NEW HOPE UNIVERSITY SHOOL OF ULTIMATES PROGRAM FINAL EXAM

Our final exam this semester will take place the morning of xxxxxxxx at 7:00 a.m. Students will be allowed to search the administration building to find evidence.

This is an entirely oral exam. Students must verbally provide the correct answer for each question in order to pass.

All grades will be shared amongst the entire class; therefore, students must agree on an answer before it is officially presented as a test response. For this reason, students will be given a chance to freely deliberate and discuss evidence during the exam.

Failing the exam will result in immediate death.

Passing the exam will result in the death of the mastermind, as well as freedom from campus and access to all amenities provided to graduates. Most especially, graduates will receive the invaluable career connections provided by alumni. Remember: We're a family here at the school of ultimates!

The exam consists of FOUR questions. You must answer all four. However, you may answer them in any order.

1. Who is the mastermind?

2. What is the secret of the mastermind? (you'll know what it is it if you discover it, trust us)

3. What is the purpose of this program?

4. There is a dead man in one of the rooms of the administration building. Who killed him?

Jane coolly looked over the seats of the auditorium as she tested the pens she had found. Pausing just slightly, she glanced over at Rodrigo. "Tell me, what was the painter like as a person?"

"Hm?" Rodrigo glanced at her, then back at the seats where they'd found his headless body so long ago. "Ah. I never came to know him well. I feel he was a good man, but with a conflicted heart."

"Huh." Jane was silent for a moment and then shrugged. "I think I probably would have hated him."

"...Perhaps."

"I think I would have liked Therion, though. Maybe." Jane placed the caps back on the pens. "Unless he was insane. Do you think he was insane?"

"Hm," Rodrigo mused. "I know nothing of insanity, so I cannot answer. But his... modes of reasoning were not ones I could understand."

"I think he was just one of those risible people who prioritize their final moments over each one that came before," Jane said. "I've met people like that. People who think that if they can orchestrate their own death to be perfect, somehow, then they don't really die." She raised an eyebrow at the paladin. "He sacrifices himself for some game and that means he 'lives on,' although of course he doesn't."

"I'm not certain I agree, Friend Jane. As mere humans, we all have flawed hearts. Therion simply lost his ability to control his malice and avarice for long enough to choose to perform such a terrible act. Of course, he bears blame, but my anger is reserved for the keepers of this terrible school."

Jane just grunted. She rested her chin in her hand, looking bored. "Flawed hearts, hm?"

"Indeed," Rodrigo answered, nodding seriously. "It is one of the reasons I respect Friend Rocky so much. He has anger deep inside him, but he is determined to keep it from leading him into wickedness."

Jane inhaled and then exhaled, unimpressed. "So... he'd be less worthy of respect if he didn't have a trait that made it more likely for him to do bad things?"

Rodrigo paused. "I..."

"Like, I'm working super hard to be nice to all you idiots," Jane interrupted, "and I'm still a complete bitch. But Emily was just kind, deep down. I'm better than her, just because she didn't have to use self-control to be a good person?"

"Uh. N...no..."

"Hey, you know the story about Lazarus and the rich man, right?"

Rodrigo actually was so startled by the question, he pulled away from Jane a bit. "Aye. Do you know the scriptures?!"

"Of course I do, I wouldn't remain ignorant about something so important," Jane snapped. "It doesn't mean I believe in any of the silly supernatural stuff, of course. But the gist of the story is, Lazarus is a beggar, and his super rich neighbor never helps him, and then they both die and Lazarus goes to heaven while the rich man goes to hell. Right?"

"Ah..."

"And the whole deal is that the rich man went to hell because he never helped out Lazarus, and the same thing is going to happen to all his brothers, and no one can do anything to stop it, right?"

"Well, there are many scholarly perspectives on..."

"Okay, here's what pisses me off about it," Jane continued, almost certainly not listening to Rodrigo at all. "As far as we know, Lazarus never does shit, right? He just sits around getting his sores licked by dogs. But he goes to heaven. But why does he deserve that? He never helped out his neighbor. That's what got the rich man damned."

Rodrigo crossed his arms and frowned. "But Lazarus had nothing to give. He couldn't help."

"Exactly!" Jane agreed, smirking a bit. "But! If the rich man had given Lazarus some food, then Lazarus would be on the hook to give some of that food to his homeless buddy, right? He'd now have the ability to help his neighbor, which means he goes to hell if he chooses not to!" She smacked a fist into her palm smartly. "So, the rich man did Lazarus a favor! Lazarus never had the option to be greedy, so he never had a chance of going to hell! Keeping someone from being at risk of damnation sounds like a good deed, to me."

"But Friend Jane, the message was to the jeering Pharisees, and they were in danger of losing the message of the prophets. The more specific details are simply part of the parable."

"Ugh, you know what I'm saying, Monkboy!" Jane argued. "If 'virtue,' whatever on earth that means, depends on where you start, then what good is it? Lazarus can be good just because he never gets a chance to be greedy, but the rich guy gets a chance to fail every day! And I get bonus points for good things I do because I'm a terrible person?"

"I'm concerned you're overemphasizing ethical principles and..."

"Oh, christ, here we go," Jane interrupted, rolling her eyes. "Don't even think of starting with any Aristotle shit."

"Well, how else am I to respond to someone who seems to view virtue as notches accumulated on a shepherd's staff, devoid of context? I must go back to..."

"Holllyyyy shit." Rocky's voice cut them off. The DJ stood in the doorway, rubbing his head in bewilderment. "You aren't gonna keep up this smarty-pants stuff, are you?"

"Oh! My apologies!" Rodrigo exclaimed. "I lost myself in the discussion and became rude." He nodded to Jane with sincere appreciation. "But it was indeed galvanizing! You have the soul of a philosopher, Friend Jane!"

"That's a terrible thing to say to someone," Jane grunted. "But look, here's my point. The mastermind... whoever that is..." she paused to glare suspiciously at both of the men in the room with her "...clearly wants us to be all shaken up and uncertain about precisely this kind of ethical thinking."

"Uh, why do you think that?" Rocky asked.

"Because of this whole asinine game! It's a series of mock trials focused on identifying an evidoer for punishment!" She waved her tablet around vaguely. "And it culminates in this final exam where we're given the chance to overthrow the grand villain and escape!"

"But for what purpose?" Rodrigo asked.

"Oh, I couldn't begin to guess," Jane answered sourly. "The mastermind is obviously battier than a cave full of bats. But whatever it is has been more effective at brainwashing intelligent people than is comforting."

"Huh." Rocky raised an eyebrow at her. "So... you saying we shouldn't do this after all? Just tank this exam?"

"Of course not!" Jane snapped. "The result of that would be death! Don't be an oaf." She sighed. "But. Surviving without my own mind is just dying a different way. Let's simply keep reminding ourselves there's more than one way to fail this upcoming test, hm?"

Rodrigo nodded. "Well stated!" he agreed firmly.

Rocky nodded, though he looked far less sure. "Uh. Okay." He held up his bag from the student stores. "I got the tape. We ready to do this?"

"Indeed!" Jane took the bag and set the tape dispenser next to the pens and paper. "Oh, how were the others? Were they still in the quad?"

"Uh. Yeah." Rocky shrugged, rubbing the back of his head uncomfortably. "Still sleeping. I guess that's good."

"It is," Jane affirmed. "I've never cried myself, of course, but I'm led to understand it's exhausting."

Rocky just nodded vaguely, taking in the blank, white wall. "So... uh, how do we do this?"

"Organization, of course!" Jane answered. She quickly grabbed three papers and wrote out headers: KEY PLAYERS and FACTS, and she taped them to the wall as high up as she could reach.

Rodrigo stared in fascinated amazement at the tape dispenser. "Perfectly flat and near invisible..." he murmured. The others ignored him.

"Uh, well, I guess we can just get what we had before," Rocky said. He jotted out some new names and descriptions, taping them up under KEY PLAYERS. With all of their input, they eventually had a list:

EUGENE ALAMEDA: Devised the program and created government funding to create it. His stated purpose is to bring talented young people in line with traditional social values. Appears to be a genuine ideologue who believes our country will be ruined if young people are left alone. We don't know if he's still involved with the program, where he is, or what his role has been regarding this semester.

THE MASTERMIND: Responsible for kidnapping each student and for programming Monokuma. Presumably, they also monitor or control other aspects of the killing game, but we don't know what they are. They are masquerading as a normal student, and if they are killed, the security systems keeping us from leaving campus are deactivated automatically. Partway through the game, they apparently started changing the typical way the game has been run; we don't know why, or even if this is real. They apparently cannot contact the outside world while taking part in the game.

MONOKUMA: An A.I. running the day-to-day operations of the killing game: managing trials, enforcing the rules, opening up new areas of campus, etc. He appears to be at least semi-autonomous. He can appear nearly anywhere on campus thanks to small tunnels leading to most rooms, and he constantly monitors and records our every move. Midway through the game, he was apparently damaged by Barrett's fire, but he gradually seems to have recovered. He acts very frustrated with the unexpected behavior of the mastermind, though this may be a ruse of some kind.

THE ALUMNI: Graduates of the School of Ultimates program. A few dozen are successful enough to be well-known, such as Broadway star Romeo San Marcos and 30 Under 30 media luminary Gareth McGregor, but there may be others. Even though all have apparently survived a killing game, no one has gone public with information about it. At least some of them are directly involved in the killing game, and they are set to perform an unknown action if the mastermind doesn't check in with them by a certain point.

THE HOLDOVER. A student who has taken part in several killing games, due to a refusal to leave campus after surviving. The mastermind allows the holdover to stay, but we aren't sure why. The holdover and the mastermind presumably know one another's identities, but neither has exposed the other. However, the holdover does not appear to have goals that are entirely in line with those of the mastermind.

THE US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: Has been funding the killing game for over ten years. Beyond that, their influence is not known.

"Hm, that's all I can think of," Rocky mused. "Should we... get to work on just putting down what we know?"

"I'm afraid that 'know' might be a bit strong," Jane replied. She jotted down and stuck up a note next to the FACTS column that said, Remember: All of this might just be bullshit meant to fuck with us!

"Huh," Rocky mused, "works for me. What do you think, Roddy?"

Rodrigo didn't reply. They looked over and saw him struggling, both of his hands stuck together in reams of scotch tape.

"Oh, for..." Jane took a deep breath. ""Do you need help there, darling?"

"Uh." Rodrigo looked up. "I'm afraid this technology is beyond me."

They freed him, though it took quite a while. Despite the delay, they were quickly able to get down some key facts they had learned:

KILLING GAME: A game designed to encourage us to commit murder, and to expose murderers. It is very unclear (and kind of baffling) how this is supposed to accomplish Alameda's goal of bringing young people in line. If a murderer wins, there is one survivor; otherwise, there are a handful of survivors. Our killing game has lasted notably longer than many previous ones.

FINAL EXAM INFORMATION: Packets of personal information meant to be discovered by us after the fifth murder, but which instead were released to Juliet early. Most of these packets seem to involve us being betrayed by a person, institution, or ideology we had previously fully trusted. Juliet softened the impact of each one with mitigating information.

TRIAL RECORDING: We were given a recording which apparently consists of the end of the Final Exam for a previous class. One of the students was identified as the mastermind and seemingly executed by the surviving students. Two of the voices were electronically altered, presumably because we would otherwise recognize them.

THE CRICKET: Every surviving student denied being the mastermind in the cricket, even though it apparently worked on everyone. (We THINK that we remember every student getting flagged for a lie at least once, but we can't recall.) Bepi proved the machine could be tricked, but it's still not clear how the mastermind got away with this.

MORGAN'S INFO: Morgan/Vandal spent his time here warning us to leave the school. After he died, papers indicating the history of the killing game were found in his room. It is not known where he obtained this information or how long he had it.

Jane scanned over the wall of information. "Hmm," she mused. "I can't, personally, think of anything else. Unless..." She glanced sideways at the others. "...anyone has information about the mastermind they'd wish to share?"

"Huh?" Rocky glared back at her. "You think it's one of us?!"

Jane shrugged. "From my perspective, there's a 50/50 chance of it." She paused. "Assuming, of course, the mastermind is someone we're currently counting as a 'survivor.'"

They all frowned at one another, and then they decided to add a new fact.

CLASSMATES: We clearly saw the inarguably dead bodies of Morgan, Emily, Ashley, Barrett, and Juliet.

"I wish to say something," Rodrigo announced, as they somewhat helplessly considered what they knew. "The mastermind has instigated a duel to the death. I have no intention of letting evil win or of letting my friends come to harm." He clasped his hands behind his back and regarded his classmates with calm determination. "However. In this moment of respite, I will repeat something I've said before: I believe all of the people here have good hearts, and I believe we all can be saved."

Jane and Rocky stared at him. Eventually, Jane tittered nervously. "Your sincerity is risible, but it's almost easy to believe you."

Rodrigo beamed. "I believe that's the first step on the path to faith."

MAIN QUAD

I woke up suddenly, and the first thing I was aware of is how disgusting I felt. My eyelids were actually a little stuck shut with eye boogers and dried tears, and my throat felt salty and hot. Nothing felt real.

It was good that nothing felt real, because it meant Lucina didn't really feel dead. Nothing had meaning right now; everything was just objects.

Katy sat near me, hugging her knees, and there was a bottle of water and a protein bar on the ground next to me. Katy, I realized, was looking at me, but she didn't change expression or position at all from my waking up.

I sat up, brushing my hair out of my eyes, and I picked up the water bottle. I realized I was thirsty mid-sip, and before I knew it, I'd drained the whole thing.

"Did you bring this over?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Oh. Well, thanks." I took the protein bar and regarded it. I intellectually knew I was hungry, but it felt like the mere thought of eating made me sick. I choked down a couple of bites and felt a little better.

"I'm so sorry," Katy said.

I froze, mid-bite, and glanced up at her. "Sorry?"

"You were in love with her too, weren't you?"

Weirdly, this didn't phase me much. "Probably? I don't have much perspective."

"I should have realized it. I should have.."

"Katy." My voice was raspy but still stopped her cold. "I was stupidly jealous. I mean it. Jealous in stupid ways. Stupid with jealousy." We gazed blankly at one another. "It's a killing game, right? We're allowed to not be perfect."

Her eyes were hopeless. "I almost killed everybody."

I took another bite of my protein bar thoughtfully. "Really? Would you have been able to go through with it in the end?"

She held eye contact for a moment, then signed and pressed her cheek against her legs. "I don't know. Maybe. I didn't even put it together that anyone else was in danger until I'd already committed." She was silent for a moment. The air was chilly, and I hadn't even noticed before. "The thing about stories is, they end. You know? After the big tragic climax, you don't have to keep going."

I glanced up at her, raising an eyebrow. "You had better fucking keep going," I grunted. "I am not going through this only to see you die anyway."

She squeezed her knees tighter. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess I owe you."

"It's not about that!" I snapped. "There's just been too much pointless death already! All of this is stupid and pointless and I can't have it keep going that way, I'll go crazy!"

"Okay," Katy replied. "Let's stay alive, then."

We were silent for another moment, and then Katy spoke up again. "I helped make them happy. Lucina and Mackenzie."

I looked up at the sky; it was dusk and everything was red-grey. "Yeah, I think you did."

Katy looked over and smiled wanly. "Thank you," she said, "but that wasn't a question. I did. I know I did. I messed up a lot, but I was good for them and I'm not gonna forget it." She paused. "Um. I'm pretty sure you made Lucina happy, too. And Bepi. And probably everyone we've lost, somehow, but definitely those two." She grimaced. "Even Juliet. I was pretty sure no one could reach him, but you somehow did."

I blinked in surprise. "'Him?'"

"Yeah," she answered, eyes and voice sad. "I think that's where he would have gone if his parents hasn't been... like they were. You don't have to call him 'him,' but I'm gonna." She somehow managed a grin. "Partly just 'cause Monokuma will hate it."

I found myself grinning back.

"There were always picketers at my book signings and stuff," she said. "Some people, it made them so mad just to see me existing, much less successful." She sniffled slightly, but I didn't see any more tears. "Lucina was my reason for going on, here. And Mackenzie was my reason for going on, before. But... but I kind of think people like that are what I can use."

I nodded. "Yeah. Succeed to shove it in their face. To spite them."

"No... no, not really." She sighed. "Just, to prove to myself that they're wrong, and my dad's right."

I almost didn't realize I was doing it, but I reached over and found myself taking her hand. I just held it for a minute.

"Can I stick with you, tonight?" she asked. "When we explore the new building? I don't want to be alone, but I also don't want to be with someone I think might be the mastermind."

"Uh." I pulled my hand away gently. "You... still trust me?"

"Well... yeah," she replied. "But that doesn't even matter, right? I dunno how that awful VR thing works, but I don't think you could have been you and the mastermind at the same time."

I started to reply, then froze. I actually had completely not thought of that. "You're right. Everyone else was covered up by those force fields, but we saw one another while the Mastermind was talking."

"Mmm hmm." She paused, almost shyly. "And we haven't investigated together for a while, but I think we work well as a team."

I nodded, and then I made a decision. I had no idea whether it was extremely stupid or not, but I felt at the moment it was the best thing. "So... okay, I need to tell you something."

"Hm?" she asked, tilting her head cutely.

"Uh. It's not something I've told anyone else, but I just have this feeling it'll get me in trouble if I keep it secret."

"What is it?"

"It's... the information I got. You know, from Juliet." I bit the bullet and just said it. "It was this memo from someone making the game. And it said... I was the daughter of one of the leaders here, and they'd brought me in to be the mastermind."

She gasped and scooted back an inch, I hope out of reflex. "Is... it true?"

"No! I've never heard of this place before applying! It said my dad was someone named Major Kindschwall, which was absolutely not my dad's name, and he definitely was never a major!"

Katy blinked. "Kind...schwall?"

"Yeah. But see, the thing is, we were all supposed to find this, like, tonight. Among all the stuff we find about everyone else."

"Oh..." Katy gasped. "We would have believed it. Everyone finds these things about themselves that are true, and we'd never think yours was fake. We would..." She trailed off in thought, then looked back up at me seriously. "Where's this memo now?"

"Uh, gone," I answered. "I took it into a bathroom and soaked it with water until it turned to mush, and then I flushed the mush down the toilet."

"Okay." Katy took a deep breath. "Okay. Saya?" She reached out and put a soft hand just very gently against my leg. "I believe you. I know you couldn't be the mastermind." She frowned. "But... but just because of how the mastermind themselves is acting! I don't know why they'd frame you, but I really don't know why they'd plan to frame you and then wreck it!"

"You see why I wanted to tell someone? This is just... it's so confusing. I didn't want to be alone at the mercy of... whatever they have planned."

She nodded. "I'll support you, I promise. The mastermind is not going to win."

I looked at her determined but still miserable expression, and I actually felt a little better. Still, I made a mental note to myself about this whole thing, just to make sure I wouldn't forget it.

SAYA'S MEMO: An internal memo supposedly between people running the killing game. It exposes Saya as one the daughter of one of the higher-ups behind this program, and that she has been placed among the rest of the students as the mastermind. This was supposed to be found in the lead-up to the final exam, but the mastermind, for unknown reasons, released it to Juliet early.

"Hey, Saya," Katy said, interrupting my musing. "When we get out of here, will you stay with me?"

"Um. What?"

"No, I mean..." Blushing, she waved her hands around. "Not like forever! Just... to grieve. I think... I mean, I wouldn't blame you if you hated me, or that you wouldn't want anything to do with any of us. But no matter what, you're... you're still my first real friend, and I don't want you to be alone. I mean, I don't want to be alone either, but I feel like I can't bear it if both of us are."

I just looked at her for a moment, then I sighed. "Come on," I said, struggling painfully to my feet. "I'm going for a run."

"Uh. What?"

I reached down, and she blankly took my hand and let me pull her to a standing position. "Running helps me reset. It's like... meditative. I gotta get some in before tonight if I'm going to help at all."

"Um." She looked awkward and shy and frankly kind of adorable. "I don't run much..."

"Give it a try," I said. "If nothing else, it'll help you not think."

After a moment, she nodded. Silently, she let me lead her off to the gym.

DORM: SAYA'S ROOM

Katy was cleartly correct that she doesn't run much: she was panting almost immediately. But still, we just got on adjacent treadmills and just went. She jog-walked a lot, but she kept going. By the end, we were both gross and sweaty and I felt blissfully empty. We smiled at each other.

After grabbing some food, I went back to my room for a shower. I lingered, just feeling the hot water drumming on my scalp and back.

This was it. We were almost done. I'd fallen into a nightmare and maybe I'd actually survive it.

I realized I had completely lost track of how many days I'd even been here. All I knew was, it felt like fall outside. I'd grown up in Miami, and so I thought I'd hate any sort of cold. But I didn't. It was energizing.

After drying myself off and brushing my hair, I found myself pausing. I looked at my usual sweater, lying spread out on the bed. It looked fine. A pleasant color, kind of loose.

I decided: I was not going to wear it tonight.

Checking my tablet, I saw I still had about an hour and a half before it was time to start. I set down at my chessboard and imagined games: pieces moving almost blindingly fast, move after move after move. I relaxed. Lucina's hand rested on my shoulder, and I felt its warmth.

MAIN QUAD

Everyone was already outside by the time I got there. Every single one of them looked exhausted, but nobody looked scared.

Everyone stared a little when I came up (Jane, I noticed, did a literal double-take). "Oh!" Rocky exclaimed. "Uh. Holy shit, dude, you look different."

I shrugged. "Yeah. I decided to wear the turtleneck Nicole made for me. She was right. It looks great."

"Yeah it does," Jane agreed.

I smirked at her. "I figured," I said to everyone, "that when I look in the mirror, I want to see someone with her shit together. Because we are not the kind of people who fail exams."

"Hey, assholes!" a familiar and horrible voice screeched from nearby. "Let's get started!"

Monokuma was standing in front of the door to... our dorm. "C'mon!" he shrieked, and then went inside.

Glancing at one another in confusion, we followed.

DORM: LOUNGE

Monokuma led us into the lounge and stood there impatiently as we filed in. "Well, here we are!" he announced sourly. "Welcome to the administration building! You'll have six hours to search this place and find the information needed to answer your exam questions!"

"Wait," Katy said, goggling her eyes. "This is the administration building? Our dorm?!"

"What, you think we're just wasting space on a cramped campus like this?!" the bear snapped. "Of course those extra floors are used for something!"

I realized, for the first time, he was holding a small remote control in his paw. He whapped his other paw down on it, and immediately there was a nearly deafening clamor coming from outside: screaming gears and clanking machinery. After nearly a full minute, it ended.

Without another word, Monokuma waddled back out the door. Still perplexed, the rest of us followed him.

DORM: MAIN ENTRANCE

The entrance room had changed. The passages off to the elevators were sealed off with steel doors. Instead, there was now a new, open doorway where there had only been blank wall before. It was a new elevator, sparkly clean and shiny.

Monokuma led us inside. He pushed the single button on the wall, and the doors closed.

"You're not going to do it," Monokuma grumbled as we slowly began to ascend. "Stupid, spoiled kids can't do anything..."

But I barely even heard him. Instead, I looked around at all the rest of my classmates: still tired, still not scared. We were ready.