Chapter 3

The dark twisted hallways of Hope's Peak stretched out in front of me, entrapping me in their maze-like design. Shadows danced on the walls around me and I could hear faint laughter behind me growing ever closer. It was distorted, inhuman. I dared not turn around and face whatever it was.

I was being chased. Something was after me. That was all I knew.

I turned a corner and kept running. Whatever was behind me I had to get away. Faster and faster I willed myself to move. But no matter how far I ran it seemed like nothing changed. The dark halls around me were the same ones I had passed earlier. It was as though I was running but moving nowhere at all.

"Somebody help me!" I screamed. Yet the empty hallway gave no reply. There was no one there. No one to hear my cries.

Turning another corner, I came face to face with a figure. Having no time to stop or dodge, I slammed right into them.

"Ahh." A familiar voice let out a scream as the two of us fell to the floor. On the ground in front of me, rubbing her head where I had hit her, was a familiar blue haired girl.

"Sayaka?" I said in shock.

"Oww." Sayaka said, continuing to rub her head. However, her eyes lit up as she saw me.

"Oh Makoto, hello! What are you doing running in the hallways?"

"What are you-" I trailed off as I heard the laughter behind me once again. Coming to my senses I grabbed Sayaka's hand.

"We have to run Sayaka, don't you hear that! There's something behind us!"

I started to run again, pulling her along with me but I was unable to get her to budge.

"Sayaka?" I asked, turning around to look at her. Her face was downcast, and her hair kept me from seeing her expression but her shoulders were shaking.

"Hey Sayaka its going to be ok. Come on." I assumed she was trembling with fear and tried to comfort her.

"Haha."

My eyes widened in shock.

"Hahahahahahahahah."

She was laughing.

"Sayaka what's wro-"

I gasped as Sayaka threw her head back and cackled. Her eyes had a crazed malevolence in them and her voice echoed through the hallways.

"Hey Sayaka, what are you doing?" Panic began to rise in my chest, and I tried to let go of her hand. But her grip was like iron and I couldn't escape.

"Sayaka stop. You're hurting me!" I started to struggle but the girl just gripped me tighter.

After a few seconds she stopped laughing and looked straight at me with a distorted, devilish grin.

"Oh Makoto, don't you know there's no escape. We're going to die in here. Me and you and all these other unfortunate souls."

I felt my heart stop as Sayaka pulled out a knife from her skirt.

"What are you doing? Sayaka please stop!" I kept struggling but she just pulled me closer. She put the knife up to my face and started caressing me with the cold steel.

"Shhhh. Its ok. We're trapped but there's still plenty of fun to be had. Ever since I laid eyes on you I've wanted to carve you up. To hear you scream and beg for mercy. To feel your warm blood between my fingers. So Makoto?"

She paused and pulled the knife away, spinning it so she held the blade downwards. A pleasant smile crossed her face as she spoke again.

"Will you please die for me?"

Then she brought the knife down towards my heart.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!" I awoke screaming. My breathing was ragged and I was sweating profusely. I clutched my chest, sure to find a gaping wound in it. But there was nothing.

I let out a sign of relief. It was just a dream.

I continued to breathe, trying to calm myself down. Glancing at the clock I saw that it was just after 2 am. I laid back down and shut my eyes, trying to fall back asleep. But the images from my dream plagued me and I could not seem to make them go away. There was something so realistic about that dream. About the way the knife had felt as it entered my chest. The fear I had felt as I realized I was about to die. And the awful madness that had overtaken Sayaka.

I threw the covers off of myself and stormed out of the room. I needed a change of scenery. Sleep showed no signs of overtaking me and I figured I could find somewhere to clear my head.

I wandered around for a while before stopping in front of the door to the dining hall. I tried it and found it was unlocked. I pulled it open and walked inside. It was dark but there was a dim light coming from the indoor garden that felt almost like moonlight. I walked over to the window and peered out getting lost in the calming glow.

"You shouldn't be out here."

The voice made me jump and I quickly turned to see Mukuro approaching me. I smiled as I saw her and a slight blush crossed her face.

"Yeah you caught me." I said. "Not the perfect kid you thought I was huh?"

Mukuro looked me dead in the eyes. "What are you doing out here Makoto? It's dangerous to be out at night."

"I could say the same about you." I replied.

"That's different. I can take care of myself. But if something happens to you there's no one coming to help."

She was right. If someone wanted to kill me, they would have no trouble doing so.

"I just needed to get out of my room for a while." I said. "I'm sorry."

"It's ok. You don't have to apologize. Just be more careful." She looked away for a second, blushing. "There's people that worry about you, you know."

I smiled. "Thanks Mukuro. Do you want to keep me company for a while."

She looked taken aback by my question.

"Y-yes I think that would be nice but are you sure you should trust me so quickly? What if I'm here to kill you?"

"That's stupid. Of course you aren't here to kill me. I can tell you aren't that type of person."

Mukuro's eyes widened in surprise for a second. Then she looked away.

"You don't know that."

"Of course I do." I said. "You protected me from Mondo earlier right? And you just said you were worried about me."

"I am. But you still shouldn't trust me so easily."

"But I do. I trust you because I want to trust you. Isn't that enough?"

Mukuro looked at me in surprise for a few more seconds before a smile crossed her lips.

"You really are a strange guy."

I laughed. "You're pretty weird yourself. Aren't you scared I'll kill you?"

"If you decided you wanted to kill me, then I would be ok with it."

Letting those words hang in the air, Mukuro walked up next to me, gazing out into the garden. I stared at her, the dim light giving her an almost phantasmal glow. Her expression was soft and her eyes held a gentleness that was a far cry from her normal icy glare. It was almost like she was a different person from the cold and reserved girl all the others knew.

"So." Mukuro said, pulling me out of my trance. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Yeah." I said. "Nightmares. You?"

"Me too." Mukuro's eyes grew distant as she spoke. "Ever since I got here. They've only gotten worse."

"I can imagine. How are you holding up with all this?"

"As well as possible, I guess. I can't say I'm really scared though. No one in this school can kill me and I'm pretty used to death anyway."

I didn't know how to respond to that. She said it so nonchalantly, but her words were tragic. How could she think death was something normal? Being the Ultimate Soldier, she must have seen horrific things that I couldn't even imagine. But to talk about death the way she did, it was sad.

"I am scared for you though." She said.

I looked over at her in surprise. She looked back at me, a serious look in her eyes. "This killing game doesn't scare me but I don't want to see you die. A trusting guy like you wont last long here. I'll do my best to protect you but you need to be careful ok?"

I looked away, gazing back out at the garden. "You really think everyone is going to start killing each other?"

Mukuro nodded. "They will. It may not be for a while but eventually, this fragile peace will shatter. These walls will grow narrower and narrower, suffocating us until we feel like we have to get out. At any cost."

She was probably right. I didn't want to believe it but that was the truth. No one wanted to live out the rest of their lives trapped in a school. It was only a matter of time.

"So Mukuro." I said, trying to change the subject. "Tell me a little about yourself."

"Huh?" She looked surprised by my words. "What do you mean?"

"Well we hardly know each other. I want to become friends with you so I just wanted to know more about you."

Mukuro blushed. "Well I'm not really that interesting of a person so I don't really know what to say-"

"Ooohooohooo what's this? A secret trist? An illicit love affair? How beary indecent."

Monokuma's voice cut Mukuro off. The bear had appeared out of nowhere.

"Monokuma!" I said in surprise.

"Of course it's me! Did you think your little late night rendezvous would slip past my watchful gaze. Well think again! Don't you know the dinning room is off limits during the night!"

I went pale. I had totally forgotten. The door was unlocked so I had just walked in without thinking.

"What are you going to do with us?" I said.

"Weeeell, since you broke the rules I could kill you right here."

I felt Mukuro tense up beside me. She balled her fist, getting ready to fight.

"But, I have a soft spot for young love! You two are just so cute together! The cold heart of the lonely soldier warmed by the gentle kindness of the boy who loves her! It's a story made for Hollywood! Sooooooooo, I've decided to let it slide this time!"

"Th-thank you." I managed to stammer out.

Monokuma sighed. "Aww darn it all! Fine. I'll give the two of you a permanent pass! Your love for each other has captured my heart so I'll let the two of you come here every night if you wish. As long as you promise only to come after midnight you can use this dinning hall whenever you want!

Mukuro and I looked at each other in surprise.

"Uh-"

"No need to thank me! Your flushed faces and lovestruck eyes are all the thanks I need! The view of the garden at night is so romantic so you kids have fun! Bye bye!"

With that the robotic bear took off, leaving Mukuro and I in stunned silence.

"Umm." I said. "That was interesting."

"Yes, it certainly was."

Silence fell back over us again as neither of us had any idea what to say. I opened my mouth to try and ask Mukuro about herself again but she cut me off.

"I think we should probably get to sleep." She said.

I nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right. It is pretty late."

I honestly wanted to talk to Mukuro a little longer. Having her with me calmed me down and I felt a lot safer with her around. There was so much more to her behind the walls she put up and I really wanted to know more about her. But she was right, we really needed to get to sleep.

"I'll walk you back to your room then." I said.

Mukuro shook her head. "No way. I'm making sure you get back safely."

"Aren't our rooms really close to each other though? It doesn't really matter."

"Oh. Well I guess that true. Fine then, I'll let you walk me back."

The two of us made our way back to the dorms together. We said goodnight to each other and I turned to head into my room.

"H-hey Makoto?" Mukuro asked.

"What is it?"

She was blushing a bit and seemed almost nervous, but she forced out the words she was trying to say anyway.

"Do you want to maybe meet up at the dinning hall again tomorrow night? It seems like Monokuma is ok with it and I think it might help me deal with my nightmares."

I felt myself blush a little too. "Oh umm, well-"

"It's fine if you don't want to since you would be sacrificing a lot of sleep and-"

"No I want to. That sounds kind of nice actually."

Mukuro smiled at my words. "Great. I'll see you tomorrow then."

She turned and went into her room, closing the door behind her. I followed suit, collapsing on my bed. I smiled to myself as sleep started to overtake me, wondering if maybe this killing game wasn't all bad.

Mukuro Ikusaba laid on her bed, thinking about everything that had happened to her. Something was very wrong with the whole situation. The plan had been for her to pretend to be Junko to throw off the other students. However, the last thing she remembered was her and her sister still playing their roles as students of class 78. Then she had woken up at a desk in an empty classroom.

What happened to Junko? She wondered. Was her sister controlling Monokuma as she was supposed to? If so why had she taken Mukuro's memories?

It didn't make any sense.

Still, as confused as Mukuro was about the situation, she couldn't help but be a little glad that she was able to be herself. If she had been Junko, she would have just played the role she had been assigned as she always did. She never would have been able to protect Makoto from Mondo or talk to him in the dining hall. As Mukuro, she could do things that Mukuro wanted to do.

But what did Mukuro want to do?

She had gone along with her sister's plan for world destruction for so long. Junko was family after all and she wanted to help her. She had done what Junko asked of her, and in the end they went so far as to destroy the world. She had done some evil things as a mercenary but the things she had done as an Ultimate Despair were far worse.

Why had she done all that? It had seemed like the right thing to do at the time. She had always been a soldier, and a soldier took orders without asking questions.

Her time at Hope's Peak however, had sown doubt in her mind. That boy had begun to change her desires. She was so confused, torn between what she thought she wanted and what she really wanted. The conflicting desires within her raged against one another and she did not know which was right.

Mukuro wondered, if that boy knew what she had done, who she was, would he still smile at her the same way?

She did not know the answer to that. Just like she did not know what was right or wrong anymore. Just like she did not know what was going on in that killing game or what her role in it was to be or if she even wanted to play that role.

The only thing she did know is that she wanted to keep spending time with that boy. To protect him at all costs.

She smiled to herself, deciding that was the right thing to do, and fell into a dreamless sleep.

Author's Notes: Hey guys, its been a while. First off I wanted to apologize for taking so long. I put this story down a few years ago and honestly did not plan to finish it. But recently I've been trying to write again and wanted to take another crack at it. So I decided to recommit to this series. I'm going to plan to update the story weekly, probably every Friday or Saturday and see how it goes. I really am excited to be writing again though and I hope you all enjoyed the new chapter. I think my writing has improved a little in five years but I'll let you guys decide that. Anyway, sorry again for the delay but thank you to anyone who is still interested in this story. I'll see you guys in about a week!

DCpegasus