Danganronpa: Reality Check
Today was the day. Standing before the iron gates of the prestigious Hope's Peak High, a young man named Brandon looked up at the towering building before him. The boy was only about sixteen years old, and he tugged on his red scarf nervously, hoping the coziness of the fabric would bring him some comfort. It wasn't like he hadn't ever been to school before, but this school was different. When he had received the letter in the mail, congratulating him on acceptance to a program he hadn't even applied to, he and his family could hardly contain their shock.
"Congratulations. You have been selected as a member of Hope's Peak High's 78th Class as the Ultimate Lucky Student."
Ultimate Lucky Student? Apparently, Hope's Peak Academy was a prestigious school in Japan where promising young students from around the country enrolled to guarantee themselves success in the outside world. Recently, America had opened its own branch of the school, and they were carrying Hope's Peak's tradition overseas. As Japan prepared to open it's own 77th class, the 78th class – America's class – was busy scouting potential candidates for the school. And he, of all people, had won the lottery prize. The letter went on to say how in it's devotion to studying everything, Hope's Peak High wished to study luck as well, so they had entered all of the high schoolers in America into a lottery system…and Brandon's name had come out.
It was said that Hope's Peak guaranteed success for anyone who attended. Each year, it sent the cream of the crop into the workforce. There were two requirements to attend this school: one, you had to already be in high school, and two, you had to be the very best in your chosen field. For Brandon, the second rule didn't really apply, but before coming to the school, he had spent a long time online looking up the rumored students who might potentially make up the rest of the 78th class.
Hope's Peak High – and it's graduates – were so popular that there were entire online threads and forums devoted to discussing their talents and accomplishments. There was the Ultimate Gamer, who had won over one-hundred online and in-person gaming tournaments and had beaten the world's most difficult games on their hardest difficulties several times over (even finding all the hidden Easter Eggs). There was the Ultimate Engineer, who had worked on changes to the Space Station at the young age of sixteen. There were even talents like the Ultimate Koreaboo, who lived life as a walking posterchild for the world of K-Pop in America, bringing cultural fusion to the West. Each of these students, in their own rights, were absolutely…ultimate. And well, in comparison to them, Brandon felt pretty pale.
Standing before the gates, he realized he was a little early. The letter had said to meet in the school's front hall at 8:00 AM today…but it was still 7:10. He had a fully fifty minutes before the others would probably show up. Honestly, he had nothing better to do, and had got to the school super early. But knowing the others and their superior talents, they would probably be held up by their busy lives, and show up exactly at 8:00. But, he decided it would be better to wait inside than outside, so tentatively, and feeling utterly normal, Brandon stepped inside the school.
It hadn't occurred to him until now that he hadn't seen anyone. His mother had dropped him off at the school's front steps, tears of joy and gratefulness in her eyes the whole time. But as she peeled away, Brandon realized how alone he was. No one patrolled the grounds. It was still summer, though, and the meeting to take place between the scouted students of the 78th class was happening a week before classes began. It was more like a preliminary meeting where they would take a tour of the school and get to know one another. But, he couldn't help but feel that at least someone should be around. Maybe a groundskeeper, a teacher or two preparing for the first week…but no one was there. Deciding to blame it on his ultimate earliness, Brandon sighed and took note of the things in the front hall.
The floors were spotless, black and white tile gleaming with a shine of perfection. A clock hung on the wall, ticking down the seconds. A few wooden pedestals ran from floor to ceiling, making the front hall look pretty elegant. Time passed slowly, and Brandon decided he might as well explore the school while he had the time.
All of a sudden, he felt sick. The room seemed as if it were spinning.
H-huh…w-what…what's going on? But he couldn't voice the questions swimming in his brain. With a lurch, he felt himself falling, the world started to spiral out of control…and then everything went black.
"H-huh…?"
Brandon awoke with his head on a desk, the dull sensation of pain easing away from the back of his mind. He felt groggy, as if he hadn't sleep in days or had been asleep for a whole year. With a rise, he stood up, slowly gaining his bearings.
"Where…am I?"
He was in a classroom, he realized. The desk he had been in was at the back of just one row of many rows facing a huge black chalkboard. In front of the chalkboard was a teacher's desk, and…the windows. The windows were covered with huge metal sheets, bolted down with the largest bolts Brandon had ever seen. With a start, he made for the windows, brushing a piece of paper off of his desk – no, not his desk, the desk – and onto the floor.
"W-what's…this?"
He bent down and picked it up. The writing was messy, written in crayon, as if a third-grader had scribbled it out. It was entitled "Orientation Info". There wasn't much to it. It merely detailed how the body of Class 78 was to meet in the front hall at 8:00 AM for orientation, much like the letter he had received at home said. He looked up at the clock hung over the teacher's desk. 7:55. He had five minutes to get to the main hall from wherever he was. For the moment, he forgot about those odd metal sheets and approached the door of the classroom cautiously. This was all so very strange. Giving the knob a twist, he found it lead out into a hallway.
He took one look back at the classroom and then stepped out into the hall.
Directly ahead was a set of red double doors, and they gave an ominous feeling that made Brandon want to ignore them for now. Moving past those, he found a yellow door with a radio icon on it, labeled "AV Room". That didn't seem like the main hall, so he ignored that door too, for now. Moving down the hall, he came to a square opening with a door on the left, a door on the right, and then the rest of the hall continuing onward from where he stood.
The door on the right read "School Store"…but the one on the left, that one read "Main Hall". Seeing as that was where he was supposed to go, according to both the letter and the strange note in the classroom…Brandon stepped inside…
And found fourteen other very confused teenagers.
"Huh!?" The immediate shock of seeing all the faces at once frightened the "lucky" student. They were all so…different. He noticed immediately that the amount of guys outweighed the amount of girls, but his thoughts on that quickly subsided as the students began speaking. He couldn't help but also notice the same metal sheets he had seen in the classroom boarded all the windows here...and a HUGE circular metal door sealed the front entrance.
"Look!" cried a short girl with wide blue eyes. She had pink highlights in her otherwise short hair which was pinned back with an adorable, bunny hairclip. She wore a pink tank top and white shorts, with pink and white sneakers on her feet. "Another one!"
"Fifteen…" said a boy in a white lab coat with glasses. "Yes…a good, solid number. Perhaps he is the last."
"Maybe," said another kid with a shrug. He had thick black-framed glasses and was shorter, wearing a jean jacket and torn black pants. "Maybe not. Can any of us really say that with certainty, given our situation?"
"S-situation…?" Brandon asked, speaking up for the first time since entering the room.
"You awoke in the school, no?" asked a girl with red hair and a pair of safety goggles propped up on her head. "Like the rest of us did. One moment, we were walking into the front of the school for the first time…"
"…and the next," said a boy wearing his hat backwards and a shirt that read "TWICE" on it. "Blamo! We wake up from a long winter's nap in a stuffy, stupid classroom!"
"And with a note to come here, no less," said the boy in the lab coat. "With these metal windows and doors...and those, things," he pointed up at two security cameras, both outfitted with gatling guns. "None of us have touched the door...in fear of those things, but we believe this to be some sort of test...for orientation. What do you think?"
Brandon wasn't sure what to think. Each of these kids…they…they had to be the other students of Class 78. The Ultimates.
"Y-yeah," he said at last. "The same thing…happened to me. I came here, walked inside…and then, black. I woke up in a classroom a little while ago, and found a note telling me to come here."
"So it seems the pattern holds up," said the boy in the white lab coat.
"Maybe he really is the last one," said a girl in a performance dress. She had curly brown hair that went down past her shoulders and a pretty, round face. "I don't know how many more introductions I can take."
Introductions. That seemed like a good place to start. Brandon assumed this was all part of some strange, rigorous orientation the staff of Hope's Peak High had planned out for them. So, why not take a moment to get to know his classmates? He noticed five of them off to the right…and decided to start there. He began with the boy in the lab coat.
"I'm…Brandon," he said, waving. "I'm the uh…the Ultimate Lucky Student."
"Lucky Student?" the boy in the lab coat asked. "Fascinating. Utterly fascinating. Hope's Peak has thought of everything, have they not? Do you have a surname, Brandon?"
"Like…a last name?"
"Yes, that is precisely what a surname is."
"Oh…it's um…it's Flare. Brandon Flare."
"Well then, Mr. Flare, what do you know of quantum physics."
"U-uh…of what?"
"Quantum physics. Well…perhaps that's too in-depth of a place to start. Perhaps you know of Newton, hmm? Isaac Newton? His first law, maybe?"
"Well, uhm…that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, or something along those lines, right?"
"Precisely, Mr. Flare. And so, your action of introducing yourself to me…has spurned the reaction of me introducing myself to you! I am the Ultimate Engineer…but you, Mr. Flare, you may call me Patrick."
Patrick: The Ultimate Engineer
"Uhm…well, it's good to meet you, Patrick," Brandon said. After that…complex introduction, Brandon thought it might be good to speak with someone else. He noticed the girl with the performance dress from earlier, and decided to speak to her next.
"When are they going to start orientation, you know?" she asked him. "I've been standing in these flats forever. I just want to kick them off and find my room already. Or maybe the dining hall. Or maybe the bathroom. Yeah! I definitely need to find the bathroom!"
"Uhm, well…I'm Brandon," he said, scratching the side of his face.
"Oh! That's a cool name!" she said, nodding. "Mine's Courtney. Excuse my accent, by the way, it's a side effect of living in Texas."
"You don't have an accent," Brandon said.
"I-I don't!?" She seemed wholly surprised. "B-but..well…I thought I did. But I guess that's good news! Because if I had an accent, my singing would sound weird."
"You sing?" Brandon asked her.
"Mhm!" Courtney replied, a bit enthusiastically. "Ultimate Alto!"
Courtney – Ultimate Alto
"I got selected from the All-Star State Choir…or, I think that's what it was called. Thousands of high schoolers tried out, and they only took like, fifty of us!"
She must be…really good at singing.
"Two singers, hmm?"
The voice came from across the room. A taller, slender girl wearing a flowy summer dress and a straw summer hat approached Brandon and Courtney. "This is most disagreeable. But…I bet you sing Disney songs and whatever your teachers assign, am I right?"
"H-huh?" Courtney asked her. "W-well…I mean…kinda."
"I figured," the girl said, playing with a strand of her platinum blonde hair. "So you know nothing of Schubert? Carmen? Can you even sing along with Puccini?"
Courtney looked a little downcast. But before Brandon could say anything, the new girl had her hand out for him to kiss.
"Shelby Renee," she said, smiling. "Ultimate Classical Singer."
Shelby – Ultimate Classical Singer
"Oh, I've heard of you!" Courtney said as Brandon floundered with Shelby's hand. "You go on tour all over the world!"
Shelby looked as Courtney's statement bothered her somehow. "Yes…that is why I am the Ultimate Classical Singer."
Deciding to leave the two singers alone for now, Brandon moved to get the name of the boy with the thick glasses in the jean jacket. His hair was all messed up, and he looked generally unenthused to be there.
"Hey," Brandon said. "What's your name?"
"Me?" he asked. "You really want to know my name? Don't you know that'll lower your life expectancy by thirty-two years?"
"W-what?"
"I mean, you can tempt the demons of Gehenna all you want, but my name really shouldn't be spoken. So I'll let you have my penname. Everyone in the foremost of literary circles calls me Meph. You can call me that too, lest you wish a cruel, excruciating death by the hundred-handed demon of the river Lethe."
I get the feeling this guy is a little…eccentric.
"Well, uhm, I'm Brandon," Brandon said, "the Ultimate Lucky Student."
"Luck? Pah. See how luck fares for you once your tribunal against the Devil himself begins," Meph said. "Will you find favor, such as I? Or will you find nothing but torment. That is yet to be seen."
"And…uhm…what's your talent?"
"My talent? It is not a mere talent, plebe. It is an art form. I allow you to refer to me as the Ultimate Mystery Novelist."
Meph – Ultimate Mystery Novelist
"I think I've heard of you," Brandon said, trying to piece together the boy's penname and talent.
"As every other mouth-breathing denizen of this Earth has, I'm sure," Meph said, pushing up his glasses. "Now leave me to contemplate my next novel, worm. I believe the aura of this room and our predicament has already concocted a veritable plot in my mind."
Leaving Meph to be…Meph, Brandon soon found himself in contact with the girl who had spoken first: the one in pink and white.
"So like, what's your deal, huh?" she asked, popping a gummy bear from a bag she was holding into her mouth. "You like, trying to size us up or somethin'? Don't think I don't notice you 'introducing' yourself to everyone. You're probably just trying to scope out some prey, huh? Well prey on these, buddy," she said, grabbing her breasts, "they're all real…and MINE! So don't think you can have them."
"I…uhm, didn't want them," Brandon said meekly.
"Oh? You didn't? Huh. Well, my bad! Anyway, isn't this situation just balls. Like, total balls. I'm Amy, by the way. Ultimate Fujoshi."
"Ultimate what?"
"Oh come on," she said, picking idly at her hair in disinterest. "Don't tell me you know what a Koreaboo is but not a Fujoshi."
Brandon had to admit, he had seen the Ultimate Koreaboo mentioned in the online thread he had been reading before coming here, but nowhere had he seen mention of some sort of Ultimate Fujoshi. He didn't even know what the term meant.
"It means I like boys who like boys, dipshit," Amy said, eating another gummy. "I read about them. Write about them. Draw them. Watch them. If it's all about boys getting' all touchy-feely with one another…I'M THERE."
Amy - Ultimate Fujoshi
Brandon was beginning to think Hope's Peak had potentially low standards. For it's first class ever…they had picked someone with a talent (if he could even call it that) like hers?
He moved on, not wanting to spend much more time with Amy in fear that she might fantasize something horrible about him. With the first group of five taken care of, he moved on to the students standing closest to the entryway of Hope's Peak High.
He recognized one of them, almost immediately. He had black hair with an ahoge at the top, and had sleepy, disinterested black eyes. He wore a yellow shirt that had the letter I and a heart above something in Japanese that he couldn't read. The boy wore black jeans and busted-up old converse, and he looked like he might fall asleep any second.
"You're Jason Phoenix, aren't you?" Brandon asked him. "The Ultimate Gamer."
"Huh…?" Jason asked, slowly climbing out of his stupor. "Oh…yeah, that's me. Why? You lookin' to play?"
"I don't…think there are any games around here," Brandon said. "I'm Brandon, Ultimate Lucky Student."
"Luck, huh?" Jason asked, still sounding tired. "Luck…yeah, I've got a lot of points in that."
"W-what…?"
"I've got like, a lot of benefits to my initial roll."
"Your what?"
"That way if the check fails…I'll still pass."
Brandon soon found he couldn't even hold a conversation with him. It was like the Ultimate Gamer spoke an entirely different language.
Jason Phoenix – Ultimate Gamer
Next, Brandon spoke with the boy wearing the backwards hat and the shirt that read "TWICE". He was also wearing baggy sweatpants and seemed pretty downcast about the current situation.
"Hey," Brandon said, "I'm Brandon, nice to meet…"
"Kill me."
"W-what…?"
"Just fuckin' kill me, okay!?"
Brandon blinked a few times.
"I don't have my phone! Or my earbuds! How in the chicken-fried FUCK am I supposed to listen to music without my god-damned EARBUDS!"
Brandon wasn't sure what to say.
"You don't get it, do you? No one ever does, hun, it's okay. I mean, it's really not okay. It might just be like…the worst thing that's ever happened. I'll just have to sing to myself, yeah. Or maybe get one of those singer bitches to do it for me."
Before Brandon could stop him, the boy was poking Courtney in the ribs.
"Hey!" he shouted directly in her eardrum. "SING!"
"W-what?" Courtney asked, looking frazzled.
"SING ME K-POP! I CAN'T FUCKING COPE RIGHT NOW!"
While Courtney did her best to keep the boy calm, the girl with the red hair and the safety goggles moved to stand beside Brandon.
"He's Willam Dong," she said. "I mean, I don't think that's his real name, but that's what he introduced himself as. Will, for short. The Ultimate Koreaboo."
"So he's like…?"
"Obsessed with K-Pop. But not just that. He's got every piece of related merchandise ever. First-editions, direct props from music videos and concerts. Autographs. Meet-and-greets. He's got over two hundred thousand Instagram followers because of how devoted he is to K-Pop."
"That's…impressive?"
She sighed. "Some would say so. I think it's a big waste of time. Instead of obsessing over something someone else has done…I prefer to make my own things."
"I'm Brandon, by the way," he said. "You are?"
"Kelly," she said, introducing herself. "Ultimate Roboticist."
Will – Ultimate Koreaboo
Kelly – Ultimate Roboticist
"Nice to meet you," Brandon said.
"You should probably get to know everyone else, too," she said.
"Will do," Brandon told her. "And thanks for uhm…explaining Will."
"Don't worry about," she said. "I have a feeling he's going to need a lot more…explaining."
With that in mind, Brandon moved on to the next student in this area. He had bright green hair and was drumming his fingers against the wall, looking overall quite serene.
"Hi," Brandon said. "I'm Brandon."
"Oh, hey," he said, as if he hadn't noticed Brandon approach. "The name's Vinny. Some call me Vinster. Well, no one really calls me that…but I wish they did."
"I'm the Ultimate Lucky Student."
"That was a pretty generic response, but I'll play your game, bud. I'm the Ultimate Music Mixer. I make vocaloid songs, synthpop, electric beats. Anything you have to mix…I'm your guy."
Vinny – Ultimate Music Mixer
"Maybe sometime I could hear something of yours?"
"If our stuff is here," Vinny said, shrugging. "I wouldn't mind giving you a sample, homeslice. Keep it fricky fricky fresh, ya hear?"
"I…h-hear," Brandon said, unsure if that was the right response.
"Radical."
Leaving Vinny to his own devices, Brandon noticed one more person in this area. He was sitting idle by the wall, in a wheelchair.
"H-hey…" Brandon said, timidly.
"Hello," the boy said. He wore a blue shirt and glasses, a blanket draped over his legs. "Don't worry about me…" he began, somewhat awkwardly, "uhm…well, my name is Sam. I'm the Ultimate Programmer."
"Programmer?" Brandon asked. "Like…you program codes and stuff?"
"Kind of," he said. "I used to be a lot more active…but, a while back…I was hit by a car. It kept me confined to this chair. So, I got into coding. I've made a few videogames, but I can also build websites and such."
"That's pretty cool," Brandon said. "Better than being the Ultimate Lucky Student."
"I wouldn't say that," Sam said.
"W-why…why not?"
"Well, if I were the Ultimate Lucky Student…I probably wouldn't be in this chair."
His comment gave Brandon pause. "I'm…"
"You don't have to be sorry," Sam interjected. "Like I said, don't worry about me."
Sam – Ultimate Programmer
Not sure what else to say to Sam for now, Brandon moved on to the final group of four. There was a boy wearing running shorts and a bright blue running jacket, a small girl in a hoodie clutching a large stuffed rabbit, another girl dressed casual, but looking quite pensive, and then another boy who looked a lot older than everyone else with a goatee and long, scraggly hair.
He decided to start with the older boy.
"H-hi…" Brandon begam.
"Hey there," the older boy said. "Are you a fan?"
"A-a…a fan?"
He laughed. "You must not be," he said, trying to repress his chuckles. "My name is Mathis, but you can call me Matt. I run YouTube's most popular gaming channel. It's a Let's-Play channel, you know."
"Like one of those things where people watch you play videogames?"
"Kind of, but you've got to have witty commentary, otherwise no one will watch your stuff," Matt explained.
Matt – Ultimate LPer
"Well…I'll give some of your videos a watch later on," Brandon said.
"And don't forget to subscribe!"
Moving on, Brandon talked to the pensive-looking girl next.
"Remain calm, friend," she said, holding up a hand. "This will all work out. The Lord has a plan for us all."
"T-the Lord…?"
"Our Father in Heaven, friend. God has this all worked out. There is no need to think none of this is going against His plan."
"Well…that's, comforting?"
"As it should be. Well met, friend. I am Alexis, but those close to me call me Lexi. My talent, if it were to be considered one, is that of our Father's premier disciple. Some call me the Ultimate Religious Fanatic."
Lexi – Ultimate Religious Fanatic
"So you…go to church a lot?"
"More than that, friend. I have been baptized eight times."
"Don't you only…do that once?"
"In some circles."
Brandon wasn't sure what to make of her just yet, so he moved on to the energetic boy in the work-out clothes.
"Hi, my name is…"
"Wait, let me guess!"
"Huh?"
"I'm a psychic, you know."
"Y-youre…a psychic? Is that your Ultimate Talent?"
"Sure is," the boy said, smiling mischievously. "If I had to guess…I'd say your name…hmm, Brandon!"
"Aagh! How'd you know?"
The boy laughed, grinning from behind a wide mouth. "Just kidding: I heard you tell everyone else your name. I'm not a psychic, either. My real talent is the Ultimate Swimming Pro."
"So you must be Brad then, huh?"
"Yep! That's me! This place is pretty stuffy, don't ya think? I wonder when we'll be able to get something to eat…or run some laps."
"I'd rather not run some laps…"
"Come on! You'll be my work-out buddy here!"
"I'd…I'd rather not…"
"Well, that's cool. I'm sure someone else will workout with me…and if I not, I'll drag you along anyway!"
Brad – Ultimate Swimming Pro
Which brought Brandon to the adorable girl holding the bunny rabbit. She looked pretty frightened, if he was being honest with himself.
"H-hey," Brandon said to her. "I'm Brandon. What's your name?"
"Sawah…"
"Sawah?"
"Sawah…"
"W-what does Sawah mean?"
"Sawah….it's my name," she said at last, shutting her eyes and holding the bunny close. "If…if you want to know what my talent is…I'm the Ultimate Fashion Designer."
Sawah - Ultimate Fashion Designer
She didn't look like a fashion designer, but then again, she was pretty cute. Her whole image was the definition of cute. As he looked at her longer, he realized just how cute she was.
"Are you…staring at me…b-because…you're a pervert?"
"N-no!" Brandon cried, holding up a hand. "I-I'm not like Amy, promise!"
"Oh good…I was afraid that…"
But before Sawah could finish her statement, a laugh broke out over the intercom system.
"Upupupupupu!"
"Huh? What the heck is that?" Kelly asked no one in particular.
"Sounds like…laughter," Jason said, not sounding too interested.
"Hey, kiddos! Looks like you're all finally together! Why don't you hustle along to the gym like good girls and boys, pronto!"
The voice went away, as if it had never existed in the first place.
"Where's the gym?" Patrick asked, the light of the bulbs above reflecting off his glasses. "I believe this is the next phase of orientation."
"Oh! Oh! I know!" Brad cried. "I scoped it out earlier, before coming to this room. The classroom I woke up in was pretty close to it, so I remember where it is."
"Well then," Shelby said, checking her nails, "lead the way."
One by one, the students began to file out of the room. After a while, Brandon was left with just Sam, Sawah and Jason.
"I'll be able to manage," Sam said, pushing forward on the lever on his chair. "You don't have to wait around to make sure I make it somewhere safe."
Talk about a complex…
"He probably just wants to prove himself as much as the rest of us do," Sawah said, hugging her rabbit close. "I'll…I'll see you in the gym, Brandon."
Sam and Sawah filed out of the room, leaving Brandon alone with Jason.
"Coming?" he asked the Ultimate Gamer.
"Huh…oh, right. The gym. I guess…" and so Jason too, left the room. With everyone gone, Brandon decided it'd be best to head there as well.
But something inside of him gnawed at his heart for a fraction of a second, telling him that if he entered the gym, the life he knew would be over. The feeling didn't last, however, and like the rest of the students, Brandon meandered on towards the gym.
Towards the beginning of the end of his life.