…

"Ah. So I see that you are awake. That's good… very good."

She stared up from her seat and looked at her overseer, cowering in fear. Hands tied behind her back, and bound to a chair, and opened her mouth to say something, yet no words came out. Instead, it was a muffled groan that showed clear signs of pure fear.

"Hmm? Are you trying to say something..?"

She looked around everywhere. She was stuck in that chair – that much was certain. The room was an ominous dark, painted with nothing but the natural darkness that loomed in from the outside. Her teeth were clenched as she began to take in her surroundings and grab a sense of what was going on. Her arms were punctured; humans that seemed to lack a soul stuck needles everywhere and drew her blood. She could feel the blood seep out of her body as she opened her mouth to scream – but she wasn't able to mutter a sound. She tried and tried to scream. But she was unable to. Why..? She thought about why, as her overseer began to chuckle at her misfortune.

"Yes… I see you are in quite some pain. However, do not worry. You will not remember this at all. In fact, you are going to participate in a very special experiment for us."

She opened her mouth to say some more, but she couldn't utter a word.

"Please do not worry. We mean to bring you no harm. Your help in our experiment has always, and always will be a normal experience for you. However, unfortunately, you cannot remember any of it, can you?"

She shook her head. The overseer nodded to the humans extracting blood, and they walked away, finishing the drawing. She turned her head slightly to see IV packs filled with scarlet.

"Please do not worry about us extracting blood as well. It is necessary for you to get immediate treatment to put you in the best condition possible for our little test. I assure you, that your life is not in any danger at all."

The overseer's figure was shrouded in a dark shadow. All this time, she realized that she couldn't make out the face of that man at all. He sat at the end of a long table – the room stylized with a gothic and slumbering atmosphere. Thunder boomed outside as rain pounded the windows, wanting a taste of the inside.

"Now, we will begin our tests… Let's see…"

She could hear pages flip as the man took out what seemed to be a file. She still couldn't see anything.

"Let's see… first, we will begin with our reaction test."

All of a sudden, the man took a knife, and threw it as fast as he could at the girl. She moved her head in an instant, the knife narrowly passing her neck with bullet time speed. She could feel the knife rush past the side of her neck, as her eyes began to widen as she realized what she had just done.

"Very nice reaction time – as expected. Next, shall we begin with our memory test? …Oh! I almost forgot! We still need to do this!"

The man took out a cell phone, and dialed a long number. She recognized the dial tone. As the man pressed his thumb into the numbers, the phone emanated a soft sound… 454… 819… 1928…

"Hello? Yes, we forgot one step. Please come here with the injectors. Yes, thank you."

The man snapped his cell phone shut, and chuckled an ominous laugh.

"Oh, please do forgive me. That was rude of me, wasn't it? Now, where was I… Oh yes, your memory test, is that right? First off, we shall begin with basic algorithms, such as simple math. First, can you tell me what 1+1 is?"

She didn't respond. The man stood up, and began to speak again.

"You can't speak, can you? Alright, what is 1+1? Stomp the answer. For example, if 2+3 equals 5, then stomp the floor five times. Like this…"

The man proceeded to stomp on the floor. The weight of his foot shook the entire room as a sign of his treachery – yet at the same time, that treachery seemed to mix in with leadership.

"Can you do that? What's 1+1?"

The man spoke in a very polite manner as the girl proceeded to stomp her feet. Slowly but surely, she stomped her feet twice on the floor. Her feet made a silent patter against the floorboards, and she was taken aback on how insignificant she sounded.

"Good – you seem to remember the basics. Now, let's see here… we need to see if you remember how to apply yourself in real life situations… Alright, here I come."

The man walked away from the table, and slowly advanced to the girl. She slid the chair away with the force of her body in fear, as the man came closer and closer. As the man became even closer, she could make out some of his features. He was a slim man with dusty brown hair, and he was wearing a grey mask with a twisted shape.

"Do not be alarmed. My mask is only to conceal my identity. I pose no threat. Now, here you go… this here is a book."

The man took out a book: "Stolen Identity." He passed it to the girl and asked her to flip through it. Her head shook as she opened the cover page, and began to scan the words that came together so eloquently.

"Very good."

The man took the book away, as the girl began to whine about it.

"No, no. No time for reading now. In fact, I think she should be here with the injections… ah! There she is! Come in, come in!"

Someone walked into the room, and as she turned to look, she saw a huge syringe filled with what seemed to be a harmful liquid. The liquid bubbled as she the lady stuck the needle into the girl's struggling arm.

"N-no…" she muttered.

"Ah! You can finally speak!" the man said. "That's great! That was a much quicker recovery than last time."

The girl opened her mouth again, and moaned. She moaned just to hear the sound of her own voice – reassuring herself that she was currently okay. The needle in her arm was a different story. The lady pushed the syringe even deeper – feeling as the needle could penetrate her entire arm.

"That solution allows faster hair growth. Nanako here is an amazing hair stylist. She's been working for me for a little while now, but I enjoy every minute of it… Oh, excuse me. I seem to be bemusing myself..! Alright, so how would you like your hair styled? Or would you like Nanako to custom style it again? Your hair truly was beautiful last time…"

"Would you like a natural buzzcut?" Nanako asked. "I was thinking of giving you… a rebellious look this time around. What do you think, sir?"

"You're the expert, Nanako," the man replied. "I am just here to make sure everything goes according to plan. However, since we are on the last pegs of our time together, I am afraid I'll have to make an early exit."

"Why is that, sir?" Nanako asked. "I always enjoyed it when you were here to watch over me."

"I'm meeting with him." The man said.

"W…who?" the girl managed to ask, her voice weak and croaked.

"It should not concern you right now. For now, it is my problem, and I do fear I must leave now. So I leave her to you, Nanako."

"M-me sir?" Nanako asked nervously. "Wow, what an honor..!"

"Indeed. You know the procedure?"

"Of course I do," Nanako returned. "You just worry about yourself now. I've got this covered from here."

The man nodded, and he opened the door slowly. He turned around one last time, and nodded, closing the door. The door made a loud creaking noise as it closed, sealing the girl and Nanako alone together, only letting her think about her fate.

Her future…

Her hope…

What lay in the balance?

"Now, let's get started," Nanako said.

The man heard screams as he took off his mask, and ran his hand across his face. Smiling, he left the mansion, as the girl's bloody screams pierced the twilight.

"Why did you ask me to meet with you at this time?" the man asked. "Surely, you are busy with your side of preparations as well. We simply do not have enough time for this."

"Upupupu, you seem to be a little fidgety today," said a squeaky voice. "Fear not though, your savior, Monokuma, will make sure that this operation goes smoothly again."

"I know, I trust you," the man said. "However, while the tests of our subject are going quite well, there are preparations with the scenery and the supporting cast that are not going very well on our end this time around. I fear we may have to force a delay to the system."

"That's fine," Monokuma replied. "As long as we can do it."

"Yes," the man agreed. "However, I am still curious as to why you called me down here… I'm sure it wasn't just to talk about our progress. We could've done that over the phone or through e-mail, right?"

"First off, we couldn't," Monokuma said. "Our entire plan can be compromised by them completely… we don't want that to happen."

"Right," the man said. "I forgot. They're gaining even more strength, aren't they?"

"Unfortunately," Monokuma said. "But in reality, I did want to talk to you about something else."

"What is it?" the man asked.

"…Upupupu… it's something terrible, really."

(AN: And the first part of the prologue is done. This is an SYOC, yay, and some of you may be wondering why I am doing this now while I am working on my other project. Well, it's because that the two stories have related storylines. I figured it could be cool to be working on two stories at a time that will at one point interconnect with each other.

This isn't an advertisement, but the story will soon merge into my other one: Danganronpa Plus, so just be warned if you are submitting a character and expecting a complete ending for this story. There will be a pretty slambang ending, but it's not as specific as the ending of say, the first Danganronpa game, where they make it out of the school. There's something else…

With that in mind, here is the SYOC form. I prefer Japanese names, but that's only to stick with the game's roots and setting, and it really doesn't matter either way. Please send forms through PM, though I will accept them if they are submitted through reviews.

Form –

NAME:

AGE (16-17):

LOOKS (Hair color, clothes that they wear the entire time they're there, because it's a trope):

GENDER (Boy or girl, obviously):

SHSL (Let's get creative! Green is not a creative color though…):

PERSONALITY:

ANY TRAGIC BACKSTORY? (For example, your character's parents were hit by a bus or something):

ANY RANDOM BACKSTORY? (For example, your character won the lottery before. This should impact the story in some way.):

MOST LIKELY TO BE (Culprit/Victim):

ROLE IN TRIAL (Stupid airhead or master investigator? Or just a boring bystander like Asahina was?):

LIKES:

DISLIKES:

A few notes for the form:

+ There are 16 spots.

+ I will be choosing a main character that intrigues me the most. This character will have a great SHSL, and unique things about her. Oh yeah, her – the main character has to be a girl, since I basically wrote "she" all over the place.

+ You can submit as many forms as you wish. This is so I might get some versatility instead of everyone trying to secure a spot as the main character or someone major along the lines of Kirigiri, for example.

+ I will not accept characters that end up having a secret title as SHSL Despair. This is because this will mess up the plot twists that I intend on making.

+ Submissions will end if: In two weeks (11/15) not all spaces are filled (which in that case I'll have to make OCs of my own), if all sixteen spots are taken, or if I randomly decide to get the story rolling if it is clear that submissions will cease.

Hopefully I'm not being too overbearing, as this is my first SYOC. It'll be interesting to shape a story based off characters made by other people, but I'm looking forward to it! I hope you're looking forward to solving the mysteries! I still intend to update my other story by the other weekend, to those following that, so don't worry about that either. I had spare time, and I decided to get this started so I don't delay this project anymore.

Thank you!)