The ticking of the clock echoed, setting off a sort of monotonous tone.

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Tock.

It chimed.

Then, it stopped.

I could only hear my own heavy breathing, as I slowly fluttered my eyes while I lifted my head. My vision was blurry and distorted at best, and I could tell that the room lacked any source of light. So... darkness. I was engulfed in darkness. Silence had filled this darkened room I was trapped in, too.

'Where am I?' I thought to myself, looking around the small and confined space. I could barely move. In fact, it felt like I was being squished. It was getting to a point where it became very uncomfortable.

Suddenly, I could make out a hint of light that shined through the gaps of what was in front of me. I reached out my hand, pushing an unknown source in front of me. The "door" of this rusty place slowly creaked open, as I stumbled out of whatever I was in.

I turned my head around.

Eh? Why was I in a locker?

I turned my attention towards my surroundings.

I had stumbled into some sort of classroom. The chalkboard was glowing a strange green, it was probably a screen. There was a monitor plastered onto the wall, hanging above the screen. Red vine-like ropes had covered the windows to the outside, barely letting the light from the outside in.

The windows were all barred as if what was outside was too terrible to see. Nearby in the back, in the corner of the room was a rotting desk, with a white flower that had been placed in a vase sitting on the deteriorating wooden table. The room looked so... neglected.

I don't remember this place.

Then again, should I?

"Where am I?" I asked myself again, trying to recollect my thoughts. "W-What's going on here?"

Why was I here?

I couldn't remember.

I just couldn't remember how I got here.

...

I looked down at myself. I had on a long black skirt, with a red tie wrapped around the collar of my shirt. Was I still in my Sakura Private Academy uniform? That's strange, I thought I took it off.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a door in the corner of the room. I could try to open it. I began to walk towards the door.

I placed my hand on the knob, I tried to turn the handle.

No reaction.

"It's locked?" I mumbled to myself. That didn't make a lot of sense to me.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of a bang, followed by a thump. I turned around in surprise to see the locker I had woken up next to begin to shake violently.

Then, a person unexpectedly stumbled out of the locker. It was a black-haired man, with a white vest and shirt, followed by black pants, with a pin that had a Fire Emblem surrounded by water that had been attached to his vest. "Ugh.." He groaned, dusting himself off as he got up from the floor. He looked around the room for a good few seconds, before noticing me.

We stared at each other for a long time, before the man spoke.

"Er... who... are you?" He asked me, as he stared directly at me with a confused look on his face.

"I'm... Moriko Yanagisawa." I replied.

"A-Ah, so that means you're the sister of that Makoto Yanagisawa guy, aren't you?" The man asked me. I nodded. "To think, I'd meet the sister of the famous journalist. What are the odds, huh? Anyways, let me introduce myself. My name is Naoki Cavin, from Nankai Academy. Nice to meet you." He exclaimed, his eyes lighting up brighter than the sun itself.

He looked at the pin on my chest. "Ah, you're enrolled in Cherry Blossom Private Academy, huh?" Naoki observed, before staring back at my face. "It's very expensive to attend there, you know."

"It's the same for South Sea Academy, is it not?" I asked with a low voice and an uncertain tone.

"Yeah, but the price is only a little bit cheaper, for a school that's on a cruise." He asserted, crossing his arms,

"...Anyway, do you have any sort of clue to where we might be, or why we're here?" The male had asked me. I shook my head. "I see. That's a disappointment."

Just then...

I remembered something.

I was taken from my home. Kidnapped, to say the least.

I was busy writing in my journal, like always, practicing different forms of calligraphy. Multiple papers were strewn across my floor, as I struggled to create a decent enough story that would capture the hearts of the audience. Coincidentally, I decided to look out the window nearby my desk, as rain was beating down on the window. A black van parked itself by my house, as about three men step out the back door,

I paid no mind to it.

But I wish I had...

Loud bangs began to occur from my front door. But, even though I'm sixteen and still live with my parents, I'm not allowed to answer the door under any circumstances if I didn't see their car in the driveway. So, I decided to call my mom for help.

No response.

Suddenly, a loud thump occurred, followed by the sound of footsteps. They ran up the stairs, as the footsteps got increasingly louder.

By the time I got up from my desk, the men were probably already at the front doorway.

I screamed out for help, for someone to save me.

But nobody came.

They dragged me outside my house. Although this was a busy street with loads of people, nobody would help me, no matter how much I kicked and screamed. They pretended to think that this was normal and went on with their day. After they threw me into the black van, I lost consciousness when my head hit the floor of the vehicle.

"That's it..!" I yelled. Naoki turned to look at me. "What is it?" He asked, wanting clarification on what I meant.

"I mean, I was taken from my home. Some men came to my house and threw me into a black van, then I lost consciousness." I explained to the black-haired man.

"Now that I think of it, I can recall having an incident similar to your story," Naoki told me. "I was in my dormitory on the ship one day and was taken from my dormitory. Then, they threw me in a black life raft and lost consciousness as well. But then again, that begs the question, why were we chosen specifically?"

Suddenly,

*click*

A faint sound was heard. "Huh? What was that?" I asked, looking around to try and find the source. "I'd assume that it came from that door." He mumbled, walking towards the wooden door. The man turned the handle, and it slowly creaked open.

"But... it was just locked." I mumbled, loud enough for Naoki to hear me.

"That doesn't matter." He told me with a rather rough voice. "If the door is unlocked, then it's the least of our problems." He walked outside the room.

The door swiftly closed behind him.

...

He wasn't wrong.

I mean, I'd had to look around this place to get a sense of where I'm at, and due to the classroom, it'd be easy to assume I'm in a school. But where was the school?

Suddenly, I could hear Naoki yelled something along the lines of "What the hell...!" that was muffled through the closed door. "Eh?" I opened the door and walked out the classroom, only to be taken back by an outlandish sight...

In front of me, was a large piece of machinery that was glowing a bright red would suddenly roar, nearly knocking be off my feet.

"What the..." I muttered, looking up at the robot trying to get a sense of what was going on.

"Kyahahahahahahaha!" The machine cackled, giving off a sinister atmosphere.

"What the hell is this..?" I muttered, my eyes widening at the outlandish sight. "Hey, N-Naoki!" I stuttered, as he turned to face me. "I don't intend to stand here all day! Let's go!"

...

Suddenly, I could feel my body dashing, running throughout the neglected hallways as I stepped in countless weeds and grass, as they grinder on my soles. But... I could care less, I had to get away from whatever that was. I turned around, to see Naoki right behind me, and the robot that was slowly gaining on us. I could practically hear the heavy footsteps right behind me.

The two of us came to a pink frilly staircase and ran down the stairs as fast as we could. As soon as we got down there, I realized that most of the school had been boarded up. What would've been a regular hallway in front of the stairs was turned into a barbed wire fence.

So the two of us would run the other way.

Suddenly, the ground shook underneath me, as I turned around in panic. I saw the glowing red machine jump from the staircase.

What in the hell was really going on? I thought to myself. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a glowing yellow robot begin to charge at us. "Naoki!" I yelled, but he had other plans. He was already running way up ahead of me. "Down here!" He shouted back at me, his voice trailing off.

I ran into a lounge-like room, that was all dusty and ragged, and some of the couches had been slashed with sharp edged weapons. After some more running, I made a right turn, to see a long and narrow corridor that lead to a steel door. Naoki was right around the corner, stopping as soon as he saw me. "Hey, Naoki?!" I called out, panting heavily from all the running away I had done. "Down there!" I pointed to the dimly light steel door.

"I can see that, you know!" He barked before he started dashing down the narrow hallway.

I could hear heavy footsteps behind me, getting increasingly louder by the second.

And that was when I realized that we ran into a dead end if the door was locked. But that is a risk I'm willing to take. I began to run down the hallway, the footsteps behind me getting dangerously loud, like whatever that was was right behind me.

As soon as the two of us got to the end of the hallway, we would burst through the door...

...and step into an unfamiliar zone, filled with unfamiliar faces.

"...Two others, now?" A white haired female suddenly spoke up. The door behind us would slowly creak shut. "...Hey, you wouldn't happen to have been chased by those "things", would you?" The auburn-haired man asks the two of us.

"Yeah, we were." Naoki said, before shuffling his hand into his pocket.

"It's the same for the rest of us." A long brown haired female spoke up.

"But who are they, really?" A long blonde-haired woman in a pink uniform asked. "Do they have a motive for bringing us here?"

"You think we really know that?" A pink-haired girl grumbled, crossing her arms with a disapproving look on her face.

"They're a real pain, to be honest." An auburn-haired man scoffed, as he unzipped his gray coat.

"Anyway, what do we do now? I mean, those creatures are on the other side of that door, roaming the hallways." A tall man with long dreadlocks piped up. In the background, the auburn-haired man had tied the gray coat around his waist.

"Where are we should be the better question to ask, don't you think?" A dirty brown haired girl suggested.

"Necessarily, all that we know is that there's fifteen of us and that we're in some sort of school. But that's really it." A mauve-haired woman in an all black uniform spoke.

Thinking back to it, I remember the classroom very vividly. Those sixteens desks, and that vase with the white flower...

...that had been placed on that peculiar desk. Wasn't it tradition to place a white flower on top of a desk of the departed?

"Alright, everybody! Sit down and shut up!" An unannounced voice suddenly echoed throughout the gymnasium.

"Uhm, it's more polite if you just said 'be quiet', Monotaro." A second, more lighthearted voice would follow.

"Who's that?" The girl with the long brown hair asked with a weary tone of voice, looking around herself.

"Wait, aren't those the voices of that red and pink robots?" The mauve-haired female would say observantly.

Then, from out of nowhere, the robots I saw earlier suddenly would burst through the ceiling, and landed on the wooden planks that made up the floor.

The ground shook heavily at their sudden appearance. "What the hell!?" A man in a chef's uniform quavered. "Why are the monsters here now?!"

"Monsters?" The yellow machine questions the man's choice of words. "No, no, these are just our ultimate Mechanical Killing Machines!"

"Waaaaait. Did you just say Ultimate... Killing Machine..?" I asked.

"You heard him right!" The blue one shouted. "These are all-purpose Killing Machines, who serve the ultimate purpose of annihilating rule breaks."

"Ok... but who's controlling those things?" The man with the long dreadlocks asked with a shaky voice.

"That doesn't matter!" The blue robot shouted abruptly. "All that matters is that they're still in proper working order! It's been forever since we've used these!"

"Then, perhaps we should get off?" The pink robot suggested. "We tested it, and it's fine."

"I guess that's fine." The red one said. "Let's leave before it's too late."

"Can someone just explain this whole thing to me?" I heard someone mutter beside me. "This makes no sense."

Suddenly, the ground began to shake heavily, as the robots began to shake violently."H-Hey! What's going on?!" The dirty brown-haired man hollered, before being knocked off his feet.

Then, from the center of the robots, leaped out five mysterious looking animals.

One was yellow, one was blue, another green, a pink one, and a red one.

Nobody had the words to speak, as we all stared down in confusion.

"..."

"Well then?" The red one spoke up. "Is that better for you guys, now that we're not in our EXISALs?"

"It would be fine if this didn't even make me more confused." The pink-haired girl lamented, taking a step back at the bizarre sight.

"I mean... talking and moving bears?" The long brown haired woman queried. "That's out of the ordinary for me."

"For all I want to know is, who are you guys?" The long brunette would ask with a lighthearted voice, turning towards the Bears.

"Who about YOU guys?!" The blue bear countered back.

"Aren't you all supposed to be those special kids with aspiring talents?" The yellow bear asked as he adjusted his glasses.

"Uhm... I'm just a regular high schooler, so no." The white haired girl spoke up.

"Yeah, it's the same for me." The auburn-haired man commented, crossing his arms. "I don't remember having a talent or anything."

"Perhaps that's just because you haven't recalled your first memories, meaning that you don't even remember your own talent?" The yellow one had suggested, sending us all into a spiral of confusion. We each exchanged baffled looks that were painted on our faces.

"First memories?" I questioned, perplexed. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's simple, your first memories all contain a talent that you have. But perhaps you had already forgotten about what you did for a living?"

"And once you forgot your talents, you turned into normal people." The red one said. "But this is a school for the gifted, so that's a problem, ain't it?"

"Then let's reveal to them their talents again!" The pink one suggested. "But we'll have to unseal those locked up talents."

"Eh? What do you mean unseal..?" The pink haired girl implored.

"We should get them out of those raggedy old uniforms first, and slip them into something more comfortable with their talent." The pink one recommended.

They just completely ignored her question.

"That's true." The yellow one acknowledged. "So, without further ado..."

Suddenly, several piles of clothing fell from the hole in the ceiling the robots had created, creating a small mound.

"Eh? What's this?" The blonde with the long ponytail inquired, staring down at the heap of clothing that laid on the floor.

"I think it's supposed to be our clothes, but how can we tell what belongs to who?" Naoki asked, staring down at the clothing.

"You can each find your own, as there are tags with a name on each on them." The yellow bear said, as the blonde ponytailed girl picked up an orange skirt.

"Oi, ain't it now time to start the killing game?!" The blue bear hollered. "Killing game?" The mauve haired woman inquired.

"Yeah, you were brought here for a reason: to participate in the New Killing School Life." The red bear explained. "And after we give you your memories back, we can officially start the game."

"But... what if we don't want to participate in such a game?" Naoki asked, with a grave look on his face.

"Necessarily, you don't have a choice in this matter." The yellow bear stated.

"Wait, you mean... you're forcing us to kill each other..?!" The white haired girl asked, flinching a bit.

"He said you don't have a choice, right?!" The blue bear had shouted, before letting out a maniacal laugh.

"Ah, well, we've wasted enough time already." The read bear commented. "So, let this Remembering Light guide your path..."

The voice faded out as a bright white wrapped itself around my body, before all my surroundings was just a beaming white. Suddenly, the world around me collapsed, as I slowly opened my eyes.

...

STUDENTS : 15