Author's Note: A random thank-you is in order to the user JustAnotherFroppy; if not for their comments I never would've finished this chapter as quickly as I did!

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Part 6: Hell is Waiting

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As the passenger ferries were leaving the docks at Hokkaido, Junko was still in her office, reading over the files of two new children going to join The Institute soon. She'd send Kiyotaka and Mukuro their way very shortly. The boy wasn't very noteworthy, but the girl was autistic, according to her file. That'd make her a challenge for both the caretakers and residents, but her BDNF score was far too large to pass up on, so Junko knew they'd have to take that chance.

They were scores given to people from the moment they were born, although such tests are usually kept secret. The rarest people, the ones who had the highest levels, were considered to be the luckiest people on the planet. They never suffered from mental or physical disorders, they were very social and good at articulation, never got into fights, and never had to worry about getting too skinny or too fat. Junko knew the basics of this, though that was more Seiko's and Kyosuke's departments. Children with high levels of it were often found to have either telekinetic or telepathic powers, or, in extremely rare instances, both. Most children didn't know they had them, but in some cases, like Chihiro Fujisaki, they were aware and just didn't use them all of the time.

There was a knock at the door, then Ruruka stepped in, looking anxious for once. "Mistress Enoshima? You need to come right away. I'm sorry for bothering you, but it's urgent,"

Junko briefly looked up at her. No candy for Ruruka to fiddle with today, so she must've been very upset indeed.

"Tenko-san is asking for you. She says it's very important,"

"Like, tell her I'm busy. I don't care to hear one of her weekly rants about how the boys here are rude to her. They're little boys, just tell her to smack them,"

Ruruka shook her head. "She seems really upset, like genuinely upset. I think you should come,"

She sighed and set her papers down. "Alright, I'm coming,"

Ruruka led Junko to the western wing, where Tenko was there, her face pale. Her hairbows were all lopsided and she couldn't keep still, jumping up and down.

"Mistress Enoshima! You have to come right away!" She trembled. Junko followed her, wondering what could've spooked Tenko so badly. Was it another test gone bad, like what happened with Kuwata? Unlikely, a maid wouldn't have come across it; a caretaker seemed more likely. They headed over to an empty room, a purple-haired boy in ruffled clothes staring at a sign pasted on the door. He noticed Junko coming and looked startled, which pleased her.

"Momota-kun, right?" She asked sweetly. He nodded.

"Yeah!"

"What?"

"Yes, Mistress Enoshima,"

"Good. Now leave. Find something else to do if you're not being tested,"

"Yes, Headmistress Enoshima," He shuffled away while Junko stared at the sign; it was written in sloppy hiragana and said to keep out. She pushed open the door and found the room completely empty; no posters on the wall or sheets on the bed. She looked around, then looked at Tenko.

"In the bathroom!" She stated. Junko nodded and pulled the door open, widening her eyes. In her time as Headmistress, she had seen the attempted suicides of two residents and the successful suicide of another, but never of an employee. And surely that was what that was, there was nothing else it could've been, unless the employee just keeled over from disease, which was likely, but not super likely.

The maid; obvious from her brown uniform, was slumped over the toilet, her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide in subtle agony. Her hand was rested on the toilet bowl. Bloody vomit was in her lap and inside the bowl, and an empty bottle was beside her. In the shower a message was written neatly.

"Kirigiri Kyoko. That was her name." Tenko shut the door. "She-"

"Go find Ruruka-chan and tell her to bring me my Walkie-Talkie," Junko ordered, and Tenko nodded and ran off. Junko looked at the message one final time, then down at Kyoko.

The message read: Hell is waiting. I'll be here to meet you.

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Sakakura sounded groggy when Junko finally got a hold of him, but she didn't question why. She told him to bring Seiko and Kyosuke with him and head down to the western wing; he'd know which one because a maid would be standing outside. They all arrived at the same time.

"Seiko, can you lift her? We need to get her out of here," Sakakura asked, and Seiko nodded and hurried over, pressing Kyoko's arms to her sides and lifting her head up, dragging her away from the toilet, then Sakakura picked her up easily. "Ugh, she reeks,"

"Well duh, you ever get super sick? Puke isn't the only thing that comes out," Junko rolled her eyes. Kyosuke picked the empty bottle up and read the labels over.

"Syrup of ipecac. She likely took this to induce vomiting, but I feel as though she mixed it with something else, as there's blood in her vomit. Likely chased it down with an overdose of pain-killers or something similar. I bet she tried to mask her suicide as her death from her disease." He said.

"Yes, her cancer...came back and it was worse...maybe she thought she couldn't...work anymore..." Seiko added.

"'Hell is waiting', huh? Considering what we've all done, that's suitable," Sakakura mused.

"That's bullshit," Junko rolled her eyes.

"Maybe to us, but to outsiders, that's exactly what it looks like. Besides, that has nothing to do with this. A terminally-ill woman ended her life after declaring her guilt and ours," He pointed to the wall. Maybe that's what it was, but something about the message rubbed Junko the wrong way. It almost seemed triumphant in a way.

"She had a week off not long ago. That could be where she got the medicine," Tenko suggested.

"Go mop the floors, Tenko-chan. And clean the cameras. I asked for that to be done last week and I won't ask again," Junko snapped at her, and Tenko nodded and darted off.

"The usual?" Sakakura asked once Tenko was gone, and Junko nodded.

"You two, leave. I need to speak to Juuzou-kun privately," Seiko and Kyosuke glanced at each other, then left the room. She whirled around to face Sakakura, her hands on her hips.

"You're upset that your snitch is gone?" He guessed.

"She was ours, but yes, that's the problem," She thought back to nearly a year ago, when it was snowing heavily, and a woman named Kyoko Kirigiri arrived and asked for a job that would pay her more. Junko asked her if she felt bad about gleaming information from children, and Kyoko agreed to the job immediately, even showing a level of cunning with how much she lied about the supposed dead-zones.

"I guess snitching on the kids so much added to her guilt,"

"I don't think she was married, but she wore a silver wedding ring. Her grandmother's or mother's most likely. How much do we know about her previous life in Sendai?"

"I could always look it up later,"

Junko thought more about it, realizing how little she truly knew about Kyoko Kirigiri. She knew her mother was dead and lived with her grandfather for almost her whole life, she knew she was a former criminal like the rest of her staff, and she originally came from Sendai. But that was all Junko knew. It made Junko also remember the small staff she had, the older computers and cameras, the terrible surveillance reports especially from the night team, and the frequent food spoilings in the cafeteria. It made her think about how careless they all were.

"Who's on surveillance right now?" Junko finally asked, whirling around to face Sakakura again.

"Probably nobody. There's really no need though since this time of day all the kids do are sleep or play," He grumbled.

That's what he assumed, There were rumors in the nearby town about their true purpose, but they couldn't prove anything. The most common was that they were some exclusive, elusive private cram school parents sent their children to once they grew annoyed with them. They were a boarding school and that's why most kids seemed to spend forever in there. Junko didn't mind the rumors.

"Do you have orders for me?" Sakakura asked, and Junko nodded, snapping herself out of it.

"I want to know everything about her, and send Kazuichi-kun to keep an eye on survellience," Kazuichi Souda was a mechanic and the best the building had ever known; he also wasn't shabby at all around computers.

"He's on vacation in Australia,"

"How about Miu-chan then? She's good with computers, right? She dabbled in technology before she came here,"

"Yeah, I think she's good," Vagueness again. She decided right then and there that come fall, big changes would come around. She'd have to call her higher-up on the Zero Phone, she didn't like to, but she had to. They had their own private jet and the employees were paid extremely handsomely with as much benefits as they could possibly want. Yet the facility itself looked like some old schoolhouse from the late-sixties. Things had to change.

"Also tell her to run a check on the locator button. Make sure everyone is present and accounted for here. I'm especially interested in Saihara Shuichi-chan and Fujisaki Chihiro-kun. Kyoko-chan talked to them a lot,"

"Their conversations amounted to nothing,"

"Just do it,"

"Gladly. And you need to relax. This was a very sick woman who saw her days as numbered and decided to take matters into her own hands. That's all it is," He motioned to the blood trailing down Kyoko's mouth.

Junko nodded, though she had no intention of truly relaxing. Relaxing was all they ever did, and look where it got them. She headed back to her office and told Ruruka to only let people in if it was Miu or Sakakura, and Ruruka nodded. She sat at her desk then, scrolling through the various pictures she had taken.

Most were of her posing eagerly with each new employee she received or sisterly ones with her twin, but some were of places she wanted to visit. At least when she was younger. Junko had come to accept at that point that she may never get a genuine vacation or even retire when the time came, just keep working until she keeled over at her desk, but that was perfectly alright with her. The Institute was her life; her pride and joy. Her staff all felt the same. To say they were all criminals in the strictest sense of the word was incorrect, but they all had done something bad in their lives they needed an escape from. Some had dirty secrets they couldn't risk getting out. Junko understood that and took them all in under her wing. Kiyotaka Ishimaru and Mukuro Ikusaba; her sister, both had military prowess under their belts. Mukuro had worked for many years as a mercenary while Kiyotaka served several terms as Prime Minister and also Governor of Tokyo and its surrounding prefectures. He wasn't a bad person; a rare example in her group.

Everyone made The Institute part of their lives, even if the small town with limited resources took some getting used to, but they all managed. Many had no desire to return to their old lives; several couldn't. Even the ones that took long vacations in other countries came back eventually, and no matter what ultimately happened at the place, they never talked. They knew if they did and people learned about the hundreds of children they helped destroy willingly, it'd be all over. They'd all be hanged.

Besides, life wasn't all bad in The Institute, surely not as bad as seeing your fellow soldier get their legs blown off or inadvertently ingesting poison due to a jealous coworker or getting thrown out into the street because you like kissing the same gender as you. At first some thought they could spend time with their family, if they had one; most employees there didn't. You couldn't tell them about what you did though, and after a while, you found you didn't care. You carried an heirloom of theirs like Kyoko had with the wedding ring and you moved on.

"Hello Mistress Enoshima? I got some readings for you," Miu spoke up, and Junko nodded and pressed the intercom.

"How many?"

"Twenty-eight, perfect attendance. Two kids in the lounge, five in their rooms, six on the playground, and all the rest belong to Back Half,"

"Thank you," She felt a bit better at that, though she wasn't sure why. Of course they were all accounted for. Well, onto the next thing.

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Once everyone was at lunch, Tenko pushed a trolley from the kitchen into the room where Kyoko Kirigiri had ended her life, helping Sakakura wrap her up in a green mat. Someone left a teddy bear near the elevator, and Sakakura kicked it in slight annoyance.

"Come on, that could belong to some innocent little girl," Tenko scolded.

"I don't care. They always leave their shit everywhere for us to pick up," Once the elevator doors opened up, he pushed Tenko away, making her put her hands on her hips. "I don't need your help anymore. Put the bear in the lounge where the owner will see it, and then start dusting the lightbulbs," He rolled the trolley into the elevator and held his card up to the reader.

Tenko huffed in annoyance, rolling her eyes at him once he was gone. Stupid man, thinking he could push her around just because she was a 'maid'. She gently scooped the teddy bear up. Yes, she'd dust those bulbs, eventually. Not because he told her to, but because Junko expected it to be done.

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Junko was waiting for Sakakura once he arrived, wearing a sweater-set with her hair in a ponytail to combat the chilliness of the lower levels. He nodded and wheeled the trolley into the steel tunnel separating Back Half and Front Half; stainless and small with bright overhead lights. A few flickered. They walked up a ramp and soon arrived at a slightly-dimmer room where a tall and lean man was sitting; long dark hair tied back behind him in a ponytail. Kiyo-real name Dr. Korekiyo Shinguji-was waiting for them, a fresh coat of lipstick on his lips, which he anxiously rubbed at. It reminded Junko a bit of the Fujisaki boy's excessive nose-grabbing, except Fujisaki was a child and Korekiyo was in his late-thirties. Working in Back Half certainly took a toll on everyone similar to working in an environment filled with low-level radiation.

"Hello, Mistress Enoshima and Sakakura-san. A pleasure to see you," He spoke in a soft, gentle, feminine voice. "My brother told me you'd be coming. It's such a shame the circumstances that allowed us to meet though," He gently patted the mat containing Kyoko's body.

"We're making this quick," Sakakura said, and Junko nodded in agreement. Korekiyo and 'Jack'; real name Dr. Touko Fukawa, were heroes for doing what they did, but that didn't make it any easier to be around them.

"Of course, follow me," He lead the way and the two followed down a hall covered in carpet. Sometimes the children fell and had the chance to bump their heads. They then walked down a hall lined with locked doors, and behind one of them came the sound of pounding and a female voice crying:

"Let me out! At least give me some medicine!"

"Maizono Sayaka-chan. A very beautiful girl with a lovely voice, sadly she isn't feeling very well today. Thankfully though, some of our newest arrivals are holding up quite well. Tonight's move night, you know," He giggled. Junko nodded again. It certainly wasn't the buzz of electricity that she was feeling, it made it feel as though her eyeballs were vibrating.

They walked past the screening room with about a dozen plush seats. Sitting in the front row was Aoi Asahina, Mondo Oowada, and Kokichi Ouma. They were wearing red and blue old-fashioned gym uniforms; the Asahina girl had bloomers on as a result. She was eating from a bag of jelly-beans while Oowada smoked a cigarette, the air around him light grey. Ouma was rubbing his temples. Asahina and Ouma turned to look at them curiously as they rolled past while Oowada continued to stare straight ahead at the screen. Junko noticed with satisfaction that a lot of his fight was gone.

The cafeteria was next to the screening room and was smaller than the one in Front Half. More children were present, but the longer they remained in Back Half, the less they ate. Junko supposed that was irony. Three children were present as they walked past, two of them listlessly eating rice, while the third one; seemingly about twelve, sat silently with a full bowl in front of her. When she spotted them, however, she brightened and jumped out of her seat.

"Hey, hey, hey, what's that you got in there? A dead body? It is, isn't it? I've seen lots of dead bodies before, believe that! What was her name? Kiyoko? Karin? She has a pretty name. Can I see her? Are her eyes open?"

"Harukawa Maki-chan. Ignore her. She'll be at the movie tonight, but I suppose she'll be moving on soon. A shame to see someone so beautiful leave, but you know how it is," Korekiyo explained.

Junko nodded. She did indeed know; there was Front Half, Back Half, and then the back half of Back Half. She thought of a tricycle she had as a child, the fear and exhilaration she felt as she rode it down the street. Her first makeup kit, trying to walk in heels. The very first car she ever got as a present from overseas-

"It was a Panther!" Maki screamed, knocking her chair over. The other two children looked at her. "A real fancy one in purple, I know that!" She gasped and ran her hands through her ponytail, which was badly knotted and tangled. "Oh God, make it stop! I can't make it stop, make it stop! I want to go home!"

Two red caretakers arrived and grabbed her by her arms, dragging her away.

"Back to her room, but please no pills. She has a movie to watch tonight," Korekiyo waved them away.

Maki Harukawa; a quiet and unbothered girl who rarely let anyone into her corner, the girl who sometimes shared secrets with Aoi but glared at everyone else, screamed and kicked as she was dragged away, her sneakers brushing the carpet. She struggled and cried as she was finally dragged away. The loose thoughts in Junko's mind finally started to fade before vanishing completely. She finally sighed.

"Juuzou-kun, why do we have to drag the cart through the childrens' living quarters?"

"Doesn't ice-cream taste really good?" He asked instead, making her stare at him.

"What?"

"Sorry. It randomly came to me-" He shook his head as Junko cut him off.

"There must be a lot of lone transmissions in the air today. Apologies. And nobody knows the answer, Mistress Enoshima," Kiyo smiled prettily like a girl.

"I had to get the thought out, it felt like I was choking on food,"

"Speaking of which, where is Dr. Fukawa?" Junko asked curiously.

"She said she doesn't feel well so she's in her room. She sends her regards though and hopes you're doing well," The smile increased like a store worker.

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In the screening room, Aoi took a brief puff from Mondo's cigarette before stamping it out on the floor and putting her arm around him. "Is it bad today?" She asked curiously.

"I've had worse," He grumbled.

"The movie will make it better,"

"Yeah, but then there's tomorrow. Now I get why my old man was always super pissy when he had a hangover. How about you, Hina?"

"I'm okay," Aoi answered, and it was the truth. She just had a low throbbing under her left eye that would be gone the next day, only to come back the next night way worse. When it came back, the headache would be a steady pounding thud that made hangovers seem like fun in the sun. Hers weren't even as bad as they could be; Mondo's headaches were worse, Sayaka's worser still, and it took longer and longer for the pain to go away.

Kokichi was the lucky one; in spite of his strong TK he had felt almost no pain at all. An ache in his temples and the back of his skull but that was it. It'd get worse though. It always did until it was finally over and it was their time to join the drone. The idea of being erased as a person horrified her, but that would soon change. Sayaka a majority of the time looked like a zombie with a dull, glassy look in her eyes, and Ibuki Mioda basically voiced her thoughts when she said anything would be better than the Stasi Lights and a screaming headache that never stopped.

Kokichi leaned forward, looking at her with bright sparkly eyes that were relatively pain-free. "He got out though. Concentrate on that! And hold on,"

"We will, won't we Oowada-san?" Aoi asked curiously.

"We can try," He finally managed a smile. "A guy as bad as sports as him being our salvation is pretty weird though,"

"He's bad at sports but great at video games! Don't count him out!" Kokichi teased.

A caretaker in red arrived at the door; there were no techs and the caretakers were basically interchangeable as they wore no name-tags. The only other staff members they ever saw aside from Dr. Munakata were Kiyo, Jack, and Sakakura. The terrible three.

"Free time is over. Either eat something or back to your room," The caretaker barked, and the new Mondo simply got up to his feet and walked out slowly, nearly tripping over a chair. It broke Aoi's heart to see him like that; in her opinion, what was taken from him was worse than just simply murdering him. In many ways.

"Let's get something to eat, alright?" She asked Kokichi nicely.

"I was going to catch some reruns of dramas, but since you asked me so nicely, sure!" He grinned and followed her.

She knew Shuichi was out; Chihiro had told her, that was good and it was made even better by the fact the complacent staff had no clue. Her headaches kept coming back and she could always hear the drone that terrified her, but she knew she had to keep calm and keep her mind. No matter what, she had to hold onto her mind.

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The three walked past the back half of the building, the electrical buzz feeling stronger and more hypnotizing as they walked past it. Curious, Junko suddenly smiled a cutesy one that was foreign on her features. "Dr. Shinguji, when's your birthday? Do you remember?"

He gave her the usual soft smile as if he knew what she was planning. "Of course I do. July 31st. I'm a Cancer," They continued to walk after that, passing more motivational posters. One sported her own sister dressed in a mock version of her, carefully balancing a machine-gun on her shoulder that cheerfully stated:

I'm a hero! You can be a hero too!

They then entered a dark room with a large white furnace inside it, closed. Junko sighed a bit, hoping that meant her trip would soon be over. She vastly disliked having to visit Back Half and was glad her status made it so she very rarely had to. Even so, the electricity was starting to leave her body, and even Kiyo was starting to look better; no longer him but Korekiyo Shinguji, a wanted criminal for killing multiple teenage girls and sacrificing them in bizarre religious rituals. There was also talk he killed his own older sister which started the whole spree. So, as normal as a man like that could be.

He stood straighter and his eyes were clearer, and his mouth was starting to get covered up to hide the lipstick. His questions were quick and concise.

"Was she wearing any jewelry?"

"No," She thought of the wedding ring she wore around her neck that wasn't found on her person.

"I assume she's dressed?"

"Duh!" Junko gasped in offense.

"Did you go through her pockets?"

She looked at Sakakura, who shook his head.

"Do you want to? Last chance,"

Junko has briefly considered it at the time, but eventually figured it wasn't necessary. She left her suicide note on the bathroom wall and her purse was likely still in her locker. She wasn't about to unwrap the body and expose that vomit and blood again just to find a half-used tube of lipstick and a packet of tissues. "Nope. What about you, Juuzou-kun?"

He shook his head and Junko thought he looked pale. Back Half was really taking its toll on him as well. At first she thought it'd do some good to check up on the citizens there more often, only to quickly discard that idea when she remembered Dr. Shinguji proclaiming himself a Cancer and Juuzou randomly saying ice-cream tasted good. Also wasn't Dr. Shinguji really a Leo? Him saying he was a Cancer didn't seem right.

"Alright. Okay. Let's do this then, everyone!" He spoke softly and gently in a way that was all Kiyo, throwing open the white door to reveal a stainless steel conveyer-belt. Juuzou scooped the body up and placed it in; the mat fell away slightly to reveal part of her shoes. He closed the door and Korekiyo pushed a few buttons. "Much hotter than your usual cremator, but it also takes longer. My dear, won't you stick around? We see you so seldomly,"

"I am terribly busy," Junko declined.

"I had assumed as much," He sighed.

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While Kyoko Kirigiri was starting her final slide, Kaito Momota was eating Neapolitan in the Front Half cafeteria. Chihiro Fujisaki grabbed him by the arm. "Come outside to the playground with me,"

"I'm not done eating yet, Fujisaki-chan,"

"But it's important!" He lowered his voice.

Kaito took one last big bite, wiped his mouth, and followed after Chihiro. Nobody else was outside except for Angie Yonaga, who was sitting on the asphalt and drawing smiling cartoon figures with chalk. She didn't look up as the boys passed.

Chihiro took Kaito over to the tarpless fence and pointed at a large hole left behind in the dirt, making him gasp. "Whoa, what did this? A fox?" He quickly glanced around to see if there was a rabid one hiding somewhere.

"Nope, it wasn't a fox,"

"I bet you could wriggle right out of there and make an escape, Fuji-kun!"

Don't think I haven't thought about it, but I'd get lost in the woods. And besides Shuichi-oniichan took the boat already, Chihiro thought to himself. "Help me fill it in,"

"We doing something secret? Did someone really escape?" He whispered.

"You shouldn't shorten your words so much. It makes you sound rude. 'Are we doing something secret? Has someone escaped from here?' Like that," Chihiro scolded lightly. Escape; that was just what his friend had done, God bless his heart. Where he currently was though Chihiro had no clue. He had lost touch with him.

"Has someone escaped from here?" Kaito repeated, and Chihiro nodded and got down on his knees.

"Nice. Now please help me,"

The two boys worked at it for a while, filling the dirt in with their hands. They both started sweating and inadvertently kicked up a cloud of dust, which also made Chihiro cough.

"What are you two doing?" A voice asked, and they whirled around to find Celestia standing there with her hands on her hips, her usual sweet smile gone.

"Nothing," Chihiro answered instantly.

"Yeah, nothing," Kaito agreed. "Just playing in the gross old dirt like boys love to do!"

"Move." Celestia ordered, and when they didn't, she kicked Chihiro in the side.

"Ouch! Owww, that hurt me!" He started sobbing, curling up.

"What, is it your time of the month or something?!" Kaito demanded, which earned him a kick to the shoulder.

Celestia looked at the half-filled hole, then at Angie, still engrossed in her artistic endeavors. "Did you do this?" She shook her head without even looking up. Celestia then took out her Walkie-Talkie from the belt of her dress. "Sakakura-san? This is Miss Ludenberg,"

"Yeah, this is him," He answered after a pause.

"I think you need to hurry on down here to the playground as soon as you can. Perhaps it is nothing, but I do not like it," Afterwards, she called Hiyoko to escort the two boys back to their rooms. They were to stay there until further notice.

"I swear we didn't know anything about that hole! We thought a fox did it!" Kaito protested. Hiyoko told him to shut up and herded the boys back inside.

Soon Juuzou arrived with Junko, who bent over to survey the hole. "The only person who could possibly fit under there is Fujisaki-kun since he's not much bigger than the Akamatsu twins were, but nobody else," She relayed.

"Junko-san," Juuzou said quietly. Junko glanced over and saw Angie staring at them curiously, so she glared back.

"Go inside right now," She ordered coldly, and Angie did indeed run back inside, leaving her smiling cartoon people behind. She dusted off her chalky hands as she did so.

"There's blood on this fence," Juuzou whispered once Junko looked back over. "There's some more over here," Her heart sunk slightly as she thought of how she'd have to use her phone to call the main guy in charge and confess to him that after years and years and years of super-secrecy and lockdowns they managed to have a kid escape by crawling through the fence. She'd likely get fired. No, not likely. She would get fired. "I think you should check the residents again,"

"They're all here,"

"Check again,"

Junko pulled out her Walkie-Talkie and turned it on, asking for Miu. You better be there, Iruma-chan.

"Yeah? I've been keeping an eye on Kirigiri-san since Souda-kun is on vacation right now-"

Junko cut her off. "Check the locators for me again,"

"Okay," It was silent for a few seconds. "Sorry, these computers are slow as shit sometimes. Alright, I see forty-one,"

"That's great," Junko allowed herself a sigh of relief before Juuzou took the Walkie-Talkie from her.

"Where are they all, Iruma?"

"Uh, let's see. We got twenty-eight in Back Half still, four in the lounge, three in the halls, three in their rooms, two in the cafeteria," Miu rattled off boredly. Junko remembered three of those would be Momota, Fujisaki, and that artist-girl. "There's also one on the playground,"

"There's no kid out here," Juuzou said quickly. "Can you pinpoint where the signal is coming from?"

Junko looked around and saw something glinting in the sunlight; she walked over and looked closer. She smiled coldly and scooped it up, holding out her palm for Juuzou to see as well. It was half of an earlobe with a tracker firmly embedded in it.

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Everyone was told to instantly return to their rooms and any found outside would receive swift and harsh punishment. The security team was small, but they were good at their job. One was currently on vacation, but Junko still had Kiyotaka Ishimaru and her sister to order around. There were also two of the newer recruits, Sonia Nevermind and Gundam Tanaka, as well as Mikan Tsumiki who only really worked as a maid because she deemed herself personally unfit for any other work. Junko would need all of the help she could get though.

"He's from Yokohama, right? We brought him here last month," Mukuro said.

"That's the one," Juuzou confirmed.

"He ripped the tracker right out of his ear?" Sonia asked in disbelief.

"He's a strong one," Gundam praised.

"He's just wandering around in the woods...he can't be super hard to catch," Mikan trembled slightly.

"If only we had a dog," Sonia said thoughtfully. "Then we could track his blood or his scent in general,"

"We'll just have to make do with what we have. Needless to say, we'll shock his brains out once we get him back," Juuzou said.

"I'm returning to my office," Junko announced, trying to keep the thought of the phone back in her desk out of her mind. It was more like a hand grenade to her than a phone.

By three that afternoon, almost every single staff member had been out looking for the Saihara boy; though no leads were found. All cars were accounted for and the local police force were alerted of his appearance and were on the look-out too, though nothing was known. At least Junko had more information on Kyoko to get her mind off of things.

Miu managed to use Google Earth and her limited technological capabilities to locate Kyoko's old house and get into contact with her neighbor. She disguised herself as a schoolgirl doing a project for school and her lie was bought. The neighbor was polite and explained in the last few months she had seen Kyoko, she seemed determined and agitated about something, trying to write letters and send emails to specific people and asking about secretive ways she could do so. She had been in and out of the hospital several times as well; the neighbor thought she was a very sickly-looking woman especially for her young age.

"I suppose she was trying to get a will or something similar in place before she died. She never mentioned her parents, so maybe that was who she was trying to get into contact to. I don't think they're dead, so you can ask them for more information but I don't know their addresses or anything. Wouldn't surprise me at all if that's what she was doing, she looked really ill," The neighbor explained.

Junko knew that neighbor was correct in a way. Everyone who worked at The Institute knew that part of the deal was they'd likely never see their family ever again; they were all prepared for that unless they were unfortunate enough to have a family member work alongside them like her and her older sister. She had assumed a woman as mysterious and aloof as Kyoko had pushed her family away years ago, or been pushed away by them, and that was why she barely mentioned them, but something about that rubbed her the wrong way. She had been taking money; not for medicine like originally thought, but for some other reason. Junko figured that crafty bitch was the reason the brat was able to escape. She couldn't question her though, Kyoko made sure of that. Who else was there to ask though? Who else had Shuichi been close enough to that he'd be willing to tell them about and let them in on the escape plan?

She turned her computer on and found the file she wanted, playing it. It was right in front of her the whole time. The video showed Kirigiri, Saihara, and Fujisaki standing by the snack machines. Shuichi Saihara did most of the talking, voicing concern about the Akamatsu twins and the Kuwata boy. Kirigiri soothed them. Fujisaki just stood there, pressing his nose and saying very little. She recalled Juuzou's annoyance at his fidgeting and nose-grabbing. Junko smiled a cold smile again, knowing exactly what had been doing on.

"Andoh-chan? Can you please bring in the Fujisaki boy? I have something I urgently need to tell him. Have Komaeda-kun and Saionji-chan bring him. As soon as you possibly can?" She called on her intercom.

[][][][][][]

Chihiro Fujisaki, dressed in plain blue shorts and a Disney T-shirt, stood in front of Junko's desk, trembling and terrified with wide eyes. He was already very small to begin with and flanked by Nagito and Hiyoko, he didn't even look ten; he barely looked old enough for first grade. She smiled at him. "I should have gone to you first. I suppose I'm slipping, Fujisaki-kun,"

"Yes ma'am," Chihiro whispered.

"So you believe I am slipping?"

"No ma'am!" He quickly squeaked out.

Junko leaned forward, tapping her imaginary glasses. "I am not slipping now. There shall be major changes around here, but first, it is of the utmost importance that we bring Shuichi-chan back home,"

"Yes ma'am,"

"It is good we agree. Where did he go?"

"I don't know, ma'am,"

"I believe you do know. You and Momota Kaito-kun were caught trying to fill in that hole he left, which was idiotic. You two should have left it alone," She stared down at him.

"We both thought a fox had made it," Chihiro insisted.

"You know exactly who made it, your friend did," She folded her hands in front of her and leaned in closer, a little trick she learned from Celestia Ludenberg. "Smart boys do not just wander off into the woods themselves. He needed Kyoko-chan to give him the layout of the place, and she gave you the directions, piece by piece, everytime you yanked on your nose. She beamed it right into your talented little head, didn't she? Then you gave it to Shuichi-chan. I saw your video, so you cannot begin to deny it," She continued. "Now tell me where he went,"

"I really don't know,"

"You are shifting your eyes around. That is what people who are lying do," Junko said. "Tell me the truth, Fujisaki-kun, or otherwise Nagito-kun will take your arm and twist it behind your back, and that will hurt," She nodded at him, and Nagito grabbed one of Chihiro's thin wrists. Chihiro looked straight at Junko instead, which was hard to do because she had a mean and scary face, like a cold and mean teacher, but he did so anyway. Tears started streaming down his face. He had always been a huge crier, everyone in his class used to call him 'little crybaby cry' and during recess he was anyone's punching bag. The playground here was a lot better. He missed his mommy and daddy really badly, but at least here he had friends. Leon had pushed him down, but then he was a friend until he died. When they killed him with one of their stupid tests. Hina and Ibuki were both gone, but the new girl, Angie, was nice to him, and she even let him win at basketball. Only once, but still. And Shuichi. Shuichi was the best of all of them, the best friend Chihiro had ever had.

"Where did Kyoko-chan tell him to go, Fujisaki-chan? What was the plan?" Junko continued, her tone becoming less formal and calculating.

"I swear I don't know!" Chihiro said. Junko nodded to Nagito, who twisted Chihiro's arm behind his back and hoisted his wrist to his shoulder blade. Chihiro screamed in pain.

"Where did he go? What was the plan?"

"I don't know! I really don't know!"

"Let go of him,"

Nagito did so and Chihiro fell to his knees, sobbing. "That really hurt, please don't hurt me anymore..." He cried. "I-I don't want to be hurt," He briefly thought of adding 'it's not fair', but when did these people ever care about what was fair or not?

"I don't think I will," Junko admitted. She was immune to the pain of children after years and in her experience, most children just tried your patience anyway.

"I honestly don't know where he went," Chihiro cried.

"When people say that, it means they're lying. What was the plan and where did they go?"

"I don't know," Chihiro said.

"Nagito-kun, lift up his shirt. Hiyoko-chan, set your taser to Medium," Junko directed.

"No!" Chihiro suddenly screamed, coming back to life. He tried to pull away. "No zap-stick, please no zap-stick!"

Nagito managed to catch him and hoisted him up, lifting his shirt up. Hiyoko positioned her zap-stick just above Chihiro's belly button and shocked him, making him shriek. His legs jerked and urine watered the carpet.

"Where did he go, Fujisaki-kun?" Junko asked again. His face was red and wet from crying, he had wet himself, and yet the little brat still refused to say anything. "What was the plan? We can do this all day,"

"I don't know!"

"Hiyoko-chan, do it again?"

"Are you sure-"

"A bit higher this time."

Chihiro managed to wriggle out of Nagito's grip and started to take off, but Hiyoko tripped him and held him down, leaving Nagito to electrocute him instead. He screamed and went limp.

"Did he pass out? If so, get Dr. Munakata in here to revive him, we need answers from him," Junko asked curiously. Nagito grabbed one of Chihiro's cheeks; plump when he got there, thinner now, and twisted it. His eyes flew open. "Fujisaki-kun, this pain is unnecessary and stupid. Just tell us what we want to know and you'll be on your way," She sighed.

"I don't know," Chihiro whispered. "I really really really really really don't know-"

"Hiyoko-chan? Could you please remove his pants and apply your taser to his testes at full power?" Junko ordered.

Despite being sassy and apt to slap anyone who gave her even a small bit of sass, Hiyoko was clearly very unhappy with that command. Still, she started to reach for his waistband, which made him break.

"I'll tell you! Just don't hurt me anymore!" He sobbed. "Kyoko-san told him to go through the woods. She said to keep going straight and that he'd see yellow lights. She said when he got to the houses, he should follow the fence until he saw a scarf tied to a tree or a bush. She said there was a path behind it and to keep going until he found a boat." He stopped and Junko smiled at him. Shuichi had somehow gotten to the river? He was hours ahead of them at that point.

"What's next, Fujisaki-kun? Did she tell him to get off at the dock? Or the train station?"

Chihiro shook his head and stared at her; eyes wide and terrified. "She said that was too close, so she told him to keep on the river until he reached Honshu himself, then to take the train,"

"Wonderful, Fujisaki-kun. You may return to your room, but if I find out you lied to me..."

"I'll be in trouble?" Chihiro squeaked, and Junko smiled more.

"You read my mind!"

[][][][][][][]

It was five in the afternoon. Junko and Sakakura were waiting for more information from their spies, who were regular citizens who gave information on the children scheduled to arrive, such as their personal life and what security measures their houses had. They were all over the nation and were usually used for nothing more than that. They believed Junko was running a tightly-knit and private cram school for school-age children who came from underprivileged backgrounds and were essentially dumped there by their parents to get them out of their hair. With the large amount of money they were paid every month, they saw no need to question it further, and those that did usually vanished. Today, though, they were being used to seek out Shuichi Saihara and bring him back through any means necessary. A few were sent to check out the dock and train station, but most went straight for the main dock on Honshu that connected the two islands.

"Hello?" She got a call on her intercom from Ruruka, who was sucking on a lollipop again. Junko assumed that meant she had calmed down slightly.

"I have one of our spies on the line. Says he found the boat Shuichi-chan used," She said, and Junko eagerly asked for him to be put on the line.

"Yeah, I found the boat." The man said in a condescending, snobby, 'I'm-better-than-you' accent. Sakakura scoffed behind Junko's shoulder. "Came ashore several kilometers away from the docks here. There was an oar inside of it and some water splashed inside. Blood too. Maybe he wasn't used to rowing such a big boat,"

"There's a possibility he drowned," Sakakura surmised. "Even if he gets ahead of us, doubtful anyone will listen to him. He's a wanted murderer and anything he tells them will sound like mad ravings. He'll be sent to a juvenile facility more than likely,"

"Are you as hopeful as you sound?" Junko asked curiously once she killed the call.

"No."