Prologue - Part 3

After the announcement, most of us decided to go back to our cabins and try to sort through the many questions plaguing our tiny little teenage brains. Why are all the Ultimates here? Why are all the people due to attend Hope's Peak Academy here? Why are we at a summer camp? Why are there robotic animals in charge? Who's controlling them? Why are we here to 'have fun?'

I decided I was above wallowing in my own self pity so I left the girls' cabin to look around. I could try and think back to what had happened and pick up clues while I looked for an escape, after all. As any of my fans will know, I am actually very capable of multitasking. Unlike some of the others here, apparently.

I spotted the boy, Sayin, from earlier, trying to light the campfire. I walked over to him with a frown. "What are you doing? Someone will probably light that later. Perhaps the robots will get bored and they'll throw us all in. Anyways, it's still the afternoon. What's your goal here?"

"I'm trying to summon a demon," he replied simply. "If you don't want to feel its wrath, I'd recommend going elsewhere. He pulled the hood of his crimson jacket over his head and got back to work rubbing some sticks and stones together.

"Oh, you're just as bad as the LARPist," I scoffed. "Who are you, again? Ah yes, the Ultimate Occultist. Remind me how you got accepted into Hope's Peak."

"The school's board of directors clearly found value in my connection to the other world," he snapped. "I'm just going to please the spirits. Then, I will take great pleasure in watching the blood of my enemies rain down."

"Damn, you are edgy. How old are you? Twelve?"

"If you have nothing useful to say to me, leave me alone. I have to focus on summoning this demon," he grumbled. "Summoning takes a lot of concentration."

"Yeah, get back to me on that, will you?" I sneered. "Good luck."

With that, I left him to his demon summoning to take a walk around the perimeter of the camp. I found the invisible barrier Hiroshi was talking about, holding my arm out so I didn't faceplant straight into it. It was weird and vibrated unnaturally, making me instantly pull away. I soon put my arm back, however, reluctantly keeping it there as I walked around to see if there was a gap in it.

Unfortunately, I just happened to run into someone.

Lado, the Ultimate Adversity, was leaning against a tree and crying, clutching something in his hands.

"Could you at least try to be useful?" I sighed. "Wailing like a newborn won't get you out of here."

"I-I can't!" Lado protested. "M-my bad luck w-will just get in the way… so I'm j-just s-sitting here o-out of everyone's way with Floppy…"

"Floppy? Who the fuck is Floppy?" I asked.

Lado turned to me and held up what he had been holding. I was a bit dumbfounded when I saw a goldfish swimming around in a plastic bag full of water.

"You— you were kidnapped with your FISH?"

Lado nodded. "Floppy… F-Floppy and I are never apart."

"Oh my God, he actually named his pet fish Floppy…" I whispered to myself, covering my face. "Holy shit, I have to get out of this place."

"F-Floppy is my best friend," Lado sniffled, ignoring me. "He… he's g-getting me through this." He said it like he was assuring me of it. Or maybe he was just reassuring himself. Or the fish? I don't know, I was already confused enough as is.

"Well, I'm going to leave you and Floppy here to wallow in your own misery," I said. "If you actually manage to pull yourself together and realize you should look for an escape, go talk to someone."

Lado didn't reply, so I left him there, completing my perimeter check about half an hour later. This place is pretty big, I commented internally.

"Oh, Leona. Have you been doing a barrier check, too?"

I turned to see Hiroshi standing behind me. I nodded and pulled away from the invisible barrier, deciding I probably wouldn't find anything useful on it. "I was trying to check for gaps. I couldn't find anything."

"Well, I have an idea," Hiroshi said. "Not related to the barrier, but perhaps an idea to escape. But I need Ayami for it."

"What's your idea?" I asked with a frown. It probably had something to do with locks if he needed Ayami. When did those two meet? I wondered. Probably before I woke up. I suppose it doesn't really matter.

"I'd like to get into the storage shed," Hiroshi explained. "It might have something useful to help us escape. Furthermore, I must admit that I'm a bit curious. You said someone saw something shiny in there, right?"

I nodded. "And you're lucky you ran into me," I added. "If I can make some tools, I should be able to help you pick the shed's lock."

"Eep! No, no, no… campers, that shed is off-limits for a reason! Its contents are dangerous!" Came a voice from behind us.

Both Hiroshi and I swiveled around to find Monomausu standing there with his paws covering his eyes.

"Wh- where the fuck did you come from?!" I demanded. It was like he had suddenly appeared there.

"I heard what you were doing and I just had to intervene!" The robot mouse replied. "I don't want either of you to get hurt… I value my campers' safety very much!"

"Oh, I can tell that from the fact that you drugged and kidnapped all of us," I replied sarcastically. "Thank you for your service."

Hiroshi stayed silent. Monomausu looked down and he almost looked ashamed, somehow. He shuffled his feet and let out a sigh. "Ohh, I know that must have seemed so mean… I really wish there had been another way. B-But Master and Monokami insisted!"

"I heard you and Monokami talk about 'Master' before," Hiroshi interrupted. "Who is that, exactly?"

"Oh! Oh nooo, I wasn't supposed to say that! I wasn't supposed to say that!" Monomausu cried, hiding behind his paws again.

"You might as well tell us now that you've said it," I pointed out.

"I'm sorry, but I really can't do that! Ma- um, Monokami would get super duper mad at me!" Monomausu protested.

"I've got a deal for you, Monomausu," Hiroshi said. "Tell us who 'Master' is and we won't pick the lock on the storage shed."

"That's not fair…" Monomausu sniffled. He sighed, looking dejected. "I meant what I said earlier. I-I really don't want you kids to hurt yourselves! Master is actually-"

"Monomausu!" Monokami yelled, seeming to pop up from the ground beside Monomausu before whacking him over the head. "Stop giving away all our secrets to the campers!" He chided. "They're not stupid enough to try and open a shed with such dangerous things in it. And even if they were, they wouldn't even be able to open it in the first place! Surely you two saw how hard it was to open the lock on the equipment room, didn't you?"

Hiroshi glanced at me.

"Ayami and I tried to pick the equipment room lock," I informed him. "Neither of us could get it open."

"S-See?" Monomausu said. "U-Um… I don't have to say anything bad so I won't get in trouble! 'C-Cause you can't o-open the shed! And it's against the rules, anyways!"

"What rules?" Hiroshi asked. "That wasn't one of the rules."

Monokami whacked Monomausu over the head again. "Wrong set of rules, you stupid mouse! This is why I didn't want you here! Don't you remember? Those rules come after the announcement."

"What announcement?" I asked immediately.

Monomausu didn't seem to want to hit his companion, so he prodded the wolf's side instead. "N-Now you're giving away all the secret information, Monokami! Ohh, I'm really not looking forward to the announcement…"

"Gah, you're right! It's those dumb campers and their adorable little faces making me want to tell them everything!" Monokami. "Come on, Monomausu. Let's go."

With that, the two robots disappeared again.

"I'm starting to think breaking open the storage shed is a bad idea," Hiroshi admitted. "I don't want to hurt myself with whatever 'dangerous' things might be in there."

"They're just trying to scare us," I said, shaking my head. "And if there are dangerous items inside, we can use them to dismantle those robots. I don't know about you, but they are seriously getting on my nerves. They were right about one thing, though. The locks here are pretty strange. We'll need Ayami if we want any hope of getting the shed open."

"I'll go look for her," Hiroshi volunteered. "In the meantime, maybe you can check the map on your 'Monophone.' I had a quick glance at it and there were a few things that I saw that were.. off. And there's something you'll definitely want to see."

"Well, that's not vague at all," I said sarcastically. "Meet me back at the campfire when you've found her. I'll take a look at the map. I'm not very tech savvy, but I might as well try and figure it out."

"Right. If everything goes to plan, I'll see you later," Hiroshi said, walking off.

I walked over to the campfire to see that Sayin had left, leaving a few fallen, dirty sticks and some rocks in his place. I brushed the dirt off of one of the log benches so I wouldn't ruin my black-and-purple suit before sitting down. I pulled my Monophone out of my pocket and booted it up, going to the map tab.

Hiroshi was right, the map was strange. For one thing, it was all magenta— except for a few gray or black rectangles— which made it difficult to look at, but that wasn't what caught my eye. There was a small half-circle at the edge of the screen that stood out from the rest of the map because it was blue. Furthermore, there were two grayed out buttons above the zooming GUI on the right hand side of the screen saying NEXT and PREVIOUS.

What's the point of those buttons if you can't use them? I wondered. And what do they mean, anyways?

Other than that, the map seemed pretty normal to me. It showed a two-dimensional layout of the campsite with a legend of the different buildings and areas on the left hand side of the screen. I saw something under the text CAMP HOPE MAP LEGEND at the bottom of the legend and I had to squint to make out the symbol underneath…

My blood ran cold.

Because it was the Hope's Peak Academy symbol.

-oOo-

Author's Note: Well, that's ominous. We all knew they were Hope's Peak students- but this just confirms it for the characters! Any theories on the mysterious buttons or the weird blue demicircle on the map? Hint: they're both connected! Unfortunately, that's the last of my prepared chapters, so I'm off to go write more. See you next chapter!

Current Character List:

[F] Leona Kurakawa - Ultimate Animal Trainer - 19 y/o

[F] Miku Fukairi - Ultimate Voice Actor - 16 y/o

[M] Hiroshi Satou - Ultimate Percussionist - 18 y/o

[M] Seiko Konya - Ultimate Marcher - 17 y/o

[M] Kaoru "Sugi" Sugiyama - Ultimate Designer - 18 y/o

[M] Hoshi Ito - Ultimate Server - 19 y/o

[M] Lado Kaido - Ultimate Adversity - 16 y/o

[M] Kohaku "Ura the Mage King" Nomura - Ultimate Live Action Roleplayer/LARPist - 18 y/o

[F] Aratani Hagihara - Ultimate Comedian - 17 y/o

[F] Ayami Kimura - Ultimate Escape Artist - 17 y/o

[M] Raiu Kosetsu - Ultimate Apothecary - 18 y/o

[F] Scarlett Blake - Ultimate Journalist - 18 y/o

[F] Miyo Akemi - Ultimate Figure Skater - 16 y/o

[F] Zara Akemi - Ultimate Figure Skater - 16 y/o

[F] Tatsuo Shimizu - Ultimate Trapeze Artist - 18 y/o

[M] Sayin Lukro - Ultimate Occultist - 17 y/o