Blackness was the sight in front of me.

Nothing else that I can describe, it's just pure black, not being able to see even my own body kind of darkness. I tried to recollect my thoughts, trying to find some kind of sense, but something was blocking it, like if the thoughts melted just before reaching my head. I tried to move, to scream, but my body didn't respond to me, seemingly vanishing from existence. What's more, it would seem like I was being taken away from myself, my mind being played and toyed with. It didn't take me long to realize what was happening. I was being erased. I tried to fight it, but I didn't know how. It was only a second before I disappeared that one selfish question raised through the fog that was my mind, fighting it's way through to let me know my last real thought.

Why me?

I felt something in my shoulder, it was… shaking me? I had a hard time telling if it was my own imagination or if someone was really shaking me. After a while, it stopped before it started shaking even harder that before, announcing that I was definitely not imagining anything. Trying to open my eyes, a groan escaped my mouth, making whoever was shaking me stop the action.

"Hey are you alright?" A male voice said, though slightly feminine, trying to get a response from me. I reluctantly open my eyes, soaking on the ambient around me.

It was a bit hard to focus, but I managed somehow. I started by taking a look around, only to be surprised that I, somehow, awoke on a shoes store, or at least what I thought it was. The scenery was filled with shoes, most in a shelf of some kind differentiated by the type, with brown painting plastered in the walls, I also found out that I was sitting in a couched bench. I then turned my attention to the two persons that were next to me, a man and a woman I recognized, who were patiently waiting for me to get out of my stupor. The boy was short, having a light brown hair with some kind of bowl cut and a feminine face of a 15 years old, he seemed to have greyish-purple kind of eyes with long eyebrows, further reinforcing the previous statement. He appeared to be wearing a red jacket with some white patterns in it, gray pants and black shoes, though what was interesting of him was some kind of silver pocket watch on a pocket in the chest area of the jacket. He was wearing concerned expression on his face as he was patiently waiting for me to talk.

The other one was a girl, which was waiting behind the boy in front of me. She seemed to have short black hair that barely touched her shoulders with straight hairbangs, the sides of her hair having some sort of raindrop shaped hairclips. I have to admit, her face was quite attractive, her skin was smooth and white and her long eyebrows remarked her blue eyes, though she did appear to have a sharp look in them. She was wearing an orange dress reaching to her knees with a darker type of orange jacket ending below her chest with white frilly hems. Her dress seemed to be wearing ribbons that were blocking her zipper and a sequin in her shoulder, with some golden flat shoes to go with it. While not exactly tall, she seemed to be higher than the average, fixed with an upright stature.

By observing them, I realized that I didn't check my state of dress. I looked down to a mirror that was on the floor, it was a shoe store after all, seeing that I was wearing a suit. I had short black hair, a lock of hair standing slightly up, and blue eyes. While my body appeared to be fit, my muscles didn't really show through the clothes, giving an average body form. I was wearing a black business jacket with a white dressing shirt, accompanied by a dark blue tie. I had simple black dressing pants and shoes.

When I finally soaked in the ambience, I directed my attention back to the two of them. There's the possibility that they are my kidnappers, but even then I should ask instead of using violence, especially if they indeed are my kidnappers.

"Where am I?" I asked the persons in front of me.

"I don't really know, we're in the same situation, you and I" said the boy in front of me.

"U-umm… excuse me but, were you invited to the HCP?" Asked the girl timidly.

"How do you know that?" I asked back threateningly, this guys were getting more and more suspicious, they might actually be dangerous.

"Oh that's right! You and I both were invited after all" said the boy to the girl. After seeing my confused face, he went back to my attention, giving me a smile. "My name's Takashi Shing, nice to meet you"

SHING TAKASHI
Ultimate Code Decipherer

The girl shyly followed after him "I... umm… I'm Amane Ameko. Nice to meet you..."

AMEKO AMANE
Ultimate Voice Actress

After they both introduced themselves, it seemed appropriate to introduce myself as well "I see… well I am Kasasagi Tomoya"

TOMOYA KASASAGI
Ultimate Rescuer

"Anyways, what was that about being invited to the HCP? The last thing I remember was stepping in the building before passing out" I asked them, trying to find some type of answer to my questions. However, it wasn't very successful.

"You've just described what happened to the two of us, we don't really know what is happening. Ameko woke me up about 10 minutes ago, it took me a while to calm down so it's not that long since we started moving. It seems we are in some sort of shopping mall" He answered.

This is weird. This might actually be some sort of serial kidnapping to screw with Future Foundation, if what this guys are saying is true, then there should be a lot more people in here. If someone really captured all of us because of that, then we should move carefully, we don't know if someone dangerous is roaming through here, we need to act carefully. I guess I can trust them, they don't seem to mean any harm.

"E-excuse me, To-... emm… eh..." The girl focused her attention on me, only to interrupt herself when she was about to say my name.

"You can call me Tomoya if you want" I said with a smile on my face.

"Okay, then what's your talent T-Tomoya?" She asked.

"I'm the Ultimate Rescuer I guess" I said while scratching my neck. I never really felt too identified with that title, it just seems too… cheesy I guess? I mean, sure, I've helped people and I've worked with firefighters in the tragedy, but still… it just doesn't feel right, it's like they're telling me I can save everyone, even when I can't.

"O-oh, that's really impressive! Mine is Ultimate Voice Actress" The girl said shyly, while averting her eyes. I focused my eyes to the boy, waiting for him to mention his talent, but he was just… staring at the girl?

"Umm… Takashi, are you okay?" Said uncomfortably the girl. He seemed to wake up from his trance.

"Oh, right, my talent is Ultimate Code Decipherer. But nevermind that, your talent is rescuer? If that's so, we should be able to escape from here, right?" Said the boy with hope in his eyes. It's because of this that my talent seems inappropriate, I don't know where the hell am I in the first place, much less how to escape. How can I possibly be of help like this?

"I'm sorry, but I don't even know where we are, I'm no more helpful than you guys are right now. Either way we should start moving, perhaps we can find survivors or an exit. Let's go emm… how do you want me to call you?" I asked as I started getting up on my feet, the wound in my back stung a little but nothing too bad.

"I don't mind how you call me" "Please call me Ameko" Takashi and Ameko respectively answered.

I tried to smile at them to give them some sort of comfort, it's the least I can do. "Very well, let's go"

—Ground floor, clothing sector, 14:23

We exited the store from where I woke up, while I took a peek at my wrist watch. It says that the hour is 14:23, I tried to remember what time it was when I entered the Future Foundation's building, but I couldn't really remember. Once we were out in the open, I could see that, indeed, we were in a shopping mall that was… surprisingly clean, unlike most things I've seen in the last few years. The floor was shiningly clean and the two trees that decorated the place were healthier than the few trees I've seen, even by looking up, I could see that the window in the roof was crystal clear, showing off a blue sky. By looking up, I could tell that the place was pretty big, with about 4 floors available, including the first floor where I was actually in. I lowered my sight to the floor I was right now, apparently the first floor, which had about 3 shops. One was a shoe store from where I woke up, the other one was a male's clothing store with the final one a female's clothing store. There were two gates with shaded glass on the opposing sides of the room, making it unable to see anything beyond it, I assumed that it connected to the rest of the mall, and right at the center of the place was a small bench with two trees at each end, cameras were positioned on the entrance of each store and at the opposing gates.

I internally sighed at seeing all this, what kind of mess did I get myself into? "Did you guys wake up in this place?" I asked.

"Takashi woke up in that b-bench, right in the middle of the room. I w-woke up in that clothing store" She responded as she pointed towards the women clothing store.

"So you haven't went through those gates yet?" I continued my questions.

"No, we wanted to check this area first, thinking we could find other people in here. Ameko said that there was nothing in the girl's clothing store" Answered Takashi thoughtfully. "We still haven't checked the man's clothing store though, I suggest we check that out"

I agreed with his remark and leaded towards said place, Takashi pondering about something and Ameko fidgeting while tailing behind me. It was when I was crossing the doors that Takashi decided to speak out.

"You know… I've been thinking about it since I woke up, but this place just doesn't seem right, it's just… too clean, like if people hadn't been here for ages but still managed to not get a particle of dust. It seems like some sort of a grand opening, but there's no way that's possible right?" He asked with a confused face.

"And with the tragedy, I doubt there would be any mall that wasn't looted" Said Ameko quietly as she continued the thought process.

"That did occur to me a bit ago, but I can't really think of an explanation for it" I answered slightly frustrated at myself. "Let's just search for now, we can sit down and think about all of this later"

They both agreed and continued on searching for anything of interest. Alas, there was nothing here. After double checking each corner, we decided that, indeed, we should search onto another sector. We agreed to go to the one on our left first, since it was closer than the other one.

"I wonder if there are any more people that we-were kidnapped in here" Ameko reflected.

"There should be, I mean, if it's true that the one behind our kidnapping is targeting the ones selected to the HCP, then there should be a lot more people" Said Takashi with a meditating expression.

I followed his statement. "Either way, we should encounter with them eventually if we are all indeed trapped in here"

True, answered Takashi back as he stepped in front of me and opened the gates.

—Ground Floor, food sector, 14:30

Once I entered the place, I was greeted with the sight of a big room with many tables spreaded across the ground, with some trees decorating the place and a fountain right at the center. It seemed that there were two stores, one was a small market that seemed to sell snacks and whatnot, while the other one was some kind of restaurant, there were some stairs in the side though. When I looked up I saw that, like the other sector, there were 3 more floors above us. I searched to see if there was anything of interest, until I saw a girl sitting in one of the tables. Apparently she was… doing makeup? She was seeing herself in a small mirror while putting some sort of pink dust on her, I don't really know the name of those things. I stepped closer to be able to see her better, Takashi and Ameko following by my side, though I couldn't help but notice that Ameko seemed to be dragging herself, apparently having trouble at walking, I scratched it off as another incident from the many that the tragedy brought, I knew plenty of people with physical problems after all.

Once I was close enough, I was able to see how she was. If I had to explain how she looked in one word, I'd say that she looked like some sort of doll. She had long, wavy reddish hair that sprawled behind her back. Her eyes were a dark brown, but what made her look like a doll was her skin. The clear pale skin of hers seemed incredibly smooth, her face was smooth with rosy cheeks, probably because of the thing she was using before. When I looked closely, I saw that she had makeup on, though it is pretty hard to spot if you don't pay attention, the only reason I suspected it was because I saw her using some. She was wearing a dark pink chiffon dress with a white ribbon sash on her waist, ending with a big bow on her back, below her waist she was wearing some pale pink stockings with a pair of white high heels with ribbons on her feet, her dress ending a bit below her knees. She too was wearing two sparkling butterfly clips, a red one on her left and a black one on her right, on her wrists I noticed that she was also wearing two pearl bracelets, one with red ribbons on her right and one with black ribbons on her left, giving her an assymetric look when compared with her hair clips. She seemed to be about the height of Ameko, and her posture sent a strange aura, or so to speak, that made it seem like she is some kind of powerful or rich girl, she didn't seem japanese either.

But when we were going to say something, the girl still not noticing us as she was concentrated on her makeup, the gates from where we came in opened, showing a pairing of a boy and a girl yelling at us.

"Hey, wait up!" Said the girl as she had trouble following the boy that was sprinting to us. The boy seemed to slow down as he saw our group of 4, the girl finally catching up to him. While the boy looked at us, the girl who was sitting with the hand mirror spoke up frightened.

"Who are you, where am I?" Asked the girl nervously, probably thinking that she was in danger. The girl was alternatingly looking at us, starting with Ameko and finishing with the other girl. The question floated in the silence for a while until Takashi broke it.

"Were you guys invited to the HCP too?" Asked Takashi, possibly trying to confirm his theory. When the pair of newcomers opened their eyes slightly, only to be filled with understanding a bit later, he knew he was on point.

"So they're really targeting the ones who were invited" I muttered before seeing the pair that walked in, not having a clear look of the before.

The boy's hair was dark blue with a fringe that went from his right to his left, it seemed that there were three red pin wires attached to it. His skin tone was slightly dark and his eyes were gray. He seemed to be wearing a black blazer with a light blue shirt underneath, accompanied with a tie with striped red and black colors. He had long black pants and was wearing some dark brown court shoes. While I was looking at him, I realized that he was staring back at me, as if he expected me to say something.

I slightly cleared my throat and introduced myself. "I'm Kasasagi Tomoya, Ultimate Rescuer, our group seems to be in the same situation. All of us were kidnapped when we went to the invitation of the HCP" I finished my introduction, trying to explain the situation as simple as possible all together.

He nodded at himself for the information and continued to introduce himself. "I'm the Ultimate Music Box Maker, Akiyama Katsuro is my name"

KATSURO AKIYAMA
Ultimate Music Box Maker

The girl with the makeup standed up, having a feeling of slight indignation.

"Hey! What are you guys talking about, what is happening, why am I here, someone give me an explanation!" She demanded as she took a poised stance, though it seemed like a slight tantrum.

"C-calm down first and we'll explain" Said the girl that came with Akiyama, who was silent until now.

Looking at her I saw that she had her hair blond hair in a long ponytail fixed with a blue hair tie. Her eyes seemed brown as a fringe from her hair blocked her left eye. Her stature was quite small, around Takashi's height. She was wearing a somewhat revealing blue dress accompanied with some high heels. She was wearing some colored bands, red and black on her left wrist and orange and pink in her right, she seemed to be carrying some sort of blue satchel. By the way she was acting, it seemed like she was pretty shy of us, kinda like Ameko, I thought to myself.

As the rest of us was looking at her, she seemed to fidget with her wristbands even more than before. "H-hello... I'm Himi Mio... um the Ultimate Sketch Artist, and you guys are?"

MIO HIMI
Ultimate Sketch Artist

The apparently rich girl softened her expression with a smile and proceeded to represent herself to us. "My name is Alyssia Heartstone, pleased to make your acquaintance"

ALYSSIA HEARTSTONE
Ultimate Makeup Artist

The rest of my group presented themselves as we explained what we gathered from our time awake. The rest of the new members of our improvised group seemed to soak in the information as we told them about the things we found out, which regrettably, it wasn't nearly enough. It was then that I remembered something.

"By the way, from where did you come from?" I asked to Akiyama and Himi both. They seemed to come from the clothing sector, but I'm sure we checked the whole place for people.

"From the sector over there" Said Akiyama softly, while pointing to the clothing sector. Ameko seemed to take notice too.

"B-but we just came from that place, there was nobody there when we ch-checked" Said Ameko confused.

Himi answered her question. "Umm… that's because when we entered the place, we just saw your group go in, s-so Akiyama and I followed you" Said while playing softly with her wristbands, seemingly very uncomfortable.

"That's why I ran to catch up with you. By the way, the other gate is connected to the furnitures sector" Said Akiyama.

Alyssia started to speak up. "Anyway, what should we do. There must be some way we can get out right?"

"I haven't seen an exit yet, what about you Akiyama" I said.

"Himi and I checked the furnitures sector, but we didn't see anything." Akiyama answered.

I sighed as I began thinking on what to do now. "I guess we should keep moving, there should be an exit around here. Hey Alyssia, where did you wake up from, also, did you check this sector?"

"I woke up from the restaurant over there, I haven't checked the market nor the stair though" Alyssia responded.

Himi shyly pipped in the conversation"I guess… we should go check the market first? I mean, we have to check the place… right?"

With no objections, I started heading to the market only to realize that Takashi was strangely quiet all this time, I silently sneaked a peek on him, only to see him somewhat starstruck by looking at the girls.

C'mon, this really isn't the time Takashi. I thought as I internally sighed, I guess it doesn't really matter but we should really get back on our heads and think about this.

We checked the market, but there was nothing of real interest inside, the place was quite small, kind of like a market in a gas station, and selled some snacks and beverages, nothing you can call real food really. Disappointingly, we went to the stairs to see if there was something in the second floor.

But when we climbed the stairs, collective gasps sounded in the group, as we stumbled upon a giant fence blocking our path. I tried to agitate a bit, see if it can be opened, but the effort was futile. It was when I heard a quiet groan near me that I realized that a girl was sitting against the fence right at my side, she seemed to be just waking up as everyone looked at her.

She seemed to be quite the average girl, no special traits that I could see about her, she wasn't particularly curvy or slender, but neither was she muscular nor overweight. She was about as tall as Alyssia and Ameko, though slightly shorter. Her skin was brown, accompanied with a pixie cut dark brown hair, which had a flower pin clip attached. She was wearing a pair of flower earrings in her ears, as she was wearing a white dress with a pink ribbon in her waist, with some sort of blue high heel shoes. When she opened her eyes, I saw that her eyes were blue.

She loudly groaned as she rubbed her forehead. "What happened?" She asked.

Ameko and Alyssia went to her side, Alyssia crouching to be at face level while Ameko kept an upright position.

Alyssia softly spoke. "It seems that they kidnapped all of us, you were invited to the HCP, right?" She nodded. "Well, all of us were also invited. I'm Alyssia, Ultimate Makeup Artist"

Ameko seemed to follow her words. "My n-name's Amane Ameko, we're here to help you"

After that, everyone else followed their presentations, as each time the girl seemed to calm slightly down. It was when Akiyama finished his presentation that she had a slight smile on her face, seemingly being more comfortable than before now that she knows we aren't a threat.

"Nice to meet you all" She said with a smile. "The name's Suzume Iona, my talent is Ultimate Hypnotist, or as my friends like to call me, Ultimate Annoyer"

IONA SUZUME
Ultimate Hypnotist

The air seemed to change to a friendly ambient, a much needed rest to be honest. She seemed to talk to some people before she started checking her pockets.

I took notice of what she was doing and asked. "What are you doing?"

She looked up at me as she answered. "I'm checking my pockets, maybe there's something in there"

...I'm an idiot. Why didn't it occur to me before?!... Well, I guess to be fair I haven't had a breathing room until now.

Suzume seemed to see my expression as she asked with a slight smile on her face. "What, you didn't do it? And here I thought you were the Ultimate Rescuer" She said jokingly

"I totally forgot, wait a sec" I answered slightly embarrassed, I started checking my pockets to see if I had something in them.

What I found was that there was one thing that wasn't supposed to be there and one thing that disappeared. The painkillers for my wound were gone, instead, a small electric pad was in there. I took it out and tried to turn it on, only to discover that it didn't appear to work. I looked around to see that the girl also pulled the exact same pad as mine, also not working.

"It s-seems that it doesn't work, me and Akiyama have one too" Answered Himi to the silent question.

"I wonder why they would give us this" Said Takashi.

"Maybe we will find out soon" Said Takiyama.

After putting the pad back to my pocket, I clapped my hands to get attention. "Well, we need to keep moving. Staying here won't do much"

Everyone nodded as we went down the stairs. We we were climbing down until I saw Ameko lagging behind, maybe she has a serious wound.

I approached her. "Do you need help? You don't have to be afraid to ask, I don't think anyone here would refuse" I whispered to her.

She looked back at me as she shaked her head. "Don't worry, I'm fine"

"Well if you say so" I answered back as I went ahead, reaching the main group.

"...I guess we should check the other sector" Said Himi quietly.

"Yeah you're right, we checked all this sector now" Answered Alyssia back.

We grouped up the gate as Akiyama opened the doors, leading onto the next sector.

—Entrance, 14:47

We entered the place one by one, checking the zone. The place wasn't as big as the other sectors, and there didn't seem to be any extra floors above, just a big space from the ground to the roof. This time, there seemed to be two gates, one in front of us and one to the right, the latter probably leading to the interior of the building. It was all normal until we saw the frightening sight on our left.

"W-what the hell is this?" Said Takeshi quietly as he shakened.

I too was speechless. While I didn't really acknowledge the tought, deep inside I had the hope that this was some sort of joke or trial that the Future Foundation put for us, maybe some sort of test for us to continue the program, I unconsciously held dearly to that thought, trying to find some sort of relief that everything will be fine.

But the giant metal gate in front of us told me that I completely missed the mark. The gate seemed to be a bunker, a very deadly bunker with cameras and some sort of very destructive looking weapons. The place that was in front of us told us the obvious right there. There is no escape. We were definitely trapped in here, we were at the mercy of our kidnappers, but I realized that wasn't the only thing that shook our group to our bones. It was a sign that hangs near the metal gate, containing a bone-chilling text. I didn't really understand it's full meaning, but I got what it was trying to say. It was mocking us. It mocked all of us, as I re-read the text to see if I'm understanding something wrong. It said:

Welcome to the Hope Cultivation Program!

It's been a while since I've sensed the feeling I have right now, an oh so familiar feeling. The feeling that made the whole world shake and fall to its ruin.

Because, right now, the name of what I'm feeling right now, the name that scarred everyone, that feeling, was despair.

A/N: Well this is the first part of the prologue, introducing 7 participants. While I'd like to hear opinions from the overall setting, what I really want is feedback about the characters, since it's highly possible I messed up some key traits or the acted out of character. Another thing I want to mention is that in this universe, only DR1 and SDR2 are canon, so the events of DR3 didn't happen. While some characters may exist in the universe (such as Munakata or Seiko), it's possible that their personalities may change greatly to fit with the plot. The last thing I will mention is that I will actualize the OCs submission list in the 30th of october, in other words, this sunday. So that I might have more options to choose from. I hope you guys enjoyed this and that the characters were somewhat faithful to their personalities. I'll see you on the next update.

Edit #1: Fixed some grammar mistakes and completed Alyssia's appearance, since I forgot to add her accesories.