Chapter Text
Junko Enoshima had thoroughly ruined him before he even knew what was happening.
Seriously, Kaito wasn’t even sure what happened, that girl… oh man. He was fucked. He liked it now, of course, but fuck, he was a goner. He’d try to think back on it sometimes, what exactly had happened, but it was all a hazy, bloody, despair filled blur. She’d talked a lot, he’d laughed some, it was probably gradual, but whatever the big inciting incident was he just didn’t know anymore.
He knew what he did after though, that was something he could never forget. The despair totally filled him up until he was choking on the stuff. He’d wanted to do something big! Right away! But She’d said that would get in the way of the plans She had for his class. They couldn’t know yet how amazing the despair She’d shown him could feel. They would, She promised, but for now, She’d had a fun suggestion for what he could do instead…
It made the news! He was basically famous! Well ok, the news didn’t talk about him specifically, just like Junko’d said he’d covered his tracks! (Ok well, Mukuro covered his tracks for him, Kaito was a little bit busy going out of his mind). But still! Of course it made the news, it’s not every day a sweet old elderly couple is found viscerally torn apart in their own home! Big newsworthy stuff.
Junko was proud of him! She’d said, and Kaito was ecstatic. She’d been totally right (or course she was) that you get a butt ton of despair from killing family! Everyone at school was really sad about it though, they kept asking him if he was alright. Of course he was! Couldn’t be better! But he couldn’t tell them that yet, Junko’s orders, so he just pretended to be sad. He was staying at the dorms so at least he wouldn’t be homeless, but it did mean keeping up the act a lot. But hey, Kaito was a good actor!
Suichi was really worried about him, his sidekick kept checking in and asking if he could help in any way. He knew how important Kaitos' grandparents had been to him after all. That’s when Kaito got an idea (A rarity for him truth be told)! If Suichi could take on the case and solve it then he could help bring Kaito ‘closure’ and ‘avenge’ his grandparents! Suichi was hesitant at first (his sidekick really needed more self confidence!) but eventually agreed. Kaito knew Suichi would be able to crack the case and root out the culprit, he believed in all his friends like that!
When he told Her, Junko said She loved his idea! Both of them couldn’t wait to see what would happen when Suichi actually did solve it. It brought up Junko’s timeline for the detective a little bit, but She said that was fine, She liked a challenge!
She’d been busy in the meantime, and Kaito suddenly had a lot more of his friends he could talk to about this!! He didn’t know what Junko had done to them either, but Tsumugi, Kokichi, and Miu seemed wayyyy happier now! Or well, they were miserable, but hey, that’s despair for you! Tsumugi even had these great coloured contacts for them all so the rest of the class wouldn’t question their fancy new red swirling eyes. She was always thinking ahead! Junko definitely kept Miu busy, She had blueprints and blueprints for the inventor to work on.
Kaito liked having an actual group, it was better than being alone. Junko taught them all so much! She knew much more about despair than they did, and Mukuro knew how to kill people like, scarily well! Kokichi followed Kaitos lead and got rid of his old family (friends? Kokichi called them his family but Kaito didn’t think they were blood related, not that it mattered much now), which gave their favourite little detective even more to think about!
Kokichi wouldn’t have been Kaitos first choice for a team mate, which made it even better! He hated that little twirp, but now he was one of the only people he didn’t have to keep secrets from! Wild how these things work out. The mutual hatred between the pair didn’t stop them from having some fun together though. Even when their little group wasn’t out committing despairingfull acts in the dead of night, Kokichi and Kaito had found a way to keep themselves entertained during the school day.
Kokichi had always loved pranking their classmates, particularly Kaito in fact, and now the feeling was mutual. From tacks on the chair to spiking lunch with laxatives, Kokichi and Kaito had performed every prank under the sun on each other with no mercy. Kaito loved it, it simultaneously gave him an outlet to be mean and get humiliated! Two huge sources of despair, and he knew Kokichi felt the same way.
However, while it may not have been out of the ordinary for the supreme leader (what a fucking joke of a title, Kokichi wasn’t supreme at anything and they all knew Junko was the real leader now), it was a bit out of character for Kaito. Whenever Suichi would ask or Maki would raise an eyebrow, he’d just sort of make something up about ‘turnabout's fair play!’ Or ‘taking that punk down a peg, for the good of the class!’. It seemed to be working, and most of the class had kinda gotten used to it. Mostly.
The pranks came along with whatever physical violence they could get away with, and Kaito had in fact been sent to see the principle for tripping Kokichi down the stairs. Oops. He’d apologized and promised not to do it again, and promptly did the same thing the next day. Trips to the principal and detention became more of a regular occurrence, Kokichi had made a snide joke about his grandparents murder that resulted in a forced apology at the teachers insistence, and they’d both had to see the head master after a ‘water balloons filled with paint’ incident in the cafeteria.
But it was fine, they both got a kick out of it anyway. Being sneaky sucked and they had to get their despair wherever they could! Besides, Junko already said it was ok, so what did the principal know? Kaito had had his dorm filled with rats, and Kokichi had definitely regretted that when he found out Kaitos retaliation involved a stink bomb and a pad lock.
It was Kokichi’s turn to return fire, so Kaito had been expecting something all day, but nothing had happened yet. Based off Kokichi’s smirk, it was coming though.
Kaito had more pressing matters to think about however.
Junko wanted Maki next, and Kaito was more then happy to comply! He really liked her, and he kinda thought she might like him back. Fucking her up to bring her to despair with the rest of them was the most romantic thing he could do, right?
Class was going on, but Kaito wasn’t paying a lick of attention to whatever the teacher was writing on the board. He wouldn’t really be needing his old talent anymore, (what good was space when all the despair was right here on earth?) so he didn’t see the point in trying in school. He looked over and watched Maki take notes instead. Her brow furrowed as she wrote, diligently marking down everything the teacher put on the board.
The day dragged on and on, between waiting to talk to Maki and anticipating whatever Kokichi would do to him this time, Kaito was really antsy. He seriously considered just killing their teacher just to end the day sooner.
It didn’t come to that, as the bell finally and mercifully rang. Maki started gathering her things and Kaito jumped out of his seat.
“Hey Makiroll! Wait up!” He called.
Maki turned and sent him one of her friendlier ‘do you want to die’ glares.
“I was hoping we could hang out today!”
“I can’t today. I’m busy.” She said, before adding a brief, “Sorry.”
“Aw man really? What are you doing?” Kaito whined.
“It’s nothing.”
“Then you can totally blow it off to hang with your favourite spaceman!”
“It’s nothing for you to be concerned about,” Maki elaborated, “but it’s still important. It’s work related, I can’t miss it.”
“Aw so you’ve got like a babysitting gig or something?”
“Yeah, something like that.” Maki grimaced and turned to walk out of the room.
That was such a bummer, Maki’s Ultimate Childcare giver title kept her pretty busy. It really sucked! Kaito figured it was why Junko wanted her on the team, She’d talked about this weird group of little kids She’d found, they’d given themselves some kinda goofy name, warriors of something? Kaito guessed Junko must need Maki’s help wrangling them.
Which meant he totally needed to hurry up and bring her despair already!
He knew Junko was ‘setting the groundwork’ whatever that meant. Maki and Mukuro were friends, so it was probably related to that, but She’d specifically asked him to find some way to push her over the edge. And he wasn’t going to let Her down!
After waiting a moment, he went to follow Maki out of the class, if she wouldn’t tell him where she was going, then he’d just tail her! Whatever brat she was looking after wasn’t more Interesting then him! And maybe if he killed the kid in front of her Maki would fall to despair there and then!
Kaito stepped out of the class room a second before a bucket of fake blood spilled down into the doorway. Kokichi’s prank had missed Kaito, and unintentionally claimed Tenko as it’s victim.
Kaito couldn’t help but smirk as he heard her yell and Kokichi’s subsequent screams as the Akido master retaliated.
***
Maki Harukawa was many things, and very few people knew all of them.
She could count the list of people she’d confided in on one hand. Her real Ultimate wasn’t for the feint of heart after all. Her classmates all had such frilly talents, most of them created something or took care of things, which is why on the first day of class she panicked and told them all she was the Ultimate Childcaregiver.
Maki thought she had four good friends at the school, and really only five over the course of her whole life. But even then, she’d only told two of them the truth. She liked Suichi and Kaito fine, they were nice if not a bit dense, but it was Peko and Mukuro she’d felt a true kinship with.
Even if she hasn’t already told them her real skill, they’d have been just as likely to run into each other in the field, and it would be a moot point. The Kuzuryu Clan had hired her on multiple occasions after all, and anyone in her industry knew about Fenris. The three girls were very similar, and fit together like peas in a pod.
Other students tended to shrink back when the trio stalked through the halls, because while they didn’t know about Maki, everyone had heard of the Ultimate Swordswoman and the Ultimate Soldier. They were able to train together, away from prying eyes. Training against Peko was the hardest, since Maki herself never used swords, but there were plenty of other weapons in her arsenal. All the girls were pretty evenly matched, so training together was a worthwhile experience.
Once, and only once, the three of them had tried their luck against Mukuros classmate, Sakura Oogami. The matches weren’t long, and all three had been a decisive victory for Sakura. There was just nothing the trio could do against her sheer physical power without using lethal force. Which of course, was frowned upon within Hopes Peaks walls.
Peko was called away fairly often, no matter how much she might have enjoyed the ‘girl time’, she’d answer her Young Masters calls. So Maki found herself with quite a lot of one-on-one time with Mukuro.
She made for pleasant company, but Maki always thought there was something just a little… off about Mukuro. Certainly people have said the same thing about herself, so Maki tried to ignore it, but there was always this feeling the freckled girl had some sort of secret.
And Maki did not like Mukuro's sister. Junko was very,,, loud. And she’d seen her spending more and more time around Maki’s classmates and that seemed odd. Maki especially didn’t like how much she talked to Kaito. She’d tried to convince herself it was just out of concern, and not about jealousy. Because the last thing Maki needed was feelings for Kaito Momota of all people.
It was a little hard to deny though. He made her feel happy, in a very specific way her other friends didn’t. But he’d changed a bit recently. He was meaner. Not to her, but she could see it in his face more often. Not to mention his childish feud with Kokichi. Maki absolutely hated Kokichi, so it wasn’t that she disliked seeing him in discomfort or humiliated, quite the opposite, it was just who was doing the humiliating she had a problem with.
It wasn't like Kaito, he always wanted to be seen as a hero. Stuff like pushing Kokichi down the stairs wasn’t very heroic. But Maki was willing to accept that a change in Kaito's personality wasn’t all that surprising. After what he’d had to go through with his grandparents murders, well it would have been weirder if he hadn’t been changed at least a little. She’d actually reached out to some contacts to try and see if the elderly Momotas had any enemies that would want to do something like that, but came up empty handed.
She knew Suichi was working on the case, and she hoped for Kaitos sake that the detective would be able to find out what had happened.
But even if it was understandable, she could feel him changing, and she could feel him pulling away, so when Kaito asked her to hang out after school, she’d really really wanted to say yes. She would have, if she hadn't had an urgent job that the client had insisted needed to be done as soon as possible .
So not only did she have to blow off Kaito, but she couldn’t even tell him why. Not that she thought telling him ‘sorry I can’t hang I’ve got to go kill some guy first’ would go over well. Because it wouldn’t. It never would. Peko and Mukuro were fine with it since, well, neither of them was exactly a stranger to murdering, but someone like Kaito? Definitely was not.
She ignored the faint crashing noise accompanied by Tenko and Kokichi yelling that could be heard from her class and exited the school. According to the message she’d received, the target would be across town at the docks. She didn’t know why that’s where they’d be, or who it was that ordered the hit, and it wasn’t her place to ask. She just got on a train and headed out there, the gun in her bag an unwelcome but familiar weight at her side.
By the time she finally arrived and got herself in position, it had already turned dusk and the sun was setting fast. She’d had an uneasy feeling on the commute, like someone was watching her. It could have been anyone, she’d been on public transport after all, but still, ever cautious Maki steeled herself to prepare for anything.
Her target finally arrived in her sight, Maki cocked the gun and took the shot. The man was barely able to gargle a scream as the bullet went through the back of his throat and out the other side. Unfortunately her client hadn’t wanted a quick death for this unlucky bastard, and so he’d choke to death on his own blood.
It was an easy job, but she knew her gut was right when she heard rustling off to the side. Spinning around with her gun trained at the interrupter, Maki almost let out a small gasp to see Kaito standing there, having seen everything.
Time seemed to slow down around her, oh shit , this wasn’t what she wanted. He wasn’t supposed to see this! Not him! Out of anyone, she couldn’t lose Kaito! But there wasn’t any excuse she could give, no positive way to spin this. The man was still drowning on his own blood on the ground, and she was still holding the gun. With a jolt she realized she was still pointing the gun at Kaito.
She pointed it away as soon as she realized that. Kaito was still just standing there shell shocked.
“Makiroll?”
“I-I can—“ what? She could what? Explain? No she fucking couldn’t. How are you just supposed to explain professional assassin??
“T-that was…”
Oh man, here it comes. He was disgusted with her, he wanted nothing more to do with her, he’d probably try to tell everyone else at school. No way he’d keep quite, no one with morals would. Oh god, was she going to have to eliminate Kaito?? Maki paled at the thought, there’s no way, she wouldn’t be able to do that. The stupid fucking astronaut had wormed his way into her heart and she knew without a doubt she wouldn’t be able to kill him.
“That was awesome!!”
“What??” Maki's jaw dropped.
“You totally just killed that guy!” Kaito exclaimed
He walked over to the body and kneeled in the blood, and then, to Makis complete shock and disgust, stuck his finger in the bullet wound.
“Wow it really did go right through!” He said in awe and wiggled his finger around in the victim's throat.
“What.. you- huh?” Maki was in a complete state of disbelief, and couldn’t wrap her head around anything that was happening.
“This is really cool Makiroll! But why’d you kill this guy? And where’d you even get a gun? I thought you were babysitting.” Kaito asked.
At this point Maki wasn’t sure what to think. At no point would she have remotely expected this sort of reaction from Kaito, but she wasn’t sure if it was better than what she had been preparing for. By all accounts Kaito should be immediately disowning her as a friend, and running away. Definitely not getting himself covered in her victims blood and acting so normal about everything! Like he didn’t even mind.
“Um.” She but her lip, there really wasn’t any use in lying at this point was there?
“My real talent is the Ultimate Assassin. This was a target.” She bluntly said.
“Woah really?! Dang I really thought you were just a babysitter! Guess you really had everyone fooled!”
“Yeah… Kaito?” Maki slowly asked.
“What’s up?”
“Why are you… acting so.. calm?”
“Oh I’m not calm.”
Ok, that’s probably a good thing right? He must just be in shock. Something would be wrong if he was calm right now, his finger was still in the victim's wound .
“I’m excited!”
Nope, that was worse. And Maki was more confused than ever.
“What?”
“Yeah! This is totally exciting! I can’t believe you’re already so good at killing people! That’s super cool, and it’s going to come in so handy!” Kaito enthusiastically exclaimed.
“For what—“
“It makes so much more sense now why Junko wanted you on board!! You’re so amazing Makiroll!”
“Junko? What does she have to do with any of this?”
“Oh it’s so great! She—“
There was a gasp and both Ultimates turned to see a dock worker covering their mouth and gazing in horror at the scene before them. They looked around frantically before running full speed in the other direction
Ugh. She’d gotten sloppy. Basic Assassin rules, don’t linger. She’d been so distracted by Kaito showing up she’d let them both stay at the crime scene. Now someone had found them, of course they did. She’d have to kill the dock worker now and—
“Don’t worry Makiroll I’ve got this one!” Kaito yelled and sprinted after the worker.
It took Makis brain a brief moment to catch up with this new development, before instinct took over and she ran after Kaito.
He’d managed to catch up with the dock worker, and lunged, tackling them both to the ground. They scuffled for a short while before Kaito was able to get the upper hand and pin the worker to the ground.
By the time Maki had caught up to them, Kaito had found a nearby chunk of broken concrete, and she arrived just in time to see him bring it crashing down onto the dock workers face. The unmistakable crack of bone filled the air as Kaito brought it down over and over again. It wasn’t long before all that was left of the workers head was a splayed out semi circle of blood and gore. It dripped off of Kaitos whole front as he turned to Maki and flashed her one of his signature smiles.
All Maki could do was stand there in shock. What has he doing?!? This wasn’t her Kaito- it couldn’t be, he would never kill someone— Holy shit she just watched Kaito Momota murder someone. What the fuck- what the absolute fuck was going on here?!
“What do you think Makiroll?” Kaito asked with a smile, “Did I do good?”
Maki didn’t mourn the innocent soul whose life Kaito had taken, she herself would have had to kill them for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, their life was unfortunately already forfeit as soon as they stumbled upon her work.
But everything she thought she knew and her relationship to the person she thought she could rely on most in the world crumbling down around her? That she mourned without question as she stared at the scene before her.
“I know I’m not as good as you yet, heck even including this my body count hasn’t hit double digits yet, but hey! Maybe you can help teach me! Mukuro’s been giving us lessons, but I’d rather learn from you!”
“Us? Wait… did you say Mukuro?”
“Yeah! Her and Junko are both behind this, you know?”
Mukuro… she’d known about what was being done to Kaito? No not even that, she’d had a hand in doing this to him?! But— she was supposed to be one of Makis best friends! She knew what Kaito meant to Maki, she’d even managed to work up the trust and courage to confide her feelings for Kaito to Mukuro!! Maki didn’t trust easily, she was never vulnerable with people.
And this was why! She’d been— she’d been betrayed by Mukuro! That two faced lying bitch! Maki felt sick to her stomach, what if Kaito only got on Junko’s radar because of what Maki had told Mukuro?? Oh god, this was her fault. This was all her fault. If she’s just kept her fucking mouth shut, or even if she’d just talked to Peko instead— or was she involved too?!? She couldn’t trust anyone, Maki had no one . She’d considered Mukuro and Peko sisters in arms, but none of it was real?
Did she even still have Suichi? He hadn’t given her a reason to distrust him, though before tonight neither had Kaito and Mukuro. And Suichi was very close to Kaede, and Kaede was good friends with Mukuro’s classmate Sayaka, and if Sayaka was in the same class as Junko, she was compromised. All of class 78 was compromised right? How many of Makis other classmates were compromised already as well? Kaito just said ‘we’, there were others right under Maki’s nose—
“Hey uh, earth to Makiroll? You there?” Kaito asked, waving a hand in front of her face.
“Kaito I- I don’t unders—“
Maki’s head whipped around as she heard slow clapping and the clip clop of high heels approaching her and Kaito.
“Excellent job Miss Makiroll!” Junko clapped, “I knew hiring the Ultimate Assassin would pay off!”
“You-“
“Yeppers! I was the one that put that hit out on that rando from earlier! I had to pay a pretty penny to ensure I’d get your services, but I just had to manufacture a situation for Kaito to see your true colours somehow!”
“Do you want to die?” Maki seethed at the fashionista, beyond furious she’d been set up.
“Nah, not yet at least! I’ve got some biiiiig plans to finish before I can finally kick the bucket!” Junko chuckled, “And you’re in luck! Those plans involve you! Congrats!”
“I’d never work with you, you fucking bitch!” This was all Junko’s fault, that cunt had ruined Maki’s life!
Quickly unstrapping the dagger she always kept at her side, Maki charged Junko, and brought the dagger in an arc towards her pretty face. Maki had too much momentum going to stop herself when Kaito jumped in between the two girls and caught the dagger in the palm of his hand . The blade embedded into his flesh and caused a river of his own to join the plethora of bloodstains covering his body.
“Sorry Makiroll, but I can’t let you hurt Her.” Kaito closed his fist around the dagger and yanked it out of Maki’s hand, cutting himself further.
“What are you doing!!?” Maki yelled.
“You still don’t get it yet! Junko’s the one that showed me how amazing despair can make you feel! It’s incredible Makiroll! When I killed my grandparents I felt so much despair I just wanted to die! But I didn’t and I kept going and doing more and more and it’s been the most incredible time in my life! I know you must have noticed how much I’ve changed!” Kaito’s eyes swirled unnaturally red, they seemed to glow in the dim light.
“And I owe all of that to Junko! She opened my eyes, and I love Her for that! I love Her Makiroll! And I love you too, I can’t let you hurt Junko, but hey! You can hurt me instead if you want! More then you already have that is!” Kaito gestured to his still bleeding hand, and raised the knife, “Or I could take a swing at trying to hurt you haha!”
“Why… why is all this happening?” Maki’s head hurt. She wouldn’t hurt Kaito, she already had, but she would never hurt him! What did Junko do ? She was just watching all this with a Cheshire grin, endlessly amused by the emotional turmoil Maki had been thrown into.
“Because we want you to join us Makiroll! Just think, you and me together, spreading despair across the whole world! We’d be unstoppable! I’d love to be your boyfriend, I’d love if you let me love you, I’d love watching you fall apart at the seams as we made the world burn around us! Please Maki, I need you!” Kaito’s sincere smile was betrayed by the sheer madness in his eyes.
He wasn’t ok, she wasn’t ok, none of this was ok!!
Maki was hesitating, and Kaito’s smile faltered. While she was still too deep in thought to block it, he lashed out with her own dagger and cut deep from her left cheek down below her jaw.
Maki staggers back stunned, and brought a hand up to touch at the river of warm blood that begun to poor down her face.
“Come on Makiroll, it isn’t that fucking difficult to decide!” Kaito barked.
“Ooo” Junko giggled, “oh that’ll scar for sure ! Aw what a shame, she had such a pretty face.”
He… he wasn’t supposed to be like this! Not Kaito, anyone but him. He was hers, he was supposed to be hers ! He was supposed to be safe, he always treated her like a person . Why did Enoshima get to ruin him? What gave her the right? Why would she even want to? He was perfect before! Maki liked him just the way he was and now—
She still liked him.
Shit . He’s covered in two different peoples' blood, and she just watched him bludgeon an innocent man to death but she still liked him . What the fuck was wrong with her? Why did she still want to be around him? She still wanted him to like her too , and she still wanted him to be supportive, and she wanted him to approve of her. And he did! He knew the real her now but he wasn’t shying away from it, he watched her put a bullet through someone's throat and told her how awesome she was .
He shouldn’t have, he wasn’t supposed to , but she didn’t want him to have abandoned her like she expected. That would have been devastating, but she didn’t want him to be like this either! But she definitely didn’t want him to leave! She needed him, she needed him to stay with her! Maki realized with a start she desperately didn’t want Kaito to leave her.
Ever.
She reached out and latched her arms around him in a hug, burying her face in chest. Kaito was a bit startled but gleefully hugged her back with gusto. The blood that covered him was slowly seeping on to her as well, but all Maki could do was let out a strangled laugh. Whatever happened next wasn’t going to matter, she’d take all the despair in the world if it meant she could stay with Kaito.
And all the despair in the world is exactly what was coming their way.