Prologue – You Should Do Your Best

Tsumugi Shirogane opened her eyes.

She was confused, due to the fact that this didn't do a thing to help with the darkness all around her. Still, the girl didn't panic, and decided that, if sight didn't work, she would try touch.

Feeling around the place she was in, Tsumugi quickly discovered that it was a narrow space, with her hands easily being able to touch the walls in every direction. She had somehow been sleeping while on her feet inside that place.

So, she was inside a narrow, closed space with no light. That was bad.

But even that wasn't reason to panic. Thankfully she didn't have claustrophobia, and she could wait to panic until after she determined whether she was actually trapped wherever she was.

So Tsumugi put both hands forward and pushed.

The front "wall" gave way without any resistance, and Tsumugi was blinded by the sudden light at the same time as she fell to the floor.

"Ouch..." Tsumugi moaned.

She got up and looked around. It seemed like she was inside of some sort of classroom. Also, she had been inside of a locker when she woke up. Tsumugi also saw that there was another locker inside that classroom. Was there perhaps someone else inside that one?

Just as that thought crossed her mind, Tsumugi's guess was proven right when a girl stumbled out of the locker.

She was a blonde who was wearing pink clothes, fingerless gloves, googles on her forehead, boots and garters, as well as straps on her arms and midriff.

"Argh... Where am I...?" She muttered, as she started getting up.

"Are you okay?" Tsumugi asked.

"Gah... That was a bad trip..." The girl rubbed her head and looked around "What did I take last night...?"

"I... Don't think being here has anything to do with taking something." Tsumugi said, bemused.

"Huh...?" The blonde girl looked at Tsumugi "So this isn't some kind of party?"

"I don't think so." Tsumugi said "I don't know what happened, but I woke up inside one of those lockers, just like you. And who are you, anyway?"

"Me? I need no introduction, but if you insist, I am Miu Iruma, gorgeous girl genius and Ultimate Inventor!" The newly named girl spoke bombastically.

"Ah, you're an Ultimate as well? I don't really meet other Ultimates that often. My name is Tsumugi Shirogane, and I am the Ultimate Cosplayer." Tsumugi said, smiling slightly.

"Huh? Well, it's true, I rarely ever meet any other Ultimates either. So, you really don't know what is happening here?" Miu asked.

"Yeah." Tsumugi confirmed "I just woke up and I have no idea where this is or how I could have gotten here." She grimaced "My memory about the most recent things is kinda hazy too..." She shook her head "We should check outside and she what we can find. I assume that door isn't locked."

"I'll check!" Miu said, and started to go, but then...

"Wait!" Tsumugi shouted.

"What?"

Tsumugi put a hand on one of her pockets and took out a small tablet computer, which had "Monopad" written on the side.

"I just felt something weird in my pocket, and..." She booted the tablet up, and it showed her name "Is this like a Student Handbook?"

Miu searched her own body, and found a "Monopad" as well.

"Where did this come from?" She asked.

"I have no idea, but it's probably related to the reason why we're here." Tsumugi said "Still, we can check that later. It's better to get back to what we were doing before."

"Right." Miu said, before pocketing the Monopad back and going to open the door.

It opened easily, and the two went to explore the school, soon finding out quite a few things:

- They could exit the school, but the grounds around it were covered with a dome cage, that completely prevented them from thinking of escaping.

- There were fourteen other Ultimate Students trapped inside with them, including a green haired boy (called Rantaro Amami) that had somehow forgotten his talent and a blonde girl (Kaede Akamatsu), who was the Ultimate Pianist and was trying to get the Ultimates to cooperate in order to find a way out.

- There were six moving stuffed bear things. One of which was black and white and called himself "the headmaster of the Ultimate Academy", saying that he would explain the situation of the Ultimates soon.

Miu and Tsumugi eventually split, with the former saying that she wanted to look for "something", while the latter started walking through the school and observing, since she didn't feel the need to do anything else, specially before the bear delivered its promised explanation.

And she didn't really need to wait for long, as soon speakers all over the school went on, broadcasting a message that all the Ultimates should head to the gym.

Tsumugi did so, and met up with the others along the way. Miu seemed to be in a bad mood, but the cosplayer didn't mind, and the two walked together and entered the meeting place.

There was a stage with a podium inside the gym. Standing in front of the podium were the five small, colorful stuffed bears, while the bigger, black and white bear was sitting on the podium.

Tsumugi and the other Ultimates stood near the podium, their bodies forming a wary line as they looked at the bears. And then, the black and white bear started to talk.

"Welcome, Ultimates! Welcome to the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles!" He greeted them "My name is Monokuma, and I am the Headmaster." Then, he swept his arm in the direction of the other bears "And these are the Teaching Assistants of the Academy."

"I'm Monotaro!" Exclaimed the red and white one.

"I am Monophanie." Said the white and pink one, who seemed to be feminine.

"Heeeeere's Monokid!" Said the blue and white one, who had an immense tongue.

"The name's Monosuke." Said the yellow and white one, who wore glasses.

"I-AM-CALLED-MONODAM." Said the green and white one, who looked more robotic than the rest.

That introduction left almost every one of the Ultimates speechless. The first to find her voice was Kaede Akamatsu.

"Headmaster...? Teaching Assistants...? Where are we? What do you want from us...?"

"Puhuhu..." Monokuma laughed "Before I answer that, it would be better if all of you were aware of the situation you're in." He pointed at the students "You guys had some time to explore the school, but you may still be harboring some mistaken assumptions about this place, so I'm just going to say it straight up: There is no exit from here."

"No... exit?" Kaede said, disbelieving.

"To be more precise, there is no way to exit without following the rules." Monokuma said with a small laugh "And that bring us to the reason why you were brought here... To participate in the Killing Game!"

"Killing Game!" The five other bears all shouted.

"Killing... Game...?" Tsumugi muttered.

"Exactly, the Killing Game! You need to beat the Killing Game in order to be allowed to leave this place!" Monokuma shouted "There are two ways to win the Killing Game, but both of them revolve one simple concept: The Perfect Crime."

"One of the ways of beating the Killing Game is by committing a Perfect Crime, which means killing someone and getting away with it." Monokuma stated simply "To see whether or not the crime of that student, who will shall call 'blackened', can be classified as 'Perfect', we will hold a class trial sometime after a body is discovered."

"What?!" Gonta shouted, full of indignation.

"Continuing my explanation..." Monokuma disregarded him "In the Class Trial, the students will discuss the evidence, alibis and all that, before voting on who they think is the culprit." He grinned "And after the voting, we have my favorite part: The Punishment!" He laughed "If the person with the most votes turns out to be the killer, then their crime wasn't perfect, and they will receive punishment. However, if that isn't the case, then the killer graduates, and is allowed to leave the Academy... While the other students will receive the punishment in their place!"

He stopped and looked at the Ultimates, clearly waiting for something. Rantaro was the one to give it to him:

"And what is this 'punishment' you speak off?"

"Well, there is only one thing that it could possibly be... Death, of course!" He cackled "And that means the other students will work even harder in order to solve the crime of the 'blackened'." He adopted a joking expression "Of course, if you don't want to kill anyone, it is still possible to win the game, due to the second way of winning that I mentioned.

"If there are three or less students remaining after the end of a class trial, the surviving ones will be allowed to leave." Monokuma finished.

"Do you really expect us to kill each other, just like this?" Kaede demanded.

"That is actually a very good question." Monokuma said, in mocked praise "If you want to escape, some of you will have to die. But it really would be hard for you to kill each other so easily... But that's what your Teaching Assistants are here for!"

And then Monotaro started to speak:

"Every week we shall provide you guys with a new 'motive', to help you get hyped up for killing your fellow classmates!"

"And it's not just that, but you can also use your Monopads to call for our assistance in such matters." Monophanie said.

"We can instruct you about possible tricks for killing, and even help clean up evidence." Monosuke said.

"But we're not gonna do everything for you bastards!" Monokid shouted "You will have to do the killing yourselves!"

"ALSO-THERE-ARE-SOME-OTHER-RESTRICTIONS-TO-MAKE-THE-GAME-FAIR-FOR-EVERYONE." Monodam said.

"And also, to make sure you guys get along with your Teaching Assistants, they will also be playing a game of their own." Monokuma said.

"HUH?!" The other five said together, as apparently that was news to them.

"Oh, did I forget to mention it to you?" Monokuma asked, smugly.

Then he clapped his paws together and caused a screen to appear, in which every one of the small bears was displayed, together with the number 500 for each of them.

"Each of you will start with 500 Monopoints. You will lose 100 for every day without a killing, and if you ever get to zero... You shall be executed." Monokuma said.

"AHHHH?!" The small bears screamed.

"You will be able to gain points by doing well your jobs as Teaching Assistants. But if you do them badly, you may also lose a lot of points all at once." He continued.

"But, but dad..." Monotaro pleaded "We're the Monokubs. If one of us dies, then we won't be the Monokubs anymore!"

"Well, in that case I guess you should do your best to not die, then!" Monokuma said, happily "Now... Everything else about the game your guys will be able to figure out on your own." He then jumped in the air and started floating there "So, without further ado... Let's get the killing game started!"

He started laughing, signaling the beginning of the nightmare.