Yeah, it's been a while since I've posted, but I hope at least some people are still reading...

Anyways, my excuses shall be at the end. Please read this new chapter for now...

"We captured two of the targets that Monokuma has been searching for!"

Miko lazily turned her head to see an old man and several refugees on their knees bowing at her. She stared for a bit before turning back to the vast wasteland in front of her.

"So?"

"So…we would like you to tell Monokuma that we would like to offer…a trade…"

Picking her ears with her pinky, she blew on the stuff that was caught on it, then went back to relaxing. She had already set up the chair for a good angle, and she'd rather not run it for something stupid or insignificant.

"Er…Ms. Kotowari?"

Silence.

"Ms. Kotowari…the trade?"

Silence.

"Ms. Kotowari!"

While still hesitant, the old man began to shout. The demolitionist finally sat up while hearing the people gasp behind her, then turned to face them all while holding her hand out.

"...huh?"

She thrusted her hand out several times, but they were still confused. Looks like she needed to spell it out for them.

"The Monokumite…"

"Er…oh!"

Yeah "oh". She saw those brats using Monokumite when they first met, and while she didn't know what they were doing with it, she did know that it was going to be troublesome if they continued carrying it around. Especially now that Pikachi died and most likely did something stupid like spill a couple secrets.

"W-Well…you see…"

Here it comes…

"W-We left the Monokumite a-at my home. You see…w-we forgot to bring it with us…."

What a load of crap.

Monokumite held enormous potential as a tool and/or weapon, so it would've made more sense to keep it for themselves to use as a threat against Monokuma.

But that's some weak thinking.

For one thing, Monokumite can't be used by just anyone. Those things carry an imprinting system that only reacts to certain people who have carried it around for a significant amount of time. The Monokumite gathers DNA from the holder, and then uses that DNA to modify itself into something based on the gathered info. The reason is unknown, but the fact remains that only people who were "imprinted" with Monokumite can use that particular Monokumite.

Of course, this means that none of those stupid refugees could use it now, but there was no need to tell them about that. They eventually would've learned about that when they would try to use it against them. Then she could just collect it from their bodies and…

Wait. Something was bothering her.

"Tell me…how much Monokumite did you find?"

"One of course. It was the only one they were carry…ing…a…round?"

The old man was scared. And with good reason.

Miko was glaring fiercely at him.

These incompetent morons obviously didn't do a thorough body search when they tossed those damn brats in prison. And from the sound of it, they didn't have the sense to post a guard just in case.

Well whatever. She never really expected them to do something smart on their own, and it was better this way. Now she can actually see those bastards burn from her explosions first hand in a battle.

But just to be sure those idiotic refugees don't screw up again…

"Hey, I want each of you to get over here…"

She motioned her finger to have them come over. As they complied, she balled up her hand into a fist, then shoved it at the old man's chest. She heard him cough up air as he suddenly yelled in pain, then she moved her hand. There was a black spot at the space where she punched him, but it wasn't blood or anything like that. It actually seemed to be slowly squeezing itself into the man's body, as if it were alive.

"Next…"

As the saying goes, if you have lemons, make lemonade.

So she was going to make something useful out of these meat-sacks, to help take care of those stupid hope fanatics.

After all, fat does help protect a lot of things, even bombs.

And the smell of meat cooking is oh so delicious at times…

Agustin gasped.

The man literally combusted into flames, and the smell of burnt flesh was there to prove it.

Their opponent, Miko Kotowari, was standing in front of them with a disappointed look on her face. Like someone who saw their own plan fail from a single miscalculation.

She called that man a "worthless piece of junk". Does that mean that she was responsible for what happened just then?

The girl looked at them, then shifted her eyes to the burning corpse for a moment, before going back to them. She snapped her fingers, and several more of the refugees had appeared, each of them glaring at the two with fierce and feral eyes. However there was something else that seem different.

Taking a closer look, Agustin was momentarily shocked. Each of them had a small hole in their chest, similar to the man who just exploded earlier.

Each of these people had become human bombs, waiting to go off at Miko's command.

"Kujou, they…" but he didn't need to say any more. Kujou nodded slightly, acknowledging that he came to the same conclusion. However there didn't seem to be anything they can do. They weren't even sure how those people would be able to explode in the first place.

Miko stared straight at them, the evil seemed to be leaking out of her eyes as she snapped her fingers.

The refugees suddenly ran towards the two, the desperation easy to read. The two of them steadied themselves to counter attack when suddenly, a couple of children started grabbing onto their legs.

Agustin tried to shake his off, but the small boy was grabbing tightly. His tool shifted into a knife to scare the kid off, but it didn't work. The hunter then decided to focus on the incoming adult instead.

"Idiot!"

The warrior shouted as Agustin saw him swiftly cut the boy's arms off. He was stunned as he watched Kujou toss the boy to the adult running towards the hunter like a ragdoll, knocking the two away a short distance.

"What the hell was that for?!" was what he wanted to shout out, but at that moment…

BOOM!

He turned back to the young boy and adult, who both exploded, splattering blood and pieces of flesh around the area. Agustin couldn't speak at that moment. All of this was a bit much to take in.

Hunting an animal and a human were logically different, as far as humans believed. Humans consider themselves closer to gods than other creatures, in terms of form and sometimes intelligence. It was an arrogant concept, but nonetheless the basis to the thought process that humans were at the top of the chain of command. Therefore, a hunter normally restricts himself to animals while killing humans would result in a state of panic.

Agustin was no different.

Being a hunter didn't mean that Agustin was able to kill his emotions. Seeing a person just die in front of them would usually stun anyone. Everything in his world seemed to be falling apart.

Humans dying? Blood and flesh scattering in the air? Fighting for survival? This was too much for him. At that moment, it felt like everything had suddenly shut off. He couldn't hear anything, none of his senses seemed to be working correctly.

It was all suddenly one giant blank.

"Damnit…"

Kujou steadied his blade as he kept shifting his attention to Agustin.

He already prepared himself to kill in order to survive. He was a warrior, a person who must steel his heart and prepare to fight for victory, no matter the cost.

And yet, he wasn't completely heartless.

Agustin was deadweight at the moment, but there was no way he could just leave the hunter alone. He could only hope that Agustin would gather himself quick enough to start fighting again, but he would need to make sure to keep them both alive until then.

Miko seemed to be amused at some point, but she also seem frustrated. Was she annoyed that they weren't dying so early? Or was it something else?

No, he couldn't think about that right now. He needed to focus on the current task, which was dealing with the exploding refugees.

He knew that he had to expect that they(the refugees) would all die regardless of whether "Hope" or "Despair" won here and now.

Taking a couple of deep breaths, he steadied his heart and widened his range of awareness, keeping track of some of even the slightest sound or shift in movement.

Whenever someone moved, Kujou would instantly react once they got within range, and swung his weapon around, cutting his opponents and tossing their bodies away before they could explode. If they went close to Agustin, he would dash over and protect him before leading them away from the stunned man.

He never faltered, never wavered, simply slicing the area around him until finally, they were all gone.

He started to breathe heavily as the stress began to catch up to him. But all that he wanted to do at the moment was point his weapon at Miko, who was slowly clapping as he killed the last of her pawns.

"So, you feel anything after killing all those innocent people?"

"Innocent? They threw us in a dungeon and tried to kamikaze us under your orders."

She shrugged.

"Well it doesn't matter now. They're all dead, and you're the one who killed them in the end. Life is a total bitch."

"Yeah, and I'm staring at one of her lackeys right now…"

Miko twitched an eye.

"Clever, but I suppose you've earned a reward…" She tossed a small machine towards Kujou, who let it fall to the ground. "Don't worry, it's not a bomb…" she explained after seeing his reaction. "It's a GPS tracker. I've left one at my 'arena', so you can come by and fight me when you're ready. I'll give you 24 hours, or else I'll just come by and kill you myself."

She turned to leave.

"If I were you, I'd leave the deadweight where he is. This is world is a total hell, and it's not gonna get any better anytime soon, so softhearted idiots would be better off dead…"

Agustin snapped back into attention. He was lying on the ground face-up with some kind of blanket covered on his body. It looks like it became nighttime while he was out.

He shifted his vision to see Kujou sitting on the other side of a small fire that was burning in-between them. The hunter sat while slightly knocking on his blade and wiping it with a piece of cloth. The hunter couldn't help but stare at the weapon, as the memories of torn flesh and spilt blood suddenly surged back into him.

"You're awake, huh?"

Kujou didn't look at the hunter, instead continued to focus on his own weapon. They didn't need to speak much about what happened earlier. The looks on their faces did the talking.

Kujou was obviously disappointed that Agustin wasn't able to handle seeing those people die, but he understood that seeing a person and an animal die were two different things. He was hoping though, that Agustin would somehow sort things out and decide whether he was going to continue fighting against Monokuma and his lackeys, or if he was planning on giving up and end up getting killed by someone or something at some point in the future.

Agustin, on the other hand, was angry about Kujou having no qualms about cutting other people with his weapons. Sure, they drugged them, tossed them in a cell, and tried to kill them both with suicide bombings. But still, they didn't deserve to die like that, nobody did.
And yet, if he didn't, Agustin might not have been there anymore. It was a kid, but that emptiness on his face, that hopelessness, that look of death, it was all there, and he knew that it was just about useless to do anything to save him. He didn't want to admit it, but there was no other choice. He knew what he had to do…

"Get some rest. We'll head off to meet with that explosive expert tomorrow, and you better be ready for what's ahead…"

Agustin didn't answer. He just placed his head back on the makeshift pillow, which he realized were folded clothing, and let the momentary calm atmosphere lull him to sleep.

So yeah, I know this probably seemed kinda rushed, and I have no excuses. I may as well hang this story and give up...or at least I could, but that's not exactly a plan right now. I'm going to try getting back on working on each of my fanfics again. I think I got some time free, even with my school work.

I've already begun the next chapter, so it should come up in a week at most. I think it turned out okay so far...