Where Talent Goes On Vacation

Prologue: Like Deja Vu All Over Again... Again

You've probably heard of Hope's Peak Academy, as well as its copycat, Talent High School. If you haven't, all you need to know is that they're two of Japan's best high schools, and there's a reason no one applies to them- unless you're the best there is in your field, your parents have a lot of money to burn, or you're a relative of someone who works for Talent High School, you're shit out of luck.

A lot of people would be disappointed to hear that they aren't cut out for those kinds of schools, but not me. I'd always found the idea sort of weird, and always thought that the schools' only draw is their exclusivity, a bit like a collector's item that commands insane prices because there aren't many of them.. Because of that, I used to think that those places didn't have anything to do with me... until Talent High School came up to me and invited me to come to their school.

I'm Akira Azuki, and I've done a lot of work as an actress, from school plays to television shows to a blockbuster film called Magical Girl Sakura, a live action adaptation of the anime series. In my first year of high school, I got the attention of Talent High School's recruiters, and after doing an audition in front of the school's headmistress, the board of trustees, a director and a famous actor, I was awarded the title of the Ultimate Actress.

I had mixed feelings about the development. It was great to be the Ultimate Actress in my generation, but I wasn't sure how much it meant for the people who ran a school like that to give me the title- the director and the actor gave feedback but didn't make the final decision. The fact that they seemed to base the decision on my performance in Magical Girl Sakura didn't help. If my title of Ultimate Actress came from people like them, what did that say about me?

Of course, I talked things through with my mom, who was also my manager. Mom believed I needed the publicity, as well as something that'd boost my resume if my career went belly-up. She also pointed out that it didn't hurt that the school was fairly lenient when it came to talent-related absences, so it'd be easy for me to take time off for acting work. So I accepted the offer, made all the arrangements to transfer, and packed my bags to move in to the dorms.

I might no have been 100 percent enthusiastic about Talent High School, but I decided to make the most of my time there, unaware tha...oading ne… ...ating av…. ...lizing… Complete.

I woke up in a hotel room that overlooked the ocean. It was a reasonably large room with two queen-size beds with a nightstand between them (my bed was to the right of the nightstand, while my roommate's was to the left), a television, a desk, a bathroom with a shower, a closet and other amenities. There were also two suitcases on wheels, near the door but not in the way, and both were a plain and inoffensive brown.

I climbed out of bed and noticed that I was already dressed in my school uniform- a long-sleeved dress shirt with the top button undone and dark trousers. Technically, I was wearing the boys' uniform(not to mention that I should be wearing the top for my gyakuran) but not too many people paid attention to that. Surprisingly enough, I didn't seem to have much of a case of bed head, except for the one strand of hair that always stood up.

My roommate was a girl with chin-length raven hair that was neatly combed. She wore a red plaid skirt, a white dress shirt, a gray blazer and a red necktie. It was pretty obvious we weren't from the same school, since I recognized the crest as belonging to Saint Mary's Catholic High School, an all-girls school that wasn't far from Talent High School. Unlike some Catholic school uniform wearers I could think of, there wasn't a hint of fanservice in this girl's uniform- her shirt and blazer were buttoned up, her tie was properly tied, her skirt was knee-length, and she wore white pantyhose with dark shoes.

"Good morning, Azuki-sama," the girl said, speaking formally.

"Morning," I said. "I don't think we've been introduced. Are you a fan of mine?"

"Yes, ma'am. My name is Chiyuri Nagato, and I'm the Ultimate Tech Support. It's nice to meet you."

As Nagato bowed to me and I hastily reciprocated, I realized that Nagato's family name sounded familiar for some reason, and probably not because of her talent. I couldn't remember any news stories about her, so she probably wasn't very famous for her talent- which wasn't surprising when she'd probably work among countless people who answer questions over their phone, without showing their faces or giving their names.

"Same here, Nagato," I said. "By the way, why're you calling me 'ma'am' and '-sama'?"

"Oh, it's just because I'm a bit nervous about actually meeting you," Nagato said. "Part of it is that I was always told to show callers that level of respect, and I call my mom 'ma'am' when I get in trouble."

"Well, you don't have to be all that formal with me," I said. "Just 'Azuki' is fine with me. You can add 'san' if you want, but don't expect me to return the favor."

I probably came off as a bit brusque to Nagato, but I didn't see any need to change how I acted. In my experience, good manners were the most superficial way possible to get or stay on people's good side. Sure, Nagato probably meant it, but that wasn't always the case- I once saw two studio executives going at it while using polite language.

"I'll keep that in mind, Azuki-sam... I mean, Azuki-san," Nagato said. "The other part is that I'm a big fan of Magical Girl Sakura."

"Magical Girl Sakura?" I said, my voice a mix of incredulity and disappointment.

"Yes," Azuki said. "I really enjoyed the anime, and thought they did a great job adapting the film. You were just the right pick for Sakura herself."

I tried to keep it to myself, but I wasn't entirely happy that Nagato's favorite work with me in it was Magical Girl Sakura. Sure, it was my most famous project, but that didn't mean it was the best. My favorite projects were the Shakespeare plays I'd done in middle school- Julius Caesar and Hamlet- and I hoped to one day do work on a movie that was of similar quality. I also was fond of Summer's End, even though my character died at the end of the first season- showing her trying to conquer her fears and face execution bravely was one of the most challenging yet enjoyable scenes I've ever done.

"Anyway, what's going on here?" I said, hoping to change the subject. "Why're we at a hotel?"

Nagato paused, seemingly taken off guard by my question, but then the answer occurred to her.

"We're taking a cruise for spring break," Nagato said. "It's one last vacation before the school year starts, in which the new students get to know each other."

It took me a moment to remember that I'd heard about the cruise before Nagato had told me, and I could only vaguely remember the fact that we had one scheduled. After my invitation to Talent High School had been finalized, my mom and I had asked many questions about the school, but we hadn't heard anything about a school trip during the spring break. After a moment, I recalled the cruise, as well as the fact that we were going to stay in a hotel, but those seemed like random tidbits, floating in my head without being connected to any other memories.

For the moment, though, I didn't think too deeply about it. Nagato did seem to remember, after all, and I did have some recollection of these vacation plans, so I decided to play along, at least for now.

"Oh, right," I said as the memory came back. "Sorry, I must've forgotten."

"That's all right," Nagato said. "It took me a little while to remember, too, so they must have announced it at the last minute."

Nagato's suggestion sounded fairly unconvincing, so she wasn't too sure of it herself. It seemed kind of odd that a school trip would be so hastily planned, but maybe that said a lot about the kind of school Talent High School was.

"Anyway, is this is all on the school's dime?" I said. "That's a pretty shitty way to use the money that the poor slobs who attend the Reserve Course pay for tuition."

I'd expected the apparently ladylike Nagato to be shocked at my foul language, but she actually nodded.

"I agree," Nagato said, "and in fact, it's highly unusual that they'd go so far as to take us on a cruise. To my knowledge, all of Talent High School's class trips have been in Japan, so they're not nearly as luxurious as this one. Our school is famous, but not for this level of excess."

"Gotcha," I said. "You seem pretty well-informed about our school- why's that?"

Before Nagato could answer, we heard a knock on the door. Nagato went to answer, and we saw a woman in a dark pinstriped skirt suit with a white button-down shirt, black pantyhose and black shoes. The woman looked like she was in her early forties, and she had shoulder-length hair that was the same color as Nagato's.

"Good, you two are also awake," the woman said. "We will meet in the front lobby in an hour, so please get some breakfast first. There's a restaurant downstairs near the lobby, serving a buffet, so I'm sure you'll find something you like there."

"Will do, Mom," Nagato said, in a far more relaxed tone than she used around me.

I remembered now why Nagato's name was familiar- it was that of my teacher, Yukari Nagato. I'd heard that I would be in Nagato-sensei's homeroom, but not that her daughter would be my classmate. This small fact went a long way toward explaining why Nagato knew so much about the school- her mom worked there.

"We've discussed this before, Nagato-san," Nagato-sensei said. "As long as you are in my class, you are expected to show me the same respect you show to any other teacher. Do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," Nagato said. "Please forgive my rudeness, Nagato-sensei."

Nagato bowed deeply, but Nagato-sensei's stern expression gave way to a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry about it too much, Chi- er, Nagato-san," Nagato-sensei said. "I know that putting aside our relationship as parent and child in order to work well as teacher and student will be a bit of an adjustment for both of us. Because of that, I appreciate your cooperation, since it makes my job easier."

"I know, Sensei," Nagato said. "This year is a challenge for both of us, so I hope to make it as manageable as possible."

Nagato-sensei smiled and nodded pleasantly. She reminded me of a lot of my teachers in that she didn't hesitate to crack down when people misbehaved, but came off as fairly nice if you followed the rules and kept your grades up. Because of that, I worked to get the best grades I could, even if I wasn't an academic prodigy, and stayed out of trouble.

"I've got to get going," Nagato-sensei said, "since I need to meet up with the other fourteen students. Get some breakfast, then meet us in the lobby. Don't forget your handbooks and suitcases."

"Yes, ma'am," Nagato and I said together.

Nagato-sensei then left our room, leaving us in silence for a moment until her daughter turned to me.

"You seemed surprised earlier, Azuki-san," Nagato said.

"Well, yeah," I said. "I know your mom's the teacher, but she seems a bit cold to you."

"Because she doesn't let me call her 'Mom' at school?" Nagato said.

I nodded. It wasn't exactly hard to guess, but Nagato hit the nail on the head.

"That's why," I said. "My mom's my manager, but it's perfectly fine for me to call her 'Mom' and for her to call me 'Akira,' even at work. Can't your mom cut you a little slack?"

"Mom- I mean, Nagato-sensei- isn't trying to be mean," Nagato said. "She always said that her job as a teacher requires that her students respect her, and she believes she must earn that respect."

"What does that involve?" I said.

"A few things," Nagato said. "The first is being good at her job, since the students can't learn from a teacher who can't teach them. The second is treating the students with respect, which is why she's always polite, even when scolding people. The third and most important thing is being fair and consistent- if she expects all her students to call her 'Sensei', it wouldn't be fair if her daughter was exempt. There's a few others, but these are the three big ones."

"I guess I get what you're saying," I said. "I don't think my mom would make me call her 'Azuki-sensei' if she was my teacher, but I can at least get behind what Nagato-sensei's doing."

"Nagato-sensei knows she's only human," Nagato said. "She said she might slip up and call me 'Chiyuri' in class, like she almost did just now, so she wants me to correct her if she does. I plan on doing so, of course."

"Why's that?" I said.

"Apart from what I said before about making her job easier, there's a more personal element," Nagato said. "I actually like being treated as one of her students, with all the rights and responsibilities associated with it. It makes me feel as though I earned my place in this class."

"The fact that you earned your spot in the class should go without saying," I said. "I mean, they let you in, didn't they?"

Nagato looked surprised, but nodded.

"They did," Nagato said. "We're both students of Talent High School now, with all the rights and responsibilities that entails."

Talent High School was more like an ordinary school than Hope's Peak Academy was, and students were expected to attend and pass their classes. That said, doing so wasn't all that hard, since the school boasted a 97.5 percent graduation rate, and its students went on to prestigious colleges across Japan.

"Speaking of responsibilities," Nagato said, as if to change the subject, "we should retrieve our handbooks. They should be on the nightstand, along with our room keys."

I checked the nightstand, and saw two tablet PCs- the "handbooks" in question- and keycards. After stashing my keycard in my pocket, I picked up my handbook started it up, and saw my name.

"So, this one's mine," I said. "What's on it?"

"Let's see..." Nagato said. "There's a section with the class' profiles on it, although I only see three- mine, yours and Sensei's. There's a Map section for our current whereabouts. There's also a Documents folder for various things we might need, such as our e-ticket. There's a couple other ones, too, but the one that matters most is the rules."

I looked and saw profiles on myself, Nagato and our teacher. They contained our pictures, names, talents, heights, birthdays, likes and dislikes, and hobbies. Like Nagato said, the only ones there were hers, her mom's and mine, but I suspected more would be added as we met people.

I then opened up the rules, and found only a few entries.

Rule 1: Students are expected to behave themselves and follow school rules while on the trip. Extreme violence against others is prohbited.

"Rule 1's obvious enough," I said. "Does Nagato-sensei think we're gonna start murdering each other or something?"

"School violence is no laughing matter, Azuki-san," Nagato said firmly. "At my old school, there was an incident in which a student stabbed a classmate. The victim was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance- luckily, she survived. As for the perpetrator, she was expelled and arrested- the last I'd heard of her, she'd been sent to juvenile hall."

Despite her polite speech, Nagato gave me a stern glare along with her firm rebuke. I'd only known her for a couple minutes, but I could already tell this wasn't normal for her.

"Sorry, that was in bad taste," I said. "Then again, to people like us, that sort of thing just doesn't seem real, right?"

"No, I suppose not," Nagato said, calmly but gravely. "Everyone in my school was shocked by what happened... except for one of my classmates, who'd come from a rough neighborhood as a child. She had seen things like this all the time, and said she was lucky to go to a high school like this. Of course, she was glad when the girl who got stabbed made a full recovery, saying that a lot of people she knew weren't so lucky."

The truth was that we, as young people who could depend on our parents and didn't have to worry where our next meal would come from, were extraordinarily lucky compared to many people our age, who often didn't even have food, homes or medicine, much less an education. Since we'd be attending one of the nation's most prestigious schools, living in its dormitory and eating meals in the dining hall, that thought was an important reminder that we should be grateful for what we had.

I then looked over the rest of the rules.

Rule 2: Work well with your classmates and strengthen your friendships. Only Talent High School teachers and students are allowed on the trip.

The first part was all well and good, a sort of platitude that wasn't worth making into a rule. The second part also seemed like it went without saying, maybe to prevent people from bringing their boyfriends or girlfriends along, or to stop parents (besides Nagato-sensei, that is) from tagging along.

Rule 3: Littering is not allowed. Students are responsible for taking their belongings with them.

"So they say littering isn't allowed," I said. "In other words, we have to pick up after ourselves, and take our stuff with us?"

"It seems that way," Nagato said. "Like they say, take only pictures and leave only footprints."

That answered my question. That said, it wasn't as though we could leave any footprints in the concrete, and I didn't have a camera of my own- although the student handbook did have a camera function. The camera function only seemed to allow one photograph, though, and I was fairly certain I'd find a better sight worth taking a picture of than the view from the hotel window.

Rule 4: The teacher cannot interfere with the students unless they have violated a rule.

"Interfere with?" I said. "Don't we have to do what Nagato-sensei says?"

"Within reason, yes," Nagato said. "Nagato-sensei can't tell us to do anything that would be morally wrong or illegal... not that my mom's that kind of person."

I nodded. While Nagato-sensei did seem to be a bit anal about the rules, it was clear that Chiyuri looked up to and respected her mother, hence why she didn't bother correcting herself when talking about her "mom."

"That looks like that's it for the rules," I said.

"It does," Nagato said. "Let's go get some breakfast."

I looked at our suitcases, and saw that one had my name on it, while the other had Nagato's name.

"What about our suitcases?" I said.

"Let's leave them here for now," Nagato said. "We can come back to get them after we're done."

"Got it," I said. "Let's move."

We left the room together, hoping to get some breakfast and meet our classmates on the way. Something seemed off about this trip, but I hoped it was my imagination.

Outside our room, we checked the room number and saw that we were in Room 530- on the fifth floor of the hotel, one of many rooms in a long corridor. After checking our map, we were able to find our way to the elevator that would take us down to the lobby.

A short way down the hall, we saw two boys together. One of them was a highly muscular guy with short brown hair in a tank top and sweat pants, while the other was a relatively skinny one with unkempt light brown hair, who was wearing a blue gyakuran.

"Hey there!" the boy in the gyakuran said. "You two must be Akira Azuki and Chiyuri Nagato, respectively the Ultimate Actress and the Ultimate Tech Support!"

"Two for two," I said, "You really know your stuff, don't you?"

"Of course I do, since I'm the Ultimate Trivia Champion! I'm Hide Yamazaki- it's nice to meet you!"

I'd done my homework, too, so to speak, and I'd read up on Yamazaki. He was a trivia champion who'd won several trivia contests at his high school, and was a fixture on a popular quiz show for some time. In order to avoid being accused of fixing the contest, the show gave him one last challenge, with the prize being admission to Talent High School, and Yamazaki succeeded.

"Same here," the other boy said. "I'm Kotaro Kumakura, and I'm the Ultimate Weightlifter."

Kumakura was famous for winning a weightlifting competition. When asked what his secret was, he said weightlifting wasn't just about strength, but also technique and proper training. Some people would've come off as stuck-up or full of themselves, but he seemed relatively modest, as if he was hoping to give advice to would-be lifters.

"It's nice to meet you, Yamazaki-san, Kumakura-san," Nagato said, bowing. "I'm... surprised you heard about me, since I didn't think any news outlets really covered me."

"We met the teacher," Kumakura said, "and asked for who else would be in our class. She mentioned that she had a daughter in the class, and that you were the Ultimate Tech Support."

So Yamazaki's knowledge of our names and talents wasn't as strong of a proof of his talent as we thought. Then again, if he'd memorized fifteen other students' names after only being told once, then it stood to reason that he could probably remember all sorts of trivia.

"Ah," Nagato said. "Well, I didn't ask Mo- Nagato-sensei about the names of my classmates."

"That's fine," Yamazaki said. "You've met us, and I'm sure the other twelve are around the hotel somewhere. You'll meet up with them sooner or later. For now, we've got to get going."

The two boys said goodbye for now, but I couldn't help but feel a bit worried. Yamazaki was "pretty sure" that we'd meet up with the others, not absolutely sure, so it was as though he didn't know for a fact where everyone was. For now, I kept it to myself, hoping it was just my overactive imagination.

We took the elevator down, proceeded to the lobby and saw two more boys. One wore what looked like a navy blue suit with a white dress shirt and a nice purple necktie, while the other wore a lab coat over a white dress shirt, red tie and black slacks, along with glasses.

"Ah, it looks like you're in our class, aren't you?" the boy in the suit said.

"We are," Nagato said. "I'm Nagato, the Ultimate Tech Support, and this is Azuki-san, the Ultimate Actress."

Judging from Nagato's decision to not provide our first names, she probably assumed we wouldn't become close enough with anyone to use them. Besides, if the newcomers really wanted to know our first names, they could check the student handbook- I'd taken a quick look after our encounter with Kumakura and Yamazaki, and saw they'd been added.

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" the boy in the suit said. "My name is Nobuhiro Higurashi, and I'm the Ultimate Public Speaker!"

Apparently, Higurashi became PR rep of his old school's student council in his first year of high school. It's easy to assume that he happened to be lucky enough to make a good impression on the winning candidate, but I saw a video of him speaking online, and realized he was the real deal.

"And I am Seita Kirishima, the Ultimate Geneticist," the other boy said.

I'd heard a bit about Kirishima's work, not all of it good. A year ago, he'd published a research paper, and his findings helped made gene editing more feasible. When asked about it, he was fairly blasé about the possible repercussions, saying that knowledge was knowledge, and it was up to us how to use it.

"It's good to see you two," Higurashi said. "There's not a whole lot of people around this hotel."

"Really?" I said.

"To be more precise, no one outside this class," Kirishima said. "How many people have you met?"

"Apart from you two?" Nagato said. "Just Nagato-sensei, Yamazaki-san and Kumakura-san."

"As I thought," Kirishima said. "Higurashi-kun and I have met some of our other classmates- albeit not the two you just mentioned- but have not seen any other guests or hotel staff."

Kirishima's claim was odd enough that I immediately questioned it. Even if the early morning was relatively quiet, you could probably at least see some guests up and about. Talent High School couldn't possibly have bought out the entire hotel. I also had to wonder why Nagato-sensei or the other two students we'd met hadn't mentioned it.

"As strange as it sounds, I can't disprove what you just said," Nagato said. "What do you think that means?"

"I cannot say just yet, Nagato-kun," Kirishima said, "since scientific conclusions require hard evidence that is clearly related to what you intend to prove. At this point, we have nothing but unanswered questions."

"That's right," Higurashi said, "but we shouldn't worry too much, either, or else we might end up losing our heads."

I felt my stomach rumbling.

"I don't know any more than you do," I said, "but we should probably be going to get some breakfast. I'll catch you guys later."

"We'll see you later!" Higurashi said pleasantly.

"Until then," Nagato said, excusing herself with a bow.

As Kirishima simply nodded, Nagato and I took our leave and headed to breakfast

"What do you suppose that's all about?" I said. "And why didn't Nagato-sensei seem at all bothered by the fact that no one else is around?"

"I don't know," Nagato said. "As for Nagato-sensei, I'm sure she's thought of it, too, but has to keep her cool in a situation like this. For now, we should get our bearings, meet up, and then decide what to do next."

That much made sense to me. Even though I was starting to feel uneasy about this school trip, I knew it was still important to stay calm, and this went double for the one that everyone was looking to for guidance. Maybe we'd figure something out once we got together and got our heads together.

We entered the restaurant, and after serving ourselves a Western style breakfast with eggs and sausage from the buffet, looked for a place to sit. Looking around, we saw Yamazaki and Kumakura sitting together, as well as a couple other students.

At that point, two girls sitting across from each other at a small square table waved us over. One was a girl with glasses in a dark sailor fuku with a red neckerchief, whose raven hair was in a side plait. The other was a pre-teen girl with a blue sailor fuku, whose brown hair was neatly done in a bob haircut.

"May we sit here?" Nagato said.

"Go right ahead!" the older of the two girls said. "The more the merrier, right, Miharu-chan?"

Miharu, the younger girl, nodded. Apparently, she not only didn't mind being called by her first name, but was already used to it.

"It is, Sasaki-san," the younger girl said. "Please feel free to sit with us."

Nagato and I sat down at the table- she was across from me, Sasaki was on my left and Miharu was on my right.

"I suppose introductions are in order," the older girl said. "My name is Sayuri Sasaki, and I'm the Ultimate Manga Artist. The young girl with me is Miharu Mihama, and she's the Ultimate Legal Expert."

I'd heard of Sasaki before. She was the manga artist behind Breakneck Canyon, a best-selling and critically acclaimed series about a gay romance. The subject matter wasn't my cup of tea, especially since I always thought of yaoi as for people who thought that sex scenes with a man and a woman had one woman too many, but apparently, a lot of people liked it for its realistic depiction of a same-sex romance.

"Nice to meet you," I said. "I'm Akira Azuki, the Ultimate Actress, and this is Chiyuri Nagato, the Ultimate Tech Support."

"Nice to meet you, Azuki-san, Nagato-san," Sasaki said. "Is it all right if I use your first names?"

Nagato nodded eagerly, as though this was a first for her. I was personally amazed that Sasaki had asked us despite knowing us for only about a minute.

"Go right ahead," I said. "I have a feeling you'd do it anyway if you said no."

"Thank you, Akira-chan, Chiyuri-chan," Sasaki said. "You can call me 'Sayuri' if you want."

"I'll think about it, Sasaki-san," Nagato said.

I nodded to concur.

"Apparently, Sasaki-san makes this offer to everyone," Mihama said. "I thought she was only doing it because I am a child, but it is a relief that I am treated no differently from my older peers."

"Some of them say no, of course," Sasaki said, "like Himemiya-san did. In those cases, I respect their wishes, but let them know that the offer's still open if they change their minds."

So I was wrong about my assumption. Of course, it was probably likely that not many people said yes to her. Nagato probably did so just to be nice, while I did so partly because I'd look like a hypocrite if I got on people's cases for being rude to me when I'm pretty casual with most people- at least Sasaki asked before calling me by my first name.

Now that Sasaki had introduced herself, I turned my focus to her companion. Mihama had made headlines before, but as a girl who'd gotten into high school at the age of 10. She was already an uncommon genius, but was apparently on a whole different level when it came to knowing the law of the land.

"That reminds me, Mihama-san," Nagato said. "I've heard about your being a child prodigy, but don't know much about your talent."

"To put it simply, Nagato-san," Mihama said, "I am exceptionally well-versed in the laws of our nation for someone my age. I am not a lawyer, prosecutor or judge, since I do not have the requisite qualifications to practice law, but the administration believed I had the makings of an exceptional legal career, and thus concluded that my talent was worth studying."

"You got into high school at your age and you still want more?" I said. "When I was your age, my mom was scheduling my acting job around elementary school."

Mihama pouted. For all her seriousness and formality, she could be surprisingly sensitive.

"Now, now, Akira-chan, I can definitely sympathize with how Miharu-chan feels," Sasaki said. "The magazine I write for only reluctantly took me on, partly because they liked my work, and partly because they thought a high school manga artist would draw attention. Even so, there were those who believed that a high schooler couldn't handle a manga artist's incredibly busy schedule, or wasn't suited for my subject matter."

"I get that sometimes," I said, "since some people are a bit hesitant to believe I can keep up with my studies on top of my work as an actress. I guess all I'm trying to say about Mihama is that people aren't always understanding of those who take a path that's a bit more challenging than usual."

"No, I understand what you are saying, Azuki-san," Mihama said. "I do believe that I can keep up with my responsibilities as well as you and the others your age- otherwise, I would not have skipped grades in the first place."

It was an undeniable truth, if a bit of a harsh one. All of us had, in some way or another, stepped off the beaten path in the pursuit of excellence in our fields. We'd worked hard, made sacrifices and in return, ended up in this highly exclusive high school. Even after achieving all this, we wouldn't be set for life- it would be up to us to continue our success and keep our careers alive.

The other two girls finished eating and got up.

"We've got to get going for now," Sasaki said. "It's nice to meet you two."

"Please excuse us," Mihama said.

As the two girls left, I realized that in a class full of Ultimates, the polite and serious child prodigy might not even be the strangest person around. If that was true, then getting everyone to get along seemed like quite a long shot, to say the least.

A few minutes later, Nagato and I were done with breakfast, and got up to leave. We took our trays and dishes to a nearby carousel-like machine, where they would be taken to the dish washer, and then left the restaurant.

On our way out, we saw a girl with long dark hair in a ponytail who was wearing what looked like an archer's training outfit- a white keiko-gi, a dark hakama and a gray obi. She was sitting across from a girl who had her dark hair in a bun, and was wearing a plain brown kimono and a white apron. Since Nagato and I were going to meet everyone sooner or later, we decided we might as well introduce ourselves now.

The archer apparently noticed us first, and leaned in to speak with her comanion.

"Here come some more of our classmates," the archer said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Remember, Kanae, treat me like anyone else, understood?"

"I understand, Himeno-sama," Kanae said.

The girl called Himeno facepalmed. It looked like Kanae had trouble following directions... or maybe she really did treat everyone with that level of formality.

"Sama?" I said.

Himeno let off a sigh, probably having hoped we hadn't heard her.

"I might as well explain things so you don't jump to a wrong conclusion. I'm Himeno Himemiya, the Ultimate Archer. She's Kanae Tsukimura, a childhood friend of mine who's the Ultimate Handmaiden."

"It's nice to meet you," Tsukimura said.

The name "Himemiya" was familiar in more ways than one. Not only had I heard about a girl who'd won multiple archery tournaments in her age group, and was the MVP of her team despite being the first year, but I'd also heard much about the Himemiya zaibtsu. They were an extremely wealthy family, in the same tier as the Togami group, and came from very old money.

"It's nice to meet you, Himemiya-san, Tsukimura-san," Nagato said "I'm Nagato, the Ultimate Tech Support, and this is Azuki-san, the Ultimate Actress."

"Yeah, same here," I said. "Pretty much anyone who knows that knows you're rich enough to have a maid, so were you trying to hide that?"

"Not at all," Himemiya said. "My hope was that since Kanae had earned her way into the school separately, on her own merits, we could have an equal relationship as classmates and fellow Ultimates."

"I appreciate the thought, Himeno-sama," Tsukimura said. "All the same, I cannot forget our past together or my upbringing. After all, it was because I was raised as your servant that I was able to earn this honor."

Out of all the students I'd met thus far, Tsukimura and Nagato were the only ones I hadn't heard about before, probably because their talents were the least impressive. Then again, I'd once read an article about a girl from my town who'd earned the title of Ultimate Secretary a year before I got into the school, and publicly thanked Talent High School for recognizing those who did exceptional work in unexceptional jobs.

"Fair enough, Kanae," Himemiya said, before looking at us. "That said, Azuki-san, Nagato-san, please treat us the same way you would any other member of the class. Kanae may be the daughter of a servant, and I may be the daughter of a wealthy man, but neither of our parentages should make any more difference than Nagato-san's."

I couldn't help but notice that my mom was left out. She was reasonably good at her job, but a lot of her colleagues said she only happened to get lucky enough to have an actor like me as her daughter, something they probably said because they were jealous of her. Then again, maybe Himemiya only mentioned Nagato's parents because Nagato's mom was our teacher.

"Thank you very much, Himemiya-san," Nagato said. "I'll do my best to treat you and Tsukimura-san just like everyone else."

"Sure thing, Himemiya," I said. "If everyone here is the best at something, I don't think it matters if you're an archer or Tsukimura's a servant."

Himemiya nodded.

"Just one more thing, Nagato-san," Himemiya said. "Do you call all of your schoolmates '-san'?"

"Yes, both boys and girls," Nagato said. "My mother was fairly strict about teaching me good manners, and I went to a respectable all-girls school, so I had to be polite with my schoolmates. I'm accustomed to showing this level of politeness to everyone I know."

Himemiya looked almost disappointed for a moment.

"I see," Himemiya said. "It's just a matter of curiosity. My family expected Kanae to practice good manners because she was a servant, and expected me to do the same to appear respectable and not embarrass our family. I suppose you've had the same sort of thing drilled into your head."

Nagato seemed a bit hurt by Himemiya's blunt assessment of her politeness. One of the unwritten rules about acting nice just to be polite to others is to pretend you don't know that the other person's doing the same thing.

"And what about me, Himemiya?" I said.

"You probably wouldn't last a day working as a servant for my family, Azuki-san," Himemiya said. "But you're honest, if nothing else. It might be worth getting to know you better, even if I may never have you over."

I chuckled. Himemiya was certainly blunt, but I could respect that. I then quickly checked my watch- a moderately expensive analog watch.

"Thanks," I said, "but we've got to be going. It's nice to meet you,"

"Same here," Nagato said.

We then exited the restaurant and started making our way back to our room. By my count, we'd met just over half our classmates, so I wondered what sort of people the remaining six- probably two girls and four boys- would be like.

Upon returning to the lobby, we saw two girls who were practically identical to each other, with shoulder-length dark hair in twintails. They had matching uniforms, with navy blue blazers, light gray skirts, white dress shirts and thin blue neck ribbons.

"Oh, hey there," I said. "Are you two in our class, too?"

"We are," the girl on the right said. "I guess it's hard to tell because apart from the two of us, we all have different uniforms."

The other girl nodded. Since Talent High School was highly exclusive, and few schools had sent more than one student to Talent High School in the 32 years the school had been running, the probability of two students coming to Talent High School from the same school in the same year was practically a million to one. Since Nagato probably knew that already, the four of us were most likely in agreement.

"That's right," I said. "I'm Azuki and this is Nagato."

"I'm Tatsuki Tachibana, the Ultimate Guitarist," the girl who'd spoken to us said. "Come on, Taiga, say hi to them."

"L...Like my sister said, I'm Taiga Tachibana, and I'm the Ultimate Songwriter," the second said.

"As you can see, Taiga's my little twin sister," Tachibana said. "I was born a few minutes before her."

"Got it, Tachibana," I said. "I think I've heard about you two before."

The Tachibana sisters were the force behind the music sensation known as Dragon Girl. While Tatsuki was the front man as one of the best solo performers in her age group, she often pointed out that she owed her success to her little sister Taiga, who wrote the songs that she performed. Taiga stayed out of the limelight, but pretty much any Dragon Girl fan worth their salt knew her name, as well as the fandom's slogan, "There's no Dragon without the Taiga!"

"You can use our first names if you'd like," Tatsuki said, "since if you call us 'Tachibana,' it might be a bit hard to tell whether you're talking to my sister or to me."

"I understand, Tatsuki-san," Nagato said. "I'll use your first names if I want to make it clear who I'm talking about. Otherwise, I'll just call you 'Tachibana-san'... assuming this is fine with Taiga-san, of course."

"It's all right, Nagato-san," Taiga said. "My sister and I talked to Nagato-sensei about this, and she agreed to do the same thing for us. Of course, she does get the two of us confused sometimes."

Tatsuki- by which I mean the other sister- nodded. The only reason I was sure it was her was because Taiga had spoken.

"I get that," I said. "Of course, it's still a bit odd that she calls you two by your first names while in class, but not her own daughter, even if I get why she's doing it."

"I think I understand where Nagato-sensei's coming from," Tatsuki said. "Our mom was our Composition teacher in middle school; she called us 'Tachibana-san' in class and expected to be called 'Tachibana-sensei' at school. Luckily for Mom, Taiga and I were in different classes the year we had her, so she didn't have to tell us apart."

"That's right, sis," Taiga said. "One day, we switched places and nobody noticed."

I couldn't help but chuckle, and Nagato followed suit. Of course, I also realized that I was having trouble telling the twins apart- I was only sure which was which when Tatsuki called Taiga by name, while Taiga referred to Tatsuki as "sis" or "my sister."

"But there is a way to tell us apart," Taiga said, as she untied her ribbon and unbuttoned her collar. "I have a birthmark on the side of my neck, one that my sister doesn't have."

I nodded, then made note of it. Of course, since it seemed to be covered by Taiga's collar, it would be hard to tell the twins apart while they were in uniform.

"I suppose that's enough for now," Tatsuki said, "since Taiga and I still need to get breakfast. It was nice meeting you, Azuki-san, Nagato-san."

"Same here, Tatsuki, Taiga," I said.

We then let the sisters head to the restaurant, while we continued on our way. We still had a fair amount of time to spare, but we couldn't spend too long chatting.

We returned to the elevator, and saw two boys step off of it. One had an unbuttoned dark gyakuran and matching pants, with a dress shirt that had its collar unbuttoned. The other had a neater black blazer and pants, white dress shirt and black and white necktie.

"I'm Shigeru Kojima, the Ultimate Game Designer," the guy in the loose uniform said.

Kojima was famous in the gaming community for making a hit indie RPG. Not only did it have excellent graphics for an amateur project, but it also had NPCs that acted surprisingly like real people, and multiple solutions to quests. Critics hailed it as a game that would set a new standard for RPGs, and judging from the sales and discussions, the consumers agreed.

"And I'm Hikaru Kurogane, the Ultimate Go Player," the other guy said. "It's nice to meet you two."

Kurogane was a famous go player who'd achieved professional status at a young age. As impressive as it was, I guess go players didn't have to worry about their strength, stamina, speed or looks declining as they got older. Still, he probably had to deal with his contemporaries looking down on him for being a "kid," but had succeeded in spite of that.

"I think I know who you two are," Kojima said. "Akira Azuki, the Ultimate Actress, right?"

"That's right," Nagato said, "and I'm Nagato, the Ultimate Tech Support. It's nice to meet you."

I couldn't help but look dismayed, and it must have shown up on my face, since Kurogane seemed a bit troubled. While most of the people we'd met thus far had heard of me, none of them were quite as forward as Kojima was.

"How did you know my name, Kojima?" I said.

"I'm a big fan!" Kojima said. "I've been following your work for so long. I really wanted to meet you- you look even more beautiful in person."

So he was one of "those" fans, who thought it was appropriate to say shit like that to someone he'd only just met, or to believe that love could blossom between two people who didn't know each other if one of them was famous. My mom had warned me about them, and given me advice for how to deal with them, especially considering that I wasn't allowed to date. I couldn't call security on Kojima, nor could I put much distance between us if we were going to be in the same class, but I could cut this conversation short.

"That's... nice," I said, in a tone that made it clear that I meant "really fucking creepy."

Kojima didn't get the hint, and simply smiled and nodded. I couldn't help but worry that he'd never get the hint... or about what he might do if he did.

"I've actually got to jet," I said, "since Nagato and I need to get our suitcases from our room. Let's go, Nagato."

Eager to get away from him, I quickly stepped past the two boys and into the elevator, but I knew it would only be a temporary escape. Nagato, probably sensing my desire to get the hell out of here, quickly followed me into the elevator, her body between mine and Kojima's. The moment she was inside, I reached for the elevator buttons.

"See you around," Kojima said, clearly knowing that he would.

"Don't mind Kojima-kun," Kurogane said. "He's just excited to finally meet you."

Letting off a sigh, I hit the button that would take us to our floor and watched the door close, cutting me off from Kojima... for now.

"Is something wrong, Azuki-san?" Nagato said, once the doors were fully shut. Now that the elevator was rising, taking us away from Kojima and creating a lot of noise, he couldn't possibly hear us.

"You could say that," I said. "One downside of being famous is you attract the attention of various asshats like Kojima... and that's just your fans. The haters are just as crazy, but aren't half as nice."

In hindsight, I was starting to appreciate Nagato a bit more. While she was clearly a fan of mine, she was far from a rabid fan. Sure, I was a bit disappointed that her favorite movie was Magical Girl Sakura, but at least she had respect for my boundaries. If anything, she was a bit too polite and considerate.

"I know," Nagato said. "Kurogane-san doesn't seem like a bad person, though."

I shrugged, noticing that Nagato hadn't disagreed with me. There was only one question on my mind- was she more afraid of getting into an argument with me or of speaking badly about Kojima?

"I guess not," I said, "not that he got much of a chance to speak."

"I'm sure we'll get to know him eventually," Nagato said. "After all, that is part of the purpose of this trip."

As the elevator reached its destination, I silently concurred, but couldn't help but wonder what we'd learn about him. As important as first impressions were, not everyone was as pleasant as they first seemed, so who could say that Kurogane wasn't a jerk?

We went back to our room to get our suitcases For a moment, Nagato seemed to struggle with the handle for hers.

"Something wrong, Nagato?" I said.

"It's my suitcase," Nagato said. "I'm not used to this model."

"Thought so," I said. "Then what sort of suitcase did you use when you packed to move in to the dorms? Mine's like this, but it's green."

Nagato paused for a moment.

"To tell you the truth," Nagato said, "I didn't actually pack a suitcase, since I wouldn't be living in the dorm. My mom and I live together, fairly close to the school, so we could just commute to Talent High School together. Mom and I don't really travel very much, so I'd need a new suitcase for this trip."

I nodded, then quickly looked around the room.

"Are you missing something else, Azuki-san?" Nagato said.

"A couple things," I said. "First, my cell phone. You do take one with you, don't you?"

"Actually, I don't," Nagato said. "Students weren't allowed to have cell phones at my old school."

"Well, that'd suck for me," I said. "My mom and employers occasionally text me stuff, and I can't read or respond to the texts if I don't have it. I mean, your job is about answering the phone, isn't it?"

Nagato shrugged.

"I guess," Nagato said, "although I would take calls at the office landline while at work. Anyway, what else are you missing?"

"Everything else in my pockets," I said. "My wallet's one thing, and it has my student ID- for my old school, since I don't think I got one for Talent High School. There's also the keys to my apartment, a bit of pocket change, and my pass for the subway, among other things."

"I don't have any of those, either," Nagato said. "I suppose I'll have to ask Nagato-sensei if she saw them."

I looked over the room, but to no avail. Realizing that I was almost out of time, I gave up.

"No dice," I said. "I guess if the hotel cleaning staff- if they even exist, that is- will return our missing belongings to us if they find them."

"I suppose so," Nagato said, her expression more worried than ever.

While I had a slew of unanswered questions at this point, we didn't have time to track down the contents of our pockets, let alone the answers to those questions. We then took our suitcases and left our room.

We returned to the elevator, and saw the last pair of students just outside. One boy, with short blond hair, wore a blue blazer-style uniform with a white dress shirt, blue and green striped tie and checkered trousers. The other had unkempt brown hair and wore a dark gyakuran. The two were standing together in an uncomfortable and awkward silence- clearly, not all the pairings for roommates had been chosen very well.

"Hi, I don't believe we've met," I said. "I'm Akira Azuki, the Ultimate Actress, and this is Chiyuri Nagato, the Ultimate Tech Support."

The gyakuran-wearing boy glared. I thought it was aimed at me, but on closer inspection, he was actually looking at Nagato.

"Is something wrong, sir?" Nagato said.

The blazer-wearing boy chuckled nervously, at which point the gyakuran-wearing boy shot him a dirty look.

"Oh, don't mind him. I'm Satoshi Karita, the Ultimate Con Artist, and this is..."

The gyakuran-wearing boy finally spoke.

"I'm Yuichi Asakura... and I believe I'm the Ultimate Tech Support."

Nagato turned white as a sheet, her mouth gaping wide open. I had to admit that I'd never expected this to happen, not when, out of all the various other high school age actors who were in my age group or older than me, I was the only one who'd received an Ultimate title.

"Was there a mix-up or something?" I said. "I thought Talent High School gave out only one of each title."

"Some titles do get reused," Nagato, having partially regained her composure, said, "if, for example, they find someone whose ability in a field surpassed that of the original title holder."

"That's right," Asakura said, "but never in the history of the school has there been two people with the same title in the same class. There's usually, at minimum, five years between when a person first gets a title and they find someone 'superior'."

I'd heard about what Nagato and Asakura had been discussing. Schools like Hope's Peak Academy and Talent High School sought to find the most talented individual in any generation, meaning that not only did those who were "good" or even "great" at what they did not make the cut, but neither did many prodigies in the area. Some people thought that Talent High School had somewhat lower standards than Hope's Peak, which was why the former tried to recruit me, while the latter did not. None of this, however, explained why Asakura and Nagato had the same title.

"What are you saying?" I said.

"I'm saying one of us is a fake," Asakura said, "and if you don't realize something's suspicious about a Talent High School teacher's daughter getting in with the same talent as someone else, you're clearly too stupid to understand what I'm talking about."

Karita let off a derisive chuckle.

"So you don't explain things to people who are less intelligent than you?" Karita said. "Even if there aren't that many such people out there, that's not exactly an attitude becoming the Ultimate Tech Support."

"Shut your mouth, Karita," Asakura said. "Unlike you, unintelligent people aren't possible cash cows, but a pain in the ass. I don't want to deal with you or those two jokers any longer, so I'm out of here."

Asakura quickly stormed off, heading for the stairs.

"What a prick," I said, once he was out of earshot.

Nagato laughed out loud, while Karita had an amused smile on his face. It wasn't surprising that neither of them could stand them, but it didn't quite mesh with the initial impression that I had of them.

"You said it," Karita said. "He practically blew his stack when he found out that I was the Ultimate Con Artist, saying people like me would ruin the school's- and more importantly, his reputation. He certainly has his priorities straight."

Considering Karita's talent, I didn't know if this anecdote was a lie, but it definitely sounded like something Asakura would say... at least based on my first impression of him. I had to admit I didn't know the entire story, but if Asakura gave a first impression that was this shitty, he probably wouldn't do anything that'd improve my opinion of him.

"Anyway, Karita," I said. "What's this about you being the Ultimate Con Artist?"

"Exactly what it says," Karita said with a smile. "I'm the best there is when it comes to scamming people."

"Really?" Nagato said. "No disrespect, Karita-san, but I have not heard about you before."

I nodded, but knew that Karita wasn't the only one whose talent wasn't well-known. The same went for Nagato and Asakura, as well as Tsukimura, probably because their talents were among the more humble Ultimate talents, so Karita's obscurity wasn't all that unusual.

"It'd be odd if you had, Nagato-san," Karita said. "Con artists aren't supposed to get caught."

"But apparently, you did anyway," I said.

Karita nodded, with a grin on his face, seemingly not at all embarrassed about his failure.

"I impersonated an 'intern' for Talent High School," Karita said, "and tried to sell people bogus information on how to get into the Main Course without having a talent, but one of the school staff, posing as the mom of an aspiring student, saw through me."

"I'm not surprised," Nagato said. "Talent High School doesn't offer internships to high schoolers. You should have known better, as should the people you tried to scam."

Karita nodded.

"Yep," Karita said. "Still, she was impressed with my skill, and offered me a deal- If I went to the school, she wouldn't turn me over to the police. I accepted in a flash."

"Who wouldn't?" I said. "I'd think that it'd be an easy choice- go to one of the nation's best high schools for two years, or spend who knows how long in juvenile hall."

I didn't know how long Karita would get for his scams- it'd probably depend on how bad his crimes were, but maybe Mihama could guess- but if he was found out, his life would be ruined.

"True," Karita said. "You could say this was my goal in life. After impersonating an employee of Talent High School, I actually got to go there as a student."

Karita looked at his watch, which looked a lot more expensive than those that most high schoolers wore.

"I've got to go," Karita said, "since it's almost time for the meeting and I need to track down Asakura-kun. I'll see you later, Azuki-san, Nagato-san."

"Later," I said, and Nagato followed suit.

Karita set off for the stairs, while Nagato and I boarded the elevator and rode it down.

We'd met the last of our classmates, but this meeting only raised more questions. Since Talent High School was apparently negligent enough to admit two people with the same talent, and amoral enough to admit a criminal, I had to wonder- what was I getting into? What kind of school would make those irresponsible choices? And did Nagato and her mother know something I didn't? One way or another, I'd have to solve all these mysteries sooner or later.

Inside the elevator, I took a look at my student handbook again while the encounter with Asakura was fresh in my mind. The number of available profiles had risen from three to seventeen, but the first one I checked was one of the first ones I'd gotten- namely, Nagato's. Taking a glance at Nagato's talent, realized that she hadn't been lying about being the Ultimate Tech Support. Unfortunately, neither had Asakura, since his showed "Ultimate Tech Support," too.

"Is something wrong, Azuki-san?" Nagato said.

"Not really," I said. "I was hoping to prove that Asakura was full of shit, but it looks like he really is the Ultimate Tech Support... well, the other one."

"It seems so," Nagato said. "You sound disappointed, though. Did you think I was the real Ultimate Tech Support and he was the pretender?"

I nodded.

"I guess," I said. "Well, it's probably because I met you first or because you seem more likable than that asshole, but I certainly want to believe you."

"Thank you," Nagato said. "Few people trust me so readily, so I'm grateful for your kind words."

As the elevator reached the ground floor and the doors opened, I wondered why people wouldn't believe Nagato. Perhaps that was an answer she didn't trust me with just yet, so I decided to put the question aside for now. She'd tell me when she was ready if she trusted me enough, and in the meantime, I'd focus on the more pressing matters at hand.

We soon reached a lobby, and within a few minutes, all sixteen students and our teacher were together. All of us had our suitcases with us, and some of us had other belongings that were related to our talents.

"Good, it seems you're all here," Nagato-sensei said. "We'll be setting out fairly soon."

"Sensei, what about our room keys?" Nagato said. "I don't see anyone at the front desk."

"Neither do I, Nagato-san," Nagato-sensei said. "Please pass them to me and I can drop them off."

We handed Nagato-sensei our room keys, but she didn't seem to understand the situation any better than we did. There didn't seem to be any conceivable reason for a hotel that was still in business to be practically empty, much less during Spring Break. Of course, while I was scared shitless, I realized that worrying wouldn't do any good at this point, since if this was a trap, we were already stuck in it.

"There's something that's bothering me," Kurogane said. "Does anyone else only have a vague idea of how they got here?"

Tatsuki(I think it was her) nodded. Both she and her sister had their suitcases, but Tatsuki was also carrying a guitar case, and the sister with the guitar was the one who spoke next.

"My sister and I do too, Kurogane-kun," Tatsuki said. "The last clear memory we have is of packing at home."

"The same goes for me," Tsukimura-san said. "I was told to help Himeno-sama pack her bags, as well as my own."

"So you don't really remember, either?" I said. "I'm not sure how it's possible for us to forget what happened last night without a lot of alcohol being involved."

"Sensei almost never drinks," Nagato said. "Besides, she'd know better than to serve alcohol to students."

"And I am far too young to drink," Mihama said. "There are perhaps some countries that would tolerate teenagers having alcohol, but all of us, save Nagato-sensei, are below the minimum age of 20."

Nagato-sensei nodded. My comment was only really intended as a joke, since none of us seemed hung over at all. In all seriousness, though, I didn't have any good guesses about why we'd all forgotten arriving at the hotel, since no technology that I knew of had the potential to erase or rewrite memories.

"Speaking of which, Nagato-sensei," Sasaki said, "do you or Chiyuri-chan... er, Chiyuri-san happen to be missing your cell phones, keys and other belongings, too?"

"Unfortunately, Sasaki-san, I am," Nagato-sensei said. "Please raise your hands if you still have any belongings apart from your clothes or your luggage."

"I have my bow and arrows," Himemiya said, "but I do not have anything besides that, my suitcase and my student handbook. Neither does Kanae."

"Taiga and I don't, either," Tatsuki said. "I do have my guitar, though."

As others chimed in to agree, Nagato-sensei furrowed her brow.

"Um, aren't you the chaperone in charge of this?" Asakura said. "Shouldn't you have some idea of what's going on?"

Nagato shot Asakura a dirty look. She seemed at least somewhat willing to put up with his abuse (or at least not complain about it to his face), but disrespecting her mom and our teacher was another story. That said, I found Asakura's question at least somewhat reasonable.

"I should, Asakura-san," Nagato-sensei said, "but like the rest of you, I only woke up with what I had in my room. While I am still unsettled about this development, we do appear to have a pressing appointment at the port."

The others nodded. Our teacher had given an order, and we had to follow it. If anything, there didn't seem to be any point sticking around here.

"What about the tickets?" Yamazaki said.

"They should be loaded onto your e-handbooks," Nagato-sensei said. "I assume that's right, Nagato-san?"

As Nagato replied with a "Yes, ma'am," I checked my e-handbook and found the ticket.

"Does anyone else have any questions?" Nagato-sensei said.

No one answered.

"Good," Nagato-sensei said. "I'm sure some of you may be a bit confused, but I am looking forward to enjoying this class trip together with you all."

I agreed. While I still had some unanswered questions, I did still remember having the trip with everyone else. Perhaps if we headed to the ship, we'd have a pleasant voyage together, or at least understand what was going on.

We then walked out the front door of the hotel, through the streets and to the port, which was only a couple blocks away. We looked at the street signs on our way, but while they helped guide us to the port, they didn't give us any clue as to which Japanese port city we were in.

The city was as deserted as the hotel had been. While we saw cars parked around the city, no one was actually driving any. At the port, we saw that no one else was there- not people boarding or leaving ships, not dockworkers or sailors. An abandoned hotel was unsettling enough, but an abandoned city made me wonder if we'd slept through the apocalypse.

Of course, even if everyone in the city had fled or died, the city seemed remarkably clean and orderly. The buildings were still well-kept, not having fallen into disrepair or been reclaimed by nature. There wasn't any trash on the streets, and the only cars around were properly parked. Even well-populated cities weren't this pristine, since there were several people making messes for every person who worked to clean them up.

We eventually reached the port, which was just as abandoned as the surrounding city. Only one ship was docked there- our cruise liner, the Ursa Major- and it was pointed so that it was facing the sea, ready to depart at a moment's notice. I couldn't accurately measure the size of the ship, but it was much larger than one would expect for 17 people. A gangplank, which extended and retracted, connected a door on the ship's starboard side to the dock. The seventeen of us climbed onto it, single-file, with Nagato-sensei leading us, and boarded the ship. No one was there to check our tickets, but that wasn't too surprising by now.

Once we were all aboard, we took a look around and saw two doors that looked like elevators to our left and right, as well as another exit to the ship just past us. Security cameras were in place all over the ship, and there were monitors connected to speakers. It seemed as though the latter was common enough that no matter where you went on the ship, you'd be in earshot of one.

Almost immediately, the monitor came on, and displayed a "SOUND ONLY" message on the screen. The voice coming through vaguely sounded like a cartoon character.

"All passengers, please report to the deck of the ship," the announcer said. "Your captain has a beary important announcement for you all."

The monitor then shut off.

"Who was that?" Nagato-sensei said. "I do not recall speaking to that person at any point."

"I can only guess," Mihama said. "Judging from the fact that they appear to know where we are, we can infer that they can access the cameras."

"In other words, they'll know if we try to make a run for it," Karita said. "We might as well do as they say."

We continued walking, and as we did, the feeling of unease within me changed to dread. Before, I'd worried that I'd never find out what was going on, and now, I was afraid that I wouldn't like the answers to my questions.

We proceeded through a hallway on the port side, to the rear of the ship and climbed the stairs, at which point we found ourselves in the dining hall, a decently sized area that would be able to seat all of us. In addition to the stairs going down to where we'd boarded the ship, there was a set of stairs going up to the bridge. We then walked out the front door and found ourselves on the deck of the ship.

The deck was a large open space with a pool that had a good view of the surrounding ocean. Apparently, the Ursa Major had already started to pull away from the dock, as we could see it slowly starting to fade into the distance.

"Wait, we're already leaving?" Kurogane said.

"That's right, Kurogane-san!" the voice from earlier said. "We're on a tight schedule here, and we've waited long enough for all of you to arrive."

A black and white bear, one that was even shorter than Mihama, popped up. He seemed to be some sort of animatronic or robot, but the way he moved and acted was far too lifelike to be possible under current technology.

"Greetings, students!" the bear said. "I am Monokuma, and from this moment forth, I am your captain!"

Monokuma looked at the sixteen of us, all frozen in surprise, until his gaze fell on Nagato-sensei.

"Wait just one minute," Monokuma said. "What are you doing here?"

So Monokuma couldn't just speak, but could also think. His greeting just now and the announcement could have been pre-recorded, but even if he'd anticipated Kurogane's comment, he'd addressed Kurogane by name. Nagato-sensei's presence most likely wasn't on whatever script he had, and neither was anything he'd say in response to Nagato-sensei.

"Are you referring to me?" Nagato-sensei said. "I'm the teacher and chaperone for this class. You can't have a class without a teacher, can you?"

"Not anymore!" Monokuma said. "I don't know if you got the memo, but this isn't a plain old school trip anymore. It's a killing school trip, and from this moment forth, I'm in charge of your students! Monodrones, please show Nagato-sensei to her room."

A helicopter-like drone, half black and half white, flew out. It then fired what looked like a tazer at Nagato-sensei, sending electricity coursing through her. Nagato-sensei collapsed onto the ground, and as she did, a centipede-like robot seized Nagato-sensei on its back and bounded away to the stairs near the bow, which led below decks.

"MOM!" Nagato said, as she whirled around to face the centipede. She started to move, until she heard Monokuma's voice.

"Not so fast, Nagato-san," Monokuma said. "I wouldn't go after your mother if I were you."

"Why not?" Nagato said.

"Because I said so!" Monokuma said, giving his best impression of a exasperated parent. "And because if you don't follow the rules, I'm gonna have to punish you... which means being executed."

We looked up and saw that several other flying Monodrones were in the air. In addition to the tazers that one had used to incapacitate Nagato-sensei, I could see Gatling guns that would likely see use if Monokuma had no interest in taking someone alive.

"We should do as Monokuma says for now, Nagato-kun," Kirishima said. "While he is clearly untrustworthy, if you openly defy him, you will die a senseless death."

Nagato's shoulders slumped, and I laid a hand on her left shoulder. While we'd only just met, I could sympathize with her anguish and worry over her mother, but at the same time, I had no desire to see her die.

"Good girl," Monokuma said. "Anyway, Nagato-san, you and your mother won't have anything to worry about from me as long as the two of you follow my rules."

I furrowed my brow skeptically, and I wasn't the only one- even the seemingly less intelligent members of this group didn't seem fooled for a moment. Monokuma's "from me" was a loophole large enough for this ship to sail through, so clearly, harm would come from other sources.

"Now, the basics of the killing school trip are as follows," Monokuma said. "The sixteen of you, plus our captive, will be in this ship together, cruising the high seas. Every so often, we'll stop at an island for a couple days, since it'll get boring if you lot are stuck on the ship all the time."

"When do we get to go home?" Kojima said.

"You don't!" Monokuma said. "You're on this trip until you graduate. I'll only let you do so on one condition- kill someone and get away with it."

The class was silent for a moment. While we'd suspected from the moment we woke up in an all but empty hotel that this was no ordinary trip, we- or at least I- still wanted to believe that Monokuma was playing a joke on us. Like Nagato had said, school violence was both extremely shocking and something most of us assumed was other people's problems, so being trapped on a ship and told to kill each other didn't seem real.

"Kill someone?!" Higurashi said. "No civilized society would allow a 'game' like this."

"Indeed, Higurashi-san," Mihama said, "but it would seem that Monokuma does not respect the law or our human rights."

"You have the right of it, Mihama-san," Monokuma said. "As long as you're on the cruise, you play by my rules, and you only get out by winning my game."

No one else spoke up, even though we weren't any happier after hearing Monokuma's explanation. That was pretty disturbing in and of itself, since once our disbelief, horror and outrage faded, some of us would find a way to play the game. This was seemingly only confirmed when Yamazaki spoke up.

"What do you mean 'get away with it'?" Yamazaki said.

"It's simple," Monokuma said. "After someone commits a murder, there'll be a short period of investigation to find out whodunnit. Then we'll hold a class trial, in which you bastards talk it out and decide who the blackened who disturbed the peace is. If you vote correctly, only the blackened will be executed, and you all get to live... for now. If you don't get it right, the blackened gets to graduate and leave this cruise... and the rest of you get executed."

Everyone paled, and the only sounds that could be heard were the wind and the waves. Being forced to kill each other was bad enough, but this punishment was downright nightmarish. The moment someone committed murder, everyone else's lives would hang in the balance, and we could only survive by sacrificing the murderer. Maybe not all of us were sociopathic enough to let everyone else die to save their own asses, but I knew that if one person was ruthless enough to kill someone and competent enough not to fuck it up, we were in deep, deep shit.

"Even Mom?" Nagato said.

"Of course!" Monokuma said. "Like she said, the teacher's part of the class. If the spotless fail to convict the blackened, then Nagato-sensei will have to share their punishment."

So there was one silver lining to this very large dark cloud. If Nagato had any love for her mother, then she'd hesitate to kill anyone, and if the Tachibana sisters loved each other, then they wouldn't try to graduate as long as they were both alive. Of course, that was a big "if," to say nothing of our twelve classmates who didn't have any family here. Even if Himemiya and her servant-slash-childhood friend Tsukimura don't count, that's still more than enough possible killers to get the killing game going.

"And that wraps up the information," Monokuma said. "All the rules to this game are in your student handbooks, as is the itinerary for our trip, and I'll hand out the cabin keys now. Each of you are gonna share your cabin with one other person, so play nice."

Monokuma went to each of us and gave each of us envelopes with our names on them. Inside the envelope was a small key to our cabin.

"Hold on, Monokuma," Tatsuki said. "You just gave me Taiga's key."

"That's right, sis," Taiga said. "I got your key, too."

"Whoops!" Monokuma said. "Not that it matters, really- you'll be sharing a room, so you got the same key, anyway."

I got out my key, which had "F-4" on it, and turned to Nagato, who'd gotten a matching card. I wasn't thrilled about sharing my room with someone who could murder me, but at least Nagato was the safest bet around.

"One more thing," Monokuma said. "One member of this class is a traitor. They knew things were going to turn out like this before the trip even began, and let it happen anyway. Since you're gonna have to kill someone to get out of here, it might as well be the person who got you here, right?"

"And who's that?" Asakura said.

"Not telling!" Monokuma said. "That'd kill the fun. It could be any one of you, after all. I'll give you a hint, though- if you have to kill someone to graduate, it might as well be the one responsible for your winding up here, right?"

We looked around suspiciously. The only reason I had to rule out the possibility that someone would snap and try to murder the traitor was that there was no evidence that could indicate that anyone was the traitor. Of course, not only was the traitor free to plot against us, but perhaps someone was irrational enough to not bother waiting for evidence.

"And that concludes my explanation," Monokuma said. "Any questions?"

"Wh...Why?" Nagato said. "Why are you doing this to us?"

"Don't look so down, Nagato-san," Monokuma said. "This trip is supposed to be educational, after all! I hope- no, wait, bad choice of word- eagerly anticipate that if you survive long enough, you might just learn to enjoy the killing game and all the wonderful feelings of despair it brings! Later!"

Monokuma then left without another word, leaving us to stand there in silence for a moment, looking at one another. For now, we all seemed horrified enough by the prospect of killing that none of us were willing to draw first blood, but how long would this peace last? A week? A day? Or would the first murder be committed by the time the sun set?

The harsh truth was that I was surrounded by people who knew as little about me as I did about them, and were just as desperate to escape as I was, if not more. How long would this killing game last? Who would die first? Which seemingly trustworthy person would be the first to betray us? And how many would still be around at the end of it? While I strongly doubted that I'd like any of the answers to the questions, I couldn't avoid thinking about them.

I glanced over the side of the ship, and saw that the ship was already far enough out at sea that we couldn't swim back, not to mention the fact that there were amphibious Monodrones in the ocean that would intercept us if we tried to escape. Even if we could make it back, all that awaited us were an empty city that lacked any means of contacting the outside world. We were trapped on Monokuma's cruise, where the only way to go was forward, toward a life and death struggle that would pit classmate against classmate, family against family. With that, our killing school trip began...

End of Prologue

Class Members Remaining: 17

Author's Notes

This is the sequel to Where Talent Goes To Die, starring Class 32 of Talent High School. You may recall some of the students were mentioned in passing at various points of the original fic and its Side Stories- for example, Hikaru Kurogane is Shiro Kurogane's cousin, while Sasaki wrote the manga that Edogawa and Miura read in Chapter II- but how this fic ties in to the first one will be revealed in time.

Akira Azuki is meant to contrast with the previous protagonist, Kaori Miura, in some ways. While Miura is generally polite, good-natured and a bit girly, Azuki is often vulgar, rude and highly tomboyish. While Miura has the pseudo-talent of Beginner's Luck, Azuki has the highly sought-after talent of being an actress. While Miura(a lesbian) gradually falls in love with her favorite author, Sae Edogawa, Azuki(a heterosexual) is the subject of Kojima's largely unwanted attention. There are other ways they contrast, but these are the most apparent one. She's also meant to be a protagonist who takes pride in her talent, like Kaede but unlike Shuichi.

If you're familiar with Where Talent Goes To Die, you may notice that some students don't actually possess talents, and only got in based on family connections. I won't reveal who it is this time, but here's a hint- contrary to what Asakura thinks, Chiyuri didn't get in because of her mother's influence.

If you played the second Danganronpa game, you may recall that the students only seemed mildly suspicious until Monokuma showed up. I decided to have this class wonder what's going on, but not realize it until it's too late to do anything (although the point at which it's too late to do anything may be earlier than you think).

In this fic, as Monokuma says, there is a traitor in the group, and while there are more clues to come, there are already a few possible suspects. Someone is also controlling Monokuma, but the only hint at this point is that the mastermind is not Junko or her AI.

I'll soon post Side Stories for this fic, including Class 32's Free Time Events. Updates may be a bit slow at first, since while the first half of Chapter I is mostly written up, and I have the latter half planned out, I have more work to do when it comes to the murder, the investigation and the trial.

Like the previous installment, this will start with a T rating, but go up to M after the first execution.

What follows is Azuki's profile

Akira Azuki

Talent: Ultimate Actress

Birthday: March 15 (Pisces)

Height: 170 cm (5'7")

Likes: Shakespeare

Dislikes: Crazy fans.

Hobby: Watching movies