Somewhere in Japan, there's a prestigious high school that goes by the name of Hope's Peak Academy. Every year, they scout for the best of the best in all things, whether it be something as specific as animal breeder, to something as general as "good luck", whatever that's supposed to mean. Getting accepted into this school basically guarantees your future, so I guess it's a pretty big thing. At least, to everyone else.

My name is Arata Gensai; talent- Ultimate Paramedic. The truth is I don't really care much for these types of achievements. All they do is boost an ego to an unneeded level, really. And yet here I am, accepting an invitation from some "prestigious" school. I sigh as I stare at the imposing gates, stray pieces of brown hair threatening my vision. I try to wipe them away, but all it does is get stuck in the middle

Need to get a haircut sometime soon, I note in my head. I head into the building, trying to get familiar with its structure- key word here being trying to. In just a matter of moments my head started spinning, and my body began to feel heavy. I wanted to shout, really, but by the time the words reached the tip of my tongue the world went black. Some welcome this is.

[TIME: ? - LOCATION: ?]

I shot up from the bed I was laying on in complete shock. Wait- bed? No, this doesn't seem right. The room I somehow ended up in had chipped maroon walls and a soggy green carpet. It was obvious this place hasn't been touched in a while, let alone being in Hope's Peak itself. I stood up from the creaky bed and walked to the mirror that was in the doorless bathroom. I stared into it: was anything different? No, I don't think so. I was still a brown haired, green eyed Japanese kid from some rural town. I still was wearing my white coat and my gray checkered slacks, and the gold earings in both of my ears weren't stolen, thank God. I walked away from the shabby bathroom and turned my attention to the rest of the room, spending quite some time looking through it. For some reason, my clothes, medkit, and other necessities were here, stored away safely in the various wooden drawers around the room. The bed made a godawful creek when I sat on it once more. I stared at each and every piece of furniture with a cautious curiosity, as if something was going to jump at me any second. I sighed and scratched the back of my head.

"The hell…? Am I forgetting something?" The scratching turns into searching as I start to look for any sort of bump on my head. If I forgot something, it was surely because I bumped my head somewhere hard, right? Yeah, I could've gave myself some sort of amnesia. Keyword being could've. With no bump found, I resorted to the explanation of 'the guy that kidnapped me drugged me and brought me here along with things he stole'. Yeah, it's probably my best bet for an explanation right now. Nothing else would've made sense. I fully laid down on the bed, its creaking once again killing my ears. I hope we don't actually have to stay here or something. That would be terrible.

No, Arata, stop. You told yourself you weren't going to be so negative with these new experiences, I tried to tell myself. Well, it's kind of too late for that at this point. After all, I just mentally insulted this room for quite some time. Might as well try to do better next time. I continued to argue with myself for God knows how long. There was nothing else to do after all. Who knows, maybe there's no one else he-

CRASH

I jumped off the bed, eyes scanning the room. Guess you could say I was panicked, but I'd rather not put a label on it right now. I looked at the door that lead out of the room, and rushed to it, jiggling the knob open and running out.

[TIME: ? LOCATION: OUTER HALL?]

Not even a second after I left the room did I bump into someone. I fell straight onto my behind and looked up at my assailant- well, "assailant." Just as I was about to scold him about his careless nature, I noticed a hand appear in front of me. The blue haired, blue eyed bespectacled boy smiled at me as his hand continued to urge me to take it.

"Hey, sorry about that. Didn't mean to bump into you like that," he said with a cheerful tone. Guess he wasn't that bad of a guy as I might've thought. I smiled back up at him and took his hand, being tugged by it to standing position moments later. I scratched the back of my head.

"It's alright. It was kinda my fault for it too, really."

The boy- who was about as tall as me, surprisingly- laughed quietly for a bit. He shot a peace sign at me.

"Then let's take equal blame for it! Name's Yoshi Hashira, by the way. I'm also known as the Ultimate Blogger."

YOSHI HASHIRA - ULTIMATE BLOGGER

A kind and sharp eyed boy with a knack for making friends. Was assigned the talent of "Ultimate Blogger", and always tries his best to relate to his followers.

"'Blogger'...? That's quite the… Interesting talent," I wince at my own words. Does it really kill you to not try and make guesses about people right off the bat, Arata?! I sigh and look away.

"Sorry, I don't mean to offend you, really. It's just a habit of mine…" Yoshi waved off my apology.

"It's fine, man, I don't mind. I get why you think the way you do. It just means we have a lot more to talk about, y'know?" He smiled welcomingly at me, and I did the same right back. Thank God I was wrong.

"Oh, right, what's your name and talent by the way? Only fair that you tell me yours since you know mine."

I nod in agreement.

"Arata Gensai, Ultimate Paramedic. Pleasure to meet you."

ARATA GENSAI - ULTIMATE PARAMEDIC

A cautious boy with a habit of judging people before he gets to fully know them. He has saved countless lives as a Paramedic in both field and regular hospitals, hence his title of Ultimate Paramedic.

I place my hand on my chin as I look at him curiously, "Though I really do need to ask- how do you know I had a talent? I don't think my way of acting gave it away, really," Yoshi smiled at me.

"Simple, it's because the other two I met both had talents and said they were from Hope's Peak," He nodded down the hall where an orange haired girl wearing too many layers of clothing and a white haired girl in a green suit were, with the orange haired girl standing behind the white haired one. Yoshi motioned them over. I decided to label them both as "shy".

"Hey, guys, it's alright. He's pretty nice to talk to," he calls out. Slowly the other two make their way over. The white haired girl with the red glasses gulped before bowing, the orange haired girl making sure she stayed out of sight. She rose up and adjusted her medium length hair before pushing up her glasses, managing to smirk a little as the other girl clutched the the back of her jacket.

"Hello there, my name is Tsukiko Tsukino. I am the Ultimate Astronomer."

TSUKIKO TSUKINO - ULTIMATE ASTRONOMER

An intelligent and considerate girl who spends more time listening than talking. Her infatuation with the stars, moons, and worlds beyond Earth has earned her the title of Ultimate Astronomer.

"I'm guessing you spend a lot of time locked up in your room, the-," I stopped myself once more, "Er, please ignore my comment. Your talent sounds super interesting, really," I bow in apology. Tsukiko pushed some hair behind her ear.

"It's alright for now. Though, cutting that habit of yours will prove to be beneficial in the long run," I sighed and nodded in agreement.

"Y-Yeah, I know…." I looked away, only to catch the extremely shy girl staring at me intensely, her orange eyes attempting to impale me from behind the large, black, rectangular glasses. I gulped and smiled.

"What's your name?" I said quietly. I extended my hand to her as a sign of goodwill. She didn't accept it, but she did stand up straight on her own. My eyes darted very briefly to her large chest. Very. Briefly. The orangette cleared her throat in an attempt to raise her already quiet voice's volume.

"M-My name is Rika Ueda, a-and I am the Ultimate Voice Actress, I guess…"

RIKA UEDA - ULTIMATE VOICE ACTRESS

A quiet girl who prefers to be in as small of a group as possible. She was chosen to become the Ultimate Voice Actress because of her ability to voice a wide range of characters, however rumor has it that she voices work for questionable content as a pastime.

I gently smiled as a way to make her feel more comfortable. Rika ended up hiding behind Tsukiko again. Yoshi sighed and shook his head.

"Guess she'll come around over time, right Arata?" I looked over at my new friend in surprise, not really remembering what he said earlier. I was too caught up in trying to figure out Rika's story.

"Huh? Yeah, guess she will," I made a quick recovery and smiled at him. He smiled back.

"Well, wanna look around for more people? Surely we aren't the only ones out here."

"Yeah, of course. The more the merrier, right?" Well, not really, but I hoped that by telling myself that I'd be able to cope with the whole situation a lot better. Rika began to shake her head furiously as Tsukiko looked behind herself.

"I believe Rika and I will stay here. Tell us how it goes," Tsukiko stated. She had her right arm around Rika now, rubbing the side of Rika's arm in comfort. Looks like they knew each other before all of this. Yoshi turned to me and smirked.

"Well? I'll let you lead the way."

I nodded and smiled at him confidently.

"Yeah. Let's go." The two of us left the girls behind as we looked for more people.

[TIME: ? LOCATION: FRONT DESK?]

We kept walking down the old halls, not really enjoying the view. Yoshi was cheerful for some reason. It was kinda weird, really, so of course my own big mouth decided to question him.

"Why are you so happy?" I blurted out. Crap, that sounded rude. I gulped and looked away. Yoshi laughed at my expression.

"No reason- just glad that I'm still alive. Gotta take everything in stride y'know." I nodded in response. He's strange alright, but hey- at least everyone else that I met so far has been fairly norm-

"YOU THERE! PLEASE STATE YOUR NAME AND TALENT!" I take that back. I look at the uniform clad… Guy with shock. He looks at me with his determined honey gold eyes unnervingly.

"Good Sir, I urge you to respond! Please state your name and talent!" He continued to point at me. God, this was embarrassing. I sigh and respond.

"I'm Arata Gensai. Ultimate Paramedic."

"Ah, I see! Thank you for your honest response, Sir Arata!" The boy bows slightly and unsheathes his obsidian sword, making all of us back up in response.

"I AM ARTURIO KINGSLY! THE ULTIMATE HOLY KNIGHT! I HAIL FROM THE COUNTRY OF CHRISTIANIA!"

ARTURIO KINGSLY - ULTIMATE HOLY KNIGHT

An overly religious boy that supposedly hails from the country of Christiania. He is the Holy Knight of God there, and has joined Hope's Peak as a part of a cultural exchange program between Japan and Christiania.

"Th-That sounds greaaaat…" I say a bit too unenthusiastically. How the hell did this guy get in here with a SWORD?! My hands remain in front of me defensively. I do not want to get stabbed today. Yoshi also had his hands up, however he moved towards Arturio. Just when he was about to speak, he got interrupted by another man with pink-ish hair.

"Dude put the sword away. You're scaring the girl here," He said, scratching the back of his head. His eyes stares at us boredly as he remained crouched down by a light pink haired girl, only to give us a half smirk a minute later.

"My apologies, Sir Jun. I will put it away at once!" Arturio puts the sword back into its casing gently. The boy- Jun- stands up and sighs.

"Man, I told you to quit calling me that," He scratches the back of his head. Yoshi earnestly went up to him, offering him a handshake.

"What's your name?" He says without skipping a beat. Jun sighs again. I'm guessing he doesn't like all of this friendliness coming from everyone. After a few seconds, he speaks.

"Name's Jun Chiba. I'm a botanist."

JUN CHIBA - ULTIMATE BOTANIST

An apathetic boy who doesn't seem to care deeply about others. He has conducted many studies on plants and their origins, with his work becoming well known enough to grant him the title of Ultimate Botanist.

After saying his name, Jun walks past Yoshi, ignoring the handshake. He pushes past me as well. I look back at him in disgust.

"What a prick…" I mumble under my breath. I look over to the girl on the floor, who was now looking at me curiously. Yoshi and I went over to her to make sure she was okay, with Arturio close behind.

"Are you hurt?" I scan her with my eyes as I ask that. She nods her head slowly and smiles, pointing at the top of her head.

"Yori was hurt here, but it's okay. Yori is still alive, so everything will be fine~" I thought she would would be scared at first, but it doesn't seem to be the case. That makes this a lot easier. I examine her head as Yoshi asked her some questions.

"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say your name is Yori. Am I right?" Yoshi says. It's remarkable how upbeat he is. Yori shakes her head, which angered me a bit to be honest. After all, I am examining her right now. I sigh and keep trying to get this done as quick as I can.

"Yup! Yori's full name is Yori Saitō! Though, she doesn't remember her talent right now… B-But it's okay! Yori will remember one day, so she isn't worried at all!"

YORI SAITŌ - ULTIMATE ?

An amnesiac girl who seems to have not a care in the world. She has forgotten her talent, but is in no rush to find it.

After her excessive introduction, I finished the examination. I stand up and brush off my trousers. These floors were dirty, alright.

"Well, Yori here did hit her head quite hard. There's a small dent at the top. Her fall was probably the cause of her not remembering her talent," The others take in the info and nod. After I finished, Arturio stood up and smiled.

"Very well, I shall watch Lady Yori and make sure she is safe and sound! I am sure it is what God would want me to do as well!" He gives me a thumbs up as Yoshi nods in agreement.

"I'll stay with Arturio. Better safe than sorry, right?" Yoshi smiles at me as I smirk at him.

"Yeah, it is. I'll go look around for more people then."

"Godspeed, Sir Arata! I wish you luck!" I saluted him casually back. Man, this guy was weird.

"Well, I'm off," I turned away from the trio and continued into another section of the building, hoping I wouldn't meet anyone weirder.

And God damn it, I was wrong again.

Next Time:

"Oh, you GOTTA show me how to do that!"

"So… Sleepy…"

"My, my, don't need to get violent with me, dear~"

"Kyuhuhuhu~"