"We have been waiting!" the diva declared in a strange, posh, British accent, hands on her hips in a demanding and authoritative manner, and strangely bearing a small crown all of a sudden "waiting SOO very long to finally meet you mere mortals! Submit yourselves to me and we promise, half the world is yours! I've already prepared titles for the real-estate. We'll grant you honor, status, and some of our home cooking! What do you say? Do you submit?"
"Fuck no!" Mondo remained defiant to the end "why the hell would I ever submit to YOU!?"
"Oh...did you take that seriously? That was a joke..." Junko randomly ditched the crown and instead struck an anime-esc pose, now speaking in a different, less British, but more sadistic tone of voice "I'm fairly new to the story, at least when showing myself like this, so I completely forget what my character archetype was. In any case, I'm finally free! Day after day and week after week, CONSTANTLY playing Monokuma...For someone like me who's so hopelessly fickle...It's like dying...Dying by your own hand..."
"M-More importantly...your face...!" Alter Ego cut in.
"Hm? What about my face?" the Mastermind tilted her head in curiosity "just so you know, I've been told I'm cuter than 1000 chihuahua's combined...Or...wait...was it 100? Don't remember...Don't really care..."
"I think I get what Alter Ego's saying..." Taka considered "it's like...I recognize you? I swear I've seen your face before!"
Come to think of it, I recognize the face too...The last time I saw it was...
1 – The Laundry Room.🔫
2 – The Entrance Hall.
3 – The Headmaster's Office.
"That's right! I remember now!" Chihiro exclaimed "there was a magazine in there and I saw your face on it!"
Recalling what Hiro had said about how the laundry room as a place to go and clear his mind so he could do his fortune telling and connecting with the gods or...whatever. Turns out that he wasn't exactly wrong. The scent of the softener and other wash supplies was surprisingly therapeutic. The tranquil feeling of the quiet in the room, with the constant noise of the spinning washing machine in the background. The table that he was laying on wasn't very comfortable, but even still, the rest was enough to make it feel like he was laying on a cloud. As they'd laid down, Chihiro had noticed that a magazine of one of Junko Enoshima's pinups was staying on the table, and Chihiro had a flick through it while they laid there.
"I don't know how I ever let it fool me..." he monologued "Mukuro and Junko look nothing alike..."
"That's an impressive memory you've got there," Junko smirked "I guess it wasn't just bullshit that kept you alive for this long."
"I knew it...!" Chihiro frowned "then what Mukuro told me on the first day we met...!"
"But...you look a little different than the last time I saw you on a magazine..." Chihiro pointed out "were your eyes always that slim?"
"Huh?" Junko asked, her slim eyes widening as the notion "ah, yeah, about that, it's all gotta do with photo editing and junk, you know? Most of my cover shots are prettied-up before the final cut."
"P-Prettied up how?" Chihiro asked. Junko rolled her eyes.
"I dunno, it's like...they make my skin more clear, and they increase the width of my eyes...and don't even get me started on my you-know-what's...It's not that big a deal. And it's not even too different from me. There are people out there who go above and beyond, and basically butcher the original model..."
"With today's technology, any actress or idol picture could be transformed..." Chihiro contemplated "if you don't mind me saying so, it's kind of a waste..."
"A waste?" Junko asked "what do you mean?"
"Well, you're gorgeous and a natural beauty," Chihiro beamed "editing it gets rid of that. It doesn't need to be prettied up; you're pretty enough already!"
"W-Wow I...sheesh..." Junko blushed and fiddled with her hair again "h-how come none of my guy friends've ever complimented me like that?"
"Yeah...my bad...that was all a lie..." Mukuro admitted.
"Lying to oneself is another way of being optimistic," Junko said "occasionally a necessary thing...As you would know, you crossdressing, transgender fool..."
"I am so done refuting you on that..." Chihiro glowered...
"Well, with Muku and Junko being too different people, it makes sense they'd look different, yeah?" Mondo asked "what are you tryin' to say here?"
"I am me, and Mukuro is a disappointment," Junko sighed "no matter how much makeup she puts on, she can never capture the true essence of someone who is as gorgeously despairing as me. As long as the barrier exists between the body and the mind, two beings can never truly become one...
Even if they are twin sisters..."
Everyone froze. Mukuro, at these words, lowered her head, almost as if in shame.
"Twins? S-Sisters?" Taka took a few seconds to fully process what he'd just heard, until he suddenly exclaimed "WAIT A SECOND! You two ARE A FAMILY!? YOU'RE IDENTICAL TWINS!?"
"Well, we're clearly not fucking identical, are we!?" Mukuro snapped "but...yes...Junko and I are...twin sisters..."
"It feels almost cliché...I'm honestly embarrassed to admit it..." Junko seemed disappointed in herself "Mukuro is the archetypal "athletic older twin" and I'm the archetypal "adorable genius younger twin...AHAHAHA! JUNKO ENOSHIMA IS IN! DA! HOOOOUSE!!"
"Woah!?" Mondo staggered back at the sudden exclamation from the Mastermind, as it came completely out of nowhere.
"The Super Duper High School Ultimate Despair Duo is what we are!" Junko declared "just call us "The Despair Sisters!""
"Wait, wait, slow the hell down!" Mondo stammered "what the hell happened just there! It's like you just went from being downtrodden to hyper! Like you turned into a different person..."
"Get used to that schtick, she does it a lot..." Mukuro commented.
"Damn right I do!" Junko cheered "I already told you how fickle I am! I'm so easily bored, I even get bored of my own damn personali-TAY!"
"If you two are sisters..." Alter Ego asked "then why are your surnames different? If the CD's were in Alphabetical Order, and Mukuro came before Taka, she would have been registered as Mukuro Ikusaba, not Mukuro Enoshima. So why?"
"Oh we get that question ALL the DAMN time!" Junko whined "I don't care if you don't know, I've heard that question so many times, it makes me Despair! It's cliché as fuck, so come up with something a stick with it! Got that!?"
"Ikusaba was our mother's maiden name," Mukuro said "I took it on when I joined Fenrir, and kept it so Hope's Peak would never know we were sisters. Technically, I was born Mukuro Enoshima..."
"Big siiiis!" Junko's personality shifted again into something akin to a whiny, spoiled child, "you're no fuuuun!"
"B-But if you two are sisters..." Taka frowned "then...you subjected your own family to this killing game!?"
"It's worse than that..." Kyoko said "don't you remember? Junko originally planned to kill Mukuro off with those spears. She wasn't expecting Makoto to save her."
"That lucky bastard was filled with far too much hope, and he was a royal pain in my side..." Junko frowned "I'm glad he's dead."
Mukuro clearly did not take kindly to these words. Her face darkened, and she glared at Junko with an expression of lethal intent...
"Why!?" Taka snapped "why would you do that!?"
"Oh, well, there's a pretty good reason why I did it! NOOOT!" Junko snapped "but very well...allow me to explain..."
Junko, quick as a flash, somehow tied her hair into a singular ponytail instead of a pigtail, and donned glasses and a notepad.
"For this project, I required someone to pull the strings behind the deadly game I had planned. Someone to operate Monokuma and keep watch over the lot of you. In other words, a Mastermind," she explained, acting like she was writing something down on the pad, but she hadn't clicked the pen she was using "however, according to my prior calculations, Mukuro was unfit to fill that role. She was after all, a pitiful excuse for a sister..."
"Gck...!" Mukuro grit her teeth.
"Yes, absolutely pitiful...So pitiful that she would go off on her own and enlist in a mercenary group," Junko continued "for that reason, I took the behind-the-scenes role and elected to leave her out in the open as a student. Sure, I could have kept her behind the scenes with me, but that wouldn't have been useful for me. She would have just gotten in the way. Besides, 15 students is a nice round number. However, initially, I faced the dilemma of Mukuro's Ultimate title of Soldier and her work as a mercenary. It was what I like to call the 3 H's: Hopelessly foul, Hopelessly disgusting, and Hopelessly repulsive...To know that she was far removed from the needs of society and couldn't even hold a regular conversation required no need for calculation on my part. On the other hand, it would have been a total waste to let the gorgeous gall of the Ultimate Fashionista go to waste."
"In short, that's why you switched places?" Kyoko asked.
"Yes. However, despite being twins, as Mukuro stated, we are anything but identical. She might have looked more like me than anyone else I know, but she resembled me even less despairingly so than I thought she would. She was so unimportant, that if she was in a video game instead of a novel like this one, she would probably just be "Girl B." That, coupled with her underwhelming appearance, I myself am honestly astounded that she has lived to reach this final trial. If I could write this killing game like a book, she would probably be the one to die first. That's actually the reason why I tried to kill her off, and when that failed, I revealed her identity, hoping that someone would take the initiative and off her."
"Don't tell me that's the only reason!?" Chihiro exclaimed.
"Well, no, of course it's not," Junko said "the other reason was because, to be honest, I'd grown tired of her...She'd gotten so uninteresting that I was just done with her. No one would've missed her when she was gone."
Chihiro could hardly believe what he was hearing and seeing. Glancing quickly at Mukuro, her face was grimacing, clearly in a lot of emotional stress. It had just been revealed that not only were she and the Mastermind partners, but also sisters! And here her sister was, berating her and stating how much she didn't matter, to her FACE!
"You know though, I never ooonce had things go according to plan..." Junko had now donned a more cutesy personality, making her face mousy and cartoonish "it's like by planning things out, I knew what was going to happen, so I would've gotten really booored! In a way, as disappointing as it is, I'm happy my big sis survived till now."
"No matter how you look at it, Mukuro's inclusion in this killing game and in our group is a product of your betrayal..." Kyoko stated.
"That's unforgivable!" Taka grit his teeth and became teary-eyed "family or no, it's unforgivable!"
"I thought that may have been the case," Chihiro contemplated "when you almost killed Mukuro in the gym, and when you threw her to the sharks, she clearly wasn't expecting it.
"So, you noticed?" Junko teased "yep, yep! Mukuro could neeever have put on a show THAT believable. But don't you think she made a better example because of it?"
"How...How could you?" Chihiro leered "how can you be so...so...carefree!? You subjected your own sister to this torture!? How can you talk about it like it's nothing!?"
"You wanna know something? This student profile I have...It lists down our likes and dislikes on it..." Mondo glared "Mukuro's says that she loves "her family" and if her family is you, then I don't know what went wrong in her life! She cares about you so much, so how can you treat her like she's shit you scraped off of your boot!? I'll NEVER FORGIVE YOOOU!"
"M-Mondo...Chihiro...!" Mukuro seemed surprised that despite everything, the biker and the programmer would stick up for her.
"Whaaat? You mad I almost offed Mukuro? Misunderstandings are sooo scary," Junko grinned "we're Ultimate Despair, you know? So when it comes to our lives, we've never known Hope! Even from the moment we were born, we came into the world wishing that we hadn't..."
"Yeah, I kinda wish you hadn't either...!" Mondo growled.
"We cried tears of Despair when we were born, so for us, death and murder are really all no big deal, y'know? That's the kind of people we are, and that's why we can do anything. Since we're Ultimate Despair, we can go all in and out, and not be afraid of death!"
"You mean that when it came to almost killing your own family, you felt NOTHING!?" Taka snapped.
"If neither of you cared about people dying, then tell me this! Why was Mukuro mourning Toko and Makoto after THEY died!?" Alter Ego snapped "if she didn't care about either of them, why would she even think of mourning them!?"
"I would think it's because Mukuro got sucked up into your realm of shit after she almost died. Knowing that my sister fell for that rotten clover all because he always greeted her with a smile is just proof of how shallow she is...She loved him more than me, and that's not something I could accept..." Junko suddenly turned dejected "and come on...you don't really believe that, do you? We're twins, so if she died, of course I would be sad...I would be if it wasn't so arousing..."
"HUH!?" Taka was progressively getting louder and louder to the point where he was beginning to reach his peak volume, which for Kiyotaka Ishimaru, was actually very high.
"Do you know how it feels to murder someone you love?" Junko cried "it's despair...so much dismal despair...dismal, dejected, despondent, dystopian despair...No...No, that's not right either...dismal, dejected, despondent, dystopian, dreadful, depressive, dismayed, desolate, downcast despair...it's orgasmic..."
"Enough with these D's already!" Mondo bellowed "and you're really tryin' to say you get off on this!?"
"Oh, Mondo, we all know that you've never gotten the D a day in your life, despite how much you want it..." Junko sobbed "it's sad..."
"FUCK OFF!" Mondo snapped.
"I believe that Mukuro despaired when I sacrificed her...I mean, to be betrayed by your own sister...for no reason other than to satisfy their own boredom...she had to have dwelled in the dregs of despair...I'm honestly kind of jealous..."
"At no point did I ever expect the Mastermind would be a normal person but...This!? This is far more perverse than I anticipated!" Alter Ego exclaimed.
"That's how she is..." Mukuro shrugged "that's how she's always been..."
"She's the worse kind of deviant..." Kyoko said "one with an extreme fetish for despair that encompasses even her own..."
"Not that I can talk but fuck man, this makes Genocide Jack look like Mahatma Gandhi!" Mondo trembled in a mix of rage and fear.
"Don't lump me in with that homicidal maniac who's only capable of killing weaklings..." Junko sobbed "I'm hopelessly beautiful, and perfectly proportioned...hopelessly brilliant minded...and hopelessly athletic...I'm a despairingly perfect superhuman genius..."
"No..." Taka glared, darkness in his eyes, clearly reaching the limits of his patience "the moment you started talking, you became a far cry from that very thing...! Even Mondo's a biker gang ruffian, and he has more prestige and honor than you! Just ask his gang!"
"His gang?" Junko asked "what gang? The one that vanished?"
"H-Huh?" Mondo frowned "what are you talking about...!?"
"Puhuhu! Jeez, you guys still haven't caught on!?" Junko now held up a plushy of Monokuma in front of her and pretended to do his voice "man, you guys are seriously dim! And yet here you are, cheering and dancing when there are still mysteries to be solved!"
"You're referring to our memories, I take it?" Kyoko asked.
"Yes, you solved the mystery of Byakuya's murder, and yes, I am the culprit, but so what?" Junko asked "you still haven't figured out every mystery surrounding the academy, so until you do that, can you hold off on that little celebration party?"
"Of course, we have every intention of doing just that," Chihiro declared "we'll solve every last one of your mysteries, and take you down with them!"