Junko was unnaturally quiet the entire drive back, only responding to questions on the direction of where she lives. She didn't even make a single threatening movement toward Makoto. In a way, the complete lack of action from her was somehow more stressful than the alternative. He glanced at his rearview mirror, Kyoko's car staying directly behind him the entire time. Pulling up to a penthouse in the hills overlooking the city of Yokohama, the first thing he can notice right away was the color of paint that covered it. They stepped out of the car while Kyoko waited in hers, the window rolled down.
"Polka dots…um…"
"Yeah, I was thinking of changing it to a solid deep green tomorrow."
Makoto's eyes widened in shock. "Do you do it by yourself?!"
"I mean, I did at first but now I just hire people. Stupid!" Junko snapped back to life as he looks at her. "So, wanna come inside? Maybe have some hot coffee?"
"I… don't think there's a coffee in the world that will get me to willingly go in there."
"Shy, Naegi-kun?"
"No, I don't want to distract you while you're mulling over whatever it is in your head."
She grinned. "You sure that's a good idea?"
Makoto sighed. "About your sister…"
"I misjudged her. She says she understands me, but she totally doesn't! It's kinda…well, you know." He only quietly listened. "I mean seriously?! She didn't even enjoy it?! What kind of Despair Sister wouldn't appreciate the feeling of the worst despair I could ever give her?" She bit her lip. "Thinking about it makes me so angry. I'm not even satisfied."
Makoto's own fist was balling up as he glared at her. "Is it really that hard to understand that she wouldn't enjoy it like you?!"
All she did was grin at his anger, "Anyway, enough about her. Cheer me up, Naegi-kun~?"
He only kept glaring at her.
"Fine. Rain check. Also you can do whatever with her." She looked straight into his face with a chilling stare and smile. She waved as she walked into her penthouse by herself. Makoto only watched as he forced himself to calm down. When Junko's finally closed the door, he walked over to Kyoko's car.
"Whatever you have planned, it's most likely not going to work Naegi-kun." She tapped the steering wheel. Mukuro was still silent in the backseat, looking at Makoto.
"I'm really not planning anything. Besides, if I did I think Enoshima would see it coming right away."
"Fair enough. I'll make sure to do a thorough investigation of her activities for the past few months the next chance I can."
Makoto looked over at the soldier. "How are you?"
Her voice was hollow and ragged. "Tired."
His face softened up. "Do you two want to get some food? My treat."
As if in response, Mukuro's stomach growled. She blushed.
Kyoko smiled. "It would be a good change of scenery."
"There's a place near my apartment. It's pretty good."
After some goading and grinning from the owner of Apricot for bringing in two ladies to sit with him, the group had their food brought out to them. Kyoko sat next to Makoto while Mukuro ws across from them. They both eye Makoto's food with interest.
Aside from a simple sandwich, there's a beautifully crafted dessert. It was a sweet potato tart, but the way its presented looked like a mysterious purple flower. It almost looks too good to eat. He taps it a bit with his spoon and it keeps its shape, a testament to the chef's skill. He finally scoops a piece of it with his spoon to eat it. It's creamy and not too sweet.
For his drink, there's a "shot" of coffee. It looked small, plain and unimpressive, but the smell it had makes you instantly tell that it had potent caffeine. Supposedly the coffee came from the Middle East. He took a small sip and enjoyed the syrupy texture and layered flavors. His eyes widened – the power of the coffee was somehow even more powerful than its smell.
"You've gotten some interesting tastes since the last I've seen you."
"W-Well, trying new foods every once in a while is a normal thing to do, isn't it?"
"I suppose. We never did have this luxury during our time in the Future Foundation. I'm glad to see you're taking full advantage of it."
Makoto looked somber. "…yeah."
Mukuro looked away from him, her head slightly lowered. The trio finished their food in silence. Kyoko finally looked at the half of the SHSL Despair sitting across from her. "I'd like to hear what you can remember from that experience of yours."
The former lucky student looked a bit worried for the girl, considering her state. But he held back his objections for the time being.
After a few moments pass to process the request, Mukuro nodded. "Okay."
"It's mostly a blur to me. I… died and then…nothing. Next thing I knew, I was in the Monokuma control room and there was no sign of my sister.
You guys say it has been…a few months, but it only felt like a few days for me. The monitors only showed the moment of my death. It was the only thing I could see. I could walk away but I wasn't able to get out. The door refused to respond to any of the console's commands. The console didn't even work at all to be honest.
Next thing I can remember, Naegi-kun opened the door. He…" She moves her eyes to him. "He looks different now and it was dark, so…so I thought he was the one who locked me in there. So I attacked him. I realized too late and…combined with hunger, stress and the lack of sleep…I passed out when I reached out for him."
Kyoko tapped the table. "Interesting. I suspected as much, given the state of the old school building. No one was in there for months, but Ikusaba…san…is alive despite the lack of food and inability to leave the control room."
Makoto tilted his head at her. "What did you suspect?"
"It looks to be a form of time dilation: a phenomenon where time moves far more slowly than normal. Whether or not it was weaponized to torture her is a wholly different question."
"T-That's horrible!"
"Yes, I imagine if Enoshima were to somehow utilize it…well…there is definitely a target she has in mind. I certainly don't need to spell it out for you, do I?"
"That's just assuming it can be used that way." Makoto pinches the bridge of his nose. "All we can say is that whatever was there reacted to Ikusaba-san."
"Also, recall how we needed to fight Monokumas to get there and how the fourth floor looked like it was right out of our killing game. There's shades of multiverse theory in action. The old school building had no traces of becoming a shelter at all in this world, but we definitely did do that in ours. I assume the various Monocreatures we ran into may come from another parallel universe. I'd say this is likely, considering we're completely out of place: we're young adults while everyone else we've met from our class appear to be still teenagers."
He furrowed his brows, "So let's assume someone or something is messing with time and space. And… because of whatever is happening, it's causing weird things to happen here. Like… having parallel universes leak into this one."
"As insane as this whole thing sounds… yes." She glanced over at her gloved hand. "Another thing we can assume is that the perpetrator is tied to Hope's Peak Academy in some way."
"There's gotta be more to this, I think."
"Regardless, that's all I can conclude from the information we have right now."
"Okay." As if he just remembered something, Makoto placed his cell phone on the table. "Oh right, I'm… going to need your number again." He laughed nervously, rubbing his neck. "There's no multiverse-friendly SIM card…"
"How bold of you, Naegi-kun." Kyoko smirked as he blushed. She input her number into his phone. She called it and her phone rang once, immediately silencing the call. "I'll make sure to contact you with any developments."
Mukuro frowned slightly at the exchange.
Kyoko looked over at the SHSL Soldier. "What will you do now?"
"I…" She looked conflicted.
"You can stay with me for a while. Or with Kirigiri-san if she doesn't mind." Makoto offered.
The detective kept her emotions underneath her stony mask. She eyed Mukuro wearily.
"Look, I know you were homeless when you were younger but you don't have to live like that. If it's alright with you-"
Mukuro immediately responds. "I…okay. I can stay… with you… if you don't mind, Naegi-kun."
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Kyoko crossed her arms. "I'm assuming that Enoshima knows where you live."
He held his head. "At this point I'm pretty sure she knows where I am at all times."
She only sighed. "You have a bad habit of harboring dangerous criminals, Naegi-kun. But I suppose it is part of what makes you the true SHSL Hope."
"Hey, I'm just some nosy reporter."
"You certainly don't help my blood pressure."
"Sorry…"
The full moon's glow shined through the open window as the three sit around Makoto's table. The bachelor was busy tidying up the light novels and manga strewn on it. Kyoko glanced over at the two volumes of Danganronpa/Zero he hasn't put away yet.
Makoto noticed. "Have you heard of the Danganronpa series?"
"I've heard bits and pieces about it. It's a niche yet popular series of murder mystery video games that turned into a long-running series, if I recall. Sometimes they're video games, sometimes they end up being an animated series. Though… I believe I've seen this woman before."
Mukuro's face twisted into a look of confusion.
"The earliest entries are a pretty accurate re-telling of our lives during the apocalypse."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. And these are supposed to be the prequels to our killing game. It's really rare to find these light novels but I came across them by chance. It was really expensive, being a collector's item and all. The ink's pretty faded since the books are decades old."
Kyoko immediately skimmed through both novels and saw the illustrations of people she could clearly remember from her past. "This is…I believe I recall them."
"I bet. It uh…filled in some blanks for me. You can borrow them, if you want."
Kyoko closed the book. "Tempting. However, I don't think the knowledge here would help in our current situation. Does it mention anything about time travel or any dimensional disturbances?"
Makoto shook his head.
"I see. Then I'll decline the offer. I'll leave it to you to fill in the blanks as needed."
Mukuro's face darkened. Many of her own crimes were most likely documented in the series, if what Makoto said was true. Despite that, he still invited her to stay at his house so that she wouldn't be on the street. It confused her.
The detective continued. "Are you a fan of the series?"
"No way." He chuckled. "I've only really looked through the entries about us, to be honest. The light novels and some really old Let's Plays I found while searching the web. I figure it was a good way to see an outside perspective on things."
Mukuro broke her silence as if snapping out of a trance. "Does…it not bother you?"
"Huh? That they're games and anime? I dunno…it might be fiction to the people of this world, but I see it based on history personally. Not like that sort of stuff hasn't been done before."
She went silent. It seems he didn't answer her question, or his answer was sufficient enough. Her face was as unreadable as ever. Kyoko gave her a look for a few seconds, then turned back to Makoto.
"By the way, I understand that you want to investigate how we've somehow come to this world…what exactly are you after? Are you trying to return us to our world?"
He leaned back. "That's possibly the same line of thinking that whoever is behind this has. That things aren't fair or right and they should be changed. All I want is for this to not happen again. And I also want to know…
Why? What was worth doing all this?"
Kyoko gave him a good, long look before smiling. "It's tempting, isn't it?"
"Yeah. Being able to mess with time somehow…it's basically the ability to potentially prevent The Tragedy from ever happening. I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't like to do it. But look at what's happened. Everything's all sorts of messed up. Even if you were someone like Hinata-san with all his talent, dimension hopping and time travel would probably get really messy."
Makoto looked toward the moon. "Honestly? I wouldn't try it. In the end I couldn't save everyone, so I'm not conceited enough to think I can change the world on my own if I could."
His mind flashed to the final killing game and his final confrontation with Munakata.
"I'd become a hypocrite if I fell into that temptation. All I can do is keep going and moving forward; no matter the world, no matter what happens."
He smiled awkwardly, rubbing the tip of his index finger on his face. "I'm rambling again. That coffee was pretty strong."
Kyoko glanced over at the window. "It's getting late. I'll take my leave for the night. If anything happens, I'll only be a phone call or text away." She glanced over at Mukuro for a second before standing up. "Good night, Naegi-kun." She let herself out, leaving only the reporter and the former mercenary.
"Ah, right. I should have a futon." He stood and moved to his closet. "This alright with you?"
"You…don't need to do so much for me, Naegi-kun."
He looked at her as if she said something completely strange. "Eh? You're a guest here. Don't worry about it." He pulls it out and lays it next to the window, grabbing a spare pillow and blanket next.
She still looked unsure. "But…"
"We were friends, weren't we? Though we never did know each other that well. So, maybe, this could be a good chance to do so, right?"
Her eyes lit up. "Friend? Even after…?" She looks away. "Did my sister say anything?"
Makoto didn't respond immediately. "I...I don't want to repeat what she said."
The silence was choking with its oppressive aura. All he could do was watch for her reaction. He swallowed nervously.
"I see."
Her face was emotionless as ever, but there were most likely turbulent emotions behind it. Not wanting to pry further, he lays the beddings for her to take at any time.
"You should probably rest up. You've…been through a lot."
She nodded slowly. Wrapping herself in the guest futon, she laid on her side facing the wall. Makoto spent half an hour checking e-mails and browsing potential leads before going off to bed himself.
The shining sun with its intrusive heat woke Makoto up again. He was so tired that he slept in the clothes he was wearing all of yesterday. Minus the tie, of course. Thankfully he now was only sore where he was injured rather than in actual pain. Sitting up, he looked toward Mukuro who suddenly moved her eyes down at the floor. She's was in a sitting position obviously facing toward Makoto's bed.
He rubbed his eyes. "Good morning. Did you sleep at all?"
She looked back at him. After a few moments she slowly shook her head.
"Were you just…sitting there the whole time?"
A slow nod.
"O-Oh. Um." He stands from his bed, trying to steer away from the awkwardness. "Anyway…" He walks over to his kitchenette, checking his fridge and cupboards. "There's still a bit of food here. You're free to take some, you know. You don't have to wait for my permission or anything."
"Naegi-kun."
He looked over.
"…what happened between you and my sister?"
His eyes glanced at the floor. "The killing game, right? I-I mean I could pull up a video-"
"I want to hear it from you."
Makoto took a deep breath. "Okay." He sits down at the table facing her.
He made eye contact with her. His voice sounded distant as he summarizes the events. "After you died the killing game continued. A lot of our class died. We found out Kuwata-kun was the one who killed Maizono-san. Owata-kun lost his temper and killed Fujisaki-san. Yasu-Celeste-san used Yamada-kun to kill Ishimaru-kun. Then she killed him. And then Enoshima revealed that Ogami-san was a mole in our group and she…ended her own life…so that the killings would stop. It was almost in vain since the suicide note was tampered with."
Makoto looked down at the floor for a second, then resumed eye contact with her. "So then your corpse was used to try and frame Kirigiri-san for your death but I almost ended up dying instead. I was saved by Alter Ego before I could be executed. And we were able to out Enoshima as the mastermind." He frowns. "We almost fell into despair, but… we didn't."
"It was because of you, wasn't it? Kirigiri-san called you the SHSL Hope."
He sighed in response. "She was the one who gave me that title in the first place. But, well, I tried to live up to expectations. So since we refused to despair, she decided to end her own life for…despair. She executed herself."
Mukuro responded with a distant gaze.
"Afterward, we left the school building and were picked up by the Future Foundation in order to combat the remnants of despair she left on the world." He shook his head. "Going from surviving a killing game straight into an ideological war. She really didn't pull any punches."
"You…fought in a war?"
"Not a lot of people were alive so everyone needed to do their part. I would've liked not being shot at though. Um, so, did that answer your question?"
"It did. But, now I'm even more confused…" She placed her tattooed hand on her knee. "Don't you hate us for what we did?"
He took a few moment before answering. "About what you two did? Before I ended up in this world I had a lot of feelings about it. Hate was never one of them. I never wanted you two dead. My feelings probably inspired my boneheaded actions in attempting to undo Class 77-B's brainwashing. They were guilty and on the Future Foundations kill list, but I still went against orders and did what I could."
She only stared at him for a good while. Finally, she replied, "You really are hope."
"Not you too." Makoto groaned while a small smile showed on his face. "Any more questions?"
She shook her head. "Thank you. Really."
"No problem."
Despite the somber story of Makoto's past, she seemed to have some newfound vigor. She stood and actually went to grab some food.
"Anyway, I should take a shower then go do some grocery shopping. I should be back pretty quick. You can just make yourself at home."
"I'd like to come with you."
"Eh? It's not going to be very interesting."
A small smile formed on Mukuro's face. "That's fine."
ANote
BlackCapPI: I'd like to have met the original creator of Danganronpa. But he's pretty old now, isn't he? Doubt he entertains visitors these days. He was an alumni from HPA wasn't he?
Shirokuma: yeah. they actually funded the first game and allowed him use of HPA as a setting. must've helped propel their popularity a bit since it was a lot smaller back then, though i bet all the questions about killing games got old. but wait, i thought you were old. aside from enoshima-sama not a lot of people discuss the HPA saga these days. they are pretty old games.
BlackCapPI: Huh? No, I'm in high school actually. It's funny how most fans of DR usually remember the super populars like the 30th entry (Triple-X). Or that weird one where it became a twist on a harem anime. It's cool that there's been so many different writers but I don't think the quality is consistent.
Shirokuma: im a high schooler too! seriously, it's actually really rare to meet someone who's a fan of the HPA saga and not like… an old person.
BlackCapPI: Must be like how some younger fans of Gundam feel, when their favorites are the really old ones.
Shirokuma: well it's okay! we can be weirdos together! 50 more years of danganronpa!
BlackCapPI: Mmm…but the popularity's been starting to wane, I think. Do you think they'll do something special for the 51st entry?
Shirokuma: ummm well… you know, i have hope for them. they'll always have something to spice it up, even now.
BlackCapPI: Hm, I wonder…