Chapter Text
When Kyoko Kirigiri first sat down to read the report cards of the students that were to attend Hope's Peak in a month, (for some reason, they had gotten to her a month and a half later than they should have) she could not have prepared herself for what she would learn. She had seen her fair share of wild students in her many years as principal, but the sheer amount of insanity that this class contained was truly astounding. Three confirmed killers, one kid who led an evil organization, a boy who had been raised by wild animals for ten years, and a girl who had some form of severe mental issues after getting in a car accident. And that was only what she knew. Of course, she tried to keep her worries about her son's future classmates to herself, but Shuichi seemed to pick up on it during family dinner that evening.
"Hey, mom, you look worried. Is everything alright?"
She paused, staring at her meal. Of course Shuichi would pick up on her abnormal behavior, the boy was a detective after all. At his age, she would have picked up it too. She couldn't tell him straight up, that was a firing waiting to happen. But leaving him in the dark... she would never forgive herself if something happened to him. Kyoko had promised to make Hope's Peak safer after it became an annual trend of having at least one murderer in the student body. Her father didn't seem to care, barely set up any protective measures, and that had almost gotten the world destroyed. And, she thought that she did. Increased discipline, on-campus counseling services, increased security, the whole works. She had never doubted if what she had set up was effective, but all she could think about now was all of the horrible things that could happen to her son. Kyoko couldn't tell him, but she couldn't act like everything was fine, either.
"I'm worried about you and your classmates, Shuichi. Some of them seem a little... intense, and I don't want anything to happen to you." Kyoko replied.
Makoto looked at his wife curiously. "What, there's people worse than Genocide Jill? The serial killer?"
"The worst of them seem to be on her level."
The rest of their dinner was quiet, everyone lost in their own thoughts. Shuichi fidgeted nervously with the hem of his shirt. Makoto tried to ask more questions, but gave up after Kyoko refused to reply. Kyoko ate hastily, tuning out the world around her to focus on her curry rice.
Later that evening, after Shuichi had already gone to bed, Makoto decided to ask just one last time.
"So, just how bad are they?"
"Do you need to know all the details?"
"I care about my son, Kyoko. I just need to know who he'll be sharing a class with in a month. Besides, you implied at dinner that there are multiple serial killers."
She sighed, then hesitated. "I can't tell you much more than this. But, what I said at dinner was true."
The two of them went to bed without saying anything else, although neither slept soundly. When Makoto finally got to sleep, all of his dreams were of his son becoming a missing person's case or dead in a coffin.
Kyoko wasn't faring much better, the fears that she had suppressed during the day finally coming out in her dreams. The idea of her son attending classes with these people, even the ones who weren't murderers, was anxiety-inducing. But she couldn't take this opportunity away from him. He would be devastated, and rightfully so. Shuichi was smart, so he would surely be able to figure things out when he got to know them. But would that even matter if he was killed before finding out the truth?
After being woken up in the middle of the night for the third time by yet another nightmare, Kyoko went outside for a breath of fresh air. As she sat on the porch, she tried to come up with anything to soothe her nerves. Half an hour later, she finally decided on something that would satisfy her anxiety. She walked back into the house, and paused in front of Shuichi's bedroom door on the way to her room.
"At least I'll be there for him." She whispered, before going back to sleep.