He had thought he'd managed to bury that secret when he made her promise never to tell anyone. That was the other reason he had been so against practicing, so that he could avoid her advances. Kanon, his cousin, had somehow gotten it into her head that he would be the perfect husband for her, despite the facts that not only were they related, he only saw her as family, a little sister at best. But his insistent remarks did nothing to dissuade her, if anything she took it as a challenge to overcome to earn his love. This determination eventually led her to deciding to become the coach of his middle school baseball team in an effort to be closer to him.

However, that only led to him doing everything in his power to avoid the practice games to avoid her embarrassing and mortifying advances. At the main games he didn't have to worry about it because she knew better then to distract him then, otherwise it risked ruining the game. She wasn't so dense that she would risk his career, but that was only to keep him from completely giving up on his future.

In truth, the pretty girl he'd met that told him she only dated musicians was only a single nail in the coffin for his athletic career. The rest was from just how possessive and overwhelming Kanon was whenever she was near him. It was far too much for him to handle, and as a result of her taking over as the team's manager it tainted his love for the sport. Whenever he thought of baseball, thoughts of Kanon weren't far behind.

Now, that wasn't to say he didn't love her, but only as a little sister. He had no interest, want, nor desire to hook up with her.

The only other thing worthy of note was the third entry, the secret belonging to someone else. He did feel a bit bad about looking, after all things tended to be considered secret for a reason, but that feeling was overpowered by his curiosity. So, with shaky hands full of anticipation for learning what might be hidden he pressed on to open the letter all the way. Surely nothing could be as bad as his secret, right?

"Someone here once slew an entire school building full of people."

…What?

Throughout the gymnasium the others let out large and loud gasps of shock and horror at what terrible secrets that were being shown to them, both at their own and what was said about the others. Hina nearly screamed at what hers held, the whole thing far too embarrassing for her as she clutched the paper close, her eyes wandering as she worried if anyone had seen what she held. Taka was especially vocal about his horror as he demanded half unbelieving, half concerned where on earth the mastermind had learned about his secrets. Celeste and Byakuya seemed to be in a competition to see who could simultaneously portray the most anger on their faces without actually showing anger, while Mondo looked just about ready to leap right at the bear in a blind bloodlust rage. Hifumi was practically sweating buckets at what his told him, while poor Chihiro looked like she was at the brink of tears once again.

Toko looked the worst off out of all of them, surprisingly. Her eyes had started going bloodshot from how intensely she was staring at the paper in her grasp. Her small hands quivered as they clawed into the edges of the paper and threatened to tear through. Her wire-framed glasses had started to slip down her nose, but she was completely unconcerned in her despair.

Briefly, she glanced over at the richest boy here, hoping that he would be understanding. After all, she had already confessed one of these secrets to him not that long ago in complete confidentiality. Surely, he would have an idea of what she should do.

To her joy, as if he had heard her heartfelt thoughts, the moment she locked her gaze on his form he turned to look at her as well. Her beloved would obviously have a way to protect her horrifying secret, her secret identity and the trauma that it constantly held over her head like the blade of a guillotine. Unfortunately, the moment her hopes began to soar on the notion that he would be doing anything to assist her in her time of need, they were dashed open the ground like the brittle flakes of a throw piece of fine china when his face developed into a loathsome sneer made complete with him looking away with a particularly baleful scoff that made her battered and bleeding heart skip a beat.

All the while, another had already crushed her paper in her grasp, the words written on the white sheet of paper filling her with a mixture of shame…and regret. Though her training allowed her to sooth the raging tide of her mind, it did nothing to sway the potential eruption bubbling below the surface, waiting for her to let down her guard. But Sakura was not one to let herself be controlled, she was the one to be in control so that, when the time was right, she could show her truest of might's.

Sayaka was the only one who held no major movement that belayed her terror, fear or shame. Her face was cast down, her eyes on the thing in her hand, but there was none of the strong emotion that gripped her soul like it did the others. For unlike them, she had not opened hers.

There was a couple of reasons for this. For one, she already had a good idea of what they would claim was her dark, embarrassing secret and memory. The two things she would like to have never heard of ever again. The first of which was a swimsuit magazine that she had agreed to model for as a publicity stunt. The whole thing, aside from the cover page, was an entirely embarrassing and depraved collective of her and her bandmates in very revealing and even somewhat lewd poses and swimsuits that could barely be call swimsuits in most cases for how little they covered. The only saving grace was that they had only made a small amount of them, and they'd published even fewer so the circulation cycle was very short.

Didn't stop some of the more corrupt members of management from selling copies of the quickly discontinued issue for a small fortune per mag.

The other reason she didn't see what Monokuma had on her was even simpler than that. She couldn't open it because her dominant hand was the same as her broken wrist.

After a short time of this panic, this despair, they were abruptly silenced by the malevolent laughter of the hated bear on stage. "You all have twenty-four hours. If there isn't a blackened within that time then…Well, I guess I'll just have to take every single secret you have and broadcast them to the world! I'll post them all on every website and forum online. I might even get one of those vans with a loudspeaker into central square and start spilling the beans! Now isn't that embarrassing!?"

As if just to make things worse, a despicable gleam seemed to fill the bear's red eye as it continued. "No, no. That's not nearly enough. Let's make it spicier! If there isn't at least one person dead by the nighttime announcement tomorrow, I will announce to everyone here one secret per person still alive over the intercom!"

---

Huh. I wonder where she's going with this. Strange.

Oh well, it's probably nothing. Anyway, it looks like we've got a new motive people. Time to watch the gang try and keep themselves from killing each other.

Still, it's kinda strange. I wonder what Hiro was hearing. If you recall, Old Junko would have been using the school's heavy defenses to expel the teens would-be rescuers, but this one doesn't want that. So why would he hear gun fire?

Well, it's not like it'll effect the story too much. She's not involved with most of the outside world, so it shouldn't matter.

…

…

…

Still, how about we see what happened…on the outside. Call it a…bit of idle curiosity.

Shall we?

---

Omake: Accidental game master

(Two days ago)

Just outside of Hope's Peak Academy school grounds, just across the street in fact, an elderly man stared at the building off into the distance, just past the familiar land that he had been so accustomed too. Past the fountain that dominated the center of the grounds park. Beyond the dying trees that surrounded the entirety of the massive building that had been so important to him for much of both his life and career. He stared at the school that he had put so much of his life into protecting and helping prosper to the height of prosperity.

The very same one that he had been forced to watch fall.

The man sighed, his gaze full of melancholy as he peered through the reinforced windows of the massive truck to look at the place that had once been the source of bringing the best minds of the next generation together, the place that had been converted into a sanctuary in these times of great despair, and just recently revealed to have been turned into a trap to make those within participate in a game of murder. He ignored the dozens of people wandering about the vehicle, each one decked out in a suit and gasmask, specially designed to counteract the toxic pollution that had turned the once blue skies a horrifying red. The man also ignored the sound of the other vehicles rolling around, each one full of hundreds of people dedicated to the cause. He even ignored the dozens upon dozens of half white, half black bears roaming about the campus grounds in various outfits, shapes, and sizes.

How long had it been since he had been forced to leave her behind, the very school he had once held in his mind as his own home. The place he had dedicated decades of his life and loyalty into only to pass it on to another who he thought could run it in his stead. It had to have been well over a year now, that much he was sure of.

He couldn't help but feel that he could have done something to stop this. That he could have prevented this despair that now engulfed the world. If only he had been a little more cautious, if had just listened too…

His thoughts were cut off by the sounds of liquid spraying, one of the dozens of decontamination chambers decorating the site that had been retrofitted onto all of the other trucks occasionally spraying the special cleansing chemicals before allowing the person into the truck the elderly man had been reminiscing in. In a mere moment, he saw a figure he knew to be a member of the resistance, much like himself, decked out in the hazmat suits required to live in this twisted world.

"Statuses report." The grizzled aged voice of the commanding officer stated to the new figure in the suit, his tone both worried yet still holding a ton of force that demanded respect.

The person placed their hand up against their chest and they spoke, a clearly female voice came out slightly muffled by the protective mask on her head. "Tengan, sir. Your early. There hasn't been much in the way of movement. The target hasn't made any attempt to remove us from the location, but the troops are getting angsty."

"Understandable." He stated back "However, we have our orders. We are to rescue the hope of the world and annihilate the source of Ultimate Despair."

"I know." She sighed, the serious tone of a soldier momentarily dropped in her disappointment. He knew why of course, while she was impressive and loyal, she would still rather be back with her friends and the man unknowingly in possession of her heart. They all would really, but they knew how important it was for them all in this moment to be here, trying to do their duty to save the children held hostage in the building down the way.

"How goes the most recent attempt to bypass the defenses? You know how important this operation is." He stressed once more, wanting to be certain that she was still fully on board with this. Fortunately, while there was quite a bit of frustration in her voice, she still replied.

"I understand that, but we haven't managed any progress at all."

"None?" He asked, his brow furrowed deeply. It hadn't been long since he had arrived, so it was expected that he wouldn't have known much, but she had been here for over a week now. Surely, she would have reported such failure.

Then again, considering how much she hated disappointing the one in charge of setting up this rescue mission, it wasn't hard to believe that she wouldn't say anything.

"None." She confirmed with her head bowing in shame. "Every single attempt has ended in failure. We try to come from the front, they stop us with the Monokuma. We try from behind, the side, or even the air, same thing. And even when we manage to get anywhere near, the Ultimate Despair uses the hundreds of defenses to hold off our troops long enough for the Monokuma to assault them. We haven't even managed to put more than a dent into their forces either, for every one we take down, it's like ten rise up to take their place. And every time we pull back, the other Monokuma just collect the remains of the broken ones and bring them back to the school. One of the scouts has been swearing up and down that he's fought the same freaking Monokuma at least three times now."

"Any casualties?"

"Surprisingly, not many." She said with her gloved hand raising up to where her face was covered with her pointer finger pressed against her cheek. Had she not been wearing the mask, he would likely have seen her face looking rather inquisitive. "We've lost only four of our scouts due to their injuries, bleeding out. However, every assault has ended in nearly all members being heavily injured, many left in critical condition. The problem is there's no consistency, sometimes we can get at least to the front gate before the Monokuma start to show up, but other times we aren't even near the property line before the guns start firing everywhere. Every time we think we've gotten an edge, it turns out that we're horribly wrong. I'll be honest, it's actually rather scary how quickly they're able to counter us. With how sporadic their actions are, I'm surprised we haven't lost a lot more. Especially after one of the Monokuma just randomly exploded. We've been lucky thus far."

"Luck…I highly doubt that." As interesting that theory would be, he knew better then to believe that was the reason. "If there is one thing I've picked up on in these times of great turmoil, it's that those who worship despair always have a reason for their actions, especially if it results in the destruction of another's hope. Tell me, how are the survivors?"

"They're recovering, but we're running out of medical supplies." She stated, her hand dropping back to her side as she made her report. "Even the things we got from the Ultimate Pharmacist are starting to wear thin. If things keep up, we might have to retreat and regroup."

Kazuo nodded, "Exactly. This may just be an effort to dissuade our efforts and demoralize our troops. And I'm afraid to say that, it may very well succeed. With medical supplies in such high demand worldwide, and our own troops spread so thin, we cannot afford a battle of nutrition in the most literal sense of the word. The Ultimate Despair knows this. That is why they do not aim for death, but to hinder. They are deliberately trying to make us have to cease our charge by forcing us to waste our valuable resources."

A deep frown found its way onto his face as he considered that and his hand meandered up to lightly tug at the gray beard on his face. "Unfortunately, it's working, and there's not much we can do to stop it lest we lose more of our forces. We will simply have to hold our ground until we can acquire more back up. Make sure to inform the troops as soon as possible, Yukizome."

"Understood." And with her final word, the women headed for the door, on her way to report the change in plan to the troops. For a moment, the slightly hunchbacked man watched her, concerned for her wellbeing, but he shrugged it off and turned back to stare at the school he had once treasured so dearly. Chisa Yukizome was a strong girl, she could take care of herself.

"Whoever they are, they have to be the greatest threat we've ever seen. They truly are worthy of their title of Ultimate Despair."

(Meanwhile, in the school data center)

"I have no idea what any of this stuff does." I said out loud as I nudged one of buttons on the desktop with my little finger, trying to figure out what all these buttons did. Well, that's what I was trying to do, but it seemed that nothing that I did caused anything to change. At one point I could have sworn I heard an explosion somewhere, and even the sound of gunfire, but it had been very muffled so I wasn't quite sure. Yet, no matter what it was I heard, I never saw anything new on the screens. Maybe I was just imagining it.

Honestly, if it weren't for those sounds telling me that it was doing something, I'd have thought the computer was busted.

Still, every so often I found myself drawn to mess with these buttons. I don't know what it is, but I found myself obsessed with this at times. It was like I was trying to uncover a new mystery that had never been expected to be heard or seen. It made me feel just a little excited every time I started messing around with it, just trying to find out whatever code there was that might access something undiscovered, even though I knew nothing I pushed seemed to do anything.

But that didn't make it any less irritating that I couldn't exactly see what they did. "Oh well, if it's not on screen, then maybe it doesn't matter what I press. I mean, it's not like I'm hurting anyone."