Chapter Text
“So that’s everything?”
“E-everything I can think of, yes sir.”
“You can relax, Makoto.”
He hadn’t realized how tense he had been till Jin said that, he made a conscious effort to relax his posture and nervously shifted in his seat.
“Right, sorry,” he glanced off to the side, eager to look anywhere except the man in front of him, “But, that’s really everything I can think to mention from the warehouse.”
“I see,” Jin looked back down at the papers in front of him, Makoto squirmed even more in the silence.
Dr. Kirigiri’s makeshift office in the living room of his new apartment was still mostly empty, the plain beige walls and lack of furniture or decorations aside from the desk they now sat on either side of made things feel too… sterile. Empty spaces tended to make him nervous, now…
Or maybe it was just all the complicated feelings he had towards the man in front of him.
How do you act around the father of the girl you’re dating- especially when that man also locked you somewhere against your will and did irreparable damage to you and your friends’ lives forever? How do you act normal around them? How is he supposed to relax?
Makoto had already decided to forgive him, especially when the man nearly cried at their very first meeting while apologizing for everything that had happened. But that was weeks ago now, and it seemed Jin had once again regained his professionalism and insisted on questioning Makoto- specifically- about everything that happened.
Kyoko was supposed to be here, dang it. Why did Byakuya need help today of all days?
“And what was the name of the girl?” Jin’s next question pulled him out of his thoughts
“Wh-what girl?” He tried to stop himself from stiffening again, now that the subject might be shifting to the topic he wanted to avoid…
“The girl that was dropped off with Detective Ishimaru, the one Kyoko said was…” Jin trailed off, glancing back down to his papers and clicking the pen in his hand while he thought, “Genetically similar to all of you, let’s call it.”
“Oh, Mikan.” Makoto blinked, “I- I never learned her last name, did Taka’s dad take her to-“
“She is being appropriately contained.” Jin cut him off, eyes shifting to the side again. Kyoko warned him about that, she said her dad did that when he was hiding something.
“Where is she being contained?” He tried to pry a little further, Jin frowned.
“Somewhere safe. She can’t hurt you.”
“At Hope’s Peak?”
“God, no.” Jin’s face shifted to disgust, “The old facility is in shambles, there’s no way we could use that, now.”
“I mean she’s not just…. In prison or anything, right?” Makoto questioned further, nervously drumming his fingers on the table, “I mean, she really needs help-“
“Makoto,” Jin put his hand up to stop him, “It’s alright, I promise. I don’t feel comfortable divulging her location right now, but I assure you Detective Ishimaru has… well qualified connections, as do I. She’ll be getting as much help as we can possibly give her.”
“Oh…” Makoto hesitated to ask another question, “Could I maybe… see her at some point?”
Jin raised an eyebrow, “Why?”
“Maybe I could help? I mean if Junko was the cause of this, then…” he trailed off when Jin shook his head in disapproval.
“I have no reason to believe- yet, that her condition has anything to do with Junko Enoshima’s powers.” Jin explained, “There were a few Future Foundation higher ups still directly under her influence who have all made full recoveries since she…“ he paused, seeming to gauge Makoto’s reaction slightly, “Died.”
“Right, I know.” Makoto shifted uncomfortably again, the burn mark on his arm itched, “But still, I think I might be able to help. I’m not really sure what’s going on with any of the other people we fought there but I… I think sort of felt something from one of them. Even if it was… different than Junko usually made people feel.”
Jin clicked his pen again, writing something down in a messy handwriting Makoto couldn’t quite make out. It must be hard to have to suddenly learn to write with your non-dominant hand… must be hard to lose an entire arm in general, though.
“I’ll consider that.” He finally muttered, “We certainly haven’t made any progress so far….”
“Didn’t you tell Kyoko you were going to start being more honest with us?” Makoto tentatively pointed out, “I think you actually said ‘a lot’ more honest.”
Jin chuckled at that, leaning back in his chair and raising an eyebrow, “Honesty goes both ways, Mr. Naegi.”
“I’m… pretty much an open book.” Makoto shrugged, “What could I tell you that you don’t already know?”
“The location of Mukuro Ikusaba, for starters.”
There was a beat of silence, Makoto ultimately just shrugged again, “I… don’t know who you’re talking about, sorry.”
Jin clicked his tongue, sorting through his papers some more. That must be a nervous habit or something, Makoto thought, he does that like… a lot.
“I understand you want to protect her, but she is still a wanted criminal.”
“Aren’t you also sort of a criminal?” Makoto sheepishly countered, Jin let out an aggravated sigh.
“You’re almost as bad as Kyoko…” he muttered dryly, Makoto couldn’t help but laugh.
“Oh,” he perked up, shifting in his seat again as he suddenly remembered, “There was one other thing I wanted to ask you about, actually.”
“Alright, go ahead.”
“Junko kept mentioning someone called ‘Kamakura’ do you know who that is?”
The pen dropped from Jin’s hand- rolling off the desk and clattering to the floor as the color seemed to drain from his face. Makoto frowned at the reaction, giving the older man a moment to collect himself before continuing.
“So I’m… gonna take that as a yes?”
“Makoto.” Jin began, voice low and serious, “What exactly did she say about this person?”
The sudden change in mood was palpable, the nervous energy plunging into an uncomfortable anxiety that made Makoto fidget once again.
“Uh-“
“God, this place is disgusting.” Byakuya’s loud voice startled both of them, the blonde swinging open the front door and stepping inside with Kyoko right behind him. “I saw a rat on the stairs, you know.”
“It was a woman walking her little dog.” Kyoko corrected with an eye roll, Byakuya clicked his tongue and waved a hand to shut the door behind her.
“It was a ratty looking dog, then.”
“So how was the meeting?” Makoto asked, giving Jin one last nervous glance before turning in his seat, “I thought you guys would be gone for another hour or so.”
“It was abysmal.” Byakuya huffed, “I suppose it was foolish of me to assume that after almost two months of being a missing person I could go back to being taken seriously by my peers.”
“It went fine,” Kyoko corrected again, “They had questions, but they seemed to buy the ransom story Mr. Togami’s been telling people.”
She paused, shaking her head, “We’ll need to be careful, still, especially if you sneak out to fight crime with the others again.”
“You what?” Jin asked with a nervous edge to his voice, he had been very vocal about his distrust of the kids using their powers in public…
But given how things were going, they really didn’t have much of a choice.
“Why don’t you just wear a mask? Like Leon and Sayaka do.” Makoto suggested, “That way people couldn’t recognize you if someone like put a picture of you online or something.”
“Absolutely not.” Byakuya shook his head again, “I’m not playing dress up with everyone else, I don’t want to be some cheesy super hero.”
“I’m afraid that ship has already sailed for all of us.” Kyoko muttered with a smirk, Jin cleared his throat to regain everyone’s attention.
“Before we drift any further away from the matter at hand,” he re-organized the papers on his desk one final time before seeming to settle down, “Can we run through what you told me about these other people you fought, one more time?”
“Oh, sorry.” Makoto turned to face forward in his seat again, Kyoko moved to stand beside him, “Of course we can.”
“Good,” Jin sighed, “So you said there were four others outside your group in the warehouse, yes? Then there was also… the two Kyoko mentioned fighting.”
“Uh, yeah.” Makoto nodded, “I don’t really know anything about them, though.”
Jin continued as though he hadn’t spoken, seeming too distracted reading through what was written in front of him, “You mentioned ice generation and… shadow manipulating?”
“That’s the… only way I could think to describe it.” Kyoko tried to explain, face furrowing concentration, “He had the ability to make things out of nothing- physical, tangible things. He restrained me with them, and Mondo mentioned seeing a deer that appeared to be made out of something similar.”
“I see…” Jin’s frowned deepened, “And the ones from the warehouse?”
“There was the sword girl,” Makoto picked up the explanation, “She… she was almost like Mondo- like she was indestructible one minute and stuff would just… pass through her the next. Like she was made out of water or something.”
“Only when she was concentrating, however.” Byakuya added, “Leon and Celeste were able to injure her shoulder when Celeste used her abilities to distract her.”
“I think her name was Peko?” Makoto tried to think back, but his memory still wasn’t quite what it used to be- yet, “Fuyuhiko said it at one point… I think. Oh! I think Fuyuhiko could sort of do what Celeste does? But instead of just like… feeling their emotions I think he would just know what people are afraid of?”
Byakuya nodded, “Chihiro described hearing horrifying sounds on a loop in his head, Sayaka claims to have seen all her former band mates lying dead on the ground.”
Jin was quiet, Kyoko was the one to finally move the conversation along again, “So… you already knew Junko wanted to duplicate our experiments.” She began, “Is this proof enough for you that she has… somewhat succeeded?”
“That ‘Akane’ girl even referred to herself as a better version of Aoi’s experiment.” Byakuya pointed out, Makoto gulped. Picturing Hina with sharp teeth and the ability to grow her nails out till they were basically claws was kinda freaky… was that like… a side effect or something? How would that even work? Wasn’t Hina just supposed to be really good at fighting?
“Mikan wouldn’t exactly fit into any of the same categories we do, but I think she’s close enough to Mukuro.” Kyoko continued, “I’m… still unclear on what exactly she’s capable of, but Mukuro mentioned she’s capable of healing herself as well as others… given she has enough ‘energy’ to do so.”
“I think she takes energy from other people.” Makoto frowned at the memory, “I heard Junko say something about ‘sucking the life out of someone’ before she… ya know.”
He didn’t mean to be so obviously uncomfortable, but the way both of his friends reached a hand out to bump against his shoulders let him know he was being much more up front with his emotions than he really intended to be.
“It almost sounds as if…” Jin finally spoke up again, “Hm. While I’m sure most of these differences would be accidental on her part- she certainly didn’t have the same expertise and resources on her side that Hope’s Peak had at the time- some of these may be intentional countermeasures to each of you.”
“She did want us out of the way if we weren’t gonna listen to her.” Makoto let out an anxious sigh, “I guess that makes sense.”
“It would also suggest that there may more of them to watch out for.” Byakuya pointed out grimly, “The reason I went on that last call with Mondo and Taka is because there were witnesses saying they saw a person… teleporting.”
“They saw someone what?” Makoto asked in disbelief, he hadn’t heard all the details about this yet, just what Mondo had grumbled out before trudging upstairs to sleep.
“I would assume it’s not actually teleportation.” Byakuya shrugged, “More than likely it’s an enhancement similar to Toko’s, just someone moving fast enough they couldn’t be seen.”
“Oh…” Makoto frowned again, “So I guess the next step is… find all of them?” He looked to Jin again, “Is there any other information you have that might help us with that?”
Jin hesitated to respond, Makoto continued, “I mean, I know you don’t know anything about their stuff in particular but… I dunno, maybe you have some idea of who could’ve helped Junko get away with that?”
The older man glanced between the three of them, “Yes, I might have… something.”
There was a beat of silence, Byakuya tapped his foot impatiently, “Well?”
Jin eyed him coldly before speaking, “As I’m sure you’re all well aware at this point, your project was created with the attention of bringing a new era of peace to mankind. You were… the next step for humanity, in a way. A step towards a brighter future.”
“That’s a nice sales pitch for human experimentation.” Byakuya muttered, “Go on.”
“The majority of those involved in the project- both from a funding standpoint and research standpoint- agreed that this was just a step. This was to try and accomplish the impossible, so it could be observed and perfected in the future.” He glanced off to the side, “However… some members of the board were impatient.”
“Meaning?” Kyoko prompted, Jin sighed.
“It was called the Kamakura project. It was supposed to create a perfect life form. Someone with… limitless potential.” Jin’s expression became even more grim, “But it was… considered too inhumane to attempt on anyone, and once a certain doctor lobbying for this suggested using one of you as the test subject the idea of it was completely dismissed.”
“They wanted to do that to a little kid?” Makoto asked, stomach twisting in disgust.
“They did plenty of horrible things to children.” Byakuya shrugged, I’m surprised they had the moral backbone to turn down this project.”
“I’m…” Jin started to protest, but ended up just shaking his head, “I know you all have suffered because Hope’s Peak, but you have to understand- this would’ve been so far beyond what we did to any of you. This would be breaking a person down completely and trying to rebuild them into something new.”
‘Before you can build a nice shiny new world, you have tear the old gross one down. Make sense?’ Junko’s words echoed around his brain, he shifted uncomfortably at the memory.
“That… definitely sounds like something Junko would’ve been interested in.” He finally mumbled, Jin continued.
“Once Hope’s Peak was shut down, it’s staff moved on to other things. Most of them have been hunted and killed by Junko’s subordinates before all of this began, but… some of them have simply disappeared. It would not surprise me if she was able to convince some of them to do this work for her.”
“Are there any names you can give us?” Kyoko asked, “This is all good information to have, but we need something more concrete.”
She glanced at the others before continuing, “If we’re really serious about trying to put a stop to this, we’ll need to have a solid lead for where to begin, we can’t just wait for these new adversaries to attack and kill innocent people while we try to catch them.”
Jin nodded, “I’ll see if I can get you a list of names, maybe some last known places of work, the FF kept tabs on all that before… everything.”
“There’s nothing you can just tell us right now?” Byakuya pressed further, “Surely you must know something else?”
Jin frowned, his eyes glanced off to the side again before settling on Kyoko. “One of the head neurologists, the one who developed the procedure eventually used to wipe your memories and create the fail safe codes… when he was let go from Hope’s Peak, he began working for a company known as Danganronpa. I would start your search there.”
“Oh, I forgot about them.” Makoto perked up slightly, “The warehouse we found Junko in belonged to Danganronpa, I think... They probably are involved, then.”
“It would not surprise me in the slightest.” Jin let out an uneasy sigh, “They’ve been suspected of all sorts of unethical experiments. But there’s never been enough proof for us to call for a full investigation. Just… rumors, an occasional missing child’s case- nothing that was standing out amidst the chaos of everything else going on in the world.”
“I suppose when society is teetering on the brink of an apocalypse, things just slip through the cracks.” Byakuya pulled out his phone, frowning down at it before looking up at Kyoko. “We should probably go, this city still has a six p.m. curfew in place.”
Kyoko nodded before turning back to her father, “Was there anything else you needed to tell us?”
Jin paused, finally standing from his seat, Makoto stood as well and moved closer to Kyoko.
“I know that after everything I’ve done I have no right to try and tell you what to do,” he began in a grim tone, “But if Junko has actually made the Kamakura project a reality: this will be a danger unlike anything you’ve had to face before.”
His eyes looked over each of them, lingering on Kyoko a moment longer before settling on Makoto, “If you seriously want to get involved in this, please promise me that… you’ll be careful.”
——————————————
The car ride home was understandably tense.
Makoto sat in the middle seat, his hands fidgeting nervously in his lap before Kyoko finally put a gloved hand over them to stop him from picking at his nails anymore than he already had. Byakuya was driving, staring out at the streets as they grew more and more rural the closer they got to their destination.
“Sayaka’s back, by the way.” Kyoko finally spoke up, probably to relieve some of the tension growing in the van. “She has a surprise for you, too.”
“Oh!” Makoto tried to smile at that, “I thought she wasn’t coming home till tomorrow?”
“Her dad ended up having to go on a business trip earlier than expected, she made Toko give her a ride home.”
Makoto chuckled, Toko had become something of a begrudging taxi service to the others in need of a quick get away. She could cut a two hour drive into a ten minute jog if she really needed to, and even though it was certainly more practical to use the van or Mondo’s new bike, Makoto really appreciated it.
He’d been able to see his family a lot these past few weeks, and he didn’t think more than one of those trips would’ve been possible if Toko and his sister hadn’t hit it off as well as they did after his first visit. He was glad his sister had someone to hang out with now, after they’re school shut down she hadn’t been going out much…
“Oh, speaking of dads-“ Makoto looked over to Byakuya, “How’s your dad doing? He’s back from France, right?”
“He’s doing well, he just got back two days ago.” Byakuya nodded, “He almost didn’t make it, apparently some smaller country in Europe has basically fallen apart, it made air travel anywhere difficult for awhile.”
“Oh, geez.” Makoto frowned, “Which country?”
“I don’t know.” Byakuya shrugged dismissively, turning down the long gravel road towards the beach, “Novo… something. Nova Scotia?”
“That’s a province of Canada.” Kyoko corrected, Byakuya glared over at her.
“Whatever. We have enough going on here to worry about.”
The beach house finally came into view, isolated along a strip of sand and surrounded by trees and rocks that blocked most of the view of the neighboring houses in the distance. The van pulled in next to the old shed, the three of climbing out to find Hina standing on the railing of the front porch, a paintbrush in one hand splattering light blue paint around as she waved enthusiastically to them. Sakura was knelt behind her, painting the lower part of the railing while Hina took the higher.
That… should probably be the other way around. Makoto mused with a smile as he waved back. I bet Hina just wanted to climb up something.
“Hey! How was the city?” She asked with a grin leaning towards them as they came up the steps, “We’re about halfway done with the painting out here, then we’re gonna- ah!”
Her foot slipped off the railing, sending her reeling headfirst into the bushes below. Sakura moved like lightning, the cup of paint next to her completely forgotten as she shot up off the ground to catch Hina before she fell completely.
Hina laughed, hugging onto Sakura’s forearm and looking embarrassed, “Aw, my hero.”
She gave Sakura a kiss on the cheek, the larger girl blushed and stammered out a thank you.
Byakuya cleared his throat, agitation evident on his face as he pointed to the large blue stain now spreading across the dark wood boards of the porch. Sakura’s eyes flicked from her spilt cup to the blonde, giving an apologetic bow with Hina still her arms.
“We’ll clean it up.” She smiled reassuringly, “Or maybe we can just… Paint the whole porch, the pastel color would be nice.”
“That’s a great idea.” Hina nodded along, letting Byakuya roll his eyes in annoyance and stomp into the house before she continued, “If he’s mad about that, wait till he sees that Hifumi messed up the laundry and shrunk one of his dry clean shirts.”
She snickered, Sakura finally set her back down as Kyoko took Makoto’s hand and pulled him into the house.
He kicked his shoes off in the entryway, sliding them next to Chihiro’s new running shoes as a loud gasp caught his attention.
“Yo- You’re back!” Leon stood at the end of the hall, blocking their way to the living room, “Okay, okay, close your eyes- you gotta see this!”
“What? What’s going on?” Makoto asked, a little nervous as Leon tugged him away from Kyoko into the next room and covered Makoto’s eyes himself. He could hear giggling, as well as footsteps running up to him before he was finally allowed to see again.
“Tada!” Sayaka stood in front of him, wearing one of Leon’s hoodies and a pink skirt as she did a little spin- her blue hair now stopping at her shoulders and framing her face as she grinned.
“You cut your hair!” Makoto gasped, vaguely recalling a fuzzy memory of her hair being a similar length when they were younger, “It looks great!”
“Really?” Sayaka’s smile grew, she messed with a strand of it, “My friend did it for me this weekend, I’m really excited about it. And I figured this way it’ll be harder for people to recognize me out in public… hopefully, anyway.”
“It’s super cute, babe.” Leon gave her a thumbs up, “I’ll let my hair grow out long so we can match.”
“Do not do that.” Celeste’s voice interrupted them both, her fake accent long since forgotten, coming in from the kitchen and stepping right on one of Hifumi’s papers despite the angry gasp from the artist at sitting at the kotatsu, “I have already threatened to cut off that stupid chin scruff of yours, don’t make me shave the rest of your head, as well.”
She tugged on Leon’s goatee to prove her point, the redhead winced and pulled away.
“Don’t tug on that, man. My jaw’s still sore from where that one guy decked me the other night.” He frowned, pointing at the bruise on his left jaw, “If a video of that ends up online like when Mondo crashed into that billboard, I’m gonna-“
“What?!” Mondo’s loud voice echoed from down the hall. He came stomping into the living room, the tool belt around his waist clattered. “Some fucker got a video of that?!”
“People get videos of eeeeverything, man.” Leon snickered, “Chihiro saved it on his computer, he can show you.”
Chihiro made a surprised squeak from where he was standing next to Hifumi, both of them looking up from the papers they were examining.
“That was supposed to be a secret!” Chihiro frowned at Leon, quickly holding his hands up to try and placate Mondo as the biker stalked over to him instead. “It’s a really cool video, honestly!”
Alter Ego’s face appeared on the TV against the far wall, smiling helpfully, “I can play the video, if you want! It already has fifty thousand views!”
“Wha-” Mondo ran a hand through his hair, “Fifty thousand people have seen me eat shit while we’re fighting? Damnit, the gang is never gonna let me live this down…”
He paused, looking down at the papers on the table, “What’re y’all drawing- is that like a girl Monokuma or somethin’?”
“It’s nothing!” Hifumi snapped, scooping all the papers quickly and shooting into a standing position. “I told you we shouldn’t work on your project out here, Chihiro.”
“It’s… a secret. For now.” Chihiro glanced around the room before smiling, “But when it’s done- I think it might be something really, really cool…”
Celeste’s sudden gasp startled everyone, “Makoto- is this what you wore today?”
“Um, yeah?” He jolted slightly at the reaction, glancing down at his green button up and jeans before nodding. Celeste crossed her arms.
“I see. And what exactly happened to the suit I laid out for you to wear?”
“W-well, a suit seemed a little, uh,” he hesitated, shrinking back against Sayaka, “It just seemed too formal for a meeting with one person, I still wore it when I talked to those newscasters last week!”
“I gave you a gift with my hard earned money,” Mondo scoffed at that, Celeste ignored him, “And you do not even have the courtesy to take my expert fashion sense into consideration…”
“I picked out his clothes today.” Sayaka protested with a frown, “I think he looks fine.”
“That explains it, then.” Celeste scoffed, “You and your Barbie doll fashion sense…”
“You know, I’m a big kid, I can dress myself!” Makoto argued, ignoring Leon’s snickering.
The front door opened behind them, a loud groan of exhaustion from Hiro trailing down the hall.
“Taka’s gone insane…” he whined to no one in particular, Makoto and the others peered back into the hallway, finding the psychic lazily kicking off his sandals with a grocery bag in one arm. “We had to walk aaaall the way to town to go to that stupid farmers market, and then he makes me carry the vegetables all the way back.”
“The exercise is good for you!” Taka protested as he entered behind him, arms full of other bags as he struggled to remove the sunglasses he always wore in public, “You have a serious problem with endurance, we need to be taking more walks like this regularly.”
Hiro let out another groan, “Come on, man. We’re probably gonna be like step bros soon, can’t you ease up on your new big bro?”
“Our parents have only been officially dating for a week and a half.” Taka corrected, “And I’m afraid you still have some maturing to do before I consider you an older brother figure.”
“Hey!” Monokuma’s shrill voice cut in from the office next to them, the newly repaired bear skidding out into the hallway, “What’s all this about a big brother? That’s already my job! And this family- Er, aside from Byakuya, I guess- is gonna be robots only!”
He snickered, taking a few steps closer to Hiro, “Puhuhu, we could put your brain in a robot, I guess, if you wanna be a member that badly!”
Hiro stiffened, “Wh- No way! Is that even possible?”
Byakuya exited the office, “Of course it’s not, don’t encourage him.”
Monokuma continued to laugh, Taka rolled his eyes and pushed Hiro through the dining hall to the kitchen to unload their groceries. Kyoko stepped aside from where she’d been walking back over to the group to let them pass, her hand slipping back into Makoto’s as she addressed Byakuya.
“Have you seen the work Mondo’s been doing in the sunroom?” She asked, tone softening slightly when Byakuya stiffened, “It looks completely different now, I think you’ll like it.”
“I don’t think it’s necessary for me to see.” he glanced down at his shoes for a moment, “You can all do whatever you want with it, I don’t have any desire to… um…”
He trailed off, shifting on his feet when Monokuma suddenly started swatting at his leg.
“Oh, come on!” The bear shoved him roughly forward, “Just go look! This’ll be like therapy!”
“Hey- stop that!” Byakuya protested, giving a half hearted kick towards the bear that decided to start trying to climb up his legs instead, “Alright, fine. I’ll look- stop squirming.”
Byakuya finally just picked the bear up, earning a quiet chuckle from Kyoko as she turned to lead them towards the room again.
“Hell yeah!” Mondo followed after him, “Therapy time. I think you’ll like it, I’m gettin’ pretty fuckin good at all this carpentry stuff.”
“Oh- speaking of therapy!” Taka’s voice echoed from the kitchen, a moment later he poked his head through the doorway, “Makoto, we forgot to do your memory exercises this morning. Go get your stuff, we can do it while Hiro’s cooking.”
Hiro let out another annoyed groan from the kitchen, Makoto nodded, “Oh, sure. Be right back.”
He moved past the others towards the stairs, making a point to look away when Hifumi moved to cover up whatever he was drawing again, he knew better than to get Hifumi worked up about stuff.
He started up the stairs, smiling at the wall next to him that was quickly become covered by pictures and other things. Some of them were from their stay at Hope’s Peak, a few of them had been taken in the few weeks since they all began to settle into the house. The newest additions to the wall were cut out newspaper articles, courtesy of Leon, describing the actions of certain ‘brave new vigilantes’ the public was beginning to notice.
‘The Crazy Diamond returns with a new red eyed partner’ Makoto read as he continued up the steps, ‘New vigilante team dubbed Red Shot and Siren appear again in Osaka’.
‘Small town hero known as The Ogre appears to be connected to new vigilante group.’
‘Police receive anonymous calls from self proclaimed psychic that lead to the arrest of terrorists.’
He paused near the top of the stairs, staring at his own face on a newspaper. ‘Unnamed teen claims to speak for the vigilante group the media has dubbed ‘Ultimates’- promises an end to FF attacks on cities.’
Doing that interview had been risky… Makoto had a hard time dodging extra questions from law enforcement when he was done, he even ended up having to use his power to convince someone to let him sneak out the back door…
It was worth it, though. Whoever was still carrying out Junko’s plans needed to know that he still wasn’t afraid of them.
He finally headed towards his and Leon’s bedroom; he ended up switching with Hiro two weeks ago, the psychic’s odd sleep behavior had been seriously disrupting the redhead’s sleep. But bedroom claims were still relatively uncertain, with almost everyone splitting their time between the beach house and their families. Someone’s stuff might be stored in one room, but it wasn’t unusual for someone sharing a room with someone else to claim the empty spot while they still had the chance. Makoto didn’t mind, though, he could sleep pretty much anywhere at this point.
He walked into the room and paused by the little bulletin board next to his bed, letting his eyes flick between all the sticky notes where the others left reminders for him. He was still having a hard time with his short term memory, and he tended to wake up a little more confused than he should be, it was nice to be able to look over at the wall and see some words of assurance.
‘Don’t freak out- you live here. Love, Monokuma’
‘Your family knows you’re safe, you can call them whenever you want’
‘Hey dummy, make sure you remember me! -Komaru <3’
‘Everyone’s alright! Nobody’s trapped here.’
“H-hey.” Toko’s voice startled him from his thoughts, turning to find her lingering in the doorway with an envelope in her hands, “I g-got a letter for you, today.”
“Oh, from Mukuro?” He asked, reaching into the top draw of the nightstand to get the folder with all the memory exercises Taka made him do every morning, “That’s weird. Why didn’t she just call me? Or drop by again, she stayed the night two days ago, she’s gotta still be nearby-“
“It’s not f-from Mukuro.” Toko cut him off, finally stepping into the room completely and holding it out to him. “A-and it didn’t come here, it was sent to your house. Like… where your parents live.”
“Oh, geez.” Now he was worried, a familiar feeling of dread creeping his spine as he looked down at the name.
“Tojo… Kirumi?” He frowned, “I don’t know anybody named Kirumi.”
Toko shrugged, “Well they know a-about you… or at least they know enough t-to send it to your family.”
He turned the envelope to open it, his fingers hesitating to move any more than that.
“Maybe we should tell Kyoko, first.” He suggested, “Maybe we can read it front of everybody?”
Toko rolled her eyes, “L-last time we tried to d-do that we got attacked by g-giant bears.” She muttered, that managed to get him to smile again.
“Yeah, but what are the odds of that happening a third time?” He nervously joked, “I’ll go get Kyoko-“
“No need.” The detective smiled lightly as she entered the room, “I was just coming to get you, Taka’s getting rather impatient downstairs.”
Her eyes landed on the envelope, her already barely noticeable smile disappeared.
“Was that sent to this address?” She asked warily, Makoto shook his head.
“Toko said she got it from my family’s house.” He answered, Kyoko raised an eyebrow at the writer.
“You… visited Makoto’s sister without him?” She questioned, Toko let out a squeak.
“S-so what?” She crossed her arms, looking away from Makoto for some reason, “I was a j-just out for a run anyway, I f-figured I’d just st-stop by…”
Makoto finally opened the letter, handing the envelope off to Kyoko while he unfolded the paper inside.
“To Makoto Naegi,” he read aloud, both of the girls leaned forward to read along with him, “My name is Kirumi Tojo, I was told by Mukuro Ikusaba that you and I have a similar goal. I have information that may be-“
“Hey, Mac!” Mondo’s voice shouted from downstairs, “What’s the hold up? You alive up there, man?”
“Kyoko went up there with him,” Hina added, much quieter, “I bet they’re kissiiiiing!”
“Gross, dude. Who’d wanna kiss a girl?”
“Hey!”
Makoto sighed, folding the letter again and looking back up to Kyoko.
“Let’s… read it downstairs.” He suggested, she nodded.
He followed her out of his room and down the stairs, Toko muttering something to herself as she trailed behind them. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves, looking past the stair railing to his group of friends still having fun and chatting downstairs.
Even if this… not the best news, we can handle it. Makoto thought, forcing himself to smile again when Kyoko laced her hand in his.
I think the worst is behind us now, he tried to shake off his lingering anxiety, he promised others a better future, he had to believe in that for himself, too. He had to have hope.
… We can handle anything that comes our way.
————————————
How is this guy still following me?
He kept running, drawing in a ragged breath as he skidded around the corner and ducked past the debris of a partially caved in ceiling. There were footsteps behind him, heavy and slow like the person had nowhere in particular to be. Like he wasn’t trying to kill him- Like this was just some normal Sunday afternoon or whatever.
Normally, he would admire such a laid back attitude.
But normally he wasn’t running for his life.
He practically leapt down the stairway and shoved the door at the bottom of it open, sprinting through the maze of cubicles as fast as his legs could possibly carry him. This place used to be a TV station, or something- before the last raids rendered this whole city useless.
He really should consider himself lucky this guy was taking his sweet time, wasn’t he supposed to be insanely fast, too?
Just get to the trap. He gulped in another breath, his hand reached up to stop his necklace from clattering against his neck anymore than it already was.
That’s what she said. Drop the trap, stun him, stick the thing in his head. Easy-peasy. I can do this… but man, why couldn’t she just send her robot?
He finally reached his destination, carefully sidling the hallway’s cracked wall to avoid triggering the pressure plate he desperately hoped was blending in with the floor. The trap was hidden above the ceiling tiles, there was no way this guy could know about it, right? He was great at setting traps, he learned from some of the best in the world… he could do this. He had to do this.
He paused, slowing his racing heart to listen to the sounds in the distant.
It sounded like a stampede now- a cacophony of scraping and thudding as cubicles were thrown out of the way completely.
Right… the guy was crazy strong, too.
He ran into the room at the end of the hall, purposefully slamming the door as hard as he could to ensure it would draw the other’s attention.
Trap him. Stun him. Jab the flash drive in his head.
He fished around one of the pockets of his vest, drawing in a deep breath as he heard heavy footsteps in the hall behind him.
Trap him. Stun him. Jab the flash drive in his head… and if anything goes wrong…
His hand continued to reach, fingers curling around the flash drive as well as the small pill case he had kept next to it.
It was two pills- and each one of them was already twice the dose he should be taking. But.. desperate times, and all that. He put both the pills in his mouth, keeping them under his tongue in case he decided he really was done for. This was for the future, this was for his friends, this was for his sisters and the monsters who took him from his family. No matter what it took- he had to finish this.
Trap him-
He heard a loud clattering outside, the guy had walked right into the trap, just like he planned.
Stun him-
He reached for the taser clipped to his belt, his heartbeat roaring in his ears as he moved towards the door.
The door shot open, a scream barely having time to rise in his throat before a rough hand grabbed him by the neck and lifted him in the air. He was slammed against the wall next to him, the taser and flash drive both clattering uselessly to the floor below as a pained outcry escaped him.
“Rantaro Amami.” A monotone voice droned.
He struggled to breath, opening his eyes and finding a mess of long, dark hair hanging over him, partially obscuring the dead looking red eyes that seemed to study every inch of him as he responded. There was something else, too, something metal reaching from behind his ear glinting in the low light. The edge of it was marked by a scar that travelled across his forehead, whatever they had done to him looked like something out of a horror movie.
“Y-yeah, ha… hi there.” He tried to pry the hand from around his throat, the grip only tightened, “Gh… so you’re… Izuru Kamakura?”
There was no response, the person simply tilted his head as he watched him struggle.
“H-how’d you get past that?” He managed to suck in another breath, watching Izuru glance down at the objects at his feet.
“Trap him, Stun him, ‘jab’ the thing in his head.” Izuru echoed his instructions, stomping a foot down over the flash drive on the floor, Rantaro froze.
Oh, he was fucked.
“H-how did you-“
“You have information on the one I am searching for.” Izuru cut him off, “Tell me his location.”
“N-nah.” He struggled to shake his head, a bitter taste seeping through his mouth from the pills still stuck beneath his tongue. “F-first tell me… how’d you know-“
“I could hear you.” Izuru answered in a bored tone, “Now answer my question.”
Rantaro shook his head again, swallowing the pills as best as he could despite the pressure around his throat, he nearly gagged, Izuru’s grip tightened.
“Where is Makoto Naegi?”
Rantaro froze, confusion overriding his panic, “…Who?”
“They said you would be interesting.” He muttered, sounding almost… disappointed. “They said you were an escape artist.”
“I am.” Rantaro forced himself to smile, his hands now buzzing with a tingling sensation as the pills already started working. “S-sorry to break it to you, but nobody can keep me trapped for long.”
Izuru raised an eyebrow at that, he had picked up on the change in Rantaro’s body- he must have. That was like his whole thing, right?
… this was going to work.
“You are not nearly as interesting as the girl they sent me after.” Izuru muttered again, that got a gasp from Rantaro.
“You- You mean Kaede? Wh-“ A jolt of pain shot up his spine, a strangled noise escaping him as his whole body shook.
That was too much- he definitely took too much-
The pressure around his neck disappeared, through the sudden ringing in his ears he heard Izuru suck in a pained gasp. His vision blurred significantly as he thudded against the ground, but the dark form in front of him suddenly wavered- hands gripping at the sides of his head as a groan escaped him.
“Copy cat…” he muttered, watching his adversary slump over and breathe heavy. His whole body felt like liquid, his arm gave out beneath him, his bracelets clattering against the tiles as his arm seeped straight through the floor.
Too much too much too much- his mind reeled as he tried to keep himself together, he couldn’t see his legs anymore, but thank god he could still feel them. Keep it together, it wouldn’t be fun to slip through all the floors beneath you.
He dug around in his pockets again, pulling out the communicator he’d been given and struggling to press the emergency call button on the side. He couldn’t see his hands anymore either, his insides felt like they were melting.
“Rantaro?!” A panicked voice crackled through the speaker, “Oh my god- did you do it? Is that fucker dead?”
“N-no-“ he coughed, something like foam rising in his throat and splattering across his hand.
He really overdid it this time.
The other end of the line was deathly silent for a moment more, “…Rantaro what the hell did you do?”
“Your… your first plan was right.” He responded through grit teeth, he heard Izuru stir behind him, “He can’t stop himself from copying stuff, your first idea would work… you really are a genius I guess.”
“Ran- shut up- where are you? I’ll send Kiibo to come get you, just-“
“N-no…” he could hear footsteps in the distant, he hadn’t lost the other guys, after all, “Disable this thing so they can’t track you, okay? I’ll be fine.”
His vision was so blurred he couldn’t see straight, he curled in on his side.
“You’ll find my family, right, Miu?” He asked, his voice so hoarse now it came out like a whisper, “Y-you’ll tell them I tried? I really did…”
There was something like a sob on the other end of the phone, he had never heard Miu cry before…
“You’re an idiot.” She hissed out, “O-of course I will.”
“Cool.” He smiled, at least he thought he was smiling, the footsteps got closer.
“Thanks, man…. I hope we get to see each other again some day.”