Chapter 1: Welcome to Despair University

Hello, my name is Yoriie Handa, and I'm just your average high school graduate. I have a normal background, your average family, and, as far as I can remember, nothing in particular about me stands out from anyone else in a crowd... I guess I'm just another "average joe". Needless to say, a guy like me has no particular plan for my life. Where do I go after graduation? Sure, I guessed I should go to college, but I had no idea where to go. That is, until I got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity... A letter arrived in the mail addressed to me from the famous Hope's Peak University! How could this be? Hope's Peak University is a school that you can't just apply for like most colleges. The only way you can get in is by invitation... but this doesn't make sense! They only send invitations to the best of the best! High school graduates with ultimate talents unmatched by any other are the only ones who get invited! So why me? I don't excel in any areas or have any special talent... and all my grades are lackluster. Why would someone like me be invited to a place like that? Is it some sort of practical joke? Am I gonna show up just to be teased and made fun of? Or is there something the university truly sees in me that I don't? Whatever the case, this is too big of a chance... I finally have an opportunity and I have to seize it now! This is my chance! My chance to make it big! E-even if I don't have any particular dream to follow, I'll build one on my experiences with this school! It's time to turn everything around and make something of myself!

Several days passed and it was finally time! I threw on my favorite outfit: a black light jacket, unzipped with a dark grey T-shirt underneath, a pair of black jeans and matching tennis shoes. I never particularly cared about my jet-black hair and so I just let it sit on my head however it wanted, in most cases just a messy heap on my head. I ran downstairs and met with my family... this would be the last time I see them before I go out to live on my own at the university... my parents could never have been more proud of me and I could finally have a real reason to be an idol for my little 12 year-old brother, Yasujiro, and 9 year-old sister, Kaneko. Even I felt proud of this and I wasn't even sure if I deserved it... I didn't work at all to get this... But I could only take it as a second chance to fix the academic mistakes I've made in the past. After a heart-felt goodbye and my mother forcing me to pat down my hair a little, I took the suitcases I had packed the previous night and left with the promise I'd be back for Christmas.

Now, there I was. Standing before the building I had never even imagined myself coming this close to, nonetheless actually being able to enter: The main building at the center of the campus. I was instructed to arrive here at 9:30 and it was currently 9:13 so I still had plenty of time, which is a great start for me. I'm usually running late but it seems this time I was early for once! Despite this, I couldn't help but feel an awful pit in my stomach. I've never been this nervous in my life... What if there really was a mistake? What if I'm really not meant to be here? What if they just turn me around and send me back home? ...No. I wouldn't let myself lose my confidence already. I was here for a reason, surely! Maybe I didn't know what that is but they don't just hand those invitations out to anyone! With that in my mind, I swallowed my anxiety and push the doors of the building open! This was it! Welcome to my new life! But, as I step inside, the pit in my stomach only grew worse. What was this feeling? My vision began to blur, everything I see just turning into vague shapes and distorting into an unrecognizable swirl of colors and then... black...

I slowly awakened in a fairly soft bed. It wasn't much compared to what I was used to at home, but it was still comfortable enough to be relaxing... After a few moments passed I began to come to my senses and tried to get my bearings. I slowly stood up and looked around the room, it looked like an average college dorm room, but something about it just felt... wrong. I had this strange feeling that there was something, somewhere that I should've been afraid of... it's that same sort of feeling whenever you're watching a horror movie and expect something to jump out at you. Why was I here? Did someone bring me here when I passed out? I felt like I was being watched and, sure enough, as I looked up into the top-left corner of the room, opposite of the door, there was what looked to be a giant yellow security camera. It wasn't even subtle at all! This thing is excessively large for a security camera and its yellow collor made a clear contrast to the dark blue wall! It's as if someone wanted me to know I was being watched... at all times... But why was it here? Isn't there some sort of government regulation that should make this illegal? Next to the camera, there wass a window with sunlight seeping through, telling me it's still in the middle of the day, at least. I must not have been out for too long. I walked over to the window and peeked through the blinds, but what I saw put me in absolute shock! The campus looked it normal, beautifully kept self with green grass, pathways, roads and flowers and picket fences lining them... but in the distance is what was so horrifying... the horizon was completely blocked by what looked to be a giant metal wall!

"Wh-what the hell!?" I found myself gasping out aloud as I drew back in dismay. H-how long was I out? Who had the time to build that wall!? I had to have been unconscious for a lot longer than I had initially thought, there's no way that wall was built in a matter of a few hours and I definitely would have remembered something like that on my way in! But why? Why is there a wall there? Why would someone go out of their way to build a wall like this around a school...! Was there some sort of war or terrorist threat? My first instinct was to call my family... no doubt whatever would warrant this was big enough to be all over the media and my family would be horribly worried about me... but as I reached into my pocket, I found that, to my horror, my phone was missing! As a matter of fact, everything in my pockets was gone! My keys, wallet, everything! Just... what the hell was going on here!? I took a deep breath to try and calm my nerves... there has to be a reasonable explanation for all this... I had no idea what, but obviously something big had to have happened while I was unconscious... big enough to seriously crack down on security. This would also explain the camera, too. I hesitantly made my way toward the door, part of me expecting it to be locked for some reason, but when I tried the knob, it opened easily. I didn't know what was going on and I wasn't sure if I wanted to... but I swallowed my fear and stepped through the door, not sure of what to expect.

To be continued...