Kazuma stared up at the academy, drinking in the sights. Oh, he was definitely going to use a similar setting in his next novel. It was finally time to start his new life at Hope's Peak. Millions of thoughts were racing through his head. What would it be like? Who are my classmates? Are they friendly or just downright hateful? He was going to find out soon enough.
His thoughts were already going back to how he'd gotten himself here in the first place. As a little kid, Kazuma would find himself intrigued by anything scary. Next of course came his love for books, he would read endlessly as a child. Eventually, he put his two favorite things together and obtained his hobby from that. He began to think up scary plots and would write, it'd be rare to see him stop writing unless it was absolutely necessary. Everyone found it neat, until they actually read something he had written and found it surprisingly great. They admired his talent, and he enjoyed having it. He started having them published after that, and eventually they became best-sellers. That landed him a spot at Hope's Peak.
Eager to start, Kazuma turned his attention to the front doors and threw them open. The moment he did, a splitting headache washed over him. The pain was great and he would've cried out if his vocal chords would let him. His vision went black and he drifted off into unconsciousness.
"...ter?...Mi..er?" He could hear a faint voice in the back of his head. It slowly grew louder and louder until it began to wake him up. As he shifted slightly, he felt another presence looming over him which was the last push he needed. The voice came again, very clear this time. "Mister?"
Kazuma opened his eyes to find another set staring back, this person's a bright blue compared to his own eye color, hazel. His first reflex was to jolt back but he didn't. This girl's appearance didn't appear to be very threatening, instead it just seemed a little odd. She was in a maid outfit, complete with the headpiece, black knee-highs and black shoes. Upon her arms were white gloves, coming to a stop at her elbows. Also stopping at her elbows was her long black hair. Around her neck hung a star pendant.
"You're awake! Thank goodness, I was rather worried for a minute!"
"Yeah...where are we?" He glanced around at his surroundings, and it did not seem to be Hope's Peak at all. They were in a city, except it seemed they were the only ones there. It was the most unusual thing he'd seen in a while, and he'd seen some weird stuff.
"I'm afraid I do not know myself, and that is quite troubling. I'm supposed to be at Hope's Peak Academy right now.." The girl responds.
"You're a freshman to Hope's Peak as well?" Kazuma immediately questions.
"Yes, I am. I'm Kimiko Harumashi, Super High School Level Maid!" She introduced herself with a smile. A sudden chime sounded from his pocket, and he pulled out a thin device resembling a smartphone. Pressing the power button, the screen lit up saying 'e-Handbook'. After then displaying his name, he found himself in a menu screen. It had several sections, map, regulations, report card, and...truth bullets? What the hell were those? After attempting to tap on it, he found it was inaccessible at the moment. He sighed and decided to check the report card, as it had an exclamation point next to it.
The section popped up with sixteen portraits. Fourteen were greyed out but two were not. One displayed a portrait of himself. Curious, he tapped it and info regarding himself popped up. His name, age, height, weight, SHSL title, likes and lastly dislikes. He scrolled through to the other profile which was Kimiko's. Kazuma glanced up at the girl in question and realized she had been patiently waiting for him to introduce himself while he'd been inspecting his e-Handbook. Quickly, he stashed it back in his pocket with an apologetic look on his face.
"Sorry about that, I'm Kazuma Minami, the Super High School Level Horror Novelist." Her soft chuckle let him know all was forgiven. "Would you happen to know if there are others around?"
Kimiko stood up and looked around, nodding as she did so. She shifted her gaze over in the distance. "I saw a few others down that way at the grocery store...FoodPlus, I think the name is."
Kazuma stood up, and began making his way towards the store. He felt a light tap on his shoulder before he could get far. Kimiko apparently still had something to say. "Sorry for stopping you, Mr. Minami, but I'd like to tag along if you don't mind."
"Ah, you don't have to use formalities. Kazuma is fine." He smiled once more just for emphasis. "Now, let's get going, we have some classmates to meet!"
After a bit of walking, they had reached the FoodPlus. Another disconcerting thing Kazuma noted was the empty parking lot. For such a large city, it was eerily deserted. Kimiko, on the other hand, was not shaken at all. She seemed rather eager to meet her fellow classmates. Her very presence gave off a strong sense of happiness, which eased his mind a little. The sliding doors opened, and the two entered the building.
They had found the food jackpot. Food, drinks, snacks and all sorts of consumables were lining the many aisles. Kazuma refused to let his love of food get to him right now, he was more focused on meeting the students he saw standing around. Off to the side, he saw a short girl. Kazuma himself was 5'6", a good four inches taller than Kimiko and nearly an entire foot taller than this other girl. Another of her features he noticed was her dark brown hair, and that bright pink streak in it. When she glanced over at the two, the lighting revealed her green eyes. Over her small frame, she wore a simple white t-shirt and a dark blue skirt with dark grey tennis shoes. She waved at them and approached with a big smile on her face.
"Hi there! I'm Ami Hitomi! I assume you're both from Hope's Peak as well?" Kazuma definitely noted how loud she was.
"Ah..yes, we are. I'm Kazuma Minami. My talent is Super High School Level Horror Novelist." He smiled down at her, an expression that she returned.
"So you guys are my classmates! I'm the Super High School Level Linguist!" Ami's gaze turned to Kimiko. "What's your name? I can already guess your talent!"
"My name is Kimiko Harumashi, it's very nice to make your acquaintance."
Another chime came from his pocket, to which Kazuma decided to ignore the conversation for a moment to read through Ami's profile. Suddenly, a finger was jabbed to his chest as Ami began voicing her frustration at him.
"Hey! We just met, so I expect you to pay attention to our conversation! How else am I supposed to get to know you?" Ami bore a large frown on her face. "What, do you not find me cute enough? The nerve of you!"
Kazuma blanched a pale white at the sudden hostility and accusation. He stumbled over his words as he went to respond. "U-um, I'm sorry. I never said you weren't cute and all I was doing was reading through your profile so I could see the info it gave me.."
This seemed to calm her down and she instantly snapped back into her happy mood, leaving him with a feeling of whiplash from the sudden changes as Kimiko just stared in wide-eyed shock. Neither of them had been expecting her to blow up out of the blue. They'd have to be careful with her short fuse in the future. It took quite a bit of time but they eventually managed to get her to go off in search of others.
Down an aisle, they ran into a boy. He was a little taller than Kazuma with blue eyes and long, light blonde hair reaching all the way down his back. He wore a light blue-button, a pair of khakis and white shoes. He seemed to give off a rather shy and timid vibe, further proved by his jumping in fear upon hearing them approach.
"I-I'm sorry! I'm just easily frightened..."
"There's nothing to be sorry for, we were just looking to meet our fellow classmates."
"O-oh, I'm Tenri Nonaka and I'm the Super High School Level Harpist. Who are you two?" Kazuma made it a point to ignore the chime this time around, he'd learned his lesson.
"I'm Kazuma Minami, Super High School Level Horror Novelist." He winced a little as Tenri's eyes widened upon learning his talent. This was definitely not the kind of person who'd be able to enjoy the stories he wrote. Kimiko decided to cut the awkwardness by introducing herself.
"I am Kimiko Harumashi, and I got in as the Super High School Level Maid! Happy to meet you, mister!" She greeted cheerfully.
He stares at items next to Kimiko, avoiding meeting her gaze. She notices and frowns a little, to which Tenri tenses up and begins to profusely apologize again. "A-ah! I'm so sorry! I hope I haven't m-made you upset! I'm horrible, I c-can't even greet a friend right..."
"Eh? No! No, don't be sorry, you haven't upset me! Please don't worry, you're a very nice person!" Kimiko consoled him as Kazuma just watched in amazement. It seemed that everyone he'd met so far was odd in their own particular way. Well, if they were all students of hope, he guessed he couldn't really complain. After a few more minutes of consoling Tenri, the duo headed outside to find more classmates to meet.
Just outside, plenty of different vendors had been set up selling a variety of products. No one was managing a single one though, so it appeared that they wouldn't be making a very good business. Kimiko pointed out two more students checking out the setups. She led him towards the closer person first, who was checking out a station devoted to MP3 players.
The person was male, with short and scraggly hair that was a fine silver color. It was messy as hell, and he sure hoped that there wasn't a Super High School Level Hairstylist among them or they'd have a heart attack. His eyes were cerulean-colored, Kazuma having to look upwards to even see that. This guy had quite the height to him. Over his black tank-top was a baggy jacket, grey-blue in color. His brown pants were rather dusty and his ebony boots were visibly old. A shiny guitar was strapped to his back, a rather beautiful brown in color.
Kimiko had a fiery look in her eyes as her eyes fell upon his pants. Kazuma could feel the maid's pure desire to clean rolling off of her in large waves, and the guy apparently noticed as well as he was prepared to run for it. With some difficulty, he was able to hold her back with the promise of being able to do so later. This boy seemed to be a little wary of her now, keeping a good three feet of distance at all times.
"I'm sorry about that, she's the SHSL Maid and your pants are dirty. You oughta be fine as long as she can clean them soon. I'm Kazuma Minami, SHSL Horror Novelist."
"I'm..." The boy stared awkwardly for a moment, then creased his eyebrows. "Actually, I can't remember..."
Kazuma gave him a stunned look. "You can't remember who you are?"
"N-no. All I can recall is my age... I must need sleep or something. Until I remember who I am and what my talent is, I guess you can call me 17." Despite his apparent amnesia, 17 still smiled at his new friends, though he glanced once more at the girl giving his pants an intense stare. "I don't believe I caught your name."
"Hm? Oh! I'm Kimiko Harumashi. Kazuma already told you my talent."
"Well, it's been a pleasure to meet you both. I'm going to go look for a place to sleep, hopefully a nap will jog my memory."
With another chime, he checked his e-Handbook. Surely it'd list his information, right? However, this turned out not to be the case. Most all of the spaces simply had three question marks. The only things filled in were the name and age, and both said 17. He sighed, now knowing that no one would really know much about him until he remembered himself.
Kimiko had a look that said she wished to give chase to tidy up his clothes, but Kazuma reminded her that there were others to meet. The two approached the other person remaining in the vendor stalls. She appeared to be about the same height as him, and was caught up in the handheld camera section. Her rose blonde hair was down to her elbows, fitting nicely with her pale skin and pale green eyes. She wore a black cardigan over a white buttoned shirt, a black circle skirt that reached down to her knees, as well as black converse with white knee high socks. Kazuma's eyes widened when he realized he'd seen her before. This was the most popular, most subscribed person on YouTube. He recognized her from playthroughs of horror games she'd done.
Kazuma approached her giddily, a bright smile on his face. "You're Rei Kaya! I can't believe you're one of my classmates!"
Rei looked up from the cameras, and was immediately smiling as well. She seemed to be happy to meet one of her fans. "Yup, that's me! Gamer Rei, #1 on YouTube! Who knew that Super High School Level YouTuber was a talent? Anyway, who're you two? I adore meeting fans, especially if they're my classmates!"
"I'm Kazuma Minami, and my talent is writing horror novels. Actually, that's kind of the reason I found you, the horror genre." Kazuma was full on fanboy right now, and it was Kimiko's turn to hold him back. He didn't even hear his handbook chime.
"Well, it's good to meet a fan, Kazuma! I'm sure we'll be great friends!" Her gaze shifted to Kimiko. "I see that you're the Super High School Level Maid, what's your name?"
"Kimiko Harumashi, pleased to make your acquaintance, miss."
After chatting for a bit, they decided to part ways to introduce themselves to other classmates. Kazuma felt that he'd met quite the interesting bunch already and he'd only met five of fifteen. He hadn't a clue what sort of students the other locations would have, but with a deep breath, he was ready to meet them.
(A/N:) Hope you guys enjoyed the first introductions, and congrats to the users whose OCs I've officially accepted as shown above! As I sort out which OCs I'm taking, I'll write the rest of the prologue then. Apologizing in advance if your OC doesn't get in, I've got so many good ones to pick from! If I decide to write another Danganronpa fic after this, I'll be sure to include them then! With that said, submissions are CLOSED. (Unless you're one of the few who have PMed me about their unfinished ones! I eagerly await seeing those!)
