Next chapter. I'd like to apologize if the characters seem a bit too OOC. I try not to do that when I can.

8:29

That was the time that Miko read on her watch.

It was pretty early, and those two didn't have any actual way of telling time, so there was nothing to do but wait.

She couldn't help but smile, despite herself. The feeling of waiting for an opponent before a grand match, the anticipation of an outcome where one side wins or loses. All these feelings, something she never thought she'd feel again. There were moments when she used to enjoy those days, a time when she was as positive as those idiots that they had to get rid of once and for all.

At one point, if that incident never happened, would she have joined those morons who were supposed to represent hope? Would she have died like those innocent people that she turned to cannon fodder? Would she still be in the same position as where she was right now? These thoughts slowly clouded her mind as she put more and more thought into it.

She focused her gaze as two figures slowly grew larger in her field of vision. It seems the time has finally come to face off with them. Her face shifted back into its serious look.

No, there was no point in thinking about this anymore. There's only two outcomes in the world.

Victory or Death.

And she was going to make sure that those two wouldn't achieve victory…

Agustin and Kujou finally managed to make it to Miko's "arena", which was a large stadium about 520,840 square feet and filled with large pieces of debris that were scattered all around, making it resemble a stage from those shooting games like Ha*o or Ca** of **ty. Miko herself was sitting on top of one of the large pieces of debris, cross-legged and with that annoying look on her face.

"I suppose you've finally come to die…"

"No," Kujou replied. "We've come to defeat you and get some answers to this mystery."

The demolitionist scoffed.

"Before we start…I want to ask you something…"

She turned her head towards the hunter.

Agustin had more confidence in his eyes, but there seemed to be something else, something more hollow...something that seemed to somehow be clear yet cloudy at the same time. Something confusing her.

"What the hell do you want?"

"Why do you kill people so easily?"

Kujou was a bit stunned. Was this really the time to ask?

"..hm…hm hm…."

The two looked up at her.

"Hm…hm hm hm hm hm….heh heh heh heh heh heh…You're asking me why I've killed people so easily? A person who works with Monokuma? A 'Denizen of Despair'?"

"I'm asking because it's you."

Agustin was completely serious about this.

Since last night, he thought about just going for the kill after knowing what Miko did, that she probably wouldn't even bother talking about her reasons.

But then he thought about those refugees. They all had their own reason for trying to turn the two of them in to Monokuma. They also had another reason when Miko turned them into human bombs, so Miko herself must have some kind of reason for doing all of this.

So he wanted to at least hear her out. He didn't know whether it was worth taking the time to do this, but he wanted to at least give it a shot.

"That's a stupid question. Why did you attack those 'innocent people' earlier?"

"Because…"

"There were plenty of ways to avoid them. But instead you two decided to just go and chop them up and let them die.."

"You're the one who sent them after us in the first place."

"Did I tell you to kill them?"

"You knew that they would all die because of what you did!"

"No, I knew that at least SOME of them would die in order to try and kill you. Not that all of them would be worthless in taking you down, when all they needed was to take you by surprise, LIKE THIS!"

She pressed a button on the custom-made wristband on her left wrist.

*BOOM* *BOOM*

Two explosions suddenly rang out simultaneously from the debris that was at the sides of the two.

She already planted traps earlier for plenty of sneak attacks in the area.

Well, all she was doing was making use of her own weapons, so it shouldn't be a problem to rely on cowardly tactics to fight.

But sadly, this whole thing was far from over.

She ducked as Kujou suddenly appeared while making a slashing movement with his weapon. The boy flew past her, reaching the ground behind her and setting up for another attack.

Or at least, that's what it was supposed to seem like.

She sidestepped to the left as Agustin swung downward with a knife, then she shifted her body as he made several follow-up attacks.

Agustin thought back to earlier, to the time when he and Kujou was heading to the "arena".

"Fighting a person is different from hunting an animal. You need to plan out your method of attack, and then use a follow-up after failing the first attack."

"I should expect to fail on my first move?"

"You NEED to expect failure on the first move. These aren't mindless animals that you're fighting, its people who can think ahead and defend against the most basic moves. A follow-up increases your chances of hurting them, since there are thousands of ways to make another move, while only hundreds or tens to start one."

After hearing Miko's words, he knew that he had no reason to hesitate anymore, he was going to defeat her at any cost.

But even so, this was still difficult.

Miko was able to easily dodge all his moves, even his follow-ups, without even breaking a sweat.

Even though Agustin was a hunter, he still was skilled with wielding a knife, so it wasn't like he was poor at handling a weapon or attacking.

It just meant that he was easier to read than he thought.

He leapt back next to Kujou, who was keeping a stance while glaring at the demolitionist.

"Sneak attacks seem below you." Miko said.

"Says the one who used one earlier." Kujou replied.

"Bite me, I'm the damn villain. I'm allowed to cheat."

She pressed a couple more buttons, and the two leapt in opposite directions to avoid the blast. But the explosions were set off at spaces several meters away from where they originally were.

Miko tossed something at each of them. Kujou began to look carefully, seeing something small and…furry? It was a rat?

No wait…

He used the back end of his blade to hit the rat-like object and sent it flying away before it exploded. He turned to Agustin, who seemed to have noticed the same thing, and knocked his away as well. The hunter exhumed air to show he was fine.

But it only the beginning. Miko was holding clumps of something in each of her hands and threw them into the air.

The warrior and the hunter both looked as the "somethings" began to take shape as they came closer, and saw that they were tiny spider figurines which also seemed to double as mini-bombs. They tried to run, but the figurines quickly detonated, leaving small explosions in the entire area. Some of them exploded near the two of them, while the rest created tiny shallow craters in the ground around them. Although they weren't powerful to take out flesh, they did cause some serious burns in a couple places.

Immediately following up, Miko pressed even more buttons, and several more bombs detonated nearby, catching the two's attention momentarily. When they looked back, Miko was already running towards them while throwing even more mini bombs, this time in the shape of birds which soared straight at them with pointed tips were the head were supposed to be. The bird-shaped bombs were much faster, and were even designed to slightly turn at different directions mid-air. These were much trickier to avoid, which made the two struggle harder.

Kujou swung his sword the best he could, but it seems as if the "birds" would dance around his blade like leaves in the wind. Agustin tried knocking them with the blunt side of his knife, but the knockback had little effect, instead causing a similar effect with Kujou's sword.

Eventually the bird-shaped bombs exploded as well, generating a bit more force than the spiders, which caused the two to not only sustain more injuries, but to be pushed off into different directions.

"Damnit…" Agusting mumbled as he pushed himself to get up quickly. "She's definitely living up to her title…"

"Indeed," Kujou was using his weapon as support to help himself up. "She certainly carries a wide assortment of explosives. Seems like its C-4…"

"You sure?"

"I've seen some bombs from time to time…"

"Well considering she also molded them into living creatures, I'd say she's making an ironic joke somehow…"

"Ah yes, the hunter being killed by animal-like objects…"

"Shut up. This is the most I've heard you speak at all…"

"Well we can't just stay quiet if we're going to survive. Unless you can somehow read minds…"

"No, sadly that's not something I can do…"

"Then here's what we should do instead…"

45-degrees to the left, the "birds" will swerve around and loop towards the back.

15-degrees upwards from the ground. These will dive from the sky and aim towards their feet to explode. Any attempt to hit or dodge them will just make it harder for themselves.

A bomb-user usually relies on traps and long-range attacks to fight at a distance, while keeping the elements of surprise, but she's used bombs for a long time now, and she's already had plenty of practice with other losers to learn the best way to utilize her homemade explosives for any situation.

"Spiders" were more stationary and weaker, but she could throw out more of them for distractions and smokescreens. "Rats" were designed to move and deliver a bigger impact, but they were less sensitive, so she'd need to set them off herself. "Birds" were the most mobile, and were stronger than "Spiders", but they were too light to control herself, and a good gust of wind could literally blow them away (Luckily, there was no wind blowing today, so that flaw was covered).

In short, strategic skill was needed to utilize these bombs effectively.

She tossed more "Birds", but she was quickly running out, so she threw in a few "Spiders" and "Rats" as well. With all three together, she'd be able to confuse them and throw off their senses momentarily.

Then, with the mines underneath them that she saved for this moment, the combined detonation should be strong enough to cripple enough to detain them for a while.

Watching as the two struggled to continue, she turned and jumped behind a rather large piece of rubble before counting down.

5…

4…

3…

2…

BOOM

The bombs all went off, creating a rather big explosion and setting off a small wave of heat that quickly spread out about a fourth of the entire stadium.

She looked around to see flames burst brightly in the area where all her bombs had went off. There was no way anyone should have survived a blast like that. Even though each of her bombs had different strengths, the combined force was enough to burn at least a fifth of a large city alone.

But that was still wishful thinking.

She sighed as she felt the cold monokumite press against the skin of her throat.

Agustin was holding his knife against her while breathing heavily. Kujou seemed to be nearby, standing and watching the two of them.

"Hm…how boring…"

"Shut up. I'm getting tired of hearing you talk…"

The tone in the hunter's voice hinted stress. It would be easy to push his buttons, but it wasn't worth it right now.

"The bombs went off two seconds earlier than usual, but even so to get away without either of you dying?"

This was truly a surprise. She never expected the two of them to live through that explosion, maybe one at most, with the sacrifice of another. So she was rather curious.

"Humor me, how exactly did you do this?"

"We aren't obligated to tell you anything. You answer to us now…"

"Very well, I supposed I could just torture you both for answers instead…"

"Are you freakin kidding me?! We have you trapped here! Why are you…"

Agustin was wide-eyed as he suddenly released her.

Of course since she threw a "Rat", it was obvious that he'd naturally avoid by instinct.

But that was a dud. A fake she made for cases like these.

It was only a split-second before Agustin realized the truth and ran back to try and capture her again.

"You know, most bombers would try to get some distance before attacking again." She calmly spoke as she watched Agustin come closer. "After all, they're mostly trap-setters and mid- to long-range attackers who'd rather not get caught up in their own attacks. However…"

As he was about to grab her, she swiftly dodged the attack while spinning to avoid his arm while staying inside his "zone".

"…you made a mistake."

She gave a dark smile before landing a punch on Agustin's chest.

The punch was heavy, she had forgotten this feeling for a quite a while. It was the same punch she used to land when back in her early days.

A punch that sent the hunter flying to the spot just in front of the warrior, and making him cough up some blood.

"You never considered the fact that I actually know close-range combat."

Yes, back in those days, she was a well-known street fighter who climbed the top of the ladder in success. A lot has happened since then, but one thing never changed.

She was one of the best street fighters around, and she never forgotten how to fight like one, even now.

No more holding back.

No more half-assing.

In only 5 minutes, she'll cripple the two of them and take their monokumite before slowly killing them in the most painful way possible.

Errrrrrr...I kinda don't like how this chapter was written, but I'll leave it up to you all to decide on how it turned out.

Well I'm not sure when the next chapter would be up, but I'll see what I can do. If there are any questions, complaints, blah blah blah the usual stuff, please leave a review on it or PM me. I'd really appreciate it.

Ravenking, sorry again for making Agustin too OOC. Let me know if this chapter worked better for how you initially saw him.