A robot is not capable of experiencing and comprehending human emotions, that is what many people believe. I am not one of them, and I will prove those people wrong. How you might ask? By becoming the most human robot the world has ever seen! Attending Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Robot was going to bring me to an exciting and incredible learning environment to further study human emotion in a place swarming with fascinating and unique people.
Little did I know that expectations and reality do not always match up very well…
The very first day at Hope's Peak, Keebo and the other students were given a warm welcome at the big morning assembly by the headmaster and the rest of the school's impressive staff. A lot of his fellow first-year students seemed very fascinated by the headmaster, as Keebo noted. Going through his memory bank that already contained a sizeable range of information on human emotion, he concluded that they must have been experiencing the phenomenon known as feeling star-struck. After all, they had the one and only Makoto Naegi, otherwise known as the Ultimate Hope, as their headmaster. His inspiring and courageous actions and powerful optimism had defeated Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Despair, and it had left many in awe. At first glance, he had seemed like a very average high school student both in appearance and personality, but in the killing game he and his classmates had been forced into he had transformed into a unrelenting hero. Everyone knew the stories, as did Keebo himself. The headmaster certainly appeared very cheerful and open as he delivered his welcoming speech, his smile never really leaving his face.
The end of morning assembly brought Keebo to his classroom, which also meant meeting his classmates and homeroom teacher for the first time, an exciting event.
Like their headmaster, their homeroom teacher was someone quite famous. Unlike Makoto Naegi, however, he was someone whose name sparked a fair amount of controversy. Their homeroom teacher was none other than Hajime Hinata, former Remnant of Despair and reserve course student. One wouldn't expect such a genuinely kind and patient person to have been an instigator of the Tragedy, and yet in some way he was, albeit as a different person.
After the terrible events at Future Foundation's overseas base, the former Remnants of Despair had reappeared and had been given the blame. However, Makoto had stepped up later claiming their innocence and unveiling a much more complex story about how the Remnants had been manipulated and brainwashed by Junko Enoshima prior to the Tragedy. It had required a lot of effort, controversy and time, but eventually Future Foundation came around and opened up about the whole thing, clearing the former Remnants' names. Several of the past Remnants were recruited by both Future Foundation and Hope's Peak Academy, and that is how Hajime Hinata had ended up as their homeroom teacher a few years later.
Homeroom teacher aside, leading up to this day, Keebo had especially thought a lot about what his fellow students would be like and what their talents could be. Were they going to be kind people? Were some going to be strange and with unexpected ultimate talents? Were there going to be any standoffish or hot-headed students he might not get along with? Many of such questions had passed through his artificial mind as that fateful day grew closer and closer, and now we was going to have them answered.
Taking his seat on the front row, Keebo's eyes scanned around the classroom. Behind and next to him, most of his new classmates had also taken their seats while some were walking around and talking to others. At first glance they all looked quite unique in their own way. There was one really tall and buff guy who wasn't wearing any shoes, another with a mask covering the lower half of his face who had his nose buried in a book about folklore, a girl with white hair who appeared to be praying…
In short, when comparing these people to his database, they clearly seemed like ultimates. Did he seem unique and interesting to them as well?
"Hey you!" a loud voice suddenly shouted right behind Keebo, making him jump in his seat. As he turned his head, he came face to face with a strawberry blonde-haired girl with icy blue eyes that stared at him intensely. Her stare grew even more intense as she leaned closer while resting her elbows on the desk behind him, coming so close to his own face that it made him feel all kinds of uncomfortable.
As the other continued to seemingly scan every inch of his face, two things stood out to Keebo. Firstly, the girl had goggles resting above her forehead that looked like they were for professional purposes, rather than for looks. They reminded him a little of the ones the professor tended to wear whilst working. He had a feeling her ultimate talent was something related to mechanics. Secondly, she hadn't fully buttoned up her uniform's dress shirt, very clearly showing her cleavage. Why did she do that? Was it uncomfortable to keep it buttoned up all the way? Did she want people to see her cleavage for some reason? Keebo briefly wondered if it was a normal thing for girls to do, but was quick to notice that none of the other girls in their class had their top buttons undone. Perhaps he should ask the professor about it sometime, as he seemed to be lacking some knowledge there.
Not long after Keebo finished his inner monologue, the girl in question moved back with a smirk on her face. "You're the Ultimate Robot, aren't ya?! You look fuckin' awesome!" she exclaimed rambunctiously, her arms crossed in front of her chest.
She was certainly a loud and in-your-face type of person, or at least he perceived it that way using the knowledge he currently possessed.
"I am indeed, thank you kindly for the compliment." Keebo responded, hoping he came across the right way. His conversational skills were something he had been a little concerned about, as he hadn't had much practice and experience with it aside from conversations with the professor and his assistants. "My name is K1-B0, but you may call me Keebo."
"Keebo huh? My name's Miu Iruma, and I'm the sexiest, most genius and amazing Ultimate Inventor the world has ever fuckin' seen!" The loud girl, apparently named Miu, reacted. Her language was rather colourful, it seemed. He hadn't gathered a lot of data on that yet, but it appeared that Miu had a thing for curse words and superlatives.
"Ooh, Ultimate Robot huh? How fun!" A sing-song voice spoke up from the other side of the classroom. Turning his head, Keebo saw a short and purple-haired boy walk up to them with a cheerful grin on his pale face. The compliment brought a smile to Keebo's face.
When the newcomer reached them, he lifted his arms and folded them behind his head. "Say, I've been wondering... Do robots have dicks?" he asked, the innocent-looking grin not leaving his face while asking a question that was all but innocent.
After a moment of astonished silence, Keebo let out a shocked noise. "EH?!"
Miu snorted before bursting out into boisterous laughter. "Ahahahah! That's an amazing question! I've been wondering about that too!"
"B-B-But why?! Why do you n-need to know such a thing?!" Keebo stuttered, still trying to process the unusual question. It made him feel all kinds of uncomfortable, something he was not very used to yet.
The nameless student smirked and gave him a shrug, seeming to find the reaction quite entertaining. "What? I'm just curious ya know~! Ultimate Supreme Leader Kokichi Ouma demands to know!" he replied in a sing-song voice, revealing his name. "Isn't it super important to have one?"
"Dude, just leave the guy alone! He clearly doesn't wanna talk about it so shut the hell up!" A new voice boomed as it came closer. As he turned his head, Keebo saw another student with purple hair approaching the small group. The person seemed to be a big fan of outer space, as he had stitched a NASA-patch onto the right side of his chest on his uniform blazer. Was that even allowed?
At the intervention, Kokichi rolled his eyes before pouting. "Awww boo, such a cockblock..." he muttered. The smirk was swiftly renewed onto his pale face. "Hah! Get it? I'm so hilarious!" he added before turning to the other classmate again. "So who are you anyway, space cadet?"
The other momentarily seemed angry about being called a 'space cadet' but quickly recovered as he grinned brightly and proudly puffed out his chest. "The name's Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars! I'm the Ultimate Astronaut!"
This new experience and the strange interactions with his classmates made Keebo realise that he was correct about his time at Hope's Peak Academy being interesting, but he had come to another realisation as well as he silently watched Kaito and Kokichi continue to bicker and mock each other.
This was going to be very exhausting... wasn't it?
I had discovered that my class was filled with some very unique individuals with a wide range of talents, but two people in particular continued to catch my attention over the course of the first few days. One was most certainly Kokichi, the other…
"Hey! Crazy Sick Robot Keebs!" A rambunctious voice echoed through the quiet hallway as Keebo was walking towards the cafeteria during lunch break. He did not possess a digestive system, but he still wanted to go there like students of flesh and blood as to not feel left out.
Even if he hadn't turned around to face her, Keebo knew all too well that it was Miu. Not many people had the audacity to scream weird things in the hallways.
"Crazy… What did you call me just now?" he asked in confusion.
Approaching him with another one of those strange smirks, Miu got right up in his face again like the first day of school. "Crazy Sick Robot Keebs! It's my new nickname for ya!" she replied loudly as if his face wasn't just a few centimetres away from her own. "It's just Keebs or CSRK for short! CSRK also stands for 'CockSucking Relieves Kidney disease', but that's not something you need to worry about!" she continued before barking out an obnoxious laugh while leaning back.
"D-Don't give me weird and vulgar nicknames!" Keebo reacted with a stutter. Were he able to, he would have been blushing like crazy in embarrassment.
"Anyway!" Miu started. "I need ya for somethin'."
Keebo looked at Miu with a mix of curiosity and slight apprehension. She certainly had a colourful personality, but did that have an impact on her creations too? Hope's Peak had acknowledged her as the Ultimate Inventor, so surely it couldn't be that bad, right? Besides, it felt quite nice for someone to say they needed his help.
"What do you require my help with?" he asked carefully.
Miu grinned and pointed right at him. "My latest ingenious masterpiece! I need ya to test it out!" she announced bluntly.
Keebo raised his eyebrows in surprise. Miu wanted him to test out one of her inventions? It felt nice that the Ultimate Inventor found him to be reliable enough for such a thing, but at the same time, he was a tad worried about what this invention might be. It was Miu, after all... "You do?"
"Hell yeah I do!" Miu responded rambunctiously. Her enthusiasm appeared to swiftly be replaced by annoyance as she continued. "Hope's Peak wanted my first invention here to be 'something useful' so it's not as super fucking incredible as usual, but you better prepare your steel ass anyway!"
Although Miu wasn't very happy about it, Keebo felt what must be relief hearing that the invention was something relatively normal. "What kind of creation is it?"
"They're contact lenses that record shit. For now you'll have to view the recordings after by having the lenses send them to a computer or phone, but I'm gonna work on a way to view them on the lenses themselves if the other stuff works well first."
That didn't seem too bad or dangerous to test out, especially since his eyes could not get damaged irreversibly like a human's should anything go wrong. "Sure, I'll test it out for you Miu." Keebo offered, feeling much more confident about testing the invention now that he knew what it was and that it shouldn't do any major damage to him if it were to go haywire.
Miu's expression lit up as a grin decorated the girl's face again. "Sick!" she exclaimed. She suddenly reached into her cleavage and pulled out a metal case before shoving it into Keebo's hands.
How long had that been in there for?! And why?!
"In there are the lenses. Tomorrow, I want ya to use them all day so I can test a bunch of different stuff in one go, from battery life to the automatic zoom." The inventor instructed, suddenly seeming a lot more serious and intelligent than she usually let on. Despite her rambunctious personality, she must really care about her work. To Keebo, it was very fascinating to see.
Keebo nodded in understanding. "Alright, I trust there is some kind of manual included in this case?"
"Yup! Everything ya need is in there!" Miu replied loudly, already back to her usual energetic self. Before their conversation could continue, a loud rumble echoed through the hall, making Miu burst out in laughter. "Pahahaha! Guess I gotta go fill my guts!" she exclaimed. "Smell ya later! Then again, you don't have much of a smell to ya, hah!" she continued before marching off towards the cafeteria. Before she vanished through the double doors, however, the loudmouth spun around and waved erratically with a massive smile. "And thanks again Keebs!"
As the doors closed behind her with a thud, Keebo could not prevent a smile from creeping onto his own face. Miu's cheer was actually rather contagious, even if she could be seriously overwhelming at times.
Somehow, Keebo had a feeling he would have a hard time saying no to this very unique classmate of his...