𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐫𝐞 ; 𝗍𝗈 𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗈𝗋 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗿𝘂𝗽𝘁

Prologue

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

( Bullshit. )

At least, the road to hell is not paved in good intentions when you are the Ultimate Soldier.

Mukuro dances on the bricks of life, of survival; combat boots tapping against the kanji for love. The kanji for sister. The kanji for despair.

In truth, the road to hell is paved with dead bodies.

( Those countless faces she killed whilst she was in Fenrir. Nanami Chiaki. The Reserve Course Students. Kirigiri Jin. )

And isn't it pretty, neon pink on her hands and the blade of her knives. And she laughs because she was never the first dead.

The road to hell is paved with dead bodies.

Enoshima Mukuro also died a long time. Only Ikusaba Mukuro remained.

( "Do you ever wonder what's waiting for us at the end of this?" Mukuro asks one evening.

Plastic nails, almost claw-like, trace the line of her jaw, and Junko laughs, lips curling into a sadistic grin.

"Exactly what you deserve, Muku-chan."

Mukuro doesn't even know what she deserves.

- Does she deserve despair? Is the intrinsic despair of being doomed to happiness its own kind of despair? Is she doomed to this emotionless limbo she calls home evermore? -

"Thank you." Mukuro ends up saying, softly.

She doesn't believe her own words. )

Is despair its own happiness?

Mukuro feels like Sisyphus, pushing and pushing the boulder up a hill, never quite finishing her task.

Eat your sins.
Eat your feelings.

Mukuro's never been good at that.

The road to hell is paved with Mukuro's intentions.

Mukuro dances on the bricks made of sins, each one written in kanji, which carves its way into her soul. Despair. Love. Demon. Devil. Killer. Murderer.

Junko's love tastes like Gungir.

Junko's despair tastes like iron in her mouth.

(There's never any pain, the feeling trained out of her until all that was left was an overpowering numbness she'd come to call despair.)

Junko kills her.

Pierces her with spears, and Mukuro can only watch the shocked faces of her old classmates – who don't even remember her – stare at her in horror as her body crumples to the floor.

Junko is a demon, a devil–

But Junko is also family, storge, philia.

And isn't it so despair-inducing that Mukuro is betrayed by the one she trusts the most.

Junko would've thought so, she thinks, as darkness falls over her eyes like a shroud, as her lungs choke and gasp for air.

​Mukuro lets herself fall into the thick inky tide that is despair, swallowing the soldier down until her whole body, mind and soul is drunk in darkness.

A plea erupts from her throat as the reality of what's happening sinks in. Fear clogs her thoughts and logic, and all she can think, as she feels her life ebb away, is; 'I don't want to die.'