The rain hammered down on Hope's Peak academy, and Mukuro was terrified. She was terrified of what Junko would do when she found out about her betrayal, and she was terrified of what Makoto would think of her. But that hadn't stopped her from telling him the truth about what had happened to the Student Council and what Junko was planning to do next. 'I... I'm telling you this because... because I love you, Makoto.'

Without a word, her turned his back on her.

'I'm sorry', she mumbled, tears rubbing down her cheeks. 'I... I should have stopped her sooner. 'It... it's okay if y-you don't forgive me, but please... please don't leave me alone. I... I need you.' Makoto stopped and turned around. She looked at him, hopeful and desperate that he would stay with her.

Instead, a bullet tore through his stomach and he fell to the ground.

He lay screaming on the ground, blood leaking out of his body, but Mukuro was too paralysed with fear to do anything to help. Junko stood over him, Luger in hand and a sneer on her face. 'Seriously? You stabbed your little sister in the back for the sake of a guy you never had a chance with? Like, I get that being ugly and horny can you make you desperate, but this is, like, soooo next-level pathetic.' She pointed the pistol at Makoto's head. 'I'm gonna, like, shoot him now, and then I'll... I dunno, shoot you too?' 'No!' Mukuro screamed, despair filling her heart. 'Junko, please don't, please!' She reached for her rifle, and suddenly everything went dark and cold and Makoto was staring at her. She ran towards him and pushed him behind her, bringing her rifle up, switching the safety off, and aiming at the woman who had just walked through the door.

'Mukuro, no!'

Makoto's voice was just enough to stop her from squeezing the trigger. She blinked, and suddenly noticed that she was aiming at Kyoko who, despite her usual lack of expression, had raised her hands. Mukuro immediately lowered the rifle. 'What?! Wh-where's Junko?!' She turned to Makoto. 'Y-you need to be lying down... I n-need to get you to a hospital, y-you nee-' 'Mukuro!' Makoto grabbed her shoulders, concern and fear written all over his face. 'It's alright! It's alright. You were just having a bad dream.' She stared at him for a moment. 'I... I thought she shot you... I thought you were going to die... I...' She looked down and saw Chihiro looking up at her in terror, and suddenly she felt as if the walls were closing in on her, and she needed to escape. 'I... I didn't mean to... I thought...' She glanced back and saw Kyoko staring at her, her face still unreadable. But she'd moved out of the doorway. Mukuro ran through it, desperate to get away from the others.

It was still freezing outside, but all she could feel was the heat of shame and embarrassment. 'I... I nearly shot Kyoko! What the hell is wrong with me?! They all think I'm crazy now and I don't even know if they're wrong! I cant think straight! I... I haven't been able to since I met Makoto... before I met him, I didn't ever feel this way! It... it was easier back then... but now I -' 'Mukuro?'

She whipped around to see Makoto standing before her. She felt something dark and violent forcing itself into her mind, and, before she could do anything, it was in control. 'Go away!' He stopped, stunned, but she just kept yelling. 'You... everything was easier before you! Nothing like this ever happened before I met you! But now, now I can't even go to sleep without having a nightmare about losing you! And you don't even want me! I just want it to stop! I wish I'd never met you!' She regretted the lie as soon as it passed her lips, but it was too late. It was all too much. She fell onto all fours, too weak to stand. It felt as if all her guilt and shame and anxiety was forcing itself out of her body any way it could. It pushed up her throat, and she vomited. 'Of course he doesn't want you after everything you did. You were lucky to have him as a friend at all for this long.'

The sound of crunching snow moved toward her, then stopped right in front of her. 'I'm sorry', she mumbled. 'I didn't mean... I just...' 'I know.' To her surprise, Makoto placed his hand on her shoulder. 'You... you've been through a lot these past few days, huh?' Mukuro ignored his words. 'Why are you being kind to me? After... after what I just said?' He sighed. 'Because... do you remember what I said? When you were carrying me to the house? When you told me that... how you feel about me, I -' 'You changed your mind', Mukuro stated blankly, despairing realisation filling her mind. 'Because... l-loving you while doing all of that... it made it worse, didn't it?' She turned her head in his direction, but stopped short of actually looking at him. 'How can you trust me when I've betrayed the person I... the person I love?'

There was a heavy silence. 'Yeah', Makoto mumbled, breaking it. Mukuro felt so weak that she didn't think she'd be able to stand again. 'But', Makoto continued, 'that doesn't change what you've done for us. And... you were having a nightmare about Junko hurting me, weren't you?' 'Yeah. I was.' There was another silence, then Makoto replied. 'I hadn't considered it, but... well, Komaru and I don't always get along, but I could never have a nightmare about her hurting people close to me. How... don't answer if you don't want to, but how did she treat you?' He sat down on the snow, patting the ground beside him as an invitation for Mukuro to sit next to him. She feebly accepted, but stared at the ground as she answered his question. 'Well... she used to trust me. That's why she had me do so many important things for her. But... if I annoyed her, she'd remind me how... how I l-look and smell.' 'Huh? What do you mean?' She still couldn't bring herself to look at Makoto, but she could hear the concern in his voice. 'You know what I mean', she replied, embarrassed. 'I... I smell bad and... I'm ugly.' 'That's not true!' Makoto's exclamation was startling enough for Mukuro to instinctively turn her head to look at him, fast enough to see his worried expression replaced with blushing awkwardness. 'You're beautiful!''Huh? What did he just sa-' 'I mean, uh... anyway, she shouldn't have said that sort of stuff to you', he said, regaining his composure. 'Did she... did she do anything else to you?'

Mukuro silently stared at the ground. She knew what to say, but something about it felt... wrong. As if saying it would make it worse. But, eventually, she forced the words out of her mouth. 'Well... sometimes she'd be... physical. I mean, it wasn't that bad too often, she'd just come at me with a knife or something and expect me to block her, but sometimes she'd... she'd make sure it... hurt.' After a few moments of empty silence, she looked up to see Makoto staring at her, a disturbed and pitying expression on his face. 'Mukuro... I... I'm so sorry.' 'Thanks', she murmured. 'I always told myself that it was my fault... that I was letting her down, that I wasn't being a good big sister. But... is that what was happening?' Makoto immediately shook his head. 'No. She shouldn't have ever done those things to you. And the things she said about you... they were all bullshit. She was letting you down as a sister.' Mukuro had never thought about it like that before. 'You really think that?' He replied with a nod. 'And...' She hesitated, terrified, then looked back up at Makoto and saw nothing but kindness. '... do... do you really think I'm... b-beautiful?' He blushed again and looked away. 'I... I do.'

Mukuro stared at him, suddenly feeling the full weight of the loneliness she'd lived with. She lunged at him and wrapped her arms around him. As he jumped in surprise, she buried her head in his chest, tears flowing freely from her eyes as she sobbed uncontrollably. After a few seconds, Makoto's body relaxed, and he hugged her back. 'It's alright', he murmured. 'Things are going to be different for you now.'