Nijisaki's Apartment Complex - 2:15 PM
It'd been three days since Kou Nijisaki's disappearance. The police had only been notified yesterday evening when Kou had failed to show up to work at the local convenience store. From there it was quickly discovered that Kou Nijisaki was another Hope's Peak graduate, connecting him to the other recent abductions of fellow graduates. All in all, sixteen former Ultimate students have disappeared out of thin air, and the police could do nothing but scramble to find even the tiniest sliver of evidence.
It was a busy day down at the scene of the crime. Renjiro Zakai, a grizzled detective with over 40 years of experience, took a long drag of his cigarette. Police had locked down the apartment building where Kou Nijisaki had lived - given that it had been over three days since his disappearance, Renjiro doubted that there would be much evidence left to discover. If the perpetrator was smart, they would have destroyed any evidence tying them to the crime scene. And they had plenty of opportunities to do so, more so than with any of the other disappearances.
"You alright boss? You've been staring off into space the entire morning." A young recruit approached the older detective.
"Huh? Yeah, of course." Renjiro flicked his cigarette butt, turning to face the fresh faced detective. He recognized the young face as Arata Mukai - one of the youngest recruits at only 19, a few years of high school. That would make him around the same age as most of the victims. "Just… thinking, is all. Do you have any updates?"
"We interviewed all the neighbors at the scene. None of them saw anything, unfortunately. It was late at night, so everyone we could find was asleep at the time." Arata sighed. "The other boys are checking out the victim's apartment right now. I'll let you know right away if they find anything, boss!"
"Hmhm, you do that."
"By the way boss… Kou Nijisaki is a graduate of Hope's Peak right? That's why he's connected to the recent kidnappings of other Hope's Peak graduates. So would that mean that he has an Ultimate talent too, right?"
"You're half right," Renjiro frowned, furrowing his brow. "And half wrong. You're right that Kou Nijisaki was a graduate of Hope's Peak. But he wasn't an Ultimate. Every other student of that school was recruited because they had incredible talent and renown in a certain field. Save for him. He was the "Ultimate Lucky Student" - in other words, he was chosen by one of those special raffles Hope's Peak hosts every few years to attend the school. In other words, he was a student there by pure luck."
"Ah." Arata nodded. "I was wondering why a former Ultimate would live in a dingy apartment like this. But him being the Ultimate Lucky student really throws a wrench into things, doesn't it?"
Renjiro was briefly taken aback by Arata's response. For a rookie, he was surprisingly quick on the uptake. "Yeah, looks like we're on the same page. Our previous working theory was that whoever was behind this was doing this for some kinda ransom. If that were the case, kidnapping Kou Nijisaki would be counterintuitive. As far as we know, he was living paycheck to paycheck until now. Adding to that, we haven't received any sort of communication from the supposed kidnappers."
"That's absolutely mental… this dude's gotta be some kind of wizard or something."
"Nothing like that." Renjiro furrowed his brow. "If you're gonna be a cop, you're gonna have to understand that shit like magic isn't real. Every case has a rational answer, even if that answer is absolutely batshit insane. Either the culprit had some convoluted trick to pull this shit off… or someone's hiding something."
"Someone? Like who?" Arata asked pointedly.
Renjiro turned his gaze from Arata to the second floor of the apartment complex, brushing off the question. "In any case, right now the how isn't as important as the where. Our top priority is finding those brats and getting them home safely. We'll have a lot of shit on our hands if even one of them gets hurt, or worse. Hope's Peak is revered in this country, so I don't want to imagine the shitstorm that this is going to cause if we don't nip this in the bud as quickly as possible."
"Yeah, I can imagine." Arata scratched his head. "As far as I've heard the folks at Hope's Peak have been in a real damage-control mode right now. All of the current student body is practically quarantined inside that school. I guess they didn't want to risk anything."
"Hm." Renjiro mumbled in agreement. "Hope's Peak… yeah, I bet the bigwigs are shitting their pants. They must be especially anxious with the police poking around. I'm certain that they're hiding something too, but going after them is like going after… uh… hey kid, what's a pop star everyone loves these days? Lady Jaja or something?"
"You don't have to- I mean, I get what you're saying. Isn't Hope's Peak backed by the government too? I imagine that makes investigating them especially hard."
"Yeah, the people in charge are gonna make investigating it as hard as possible. Only makes me even more suspicious of them and their shady practices." Renjiro sighed. "I'm well acquainted with how far they'd go to hide the skeletons in their closet. Those incidents just last year were enough proof of that."
"Incidents?"
"Ah sorry, you don't have the clearance level to hear about that. The police have to keep that under close wraps. Let's just say that this isn't the first time Hope's Peak has been in hot water. I can't say for sure whether or not they're related but… it does make one think."
"Oh, boss!" Arata suddenly piped up. "The guys at the scene are signaling for you. You think they might have found something?"
"Ah, finally." Renjiro sighed in relief. "The heat was starting to get to me. Alright kid, you stay here. I'll be right back."
Renjiro ascended up the stairs - true to the other officer's words, the steps had rusted to the point that Renjiro feared that the whole thing could collapse at any minute. Arata was right to be shocked that a student of Hope's Peak would be living in a dump like this, Renjiro thought as he made it to the last step. He wasn't a true Ultimate by definition, but for how much promise Hope's Peak promised all its students, it was still baffling that he couldn't afford a nicer place.
Renjiro passed through several other detectives on the way to the apartment, some of whom gave him a quick half-bow in greeting. Renjiro could only muster up a curt nod of acknowledgement - greetings have never been his strong suit, in all honesty. He finally made it to the apartment, the last one on the second floor. Two cops were guarding the door, and when they saw him they both gave him a quick half-bow just like the others.
"Sir!" One of them shouted. "We've combed through the scene from top to bottom. The scene appears to be completely undisturbed. We can't confirm that anything has been stolen, but we did find something that might be pertinent to the investigation."
"You *found* something?" Renjiro raised his brow. This was a first. "What was it? Come on, spit it out. We don't have all day."
"Y-yes sir. Well, you should take a look yourself." The officer handed him a plastic ziploc bag containing what appeared to be a tape of some sort. A large sticker was slapped on the front side of the tape - Renjiro immediately recognized it. The Hope's Peak logo. "We didn't find any sort of device that could play it, so we assume that this was left behind by the perpetrator."
"We'll see about that." Renjiro pursed his lips. On one hand, if this truly was something left behind by the culprit, it would be the first step to actually unraveling this mystery. On the other hand, something about this tape filled him with uncertainty. It was an indescribable sort of dread - he couldn't place the reason why, but he felt it in his bones. His detective instincts have been honed through decades of experience, and right now his instinct was screaming in his head that this was bad news. He may have bitten off more than he could chew.
A detective's role is to uncover the truth, no matter how uncomfortable. Renjiro always prided himself on his integrity as a detective, and today was no different. He knew what had to be done.
Police Station - 3:18 PM
It was fortunate that the police station had a VCR handy. It was old, probably going untouched for a decade or so, but miraculously it was still functional. Renjiro dragged that artifact of a machine into his office, setting it down right in front of his desk. The lights were off, with only the faint glow of the television to illuminate the room. With gloved hands, Renjiro carefully inserted the tape recovered from the apartment into the VCR's slot, then hurried back to his desk.
The video started playing. It seemed to be a white background with a silhouette of something against it. That figure… it was roundish with a large bobble head, almost like a cartoon. The only feature he could make out was a bright red lightning symbol on what he assumed to be the figure's head, right where the eye would be. That symbol… it was all too familiar.
-bzzzzt-
Hello hello, is anyone listening? Testing, 1-2-3!
Ah, there we go! Well well well, looks like the time has finally come to get things started, huh? Oh, this has been such a long time coming, I'm just too nervous! This is my first time, so please go gentle on me, okay?
Oh right, I've forgotten to introduce myself, haven't I? I'm terribly sorry! Please, call me Mononoko - the adorable mascot character!
Huh? What's with that face? You were expecting someone else? Someone more… furry? Ohohoho, sorry to disappoint but this is MY story. He had his time to shine already, it's my turn damn it! So please, even though we both have the same role, I'd like for you to erase him from your mind for the duration of the school year, please and thank you~!
I'm sure you have a lot of questions for me, and rest assured I, your academy's designated help buddy, will be able to answer them in due time! But ah, this message isn't for our students, is it? It's for the oh so concerned onlookers and viewers curious about what this school year entails, isn't it? Well, ohohoho…
I'm afraid that's confidential. That's strictly between me and the students. If you want to find out so badly then you'd just have to stay tuned!
Oh and for any busybodies watching this right now, I'd like to warn you here and now not to try and intervene with our school year! Those who do are sure to face the full wrath of the academy's security team! I'm sure even you big shot cops aren't a match for them, ohohoho.
That is all for today! With all of our students now in attendance, preparation is well under way! We'll be seeing each other again real soon… and when that time comes, I hope we can all come together and enjoy this beautiful deadly school life!
Until next time, this has been your helpful school buddy, Mononoko! Ohohohoho!
-bzzt-
Author's Note
Hello again! I bet you weren't expecting me to see me this soon huh? Well don't worry this isn't a sign that submissions are closed - the closing date is still May 28, so you still have over a week to go to get those characters in! As for the characters that have already been submitted, I'm pleasantly surprised by the amount and quality of the entries so far!
This chapter serves mostly as a way to update you guys, as well as to finally give you guys a list of all the current talents and gender ratio of characters submitted so far. I figured a new chapter would grab your attention moreso than me just updating the first chapter - and this little intermission was just a way for me to avoid just posting a list of talents and nothing else. It looks like there's a lot more to this mystery than meets the eye, huh?
Without further ado, here's the information you've all been waiting for! This list will be updated every day around midnight (granted if I reasonably can and also if there have been any new applications). Note that for the list of talents, any talent which is meant to be hidden will not be listed!
Gender Ratio
Male: 8 - Female: 6 - Agender or Nonbinary: 2
Talents
Lucky Student
Therapist
Seamstress
Hitman
Poker Player
Circus Ringmaster
Samurai
Doll-Maker
Band Leader
Baker
Marine Biologist
Matchmaker
Orchestra Conductor
YouTuber
Botanist
Livestreamer
Total Characters: 16
That is all for now! If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me! I can't promise I'll get to you right away, but I'll try my hardest to answer as soon as possible. Until next time!