For as long as history had been recorded the land of Truth has been ruled over by the Council of Magi, the strongest mages in the world. Together they regulated how magic could be used, what creatures could be summoned from the ether, and ultimately how the world would be run. For many years the Council was fair and just, and the land and people flourished at their work. But as time went by the Council realized that their age was catching up to them, and they needed to train those who would come after them. To this end the first Magi Academy was created and given the name 'Hopes Peak' to represent their will. For many ears Hopes Peak trained the greatest Magi in the land, many of whom would ascend to the Council and help govern the world.

But due to the ambitions of one Magi this all came crashing down. Junko Enoshima, who had gained entry to Hopes Peak due to her unique and amazing skills of Creation, with the exact subset of Fabric. She had managed to enchant a simple shirt that could withstand even the harshest of spells and remain without a single scratch. Once she entered into the Academy however her true talents began to blossom, the power to bring Despair to those around her. She became like a weed among the garden, strangling the life of the plants around her to feed into her power and crushing all who stood in her way.

After a full year of her attendance at the Academy her plan was revealed in a spectacular manner. During her time she had managed to twist the minds and wills of twelve of the brightest students that had ever attended the Academy, turning them into her Acolytes of Despair. Under her guidance the thirteen students opened a rift between the moral world and the darkest reaches of the ether, and summoned forth a dark spirit of immeasurable power. Using the despair she had created Junko chained the creatures to her will and used it to begin the Most Despair Inducing Event of History. A dark cloud grew over the world as a new creation took place of both the sun and moon, the Monokuma Eclipse.

With her power increased to new heights Junko and her minions waged a war on the entire world, leading armies of dark spirits and monsters across the lands until all were forced to bow before her might. When the final kingdom bent their knee she performed a grand spell and ripped a massive chunk of the planet upward and built herself a castle so she might rule those under her, and all would look up and know despair.

Not all had lost hope however, the surviving members of the Council brought together the last class of Magi in the Academy and for a year they hide themselves behind the walls of the Academy and trained. Fearing the threat they might raise against her Junko and her armies marched on the Academy once more. But against the protections of the Academy and the final students her army was near useless, with even her Acolytes proving useless. It seemed like the world could have hope once more, even if it was only the hope that she could be held off.

But then Junko revealed her two trump cards, the first being the Izuru Kamukura, an omnitalented mage that had once been said to be the strongest Magi ever taught before in Hopes Peak. The second was a traitor among the final class, who shattered the protection from within the walls and let the armies of despair spill forth. The final Council member was laid low by Junko and her forces, and the last class stood surrounded on all sides by immeasurable odds. All seemed lost, until a miracle. The students gathered together their power and cast a spell that would send them forward in time, so that they might regroup and fight another day.

It has been now eight months since that final battle, and now the world teeters on the brink of utter despair and sorrow.

Chapter 1: Ruins of Hope

Makoto woke up and immediately regretted doing so as his entire body seemed to light up as a single point of pain. He opened his mouth to scream but found that he couldn't even form a sound past the agony that wracked his form. And then all at once the pain stopped, and he found himself laying down on a cold stone floor in a pitch dark room. Even after the pain had disappeared the young man was left gasping for breath in a near desperate attempt to block the memory of the pain he had just experienced away.

After a few moments of silent reflection the young man let out a soft breath and slowly pulling himself into a sitting position, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness for a moment before trying to remember what had happened. The last thing that he remembered with perfect clarity was being surrounded by the hundreds upon hundreds of Monokuma Shades as the defenses they had spent months setting up failed to hold off a force of their size. He remembered the grinning face of Junko Enoshima as she gave the order for the entire class to be executed as enemies of the world.

Then a flash of light as a rift in reality was created, a final hope to flee and fight again another day. It was a gamble to open something as unstable as a rift in time, but it was the only element that Junko couldn't have predicted that they would use, as most Magi who tried messing with the flow of time usually ended up in ten pieces across ten different time periods.

Makoto realized that his own arrival no doubt meant that his friends would be arriving as well, and quickly brought himself to his feet. "Guys we made it!" he called out, looking around and trying to spot them through the darkness. When he didn't receive a response a worried look passed over his face. "Kyouko, Sayaka, Byakuya...Yasuhiro?" he looked around and felt his stomach drop as he realized that he was the only person inside of the room.

Worry began to infect his mind, the thought of his friends being trapped still within the vortex of time twisted a knot into his stomach. He began to pace around the dark room, trying to see what he could find within the the dark room. In his blind wanderings he was able to feel out a stone table at what he could guess was the center of the room, carved as a circle with twelve chairs around it.

The moment he touched the table hundreds of lanterns sprang to life around the room and a figure appeared at the center or the table, wearing an insane smile and a crown upon her head stood Junk Enoahima, the Despair Witch. "Nice of you to finally join us back in the real world, a fine hello to you my former classmate," the girl gave a small bow before looking up with a twisted smile that revealed an almost inhumanly long tongue hanging from her mouth. "I mean come the hell on you keep your rightful queen waiting for eight whole months, the shit man?" She laughed madly and winked.

Makoto took a step back and reached to his side before remembering that he didn't have the Focus he used to cast his spells. "Traitor." despite his fear Makoto wouldn't give the monster in front of him the satisfaction of seeing him break.

A look of utter sadness came over Junko's face, her hands going to her long hair. "Oh such a harsh word, and here I brought you a present," she waved her free hand and a black and grey pistol appeared on the table in front of Makoto.

The young man looked at the gun for a moment, trying to measure his odds of getting the weapon before Junko could do something to kill him. The odds were not in his favor on that point. "Don't mess with me, why are you here?!"

Junko looked at him for a moment before sighing. "Like honestly?" she asked in a valley girl like drawl. "I am totally freaking bored out of my skull, thats why!"

"Uh..." Makoto was at a loss of words. "What?"

"For the past eight months I have had my people pull your guys out of the time steam, I was planning on just killing the lot of you and taking a nap but then I realized something," she snapped her fingers, bringing up a map of the country with thirteen red points dotted across it. "I rule basically everything, people can't really go much deeper into despair because despair has become the new normal for these assholes, even if I just randomly start executing children the people will just breath a sigh of relief and go on with their average despair. I want a despair so powerful that people can't wake up from their dreams because of it!"

Makoto was forced to take a step back from the pure insanity of what she was telling him. "Killing all these people, taking over, and you are bored?" what god had been angered to the point of allowing someone so insane to have so much power?

"Yeah, do try and keep up Naegi I would hate to have to repeat myself for your benefit," Junko let out another insane laugh before continuing. "So I want to make you a super tempting and despair inducing offer, I want to challenge the 'Luck of the Draw' mage to a World Wide Mass Mutual Murder Game!"

"Why the hell do you think I would ever, ever agree to something like that?" he demanded, eyes filled with determination. "I would rather die then to let you use me like a pawn."

"But would you let your friends die?" she asked innocently.

The entire world stopped for Makoto for a moment as she brought up his friends. "You're lying, the time stream..."

"Oh yes that little snag in my plans, under normal circumstances I wouldn't have been able to do anything, but you must have forgot that my little weapon is omnitalented, that means even if you try and run between the folds of time I will be able to fish you out eventually, just like I did with your friends, one by one picking them out and walling up their memories, for the past eight months they have gotten to live in my perfectly despair infused world without a single memory of their times at Hopes Peak," she summoned a handkerchief from thin air and made a show of drying her eyes. "Awful, just awful."

Makoto clenched his fist tight and glared toward the madwoman in front of him, wishing beyond any reasonable hope that his gaze would set her on fire so long as he glared at her long enough. "Fine," he muttered, lowering his head before her. "How do I play?"

A sadistic grin came over her face. "Thats much better, the rules are pretty simple, wouldn't want your brain to explode yet would we?" she snapped her fingers and above the thirteen red lights appears the names of his friends, with the exception of Kyouko Kirigiri, who was placed within Junko's flying castle. "The game is simple, you pick which one of your friends so save and a portal will be opened in order to send you there, find your friend and defeat the ruler of the kingdom and you get to keep your friend, then when you feel ready come and meet me, and I will stamp out the remains of your pathetic hope once and for all."

The deal that was offered to him was too good to be true, and he doubted the witch of despair would just let something like that go without adding a horrifying twist on it. "And thats all?"

A finger went to her lips as if trying to recall something. "Oh thats right, during the time taken to help the friend you choose I will randomly select another one of your friends and put a bounty on their heads, my soldiers and Monokuma won't do anything, but that doesn't mean that some ordinary person looking for a reward won't slip the knife in for me," her overly long tongue came out of her mouth as Junko cackled once more. "Isn't it just the height of despair?"

"You got that wrong!" Makoto shouted out, pointing toward her. "The game won't create despair at all!"

"What?" the witch asked, looking toward the young man.

"If they are being hunted by a whole city without any memories of their training then there is no doubt they will end up dying, in the end there won't be any despair, just acceptance of the rules," he knew that trying to appeal to a madwomans logic was akin to dancing along a hall of daggers, but if there was any chance to protect his friends he had to take it. "It would be more fair to let someone else try to help them while I was busy fighting against your minion."

For a moment the witch pondered his rule addition. "Well to be honest I don't really give a damn about being fair, but the idea of seeing the look of utter despair upon realizing that your friend failed to protect them is just too damn good to give up, fine pick your player two and lets get on with this."

There wasn't a moment of hesitation in his mind as he pointed toward Kyouko's picture above the floating castle. "Kyouko Kirigiri, I choose the Magi of Law."

A look of surprise went over Junko's face. "Really now, rough and tumble Kirigiri is your first pick for who to save, not one of your innocent little classmates who could be clubbed to death by a bloodthirsty crowd like baby seals?"

"I picked her because I know she is strong enough to protect them." if there was anyone who could make a crowd back down with just a look it was definitely Kyouko, in that at least he had utter faith.

Junko simply shrugged and summoned a small scepter to her hand, the head of which depicted a bears head with one side of it being white and the other black. "Whatever, but since we are apparently being all fair and shit I should mention about the whole memory loss," her voice went back to her cool and calculating tone. "Because it would be impossible to truly remove all memories a person has without destroying their mind I have put a mental block around the years of memory that you and your friends shared at Hopes Peak. A strong enough trigger memory will shatter the barrier and allow the memories to return, so before you fight my acolytes I would suggest you make sure they remember, else it won't be much of a fight yah know?"

Makoto walked forward and picked up the gun from the table before giving a nod. "Challenge accepted, you are going down."

"Oh look at this, showing a bit of spine just because you got your Focus back," Junko snapped her fingers and a portal opened into the room, and out from it stepped two figures. The first was the omnimagi Izuru Kamukura, dark hair floating on unseen wind and blazing eyes looking directly through Makoto as if he didn't even exist. The second was none other then Kyouko Kirigiri, unconscious and seemingly at peace. "Well the second my pet leaves this place will be a safehouse, make sure to take enough time to figure out what your next move will be, oh and since I am sure that you probably got all rusty from sitting on your ass in a void between time for the past few months I figured I would give you a present!"

With that said the image of Junko disappeared, leaving Izuru alone with the two. "Surrender to your fate, there is no need to suffer the way you will suffer through this game." he snapped his fingers and a pitch black portal opened. Out of the portal stepped a number of black and white Monokuma creatures with long sharp blades poking from their round paws, followed by a final Monokuma who stood almost a foot taller then the others, wearing a wide brimmed hat with stars and moons etched into the design, and a scepter held in its paw somehow. "Upupupupupupupup!" the leader of the group laughed in a high pitched voice. "We have been waiting a long time to play with you mister Bottom of the Barrel, just the same as when your buddies 'played' with us."

Makoto quickly stepped in front of Kyouko and drew in a soft breath. "I won't let you hurt her." he declared simply, a light and gentle blue aura appearing around his body. This was his Magi field, the special talent Magi all had to draw in power from the ether in order to cast spells. The aura flowed down his arms and into the gun, giving it a shining quality for a moment before six clicks rang out through it and a small voice from seemingly nowhere declared 'Truth Bullets loaded, six shots.'

"Oh getting serious already are we?" the hatted Monokuma asked in a mocking tone. "Trial Field set, upupupupup." the Monokuma raised its hand and a large circular dome began to grow outward from itself, expanding past both Makoto and Kyouko, bringing them into the Trial Field zone.

Once they were inside of teh barrier the entire world seemed to have shifted, no longer were they in the stone room with a single table, but rather in a twisted nightmare land with black sand under their feet and the Monokuma moon high above looking down upon them with a smile.

The Trial Field was tool invented by powerful Magi to ensure that the battles they had wouldn't end up utterly destroying everything around them by accident, thus when a powerful enough Magi cast the Trial Field all living things surrounded by it would be pulled into a pocket dimension where conditions could be decided by that which had created it. No doubt the place they were in now was simply a generic Despair Field, rather then something unique that the Magi Monokuma had crafted. If he had been more powerful Makoto could have probably taken over with his own field, but despite all his training he had never managed to make a Trial Field manifest.

The clawed Monokuma began to advance on him, red eye glowing like the fires of hell as they approached, sharpening their claws and letting out small "Upupupup"

"The rules go as follows, destroy all enemies." The hatted Monokuma declared.

The Monokuma moon began to let loose a vicious laugh, denoting that the challenge had been accepted.

Makoto aimed carefully toward the first Monokuma and shot out three of his truth bullets, small compressed bits of his own magical field in the shape of bullets. The three shots slammed into the Monokuma's arms and head, the force of the impacts throwing the creature off its feet and onto its back. It let out a growl of pain before exploding into a featureless shadow and disappearing.

Most of the Monokuma that made up the rank and file of the Despair army were actually summons, begins made up completely of ether whose physical forms were granted by some higher being. The ether was divided into multiple subsections, some as small as islands and others large enough to fit an entire universe in, and each subsection contained a creature that ruled over it. As the Monokuma had been summoned through use of Despair magic they had been crafted by the Grand Horror, the ultimate enemy of mankind that represented all things tainted. From it all Magi who practiced despair drew power.

Despite his impressive showing with the first Monokuma Makoto knew that it was only a matter of time before the other clawed summons or the hatted Monokuma killed him. His own supply of magic didn't draw from a particular school he was forced to rely on his own power. He could normally get around that by just filing up small 'ammo packs' with his power for future use, but he hadn't traveled through with any during their escape.

"Whats wrong kid, can't keep it up?" the hatted Monokuma laughed as it pointed forward its scepter. "Kill the brat!"

The remaining five Monokuma's laughed and made leaps toward Makoto, blades descending to rend his flesh. Thankfully for the boy his reactions had been trained by the best, and his focus was brought forward and fired three more times, killing another of the Monokuma. Before the rest could finish their deadly decent Makoto summoned forth his remaining power and fired a shot at the ground, creating a barrier of translucent force around them. The Monokuma who struck it stayed in the air for a moment before the shield flashed and threw the other four summons away from them.

Knowing that his shield wouldn't last long he took a knee next to Kyouko and gently shook her shoulders. "Kind of need you to wake up here, come on come on," despite shaking her her eyes remained closed, and the Monokuma began to strike the barrier with their razor sharp claws. It only lasted a matter of moments between the four remaining creatures shattered the barrier and began their advance toward the two.

Makoto quickly stood up and spread his arms wide. "I won't let you hurt her." he said, his voice obviously scared but none the less holding himself firm before the creatures.

"Well good luck keeping that one, maul him!" the hatted Monokuma demanded.

The four summons leapt forward, claws just about to strike Makoto until something caused them to stop midair, this something being eight pairs of handcuffs attached to a long silver chain, leading back to Kyouko's prone form. "Honestly, is this the best that can be sent?" the young woman stood up with a rather bored expression on her face. "Trial Field, Takeover." the ground began to shake and rumble as the scenery changed around them, turning from a barren wasteland overlooked by the Monokuma Moon to a massive courtroom, with the judge, jury, and witness stands filled by featureless grey humanoids. Behind the judges stand rested a giant stone statue depicting a woman wearing a blindfold and holding a scale in one hand and a sword in the other. "First Law, any direct physical attacks are punishable by death." she retracted the handcuffs, reverting them to a smaller form in her hand, her Focus.

The bestial summons charged once more, before the hatted Monokuma could shout out. "No wait!"

The statue came to life, raising its sword and slashing across the four creatures and reverting them back to nothingness. "Welcome to my Trial Field, so long as we are within the halls of justice any broken law will result in swift punishment."

"You, you weren't supposed to wake up!" the final Monokuma took a step away from the two, eyes shifting back and forth. It might have been a more powerful and smarter version of the basic summon, but what knowledge it did contain was mostly toward either attack abilities or torture. It wasn't designed to fight in a arena of wit, so it would end this before any more laws could be added. The summon pointed its scepter toward them and began to gather a pitch black energy at its front. "Despair Blas-"

Before it could finish Kyouko's extendable handcuffs flashed forward again, closing around the scepter and causing the energy gathered to suddenly disappear. "Lawkeeper, so long as you or your Focus are bound by me you are unable to pull power from the ether."

The Monokuma tried again to summon power to its Focus, but what Kyouko said had been true, nothing he did seemed to have any effect. "You little bit-" before the bear could finish the statue plunged its sword into the creatures back. "Gwack!"

"Hm, verbal abuse is done physically, and is an attack on my character," Kyouko offered the bear a self satisfied grin. "To those that break the law, comes the end."

The bear gave one last hateful glare before exploding in a cloud of darkness that left nothing behind.

With the last enemy defeated the Trial Field disappeared, leaving the summons dissipated and only the hatted Monokuma remaining, but frozen. While inside a Trial Field no one could die, at the end they would simply be frozen and bound until such a time as the victor decided to release them or the loser was brought out of range. Kyouko looked at the hatted Monokuma and frowned thoughtfully. "I see, so you have enough ether to be considered as more then a summon, interesting."

Makoto looked toward the Monokuma and then to Kyouko. "So uh...what do we do this it?"

Before they could think on a solution a portal opened above it, and from it descended Izuru, garbed in a black robe and carrying a scythe in his hands, which he promptly put around Monokuma's neck. "Hm, enjoy your survival. You have only delayed the inevitable despair of death." with that said he floated back into the portal, pulling a terrified Monokuma with him.

The two looked to each other in confusion until a image appeared above the table in the middle of the room, showing Monokuma and Izuru surrounded by a massive amount of Monokuma summons, each covering their faces and crying fake tears. The words above the image were 'Game Over'.

A massive guillotine appeared around the Monokuma, pinning its neck where the blade sat with a rope to bring it down hanging right next to its left paw. Then a large booth for a puppet show appeared, with the puppets being overly cute characters expounding on the nature of hope and how wonderful being friends was. The Monokuma began to shake and shout, begging to be released as the cute puppets began to break out into a song. The Monokuma quickly reached forward and tugged down on the rope to end the torment, causing the blade to fall and cleanly sever his head and reduce it to nothingness, with only a star and moon hat falling to the ground.

"Good riddance." Kyouko muttered before turning back to Makoto.

The young man, who had mostly remained silent during the execution, suddenly moved forward and wrapped his arms around the female Magi with a bright grin. "Kyouko, that was amazing!" he laughed a bit, finally feeling the stress from the battle slowly draining out from him. It was only after a moment that he broke from the girls body and coughed, clearly embarrassed. "Wait uh...you probably don't even remember who I am do you?"

Kyouko looked at him for a moment, a light blush dusting her cheeks that was quickly enough banished. "I doubt there is a force on this planet that could make me forget you Makoto Naegi, we are partners after all."

"Wait you remember who I am?" the young man looked more confused then anything.

"I didn't at first, when Izuru first grabbed me I decided it was better to play possum and figure out what the Queen's right arm wanted with me, it wasn't until you jumped in front of me that I actually remembered. It was quite a bit like when we first met, when the rowdy swan summon was charging straight at me and you jumped in the way, through this time was a good deal more life threatening I suppose." the ghost of a smile came to her lips before being replaced by a frown. "Makoto, as you must realize the plan failed, it seems that..."

"Junko pulled us out of the time vortex, I have some things to go over with you too." with that said Makoto explained the situation, the 'game', and the rules for playing.

Kyouko closed her eyes and let out a breath of frustration. "So a game to decide the final battle between Despair and Hope, that is very much her isn't it?"

"Yeah, we need to plan our next move before..." Makoto had taken a step toward the table but almost fell, and was only able to remain upright due to Kyouko's fast reaction to his fall. "Oh yeah, might have used a bit to much energy in that fight."

"No doubt, I would imagine being dragged out of the vortex only to be thrown into a Trial Field would exhausted most Magi of your strength," despite the fact that it hadn't been meant as an insult the words still stung Makoto's pride a bit. "We should try and get some rest if we intend to survive this game."

"I don't think the stone floor is going to be that comfortable," Makoto said, looking toward the floor. As soon as he said this however the sound of stone grinding on stone could be heard loud through the room as a pathway opened to the two, revealing a small hallway with wooden doorways, each having one of their names etched into it. "Oh, well yeah that works."

"Hm, if I remember correctly this was a hub room, a place where one could travel anywhere in the Academy. Through I doubt any rooms of use would still be in good repair," Kyouko shook her head. "Regardless we should get you to your room so you can rest."

The young man gave a shake of his head, managing to pull away from Kyouko and make it to one of the chairs at the table. "First we have to decide who we are going to go after. I won't want our friends suffering for any longer then they have to." he gave the girl a determinaed look that she knew meant he wouldn't budge from the subject.

She gave a quiet sigh and shake of her head before taking a seat next to him. "Very well," she placed her hand on the table, bringing up the names and special abilities of each of their classmates.

Byakuya Togami- Heir of Togami Sacred Flame

Kiyotaka Ishimaru- Magi of Order and Morality

Mondo Owada- Magi of Rulebreaking

Leon Kuwata- Magi of Athleticism

Hifumi Yamada- Magi of Fiction/Reality

Yasuhiro Hagakure- Magi of Clairvoyance

Chihiro Fujisaki- Magi of Creation/Golem Making

Celestia Ludenberg- Magi of Fate/Gambling

Sayaka Maizono- Magi of Sound/Idol

Aoi Asahina- Elemental Magi/Water

Toko Fukawa- Magi of Fiction/Novelization

Sakura Oogami: Magi of Martial Arts

Mukuro Ikusaba: Magi of Warfare

"All of our friends," Makoto closed his eyes for a moment before looking over the various options. "I choose..."

So after reading the rules it appears that I can't actually have readers decide the order people should go after the various students. A least not on . I don't think a work around like linking to an outside polling option would be allowed either. That is quite the problem for the more interactive part of the story. Any thoughts?