Phew. I've got exams this week, so I might need another week, maybe more, for a new update.

Anyways, here's the next chapter of "Hero's Conquest"...

"Hm? It appears that Pikachi has disappeared somehow…"

At the top of a large ruined building, a young man with curly, wavy, dark brown hair spoke as he adjusted his glasses with one hand. The colors in his eyes matched with his hair, but they somehow seemed to look darker in contrast to the whites that surrounded the voids. He wore a light brown tartan open coat with matching pants and a white dress shirt underneath, along with a pair of black boots that were just barely seen underneath the leg cuffs. However, a choker was worn around his neck with a white cross figurine attached to it, and a necklace, made from a kind of metal, was hanging out from the pocket in his coat. Overall, he appeared to look like the studious detective-type with a hint of "seventh-grader syndrome" showing.

"Well, I suppose there's no problem with that. After all, we all agreed to go at our own pace…" the young man was holding a book in his hands, which rested at his side closed so that the red leather cover was all that anyone could see. Another figure was crossing her arms with a slightly frustrated look on her face.

"Hmph, you think that she found out where those fools that Monokuma mentioned are?"

The young woman's hair was long and black, styled into a pair of twin tails to keep it from reaching too far down. However it was still long enough to hang just above her waist. The rest of her hair was neatly styled to that straight cut bangs were the only possible anomaly at first glance. She was about an average height for her age, but her body was lean and thin, which seemed a good envy to those of the same gender. Her clothing consisted of a v-neck sweater with a dusty wrap-around shirt underneath, and a pair of tight red shorts with a belt that was fastened tight around her shorts, giving a bit of an alluring feel. A strange-looking wristband was wrapped around her left wrist, and a pair of black high boots finished the look.

"Who knows Miko? I mean that girl is very unpredictable…"

Miko Kotowari
"Denizen of Despair member"
SHSL Demolitionist

"Don't give me that crap Oscar. You're the last person I would ever honestly hear that from…"

Oscar Ackerman
"Denizen of Despair member"
SHSL Inspector

"Oh really?"

"You knew perfectly well that she would go out on her own, just so that she could kill some time."

"Well I admit, I expected her to leave. However I didn't think she would go chasing after the others so soon…"

Miko gave a look of disgust at the smiling boy. That grin that he wore obviously said to her "Of course I knew, but so what?" They haven't really known each other that well, despite how long they all had been together. However, she could tell when the others were lying.

But she decided to say nothing. It seemed too irritating to tell him what she knew, and Pikachi would've found some way to escape their grasp regardless. She did however, threw another look of disgust at Oscar before turning back to the space ahead of her.

"Hard to believe that it's been about a year now. I'm actually surprised that we all managed to stay together that long."

The five of them, Pikachi, Oscar, Miko, and the other two, had all been gathered together by Monokuma, who found them all and brought them to become leaders of its more minor followers. The reason they were chosen instead of the others, was partially because they were all SHSL students and were useful tools in bringing Monokuma's world of despair. Of course, nobody in the group really cared about Monokuma's reasons, much less the idea of working with four total strangers that they've never even heard of before. But the monochrome robotic bear didn't really give them much of a choice in the matter, so they grudgingly agreed to at least stay close in the same area for about 70% of the time.

"I agree. You'd think that that maniac would've shot us all at first chance. Perhaps there's a reason that she didn't?"

"Well whatever. I guess all we should do is hope that she doesn't waste too much time on those brats…"

This was bad…

"HA HA HA HA HA HA! WHY DON'T YOU ALL COME OUT AND PLAY?!"

Ami held her hands up to her ears while hiding behind a rather large piece of rubble, along with Allie, who was cringing right next to her.

As soon as that weird girl spoke, she suddenly took out a pair of guns and started wildly shooting at them. Of course, they all immediately ran in different directions, but it was still pretty close. She quickly looked past to see where her friends were.

The closest one was Rigby, who was fingering his ears nearby while shifting a glance to check on her and Allie occasionally. Agustin and Kojou were behind rubble a few feet away from Ami's position. Fiore's position was right across from her own while Luci's was about halfway between Rigby and Fiore's.

"Wait a minute…"

Putting that into an image, she realized that connecting their positions would make a sort of kite with an extra dot between Fiore and Rigby's position, and this gunner in the middle of it all!

She lightly smacked herself. This wasn't the time to think about strange coincidences. Right now, the important thing was finding some way to fight back.

She wasn't too proud to admit that she wasn't as smart as people like Fiore and Luci, but she realized that if the noise continued too long, those scary followers from earlier would probably find them easily and capture them without trouble this time. But they still needed some way to fight, and there wasn't any weapons just lying around. Well, there was the pieces of rubble and metal, but she couldn't use them like Kujou or Agustin, and she might end up helping this crazy girl accidentally.

The shooting stopped. Ami slowly inched her way to try and see what was going on, then quickly shifted her head back as she heard a gunshot just seconds ago. The bullet pierced through a bit of her hair, but she didn't care about that right now. She knew that this girl wasn't like those stupid thugs in manga and anime. This was a professional. Someone who knew how to wield a gun and had the sense to know how, when, and where to shoot without wasting bullets. One false move might end up being their last if they weren't careful.

She turned to Allie, who was hugging herself closely with a sad face. She gave a small pat on the girl's back before going back to the main problem. They had the young girl surrounded (sorta) but they can't just expect a full frontal assault to work.

"Hey you!" She recognized the voice as Luci's. "What's your name?"

"Does something as stupid as a name really matter right now? You guys are alllll gonna die! Ha ha ha ha!" The shooter laughed with a cold tone that sent shivers to Ami's spine.

"Why don't you tell us anyways? I'd like to know the people I'm against so that I can keep records of their deaths for my reports!"

"Well, I don't think you're gonna write up a report THIS time! But why not? I don't mind telling you…" There was a small chuckle as she announced herself.

"Fu fu fu fu… my name is Pikachi Shion, I'm the SHSL Gunslinger!"

Pikachi Shion
"Denizen of Despair member"
SHSL Gunslinger

Gunslinger. This really is starting to seem like some real life video game. But her skills were no joke. Each of those shots were too close for comfort, and she seemed to have the instincts and senses to immediately hit any of them if given the chance.

"A Gunslinger huh? I suppose that explains the long-range weapons, but I think you're a pretty lousy shot for a supposed expert. I mean you didn't even get to hit any of us even once!"

The linguist was puzzled. Luci's provocation didn't seem to make sense to her. This was a shooter he was yelling at, and in a one-sided battle at that! Why was he doing this?

"He he he…you think so? Let me tell you a little something…" she heard a small click. "I like to savor the taste of fear and despair that my targets give, just before I kill them. The feeling of power, the ecstasy of inflicting pain, the chills I get from just taking someone's life…ohhhhhh….I love it all…"

Ami thought she heard something like licking from Pikachi's position, but she didn't dare peek to find out. Things were already creepy enough.

"Anyways, I love to savor the battle, so I'm just letting you go off easy to see how long till you piss your pants!"

This was definitely no lie. She could easily kill them off, even if they had the element of surprise. The only reason she didn't was because she just didn't want to let this end quick. Maybe they could use that to their advantage.

"So you plan on letting us go? How thoughtful…"

"Oh no don't worry, I'll kill you all. Just not so quickly…"

A step was taken.

"I'll kill you all…"

Another step was taken.

"…after seeing the terror on your faces…"

Step

"One…"

Step

"By…"

Step

"One…"

Step

"By…"

Step

"One…"

The sounds of steps ended. Ami felt some chilling at her neck. She didn't want to turn, she had an idea of what was going on, but she didn't want to turn. And yet, as if controlled by some strange force, she turned her head anyways. She slowly turned to the source of the strange feeling, and slowly opened her mouth with an immeasurable sense of fear to see a metal pistol pointing directly at her. She saw Pikachi's face, which held a twisted and childish look of pleasure, the bright smile that made her insides turn cold.

"Found you!"

Ami immediately closed her eyes, bracing for the sudden rush of pain that would flood her. However she heard something at Pikachi's position. She hesitated, but slowly opened her eyes to see Rigby trying to pin the girl down as best as he could. Luckily, it didn't seem like the gunner's strength was too different from the artist's, but she had enough strength to struggle and make things harder for him. The others seemed to have noticed and was running over to help. But it wasn't fast enough.

*BANG*

Ribgy groaned as the bullet grazed his right arm, hitting just the flesh at the edge of his arm, but still enough to leave a trail of blood leaking from the wound. Pikachi's pistol was aimed directly at the bones, but he shifted himself just enough to avoid a direct hit.

Was it luck? Could it have been instinct? None of that mattered at the moment. The fact was that the wound made Rigby's strength weaker, and the gunner took the advantage to escape from his grip and was standing with one pistol aimed at his chest, and the other pointed at the other four, all while she smiled the entire time.

"I'm impressed! I didn't expect one of you to have the balls to actually try something like that!" She stared at Rigby while talking. "As thanks, I'll give you some more time to live. But you might wish that I just killed you outright…" as she said those words, her eyes steeled. "You'd be surprised how long a person can live from a calculated shot to the chest, as well as the length of time that pain would last…"

Everyone silently froze. All seemed lost at this moment. It seemed like nothing they did would help. Worst of all, Rigby was going to be the first to suffer a long and painful fate.

But just then, she thought she heard something. It was faint, but it sounded like a small plastic puzzle moving around. Pikachi must have heard it too, because she suddenly made a more serious face while turning to the other four. Nobody seemed to have moved, but the sound was still there. Suddenly, there was a small glow beneath Kujou's cape. He was doing something, but Ami wasn't sure what.

"What the…"

Kujou suddenly dashed forward while holding a long thing black object, and swiped the space where the gunslinger stood moments before she quickly leapt away. Kujou continued to swing his new weapon with incredible speed. However, the girl was quite agile, and she was able to avoid all his attacks without taking a single cut. The two seemed evenly matched, but what exactly was that thing that Kujou had?

The two of them were at a momentary stalemate, and kept a fair distance in-between them. Taking a good look at Kujou's weapon, she realized that the weapons seemed to have been a black katana.

There wasn't any tsuba on the weapon, but she could tell that Kujou didn't seem to need it. He looked more confident and seemed to be more reliable just by having something in his hands. Of course, he WAS the SHSL warrior. But taking a closer look, the blade and handle seemed to have been both made with a familiar-looking material. Something she saw recently…

"Those weird objects!"

She glanced her band, which was made with the same material. Was that what these things were meant for? To provide them with weapons that they could use? It would've been nice to have known that earlier!

"Ho? Seems like you kids got some interesting toys there…"

Pikachi's gaze didn't falter. In fact, it looked even more excited.

"That's great! Now it makes things a lot more interesting! That'll make the look on your faces all the more sweeter!"

She dashed directly towards Kujou, who was ready for her and blocked her charge with his blade. But she immediately swung her leg over to hit him on the side. He cringed as the shot made a rough hit on his ribs, but he seemed mostly fine as he immediately swung his arm for a hit. The gunslinger couldn't dodge this attack, and there was a small hint of pain on her face as the two made direct contact. Using the momentum of the light blow, she spun herself to her feet and started firing with the pistols in her hands.

This was bad. Kujou was left wide open for her attacks. It didn't look like the Warrior was able to defend himself, so she started to panic.

"Kujou!"

Just as she yelled, Agustin suddenly appeared in front of him with a small black knife. Skillfully wielding it, the hunter managed to deflect the bullets just enough to shift them towards the ground without hitting anyone.

So Agustin was able to use his present as well. This brought some relief to Ami as the situation seemed to be working more favorably towards them. But the gunslinger's attitude didn't seem to change. On the contrary, she actually seemed to be smiling wider.

"Good GOOD! Now THIS is a BATTLE!"

She wasn't moving as much, but she was aiming faster and shooting more rapidly. Agustin was either deflecting the shots or dodging them while Kujou was swiftly running to make it harder for Pikachi to hit him. This continued on for a good while before they suddenly heard a small clicking sound. Pikachi frowned.

"Ah dammit. Looks like I ran outta ammo…"

This was their chance. Without bullets, they didn't need to worry too much about getting fatally wounded. Agustin and Kujou simultaneously ran in opposite directions and charged after her at the same speed like mirror images. They each readied their hands to capture the shooter as a prisoner. Even if she tried to kill them, they couldn't let her die without first giving them some information. That's why they were determined to capture her alive.

But that thought was too naïve.

"JUUUUUST KIDDING!"

Pikachi's face had a wide smile with her tongue sticking out to the side, as if trying to taste the air, showing off some insanity. She then performed a spin kick, twirling her legs quickly, forcing the Kujou to duck while Agustin backed off. At the same time, she threw one of her pistols at the acting Kujou, striking him in the face and making him flinch momentarily. She then used her legs to knock Kujou's katana out of his hands, leaving him defenseless. She then stuck her tongue out once again, this time revealing a hidden bullet from her mouth, then spitting it into the one pistol she held in her hand. Kujou crossed his arms in front of his face, bracing himself for the shot. But instead, Pikachi dropped the pistol and wrapped her hands around his throat instead, slowly tightening her grip with a look of pleasure at the sight.

Kujou was struggling to try and escape, but the sudden lack of oxygen was making him weaker and weaker by the second. Agustin was hesitating because the wrong move could end up killing the warrior immediately. Ami froze as the helplessness was sinking in once again. The idea that someone was going to die in front of her was horrifying. They didn't really know each other that well, but still…

Something flew in-between Kujou and Pikachi, causing her to unintentionally loosen her grip as she turned her head in surprise.

"Dammit Kujou! You're being more trouble than you're worth!"

It was Luci, holding a black long bow in his hand from behind some rubble for cover.

"S…Sorry…" Kujou wheezed as he gasped for breath.

Luci's fired shot after shot, each carefully aimed at the gunslinger, who's smile finally seemed to falter. An arrow or two managed to just lightly graze her skin, so droplets of blood fell to the ground. Pikachi's hands were stuffed in her pockets, as she slightly cocked her head.

"Hmmm…now it looks like it might be tough…" She gave another smile. "Guess I'd better transform…"

Posing with a sentai-hero style look, she swung her arm before raising it into the air.

"Let's go! Monoku…"

Suddenly, another hand shot out and grabbed the gunslinger's.

Ami turned to see a calmer-looking girl with twin tail-styled hair staring at the gunslinger, then at their group, before giving a small sigh.

"Hey Miko! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Pikachi looked seriously displeased as she struggled to escape from her grip. The one called Miko seemed to have been an acquaintance, but she also seemed more careful of the two.

"Monokuma's orders you rash idiot. We're supposed to kill them at the special stages since we're supposed to be 'boss' characters."

"Boss" characters? Strange weapons? Missions? Guess Monokuma really meant took things literally when it said "game".

"Shut up! If I want to see blood, I make it rain blood! That's what it's like!"

"Do you want me to kill you then?"

The girl called Miko gave a dark glare at the gunslinger, giving Ami a slightly greater chill than earlier. If that's the kind of people that they were all up against, this was going to be a lot more trouble than they thought.

Pikachi glared back for a couple minutes before she finally sighed, then she slowly walked over to pick up her pistols and hid them away behind her back.

"Fine fine… I don't wanna fight you anyways…" The look on her face was definitely anger. Ami knew that the gunslinger would've probably gone wild, but she reluctantly obeyed this new girl. Was the difference really that much? Or was there another reason?

Pikachi was about to leave when she suddenly turned and made a pistol shape with her hand.

"Hey, next time we meet, I'm gonna make sure you all die a slow and very painful death." She pointed the "pistol" to her head and made the "shot".

"BANG!"

She smiled before pocketing her hands and leaving the room.

"Seeya!"

The gunslinger disappeared, leaving only the new girl glaring at each of them.

"Now then. As you heard, the only time we can kill you personally is at a special stage that is set up at several locations. If you end up getting captured, or wander inside, we'll fight you all with the intention to kill."

"Is there a reason why we would wanna do that?" Luci rested his free hand on his waist while gripping the bow tightly.

"Well…perhaps you will see for yourself if you manage to defeat one of us…"

Ami frowned. Monokuma did say there was a "prize" or something involved with their defeat, but is it really worth taking the time to fight against the five of them?

"Of course, that's assuming you get out of here alive as well…"

"Hm?" Everyone was confused.

"Direct confrontations deaths outside of the stage isn't allowed. But if you died from an unexpected 'accident', well that's another story…"

Agustin and Kujou started to move to grab this strange woman named Miko, but she threw something into the ground, causing smoke to suddenly exhume and fill the area. Nobody could see anything about a foot away, except shadows and black blurs. When the smoke cleared, Miko had disappeared, leaving them all without any answers.

"Geez, so those are the kind of guys we need to deal with? And to think there are three more…" Luci's pinched his forehead as with a look of annoyance on his face. Ami silently agreed that the idea of fighting off three more of those kinds of people would be both dangerous and exhausting. But momentarily putting that aside, there was one other thing she wanted to focus on.

"Er…you guys mind telling me where you got those weapons from?" She pointed to Kujou and Agustin, and the sharp objects that they held in their hands.

"These are those strange objects that we found from that box. Apparantly they change shape to suit our talents."

So she was right.

"I kinda got that. My question is how?"

"That's…"

Before she could get an answer, there was a large explosion from one of the floors underneath. The area shook, throwing them all slightly off-balance.

"What the…"

"What the hell was that?"

Ami dropped to her knees as the tremor continued.

*Crack*

The floor underneath them began to crack, along with the ceiling. Even more pieces of cement began to fall towards each of them, and the rest worsened the condition of the floor.

"Dammit! Everyone! We need to get away!"

Those were the last words Kujou spoke before large debris suddenly cut away everyone's sight of him.

"Kujou!"

Ami yelled out, but there was no reply. She could only watch as Agustin and Luciano separated from her sight, then Fiore and the wounded Rigby. She turned to Allie, who was holding herself close, and dashed as fast as she could with her arms spread out before the remaining pieces of debris fell around them, causing the floor around them to fall apart…

And they were never heard from again...

Or something like that. Hope you all had a good Halloween. If I had the money, I think I would've gone out as Monokuma.

But of course, most of my money is going to all the awesome new video game and saving up for the PS4, as well as University stuff, so that's not happening anytime soon. Soooooo...I'm probably just gonna stick to finding a Monokuma Doll.

Well, now you guys have an idea of what that strange stuff they got was used for. But would that seem any good at this point? I mean they are falling towards their death, aren't they?

As always, review however you want. Negative ones are always welcome, as well as the positive ones.

As for me, I'm gonna go back to studying and having my brain experimented on...