A/N: Here we go with chapter one! I've been doing an awful lot of referencing to the game and I'll be staying pretty darn faithful to the game's prologue, so dialogue currently may seem very familiar to you. Writing for characters that aren't my own is difficult! ^^; so if any of them seem OoC to you, don't hesitate to let me know so that I can improve. Enjoy reading!
Chapter One:
When I open my eyes, I instantly sit up alert. I'm in a classroom. The clock directly ahead of my vision above the blackboard reads 7:39. No indication of whether it's am or pm, or even whether or not it's still the day of orientation. However, my head sure feels heavy enough to have slept through it. I readjust the forest green scarf that had loosened itself from my neck in my sleep, pondering. How I collapsed or ended up here in this room in the first place is beyond me. Someone must have moved me here from the main hall. It may be that this someone was a new student who didn't know their way to first aid or simply panicked and didn't know what to do with me, so they just dragged me out of the way and left me here. Whatever happened, I'm not going to discern it by just sitting here.
My attention is drawn to the desk my head was resting on, or more accurately the leaflet sitting on top of it. Multi-coloured crayon spells out a message in childishly scribbled handwriting reading 'Heyo kiddo! Welcome to the new semester! From now on, this school will be your entire world'. It doesn't seem very professional for a world renowned academy. Alternatively, it seems like it would be a strange choice of prank for a student to create as well. So who left it here?
Next object of interest: the plated windows. Or they would be, had I not tucked away the leaflet in my jacket pocket and realised in the process of doing so that most of my possessions were missing. Phone, money, pen… I mentally tick off each item I'd had on my person before entering the school. I'd have to search for them later.
I refocus my inspection on the windows, driving away the slight fuzziness that invades my head when I stand up by employing the genius tactic of ignoring it. Giant metal plates bolted to the wall ensure that no natural sunlight has a chance of filtering in, as well as preventing access in and/or out of the windows. The latter seems to me to be both the more important factor and the more likely reason for them to be there. If that was the reason, it brings up the question of why access needed to be restricted.
Combining all the unnatural occurrences, a sense of foreboding settles itself in my mind. I've gleaned all the information I can from this room, so it's time to go information hunting elsewhere. The most logical choice of next destination is the main hall, being the only room I presently know of in the school. I'd also find out if I'd slept through the 8am meeting for the new students or not. Mind made up, I approach the door and pause, listening out for any sounds. Silence. I slip out, making certain to be cautious. I'm now in a hallway. To my left isn't a dead end, but I suspiciously eye up the sign claiming that 'Despair Hotel' is in that direction and decide to search for the main hall on the opposite bearing.
I get distracted by a conspicuous pair of bright red doors on the way to the hall, which to my disappointment were locked, but it doesn't take me long to pinpoint my destination. I notice as I near the hall that voices are coming from inside, clearly in discussion amongst one another. Shifting the weight out from my feet, I draw silently closer to the doorway of the hall, listening in. The voices chat idly about orientation, leading me to determine they're not hostile. It's a conversation I figure I want to be part of, though, so I relax my eavesdropping stance and enter the room.
Even though the five students in the hall halt their conversation upon my invasion, I immediately lose interest in them in favour of the giant metal hatch door that demands my concentration. It's attached to the wall behind them, replacing the entrance door that I had walked through before I blacked out. That definitely wasn't there before. Two hefty security cameras adorn the hatch, one on either side, and they come equipped with a pair of Gatling guns that threaten anyone who would risk going near. I'd spotted security cameras following my actions in the classroom and the hallway, yet none of them were armed like this.
"…Hey! Helloooo? Are you in there?" A girl comes up to me and waves her hand irritatingly in front of my face. I pull my eyes away from the hatch to stare her down. Jumping slightly, she takes a second to get over the surprise of me glowering at her icily and then breaks out into a grin and a wave. "Are you one of the new students like us?" Her brunette ponytail bobs along to her cheery demeanour. She dresses simply, her outfit made up of a white top, red jacket and shorts.
"I'm here for the meeting at 8am," I confirm.
"You're here precisely 11 minutes early! I commend you for your punctuality, fellow student!" A guy with alarmingly red eyes in what looks like some kind of white military uniform all but yells at me. His black haired buzz cut and perfectly straight posture adds to the orderly look. I sincerely hope that he has an inside voice.
"More importantly…" A tall blond with his arms crossed commands everyone to look at him with nothing more than those two words. Even without him saying anything, everything about his presence screams importance and superiority. He dons a perfectly neat suit and refined white glasses, a pair of glacial cerulean orbs leering down on us all from behind them. His tone of voice is rife with his unmistakeably condescending attitude and I already dislike him. Gracing me with his gaze, he continues on. "Have you come here after falling unconscious upon entering the school and waking up in a classroom?"
I freeze. I match his gaze with a glare of my own and we engage in a silent staring contest for a moment. Eventually, however, I inwardly concede that his glare is more piercing than my own and yield to acknowledging his question.
"I did. And you know this how?"
"Because, like, the same thing happened to all of us," A girl in a fashionable outfit answers for him, taking great interest in her long red nails as she did so. Apart from the foot that she's tapping continually on the floor, the most noticeable aspect of her is the long, thick strawberry blonde hair that she has bound up in pigtails. "All of our belongings and junk have been taken too. I can't find my phone anywhere!"
Oh. Okay. In that case, this situation isn't an accident. I turn around and head back towards the door.
"Where do you think you're going?" Mr High-and-Mighty interrogates me. I tilt my head to reply,
"To find information elsewhere. I'm not going to accomplish much standing here,"
"Ah, wait!" The last person in the room speaks up, and I raise an eyebrow at her. Long, dark blue hair hangs loose around her petite frame, a typical school uniform fitting her body. She looks like a doll. "Wouldn't it make sense to wait here? I mean, everyone in our class is probably going to come here for the meeting soon…"
I open my mouth to say that I'm not interested in meeting my classmates when I hear footsteps approaching the hall. I step aside from the door just in time for it to swing open, revealing a laid back looking student with wild red hair and a goatee.
"Yo! Is this the place we need to be for this meeting shindig?" He doesn't wait for an answer before strolling in, taking a few seconds more than he should have to notice the room's main feature. "Woah! What's with the giant metal hatch? I coulda sworn that wasn't there when I first came here,"
"We were surprised by it too! But before that, I'm Aoi Asahina, Ultimate Swimming Pro! Friends of mine just call me Hina, though," The brunette hops a few jumps over to the newcomer and introduces herself. He grins back in turn,
"The name's Leon Kuwata. What's up? I'm the Ultimate Baseball Star, but being totally honest, I hate the sport. Never been to a single practice!" He looks as if he's going to continue talking about himself, but is interrupted by the buzz cut guy.
"Now is not the time for idle chitchat! Introduce yourselves and move on!" Once he's finished berating the couple, he clears his throat. "I am Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Ultimate Moral Compass. But you all can call me Taka. I came to this school to live my life to the fullest! What about the rest of you?" Somehow, I'm not surprised in the slightest to hear his Ultimate title. The blue haired doll pipes up after him energetically,
"I'm Sayaka Maizono. I look forward to getting to know all of you!"
"No way! You're the Ultimate Pop Sensation, right? From that real popular girl group!" Leon leans forwards eagerly, his eyes full of wonder as he stares at the girl in awe.
"That's me!" She giggles, slightly sheepishly.
"If you know her, then like, obviously you're gonna recognise me, right?" Pigtails interjects the conversation, sauntering over to Leon and Sayaka. She doesn't bother to hear Leon's reply, instead flashing him a peace sign, "I'm Junko Enoshima, Ultimate Fashionista, in the flesh and all that stuff. Nice to meetcha!"
Introductions were cut off at that moment by the arrival of a full on goth lolita, hair drills and all. She steps into the room with grace and elegance, raising a dainty hand to her mouth when everyone stops their chatter to study her.
"Oh! Pardon me, I am interrupting something?" A thick French accent weaves her sentences, breaking everyone out of their temporary reverie at her striking choice of dress.
"U-um…" Another new, much more timid voice emerges from behind the lolita, where a small girl with light brown, layered hair in a skirt and a fern green coloured jacket hides. Working up the courage to give talking another go, she steps forward. "Is t-this the main hall?"
"You're here for the meeting right?" Aoi asks, and the small girl nods. "Who you are you guys?"
The lolita introduces herself as the Ultimate Gambler Celestia Ludenberg; an odd name for someone who's Japanese, but I don't care enough to find out its backstory. Whilst keeping up her polite manner, she quite forcefully insists that everyone call her Celeste. The smaller girl is hesitant as the group waits expectantly for her to speak, but manages to utter out that she's Chihiro Fujisaki, the Ultimate Programmer.
By this time, the remaining students who we're waiting for are now officially late. They trickle in one by one, each receiving a good scolding from Kiyotaka for being tardy as they enter.
I unwillingly gain the honour of meeting each student. After Chihiro is an extremely bulky woman with stark white hair named Sakura Ogami, who I'm not at all surprised to find out is the Ultimate Martial Artist. Following her is the hot-headed Mondo Owada, the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader with the most ridiculous hair that looks like a baguette and unnatural lilac eyes. The overweight, cringy Ultimate Fanfic Creator called Hifumi Yamada and the dim-witted Ultimate Clairvoyant with impressively large and spiky dreadlocks called Yasuhiro Hagakure turn up at the same time, and they're soon followed by a moody, self-loathing girl with dark twin plaits called Toko Fukawa, who just barely forces out in between her stutters that she's the Ultimate Writing Prodigy.
There's a short break after Toko's introduction, so everyone stands around the main hall and continues some inconsequential small talk. Even though some of them may have been late for the meeting, so is whoever it is who's supposed to be holding this meeting in the first place. I stand indolently amongst the circle of students but don't bother to speak to anyone. None of them appear to have any more information than I do on this whole matter, so it's a fruitless endeavour to strike up a conversation.
A girl with long lavender hair makes her entrance after a while, her attention instantly attracted to the vault door. She dons a jacket the same deep purple colour as her sharp, observant eyes, a brown tie and gloves. For some time, everyone else in the room waits for her to break the silence. When it becomes evident that she has no plans to do so, Mondo speaks up angrily.
"Oi! Are you gonna fuckin' say anything or not?" He's already got his fists clenched and ready for action and I roll my eyes.
"You'd better have a good excuse for your tardiness young lady! 15 minutes late is unacceptable!" Kiyotaka chimes in.
"At this rate, you have to wonder whether this meeting is still even going to take place," Sakura points out, and Sayaka agrees,
"That's true. I mean, I don't know about you guys, but apart from you all so far I haven't seen anyone else in the school,"
"Relax, guys, this is probably all just part of the orientation process, yeah?" Yasuhiro strokes his chin in a relaxed manner, not at all concerned. I spare a glance at the vault door and the Gatling guns and wonder about that. "Anyway, we can figure all that stuff out later. So who are you?" He turns to the girl, who is stood deep in thought facing the metal hatch. She lifts her head after a short pause and faces the rest of us.
"…Kyoko Kirigiri," She provides no further information, deciding that that's all we need to know and redirecting herself to the hatch.
"What about your Ultimate talent?" Trying to prompt more conversation out of her, Aoi steps forward.
"…" Kyoko shows no sign of having heard her, but it would have been difficult not to when she's only two feet away. Junko twitches with impatience.
"Well?" At this cue, Kyoko throws her a sidelong look.
"I don't see why I have any obligation to tell you,"
There's suddenly an air of tension in the room as all of us are taken aback by her unexpected uncooperativeness. Before anyone can say anything, however, one more person enters the room, seeming unsure of himself.
"Woah, hey! Another new kid!" Yasuhiro exclaims loudly, and everyone forgets Kyoko for the time being.
"Huh? Then you guys are all…" A moment is spent to fill him in quickly on the situation at hand. Compared to all the others, this guy looks exceedingly normal. Light brown hair and a dull green hoodie with the Hope's Peak uniform jacket pulled on over it.
Hifumi performs a head count everyone gathered here.
"So counting him, that makes 16. Seems like a good cut-off point, but I wonder if this is everyone…"
"Um, how's it going? My name's Makoto Naegi. Sorry I'm late. A bunch of stuff happened, and then all of a sudden I was just… asleep," He rubs the back of his head awkwardly. He looks a bit overwhelmed.
Although he hasn't been here long, everyone more or less comes to an agreement that this is probably everyone and that we should introduce ourselves to Makoto. And the first person he walks over to is…
"Hi, um," I do nothing but blink for a few seconds at his stumbling greeting. Then I realise that it is me that he's talking to and that I had yet to introduce myself to anyone, let alone the last person in the room. I decide to save him the trouble of asking me for my name and get straight to the point.
"I'm Evelynn Briar, Ultimate Hunter," I sense a few people in my proximity look over at me with both interest and surprise, having forgotten that I existed.
"Where are you from, if you don't mind me asking?" Makoto tilts his head to the side curiously. I don't exactly know what he's going to use the information for, but I comply anyway.
"England. I moved to Japan 8 years ago,"
"Huh. You know, I looked on the Hope's Peak website before coming here, so I was reading up on information about the students. But apart from your name and Ultimate talent, I couldn't find much else about you…?" He doesn't show any suspiciousness on his face, only wonder and puzzlement. I shrug noncommittally,
"I didn't make the website," He accepts that as an answer hesitantly, probably having expected me to supply information about myself for him. Changing the subject, I throw a question his way. "What's your Ultimate talent then?"
"Oh," He laughs a little, embarrassed, "I'm the Ultimate Lucky Student. And by that, I mean I won a random lottery which accepted me into the school as a student," Wow. He really is completely normal. I nod, which he takes as a sign to move on to the next introduction.
By the time Makoto finishes talking to everyone, we hear the first school bell of the semester. Along with the bell, the monitor in the main hall fizzles to life and an obscured silhouette invades the screen.
"Ahem! Ahem! Testing, testing! Mike check, one two! This is a test of the school broadcast system! Am I on? Can everyone hear me? Okay, well then…!" It's loud, high pitched and the most obnoxious voice I'd ever heard before. Confusion settles on the faces of most people in the room, waiting for the broadcast to continue. "Ahh, to all incoming students! I would like to begin the entrance ceremony at… right now! Please make your way to the gym at your earliest convenience.
…That's all! I'll be waiting!"