A/N: Hello, welcome to my semi-new Danganronpa story. Danganronpa: Bloody Reverie. I say semi-new because this is not technically a new one. This will be a story based off an idea for a fangan that me and a few online friends tried to start up a few years ago. Unfortunately, we never got past the basic design phases. We made the character roster, and planned out a good deal of the story and locations, but nothing ever went past that. Eventually, we all stopped posting stuff altogether. I kind of blame myself for the way things ended. I feel like if I tried harder to actually lead things we could've created something really special together.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I have gotten tired of wondering what might have been so I am continuing the project, just in a different manner. I do not possess the artistic, editing, or programming skills to create a fangan on my own so I am simply continuing Bloody Reverie as a fanfic. This will be based off of what me and my old team laid the foundation for, but there will be significant changes. Please do note that not all of the ideas presented in this story are mine, quite a few of them came from my fellow teammates. Unfortunately, we've all lost touch so I don't really have a way to contact them anymore. So I'd like to say this to any former members of Team Reverie still out there who might find this story. I'm really sorry about how things ended. I hope I can try to do our old project some justice.

Furthermore, please do know that I am not a professional writer. I write for fun when I feel like it and I do have other stories on this account that I want to keep writing as well. So please forgive me if I don't update this as often as I could. Anyway, without further ado, please at long last enjoy Danganronpa: Bloody Reverie.

Prologue, Part 1: The Boy Who Wanted to Die

Why? Why am I so afraid? Why do I dread waking up every morning? Why do I fear the sunlight and hide away from it? Why am I petrified of the outside world? Why does my continued existence shake me to my very core? Why?

I wasn't born like this. I remember at one point in time I was very different. I laughed. I cried. I lived. But now I'm almost completely empty inside. I feel nothing but fear. I fear everything. No, who am I kidding? I know exactly how I ended up here. I lost everything and everyone. I experienced tragedy after tragedy and it broke me. Of course, I would be afraid of everything. I can't help myself. Every day I feel worse and worse. I feel more and more afraid of life. Which is why I have to end it. I have to take my own life.

My bedroom was dark, almost completely engulfed in black. The only source of light was the pale glow of my computer monitor. I saw the time out of the corner of my eye. It was 3:25. But it hardly mattered. The time was irrelevant at this point. I was using a search engine to try and find step by step instructions on how to complete my task. Unfortunately, I kept being sidetracked by the same search results.

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I glanced at my cellphone, laying down on the corner of my desk. The cellphone's screen was riddled with cracks. "…" After a few moments of thinking about it, I shook my head. "No, I've tried everything. Nothing works. I'm still afraid. No matter who I talk to, nothing will change." I shifted my focus back to my search. A few minutes later, I found what I was looking for. How to tie and hang a noose. After completing my search, I got to work tying my bed sheets into a noose and hanging it over the ceiling fan in my bedroom. Then I positioned my desk chair underneath the ceiling fan and stood on top of it. As I looped the noose around my neck, I began to think about everything that had led up to this moment. Accident after accident, tragedy after tragedy, loss after loss. In 16 short years, I had experienced more grief and despair than a hundred people would ever experience in their lifetimes. My family and friends were all gone. Lost in countless different tragedies. Even my brother, my protector, was taken away from me. I had nothing left in this world. This world had broken me. I was without a doubt, the unluckiest person who had ever inhabited it. And I was sick of it.

I took a deep breath and then kicked away the chair, prepared to let gravity do the rest. For a few moments, I hung there in the air. The noose around my neck tightened and I slowly began to die. I tried my hardest to will my arms to stay at my side to prevent any involuntary spasms from stopping this. But then the unexpected happened. The ceiling fan broke off of the ceiling and crashed down upon my head. The weight sent me down to the floor and knocked me out. I came to a few minutes later. I was bleeding from my head, but I was still alive. My eyes welled up with tears. "Dammit…not again…" When I said I was the unluckiest person in the world, I meant it. Nothing ever goes my way. My luck is the absolute worst. It's ruined my life and taken the lives of everyone I've ever cared about. Because of my luck I've grown to fear the world and all that can go wrong in it. But it doesn't matter. Even if I try to escape this unlucky world, I get stopped at every turn.

Every time I tried to jump, I would always get saved in the nick of time by something or someone cushioning my fall. Every time I tried to cut myself, the knife or razor would chip or break. Every time I tried to poison myself, my body would always vomit the substance back up. Every time I tried to shoot myself, the gun would always jam. All in all, I've tried to kill myself 37 times. Well, 38 now. And I always survive. I get left with scars and injuries sure, but nothing is ever fatal. My luck won't even let me die. How pitiful is that?

I stopped holding back the tears and began to cry in agony. "Just let…me die. Please, just…let me die." Blood trickled down my head. I didn't bother getting up to dress my wound. I knew it wouldn't matter if I did or not. Come tomorrow, I would still be alive.

My name is Haruki Hisayuki, and I want to die. But I'm so unlucky that I can't.

"Get..." I heard a voice. "Get…up…." I began to stir and opened my eyes. I was lying on my back and standing above me was a familiar woman. She was older than me by about ten or so years. She had long lavender-colored hair and a pair of piercing amber eyes. Her hair was messy and her eyes had bags under them. She looked very sleep-deprived. She wore a loose black T-shirt, a pair of gray sweat pants, and a pair of white socks. The woman had a very stern expression on her face. "Get the hell up, Haruki."

"Mitsuki-san?" I replied in a weak tone.

She sighed. "It looks like you haven't sustained any brain damage, that's good. Though you can't be very smart to begin with if you try to do something like this in the middle of the night." She seemed angry, but at the same time concerned. "What the hell?! You told me you were still taking your anti-depressants!"

"I was. But they're just not working anymore," I replied.

"Then you should have told me that so I could get you some stronger ones. The minute things get hard you try to do this. What is the matter with you? I'm tired of worrying if I I'm even going to see you the next day after I talk to you. How long do you think you can keep pushing your luck like this?" Mitsuki asked.

I got up off the floor and then sat on top of my bed. "It doesn't matter anyway. I'm so unlucky, I can't even die right." Immediately, I felt a sharp sting on my right cheek. Apparently, Mitsuki had slapped me.

"You're a goddamn idiot. You can't stop for one single second to think about anyone but yourself. Do you know how many people would be upset if you just took your own life like this?" Mitsuki asked.

"Of course I do, one. One person, counting you. And you're just my landlady, not a friend, and not family. Everyone I had in my life that was like that is already gone. You're the only person I've spoken to face to face in seven years. In that time, I haven't even met the uncle who's apartment I'm living in. If I die, you would be the only one who would be sad about it," I explained.

Mitsuki sighed again. "So my feelings don't count at all then? You think just because I'm your landlady that I don't really care about you? Get a fucking clue. Do you know how many tenants I have? A little under a hundred. Do you know how many of them I get groceries, medicine, and other crap for? One. You, you selfish little asshole. If I didn't care, why the hell would I even bother doing that?"

"…" I went silent. I didn't have a response to that. I should have known better than to accuse her of not caring. In the seven years since I've lived in my very distant uncle's apartment, Mitsuki Arakawa was the only person who ever talked to me and helped me with my illness. Due to my fear of the outside world brought about by my unluckiness, I had never stepped a single foot outside of my apartment since I got here seven years ago. I was a total hikikomori. No, maybe even worse than that. After about a week of living here, Mitsuki showed up for a wellness check and saw the sorry state of my living conditions. She came off as kind of cruel at first, but then to my surprise she asked me to make her a shopping list of things I needed. And that cycle has repeated itself every week for seven years. Mitsuki pulled a carton of cigarettes and a lighter out her pockets and then proceeded to light one of the cigarettes. "Umm, could you not smoke in here? I don't like the smell. Plus it's bad for your own health, Mitsuki-san."

"Shut up. You tried to kill yourself last night and now you have the nerve to lecture me about my own health?" She growled in aggravation with the lit cigarette still in her mouth. "You are such a pain in the ass. I swear, since I met you, I go through twice as many cartons a week."

I slumped down. "I…I'm sorry. You're right. I was selfish. After everything you've done for me, it wouldn't have been fair to let you be the one who found my body." She immediately slapped me again. "Ow!" I yelped.

"I'm not the only person you should be apologizing to, dumbass. If I were you, I'd seriously get to prostrating yourself to your loved ones. Even if they're gone, do you honestly think they would want you to hold so little regard for your own life? Do you think they would want to see you suffer this way? Do you think they would be happy?"

"…" I didn't have any response.

"…" Mitsuki silently blew a cloud of smoke and then she went to the bathroom to fetch something. When she came back she was holding a first aid kit and a wet towel. She finished her cigarette and then put it out. Then she got to work fixing me up. "Hold still, I'm going to clean your head wound." About ten minutes later, my head was covered in surgical gauze and all the blood had been wiped away. "Lucky for you, the wound wasn't too deep. Keep cleaning it for a few days and it should heal on its own."

"Yeah, really lucky," I said sarcastically.

"Do you want another slap?" Mitsuki replied.

"No, I'm sorry. Thank you for helping me," I replied. Then a thought occurred to me. "Hang on, why are you actually here, Mitsuki-san? It's not Friday yet."

"No, but you got a letter in the mail today." She motioned to a red envelope that was sitting on my desk. "I would've just left it by the front door like usual, but this seemed important so I thought I would hand deliver it. Guess it's a good thing I did. Anyway, if there's nothing else I better get back downstairs. Call me if you need anything else. And clean up this apartment for God's sake. It's a nightmare." She turned to leave. "Oh yeah, almost forgot. Happy new year, Haruki." Then without another word, Mitsuki left my bedroom. A few moments later, I heard the apartment door open and close.

"Oh, that's right. Today's the first day of the new year, isn't it?" Of course, I didn't feel like celebrating. At least not knowing that this year was going to be the same as the other seven before it. My attention turned to the red envelope. "It's probably just another bill for uncle. But I've never seen any of the companies send out a red envelope before." Curious, I got up off my bed and sat down at my desk. I picked up the envelope and turned it over in my hands. My name was written on it so it was definitely meant for me, but oddly enough, my address wasn't written on it and there was no return address listed either. "Did somebody hand deliver this?" The only explanation was that someone hadn't gone through the postal service and instead put the letter in his mailbox themselves. "But who would do that?" I asked myself. I turned over the envelope and saw that there was a mysterious emblem engraved on the top flap. The emblem consisted of a black and white patchwork heart with a key and red scar aat the center of it. Behind the heart, there were multiple white feathers and a pair of white flags. Above the heart was a black crown that was oozing white, and below it were the words: High School. Finally, there was a checkerboard pattern encircling the rest of them emblem. "This emblem looks familiar, but I can't quite place it."

I frowned. "Knowing my luck, anthrax or something deadly will be inside. But there's something about this envelope. I need to know more." I decided to slowly open the envelope. And inside there were two sheets of paper. One was a letter and the other appeared to be some kind of contract. The letter was typed on high quality paper, almost as thick as parchment. I unfolded the letter and then read over the contents.

Dear Haruki Hisayuki-san,

Let me first start by saying, Happy New Year. I hope you are enjoying the start of the new year to its fullest extent. Now then, allow me to formally introduce myself. I am the current Headmaster of the illustrious Harmonic Heart Academy and I would like to be the first to congratulate you with some excellent news. We are currently preparing for the next school year starting in April and have been handing out invitations to talented youths across the world to invite them to join our 15th Freshman Class. And I would like to offer you the last available spot in our new class of freshman.

As you may or may not know, for a few decades now, our education system has shifted from normal academia to instead creating an academic setting tailored to individual students. We have accomplished this by scouring the globe for various students who excel in unique fields. We call these students, Ultimates. As in, they are the Ultimate in their respective field, be it science, art, or anything else. We take them in as a new arriving class and create an academic setting tailored to them to help better study and understand their respective talents, and in the students' case, perfect and nurture their talents. Several schools founded in the last few decades have adopted this Ultimate Program, and Harmonic Heart is one its own creators.

At this point you may be asking yourself, what talent could I possibly possess? Well your talent in and of itself is that you have no talent. Allow me to explain, we have done background research into your personal history and have discovered that you have been at the center of several incidents and tragedies all your life. Some minor, some major. In a word, unluckiness. Your luck is so bad that it's scientifically fascinating. I myself have been a long believer that luck in itself is a talent, which is why I have personally seen to it that each year the Ultimate Program accepts one Ultimate Lucky Student into each schools' respective classes. This Ultimate Lucky Student is one student from around the world chosen at random by lottery. However, this year I thought we should shake things up a little bit and instead of inviting the student who wins the lottery to join, we should invite the student who completely loses the lottery to join. In other words, the student whose name was left over after repeating the lottery billions of times. And that student just so happened to be you. As I have said, we have done thorough background research on you and have seen that despite your crippling agoraphobia you still managed to complete your compulsory education online, so if you can force yourself to join us at our school despite your fears, we would gladly welcome you with open arms and give you the title of Ultimate Unlucky Student.

Now, I know what you may be thinking. But no, this is not a prank or a means to exploit your fear. We are generally interested in your talent and wish to study it. Furthermore, you should know that our faculty is made up of some of the world's most brilliants researchers, including myself. And I have no doubt in my mind that if we put our minds to it, we can accomplish anything. Including, finding a way to rid you of your bad luck once and for all. Anything is possible if you believe it to be so. That is Harmonic Heart Academy's founding philosophy. If you give us some time, I believe we can find a cure. However, this will only be possible if you join us this upcoming school year.

Enclosed in the envelope we have sent you, along with this letter, is a contract. We ask that you sign the contract and then reseal it back in its envelope and place it back into your mailbox. You may of course keep this letter. If you sign it then we shall soon send you another letter with all you need to know for the upcoming semester. If you do not sign the contract, then we shall take that to mean you do not wish to join our school and you shall never hear from us again. I realize that all of this seems very cloak and dagger, but I assure you, this is how our school has operated since its founding.

I hope I have not taken up too much of your time today. Regardless of what you choose to do, I wish you all the best.

Sincerely, Naoya Kamiko, Headmaster of Harmonic Heart Academy

P.S. I don't know if you remember, but your brother attended our school as both a student and an educator. As the Ultimate Teacher, he touched many lives during his time with us. It occurred to me only after we found out about you that you were Hisao's younger brother. He left some of his things at our school before he passed. I still have them here with me. I would like to hand them over in person if at all possible, but if you refuse, I will personally see to it that they are shipped to you. That is all.

It was almost too hard to believe. But I knew that it had to have been true. Harmonic Heart Academy was indeed a real school, and my brother did indeed enroll there as a student and later work there as a teacher. That was where I recognized the emblem from, it was the same emblem that was on a similar red envelope my brother had gotten all those years ago. I was four years old at the time. But I remember it all the same.

The Ultimate Program was a new education system developed about two decades ago by several special academies that were built around the time, including Harmonic Heart Academy. Like the letter specified, the Ultimate Program promoted research into the next stage of human evolution, which researchers believed could be reached by studying underlying human potential. The pure potential which only a handful of people at a time are born with, talent. Students who excelled in various areas of expertise were gathered and invited to join these schools as Ultimate Students.

My brother, Hisao Hisayuki, was known as the Ultimate Teacher. His talent was that he could effortlessly teach anyone how to do anything. He knew how to do almost anything, and therefore teaching the things he knew came easy to him. Most people might not think that's all too impressive of a talent, but everyone who knew my brother understood. He was amazing. He touched so many lives. He could have made such a big difference in the world. And in one fell swoop, I destroyed all of that with my bad luck.

My brother was my hero, my protector. And yet, I killed him, just like I killed everyone else that I cared about. "If only I was never born. If only…." I started sulking again. It was no use. Every time I let my guard down, the fear, the despair, it would all return. "I hate this. I hate my life." I started to cry again. I stood up and walked to my bathroom to dry my tears and wash my face.

As the water poured out of the faucet, I looked into the bathroom mirror above the sink. A haunting face stared back at me. I had sickly pale skin, baggy, bloodshot dark brown eyes, and long, stringy, dirty light blue hair. I also had a wavy ahoge atop my head. I washed my face and got rid of some of the grime and tears. I looked at the reflection again. Nothing had changed. "Is this really what I look like?" I asked myself in confusion. I honestly didn't recognize the person who was staring back at me in the mirror. How long had it been since I bothered to look at my own reflection? I studied the reflection more and saw the ratty state of my clothes. It looked like it had been forever since I last changed them. Then I saw the marks of despair all over my body. The bruises and scars on my arms and the freshly added rope burn around my neck. I looked awful. I looked like the very definition of fear, the very definition of suffering, the very definition of despair.

As the water drained out of the sink, I saw the inside of the bowl. There were various scrapes and bloodstains inside of it. The same marks were inside the bathtub as well. Reminders of previous suicide attempts of mine. Then I looked back into my bedroom. I saw the living space of someone who had completely given up. Clothes and trash littered the floor. Dust bunnies and spider webs were in every single corner. Even my bedsheets were tattered and worn. I walked further into the rest of the apartment. How long had it been since I even stepped foot in the living area? I honestly couldn't recall. But the state of it was also far from ideal. Trash bags were piled up in front of the balcony sliding doors, acting as a makeshift black out curtain. The stench was unbearable. The kitchen was also a mess. Dirty dishes that had been neglected for months were piled up in the sink. It looked like every mold known to man was currently on the porcelain. And finally, a huge stack of unopened mail sat to the right of the apartment door. The apartment itself screamed despair.

"How…how did I let everything get like this?" I asked myself. A fog of depression was starting to clear up from my mind. I raced back to my bathroom and grabbed my anti-depressants. I took the recommended dose and then chased it down with some water. The fog started to clear up even more. It looked like they had started taking effect again. "When did I stop taking these again?" I sniffed the air. "Ugh, what's that horrible stench? Wait. Is that me?" I noticed that the apartment wasn't the only thing that reeked. I smelled repulsive. I finally recalled that it had been almost two weeks since I had taken a shower. "Mitsuki-san didn't say a word about any of this. I can't believe I've exposed her to all of this for so long."

Suddenly I found myself overcome with the desire to clean. "I…I…I can't take this anymore. No one should live like this." I jumped into the shower and washed away the cumulative filth that my body had obtained. After that I dug around my bedroom to find some clean clothes and then I got to work. I added countless bags to the trash bag mountain in the living room and brought all of my old clothes and sheets to wash. Then I tackled the horrors of the kitchen and all the dirty dishes that went along with it. And finally I swept, mopped, and scrubbed the entire apartment. By the time I was finished, I noticed that the morning was long gone and it was nearly midnight. I had spent the whole day cleaning, but still I had to admire my accomplishment. All that remained was throwing away the mountain of garbage and my apartment would finally be livable again.

An odd clarity came over me. "I don't think I've really cleaned this place once in years. Why do I suddenly feel so motivated? The anti-depressants couldn't have worked that well could they have?" A thought occurred to me. I went back to my bedroom and sat down at my desk again. I read over the letter from Harmonic Heart Academy again and let each word sink in. "Could it be? Is my dark, decrepit mind actually telling me that I should accept their offer?" I thought long and hard about it. "It's true. I haven't felt this normal in a long time. Could their offer sound that good to me? A chance to get rid of my horrible luck. A chance to actually be normal. A chance to be an Ultimate Student like Aniki."

For the first time in a long time, I felt something other than fear. Something other than depression. Something other than despair. What was it? This tiny spark of motivation? Could it be? Was it really possible? Was this hope? I gripped the letter tightly in my hands and teardrops started to pour out of my eyes again. "No more. No more. I don't want to be like this anymore." My tears stained parts of the letter. "I want to be normal again. I want to see the sky again. I want to feel the sun on my skin again. I want to talk to people again. I want to have friends again. I want to love again. I want to have hope again."

For seven years, I locked myself off from the rest of the world. Afraid of what might happen if I didn't. Afraid of my luck. Afraid I could hurt someone. Afraid of life. But now I didn't want to be afraid anymore. I grabbed my cellphone and then called the one person who I knew could help me. When the other line picked up, I slowly began to speak. "Hello Mitsuki-san, it's Haruki. Sorry to call so late. Listen, do you think tomorrow you could help me get rid of some trash?" I paused while she spoke. "No, no. I was actually hoping I could go with you to dump it. I want to get out of the apartment." I paused again and then sighed. "Yes, yes, I'm serious. I thought a lot about what you said today, and something came up. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow, but the short version of it is that I'm thinking about going back to school. But the school is pretty far away, and I'd have to live there. So before April, I need to get better. At least to the point where stepping outside doesn't make me want to vomit. Do you think you can help me?" I paused again, while waiting for her response. My tears swelled up again "Thank…you. Thank you…so much." Then I hung up the phone. I took a deep breath. Then I stared at my cellphone. "It's been so long. I want to hear his voice." I brought up my voicemail log and brought up my saved messages. Then I tapped on a particular one and brought the cellphone up to my right ear. The voicemail message began to play.

Hey little bro, Happy Birthday. Wish I could be there to celebrate with you but I'm going to be stuck up here at the school this weekend. You can survive two days without me, right? I already asked the neighbors to look in on you, so don't worry. And I left you a little surprise in the fridge. Hope you like the flavor. Save me a slice! And there's also a little something extra on your bed. I picked it out just for you so I expect you to wear it the next time I see you. Welp I guess that's it, see you Sunday. Unless, you lost your phone again. Or broke it. Hopefully, this will reach you. Love you, buddy.

Voicemail saved July 29th 20XX, 13:32.

The tears kept flowing. "I love you too, Aniki." A few minutes later, I calmed down and took a deep breath. "I swear, I'm going to make you proud." I pulled out the contract that came along with Harmonic Heart's letter. I quickly read over its contents.

By signing this legal document, it is stipulated that the signee, hereinafter referred to as Party A, shall be guaranteed an admission slot for the 15th Freshman Class of Harmonic Heart Academy by the Headmaster and faculty, hereinafter referred to as Party B. When admittance is confirmed, Party A shall move to the Harmonic Heart Academy campus in order to pursue their studies. Free room and board, food, and facilities shall be provided by Party B. As well as all essentials for school activities. Party A meanwhile will not need to bring anything except for personal luxuries. Party A should also be made aware of the following rules and stipulations that come with signing this contract and joining the Harmonic Heart Academy family. If these are acceptable to Party A, then please sign on the dotted line at the bottom.

After there was a long list of rules that Harmonic Heart Academy enforced. There wasn't really anything that stood out as odd, except for one rule:

Party A is not allowed to drop out of school under any circumstances. The only ways to leave the school are graduating or expulsion.

It was kind of an odd rule, but not really odd enough to raise a fuss over. I had already made up my mind, and not being able to drop out was giving me a handicap to make sure I saw it through to the end. After that I signed my name at the bottom of the contract and then put it back in the envelope and resealed it. "The first step to my new life."

At that point in time, I was filled with anxiety, but also hope for the future that going to Harmonic Heart Academy would provide for me. I was going to find a way to rid myself of my bad luck. I was going to live up to the example my brother set. I was going to finally rejoin the world.

However, what awaited me at that prestigious school was not a new hopeful future, but more endless misery and despair. Unbeknownst to me, the contract I signed that day would be the cause of so much suffering. It may as well have been a contract written in blood. Because the new life I wished for would end up sacrificing so much innocent blood. My life of never-ending fear was just beginning.

Prologue: A Contract Written in Blood

Four Months Later

On April 1st 20XX, I took the train out of Tokyo and went to the mountains. From there I took a bus through a small town and arrived at a small, secluded train station out in the boonies. All in all, it took about three hours to get there. I arrived a little before 9:00. The train station itself looked almost brand new, despite being in such a rural area. The sign above the train platform read: Harmonic Heart Station. This was the location of the entrance to Harmonic Heart Academy, one of the most prestigious Ultimate Schools in the world. The school was nestled in a man-made valley deep in the heart of the mountains. It was made out of a castle that was brought over from Europe nearly two decades ago. There weren't that many pictures of it online, so I was very curious as to how my new school and home for the next three years would look. The only way to get in and out of the campus was this small train station which made use of a tunnel that the founders of Harmonic Heart had carved through the mountains.

Currently, a small train with two passenger cars was stopped next to the train platform. According to another letter I had received from the school about the meeting time, the train was set to depart at 9:00 sharp and take me and the other members of my new class to the campus, where orientation would begin at 10:00. "Looks like I made it just in time. It's still kind of hard to believe this is really happening. Four months ago, I couldn't even step a single foot outside of my apartment without vomiting and now I'm going to a boarding school for the next three years," I said to myself. I was still very anxious about how things would turn out, but I had made great strives to be here today. I wasn't about to quit and go home now. And my excitement was doing its best to keep up with my anxiousness.

I even got dressed up in my best outfit to celebrate the fact. I wore a dark blue hoodie with silver zippers over a black T-shirt with a white chain pattern on it. My hoodie was currently unzipped. I also wore a pair of faded blue jeans with stylish tears around the knees, and a pair of old black and white tennis shoes. Okay, so maybe not the best outfit for the first day of school, but it was still the nicest outfit I owned. My skin complexion had also changed from sickly pale to indoor-kid pale, and my dark brown eyes were no longer bloodshot, but they were stilly baggy. My light blue hair was also more glossy and straight, though my ahoge was still very wavy. I had also tied back my hair with my old hair tie, a simple blue hair tie with a raven decal on it. I now had a ponytail that was hanging loosely from my right side.

I slowly walked up the platform stairs, while dragging my carry-on luggage behind me. I saw that the first passenger car door was open. No one else appeared to be on the platform, so I assumed everyone else was already on the train. I made my way to join them when another person suddenly appeared on the platform. It was a boy about my age. He had slightly spiky chocolate brown hair, cloudy green eyes, fair skin and a bit of brown stubble around his face. He wore a black suit over a white dress shirt which had the cuffs rolled up. The black suit was complete with a sleeveless black dress vest, a pair of black dress pants, a pair of black dress shoes, and a black bow tie. He was holding a bottled water in one hand and a candy bar in the other. He smiled at me. "Cutting it awful close, aren't you? It's three minutes to 9:00."

"Oh…umm…sorry. I…I…didn't mean to be…late," I muttered softly. Though Mitsuki had me practice talking to others several times in the past few months, I was still kind of bad at talking with complete strangers.

"No worries, the train actually doesn't depart until everyone's here, regardless of the time," the boy replied.

"H-How do you know that?" I replied.

"The conductor told me. So even if you arrived half an hour late, we'd still be here waiting on you. Probably wouldn't be a good idea though. A few of the others got here an hour early, so I'm sure they don't want to wait anymore," the boy replied. "I just came out here to raid the vending machines while we were waiting on you." The boy walked toward the first passenger car door. "Well now that you're here, we can get going. Follow me."

I did as requested, and followed the boy into the car. It was then that I got my first glimpse of my new classmates. Besides the boy I met on the platform there were 16 other teenagers sitting in the passenger car. Well I say the term sitting loosely, a lot of them were doing anything but sitting down silently in their seats. When I arrived in the car, almost all eyes landed on me.

"We have another arrival."

"About time, I was getting sick of waiting!"

"There's supposed to be 18 in our class, right? So he's the last one, huh?"

"If you're on time you're late, if you're early you're on time. Didn't they teach you that at your last school?"

"How dare you keep the Grim Reaper waiting? Death waits for no man."

"Heh, the Reaper is no match for me. I evade death at every turn."

"What's with that outfit? Is that seriously how you dress for school?"

"Hey! Be nice! A lot of people here are wearing odd things!"

"Maybe it's got something to do with his talent?"

"Oh right! How could I forgot about the Ultimate Emo?!"

"You are so rude!"

"Would you guys please be quiet? I'm trying to read."

"What are we waiting for? Now that we're all here, adventure awaits! Let's trek through the jungle of mystery to our new digs, shall we?!"

"ja;lfjaklfjal;fja;lkdfja;lfja;lkfjsdkfj;alfjdalks;jfa?"

"I think he's just being overdramatic, Zuri. I'm pretty sure we're just going through the mountains."

"falkfjlewjqlkjf;afja."

"Aw, don't sound so disappointed."

"Don't pay them any mind, welcome aboard brah!"

Loud. That was the only word I could think of to describe my classmates. I scanned the car and quite a few interesting faces popped up. 'So these are the people I'll be spending the next three years of my life with, huh? Looks like I've got my work cut out for me,' I thought to myself.

"Well don't just stand there, hurry up and take a seat. Now that we're all here, the train should be departing any minute," said the boy from the platform.

Good morning, young Ultimate Students. Please be seated at this time as the train will depart momentarily.

A voice sounded over the intercom and we all sat down in our seats. I sat down next to a boy with silver hair and glasses. He appeared to be sleeping at the moment.

The train is now departing. Next stop, Harmonic Heart Academy and your new school lives. Please enjoy the ride.

'This is it. No turning back now. Here I come, new life,' I thought to myself.

But as for what happened next, I couldn't imagine it even in my wildest dreams. A thick white smoke started pouring into the car from the ceiling. The smoke clouded the car completely.

"What the hell?!"

"What's going on?!"

"Hey! What is this?!"

Several of my classmates shouted out in panic, and even more screamed in terror. But a few moments later, the commotion stopped and not a single sound could be heard, save from the motion of the train. My eyelids grew heavy and my brain became cloudy. Then the next thing I knew, I fell into a deep sleep.

A/N: And that is Part 1 of the Prologue. Next time we get to see Harmonic Heart Academy and meet all of Haruki's classmates. Look forward to it. In the meantime, please read, review, and follow.