Mukuro looked out the window and sighed. Night was falling, the orange clouds that covered the sky fading to a dull pink. 'Alright, I'm ready,' Makoto said eagerly as he walked out of his room to meet her at the front door. 'Makoto, you're sure about this?' 'Yeah, I'm sure', he smiled. 'Besides, I have you with me, so what's the worst that can happen?' She glanced down at the floor. 'Thanks', she murmured. 'I'll, uh... I'll take care of you.' 'Oh shit, was that a weird thing to say?'
If it was, Makoto didn't seem to mind. He simply replied with a 'thanks', opened the door, and stepped out into the snow. Mukuro quickly caught up with him as he walked out onto the street. 'Feels good to stretch my legs again, even if it is freezing', he grinned. 'But thanks', he quickly added, turning to look at her, 'for looking after me.' She couldn't meet his eyes. 'It's fine', she mumbled, so quiet that her voice was almost drowned out by the crunching of the snow beneath their feet. 'Anyway, you said something about coming to this country back at Hope's Peak, didn't you?' She looked up to see Makoto looking at her with expectant curiosity. 'What was that like?' 'Well, uh, we... we were hired by a duke,' she explained, her voice growing louder as she recalled the details. 'This kingdom has - sorry, had - a lot of internal power struggles. The duke wanted us to defend his land and attack any rival nobles who got in his way.' Makoto raised an eyebrow. 'It was that bad?' She nodded. 'Every few months, we'd fight over a farm or town at the edges of his territory. Then the Royal Army got expanded and cracked down on that sort of thing, so we moved over to Chechnya.'
Makoto was silent for a few moments, and Mukuro started to worry if she'd said something wrong. 'Have you ever gone somewhere on just a holiday?' No fighting, just... having fun?' He looked at her with concern and pity. She shook her head. 'N-no... I haven't', she mumbled. 'Not since I was a kid. My parents took me to Europe, but... that's when I joined Fenrir.' He grimaced. 'That's... alright, once this is all over we're going on holiday.' Her eyes widened as her heartbeat picked up. 'Huh?!' 'He wants to go on a holiday... with me?' 'It'll probably do everyone some good', he continued. 'Kyoko and Chihiro could do with some relaxation as well... we should go to a beach so that Hina can do some swimming as well... Sakura likes to swim, too.' Mukuro's heart sank. 'Oh... he means with everyone else. But... that still sounds really nice.' 'Alright', she smiled, 'let's do it.' Makoto grinned. 'Can't wait!' He wrapped his arms around himself. 'Especially if we're going somewhere warmer than this, I'm freezing!'
Mukuro began to undo her warm winter combat jacket, but he shook his head with a smile. 'It's alright, I don't want you to be cold too. I might just head back soon, before I get too cold.' 'Alright', she nodded, relieved that he wasn't going to be out for long. 'How's your wound going?' 'It still feels... weird', he admitted, 'but not like it's going to open up again.' 'Well, just take it easy to make sure that it doesn't', she ordered, an slight edge of authority creeping into her voice. Makoto simply smiled in response. 'I've said it before, Mukuro, but you really could make a great doctor or nurse!' She glanced down at the ground, her cheeks starting to feel somewhat warm. 'Th-thanks...' '... but he still doesn't approve of my talent. How can I show him that it's -'
The quiet night was suddenly shattered by painfully loud music, filling the air with obnoxious squeaks and pops playing to a rapid, aggressive beat. 'What the hell?!' As Makoto covered his ears, Mukuro looked in the direction the music seemed to be coming from and saw a dark silhouette sprinting out of a house and up a hill into the forest. She turned to Makoto. Mercifully, the volume of the music was rapidly decreasing, and she could just about make herself heard. 'Get back to the others! Get out of here! I'll find you later!' She didn't wait for a reply after yelling her orders. She simply turned around and ran up the hill. 'Why did you leave the rifle back at the house?! Stupid, stupid, stupid!' But, even unarmed, she knew that she could catch up to the enemy and kill them. The music had stopped by now, so she could hear her quarry's feet rapidly crunching through the snow ahead of her. Without hesitating, she followed them deeper into the forest. The trees whipped past her in a blur as she gained on the sound of the enemy's footsteps, which grew faster and faster as she came closer in a vain attempt to outrun her.
Suddenly, they stopped, and so did Mukuro. 'So, they can't outrun me... they're either trying to hide or setting up an ambush.' She stepped forward again, slowly, cautiously, making sure to create as little noise as possible. Her senses were in overdrive as she looked for her prey and listened for their movements. She even smelled the air for anything that didn't belong.
She heard something to her right. It was the sound of someone exhaling, and she knew what was coming next. Judging the right moment purely by instinct, she dove to the ground as a gunshot rang through the air and a bullet sped for where her centre of mass had been a moment before. Immediately getting back up, Mukuro turned to the direction of the gunshot, and now she could just about see that same silhouette - just a person, no Monokuma helmet - among the darkness of the trees. It turned to face her as she charged at it, raising its arms, and she ducked behind a tree just as it fired another round. She was close now, close enough that it might not be able to get off another shot before her hands were at its throat, and it must have known that - it turned around and began to run away. But Mukuro was still faster. She stepped out from behind the tree, rushed at the figure, and tackled it to the ground. Its pistol dropped to the ground next to them. A desperate, flailing fist slammed down on her flank again and again, but it wasn't enough to stop her from putting them in a strangling headlock. Their movements became more and more erratic as they tried in vain to make her release her grip, clawing at her arms and beating her sides as their strength faded. 'How many more of you are there, and where are they?' Mukuro glanced around her as she spoke, trying to detect anyone who could be sneaking up on her and taking note of the pistol beside her. 'P-please... can't... breathe!' The hostile - she sounded like a young woman - had finally stopped struggling. But Mukuro didn't relent. 'Tell me, and I'll let you live. How many, and where?' 'A... a pl-platoon... com-coming through h-here to-towards the t-town...'
Mukuro released the headlock, then, in an instant, picked up the pistol and shot the woman in the back of the head before running back towards the town.
There was no way Mukuro could take any prisoners in this situation, and she needed to hurry back to the others. She'd done the same thing plenty of times before, sometimes even when she could have taken prisoners. But now, for the first time in her life, she looked back. The young woman was lying face down in the snow. Her short black hair contrasted starkly with the white snow around it, which was rapidly turning red as blood pooled out from her ruined face. Mukuro stared for a moment. 'What... am I feeling right now?'