I've been wanting to make this fanfic for a long time. For those of you who are familiar with the Danganronpa series, you'll probably like this story. For those who are not familiar, don't worry. This story will explain how the killing game works, and will stand alone from the plot of any of the real video games. So, if you're interested in reading a story about the pokémon characters participating in a killing game, then stick around! This will obviously have to be moved to an M rating later for violence, but for now I put it under T so that people who might be interested will see it in the feed. Next chapter or the one after that I'll be moving it to M. Alright, enough of me talking - let's jump into it.
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Oh god my head hurts like hell. Why is everything dark? Where the heck am I anyway? Many questions ran through my head as I lay in darkness. I tried to think of the last thing I could remember, but my mind was drawing a blank. I sat up carefully, and tried to let my eyes adjust to the darkness. I could tell that I was in some sort of classroom, but it didn't seem like one I was familiar with.
I quietly stood up and walked towards what looked like the door. I ran my hand along the space next to it and found a light switch. The room was then revealed to me in full. It looked like a normal classroom, with desks and a chalkboard. Nothing special. The only thing that was odd about it was that there were steel plates welded over the windows. Even if somebody unscrewed them they would be impossible to remove.
I felt extremely concerned to be in an unfamiliar place with no idea of how I got there. There wasn't much I could do about it though, so I decided that I might as well leave the classroom. I remained cautious as I opened the classroom door and went out into the hallway. Luckily, the hallways were lit so that I could see where I was going. I didn't see anyone for a while as a slunk through the halls.
Eventually, I did run into somebody. She was facing away from me, but I could tell that she was a girl about my age. I wasn't sure whether or not it was safe to approach her, but I figured at the least it might get me some answers to the many questions I had.
"Hello?" I called to her quietly. She turned around at the sound of my voice, looking quite surprised.
"Hello," she said, "I'm guessing you don't know where you are either?"
"No. I don't." Her reaction worried me. If she didn't know what this place was either, then what on earth was happening?
The girl had long brown hair and was wearing a school uniform which consisted of a tight green skirt and gray blazer. There was a pen balanced behind her ear and a notebook sticking out of one of her pockets.
"What's your name?" she asked me.
"My name is Red. What's yours?
"Leaf. I'm the Ultimate Journalist."
"Ultimate… Journalist?" The title seemed familiar to me. In this world there are special high school students who hone great talents. Usually, these students are invited to attend a prestigious school called Hope's Peak Academy. The students then take on the title of "Ultimate" followed by the name of their talent.
"Are you a student of Hope's Peak Academy?" I asked her.
"Not exactly. You see, I remember that I had just enrolled in Hope's Peak Academy's Program, but I hadn't begun attending the school yet. To be honest, I can't remember exactly what happened before waking up here."
"You can't remember either?!" I was really freaking out at this point. How could both of us have woken up in this strange place without remembering how we got there?
"The others don't remember either."
"There are more people here?"
"Yes. I'll take you to them now." With that, Leaf turned and began walking down the hallway. I had little choice but to follow her, so I decided to trust her for now. She led me to a large set of doors and opened them. Inside was what appeared to be a gymnasium.
Leaf hadn't been lying. Inside the gym there were indeed other students, each appearing to be about the same age as us.
"There are more people here than before. Hopefully this is all of us," Leaf told me.
We entered the room, and everyone looked at us curiously.
"Another one?" a guy with a backwards yellow and black baseball cap asked.
"Yeah. There can't be many more, don't you think?" Leaf asked.
"Who knows?" Another girl sighed, "There could be lots more that we haven't found yet."
Everyone seemed to be equally clueless about our situation. My eyes glanced over each face carefully. There were sixteen of us in all.
"I think this is everybody. Or at least, everybody we're going to find for now," a different guy said.
"Why do you think that?" a girl with blue hair asked.
"Because, we've checked every room on this floor, and the stairway is blocked off. If there is anyone else here, then they must be on a different floor. We've found everyone here on this floor for sure."
"I guess you have a point," Leaf said, "Did anyone discover a way to get out?"
"No."
"What do you mean?" I asked. All the different voices and faces were overwhelming me, but this had sparked my interest, "Are we trapped here?"
"It seems like it," the guy from before answered.
"What should we do?" I asked.
"I don't know what else we can do," Leaf answered. We searched for a way out and we seem to have found all the people trapped here. If someone kidnapped us and brought us here, then they should reveal themselves eventually."
"So we're just supposed to sit here like a bunch of fools?!" one of the guys shouted.
"Do you have a better idea?" Leaf challenged.
Everyone was silent for a while. There was a heavy tension in the room caused by fear and frustration.
"Why don't we all introduce ourselves?" one of the girls suggested, "It will be easier for us to communicate if we all get to know each other. I'll start. My name is Lyra, and I'm the Ultimate Saleswoman." The girl wore a school uniform consisting of tight gray dress pants and a red blazer. She also wore a black tie and had her hair up in two neat brown pigtails.
"My name is Gold, and I'm the Ultimate Skateboarder," one of the boys announced. He was the guy who had been wearing the backwards baseball cap. He wore a white T-shirt and black cargo shorts, with a red blazer tied around his waist.
"I'm Dawn, and I'm the Ultimate Model," a blue haired girl said somewhat cheerily. She seemed to have a bubbly personality. Her hair was tied up in a high ponytail with gold clips. She wore a pink dress with a gray cardigan and knee-high black socks.
"I'm Brenden, the Ultimate Zoologist," another guy chipped in. He wore a red shirt with a tan vest over it and black pants. He also had a hat on his head which was white and fluffy.
"My name is Blue, and I'm the Ultimate Scientist," a cocky guy said with a smirk. He had spikey auburn hair and wore a white lab coat with a blue shirt and gray pants underneath.
"I'm Serena, the Ultimate Baker," a sweet voice said warmly. The girl wore a pink shirt and red skirt with a white apron over it, and she had a cute white chef's hat atop her head. Her hair was long and blond with a half ponytail in the back.
"Bianca here!" a girl with short blonde hair announced cheerily, "I'm the Ultimate Hair Stylist!" The girl wore an orange blazer over a white shirt and green pants. She had a green beret on her head and orange-rimmed glasses on her face.
"And I'm Barry! I'm sure you all recognize me as the Ultimate Mewtuber!" The boy's announcement was met with silence, causing him to scratch his head in disappointment. He wore an orange and white striped hoodie with gray pants and a green scarf. He had messy blonde hair and piercing orange eyes.
"My name is Tierno, and I'm the Ultimate Hip-Hop Dancer!" The guy was huge, but he cleared everyone's doubts by performing a set of hip-hop dance moves right then and there, including spinning on his head. He wore a black shirt and yellow bowtie with orange pants. His head was shaved on the sides, leaving hair only on the top of his head in graceful tufts.
"I'll go next. My name is May. I'm the Ultimate Gardener." The brunette girl wore a red bandana that tied on top of her head along with a red floral blouse and an apron tied around her waist that had pockets for tools.
No one volunteered to speak for a slight pause.
"Hey, there's still more of us who haven't introduced ourselves!" Lyra shouted. A few of the students started at her loud voice.
"I – I'm sorry!" A short boy stuttered timidly. He had green messy hair and was wearing a white button up shirt with black pants, "My name is Wally. I – I'm the Ultimate Chess Player."
"I'm Rosa," a girl with two buns spoke up, "I'm the Ultimate Figure Skater." She wore a yellow skirt with black leggings and a gray hoodie.
"I'm Lucas," a quiet boy spoke softly, "I'm the Ultimate Poet." He wore a blue blazer with black pants and a red scarf.
"Silver," a long red-haired guy said reluctantly, "I'm the Ultimate Gunman." He wore a black jacket over a white shirt with a brown tie and black pants.
Leaf then began introducing herself, and I zoned out for a moment. They were all Ultimates. But not me. I was just an average high school student. Why was I here with them?
"Uhhh…. Red?" Leaf asked.
"Oh shoot, sorry!" I apologized, "My name is Red, and I'm… well, I'm just a normal high school student."
"You're not an Ultimate?" Gold asked.
"That's pretty suspicious…" Blue muttered.
"No! I mean, I swear I don't know anything about this! Believe me, I'm just as confused as to why I'm here as the rest of you!" Some of the students gave him looks of doubt, but most of them didn't seem concerned.
"So now we're all acquainted…" Serena said dully, "What should we do now?"
Her question was answered by the sound of a bell ringing over the PA system. The sound was followed by an announcement.
"It is now time for the school assembly to begin! Please report to the gym for this important announcement!" a high-pitched gleeful voice announced.
"We're already in the gym," May said confusedly.
"My bad! That announcement was pre-recorded!"
Everyone looked around frantically for where the strange voice had come from.
"Eeeeeek!" Dawn shrieked, "Look! Look on the stage!"
Everyone turned to where Dawn was pointing. We were met with a shocking sight that left us all in disbelief.
"What are you all staring at with such grim faces?" the speaker asked disappointedly. Before us stood a talking teddy-bear. It was a bit larger than the average teddy, but small enough to hug in one's arms. The bear was half black and half orange. The orange side had a smile and a friendly looking eye, whereas the black side had an evil grin with sharp teeth and a menacing red eye.
"Wh – What the hell is that?!" Rosa yelled.
"I'm Teddiursa!" the creature exclaimed, "And I'm the headmaster of this school!"
"A teddy-bear like you? The headmaster? Yeah right!" Blue said in disbelief.
"It's true!" Teddiursa insisted.
"Nevermind that!" Lyra interjected, "Tell us why you kidnapped us!"
"You've been brought here for a very special reason!" Teddiursa announced gleefully. "To play the Killing School Game!"
"The Killing School Game?!" Wally repeated fearfully.
"Yes! It's a fantastic game of stealth, brains, betrayal!" Teddiursa said grandly.
"What the heck is this guy talking about?" Tierno asked.
"It sounds awful!" Lucas said.
"It's not awful! It's exciting and fun!" Teddiursa assured us.
"What are the rules of this… game?" Silver asked.
"How are you so calm right now?!" Serena asked incredulously.
"The Killing School Game works like this," Teddiursa explained. "The goal of the game is to graduate from this school. But! There's only one way to do that: You must kill one of your fellow classmates!"
"What!" we all shouted.
"Why would you make us do such a terrible thing?" Dawn asked.
"Because it leads to despair!" Teddiursa answered, "Now let me explain how the game works. In order to graduate, you must kill one of your classmates, but it's more complicated than that! You must commit the murder without getting caught! Once a murder occurs, we will hold a class trial where all of you students will try to reveal who the murderer, or the 'blackened,' is. If the blackened gets caught, then they will be the only one who receives punishment. However, if the blackened gets away with their crime, then everyone else will be punished and only the blackened will be allowed to graduate from the school."
"What do you mean by us being punished?" Bianca asked.
"Put simply, it means you will be killed," Teddiursa answered.
"K – Killed?" May asked.
"That's sick!" Gold protested, "We're not going to play your stupid game!"
"Quiet, you!" Teddiursa growled, "You will find in time that some of you will inevitably start the game. After all, the alternative is that you will be trapped in this school forever!"
"Trapped… forever?" Lyra asked.
"Yes! You must play the game. The game will not end until a blackened succeeds, or there are only two students left who are still alive."
"What?! Only two of us at most can survive?!" Barry asked.
"That's right! It's all in the rules! You'll see that each of you has a student handbook sitting by the wall over there. Please retrieve those now."
Reluctantly, we all walked over to the wall and picked up what looked like tablets. As the screen lit up in my hands, I saw my picture along with my name. My finger was able to unlock the tablet and I saw that it had several features.
"You must keep your student handbook on you at all times. The rules of the killing game are listed inside, as well as a map of this school. Next, I would like you all to meet me over in the dormitory."
With that, Teddiursa seemed to vanish into thin air.
We all stood around, a bit shell-shocked by this strange experience.
"This has to be a joke, right?" Brenden asked.
"No way this is real…" Lucas agreed.
"I'm scared!" Wally cried.
"Don't worry, Wally," Dawn said comfortingly, "This probably isn't real and no one is going to die."
"Looks like the dormitory is just on the opposite hallway of the gym," Leaf said. She had her student handbook in her hands and was looking at the map. "We couldn't access it earlier when we were searching for an exit, but it must be open now."
I pulled out my own handbook and brought up the map. All we had was a map of the floor we were on, even though there were obviously more floors in this building. It looked like the first floor had the gymnasium, and a workout room with two locker rooms attached. There was also the classroom I had woken up in, as well as a cafeteria and a kitchen. On the far end of the hallway there was a door which lead to the dormitory area.
"Are we really going to listen to that creepy bear?" Serena asked, "What if he's leading us somewhere dangerous?"
"What other choice do we have?" Bianca asked, "We've seen that he can pop up anywhere, so if we don't follow him he'll just come back here."
"I think we should go," Gold agreed. He began walking out of the gym and everyone followed. Those who were still somewhat reluctant stayed near the back of the group.
When we arrived at the dormitory, Teddiursa indeed popped up again.
"So glad you all made it! This is where you'll be sleeping for the duration of the Killing School Game! Each of you has your own room, with your picture and name on the outside. The rooms lock from the inside, and only you can open the door. So don't forget to lock up at night! You never know when someone might be trying to target you!"
"No one is going to target each other!" Blue yelled at the bear, "We're going to refuse to play your game!"
"Quiet! I'm the one who makes the rules. In time, you'll learn the reality of this situation. Because some of you are becoming quite hot-headed, I think it's necessary to point you to the rules page in your handbooks. You'll see that one of the rules clearly states that trying to harm me in any way will result in immediate punishment If I were you, I'd watch my temper!"
Blue grunted in dissatisfaction. My stomach twisted in a knot. This whole thing was seeming more and more like it was real.
"All of the girls' dorms are in the right hallway, and all of the boys' dorms are in the left. We don't need any peeping toms in this school! Except for me of course!"
"If I find you in my room I'll kick your face in!" Rosa exclaimed.
"Aren't you forgetting you're not allowed to attack him?" Lucas deadpanned. Rosa huffed and turned away from him.
"I wouldn't worry, ladies. I promise that I won't be visiting anybody in their dorm rooms unless it's absolutely necessary. Bwahahahahaha!"
"What a creep…" Dawn muttered.
"Anyways, that takes care of everything I have to say for today! At night-time, there will be an announcement to let you know that the day has ended. Have a happy Killing School Game!" With that, Teddiursa disappeared again, leaving us all to ourselves.
"Is anyone else getting a bad feeling about all this?" Brenden asked.
"Duh," Silver responded.
"So… is this… real?" May asked quietly.
"I… I don't know," Blue said.
"I want to go home," Wally said. His voice sounded completely disheartened. I could tell that he was the kind of person who suffered from anxiety in a normal situation, so this must've been terrifying him to death.
"What should we do for now?" Lyra asked.
"Maybe we should all just retire to our dorms for now. We can agree to meet up in the dining hall tomorrow morning and see how things are going then," Leaf suggested.
Everyone agreed that that was the best plan.
"Hey guys…" a voice called out. We all turned towards it and found that it was Barry, "We're not going to play this game, right? I mean… nobody is going to kill anyone?"
"Of course not!" Tierno shouted, "That would be crazy!"
Everyone agreed, but I could tell that some people hesitated. Mainly Silver. Something about him seemed to concern me.
After that we all retired to our rooms. I locked the door behind me, only because I didn't want to risk the possibility of somebody deciding to start the game. I decided to check out my room for a bit. There was a bathroom with no door, which housed a toilet and shower. There was a screen up in the corner of my ceiling. I had been noticing these screens placed throughout the entire school, but I wasn't sure what was meant to play on them. I opened the drawer of the nightstand next to my bed and recoiled in shock. Inside was a knife.
"Why is that in here?" I whispered aloud. I had the sickening realization that everyone else probably had one too and that they were present only to encourage the killing game to start. I left it in the drawer.
Aside from that, there wasn't much else to note about the room. There was a nice looking bed and a small desk in the corner. Just the essentials.
This truly is a nightmare, I thought to myself. I don't understand why this is happening, and I certainly don't understand why I'm here among a bunch of Ultimates. I'm nothing special. I just come from a normal high school and a normal family. Some of the Ultimates seem to think that makes me suspicious. I can't really blame them for that. Hopefully that won't make me a target if the killing game begins.
Many worries ran through my mind as I took a quick shower. Everything about this situation was unreal. Just before I got into bed, the screen in the top corner of my room lit up. On it was a video feed of Teddiursa sitting in some sort of lounge chair.
"Attention, students. It is now 10 p.m. Night time has officially begun. Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite!"
With that, the screen went dark. I really hoped that I wouldn't have to listen to that every night.
I figured I'd just have to wait and see what happened the next day. That's all I could do for the time being anyway. With uneasy thoughts, I eventually managed to drift off to sleep. Little did I know that it wouldn't be much longer before the killing game finally begun.
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Well, there's the first chapter! I know the introduction of the characters was long and boring, but it was necessary. 16 people is a lot to keep track of, but… well, it'll get easier after a few chapters. Let me know what you guys think of all this. I'll try to update it in a timely manner, but there will be no strict update schedule.