Mukuro Ikusaba wondered where she was. Heaven? Hell? She thought about her sister, Junko.

I'm sorry, sis...

Did I make a mistake?

Is that why you killed me?

Was it a punishment?

Was it my own fault?

Junko killed me... Me. Me. Me.

She didn't notice Sayaka standing there, just the sinking feeling of despair overcoming her.

And she figured out why Junko killed her.

Now I know...

Of course, it was for despair.

That's the reason for everything Junko does.

She loved me, and she killed me.

...So this is despair.

I'm sorry, Junko. Until now, I never understood what it really was.

I love you, sis. I forgive you.

"I-ikusaba-san..?" Sayaka whispered.

The fact that Ikusaba-san was here meant she was dead. But who killed her?

Sayaka had never been as close with Ikusaba as say, Naegi or Celes. Not to say Sayaka hated her or anything like that.

But shouldn't she hate her now? For helping cause the despair-inducing situation her close friends were in? She felt that she should've been feeling nothing but hatred for Ikusaba, but she didn't.

Just hurt, and confusion. But why was she confused?

Ikusaba helped Junko and SHSL Despair create the Worst, Most Despair-Inducing Incident in the History of Mankind. She was evil.

But that didn't match up with the Ikusaba she'd known for two years.

Ikusaba wasn't good at social interactions and loved her sister, Junko, a whole lot.

She'd never seemed like the type of person to do something like... that. But Junko hadn't, either.

Sayaka didn't know what to say, or how to act.

Mukuro looked up at the sound of a voice and stared. It was Sayaka Maizono.

Seeing Sayaka further clarified that she was dead.

"Where is this?" she asked in a monotone voice. She also didn't know how to act around her old schoolmate.

Surely, Maizono hated her. In a way, Maizono's death was her fault for helping set up the mutual killing situation.

Should she apologize? Would Maizono even want an apology? And even if Mukuro apologized, would Maizono even accept it?

"It's not heaven or hell... Just where dead people go," Sayaka responded in an equally monotone voice.

Sayaka couldn't bring herself to hate Ikusaba, but felt she couldn't just forgive and act like they were best friends.

It felt despair-inducingly awkward.

"...Oh. Okay." Mukuro decided the best way to end the silence was to start off with an apology.

"I'm sorry," she apologized.

Sayaka stared at her with her eyebrows raised, and her mouth an open "O".

"You... don't really expect me to forgive and forget with an apology like that, do you?"

Mukuro looked at her feet, a heat rising to her cheeks.

"No, not really..." she muttered.

"But I really am sorry," she stated again, looking back up.

"If there's anything at all I can do to get you to forgive me, I'll do it. I'll do anything."

Sayaka felt really awkward. How would you feel if your long-time friend helped cause the apocalypse, tried to get your other friends to kill each other, and then met you again in the afterlife?

"I... don't think there''s anything you can really do to help me forgive you. I don't hate you, but... I'm not sure I can go all the way and forgive you, scott free. But the fact that I don't hate you is a start, right?" she said with an awkward, fake laugh.

A pause.

"Do you... regret all that you've done, at least...?" she asked hopefully.

Mukuro had to think about her answer.

"I... do. But... I would do it all again if Junko asked me to."

"What...?! You'd do it again? Cause the apocalypse? Encourage your friends to kill each other?! Why?! Why on earth does Junko matter so much to you that you'd do so many horrible things... again?!"

Mukuro expected a a reaction like that, and repeated her statement.

"I regret my actions, but I would do it all again if Junko requested it of me. I am the only one who understands her. No matter what, I love my sister, even if she killed me."

Sayaka was speechless.

"Wait. Your sister was the one who... killed you? Then shouldn't you hate her? Despise her? Wish her dead?"

Mukuro understood that that was how someone would usually act in her situation, but she knew she could never hate Junko.

"No... I don't. I know my sister loved me. That's why she killed me. To cause despair and make me despair. That's how I know she loved me, because that's how Junko is."

Sayaka shook her head repeatedly. "I don't think I'll ever understand Junko and her despair fetish."

Mukuro nodded. "That's okay. As long as I understand her... Junko won't ever be alone. Even though I'm dead, I'll watch over her."

"I don't think I understand you too well, either."

"That's okay, too."

Sayaka chuckled. "I think... someday I'll be able to forgive you. Not now, and not for a while, but someday. And I think I can get along with you until then."

Mukuro smiled a little bit in relief.

"I'm not sure that everyone else will be as cool with what you've done as I am, though, so you better practice your apology," Sayaka warned Mukuro.

Mukuro closed her eyes and nodded.

"You're right," she replied. She opened her eyes. "...Would you be willing to...um...help me?"

Sayaka nodded with a real smile.

A question popped into Mukuro's head.

"...Why are... willing to forgive me...?"

Sayaka smiled.

"Because it's much easier on the heart to forgive than to hold a grudge," she said firmly.

After that, Sayaka showed Mukuro around the area, explaining that it was a replica of Hope's Peak, and how some sort of being would prepare their meals.

"...Don't you... find that suspicious...?" Mukuro frowned.

"Suspicious? You mean the something that prepares our meals? I'm sure it's just like an angel or something, don't worry about it. I think your room should be where it was during our school years, " Sayaka mentioned, changing the subject.

"...mhm..." They walked about, talking, until it was dinner.

"Wow! Time sure does go by fast, huh? Though we don't really have to worry about time since we're... Sorry. That was insensitive," Sayaka frowned.

Mukuro accepted her apology and they walked to the cafeteria, where... three plates were set?

"Maybe the being is going to have dinner with us?" Sayaka suggested. Mukuro shrugged.

They sat down and ate, silently. No one came to eat the third plate.

BOOM! Sayaka jumped in her seat, and Mukuro silently stood.

"Let's go check it out,"Sayaka nervously said as she too stood up.

They walked towards where the noise had been, the classroom, though they didn't hear anything else coming from it.

There was a boom when Mukuro came... There's no way someone else was already murdered, right? I hope...

So they walked towards the suspicious noise, only one of them suspecting what it really was...