Assassins, Detectives, and the Mafia

Plans and Puppets

Tsumugi Shirogane strides into the room, high heels clicking on tile.

She's going to see Junko Enoshima, after all. It doesn't pay to be late.

(Well, it doesn't pay at all, but that's not really the point)

"Enoshima-sama," she greets, pushing open the door and bowing deeply.

Junko stares at her, an utterly bored expression on her face.

"Yeah?" she snaps, azure eyes narrowed in irritation.

"I have a proposition for you..."

He's walking to his death.

He's not entirely sure *why* he's walking, he just knows he is. Like an actor following a script. A puppet on strings.

It's not as if he's not fighting. The aware part deep down in his mind, the part still playing the role he was assigned so long ago resists this with everything it has.

It's not enough.

The reprogrammed part of him, the part that obeys despair as his master and Junko Enoshima as his savior refuses to let him stop.

He's holding the knife in numb fingers, clenching around a slick black hilt.

He's going to kill his best friend.

How despair-inducing.

Maki Harukawa runs down the street, tears streaming behind her.

It's been too long.

He hasn't picked up in too long.

She would be faster on a bike, but that's not exactly an option. She never bought one, despite Kaede's insistance...

Damn, this has been a shitty week.

It seems sick that she can simplify it to that level, but she can.

Snow swirls through the air as she pushes herself faster, pleading with herself not to be too late.

Please, don't let me be too late again.

Let me save one person.

Please.

Her mind flashes back to Kaede - a corpse too perfect for this world, as ethereal in eternal sleep as she was in life.

Kokichi... not so much.

Still, three people dead is too many. First Rantaro, then Kokichi and Kaede...

It's almost as if this is a plan.

Like people following a demonic script, with orders to kill first this person, then that one.

It's sick.

Kurumi appears, coming out of the building where she shares an apartment with Ryoma. Not by his choice, but it was decided someone should watch him. And who better to watch him than the Ultimate Maid?

Besides, even if he doesn't say so, he does like it.

"Maki-san?" she asks, as proper as always.

Maki must look like a mess, hair messy and eyes red from crying. The hurt lodged in her bones won't leave her alone, despite her best efforts to drown it in alcohol and ice cream.

Damn her high tolerance.

"Kurumi..." Maki gasps. She doesn't grow winded easily, but sprinting across the city can't help. "I need your help."

Kurumi's eyes narrow (the best way to gain assistance is to say the word 'help') and she extends a gloved hand. "Let me help."

It's how, ten minutes later, they're riding across the city on Ryoma's motorbike.

It's a swanky bike, no mistake. Pitch-black, with an engine that purrs like a cat and moves like one too.

Still, Maki doesn't care, so long as it moves.

They pull up to the house, and Maki hops off the bike as fast as humanly possible.

She has to know he's okay.

He has to be okay.

She pulls open the door...

and walks into her nightmare.

"Are you sure?"

Junko eyes Tsumugi with irritation... and just a slight hint of excitement.

"This would throw all the rules away. Reveal our entire hand."

And yes, that is excitement in Junko's eyes.

What better despair than having your entire plan crumble before your eyes?

"I'm positive," Tsumugi smiles, that angelic smile that had her cast for the 53rd season of Danganronpa.

Ultimate Cosplayer indeed.

"This is going to be so despair-inducing," Junko coos. "I'm so excited~"

"I'll contact him right away, see if he's okay to do it," Tsumugi proposes, and Junko nods assent.

"Oh, and don't tell him who the target is- I want to see the despair on his face when he realizes," Junko commands. "This despair, ah... it makes me ecstatic just thinking about it!"

Tsumugi nods in agreement, the prospect of overwhelming despair undeniably intriguing.

Ah... it's almost as perfect as the 53rd season's ending... Shuichi's victory... Shuichi's despair...

Shuichi is such a good protagonist, she muses. So capable of causing despair... so capable of creating weak hope...

Everyone loves him. He is the emotional support for the group. So perfect, so hope-filled...

How would it be if he could fall to despair?

Or more so...

How would it be if he was pushed?

Junko is letting her play with the puppets she made, Tsumugi muses as she leaves the room. The lives caught in her web of despair, able to be manipulated so easily to do her bidding.

It's so admirable... so impressive... truly perfect for the Ultimate Despair.

She runs her tongue over her index finger, salivating at the prospect of this despair. This true, reachable despair... so perfect...

Junko will be so proud. She doesn't even have an inkling of how perfect this is going to be.

How despair-inducing.

How... absolutely despair-causing... so perfectly absolutely despair-inducing... ah...

This will be her game, she vows.

This despair is something she will be able to call completely her own.

This despair will be just for her, a special despair just to throw herself into complete and utter hurt.

It's incredible.

Ah, she may have to take out Junko's favorite now, but soon it will be her turn.

Soon, it shall be her turn to try and create Ultimate Despair, her turn to destroy the fragments of hope and fall to despair.

It sounds wonderful.

Not any hope will do. She has one in mind already.

She caresses a photo of her hope, her desperate, perfect, hope, so fragile. So easily breakable, with just a flick of the wrist and a twisted motive.

It's going to be so despair-inducing to watch her fall.

Absolutely perfect.