Chapter Text
"Where… the hell are we?"
Makoto opened his eyes slowly, waiting for his vision to stop swimming. The last thing he remembered he was at that party, the one Mukuro threw for their upcoming graduation, and to finally celebrate her return to school after she recovered from what her sister did to her.
"What?" He put a hand to his aching head and looked around.
The others were there with him, all waking up as well. It looked as though Sakura and Mondo had been up for awhile already, and were helping others to adjust.
They seemed to be sitting in a dark room of some abandoned building. It looked mostly in disrepair aside from the large television screens on either side of the room and the big metal door blocking their way out.
"Does anyone remember anything?" Kyoko asked, walking to the center of the group.
"Oh, right, yes, I remember everything perfectly," Byakuya replied sarcastically. "That's why I'm looking around in confusion, because I remember everything."
"We were doing a toast," Sakura said a bit more helpfully.
"Yeah, obviously somebody slipped us something," Mondo said. "But what the hell do they want with us?"
Kyoko looked around the room doing a quick headcount and shook her head. "Not they. She."
"What?"
Before she could explain the televisions flickered to life with a cheerful chiming sound.
"Good evening, class, I hope everyone is ready for a successful semester of killing," an unfamiliar voice said, and as the image on the screen grew clearer they realized the voice appeared to be coming from a black and white teddy bear.
"What the hell?" Leon growled.
"I know, I know," the voice said sympathetically. "You're all just champing at the bit to get started! Who wouldn't wanna have a go at one of their classmates after spending an entire high school career with them? My money is on Togami going first."
Byakuya folded his arms over his chest. "Tch."
"Explain what's going on!" Hina shouted, and Sakura put a hand on her shoulder to keep her from walking towards the screen.
"If you'd give me a chance to speak I would!" The bear roared, baring claws at them. "Now then, if everyone is ready, please listen to the following instructions carefully."
The bear cleared his throat and then looked directly into the camera.
"Rule number one: if you would all look at your wrists you'll see that you're wearing a bracelet."
They all checked their wrists and sure enough there was a black circle of metal around their wrists emblazoned with the same red eye the bear had.
"Try to leave the arena and KA-BLOOM!" The bear laughed raucously. "One explosion and that's all she wrote!"
"These things are gonna explode?" Sayaka asked nervously, playing with the bangle around her wrist.
"Rule two: tampering with the bracelet will also cause it to explode, so mind your fingers pop sensation!"
Sayaka yelped and pulled her hand away.
"Rule three: the headmaster, that is I the illustrious Monokuma, may add new rules at any point. Rule four, the most important rule…" Monokuma chuckled. "Puhuhu… only seven of you will be allowed to live, at maximum. By the time you reach the end of the challenge you will find an exit, an exit that will not open until you have whittled your numbers down to almost half."
"You expect us to kill each other?" Taka bellowed. "We'll never do it!"
"You will if you ever want to leave, and trust me once you see what we have in store for you you'll be begging to get out." Monokuma put his paws in front of his smile. "Stabbing, bludgeoning, drowning, strangling, whatever you choose is fine, just kill each other until the top six… or less… are standing!"
There was chaos for a moment as everyone panicked, but then Kyoko stepped to the front of the crowd.
"You said almost half of us ," she gestured around the room. "But there are fourteen of us here, should be fifteen. Why not just make it an even seven? Why aim for six?"
"I did say that, didn't I?" Monokuma chuckled, and then the floor opened up underneath Makoto.
"Wha…" Makoto barely had time to make a sound of surprise before he fell through the trap door and into the blackness below.
The effect was immediate, everyone gasped or screamed or threatened Monokuma. Kyoko and Byakuya both ran to where the door had been and tried to find the edges to pry it open.
Eventually, Kyoko had to drag Byakuya away.
"There's no use," she said.
"You're just going to give up on him?" Byakuya snapped at her.
"No, calm down and think," she said. "If she wanted him dead she would have shown us, made us panic. We'll find him, but we have to be patient."
"You keep saying she, who is she ?" Byakuya asked.
"Enough bickering from the lovebirds!" Monokuma yelled. "I've taken your little boy toy hostage in case you get any smart ideas! So let's run a clean race everyone, on your marks…"
Kyoko and Byakuya gave each other a determined look, Sakura took Hina's hand, Mondo and Taka drew closer to each other.
"Get set…"
Chihiro was trembling until Mondo put a hand on her shoulder, Celeste snapped for Hifumi to stand to attention, Sayaka and Leon looked panicked and also looked around for something to use as a weapon.
"Get super set!"
Hiro started praying, Toko mumbled and pulled at her hair,
"Go!" Monokuma shouted, and the door opened.
Izuru and Sakakura were listening to a fight.
While it wasn't uncommon for them to watch a fight, the pair of them critiquing whatever boxing match happened to be on, neither of them was particularly comfortable with listening to the fight happening a room over.
"They're all adults who can make their own choices," Munakata insisted. "They applied, we accepted."
"You advertised to them! They were all going to go on to do amazing things!" Chisa shouted. "I thought the whole point of the Future Foundation was to protect kids like my students from violence, and chaos, and being used!"
"Well, it's a little late for them, don't you think? At least they can save the next genera-"
Munakata trailed off, realizing he'd made a fatal mistake telling Chisa that it was a little too late for her former students.
"Too late?" She asked, folding her arms over her chest.
"Oof," Sakakura muttered.
"Too late ?" Chisa repeated angrily.
"Oof," Izuru agreed quietly.
"People can heal if you give them time and support, you're giving them weapons and salaries!" Chisa stamped her foot. "Just because they're over eighteen doesn't mean they should be considered ready to sign their lives away!"
"You're acting like this is the army," Munakata argued. "They're just a defense team, just in case more ultimates like Junko Enoshima show up."
"You've lost sight of what this project was for," Chisa said. "I… I just can't talk to you right now. I love you, but I am very angry at you right now! I've made my opinions clear."
"Chisa-!"
Chisa stormed back out into the living room, and looked over at the two unwilling eavesdroppers.
"Izuru, you want to go get ice cream?" Chisa asked, clearly just wanting to get out of the house.
"Yes," Izuru said readily, standing and defensively stepping between her and Munakata when he entered the room.
"... stow the eyes, Kamukura," Munakata said.
"Sorry, boss," Sakakura chuckled. "You know junior, better just back off his mom for a bit."
Munakata sighed. "I just wanted to say I love you too, Chisa."
Chisa nodded firmly. Then her and Izuru left.
Izuru studied Chisa carefully as they walked. He was learning to recognize emotions in himself and it helped to study the emotions of others. Not to mention, seeing her so upset at someone she loved was troubling.
She was frowning, one hand gripping her other arm. She was walking without focusing on where they were going and almost missed their turn. Izuru gently took her arm and guided her.
"Oh, thanks." She smiled weakly.
"You're scared for your students," Izuru guessed.
"Yes, very scared." Chisa shook her head. "They're all good kids, with bright futures… hearing they all signed up for this… ultimate defense squad, is disheartening."
"Perhaps they wanted to help prevent further disasters," Izuru said.
"Maybe, but I still don't like it," Chisa sighed.
"I agree." Izuru nodded.
"You do?"
"Your fiance is an idiot."
"Izuru!" Chisa scolded him. "He may be acting like an idiot now but he's a good guy! I don't know what's come over him."
Izuru shrugged.
"I'm surprised you turned him down to be honest," Chisa said. "Wouldn't this kind of job be interesting for you?"
"Not really. I'm interested in getting a popsicle right now…"
Chisa laughed. "No, seriously, you really didn't want to? I know I said I didn't like the idea but you don't have to turn it down just for my sake."
"I don't want to be used for combat, political gain, or espionage, ever again," Izuru said. "I want to do things for me."
"Well, good for you." Chisa playfully bumped against him, and he bumped her back.
Makoto fell into a chute that sent him tumbling into what he guessed was an elevator or dumbwaiter.
All he really knew is that he'd been falling and now he was going up.
He also knew that everybody else was in danger.
I have to help them, they can't kill each other they can't! They won't!
The door before him finally slid open and let in a light that momentarily blinded him as his eyes adjusted. Before he could try to leave the elevator he felt someone clip something around his neck. Then there was a tug and he tumbled out onto the floor.
"Ow…" he rubbed at his head and then noticed someone offering him a hand. "Mukuro?"
Mukuro smiled softly at him. "Hi, Makoto."
Makoto accepted her hand up, and then realized the thing around his neck was a collar with a dangling leash. "... uhhh…"
"I'm sorry, you still need restraints, I trust you but…" Mukuro sighed. "It's okay, you'll be safe up here."
"What about the others? We have to help them! Did you see? There was a…" Makoto stopped in his frantic explanation as it all fell into place. "... are you doing this?"
Mukuro nodded.
"Makoto," she said. "You were the only one who was ever kind to me… I want to build a world for people like that."
"By killing our friends?"
"They're not our friends." Mukuro scowled. "Makoto, those people are abusers, criminals, liars, hoarders, misogynists…" she shook her head. "I need some of them alive, but they should be punished along the way. I have to use despair as the way to punish those who bring despair."
"They're our classmates!" Makoto argued. "Mukuro, you have to stop this!"
He knew she'd been on the wrong side of things before, but it hadn't been her fault, right? Junko wasn't around to control her anymore, and she'd seemed so much better with her sister gone, so much kinder.
"But you're different from them, you're kind, you're hope." Mukuro beamed at him. "You don't have to die, or serve in my army of despair, but you have to serve another way."
Makoto took a shaky step back.
"Kids?" Mukuro called, and Makoto watched in surprise as a group of children walked out from behind the throne that sat at the end of the room.
"I want you to take care of them," Mukuro said. "Teach them to be like you, and I'll teach them to be like me. They need hope and despair, so they can continue our work when we're gone.
"Our w… Mukuro, I can't do this. I have to go help the others," Makoto tried to find a door.
Mukuro watched him sadly and sighed. "I was hoping you'd stay without persuasion but…"
She took a remote from her pocket and pointed it at the large television above the throne. Makoto stared in horror at the image that flashed before his eyes.
"Komaru!" He shouted, running towards the monitor as though he could help her.
His sister was beating on a smooth almost featureless door. There was no sound but it looked like she was screaming.
"Where is she? What did you do to her?" Makoto shouted, tears running down his cheeks.
"She's safe for now," Mukuro said, eyes dark. "But her staying safe depends on you."
Makoto made a choked noise, and fell to his knees. Mukuro hesitantly lay a hand on his head, and stroked his hair.
"It will be okay," she promised. "Come meet the Warriors of Hope."
"Okay! Let's try again! We can do this!" Chiaki shouted, pumping her fist in the air. She blew on the whistle hanging around her neck, and the chaos began anew.
“So, Miss Sonia, think the uniform looks any good on me?” Kazuichi asked, leaning against a support pillar and shooting a finger gun at the princess.
“Oh, I suppose it does?” she said politely.
“Fool that you are! Relying on mere garb to bolster your dark essence!” Gundham laughed. “Focus your energies on victory, Kazuichi Soda!”
“Don’t sneak up on me! God damn it!” Kazuichi shrieked, and Sonia sighed fondly at her two suitors and their antics. Just then Peko and Fuyuhiko swept down on the attack, knocking Kazuichi off his feet and grabbing Sonia before wrestling her to the floor. Gundham cried out in surprise and darted away.
“Young master, I would prefer if you kept closer to me during this next exercise,” Peko said, sparring sword in hand.
“Would you quit it with the master stuff already?” Fuyuhiko groaned. “We’re coworkers now! Coworkers .”
“What you both are is my prey!” Gundham decreed, reaching into his pocket and retrieving several of his hamsters. The hamsters leapt from his hand and tackled the two yakuza in the face, knocking Fuyuhiko over and making Peko spin in a circle as she tried to remove the deva currently perched on her glasses.
Nekomaru shook his head at the scene. “No teamwork! No form!”
He was so busy critiquing he didn’t notice Akane hanging upside down from the ceiling beams above.
“Sneak attack!” she shouted, dropping down on his shoulders and flipping the pair of them backwards.
“Hell yeah!” Ibuki cheered, throwing her hands up in the rock on devil’s horns. “Totally metal!”
“No, Ibuki, that’s bad!” Mahiru sighed. “Nekomaru was on our team!”
“Oh,” Ibuki laughed sheepishly. “Whoops.”
Watching it all playout from the platform above the training deck, Chiaki groaned and knocked her head against the guardrail a few times.
“They’re uh… spirited,” Munakata said.
“Yeah…” Chiaki sighed.
“Order up!” Teruteru yelled, smacking Akane in the face with a frying pan. She seemed largely unfazed, and lifted the tiny man up by his shirt collar before launching him across the room.
“We’re so disorganized,” Chiaki said, pulling up her hood. “I’m trying my best but…”
“You’re a good leader,” Munakata reassured her. “They just need some more practice.”
“Eat shit, pig barf!” Hiyoko cackled, tugging on Mikan’s hair.
“B-but we’re on the same team!” Mikan wailed.
“A lot more practice,” Chiaki said.
As they watched the chaos Chiaki suddenly became aware of a shadowy figure running through the obstacles, taking out her team one by one. They tangled Mikan and Hiyoko together with bandages and a kimono sash, blinded Mahiru with her own camera flash, knocked the imposter and Mitarai’s heads together and then kicked Peko into Fuyuhiko just as they were getting to their feet.
Munakata sighed and rubbed at his temples. “I’m sorry for this.”
“No, it’s fine,” Chiaki laughed. “I was expecting him.”
Izuru landed by Nagito and grabbed him by the hood, spinning him into a hold.
“Oh, hello,” Nagito laughed. “Do we always have to meet this way?”
“You haven’t reported for maintenance on your prosthetic,” Izuru said, lifting Nagito’s hand into the air and watching the fingers twitch erratically. “It shows. You damaged it.”
“Maybe a little,” Nagito admitted. “Just… an accident.”
“An accident?” Izuru asked, eyes narrowing.
“I may have… got it caught in a car door,” Nagito said.
Izuru glared at him.
“... I got hit by a car,” Nagito said.
Izuru sighed. “Stop by. Tonight.”
“It’s a date.” Nagito winked.
“Hey, hey!” Chiaki shouted. “Am I invited?”
Izuru shook his head with a small fond smile and climbed up to the viewing platform. He perched on the guardrail, and Chiaki leaned forward to press a kiss to his cheek.
“Training seems… bad,” Izuru said, and Chiaki frowned. “Sorry, was that insensitive?” Izuru asked, “I’m working on that.”
“No, you’re right,” Chiaki sighed. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“I’m sure it’s not your fault.” Izuru glared over at Munakata, who glared right back.
“Are you supposed to be here?” Munakata asked.
“I thought people my age were adults ready to make their own choices.” Izuru studied his nails. “Also, Chisa wanted to visit with Sakakura. Not you. Hm.”
Munakata folded his arms over his chest. “All the emotions to learn. You choose pettiness.”
“Interesting, isn’t it?”
Chiaki looked back and forth between the two of them. “Um…”
“Hey! Is the emo kid arguing with his stepdad?” Akane shouted from the ground floor. Both Izuru and Munakata looked profoundly uncomfortable.
“I’m going to go find Chisa,” Munakata said. “Maybe… call it a day, Chiaki.”
As he left, Izuru offered Chiaki his hand. She rolled her eyes and took it, making a small squeak of surprise as he pulled her in close and dropped back down to the ground. He set her down and headed for where her classmates were gathering to catch their breath.
“You all need to control yourselves,” he said.
“Gee, thanks, great advice!” Fuyuhiko huffed. “Did you show up just to be an asshole, or was it to pick up your dates?”
“Both,” Izuru said, deadpan.
“U-um, is anybody hurt?” Mikan asked.
“I have several hamster scratches,” Peko said, finally pulling the hamster from her face. She frowned when it turned to look at her and screeched in fright before running back to Gundham.
“Okay, level with us Izzy,” Ibuki sighed. “Just how screwed are we?”
“Very,” Izuru said. “You’re so close with each other, failing to work as a team should be impossible, however you continue to indulge in selfish chaos.”
“Jeez, brutal,” Akane sighed.
“Do you have any advice?” Nagito asked.
“Sparring against each other is ineffectual, have Munakata find you suitable opponents. You do better as a full team, balancing each other out.”
“How inspiring!” Sonia said. “Chiaki, please make note of this!”
“Already done,” Chiaki said with a smile.
Izuru pushed a stray lock of hair behind his ear. “If that is all, I was about to lea-”
“No way! Dude you gotta stay and help us!” Kazuichi wailed.
“Oh! Yes! You would be a suitable opponent!” Sonia agreed.
“I… do not want to do that,” Izuru said. “It’s boring.”
“C’mon.” Chiaki playfully bumped him with her shoulder. “Going up against a team of ultimates can’t be that boring, right? We’ll try to make it interesting for you.”
“Do it for us?” Nagito pleaded.
The entire class put on their best puppy dog eyes, and Izuru rolled his.
“Fine,” he conceded.
As Izuru began giving the ultimates a challenge, Munakata found Chisa and Sakakura in the breakroom overlooking the arena. They were sitting by the window, watching with exasperated amusement as Izuru vaulted himself over Nekomaru.
“You came,” Munakata said, addressing the obvious.
“Yeah, but not because I approve of any of this,” Chisa huffed, turning away from him. “I just… needed to talk to you about something.”
“We might have a situation on our hands,” Sakakura agreed.
Munakata took the last empty seat and nodded for them to continue.
“Apparently, one of the graduating classes has gone missing,” Chisa said. “Class 78.”
“Last seen going out to celebrate, and their parents report that none of them came home,” Sakakura added. “It’s been a few days, and the police have been searching but I think a missing batch of ultimates falls under our… shaky jurisdiction.”
“That is troubling,” Munakata said. “And yes, I doubt the authorities would let us be officially involved. We’re still technically a private organization, we have yet to be recognized by the government.”
“I wonder why.” Chisa watched in dismay as Izuru and Peko sparred down below. She really thought that she and Fuyuhiko were going to legitimize to avoid further violence in their future, they’d seemed really confident of it. Now she heard that Fuyuhiko was using his yakuza ties to help the Foundation, and Peko was practicing fatal blows on her kid.
“They might be the only ones who can help here,” Munakata said.
“A child army to find missing children?”
“A young adult task force to find missing teenagers.”
Sakakura sipped his drink and tried to ride out the tension. Somehow, he hadn’t imagined this much bickering when he joined the relationship. It was comically awkward at best and at worst…
Well, he admired them both so much. He knew they were a good match. The two of them could change the world, and he wanted to be there to support them as they did it. He wished he knew how to support them through this.
“Hey…” he said, standing and pointing at the window. “Your task force won.”
Chisa and Munakata stood and joined him at the window and saw Izuru flat on his back, glaring daggers up at the students restraining him and the bamboo sword pointed at his throat.
“I’m sure he let them win,” Munakata chuckled.
“No, they’re really that good,” Chisa corrected him, sounding just a little bit proud. Then she sighed. “You really think they could find the missing kids?”
“You believe in them,” Munakata said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “They took out Izuru Kamukura.”
She put her hand over his, looking sadly down at her students as they celebrated their win. “... I guess I’m really not in charge of them anymore anyway,” she said.
“You could be. I’ve offered you the job before.”
“I’m a teacher, or a housekeeper, I’m not a commanding officer.”
“They’re your students.”
“You said it yourself, they used to be my students. Now they’re adults making their own choices, right?” Chisa said a bit bitterly. “But I’ll consider it. I’d like to help, and I want to make sure they’re alright… I know they don’t need me anymore but…”
“Would you two lighten up?” Sakakura groaned. “Chisa, you should take the job if only to keep this one in line, Munakata you should listen to her more often.”
Chisa and Munakata both gave him an offended look, but he just rolled his eyes and took Chisa’s hand before pressing a kiss to Munakata’s cheek.
“Since when are you such a confident decision maker?” Chisa teased.
“Since you two stopped acting like the leaders you are,” Sakakura grumbled.
“You remember when he said he’d die for you?” Munakata joined in on the teasing.
“You told him that?”
“You told him I would die for him! It was revenge!”
“Please neither of you die, I prefer you both alive.”