The cable car jolts a little and I tighten my gloved hands around the armrest beside me. I'm all alone here, in a big box hanging above the empty white valley. Its practically impossible to make out any details from this high up. Except the mountain peak. And the castle.

Dark and foreboding against the side of the cliff, its the only real shape to be seen amongst the emptiness. Even from here, I can make out tiny pinpricks of light in its windows, just visible through the mist that hangs thick and low over the valley.

Before I go any further, let me introduce myself! I'm Kei. Kei Kamiya! I'm from Odaiba, originally, though if I'm honest, I couldn't even guess what region this mountain range is in. That might sound kinda weird, but I'll explain!

A few weeks ago I got an invitation in the mail, from none other than the Headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy! Hope's Peak is a pretty big deal, because it's a school like no other – it exclusively scouts its students based on their own unique talents, and then invites them to the school to really develop their talents for use in the future! Enrollment at Hope's Peak pretty much guarantees you total success in life with whatever field you wanna go in to! In fact, a lot of people in pretty high up positions across the world are former students of Hope's Peak Academy.

So you could imagine my confusion when the letter went on to inform me that I wouldn't just be attending Hope's Peak Academy, I would actually be one of a hundred or so students being admitted to the brand new Second Branch of the Academy.

I'd heard rumours that Hope's Peak had been planning on doing this for years – apparently an overseas branch was due for construction in a few months time – but I was pretty surprised to learn that a second branch already existed!

The letter went on to describe what an exciting opportunity this would be for me, and basically that if I accepted a place I would have travel arrangements made for me to be taken to the Second Branch. The letter didn't even say where exactly the place was!

Reading on, the letter finished off with: 'As a result of this, we invite you to attend our school as a person possessing the title of 'Ultimate Barista'.'

So, yup, that's me! Kei Kamiya: Ultimate Barista.

There's not much to say about my talent, really. My mom owns a cafe that used to belong to my dad before he died. I work there after school every day, and over the years I've clocked a hell of a lot of hours serving drinks and getting to know customers and stuff. It's a pretty tough job sometimes, but I enjoy it!

Um, I better describe myself, I guess. I'm kinda tall and lanky, with sorta brick-red coloured hair, and dark blue eyes. I've got four piercings through each ear, and I have a small birthmark under my right eye. And, uh, that's about it!

When I got the invite from Hope's Peak I was a little tempted just to turn it down. I didn't like the thought of my mom having to deal with too much, but she insisted that I made the most of the opportunity. She's managed to hire a couple of extra staff, too, so I don't need to worry about her overworking or anything.

As the cable car neared the end of its journey, I thought of my mom, and wondered how long exactly it'd be til I'd see her again. It'd probably be a couple months til we got any sort of proper time off, but I'd promised I'd call home at least once a week for as long as I was away.

With a final jolt, the cable car comes to the end of the line and the automatic doors slide open. I get to my feet, hitch my rucksack over my shoulder and take the handle of my suitcase, lifting it over the small gap between the cable car and the platform on the other side.

Its a kind of plain room, very silver and grey. The railed metal platform is in a L-shape, exposed to the elements, and I watch as the cable car doors slide shut and it starts to shift away, following the L-shaped formation of the platform before turning and disappearing away. I try to ignore the weird feeling in my stomach – not butterflies, more like bees or something...

Alone on the platform, I briefly consider just waiting here for someone else to show up, but I've made the journey here myself so far, so I may as well finish it. Plus, it'd be just my luck to be the last person to arrive.

I take a second to adjust my suitcase so that its on its wheels now, and I turn towards the door. My boots clank against the metal walkway, but a moment later I'm through the door and I'm on a small plateau – maybe only 20 feet or so wide. The plateau is completely surrounded by trees at both sides, stretching out for as far as I can see and lining all the way from the cable car stop to the edge of an enormous stone archway. Under the archway is a huge iron-wrought black gate. Three guesses where that'll lead me.

The snow appears to have been shoveled away, and stones rattle and crunch under the wheels of my suitcase as I make my way across the plateau. Despite the snow, I can just about make out little details beyond the far side of the gate – the castle is all lit up from within, with waxy yellow light piercing through the mist.

I look up at the castle in awe, I'm not gonna lie. Up close, even shrouded in the cold mountain mist, its pretty breath-taking. Cloisters and walkways and some individual towers jut out all across the outside of the building, and I can just make out some froze-over wooden bridges connecting the main castle to the small separate tower buildings. But after five or six floors, the rest of the castle seems to just disappear into whiteness.

I make my way across the small plateau now, not taking my eyes off the castle on the far side of the gate the entire time. I'm pretty stunned, like reality's sinking in that I'm really here at this amazing place! It's like something out of a dream, really! My whole life's never gonna be the same as soon as I step through that gate, I think.

Sometimes I fucking hate being right.

With a gloved hand – trembling partly from nerves, partly from the cold – I reach out for the handle of the left hand gate.

And then I black out.

There's really no better way to describe it, I wish I could. One second, I'm feeling the cold metal through my glove, and the next... nothing.

In a strange way, I remember being unconscious. It's like I'm dreaming, but I'm trapped in a picture. Nothing around me is moving. And it's dark. So, so dark. Just me, alone, suspended in a single moment.

And then I open my eyes.

I'm face down on a cold stone floor. It's dusty and I cough as I roll over onto my back. My eyes take a second to adjust, but then I see I'm staring up into a high-vaulted ceiling. Grey and gloomy – curved angles disappearing into shadow.

I just want to sleep, really. That's my initial thought. I'm cold and uncomfortable and it'd be so easy just to fall back asleep again. But that doesn't last long, as a sudden dull thud, and the sound of an echoing footstep snap me out of my daze, and I sit bolt upright in a panic.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's alright, it's alright!"

There's a guy in the doorway, probably about my age – maybe a little younger, actually. He's holding his hands up in that kind of placating defensive way, and he flashes me a kind of awkward smile as I push myself up onto my feet.

"Who are you?" I ask.

"My name's Arata. Arata Summerfield – I'm the Ultimate Lucky Student. You're an Ultimate too, right?"

I eye him warily. He's short and kind of pale-skinned, with shaggy-looking dark purple hair and eyes that look black in the gloom. He's wearing a teal jacket over a dark red T-shirt, and khaki trousers. A small four-leaf clover charm hangs from a loop of thread around his neck, that catches in the light. I realise I haven't answered him and finally reply.

"Um, yeah. I'm Kei. Look, where are we?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, that'd be the question," he frowns. "I'm not so sure of that yet myself. At a guess, I'd say we're in the castle."

"The castle..."

"You don't remember?" he asks. "Don't you remember coming to the castle?"

"I... think so," I reply. "My head's a little fuzzy."

"It'll pass soon, don't worry," the boy – Arata – says, with a sympathetic nod. "I only woke up like twenty minutes ago. Oh, wait a sec."

He turns to face back out the door and calls, "Hey, Mitsu, are you there? I found someone else!"

A distant voice calls back, "Coming!" and a moment later, a girl appears in the doorway. She eyes me kind of intensely. "You're an Ultimate too, right?"

There's something about the way she says it that kind of makes me want to spill my guts and tell her my entire life story, but I manage a way shorter, "Uh, yeah, I'm Kei Kamiya – I'm the Ultimate Barista."

"Hm, that's good to know."

With a firm nod, she reaches into a brown leather satchel at her side and produces a notebook and a pen. She starts scribbling down something, and without looking up she says, "I'm Mitsu Kamori. I'm the Ultimate Journalist."

She's about Arata's height - maybe just a little shorter - with shoulder-length blonde hair, dyed green at the ends. She's wearing a yellow cardigan over her white school blouse. She has a fairly big looking leather satchel strung over her shoulder.

"Oh, right," I say, dumbly. "Do you have... any idea what the hell's going on here?"

"I'm afraid I'm as in the dark as you and Arata here," she says with a shake of her head. "It's a work in progress. We both woke up in adjoining classrooms on the far side of this floor. We've been trying to find out what's going on, but we haven't been able to find anyone else yet. So, before we go any further, do you know how you got here?"

I can feel the wheels turning in my head as I try to piece it all together again. There's still that weird hazy feeling and it takes me a few seconds for my brain to catch up with itself.

"I got picked up from the airport," I said, "and that took like an hour's drive to the start of the mountain range. And then there was the cable car, and then... then I was just outside the castle when... everything just kind of went black."

"Same as us then, huh?" Arata says to Mitsu. She's still scribbling down in her notebook. She briefly looks up at me as she flips over to start a new page.

"And you don't remember anything else?" she asks. "You haven't seen anyone else?"

"I literally just woke up," I say, shaking my head. "He came in like a second after I woke up." I nod at Arata, who bobs his head in confirmation. Mitsu seems satisfied with this answer, and then claps her notebook shut and slides it back into her satchel.

"That'd make sense going by the dust on the floor. If you'd moved anywhere there'd be more marks."

I look down to see she's right. There's a sort of Kei-shaped impression on the floor in the position I was lying, with the bottom half a little more messed up from me getting to my feet. I'm kind of worryingly reminded of those chalk outlines you see at crime scenes in cop shows. And then I'm just reminded my front is all covered in dust. I take a second to bat some of it off me, sending up small puffs of dust. It's only then I realise that I'm no longer wearing my outdoor jacket or my gloves. I still have all my other clothes on, but my outside stuff has disappeared.

Mitsu seems to notice my confusion. "We haven't found our stuff either," she sighs. "I'm trying not to let this freak me out but it's getting harder by the minute. Do you think you can walk?"

"Um, yeah, I guess so," I say. "Why?"

"Well, it's either that or you can stay in here by yourself."

"Oh, um, fair enough," I agree, and I go to make my way over towards them. Arata holds the door open for me, but before I can step through, something in the corner of the ceiling catches my eye.

"Wait, is that a security camera?"

It's kind of bulky and roughly designed, like it's been melded together out of scrap metal. It sits on what looks like an extendable arm-like device. A small red light on its side pulses at us. I can just make out the lens within the camera shifting to adjust focus on us as we gaze up at it.

"Weird, isn't it?" Mitsu nods. "I mean I figured a place like this would have pretty intense security, but there's cameras like that in every room I've seen so far. There's monitors out in the hallway too."

"Got to say it's a pretty new experience for me," Arata says, sheepishly. "I'm from the middle of nowhere – people in my town are still trying to wrap their heads around wi-fi."

"Hm."

Unsure of what else to say, I pass through the doorway, following Mitsu out into a long, gloomy hallway.

The floor is stone out here too, but long, dark green rugs have been laid out, muffling our footsteps as we walk across it. I can make out another camera just a little further down the corridor, already facing us. The walls are kind of sandstone-looking, covered in paintings and tapestries and all sorts of stuff. There are suits of armour and small display tables and bookshelves lining the walls in both directions as far as I can see, and at regular intervals there are large, arch-shaped wooden doors, all with elaborately carved panels and silver doorhandles that glint with the light coming from the torch brackets slightly higher up the walls.

It takes me a couple of seconds to process that the flames in the brackets are burning green. There's something pretty about that, even if they are casting a kind of weird toxic glow over the corridor.

"Creepy stuff, isn't it?" Arata says, quietly. "I feel like I've stepped into a horror movie."

"It's like this in pretty much every other hallway," Mitsu adds. "Some of the rooms I've looked into are the same, but a few have electrical lights instead."

"This is..." I stammer. I can't find the words.

"I know," Arata agrees. "Super weird."

"Words are my thing and even I don't know how to describe it," Mitsu says. "It just feels... wrong. Everything about this."

I find myself nodding in agreement again. I take a second to think before I speak.

"So you want to keep searching for others?" I ask. Mitsu nods.

"Hopefully it'll take us even less time now there's one more of us," she says. "We're trying to find a way downstairs too. The staircase that the main landing leads on to is gated off in both directions, so we're stuck on the First Floor for now."

The three of us exchange uneasy glances as her words sink in. I find myself dragging my hands down my face as I try to process what the hell's going on.

"We're trapped?"

"For lack of a better word, yeah," Mitsu grimaces. Arata puts his hands in the pockets of his teal jacket and lets out a long sigh.

"This isn't getting any easier, huh?"

"Look, this isn't getting things done any quicker," Mitsu says. "How about we just keep searching for now and see where it gets us?"

"Um, I guess so," Arata shrugs. They look at me, kind of expectantly.

"I... I guess it's better than doing nothing," I sigh. "Where have you guys searched already?"

Mitsu turns and points down the far end of the corridor. "So far we've checked each of the rooms along that way. There's a door around the corridor bend that leads onto the First Floor landing, and that leads onto the staircase and some of the other hallways."

"I can come with you to look over the far end if you like?" Arata suggests.

"Um, yeah, sure," I nod, though my head's still kind of racing and I feel like I'm still trying to properly wake up.

"Okay, I'll finish over this side and then come find you both," Mitsu says. She gives us both a small nod. "Yell if you find anything."

"Will do."

And with that, we part ways.

Arata leads me down the corridor, and once we reach the bend, we turn left. At the end of this stretch of corridor there's another wooden door, larger than the rest of the ones we've passed. This one's also lying ajar. As we approach, Arata gestures at a classroom door to our left.

"I woke up in that one," he says. "Mitsu was in... that one." He points at a door a little further up.

"It seems kind of random," I frown. "Three of us on the one floor, but nobody else?"

"Nobody else yet," Arata corrects me. He brushes a long strand of hair out of his face. "It can't just be us. And if Mitsu's right about us being stuck on this floor, wouldn't it seem pretty likely that the others are too?"

"I don't know if I see your logic, if I'm honest," I admit. "What about any of this has made sense so far?"

Arata shrugs. "Just call it intuition then, I guess." He gives me a kind of crooked smile, and I find myself smiling a little back at him.

We pass through the larger open door and into the main First Floor landing. It's a pretty large room, with the same sort of decoration scheme as the corridor we've just come from. The fires burning in the brackets are a normal colour now though, which seems to take a slight edge off the knot of anxiety I can feel crushing my ribcage.

There are plush-looking green couches assembled around long, low wooden tables, and bookcases line the walls. Once again, there's a camera in the corner of the room, facing us, and I can just make out a monitor of the same kind of beat up design as the camera just at the far end of the room.

A few study desks are slotted in at the sides of the bookcases in alcoves, each with a matching high-backed wooden chair.

"There's the door to the staircase, I think," Arata says, crossing the room and turning the handle. "Mitsu came out this way to check when I was checking the first few rooms in the corridor back there, so I haven't actually seen this gate she's talking about. Wanna come check?"

"I guess so," I sigh, and follow him out the door.

We're on a large white square marble of balcony. The balcony connects onto identical staircases, one flight going below us and another leading upwards. But as Mitsu already told us, there are large gates blocking our path. Tall, thin bars seem to extend from floor to ceiling, like a portcullis, disappearing through the floor below, and through the floor of a balcony above our heads. Looking up, and doing some quick counting, I can make out that the staircases extend to about ten floors above us.

"It looks like there's more of these weird gates at every balcony," Arata murmurs, his voice still echoing slightly in the cavernous staircase hall.

"I've never seen anything like it," I reply. I gaze up for a moment or two longer before I shake my head. "Come on, let's see if we can find anything useful."

Before we can even get back through the doorway, a door at the far end of the First Floor landing is flung open, and three figures emerge.

"Wh-who are you two?!" cries one of them. It's difficult to make out their faces because the way they're standing behind the door is hiding them in shadow.

Arata is quick to step forward and raise his hands in the same placating way he did with me before.

"Hey, hey, don't worry, we're all in the same boat," he says. "I'm Arata, and this is Kei. You guys just woke up, right?"

"More or less," sighs one of the small group, and steps out of the shadow of the doorway. "Arata, and Kei, right? My name's Kaori. Kaori Yoshida. This is Ino Watabe, and... sorry, what did you say your name was again?" She's directed this at one of the people behind her, cowering in the doorframe.

"D-Daisuke. I'm Daisuke Mizumaki."

"Nice to meet you guys," Arata beams. "You're Ultimates too, right?"

Kaori raises her eyebrows. "Um, well, yeah. I'm the Ultimate Electrician." She's tall and slim-built, with an elfin face, and cat-like green eyes. She's dressed in what looks like blue mechanic overalls, only zipped half-way up, showing a pink T-shirt underneath. Her hair is long and brown, with her bangs held back with a bunch of pink hair clips.

The girl at her side fires Arata and I a look of distrust. "I'm the Ultimate Architect," she says, simply. This girl's probably about the same height as me - with a round, serious face, and piercing green eyes. She has bushy pink brows and long pink hair, tied up in a ponytail with a red sash that matches the red ribbon and pinafore she wears over a grey shirt.

"And this cute kid here," Kaori says, gesturing to the boy still hiding in the doorway, "is the Ultimate Florist."

Daisuke's a sweet-looking kid, with tufty blonde hair, and blue eyes. He's wearing an oversized blue jumper with some stitched leaf design on both of his sleeves, over his school shirt and tie. He manages a sort of weak attempt at a smile, though he still looks scared out of his wits. I wish I had the brain capacity to be scared right now, I think to myself.

"And what about you two, huh?" Ino asks, sharply, crossing her arms.

"I'm the Ultimate Lucky Student," Arata replies, still managing to smile at her, "and Kei here is the Ultimate Barista."

"Weird talents, if you ask me," Ino mutters. Kaori rolls her eyes at her.

"Don't mind her," she says. "As soon as she saw me in the corridor she tried to hit me with her shoe."

Arata raises an eyebrow. "Why'd you do that?"

"Because I thought she might have been the one who brought me here!" Ino snaps, defensively. "And who's to say you're all even telling the truth about who you are anyway?"

"Looks like we just have to believe each other, huh?" I reply. I get a glare from her in response.

"So, anyway, is it just the three of you? Or have you found any others?" Arata asks.

"Just us," Kaori says with a shake of her head. "How about you two?"

"Yeah, there's a girl just through there looking about for others," I say. "Her name's Mitsu."

"She's the Ultimate Journalist," Arata adds, helpfully.

"Hm, good to know. So that makes six of us so far, right?" Kaori nods. She rubs her chin and looks deep in thought for a moment. "So how many d'you think we're still looking for?"

"Anybody's guess, really," Arata shrugs. "Only six of us in a place this size seems pretty unlikely though, right?"

"And it's definitely Hope's Peak Second Branch?" Daisuke asks from behind Kaori, quietly.

"We've been over this," Ino snaps at him. "It's definitely the same building. I remember looking at the blueprints."

"Woah, you can tell just from the few rooms you've been in?" Arata asks.

"Well, I'm not the Ultimate Architect for nothing," Ino retorts, rolling her eyes.

"I wasn't being rude," Arata sighs, "I was just genuinely impressed. Plus, that kind of answers one of the questions we were still trying to work out."

"Have you guys worked out anything else yet then?" Kaori asks. She slides her hands through the belt loops of her blue jumpsuit and looks at us both, expectantly.

"Only that we're confined to this floor so far, it'd seem," I sigh. "Check it out."

I step away from the doorway out to the main staircase, and Kaori, Ino, and Daisuke shift past us to look. A moment later, they file back in, looking decidedly paler.

"Shit," Kaori breathes.

"Yup," I agree.

"Well, what the hell do we do now?" Ino asks.

"You're the Ultimate Architect," Arata points out. "Can you remember any other sort of ways to get to another floor besides the main staircase?"

A vein throbs in Ino's forehead, and I find myself taking a small step back from her. Arata seems to realise she's probably a little too... volatile and makes a hasty retreat too, making sure to step around to the other side of one of the couches in the centre of the room.

"What d'you think, Ino?" Kaori asks. "Anything?"

The small nuclear explosion going on in Ino's brain seems to die down, and she lets out a long, deep breath before replying.

"No," she says, finally. "Only way up or down is that staircase from what I recall of the blueprints."

"Okay, that's two questions answered then," Arata says, putting his hands on his hips. "Do you wanna wait here while I go find Mitsu, Kei?"

"No need!"

We all turn to see Mitsu emerge from the corridor Arata and I had come through from, and she isn't alone. One by one, four other people appear behind her.

"I found these guys down the far end of that corridor. There were a couple of reading rooms and an annex that seems to lead out to one of the towers," Mitsu explains. "I see you two found some people too!"

"Oh, yeah," I nod, and we take turns introducing one another yet again. Mitsu introduces Miniro Shirane, the Ultimate Sailor. Miniro gives a salute and informs us all, "It is a pleasure to be acquainted with each of you!"

He's a muscular guy, built like the side of a house, as my mom would say. His skin is tanned, besides a few long scars under his startling red eyes and along the side of his face. He has kind of messy, spiky brown hair, with the side shaved in an undercut, showing several large gold rings pierced through the top of his ear. He's wearing a pretty formal-looking blue blazer over his uniform, with brass buttons polished to perfection.

Then she goes on to introduce Yuki Tadeshi, the Ultimate Hairdresser. Yuki goes out of her way to go round the room and hug each of us, with a huge grin on her face the entire time. She seems pretty cheerful, despite the situation, and she bounces on the soles of her feet, hyperactively once she's done with her introductions. I make a mental note to remember only to serve her decaff if it comes to it.

She's pretty cute - her skin is a warm brown colour, which goes perfectly with her mane of wild orange hair. She's kind of small and delicate-looking, but she has cute round cheeks, and a huge goofy grin. Like a few of the others, she isn't going for any attempt at a school uniform, instead opting for a baggy, long-sleeved lilac top and a grey skirt.

Next is Ayaka Suzuki, the Ultimate Vet. She has a pretty serious look on her face, but she gives a respectful nod as she's introduced to each of us. Besides that, she doesn't seem to have much to say to any of us. She has golden-brown skin, and long purple and blue hair, tied in two braids - I notice the blue of her hair matches her eyes. She's wearing a white coat with a paw-print motif on the sleeve over her uniform.

And lastly, there was Yamato Nagai, the Ultimate Herpetologist. He's dark-skinned and grave-looking, with sharp yellow eyes and a thin face. His hair is messy, and a pretty cool turquoise colour! He's wearing a bright green hoodie over his school shirt. His tie is slack, and his top few buttons are undone, showing a grey T-shirt underneath. Despite his kind of intimidating appearance, he was actually really polite and went out of his way to make sure he got everyone's name right.

And with us all acquainted, Mitsu was quick to get everyone up to speed on the situation.

"So, there's ten of us now – that'll cut the time down even more. We can fan out across the rest of the First Floor and see if we can find anyone else. It seems like we're probably closer to the end of our search than the beginning though. There's still a few towers on the far end of that corridor I'd like to check," she says. There are a few murmurs of agreement.

"Someone should wait here though, right?" Yuki suggests, waving a hand in the air. "I mean, I wanna explore, but shouldn't someone wait like just in case some other people turn up? You said this was the main landing, right?"

"That's a fair point," Yamato agrees. "All the corridors of this floor must lead here, one way or another."

"All roads lead to Rome," Mitsu nods. "Okay, good plan. Who wants to wait?"

"I-I don't mind waiting," Daisuke murmurs, raising a hand. "I'd rather stay in the one place for now if that's okay with everyone else."

"Fine with me," Kaori shrugs.

"Go for it," Ino agrees.

"Oh, but shouldn't someone else wait too?" Arata frowns.

"I can stay too," Miniro nods. "I don't mind waiting here with... Daisuke, isn't it?"

"Y-yeah," Daisuke murmurs, his face going a little pink, like he's embarrassed or something.

"Well, that'll do then," Mitsu says. "I'll be going back this way."

"And once our search is done, we can all just meet back here," Ayaka nods. She slides her hands into the pockets of her white coat. "I'll come along with you, Mitsu."

So we end up splitting up from there, separating into four smaller groups and each taking a separate corridor. Arata and I were joined by Yuki and Yamato, and we took the bend at the back of the landing.

There are a few reading rooms leading off of this stretch of floor, and another larger door at the end that leads onto another eerie green-lit corridor, identical to the one we'd already been along.

"So, what do you guys think is happening, huh?" Yuki asks us. Yamato raises his eyebrows.

"I'm not really sure I have enough of a clue to guess, to be honest," he says. "How about you two?"

"We're all in the same boat," Arata shrugs. "I can't see why we'd be stuck in here by ourselves though."

"Yeah, I've got no clue," I sigh. "Seems all we're doing is assembling a class though."

"Hey, d'you think that's it?" Yuki asks. "D'you think we're just one class?"

"I... guess that could be true," Arata nods, rubbing the back of his neck like he had earlier. "We should ask the o-"

"Hello? Is there someone there?"

A girl's voice calls out from ahead of us, and we all spin round to see someone approaching us from further ahead. Someone I recognised straight away. And I wasn't the only one.

"No way!"

"You?"

The girl looked a little taken aback. "Oh, um, hello there, I'm Blessing Ayoeda."

"And you're the Ultimate Actress, right?" Yuki asks.

The girl – Blessing Ayoeda – looks a little surprised.

"Oh, um, well, yes, I am!"

Even amongst Ultimates, Blessing was on a league of her own. She was pretty much the biggest name in the movie business right now. She'd started off as a bit-part, playing the daughter of a protagonist in some detective show, but it didn't take long before she was getting bigger roles, even fronting a pretty big movie trilogy adapted from a series of YA books. But even besides that, she was super big on charity work and stuff too, even taking part in a massive sports event for charity across South Africa that started and finished in her hometown of Maputo in Mozambique.

"Are... you okay?" she asks me, wide-eyed. "You look a little dazed."

"S-sorry, little starstruck," I admit, suddenly thankful for the eerie green light as it hid my sudden blush. She's pretty beautiful, and it seems unreal to be in the same room as her. She's got long, curls of black hair that looks purple as the light hits it, framing her face. She's pretty much adhering to the uniform - wearing a dark red cardigan, white blouse, and grey skirt. There's a blue symbol on the sleeve of her jumper but I can't quite make out what it is.

Arata quickly takes charge of the introductions, and catches Blessing up on what's happened so far. She nods her understanding.

"It is lovely to meet you all," she says, "despite the circumstances. I'll help you all in your search!"

As it happens, our search doesn't last much longer as a long, deep toll of a bell rings out through the corridor. We throw our hands to our ears to try and drown out the dull booming, but after a few more moments the tolling stops.

Before we can even react, there's an electronic burble and a voice rings out through an unseen intercom.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey! You're all finally here!"

Out of everything I've experienced so far in this castle, the voice seems the most... wrong. It's like a cartoon character is talking to us, and something about it sends a chill up my spine.

"Okay, the hide and seek segment's all over and done with, so I'm unlocking the gate on the Staircase. Get your thumbs out your butts and get down to the Entrance Hall for a special assembly!"

With a weird giggle, the intercom burbles and cuts off, and the five of us exchange looks.

"What the fuck..." Yamato mutters.

"I second that," I nod.

"That voice said the gate was gonna be unlocked though, right?" Arata says. "We should go check. The others are probably heading back too."

"Can't argue with that," Yuki shrugs and pelts away, her sandals slapping against her feet as she bounds towards the main landing.

We follow after her, a little warily, and return to the main landing pretty much just as the others return from the other corridors. I notice we weren't the only group that had found someone else, as a few other students followed the others out of the doorways.

We all sort of awkwardly look at each other, one by one. There's almost something funny about it in a way. There's sixteen of us now – jeez.

"Okay, quick introductions," Arata says, with a slightly exasperated smile. He quickly introduces Blessing to the others and waits for a response.

"Masashi Uno, the Ultimate Chessmaster." He's a broad-shouldered, tall guy, with a pale face and a seemingly fixed scowl, with an intense look in his purple eyes to go with it. His hair is ashy-blonde, and tied in a small ponytail at the back. He's wearing a long grey overcoat with gold buttons over the top of his uniform. There's an interesting looking ring on his finger too, but I'm not close enough to make out anything significant about it.

"I am Kimi Valentin, the Ultimate Beautician. A pleasure!" Kimi is a name I vaguely recall hearing once or twice on TV before. Her story is similar to Blessing's in a way, having started off as a make-up artist on small-time gigs before moving up to doing professional work for movie stars and big time celebrities. She's tall and pretty imposing, with what I could only describe as flawless make-up. She's kind of like a porcelain doll, with big eyelashes and an expertly sculpted face. She's wearing a red and black sailor style uniform, with a large black sash over her chest. Despite her announcing it was "a pleasure", her expression says otherwise. She sort of gives the impression that it's a pleasure for us to meet her.

"Hey, hey! I'm Cho Saiki – only the Ultimate Blackbelt in the world! Hehe, pretty impressive, right?" This girl is smaller - probably closer to Arata's height - with long, straggly green hair and pale, almost white, skin. She has bright yellow eyes, both with small scars running down underneath them, and she's dressed in what looks like a proper karate uniform, with an actual blackbelt around her waist.

"Oh, um, I'm Fumio. Fumio Nomura. I'm the Ultimate Chemist! It's nice to meet you all!" Fumio's a kind of weak-looking kid, with a sickly grey look to his sunken face, and strange dark blotches on his neck, just visible over the collar of his shirt. He has short cropped brown hair held back by a pair of goggles. His eyes are black, with dark circles around them. He's wearing a red blazer, and instead of the red school tie, he's wearing a black one with a blue arrow motif on it.

The last guy seems fairly disinterested. He's about my height, with wild rusty red hair and kind of intense orange eyes. He's wearing a red jumper and a shirt, with a khaki jacket over the top of it. After a few expectant looks from across the room, he sighs and finally greets us.

"Haru Takezaki. I don't know my talent."

"Wait, what?" Ino cries in disbelief. "You're at Hope's Peak and you don't even know your talent?"

Haru shrugs. "'Fraid not. What's it to you, anyway?"

"Okay, okay, I think we can ignore that little problem for now," I say. "Has anyone checked the gate on the stairs yet?"

"I did," Miniro replies with a nod. "As soon as Daisuke and I heard the announcement over the intercom I checked round the door. The gate leading upward is still there, but the bars have lifted that were preventing us from getting downstairs."

"Well, getting upstairs isn't really a priority anyway," Mitsu says. "Seems like the answers we're looking for are downstairs. It's up to you all what you want to do, but I want to know what's going on, so I'll see you down there."

And with that, she opens the door out to the staircase and disappears out of sight. For a moment, nobody moves, but then Masashi shrugs and trudges out after her, his hands tucked into the pockets of his grey trenchcoat. A moment later, Haru follows after them, breezily, and bit-by-bit, the room empties.

The uneasiness is holding me back, and I find myself one of the last ones out, filing out the door behind Miniro, who has a large hand placed comfortingly on Daisuke's shoulder. Daisuke looks a little tense, but decidedly less panicked than he had been a little earlier.

Arata's waiting out on the staircase for me.

"You okay?" he asks, as we fall into line behind the others. "You looked a little weird for a sec there."

"I'm not sure," I admit, glancing upwards at the cavernous ceiling above us. Like in the classroom I'd woke up in, the ceiling was high-vaulted and dark, but I could just make out the tiny red dots of the security cameras like the eyes of some nightmarish monster.

Hindsight's a bitch sometimes, eh?

Arata gives me a sympathetic look. "I'm sure things'll be alright, Kei."

"I hope so," I reply, as we near the bottom of the staircase. The ground floor here was fairly bare, with no decoration at the base of the staircase besides a damaged looking marble plinth.

There was a door in the centre of the wall the others were stepping through, and Arata and I followed after them. Almost as soon as we're through the door, it swings shut behind us like it has a life of its own and clicks shut. There's another faint clunk, like a lock turning, and Arata gives the handle a turn to no avail. We exchange glances.

"Still think everything's gonna be alright?" I groan. Arata grimaces, and we turn away from the door.

We're in a wide, empty corridor now, with the walls simply covered in red tapestries. Small electrical lamps hang from the ceiling, dimly lighting our way around a corner, and taking us out into a large hall.

The hall was just as huge and cavernous as the staircase hall, with an enormous door on the far side of the room, and grand ceremonial tapestries and enormous statues all around the hall. Two enormous angel-like sculptures were positioned at either side of the door, each about the same height as the door at about twenty feet high. Above the doors, the stone ceiling opened up to slits of stained glass windows that had been laid out to form the Hope's Peak emblem in the Second Branch's school colours – a gunmetal grey on a dark red background.

As we make our way into the centre of the hall, I notice a couple of other ways leading off. One set of double doors, slightly smaller than the main doors ahead of us, were sealed over with a padlock. A passageway on the opposite side of the hall was sealed off like the bars on the staircases. It seemed that beyond the bars there was a flight of stairs leading downwards. There are two small archways in the far corners, in the same wall that we've just come from, but its difficult to make out anything beyond them. Likely, it leads on to the huge outcropping balcony far above us.

A balcony on which the weirdest looking teddy bear I've ever seen is perched on.

"Oh, so you're finally all here, huh?!"

The strange cartoonish voice echoes through the hall, snapping my attention away from the teddy bear. The sixteen of us look around from side to side, trying to work out where the voice could be coming from, but then...

"Hey, I'm up here!" the voice snaps. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the bear fall from the balcony, but instead of flopping lifelessly to the cold marble floor, it seems to bounce up on its stubby little legs and strike a pose. "I'm Monokuma! And you're all late! Is that any way to treat your Headmaster?!"

"H-Headmaster?!" Cho squawks. "What the fuck?!"

"Well, of course!" the bear – Monokuma cheers. "Now, how about you all shut the hell up and let me get on with the show! I've been working on this for a looooong time! I mean, this stuff takes craftwork! Some reaaaal talent!"

"Okay, just to clear this up," Yamato says, "are you seeing that thing move too or am I hallucinating?"

"I... I think we might all be hallucinating," I reply.

The bear bristles at this and approaches us with waddling steps. "Oh, doubting the evidence of your own eyes already, huh? Well, you're gonna have to get used to it, kiddos, cos you're gonna be seein' a whole lot more of me!"

"This is a joke, right?" Masashi snorts, raising an eyebrow. "And a ridiculous one at that."

"Oh, no, no, no!" Monokuma gasps. He waddles away from Yamato and I and hops back to the point on the floor where he had landed before. He brings a paw to his mouth and dramatically clears his throat. "A-hem-hem! Can everyone see me? Can everyone hear me? Lend me your ears, oh, dear students!

"I, your beloved Headmaster, am delighted and honoured to welcome you all to a whole new dimension, like nothing you've ever experienced before! Well, probably..." He shrugs. "This is the Second Branch of Hope's Peak Academy, commonly referred to as Hope's Peak Castle, and now referred to as your home for the rest of your lives!"

"Rest of our lives?!"

"Wait, what?"

"Huh?"

I think we all had something to say about that, and for a second our confusion and panic all overlaps. Monokuma waits for silence and then raises a paw.

"Are you all quite finished? I've got an itinerary, y'know."

Silence.

"Well, as I was saying," he continues, "this is your new home. Forever. Infinitely. Never-endingly. Permanently. Um, um... for a really, really long time. Y'know, that sorta deal! But, before anyone interrupts, I can cut you some slack!

"I mean, I'm doing you a favour, really. I'm protecting you from a cruel, cruel world. But if you'd rather give all that up... if you'd rather leave this place, never to return, yadda yadda... there's one little thing you can do!"

"And what's that?" Haru asks, glaring at Monokuma.

"It's simple!" Monokuma cheers, holding his paws up and unsheathing his claws. "All you gotta do is get away with murder!"

16 STUDENTS REMAINING