All her life, Sayaka Maizono had been told she had stars in her eyes.
Her parents commented on it more than once, as did her teachers, and friends.
It didn't matter what she was doing, the stars were always there. Answering a question in class? The stars twinkled. Doing a homework assignment? The stars twinkled. Even while doing mundane chores, the stars glinted and shimmered in her eyes.
The stars in her eyes would shimmer brightly when she would come home from school and turn on her old TV where the idols were. The stars kept shining as Sayaka watched her adopted older sisters jump and dance and sing. She would copy them and dance around her abandoned house, bringing life to the little house she and her parents dwelled in. She was happy. As long as the stars stayed, happiness would too.
But that all changed.
An acceptance letter from Hopes Peak Academy arrived in the mail one day, in a clean and crisp manila envelope. When Sayaka had seen it on the dining room table, she'd eagerly torn it open and devoured the words proclaiming that Hopes Peak had accepted her into their elite 78th class as the "Super High School Level Idol". The stars in her eyes became shooting stars, leaping across her eyes glistening with happy tears. She felt like the time she had been accepted into the youth talent show and had been discovered by a talent scout, saying he would make her famous. She felt like when she did when she met the other members of her pop group for the first time. She felt as joyful as she did when she and her fellow idols would jump and sing on the stage for legions of fans.
Wiping a few tears, Sayaka hugged the letter to her chest. She wondered if her older sisters would be proud of her.
Constellations formed in her eyes when she arrived at Hopes Peak.
Sayaka stood outside the gates of Hopes Peak for a good five minutes, admiring the school.
"The elite of the elite come here! I still can't believe I was accepted!" she thought. "I can't wait to start my high school life!"
She put her hand in her pocket and felt her acceptance letter. She grinned to herself and took a step forward to Hopes Peak.
And then, the clouds appeared, hiding the stars from the onlookers.
Sayaka woke up with her head on a desk in a classroom. Her head was pounding. She put her hand on her head delicately and felt the vein pulsating underneath her fingers.
"Where am I?"
She slowly pulled herself off the desk and began surveying her surroundings. The walls were covered in a strange pattern of wallpaper, and the chalkboard had a crudely drawn picture of a bear on it. She looked at the desk she was just sitting at and found a pamphlet, a piece of paper folded into thirds with shoddy crayon writing and drawing on it, saying she should head to the main hall.
"This must be the entrance ceremony!" she murmured excitedly to herself. She ran into the hall and consulted a few signs before making her way to the Main Hall.
The main hall contained about seven other students, who she soon discovered, also awoke in classrooms. They shuffled around awkwardly and looked up when a new student would walk, dazed, into the main hall.
After about twenty minutes, seven more students had walked into the main hall, as equally confused and dazed as their predecessors.
"Is this everyone?" a girl with huge blonde pigtails called out. Sayaka recognized her from the magazines, but could not remember her name off the top of her head.
A boy with blond hair and glasses cast a demeaning glance at the girl.
"No. There should be fifteen students here. One bumbling idiot has decided to postpone the opening ceremony." the boy pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and tossed his head.
After five or so more minutes, a boy with dusty brown hair with an odd strand sticking up stumbled into the room. He had his uniform on over a green hoodie. Sayaka gasped.
"Could it be…? No, it can't! But, I think it is him! I think…that boy could be Makoto Naegi! The one who saved the crane!"
Self-introductions began. Sayaka discovered the pigtailed girl was Junko Enoshima, the "Super High School Level Fashionista" and the bespectacled boy was Byakuya Togami, the haught "Super High School Level Heir" to the Togami Conglomerate. She also learned that the boy who'd swaggered into the main hall with a confident run through his orange hair was the "Super High School Level Baseball Player", Leon Kuwata. He had excitedly told her it was actually his dream to be a musician and that he admired her musical prowess, to which she smiled and blushed at his comment and offered to help him develop those skills while at this school. Sayaka also found out that the sullen girl with braids and a permanent scowl was none other than Touko Fukawa, the "Super High School Level Author". Sayaka had delightedly told Touko she'd enjoyed her newest book, to which Touko shuffled and muttered a few words under her breath before scuffling away.
At last, the Makoto look-alike came over and introduced himself as none other than Makoto Naegi. The stars in Sayaka's eyes that had been obscured by clouds reappeared and twinkled in delight at the prospect that someone she knew was here! Sayaka felt like the stars would never disappear.
Except they did.
Less than an hour later, the troupe of students had been told that they were essentially being held hostage in this school and the only hope of leaving this school would be the cold-blooded murder of another student.
A few students yelled in protest. Petite programmer Chihiro Fujisaki even began to cry silently. Sayaka felt her blood run cold and she felt numb. All feeling left her and she couldn't move. She was paralyzed with fear.
The bear who had announced this shocking news let out a blood-curdling laugh and disappeared. The students dissolved into chaos. A boy with burning red eyes Sayaka recognized as Kiyotaka Ishimaru frantically tried to instill order into the students. However, a girl with an unwavering face called the class to order. Sayaka recognized her as Kyouko Kirigiri. She corralled everyone to the dining hall where it was decided that the students would meet daily for breakfast and a meeting.
As the group disbanded, Sayaka realized now was the perfect chance to ask Makoto if he remembered her. She was able to deduce from their introductions that he was, in fact, the same Makoto she had attended middle school with.
"Makoto!" she called, "did you happen to attend Blackroot Middle School?"
Makoto turned in a jerky motion and looked at her. "Y-yeah…you did too. I remember, you were in Class 4 and I-"
"-was in Class 2!" Sayaka beamed.
Makoto looked taken aback. "H-how did you know?"
She smiled a genuine smile. "Don't be silly, Makoto! I know who you are! I've admired you ever since I saw you rescue that crane in middle school!" Her face dropped. "As it appears, I'm the crane you rescued and I'm hear to repay the debt."
"W-what?" Makoto jumped back and Sayaka let out a little laugh that reminded Makoto of tinkling bells.
"I'm just kidding," she smiled, "it's just so great to see a familiar face!"
The pair spent almost all their time together. The stars shined brightly and visibly. Despite the situation, Sayaka felt like she could face this challenge. She tried in vain to suppress the feeling of worry over her band and family gnawing at her.
"I must be strong for them."
The stars still twinkled, albeit a little dimly.
Then, it happened.
Their militant headmaster, Monobear, had summoned the students to the gym with the promise of a motive to help speed along "the action". He gave each student a DVD and sent them off to the AV Room. Sayaka warily inserted the DVD into the player and an image of her and her bandmates singing and dancing appeared on stage.
"Sayaka Maizono, a promising young idol and her fellow pop stars have taken the world by storm. This vivacious pop group just keeps on landing number one hits and amassing fans! Life is good for these bright young ladies!" Sayaka recognized this icy narrator as Monobear. "However…"
A crack. TV static blurred the screen and Sayaka gasped in horror. Her bandmates lay immobile on the stage. They were undeniably…dead. In the background, Monobear's face lit up a monitor.
"…these lovely ladies have befallen such a horrible fate! But how?" there was a pause before Monobear started back up gleefully. "The answer comes after graduation!"
Sayaka looked up from her monitor shaking in fear.
"No!" she screamed in terror as she bolted from the AV Room, knocking a chair over. "It can't be true!"
She dashed into the hall. She didn't get far before a hand wrapped around her wrist.
"Let go of me!" she wailed.
"No." The voice belonged to Makoto. "Sayaka, calm down. It's okay, it was probably edited."
Sayaka wailed again and crumpled against Makoto.
"No one is coming for us. I'm going to die! We're all going to die here!"
Makoto pulled her close in a silent embrace. She pulled away from him after a few moments.
He'd noticed the shine in her eyes was gone. They were stagnant blue pools now instead of the starry skies he'd been used to.
She buried her head into his chest again. An idea flashed through her head. The stars in her eyes erupted into red super-giant stars. They were bigger, a little flashier than normal, but there was something malicious about these stars. These were stars that wanted to change fate. These were stars that were dimming. These stars were worried for their life.
A quick room swap with the gullible Makoto and a note set Sayaka's plan in motion. She switched the room plates and gingerly shoved a note under the door of Leon Kuwata before hastily scrambling to the cafeteria and grabbing a kitchen knife. She darted back into Makoto's room and waited for the knock on the door, signaling the arrival of the unsuspecting Leon Kuwata.
The knock soon arrived and the door swung open.
"Hey Sayaka! I'm here! I'm ready to learn some vocal techniques that'll make chicks swoon!"
He looked around. Sayaka was no where to be seen.
"Uh…Sayaka? Are you-"
His words were cut short by said girl lunging at him from behind a wall wielding a kitchen knife and aiming at his chest.
Leon stumbled back into a dresser and grabbed the object he had caused to wobble-a replica sword. Sayaka slashed the knife at him and he frantically blocked her feeble attack and slapped her over the wrist with the knife.
"Ow! God!"
She dropped the knife, her wrist now floppy and broken. Leon grabbed the knife and advanced on Sayaka, who ran into the bathroom and fell against the door, opening he wouldn't figure out how to open it.
"I'm going to die!"
"I'm going to die!"
"I'm going to die!"
There were a few moments where there was no insistent banging on the door. Sayaka cradled her wrist and sat against the door, hoping Leon had decided to put the knife back and had gone to bed.
She was wrong.
There was a rattle and some scraping noises on the bathroom door. Sayaka panicked and ran into the shower area. The doorknob rattled loosely before falling and a hand pulled the door open. Leon grinned sadistically and his eye twitched a little. Sayaka's eyes widened. The little galaxies in them shook.
"Thought you could murder me?" Leon whispered malevolently. "You thought I'd be an easy target?"
He raised the knife.
"Well you were wrong!"
There was a guttural scream and a piercing pain washed over Sayaka. She trembled and saw the black handle of the knife protruding from her stomach. The stars in her eyes exploded into supernovas. One quick flash of light and the stars were dead, extinguished forever. The little galaxies disappeared with the last flutter of an eyelid and were never seen by human eyes again.
fin
a/n; this turned out a lot longer than I thought it would be! I haven't written anything in a while, so my writing is probably very rusty! I wrote this to reintroduce myself to and to immerse myself in my new fandoms, as the ones I had previously authored are no longer my major interests.
I hope you enjoyed the story!
Reviews would be really appreciated!