Hope's Peak Academy… A school for only the best students. Graduation is said to none but guarantee success in life. In order to enroll you must meet two qualifications: 1. You must currently be enrolled in High School. 2. You must excel in your field of expertise. There's no application process, as all students are scouted out by the academy for their great talents.
And yet, there I was, standing before this amazing school. It's a bit clichéd but I'll start out by introducing myself. My name is Aiko Kazumi. I'm a pretty average person. I'm not talented at much of anything, I get normal grades, and I'm certainly anything but interesting. I tend to like things that everybody likes. Yup, I'm pretty boring, especially compared to the people I expect to see at Hope's Peak.
Last night, I read up on the new class arriving. There's a Super High School Level Fashion Designer, Pop Artist, Model, practically anything you'd expect to be popular. Then there are the others, such as the Super High School Level Gangster, Street Artist, Soldier, etc. Everyone in my class has an entire fan base besides myself. I feel pretty out of place, but I suppose that's normal, considering that I was chosen randomly to come to this school. It could have easily been someone else to join the Super High School Levels.
But I'm not complaining. Far from it, actually. I'm honored to go to Hope's Peak. As I said, it's a school that anyone would want to go to. But I was chosen, and I feel like I don't deserve it. Oh well, turning down this opportunity would be stupid.
I was supposed to meet with the other students at 8:00. Right now, it's 7:45. I came a little bit early, but I was nervous because I tend to be late for classes… Oh well, I'd better enter, it's better to be early than late. But as soon as I entered into the school, I felt instantly dizzy. I tried rebalancing myself, but I fell over, with no one around to help me up. I must have hit my head on something as I fell, because I blacked out. When I woke up, I wasn't in the entrance hall anymore. In fact, I was in a classroom, sleeping on a desk.
I stood up, and assessed my surroundings. The classroom I was in was pretty normal; chalkboard at the front of the classroom, desks in rows, and iron plates on the walls. Wait… Iron plates on the walls?! They seemed to be in the place of windows. Why would the windows be covered? But the iron plates weren't the only thing out of place. There was a camera near the front of the classroom. I simply put it off as a security camera, but it still freaked me out. Nothing else in the room was that noteworthy. After looking around the classroom, I decided I should head back to the entrance hall. Maybe the other students would be there.
As I stepped into the hall, I noticed that this section of the hall was bathed in a sickeningly pink color. I ignored it, though, and searched for the entrance hall. I eventually found it after discovering where the gym was. I stepped into the entrance hall, and there they were, the rest of the students, all standing around the hall. "Uhm, hello. I'm sorry I'm late…" I said out loud. My classmates all turned their attentions toward me, and I felt nervous as they stared.
"That's quite alright, as long as you're here now!" One of them, a short girl with wavy, short, jet black hair, said. She was wearing a tan uniform with lace and a white bow. She had a skirt that matched her shirt. Her eyes were a deep blue color, and she had a nice slim figure that most guys would like. 'Course, what do I know? I am a girl, after all…
"Well, now that everyone's here, we can discuss the situation." Another one of the students, a boy with dark brown hair, said to the rest of us. He was standing rest next to the black-haired girl. He had a blue shirt that was covered in diagonal lines, intersecting to form perfect blue diamonds. He was wearing skinny blue jeans, and in his hair was an electrical blue streak, down the center of his face. He was also wearing blue-rimmed shades on his head. I had a feeling he'd be sort of snooty…
Another boy, at least he seemed more like a boy than a girl, spoke up. "Shouldn't we introduce each other first? I mean, it'd be strange to talk with each other without knowing each other's names." He said. I noticed that he was wearing short maroon shorts, barely visible under his lacey pink open-shoulder shirt. He had short brown hair, and, as far as I could tell from the distance, similarly colored eyes. In his hair was a purple flower, a carnation, if I knew as much about flowers as I thought I did.
The first boy sighed. "I suppose we should. Well, my name is Jay, Jay Takahashi. My title is Super High School Level Pop Artist." Somehow, I expected that. "And this is," He begun to speak again, motioning towards the girl he was standing beside.
"I can introduce myself, Jay!" The black haired girl interrupted him. "My name is Mei Takahashi. My title is Super High School Level Fashion Designer. And, as you could probably tell from our names, Jay and I are twins." She said, smiling. They didn't look too similar, but I could see how they are related.
"Nice to meet both of you. My name is Haruki Yamamoto." The girly looking boy said. "And my title is Super High School Gardener." I guess the flower in his hair explained that.
I decided to speak up next. "I'm Aiko Kazumi. And, well, I'm the Super High School Level Good Luck." I said, feeling humbled around the Super High School Levels.
"Oh, so you're the lucky student? Congratulations. You really must be lucky." A girl said to me. I noticed that she had a black-and-purple uniform like outfit on. She also had long blond hair with purple highlights. Slung over her shoulder was a backpack with paint splatters on it. "My name is Rin Kirika. I'm a Super High School Level Street artist." I could see that. She definitely had that sort of…aura, I suppose.
One of the other girls in the room glanced over. "Well, since we're introducing ourselves, I might as well let you know my name. I'm Rika. Rika Konota. That name should be familiar to you, since I'm a famous actress." Oh, she's famous alright, but I don't really care for the actor type. At first glance, you can see why she's popular; skinny, blond, and gorgeous, she's the exact thing teenage boys think about before going to bed. She was bold in her outfit choice today, wearing a pale blue dress(matching her eye color), showing off her chest, with a matching headband. If she didn't want to get the boys' attentions, then she will be blissfully surprised to know that most of our male classmates will probably lose sleep over her. If I seem, well, annoyed, it's because I am. Her type disgust me.
But as I was busy judging her in my head, I didn't notice that another popular figure was in the room. One that I actually obsessed over once. He was a tall, handsome boy, with dark hair and light, very pale, skin. His hair was perfect, and his deep grey eyes were enough to make any girl faint. He smiled in my direction, and I got a glance at his perfectly shaped face. Yup, he was a looker, alright. He wore a tan jacket over a black tee, and dark blue skinny jeans. As I was looking over him entirely, he spoke up. "Heh… Just like Rika, most of you, or at least the ladies, should know me. My name is Fujioka…" He paused, sounding a bit puzzled. "Yup, that's all I can remember, name-wise. But I can remember my talent; it's Super High School Level Model." He finished. Wow. Just wow. The boy can't even remember his name. No wonder I stopped liking him a while ago. He's an idiot…
The next person to speak up wasn't as drop-dead gorgeous as the last two, but she's certainly just as, if not more, interesting. She had short, smooth, black hair, light skin, and grey eyes. She had an olive-colored denim jacket on over a grey striped tee, and a jean skirt. "Hello, fellow students. My name is Miwa Sakamoto and I am the Super High School Level Soldier." I wasn't really expecting a female to fill the role of SHSL Soldier when I read up on the students last night, so I kind of respected her more for that. Well, I know who not to piss off now.
Near her was a boy and a girl, who looked similar to each other. Both had brown hair, and cyan eyes. The boy was wearing a white shirt with a black vest and tie, along with black pants. The girl next to him was wearing a light blue tee shirt, and a matching skirt. Her hair was tied to the side, in a loose ponytail. I assumed that they were twins, but it seemed unlikely that two pairs of twins would be chosen at the same time, no matter how talented they were. The boy, who was one of the tallest guys in the room, spoke up next. "I'm Harou Nakamura. I'm the Super High School Level Detective." He said. He turned to the girl next to him. "And this is my sister, Naoko Nakamura. She's the Super High School Level Veterinarian. She's a bit shy, but I'm sure she'll warm up soon." He said, smiling. I could tell already that what he said was true; Naoko seemed like a kind soul.
You know who didn't though? A boy standing off to himself, who had a black fedora on, along with a black suit. He seemed like the opposite of most of the other students that had introduced themselves so far. But he decided to speak next even though no one was too interested in him at the moment. "I'm Takashi Kuzuryuu. That's pretty much all you need to know. Chances are you already know what my title is, just from my name." Yeah, it's true. As soon as he said 'Kuzuryuu' I knew what he was. The Kuzuryuu family is a large gang, so that pretty much says his title; Super High School Level Gangster. It's a safe bet to assume he's not going to be a friendly person.
Another one of the students, a girl this time, turned her attention to the rest of the students. She had long, black hair, and bright red eyes (although I think she's wearing contacts) that I could see even from this distance. She was wearing a grey shirt and a jean skirt, and she had several golden bangles on her left arm. "Well, I'm Kairi Murasaki, Super High School Level Dancer."
"What sort of dancer?" I asked her, curious, because it was ridiculously unobvious.
Kairi shrugged. "I can do any dances I want to. But I like classical dance better than the rest." I nodded, pleased with her answer. I'm glad to see that someone in this crazy world still likes classical dance.
One of the remaining boys looked up from his handheld game system, and straight at me. "Hi…My name is Kei Hisame… I'm the Super High School Level Gamer." He said, shifting his green gaze around. He had short, dark brown hair, and wore a red plaid shirt over a white tee, along with jeans. He was holding a red 3ds.
I heard someone sigh impatiently. "Can we please hurry up? We should really start discussing the situation, you know…" I looked in the direction of the sigh, and saw a boy with dark brown, medium length hair, tied in a short ponytail, and light grey eyes. He was wearing a grey hoodie over a black tee, and grey jeans. I wonder what his favorite color is…
"Maybe you should introduce yourself, then." Another boy retorted. I feel ignorant noticing this first, but his skin was much darker than every one of the other students. Strangely enough though, he had blond hair. I must admit, I think that combination is just awesome. The next thing I noticed is that he had pilot goggles on his head, and an olive green scarf around his neck. He also had a normal white shirt with a dark blue…design of some sort (it looked like a wolf or some dog, but I wasn't sure), and black pants.
"Fine. I'm Kaito Shinobara, Super High School Level Engineer." Honestly he didn't seem like an engineer but I wasn't going to question him. "You happy now…?"
"Yeah, ecstatic." The other boy said. "Anyway, my name's Hiro Ichijou, Super High School Level Pilot." Like that wasn't blatantly obvious… We all turned to the last student in the room.
"And, you are…?" Mei asked him.
He turned around to face us. He had wavy black hair, and dark grey eyes. He was wearing a lab coat, black pants, and had glasses on his face, which he removed when he began to speak. "Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot to introduce myself, I suppose. My name is Katsuro Yoshida. I'm the Super High School Level Doctor. But…I'm not that great, honestly. I just… heal people."
"Are you kidding me? I'd probably accidentally kill someone instead of healing them…" Rika said.
Katsuro just shrugged. "It's not as hard as you think it is." That's easy for him to say, he's Super High School Level Doctor, after all. I'm sure that none of the rest of us could perform surgery on someone who needs it…
"Great, we've all been properly introduced, let's discuss our situation now…" Jay said, crossing his arms.
"Okay, first things first, what's up with the door in here? I'm pretty sure that normal doors aren't like that." Hiro said, gesturing towards the back of the room. He's right, the door was odd. It was basically just a large steel door, with a bunch of junk I couldn't understand, but it looked like control panels, possibly for opening the door?
"Now that I think of it, the windows were blocked off too…" Kairi noted. She had a puzzled look on her face. "Seems like they really don't want us to leave…"
"The question is why they don't… I mean, really. It's just a school, there's no reason to block us off from the outside." Harou said.
"Maybe it's only during the school day…?" Mei suggested.
"Maybe, but that's highly unlikely. It still wouldn't make sense…" Kaito said, glancing at the door. As we continued to hypothesize about why the school was the way it is, a voice rung out.
"Ahem… Attention students! Please meet in the gym!" The voice said.
"Huh? Who was that?" Fujioka asked no one in particular. None of us had any idea.
"Does it really matter? They're telling us to go to the gym. Maybe they'll explain our situation." Takashi said in response.
"Yeah, let's go." Haruki said. And with that, we all headed to the gym. We entered and were shown a very normal gym, a stage at the front of it, with a podium on the stage. The only odd thing was that there was no one but us in there…
Or so we thought. "Welcome, welcome, students!" The same voice from earlier sang, and we were astonished by what we saw next. A black-and-white teddy bear jump up from behind the podium, and none of us could hide our shock. On his shoulder was a grey kitten.
"What the heck!? A teddy bear!?" Jay shouted, very obviously confused. But who could blame him? This was all very confusing…
"I'm not a teddy bear! I'm MONOKUMA!" The teddy bear said. "And I'm your Headmaster, so treat me with respect!"
The kitten on his shoulder nodded. "Yeah, you dimwits! Respect Monokuma, you meowin' bastards!"
I couldn't believe any of this. A teddy bear that can speak and move, but not only that, he's also the school's headmaster!? And he also had a kitten on his shoulder, who could also talk. I must be sleeping. This has to be a dream.
"How is this even possible…?" Rika asked.
"It's simple really. I'm obviously not alive, so I must be controlled by someone." Monokuma answered. "But that doesn't really matter right now. I've got to tell you guys exactly why you're here."
"Don't we already know that? Isn't it because we're Super High School Levels?" Hiro asked, confused.
"Well that's part of it. The other half is that you guys get to be part of a game! A game I like to call… 'The School Year of Mutual Killing'!" Monokuma laughed.
"W-what!? Mutual killing? What's that supposed to mean!?" Mei cried out.
"It means you get to, no, that you have to kill your classmates! That is, unless you don't want to leave! That's right, no one gets to leave until someone is killed!" Monokuma was being very loud and giddy, and it disturbed me to even think of someone being killed.
"That's bullshit! We aren't killing anyone!" Rin protested. "I'll just take you down, you worthless piece of trash!" She shouted, lunging at the black-and-white teddy bear.
"Hey, stop it! Treat your headmaster respectfully!" Monokuma yelled, jumping out of the way. "Since I haven't given you guys the rules yet, I'll let this go, but in the future, you should know that harming the headmaster results in severe punishment!"
The kitten that was on his shoulder was now sitting on top of the podium. "And that punishment will be dished out by Monokuma himself or me, Missionary, his trusted companion!" I hadn't noticed before, but the small grey kitten had a collar on, with a small…radio transmitter, I think, on it.
"Okay, I can't take this damn school any longer. It's too much, I should have rejected the letter!" Kei said, voicing my own thoughts.
"Well, what good would that be?" Monokuma asked him. "Graduation guarantees success in life, after all. And it'd be stupid to just throw it all away just because the situation is strange!" He laughed, and Missionary purred so loud that I could hear him from where I stood.
Missonary spoke up next. "Well, Monokuma, shouldn't we give them their Student Handbooks now?" He said, looking at the black-and-white bear. Monokuma nodded, and Missionary jumped down from the podium, slipping behind it. He came back into sight, dragging a box that seemed way too heavy for a cat, let alone a kitten of his size.
"Okay you bastards, come and get your student handbooks. Make sure you grab yours though!" Missionary said, sitting next to the box, licking a paw, and smoothing his left ear with it. We all did as we told, and grabbed our respective handbooks. They were essentially tablets, and we had to turn all of them on to make sure whose they were.
"You like them? They're the new ElectroIDs. Just got them last month, and I think they're great." Monokuma said. "The rules of the school are in there, so you'd better read them. We wouldn't want to break the rules now, would we?" He added, glancing toward Rin, who was now crossing her arms, obviously upset.
I decided to look at the rules, so I turned my ElectroID on. My name was displayed on the screen, and I scrolled through the tablet until I found an icon that had "School Rules" written below it. The document that was pulled up was as follows:
-Breaking these rules will result in punishment-
Rule 1. Nighttime starts at 10PM. Water will not be available past this time.
Rule 2. You may only rest in the dorms, if you are caught resting anywhere else, you will be punished.
Rule 3. A "body discovery announcement" is played after 3 people other than the murderer sees the body.
Rule 4. After a body is found, an investigation period will be allowed to search for clues. A class trial will follow this.
Rule 5. After we have reached a conclusion in the class trials, we will vote on who we think is wrong.
Rule 6. If a murderer is not voted guilty, they are allowed to graduate, and everyone else will be punished.
Rule 7. Harming the Headmaster, Missionary, or school property will be severely punished.
Rule 8. Monokuma and Missionary are allowed to add to the rules.
I looked up from the screen, and around at my classmates. I guessed they all read the rules too, because I could see the shock on their faces. "He really was serious about…killing…" I heard someone say. Since I hadn't heard the voice, and it was obviously a female voice, I guessed it was Naoko, my guess proved by Harou telling her it would be okay, and that we wouldn't kill anyone, no matter what.
"Well, that's about it. You all can leave now and relax for the day. I don't care what you do, long as it doesn't break any of the rules." Monokuma said to us. But none of us moved from the spaces we were in. We all just looked at each other, wondering if what we said was true… Would we stay true to ourselves, and not kill, or, would we betray our trusts and kill one of our classmates?