Prologue (Part 5) (Final)

Walking into the dining room was like walking into the first day of school. The looks on everyone's faces: some of which used to be filled with such vivacious, bright smiles, were replaced with looks of anxiety and uncertainty about what was going to happen.

The conversations being held were quiet, and no one looked like they were discussing anything but the situation we were in.

I could see Cherry and Noir chatting a table. However, their cheerful attitudes were no longer visible. And there was also Cotton and Sunrise, who seemed to be arguing about something, but even then, they weren't as emotional as before.

Overall, it was a pretty depressing sight, but was more than warranted given our situation.

After Mauve, Royal, Sage, and Indigo took a seat at an empty table, with Cloud standing by himself in a corner (who although looked a lot better after his sudden emotional outburst, still looked like a nervous wreck), there was only one table left for Azure and I to sit at.

There were two girls who I've never seen before sitting at a table by themselves, having an idle conversation.

One of the girls was on the shorter side of things, although she still looked to be about an inch taller than the unfortunately tiny Azure. She has slightly tanned skin, and light green eyes framed by flared eyelashes. Her long, wavy hair is light brown, with a few copper and gold highlights scattered here and there.

She wears what looks like something out of The Mummy, a short-sleeved blue blouse, with the bottom being tied into a knot, and a light brown jacket with no sleeves, donning several large pockets. She also wears khaki shorts, dark green and white spotted socks, and brown hiking boots.

Regarding accessories, she wears quite a lot. She has a silk indigo-colored bandana tied around her neck, decorated with what looks to be various famous artifacts. She also wears a white string around her neck, with a small compass on it. She has navy blue gloves, a charm bracelet, a bejeweled blue flower pinned on the left side of her hair, a bandaid on her right cheek (does that count as an accessory?), and moon-shaped, amber-colored earrings. Phew, it must be exhausting getting ready in the morning!

The other girl has a much more simplistic appearance and is a little taller than myself. She has a relatively thin overall build, with the exception of her curvy hips. Her hair is wavy, and reachers her shoulders. It's mostly dirty blond but has black strands scattered throughout, perhaps the work of a failed dye job. She has light blue eyes.

She wears a large, white tank top, the designs of music notes and paint splatter decorating it. She wears skinny black shorts, with chains attached to the ends.

Azure and I catiously approached the table and took a seat when it was apparent neither girl seemed to mind.

The shorter of the girls spoke up first. "Hey, nice to meet you guys! My codename's Emerald, a shade of green, of course. I like to call myself the Ultimate Treasure Hunter, but ~offically~ I'm the Ultimate Archaeologist. Treasure Hunter just sounds so much more exciting, right?"

Name: ?

Codename: Emerald

Ultimate Talent: Archaeologist

Wow, another ball of energy, huh? Archaeologist, or 'Treasure Hunter' as Emerald says, definitely sounds like an interesting talent. Emerald's probably gotten to go to so many interesting places, which makes me a little jealous...

Azure and I introduced ourselves. Emerald looked rather uninterested in my talent as the Ultimate Actor, but her eyes lit up at Azure's talent of being the Ultimate Cryptid Enthusiast.

"So cool," She gushed. "I have yet to discover the remains of anything mythical just yet, but I definitely hope to!"

Azure smiled as yet another person praised him for his unique talent. "I'll definitely make sure to invite you on my next expedition when we get out of here!"

As the two talked, I turned my attention to the other girl, who simply observed Emerald and Azure's conversation in silent.

"Hey there," I called. A little startled, she turned her attention to me. "What's your name?"

"Oh, um, hi. My codename is Scarlet, a shade of red. Hope's Peak admitted me under the talent of 'Ultimate Modern Dancer'..." She introduced. She trailed off at the end, sounding a little unconvinced of her talent.

Name: ?

Codename: Scarlet

Ultimate Talent: Modern Dancer

A dancer, nice. It's always something I've struggled with: learning choreography, being agile, etcetera...When I was younger, I considered asking my parents to move us to the United States so I could try out broadway acting, but my lack of singing and dancing ability basically reaffirmed my decision not to...Hey, maybe Scarlet can teach me some moves!

"Scarlet? That's a cool codename," I complimented. "Mine is Crimson, so we're both shades of red, which means we have to be friends."

Scarlet smiled. "Sure, sounds cool."

Scarlet didn't seem to be a very talkative girl, but she didn't seem shy or mean or anything. Some people just like to be by themselves, kinda like Lava and Sage.

"Yeah, I bring her everywhere with me, but I don't know where she is..." I turned to see Emerald with a slightly anxious expression.

"What's up?" I asked.

"It's her cat," Azure filled me in.

Emerald sighed. "I haven't seen her anywhere. But the last thing I can remember before this is having her next to me..."

I frowned. "Yeah, I still can't really remember where I was last..."

Azure nodded in agreement. "I have an idea, but my memory is still kind of foggy."

"All I can remember is me petting Isis...which is what I'm doing 90% of the time, anyways," Emerald laughed.

The mystery of our kidnapping continues...No one knows what happened to us, or what's going on. I wonder if we'll ever find out.

"Ahem," A loud voice suddenly snapped all of us to attention. "Is this thing on? Hellooooo?"

It was a squeaky voice that sounded like a mixture between a lovable cartoon character and a comedy movie villain if that makes sense. The voice also sounded like it came from a speaker (despite there not being a visible one)...

"What the hell?" I heard myself say. I could feel a pain in my stomach, and like something bad was about to happen. Glancing around, I could see some of the others also had the same uneasy feeling as me.

"I bet you all are wondering what's going on right now," The voice said matter-of-factly. "Is this the voice of God? Am I dead? How did I die? Where did I die?" The voice trailed on with more rhetorical questions for at least a solid 30 seconds.

"Ugh, get on with it already, fuckwad." Sunrise mumbled. For once, I agreed with the pilot.

"Well, do not fret!" The voice said. "Head into the announcement room and all will be revealed!"

And with that, there was a 'click' sound, like a microphone being turned off. Everyone immediately began discussing what the hell just happened, including Emerald.

"The announcement room? That must be the room with the stairs and the stage." She theorized.

"Uh, what?" I asked. Out of all the rooms we had investigated thus far, I couldn't remember seeing one with a stage or stairs.

"It's in that room," Scarlet explained, pointing to the door in the dining hall that Frost, Onyx, and Rose had gone through. Ah, that explains why I don't know what the hell the announcement room is.

"Should we really listen to a mysterious voice?" Cotton suddenly spoke up, addressing all of us.

"What else is there to do?" Frost sighed. "We kinda don't have a choice..."

"We can't just sit here and do nothing." Onyx said.

"I don't know what's going on, but listening to the voice is our only option for now." Diamond claimed.

Cloud said nothing but nervously fumbled with the sleeves of his hoodie. Me too, buddy, me too...

"I'm sure everything will be OK!" Noir cheerfully smiled.

"Yeah, hopefully." Cherry smiled, though she sounded a little bit more unsure than Noir.

"I suppose we'll have to see what the voice has to say," Rose said. "Maybe we can finally learn why we're in this place."

"This situation is very strange," Merigold noted. "Including this new, mysterious voice!"

Lava looked to be in deep thought as she wrote in her journal, presumably about our situation.

Sage sat in his chair turned away from the rest of his table, drawing. Upon closer inspection, it looked like the same drawing from earlier.

"Get ready to meet the host guys!" Royal smirked, touching up her make up. I guess she's still on that whole TV show thing.

"If this really is a TV show, I'm sure they wouldn't have picked something with such a grating voice to be the host," Silver chuckled. "Naturally, I'd be the best decision."

"Let's just get this over with." Mauve sighed, crossing his arms.

Indigo looked rather anxious as she kept fumbling in her chair, looking like she couldn't find a comfortable position.

I turned to my right and could see that Azure looked pretty calm. His smile was a little less bright than usual, but hey, it was still a smile.

He turned to me and his smile widened. "I'm sure that everything's going to be fine. Ya just got to keep calm, y'know?" He asked. Huh, I guess he already forgot about his panic attack less than an hour ago.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. In a few minutes, I was going to find out why I was kidnapped against my will with 19 other students accepted into Hope's Peak Academy.

Was the outcome going to be something positive? Like, maybe this is what they do to all the new students? A little practical joke? Maybe even a lesson to see how we react under strange circumstances?

Or, the more frightening option...That our kidnapper has something twisted in mind for us. Maybe we'll be sold to the highest bidder and used as work slaves. Or, maybe they want to harvest our organs and leave our rotting bodies in the Atlantic ocean. Hopefully, they won't mess up my face too much...

With our discussion pretty much over, it was unanimously decided that we venture into the announcement room to hear what the voice had to stay.

People started to get up from the tables and walk in, some more hesitantly than others...

Eventually, everyone had left the dining room, with the exception of Azure and I.

"Can you believe it?" He asked.

I raised a brow. "Believe what?"

"We're finally going to get some answers," He clarified. "Why we're in this place...where this place even is."

"Yeah, it's pretty crazy," I sighed. "Although, I'm not too optimistic about the outcome. After all, we were kidnapped and drugged, there's no doubt about that..."

"Whatever happens in there," Azure started. "I know we'll get through it."

"How can you be so sure?" I asked, not feeling the optimism this time around.

"We'll have each other," Azure explained with a smile. "I'll have your back and you'll have mine, right?"

I thought about his words. Even if this were some sick situation where we could die, it'd be nice to have a stranger by your side rather than no one at all.

No...not a stranger. Azure's a friend. And even though I'm still scared shitless about what's about to happen, I know that he'll be there to help calm me down.

"Of course," I smiled back, feeling a sense of relief. "Out of everyone here, there's no one I'd rather be kidnapped with than you!"

Azure chuckled. "Well, I'm flattered. Are ya ready?" He asked, turning towards the door to the announcement room.

I took another deep breath and nodded. "I think I'm ready as I'll ever be."

We walked towards the door and I opened it, entering the announcement room where we were supposedly going to get the answers we had been searching for.

The announcement room was as plain as the rest of this place. The walls and floor were a dark grey, similar to the incinerator room I woke up in.

There were rows of what looked like movie theater chairs, it looked like there was probably around 4 rows of about 10 chairs. There was also a stage with a microphone. Most interesting in the room was a staircase near the back of the room, next to the stage, blocked off by a gate.

Everyone from the dining hall were now sitting in the chairs, chatting amongst themselves. There was no one on the stage yet.

I took a seat with Azure next to Rose and Frost, both of whom I was glad to reunite with.

"Find anything interesting in your exploration of this room?" I asked.

Rose shook her head. "No, sadly...The only thing in this room is the stage and chairs. Of course, we were interested in trying to go upstairs, but the gate blocking the staircase won't budge."

"There's a room in the back, behind the stage. I guess it's supposed to be an equipment room, or something." Frost elaborated.

"Yes, though no equipment that will be of any use to us." Rose sighed. "It's honestly a little strange. There are things like knives, wooden planks, high-intensity flashlights, rope, empty spray bottles...Basically random things that make no sense to have in this place."

"Maybe the people were thinking they needed to do repairs or something, eventually?" I suggested.

"That's what Rose, Onyx, and I thought." Frost nodded. "However, despite everything else in the room, there wasn't the common tools that one would obviously think to have in case of repairs."

"Yeah, it was weird. No screwdrivers, nails, power tools, or anything." Rose affirmed. "There were a couple of hammers, but that was about it."

"It's like you're describing a serial killer's closet!" Azure joked. I guess he was trying to lighten the mood but it honestly creeped me out a little. A closet full of killing supplies?

Our conversation and thoughts were cut short by the lights turning off.

"Aaahhh!" I heard someone scream. I think it was pretty safe to say that it belonged to Cloud.

"Wow, I did not sign up for this!" Royal's voice was easily recognizable by her haughty tone.

"Stay calm everyone! I just need to look in my bag for my night vision goggles and then I can find the light switch..." Noir said in a heroic sounding voice. "...Huh?! They're not in here!"

Luckily, we didn't need Noir's night vision goggles. The lights switched on, revealing the strangest sight I think I've ever seen.

Sitting on the podium of the stage, in front of the microphone, was a half black-half white...teddy bear?

"Oops!" The bear (?) suddenly said. Immediately, everyone gasped, screamed, or muttered 'what the fuck?'.

I myself was in a state of disbelief and shock at the talking bear (?), and could do nothing but sit and watch.

"Sorry you guys, I flipped the wrong switch!" The bear explained. "I meant to turn the microphone on, but I accidentally turned the lights off...How beary careless of me!"

At this point, I think everyone felt the same way as me. No one said a word, and all eyes were on the bear (?).

"Annnyyywayyyssss, I'm sure you're all feeling very eager to find out why you're on this ship!" The bear giggled.

"Uh, ship?" Cotton repeated.

"That's right!" The bear nodded, suddenly standing up to reveal his full, unimpressive height of 2'1". I felt a little better upon seeing how small he was.

"My name is Monokuma, and I am the pilot of this ship, the HFH Enterprise!" He revealed. Monokuma? Ship? HFH Enterprise? Now I have even more questions than answers!

People begun to snap out of their shock and were now hurling questions at the bear (?), er, Monokuma.

"Woah, woah, woah! One at a time people! Contrary to popular belief, bears can not answer more than one question at a time while on top of a podium." Monokuma frantically held up his arms in defense.

"Uh, I'm not sure that that's a popular belief..." Cherry remarked.

"What the hell are you?!" Sunrise asked.

"I am Monokuma!" Monokuma answered, looking angry. "I am a member of the Urisdae family, also known as BEARS! Don't you people get it already?! I'm not a teddy bear, or a robot, or a teenage girl with big boobs!"

"But you're talking..." Onyx frowned. "I may not be the smartest guy out there, but I'm pretty sure bears don't usually talk..."

"Thanks to the lessons bestowed upon me by my school teacher, I've been able to talk since I was a cub," Monokuma remarked. "That's how I was able to tell my mom and dad that I bagged my school teacher!"

"You put a bag on your teacher?" Rose raised a brow.

"Uh, no, Rose..." I sighed.

"Why are we in this place?" Diamond asked, the question which had long been looming on all of our minds since the moment we woke up. "You mentioned you're a pilot of the HFH Enterprise. I fail to see any of our connection to such a ship, so why were we taken here?"

Monokuma giggled. "Oh, trust me, one of you definitely remembers the connection with the HFH Enterprise..." He ominously said. "But, you asked for an answer and you shall receive! The HFH Enterprise isn't only a ship...it's your very own, brand new, world!"

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Merigold asked, her voice a little shaky. I began to fear for the worst regarding his answer.

"It means what it means! This ship is to become your new home! Enjoy the many amenities that it offers, because it's what you'll be surrounded by for the rest of your life!" Monokuma revealed, smiling widely as he held a claw up to his face.

"No way, you can't keep us here forever!" Emerald protested. "We'll just find a way out!"

"Puhuhu...good luck with that!" Monokuma cackled.

"But w-why?! W-Why us?!" Cloud cried.

"Grr, I have a grudge against students of Hope's Peak, that's why!" Monokuma answered angrily. Then he giggled. "Just kidding! You're going to have to wait a teeny tiny bit longer to find out!"

"OK, this is totally not funny anymore." Royal frowned, crossing her arms.

"If this is supposed to be a ship," Azure suddenly asked. "Then where's the water? Are we on an upper deck, or something?"

Monokuma giggled once more. "I never said it was a ship on water!"

Huh? If we're on a ship...but it's not a boat, then...

The wall on the right of the room suddenly started open. It was not one wall, but two put together, and they slowly moved away from each other, revealing a window behind them. And the window, showed us a sight completely out of this world.

"That's right, kiddos! Toto, I don't think we're on Earth anymore," Monokuma said, acting like he was about to faint. "We're hundreds of miles away in OUTER SPACE!"

The window showed us various, vivid celestial bodies, all twinkling with the stars. I think I could even see a planet in the distance.

"Th-that's impossible!" Diamond remarked, ever so slightly flustered. "This 'ship' is nowhere near equipped for space travel."

"Oh, honey, times change and money does wonders!" Monokuma replied. "This ship is equipped with the top-notch of top-notch equipment! Anti-gravity, an infinite supply og sweet, sweet O2 cleaner than on any place on Earth, water tanks that will last hundreds of years, you name it!"

"But what about like waste and stuff?" Cotton questioned with a frown. "Isn't that why astronauts wear diapers?"

"Not to sound like a bad Star Trek movie, but onboard the HFH Enterprise, human waste and trash are incinerated by laser beams and evaporated into O2!" Monokuma answered. At this point, I couldn't tell if he was exaggerating or actually serious.

Are we really in space? I mean, that'd explain a lot of things. The lack of any light from the sun or moon, not seeing nothing but stars out the window, not seeing the ground...But still. This whole things totally fucked up.

"Then explain this to me," Cotton said, standing up from his chair and walking over to the stage. "Why do we have codenames?"

Monokuma's smile vanished and was replaced with a neutral expression. "The reason for your codenames isn't important! Just use them!"

"Heh, really? Can't offer up an answer?" Cotton smirked. "Y'know, I doubt anything would happen if we used our actual names..."

Monokuma grew visibly angrier the longer Cotton spoke. I also began to grow a little worried, recalling the note we were given on our phones after we escaped the incinerator room.

Cotton smiled and turned towards us. "C'mon guys! Let's just tell each other our real names! What's this tiny ball of fur going to do?" He laughed.

"You first..." Sunrise said, rolling his eyes, not taking Cotton seriously.

"OK then!" Cotton nodded. "My name is Tak-"

As Cotton spoke, his ankle monitor started beeping, cutting him off.

"Huh?" Cotton frowned. Nothing seemed to be wrong with him. Maybe the 'punishment' Monokuma told us about was untrue after all.

"Um, as I was saying," Cotton continued, projecting his voice louder. "My name is Takum-"

BEEEEEP

There was one final beep before Cotton's voice stopped. He looked at us with wide eyes.

"C-Cotton?" I called, honestly a little scared. "Are you OK, man?"

He said nothing but slowly fell to the ground. Then, his mouth fell open and dark, crimson red blood started to pour out like some kind of waterfall from hell.

"AHHHH!" Someone screamed. Then more of us started to scream, yell, and even cry at the bloody sight. Overall, it was pretty clear that everyone was shocked and in disbelief at what just happened.

Being in the first row, I felt obligated to check on him. I quickly rushed to his side and knelt down. "Cotton! Tell me what's wrong?!"

He didn't answer, and instead just shakily pointed to his ankle monitor.

I positioned his body in a way that he wouldn't choke on his blood and then checked out his ankle monitor. Around the edge of it, I noticed a little bit of blood.

Azure and Rose appeared next to me.

"Um, l-let me see," Rose said, bending down to our level. She lifted up his pant leg and ever so slightly moved his ankle monitor.

"Injection marks!" Azure noted.

"From what?" I asked, my voice shaky as I could do nothing but watch Cotton writhe in agony in my arms.

"Some kind of tranquilizer?" Rose guessed, trying to see what else could be wrong with Cotton. "O-or maybe it's-"

"Poison!" Monokuma finished. Everyone turned their attention from Cotton to Monokuma, who looked the least bit bothered by the bloody mess at his feet. "To be more specific, Cotton here has been injected with a deadly dosage of Despiscocide!"

"What the fuck is Despiscocide?!" Sunrise yelled, a little more flustered than normal. My guess is that even though he wasn't Cotton's biggest fan, he didn't want to see him like this.

"Despiscocide is a favorite drug of mine!" Monokuma giggled. "Not only is the name cool, but the effects are pretty gnarly! Once injected into the bloodstream, Despiscocide travels allllll the way up to the major organs of your body, destroying them one by one in a matter of an hour! Cotton is currently having his stomach obliterated!"

"Y-you're gonna kill him!" Emerald frantically yelled.

"Puhuhu, that's the plan!" Monokuma said. "He did break one of the rules, after all!"

I thought about the message on our phone-things about not revealing our real names, or we'd be punished. But...

"Still! You never specified what the punishment was!" I argued. "How's it far to kill him when he didn't know the consequences!"

"Grr!" Monokuma growled, holding a claw up. "A punishment is pretty self-explanatory!"

"No way!" Noir protested. "When my parents tell me I'll get in trouble for doing something wrong, I never think they're going to kill me!"

More and more protests about how unfair it was filled the room. Even the usually quiet Sage and Lava spoke up, not wanting Cotton to die.

"It was reckless for him to try and reveal his name like that, but he was ignorant of the exact consequences." Sage frowned.

"He didn't do anything wrong!" Lava argued, her voice a little louder than I'm used to hearing. "He doesn't deserve to die, either."

Monokuma looked incredibly frustrated at our yelling, and finally, let out a great sigh.

"FINE, ya brats!" He yelled. "I'll take Cotton away for treatment! But next time suddenly breaks the rules, don't be surprised when I leave you to die!"

Monokuma jumped off from the stage and walked over to Cotton. At this point, Cotton was fairly motionless. You wouldn't be able to tell he was alive if not for his slow, labored breathing. Monokuma surprisingly snatched Cotton away from me as if he didn't weigh a thing, and took him onstage.

He pulled a syringe out of this, uh, bellybutton, and injected Cotton with it.

"Hey!" Onyx yelled. "Are you trying to kill him again?"

"No siree!" Monokuma shook his head. "This is the only known cure for Despiscocide. It will immediately stop the spread of Despiscocide, and eventually reverse the effects."

Monokuma then carelessly set Cotton on the ground. "In the meantime, I'll see to it that Mr. Escapist is taken care of."

"Why'd we trust a roach like you?" Scarlet frowned.

"Putting aside your very cruel insult," Monokuma sniffed, feigning sadness. "I have a medical degree and my nursing license! You can trust me with anything!"

"S-someone get me out of here!" Cloud suddenly screamed. The reality of our situation began to sink into us as we processed what happened to Cotton. The blood from his mouth had stained my shirt and pants, and a small pool had formed on the floor.

"I want to go home!" Cherry cried.

"M-me too...!" Indigo said, in between her sobs.

"Oh my God...are we going to die here?!" Merigold exclaimed. "Je ne veux pas mourir!"

"I can't die yet, I haven't hit 100 million on social media!" Royal protested.

"Relax, relax, RELAX, you guys!" Monokuma ordered. "Jeez, you guys are worse than the other two! Quit that crying, it's going trick my mind and make me lactate!"

"Gross..." I muttered.

"If your heart truly desires to escape, there is one option..." Monokuma revealed. Immediately, everyone began to quiet down. Even Cotton turned his head a little bit.

"If you wish to return home to Earth, and be in your own bed for Christmas, have I got a special treat for you!" Monokuma giggled.

"If you kill one of your classmates and get away with it, I'll fly you right to your own front door! That's right, folks, we have ourselves a Killing Game!"

...

...

...

"WHAT the FUCK?!" I yelled. "Are you insane?"

"Kill someone, get away with it, and go home? You make it sound like child's play." Frost scoffed.

"You're sick is what you are!" Emerald shuddered.

"Puhuhu...me? Sick? Insane?" Monokuma repeated. "On the contrary, I'm just being nice! I could keep you here forever, but I instead am offering an alternative! Kill one of your classmates, deceive everyone else, and you're home sweet home!"

"No one would ever kill just to go home!" Azure frowned.

"Oh, you'd be surprised! When someone's homesick, there's no telling what they'll do!" Monokuma cackled. "I bet one of you will be dead by the end of the week!"

End of the week...We really are stuck here...There's no escape anywhere on this ship. The only way out of here is through murder.

Right now, I knew I didn't have it in me to kill anyone. But what if someone does?

I looked around at my classmates, watching their expressions. I quickly realized everyone was doing the same. Observing each other in order to find out what everyone else was thinking. Of course, seeing as we can't read minds, I had no idea of truly knowing if anyone else was thinking about Monokuma's offer.

"Anyways, we've had a nice chat, but you guys wanted me to take care of Cotton over here," Monokuma jumped back down from the podium and picked up Cotton again. "So I'll catch ya later!"

As quickly as when Monokuma appeared, he was gone. And so was Cotton.

The strange bear left us with nothing. Yes, we were given some answers, but we were also flooded with more questions.

We're in space.

We're on board this spaceship because it's our 'new home'.

We can't use our own names because...Monokuma doesn't want to tell us.

If we truly want a way out, we can kill someone and then get away with it.

This whole situation was just so surreal.

I pictured myself pinching my arm, and waking up from this nightmare:

I'd get ready for school, eat breakfast with my mom and dad, and then go to school. After school, I'd go to the studio and do some filming, then be back home in time for dinner. Then, I'd get ready for bed and wake up in the morning, doing it all over again.

But I knew that it wasn't going to work. Cotton's blood on my clothes proved it.

As hard as it was to believe, this whole kidnapping thing was real. I didn't know why this was happening to us, or what even happened up until I woke up here, but the facts were clear:

There's no way out. No escape.

My stomach hurt, my heart ached, and I just wanted to scream.

Why me?

Why us?

I thought about what Monokuma said about the hi-tech features of this spaceship, about how we had a infinite amount of O2 available for us.

We may be able to breathe, but I still feel like I'm suffocating here...

Prologue (END)

Surviving Students

1. Seizo Morine (Crimson) - Ultimate Actor

2. Azure - Ultimate Cryptid Enthusiast

3. Scarlet - Ultimate Modern Dancer

4. Rose - Ultimate Prodigy

5. Royal - Ultimate Runway Model

6. Cherry - Ultimate Food Critic

7. Frost - Ultimate Barista

8. Onyx - Ultimate Salesman

9. Lava - Ultimate Tinkerer

10. Merigold - Ultimate Translator

11. Noir - Ultimate Spy

12. Cloud - Ultimate Oculist

13. Diamond - Ultimate Photoshoot Choreographer

14. Silver - Ultimate TV Host

15. Sunrise - Ultimate Pilot

16. Indigo - Ultimate Daredevil

17. Emerald - Ultimate Archaeologist

18. Mauve - Ultimate Dealer

19. Sage - Ultimate Illustrator

20. Cotton - Ultimate Escapist

Normal = Alive

Italicized = In Danger

Bold = Deceased (V = Victim, K = Killer, P = Punished)

A/N: Woo-hoo, new chapter! This Thanksgiving break I decided to take a break from homework and worked on this story instead. I got some story planning done, and wrote this chapter. This chapter marks the official end of the prologue, so now the fun can begin!

I already have an idea for the motive, but I'm still choosing between who'll be the victim and killer. It's so hard choosing which of your guys' amazing characters to say goodbye to :(

Thank you guys for reading! Please let me know your thoughts in the reviews! Now that all of the characters have been introduced, do you guys have any favorites? Least favorites? I can tell you guys right now that although I love all of your characters, I really like Scarlet and Mauve! Don't worry, that won't influence my decisions on who to kill, lol!

Also, a bit more of the mystery of their kidnapping in this chapter. Monokuma really does not want the kids revealing their names to each other. And, if you caught a certain line of his, you can decide whether or not there is a mastermind...

Do you guys have any theories about anything right now? Victims? Killers? Maybe even the mastermind (if there is one?). Please let me know in the reviews :)

See you guys in the next one, hopefully by the end of the month!