Note: As is customary, I will note that I own nothing that is seen in this story. I own neither the characters nor the setting. I simply wish to elucidate others on a re-imagining of the regular story in a way I felt was quite interesting.
The massive high school towers over all the other buildings in this bustling urban area. It's like the school stands at the center of the entire world.
Hope's Peak Academy...
It brings in top students from every field imaginable. A government funded school of privilege. They say that if you come here and manage to graduate, you'll be set for life. With hundreds of years of tradition, it sends the cream of the crop into the workforce every year. It was built to raise hope in the nation's future… Which makes Hope's Peak a pretty fitting name.
There are two things you need to attend this school:
One: You have to already be attending high school.
Two: You have to be the very best at what you do.
No ordinary student could enroll here. The only way in is if you're scouted by the school itself. And standing at the gate of the ultimate school filled with ultimate students… was me.
Before we continue, I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Junko Enoshima. As far as anyone else is concerned, I'm nothing but your hopelessly average high school student. Average on the outside, average on the inside. I really don't have much going for me when it comes to grades, special abilities, personality, or anything else, really. That's not to say I don't have hobbies and stuff I like to do, it's just that if you asked me what my favorite song or movie was, it would just be whatever's most popular at the time. But even then, I suppose I'm more average than your average person if that makes sense, so I can't really say I'm your 'everyday' type of girl. That's just who I am, I guess. Anyway, I figure it's a good thing to introduce yourself right away. But if I had to say what my best quality is… I guess I'm a bit more optimistic than most people. I mean, I am completely ordinary, but still… Here I am, standing in front of the anything but ordinary Hope's Peak Academy.
"I still can't believe I'm standing here…" I muse to myself. "I wonder if someone like me can even survive in a place like this…"
It's got this overwhelming presence… like it's trying to swallow me whole. But it's no wonder I would feel that way. But, for the sake of not blowing things out of proportion, let me tell you about the 'preparations' I did yesterday to get myself ready for this.
Hope's Peak only invites those students who are truly elite in their field. In fact, the students themselves are so popular that there are even online threads dedicated to them! So in order to prepare, I looked up some of those threads. Every single person mentioned in these threads was an 'ultimate' in some way; way beyond the level of your average high schooler. For example, one incoming student is known as the Ultimate Pop Sensation. I hear she's a high school girl who's the lead singer for a famous idol group. There's also the Ultimate Baseball Star. He was the ace pitcher and cleanup hitter for the national high school champs. He's already being scouted for the pro leagues. Then there's the Ultimate Fashionista. She's been on the cover of tons of fashion magazines. I know my friends and I spent countless hours trying to follow her footsteps in the world of fashion. There's even an Ultimate Biker Gang Leader too. The scary thing is, she's the de facto leader of the largest biker gang in the country… apparently she's feared and revered by gangs everywhere. There's also the Ultimate Martial Artist, the Ultimate Fanfic Creator, the Ultimate Gambler, the Ultimate Swimming Pro, the Ultimate Programmer, the Ultimate Clairvoyant, the Ultimate…. I think you get the idea.
Going through all of that made me feel really small and powerless… It truly was the country's finest, top to bottom. I felt like a house cat who'd wandered into a pride of lions… But still, there was something I couldn't stop thinking about. There were a few students who I couldn't find anything about. With all those ultimate students, I'm the only one without any kind of worthwhile talent. But what about those students I couldn't find any info on… Could they be average students like me? That's kind of encouraging to think about, though I doubt it's actually true. But there's an issue beyond that… How did an average student like me get picked to come to this ultimate high school? To answer that, you only need to look at the acceptance letter they sent me. It said, "we recently held a lottery to select one ordinary student to attend our school. As a result, you have been selected, and we invite you to join as the Ultimate Lucky Student." They spelled it out plain as day- I got invited by pure luck. The more I think about it, I feel I probably would have been better off declining their offer. But after hearing how graduating was 'guaranteed success,' I just couldn't say no.
But then, actually standing there in front of the school… I started to feel lost, like I didn't belong there. I could feel myself losing my nerve.
"But I can't just stand here in front of the gate forever…" I say to myself, staring at the acceptance letter I held in my hands. "There's a meeting in the main hall at 8 a.m. for all incoming students... " I glance at my watch. 7:10 a.m. it says. The meeting isn't for a while… but I steel myself and head in. "Yeah…" I say, mustering all of my strength and resolve. "Let's do this!" As I walk in, I see that I'm the only one there. "Well there's almost an hour until we're supposed to meet… I guess it makes sense that I'm the only one here." I shouldn't just stand around, waiting. I decide to take a look around the school, thinking it would help me calm down. I mean am technically a student now, so there shouldn't be any problem, right? I take my first few steps, to my new life at my new school… but the instant I take that step forward… My view became warped and twisted. It was like some kind of delusion, melting and mixing together into something else… and in the next moment… Everything went black. That's how it all started… And how life as I knew it came to an end. At that point, I should have realized... the reason I was brought to Hope's Peak Academy wasn't because I had Ultimate Good Luck… It was so I could experience the Ultimate Despair.
