CHAPTER 1 - HOPE

Kamukura Izuru brought a generational dream closer and closer to fruition when he successfully founded Hope's Peak Academy. This was not the only goal that his line was striving for. They wanted to create the most talented human being ever to live. Dating back years prior, they resorted to selective breeding where the head of the family would find the ideal partner to procreate with and create the ideal offspring. The top instructors in every field would then tutor them. With each generation, they felt they were getting closer and closer to the most talented human to ever live. Kamukura Izuru founded the Academy with the ulterior motive to thoroughly research talent to further perpetuate the superiority of his offspring. It was all culminating to an all-time high with the birth of Kamukura Kamiko, many years after the foundation of the Academy, who was a genius in almost every sense of the word. She was a naturally born super prodigy.

Behind the scenes, research on engineering a superhuman with all imaginable talents was also underway. The Steering Committee, who had ultimate authority on everything concerning Hope's Peak Academy, wanted to create the Ultimate among Ultimates. They wanted a student that would be worthy of the name Ultimate Hope. This would be the Kamukura Izuru Project, which would be realized after years of research and funding from non-Ultimate students in the Reserve Course. Students in the Reserve Course paid a high tuition fee since they would be attending the prestigious Hope's Peak Academy.
Above even the Steering Committee was the Kamukura family. After the foundation of the Academy, Kamukura members of high school age would attend Hope's Peak, free of charge, to hone their talents as optimally as possible.

Kamiko was homeschooled for her whole life before reaching the age of 15 when she would then be admitted in Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Hope, a title given to all who came before her. However, there was one fundamental difference between Kamiko and her predecessors. The girl did not care for her family's goals and ideals. She was bored with it all. She wanted to defy them, to create a little bit of chaos within that perfect façade that her family had been keeping. It would all start when she would start her education at Hope's Peak. She knew that, for starters, that she would never procreate with the person her family would choose for her. She had more grandiose plans for herself than to become a breeder for the next exploited talent.

As Kamiko stood in front of the imposing Hope's Peak Academy building, she felt a wave of disgust at what it signified. Unlike the common folk, she knew everything that was going on behind the scenes to keep this Academy thriving. She even knew about the Kamukura Project. If any of that information were to be leaked, it would create one of the biggest scandals ever. That perfect image that the Steering Committee and the founding family had been upholding for all those years would turn into a nightmare and an outrage amongst the Japanese population. Thinking about it made Kamiko feel a little excited at the prospect but also anxious at the amount of unpredictable chaos that could be created from such an event.

The Ultimate Hope made her way through the majestic gates and, as she turned the corner, she bumped into someone, or so she would have if she did not have incredible reflexes. She spun gracefully out of the way, avoiding a collision between her and a white haired student with very pale skin.

"Wow that was incredible!" The boy said in an admiring tone. "Are you perhaps the Ultimate Dancer? Usually I would have a better idea of who you are since I search around the forums every year to find out about all the new pillars of hope that I would have the privilege to witness!"

Kamiko smiled at the enthusiasm that this boy was showing. She knew that there would be nothing about her online. Not many knew when the next Ultimate Hope would be introduced to the public. She felt as though she was treated like some kind of exclusive item and that did bother her quite a bit. She brushed her pale hand through her waist-length deep black hair and looked into the boys light lilac eyes with her equally light turquoise eyes.

"How about we exchange information. If you tell me what Ultimate talent you possess, I will tell you which one I have. Maybe you can even tell me your name," she leaned in closer to him with that last sentence. The Ultimate Hope had been trained in all fields, and that included navigating social situations with ease. She even enjoyed seeing people's reactions to her actions, even though, most of the time they behaved exactly in the way she expected them to.

"Y-You want to know about a lowly being such as myself?" His response left Kamiko a little surprised. Out of all the scenarios and reactions she imagined, this one was one of the ones she thought had less of a probability of occurring.

"If you knew half of it... You wouldn't think it was all that amazing." She mumbled under her breath.

"Did you say something?" He did not seem to hear her since she did not intend for him to be able to hear what she said.

"Introduce yourself to me," Kamiko said with a charming smile, "I feel quite interested in knowing more about you."

The white-haired boy blushed at her charismatic aura. He cleared his throat a few times to regain his composure and took a deep breath.

"My name is Komaeda Nagito. I am a second year here in this amazing Academy. I can't say I'm quite worthy to be here among such clearly superior humans with a talent like mine, if you can even call it that. I was actually chosen through a lottery to determine who would join as the Ultimate Lucky student."

"Ah yes the lottery," Kamiko scoffed, "so you were the first victim of that research."

"Victim?"

"I mean, they did do this in the hopes of researching luck," she said, but refrained from going any further, since part of the reason why they are researching luck, among all the other talents, is for the Kamukura Project. All of these Ultimate students that they think they are privileged to be attending Hope's Peak Academy are merely case studies for the scientists to synthetically engineer the Ultimate Hope.

"You even know about that? Not many people here are aware of the lottery. You must be special even amongst all the Ultimates," Nagito was not containing his excitement to be in Kamiko's presence, "would you grant me my selfish desire to know more about you?"

Kamiko sighed at Nagito's self-deprecation, but went ahead with her self-introduction without commenting on it. "I'm a first year so I guess I should address you as Komaeda-senpai."

When he heard her say his name, Nagito felt a strange fluttering in his stomach.

"As for my name and my Ultimate, it's Kamukura Kamiko, the Ultimate Hope. Kind of a dumb way to name an Ultimate in my opinion, since it doesn't really explain anything about my talents..." Kamiko giggled.

Nagito's eyes began to sparkle when he realized who he was in the presence of.

"You're the descendant of the founder of Hope's Peak Academy? How lucky must I be to have bumped into such greatness at the very beginning of the school year! I truly am lucky!"

Kamiko was not too fond of being admired for who her family is. At this point, she was just wanting to get away from Nagito for a bit, since he did hit a nerve.

"Komaeda-senpai, I don't feel comfortable being defined only by what Ultimate I am," she said in a calm tone, keeping her emotions in check, "if you'll excuse me now, I need to get to orientation soon."

She hurried away from Nagito as he watched her slender figure until she was out of sight. He felt confused by her statement. Did he offend her? He just felt so overwhelmed from being in the presence of such grandiose hope. He felt as though everything about Kamukura Kamiko was perfect. He wanted to be in her presence, even though he was nothing but a lowly worm next to her. He let out a sigh of excitement and made his way to his classroom.