Chapter 6: A motive of Despair

Over the next several days, the students spent their time exploring the school to the best of their ability, going from room to room, knocking on the metal plates, trying to brute-force the bolts off them on occasion. Occasionally, when not doing that I would see them split up into various groups and simply, hang out.

Today the groups were fairly close to what I would eventually consider the standard affairs. Similar to the game, after reminding Makoto of a time from their past, Sayaka decided to become his 'assistant' and the two of them spent a majority of their time together wandering the halls or coming up with ideas about keeping safe. Sakura and Hina were practically inseparable and whenever they weren't in one of their rooms stretching and exercising as best they could they were in the cafeteria chatting over a cup of tea. In fact, right now they had opened up their circle slightly to include both Celeste and 'Junko' and were having a nice chat.

Hifumi had managed to get Chihiro to join him in a conversation in some kind of video game inspired manga he'd apparently had an interest in and they were going over the logistics for a fanfic he was planning. Mondo, Leon, and Taka were currently in a heated debate over the logic of whether or not the 'no running in the halls' rule still applied given the circumstances, while the clairvoyant Yasuhiro was trying to assist either side to all of their annoyance.

Aside from the groups, both Kiyoko in Byakuya had separated themselves from the others and while the former was being productive in looking for a way out, the later had holed himself up in his room. The odd woman out, Toko had taken to wandering the halls, seemingly looking for something, only to duck behind something every time she heard someone coming near her position. It was rather unusual even for her, but I assumed she was trying to stalk the Togami heir, but didn't know where he was hiding.

As for me, I was once again stuck in the top floor where they couldn't get to me, alone, as per usual.

"God I'm so Bored." After spending my time looking though Junko's stuff, I had started to see why she had started giving away motives. Solitude can only entertain for so long. No matter how much I wanted to though, my position made my moments extremely limited. Despite the irony that I could go anywhere with the Monokuma, I couldn't go anywhere. I was just thankful that the interactions the other were having could keep my attention and that I had the journal to leaf though, or else I don't think I would have even lasted the week.

It was just too bad that the internet didn't exist anymore in this world, or I would have been far better off. Apparently, in someone's sick yet accurate thought process, they decided to do something that destroyed a majority of the system that kept the entire thing running to drive people into despair, another reason people decided to flock in the street to riot, and cause havoc. There just wasn't anything else that they felt they could do.

Television was still an option, but every channel was whatever camera I had specifically tuned in on to hear them talking. So that was limited.

Speaking of the journal, I had found another entry, though this one was much shorter than the others. In it was an unusual quip.

"Junko's been acting a bit unusual today. For some odd reason, she disappeared on me while we were at the mall, and when I found her she was wearing a male tracksuit for some odd reason. What's strange though is that, when I brought it up, she acted completely surprised to see it on her. It was like she had no memory of putting it on. I'm getting a bad feeling about this."

That was all it said, but at the bottom of the page was a small doodle that I believe was Junko in the outfit and the word "why?" written in blue ink as opposed to the normal black. Strangely enough, I recognized it as the very outfit I'd been wearing for the past few days. That kind of explained where it came from, but it still didn't explain why she had it in the first place.

Could this mean that I'd had some form of influence on her before this? But if that was the case, what kept me from stopping her, or at least swaying her away from this path of despair?

I shook my head, obviously whatever influence I'd had on her must had been minor to nonexistent. Maybe if I'd been able to do so, none of this would have happened. God, I've got to stop obsessing over that.

Shaking my head to remove the thought, I turned back to check up on the others and noticed that there had been a slight change in location for a few of them. Mukuro, possibly tired of the conversation had left the tea party and had gone to the laundry room to wash her clothes. In addition, Leon had apparently decided the argument wasn't worth perusing anymore and had left to bother Sayaka with something. With his assistant now held up, Makoto had gone to see who else was free for the time being.

Strangely enough, despite the inherent shyness she'd been displaying the entire time, she seemed to be poking her head out now that the luckster was alone. While not all that new considering that she'd been doing it to Byakuya several times now, the reason I found it strange was that this time she seemed to be muttering to herself with the most conflicted expression I'd ever seen.

My curiosity now peaked, I went and activated the camera's microphone to listen in on her muttered ranting.

"… could try t-to see if he'd … b-but what if he tries t-to … but, t-then again he seems the most…but, w-what if he finds out about…"

… Did I ever mention the fact that, while powerful in their own right, these microphones can't hear soft pitch worth a damn? Because they can't hear soft pitch worth a damn. Now you know.

Irritated, but far from deterred, I immediately made my way to the control panel and booted up the closest Monokuma to her position. My curiosity would not be denied its satisfaction!

Fortunately, the Monokuma I'd taken over was in the room behind her so I was able to sneak in close despite the fact that for some asinine reason all of the bears feet make a small squeaking noise when they walk. She must have been really focused to miss that. Sneaking up as close as I felt I could safely, I craned the bear over as best I could, tying to hear more of what she was saying.

"… No, h-he said he wanted t-to be your f-f-f-friend. H-He's the only one here w-who actually knows about your books, a-and he seemed to enjoy t-talking about them. M-Maybe, maybe just one last time I can try to make f-f-f- "

She cut herself off, shaking her head rapidly before grabbing at her twin braids and forcibly clenching both her eye and teeth shut. "S-Stupid! W-What the hell a-are you saying right now!? T-there's no way he'd ever actually consider being f-f-friends with the likes of you. I-it's just freaking pity, t-that's all there is to it."

Ah, that's what was going on. Not many people knew this about her, but poor Toko had not had the best of pasts. Between her detestable parents, first friend and crush betraying her trust, and her first date that she'd spent three solid sleepless nights planning for ditching her and telling her that the whole thing was because he lost a bet, her feelings of self-worth were excessively low. Add in the fact that she has a split personality of a serial killer who's first victim just so happened to have been said first crush, then it can be safely stated that her faith in herself is absolutely on life-support.

So, when Makoto had gone up to her door on the third day and asked her to hang out, you can guess that she was immediately suspicious. And when he called her his friend, her neurotic fears took full control of the wheel and steered her away with biting words tossed back for good measure.

But that didn't stop him, oh no. He was determined to at the least get her to come out and chat with the others and be friends, so after a few hours, he went straight back to her dorm and tried once more. Then when that didn't turn out as planned, he tried again. After that one failed as well, he was going to try again when he spotted Sayaka waving for his help, so he seemed to decide to try again later.

It wasn't just Toko though, including the afore mentioned pop idol, Leon, Chihiro, once with Kyoko, and a couple times joining Hina and Sakura for tea, he had been doing that kind of befriending with all of the others with more or less success. But I'm focusing on the writer at the moment since it seemed that his persistence with her was in the process of paying off. It was actually rather touching to see this being of trauma induced solitude trying to open up and make friends with one of the single most optimistically kind people in here.

There was nothing I wanted to do more then to give her a reassuring pat on the back and wish her good luck in her endeavor, and maybe even be the reassuring push to help her go forward into this path of recovery. But just when I was about to do so, reality hit me harder than a bat swung by Leon would have.

I was still only controlling Monokuma as the mastermind. If I went up to her as that, then anything I could say, no matter how kind, caring and philosophical I could make the words, they would cause her to react negatively and possibly scare her off. And even if the commotion attracted the object of her attention over, all of her built up bravery would likely be expired in an instant afterward. Oh sure, the luckster could try to keep her attention, but it wasn't likely that he'd be able to pick up the pieces of her shattered confidence in time.

So, with heavy heart, I had the bear pull back and returned it to its little hole in the wall. I'm not happy to report that when I'd gone back to check up on her though the camera, there was apparently a commotion that had caught his attention and resulted in Toko retreating back to her room when he went to investigate. Oh, how I wanted to go down there and talk some sense to her, but I had another situation to check out first, no matter how much I wanted to help her instead.

With a sigh, I turned my attention to the cameras as it seemed that something was troubling my elder twin. Since I'd been in the Monokuma control room, I hadn't heard what had started it, but if I were to make a guess, she was either still upset by our conversation a few days ago, or she was frustrated by the lack of action that being a solider use to the field of battle demanded of her. Possibly a combo of the two.

In any case, with my first source of intrigue gone, I decided I'd use a Monokuma to watch and see what she was up to now that Makoto was walking in on her. So, with a few carefully implemented commands one of the animatronic bears popped up from underneath the trapdoor hidden under the table, and turned to give me a better view of the situation

Funnily enough, at least for me, Mukuro had a bit of a habit to do her laundry in her underwear and dress shirt. So, even though she was stressing out to the fullest, the three years in Fenrir had left a mark aside from the tattoo on her hand that I doubt she even realized she had. After all, in a life or death situation your opposition isn't gonna politely stop trying to kill you to let you get dressed.

So, when Makoto rushed in to make sure she was alright, he nearly had a heart attack seeing her lack of proper attire. But his desire to make sure things were aright completely over rode his hormones desire to stare idly and he made his way over to her. Though that didn't stop him from glancing at her long, toned legs as he did so.

"H-hey Junko?" He stuttered in his attempt to get her attention causing her eyes to snap open and she quickly turned around to find Makoto standing there in the doorway, awkwardly shuffling from one foot to the other with a nervous smile on his face that did little to hide his concern.

Quickly regaining her composer, she quickly fell back into her sister's flippant personality. "What? Can't you see I'm busy?"

I shook my head at that, with her being so scrambled by the metaphorical bombshell I'd accidentally dropped on her a few nights before she'd been having moments were her frustration had caused her to snap at people whenever she was caught off guard, and judging by how she had immediately cringed at his stepping back from her tone, she knew what she'd done too.

"Y-Yeah I can see that, it's just I heard a loud noise and wanted to make sure you were alright." He stated, lightly scratching at his cheek, a nervous habit of his. It was obvious that he was trying to avoid pushing too far into her business.

Of course Makoto would rush to help someone, regardless of the dangers. The boy had this strange habit of putting his nose into other people's business, even though he could barely defend himself should the need arise. It would have been endearing if it wasn't so reckless at times.

"Right, guess I was being too noisy there. Sorry about that." She said sheepishly, pantomiming rubbing the back of her head to emphasize it without disturbing the wig on her head.

The herbivore boy seemed to be relieved to hear that, as he let out a sigh. Now that he felt that she was fine, he seemed to decide to address the elephant in the room.

"So, what happened? Did you mix your whites with colors or something?" Though he added a joking tone at the end, the blush on his face and the fact that he couldn't look directly at her for more than a second told leagues about how uncomfortable he was about her state off dress. Not that she could see, since she had turned away

"… Something like that." She muttered, still keeping him out of her range of view as best she could to not be affected by one if his infectious grins. "What did you want anyway?"

Nervously, Makoto scratched at his head again. "I just wanted to see if you were okay… and I kind of wanted to know if you wanted to talk; you know, hang out a bit? Get to know each other a little? I mean, if you're not too busy."

At first, it seemed like he would be rejected on the spot given the nasty glare that developed on her face. But after a few seconds of her glaring at nothing, she sighed heavily and turned slightly to address him with her peripheral vision.

"Fine, I was feeling super bored anyway. I guess we can chill. But I swear, if you get the wrong idea about this, or you expect me to do something like, get undressed, I'll hurt you. I have to keep my virtue safe after all." The boy gulped at the threat, but after nodding in consent went to stand next to her; not close enough to touch, but enough that he could respect her boundaries without making it seem like he was afraid of her.

"I would never expect you to do anything like… that. I just wanted to make sure you're okay. That's all." He stuttered slightly as he stood, trying to look her in the eyes; to little success.

Flipping her hair back, a small smile crept up onto her face. "I figured. You don't seem like that kind of guy. You're more like an 'omega male' type then an 'alpha' like that."

Not sure if he'd just been insulted or not, the luckster turned towards her with a simple, "Thanks… I think?"

For a few moments, there was a tense silence between them as they simply basked in each other's company, only the rumbling of the washer kept it from becoming completely silent. Occasionally, one of them would try to start up a conversation, but they'd lose their nerve before they could get the words out and fall back into their silent stupor. Makoto because every time he'd glance at her he'd blush up a storm, and Mukuro because she couldn't seem to find the words with the camera on her. I was about to switch the Kuma off and move over to another camera out of boredom, when Mukuro decided that she couldn't take the silence anymore.

"Hey Makoto, can I tell you something? Just you and no one else." If I wasn't using the Monokuma to hide under the table at the moment, I could tell the camera wouldn't have picked up her whispered words. This meant that she knew of their minor limitation and was trying to keep me out of the loop. Cleaver, but I was accidentally one step ahead of her. Thank you, dumb luck!

"Huh?" The luckster questioned, not seeing where she was going with this. But since he was a supportive person by nature, he decided to listen. "Sure, what is it?"

Taking a moment to gather her thoughts, Mukuro turned to finally look him in the eyes. "… My real intentions. If I'm honest, I'm just fed up with all of this. Everyone here's an ultimate, right? So we all just get carried away before rushing into stuff. Even I have to wonder if it's okay to live like that."

"Are you thinking of quitting being a model, or something like that?"

"… When your growing up, your dreams change. That's how it goes. But, I've just been following the first dream I had since I little, almost never deviating from it. I just, never really thought about doing anything else."

"What's wrong with that? That just means you still wish to see it come true, right?"

"Yeah, I use to think that too. But now, I can't help but wonder if I'm doing the right thing with my life. If I'm just stagnating, never letting my dreams grow beyond that first thought. I put everything into that one little dream, but I feel like I could be doing far more than that, that I'm not. I don't like that feeling. I keep telling myself, 'I'm going to change, I'll go after that desire.' But I never do."

She turned to look him in the eyes again, and said with the most neutral tone I'd heard her use, that it somehow made my heart twist in my chest. "Tell me, is it childish of me to think that? Am I just being a baby?"

"No, not at all." He responded reassuringly, eyes locked with hers without straying in the slightest. "I'm trying to do the same thing in a way. Sometimes, I feel like I'll never find my answers or even like I'm losing track of what I wanted to do in the first place. I even feel like I'll never find what I'm looking for even if it takes the rest of my life. I can't even say if it's even about finding it or not. But maybe, the important thing is that you were looking in the first place. If that makes sense."

I watched the two of them from my control room, trying not to break out in a stupid grin. This was the kind of thing I had enjoyed the most about Makoto's development throughout the events of the first game. The herbivore like boy slowly gained a backbone over time and became the inspiration that the others needed, becoming their 'Ultimate Hope' in the process.

Even in the beginning, he had moments like these that set him apart from the other student body as a force to be recognized. Watching him work his hopeful magic on the other despair sister, seeing her eyes widen at his words as they started to worm their way into her twisted by despair heart, it made me feel unbelievably happy for her.

I mean yeah, his words were rather cheesy, and I had no doubt in my mind that if she had been told that by anyone else she would have probably just scoffed, berated them, and kicked them out the door. However, exactly because of who it was, why they were saying it, and that he had said them in such a determined and hopeful manor, I could tell they had affected her greatly; even if she didn't know it.

"Makoto. You actually sounded kinda cool just now." Okay, she might know it a little bit.

Shaking his hands in front of himself in a form of denial, Makoto's face lit up with a deep red blush of embarrassment. "N-No, that's not what I- I mean- That is to say- Um…"

Thankfully for his modesty, she continued, "But, you could be right. So what if you get I bit lost? As long as you're having fun looking for it, maybe that's all that matters. Thanks."

For a good while, he stood there stunned. I wasn't sure if it was because he didn't feel he deserved it because he was winging it the whole time, or if he was still embarrassed from being called 'cool' for the first time. After a while though, he smiled that oh so hopeful smile of his.

"Your welcome." Seeing how happy she made him with that remark, Mukuro flashed him a far more honest grin of her own then the Cheshire grin she'd been doing so far. But, almost as soon as he had a chance to register it, the bigger, fake grin was back.

"And in return, if I do decide to kill someone, I promise it won't be you." My face was once again having a meeting with my palm to discuss her lack of tact and social cues. Of course she would do that, every time she had a conversation during the last week, every single time, something would slip that would scare or startle someone, killing the good mood in seconds.

Makoto took that as bout as well as I thought he would as well. "D-Don't say such scary things!"

"But still…" the disguised solider cut herself off as a look of contemplation slowly crossed her face. For a few minutes she was quite, lost in her thoughts, though occasionally I saw her subtly glance at the camera hanging on the wall.

"… I hate this." She stated, a sour expression on her face. "After everything I've done, I'm now stuck in here where every day is a never-ending source of boredom, and on top of that, everyone's gonna get themselves killed, if that creep behind the bear has anything to say about it. Just… just when the hell are we gonna get out of here!?"

With that last shout, she slammed her fist onto the table in front of her, startling both me and the poor luckster. Though it did answer his question, it did nothing to remove the concern plastered on his face. Moving to put his hand lightly on her shoulder, he softly gave her a reassuring pat, causing her to tense up as if she was repressing some instinctual reaction to his touch that went unnoticed by the luckster.

"I know it can't be easy for you to be cooped up in here. I mean, it's not easy for any of us. But, you can't let that get to you. Remember, what Taka said, 'We got to stay together'. I know it'll be difficult, but we have to stick together and tough it out for now, at least until the year's over." he suggested,

"Ugh, I know, I know." She responded irritably. "But, it's so difficult! Even with what you said, there's no telling if the others will even try to wait it out. And seriously, have you even seen how that jerk Byakuya acts? If I seriously have to hang around that for a whole year, I'd rather have that stupid bear kill me first."

He looked ready to refute her, but she was on a roll and he wasn't going to stop her. "And another thing. What makes you so sure that that stupid bear was even telling us the truth, huh? On what reason do you honestly think that after all the effort they clearly went through to put us in here that they would just let us go just like that?"

Mukuro and I watched as Makoto flinched back at her words, but didn't look like he was going to make an effort to refute them either. Satisfied that she'd gotten a reaction out of him, "Hey!" she shouted at the camera on the wall, focused on the two of them almost intently. "Whoever the dumb bastard keeping us here is! Let us out! Are you even listening to me here!?"

But, while I felt a tad insulted there was no response from me to her ranting and raving. Only a combination of her and Makoto's steady breathing, and the soft rumble of clothing tumbling kept her from being left in total silence. Well, okay I may have made a rude gesture at her, but I said nothing either way.

"Nothing, huh? Pisses me off…"

Behind her, the luckster shrugged, "Well, I mean… They wouldn't make it that easy, right?"

Deciding I'd had enough hiding, I had the Monokuma walk out of its place under the table, startling them both at my sudden appearance. "I don't know; I think it was pretty easy. And so you know, I resent the 'dumb bastard' comment. Now, what do you want?"

Despite having to crane the bears head way up to look her in the eye, I still did my best to seem imposing. Regrettably, she had seen far worst then what this bear could pull and she glared at me though the camera. "Yeah, I'm sick of this game of yours. I want you to let us go already."

Both me and the bear shook our heads in negative. "Sorry, but as much as I'd like to simply do that, I have to follow the rules here too, ya know. You're just going to have to wait like everyone else. Unless you kill someone, I guess."

There wasn't a response from the disguised solider, just her glare of discontent. But as things were looking to get ugly between us, Makoto took a step forward to try and calm her down, causing her to look in his direction as she began to walk towards him.

"Junko, you're not thinking about doing anything to …. Drastic, are you?" he asked nervously, neither he, nor myself feeling good about the way she was moving towards him now. I was really hoping that this wasn't going to go where I think it was going.

"Drastic?" she asked in a deathly whisper, before seeming to remember her role to play and snapping back with a little peace sign and ear to ear grin. "Oh, you mean the whole, 'killing someone' thing. Nah, I could never do that."

"… Yeah, sure. You say that now." I said, causing them to turn their attention towards me again. "but everyone has a braking point. We just have to find it."

It was at that point that I knew I'd screwed up. She turned towards me, her glare returning with a vengeance as she stomped towards the Kuma with a glare hot enough to melt steel, causing a shiver to crawl down my back. "That is it! I'm fed up with you and this stupid game!"

With her piece said, she reeled her arm back, ready to unleash it onto the plushy bear's face. I thought, 'Surely she wasn't stupid enough to actually go and break one of the rules her sister had been so invested in making.' But, as I watched her start to release her punch, I couldn't help but real back in terror at the implication of what she was doing and I quickly moved to the controls in response.

However, just as I was going to activate one of the less lethal traps in an attempt to scare her off, who else but Makoto would unknowingly come to her rescue by tackling her bodily. Glancing down quickly, I caught sight of a crystal ball rolling away from the action. Obviously Yasuhiro had forgotten it after he did his laundry this morning. Makoto must have tripped on it in his attempts to stop her.

Unfortunately for the luckster, tackling a super solider, even an unarmed one, is never a smart thing to do. This fact was proven when her instincts kicked in, before she quickly grabbed what was holding onto her side and adjusted her weight to flip herself so that her assailant would take the blunt of the fall.

As she and her attacker hit the ground, it looked like she was about to twist her body in a way to cause further damage when she caught sight of her assaulter. Her eyes shot wide open when she realized that she was currently straddling Makoto with his arms pinned to his chest by her arm, the other held up in a way that would have looked far more terrifying if she'd had her knife present. My eyes also widened at that as well, but it was less about the pin, and more about the fact that she was straddling him… in her underwear.

I don't care what anyone says, that's some anime levels of shipping fuel right there! … please ignore that.

"W-What are you doing?" she questioned him, though I was wondering it myself. It wasn't the fact that he was a rather defensive kind of individual that would have been more likely to stand there and wait. At the moment, anyway. It was more the fact that this was the first time I'd seen so far where he reacted so quickly.

Normally, like with Mondo's near explosive demise, he seemed content, or at least too afraid, to jump in on the action. So to see him jump right into the fray to save someone he didn't even know, it said a lot about how much he cared.

Funnily enough, he would just end up confirming my thoughts. "S-Sorry, but you need to calm down," he insisted, grunting from her practically crushing his lungs from her weight. "Don't you remember what almost happened to Mondo? I just don't want you to get hurt!"

That explained it. Even now, with his life on the line, Makoto seemed to have just the integrity to wish for everyone's safety. No matter what happened, even when he was betrayed, threatened, or hurt terribly by someone would he wish the worst on someone. I admit, I'd kind of forgotten about that fact. Unlike me though, Mukuro didn't see that.

"You were worried about me?" She questioned, honestly confused by his actions. "Why? I haven't done anything for your sake. Hell, I just hurt you when you grabbed me. So, Why?"

Briefly, a hint of shock registered on the boy's face, as if he couldn't comprehend the reason that she'd even ask that. He had probably never ever had to consider the idea that someone out there would have had to endure a life were these kind of acts of trust or such things came secondary to one's own life. But, he shook his head to remove the thought and stared back at her with one of the most determined expressions I'd even seen.

"Because you're my friend. S-Sorry I grabbed you like that, but if I had just stood by and watched you do something that I know would end up getting you killed, then it would have been the same as if I had killed you myself; and I would never do that! I'll do whatever it takes to help everyone get out of here! I won't let any of my friends die!"

For a full minute she stayed there, staring blankly into Makoto's eyes as held his gaze on hers; trying to find her answers in those windows to his soul. I won't deny that I was hoping she would make a move on him, but…

"Hey dudes, any one seen my crystal- "Of course, their moment was interrupted by the poor timing of the clairvoyant as he walked into the room. All gazes snapped towards each other as the two male's faces grew increasingly red, and her glare stayed intense on the confused and embarrassed Hiro.

"U-uh, s-sorry bout interrupting. I-I'll just come back later." And with that, he was gone again, leaving the heavily blushing Makoto, my Monokuma unit and, the seemingly indifferent Mukuro behind.

"Wow." I stated, completely unamused by Hiro's interruption. "Talk about bad luck. And here I was thinking that there was about to be some steamy action in here."

The two of them turned towards me with a glare, though Makoto's was notably difficult to take seriously with the pink dusting on his cheeks. I simply smiled though at how much I was irritating them. "Of course, illicit activities on campus isn't really prohibited. But if you wanted to move this to your rooms…"

I regret nothing.

"…'Whatever it takes', huh." She muttered just loud enough for me to barely make out over the washing machine, that apparently Makoto just missed as she slowly removed herself from his now weakened grasp.

Unfortunately, it was at this time that she remembered that my Monokuma was there, and turned away from him. "… Whatever. If your done here, I've got… things to do."

Makoto flinched back at the finality of her words, as did I since it seemed a bit too harsh in my opinion. He didn't argue though, and after a final glance at her and one last glare at the bear, he made his way out of the room, leaving just the two of us once more. Wanting to be sure he was gone, I made my way over to the door and peaked out into the hall, and after making sure that there wouldn't be any surprise visitors, pulled my head back in and walked over to her.

"…So," I said as I looked at her slumped form after making one last sweep for unwanted visitors, "I can't help but wonder what that all was about back there. I thought you said you wanted to continue playing the game, and yet here you are barely a week later doing something that we both know would get you executed on the spot. Have you changed your mind, or is it you're thing with him going to be a common occurrence?"

She grimaced at my tone, but I didn't care. I needed to know if she was going to keep doing this kind of stunt the whole time. It was really throwing me off my game plan with her.

In the game, she had spent the entirety of her short time acting out her role as Junko with barely any moments of this kind of irrationality. While she had a tendency to act a bit brash, she never really tried to instigate anything. Hell, during her first free time event with Makoto she went out of her way to volunteer to find him a girlfriend; despite her crush on him.

But now, thanks to my little blunder she was so distracted and confused that it was throwing her off her game. She would never had snapped at Makoto otherwise, to deep was her love of his honest smile to even attempt such a thing. With how things were going, there was a huge risk to continuing to let her continue the act.

Either way, I needed her to either get it together, or I'd have to remove her from the equation… And no, I don't mean through the permanent option. "Sis. I know this isn't the kind of thing you're exactly… good at, but if you can't get your act together, we'll be forced to switch places to keep this thing on track. You don't want that, do you?"

She shook her head in negative, unknowingly confirming a theory I'd been working on for a while now. I had wondered if the decision to have Mukuro take Junko's place was more Junko's desire to insure her survival to the end, or Mukuro's desire to keep her sibling safe from these games. If her response was any indication, it was defiantly the latter option.

"Well, then you're going to have to be more careful from now on." I stated calmly and decisively, trying to keep her feelings into account. "Look, if things get to dicey I can still pull you. I hate repeating myself, but there's no need for you to continue doing this if you don't feel up for it- "

I flinched back when she slammed her hand down on the table, interrupting what I was about to say. I cringed expecting her to blow up on me. But instead, she calmly stated, "I'm sorry for disappointing you again. He just caught me off guard and I reacted rashly. I'll do better next time, I promise."

I shook my head slightly as a sigh of mild annoyance passed through my lips. Mukuro was getting far too emotional in her role as the Junko copy. "Fine, but no more of those outbursts. If anyone else would have seen that, you'd have blown everything."

She nodded grimly at me, but said nothing. Feeling that I wasn't going to get anything else out of her, I shut off the control for Monokuma, letting it return to its preprogramed tasks in the evacuation/air vents.

Though to fair, I was getting too far into my role too; going out and making her feel this turmoil in the first place; even if it was by accident. I honestly didn't know what had made me say those things to her, and it really raised a red flag in my mind. I was doing the exact opposite of my intended plan to keep her on my side.

I leaned back in my chair with my arms folded over my head as I thought, one of many thinking poses I'd picked up over the years.

At the moment, Mukuro was the biggest threat to my efforts to keep the students from dying a terrible death here at the school. As the Ultimate Solider, she had both the advanced training to take most of them down effortlessly, as well as her access to a wide variety of weaponry stored away in her closet for the rest. Literally, right next to about three copies of the 'not so despairing' Junko's outfit there were a dozen kinds of standard issue firearms in various sizes.

From a few simple handguns, combat knifes, a semiautomatic rifle, and a high caliber sniper-rifle, to a single shot rocket launcher of all things. I mean really, aside from maybe Sakura there was no reason for such a level of force. It wasn't clear what she would possibly need this much fire power for, unless it was something the two despair sisters were planning if they couldn't manage to convince the others to start the killing.

Furthermore, the amount of plans these two had made just to get the killing game started really disturbed me as the piles of files that I found dedicated to the very subject numbered in the hundreds. Worst still, they had far more motives for these students to become murderers in place then just ways to kill them. I knew this because when I had checked the first drawer of the filling cabinet that I had found in my room, I found it had been filled primarily with these ideas, while the second had been practically nothing but personalized motives for each student; and I didn't just mean the class of 78.

It seemed that every class that had been in Hopes Peak at the time were in there. Classes 74 through 78 as well as several members of the faculty were listed all with several kinds of physiatrist profiles detailing several kinds of dreams, thoughts, desires, history, traumas, fears, and so much more for each of these students and teachers. There was practically no end to the things these people would suffer from.

The thing that made them scarier to me was the fact that within several of them, more so the last class than any other, were several post-it notes written by Junko, about how to abuse these weaknesses to her benefit. About how to use these secrets to break them.

A shiver went down my spine at the thought. The shear level of her desire to cause despair and the lengths she was willing to go to get others to feel it had always disturbed me, but seeing one of the many methods she had waiting to be used to cause it creeped me the hell out.

My thoughts were interrupted as my console started beeping at me, alerting me to an incoming call from the outside; something that I had only found out about by accident in my boredom induced fiddling about with the computer, something I had been doing whenever it looked like the others weren't doing anything exciting; which means every few hours.

Apparently, while the students had their phones taken so that they couldn't communicate with the outside world, the mastermind had kept a wireless connection open so that she could contact the others of her Ultimate Despairs as well as a select few others. She just didn't feel like using it during the game for some unspoken reason. Something else I was going to use against her.

Unfortunately for me, it worked on a video chat system, which meant that I had to dress the part if I was to play a convincing ploy for assistance. Or to be more specific, I had to put on not only her outfit, but I had to use the two sides of Monokuma hair accessories that marked me as the Ultimate Despair, put on some mascara and various facial creams, blush, foundation, a tiny pearl necklace I'd found on her dresser, and the most irritating to me, put in her colored contact lenses that turned my eyes to a pleasant blue.

Let me be the first to say, I hate contact lenses. The irritating bits of plastic never had an appeal for me. They had to be put into your eye for starters, something I already instinctually disliked on principle, and if they got dirty and you didn't know it, then that meant you were putting that junk into your eye and possibly damaging it in the process. Plus, if you forgot that they were there before you went to sleep, then it could end up in a much harder to retrieve spot in your eye, or broken.

There was a reason I had stayed with glasses despite all of the good contacts could have been for me. They may have been harder to replace then the tinier of the two, and more expensive as a result, but I could actually use them without as much worry as I would have with contacts. They also didn't itch as much.

Regardless of my opinion on the matter, I had to put them on if I was going to keep things going smoothly.

Moving over to the console and answering the call, I was greeted with the appearance of a teen that I really had trouble believing was the real deal at first. He was about over five and a half feet tall with a slightly toned frame, and he wore over it a badly worn out jumper that might have at one point been yellow, but it had turned an array of browns and blacks from various grime, grease, and dirt. His hair, while covered in a gray beanie, was long, black, and greasy, but there were hints of pink dye coloring near the ends; though they were rather faded.

Surprisingly enough, through his torn sleeves I could see that he was missing his right arm from the elbow down. In its place, there was a rather advanced looking prosthetic limb that for some odd reason had a small canister embedded into it that had a symbol I recognized as a flammable warning label pasted onto it. Attached to the top of it was a small nozzle that extended over the middle finger; a welding torch, maybe?

The worst part was his facial regions. A majority of the front was okay, but his teeth, which had been previously sharpened to a point, had several noticeable chips and cracks when he talked, and there was a large burn mark over the right of his practically dead looking eyes. In addition to that, while his left eye had a pink colored contact lens, the right looked like the piece of corrective viewing had melted into the pupal.

"Hello there, Soda-kun." I said to him in a sugary tone, simultaneously trying not to feel sick as his eyes… eye, lit up at the sight of me with absolute devotion, and an almost perverse amount of what I can only describe as loving despair.

Yes, you heard me right. This was Soda Kazuichi, the Ultimate Mechanic and one of the many members of Ultimate Despair. This poor boy had been in the same class as Mikan when Junko had started sinking her despair filled claws into the elder class, and was one of the many that she used her seductive charms on to turn into a broken husk to use as she pleased.

Apparently, sometime after the Tragedy Junko had sent him off to work on several side projects she would come up with in her boredom and would regularly contact him with more demented ideas to bring to life; even if it could kill him. One of these "ideas" apparently tried to already. That, or he did those injuries to himself in some sick way to give him greater despair. Really hoping it's the former.

It was also him who created the more unorthodox execution machines that were stored in the lower levels of the school. He apparently was also responsible for ether the creation or conception of several other little things like the cameras, the monitors, a massive air and water purifier, and even an elaborate machine that cultures, raises, cleans, and is basically what keeps making all of the food in the school that doesn't have a trademark label on it.

"So, how are things progressing?" I questioned him, my eyes fluttering briefly as I did so. Not out of some ridiculous need to be flirty with him, but because my contacts were itchy. Though, it seemed to make his everything to see it, so I was willing to ignore it for now.

"M-Mistress Junko!" He beamed excitedly at me in response, clearly ecstatic that I had graced him with my attention for even a moment. "Everything's been set up and is on its way. I have one of the Monokuma bringing them right now."

I smiled at his response, relieved that things were going smoothly. I'll admit, when I had first called him up I was really terrified that he would have recognized that I wasn't the real Junko from the word go. But it seemed my fears were unfounded as almost immediately he had jumped to wanting another idea to tinker with the second I had appeared on screen. I didn't know whether to feel relieved that he couldn't tell I wasn't the original, or pity that he was so corrupted that he couldn't tell the real deal from a fake.

"That's good to hear." I informed him, giving him an ear to ear grin that Junko was known for doing, practically sending him into some sort of despair induced nirvana; to my internal disgust.

"T-Thank you for your kind words, mistress." He stuttered, seeming to lose himself momentarily in the minor praise; before snapping back to attention.

"Oh right, I almost forgot." Soda stated with realization. "I had some extra time on my hands so I improved them a bit. Added some extra features."

I tilted my head slightly as my brow raised in confusion. Extra features? How had he managed to add more features to them when I'd only given him four days to work on this project? So I asked him such.

"Yeah, it wasn't easy, but I added a tracker to their designs so you can keep an eye on them easier and I made it so that they would explode if their locks are forced open without the keys. That'll get them to really feel despair!" He helpfully explained with sadistic glee.

I barely resisted the incredibly powerful urge to violently recoil in disgust. The way his eyes lit up as he said that sent another chill down my spine and filled me with a sense of regret. While it was Junko who had done this to him, turned him into this despair hungry teen, I was only stoking these feelings as I was. And to keep people Alive, I was going to have to do far more of that to several others.

They say the road to hell is paved in good intentions. If that's the case, then Junko, be ready to open those brimstone gates for me when I die, because by the time I was done here, there will likely be a yellow brick road stained in blood leading me there.

Subtly swallowing down my self-disgust, I smiled at him. "Upupu. That's good to hear. You're really exceeding my expectations here Soda-kun. I'm proud of you."

Apparently, those were the magic words as his eye lit up again with some form of determination. "Y-You're serious!? You really liked it that much!? Oh man, if I knew you'd like my modifications that much, I'd have put in a whole bunch more things into them! Just you wait, I'll do so much more with the next project!"

I was once again confused by what he'd said. As far as I thought, I was just being nice, giving him a little compliment for his hard work. Was he really so starved for attention that such a small phrase of praise would excite him so?

Apparently so, because he had broken into a rant about how he could improve the designs of several of his inventions, like adding an improved power converter to his arm, adding a soda dispenser to a robot Nekomaru, putting a more powerful driveshaft onto a firetruck…wait, backup a bit.

"What was that about Nekomaru?" I asked, honestly confused by the revelation of the Ultimate Coach, Nekomaru Nidai. This had been the first time I'd heard of him being anywhere near these incidents. I had assumed that he was busy doing something to help with the spreading of despair and hadn't bothered trying to call him, but apparently he was with Soda for some reason.

It was strange though, as a coach I would have figured he would be outside doing something related to sports, not in a workshop with the mechanic. He just didn't seem to be the type, so of course I would be curious about him.

"Uh…Yeah, remember that riot last month?" Soda asked nervously, obviously concerned about my reaction. I blinked, having never heard of this. A riot? When did this happen?

Not wanting to let this information go, I nodded my head slightly and signaling him to continue with a wave of my hand. Seeing as I wasn't blowing my top at him so far, Soda took in a calming breath and braced himself.

"See, Nekomaru kind of took a rocket to the chest and-"

"What!" I interrupted furiously, completely in disbelief at what I was hearing. And why wouldn't I? "Where in the heck did someone get a freaking rocket!? No, wait, scratch that. How the hell is he alive after that!?"

I watched Soda leap back, shocked at my sudden shouting but I didn't care at the moment. A rocket had taken down the Ultimate Coach, in a world where people had to resort to using bats, pipes, and other blunt objects because bullets were becoming impossible to find. I mean really, who would have had such a thing after all this time?

…Mukuro didn't count. She was the damn Ultimate Soldier and an Ultimate Despair; of course she would have something like that shoved in her closet.

But beyond that, Nekomaru took a freaking rocket to the chest and apparently survived it. What the actual hell was he made of to allow such a thing. I mean yeah, he was obviously critically injured it the process; but you don't tend to survive something like that in any manner, what so ever! I call hacks!

"D-Don't worry about it, Mistress." Soda stammered as he scrambled back into view, though he flinched back when I turned my glare on him, silently demanding him to explain. "W-We managed to get him before he could get into too bad of a condition, a-and Mikan's caring for him as we speak! I'm working on some cybernetic enhancements so that, when he wakes up, h-he can- "

"I get the picture, Soda." I stated, interrupting his tirade before he could go any further crossing my arms and closing my eyes in a show of thought.

And I did understand a bit better now. In the third chapter of the second game, Nekomaru ended up taking a similar blast meant for another student and nearly died from it. Thankfully for him, because Monokuma wasn't allowed to kill a student that hadn't attacked him first, Nekomaru was taken in to be healed and wasn't seen till the fourth chapter. Unfortunately, when Monokuma returned him, the Ultimate Coach had somehow been turned into a cyborg.

In a way it made a bit of sense; not at the time, no, but it did now. During the events of the game, one of the other students had been given an injury similar to what their real body had sustained at some point…long story. If Junko was trying to make them despair over some physical disfigurations, then of course she would make them relive the injuries they'd previously sustained. If Nekumaru had sustained enough injuries to require such a drastic transformation in the real world, then it would make sense for Monokuma to do the same in to him in that world.

For such a strong and able bodied man who threw themselves into their work, waking up to find parts of the body they had put so much effort into perfecting, replaced with bits of soulless, un-aging, metal and plastic would be devastating. The knowledge that all of their abilities would need to be done over again. The realization that they had lost a part of themselves, in both the literal, physical, and psychological sense. That kind of thing, that kind of despair, it could break a man.

Fortunately, Nekumaru seemed to take the changes in stride, fiddling with his new bod and finding its many features to show off. Of course, it could have been that he simply hadn't had enough time to register his loss, or maybe he understood his loss too well and was using the changes as a way pretend that nothing was wrong to protect his fragile psych. Who's to say?

"Well if that's the case," I said, pausing to collect my thoughts; only semi-intentionally causing him to shake in terror that I was going to say. "I guess as long as you can get him up and going again, then it'll be fine."

His eyes widened almost comically, no doubt shocked that I wasn't punishing him in some way for upsetting me. "R-Really? You're not mad?"

I scoffed at that. "Oh no, I'm just a little bit, absolutely livid. Nothing too bad."

He immediately lost the little bit of hope in his eye at that, but I ignored it despite the twinge of regret I felt for doing that to him. So, I had to act my part again. "But that just means that when he survives he'll be able to feel a whole new level of despair at the loss of those parts of himself. To see his emotions as he learns that those muscles he works so hard on, taken from him as if he were a toy held by pyromaniac brat with an illegal firework. It almost makes me feel jealous of the despair he'll feel."

I felt nauseated at how easy it was to say those words, lying about how I had really felt about this. If anything I had feelings of sadness and pity for the soon to be robotic coach. He was going to lose something important to him, and on my orders no less. He would survive, yes; but he defiantly would struggle to thrive in this kind of world.

"I see." Soda stated, believing that he finally understood what I wanted of him. "Well don't worry Mistress Junko, I'll make sure he feels so much despair that you'll be able to feel every bit of it from anywhere in the world!"

I tried my hardest to keep myself from vomiting at that and just gave him another wide Cheshire grin. "I'll let you get right on it, Soda-kun."

Ending the transmission, I made sure the camera was focused on the cafeteria where the students were gathering for supper and then immediately rushed out of the room and down the hall to the bathroom. Throwing open the doors, not caring which restroom I had run in, I hustled straight to the nearest stall and proceeded to vacate the contents of my stomach into the porcelain bowl.

Never had I felt so sick at myself for an action I'd done. Not even when I had accidentally bashed a friend of mine in his face with a bokken, during an event no less, had I felt even a fraction of the regret I was undergoing right now. I had just committed a man to a life as a machine for a goal I had no real idea about. Yes, it would save his life, but at what cost?

I didn't know how much was going to be replaced, and I didn't' know if he would be able to adapt to his changes. For all I knew, I had just sentenced him to a life of orchestration and isolation. A life without ever finding someone to call his own. And if he found love somehow? There was a good chance that those two might have removed his ability to procreate with this level of operation being performed, taking with it the chances for Nekomaru to have a child of their own flesh and blood.

A fresh wave of nausea hit me and I struggled to contain it. "Sickness can wait; I've still got work to do. Get a grip."

Climbing back to my feet I flushed the bile then took a brief moment to splash some water in my face from the sink …and then I took another moment to berate and curse at myself for causing my mascara to run with that move. I then grabbed some paper towels and wiped off my face.

I decided to take the Makoto method and try to think positively about this. Maybe he wouldn't mind it too much, after all it did save his life. Maybe he would be grateful for his new lease on life, possibly dedicate himself to helping others with his new body. Plus, there was no telling if he would really lose his ability to procreate, and if it did happen, there is still a chance that he could still adopt some kid.

I mean really, what kid wouldn't want a super robot for a dad?

Taking a little comfort in my thoughts, I slapped my cheeks and looked at myself in the mirror with a determined glare. So what if he had to be a bot, that didn't mean he couldn't learn to love his new body. He was the Ultimate Coach, Nekomaru Nidai. He wouldn't let such a thing slow him down! And people to love? Well, there was always his prized pupal!

Confidence reinstalled, I marched back to the control room and after checking the time to see that it was almost ten 'o clock, proceeded to prep for the night shift. Tomorrow morning, I was going to present the group with their first motive, something I had been thinking about for the past few days.

The problem was if I was going to stay consistent to the games motives, or was I going to do my own method. Both of these options raised several pros and cons I had been thinking really hard on.

On the one hand, if I stayed with the canon motives then there was a good chance that I could anticipate who would murder whom and plan accordingly to keep it from happening. This would also make finding the future victims and keeping them from getting hurt in the first place easier. Problem was, this also meant that I would have to be far more careful with my word choices or I could cause the wrong person to die and never see it coming; which was already becoming a problem since my inclusion of the contingency plan really changed things. This also meant that, as far as I knew, there was a risk of having to let some of them die to progress the others forward. Not going to happen.

The other hand wasn't all that favorable, either. If I just picked any random motive, I could end up causing the wrong person to die too early on. I would have to be awake twenty-four seven just monitoring their actions to make sure nothing to drastic came from it, which I might have been able to do in my old body and its constant cases of insomnia. Here though? Not happening. Already tried and then I damn near passed out at eleven.

Stupid weak as hell modeling figure and it's need for beauty sleep.

So, I went with another option. The third drawer on the file cabinet was apparently filled with plans and motives that Junko had deemed, 'failed' or 'unusable'. Ether because she felt they would be counterproductive and give them more hope than despair, that they wouldn't bring them nearly enough despair to kill each other, or because she thought they would be boring, the master mind locked them away; and that just meant I would be able to use them to my advantage.

If I played my cards right, I would be able to only install a little bit of despair in them while giving them something to cling their hopes on and over time slowly amp it up till they could handle despair with their grown hope. That way, no matter what would be thrown at them, they'd be able to overcome it.

Of course, that also meant that if I wasn't careful then there would be bloodshed. That razor sharp fine line between the two would be one of the hardest things for me to balance, but dang it, I was going to try!

"So how our you guys doing?"

I'll admit, watching the group practically leap to the other side of the room at Monokuma's sudden arrival was still a highlight of my days. I don't know, maybe it was my inner sadist talking, but little things like that were quickly becoming the main source of my entertainment in between my plans and minor interactions with them.

"W-What are you d-doing here?" half demanded half stuttered Toko, clearly upset that I'd interrupted their dinner and shocked at my sudden appearance from behind her. However, Monokuma simply sighed and shook his head, acting like I was ignoring her question.

"I swear, I thought so highly on how desperate you'd be by now that at least one of you'd have gone and tried to shank someone by now, maybe just grabbed a fork and gone to town on someone's face. But no, I have to deal with the disappointment that it would come to this." The animatronic bear sighed, as I did my best to sound truly upset over them not killing each other. It couldn't be farther from the truth, but I couldn't let them know that.

"Yeah, whatever. Whaddya want with us you homicidal maniac?" Questioned Mondo both loudly and angrily, obviously not caring that he was threatening the one who'd nearly killed him once before.

"Homici Daimaniac?" The split bear asked as I acted like I misheard the biker's words and intentionally scrambling them to mess with the delinquent. Just playing by what I could remember of my script. "What an interesting name. It's German, right?"

Ignoring the confirmation that he was being messed with, Mondo continued, "We know who you are, so why don't you stop with the act and come out already!"

Ah, that conversation. Just before I'd interrupted them, they'd been talking about a serial killer that had been heard to stalk the city for the last few years that the police hadn't been able to pin down. Every time they thought they had this twisted murderer, they would seemingly ghost away. So, the group was starting to suspect that I was that deadly fiend.

Of course, as said fiend was actually among them as a separate personality, I highly doubt they actually knew what they were talking about.

"Nananananananananana… batman." I had the two-toned bear muttered softly, seemingly uncaring about what was being said. This only seemed to infuriate the biker gang leader more.

"Don't ignore me you asshole!" He growled cracking his knuckles in a show of force, to no effect. The bear continued to ignore him, instead returning its attention back to the students. Seeing their captor's attention was on them once more caused several of them to tense up. I even noticed Sakura shift into a sort of braced forward stance in front of everyone alongside Mondo, as if putting themselves in the way if the animatronic should decide to attack. Good, that means they're at least trying to look out for each other.

"Now back on topic, I know that with the education system on its way down as it is, bunch of slackers dragging down the grade-point average and all that, I know you guys are impressive for being so on the ball, but I really didn't think you guys would have been so boring. I mean really, not even one attempt on someone's life in several days; well aside from Mondo punching out Makoto, but I'm not counting that."

Said biker flinched back at the memory of his act of misplaced aggression, as did Makoto, but they stood their ground. I nodded slightly at that, approving of their acknowledgment of their mistakes, and happy that it didn't seem like they intended to repeat them.

As if spired on by the pompadour haired man, Makoto stepped forward stating, "Of course no one's made an attempt! It doesn't matter what you say or do, we're not going to start killing each other!"

I stared at the poor deluded boy, so sure in his belief in the others that he didn't even realize how far they really would go to get out. He did seem to understand how deeply rooted the mental scars these people had to get to earn their titles, and what they'd do to keep those scars from coming back to hurt them more.

"Ah ha! Light bulb! I know just what we're missing here! I was just thinking to myself, 'Monokuma, we have all the elements for a good murder mystery, yet nothing's happening. How can we get things going?'. And that's when it hit me! The thing we need to get things rolling…Is a despair induced motive!"

Watching the students pale at my announcement, I couldn't stop my slight grin from crossing my face. I couldn't help myself, their faces were hilarious. I don't know why, but seeing them looking like that just tickled my funny bone.

"M-Motive…?" I heard the meek Chihiro murmur in the back, her voice filed with terror at the implication.

"That's right!" I shouted in answer, false enthusiasm coating my words. "And I've got just the one for you guys! Tomorrow, first thing in the morning, I'll have a very special present for you all, all set up and ready. Be ready for that, I think you'll like it."

I watched as they tensed up drastically at my words, concern and wary anticipation covering their faces. The suspense would be problematic to deal with for them, and I could tell they weren't happy about my staling it for the morning.

"…What is it?" my sort of sibling cautiously asked, suspicious yet curious about what I was offering them. But her curiosity was in vain as I had Monokuma wag his paw in the air condescendingly, her face twisting in annoyance as I did.

"Now, now, missy. Where is the fun in that? If I just told you what kind of gift you were getting, it'd spoil the entire thing! Nope, you want your gift, you got to wait just like the rest of them."

"That's fine then, we'll find out in the morning." Kyoko stated with her arms crossed, obviously not really okay with waiting but trying to move things along. "But before that, I have something to ask. Who are you really, and what do you want from us?"

I blinked, not having expected the question to be so direct and to the point, even though I knew she was the kind of person to jump straight to such a line of questioning. It was something that didn't come up often, so when it did it caught me off guard.

Doing my best to regain my composure, I decided to give both her and the others something to think on.

"Who am I? What do I want? What interesting questions. But the truth of the matter is, who I am, is irrelevant. As far as you should be concerned, I am just a rather eccentric headmaster that is going out of his way to help wayward students like yourselves learn and adapt to your world."

I paused for a moment letting my words sink in. Oh there was a shout akin to, "That's such bull" from Leon, but I ignored it to continue my spiel.

"What I want, is also irrelevant. All I want to do is spread my knowledge and desires onto you and to others like you; to spread my wants so that they may be achieved by those that may succeed in my place should I fail. And I can only do that here, by keeping you all in this school and forcing you all to play this game of life, death, and despair."