It felt good to have the effulgent sun on my back once more as we walked down the avenues of Tokyo. Being cooped up in the academy for so long sure did a number on my soul. It's odd really, how you miss the little things in life when they get ripped away from you. A couple of months into our forced captivity, I started to miss weird little things like the pitter-patter of rain and the feeling of wind rushing through my hair.

I dropped my gaze to look at the cracked pavement beneath my feet. A constant reminder of how quick the world went to shit. It all happened so goddam fast. War, rioting, violence. So many people died, people I knew, for no conceivable reason other than to cause despair. Despair is not something easily combated, especially when it encompasses such a high percentage of the population. Inevitably, the government and the military collapsed. Only the strong-of-will were spared from the all-consuming despair.

We were incredibly lucky to say the least. We managed to lock ourselves inside just after the government's pseudo-capitulation. I can still vividly recall the mad rush to get everyone indoors and safe within the confines of the school.

"Makoto"

Snapped out of my unpleasant reverie, I spun to the origin of the voice.

"Yeah Mukuro?"

"I think it would be smart for us to find a place to stay the night" She said while gesturing to the setting orb in the orange-tinted skies.

I nodded curtly in response. Finding a place to stay isn't as simple as it sounded. With fifteen people, it had to be big enough to fit us all in and it also had to be in reasonable condition. I spied an apartment building down the street. Its bottom half looked in poor condition but the top half looked somewhat decent.

"I think that building's top floor would be our best bet" I told Mukuro with arm outstretched in the direction of the apartment.

After informing the rest of the group about the destination, we walked over to our accommodation for the night. After a good pull, the door gave way and let us inside.

"Hello!?" I voiced loudly, my words rebounding and echoing around the dusty rooms.

We discreetly made our way to the top of the staircase only to be confronted by a wall of furniture.

"Someone, or multiple people, must have been taking refuge up here" Togami mused.

"Seems that way…" Kirigiri agreed.

After removing the blockade from the top of the stairs, I quietly started making my way around the floor. The chance of finding any survivors or supplies were admittedly slim but there was no harm in trying, right? In about ten minutes or so, I had finished my fruitless campaign except one bedroom.

I pushed the door open, expecting a corpse, but finding nothing suspect except a small notebook on a desk near the window. I flipped to journal to the latest entry

"The group have gone again to look for food, and guess who's stuck on guard duty. They have been gone for a while, I'm starting to get a little worried. We will be okay. That's what I keep telling myself but it's getting harder to say it with every passing day. Food and numbers are dwindling; hell I don't even remember the last time I ate. I suppose all I can do is just keep going"

The words were written with in a scrawly, disorganised manner like that or a young child's. I checked the start of the journal and compared to two sets of hand writings and the differences were staggering. The earlier handwriting looked like calligraphy in comparison to the later print.

"I hope they made it whoever they were…"

After resting the journal back on the desk, I noticed a small object in the open drawer.

"A lighter…" I muttered.

I fished the item out of the draw and scrutinized its details. It was a small, sliver, metallic rectangle. It had a dove with a laurel branch in its mouth engraved on its side

"The symbol of peace… how ironic…"

I snapped the top open and flicked the mechanism, which then created a small flickering flame. Deciding that it may come in handy later on down the line, I pocketed the lighter and made my way back to one of the living rooms where everyone was waiting.

The room was abuzz with the chatter of my peers, some barely whispering while other basically shouted their conversations. I noticed a certain lavender-haired detective sitting by herself on one of the sofas towards the back of the room. She seemed to be deeply contemplating something, chin rested on a gloved palm and magenta eyes gazing into space.

"Hey there…" I uttered quietly while sitting down next to her.

Seemingly snapped out of her thoughts, she turned her head to face me.

"Hello Naegi"

"Penny for your thoughts?" I asked.

"Just getting my head around things. Putting the pieces of the puzzle together, so to speak" She replied, while sweeping an errant hair over her ear.

"Yeah… It's a hard thing to come to terms with… Being dropped into a world that's practically ended"

"Quite…" She concurred. "How's the wound…?"

"A little bit sore…" I lied.

One of her eyebrows immediately cocked itself, accompanied by a slightly amused smirk.

"A little bit sore?" She echoed. "You had a spear sticking out of you, Naegi"

"Okay, fine. Maybe very sore. I'll be fine though." I conceded with a bashful grin.

"That's good to hear…" She let a genuine smile manifest itself on her lips as she spoke.

After a minute or so of comfortable silence between the two of us, Ishimaru strided into the middle of the room.

"Okay! Listen up everyone. Its planning time"

"First priority is to the get out of the city. That much is obvious" Celes purred.

"And what about after we get out?" Leon questioned.

Mukuro turned to me, gave me a small nod, and turned back to the crowd.

"Naegi can explain"

Much to my chagrin, all of the attention was centralized on me.

"What is it Naegi?" Maizono cocked her head to the side as she spoke.

I sighed before replying;

"The headmaster wasn't stupid, he knew that there was a possibility that the academy may be compromised and we would have to leave. He even had suspicions that somebody on the inside was an agent of despair but he didn't have anything concrete, turns out his worries were not unfounded"

"That's all well and good but what's the relevance?" Sakura queried.

"We made a contingency plan" I replied. "Long story short, the plan was to get to the Togami headquarters and seek assistance from the Togami family. If that could not be achieved, then we would have to find the next safest place and try to employ a regime of autarky"

"Autarky?" Hina pondered.

"Means self-sufficiency" Kirigiri assisted.

"Surely Junko would know about this plan" Togami voiced in a dissatisfied tone.

"Actually she doesn't" Mukuro informed.

"How so?" Togami growled.

"Makoto was the only one that the headmaster told. He was worried about the previously mentioned agent of despair so he avoided telling everyone"

"That begs the question, why Naegi?" Celes wondered.

I shifted awkwardly in my seat under the interrogative gaze of my fellow classmates.

"Care to explain Naegi?" Kirigiri inquired.

"Well…I… umm" I stuttered, having difficulty to push words out of my throat.

"Spit it out dude" Hiro groaned.

"Basically… The headmaster made me promise that if he was to die, that I would take over…" I conceded awkwardly while rubbing my neck.

This resulted in a couple of raised eyebrows and the odd shocked gasp.

"Why you?" Togami derisively snarled from an armchair.

"The headmaster had several reasons for choosing Makoto" Mukuro stated as I felt my face grow hotter and hotter. "For starters; during our time at school, if anyone was in a rut then it would always be Makoto to cheer them up. Makoto was friends with everyone while the likes of Oowada and Togami had a bit of a feud going on. Lastly, the headmaster wanted someone he could mould to make the type of leader he wanted and Makoto proved to be the most malleable. Probably due to his lack of talent"

14 pairs of eyes bored into me from all sides. Feeling like a prisoner on trial, I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.

"When you say 'mould'…?" Hiro rubbed his chin as he spoke.

"J-Just in case we did have to leave the academy, the headmaster prepared us for the outside world. Basic self-defence classes led by Oogami, basic first aid, among other things. As well as this, myself and the headmaster had one-to-one sessions where he taught me everything he could"

"Wouldn't have Ishimaru been a better fit?" Celes pondered.

I opened my mouth to answer but Mukuro proved quicker;

"In times of panic, Ishimaru has a tendency too… get a bit over emotional"

Ishimaru frowned slightly and furrowed his large eyebrows but didn't seem too torn up at her words.

"I guess we got our man then" Oowada commented while ruffling a large hand in my head, much to my chagrin.

"W-Well if anybody else wants to take over, I'm okay with that" I uttered while looking around the room for a willing party, and just as I expected, Togami stood up proudly.

"Let's put it to a vote" The heir snarled.

"Put your hand up if you vote for Naegi" Leon announced loudly.

To my horror, twelve hands shot up. Myself, Togami and Fukawa were the only kept our hands down.

"Looks like its decided!" Ishimaru clasped his hands together in jubilation.

"W-What!?" Togami exclaimed. "Why did you pick him!"

"I just thought that it would be smart having someone that has retained their memories to lead" Hina conceded.

"If it was the headmasters will, then we should abide by it" Sakura added.

"I'd rather shoot myself then let that posh prick boss me around" Oowada grumbled as he leaned up against a wall.

Togami opened his mouth to shout out an argument but he stopped himself, realising it would be a waste of breath.

With that decided, we organised a lookout system during the night-time. One person would be on lookout for two hours before swapping. There would be four different people per night so there would be eight hours' rest per night.

It had been a long, tiring day and my side burned with constant agony but I still needed a word with someone. She had volunteered to take the first shift as lookout while the rest went to bed and was now sat on a chair near the staircase.

"Mukuro…" I whispered quietly.

"Makoto, you should get your rest" She said with her usual level tone.

"I need to know…Why did you have to tell them? You know I never wanted this. I don't want the responsibility" I groaned wearily.

"Makoto…" She sighed. "I did it because I know you can do it. The headmaster picked you and he would not have if he didn't think you were capable"

"Yeah, well, maybe the headmaster was wrong…" I rebutted "Ishimaru or Kirigiri should've been the one that he picked"

"Trust the headmaster… He was a very smart man. He placed all of his hopes in you when he died and I believe in you too" Mukuro said the words with such an assured, confident tone.

"I don't have much choice now anyways…I can't back out now" I rubbed my eyes tiredly soon after I had finished speaking.

"Get some rest. I'll see you in the morning and we can plan a way out of this hellhole" She got up and started awkwardly pushing me away.

My body acquiesced to her demands and I found the closest comfortable thing, which happened to be a single bed in what looks like a younger boy's room. It kind of reminded of how my own room used to be when I was younger but I pushed the thoughts out of my mind. Thinking about how things used to be would only make me depressed.

After no less than a minute, I gently let myself slip into my own subconscious and let my world fade to black.