Chapter Text
It was with great alarm that Maki Harukawa startled awake from whatever the source of her unconsciousness had previously been. Immediately, before her mind even had a chance to process anything in her surroundings, her instincts seemed to scream out in anguish. Something wasn’t right. She wasn’t in any physical pain, and yet her mind and body seemed to very suddenly be overwhelmed by an enormous sense of wrongness that shot though her like a jolt of electricity. It coursed through her before seeming to pass just as suddenly as it had arrived, leaving behind only a vague sense of discomfort and a greater feeling of disorientation. Her skin felt too tight and her mind was clouded. If she could just stop the world from spinning…
Still dazed, she finally managed to let her brain process what she was seeing. If her sense of orientation and gravity could be trusted right now, it seemed as if she was on the ground and staring at a high ceiling. In her periphery, she could almost make out something looming above her. With a turn of her head to the side, she managed to identify it as a bookcase. A further scan of her area immediate area let her see that it wasn’t the only one, and that there were in fact nearly a dozen bookcases in her field of view alone, along with various mounds of book haphazardly scattered about, and more still piled on top of the bookcases.
She sat up and took a measured breath, trying to keep her heartbeat from speeding up and nearly coughed. She slowly got to her feet, continuing to glance around herself carefully as she did so. The ground she had been laying on was bare, seeming to be simple concrete with nothing to cover it other than the substantial layer of dust that she could clearly see. She brushed some off of her skirt. She couldn’t identify any evidence that this room had been disturbed at all for years, possibly decades, which was raising some warning flags. She had no idea where she was or how she’d gotten there. It seemed to be some sort of study or library but-
Before she could finish her thought, the one of the set of double doors in the room swung open. Maki turned to spy a dark haired boy hesitantly glance into the room from the hallway beyond it, followed by another person stepping partially into view behind him.
“A library…” The first boy noted more to himself than to his companion. His yellow-grey eyes scanned the room briefly before widening slightly as they came across Maki herself. “Ah, there’s someone else here too.”
The boy was dressed in a black V-neck sweater over a plain white button up, black slacks, and dress shoes. At first glance Maki had thought his neatly parted hair to be black as well, but upon closer inspection she could tell that it was actually a navy blue. He hesitated a moment before stepping into the room and to the side, allowing the other person to step in as well after him.
Where as the first boy had seemed a bit meek and slightly plain, the second to enter the room appeared more sure of himself and distinguished. Black gloves, a crisp mid-length dark blue trench coat reached his knees, and a blue and white striped tie was just barely visible above where the coat closed at the top. His hair was a light green, matching his searching eyes. Maki felt vaguely uncomfortable under his gaze as it quickly swept over her.
“So you’re an Ultimate student too, right?” The boy in black asked. The question surprised Maki, although she doesn’t know what she was expecting. It certainly wasn’t her status as an Ultimate to be brought up so casually by an absolute stranger. She narrowed her eyes slightly. The inclusion of the word ‘too’...
“Yeah, that’s right.”
The conversation stalls and the boy in black seems at a loss for what to say after how short her answer was, seeming to have expected more. He waits a few seconds, and silence treads into an awkward length before he starts back up by offering his own introduction. “I’m Shuichi Saihara, the Ultimate Pianist, by the way.”
Maki glances down to the hem of his sweater, now noticing that the design there was actually a collection of music notes on a staff. Fitting.
He turns to look at the other occupant of the room, and the green haired boy glances at him before turning back to Maki and speaking with a casual, almost bored tone, like he’s been doing this a lot recently. “And my name is Rantaro Amami. Ultimate Detective.”
A pianist and a detective, huh? So the two of them were both ultimate students as well. That certainly implied that they were in the same situation as she was, but she still had no way of knowing. And if they had given her their identities to her, it was all but pointless to withhold hers. If one or both of them were somehow the ones responsible for her situation, it was unlikely that they had kidnapped her without knowing who she was anyways. If she could find out what was going on from them perhaps… “Maki Harukawa. Ultimate Astronaut.”
“An Astronaut, huh? That’s pretty interesting for a teenager,” Shuichi smiled patiently, as if to thank her for finally cooperating. “So you’ve been to space?”
“Not yet. I’m still in training for that, actually.” She felt her shoulders relax slightly and only just now realized how tense they had been ever since waking up.
“I wasn’t aware of any astronaut training programs letting teenagers in,” Rantaro cut in, arms crossed. It didn’t sound skeptical, but she could tell that even though it wasn’t a question he was trying to prompt her to prove herself more. Maki mentally frowned, while trying to keep the expression off of her face. She didn’t appreciate it, but being more social was one of the things she was supposed to be working on…
“I was something of a special case I guess. You’re right that they don’t normally let in teenagers.” There, that was enough information to give without getting too specific. Shuichi seemed satisfied with her and nodded, but Rantaro’s arms remained crossed with his face blank. A little more, then. “I probably won’t be allowed to actually go into space until I’m legally an adult anyways. But I’m the top of my training class in all areas.”
“That’s pretty impressive,” Shuichi chuckled. “I’m uh, not good for much else than playing piano. And even then I…”
“Shuichi, stop doubting yourself,” Rantaro stopped him almost tiredly, although he’d had this same conversation with the other boy multiple times already. Shuichi seemed a bit sheepish as he looked away, and his hand momentarily moved up as if to grab something by his face but found nothing. A habit from wearing glasses? A hat? Whatever. It was time she got some useful information out of them.
“How do you two know each other? And where are we?” She asked, looking between the two of them for an answer.
“Ah well, we don’t really know each other I suppose,” Shuichi was the one to pick up her questioning. He seemed oddly self-conscious of this. “I was just tagging along since we both need to investigate the same things and meet the same people, right? We, uh, just happened to wake up in the same room. And as for where we are, uhhh...”
“It’s called the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, apparently,” Rantaro offered.
Well that was interesting. What were the odds that three Ultimates were in the same predicament? It had to have been planned. And but he had also said… “Meet the same people? Are there others here too?”
“Um, yeah. Have you not met anyone else yet? We were told there were 16 total Ultimates around, ah, campus I guess. As for where this academy is and why we’re here, no one we’ve met yet has any idea either.”
Nothing about this situation felt right, but at least it seemed like she wasn’t the only one in the dark as to what was going on. Maki supposed she would have to some investigating of her own to arrive at any answers, then. Not that she could likely find anything that the Ultimate Detective couldn’t. “Who told you there were 16 of us?”
“The Monokubs did,” Shuichi replied. Maki only raised an eyebrow. “You know. The uh, colorful talking bear robots?”
When Maki only stared at him he through his hands up nervously in a placating gesture. “I, er, know it sounds hard to believe, but that’s really what they were. I’m assuming the people who brought us here probably built them or something.”
“He’s telling the truth,” Rantaro corroborated. “Whatever they are, they're almost certainly part of whatever is responsible for us being here. At the moment I’m unsure as to whether they’re AIs, or if someone’s controlling them.”
Maki nodded uncertainly. This entire situation was getting stranger by the second. She hadn’t even woken up 10 minutes ago, and already new suspicious mysteries were arising. She eyed her surroundings briefly. She hadn’t even left this room, and yet -
“Ah you just woke up here, right? I’m sure the amount of mysteries will only grow once you leave. But, don’t let that stop you from getting some answers for yourself,” Rantaro smirked, beginning to walk away from her and towards a collection of bookcases, apparently done with the conversation.
Maki startled slightly. Well, he was a detective… An ultimate one in fact. “Ah, yes actually. And I guess I’ll do that then.”
Shuichi looked between them briefly before stating that he would be staying in the library a bit longer with Rantaro.
“To help investigate!” He’d sworn, a bit too quickly.
Sure.
And with that, Maki left the library in search of answers and the other Ultimates. 2 down, 3 including herself, and 13 others to go, apparently. Why were so many of the high schoolers chosen by the Ultimate Initiative here?