"What was...that all about?"

Makoto muttered to himself as he watched the back of the Ultimate Affluent Progeny slowly grow farther away, leaving him all alone in front of the library. It was so sudden of Byakuya to up and leave after dragging him all over the school that it had honestly left him reeling in place. It was so...bizarre to be so abruptly picked up and told what to do only to just as suddenly left in the dust that he still was having trouble processing it all.

It certainly wasn't helped by the information that had been all but forced into his hands. A room full of conspiracy, the strange things Toko was muttering about, and the whole debacle in the library with the file. It was enough to give a guy whiplash.

He still felt a chill up his spine as he thought about the gruesome photos lined within the thick file of Genocider Sho. To think that someone could intentionally go out of their way to do such a horrible thing to so many people, ending so many lives and then posturing them up like some kind of crucifix ritual or something. The scariest part wasn't even the deaths, rather that the serial killer had pinned their victims up with pairs of scissors going through their limbs and several inches through concrete or stone walls!

It was just so absurd that it only made him fear the strength of this Genocider more then ever before. And to think that Byakuya was convinced that the killer was here in the school with them? It almost made him want to just straight up go back to his room and barricade the door.

However, while that was a concern, it wasn't what had him staring at the door to the library so transfixed. No, what had him staring was the memory of what happened just before they had entered the archives.

The weird and nonsensical nature of the being calling themselves Monokuma was nothing new to the luckster at this point. Quite frankly, it was concerning just how used to the puppeteer's actions he was becoming over time. But what had happened in there, it was something new, something unexpected, and something that might even be concerning to make note of.

The mastermind had lost control of Monokuma. Sure, it may have only been for a second, but that second was more then telling that something, hopefully something good, but something had clearly caught their captor off guard. No, not just off guard. Whatever it was had temporarily shut down the surprisingly terrifying bear in its tracks. That went a bit further then just off guard.

The way its mannerisms changed on the spot like that was beyond weird, it was almost like he'd been talking to another person entirely. They had even spoken in a slightly different accent.

Had someone on the outside managed to hack into the mastermind's control, or was there more then one mastermind and they had interfered with the other one in that moment? The first one didn't seem likely, but that didn't make it impossible. However, the last one made him worried.

If there were more then one mastermind, then just how much more in danger were they in? What if the second one decided that they didn't need to follow the same rules as the other one, or worst, decided to take things into their own hands and start killing classmates themselves. They wouldn't even be able to do anything to stop them.

He shivered and tried to shake that thought off. No, it was most likely just Monokuma was just messing with them, trying to make them paranoid and prone to mistake. Trying to distract them when he needed to focus on the investigation. This would have to wait.

"For now, I need to gather more evidence." After giving it a moment of thought, he decided that it would be best to start by heading back to the changing room.

He was briefly impeded in his travel by a rather excited Hifumi bragging about how he had found some evidence, but not being forthcoming with whatever it was. A mild frustration, but he made a mental note of it for later. After that though, he quickly opened up the door and looked around the crime scene again.

Immediately, he noticed that the atmosphere of the room seemed much more...tense then he remembered it being last. Everyone looked stiff, brows furrowed deeply, almost glaring, fists clenched, anger simmering under the surface. Something had clearly changed in the time he'd been gone, that much was for sure.

The only one seemingly not affected by this was the albino women who continued to investigate, unconcerned by how everyone around was acting. So, he decided to start with her first.

"How goes the investigation?" he asked, kneeling slightly to her complete crouch her gloved fingers combing through the fibers of the rug before rubbing something between her fingers. Whatever it was, she seemed to deem it unimportant as she stood up and dusted her hands off.

"About done." Kyoko stated with a small sigh as she crossed her arms and gave him a side glance. "This case is chock full of distractions. Don't let them throw you off."

Makoto blinked in a slight bit of confusion at her remark, but he didn't get a chance to respond. Kyoko was already on her way to the door, only staying long enough to say, "If I were you, I'd check Chihiro's body thoroughly once more. I'll be praying for your success."

Check her body? He couldn't think of anyway that would help. Not to mention the fact that it would be really awkward to explain to the programmer, or even the other classmates, exactly why he was feeling up the tiny girl in the first place. Especially since the two that would see him doing so first would be both Sakura and Mondo.

He shook his head at the horrifying image that thought made, and resolved to accept that this was one clue that would have to go without being found by him.

Taking a look around, he found one thing immediately out of place. On the wall of the room was a poster, but not just any poster, but one of a rather well endowed supermodel in a black bikini. While it was a nice looking image, he was a teenage boy after all, it didn't really seem to belong in the girl's locker room.

Not unless they wanted the girl's to develop an inferiority complex that would make Toko's look tame by comparison.

So, why was this here? It wasn't even anything he would consider normal to see considering how insistent Monokuma was against indecent acts and indecency in general, outside of some rare crude moments of poor humor.

It made no sense, and it was completely out of character of Monokuma. Something was up there, so it made sense to try and figure it out, and soon. Acting on that whim, he quickly popped out of the room for a moment, and ducked into the boy's locker room.

As he suspected, just like the girl's room, there was a poster that didn't make sense, this one being of a rather popular boy band that had been making the rounds recently, he even remembered his little sister owning some memorabilia of theirs recently.

Not really something that you would expect in the boy's room.

There was also a brown stain on the cream colored rug that didn't seem like it belonged here either. Plus, there was a slight bit of a black stain on the corner of the rug that curved away and it had a sort of pattern to it. Almost like…

There was definitely more to this. Quickly heading back to the other room, he looked at the rug there. Just as he suspected, this one didn't have either stain, and the tire was right next to it. Looking at it confirmed his suspicions. No stain, nothing to show that it had been used in recent times.

Turning to ask Sakura had been his first idea since she would have likely spent a lot of time in the locker room. Unfortunately, while he had been right about her workout habits, she hadn't been paying much attention to the posters. But she did notice one thing that that caught her attention.

"You see, Aye like to drink a protein coffee in the morning every time I finish exercising." It took no more then a look at his confused expression to elaborate, "The warehouse has a supply of protein powder, nothing of high quality, but aye don't have a lot of options. Aye mix some protein powder with some coffee, then down a glass of it after exercising. Anyway, the other day, I spilled some on the carpet in the girl's locker room, and it left a stain."

"A stain…?" Makoto parroted as he looked at the carpet under them. "But I don't see a stain here now..."

"Exactly." Sakura stated with a nod of her head. "I noticed it earlier. The stain has disappeared. It isn't the only one either."

Makoto followed her gaze to find the large truck tire shoved into the corner of the room as she continued. "The tire over there isn't exactly the cleanest tool I've used in my usual routine, but it gets the job done. However, more often then not, it has a tendency to leave a large smudge that aye can't clean easily. Yet, it too has disappeared. Aye assumed that someone cleaned it up, but isn't it too clean? Tis almost like the stains never existed to begin with..."

Makoto furrowed his brow at the new information, but before he could think more on it, he heard a loud cry coming from the pool room. As the only one in the room that wasn't on guard duty, he quickly rushed out to see what the commotion was.

"Leon...?" he questioned when he saw the all-star ball player, the redhead looking rather disgruntled as he shook out his leg, the whole thing visibly soaked.

"Huh?" Leon asked before he caught sight of him, and visibly perked up. "Oh, hey dude! Was'up?"

"I heard someone shout, so I came to see what was going on." Makoto admitted as he gestured to Leon's soggy leg. "What happened?"

"Ah that." The all-star groused as he looked at the wet limb in annoyance. "Yeah, I thought I saw something so I rushed over, ya'know. But I hit a puddle or somthin' and slipped on the floor. Damn near almost took a dive. Serves me right for runnin' by the pool, right?"

He quickly shook that leg once more before quickly pumping his fist in excitement. "But hey, check this out!" and quickly pointed to a spot on the edge of the pool that Makoto very quickly understood the boy's excitement.

"Is that...blood?" The luckster asked rhetorically as he looked at the small splotch of life liquid on the edge of the pool, but was answered by the ball pro anyway. "Yeah it is! I just happened to catch it out of the corner of my eye, but that's totally blood!"

Yeah, it was for sure. "But, why is there blood here?"

"I don' know. Maybe someone scuffed their knee or something?" Leon offered, his hand rubbing through his locks in thought, even as he shook his dripping leg.

Makoto hummed in thought, there was definitely something going on here. The crime scene was the locker rooms, right? So what was blood doing here? Something about this felt important.

With that in mind, he resolved to ask the one person in the school who would have frequented the pool the most out of all of them, just to make sure that this particular blood stain was important. However, as he was leaving the locker rooms, Hifumi called out for him, saying the Celeste had found something worthwhile.

"Really?" He asked the otaku, somewhat surprised that the rotund teen would be so forthright with this. "What did she see?"

"Well, she refused to tell me what it was." Hifumi admitted with sheepish grin. "But she asked that I tell you to come see her yourself."

Then, the larger teen jolted in realization as a thought hit. "Wait! Is this like when a girl acts mean to the guy she likes and tries to make them jealous by going after another guy?"

"..." Makoto also resolved to pretend that he hadn't heard that, for Hifumi's sake if nothing else. "So, where is Celeste now?"

"The warehouse by the dorms." The fan content creator answered. "She was there, but at the same time...not there."

Makoto chose not to ask what exactly Hifumi meant by that, not really wanting to waste anymore time on the conversation then necessary, and headed off. It didn't take long for him to reach the bottom of the stairs, but it seemed that both Taka and Sayaka had moved away at some point of the investigation. He frowned a bit, seeing as he had wanted to talk to Taka about what he might of seen, but if they weren't there, there wasn't anything that he could do.

Instead, he decided to head to the warehouse to meet with Celeste first before anything distracted him. Just as the Otaku had said, there she was by the shelves, turning to look at him once she heard the door opening with a coy smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Celeste?" Makoto called out, "What are you doing here?"

"This warehouse is amazing." she calmly gushed, clearly avoiding the question. "It has absolutely everything one might need to live. From food, to clothes, to towels...and there' an endless supply to choose from."

"I see that..."the luckster admitted as he looked at the massive shelves filled with all kinds of items and things. It was quite the selection if he was being honest with himself. Enough to make the mind spin from the amount of choices left out for them all.

However, "But have you found anything related to the case?"

That killed her act very quickly. "I knew that would be what you would ask me. I thought talking to you about the warehouse itself would possibly misdirect you, but I see that it was pointless."

Makoto's eye raised in slight confusion, not quite understanding exactly why she would both be trying to misdirect him in the first place, and be so quick to give up when confronted, but he set that aside. Instead, he inquired, "So, did you find something then?"

"Very well." She stated, acting for all the world as if he had somehow dragged the information out of her, "I will tell you, and only you. A few nights ago, I saw her here...Chihiro was in the warehouse."

"What?" Makoto's eyes widened in shock. "Really!?"

"It was just before the nighttime announcement." The gambler began her tale, her tone serious as she looked the luckster dead in the eyes.

From what she described, it would seem that Chihiro had been in there just shortly before the doors were going to be locked as per Monokuma's rules, and had been quite badly spooked when Celeste, who had been passing by, decided to confront her. The smaller girl had been quite flustered as well, and had basically all but rushed out as nicely as possible with a duffle bag. In her haste though, Celeste had been able to catch sight of the blue sleeve of a track suit sticking out before the programmer hastily stuffed it back in.

"And just like that, she was gone." Celeste finished, her hand on her chin in thought, an expression that was mirrored by the luckster.

A blue track suit...why did that sound familiar?

"I assumed she was merely stocking up to go exercise come morning." Celeste stated when he gave no reply. "Alas, it would appear that she merely ignored the nighttime rule, and headed directly to the locker room. If she hadn't broken our rule, none of this would ever have happened..."

Celeste ended her little rant with a small huff of discontent. "You get what you deserve, I suppose."

Makoto purposefully ignored that remark. "And that was the last time you saw her in here?"

"Oh, goodness no." The gambler remarked with amusement clinging to ever word. "After our little chat, I decided to check on the warehouse every night just before I retire for the day, just in case I run into her again, and wouldn't you know it, I witnessed her leaving the warehouse again just last night."

"What!?" Makoto replied, but she wasn't done.

"Furthermore, she was acting just as flustered as she had when I found her just a few days prior. Perhaps more so even. I doubt she even noticed me watching with how rattled she looked."

This was getting confusing. Chihiro going to the warehouse in itself wasn't necessarily wrong, but the shifty attitude definitely raised some concerns. Plus, there was the blue track suit. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he knew he had seen something like that recently. Really recently.

Had he the time, he might have tried to follow that train of thought, but he was on a time crunch right now, so he filed that away as well, thanked Celeste for her help, and moved to find anyone else that might have a clue.

He did want to try and talk with Taka about whatever it was that had spooked him so badly. What could rattle the Ultimate Moral Compass so much that it would lead him to become so ragged, and even so far as to become completely unconcerned how the others saw him.

Seriously, despite how bad the situation had been until now, Taka had been very careful to make sure that he always appeared to them in a fresh, clean, and possibly ironed uniform every single day so far. If he so much as got even a crumb on his uniform during their meals, he would go and change into a fresh set immediately afterward. He had been so hyper focused on trying his best to put up an image of being the perfect role model for them all to look up to in this time of crisis, that it was jarring to see his composure that thoroughly ruffled.

Yes, it could have somewhat been because Taka found Chihiro first, it was a rather gruesome scene. Even when compared to when they had found Sayaka and Hiro after their unfortunate circumstance, Chihiro's had been significantly more bloody. Not necessarily more violent, he could still vividly remember how trashed room had looked, but certainly more bloody.

Regardless, that didn't explain the bags under Taka's eyes, the exhaustion, or the conflicted expressions. It rang one too many bells in Makoto's head. It was clear that his friend was clearly suffering in some way right now, and as much as he wanted answers, he also wanted to make sure that his friend was okay. That was more important.

However, it didn't stop him from pausing to look at the table in the middle of the way. It was just so out of place that he couldn't help but look at it. More then ever, he was positive that this hadn't been here yesterday. It practically dragged his gaze towards it with how out of place it was, screaming for his attention. So, he began shuffling though the stuff on the table, maybe there was a clue here?

"Whoops..." He mattered when one of the bags of chips fell over and onto the floor in his haste to shuffle though the pile of assorted snacks, energy drinks, and various other things. 'Who drinks coffee at night?' He didn't even think about it, he reached over to pick up the bag.

"Ah…!" He suddenly gasped unconsciously when he looked at the floor just below the table, for what he saw was something truly unexpected.

A kitchen knife. A Chef's knife rather, and the exact same one that had gone missing in the last case. The exact same knife that had been used to stab two of his friends was here again, and once more he could see it had been tainted by another. The edge of the blade had a deep sheen of blood, at least several hours old since it was dry. And looking further, he could see some splatter towards the entry way exit. It was small though, and smudged a bit by someone's shoe, easily unnoticed.

Someone had gotten attacked here too. But who, and why? It had to have been last night, that much was clear, but why had no one said anything? It made him worried, concerned that one of his friends were hurt and hiding it from them.

Unfortunately, there wasn't anything he could do about it now. Time was of the essence right now. It frustrated him that this was quickly becoming a theme here, wanting to do something but not having the time to do anything he felt he needed. Monokuma's unspecific deadline made everything so tense, and it made every second feel like a precious resource ready to be snapped away at a whim, forcing them all to pick and choose priorities.

He pushed the thought aside, another thing that he had found becoming uncomfortably common, and after jotting another quick note into his E-handbook, took his next step by heading into the cafeteria.

It didn't take long for him to notice that he wasn't alone, four students awaited him, two unexpected, two surprising. Hina and Junko were somewhat expected, the former would have been very concerned over the later since she wouldn't be able to stay standing for very long. Plus, the fashionista needed to be kept in the loop, and while he wouldn't necessarily pick Hina for that role, he was glad that she had taken the initiative.

The other seats, of course, were holding the figures of the girl he had spent the majority of his early time with, and the other, the man of the hour himself.

"Taka. Are you okay?"

Have you ever heard of the expression, "A rough night heralds a bad day?" Theoretically speaking, it is an omen that you toss and turn at night because your body has instinctual understanding of the future and knows that you are going to have a bad day. Thus, your body stresses out and the tension in your muscles prevents you from finding a comfortable spot, leading to insomnia and thus a bad night. Because of that, you wake up feeling exhausted, and you might even develop a headache from the sleep deprivation, which makes even the most minute task feel like a complete chore to slog through. You become quick to snap and easy to upset, and even the slightest annoyance triggers an unwarranted lashing out.

This, basically summarized how Mukuro felt today.

For the most irrational reason, she had been forced to endure a terrible nights rest, her body just refusing to cooperate with her demands to go to sleep already. Thus, she had been tossing and turning in her bed, trying to find a spot that would by some miracle allow her to finally dip into her much needed REM cycle.

Unfortunately, that wasn't to be, sleep was far too fleeting for the Ultimate Solider and as a result, her mind this morning was just not into it. She had even woken up late for the first time in years because of this upset to her scheduled rest, something that not even the few late night requests of her sister or even her times stationed as a lookout in Fenrir had managed to take from her. Even as she sat at her table, a bowl of oatmeal in one hand and her cheek pressed up against the other as she half listened to the Ultimate Swimmer, she couldn't recall a time that she hadn't gotten a full nights rest.

However, though she would wholeheartedly claim otherwise, she knew full well why she hadn't been able to sleep. It wasn't a rational one as far as she was concerned, but it was the only one that she could think of. The little piece of paper currently shredded and buried it the very bottom of her waste basket in her room that threatened to compromise her position as a spy.

Yes, the motive that her beloved sister had given them all just the day before. Such a small thing, but the impact more then made up for it. Three little secrets, oh so devastating to their owner.

The first was already of a concern, something that she knew she couldn't let get out because of just how bad it could ruin everything about her life. The simple statement of, "Mukuro Ikusaba murdered an entire school of people on the whim of her sister." was already far more revealing then anything that she ever wanted anyone to know. The act of murder, no, not a problem for her, not even the sheer amount of it. Just by holding the title of Ultimate Solider implied to countless people that she had taken lives before, and no matter what anyone said, she would never say that listening to her sister's commands or her superior officer was something that she would ever regret...the recent impalement incident not withstanding.

The second secret wasn't any better, but for very different reasons. "Mukuro Ikusaba has a crush on Makoto Naegi." For a regular person, this wasn't anything too major, if anything it would be considered cute. However, to her, this was much worse then being accused of murder; as true as it might have been.

She was a mercenary, a soldier, a murderer who reveled in the thrill of combat. She was a warrior who's greatest passions included guns, bullets, knives, and bloodshed, not a girl who obsessed over, make-up, clothes, and guys. Her sister had made it perfectly clear that she shouldn't bother with such ideas, and she personally didn't disagree. Such thoughts had no place on the battlefield, and she hadn't any desire to change that.

Until Makoto came into her life. He had been a light in the darkness that she hadn't even realized that she had been drowning in, pulling her forcefully into his embrace without meaning to. He had awoken parts of herself that she hadn't thought to have ever existed and completely upended most everything that she had thought she had known, about both the world, and even herself.

Before him, she had only Junko to go about when it came to ideals of love. With her, it was a constant and perpetual dance upon a minefield in the rain, where every move was a risk of setting something off to catastrophic consequences. With Junko, every step, every breath, every heartbeat might result in destruction if she wasn't careful. Exhilarating, dangerous, but oh so undeniably satisfying to pull off.

With Makoto though, it was as like going from that minefield and walking straight onto a casual street on a bright sunny day. Birds singing in the cool breeze and not a cloud to be seen. Completely peaceful, serene in a way. Stable, simple, and easy to understand and follow.

It was jarring just how different, how very night and day the two were, and it would always leave her on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop when she was with him. When that never happened though, she slowly lowered her guard, allowing his sunny disposition to slowly melt away the ice that had frozen her heart. He was special to her and she had grown to treasure his kind soul and warm smile. The only male, boy or man, to not become wary when they had heard of her talent and the implications there from.

But that made the minefield that was her relationship with Junko only more dangerous. Junko was never one not to exploit someone's weaknesses and was surprisingly possessive of her, and her crush was a weakness that had quickly become her biggest chink in her armor. If she were to try to form any relationship with Makoto, she would be all but asking for Junko to...remove that little weakness of hers.

She had never told Makoto about this crush of hers for that very reason. He didn't deserve to have that knife dangling by a thread over his head. It was just better for all involved that they never got to close before or after their memories were erased.

So, for Junko to threaten to reveal it to the world meant that she planned to sell out her sister's greatest weakness for everyone to hear. Everyone who had a chip on the shoulder against her would now be gunning for him, either to use him as a hostage to hurt her physically, or as a target to hurt her emotionally. One person had already tried that with Junko, but that unfortunate fool hadn't realized who he was messing with.

He was practically begging for death when Mukuro finally caught up with them both, Junko didn't take prisoners.

But Makoto wasn't like Junko, not in the slightest. He couldn't defend himself against most, if not all of her enemies, he wasn't strong enough in that way. His sense of self protection was low, his fighting prowess lower, and his ability to take a hit couldn't be any lower. Really, the only thing he had that was high was his kindness, understanding, and in her sister's words, gullibility.

And she couldn't be there to protect him all the time, keeping up with Junko was hard enough as it was, to the point that it might as well have been an unpaid full-time job on its own. Protecting him on top of that would have likely had her committing some manor of heinous crime to get him the protection he would need.

Plus, knowing his luck, it would only be a matter of when, not if, someone decided to go after him. He had a hard enough time with the unusual amount of unfortunate events that would occasionally plague his day to day life, if someone were to actually try to hurt him, he would be child's play without someone like her watching his back. Such thoughts had plagued her all night and left her restless and on edge throughout.

She couldn't care in the slightest about the third person's secret though. That was their issue to deal with, not hers. All she cared about was the threat Junko had leveled against her and to her secret crush.

Besides, why should she care that someone wet the bed till fifth grade? A bit weird, yes, but not really worth thinking about.

But that only left the question of, why? Why would Junko put her disguise at risk? It must be another of her tests, but this wasn't one that she could quite understand the motive for. Did she want her to kill one of the others to keep her position secure? Was it to see if she could hide her paper in a way no one could find it? It wasn't clear; not that that was too much of a surprise considering.

But, it didn't seem like it would matter. It seems like someone had fallen for Junko's manipulations and had tried to kill Chihiro and had hung him up in fashion similar to Genocider Sho's victims, meaning that Junko would be getting her trial that she wanted.

Of course, Mukuro knew that it couldn't have been Toko who did it. The few times she had interacted with the murderous half of the novelist, and she had quickly learned just how much of a high standard that Sho held when it came to her kills. While the description sounded similar enough for some, Mukuro knew that Sho would never have allowed herself to make such a half-assed showing, especially when targeting someone that was most definitely her preferred type.

Despite her eccentric and erratic personality that made Junko seem like a calm, open book, Sho was surprisingly simple to understand when you got down to it. She hunted down pretty boys that she liked, pinned them with her scissors, and made horrible jokes or comparisons to murder while laughing as loud as she could. It honestly had to be a bloody miracle that she hadn't been caught yet.

Of course, that would mean that Toko would would have had to have known Chihiro's real gender first, and given how little they had interacted, Mukuro felt very confident in saying that the programmer would never tell the writer anything like that secret anytime soon.

So that meant that someone else had done that, and she had a pretty good idea who, even after considering the memory loss and everything that she knew of the others.

However, she pondered as she looked over at the other occupants of the room, that didn't explain why Kiyotaka and Aoi looked so exhausted. It wasn't something that you could notice very easily in the latter's case since she was always high spirited, but Mukuro could easily identify the signs from a mile away. With Kiyotaka, anyone could tell that he wasn't doing well, what with his deep, baggy eyes and shaking, sweaty hands.

What was the reason though? She decided that she didn't care much. Unless her sister said otherwise, she didn't feel the need to socialize with them more then necessary anyway. Even when they were in school she hadn't had many moments interacting with others beyond keeping appearances.

It only became something worth thinking about when the subject of her desires walked into the dinning hall and walked straight up to the Moral and asked, "Taka, are you okay?"

"Ah..." Kiyotaka stalled, something that was rare to see, but did manage to respond with forced enthusiasm. "Yes, I'm quite alright now! Thank you for your concern!"

The mixture of unimpressed and concerned looks Kiyotaka got in response to his clearly false claim were more then enough to quickly dampen the facade. "...Well, okay, no, I'm not alright. I'm just...frustrated I guess would be the right word."

"Frustrated?" Makoto parroted back. "About what?"

"..." Kiyotaka was silent in response, looking utterly despondent as he gazed with unfocused eyes out the door. Mukuro didn't have to be a mind reader to tell that whatever it was that was bothering him, he didn't feel comfortable discussing it. At least, not without prompting. Fortunately, she didn't have to do it.

"Taka, why don't you tell Makoto what you told me?" Sayaka gently pushed with a gentle smile, concluding with "It's okay, you're among friends, remember?"

Kiyotaka hesitated, but then he made the mistake of glancing at Makoto and catching a glimpse of the lucky student's hopeful eyes. Mukuro knew that it was a done deal after that. She knew first hand how easily it was to get sucked in to those eyes of his and start just talking about anything that was bothering you. He just had a calming air to him that just made you want to confess your secrets to; and when he focused his full, undisclosed attention on you like he was with Taka right now, unless you had an ironclad will like Junko, you were pretty much doomed.

It didn't take very long for Kiyotaka to crumble with a sigh, and once he straightened up, he sang like a canary. And what he said was enough to make Mukuro's eyes raise on complete shock.

A night guard? Setting up a post? Rotating shifts? The plan that he had come up with was far more elaborate and focused then anything she had ever seen from him in their school days. Most of the time he had been purely reactionary, only taking steps to intervene after the crime had been committed; minor though they may have been. But that was all, purely in response to the action, never to prevent it beforehand. This was the first time she could recall him ever doing something preemptive like this; not to the level of detail here anyway.

And it was very well thought out too, nothing like what he usually did. Not to say that he was stupid or anything, he couldn't be with his grades, but he closest thing she could recall him coming up with in the past was when he stood in front of the detention hall for three days straight when he was told that someone had been seen trying to break in to get their phone back, or something like that. And even then it was still in response to the act, not in anticipation of the act.

It honestly surprised her just how much thought he must have gone through to come up with all of this. Again, his plans were usually much more simplistic then this. She would have more expected something along the lines of just standing in the hall like before, not this.

And then there was the other thing he mentioned. "So, like, this masked creep just walked right out of the dinning hall?"

"Yes." Kiyotaka confirmed Mukuro's question with a grim look. "And I'm certain that I checked the both the dinning hall, and the kitchen just before the nighttime announcement, and there was no one there then."

"Could they have been hiding and you just missed them?" Makoto asked but was met with a shake of the head.

"Not possible, the only place large enough for a person to hide in would be the cupboards, but they're filled to the brim with kitchen ware." Taka started and Hina finished with, "Yeah, and I made sure that I was the first to get to the kitchen today, and there wasn't a pot or pan out of place."

While they continued to brainstorm possibilities, Mukuro was going through her own debate. There was no question in her mind that the person they were talking about was Junko, it wouldn't add up otherwise. She was the only one who could have gotten into the kitchen with everything that Taka had told them.

Unless...No, she immediately dismissed the thought. There was no way that anyone could have gotten in here without her sister knowing, not a chance. And even if someone miraculously managed to, the literal armada of Monokuma in the school would have made quick work of them.

"Do you think that they work for the mastermind?" It was Hina's question that almost made her snort in amusement had she not had the control to stop it. It would be rather hard to work for the person you already were after all.

"Wrong!" Monokuma suddenly interrupted as it fell out of a compartment in the ceiling to land before the startled swimmer in what Hifumi had once called a 'superhero landing'. If it wasn't mechanical, there would have certainly done some serious damage to it's knees.

As it was, it stood up and jabbed a pointed claw at Hina with indignation. "Just because you're jealous of my stunning figure, doesn't mean that you can throw such outlandish accusations about me! I mean really! How would you feel if I started telling randos in the street that you secretly have a fetish for drowning and that's why you spend so much time in the pool!"

"I don't have a fetish! Especially for something like...that!" Hina refuted without even a hint of a blush, more angry then anything, but the puppet wasn't perturb as it got up in her face.

"I know that! And you know that! But if you don't want people thinking that you do, you will not accuse me of something like this ever again! I have a reputation to uphold, y'know." With that, the puppet turned on its heel and waddled out the front door with anger filled muttering on its auto-tuned breath.

And a limp.

The five students stared after the animatronic with confusion on their faces, and for Mukuro, it was more then warranted in her mind. That had been rather sudden and rather out of character of her sister. While maintaining a reputation had been important to maintaining their cover way back before the lock down, Junko had expressly stated the many character traits Monokuma was supposed to have, and this was certainly not one that she could recall.

"What was...that about?" Hina asked once Monokuma was out of the door, tentatively glancing back at the ceiling in case another bear leaped out again. A relatively pointless concern since Junko rarely if ever pulled the same joke twice. And only on someone that she hadn't used it on before.

"I'm not sure." Sayaka finally admitted after a moment of silence, understandable really since Junko's eccentric behavior was very difficult to get a fell grasp on. Mukuro had been trying for years and still only understood her an eighth of the time.

"It doesn't matter." Taka finally concluded, looking all too tired to continue the mental task of trying to understand the hurricane of emotion that was Monokuma. "It doesn't even matter if they are working for the mastermind or not. What matters is that we put a stop to this new threat before they cause anymore harm! I will not stand idly by as my fellow classmates are threatened by some reprobate any longer! Let us all work together, now more then ever, to stop this killing game once and for all!"

He clenched his fist then, and a little bit of the fire that he had once held came back into his eyes. A feeling of resolve in his stance that he'd been lacking all morning suddenly empowered his stance as he stood up and glared where Monokuma had vacated. Mukuro didn't know what had just triggered this response in the Moral Compass, but whatever it was, it was a change that even she had to admit was sorely needed. Kiyotaka never did pull off the sullen angst character idea very well, so it was good to see him recovering.

She briefly paused at that even as the other's rallied their own cries of agreement behind the moral's newly re-found resolve. Where had that thought come from? She wasn't supposed to find this act of defiance good right? She was supposed to be against it. That would be what Junko would want.

So then, why was her hand in the air as well, pushed as high as she could bring it? Why were her cheeks straining from how hard she was smiling? What was this warm feeling in her chest that made her heart hum in excitement while her stomach fell like a lead balloon?

And, why did it feel so familiar?

Unfortunately, those thoughts would have to wait. As the blare of the school PDA went off and Monokuma's visage appeared on the monitor, his squishy body slumped as he lazed on his side with a glass of wine swirling in his paw, saying, "So ah...I'm getting tired of waiting. Shall we just...plunge right into this then? It's the moment we've all been waiting for, the class trial! You all know where to go, right? Big red door, first floor, can't miss it. See you soon...Oh! And before I forget, attendance is mandatory for all conscious members of the student body. So unless you plan to get someone else in trouble for concussing you, you better be ready to go A.S. . Tootles!"

With that ominous warning, the monitor went out, and the students, once full of loud resolve, were silent and tense as they started to head out. Mukuro felt a slight twinge of a familiar feeling of jealousy rear it's ugly head when Makoto offered to push Sayaka's chair for her, but like all unimportant feelings, she pushed it to the side to be dealt with latter. Even as she accepted Kiyotaka's offer of his shoulder to lean on, she kept her thoughts to herself.

After all, she still had a mission to fulfill.

"I won't...I won't...not again."

They say that talking to one's self was the first signs of madness. That to turn a thought into a construct and claim it to be another person is an irregularity that should tell you that you have gone past the point of no return, and that you need to get help from a professional before it grows into a problem that can not be so easily dealt with by ones self. There are also those that claim that overly filling a sentence to the point that, should you try and vocalize it all in one setting, you risked passing out from self induced suffixation is a sign that you might, in fact, be someone who relishes greatly in torment of the physical kind. Some would also say that, choosing to lock yourself in your room with all of the lights on and using everything that you can possibly get your hands on to barricade the door in a vain attempt to prevent a serial killer that had manifested from your own self conscious and thus would have no major difficulty removing the very same barricade you had placed from leaving and causing more death to the people around you was quite a bit counterproductive.

If you were to say any of this to Toko, she would call you an idiot.

She knew all too well that she was not going to be able to stop her twisted other half so easily. She had had the displeasure of having to know that she had a side of her that reveled in blood, murder, and sadism for just under half of her life after all. She knew that this plan, this endeavor was pointless in the grand scheme of things.

But it made her feel better. It helped her put aside her tears, her regrets, her dark thoughts for just a little while, and pretend that everything was alright with the world. That she hadn't put more blood onto her hands unwillingly through the will of a murderous psychopath.

Toko shook her head rapidly, dismissing the thought and slapping herself with one of her own ponytails in the process. This wasn't the place for such thoughts, no. She picked up her pencil with a deep inhale of air filled with the rancid smell of her own bodily stench that she was so accustomed too. Now was the time to vent.

This was where the went when she felt the world was out to get her, to her own personal world of paper, led, and ink. A land where anything was possible so long as you could put word to paper. A universe where the only person's word who mattered, was her own. In these pages, in these books of her own making, these works created by her own passion and desires, she was someone who mattered.

She could pretend that she wasn't some disgusting beast in human skin that felt giddy at seeing people stung up like a twisted decoration, but a young girl who just wanted to live a life of love and passion, just like every girl.

In the sanctuary of her room, all that mattered was her writing, her works of art that brought so much joy and ideals of romance. In here, she wasn't the women who was hated by everyone in the day or the wicked demon who moonlighted as a serial killer which skulked the night and prayed on young boys that had hurt her in some way, but a beautiful princess who was kind, benevolent, and loved by everyone who so much as glanced her way. She could be given the thing she desired most, the things that she desired.

Just like what she was doing now, instead of focusing on the face of the poor girl that she had felt a budding if begrudging admiration for that now haunted her every time she blinked. The girl that had declared that she would do the thing that had the young writer paralyzed too much to even consider.

Only in the sanctuary of her thoughts would she ever admit it, but she felt...jealous of Chihiro. She didn't know what it was that Monokuma had on the somehow even weaker then the writing protegee girl; a fact that she had felt a small amount of bitter smugness about. Whatever it was though, instead of being like her, the weaker girl had chosen to stand up and resolve to better herself instead of letting it weigh her down. She even told them that she would tell them all what it was when she got stronger.

Toko gave off a bitter huff at that. People say things like that all the time, it was a total sham. They promise that they will change, only to fall right back into their bad habits. It was just how people were. There was no changing people, not in real life.

People weren't like those in books, characters who go through arcs and development over the course of a story. Characters could change as they needed to fit the plot that they were created for, to better suit the role that the narrative needed for them. Real people didn't do that.

That was what she told herself, and that was what she believed without a shred of doubt. Those that couldn't except that were like what she was, battered and forcibly crammed into a role, even if they didn't want to be, and any attempt to resist would just be met with more suffering and pain.

*snap* "Tch...Dammit." she muttered as the led of her pencil snapped off. She got careless again. Fortunately, she had several more on hand, she was a professional after all, but that didn't remove the frustration of having her train of creativity suddenly come to a complete stop.

Back on topic, she didn't believe for one second that the tiny programmer would be able change, not in the slightest. That was all there was to it.

However…that didn't mean that she wasn't jealous of Chihiro for saying that they would try.

It wasn't easy to admit, but she wished that she could be that brave. She wanted to be able to be like that, to just say that she could be strong enough to change for the better, to become a stronger person. She wanted to talk about herself, and to confess the things that she hid behind bitterness and bile. She wanted to have meaningful conversations with others, to and be welcomed as a normal girl despite her flaws.

She moved into a tighter ball on the floor, her eyes wavering even though they stayed dry, her tears having dried up ages ago. But her hand continued regardless, her body well trained to continue writing no matter her current mindset and emotions.

This dream life she wanted wasn't possible. She was a woman with a serial killer clawing at the back of her mind, begging for release to kill and maim to their heart's content. No one would ever be able to trust her, nor would they ever want to try. She would never find someone who could see her for herself if her secret got out.

Maybe that was why her other half must have done what she thought impossible, and broke her streak. Toko was no fool, she had to see the gruesome aftermath of her other self's action far too many times not to know the patterns of their targets very intimately. Never had the one everyone called Genocider Sho deviated from this pattern, so when she saw that almost none of the others fit the type that she targeted, Toko had felt a bit of relief.

Until now. Now there was another person's blood on her hands, and this time, she wasn't going to be able to run away from her murderous tendency. For some ungodly reason, she had decided that Chihiro just had to die, and in the process had completely upended everything that Toko had thought she knew about her hated other half.

Jealousy? She had never cared about how Toko felt about another girl before, and she had been envious of both far more and far less before, so that made no sense. Because Chihiro was an easy target for her? Sho had taken down far stronger men in her sprees before, if anything it seemed like she reveled in the challenge. The, and Toko visibly cringed at the terminology, the lolz?

Whatever the case, Chihiro had been hurt, and even if she survived, it had to have been her who did it. When the trial happened, it would quickly become her against the world until her secret got out. And when that happened, she would be sentenced to execution, not doubt about it. She was alone here, and she would be left to die alone.

'Well,' she thought to herself with a small melancholy smile, 'at least my Prince will be there for me.'

Okay, she hadn't been completely honest when she said no one would trust her. Already she had met one, the only one, to learn of her secret and chose to stay by her side. Before they were even given the motive of their secrets being reveled, she had approached the sweet prince in the night and told him of her other-self, knowing full well that he was her type, in an effort to protect him from her.

He had looked rather taken doubtful of her claim at first, but after she had explained it all to him and he had time to take it all in, he had given her the one thing she never expected to get. A smile.

It had been a small thing, but it had meant more to her then she had ever thought possible. And then he had gone even further, telling her, "Very interesting. This might be something that I could use. Thank you for informing me of this...situation of yours. I will make sure to make good use of this information in the future. In the mean time, tell no one of this. I will take care of everything from here."

It was far and above everything she had ever believed possible. Not only did he not call her a monster, murderer, and some other synonym, he had called her interesting! And! He had thanked her for it, her! He even said that he would take care of her, protect her, and make sure that she would be saved from all of this ever happening again. He even implied that he would go out with her!

Maybe she was paraphrasing a bit, and that last bit might have been her going into one of her creative moods, but he had said that her would help her, that much she was certain of. All he asked was that she never let her other half get a chance to kill anyone!

She flinched and streaked her paper. Okay, so, maybe had hadn't been able to keep part of the promise, but she hadn't killed, so she hadn't broken her promise. Right? And, he said he would handle this, so she shouldn't have to worry about the others learning of her issue.

It was like something out of a fairy tale, a white prince coming out of the darkness to sweep her off her feet and save her from the beast that she was bewitched into becoming when things went to pot. A man who would stand against the brutes and the naysayers that would decry her as a mindless beast. Who would stand beside her, through thick and thin, though sickness and health, and bring her back into the light like she should have been to begin with.

And maybe when in the privacy of their own abode, he would take her by the hand and pull her in close and...

Already her mind was going into overdrive, her heart pounding like a drum at a festival. Was her face red? It felt hot, but it was difficult to tell since the rest of her felt like a furnace! Her breaths came in pants, and she could swear that her glasses were starting to fog up from the heat.

With a jolt, she snapped out of it and quickly wiped away the drool on her chin before it could dribble onto her manuscript. No point in letting that get ruined after all.

Regardless, she continued to smile. Finally, she had someone who was willing to be her ally to stand by her side in this miserable world. She had someone who believed in her and could help her when she needed a helping hand. For the first time ever, she had someone to possibly call her closest friend. Maybe if things go well, they could even be...lovers?

The thought almost made her squeal like a swine. If someone like Byakuya became her boyfriend, that would certainly prove to the world that she could be someone of worth, someone who could stand out on her own merits and actually be somebody. It would prove once and for all that the haters and bullies were wrong about her.

She could practically see them all groveling at her feet now, begging for her forgiveness for calling her names, tripping her in the halls, putting gum in her hair, mocking her for trying to just have a basic social life, and the hundreds of other horrible things that would take her hours to list in full. They would ask for her to give them a second chance as they licked at her shoes. And she would lord over her superior status and look them in the eye, pull them close, and whisper into their ears like a lover a simple, "No."

Oh, it made her feel so good to imagine the look on their faces after that as she walked away on the arm of her rich and powerful beloved as her escorted her home where they would head to their chambers and...

Her grin fell a reality suddenly kicked her in the teeth. But that would require her to survive the class trial first, and she truly didn't believe that she would be able to able to prove herself innocent in this case. The only chance she had was that she stay silent and let her sweet prince save her from the others judgment. For now, she would just focus on finishing the first draft of her next novel, and let her beloved investigate for the evidence that would save her.

Suddenly, the monitor came to life as that horrible chime echoed throughout the school and Monokuma showed her repulsive face. His demand was simple, head to the trial room.

She sneered and went back to writing, refusing to budge from her spot. She didn't care what he had to say, she was staying right here where she wouldn't be a threat to the dimwits in her class and her beloved Byakuya. And there was nothing that he could do about it.

"Ding dong" her doorbell went, but she wasn't moved in the slightest. Besides, even if she did want to answer it, she had managed to finally shove her bed, dresser, and desk in front of the door. She wasn't going to do that again if her life depended on it.

"Oh, Tokoooo!" she flinched when she heard the retched headmaster's voice come in on the intercom. "It's time for a triaaal!"

"G-go away!" she shouted back, knowing that he would have heard her despite the sound poof room. "I-I'm not coming out, a-and there's nothing you can do about i-it!"

He knocked on the door a few times, but she just smugly looked at the barricade, confident that he wouldn't be able to get through.

"Oh, Tokooo!" He repeated, this time sounding unusually smug. "I'm respecting your privacy by knocking, but I'm asserting my authority as your headmaster by coming in anywaaay!"

She rolled her eyes at first, but just as she was about to get back to her book. "BANG!" the door shuddered as something big and heavy slammed into it with a force that all of her furniture jolted and she jumped away with a shout and stared at the door in newfound dread. He couldn't be serious, right?

"BANG!" the door cried out in protest as it was attacked again, and she quivered in response. He was. He was seriously going to break down the door to get to her.

Another "BANG" rang out as wood was forced to momentarily bend in ways it shouldn't, and she took a fearful step back. She wouldn't have imagined something so small would be strong enough to do this kind of damage, but it seemed like she had gravely underestimated the waist high bear by a significant margin.

She clenched her eyes and covered her ears at the next, "BANG" that threatened to splinter to weakening wooden door. It was so loud that she completely locked up in that position, waiting for what she now knew was only the inevitable sound of her door giving way, her furniture falling to the way side, and the rabid bear rushing through the destruction to drag her kicking and screaming to the executioners block that waited for her.

...Only for the banging to suddenly stop.

She waited for several seconds for the final bang, not believing for a second that he had given up. Eventually though, she took a hesitant glance at the door, and when it didn't suddenly slam open for a solid minute, she let out a sigh of relief.

""Hi!"" only to shriek in unrestrained terror when she was suddenly lifted off of her feet by two sets of paws as two Monokuma suddenly appeared and lifted her above their heads in a surprising feet of strength. To make things worst, four more of them suddenly got to work pulling apart the barricade that she had exhausted herself building with a disturbing amount of ease despite her pleas. In less then a minute, her furniture was back where it belonged, the ones who undid all her work doing some elaborate high-fives in celebration that ended in one slapping slapping one of the others, and the two holding onto her feet and hips made a beeline for the door with her screams echoing through the halls like a demented siren.

All she could think about in that moment was the regret for not being able to finish what might have been her final novel. It would have been a hit.

Hello everyone of the internet.

So…this year has been rather crazy, huh? Pandemics, people dying in droves, businesses going down, lock downs, masks becoming a fashion icon. Now all we need is a red sky, some bleach blond claiming responsibility for this, and someone making robot bears and we'd have a good start to making Danganronpa a real life thing!

I kid of course.

But for real, it seems like every time I say "I'm getting back into writing", something goes wrong somehow. It's like my own, "What could possibly go wrong?" phrase. I'm just going to stop saying it before something, somehow, gets worst then this.

For now, I will just give you a little something I've been working on in the back burner. It won't be canon to the story, but I had fun with it. I might put it as a separate one-shot later, but I'll have to think on it.

In the mean time. Enjoy.

Omake: DanganIF: I'm the what leader!?

"…You'll be spending the rest of your lives here!"

All around, gasps of shock and disbelief sang out though out the gymnasium as the fifteen students stared in complete and total shock at the half white-half black plush like bear made that announcement. Each person lost in complete and utter skepticism as they stared aghast at the announcement. Living their entire lives here? In a school that was barred from the outside with massive plates of steel and a vault door so unreasonably thick that you would be forgiven to believe it wouldn't have been out of place in Fort NOx, they were being told that their lives would be preserved here until the day they died. The very idea was so shocking and bizarre that many of them couldn't help but think of it all as a cruel joke.

However, if one was to pay more attention, they would have noticed that one student wasn't as shocked as the others. One student held no reaction of fear. Held no concern for anything that was being said, and no concern for the demented bear claiming to be the headmaster. Hell, one could even say that this one student looked positively bored out of their mind.

A concerning thought considering that he held the title of the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader.

Mondo Owada looked on with apathy in his expression, completely uninterested in what the bear was saying. And to some, the question would be, why would he? The buff teen already dwarfed many of the others with his buff physic and his sharp dangerous appearance. With his most prominent feature being a pompadour dyed brown and built to look like he had a corncob helmet from the right angle, it jutted out over his chiseled face and shaded his gray eyes framed with interestingly shaped eyebrows from the harsh lighting of the gym. He wore a high collared black leather jacket adorned with the symbol of his gang the "Crazy Diamonds" plastered on his back with pride over a white A-shirt that did little to hide his bulging pectoral muscles.

He was also wearing baggy black pants held up by a belt and his shoes were white loafers. The buckle of Mondo's belt is shaped like the face of a Komainu, and lion-dog beast said to protect against evil spirits.

Now, you may be asking yourself, why is all of this important? Why are we focusing so much on this one student's reaction and how he looks when there are so much more important things going on. Well, I'll tell you.

It's because this buff teen that looks like he'd curb-stomp your face into the dirt, was me.

Or rather, he is who I have become.

I'll spare you the lengthy explanation, but I wasn't always this guy. Not too long ago, I was a normal college student playing a game of Danganronpa, when my game freaked out and I got zapped. Next thing I knew, I was waking up in a classroom twice as buff as I was originally and looking far more like a stereotype biker then I ever wanted to.

So, long story short, not my best day.

I knew that I should probably be paying more attention to the situation at hand, but really? I couldn't be assed right now. It was basically the same nonsense that I would have expected after all. I mean, I get it, we're all trapped in this school, only way out is to kill someone else, then get away with murder by making the crime completely convoluted and pinning it on someone else. Really scary stuff, and all that. Yada, yada, despair bullshit.

But I had heard that song and dance far too many times to be intimidated by this. I already knew how this would go and it was all rather boring now. I mean really, how could it be any more boring?

"Okay, you can drop the act now." I only just managed to catch that line from the completely oblivious Yasuhiro as he tried to, stupidly, get the meccanized plushy to admit that this was all an elaborate prank by the school. Well, that was my cue, might as well play my part.

"Out of the way." I grumbled at the idiot clairvoyant as I "lightly" pushed him to the side as I stepped up to the stand the bear was sitting all cozy on. Now let's see, how would a wrathful biker gang punk handle this situation? "Alright, you bastard. I don't care what kinda sick joke this is, you better let us the fuck out, or you and me gonna have issues, capish?"

Crack my knuckles with a sick grin on my face to help sell the image, and there we go. Perfect.

"Joke?" The girl I knew was behind this all asked through her bear puppet. "Only joke I see is on top of your head."

Now, me? I don't particularly care that he insulted my hair style. I'll admit, this pompadour looks ridiculous. I would never be caught dead with this style. But this is Mondo we're talking about, and I could tell without a slight bit of doubt that he would be furious that you would make fun of his pride and joy like this bitch was. So…

"FUUUUCK! YOOOOOUUU!" I roared as I kicked off the ground and grabbed the bear roughly where it's throat would be. With one mighty heave, I lifted the bear up into the air with one hand, the plushie's arms flailing like mad. I couldn't help but notice that, it wasn't exactly light either. It wasn't much of a surprise though, not with all of the metal and parts that lay under the surface that it needed to do all of its complicated movements. It's just something I felt worth noting.

Well, regardless, now I had it. Now what? I guess I could…No, wait, I got an idea.

"Got you, you little shit!" I growled into the optics that served as its eyes. "You like jokes, huh!? Well, how about this one!? Waka-Waka whore!"

I then proceeded to twist on my heel and chucked the thing as hard as I could at the wall, far away from where all of the others stood. The bear screamed, "What the fu-!" but that was all that it managed to get out before it slammed into the wall with a mighty sound of crunching metal. And then, something within it apparently decided that it would be proper that it go out with a bang, because the whole thing exploded with a mighty boom, completely eradicating the bear entirely, leaving naught more than a few burning fibers of fluff and bits of metal shards remaining.

The whole room was momentarily silent. A pungent waft of gunpowder and burnt faux fur blew by and caught my nose before diminishing, and a brief feeling of heat passed over everyone's skin. There was a slight rigging in my ears, but it was largely ignored over the questions I could hear from the others over whether or not this meant the teddy-bear was gone for good.

"I told you, I'm not a teddy-be-Glck!" the new bear was cut off by my hand wrapping around its throat just as it jumped onto the podium.

"Get out of here you Build-a-bear reject!" I chucked that one like it was hot, right where its brother had gone up in flames not twenty seconds prior. It exploded as well, joining its kin in death.

"What the hell are you doing!? Glemack!" The next bear popped up shortly after, only to be grabbed just like the others.

"I was told you've been harvesting Pick-a-nick baskets! I'm here to be the Ranger!" and he was sent flying like a two-toned bird to join the other two before it with a mighty blast.

"What the hell kinda ranger are you!? Mmph!" My clawing grip shut him up quickly.

"Well, let me introduce myself. I'm Winnie the SHUT-THE-FUCK-UP!" and he went flying from a solid punk to the face to join the others. The explosion looked kinda like a bear that time. Interesting.

"You call yourself a bear!? Oof!"

"Yeah! The kind that says, only you can prevent forest ass kickings!" I punted him like a football. That exploded.

"I will end you-Gleck!"

"You seem rather tense." I commentated needlessly. "The bear necessities say for you to get more acquainted with the ground." Yeah, they were certainly bear shaped.

"What is wrong with yo-! Gumech!"

"Don't be so upset. I heard you like bouncing here and there and everywhere. Like into the WALL!" Sadly, he didn't bounce. Not even a little.

"How far back did you have to reach for that on- Oof!"

"I got a call recently. The Berenstain Family says, Hi!" If the wall could talk, I bet it would have said something along the lines of, welcome back.

"Would you please-! Mumph!"

"Speaking of calls, Harvey Dent called. He wants his look back!" Oh! That time the explosion had a blue tint to it for a second! Cool! I wonder if…

"Stop doing-! Gumck!"

"Monokuma, meet Brother Bear." No, that one was red and yellow again. Maybe next time.

"THAT!"

"Paddington told me we should meet, face to fist." Nope…Oh! Wait! There was a green tint at the edge of that one!

"I will destroy you!"

"Papa bear says this bitch is too conscious!" Pink! Why was it so pink!?

"DID YOU REALLY JUST CALL ME A-!"

"This is the way the teddy-bears have their picnic, bitch!" Ooh! That one was really loud that time! My ears were starting to ring.

"RAAARR!" He screamed as he came at me with his claws fully on display. I ducked under the blow and grabbed him by his leg, hoisting him up like a freshly caught salmon.

"Can't get enough of that Golden Krisps, it's got the crunch with punch!" I sang the jingle as I quickly slammed my fist into the toy's back sending it flying into the same wall I'd been sending them all thus far, a sadistic grin on my face. Finally started taking me seriously, huh? Well, too late to stop me now.

"STOP IT!" I grabbed him out of the air as he nearly sliced my wicked pomp. Bitch!

"It's time for a game of disappearing bears!" and he did indeed disappear.

"How many of these damn jokes do you have!?" he demanded as he tried to take out my legs that time.

"Oh, believe me. I CAN DO THIS ALL DAY!"

"Time for some bear-handed combat!"

From behind the massive screen one Junko Enoshima silently stared in complete and utter deadpan at the static that filled her view once more. With barely a thought, her hand glided over the keyboard and typed in the code needed to summon yet another of her Monokuma to the gymnasium for what felt like the umpteenth time. In reality, she knew the exact number, however, she really couldn't have cared less in this moment.

"Kazooie told me you called her chicken legs."

Right now, as she repeated the process once more, she was more focused on the shear stupidity on display. The unadulterated idiocy. The pure and unadulterated display of someone who just could not give a single fuck about what everyone and anyone thought of them in that moment.

"Hi, you know Gentle Ben? I'm his cousin, Violent Tom!"

It was almost mesmerizing in its simplicity.

"Just grin and learn to BEAR it!"

She'd long since given up on trying to stop it by now. It was clear that he hadn't been exaggerating in the slightest when he said that he could keep on making these very stupid jokes of his, and it didn't seem like they were going to stop anytime soon. It had been well over two hours now, and yet somehow, someway, the idiot biker managed to keep finding another joke or pun in that empty cavity he called a head.

"The Country Bear Jamboree loves a good "hoe down". Let me show you how!"

Admittedly, she couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at first. True, most of the jokes weren't funny in the slightest. Most of them relied far too heavily on someone actually knowing the reference to actually have any lasting impact; she would know since that was her favorite brand of humor.

"Sorry, but I was told that the bear love to say it with a SLAP!"

However, once she got past the rage of having her beloved plan made into an international mockery by this no-account idiot, she couldn't help but find it fascinatingly funny that he could even have this many freaking references crammed into that tiny brain of his. She had always just assumed he only had biking and violence on the brain, and very little else.

"Turn that smile upside-down or else I'll have to call you a tangerine bear!"

Granted, most of the lines he'd been spouting thus far had a lot of implications of causing bodily harm, but that was to be expected really. In the entirety of their school life together, that had pretty much been the defining feature of the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader; next to that lame corn-row of his.

"Oh, no! Monokuma bear hall's been crushed!"

Still, while it had gotten kind of funny after a while, it had also long since over stayed its welcome. The quality of the jokes had taken a noticeable dip in quality and she was just about sick of it. Even the bear puns that he'd cropped in here and there had grown staler then bread left on the counter all night; and those had been her favorite ones too!

No, wait, maybe it had been the ones about Monokuma's design.

"Hey, here's a question. Polar, or Black Bear!?"

No, scratch that, it was the puns. The puns had been the best.

"I believe it's time to say, so long, bear well!"

"Okay, that's ENOUGH!"

She finally shouted as she slammed the keys on her keyboard with the weight of a goddess. With it, the most recent Monokuma leaped right over the grasping hands of the destructive imbecile and flipped over his stupid cornrow-pompadour. With grace far beyond what a normal simpleton would have expected from the animatronic bear, she made it preform not one, not two, but seven forward flips in the air before slamming down to the ground with one of the plush like knees and one paw in a bowed, yet dramatic, finishing pose.

"…You know, the "superhero landing" thing might look cool and all, but let me tell ya right now, that shit's real murder on the knees."

She blatantly ignored the biker's disrespectful deadpan tone as she turned to glare at the teen with all of her glorious rage and hate. In the span of 1.0654 seconds, she took in the numerous details about him that she would ever need for this moment, and she liked what she saw.

His face was red from the high blood pressure from repeatedly having to exert himself to throw her precious Monokuma over and over again, and his skin had turned a rather shiny tone from all of the sweat his body had excreted to try and cool him down. Despite the tone his voice had been in, it was clear that he was on his last legs as he tried to suppress the panting of his breath in a show of pig-headed machismo. Even his pompadour, dumb though it may be, had started to falter and unravel with strands sticking out everywhere where the ungodly amounts of hair gel had faltered.

But the thing that really made her smile was the rest of his attire, or rather, the poor state of it. From head to toe, the boy was covered in little scratches. Each one, minor, nicks at best from Monokuma's claws, but cuts none the less. The whole front of his wife-beater, and wasn't that a fun name for it, had been completely shredded to show a few minor claw marks decorating his glorious abs and pectoral muscles, and a single longer cut ran a millimeter just below his jugular where she'd come really close to catching him by surprise. His leather jacket, the symbol of his pride as a biker itself, now a shadow of what it had once been with numerous rips and tears throughout the whole of it where it had stead fast tried to protect its master. There were even a few chunks of it now completely missing from the wicked claws of her glorious creation, the entire right sleeve being the most prominent as it showed off his scratched-up limp.

Even his pants had taken quite the beating, the bottom half of the legs completely gone and there was even a large cut running up and just barely missing his crotch and showcasing part of his tiger stripped speedo for the world to see.

Bottom line though, he was good as dead.

"Okay, you've had your fun, but no more. I'm done with this nonsense. As I have been trying to tell you, violence against headmaster Monokuma is not allowed. I was going to go easy on you at first since you didn't know about it, but now, you've violated that one rule three-hundred-thirty-seven times now. So, I'm just going to have to make a little...example out of you."

"Oh, yeah?" he questioned, and despite the fatigue he had to going though, the god-damned punk still had the gall to smile. "And who, exactly, am I to be an example for?"

...Junko had to admit, he had guts, but little else. "Were you dropped on the head as a kid? Clearly I'm talking about your fellow students. Or did your tiny brain forget that there are more students here?"

His insufferable grin refused to fade. No, if anything, it seemed to get wider and more smug. "Really now? And, uh, where would these students be, again?"

She gave him the single most deadpanned expression she possibly could. "Seriously? Obviously the ones over..."

She cut herself off when she looked over at the gymnasium, which should have held the remaining fourteen students...only to find that there wasn't anyone besides her Monokuma, and the himbo behind it.

…

…

What...?

What?

WHAT!?

Junko suddenly leaped from her seat and dashed into the other room full of monitors. The others should still be in the school still, so finding them should be easy. They most likely got bored of the neanderthal and his bear chucking act and decided to explore. Or the repeated explosions got too loud for their ears over time and they left to let the ringing fade.

"Or they walked out the hole in the wall there."

Or the left through the…

Junko rushed back to the control console at the Biker's strange comment coming through the speakers. Once at the controls, she looked it the oh too smug look on Owada's face before following where his thumb was pointing.

Only to find a large, crude, Monokuma shaped hole in the wall about seven feet tall, and leading out towards the red sky of the outdoors.

"...Wh-?"

Mondo suddenly rested his arm on her Monokuma's head, his hand tangling in her view as he pulled its head back to look at his smug face. "Yep. Like it huh? I'd say I managed that to get that this made up with about...eh, I'd say the two-hundred-ninety-ish area. Give or take a few dozen."

Junko's eyes widened behind her screen. "You...you used my Monokuma's-"

"Yep." he interrupted with a cheeky grin, one that she fought with all her heart to not try to maul. "Right thing of beauty there, huh?"

Okay, so maybe her heart wasn't really into it. Didn't matter that he caught it, she wasn't really trying. "How!?"

"Easy, While I held your attention..."

"How 'bout you sit down you over-sized Amerikaner cookie!" I shouted as I flung another one at the wall with a snarl. Okay, foundation looked like it would give soon, so while I was waiting.

"Okay, everyone, I don't have time to explain things, so keep your mouths shut and get ready. When I say now, run. Don't ask stupid questions, just run. You'll figure out what I mean."

"But what-"

"I SAID NO QUESTIONS!"

"Turns out, you can be mighty persuasive when you're chucking bomb-bears at the walls."

Junko growled, there was no way that it would be that easy.

"Course, it wasn't that easy. At first, I mean. Fortunately, Taka is a bro."

"Hi, Freddy Fazbear here, this dead horse is beating YOU!" I quickly leaped from the stage and rushed over to the Ultimate Moral Compass and with one hand, grabbed his shoulder.

"Listen to me, man. I know that they say all kinds of things about you, but right now, these guys are going to need you. Don't let what I'm doing go in vane. You are a leader, a man among men, and you are the kind of dude that'll show all of the so called geniuses of the world what a real man is. So, do me a favor. Be a Bro, and keep 'um safe for me, will ya?"

Taka nodded back with tears prickling at the corner of his eyes, but he couldn't say anything since his lip was caught in his teeth. I smiled back and marched to the stage, and though I couldn't see it, I could feel him saluting my back.

"Yeah, I tell ya. That guy is somethin' else."

She gagged in disgust.

"Yeah, but I still wanted to make sure they'd be safe, so..."

"What would I do for a Klondike bar? Punch a BITCH!"

With that one sent on a careening course with the wall, I turned and rushed over to the strongest women I had ever met personally.

"Hey Sakura, real quick, you know a guy named Kenshiro, right?"

"...Aye."

"Cool, cool. He was my bro's Sempai for a while. Just checking, here." And I effortlessly picked up the Ultimate swimming pro by her armpits and quickly put her in the Ultimate Fighting pro's arms, to their confusion.

"Here, watch out for this one for me. Ken-senpai would fucking kill me if anything happened to you, but her bro would drown me if I let her get sad. So help my bro out would you, for my sake."

"Well, that kind of sentimental bullshit couldn't have worked on Byakuya!" she fired back, only for him to laugh.

"Oh, I know. That's why I got someone else to help take care of him."

"I'm an INTENSIVE care bear!"

The second I was done with that one, I quickly sprinted over to the girl hiding at the far edge of the group. I had only one shot at this, so I had to make it count.

"Hey, Toko!"

"Wh-"

"POCKET SAND!" fortunately her large lenses protected her eyes, but some of it still got into her nose, just as planned.

"Achoo! Hey, there people! What's happening!?"

"Yeah, you'll never guess what happened." I told the murderous fiend with a completely serious face. "Bakuya over here says that'll take Toko on a date somewhere if you stay very close to him and keep him getting hurt. For the next day or so."

I was going to say more, but she cut me off with wide grin from ear too ear with an equally curled tongue. "Say no more cob breath! You had me at date." and with a torrent of cackles, she rushed to cling to the side of the very confused and very pissed off millionaire teen now giving me such a glare so fiery that I could have sworn it would melt steel.

"For the love of- fine, FINE! That's on me for believing in a love struck serial killer. But what about Kyoko, hmm!? She wouldn't leave this place until she had discovered the answers to all of the mysteries here. She wouldn't dare leave without learning about what happened to her father!"

"Weeellll." he dragged out, and she palmed Monokuma's face.

"No, don't tell me..."

"Don't worry, I'm from Mother Russia. We love to wrestle tiny bear. NOW LET ME SHOW YOU THE RED HURRICANE!" with a mighty heave, I spun on my heel three times to give the bear a taste of a tornado, before sending it flying like a fat throwing disk before posing for the camera. Some of my class even applauded that.

I quickly stepped over to Kyoko, the only one who I honestly thought would be a difficulty. I knew that she had a suborn streak a mile wide and her pride as a detective dwarfed it by a country mile. If anyone was going to give me trouble it would be the amnesiac. It would require all of my cunning, my wits, and my charisma. Just gotta start the conversation first. Simple. Smooth. Let her know I'm not one to mess with.

"Sup."

Nailed it.

"...You know what's going on, don't you." It was a statement, not a question.

"Basically, yeah."

"So you know what happened to us."

"More or less amnesia, yeah."

"Then you know what I am."

"Ultimate Detective, came here to find your pops to tell him off for being bad at being a dad. He's dead by the way."

"I figured, but didn't want to assume. And the mastermind?"

"Someone who really needed to see a doctor yesteryear. Looks like her." and I thumbed toward the fake Fashionista.

"Body double?"

"Twins, apparently." I shrugged.

"Ah."

"Yep."

"Not going to be able to talk you out of this?"

"Not unless you can find a SWAT team and a few dozen EMPs. I've still got my jokes, and she clearly wants to see how long I can keep going with this."

"Very well."

We stood in silence for a second. Then she nodded and stepped back. I want back to stage to chuck another Monokuma. An understanding had been made.

At this point, she wasn't even remotely surprised.

"Okay, fine. Fine, it's all fine. But there was no way you could have stopped my own agent."

After all, Mukuro was completely and utterly loyal to her. They were sisters, family. There was no way that this lummox would be able to convince her to up and leave, right?"

"Well, actually..."

"Oh, my, FUC-!"

"It's hibernating season, so START HIBERNATING."

With that bear taking a permanent nap, I hopped off stage once more, but this time I picked up the luckster with barely more then a simple, "Excuse me." took him over to the girl disguised as the Ultimate fashionista, and all but forced her to hold him in a bridal carry. While she was still reeling from having her crush so suddenly shoved into her arms, I quickly snatched the wig off of her head.

"There we go, you look better this way." and just before she could offer a rebuttal beyond, "Hey!" I followed with an authoritative, "Attention!"

Instantly, the Ultimate soldier's trained response kicked in and she locked her legs together and completely lost all pretenses struggling to hold up the luckster in her grasp, before she even realized what she was doing. So, naturally I capitalized on it.

"Alright you boot licking, piss-ant! Your mission is to take this meat bag and these sacks of flesh they call Ultimate what-have-yous and escort them through the errant wasteland they call society to the pick-up on the other side of these gates! You and I both know that the fuckin' putz in charge here wouldn't like us escaping, I dare say that it'd drive them up the wall in pure, unadulterated DESPAIR to learn that we all escaped without so much as a god damned scratch."

I could see the gears turning in her mind, but I hadn't quite convinced her just yet. Fortunately, that was accounted for since when she lowered her gaze she caught Makoto's eyes and her face inflamed as I capitalized on her hesitation.

"But these folks need you to put up your best right now and damn the fuck in charge. It will not be easy soldier, you might end up crying like the big, god damned, diaper baby you try to pretend you aren't. However, Complete your mission, and your reward will be the one thing that you've always asked for, you filthy degenerate."

I could see the look in her eyes, she thought the same as what I knew the others would. That was the reason I put Makoto in her arms after all. But when I deliberately glanced at the camera, I could tell that she knew what I actually meant. Though she was confused as to how I knew, I knew that I had her now.

"...God dammit Mukuro."

She should have known, honestly she should have. Only Mukuro would betray her when she needed her the most if someone made it sound like something she wanted. It didn't matter that she felt proud that for the first time in ever that her older sister finally did something right. It just annoying that she had to be told how to do it first.

More importantly though, "So, you still have your memories then."

"Yep. How'd ya guess?" was all she got back.

"The only way you could have possibly known about her crush or her stupid yearning for my affections would be if you knew had spent a lot of time with her. But that doesn't explain how?"

"Easy." he tapped on the side of his head and a soft clang answered. "When that idiot fell on me and cracked my head on the ground, your boyfriend had to put this bad boy in to keep my skull together. Turns out, it also blocks memory erasing. Neat, huh?"

...Sure, why not. Made about as much sense as the rest of this situation. "You do realize that I'm going to have to kill you now."

"Yeah, I kind figured." He admitted with and understanding bob of his head. "However, before you do, you mind letting me finish some more of my jokes? I think I have my second wind now, so if you want, I've got a few more if you're willing."

Junko took a deep angry breath, ready to tell him just what she thought about him and his stupid jokes!

Only to let out a deep and agonized sigh. "Sure. Why not? It's not like I got anything better to do. You've already ruined my plans, why not just make the rest of my day a joke while you're at it?"

"That's the spirit!" and once more, his hand was gripping onto the cranium of her camera as he flung her Monokuma into the wall with a shout of "Say hi to Timothy Treadwell for me!"

She just stared at the loading screen in complete apathy. To think this was what beat her.

"Kenai sends his love!"

A big muscle bound moron with a surprising passion for jokes. Not the detective. Not the prodigies. Not even the annoying luckster with a passion for making friends, as silly as that would have been.

"Ursaring used Mega Punch. IT'S SUPER EFFECTIVE!"

No, she lost to this.

"I can't believe I lost. You're an idiot. I'm the Ultimate Analyst, the Ultimate Despair, the girl who destroyed the world...and I lost to this?"

"Yeah, well. I may be an idiot." Mondo admitted with a sinful grin on his face. "But I'm the idiot who beat you."