Sachi and I stand outside of the cafeteria, still a little confused and rattled by our encounter with Takagi and his 'minion'.

"That has to be one of the most ridiculous things I've ever done in my life" Sachi says, exasperated.

I understand though. From what I've seen of her this far, she's a very serious person and having to play along with a mischievous kid isn't exactly in her repertoire.

Buuut I did it to save us the trouble of getting on Takagi's bad side so at least we're safe from that.

I did what I had to do to stay in the villa, so to speak.

"Yeah, Takagi is an Ultimate Thespian very, very dedicated to his craft." I nod. "If you don't play along he can get really annoying so it's better to have him view us as someone he can ally with." I explain, think for a moment, and add: "Because, well, if what we think is happening is really happening, then we need all the allies we can get."

After a few more minutes of talking, Sachi is finally satisfied.

Seeing as we're in the dormitory part of the school, we decide to check out the Baths.

Entering the bath was just like entering every other room, I'm not surprised by what I see. The baths are very old looking and the locker doors were all broken - some of them are even hanging by a literal nail. This is the room where Celestia Ludenberg hid Alter-Ego. Among the ruins, Sachi and I find a guy looking through the lockers.

The boy has a light skin tone. His shoulder-length hair is a strawberry pink and tied into a long ponytail with a few messy bangs covering his forehead. He wears an open, black fur leather jacket over a white dress shirt. His pants are black ripped straight jeans and his shoes are black combat boots.

Honestly the guy looks like some kind of hustler but I, the Ultimate Paparazzi, know better. The strawberry pink hair is a dead giveaway to this young man's true identity.

"What are you two looking at?" Strawberry Hair says in a cold tone.

"We're looking at someone rummaging through empty lockers." Sachi says with clear distaste for Strawberry's tone. "What do you think we're doing?"

Strawberry doesn't even spare us a glance. "All I see is two people dawdling and not doing anything." he says snidely. "This is a waste of time."

"What's a waste of time-?" I try but Strawberry quickly shoots me down.

"This conversation. I don't have the time or energy to spare speaking to either of you." Strawberry says and continues to rummage through the lockers.

Sachi rolls her eyes and turns to me. "You talk to him, Tatsumi. I'm going to search the actual baths." she says and leaves with an annoyed huff.

Well. What's the worst that could happen?

I give Strawberry a small wave. "Hey there, I'm Tatsumi Endo, the Ultimate Paparazzi. It's nice to meet you."

...

Silence.

…

…

…

After another minute of being ignored, I can't take it anymore. We haven't even had a proper, full conversation yet and this guy is already seriously getting on my nerves.

"Look," I say. "I know who you are and I know you're not the best person to be around." I say in just as cold of a tone as he used earlier. "But don't you think we need to work together for now?" I ask.

I'm not a mean guy but sometimes you need to stoop to the same level as people like this to talk to them.

I had Strawberry's attention at 'I know who you are'. He stops what he's doing and stands up straight. "Oh, do you now?" he asks, towering over me. "Who am I, then?"

"Katashi Hitsugaya, the Ultimate Doctor." I say. "Well, that's your title on paper but I know there's a secret you're hiding. I just haven't figured it out yet."

Katashi Hitsugaya

Ultimate Doctor?

As I said, Katashi is known as the Ultimate Doctor, but just like with every Ultimate there is, rumors and secrets surround them. Katashi, as far as people know, isn't connected with any hospitals or friends with any other doctors. I don't even know if Sachi knows him.

But, getting back on track, Katashi is a very secretive guy - and he's hiding something big.

No it's not in his pants you dirty minded freaks.

Even though I don't fully understand what it is, as a reporter, I know how to get to the bottom of these things.

I will find out what he's hiding.

"Alright, you have my attention, Tatsumi Endo." Katashi sneers. "And you have one minute to keep it before I kill you." he says, grabs me by my shirt collar, and pulls me up to my tip-toes.

Oops.

I've dealt with people who are dangerous before and it's not always the same. But there's always one key component to walking away alive: I just need to make sure I don't set him off on me.

Well, I guess I kind of failed already by threatening him with his secret, but it's too late to backtrack from that.

"I'm not here to cause trouble." I say quickly. "We're all in the same boat, Sachi and I are just like you."

Katashi doesn't look impressed. "I don't care about us being in the same boat and I don't care that you're both Ultimates too. All I care about is getting myself out of this hellhole." he snaps.

I guess being diplomatic won't work. I need to try something else. What's the opposite of diplomacy?

Oooh, that's right.

"Look, you and I have both read history books. We both understand what the situation is - that's probably why you're desperately looking for an escape, right?" I say. "But we can't be delusional. This is going to be a Killing Game - I doubt there's any escape routes. The Mastermind wouldn't have tried this again in the same place at the first game if they hadn't secured it." I say and smirk, "With my reputation, I can turn you into a pariah." I say, trying to come off as threatening as possible. "I don't know that secret but I know everything else." I lie. "You won't have any allies and no one will trust a thing you say."

Katashi didn't like the diplomatic approach so threats were my best bet, right? It's the only thing that's gotten a reaction out of him so far. I threatened him into anger so maybe I can threaten him into backing off.

There's a moment of silence as we glare at each other, waiting to see who gives in first.

…

…

…

Suddenly, Katashi drops me.

Then, he just leaves.

…Huh. I don't know if what I did was good or bad...I suppose I'll find out in time.

All I know for sure is that Katashi Hitsugaya is a dangerous person and I really don't want to be near him right now.

Thinking about it a bit more, I think I just made myself a target to one of the shadiest Ultimates currently enrolled in Hope's Peak. To think, he's in his Third Year at Hope's Peak and still no one knows what his secret is…

Well, I guess anything on him could've gotten destroyed during the Tragedy…I'll have to look into it later; if I get out of here alive, that is.

"Is he gone? Thank God. I know we're classmates and all but seriously, I can't stand him. He's like, sooooooo snobbish." I hear a new voice say. It has a bit of a Korean accent that you can pick up if you listen closely enough.

I turn around and out of the baths comes Sachi and another girl.

This new girl has long, straight, raven black hair tied into a loose and fluffy braided ponytail. She has deep purple eyes and warm, clear beige skin. I can see a few small freckles under both of her eyes and she has a skinny and toned body. She wears a plain peach pink backless halter neck top with a lower back side ribbon tied around her waist. Over that is a fluffy, crème white faux fur jacket she wears loosely, the jacket dropping off the side of her shoulders. She wears light stonewashed skinny jeans with rhinestone star hearts adorning her pockets and casual, stylish white sneakers with a white ribbon tied as the makeshift shoelaces on front.

From the distinct Korean accent, her appearance, and the way she spoke before, I definitely know who this girl is.

"Tatsumi, this is Min-Ju Tae - actually, what am I saying?" Sachi sighs and shakes her head. "You probably know who she is already." she says.

She was right, of course.

"Oh really?" Min-Ju says, raising an eyebrow. "I've never met an Ultimate who was a stalker before, kinda creepy to be honest, but like, that's cute, I guess."

...What-?

She continues before I can process what she just said: "Well, you should already know this but if you want to hear me say it, get that camera of yours and record me saying it: I'm Min-Ju Tae, I'm the famous Ultimate Cheerleader, a dazzling star at the top of the pyramid!" Min-Ju beams. "You can call me Mindy or Min if you can't pronounce my full name, avoids the hassle."

Min-Ju Tae

Ultimate Cheerleader

I mean, is there someone who doesn't know her? She's basically the It Girl of this generation. Min-Ju - sorry - Min has been on the covers of magazines, appeared in public televisions, and more. She's every teenager's ultimate fantasy.

Ha, ultimate fantasy.

Ahem.

That's how she's viewed by the public, at least. People tend to focus on physical appearances more than anything. Min is your everyday mean girl-popular cheerleader stereotype.

Some people think she's a girl who knows what she wants and is a strong independent woman and all that, while some think she's a spoiled brat. I guess it depends on how much you want to tolerate.

"Hahaha, you seem to be very entranced by my beauty, you've been staring at me like a fish out of water." Min laughs haughtily.

I scratch the back of my head in embarrassment, turning away. "Sorry about that." I apologize.

She's not exactly my type.

"Oh no, I found it rather cute. You must be awestruck by the fact that I, Min-Ju Tae, am standing right in front of you." Min says confidently and flips her hair. Her movements have a sense of sensuality in them, like she knows how to use subtle movements to flirt.

But like I said, she's not my type.

"Oh, no no no," I say quickly. "It's not like that, I'm just-" Before I can finish, Min interrupts me.

"Ha!" she laughs. "Don't be shy, it's okay. Just don't sneak into my room, got it?" Min says with a wink.

I subtly roll my eyes and sigh.

She's obviously trying to use the fact that I know who she is against me. If I wasn't as experienced as I am, I might have been fooled by what she was trying to do, but I know better. Min is trying to get me to be some kind of a servant to her - or maybe a guard.

I think Min knows we're all going to be in a Killing Game and she's doing her best to either build a relationship with someone knowledgeable or someone to use as a shield. Despite her rather annoying personality, she's an Ultimate.

Either way, I'm not falling for it.

"Anyways, now that that person is gone I'm free to leave the Baths." Min says with a bored yawn. "I was looking through here when that guy came in all dangerous looking and I wasn't about to risk talking to him, y'know? So I hid inside the Baths - of which are surprisingly new, by the way. Every part of this school is broken down or old but the Baths in there are clean and usable."

Huh?

The baths are new?!

HOW!?

Even if it's a way to make living here better, how did our kidnapper bring in all the materials to fix it without alerting any of the roaming guards? And even if they fixed it, why just the Baths, why not the other parts of this school?

This situation just got impossibly stranger.

When I finally snap out of my thoughts, Min is gone and Sachi is looking around.

"Hey, you're finally out of that trance again, huh." Sachi says, glancing at me. "You know, the more time I spend with you the less weird I find it." she says, almost sounding...kind?

I guess she's warming up to me! Nice.

...At least that's what I hope it is.

"Did Min say anything else?" I ask Sachi.

Sachi shakes her head, "Nothing too important," she says. "I checked it out as well and like she said, it's brand new. Almost like it was just installed…" Sachi says, frowning slightly. "...it was very, very weird."

I nod and store that information away for later. "Well, I guess there's nothing left to see here. We can go check out the Dorms." I suggest. "If the baths are fixed that means the Dorm Rooms should be as well."

The more we investigate, the more the reality of our situation hits me and the less I can deny the fact that we're being set up for a Killing Game.

We exit the Baths.

Once we get out of the corridor we can still hear the distinct sound of Kikuo's flute being played. I guess Takagi and Kikuo are staying in the cafeteria for now.

Sachi and I walk over to the dorm rooms and just as we expected, the Dorm rooms are refurbished. Each Door has small pixelated art of the students. I can recognize some of the faces: Shion, Sumire, Ryoji, and so on and so forth.

Speaking of those three, I hope Shion let that guy stay with them because without his glasses, Ryoji is going to be a liability to himself and the people we haven't encountered yet.

I walk the hall, looking for a door that has my face on it. I find it and jiggle the door handle...it's open.

We shift to the neighboring door because as it happens, it's Sachi's room. She jiggles the knob and lo and behold, it's unlocked as well.

That's unfortunate for us. Hopefully we get keys.

We go back to my room and enter.

My room looks just like how it appeared in the Killing Game Makoto Naegi took part in.

The red walls, the blue carpet, and the single white bed...of course since it was my room there were a bunch of cork boards on the walls with pictures of Ultimate Students, some I recognize to be pictures I've taken, and just as I suspected, on top of the desk were a bunch of camera lenses which I could use to repair my broken one. Nice.

"...This is weird," Sachi says as she looks around the room.

What!?

I'm honestly a bit offended. I'm the Ultimate Paparazzi - taking pictures is my job. And hey, it's not my fault they somehow got access to my pictures. These were for nobody's eyes but mine and my blog's.

Sachi crosses her arms and frowns, "How did they get all the materials necessary to fix all these without arousing suspicion?" she wonders.

OH. That's what she meant.

Heh.

We look around the room some more and find that there's nothing else too interesting inside. There's a bathroom and I notice that, just like the Killing School Life, it doesn't have a lock.

In case you didn't know, in the original killing game the boys' bathrooms didn't have locks.

As Sachi and I continue investigating the room that's growing less and less interesting, we notice two guys peek into my room.

They're quite the odd pair, to be honest. They're both quite tall, but one was very muscular - and when I say very muscular, I'm talking about Sakura Ogami levels of muscular. He looks like a tank and also he isn't wearing a shirt...yikes.

The more muscular one is, as I said, a big and strong man with HUGE bulging muscles. He has a peachy skin tone and his hair is chestnut brown styled in a very military-esque buzz-cut. As I also said before, he has no shirt but he does wear shorts; specifically, white shorts with horizontal red stripes on them. On his feet are white socks and open-toed sandals as shoes.

...Choices.

If the Ultimate Model were here she would die from cringing so hard.

The other one has average straight white hair and dark skin. A closer look at his face reveals his heterochromia, his left eye being blue and the other being red. He's wearing a plain white shirt under a black and white jacket. He's also wearing dark blue jeans and black and white sneakers.

Of course, I recognize both of these young men. The JoJo guy is-

"Hey there, we noticed this door was open and we wanted to see if there was anyone who was trying to go into other people's rooms." the skinnier one says.

I feel weird calling him 'the skinner one' but when you compare this guy to the absolute unit that's beside him...he's a twig.

"I would see that as a problem, yes," Sachi agrees, a thoughtful look on her face. "All the doors were unlocked. If our kidnapper intends to have us stay here long enough for a successful Killing Game, how are we supposed to safely survive the night?"

The twig laughs goodnaturedly. "It's actually quite confusing, but I managed to figure it out with the help of this big guy here," he says. "Every door is locked unless the owner of the room is the one opening it. Like, if I try to open a room that isn't my room, it won't open." he explains awkwardly. "I know it can get confusing but I hope you're both smart enough to understand what I said."

That is indeed rather confusing, especially since in the Killing School Life it was pretty straight forward with the keys unlocking each room.

That means the Mastermind had the time and tools to upgrade the doors too.

Ugh. Just what the heck is going on here!?

I shake my head and smile politely at the odd pair. "It's nice to meet you, by the way. I'm Tatsumi Endo, Ultimate Paparazzi, and this is Sachiko Yoshifumi, she's the Ultimate Pharmaceutical Scientist."

Even though (as you should already know), I know exactly who these two are.

The twig laughs. "Well at least it isn't 'Ultimate Stalker' 'cause this room sure is...something." he says. "I'm Kite Nijisaki, Ultimate Activist, but you know that already." he says and points to one of my cork boards. "I see a picture of myself on that cork board over there." Kite says matter-of-factly, almost like an insult, but this guy just doesn't have a filter.

Not exactly what you expect of an Ultimate Activist but hey, I don't scout talents.

Kite Nijisaki

Ultimate Activist

Kite Nijisaki, the kid who changed the world.

He held rallies and he created change in the government with his messages. He's a very charismatic figure. Kite is also very blunt, which I guess is what you need to inspire change, especially in the cases where diplomacy isn't enough...

Where was this guy when I was talking to Katashi!? I could have used him...then again I have a feeling they would just insult each other until one of them dies from thirst.

Suddenly, the tank next to Kite speaks up.

"Gahaha! I am the great Heracles! Defender of the innocent and strongest man alive!" 'Heracles' declares, flexing his muscles and honestly, I'm jealous of his muscles but the man needs to have some social awareness to put on a shirt.

I look at Sachi and she's rolling her eyes.

"Jotaro Inenaga, Ultimate Strongman. Huge cliche, but you already knew that." Sachi says.

Jotaro Inenaga

Ultimate Strongman

Yes, I did already know that. I'm glad she's catching on.

Jotaro's also in my class so I already know him - he was just introducing himself to Sachi.

Where do I begin with this...unit? He's very strong...he's also kinda dumb...I don't know what to tell you that you don't already know. Jotaro is very simple. And I don't mean that as an insult.

He's rather friendly and very inspirational with his anti-bullying messages. He's a very likable guy...with big muscles. What else is there to say?

Jotaro would get along great with the Ultimate Priest from the incoming first year class. They could cosplay JoJo together.

"Have you met everyone?" Kite asks me as Jotaro continues monologuing.

I shake my head, "I think there's still some who I haven't met yet." I say to Kite.

He's a person who I'm not totally sure if I can trust. Like I said before, Kite's very charismatic and he can lead people...that could go one of several ways.

Kite is also part of the 'Milk Tea Crowd' that's become very popular with Ultimate fans despite the fact that they're all First Years.

The Milk Tea Crowd is a group of Ultimates that love to visit the popular shop, Milk Tea Island Cafe. In this group are Shion Kotobuki, Sumire Kotobuki, Takagi Kuroda, Kikuo Furuhata, and Kite Nijisaki...all of them are here...what could this possibly mean?

...Anyways.

Once again, everyone's year levels are completely different.

First Year Students include Ryoji, Shion, Sumire, Takagi, Kikuo, and Kite.

Second Year Students are myself and Jotaro.

Third Year Students are Sachi, Katashi, and Min.

This isn't making any sense. Sure, most of the First Years are the famous Milk Tea Crowd, but how does Ryoji fit into that?

And even though Jotaro and I are in the same class, we're not exactly friends, there's nothing that connects us either.

Prior to this, a majority of us didn't even know each other personally. And from the looks of it, from what we saw a while ago, Sachi and Min aren't huge fans of Katashi and I assume the reverse is true as well. And I doubt Sachi and Min are friendly either.

So, it's not friendship. It's not about being classmates.

What brought us all here together?

When I pull myself out of my thoughts, once again I find that I'm alone with Sachi. I didn't realize that Kite and Jotaro left. Sachi is looking at all the cork boards with information about all the Ultimates.

"So this is why a lot of people want you on their side, huh." Sachi muses with her back facing me. "You have a lot of dirt and information on everyone." she says, turning to look at me with an odd look on her face. "You're technically the most dangerous player in this Killing Game, Tatsumi."

Huh. I guess to some people (like Katashi), that probably holds true.

"That's why I need all the allies I can get. If and when this Killing Game does go down, I need to be as safe as possible."

A/N in the wise words of my grandfather and the original author:

UwU

The next part of the prologue is going to be my own work because reasons (so that means it's going to take longer) but the final part of the prologue will still be Ahn's handiwork and my edits :catch: