The day Hope's Peak Academy closed its doors was perhaps the most painful day of Kiyotaka's life. The day when it was official that education and global stability had completely and utterly been destroyed. He had first arrived to the school with hope in his heart and a smile on his face, ready to pursue a future of order and regulation. Yet here he was, watching as the final bolts were applied to the steel plates over the windows. The entire class had been moved to the Old Building formerly occupied by the Reserve Course students. It was sturdier in its design, however ill-equipped it was, meaning it held an increased chance of survival.

The outside world had been shut out, and Hope's Peak Academy had sealed itself away to defend itself. All to help save the talent that existed within.

Kiyotaka wasn't sure how long ago it had been since he and his fellow classmates had watched the entire Reserve Course leap to their deaths. All he knew for sure was that the events that had occurred since that day were endless in their number and unfathomable in their despair. A third world war had broken out, ended only by the might of nuclear Armageddon. Coups and revolutions had become commonplace in every nation across the globe. Protests and riots had become frequent. Civilization had been replaced with chaos and disorder; a viral disease of utter despair which had almost entirely ridden the human race of its humanity.

The skies had turned blood-red. The seas were polluted. The air was toxic. The world had come to an end, all at the hands of Ultimate Despair, which the once celebrated school had closed its doors to escape from. What they didn't know, of course, was that the Ultimate Despair had been sealed in with them, dressed in the form of a white-suited prefect.

Classes had been suspended. The school had become a shelter for Class 78 – the only students that remained. It was funny, Kiyotaka thought, how worried his classmates sounded at the thought of suspended classes. They had always skipped them when they had them, yet here they were, feeling completely lost without them. They never liked class to begin with. They never cared for order. They never cared for rules. All he had done was give them the world they desired, and here they were – hiding themselves away from it. How ironic.

And all perfectly according to plan.

"Do you... think we're going to be okay?"

Kiyotaka looked to the voice next to him, where Chihiro stared anxiously at the installation of the plates. Her face perfectly reflected the fear that filled the air. The uncertainty. The quiet panic.

He gave her a little pat on the head. "I'm sure we're safe," he replied, "for now, at least."

For now, indeed.

With one last stroke of his pencil, Kiyotaka put the final touches to his final sketch. When he had arrived at Hope's Peak, he hadn't been much of an artist and, in many respects, he still wasn't. Regardless, the sketches he had penned in his notebook over the past year were nothing to scoff at. It had been a rather boring year, he thought, but he hadn't spent it idly twiddling his thumbs. While the others had adjusted to their new school life together – a life of cooperation and harmony – he had been adding the final touches to his plan. A plan which was now painfully close to becoming a reality.

An entire year since they had been shut away from the outside world. An entire year in which he had been given the chance to plot to his heart's content and now, at long, long last, it was done. He cast his wicked red eyes down at the paper on the desk of his dorm, where a drawing of an enormous mechanical contraption was scrawled across the page of his notebook. He flipped the page to an earlier drawing. One covered in sharp, spiked objects. He flipped the page again. Another drawing of another sinister contraption proudly labelled "THE CAGE OF DEATH". He flipped the page again, and again, skimming through the wondrous machinations he had devised, knowing that it wouldn't be long until he would get to see them in action. Each one was as twisted as the last. Each one a machine capable of producing imaginable, undiluted despair.

Aside the notepad sat an open book, currently on the last page. Kiyotaka was rather apt with multi-tasking, he had discovered, sketching when he wasn't reading and reading when he wasn't sketching. Now here he was, almost finished with both. After a few minutes of making little edits to his sketches and finishing that last page, he closed the notebook and the heavy tome aside it closed. His eyes scanned title of the thick book he had been reading:

"Experimentations on the Retention of Memory" by Professor Kyoju Atama.

It was the final volume of a series he had dedicated himself to reading during his preparations over the past year, detailing different theories on memory and the causes of it and, most importantly, how memories were both formed and lost. Highly scientific and stuffed with complicated jargon, Kiyotaka had navigated the text-stuffed pages with ease. He now knew the subject of memory better than most teachers and academics did, and he was proud of it. Of course, such a dreary topic hadn't been learned for the simple sake of recreation.

No. The reading had been done for business, not pleasure.

Kiyotaka looked to the clock overhead now. It was almost 10 pm. Almost night. Almost time to shine. Every little bit of dedication and planning he had committed himself to for over a year now… all of the unthinkably hard work he had toiled at… tonight was the night it finally came to fruition. He was fully prepared. Everything was ready.

He leaned down under his desk, where a military-grade gas mask awaited him. It was a long story how he had managed to obtain it, and it was one that exhausted him to even recall, but all that mattered was that he had managed to get it nonetheless. The canister that sat aside it, labelled "USHINAU GAS" in bold black lettering, had an even longer story behind its obtaining, but it wasn't remotely important.

The gas itself, on the other hand, was of colossal importance. It was the star of tonight's show. It was the retribution Kiyotaka had dreamed of on the day he fell into despair. It was vindication in a canister, and a little touch of excitement flooded him just looking at it.

Aside both of them, tucked away in the shadows of the desk, was his beloved Monokuma. He had sat gathering dust for the past year. Fully upgraded, fully operational, fully capable of autopilot. Soon he would be active. Soon he would fulfil the purpose he had been created to serve.

The clock struck 10.

Kiyotaka put on his mask.

He grabbed the canister.

He headed out the door.

No one was in the dorm hallway. Most would be relaxing elsewhere or perhaps even asleep, he thought, totally comfortable and entirely adjusted to their school life, unaware of the storm headed their way. Walking through the corridors looking like this was a risk, thought the prefect as he closed his dorm door behind him and began to make his way to the third floor, but it was a risk he was going to have to take.

Nothing would stand in his way. Not now. Not ever again.

To his surprise, each and every corridor was empty. Not a single soul passed him. Silence reigned supreme, save for the sound of heavy footsteps as he carried the canister up the stairs and down the halls. Occasionally, he thought he might have heard something, only to dismiss the thought. Sure enough, he must have been imagining it, considering the complete absence of any of his classmates.

At last, before he knew it, he had reached the Physics Lab. The air purifier stood in front of him, quietly humming as it continued to generate the school's oxygen supply. It was the very thing keeping them all alive. The very thing that prevented them all from suffocating. In a way, it was the very lifeblood of the school's hope. The one thing everyone could rely on without fail.

Which was the reason why Kiyotaka found himself approaching it, canister in hand, prepared to change what the grand machine was outputting for the school's consumption. Ushinau Gas contained oxygen too, of course, but its 'added ingredients' led to much more interesting effects.

It wasn't long before he had emptied the contents of the canister inside the purifier, ready for deployment. All that was left, rather amusingly he thought, was to push the big red button to disperse the stuff throughout the school. With the push of a button, the machine's purpose would switch from purifying existing air to emitting something else entirely.

His hand hovered over the button. It pleaded with him to be pushed. Just one movement of his wrist was all it took. One quick movement of his hand and he would be unstoppable. Just one little-

"What are you doing?"

Kiyotaka turned, looking towards the door of the lab. Kyoko Kirigiri stood in the doorway, eyes narrowed and focused directly on him. How long had she been there, he wondered? How much did she know? Had she been tracking him this entire time?

He said nothing. He turned again, hand about to slam down and seal the school's fate, just as the sound of racing footsteps came up behind him. He glanced back one last time to see the purple-haired girl rushing toward the psychotic hall monitor. There was a look of urgency on her face, having apparently only just realised how little time she had to stop him.

"I won't let you!" She cried, immediately throwing herself onto him. It was totally out of character for her. She was usually calm and collected, and yet here she was, trying to wrestle the prefect away from the button, desperation having overtaken her. It was clear she hadn't expected this, regardless of her suspicions. Then again, who could have possibly seen this coming in the first place?

"Let… go!" Kiyotaka growled from behind the mask, trying to shake her but failing miserably. She was much stronger than he had anticipated. She was no Sakura Ogami, but certainly tough enough to put up a fight against him.

"Get away from the controls!" She demanded, tugging and pulling at him, only for him to strike her hard across the face. She leapt back up almost immediately, however, a gloved hand pushing directly into the mask as she made an attempt to seize Kiyotaka's arms. Her fingers made an attempt to remove the mask, but she was quickly taken down with another strike to the head.

The move weakened her, leaving her open for another attack, to which Kiyotaka happily obliged. Breath heavy, he pushed her away from him, sending her crashing down to the floor with a heavy thud. He had no time to lose.

He turned back to the controls.

His hand flew down.

He hit the button.

The gas began to disperse.

"Kiyotaka, whatever you're doing, stop!" She pleaded, but he didn't care to listen. "You won't get away with this!"

The Ultimate Moral Compass almost laughed at that. How awfully cliché. How terribly boring.

"Whatever was in that canister… whatever it does… I'll stop you," she said, staring up at him defiantly. "We'll all stop you… Ultimate Despair!"

Kiyotaka grinned. "Goodnight, Kyoko," he said simply but sweetly and, before either of them knew it, she was unconscious on the floor.

She had come so close to stopping him. Had she arrived a few moments earlier she might have succeeded. Hope might have won at the last possible second, and an unspeakable tragedy would have been completely prevented. Yet there she was, completely passed out, entirely defeated. She had failed to stop him. Kiyotaka had already won.

The rest of the school would have followed suit by now, headmaster included.

Speaking of which…

"If you'll excuse me," he said to the sleeping detective, "I have a meeting with your Father."

"Wha… What's going on?" Jin Kirigiri muttered, stirring back into consciousness. "Where am I?"

The headmaster tried moving his wrists, only to discover them tied behind his back, his body seated on a flimsy wooden chair. Judging from the look on his face, he certainly didn't remember falling asleep in such a situation. Then again, the chances were that he didn't remember anything at all. The past two years had been entirely wiped clean from his mind, after all.

"What… what the hell is that thing?" He said, confused and concerned eyes locked onto the black and white teddy bear seated on the floor in front of him.

A figure emerged from the shadows of the dimly-lit room. "That, Mister Kirigiri, is Monokuma. He's a friend." An unmasked grin painted the hall monitor's face with glee. The fantasy he had dreamt about for so long was unfolding right in front of him, and not a single person on Earth could stop him now.

Even the dear viewers at home watching the event through the live-streaming cameras set up all around the school didn't stand a chance of stopping this. The mounted guns and land mines placed outside, combined with the heavy steel coverings over every window and entrance prevented any interference. They were welcome to try, of course. Such an event would only heighten the despair of it all.

"Mono...kuma…?" Jin repeated. "That teddy bear has a name?"

Kiyotaka scoffed at that, mocking offence to the remark. "That's not very nice, Mister Kirigiri! Monokuma here has feelings too, you know. He's not just a teddy bear."

"Yeah!" The bear replied, and Jin practically lurched back in his seat from shock. "I'm Monokuma, dummy! The brightest, bestest, most handsomest bear you've ever set your freakin' eyes on!"

The confusion on the poor man's face was delightful.

"Cute, isn't he?" Said Kiyotaka with a chuckle.

"What… is this? What the hell is going on?!" Jin cried, clearly panicked now.

Kiyotaka sighed at that and sauntered past Monokuma to come face-to-face with the headmaster. "A wise man once told me that 'perfect order will drive you insane'. He told me that disorder and recklessness was something to be accepted. He believed that the talented were more important than the hard workers. He cultivated laziness and chaos when he should have focused on order and regulation. Do you know who that man was?"

Jin shook his head, brows lowered and eyes narrowed in confusion.

"His name was Jin Kirigiri," said Kiyotaka, "and he was the man who made me what I am today. If the world craves chaos and disorder, then why not just let it have it, right? Let the world have its cake and eat it. That's what he taught me. That's the lesson I learned from my time here at Hope's Peak: to give people exactly what they ask for. It's the best way to nurture a happy, healthy school community after all!"

"I… said that?" Jin asked.

"Yes, you did. Though I doubt you remember it. It was such a long time ago, and you've been through so much since then. It's not your fault you forgot. Shit happens."

Oh, it felt good to swear. Even now, in this state of perfect and victorious despair, the prefect had barely ever thought of a curse word, let alone spoken one aloud. But somehow it felt fitting for the current conversation. It felt amazing to speak freely. Rules no longer existed, after all.

"You… who are you?" Jin asked.

"I'm a student of the 78th class of Hope's Peak Academy."

"78th class? They… they haven't started yet. We've only just begun scouting them."

Kiyotaka shook his head with a sigh. "Wow. You've forgotten even more than I expected."

Jin repeated the previous question. "Who are you?"

Kiyotaka leaned down to look him in the eyes. He had considered blindfolding him earlier, but the temptation to stare down his enemy before ending him was irresistible.

"My name is Kiyotaka Ishimaru. I am the Ultimate Despair." He grinned wickedly. "...And I fucking run this school."

With that said, he backed away and Monokuma pushed the big red button in front of him. A steel contraption in the shape of a rocket with the image of Monokuma's face on top arose from the floor and enveloped itself around the chair. 'The Punishment Rocket', as Kiyotaka liked to call it.

Jin began to scream.

The doors slammed shut.

The thrusters fired up.

The Space Journey began.

The Journey ended with a skeleton left in Jin's place after the rocket came crashing back to Earth.

Kiyotaka began to chuckle, and that chuckle evolved into a laugh, and that laugh evolved into a cackle, and that cackle evolved into a roar, and that roar evolved into a scream. Monokuma laughed with him in unison, as man and robot harmonised into a symphony of sweet, despairing victory.

Hope's Peak Academy was now completely at his mercy.

A new administration had dawned.