Chapter Zero

Day -?

Akira and I sat in a prison cell together, wearing our school uniforms. It looked just like the prison where we'd stayed on the third island, although it seemed reasonably well-maintained, as opposed to being the ruin that we'd explored. Unfortunately, the cell door appeared to be securely shut and locked. It seemed as though we were prisoners, but what crimes had we committed, if any at all?

The wall behind Akira was full of tally marks, too many for me to count, but if each mark represented one day, we'd probably been in the cell for at least a year. The barred window on the back wall of the cell didn't have much of a view of the outside, but since there wasn't any light coming in, it seemed to be at night.

I would have gotten up and explored the cell a little, but I couldn't move on my own or do anything. It was a bit like watching a TV show, for which the camera was inside my own head, and all I could do was sit back and enjoy the show.

Akira glanced outside the cell door, down each end of the hall, to make sure that there weren't any guards coming, then sat down beside me and spoke in a low voice.

"I heard a juicy tidbit from Kanae while we were exercising in the courtyard," Akira said. "She overheard a conversation between ... this morning. Apparently ... will take us to the office building in the north of the island in the fairly near future."

"I see," I said. "Are they going to... to execute us?"

"Hell if I know," Akira said. "If ... wanted us dead, I think they'd have killed us already. They mentioned something called the Neo World Program, so I think they're going to use it on us."

While it seemed as though our captors were willing to keep us alive, they weren't trying very hard to stop us from committing suicide. Since my tie was meant to go around my neck, it didn't take too much imagination to tie the other end around a bar in the window, thereby creating makeshift noose. Of course, not only did I believe that I'd go to hell if I hanged myself, but Akira wasn't about to let me try.

"What's that supposed to be?" I said.

"Kanae didn't hear any details," Akira said, "but it can't be anything good. … are Ultimate Despair, after all."

The name "Ultimate Despair" was all too familiar to the members of the class who had made it to the latter half of the trip. Since Akira wasn't one of those people, and this was clearly before the killing school trip, I wondered how she knew that name.

"You know, Akira..." I said. "I'm so sorry things ended up like this."

"It's not your fault, Chiyuri," Akira said. "I don't think any of us except ... knew how this was going to turn out, and … was the one responsible. In hindsight, the only reason I can imagine ... being ... is that I already know it's true."

While the version of me in the dream must have been feeling guilt, despair and fear, the emotions going through my present self's head were anxiety and confusion. What was being obfuscated by the gaps in my memory? Who was imprisoning us and why? How did Ultimate Despair come into play? Which one of us was the traitor? And what was the connection between this vision and why we were in the killing game?

"You may be right," I said. "But at this point, I suppose it's too late to do anything about it, isn't it?"

"Maybe it isn't," Akira said. "After all, … escaped from … so maybe..."

"Shh!" I said. "Someone's coming."

I heard footsteps coming from the hallway outside our cell, and Akira-san and I turned to look at our visitors. At that point, the dream faded away in a flash of white light, and the sound of Mom calling my name.

End of Chapter Zero

Class Members Remaining: 17

Author's Notes

It's a short chapter, but it mainly serves as a bridge between Chapter V and VI.

The cast will eventually figure out the truth, but for now, I'm interested in seeing if you can fill in the blanks.

In case you're curious, the date is read as "Day Negative Unknown"- in other words, an unspecified amount of time prior to the beginning of the killing school trip.

Next up is Chapter VI, which will come in four parts- a two-part investigation and a two-part class trial. It will likely take a few weeks for it to come out, but I hope to get the first part up by the end of May.