Chapter Text
『 The Beginning of School Life (Death) 』
It's dark...
Cold...
Suffocating...
The metal walls surround me making my body panicking and suffocating. My body can't handle small spaces as I try to breathe normally, leading me to be claustrophobic...
Remembering where I was pulled into a van by kidnappers after walking out of my house doesn't help make it better... What if they shipped me out, or held me as their hostage?! My parents aren't rich, we're commoners, for God's sake!
I slowly put my hands on each side of the metal walls, pushing my luck to escape without making too much noise. I can't allow myself to get caught by kidnappers again!
I'm not ready to die!
Then I tried to push and put my body weight onto the wall in front of me since the sides weren't budging. A light-clicking noise started to pass through my ears as my whole body fell forward with a thud of my own body, hitting the floor.
"Ou-ouch...!", I groaned as my right shoulder supported my body from slamming into the cold floor on my face. I don't want to have bruises and broken glasses, I'm already 'blind' to begin with. Slowly using my arm to get up, I noticed my outfit from head to toe, is not the one that I usually wear.
The loose gradient lilac cardigan with a black sleeveless collar shirt inside with a black skirt, normal white socks, black loafers, and a half ponytail hairstyle. I scanned the outfit while pinching my head, repeating 'when' and 'how did I get here with this outfit' when I couldn't even remember anything related to it. Then, where... am I...?
My eyes wandered around the room that I was in, it was a normal-sized classroom, but the floors were outgrown with weeds and vines crawling out of the ceiling. The place seems like it hasn't been maintained for a long time with mouldy desks and glitchy screenboard. Even the windows were barred with red barbed wires, making the scenery look like an abandoned high school. Eerie thoughts slipped in me and kept closing my eyes when I felt something or someone watching me.
"Sh-should I get, someone... for help..?"
No! Not in a place where anything dangerous could happen! What if the kidnappers are still in this building, roaming around?!
"Hikkk!" I heard the rustling noise behind me, from the metal lockers where I came out from. Slowly turning my head and fill myself with courage as my hand approached the locker's knob to open it. A small individual fell out of the locker, facing the other side, which made me shriek and jump a bit, "A-A person..? Wait..! Then, I'm not the only one that got kidnapped?!"
The individual groaned while holding their head, seeming like they also didn't remember as I did. They faced away from me, so I couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl, they had such beautiful hair to begin with.
"Hi there... Are, are you alright there?"
I lightly tapped on their shoulder, and the individual flinched and turned their head around with their eyes widening.
H-he looks so doll-like. Thin, pale skin with glowing purple eyes. His outfit is a white long-sleeved shirt and white pants like a straitjacket, few accessories caught my eye such as belts on his thighs, mismatch-coloured buttons and a checkered bandana on his neck. His short, gravity-defying pointy hair with purple tips looks beautiful on his small appearance. My hand tried to reach his hair...
"Hey, got something that you wanted to try? Do we know each other tho?", I jolted as I realised that I'd been staring at him for a few seconds. The boy stared at me with a smile and propped his head, probably because I was behaving weirdly and got his first impression of me.
"Ahhh, sorryyy! I was just, just..." My eyes wandered on the floor for a few seconds before continuing my words, "...it's just, you looked like a figurine. Small and slender, yet pale skin and shiny eyes."
"Nishishi~ I didn't know people shared their compliments like that with me ever before," The boy snickered while positioning himself to sit in front of me as my cheeks slowly burned red from embarrassment.
"What's your name, and do you remember how did we get here?" I glanced at him to end the awkwardness.
The boy stood up and puffed his chest with his hands on his hips, "I'm Kokichi Ouma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader! I lead an organisation with 10,000 members by spreading evil and disaster across the country! About the second question, nope! I have no such memory other than being dragged into the van by a gang of kidnappers."
"No wayyyy! That's gotta be a lie. I've never heard of such a mischievous organisation like you that dictates the whole country," My arms crossed over my chest and shown my face in disbelief after hearing his words.
"Nishishi~ Even I have to lie and exaggerate a bit for my entertainment, my lady. Well then, care for an introduction?" He placed his hands behind his head, grinning a smile while staring at me. He looks childish for a person who received the Supreme Leader talent, he just loves to prank people.
"I'm Ai Ayako, the Ultimate Streamer. I don't have a large following as you did, but I always love entertaining and welcoming my followers," I stood in front of him and shook his hand as a welcoming gesture, and his hand was soft and slender.
"Aww~ your talent seems cute! You do care about everyone, right? Then I can be your first real fan interaction here!" Kokichi put his hands in fists, his eyes glistening in joy like a child demanding sweets from their parents.
"Ehhhh?! S-sorryy! I don't do weird stuff, uummm ummm...!" My hands wrapped around my sleeves, and I started to sweat a bit.
"Ehhh~? What sort of weird stuff did your followers ask you to do, Ai-chann~? Did you accept kinky requests too?"
The giggles from Kokichi made my face flush red even more, I wanted to say that it wasn't the truth, but no perfect words escaped from my mouth so I stuttered even more, "I-I ne-never did that anything weird, o-okayy?! That's j-just the common requests f-from viewers to see m-my reaction against me."
Aahhhhh, how I just want to be dead right now after interacting with someone for so long since my last streamer convention!! I'm not good with people, so streaming is my comfort zone for playing video games and having online friends building my social anxiety.
"You know, you might not be helpful in this situation, but pretty interesting to play with, Ai-chan~" Kokichi kept grinning in his childish voice. "Well, I guess I can use my talent to find anything mysterious around the school. Like this classroom, the vibes, and find anyone that might be trapped here. I'm good at analysing and strategising, nonetheless."
My beating heart got stronger as I tried to calm myself, the boy had me embarrassed in front of him for saying that. I headed out with Kokichi following suit from the classroom in search of more clues. He's being cooperative for someone who does childish things and loves to make jokes, it feels comforting.
I kept myself talking with Kokichi along the way, when suddenly a person was inside of the classroom next to us, pacing around. "Aha~! There's a weird robot in there! I wanna see itttt!" Kokichi ran inside and charged at the person he mentioned. I just said to myself that he's being cooperative...
A robot?! In this school?! As I peeked inside, Kokichi kept bugging and asking weird questions to the robot at the front of the classroom, "What?! How dare you ask me that robophobic question?! I will take those words using my recording function to my lawyers if you threaten me!"
"Ehhh~ I just want to know if you're real! You seemed like you don't even have a dick, to begin with. So you are a robot!" His purple eyes were glistening with stars, interested in bugging and cornering the robot onto the wall. The robot has white hair with ahoge, two black lines along his cheeks and a robot outfit that looks complex as a normal human outfit. But he can display slight human emotions and a human voice, making it hard to believe he's a human robot and not a normal robot machine.
"Ahh! Sorry to interrupt you, but we also came from another classroom. We didn't think we get to find anyone else here in a short amount of time, since we were positive that we were kidnapped," I walked towards the robot and tried to pull Kokichi away, not letting him make the robot uncomfortable.
"I-It's okay, I understand that. I can't wrap my memory around as well as to things happen." He slowly felt comfortable to introduce himself, but the door next to us suddenly opened, revealing two people standing with curiosity written on their faces.
"What's going on in here? I heard some noises down the class halls and worried that anything happened," The girl is in blonde hair with her ahoge sticking out on top of her head, music notes' hairclip on her bangs, wearing a white shirt and pink vest and a dark magenta skirt. She has her white backpack behind her and bright pink-purple eyes, her voice sounded cheeky, yet worried when she asked the question. Next to her is a boy with a black hat covering his glowing golden-grey eyes and dark navy hair, showing in his dark outfit from head to toe, and a few metal accessories on his shoulder. The boy seemed timid and constantly lowered his head from making eye contact with anyone other than the optimistic girl.
"Ehhh~ I just want to touch this robot. I've always wanted to be friends with a robot!"
This kid keeps waddling and my arms grow tired too, "Kokichi! Stop moving, or else I'll tie you up and lock you again in the locker."
"Ehhhh~ Ai-chan... You're suddenly being mean to me... WAAHHHHH!"
"Ahh, stop crying, will ya?!" My palms instantly reached over his mouth to keep him shut, felt his lips moving like he was mumbling something but I didn't care. I looked at everyone in the room and profusely apologised towards Kokichi's behaviour.
"Ahh, no worries! It seems like you already knew each other. And, is that... a robot, you said?" The girl questioned the robot boy, while he glared at us with an unsatisfied face, "...What is it? Are you another robophobe? I have a recording function. If you make any robophobic remarks, I will see you in court."
"Wait... you're a robot?! Are you, for real, a robot?!"
"A-Are you... one of the Monokubs—" The boy's words were cut off immediately by the robot boy as he mentioned 'Monokubs'. I've never heard that name or anything like that. Were they already expanding their research about the school?
"Do not compare me to those toys! I am not just any old robot!" He snapped, saying that he's different and can make himself understand humans, not programmed to collect and use data for analytics and can think like humans would do. "I am K1-B0, the Ultimate Robot! But please, address me as Keebo!" Ahhh... He's an Ultimate himself.
Kokichi lifted my hands from his mouth, squealing, "That's not faaaair! You can't be the only one who gets to show off! I'll introduce myself too!" The girl then headed herself and allowed Kokichi to introduce himself and the organisation stuff that he loves to boast about and keep bugging Keebo.
"And what about you?" She focused her eyes on me, making me a bit self-conscious for an awkward conversation. "Ahh— I'm Ai Ayako, the Ultimate Streamer. I already met Kokichi in another classroom when we were locked in separate lockers, so this is our first interaction with other students. Who are you two? How much did you guys get to investigate the school?"
"I'm Kaede Akamatsu, the Ultimate Pianist! And this boy beside me is Shuichi Saihara, the Ultimate Detective." She pulled Shuichi's arms close to her, as the detective seemed to faze around, nodding his head, "I'm Shuichi, we both came from the classroom down the hallway. And we already met some students and investigated some things along the way that may lead to our kidnappers."
"Are they, even humans? You mentioned 'Monokubs' earlier, so that means they are programmed to trap us here? What are their purposes?" I held Kaede's hand and tried to not make myself sound nervous, and her reaction and response made it even worse, "Ah! We only know that Monokubs are five small robot bears that are programmed to set up and show us around the school, and they even said that the school is created for Ultimate students like us with Ultimate research labs to do as we spend here, something that I did not find it well to be safe..." You've got to be kidding me?! In this school, we're trapped?
"So, you mean that we were held hostages by these bears, to make us to entertain them?" Keebo propped his thumb and index finger on his chin and gathered his thoughts about the information that we were provided.
"Why do they even care about our talents when they can just do anything else, like human trafficking or threaten our family and friends for exchange?" The thoughts slipped out of my mouth, and Shuichi responded to it.
"Maybe they want to use our talents since we've realised that everyone here is Ultimate student, that can be useful for them. They even wiped our memories out, so we couldn't do anything to find help and escape with the cage outside of the school."
"That's kinda fucked up, you know? It's not like those bears want to harm us too, we're not even tied or have bruises on our bodies when we first wake up from those lockers. They must have their intention to keep us fresh, in exchange for their requests," Kokichi had his hand at the back of his head, tilted to his right side with a grin on his face.
"As long as we can get out of here, we can save everyone else too," A face of determination brightens on Kaede's face, showering hope on us to escape this hell hole.
Everyone nodded their head in agreement and parted ways in groups as Kaede and Shuichi, Keebo and Kokichi were still chased around, and I roamed around to find more Ultimate students and rooms on the ground floor, first floor and courtyard. The courtyard was filled with multiple undergoing facilities and landscapes, as the area looked abandoned. Even the skies behind the huge cage seemed fake, there was no wind flowing nor birds soaring in the air.
"We have to live, in this place, huh?" I let out a huff while fidgeting the ends of my cardigan, trying to change my mind from the mysterious aura and suspense surrounding the school, as I walked around. There were other students that I met while checking the areas, some of them have unique and weird talents that I may or may not be able to wrap my head around, their interesting personalities, to say the least.
⇀☆∼ Time skip ∼☆↼
*ding dong bing bong*
Ehh- What's that noise? Was it from the monitor above us? I'm currently in the dormitory with Kirumi Tojou, the Ultimate Maid, chatting about our lives before the kidnapping. She wears a long-skirt maid dress with a spider web design on her clothes, black gloves and a black laced headband. The short greynette hair with her long bangs covering her left eye had a sweet, motherly smile on her face.
The monitor reveals the Monokubs that Kaede mentioned earlier, sitting on a long, red couch. Each of them has different colours and unique personalities. Monotaro in red, Monophanie in pink, Monosuke in yellow, Monokid in blue, and Monodam in green. All of them have two-tone colours with a creepy eye and devious smile on the coloured side, while a pure cute smile on the white side. They announced everyone to gather in the gym hall along with others for the opening ceremony before ending the announcement.
"Opening ceremony? Here? Wh-what's going on?" Huh...? I thought they just wanted to leave us here and make it like a boarding school. Kirumi then leads the way to the gym. The negative thoughts flowed into my mind and body as I speedwalked, which I remember it located inside at the end of the ground floor's school building. There wasn't any short hallway to the gym, so I had to jog along the long hallway, passing the dining hall and an Ultimate Lab.
I pushed the gym door opened inwards, and saw some familiar faces that I met during my school observation.
"All 17 of us have gathered..."
"Hmm, it's pretty spectacular seeing all 17 of us Ultimates gathered together."
Kirumi Tojou and Kaito Momota started the conversation as all the students were gathered.
My steps went further into the gym hall, standing next to Kirumi. I kept playing with my cardigan sleeves, distracting myself from remembering the hell hole we're in, "Has anything happened yet? I don't feel like I want to stay here though..."
Then a pair of hands hold onto my shoulders, showing the calm face of Rantaro Amami. "Ah, Rantaro!" He glanced and gave me a big, sweet smile of his, to which I like his older brother vibe, "I doubt they will do anything to us. We'll have to wait and observe."
Rantaro ruffled my hair as I kept his hand from moving too much. He seemed to enjoy himself with me, even his mysterious aura and unknown talent made me want to know him better.
"Hey! Get your hands off of her, you degenerate male!" The shouting made my head perk up and I looked at the figure standing in front of me. A girl with dark olive-grey braided bubble hair and a green floral-patterned bow in a blue school outfit shouted at Rantaro and pulled me away, "She seemed uncomfortable with you touching her! You might want to grab elsewhere, and I will use my Neo-Aikido moves on you!"
"Ehh! I-I wasn't scared because of that. You got it all wrong—"
"Yoink!" Another pair of arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me away from the girl. This small arms, high-pitched voice... I glanced over the shoulder and saw Kokichi grinning, "Aw, Tenko~ You can't frighten my friend like that. She's already worried about the announcement and, potentially, death ahead of us."
The girl, Tenko, puffed her cheeks in disapproval of Kokichi's words and actions toward me. A light pink blush crept on my cheeks, keeping my head facing the ground to avoid people staring at my red face, "Um-hmm... I'm okay though, Tenko. I was nervous, nothing more than that."
"W-well, if you said so... Name's Tenko Chabashira, the Ultimate Aikido Master. We haven't introduced each other properly yet," She handed out her hand while slightly looking away, for a handshake, giving myself to introduce, "I'm Ai Ayako, the Ultimate Streamer. Nice knowing you, Tenko." She blushed and looked away, probably regretting her harsh behaviour.
"Kehehe... You may not be able to be so easygoing for much longer..."
"Nyeeeh... What's gonna happen to us? I bet it'll be a big pain..."
The ocean-green long-haired guy with a sage green mask in a dark green military-style uniform and knee-high black boots, and the girl with chin-length red hair black witch hat and black blazer, continued their concerns towards the situation that we are currently in.
"Pardon me, but... we need to be on our guard. We do not know if and when danger will strike."
"D-Don't say that... I'm so scared... I don't know what to do..."
"There's no need to worry. Atua will protect us."
"Phew! That's a relief! Isn't that right, Ai-chan~?" Kokichi continued to stay with me, despite his excitement from the tense atmosphere. He sounded like he was scared of it, but his mask kept intact to his face from slipping away.
"Is your brain full of weeds or somethin'? I'll whack 'em outta that skull of yours!", The strawberry blonde chick with a vulgar mouth of hers in dark pink seifuku uniform, scowling at Kokichi for taking the situation lightly.
"Don't worry about it! Just leave it to me!" Kaito fist-bumped himself in a strong posture with confidence, "If those teddy bears show themselves again, I'll kick their asses!"
"...Huh? What that?"
"Hmm? What's wrong?"
"Ah— I think I hear it. It sounds like an engine from a robot anime—"
As Tsumugi's words cut short, five different coloured, powerful machines surrounded us. Everyone in the group started to panic and tried to get everyone in a circle protected from the monsters. They called themselves Exisals, highly mobile, bipedal weapons platforms that acted as the guardians of the school. As if, we get to see another day when all the craziness happens in one day—!
"Hm, didn't someone say they would kick all their asses?", Maki glared at a certain person that everyone knew she was targeting, and he was already panicking, "Wh-What the hell?! Nobody told me about these!"
"Everyone, chill out, no need to panic... We're probably not in any danger. If they wanted to kill us, they'd have done it by now."
Rantaro casually walked up to the Exisals, head lifted high and extended his hand. "So, what do you want from us? You clearly want something, that's what the guns are for, right? Let me guess. You're gonna force us to do something, and if we don't, we get hurt. Well, you have our attention. So what do you want?" He didn't even flinch nor choke on his words in front of Exisals, all the deductions have been pointed out by Shuichi and Kokichi from my previous interaction in the classroom.
"Huh. Well, aren't you a wise guy?", Monosuke in the yellow Exisal seemed interested in Rantaro's curiosity, and in the blue Exisal, Monokid started first, "I'll start us off! Here's what we want you punkasses to do... It's a—"
"KILLING-GAME," Monodam, the green Exisal, interrupted Monokid, who left us speechless as the word stuck inside our heads. "M-M-Monodam! How DARE you upstage me!"
"W-What's going o-on..? Killing g-game? Are you out of your damn minds?! Is it some kind of sick joke that you machines want to play with humans?!" My chest suddenly felt tight, slowly panicking inside while holding Kokichi's hands that were on my waist. The Monokubs started bickering among themselves and the students were stepping away from risking their lives being crushed or blasted with their machine guns until we heard another voice in the room that none of us recognised before.
"Now, now, now... My cute little kubs... You gotta knock off this awful fighting..."
"Oh! That voice!" Everyone's attention went straight to the school stage, a white and black bear with wings jumped out behind the school podium and landed on it, giggling. The Monokubs jumped out of their Exisals, shouting 'Papa' at the bear on the stage, while the students were in disbelief.
"I am the god of this new world... and the headmaster of the Ultimate Academy! The one, the only... Monokuma! Nice to meetcha!", Monokuma suddenly berated and punished Monokubs while saying them cute and love, which doesn't make sense, considering those two actions contradicted each other.
"Wh-What is this? What's going on?" Kaede sweated in bullets and went pale when another bear appeared.
"This is not an ordinary bear. I can see it... the despair and madness swirling around that cursed thing..."
"Korekiyo, you can't be serious...! I don't want that thing to make us do such craziness!"
"Whoa... First of all, I'm no teddy bear. I'm Monokuma. And show some respect! I'm the headmaster of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles!", Monokuma frowned at our statements against him.
"G-Gifted Juveniles...? Killing game? I don't understand...! We never agreed in the first place to be here, none of us have our memories intact with that information!", Kaito approached Monokuma, believing they took it as some kind of joke and would let us go. But Monokuma had no intention to do so.
"Even if it is twisted, I'm worried about this 'killing game' you mentioned. What exactly does that mean?"
Monokuma started giggling towards Rantaro's words with his paws covering his mouth, "Well, you guys seemed agitated from my words that I just phoned it in and now I feel awkward..."
His face showed his grimace, malicious smile, "I want you students with your Ultimate-level talents to participate in a killing game! AhahaHAHAHA!"
No... This can't be it! Using our talents, to try and kill each other...? Does anyone in humanity in their right mind allow something this to happen, the Ultimate students, left astray into the path of murderers?!
"Why? Don't you guys want to accept the quests?"
"'C-Course not! Gentlemen not hurt people!"
"Upupupu... But if you've looked around the academy, you already know, don't you? The academy is surrounded by a huge wall. you can't escape the outside world... And as long as we have the Exisals, you can't defy us", Monokuma seemed confident in his words. "In other words... I hold the power of life and death over each and every one of you."
My mind slowly started to blank after hearing those words, my legs started to weaken beneath me on the floor. I can barely hear everyone's voices bickering on Monokuma.
"Who said you guys were friends?"
Monokuma paused on his words, able to get my attention back to him, "You guys aren't friends at all... You are enemies out of to kill each other." His smile grew darker with a small giggle after everyone started to take the hint to doubt each other. Are we- really just puppets to him...?
Monokuma explained the whole rules of the killing game where students can use their talents and ways of thinking to make the killing game more interesting, Monokuma can't directly make the killing or tamper with the murder scene, the class trial will be held once the murder happened and must take a class investigation as pieces of evidence and alibis, and the blackened will face the consequences whether get to leave the school for not getting caught, or to be executed with Ultimate's Execution.
"You have free rein to murder however you like, too. Like bludgeoning! Or stabbing! Feelin' cheap? Try strangulation! Feelin' lazy? Try poisoning! Whether you shoot, burn, drown, blow up, rush, electrocute, or laugh your victim to death... You can use any method you like to kill anybody you like, any way you like! At the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, you will realise your murderous potential!" His words started to give us despair to killing among us, winged out his arms and gave us his glowing red eye, "Seventeen talented teenage prodigies, all competing for first place in a killing game... There is no better setting for an event like this than the Ultimate Academy!"
Those words slipped into my mind like a virus camouflaged as standard data in the system. It slowly tainted in people's minds, when I started to have a panic attack. The caved-in chest, the swirled eyes, and the pained smile carved onto my face. Does it, always feel this good...? A hand slithered into my hands, and holding onto it tightly made me back into reality. Kokichi's hands were the ones holding mine, his head lowered with a blank expression on his face and his tongue clicked in anger.
"W-Wait a minute!", Kaede's stern voice reached Monokuma and everyone in the room. "No matter what you say... We won't do it! We'll never participate in a killing game! Whatever you have planned, I'm not gonna let you get away with it!" With her determination to stop proceeding into the killing game, Monokuma is intrigued with it and fills us with despair to find the killing game more entertaining.
Monokuma and the Monokubs squeal in laughter, leaving everyone dumbfounded for their self-minded behaviours and reactions towards the killing game that we have to face to live on. After the opening ceremony, everyone checked their monopads and headed to the manhole that Gonta mentioned when he found one in the boiler room behind the school building. Kaede determined everyone in the hope of finding a way out from the manhole, yet not giving in to the despair.