What awaited the six survivors of Hope's Peak Academy may have been a destroyed world, but what Makoto Naegi saw was a world of opportunity. After the door to Hope's Peak opened, freeing him and the other six survivors of the killing game, he was welcomed with a blood red sky and ash-blowing wind that begged to suffocate him with despair just like the people that inhabited this world.
The last time Makoto remembered seeing the outside world was on the day he first arrived at Hope's Peak Academy. Back then, he was so full of life, a sensation that he had long since forgotten. At least, since he discovered Sayaka Maizono's body in his bathroom.
He breathed in the clouded, hateful air and reminisced about how he felt every time he discovered the body of a friend. Like a portion of his heart had sunk in, never to be restored again. His fear of waking up every day to one of Monokuma's body discovery announcements wasn't even fully realized until he stood here, at the front of what remained of Hope's Peak Academy, safe from the game but exposed to a dangerous new world. Makoto snapped out of his trance when he heard someone's voice straining against the heavy wind.
"We...need...get to...safety..." Commanded a voice that sounded like Byakuya's. After all, who else did they expect to take charge in this situation? Following their mutually agreed-upon leader, Makoto, Kyoko, Hiro, Hina, and Toko made attempted to move against the wind current through the front entrance of the academy. It was fairly obvious where Byakuya was heading: there was a neighborhood nearby that was probably full of abandoned houses. It was one of the few things Makoto remembered about this area.
"Are...we going to those houses?" Hiro struggled to ask in the wind. Makoto wasn't sure if he was asking because he simply wasn't catching on, or because he was afraid of police finding him somehow. That was something Hiro had expressed concern about to Makoto before, and Makoto understood why Hiro wouldn't want to be breaking into houses. Either way, he was met with an annoyed response from Byakuya.
"Of course...you idiot," Byakuya hissed. Beside him, Makoto heard Toko mumble something about Byakuya, but dismissed it as more of her usual nonsense.
The first door they reached was the one they were going to enter. The appeared to have been a nice one, with lots of space and a big yard, but all that remained now were shattered windows and the word "Junko" messily spray-painted in red across the garage door. Though it was unlikely, Byakuya knocked on the door just in case someone might still be living there. After listening for a moment with his ear pressed to the door, he deemed it safe and led everyone inside.
Once inside, the group immediately collapsed on the floor, exhausted.
"Oh, wow. That was crazy," Hina awkwardly laughed, trying to catch her breath.
"You don't think they'll be able to find me here, right?" Hiro asked, seemingly on edge. Kyoko, who was silent the entire time, spoke up.
"I doubt that there's any law enforcement left," She said, "that should be the least of our concerns at the moment."
Hiro seemed a little unsure at first but got over it quickly. "Do you think they have any food in this place?" The fortune teller asked nobody in particular as he stood up to go on a search. Toko was sitting on the ground, twirling the end of a braid with her finger nervously, as usual.
"W-what are we going to do now?" She asked. Byakuya grinned, drawing everyone's attention towards him.
"What is it? Why are you smiling?" Makoto asked the smirking prodigy. Byakuya, in response, held up what looked like a phone.
"I managed to find this in the control room before we left. There's a video message on it. Probably from someone who's been trying very hard to reach us." Byakuya explained in a tone that had become very familiar to Makoto. Hina gasped, stood up quickly, and ran behind the chair Byakuya was sitting in so she could see the what was on it.
"Play it! It's probably important!" She encouraged him as Toko, Kyoko, and Makoto joined her. Byakuya tapped on the phone's screen.
At first, the displayed a blue background with a strange symbol displayed in the middle. The five watched as the symbol morphed into the words "Future Foundation". The screen dissolved into the face of an older man sitting at what appeared to be a conference table. He cleared his throat and began to speak.
"Here at the Future Foundation, we're a dedicated force of surviving ultimate-level talents committed to the cause of eliminating despair. Assuming you've escaped Hope's Peak Academy, your next course of action would be to join us in ridding the world of the Remnants of Despair, the followers of Junko Enoshima. Only talents such as you are capable of completing this task. Future Foundation is headquartered at the former second Hope's Peak Building. It would be wise for you to come soon." The man smiled slightly as he concluded. The video ended and the screen went black.