Chapter Text
Everyone has aspirations for their future. They have dreams to achieve— living out a life that makes them happy. No matter how one would deny it, humans always end up down that path— seeking out their desires. Humans are selfish. Perhaps that’s why we’ve advanced so far, creating new technology to fully satisfy our lazy nature. It simplified things and took away the hard work.
That was probably why we had the time to properly pursue our dreams. There wasn’t any tedious labour to do anymore— or at least, that was reserved to the select few who were not fortunate enough to follow their true aspirations.
People would ultimately make their dreams into a reality, and some would continue to help others prosper their own paths. This led to the creation of Hope’s Peak Academy.
It was an Academy of dreams. Individuals of the highest caliber could continue to refine their talents within the Academy. As a result, anyone who touched foot within that academy would be crowned within the outside world. Because they were the ultimate talent in their field, they would be given unimaginable opportunities after they graduated. Everybody respected them. Everybody aspired to be them. Everyone treated them as unreachable gods.
So what would the world do when an imposter arrived? What would they do if this imposter fooled all of them out of their minds? What if the imposter curated their talent, or was talent itself?
Fools. All of them. Living their special little fantasies.
If only there could have been another way to fix this cruel world.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
“Hey, are you alive? C’mon kid, wake up!” An external force shook his body from side to side— obviously, it didn’t help his headache. He forced his way through his hazy couscous and pried his eyes open. Without warning, light came flooding through— almost like the lights at the dentist.
Upon awakening, he discovered a blob hovering over him. As his eyes focused, he realized that it was a human!
The figure was that of a female. She was awfully tall and muscular. He would have thought that she lifted weights as a hobby. The girl dressed in an average school uniform, black in all aspects— however, her violet-brown hair made up for the lack of unique aspects. A catchy eyepatch also did the trick.
“Geez! You were starting to scare me over there. Mate, do you know where we are?”
He was still not fully conscious, given his status of just waking up. As he looked around, he became unwillingly confused. The area surrounding him was completely unfamiliar. It looked like a normal classroom, but the room was completely deserted, and the windows were all closed shut. Sure, he was not familiar with every aspect of the school he currently attended, but this classroom was definitely not that of his own school.
“I take your silence as a no.” The girl ran a hand through her hair. “The last thing I remember is walking home from school. Next thing I know, I’m here in some weird unknown place with an unconscious elementary schooler.” The last comment made him frown.
Even though he wanted to refute the previous comment, his voice would always betray him. Oh to be like the others.
That would be a pitiful existence though.
He tried to get on his feet to join the other girl’s conquest in escape, but a searing pain within his ankle crippled him to the ground.
A whimper escaped his mouth, alerting the girl. She rushed to his aid. “Kid? You alright?”
His hand trailed down to his ankle; remnants of the shock made him tremble throughout his body. A cold surface greeted his fingers, and when he gazed down to view the problem, he was met with a silver ankle brace.
After seeing it, he quickly rolled down his pants to cover it up.
It seemed that the other girl had not yet seen the cause of his pain.
“Those damn kidnappers probably injured you along the way. Here little girl, let me carry you as we find a way out. Stay close to your big sister while you’re at it.”
“…”
The girl lifted him up without any struggle. He did occasionally think of himself as an underdeveloped teen, but he never once thought that his features gave way to misconceptions.
He was born with a naturally lean body, and people told him that he was lucky to never gain a pound after eating anything. But that probably wasn’t it. There wasn’t a mirror around, so he couldn’t study his facial appearance, but not once had he worn any sort of makeup. Her deduction had confused him. Did he possess delicate features? But that wouldn’t…
Instead of rattling his mind with pointless deductions, he settled with the fact that he had long hair.
The girl expected the door to be locked, but she opened it without any force. When they both stepped out of the classroom, they were greeted with a long hallway— an unexpected discovery.
They began to caution their way through the halls, looking for any sort of exit to the outside. However, all the windows were fortified with some kind of metal barrier. Not even the strong looking girl could break through that.
Finding out where they were in the first place was key to their success. But that seemed to be a possibility in the negatives.
“So kid, while we’re busy on this little epic journey of ours, let’s get to know each other, alright?”
He nodded in agreement. It would be interesting to know what kind of person the girl was. She was definitely not your average student.
“Well, if you’re gonna be silent, I’ll start first. I’m Beidou!” She proudly addresses herself, it was definitely a fitting name for her. “I’m a high school student…” Beidou trailed off her words, unsure of where to continue.
She noticed his head tilt. “I’m not really sure… who I was before this. Like… I know I’m a student. I cherish my family… but I’m not sure what my hobbies were… or who my friends were, if I had any.”
He pitied her. Especially in these kinds of situations, one would want to hold on to sentimental memories within their head— and the emotions that followed. Looking back now, did he have anything that he cherished?
“What about you? You haven’t said anything yet. Are you afraid of me, little kid? Don’t worry! I may look super scary, but I care for five young siblings! I wouldn’t dare hurt you. Can you tell me your name?”
If the gods were listening in to his inner thoughts, he would beg them to save him from this situation.
He pursed his lips and shook his head. His expression was sad, which was obvious to Beidou.
“Ah! Can you not actually speak? I’m sorry about that kid. When we get out of here, you can tell me on paper.” At the kind response, he smiled. He always enjoyed having compassionate people like these within his company.
Saying that they were going to escape was just talk. Doing so was proving to be impossible.
There were endless hallways, and rooms upon rooms. After checking every single one, they could only come across exotic spaces. One room had a whole gosh darn pirate ship with it! Another one had scary weapons latched onto the wall.
The two of them had considered taking a few of the weapons to defend themselves, but ultimately, the weapons were far too attached to the walls and wouldn’t budge. Beidou also insisted that he shouldn’t handle a weapon. He thought that his black uniform should have told him of his education status by now— was it the yellow sweater covering it?
“How about this… instead of talking, I’ll give you some yes or no questions. Now, don’t do your shaking head or nodding head thing, because it hurts my neck to turn around. How about you stretch your hand and point your index finger as a yes, and a two for a no.”
She paused for a moment, thinking of a question. “We should start with the most important question at hand. Pineapple on pizza, yes or no.”
He immediately showed a two.
Beidou gasped. “How could you! The sweetness paired with the savory leaves a lovely taste in your mouth, it’s freaking refreshing!”
In response, he playfully flicked her shoulder, showing his obvious disagreement.
“Going on a luxury cruise, or on a luxury train? Yes or no?”
He pointed his index finger.
She laughed heavily. “I have to hard agree on that one. I love the sea, it truly calms the mind— even when the tides are high.”
They slowly approached a large red door at the end of the hallway, which looked very likely to be an exit. Beidou stopped her movement for a moment.
He gazed down to meet her eyes.
“Before we leave, why don’t we do one more? There might be people watching, so we may have to run. We might get separated after that… but this was really enjoyable.” She curved her lips into a beautiful smile, looking at him with genuine friendliness.
Beidou sighed heavily. “What’s your opinion on free will? Do you think that all individuals have free will? Or do you think that nothing is within our control?” She gazed straight up ahead at the red door like a hawk. “I know it’s on a completely different level compared to the previous questions, and you’re just an elementary student… but nobody’s ever taken time out of their day to listen to me. So, I’ll have to burden you with it. It’s always been on my mind. You see, my family wants me to peruse something ‘good’ in my life instead of some scummy career path. But I don’t want to be some sleepless doctor or anything, I wanna become something greater. I wanna follow my own hobbies. So what’s your opinion on this?”
For a moment, he was dazed. Such a question was something that sparked his inner interest. But philosophical questions were complex. There was never one right answer. A million reasons could be listed for one , and another million for the other. It would depend on the deep thinking of the other individual, if there was even one more reason on one side, that would conclude the question for one individual, but what if it was different for another person?
Ah. He was getting sidetracked.
His deep thinking was useless if he already had an answer. He showed his answer to Beidou.
She gave him a small smile. “I see.”
Now that Beidou has an answer to her question, she chose to open the large red doors with a loud bang.
But instead of light from the outside world flooding their vision, they were only greeted with an anomaly.
“A auditorium?” Beidou gasped, tightening her hold on him.
The new discovery let his disappointment rise.
A chilling voice shocked their cores from the right of them. Immediately, they turned their heads to face the source of the voice. “You’ve finally arrived! Took you long enough.”
Instead of finding one particular individual to host the voice, they were greeted with a crowd of people. Upon closer inspection, all of them wore school uniforms. Almost all of them were adorned in black.
These were people like them.
The stage in front of them was decked out in elaborate decorations. Black and blue roses adorned the surface of the stage. The lighting was dim as well.
Then, there was an… mascot… standing at the podium.
One of the students had a terrified expression. His eyes looked like they were going to bulge out of his head. “D-Did that thing just s-s-speak?!” He pointed towards the funny looking mascot.
It looked to be a bear, a meter in height, probably half a meter in width. Half of its body was covered with white, and the other half was black. The section was completely tame, but the black part…
“Anything else to say, Bennett Calamitus?” The bear glared at him with a red eye. The boy was completely frozen, shaking. After a moment of silence ensued, the bear continued in it’s self monologue. “Welcome students, to either…heaven or hell! The interpretation is up to you fellows—”
A blonde haired girl interrupted the bear. “Who the f*ck are you? Why are you holding us captive here?” She pummeled her fists together. “The little sh*t that’s behind that little mascot will get a piece of me.”
The bear remained silent, still having a large smile on its ominous face. “Save the pummeling for the game, would ‘ya?” The bear giggled.
Suddenly, large metal spikes came flying towards the girl. It narrowly missed her, grazing her cheek.
“I’ll let you go this time, but just know… disobeying me will give you hell , alright?”
The girl was now compliant to listen, joining the other boy in their fear. One girl went up to both of them to comfort them. Both him and Beidou were motionless, still in disbelief at the action.
“Good… good… now, ladies and gentlemen… allow me to allow yourselves to reclaim your true selves before we begin.” With the press of a lever, there was a blinding light covering them.
Suddenly, memories began to fill his head. Countless moments that made him feel like throwing up. His throat burned, creating a vivid reenactment of drowning.
He couldn’t remember many people within his life. All he had around him was a dark room full of books and paper. No matter where he went, he would always return to that little room of his. In a way, it was oddly comforting. Yet, he longed to escape. These scenes that played throughout his head mostly centered around that little world of his.
In different scenes, he was a young child crying without his parents. In another, he would be attending the academy of dreams.
“I didn’t have a choice, insolent child.”
“That talent… it’s… you can’t expose it.”
“This is Mammon, your new guardian.”
He begged for the memories to stop. They didn’t.
“Kid, hey kid?! You alright? You blacked out on me just there? It’s Beidou! Did the same thing happen to you?”
He expected himself to still be carried in Beidou's arms, but instead, he was now hoisted at her front. He was leaned over her front now instead of the back.
Looking down, he realized that his original clothing was swapped out for entirely new ones. They looked to be customized school uniforms. He now wore some black pants, fitted with a white turtle neck that squeezed on his torso a little tightly— a vertical pattern of lines decorated the shirt. A black coat adorned his figure, making him look like one of those Korean idols. His feet weren’t fitted with simple school shoes anymore, and were now snugly fitted within some fashionable black boots; with a heel.
After the new makeover, he wondered if his face had changed at all. His hair was still roaming down freely though.
“...” He stared at her with a slightly hazy look, but it reassured her that he was alright.
“You know, kid, I feel like I’m more of your mother than an older sister. But you know what, I don’t mind that.” She ruffled his hair with her hand, which was now gloves.
Beidou herself was looking quite spectacular with her new appearance. She was dressed in a magenta tail coat, trailing down all the way to her shins— but only the back, and not the front. She had black baggy pants fitted, and nice military boots on her feet. It definitely suited her.
“Geez, were they planning to make you into an idol or something?” Beidou subtly complimented on his outfit. “I didn’t really study your face beforehand, but were you famous before this, kid?”
He shook his head, still trying to get over his miserable dizziness.
The things that filled his head…
“Now there, everyone, it seems like everyone has gotten a chance to remember who they are, why don’t you pay back the respect and listen to me. ” The bear interrupted their little break— it seemed that they had forgotten their kidnapped status.
“I am Monomon! I am your lovely overseer within this beautiful game of ours.” It bowed down, making their movements awfully dramatic. “I hereby introduce you… to the Killing Games. ”
At the sudden reveal, several students froze in their positions. Everything that was occurring in front of them couldn’t have been on the same spectrum. Such an anomaly had to be the product of a dream.
“D-Did you say… Killing Game? ” A red haired teen approached the stage cautiously. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
Monomon glared down upon the teen. “Hmmm? When did I ever mention that? I can assure you little one…”
The bear fixed a crinkle in their golden cuff.
“ I don’t lie .”
A yellow haired female pulled the male teenager back to a safer distance. If what the bear said was true, they would be better off farther away. Who knew what this crazy thing could do. And for what?
“You have all been miraculously chosen to perform your best within this lovely game! Create an entertaining show for all of us by shedding each other’s blood .” Monomon grinned malevolently. “You can stab somebody five times in the chest, you could run someone over with a lawn mower, you could even drown somebody in the fountain!” The bear imitated all of the disgusting actions with his hands.
“Just make it amusing. ”
Monomon hopped off the stage, standing in front of the crowd. Behind him, an image was projected onto a large screen. It showed human silhouettes congested within a cage. Another silhouette— a bear— stood outside the cage, simultaneously mocking them.
“This, my good students, is you. Those pathetic beings within the cage. The bear here is me!” He used a long bamboo stick to point out their roles.
Suddenly, the slide changed, it now showed something even more disturbing than the scene before.
This particular slide showed Monomon giving a knife to one of the captives. Then, the figure jumped into the crowd of people, in doing so, pink splattered all over the cage.
“I have given you all the tools to play this game. You are free to do anything , any way you like. The solution to this kidnapping… is murder!”
Multiple students gasped out loud.
“If you succeed, I’ll happily let you out of this place with no questions asked— with a special prize of your choosing included.” The slide then changed to Monomon opening the cage doors, allowing the silhouette with a knife free. “However…”
The next scene displayed a body laying on the ground, gathered by multiple silhouettes.
“When a murder occurs, after a period of four hours, a trial will insue. There, the innocent parties must root out the blackened— the murderer. No murderer leaves a scene without a clue— whether it’s intentional or not doesn’t matter. Use those clues to wart out one blackened! Then, only the blackened will be punished for their crimes, and all the others will live to see another day. However… if you are the blackened themselves, do your best to convince the court that it isn’t you~ make it fun to watch at the very least. And… if you win, you get to leave here alive and well! You can receive a prize of your choosing. Money, a car, an island… anything. And, the party that wasn’t able to discover the blackened will suffer the consequences.”
It was similar to the game ‘mafia’ in its detective and killer concept. Except now, this was the real deal. This bear was really expecting high school students to kill? He expected that half of them weren’t even informed of the different law complexions. Then again, with the power of law, one could truly get away with murder if they were aware of the rules .
But did law truly exist here? After all, their presence here in the first place was not decided by law.
“You really expect us to kill each other? Huh?” An older looking teen pummeled her fists together, “Why don’t I take advantage of your presence here as well?” She tossed her blue hair over her shoulders and slowly approached him.
Monomon reacted with a disappointed sigh. “Didn’t I tell you before not to mess with me ?” He growled.
He was on the verge of exiting Beidou’s arms, but another one of them intervened.
An orange haired male placed a firm hand on her shoulder. “I don’t think we should engage right now. We don’t know the implications just yet.”
The blue haired teen reluctantly retreated back to her original position. Not without giving Monomon a glare.
“Ehehe… Well, as a well established academy, all students are required to follow protocol at all times. But don’t fret, these shouldn’t be too hard to follow. After all, you guys are ultimates. ”
The word entered his brain like a bullet. Everyone here was an ultimate? The term was rarely used to describe anybody within the room. That was how rare they were to come across. From the looks of it, there were seventeen of them within the auditorium.
So, what exactly was an ultimate?
It’s similar to the word talent. Except, this particular term would only be used in a special way. Instead of referring to a side hobby an individual is instituted with, this term refers to them as the best of what they do. If you were the ultimate writer, you would be the ultimate writer.
What were the chances of having so many Ultimates gathered at the same time? Or was it all targeted? The motive behind such a thing is indeterminable.
“Kid, you’re an ultimate as well? We’re more alike than you think I guess!” She chuckled, then leaned in close to his ear to whisper. “I’m Beidou Mare, the ultimate ship captain! Thought I’d reintroduce myself after remembering everything.”
Now that she had him on the topic, looking at it now, her outfit certainly matched her talent. However, he was still unaware how his outfit could optimize or display his talent. Perhaps it was a talent that simply couldn’t be categorized into a clothing style.
All he knew was that after a bright blinding light, he could remember his entire life— accompanied with a clothing change.
“Rule number one! You cannot harm Monomon— the headmaster—physically. If a student does so, they will be punished accordingly.” Monomon giggled madly, glaring straight at the blue haired teen. “I remember someone just like you. Tried to shoot me dead, but ended up impaled. How lovely is that?”
“Y-You…”
“Rule two! Students must live at the Ultimate Academy for the remainder of their foreseeable future.” Beidou clutched onto his back a little bit too tightly after the mention.
“Rule three— you already know this one~ but perhaps a condensed version will help the idiots amongst you… Once a murder takes place, all surviving students must participate in a class trial!”
“Rule four! If the blackened is exposed during the class trial, they alone will be executed.”
“Rule five! If the blackened is not exposed, all remaining students will be executed .”
Executeed?
“Rule six! If the blackened survives the class trial, they will graduate and re-enter the outside world— with a prize of their choosing.”
“Rule seven! The killing game and class trials will continue until only three surviving students remain.”
“Rule eight! ‘Nighttime’ is from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. The dining hall and gymnasium are off-limits at night. I promise you, don’t get caught by my little robot janitors during the night~”
“Rule nine! Monomon will never directly commit a murder.” The bear sighed. “I wish I could, but I’m much more amused by watching.”
“Rule ten! Your Monopads are very important items. Please do not damage them. They’ll be distributed to you shortly after.”
“Rule eleven! The "Body Discovery Announcement" will play when three or more students discover a body.”
One of the students latched onto another person's arm. “E-Ehh? B-Body… Discovery…?”
“Rule twelve! With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore the campus at your discretion.” Monomon’s eyes ominously landed upon the area in which Beidou and him were.
“Rule thirteen! Students who violate these rules will be immediately exterminated by the Exisals.”
Exisals? The huge robot brings?
“Rule fifteen! Further, there may be new additions to the school rules according to the convenience of the headmaster.”
Finishing with some clapping of his own, Monomon concluded his long list of rules. “I hope you students are ready for what’s about to come. I’m going to let you guys obtain your Monopads from the exisals coming…”
Beidou seemed to have sensed something far sooner than him. She turned around and shielded him from a large boom that sounded from behind her. Looking over her shoulder, he laid eyes on something he didn’t believe could exist.
“You weren’t kidding about the exisals!” One of the students cried out, obviously afraid.
If this was the type of technology they had down their sleeves, it wasn’t a stretch to conclude that they wouldn’t be able to escape easily. Well, the possibility would be next to nothing. And even if they did escape, it probably wouldn't be without bloodshed.
“You can make this f*cking stuff nowadays?!” The same blonde girl from earlier stared in amazement towards the exisals. Her outfit had now changed from an average black school uniform to a punky version of it. The sight immediately made him think of an engineer.
One by one, the exisals distributed small devices to each of the students. Most of them hid behind other students and grabbed them from the exisal’s hands at the speed of light. If he wasn’t with Beidou within the moment, he would have been frightened as well.
Beidou seemed to make everything better.
Once the device was within their hands, out of curiosity, he opened it up. The design was almost the same as a little DS you’d obtain at the video game stores. It revealed a neat little display on the top half, and a small keyboard on the bottom.
Beidou has opened hers too as well, having the same curiosity as him. “Huh? Wait! Kid, it’s displaying my name in the entry page, is it showing yours too?”
He looked down, scanning the screen.
The neat looking characters appeared on screen for the world to see. His name.
Holding it up at a better angle, he allowed Beidou to view it. “A-E-T-H-E-R. Oh! Aether! What a beautiful name!” She happily spun him around a few times. He didn’t have the heart to stop her, but his headache wasn’t getting any better from the action.
“Hold on… it says… Huh?! You’re a boy?!” Her eyes widened after seeing the symbol on his Monopads. He nodded his head shamelessly. “I thought… your looks… You know what? This changed absolutely nothing. Aether, your big sister is here to help!” She ran her hand through his head multiple times. Although she tried to ruffle it up, it always fixed itself in some elegant manner.
“You’ll find many interesting things within your Monopads. They were all custom designed by me after all.” The bear giggled, pointing to a symbol on the back of the Monopad— it was Monomon himself.
At the mention, Aether closed his device up.
Anything made by a creature like Monomon should be thrown away, but because of the rules, he couldn’t do so.
If the device played a large role within this messed up killing game, Aether would keep it to study.
“Now, students… I hereby announce the beginning of this killing game! But before we go… I’d like to announce something very important to you students.”
The bear turned their face into something much more malevolent than before. If Monomon’s previous face was evil, this face would belong to Satan himself.
“You have the opportunity to end the game at any time by eliminating the mastermind of this game.”
Beidou was confused. “The mastermind? I thought we weren’t allowed to harm you.”
Monomon giggled.
“Silly, I’m not the mastermind! I’m simply the host that maintains the order around here. No no no… the mastermind is evil more sinister than I am, a foe that you wouldn’t want to mess with. They are the ones who wished for this game to occur in the first place, they want the killings to happen, with no motive other than to satisfy their own amusement.”
It truly was a game of mafia. Such a complex game with so many steps up and down.
Usually, there was only one win condition in a game.
Whether it be to simply save the heroine, to defeat the villain, or to meet a happily ever after.
This game had several ways to ‘win.’
One of them included fitting your hands. Though it seems like the easiest option out of all of them, Aether wouldn’t risk the consequences and secrecy to go with this option. The thought of taking another person’s life was disturbing within itself. But what was the law when they were somewhere it didn’t exist?
The second option was to survive until the very end. It sounded easy as well, but that would sentence fourteen people to death. Which would probably include himself, if he was not careful. It would also cause Aether to have to rack his head every time one of Monomon’s trials occurred. And they had only four hours to piece together the case before the trial.
Lastly, they had the most optimal option yet.
Find the mastermind.
“Reveal yourselves then! Don’t forsake the lives of the innocent for your own pleasure.” A purple haired teen yelled out at all of them. She looked like she truly expected an answer.
Aether sighed rather deeply. He leaned his head against Beidou’s shoulders, still feeling dizzy from his headache.
A deep voice chimes into the mix. “You really think that’s going to help our case? Obviously, the mastermind is hidden for a reason— it would defeat their sick purpose to reveal themselves in the first place. What we should do is get a move on in finding out their identity.” The male was awfully calm for the situation. He looked like an omnipresent being looking over peasants. That was how dominant he was in the situation.
It looked like Aether wouldn’t have to do as much work now that he had someone along with him.
“Students, have fun~ make sure not to make this game boring.” Monomon teased before disappearing to the back stage.
Nobody attempted to follow him. They were smart enough to know what would happen.
They were also smart enough to know that not all of them would make it out of this school alive.
Picture of Monomon that I created:
https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/96995752