Mukuro Ikusaba

[Warning: Several spoilers from the very beginning!]

Mukuro Ikusaba (戦刃 むくろ Ikusaba Mukuro) is one of the characters in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. She has a more prominent role in the prequel novel, Danganronpa/Zero, and the alternate-ending novel, Danganronpa IF. Her title is Ultimate Soldier (超高校級の「軍人」Chō Kōkō Kyū no “Gunjin”).

She is the mysterious sixteenth student, and the older twin sister of Junko Enoshima. During the School Life of Mutual Killing, she disguised herself as her twin sister. She was one of the Ultimate Despair member. But right after the first murder occured, she was punished by Monokuma (under Junko's control) after breaking the “school rules”.

Appearance
Mukuro is similar in appearance to her sister Junko Enoshima, but there are some notable differences. Mukuro's eyes are less round than Junko's, her bust is smaller, and she has freckles as well. She has short, bobbed black hair and freckles across the bridge of her nose. Mukuro has a Fenrir tattoo on her right hand, which she covers up with foundation when disguised as Junko.

Personality
Despite being an incredible soldier, Mukuro is very out-of-touch with her own emotions and only knows how to take orders from Junko. She craves her sister's praise and acceptance and will do nearly anything to get it. Because of this, Mukuro allows herself to be constantly put down by Junko and takes her insults to heart.

She admits that she lacks skill in negotiating with others and planning tactics in advance, despite her renown as an excellent soldier.

Prior to the Tragedy
Mukuro was involved in Fenrir before entering Hope's Peak Academy. Like Junko, Mukuro used to be homeless, and had lived in a very harsh environment as a child. She was in the 78th class, becoming classmates with Makoto Naegi and the cast of the first game. Around the events of Danganronpa/Zero, she saved Makoto from Isshiki Madarai, and Makoto held her with high regard because he was saved by Mukuro a lot, which explained Makoto's kindness toward her in Danganronpa IF.

During that period, she spent a good amount of time masquerading as Junko, while the real Junko's memories were still missing.

High School Life of Mutual Killing
Mukuro melded into the memory-wiped students of Class 78 as Junko Enoshima, but had to immediately fend off remarks from Makoto that she did not look like the supermodel he had known.

In the anime, Sakura told her during breakfast that she looked different from the magazines she supposedly saw. She then replied that the pictures were edited using a computer.

Shortly after the “first murder”, Mukuro was brutally impaled by Monokuma with numerous spears it dubbed “Spears of Gungnir”, as a warning shot to the student body; Mukuro, having memorized the scenario and had expected to set up a different outcome, was completely caught off guard, never expecting that her sister would kill her. This incident misled the other students into thinking that “Junko” was killed.

Later, her dead body was reused by Junko - at the time still known as “the mastermind” - to lead the other students into thinking that the unknown sixteenth student, whom they were told was “Mukuro Ikusaba”, had died as a result of murder. However, before they could take at closer look at the body, it exploded due to a Monokuma bomb, leaving little else other than the Fenrir mark on her hand and her numerous injury marks.

However, the contradiction of the admission reports for Mukuro (which stated that she did not carry any scars of injuries), the fact that she was explicitly named Mukuro Ikusaba, and the wealth of information that her dead body carried, finally led the students to figure out that they had, in fact, met Mukuro in disguise, not Junko.

Junko Enoshima
Junko was Mukuro's younger twin sister. Mukuro viewed Junko as being far superior to her and would do anything to earn her praise, even going so far as to join Ultimate Despair and taking part in the School Life of Mutual Killing. She wanted nothing more than for Junko to be happy and to be loved by her, but was aware that she did not subscribe to the same notions of despair compared to her sister.

Makoto Naegi
While there were no real interactions between the two in the first game, their relationship is explored and elaborated on in the novel Danganronpa IF.

It is revealed that they were close friends and that Mukuro is in love with Makoto due to him being the first person to ever smile at her. Makoto treated her very kindly and placed his trust in her, even after it was revealed she was partly responsible for what had happened to Hope's Peak Academy.

Presents
Obtained from the MonoMono Machine.
 * Rations
 * Kitty Hairpin
 * In-Vitro Rose
 * Golden Space Shuttle

Choices
During free time conversations, the player will occationally be given a choice on how to respond to something that is said. These are the 'right' choices.
 * Karaoke all through the night

Skills
These will aid you, usually during Class Trials.
 * Trance
 * Charisma

Quotes

 * “ Yoohoo! My name's Junko Enoshima! Great to meet you! ”


 * “ Are you talking about my magazine cover shots?  Isn't it natural? They were modified by the editors, of course! Photoshopped, y'know? You've never heard of image editing? Hey, don't be so surprised - everyone is doing it. It's not like they had to do heavy modification in my case... These days, editing the photos in a magazine is just the way things are done! They're always making her eyes so big and her skin so ceramic, after all! ”


 * “ And while we’re at it, we should find whoever is controlling that stuffed toy and give him a good beating. ”


 * “ Sorry, it took me a little while to put on my makeup today! ”


 * “ H...hey, wait just a minute!! What you’re saying... it’s all so demented!! What’s up with this... “class trial” thing?! I don’t wanna take part in anything like that...! Isn't it obvious...! Why do I have to try to figure out who the culprit is? Isn’t that all messed up? ”


 * “ Huh....? What....? Isn’t.... that....... strange.....? Why...... was.... I........? ”
 * “ Junko, you're all I have. So don't worry, little sis. I'm always looking at you, so... I swear I'm going to make you despair. I swear I'll make Naegi-kun and everyone else happy. So when you find joy in that despair, I'll trust in Naegi-kun's hope and bring my eyes back to you. ”


 * “ All of this… for me? Junko is going so far, just for me. Junko… are you looking at me? Thank you, Junko. ”

Danganronpa IF
She played a more prominent role in this novel. In the novel, she maintained her guise as her younger sister until the scene when she would have normally been killed by the Spears of Gungnir. Makoto, who had been electrically shocked into recovering his memories, finally remembered Mukuro's name at the last minute, calling out to Mukuro, giving her enough of a warning to jump out of the way of the spears and survive. However, in the process of trying to save her, Makoto is hit by one of the spears and was gravely injured.

Mukuro attempted to aid Makoto while Junko quickly changed her plans; she pretended to have had the Monokuma unit be 'taken over' by “Besshiki Madarai, Ultimate Hacker”, alleging that Mukuro and Makoto were the true culprits behind the students' strange circumstance. Sakura stepped in to interfere, apparently taken in by “Besshiki”'s words, and in preventing Mukuro from getting away, she ended up fighting to a draw against the ex-mercenary.

As a last resort in order to get to treat Makoto, Mukuro forcibly triggered Genocide Jill's appearance, using the ensuing chaos of Toko's drastic personality change to her advantage. She managed to escape from the gymnasium with Makoto, dashing to the infirmary to treat his wounds. Here, she met and was antagonized by Junko in another Monokuma unit, who promptly called her useless and a disappointment.

After destroying the Monokuma unit, Junko appeared on a TV screen and, in an unnaturally kind tone, told Mukuro that she loves her. While normally touching, Mukuro was all too aware that that was Junko's way of severing their ties to each other. Although Junko's words momentarily threatened to bring Mukuro to despair, she then resolved to make everyone happy and bring about Junko's Ultimate Despair.

Soon, Kyoko and several others arrived at the infirmary to search for Makoto and Mukuro, most of whom were convinced of Makoto and Mukuro's supposed treachery. While most of the other students failed, Kyoko was sharp enough to detect Mukuro's presence. Yet, true to her well-honed instincts, Kyoko decided to not raise an alarm, sending most of the remaining party off. Kyoko had Chihiro record Mukuro's testimony, allowing Mukuro to explain to Kyoko the truth of the students' current circumstances. Mukuro then resolves to show Junko true despair and leaves the infirmary.

Shortly after that, Mukuro confronts Monokuma and demands that Junko open the gates so they can all leave together - leading into a spectacular battle against hundreds of Monokuma units.

Despite the grave threat, Mukuro was focused and able to fend off the attacks until Junko used Makoto's voice file - to be precise, at the moment when Makoto screamed for her to get out of the way - to throw her off and defeat her. She was however quickly rescued by Mondo in his motorbike, and was then taken to the cafeteria.

After the entire group learned of the truth of the circumstances from Makoto, Monokuma decided to “give them one final chance at freedom”. The students of Class 78 took on Monokuma's challenge, only to discover that they had to succeed in running past an entire corridor full of exploding Monokuma units and reach the escape switch in under 15 seconds. While the situation seemed impossible, with help from Sakura, Mukuro was able to dash past the exploding Monokuma units, and succeeded in retrieving the escape switch from the final Monokuma unit before it exploded.

Afterwards, she donned her Junko disguise again, ready to face persecution from all sides for causing the grave worldwide incident. Mirroring the events of the first game, Makoto was given the escape switch, which he pressed to open the doors, thus ending the story in the exact same fashion as in the game, leaving Mukuro's fate past that point unknown.

Trivia

 * In the demo version of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Mukuro's death at the hands of Monokuma does not occur, and so she is also present in the class trial.
 * As a member of Fenrir, she passed through many battlefields but was never wounded.
 * There is a considerable amount of foreshadowing that Mukuro was a soldier, while disguised as Junko. One of her favorite free time gifts is field rations and she described her early life as “living in a warzone”.
 * Mukuro means “corpse” while the kanji for Ikusaba mean “war blade” or, sometimes, “battlefield”.
 * She was killed by what Monokuma called the Spears of Gungnir. In Norse mythology, the Spear of Gungnir was the weapon Odin used to slay the monstrous wolf Fenrir, whose name is also the name of the mercenary group Mukuro was affiliated with.
 * She has had an interest in military weapons and strategies since she was young.
 * Mukuro and her twin sister Junko are both voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi in the Japanese version and Amanda C. Miller/Erin Fitzgerald in the English version.
 * This makes Mukuro one of twelve characters who share their voice actor with another character in the Japanese version (the others being Junko Enoshima, Makoto Naegi and Nagito Komaeda, Byakuya Togami and The Ultimate Imposter, Chihiro Fujisaki and Alter Ego, Toko Fukawa/Genocide Jill, Hifumi Yamada and Jin Kirigiri).
 * As well as one of eleven characters who share their voice actor with another character in the English version (alongside Junko, Makoto and Nagito, Sayaka - Chihiro and Alter Ego, Toko/Jill, Byakuya and his imposter).