Prologue Part 2

Sayaka's mind kept running through all the theories she could think of. A coma, a nightmare, another kidnapping, anything to explain how she could still be alive. Any form of hope of returning to her normal life. Yet, nothing seemed to add up believably. Whatever the case, she had to keep looking for answers. She put her focus back into the investigation. The first thing she took note of was Mondo and Taka talking amongst themselves.

"Hey, bro?" Taka spoke to Mondo. "Once we find everyone, I believe we need to talk."

Mondo stopped dead in his tracks before looking back at his friend. "Is this about what happened?"

Taka nodded. "I think it would be best."

Mondo had a solemn frown across his face and gave a small nod. "Ok. AFTER this is done."

Taka nodded and smiled. "Understood."

Sayaka was curious. The two of them truly did grow closer since she had 'passed out'. Their conversation had a lot of weight to it and something clearly happened. Yet, she knew it would be best to not pry at the moment. She turned her attention to some of her other compatriots to see what they were doing.

Miu had been kicking pebbles across the floor and cursing to herself the whole time. The idol couldn't say she blamed the inventor for being angry, but her attitude pretty much made her unapproachable. Then there was Nekomaru. He had been going out of his way to enter rooms first, acting as a point man and bodyguard for the group. Nagito seemed to be the one with his head on completely straight. Sayaka could hear him mutter notes to himself for every room they went to. He was also the least on edge out of everyone there. Despite Taka shouting instructions to everyone, Nagito thought about everything more logically.

Sayaka walked right next to him. "So, what do you think about all of this?" Sayaka asked the pale boy.

Nagito looked back at the idol. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, us being dead is so unbelievable yet…nothing else I thought of made anymore sense. I don't want to believe it, but it's getting harder to deny. So, what do you think?"

Nagito rubbed his chin a bit. "Well, I can't say I have a concrete theory yet, but I do think that we did truly die. I couldn't just dream what happened to me. That pain was real. I imagine it was real for you too."

Sayaka nodded. She had pushed it back into farthest corners of her mind, but she could remember the pain. She suddenly felt the need to roll her right hand a bit to make sure her wrist wasn't still broken. It must've been some sort of mental trigger to make her so worried her wrist.

Before her train of thought would've been completely focused on her old wounds, she was startled when Nekomaru burst open another classroom door and let Taka step inside.

"I hope you don't mind the intrusion, but we must investigate this room!" Taka shouted inside the room.

From outside, Sayaka could hear a loud, exacerbated, and disgusted groan come out. "Great. I should have known I would be trapped in here with degenerate males!"

Sayaka and the rest of the group stepped inside to see a girl with raven hair tied up with a green bandana and dressed in a light blue school uniform who had taken up a defensive position.

"Oh great," Miu groaned. "Tencrotch is here!"

The defensive girl looked over at the blonde and gasped a bit. "Miu? What are you doing here? In fact, what am I doing here? Last thing I remember was that we were in the middle of the seance then I blacked out."

"Yeah, you got fucking merced," Miu explained as delicately as anyone could expect from her.

The defensive girl gasped once more. "What?! I was killed?!"

"Yes," Nagito said. "In fact, we were all killed before waking up here."

"Who did it?!" the girl asked. "It was a male, wasn't it?! I knew I shouldn't have let my guard down!"

"Now, hold on a sec!" Mondo interrupted. "Inventor chick, you know this chick?"

"Yeah," Miu answered. "Tencrotch. Don't be surprised if she treats you like crap. She's a massive dick hater."

"Yeah, I gathered that," Mondo said with a roll of his eyes. "So, we found another girl from that Ultimate Academy."

"Well, allow me to properly introduce myself to you," Taka approached the girl and outstretched his hand. "My name is Kiyotaka Ishimaru! If you'd like you may call me Taka, or Kiyotaka, or Ishimaru, or Kiyotaka Ishimaru!"

The girl returned to her defensive stance and held her hands up, looking like she was ready to chop at Taka's throat. However, her eyes scanned the man's hand. She didn't shake his hand, but she lowered her stance to introduce herself. "I'm the Ultimate Neo Aikikdo Master, Tenko Chabashira! HIYA!" the girl proclaimed as she punched the air in front of her.

Tenko Chabashira: Ultimate Neo Aikido

Nekomaru laughed uproariously. "Splendid introduction, Chabashira! I respect a fighter with fiery passion! I am NEKOMARU NIDAI!"

"Neo Aikido?" Nagito's eyes lit up. "I've heard of aikido, but neo implies that it's new. If you mastered a new style of martial art, you must truly be talented."

Tenko's face scrunched up in disgust. "Eugh. To have such degenerates praise me…"

Sayaka stepped out from behind the two boys to introduce herself. Before she could say anything though, Tenko's face softened and her eyes lit up with sparkles. She dashed over to the idol and grabbed a hold of her hands.

"Another girl?!" Tenko shouted. "Thank goodness! I was afraid I would be surrounded by degenerates! What's your name?"

Sayaka could fell a bead of sweat trail down the side of her head. She certainly was as energetic as any of her fans. Unexpected, but nothing she couldn't handle. "Hello, I'm Sayaka Maizono," the idol said with her classic fan-pleasing smile. "I'm the Ultimate Idol."

"Ok, Sayaka!" Tenko smiled at her new friend. "If any of these degenerates treat you badly, come to me! I'll protect you."

"I don't think that's really necessary," Sayaka said politely. "They haven't done anything wrong." 'A bit loud though,' she thought to herself.

"Yet," Tenko said while glancing over at all the guys. "Degenerates are known to be sneaky, so keep a look out."

"Um, sure," Sayaka said. Tenko seemed well intentioned and friendly, but she was a bit extreme for Sayaka to handle.

"Well, now that we've all introduced each other, can we get going?" Mondo asked. "We get a lot of investigating to do."

Tenko's face immediately scrunched back up and she gave the biker an absolutely piercing death glare. "Typical degenerate behavior. Interrupting two girls talking about important things."

"Um, Tenko?" Sayaka tugged her hand free of the martial artist's grip to place on her shoulder, "investigating this place is important. He's just trying to help us focus."

Tenko looked back at Sayaka and her face returned to normal. "Oh, ok. Well, let's get moving then."

Mondo gave Sayaka a thank you nod while Miu just laughed maniacally. "Woo boy!" Miu wiped some tears away. "Looks like Tencrotch found another girl to touch herself to."

"Enough of your perverse language, Miss Iruma!" Taka shouted at the blonde. "We must continue onward and investigate!" Taka pointed dramatically out of the room before marching off.

The others followed suit, doing their previous routines. Sayaka did take note that Tenko had decided to follow her through the investigation. It was strange. The girl didn't know Sayaka, but she was still acting just like any other fangirl she had encountered. Perhaps Miu had a point. Not so much the…touching herself part, but she did seem to become attached easily.

The group turned a corner to see another new face. A small boy with a leather jacket and knitted cap with two points at the top. He seemed disinterested in his situation. He looked like he was too busy brooding against a wall. His attitude and appearance completely contradicted each other.

Taka and Nekomaru approached the boy none the less. "Greetings, young man! My name is Kiyotaka Ishimaru! My group and I are currently searching this facility for our fellow classmates!"

"And I'm NEKOMARU NIDAI!" the giant shouted. "I take it you must be from the Ultimate Academy, correct."

Upon closer inspection, the small boy had what looked like a cigarette in his mouth and a dead look in his eyes. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and looked up at the two. "There's no need to shout," the boy said, his voice somehow managed to be lower than Nekomaru or Mondo's, "I can hear."

"Wow," Sayaka said. "I honestly wasn't expecting him to sound like that."

"It's the voice of lion!" Nekomaru said with a smile.

"And he's definitely got style," Mondo said. "Got any more smokes, kid?"

Taka snapped his head over to Mondo. "BRO!"

"What? I'm stressed out. A cig would help me out."

The small boy chuckled a bit. "Sorry, but this isn't the kind of cigarette you'd like. It's a candy cigar."

"Well, shit," Mondo sighed a bit before looking back at Tenko and Miu. "So, this guy is from the Ultimate Academy, right?"

Both of them nodded.

"Good," Taka said. "Now, what is your name, young man?"

"I…was the Ultimate Tennis Player," the small boy said before looking down, "although I'd say that hardly matters anymore. The man known as Ryoma Hoshi is pretty much dead anyway."

Ryoma Hoshi: Ultimate Tennis Player

"What kind of introduction was that?" Nekomaru asked. "With such a voice, you should be boasting yourself so loud the Heavens should hear it!"

"Well, he's clearly depressed," Sayaka said.

"Oh, that's just how shorty is always like," Miu said as she waved her hand. "He even got himself killed in our last game."

"Only to end up here instead of Hell," Ryoma said. "Guess the universe wasn't done punishing me."

"You don't look like a scumbag," Mondo said. "What the hell could a kid like you even have done?"

Ryoma sighed heavily. "Some mob was making a mess in my town. They were roughing people up, taking their money, selling drugs, tearing down people's businesses. It had been going on for so long that I felt I had to do something. So, I took my racket and a metal ball and I killed the all."

"Holy shit, dude!" Mondo shouted in surprise. Everyone ended up sharing his sentiments. Well, those that weren't familiar with Ryoma anyway. Sayaka covered her mouth to gasp, Taka's eyes widened in horror, and Nekomaru was sweating nervously. Sayaka turned to Tenko in the hopes she could deconfirm it, but Tenko nodded instead.

"So, now you all know," Ryoma said before smiling a bit. "Now, don't be too intimidated. I've sworn not to use my talent ever again, so you won't have to worry about me."

"How could you say something like that?!" Nagito finally spoke. His voice carried a hint of anger that no one else had expected the young man to have. "Your talent is what separates you from everyone else, what makes you better than others. To toss it aside, no matter the reason, is shameful."

There probably would have been a moment of awkward silence following the outburst if Nekomaru didn't pipe up. "Oh boy. He's losing it again."

Ryoma could only let out a small chuckle before responding to Nagito. "You can look down on me choice all you want. It's not going to change my mind. Besides, you guys have more important things to do."

"Oh, that is correct!" Taka said. "Tell my, Hoshi! Have you seen any other students in the area?"

Ryoma put the candy cigarette in his mouth. "Yeah, I did. I saw a small group go check out a storage closet and a larger group head to the cafeteria."

"Very well!" Taka shouted before turning back to the group. "I say that we go to the storage closet first then head to the cafeteria! Follow me, friends!"

The group was already to follow, but Sayaka looked back to see that Ryoma had leaned back against the wall. She stopped in her tracks and approached him. "Are you not coming with us?" she asked.

Ryoma shook his head. "I'm fine. You can go on ahead. If things go the same as last time, I'll meet up with you when we're all together."

Sayaka frowned a bit. She knew he was depressed, and obviously leaving a depressed person alone is a horrible idea. She was about to protest when Tenko placed hand on her shoulder.

"He'll be ok for now," Tenko said. "He may be a degenerate, but Ryoma does keep his word."

Sayaka gave one last look to Ryoma before following Tenko.

Tenko smiled a bit at Sayaka, "You have a great heart, Maizono."

"Oh, thanks," Sayaka smiled back at Tenko. She appreciated the compliment, but thinking it over made her feel a bit sour. She did used to believe she had a good heart as Tenko said. She always tried her best to be polite in interviews, thankful to her fans, she knew she always had her bandmates' backs, but she remembered how she ended up here. She remembered that she lied to a good friend and stabbed him in the back, tried to stab someone else too. She wanted to just forget it, but the moment she started thinking about it she couldn't stop. She would have kept thinking about if Tenko didn't tap her shoulder.

"Hey, are you ok?" Tenko asked.

Sayaka snapped her head back up and looked at Tenko. "Huh? What?"

"You were zoning out a bit," she said.

"Oh. Yeah, I'm ok. I was just thinking about…all of this."

Tenko hummed a bit and nodded. "Yeah, it is a bit crazy, isn't it? We were dead, but maybe not? This whole thing is screwy. But hey, maybe Himiko is here too- NO!" Tenko interrupted herself. "No, I don't want Himiko here. That would mean she was killed!"

Sayaka raised an eyebrow. "Is Himiko a friend of yours?"

"Of course!" Tenko said with a bright smile. "Himiko is great! She's super sweet and cute and talented! She's so cool she can saw someone in half and they'd still have their legs!"

"Oh," Sayaka said. Her interest was peaked by Tenko's descriptions. "So, she was an Ultimate Magician?"

BIG MISTAKE!

"No!" Tenko proclaimed. "She's not just a simple stage magician! She's a mage!"

"Oh…ok?" Sayaka said. She figured it would be best to just play along with Tenko's claims. "Well, it sounds impressive anyways. I can't help but respect other performers."

"Oh yeah. You're an idol, right?"

Before Sayaka could respond, Miu turned around and glared at them. "Can you two shut up!? I can't think over the sound of you two flirting."

Sayaka frowned a bit, "But we weren't-"

"Everyone, hush!" Taka shouted. "We have arrived at the storage closet!"

Sayaka would've asked why arriving at their destination required them to be quiet, but she figured it some part of Taka's rule book. Whatever the case, she was felt she was ready to meet more students. She stood back as she watched Nekomaru open the door.

The storage closet was nothing out of the ordinary. Just a few metal shelves stacked on top of each other filled with cardboard boxes. What was interesting was that there were three students inside. One of them was another blonde girl, although this one wore purple clothing with a light musical motif to it. She was investigating the storage unit while being held up a boy with dyed red hair and punkish clothes. Off to the side was a young man with purple hair and a goatee who wasn't investigating with them. He was leaned up against a wall with his arms crossed, just watching the other two search.

"Stand still," the girl said to the punkish boy. "I can't see anything if you keep wobbling around."

"It's not my fault!" the punkish boy whined. "Your feet are digging into my shoulders, you know!" Needless to say, the punkish boy wasn't happy to be used as a footstool, but that didn't mean he wouldn't try to make the best of things. When he felt the girl wasn't paying attention, he tilted his head up to try and peak up her skirt.

These students created various reactions from the investigators. Tenko seemed to recognize the bearded boy and the blonde girl, but not the punkish boy. She couldn't help but clench her fist tightly and twitch her eye when she saw him perv on the girl. Nekomaru and Mondo actually recognized the punkish boy, yet had opposing views. Nekomaru used to be the boy's baseball trainer and manager and was actually happy to see his former pupil. Mondo was pissed to see the punk that killed a girl again. To him, a man could do many things but killing a woman was something only spineless creeps would do. He gritted his teeth and cracked his knuckles.

Sayaka was mortified when she saw the spikey. Her skin went paler than it normally was and her eyes widened. She took a few steps back. She was ready to just run away but fate had other plans.

"Why if it isn't Leon Kuwata!" Nekomaru said with a smile. "How have you been doin- Mondo, what are doing?!"

Mondo shoved Nekomaru to the side and stormed into the room. "Hey, Kuwata! You son of a bitch!"

The sudden shouting of his name from a threatening voice made Leon's body jolt a bit. Unfortunately, the jolting of his body and the weight of the girl caused him to lose his balance. He began to fall back and was about to drop the girl to the ground as well. Luckily, the boy with the goatee was quick enough to catch them both.

"You need to watch it!" the purple boy said. "You could have cracked both of your heads open!"

"Don't worry," Mondo said. "I'll crack his fucking head open!"

The punk finally turned around to see the familiar biker loom over him. He scurried back against one of the shelves. "Owada?! What the hell's your problem?!"

"You know what my fucking problem is, Kuwata!"

Tenko stepped up next to "I may not know what you've done before this, but I know a degenerate when I see one and you're definitely going to pay!"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Nekomaru said before stepping in between the punk and the two angry fighters. "Look, I know Kuwata is lazy and a bit immature, but we don't have time to be fighting like this!"

"Yeah!" the punk jumped up to his feet and hid behind his former couch. "Besides, that wasn't my fault. It was…" The punk stopped speaking when he noticed a familiar blue haired idol. His eyebrows narrowed. "YOU!"

Sayaka gulped a bit. It was all she could do. She wanted to run away, but her legs refused to move. All she could do was stare at her killer. Tenko actually looked back at Sayaka. She didn't fully understand the situation, but she gave the idol a puzzled yet concerned look.

Before things could get any worse, the girl dressed in purple stepped forward. "How about we don't get into a fight?" she suggested. "I mean, I assume we're all doing the same thing, right? Investigating the school?"

"Hmmm, that is correct," Taka said. "We are truly on the same side, despite previous altercations. I suggest we start over with introductions!"

The polite blonde smiled and nodded. "Of course! I will admit, I do recognize Tenko and Miu, but to the rest of you my name is Kaede Akamatsu. I'm the Ultimate Piano Player."

Kaede Akamatsu: Ultimate Piano Player

The purple boy smirked and stepped forward. "So, I finally get to tell more people who I am. Well, I hope you all remember the name Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars! I'm going to be one of few people in history on conquer the vastness of space!"

Kaito Momota: Ultimate Astronaut

Nekomaru let out another boisterous laugh and gave Kaito a thumbs up. "Now that's an introduction, Momota! Although, I am disappointed in yours, Akamatsu. You should put your heart and soul into it!"

"For fuck's sake, can shut up about introductions already?" Miu snapped at the giant man. "You're giving me a migraine."

Nekomaru frowned a bit. "I wasn't trying to be annoying," he muttered meekly.

"An astronaut and a piano player?" Nagito's eyes lit up. "Now those are talents worth being proud of. Have you actually been to space, Kaito?"

Kaito's confident smirk dropped and he scratched the back of his head. "Well, to be honest, I haven't. I have passed a test of become an astronaut, but I'm still not old enough to be one yet. But I will someday!"

"If anyone's stubborn enough to make their dream come true, it's Kaito," Kaede joked a bit.

"Hmmm interesting," Nagito said as he rubbed his chin. "Well, I wish you the best of luck on your dream, Kaito."

Tenko rushed over to Kaede and hugged her tightly. So tight that Kaede was worried she'd have a hard time breathing. "Kaede!" Tenko cried out. "I missed you!"

"T-Tenko," Kaede said with a slight groan. "I-I missed you too…C-could please not crush me?"

"Oh, right," Tenko let go of her old friend. "Sorry. Oh hey! I found another musician here!" Tenko took Kaede by the hand and led her over to Sayaka. "Kaede, this Sayaka Maizono. She's a pop idol."

Kaede was relieved to be free of Tenko's grip but was still taken off guard when the girl dragged her over to the bluenette. Kaede listened to Tenko and looked at the idol. "Oh really? That's really cool It's nice to meet you, Sayaka."

"Y-yeah," Sayaka said. She was still shaken up by the sight of her killer, but she put up a bright smile. It would be nice to talk to a fellow musician. "So, what genre do you normally focus on, Kaede? Classical?"

"Yep," Kaede answered. "I always preferred the emotional weight classical music held. Although, pop music is definitely catchy."

"I can understand that, but I've always tried to make my songs hold some significance as well," Sayaka explained. She was feeling better already.

"Hey!" the punk shouted.

Aaaaaand Sayaka immediately felt terrible again.

"Can you guys stop ignoring me?" the punk whined. "You guys said you were doing introductions then immediately stopped when it was my turn."

Miu groaned. She had been annoyingly put off by everything she had encountered up to that point, but just this one-time Sayaka couldn't help but share her feelings. "Fine," Miu said. "Who are you?"

"Oh," Leon calmed down a bit. Now that everyone had decided to pay attention to pay attention to him, he felt embarrassed. "Well, I'm Leon Kuwata. I'm the Ultimate Baseball Player. Sup?"

Leon Kuwata: Ultimate Baseball Player

"Well, Kuwata," Taka spoke up, "while I do believe that we should take this opportunity to forgive previous crimes, I still must reprimand you for your perverse actions!"

"Yeah!" Tenko piped up. "Even this degenerate agrees that looking up Kaede's dress is disrespectful!"

"Wh-what?!" Kaede's face turned red and tugged a bit on her dress in some attempt to cover herself. "He did?!"

"HA!" Miu pointed at Kaede as she laughed. "It's hard for him not to when you're practically flashing everyone, Kaediot!"

Mondo just facepalmed and let out a groan. "I think I'm going to hate this group."

Taka placed a hand on his bro's shoulder. "Fret not, my friend. Our fellow students simply need guidance to reach their true potential."

Mondo sighed and gave his bro a slight nod.

Nekomaru turned to Kaede and Kaito. "So, are you two also from the Ultimate Academy?"

"Yeah," Kaede said. "We were all kidnapped by guys in suits then placed in the Ultimate Academy."

"What about you guys?" Kaito asked.

"Well, we were supposed to go to Hope's Peak Academy," Sayaka said. "Some of us were locked inside the main building while Nekomaru's group was left stranded on an island."

"So…were we all in killing games then?" Kaede asked which everyone gave solemn nods to.

"Well, then whoever kidnapped us must not be done with us!" Kaito said with a clenched fist. "And can assure you, I ain't letting them mess with us again! I'm gonna break us out of here!"

Kaito gave a classic heroic speech that, honestly did fill the other students with hope. If they truly had been placed in another killing game, they felt like they wouldn't for whatever trick they had up their sleeves.

"How do you plan on getting us out then?" Nagito asked.

Kaito's confident grin fell away at the question. "Huh?"

"How do you plan on getting us out?" Nagito repeated.

With that, Nagito dashed everyone's hopes. Sure, he didn't mean to, but it only made everyone's worries grow. It also crushed Kaito's confidence.

"I…well…um…" Kaito mumbled a bit.

"Got carried away again, Kaito? Kaede teased a bit.

"W-well that doesn't matter!" Kaito said. "Sure, I don't have a plan yet, but I'm not going to stop! I'm going to keep investigating! Who's with me?!"

Kaito managed to save the situation and hyped everyone up again. Sayaka could easily ignore Leon if she focused on investigating the school. The sooner she left this dumb, the sooner she never had to see Leon again and see her bandmates again. She followed Kaito and Kaede out of the room followed closely by Tenko then the rest of the group.

Taka hung back in the room with a frown on his face. "I thought I was the group leader," Taka said, almost breaking into tears.

Mondo decided it was his turn to comfort his friend and placed his hand on Taka's shoulder. "Don't worry about it," he said. "The guy's an idiot. They'll come crawling back to you soon."

Taka looked over to his bro and smiled brightly. "Right! I cannot let something as simple as this crush my spirits! I must still lead my fellow students!"

Taka marched out of the room with Mondo chuckling to himself as he followed his friend.

So, here's the second part of the prologue. I'm planning for the prologue to be, at most, 6 parts. Don't know if I'll be able to keep that promise since how much dialogue and interaction there will certainly be, but I know I'll get most of the cast introduced next part.

Speaking of introducing characters, I will admit I felt like I didn't handle this the best. I hope you disagree, but I feel like maybe the dialogue hijacked the pace. LOVED writing the dialogue, don't get me wrong, always feel like that's my best writing attribute, but yeah. Let me know if I should pull back on the dialogue until the first chapter or keep it up.

-Side note on that, I already do have plans as to which characters will interact with who during "Free Time Events" and the like, but I'd be happy to take some suggestions as well.

I have gotten some comment asking about certain characters that have some heavy bagging from canon. Particularly the DR 2 cast. I promise that I do have an idea as to how they'd be in this new killing game. There is a certain DR 1 character I had gone back and forth about including since they weren't used yet by the time the...roleplay ended. After some back and forth I decided, yes, they will be here in this fanfic. Wooo boy. Another character to balance in this mess lol.

Final note, I know how the first trial and death will go down as well as who the mastermind and the grand reveal will be, but not the rest of this. I will have to think on those.

As always, feel free to comment and review on these chapters. I'm so so soooo thankful for all the ones I've gotten so far and I'd love to get more feedback.