Mukuro Ikusaba

## Character Backstory

**Warning:** The following contains spoilers for Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.

Although almost nobody in the game knows it, Mukuro Ikusaba only technically appears until partway through the investigation for the first murder in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. She and her sister Junko Enoshima agree for Mukuro to disguise herself as Junko and take her place during introductions. However, Junko betrays her by having Monokuma kill her using the Spears of Gungnir. The Killing School Life then began and nobody knew of Mukuro Ikusaba's existence until Kyoko Kirigiri did some investigating and uncovered the secrets of the school.

## Character Card Abilities

### Primary Active: **Armed**

* Discard a weapon to protect a target from direct elimination.
* May target the same player twice in a row.

### Secondary Passive: **War Tactics**

* You start the game disguised as Junko.
* During prenight phase, you may send a player a brief message that they can reply to.
* You may use despair weaponry as a free action, making you a turncoat blackened if you eliminate a player.
* When using either Armed or weapons, you are protected from direct and indirect elimination.

## Character Card Notes

### Primary Notes:

* Junko/Mukuro cannot be an Imposter or used as a cover for the Imposter.
* You successfully protecting another player on night 1-2 causes an attempted kill trial but will not trigger if you protected yourself.
* Mukuro does not count as "using" a weapon when using Armed, only discarding them.
* Weapons "used" for Armed cannot be locked in for other means.

### Secondary Notes:

* You may reveal yourself as Mukuro at any time.
* Your self protection does not trigger an attempted kill trial.
* Mukuro has 1 free cross swords per trial.
* Mukuro is immune to Hypnosis.

### Protection Aura:

* Any visitors to your protection target will detect that your target has a protection aura on him/her.

## Strategy

Mukuro Ikusaba has a lot of leverage over a game yet also a couple of secrets. Firstly, by being able to use despair weaponry as a free action, it's very easy for Mukuro to eliminate somebody and create an alibi for herself even if she isn't selected as the blackened. Because Armed requires her to discard a weapon to protect another character, those on the side of hope may want to offer her a weapon they're otherwise unable to use in exchange for Mukuro's protection. Secondly, by keeping her identity a secret, she can threaten to use any of Junko's abilities to coax other characters to behave how she wants them to. If she decides she wants to request weapons more than she wants to threaten to use Junko's abilities, she may reveal her true identity and offer to protect others in exchange for weapons. Thirdly, as both Mukuro and Junko are immune to all forms of mind control, she can be sure that all of her actions are ones she chose to perform, even if they aren't guaranteed to go to the intended targets.

There are a couple of reasons why Mukuro would want to stay hidden as Junko and a couple of reasons to reveal herself. For example, although Mukuro is protected from elimination while using Armed, Junko has no such protections. This could make for an interesting surprise for a blackened not expecting Junko to actually be Mukuro. Another reason to keep Mukuro's identity a secret is that Junko's abilities put her on the side of despair and incentivize her to help the blackened; if Mukuro is disguised as Junko while actually being on the side of hope, she could gambit offering to help the blackened while actually noting who outs himself/herself as the blackened for use in the trial. An obvious reason to reveal herself as Mukuro early in the game is if she wants to stockpile weapons (for use in Armed or a turncoat murder) and give others a reason to trade weapons to her; It would be unwise to give Junko any despair weaponry, but if Mukuro can reveal herself to prove she's actually Mukuro, that goes a long way to gaining the trust of anybody willing to trust her with weapons in the first place.