TK took in each of their appearances. Some of them were intimidating, a couple of them were cute, while a few were just weird. But one thing that TK picked up when gazing at them was that they all had an aura coming from each of them.
Realizing he barely said anything when he got there, TK decided he should quickly introduce himself.
"Hello, my name is Takeru Takaishi, but my friends call me TK," he said with a polite bow. "I actually arrived over a half an hour early, but I kind of blacked out shortly after I got here. I just woke up in a classroom a few minutes ago."
"Nice save, man. Really, made sure not to make yourself out as a creep," Davis said, causing a few of them to snicker.
"Thanks," TK said in a deadpan voice.
"Whoa, you too?" said the person who had a slightly gruff voice. TK was able to point out the man who said this. He is a tall man with enormous brown hair, light stubble on his chin, and is wearing a school jacket on his shoulders, a rope is holding up his baggy pants, and sandals.
"Alright, I don't want to hear any of you say anything about my hair being too big or crazy ever again!" Tai spoke up while pointing at the screen.
"OK, Tai, we won't, but that's not important right now. He said something about how they all went through something similar to what TK went through," Sora pointed out.
"So what we know is that they were all knocked out and possibly placed in a different building because this main hallway looks completely different from the one we saw earlier," Izzy summarized.
"Things just keep getting curiouser and curiouser…" said a girl with a French accent. She had pale white skin, red eyes, and black hair in two twin-drill pigtails. She is also wearing a gothic lolita-style outfit.
"Oh she's faking her accent," Matt pointed out with TK nodding in agreement.
"How can you tell?" Yolie asked.
"Because me and TK are French. We can speak the language and we've been to Paris multiple times to visit our family," Matt answered.
"Pourtant, mon français est meilleur que le sien," TK said with a toothy grin.
"So strange… I declare beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is a strange situation indeed!" spoke the nerdy voice. He is overweight but also has thin legs. He had short black hair with a small pointed spike, black thick-rimmed glasses, a white buttoned-down shirt underneath a grey sweater, an orange tie with a vertical double-headed blue arrow, brownish-gray pants, and an orange backpack.
"What are you talking about? Does anyone know what's going on?" TK asked, hoping anyone would answer him.
"Just a moment! There's something else we need to address!" exclaimed a boy with short spiky black hair. He is wearing a white military-style school uniform, has a medal and a red armband on it too. He also had red eyes and big black eyebrows.
"Takeru! Your tardiness is unacceptable! Surely you were aware that the meeting was to start at 8 am sharp!" the boy seemed to have gotten louder than he was before. "To be late on your first day is unacceptable! I must report you, and you must accept your due punishment!"
"That's what he's worried about!? Not being unconscious for a few minutes, being locked in a school, or the FREAKING turrets behind him!" Yolie shouted.
"Maybe he's ignoring them," Ken said quietly.
TK gave him an uncomfortable smile as he felt a drop of sweat form on his head. He looked around the room, hoping someone would help get him out of this situation. Luckily, someone saw his plea and spoke up.
"What's your problem? It's not like he wanted to be late. He didn't have any control over it," a pretty girl said. She is wearing a black cardigan with a button left undone, exposing the top of her bra, a red miniskirt, and a white loose hanging tie with a black polka dot pattern. She has freckles on the bridge of her nose, bleached strawberry-blond hair set up in pigtails with a rabbit hair clip and a red and white bow, and grayish-blue eyes.
"Everyone just calm down! Listen, why don't we all just go around and introduce ourselves?" suggested a very energetic girl. She has brown skin and brown hair, which was held up in a high curl ponytail. She was wearing blue dolphin hot pants, a white tank top underneath a red tracksuit jacket, and a red knee brace on her right knee.
Davis whistled, causing Yolie to smack him upside the head.
"Ow, why?"
"For being a perv!" Yolie answered.
"I just did it because I thought it was a good idea, promise," Davis tried to defend himself.
"Yeah, right," Yolie said, clearly not believing what he said.
"The hell!? Now's not time for friggin' introductions!" said a tall vulgar man. At first glance what stands out most is his long brown pompadour and his black high collared overcoat, which read Crazy Diamonds on the back with a dragon design. But he also has black eyeliner around his eyes and is wearing a white shirt, black baggy pants, and a belt with a belt buckle shaped like the face of a Komainu.
"Maybe, but it may be good to at least find out who we all are before digging into bigger problems here," the gothic lolita girl countered. "I mean, how are we supposed to talk to each other if we don't know each other's names?"
"That's a good point…" the boyish voice from earlier agreed. It turns out the voice from earlier didn't come from a boy but from a small doll-like girl. She has short light brown hair and is wearing a long-sleeved dark green jacket and a brown skirt.
"Okay, so let's get introductions out of the way, then we can move on to whatever else. Sound good?" a girl with long blue hair that went down to her waist said. She has pale skin, though not as pale as the gothic lolita girl, and is wearing a white school uniform top with a pink bow and a blue school uniform skirt.
"Hmmm, she seems familiar," Kari hummed and both TK and Davis nodded in agreement.
"You know her Kari?" Tai asked.
"Maybe."
Seeing that they won't be going anywhere for a while, everyone agreed that it would be a good idea to know everyone's name at least before they try to figure out what's going on.
Even though TK, with the help of his friends, learned about who his classmates are from those internet forums, he knew it would be a good idea to learn more about their personalities because there is so much you could learn about someone from internet forums.
"So, we're about meet TK's classmates," Cody spoke up.
"They all seem nice," Mimi said with a hint of optimism.
"Looks can be deceiving," Matt told them.
TK decided it would be best to introduce himself to the boy in the military-style outfit. He wanted to make sure that the boy didn't get the wrong impression of him for arriving late.
"I'm Kiyotaka Ishimaru. I believe in bold simplicity! Let's work together on our educational crusade!" he said while giving a perfect 90-degree angle bow.
'Kiyotaka Ishimaru, I remember Joe telling me about him. How he was a flawless honor student, winning top honors every year at his famous private academy. Joe also brought up all the work he's done with his community's Public Morals Committee, earning himself the title of Ultimate Moral Compass.'
"Wow, he seems like a very nice guy," Joe commented.
"But he seems a little uptight," Mimi added.
"Anyway, you can call me Taka. You said your name was Takeru Takaishi, right?" he asked.
"Well, yeah, but you can call me T-," TK was interrupted by Taka, rambling about his name.
"That's a good name, a strong name! You should thank your parents for giving you such an excellent name!" TK started to feel weirded out by Taka, but he didn't notice as he continued on with his speech.
"And to keep that name from losing its value, you must devote yourself every single day! Life is worth putting every ounce of effort into it! Right? Right!"
"It's just a name! There's really nothing special about TK's name, his name, or any of our names," Davis complained.
"Jeez, what has you so worked up?" Ken asked his friend.
"I don't know. I'm a little tired," Davis answered.
TK gave him an awkward chuckle as a response as he walked away from Taka.
'I have no idea how to talk to him.'
"You know, Taka seems like a combination of Joe and Izzy if they never went to the Digital World," Tai said.
"I could actually see Cody acting like that if he never went to the Digital World," Yolie added.
"What do you mean?" Cody asked.
"Well, whenever I went to your house to hang out you would always suggest we do schoolwork. I remember you even complained about our school not having a dress code," Yolie explained.
TK made his way to a girl who is either wary of their situation or is trying to burn a hole through someone's skull if they looked at her. She has long dark brownish-purple hair that is tied in two braids and is wearing a typical purple school uniform.
"I'd be careful around her. She looks ready to snap at anyone who looks at her wrong," Sora pointed out.
"Hello, I'm Takeru Takaishi, but my friends call me TK," TK introduced himself, which seemed to startle her like she wasn't expecting anyone to talk to her. "It's ok, I just wanted to know your name."
She looked at him, weighing her options of either ignoring the blond boy and hoping he'll leave her alone or talk to him to shorten the amount of time he'll be near her.
"N-Not that you'll remember my n-name anyway, but…" she started after deciding to bite the bullet. "I'm T-Toko… Fukawa."
'I know that name, she wrote a novel when she was 10 years old that launched her literary career. Two years ago she released "So Lingers in the Ocean," a love story said to be her masterpiece. It was such a hit with women that fishermen quickly shot to the top of every "Hottest Men" poll. I remember Mimi fawning over every fisherman she saw and Yolie wanting Ken to pursue a career in fishing.'
"Me and Ken are dating!"
"You wanted me to become a fisherman after reading a book!"
"I wanted to date a fisherman!"
"Good to know that you guys have your priorities straight," TK laughed. "Though it is impressive that she wrote a best seller at 10."
TK began to look her over.
'Despite her age, she won multiple awards, and all her books are instant bestsellers. I'd say she earned the title of Ultimate Writing Prodigy.'
"And to win multiple awards at such a young age as well," TK added to his prior comment.
Toko started to get restless from his stares.
'I wonder if she could give me a few tips on how to write a good story?'
"Wh-What? I-It's not polite to stare, you know. Stop staring at me like I'm some kind of filthy creature!"
Her emotions changed from aroused to anger quickly, which made TK both confused and uncomfortable.
"I was right, but not in the way that I thought… Kinda," Sora said uncomfortably.
"What? No, I was just thinking about-" she didn't give him time to finish his sentence as she began an angry tirade.
"I-I know what you were thinking…! You were thinking about how you've n-never seen such an ugly woman. You th-thought it was sooo funny…!"
"I was not thinking that at all!" TK tried to clarify himself, but Toko wouldn't listen.
"Don't bother trying to l-lie to me! I know it's true. Otherwise, you… I know you can't stand looking at me!" her anger began to subside as she started to seem a little downtrodden.
"Wh-Whatever, I don't really care, I'm used to it…" she began to play with one of her braids.
"That's really sad. I don't know what she's been through but she's not ugly. She just needs a little makeup and maybe straighten out her hair and she'd look really pretty," Mimi said.
"I think her problems are more complex than the way she looks Mimi," Joe told her.
TK walked away, not knowing what to think of her.
'She seemed nervous before I started to talk to her, but then she got defensive about something that wasn't even true like it wasn't the first time she heard. She even said she was used to it. I think it would be best not to talk to her for a while, let things calm down.'
After walking away from Toko, TK almost bumped into a boy with several piercings.
"Sorry," TK apologized.
"It's fine," the boy said. Getting a better look at him, TK saw that he has spiked reddish-orange hair with a goatee of the same color. He is wearing a white jacket with a white grunge t-shirt underneath and blue jeans.
"He looks like a punk," Matt said in an endearing way.
"The name's Leon Kuwata. What's up?" the boy introduced himself.
'I remember Sora telling me about him. Even though none of my friends are super into baseball, Sora would usually follow a few high school teams from time to time. She told me that he used to bat cleanup for his old high school team and lead them to a national championship. He is the Ultimate Baseball Player but…'
"I don't see it," TK said after breaking out of his thoughts.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Leon asked.
"You don't look like the type of person who would play baseball," TK told him. Leon seemed slightly annoyed by this.
"Yeah, he looks like he'd be in some punk band," Matt said again.
"What, were you expecting some kid with a shaved head?"
"No, it's just you being the Ultimate Baseball Player, I just expected you to look something like the pictures I saw online or from the article my friend showed me," TK explained.
Leon started to get embarrassed.
"What!? Aw man, you saw that picture of me playing baseball? Seriously!? I hate that picture!" Leon ran his hand through his hair as he was getting frustrated.
"This is not cool. This is SO not cool… Seriously, I'm like, mega embarrassed right now. I didn't have a choice, okay? Shaving your head like that is part of national championship regulations!" Leon's voice started to get louder.
"Oh, I hate that regulation. I had to fight tooth and nail just so I didn't have to cut my hair," Tai said angrily.
"Yeah, I'm kind of lucky that basketball doesn't have a regulation like that. If they did then I would never take my hat off until it grows back," TK said while running his hand through his hair.
"But now I refuse to cut my hair. And I'm not gonna dye it back to normal, either!" Leon shouted, causing a few people to stare at them. Leon blushed with embarrassment from the scene he caused, taking a few deep breaths he calmed down.
"Actually, can I be totally honest with you?" Leon asked. TK nodded in response. "I don't like baseball. Like, at all. I've never gone to a single practice."
"That's kinda amazing if you think about it," Davis said out loud. "To be considered an Ultimate and not even practice. That's pretty much the dream for every athlete."
"Really?" Kari asked.
"Oh, yeah, and Davis, Ken, Tai, and Sora will agree that playing the games are a lot more fun than practice," TK told her and all of the athletes nodded their heads in agreement. "Though, I wonder how good he could be if he practiced, considering he's an Ultimate already."
'He must be a prodigy to be able to lead his high school team to a national championship without practicing once.'
"And as soon as I got accepted here, I quit baseball for good! I have my own dream for the future!"
"And what's that?" TK was intrigued. He wants to know why a baseball prodigy would give up possible fame and millions of dollars.
"My only path in life is getting into music! You can feel that star-quality aura I have, right?"
"Well he looks the part, but I would like to hear him play something first," Matt said.
"You think he could be a musician?" Tai asked.
"I think anyone could make it in music if they work hard enough," Matt answered.
'Oh, he wants to be a musician,' TK knows what Leon is feeling. His brother, Matt was a musician, he was the singer in his two bands. He only had two hit songs, one from each band, but other than that, they never really took off.
"That sucks, but I wouldn't say I'm upset about it," Matt said honestly.
"Really? Because you put so much time into your music," Sora said and Matt shrugged.
"It's fine, besides, I always have my backup plan."
"And what's that?" Izzy asked.
"Astronaut," Matt admitted, making everyone either sweat drop or fall over.
"I'm gonna be a singer, so all I need is a songwriter and someone on guitar, and we're set!" Leon gripped his hands together and gritted his teeth. "This new version of me that's chasing after my dream is, like… super cool to the max!"
'He's really confident that his will come true, who am I to rain on his parade.'
After his introduction with Leon, TK made his way to who might be his heaviest classmate.
"How much do you wanna bet he's the fanfic creator?" Davis asked everyone.
"How do you know that he's not the Ultimate programmer or swimmer?" TK asked and Davis gave him a dumbfounded look.
"Do you really believe that?"
"No, not really."
"I… am Hifumi Yamada. But if you want to call me by my nickname, 'The Alpha and the Omega!' I don't mind," he said with a little fanfare. "By the way, how much do you know the world of 2D art?"
"The world of… 2D?" TK was taken back. He never got heavily into anime, he considers his adventures in the Digiworld an anime, but that doesn't mean he doesn't watch them from time to time.
"He's not wrong. The stuff we did on our adventures isn't too far off from the stuff you'd find in anime," Izzy said.
"Wouldn't it be crazy if our adventures were in an anime?" Davis asked out loud. No one answered him causing him to slouch in his chair.
"Well, in that world, I'm well known and supremely well regarded as the Ultimate Fanfic Creator."
"Ha! Knew it," Davis said with pride.
'I remember Matt and Tai joking about how I have nothing to worry about after they read Hifumi's forum, and after getting a good impression of his personality, I'm starting to feel a lot better about being accepted into Hope's Peak,' TK felt a little bit of pressure that he put on himself disappear off of his shoulders.
"I once sold 10,000 copies of one of my fan comics at a school festival. The event has passed into legends…" Hifumi recalled one of his greatest achievements, even impressing TK a little bit. "Some of them didn't get it, of course, saying I'd 'tainted' the event. How stupid can you be!?"
'When he says it like that, I don't think he was selling his comics at his school festival. But selling 10,000 copies of your own work is still impressive.'
"I'm a little surprised he was able to sell one copy, let alone 10,000!" Yolie exclaimed.
"Well, seeing how he acts, it wouldn't surprise me if he verbally assaulted people into buying his stories," Ken commented.
"The words of such idiots mean nothing to me. I am like Van Gogh-utterly unappreciated in my time," TK became slightly concerned for Hifumi's well-being after he compared himself to Van Gogh. "I am a soldier, serving night and day to destroy all mindless preconceptions about fan fiction."
"No, you're not! You're an amateur writer who creates stories from existing IPs!" Cody yelled at the screen.
"Jeez Cody, where's this anger coming from," Yolie asked.
"He's just so obnoxious and I also sense he's a huge perv as well," Cody admitted.
"I'm sure if you were to observe my work, Mr. Takaishi, you would comprehend its greatness immediately," TK was uncomfortable and hoped that their conversation would end soon. "For my work is filled with deepest meaning…"
"And what's that?" TK didn't want to know, but he also wanted to be far away from Hifumi for the time being and saw this as an opportunity to get away.
"It's about embracing our basest urges…" TK saw Hifumi wink, and maybe a little bit of drool escaping from his mouth.
"Eww!" The girls exclaimed.
"I knew it," Cody said softly to himself.
Seeing his opportunity, TK wasted no time moving away from Hifumi.
'I feel dirty just by talking with the guy. I think it would be a good idea to limit the amount of time I spend with him in the future.'
"Same here. TK could you make sure to never talk to him in the future or introduce him to any of us, please," Mimi pleaded with almost everyone sharing the same belief.
"I'll make a mental note about it, but it's kinda out of my control."
As TK was walking away, he felt like someone was watching him. Actually, he felt like someone's been watching since his conversation with Taka. He quickly scanned the room and saw the blue hair girl from earlier staring at him. Assuming that she wants to talk to him, TK made his way over to her.
"Hello," TK greeted when he reached her.
"Hi, I'm Sayaka Maizono. I look forward to getting to know you!"
"Her name ring any bells for you yet, Kari?" Tai asked his younger sister.
"Yeah, I even talked to her a few times," Kari revealed
"So have I!" Davis exclaimed.
'Sayaka Maizono, I was surprised to see her name in the forum. She's in a pop group famous all across the country. In fact, she's the lead singer. Due to her being the Ultimate Pop Sensation, she's in high demand to make appearances on tv and in magazines.
But there was another reason I was surprised, actually, both Davis and Kari were surprised to see her name as well. I'm sure she doesn't remember… ah, it doesn't matter right now. But I must admit she is beautiful, like a doll or something.'
"I'm not a doll you know. I'm alive!" Sayaka brought TK out of his thoughts.
"Woah, TK, you sure work fast," Mimi teased the younger blonde.
"But I didn't say that out loud," a red-faced TK quickly said. The girls laughed and TK tried to make himself smaller in his seat.
"Huh? Did I say that out loud!?" TK's cheeks were bright red from embarrassment.
"Nope. I'm psychic," she revealed.
"A pop star and a psychic! This girl is awesome!" Davis cheered.
"Uh, Davis, I don't think she's psychic," Ken said to rain on the goggle head's parade.
"Well if she's not psychic then how did she hear TK's thoughts?" Davis shot back.
"She probably has good intuition," Yolie answered. "A lot of girls have that."
"...What?"
"Kidding! I just have really good intuition."
TK laughed awkwardly at Sayaka's revelation. 'I will admit, she's pretty clever.'
"Extremely clever if she was that accurate," Sora commented.
Sayaka stared off into space like she was lost in thought. "Huh? By any chance…?"
"Yeah?"
"...Yeah, it must be. I'm sure of it," she looks like she figured out what she was thinking and seems kind of joyful about it. "Hey, Takeru. Did-"
"Jeez, you guys! How long do you plan to waste our valuable time with this ridiculous back-and-forth!?" Taka butted into their conversation, displeased about their small conversation. TK didn't understand why though, it's not like anyone else was lining up to talk with Sayaka.
"Boo, she was about to tell him something important!" Mimi yelled at the screen.
"Calm down, Mimi. He'll most likely see her again so don't worry," Joe said to calm her down.
"Fine, but don't expect me to be happy," Mimi pouted.
"S-Sorry. Just got carried away, I guess…" Sayaka apologized with a little bow. She didn't want to apologize but seeing how uptight Taka is, she felt it would be for the best to tell him what he wants to hear.
"Self-introductions are for introducing yourself, not bumbling through a bunch of idle chit-chat!"
'Isn't that the whole point of self-introductions?' TK had to chuckle from the irony.
"Y-You're right," Sayaka said with another bow. "Sorry, Takeru. We can talk about this later."
'She seems disappointed. It looked like she had something to say,' TK smiled as he walked another one of his classmates. 'Well, it's not like we'll never see each other again. I can just talk to her later.'
"I gotta say, outside of Hifumi, these people seem nice so far," Tai commented.
"Yeah, but we've only met five so far. We don't know how the others act," Sora reminded him.
"Well, it's a good thing that he knows someone there. Someone he could trust until they get out," Mimi spoke up.
"I think out of everyone there, TK and Sayaka are the lucky ones because they know someone there they could trust," Joe added.
"But is that an entirely a good thing?" Matt quietly commented.
