Bright and early the next morning, you stare at the gates to Hope's Peak Academy. You feel vaguely uncomfortable. Partly this is because you can't help but think of Leo, Hiro, and Sigma getting into trouble without you someone, and partly because your mom forced you into a white dress shirt because she apparently wasn't satisfied in you going to the Academy in only a red tee shirt and black jeans. You unbuttoned the unwanted article the second you were out of eyesight, but you didn't dare take it off. You'd learned over the years that mothers just knew when they were disobeyed. And…she'd made you promise.
This is it, you think and sigh, dropping your bag to the ground, Frisbee nearly falling out of the open pocket. You couldn't help but feel a little nervous as you waited for the gates to open. The Academy was massive, many floors higher than your old school, and you were sure that you'd heard of at one person getting lost in its bowels and being found weeks later. It dwarfed the landscape, and you'd found out that there were rumors of more construction in the future.
A voice from the intercom near the gates snaps you out of your thoughts and firmly back into the present. "Agro Tenma, Ultimate Luck, welcome to Hope's Peak Academy. Please proceed to the entrance hall. Introductions will begin at eight o'clock."
The gates swing open slowly. You pick up your bag, being careful not to lose your trusty Frisbee, take a deep breath, and step through the gates.
You begin walking towards the doors…but your vision goes darker and darker…until it's like you're swimming alone in an endless void. What's going on?
…You wake up. Blinking the sleep from your eyes, you look around at your surroundings. From the looks of it, it's a school classroom: many lights on the ceiling, four walls of faded paint, whiteboard with random scribbles, plus twenty too-small desks (one of which you were snoozing at). But there are things that don't fit: the security camera that's firmly installed in the corner, the solid iron plates where you'd expect a window to be, the strange screen above the door…
You can't comprehend what happened. "What the hell's going on here?"
One minute you were walking in the doors to Hope's Peak Academy, and the next you're…here? Is this a classroom in Hope's Peak? Why don't you remember coming in here, sitting down, and falling asleep? The clock near the door shows five minutes to eight. You walked in the gates about an hour before that. What the hell happened in that hour?
It was then that you noticed your bag near the door, Frisbee still sticking out. You get up and stretch, determined to figure out what happened, when suddenly your gaze fastens on the whiteboard, and you realize what you thought were random scribbles were actual words.
The new semester has begun…
You hoist your bag onto your shoulder, and head out of the classroom, slamming the large wooden door to vent your frustration. You desperately hope that this is a sick prank. An elaborate sick prank played out on new Ultimates. Yeah, that must be it. That has to be it.
The hallway doesn't have any answers for you. No people waiting, barely containing their laughter as the new Ultimate stumbles out. Just a checkered tiled floor, weird gothic arches, and strange purple mood lighting. From what you remember your sister blabbering about, this definitely sounds like Hope's Peak Academy, but why is nobody around? The classroom you just exited was classroom 1-B, and you peek into the next classroom over, but no one's there either. Suddenly, you remember: introductions start at eight, the intercom said. You only have a couple minutes! You begin to run, praying that you'll magically find your way, because you have no idea where anything is in this crazy school. As you run down a hallway awash in green, the first few doors, a giant red one and one with a cassette tape on it, are locked. A bit further on, the hallway opens up slightly, and you see an open door to your left. You run through it…
Fifteen faces look your way as you approach, fifteen pairs of eyes watch you run into the room. You look around, breathing hard, not recognizing anyone. No one speaks for a moment, and the silence is uncomfortable, deafening.
Finally, a boy's voice breaks the silence. "I think that is everyone."
"How can you be so sure?" A girl's voice, the speaker hidden in the crowd.
"I was told there would be sixteen of us, and this one is the sixteenth."
You weren't told any such thing, but at the moment that's the least of your concerns. Everyone's looking around, not saying anything…
One of the boys stepped forward. You noticed you were a few inches taller than him, but you definitely wanted to stay out of his way. His muscles threatened to bulge out of his green school uniform, he wore a dangerous scowl on his face, and his red eyes didn't help. He seemed the picturesque standard military-type, judging from his short black hair. However, in the next instant his scowl turned into a grin as he saluted the group. "Hello, everyone, my name is Tadakatsu Yamamoto, and I am the Ultimate Military Cadet! Pleased to meet you all!" His voice rang around the large room. A pause, and then Tadakatsu spoke again. "It would be best if you followed my example!" His red eyes probed around the room. "No one would be in the dark, and then we can figure out what's going on!"
A girl cleared her throat. "Good point." She smiles at everyone, the beads in her black hair clacking as she looked around. She wore green cargo pants and a simple brown tee shirt with the words Just Build It! prominently displayed, words that made sense with her pronouncement that she was Kaori Hatagami, the Ultimate Builder.
After Tadakatsu and Kaori broke the ice, things went a bit more smoothly than before. The sixteen of you got into a circle of sorts, and the rest of you introduced yourselves.
The girl to Kaori's right threw her blue top hat high into the air, unveiling a thick head of black hair as she did. Her laugh was quite loud, coming close to a cackle. She seemed very proud of herself, standing confidently in her black skirt, playing with her magnificent cape. Her dark skin made you question where exactly she was from, but when she spoke it was in perfect Japanese. "Greetings, mortals! Toshi Kowalski's the name, and magic's my game! I'm the Ultimate Magician!"
The boy next to her wore a complete suit, but he was pretty well built for a businessman. After he adjusted his orange glasses, patted his perfectly combed black hair and smirked, introducing himself as Honzo Konda, the Ultimate Film Critic, you recognized his voice as the boy who'd spoken before.
Next was Yosuke Muramura, a very short boy who looked like he didn't get out much. His large pink sweatshirt was too large for him, and with his green shorts he looked a little bit like a giant watermelon. He stammered out that he was the Ultimate Puppeteer, and then attempted to pull his faded red baseball cap over his bright green eyes.
Next to the shortest boy stood the tallest, wearing flashy gold sweatpants, a white athletic shirt, and leather jacket. "The name's Dio Uno, and don't you dare laugh about me being the Ultimate Pinball Wizard!" His poufy blond afro made more sense, but it was still the funniest thing you'd seen all day.
Dio couldn't help staring directly at the next girl's larger-than-average breasts, but she didn't seem to notice. She smiled brightly and waved, jumping up and down, her pink school uniform struggling to hold together, tan skin threatening exposure. Pink seemed to be her color, and you noticed that even her eyes were pink, and covered in pink eye shadow. She brushed back her bright blonde hair and winked. "Everyone, hi! I'm Ichigo Hana, the Ultimate Pageant Girl!"
Next to her stood a quiet girl, shorter even than Yosuke. She spoke, in quiet, halting Japanese, that her name was Tatiana Rostislavna Volkova, the Ultimate Ballet Dancer. Compared to the revealing school outfit, her black long sleeve blouse and ankle-length skirt seemed almost humorously conservative. She looked almost sickly, pale with even paler blonde hair. Only her blue eyes seemed to glimmer with life, cloaked as they were in wings of blue eye shadow. You only need one guess to know where she's from, you think. You weren't sure how many students Hope's Peak Academy accepted from outside Japan, but there were definitely more than a few based on this crowd.
The boy next to her confirmed this. Thin but tan, with blond hair and blue eyes, his accent was unmistakably Germanic. "Edwin Albrecht, Ultimate Doctor. Here to help." He coughed into his mustard-colored scarf, his spectacles falling forward on his nose. Like Ichigo, he seemed to prefer a certain color, but his was white: white school uniform and white doctor's coat hanging from his shoulders. You were a little amazed that it hadn't fallen off yet.
You were next, and you nodded to everyone and rattled off that you were Agro Tenma, Ultimate Luck. You thought you saw Dio and a rather sloppily dressed boy roll their eyes, but you ignored them. What the hell do they know?
The only redhead in the group stood on your right, nearly your height, introducing himself as Tidus Hayabusa, Ultimate Pilot. His eyes, one blue and one strangely green, mystified a few of you. He seemed very energetic, rocking forwards and backwards on his heels, never keeping still. His blue pilot's uniform was kept in perfect condition. You got the impression that he cared very greatly for it. He smiled widely at you, and then noticed your Frisbee. He seemed almost spellbound by it.
A stocky girl a few inches shorter stood on the other side of him. You weren't really sure how to describe her, this Aimi Annen who was apparently the Ultimate DJ. Her short hair was dyed a myriad of colors, every color of the rainbow and then some, with no rhyme or reason to it. Her clothes were almost normal, blue skinny jeans, sneakers, and a small tie-dyed shirt that showed the slightest bit of her belly. It was her eyes that unsettled most everyone. They were like a cat's, and Aimi would not answer if they were the product of contacts or not.
The girl next to her was one of the few who didn't blanch at Aimi's strangeness. Her smirk never wavered, and her crown earrings twinkled as she calmly surveyed the group. "Hey. I'm Aika. Got in here due to my acting skills." She looked across the circle to Dio. "Harder than playing pinball, I'd say." Dio scowled, but something in her golden-brown eyes stopped him from doing more than that. Definitely someone to watch out for, you think. She did paint a pretty picture, though: wavy pink hair, low cut white top with different sleeve lengths, black thigh-high socks, strange black gloves, high heeled boots. She reminded you of an ex you never wanted to see again.
Miyuki Hiyama, the blue haired-Ultimate Skier, looked like a fashion disaster, although you would never tell that to her face considering she was a couple inches taller than you. Really, her white dress shirt and gray shorts and combat boots were fine…but she had apparently torn apart a winter jacket and made it into a horrifying vest of some sort. Her gray eyes wordlessly dared someone to make fun of it.
The last girl to introduce herself, a smaller girl wearing a standard schoolgirl uniform, took a note from your simple approach. She nodded at the group, her untidy white hair bobbing all over the place. "Please, call me Sylvia. I'm the Ultimate Linguist." Toshi clicked something intelligible at her, but Sylvia only gave her a slight smile, her hazel eyes reflecting confusion. "I'm sorry, but that's not really a language, is it?"
Toshi looked astonished. "Damn, language girl is good."
Last, there was the sloppily dressed boy who you'd thought had rolled his eyes at your introduction. He smiled a lazy smile, and introduced himself as Kanzaki Kanesaka, the Ultimate Reporter. He was a thin guy with an even thinner face, with clumsily combed black heair and gray eyes, but it was his clothes everyone was staring at. Honzo was looking positively horrified, and you were thinking that maybe you'd been too hasty in judging Miyuki the fashion disaster of the group. Kanzaki wore a gray dress shirt that he'd buttoned wrong and hadn't tucked into his dress pants, incorrectly tied his red tie, and he had chosen for some inexplicable reason to wear sneakers. He looked like a mess, but he just wore that lazy smile. "What? Something on my face, guys?"
With everyone introduced, the sixteen of you compared stories. You were all a bit shocked to realize that the same exact thing had happened to all of you: passing out as you were walking into school, and walking up a bit later with no idea how you got there.
"So, we all woke up here, surrounded by iron plates for windows, and cameras all over…" Honzo was saying, glancing around. "Do you think we are on a reality show of some sort?" He looked a little excited at the prospect.
"Don't be an idiot," Dio snapped. "We've obviously been kidnapped!" He pointed at one of the walls, a wall you hadn't properly looked at yet. "I mean, look at this damn door!"
You looked, and one word escaped your mouth. "Woah."
You remembered a much smaller doorway when you'd entered the Academy before. But, in place of where the door to the outside should have been, there was only something that you could call…a futuristic hatch: solid metal with blue flashing lights ringing the outside. With the many locks in place, it looked like it would take nothing short of a massive explosion to open.
Unfortunately, none of you were the Ultimate Pyrotechnics Expert, though you'd played around with fireworks a bit as a kid.
Tidus ran up and began rapping on it with his knuckles. "Hello? Hello? We're trapped in here!"
Tadakatsu's voice reverberated throughout the hall. "Enough. It would not do to panic." His voice was calm, and soothing. "I wouldn't doubt if this was some elaborate prank of some sort."
Yosuke looked calmer, Tatiana smiled at him, and Sylvia agreed. "Right. It can't be anything so horrible."
Kanzaki only hummed under his breath. Tidus stopped pounding and rejoined the group. It seemed like everyone was calming down, at least a little bit.
You too wanted to believe Tadakatsu's words.