Mr. Makoto Naegi,

We appreciate your submitting an application to our institution. This close to the start of a new school year, we understand the difficulties of your situation. We hope this letter finds you in time to be of some use.

Unfortunately, after some deliberation, we have moved forward with other candidates, and we are now at capacity. Therefore, we must regrettably inform you that your application to Seven Sisters High School is rejected. Please find the enclosed letter of recommendation and feel free to attach it to any other applications you may be sending out.

We wish you the best of luck in your enrollment process.

From the administration of Seven Sisters High School.

The letter was just one of several piled absentmindedly over the kitchen table. Rejection after rejection after rejection. Makoto flicked another one over it, and flipped through the rest of the stack. It wasn't such a surprise to him. It was hard to even say he was expecting better. Last minute accommodations were hard to make, sometimes. But getting shot down so many times in a row like this, it did sink his spirits, if only a little.

He ripped and tore through the next envelope, and the next one, and the one after that, and threw the letters to his left and the shells into the overflowing trash bin on his right. Makoto started thinking about some other things he could do for a year, besides going to school, but there wasn't a whole lot he could imagine himself doing for so long.

Not that he really wanted to go to high school so fervently either. He certainly wasn't looking forward to university. It just seemed normal to be in school. But he couldn't say why.

Naegi,

Thank you for submitting an application to Shiranui High School. However, your experiences do not match our requirements, and your application is rejected.

We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.

This last one, Makoto set aside with a confused smile. Over all the other schools telling him he had a chance, it felt refreshing that one, at least, got straight to the point. And if he was being honest with himself, Makoto didn't know what he was thinking when he sent to Shiranui anyway.

Naegi-san

To: Makoto Naegi…

Dear Mr. Naegi…

From the office of the Principal of

At some point, the letters started blurring together. They spilled off the table onto the floor, and poured out of the trash can. In this landslide, Makoto couldn't and didn't care to tell them apart. A soft rustling from the one of the bedrooms put a pause to his robotic letter opening.

"Makoto, how do I look?" A girl in a white blouse and red necktie stepped gingerly into the living room. She fussed about every pleat of her skirt, every millimeter of her socks.

"Uh, you look fine?" Komaru's outfit was a school uniform, there was no mistaking that. She looked okay in it, and all her microscopic changes weren't making any difference. Not that Makoto could see.

"I was hoping for a little more than fine there, bro."

"I mean, it's a uniform, right?" Makoto said. "You'll probably look the same as everyone else."

"Yeah, that's true. I'm just nervous." Komaru took her hands off her clothes and tucked her arms together. "Was it like this for you last year?"

"Kinda. But, it ended up not being so different from middle school." Makoto turned back to his high school mail. "Just relax, Komaru."

So she huffed with determination, and came closer to the kitchen table. "So, what's all this?" she said. "Options?"

Makoto shook his head, and put aside the next letter he had just opened.

Asunaro…

Unfortunately…

"Oh." Komaru picked up one of the letters off the floor, and looked wide over the whole table. She took the rest from the carpet and placed them carefully back on the table top. "I'm sure one of them has to be it," she said.

She had orientation at her new school, so Komaru couldn't stay much longer. When she was gone, it was suddenly harder to stand the silence that took her spot again. Little by little, Makoto got back into the motion and the tempo he had before, and just a little while longer, he was at the last letter in the pile, heavier than all the rest. He opened this one carefully, and pulled on a laminated handbook cover with a mark depicting two 'S' symbols interlinked.


A fine wood door creaked halfway shut behind him. Makoto held up his student ID card, looking at the shield emblem in the top corner. Shujin Academy. The fat man in the office was the Principal, and he didn't seem to know what was going on. From that first impression, Makoto was already starting to regret coming to this school at all, even if it was the only place that would accept him on such short notice.

The way the school was laid out, the first year students had their classes on the top floor with the Principal's office, and second year students like Makoto were on the middle floor. And yet the number on his locker key started with a one. Well, these were probably just the limitations of last minute transfers, and Makoto put it out of mind quick enough. He made his way back for the stairs, when he saw Kasumi at one of the lockers.

She took a step back and eased the locker door shut, and she glanced his way. "Oh! Hey Makoto!" Kasumi gave the locker door one last press and ran over. "It's so good to see you again! You didn't mention you went to Shujin."

They shook hands, and Kasumi's grip was as firm as Makoto remembered. "Hi, Kasumi. I just transferred here," he said. "I actually just found out today."

"And not a moment too soon, it looks like," Kasumi said. "Good for you!" She let go of his hand, clutching onto his arms for a moment before withdrawing. "So, where's your locker?" Makoto nodded towards the stairwell, and a look of realization flashed over Kasumi's face. "That makes you my senpai, doesn't it? I'd be honored."

They started down the stairs. "It doesn't have to be like that, you know?" Makoto said.

"Yeah, I know," Kasumi said. "And I'm kinda just joking around. I can tone it back, if you don't like it. Just let me know. Okay?"

On the first floor, Makoto scanned the numbers on the lockers, looking for locker number 11037. Were there really over a thousand lockers on this floor? There were some big jumps between the numbers, as he and Kasumi moved from one cluster to another.

"Makoto, can I ask you something?" Kasumi's tone was much different, carrying the weight beneath the bubbles from just a minute ago. "What brought you here?"

"Would you believe it started the day we met?" Makoto said. "I was just at, well, another school. I thought I'd be going through the whole orientation thing there, but then it turned out I was rejected without even knowing it. After that, I just started applying everywhere, and this was the only school that could take someone at the last minute."

"Something that mundane, huh?" Kasumi said. "What was the other school, by the way?"

Makoto didn't really want to talk about it. It wasn't anything worth talking about. At one moment he was considered, and the next moment he wasn't.

But he remembered where the intersection was, where Kasumi's twin sister ran into him on the sidewalk, and it wasn't that far that he walked that rainy day. Kasumi looked pretty smart. She could probably figure it out, so there was no point hiding it from her. "It was Hope's Peak Academy," Makoto said, "but it's not that big a deal. I was just a reject-"

"Don't put it like that!" A tall man wearing a stopwatch around his neck barreled down the hallway. "You're the new kid, right? Makoto Naegi?" He held out a massive hand. "It's my pleasure to meet you. My name is Suguru Kamoshida, I'm the PE teacher here."

"Uh, yeah." Makoto shook Kamoshida's hand. "Nice to meet you, too." Normally, he would introduce, but since the teacher already knew who he was, Makoto didn't know what to do.

Kamoshida only then stopped squeezing Makoto's hand, and shifted to Kasumi. "So, you two already know each other, huh? That's good. There's a few delinquents in this school you should probably steer clear of, but as long as we all have each other, I'm sure we'll be fine!" A long moment lingered on a smile that looked painfully fake. "Speaking of which, Yoshizawa, I'd be honored if you tried out for the volleyball team."

"Thank you for the offer, Mister Kamoshida," Kasumi said. "But I'll have to decline. I'm already competing in gymnastics, so I won't have the time to devote to a second sport."

"You can make time," Kamoshida said. "In fact, with my guidance, I'm sure you could lead the team all the way to the top of the world."

"I know anyone can say that, but I suppose this is different," Kasumi said. "You were an Olympic gold medalist, right? You've been there before. You got that way by devoting yourself completely to volleyball back in high school, right?" Full of enthusiasm, Kasumi raised both her fists. "You were almost as good as I am now, so you should know how it is. So, I'm sorry, but the answer's no."

He gave her a hard look for a second, but flung his head back laughing. "I like your confidence, Yoshizawa," Kamoshida said. "Well, if you ever do have some time to spare, just consider it. Even just casually."

A chime. Kasumi checked her phone, and right away, she sped off to the front door. "I'll keep it in mind," she said. "See you later, Makoto!"

Makoto waved goodbye, and felt Kamoshida patting him on the back.

"She's really something else, isn't she?" Kamoshida continued before Makoto could get away, "I was really impressed to see a reference to Hope's Peak Academy in your application, you know that Naegi?"

He shook his head. "It's not really anything impressive, I don't think."

"Sure it is!" Kamoshida said. "It's not like just anyone can even think of going there. You have to be scouted by the school itself. You're a real Hope's Peak candidate, Naegi, so don't devalue that by saying you're just a reject."

"It didn't come from anything I did, though," Makoto said.

"You had to be the best at something," Kamoshida said. "Even if it might not be what they're looking for at the time." He sounded like he spoke from experience. Behind a mask of confidence and pride, Kamoshida looked for a moment like he knew the very same rejection.

Everyone at Hope's Peak was the very best at something. It was the Ultimate School, for Ultimate Students. Even everyone considered for Hope's Peak had to be the very best at something. Some talent that only they possessed.

Except Makoto.

But by now, that was almost a month ago. Now, he had a whole new school to think about, a whole new life ahead of him.

"Ah, well, if you don't want to say anything about it now, that's fine too," Kamoshida said. "We'll have plenty of time this year, Naegi, so I'll see you around."

Left on his own, Makoto stood frozen in the hallway for a while. He might have just been hallucinating it, but something about the PE teacher's behavior just seemed really weird. But maybe he did mean well, and there was nothing else to it than that.

He kept looking for his locker, and tested the key to see that it worked. Makoto closed the locker back up and headed outside, but before setting foot on the road to the train station, he turned around to look at the front face of Shujin one more time.

Standing there at its gates, looking at the school that loomed over him like a castle, Makoto wondered just what the new year would bring.