... Darkness.

No light in sight; only darkness remained... Not that it ever surprised me. Most of my life was easily comparable to the sight.

A darkness full of doubt. A darkness that refused to leave me be. A darkness I wish would go away, but knew its inevitability. A darkness stood as my only obstacle for enjoying life, thus formed the imagination into a fleeting dream; an impossible dream... So, how about I got… RID of… of that… Darkness for g… G-g-gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo… -od…?

What...? What was I talking about...? And what was this flat surface beneath me?!

Prologue: Awoken

I soon realized the cause of the darkness were merely my eyes sealed shut. An easy task to resolve, I slowly opened them and the first thing they showed me was… a flat, wooden surface. I see. But what of its identity? Just noticing my unusual ignorance, I later realized my arms were currently acting as a pillow. The next obvious course of action was picking up my head, a thought I acted on immediately and then looked back down at the flat surface.

A desk?

Yes, a clean wooden desk was the flat surface I felt. Paired with the strange resting location, I noticed a wooden chair poorly cushioning my bottom. Naturally, although unconsciously, I lifted my head fully to check my surroundings.

A... Classroom?

A board and a teacher's desk stationed in front, multiple neatly lined up student desks, one front sliding door and one back sliding door. Yes, no doubt about it. Additionally, I found myself sitting in the front row's middle desk. But now begged the question: Why was I here? Could I be a student of this classroom?

"Yes... I am."

I finally spoke the first words succeeding my awakening, albeit a mumble. The moment I confirmed my surroundings, some memories returned… No, not just some, but a truck load! The desk I sat in was MY desk. The same desk I kept warm when classes were in session. But that didn't explain everything. Why was I the sole person here? I glanced up at the clock above the board.

"Eight PM?! Why's it so late?! No, better yet, what am I doing here?"

Well, that answered those questions. But now more has surfaced. Ones which continued the line questioning my location or why I woke up under these circumstances. In addition to those, I had one more question…

"Why in the world did I sleep here?" I usually never slept during class, so it couldn't simply be due to a monotonous lecture. But what other explanation could there be? I tried wrapping my head around these questions while simultaneously scanning the room once more.

Right then, I spotted something... No, not something - someone! I wasn't the only person in this classroom! A person, laying their head down on their desk - like me a mere moment ago - sat at the far left side of the room in the front row near the windows! Who could it be, though? I squinted my eyes, hoping for a better look. As I did, a sparking realization coursed through my body, and carried with it a blood pumping adrenaline rush! I quickly got up from my desk and hurried over toward that person's desk!

"Hanako!"

Yes, it was Hanako! No way I wouldn't recognize a rose hairpin attached to that unmistakable bright purple long hair, but even though I shouted her name, her body didn't move an inch. I tried shaking her.

"Hanako! Hanako! Wake up!"

Still no movement. No, was something wrong with her?! Or... Wait. I calmed myself down and listened closely... Doing so resulted in a sigh out of me. Though, I questioned whether it was a sigh of relief or of irritation.

"So that's it, huh?" Following the confirmation, I grabbed onto Hanako's unnaturally large, purple antenna like hair strand atop her head and pulled it using all my might, and just as I expected:

"Ow! Ow! Ow! OW! STOP!"

Hanako reacted. I released her antenna after a few more irresistibly pulling seconds. Afterwards, Hanako immediately arose from the desk and rubbed her head to soothe the now throbbing pain. After that, she spun around and glared her teary pastel purple eyes at me.

"What the heck?! That was SO mean!"

"You're calling me mean? You almost gave me a heart attack feigning sleep," I returned, nonchalantly.

"Seriously? How d'you know I was pretending?"

"Your breathing. Usually, when someone's actually sleeping, their breathing carries a much slower and relaxed pace. However, you were breathing at a normal pace, which was all I needed to figure out your foolish stunt."

"Uh… Really?" I nodded to answer, subsequently making Hanako stare down at the floor, with her cheeks puffed up like a chipmuck's. "Man! Kuroki, you're too thorough and smart for your own good!"

Kuroki? That… Yes, that name did belong to me. Kuroki Saimatsu, in fact. The girl wearing the shoulder less flower designed purple blouse, a black flower patterned choker around her neck, a cute wavy blue miniskirt, and green clogs on her feet who I conversed with currently, was Hanako Ume. Majority of our classes we took together, so us being in the same classroom warranted no surprise. But why were we the only ones present here? During such a late hour, no less. I took one more glance around the room.

With my vision much more acclimated than before, I noticed one other thing. The lights were out; no wonder seeing has proven difficult. Fortunately, the moon's pale blue lights emitted outside shone through the windows behind Hanako to assist our sights. But that made our situation even more suspicious than it already was. Almost as though we've been abandoned somehow.

"Ow. You didn't have to pull on my hair though, Kuroki!"

"..."

"Kuroki? Hey, Kuroki!"

"What?" I sighed.

"You okay, Grouchoki? You spaced out there."

"What did I say about you calling me that...?"

"Not my fault you're always setting yourself up. The name's way too fitting," Hanako stated, displaying another pouted gesture. "Anyway, what's up? You look more serious than usual."

I sighed again, realizing now wasn't the time for a reprimand. Rather, I should share my worries with her, but just as I was about to respond, it appeared.

"How about you two cut your chit-chat short and go meet up with the others!"

Me and Hanako simultaneously jumped at the sudden squeaky but grouchy sounding voice. We turned around and... saw something we didn't expect. Something I could say with certainty no one in their lives would ever expect to see.

"What...?"

"H-Huh?" Hanako voiced.

"What? What are YOU exactly?!" I yelled.

Both me and Hanako stared dumbfounded at the small half black and half white creature! The creature tilted its head, rubbing its face questionably.

"What am I?"

"Yeah. Are you a panda or something?" Hanako inquired.

"Panda?! No, you idiot! I'm a bear! A. BEAR!" shouted the creature.

A bear? That thing was a bear?! Last I checked, a bear didn't have a flashing red horizontal stripe for an eye, nor held an abnormal smile. In fact, neither did a panda!

"Sheesh! Well, I guess I shouldn't act surprised since this has happened SO many times in the past," the "bear" said, staring down at the floor dejectedly. It immediately perked itself back up and continued. "I'm Monokuma! Nice to meetcha!"

"Monokuma?" Hanako asked.

"Yep! The lovable and most adorable creature to have ever existed! You want my autograph or something?"

... Already, I hated this thing.

"Uh, no thanks. Thanks for the offer, though!"

"W-Wha?!" Monokuma took a slight jump aback and suddenly produced beads of sweat. How could the supposed "bear" even sweat anyway?! "O-Oh. It's o-okay. Hey, how about-"

Monokuma turned toward me. Anticipating his request, I bluntly replied with a sharp:

"No."

He held another shocked expression and sweated even more. "N-No way! H-Has my popularity as the mascot diminished?! A-Am I not loved anymore?!"

"Popularity? Loved? We don't even know who you are," I remarked.

"T-THAT'S ONLY YOU TWO!" Monokuma took a moment to calm himself down, and he already did a poor job at it. "Y-Yes. I-It's only you t-two. I-I'm sure the others will want my precious and rare a-autograph."

Monokuma puffed out what he said through hyperventilation, naturally followed by even more sweat. The amount he produced thus far defied all comprehension. So much so, a puddle formed beneath his feet!

"What the hell even is this thing?"

Monokuma jumped and grabbed his chest; he thereafter fell straight to the floor on his back.

"Whoa! Is he okay?!" Hanako exclaimed.

"Does it even matter?" I replied.

"Don't say that. Besides, he seems pretty cute."

"What part of that thing is 'cute' exactly?"

Just as I announced my remark, Monokuma's body jumped while in the same position as he was on the floor and fell back down, immovable.

"Stop Kuroki! You're hurting his feelings! You should apologi-"

"A-ANYWAY!"

"Ah!"

Monokuma perked himself back up before Hanako could finish reprimanding me and began speaking again.

"You guys should REALLY start moving before it's time!"

"It's time? What do you-"

"QUIET!" Monokuma demanded, interrupting Hanako once more. "All will be explained soon. For now, explore around the school and talk to the others!"

"You say others," I interjected. "Is it safe to assume there are more people nearby then?"

"Correct! You guys aren't the only ones inside this school! Or maybe... You guys hoped no one else was here, so you could get kinky with each other? Am I interrupting something?"

"W-W-W-W-WHAT?! NO!" Hanako shouted, blushing bright red.

"Relax, Hanako. He's obviously joking," I assured.

"But what if I'm not joking?" Monokuma playfully asked.

I shot Monokuma an intense glare; promptly freezing him up on the spot.

"O-Okay! I'm joking! I'm joking! Sheesh, don't glare at me like that!" Monokuma paused, then cleared his throat and said, "I-I mean, I wasn't joking! You two should DEFINITELY get kinky, ya know! Now's your chance! Plus, we can finally get some steamy scenes around here…!" He loudly whispered that last sentence to himself.

"..."

"..."

"Y-You're supposed to laugh. Puhu-"

"Get out of my sight."

Monokuma lowered his head downwards, holding another sad expression. "Fine! Just make sure you explore the school and talk with the others, okay?! Things are about to get very interesting. Puhuhuhu! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"

Interesting? Before I could even ask, Monokuma suddenly disappeared, as though being a component of the air we breathed. The only answer he left us was his maniacal laugh constantly ringing in our heads.

"So you still think he's cute?"

"Yeah, actually," Hanako replied.

"..."

"W-Well, we should get going!"

"Going? Go where?" I asked.

"To find the others, of course! Maybe someone here will know what's going on."

Not a bad idea. Inquiring around for information would be our best course of action right now. But... A part of me felt reluctant to go. As if on cue, Hanako suddenly grabbed my hand.

"I know you don't want to, but we have to. Come on!"

Hanako ran toward the door, still holding my hand. She unwaveringly reached her other hand out and slid the front door open...

A door that - little did we know - would eventually lead us into a NIGHTMARE.