Mukuro stared down at Makoto's body. 'What... I... I don't understand... what was he... what's happeni-' Suddenly, his head jerked up to look at her. 'Get d-down, Mukuro!' Jolted out of her daze, she instantly hit the ground, suddenly aware that the room's window was lying in hundreds of pieces on the floor.'I think it was only the one shot', she thought, trying to focus on the situation at hand, following Makoto as he crawled beneath the windowsill, noting with some panic that he was leaving a small trail of blood behind him. 'Makoto, are you hit?!' He shook his head. 'Just cut myself on some of the glass', he said, dazed. She let out a sigh of relief. 'G-good...'

'Focus! What's wrong with you?! You're the Ultimate Mercenary, act like it! First, what's going on? It must be that platoon. They're probably up on that hill.' She pulled out her new pistol and scowled. 'I was an idiot not bringing the rifle!' They'd have to retreat. She nodded towards the door at the back of the room. 'We have to get out of this house through the back and get back to the others', she explained to Makoto, 'and then we have to get out of this town. You go first, I'll cover you.' He nodded, and started crawling towards the door as Mukuro stood up and started taking potshots at the dark shapes on the hill above. But Makoto didn't get far before three rounds tore through the floor in front of him, causing him to recoil out of the firing line with a gasp. 'I... I can't make it!' His breathing was fast and shallow now, his eyes wide with fear. 'Shit', Mukuro swore, ducking back into cover.

Then it hit her. 'They could have easily killed him, but they just fired ahead of him... and they didn't even shoot at me. They don't want to kill us, they want to take us alive.' Her mind was filled with images of all the different torments Junko could have in store for Makoto and her for a split second, then she snapped back to the situation at hand. 'If they're trying to take us alive, then we might have the advantage after all...' Her thoughts were interrupted by a metal can clanging to the ground, white smoke pouring out of it and filling the room. Despair suddenly gripped her as she remembered what had happened outside Hope's Peak. 'Shit, no, now I can't protect him!'

Tears formed in her eyes. But she wasn't crying. In fact, the corners of her mouth were curling upwards into the faintest of smiles even as she started coughing. 'It's just tear gas! And unless they have thermal imaging gear, then they won't be able to see through it!' She looked to the side to see Makoto coughing violently, his cheeks soaked with tears. She grabbed his hand and pulled him with her as she sped across the room. A single round whizzed past them, but Mukuro was undeterred as she raced towards the back door and burst through it with Makoto. Still teary and coughing, he fell onto all fours, gasping down breaths when he could. Mukuro was still suffering the effects of the gas as well, but knew that they had to move. 'One of them fired a shot, so they probably caught a glimpse of us through the gas. They'll be right behind us.' Without bothering to explain, she scooped Makoto off the ground and ran towards the red brick house, wheezing from the gas. 'I need to hurry up and get my rifle and warn the others. We need to get out of here before it's too late!' To her relief, she saw the red brick house just up ahead.

Two dark silhouettes suddenly appeared in front of Mukuro, running straight at her with rifles in hand. Before she could drop Makoto and draw her pistol, however, they resolved themselves into familiar figures. 'We heard gunfire, and you look like you've been tear gassed. What happened?' Kyoko glanced to her right - the direction of the attack - as she spoke, clutching her rifle. Mukuro set Makoto down on the ground, taking a moment to inspect him. He was still coughing, his eyes red and nose running. 'I should be protecting you from things like this... I'm sorry.' Composing herself, she turned to Kyoko and silently noted with approval that, even now, the detective's finger was off the trigger. 'We're under attack, Novoselic troops are trying to capture us', Mukuro stated matter-of-factly even as she still wheezed from the gas. Kyoko's face betrayed no reaction, but Chihiro - who was uncomfortably holding Mukuro's rifle in the same way someone might carry a large dog - was visibly terrified. 'Don't worry', Mukuro ordered, taking the rifle from the terrified boy. 'I'll keep you all safe.' But first we need to get out of this town - find somewhere we can pick them at range from cover. If we stay here, they'll use the buildings for cover and get close enough to overwhelm us with numbers or gas us.' Kyoko considered for a moment. 'I think we went past a place like that on our way down here. It's a hill wi-'

Snow crunched to Mukuro's left, and she immediately turned, raising her rifle to her shoulder. She saw two Novoselic soldiers and instantly fired a round into each one's centre of mass. Their bodies hit the ground, and she immediately put a bullet into their Monokuma helmet-covered heads to make sure that they stayed there. She turned back to the others. Chihiro and Makoto, who had bolted upright, both stared at Mukuro in shock. She suddenly felt strange, as if she'd done something wrong, but the feeling was pushed to the back of her mind by tactical considerations. 'They'll have heard the gunfire. They know where we are. We need to move, now', she stated. 'Makoto, can you walk?' He nodded, trying to wipe the tears from his eyes and the snot from his nose. 'Y-yeah, I'm fine', he murmured, then descended into another fit of coughing. Mukuro wanted to do something, anything to help him. 'But I need to focus on protecting everyone now... I'm sorry, Makoto.' 'Chihiro, I want you to help Makoto', she ordered the now shaking boy. 'Make sure he keeps moving. Follow Kyoko. Kyoko, you lead us to the position you saw, and keep your rifle ready. I'll guard our rear. We need to move as fast as possible.' The detective nodded. 'This way.' She pointed past Mukuro, down the road to the opposite side of the town, and began jogging down it with the two boys close behind her. Mukuro followed suit, her head on a swivel.

Minutes later, they were approaching the end of the town. A side street split off from the main road to their right, as did another ahead. Between these two side streets was a double row of houses, with the last houses of the town running along the second side street. Beyond them was a forest on the left of the road. Everything was silent, with no sign of the enemy, but Mukuro knew that they were out there. 'They're probably watching us right now. They know that we're going to be a challenge to capture now, so they must be planning something. And if they're watching us, then they know what direction we're headed.' She looked down to where the last houses of the town stood. 'If I was them, that's where I'd be. The others will be lowering their guard when they get there, thinking that we've made it.But if the enemy is watching us...'

'Stop.' The others stopped in their tracks and turned to look at her as she pointed down a side street to her right. 'Head down that way, now.' Before Makoto or Chihiro could ask why, Kyoko followed Mukuro's order and jogged down the street. After a moment, the boys followed her. Mukuro again bought up the rear, but now kept her eyes trained on the gaps between the houses to her left, through which she could see the buildings at the end of the town. After only a few moments, she caught sight of figures running parallel to her. 'Just like I thought, they're shifting positions to try and set up another ambush position. And that makes them vulnerable. But I have to make this quick.'

Without hesitation and with remarkable speed, Mukuro outpaced the hostiles, overtook her startled classmates, jumped over a fence to her left, advanced to the other side of the houses, and turned to face the soldiers with her rifle raised. Now she could see - through her still-teary eyes - that there were twelve of them, all running along the road in staggered file. Their Monokuma helmets turned to face her as they readied their own weapons, but it was already too late. Mukuro placed her sights over the furthest hostile's head and squeezed the trigger. As their brains exploded out the back of their head, she was already ventilating another's face. Now the soldier closest to her began to fire their weapon, but she was already ducking, jumping over the fence, and rolling towards them. In one smooth motion, she dropped her rifle, drew her knife, and stabbed it into their thigh artery. As they screamed in pain, she grabbed them by the throat from behind and turned them around to face their comrades, who immediately opened fire. Protected by her human shield, Mukuro swiftly transferred her knife to her left hand, drew her pistol, and blew open the heads of five more hostiles in quick succession. Now the remaining four rushed her, only for her to shove her human shield at the closest one. As they stumbled under the weight of their dead comrade, another came at her from her left. She sank her knife into their neck, then raised her pistol and painted the snow with the brains of the other two as they charged. By now the first of the four had recovered and was right on top of Mukuro, only for their head to explode in a shower of blood as she fired from point-blank.

Without taking even a moment to recover, Mukuro turned back the way she came. 'Kyoko', she yelled, 'bring the others over here, now!' The detective immediately walked out from behind one of the houses, followed by Makoto and Chihiro, both of whom stared at the carnage before them with wide eyes and slack jaws. Even Kyoko looked taken aback. 'Good, they followed me', Mukuro thought. 'But... what they saw me do...' She immediately forced the useless thought out of her mind, switching her focus back to the tactical situation. 'We have to get out now before they send reinforcements, get back to the main road. Now.' Kyoko nodded, grabbed Chihiro by the arm, and moved out, followed my Makoto after a few moments. The two boys stared at the corpses laid out before them as they quickly stumbled through them. 'Stay focused', Mukuro told herself as she followed the others, scanning behind herself for any more hostiles.

They were back on the main road within moments. 'If we keep heading up this road', Kyoko explained, 'we'll get to a hill with a cabin on it after a few hours.' She turned to Mukuro. 'Would that be a good place to defend ourselves?' The mercenary considered. 'Are there any trees or anything else that could obscure our view from the top?' Kyoko shook her head. 'Nothing like that.' Mukuro nodded. 'We'll go there, then. But we're too exposed out here.' She nodded to the left of the road, where a dense forest began. 'We'll use the trees for cover while we move. Let's go.'

Around half an hour passed with no sign of any enemy action, and Mukuro could no longer distract her mind with tactics and combat. Instead, she found herself staring at the back of Makoto's head. 'She... told him.' Her stomach sank and her heart beat faster and faster as she remembered. 'He knows how I feel. He knows that I... love him.' It was becoming harder and harder to breath. It felt as though a giant hand was squeezing the air out of her, and she could do nothing but desperately try to gulp down some breaths. 'I... I... what am I going to do now? What does he think about me? Does he think that I'm some kind of -' Her thoughts were suddenly cut off as she felt a small hand take her own. She looked over to see Chihiro staring up at her, a small, nervous smile on his face. She gave the slightest of smiles in return. 'At least I'm not alone...'