a/n: Updated 1/7/13 to account for Mukuro having no scars. Thanks for the heads-up!

Mukuro thinks what she feels for her classmates is camaraderie.

If Kibougamine is an army, then her class is her platoon. Sixteen soldiers, sixteen lives entwined as one. They have lived as one, breathed as one, fought as one. And, if Junko has her way, they will die as one, despair as one. Mukuro has no objection. Junko was, is, and always would be her superior officer, and Mukuro would gladly kill the world for her. Her only regret in her life as a weapon is that, this time, she will be pointed towards those she once viewed as comrades.

Super Duper High School Sparring Partner, Oogami Sakura. Many a restless night has been spent sparring with Oogami, trading blow for blow in a way that only Oogami can manage. Not many can keep up with Mukuro. Oogami feels much the same, this Mukuro knows for a fact, because through their fists many unspoken words are communicated. Afterwards, they will retire in the comfortable silence between warriors who respect the other's strength, and these times are ones Mukuro treasures.

Super Duper High School Strategist, Celestia Ludenberg. Mukuro does not gamble and she does not play games, but games of war are really misnamed (because how can war be a game?) and so Mukuro indulges. It takes a long time for her to yield to Celes' urging, but eventually they play a simple game of chess. Mukuro loses. She blinks at the board once before replacing the pieces in their proper position, and Celes smirks and takes the first move before Mukuro even realizes it.

Super Duper High School Order, Ishimaru Kiyotaka. Many of the others had found his disposition for rules overbearing at first, but Mukuro, fresh to the scene of civilization, had thought him a source of comfort. Here was stability amidst the tumult of disorderly high-schoolers, and when Kiyotaka rounded them up for roll call, Mukuro had snapped to attention and given a proper salute. Ever since then, Kiyotaka has enlisted Mukuro's help in training the others to stand in perfectly straight lines.

Super Duper High School Morale Boost, Asahina Aoi. Mukuro can certainly appreciate the existence of the optimistic and cheerful. Even if she herself does not indulge in sharing in their radiance, having one of that nature is beneficial in raising the squad's morale. On a particularly dreadful rainy day, when Mukuro is sitting at a window sill and staring down, wondering how best to break a fall if she ever needed to fly out that window, Asahina scurries forward. Mukuro barely has time to react when a donut is shoved into her mouth.

Super Duper High School Fighter, Maizono Sayaka. Weak as she might be physically, Maizono is much stronger on the inside than anyone expects. Mukuro knows well enough not to underestimate anyone who has survived the trial by fire through which all idols must pass for their stardom, and Maizono's heart is as scarred as Mukuro's soul if not her body. They are really quite similar, in that way. Doggedly chasing their ideal, never mind what they will emerge as. Maizono is worthy of respect.

Super Duper High School Projectiles, Kuwata Leon. Mukuro can appreciate a decisive play and a good throwing arm. This one wouldn't be the recruit who looked to and fro while clutching a grenade with the pin pulled out. Kuwata has some maturing to do, but that will come in time. The boy has a decent enough heart, even if he doesn't know what to put his energy towards other than a raging libido. All it takes is a proper military regimen and people like Kuwata are straightened out.

Super Duper High School Forecast, Hagakure Yasuhiro. Not the most accurate weather forecast, but knowing the conditions of a battlefield is always important. Mukuro admits to having been one of his skeptics, but when Hagakure predicts that everyone has forgotten a major project is due and pulls out his own, Mukuro starts to pay more attention to the thirty percent of the time he is one hundred percent accurate. So far, it has not paid off. And perhaps it never will, but Mukuro never threw away her faulty radio either.

Super Duper High School Green Recruit, Fujisaki Chihiro. There is always the one recruit who is afraid, and timid, and shy, and Fujisaki fits the bill entirely. Not much can escape Mukuro's eyes. From their first meeting, Mukuro knows Fujisaki's secret, but she keeps it, because of a simple honed instinct. Protect your comrades. One day, Fujisaki will be ready. Pushing it will help nobody and only force Fujisaki to the precipice, and if there is one thing a soldier must never do, that is to sabotage his own troop.

Super Duper High School Volatile, Fukawa Touko. Mukuro isn't quite sure how she feels about her. The real Fukawa she has had little interaction with, but she also knows about Genocider. On one hand, Mukuro abhors such a loss of control, and especially when Fukawa's other half is a maniac with absolutely no sense of purpose behind her mindless carnage. Mukuro would deem Fukawa trash if not for a small spark of sympathy. Her split personality only exists because of an emptiness Fukawa feels, and Mukuro can empathize.

Super Duper High School Mask, Togami Byakuya. Togami is rude and standoffish and arrogant and condescending, but Mukuro knows that his mask is not really him. He is as good an actor as Junko, acting and acting until the mask is almost really him, but Mukuro sees the fraying outer edges not quite sticking entirely to his face. He puts on a good show for the siblings he has conquered. He does it to honor their memory, does everything with them in thought, with a one-track mind just like Mukuro's own devotion.

Super Duper High School Trainee, Yamada Hifumi. There's always one. The obese and unfit one, the one who lags behind the rest in training and flees in the face of danger, but Mukuro has seen many of these. There is nothing wrong with cowardice, even if Yamada is running not from bullets but from his own insecurity. Facing something like that is good, even, because if one day he conquers it, he will be all the stronger for it. Entire cultures achieve definition by conflict. Mukuro sees nothing wrong.

Super Duper High School Front Line, Oowada Mondo. The man who is first to charge and the last to retreat, that is who Oowada is. Beneath the gruff exterior is the large heart of someone with the best interests of his troop in mind, and Mukuro very readily recognizes him as a fellow soldier. Mukuro teaches him not to underestimate women though, when he makes a remark about not fighting females. When he finds himself flat on the floor with a mild concussion, Oowada is well educated.

Super Duper High School General, Kirigiri Kyouko. Mukuro can quite honestly admit to herself that she views Kirigiri as a superior office as well, if one on a slightly lesser level than Junko. Obviously, Junko's orders take precedence. But, Mukuro is ashamed to admit, sometimes she finds herself thinking that Kirigiri is a better commander. They are so evenly matched in genius, but one is logical and rational, the other prone to uncontrollable tantrums of wild emotion. Junko would lead them all to a death charge across mines, while Kirigiri would lead them to defuse it and then calmly walk over the duds.

Super Duper High School Luckster, Naegi Makoto. Luck is important. Naegi is very important. Because when his lips turn upward in his tentative, genuine smile, Mukuro finds her trained hands shaking. Because when his usually meek voice strengthens into his impassioned tone, Mukuro finds herself hanging onto every word. Naegi has always been the one to include her, even against her will. She turns her back whenever the others take a picture, and they do nothing to try to dissuade her, but Naegi alone will lower the camera and smile gently, ask her to smile, and Mukuro will do as he says as though his words are a spell. Luck. Naegi keeps none of his luck for himself. He spreads his luck out for others, he is luck personified, like a charm that Mukuro has found.

Except she can't grow dependent on something like that.

She can't. She's a soldier. All Mukuro ever brings is death and destruction and rivers of blood, and she cannot allow herself to soften herself like this, taint the others like this. So Mukuro decides, when Junko comes to her with despair, that she will free the others of her. It's because she loves them that she does this.

That's the only way she knows how.