Hope's Peak Academy. It was one of the most prestigious schools in the country - No, perhaps, even, the entire world - where the elite, formally-invited "Super High School Level" students roamed its lush campuses in peace, knowing that graduating from here would forever secure them a permanent life of success and happiness in any field.
However... That is not what truly happened. No, during my time of attendance there, I, my friends, classmates, teachers, researchers, everyone, became involved in something much greater than we were expecting.
Within the span of a few short years? Countless people, slaughtered by my hands. Entire cities and countries falling into ruin; from corruption on the inside and utter chaos on the outside. The world as it was once known, ended; crushed into oblivion by the gaping maw of despair. As the situation reached its climax, what was left of the world's hope, once shining brightly, flickered and died; This was demonstrated in a sick and twisted game known as the School Life of Mutual Killing, where the remaining Hope's Peak students were forced into killing each other, televised live 24/7 and orchestrated by the mastermind themself...
The mastermind, who could very easily be considered the sole person that started it all and brought the world to its knees...
Her title, Super High School Level Despair. Her name, Junko Enoshima. Eventually, she was defeated... beaten at her own game of mutual killing by the very same students she had manipulated, and on that day the surviving few proved that hope springs eternal: that it never dies, even under the worst of odds...
But, before that... before the School Life of Mutual Killing, but after I had walked through Hope's Peak's gates for the first time... we were comrades.
Or, at least, that was what I've been told. I can't remember any of it, thanks to something called the New World Program, but... I think that's for the best. I wouldn't want to remember the kind of horrific monster I had been coerced by Junko into becoming, or the terrifying deeds I had done while still under her influence. The New World Program, created by the Future Foundation's Hope Rehabilitation Project... without it, I possibly wouldn't even be alive right now.
The program was only supposed to erase our old memories, of when we were SHSL Despair. We were the greatest of Junko's pawns, complety enthralled by her, blinded and consumed by despair. The program would erase those memories and replace them, so we could have a chance of being normal again. But it was a rushed job, highly experimental and not even fully tested... and that was its undoing.
The undoing that would replace the old horrors with ones of a different kind, because Despair herself had found a way in and had taken over, and forced her to play her game. Her game... of mutual killing. And one by one, I watched my friends, the recovering ex-SHSL Despair, die... Except, I learned that they were not dead, but maybe even something worse.
As we confronted the remnants of walking despair, an AI replica of Junko Enoshima, we found out that due to the haphazard way that the New World Program was built, that the system did not know what to do in the originally-unexpected circumstance of a student (or rather, their avatar) dying within the game. Due to this, a dead student could not return to the real world once the game world's purpose has been served, but they also no longer existed within the game world itself, which stuck their physical bodies in a sort of vegatative state. Their minds? We don't know. They could be gone forever, stuck in a space between reality and the system. It's hard telling.
However, of all of the people slain on the virtual Jabberwock Island, two did not receive this cruel fate, and were erased from existence entirely. And while they were both my friends, just like all of the other students, one of them in particular was very special to me...
She... meant a lot to me. Not only for always being there for me, but also for always trying her best to help everyone, even when things looked dark, and going as far as sacrificing herself to save everyone not just once, but twice... If it weren't for her actions, I, along with everyone else trapped within Junko's Field Trip of Mutual Killing would either still be there now, or worse, the minds and bodies of everyone killed inside this place would have been overridden with Junko's personality. Despair, reborn again, would roam as it wished and destroy everything the Future Foundation had been trying to create and preserve.
Because of her, I discovered that there are never fixed options, and as long as I keep moving forward, I can bring myself to any outcome I desire... I was shown only two options, but through her guidance and the assistance of Makoto Naegi, Byakuya Togami, and Kyouko Kirigiri, surviving Hope's Peak students and members of the Future Foundation that risked their lives by entering the game to help us, we were able to escape, thwarting AI Junko's plans and ensuring that no more lives needed to be taken.
After the aftermath of the trial, we had deemed the game to be no longer a safe place to stay, as Junko's meddling had done severe damage to the program. We needed to leave immediately. The Jabberwock Island I had come to known for the past few eventful weeks was crumbling apart, before my eyes. Even if we didn't have to leave, we were ready, and so we needed to move on, into our new lives.
But as we were preparing to depart, I kept thinking to myself. I was there for the execution. I watched her die, unable to do anything to help. But... even though she was gone, she still managed to appear before me when I needed her the most. (Or was that a dream?) And not only that, Usami had appeared to deal the finishing blow to Junko. Could the both of them still be alive? More importantly, was she okay?
Her name... it was Chiaki Nanami...
I want to... know if she really is still alive. And if she is, I want to express my gratitude to her...
A simple "Thank you" isn't nearly enough. I want to show her the world she had so valiantly shielded from despair. I want her to see it, and experience it, and live it...
No matter how impossible such a task like that may seem, I want for it to be true. All that is left is for me to move torward it.
Nanami... please be safe.