Chapter Text
You woke up with a small groan as someone opened the curtains in your bedroom, making the sun shine in.
"Wakey-wakey, it's time to start! It's past noon, after all," a female voice rang out with an annoying joy you weren't ready for when first waking up.
"Start what..? Start the day with a headache?" you grumbled, getting out of your bed before realizing exactly what in the world just happened.
Immediately, you turned to the source of the voice as she seemingly ignored your grumpiness to straighten up the room a bit. What--who was this woman? She was dressed head to toe in what you can only assume is like, a businesswoman-matchmaker outfit or something, and she had this unusual aura about her, even if besides the outfit, her dark curly hair and slightly tanned skin looked normal.
"Wait, who are you?"
"Hm?"
She turned to you with a smile, it made you feel weird, as she walked to you.
"Oh, right, you were asleep when this all happened! Well, you'll learn in due time, but for now, lets just get you ready!"
And with a swift wave of her hand, it seemed only a few seconds passed until you were apparently ready to greet whatever potentially hellish situation you were being thrust into. She hurried you to the door of the room, which you had no time to examine other than the fact it was a nice pastel color, and then she opened the door just in time for you to see some round, huge guy walk in front of it, seemingly turning to go to another room. He stopped to stare at you two with a raised eyebrow, and the other woman accompanying you greeted him.
"Oh, hello, Hifumi! Going to your room already?"
"Well, what else would I be doing? Socializing?" he scoffed but also snickered a bit at that, "Those guys get a bit too wild for me. So, wait, is this our...protagonist?"
Protagonist?
"Yep-yep! Isn't she cute?"
"....well, hm, I suppose she is. Ehm, what's your name, Ms. Protagonist?"
"...." you hesitated a bit, before the girl behind you spoke for you.
"Y/N, L/N! Jeez, were you even listening earlier, Hifumi?"
"Dude, what the hell?! You're giving my name to a complete stranger! Wait, you're a stranger too! How do you know my name?!" you obviously lashed out at her, pulling away and turning to her with conviction as she seemed a bit disappointed.
"This again? Listen, I'll explain on the way, Y/N, but, for now....do trust me a bit, alright? I won't hurt you."
You just stared, before sighing. If this was a kidnapping, maybe it'd be best to go along with it for now, that way, you could at least gain their trust, and make your escape when they think you're good. Sounds like a good plan for now. Nodding, you heard the Hifumi guy clear his throat from behind you.
"Are you done now?" he asked, pushing his glasses up, "Listen, I know this is a really....really.........really absurd situation we're in, BUT! I think you might grow a bit more accustomed to it after Ms. Lilian explains everything to you, Ms. L/N," he says after awkwardly looking at "Lilian" and fixing his pants a bit, "And, don't worry--normally, I don't really associate much with women, but, if you need any advice on this matter, come to me, I know everything there is to know about harems."
And with that, Hifumi meandered down the hall, turning a corner before you both heard a door shut in the distance. Wait, did he say harem? W a i t, what??? What in the world is happening??
But as you dwelled on that, Lilian supposedly heard your thoughts or at least knew your worries, and so she began to talk as she was dragging you down the hall.
"So, I'm guessing we should probably start from the beginning--you see....there was a certain thing about you that it seemed a certain person was interested in observing. I'm gonna tell you her name because, well, I honestly doubt you'd ever meet her. She was from Hope's Peak Academy, as the Observer of Talent, and her name is Junko Enoshima," she started off, "You see, Junko grew an affinity for watching you in particular due to the fact your Talent was something that was rarely ever seen. It was extremely unique and she wanted to observe its effects more than she could in the regular school environment."
Turning a corner, she continued, "So, she created a separate compartment of the school, where you and at least 24 other students--particularly males--would stay in the same environment as you, in order to study what effects your talent would have on all of them."
Was this true? "Wait....what?"
"....JUST KIDDING! Well, mostly! Junko's the Ultimate Fashionista, do you think we'd really have a complex plot in a fic like this?"
"Fic?"
"Anyway, hon, this is partially due to your talent, but the majority of Hope's Peak has like....nothing to do with this! They didn't choose to trap you here, I did~!"
You glared at her, and she just ignored it and continued.
"You see, I was very intrigued by your talent. It's a stupid one, for sure, but somehow it's also so intriguing to me! So, with permission from Hope's Peak, somehow, I decided to host a little....mm, would we call it a game? To help your talent grow and flourish!" she explains, "They took that as a good enough excuse and while they helped me build this huge house, this game is...not their idea, all of it was me!"
"Wait, first you said this was a fic--now it's a game? ...what kind of game, even?"
Lilian grinned, "Well, you know those famed "Killing Games" that are like, really famous all over TV and stuff? It's...kinda like that, but this time it's more of a..." she thought for a moment, before speaking again, "A Dating Game!"
After getting over the absolute ridiculousness of such a contrived plot, you just realized you had been pushed outside to a courtyard of some sort. No one else had been showing up in or around the house so far, you were starting to worry if it was just you, Hifumi....and this crazy woman, alone in this house.
"So, wait, you said it was like the Killing Game shows or something? So does that mean there's a Monokuma too?"
As soon as you said it, you heard the familiar childish sound effect of Monokuma spawning in the area, and after comedically falling from the air, he stood up straight, "Yep-yep!" the only difference to this Monokuma was that...he was dressed like that one character, who was she--Usami? You haven't watched that show in ages.
You stared at him incredulously. Regardless of his attire, this seriously cannot be happening, you should be in school right now!
"Although, don't worry about the whole fact that I was kind of made for the Killing Games--in this AU, I'm just here to be occasional comedic relief and exposition! Oh, and to also let you know important things like when the house gets renovated or something."
Ah, so at least he wouldn't be much of a bother. Much of, you knew he'd probably still be a bother in other ways, but right now you just nodded along, with a monotonous expression. Half of you still believes this is a dream, watching as Monokuma vanished into thin air after bouncing a bit, but half of you knew that was probably not true.
"Now, then, I've explained to you--" "Not really." "--kind of explained to you the situation that you're in. It's a Dating Game, and it revolves around your talent!"
"But you've been saying I have an Ultimate Talent this whole time. I don't even remember it, so how am I supposed to--" "You'll figure it out eventually. That, or I'll just have to tell you."
Lilian pushed you forward gently, "But! For now, you should acquaint yourself with the others living here! They were all in the entrance hall until they spread out after I explained this stuff to them! So they're all scattered about.." she looked around the large and somewhat open area.
"You shouldn't have much trouble finding them though--the majority of them are loud and stand out a lot, since, y'know, they're Ultimates," she laughed a bit, before fixing her bow tie and stepping away.
"Once you're done, you should probably find your way to the dining hall to eat dinner, because by the time you're done greeting everyone, it'd probably be past regular bedtime," Lilian said, not explaining anymore of that before snapping her fingers and vanishing in a pink smoke cloud. She was like a ninja, but lamer.
Blinking as the dust slowly was blown away by the wind, you sighed. Okay, well, since you were still going to go along with it in the case that this was actually a life-threatening situation, you mustered up resolve and walked in a random direction. Not too long after, you saw three boys talking amongst themselves, and smiled.
"Oh, that was easier than I thought it'd be," you thought, going over to them, making your footsteps a bit louder and waving to get their attention.
The dark-haired one was the first one to notice you, looking up at you as the other two, the brunettes, looked at you as well.
"Oh, hello. You must be, uhm, Y/N, right?" the shortest of the two brunettes spoke up, his green eyes shining curiously. He gave off an odd aura of enthusiastic innocence that was hard to ignore as he smiled.
"Uh, yeah, that's me. I mean, I dunno if there are even any other girls here, so.." you laughed nervously as he returned it.
"Yeah, that's probably true," he rubbed the back of his head, before fixing that green hoodie of his, "Oh, I guess I should probably introduce myself before casually kicking off conversation--my name's Makoto Naegi. It's nice to meet you, Y/N," he held out his hand for a handshake and you smiled and took it.
"I'm guessing you're confused too, huh?" he asks, and when you nod, his expression grew a bit serious.
"We've been here trying to deduce the situation we're in, too," Makoto continued talking, "We were pretty convinced that either we're in a really detailed lucid dream...or we got kidnapped or something. So a lot of us split up to try and find our way out."
"From what the others have told us so far, and what we've seen of this place, it doesn't really look like there's really any place we can get out from here," the black-haired one spoke up, putting his fingers to his chin and looking up, "It doesn't look like it from here, but there are these huge iron bars that go miles up into the sky. Like a dome."
He pauses before continuing, his gaze serious, "Multiple of us have tried to break some of it off or even climb it, since the bars are crossed over each other, but it's not working so far."
You rose your brows a bit. Wow, he was very observant, wasn't he?
But immediately after, he flinched, suddenly looking nervous and shy. Clearing his throat, he gave you an apologetic smile, "I, uh, already went off without introducing myself. Sorry about that, haha.." he cleared his throat, before hesitantly holding his hand out to you. You shook it as he talked.
"I'm Shuichi Saihara, it's, uh, nice to meet you, Y/N."
"Yeah, same," you nod to him with a small smile.
Noticing that the other brunette had looked like he was thinking this whole time, you went to him as Shuichi and Makoto began to discuss something else, "Hey, now, who are you?"
He jumped, "Oh, sorry. My name is Hajime Hinata," he quickly introduced himself before suddenly falling back into thought. He seemed very concerned about something, and although part of you knew a situation like this was definitely a valid reason of concern, you just felt you should make sure nothing else was wrong. Feeling concern for a random stranger, hnm.
Blinking in confusion, you tapped his shoulder, "Hey, you alright? I mean, you've been silent since I got here."
"What?" he looked up at you, in a momentary shock, before calming down with a bit of embarrassment, "Sorry about that. I kinda..spaced out, while thinking about this whole mess," he explains. Fixing his tie just a bit, he looked down in thought again. "I mean, doesn't something just seem off about this? I get that it's normal now, but, for some reason I have a feeling eventually they're gonna make us do something...totally crazy."
He looked at you again, "I mean, you have 24 guys, and 1 girl. That just gives me so many bad vibes."
You felt your heart drop just a teensy bit at that. Well, it made sense for him to think so. It was a pretty sketchy setup, what you had here, especially with Lilian, and Monokuma. Who's to say this isn't a Killing Game being covered up as some saccharine, cheesy romcom or whatever?
"...s-sorry, I worried you, didn't I?" Hajime looks at you apologetically, "I mean, maybe it is something pretty normal or...well, whatever Lilian said, I just--I dunno, it gives me a bad feeling."
"...well, that's totally understandable," you nod at him, but regain composure and smile reassuringly, "And, yeah, I see where you're coming from. I'm kinda worried about it too, but," you grin, "We have 25 people, and they're all Ultimates--well, I mean, I think--so clearly we have more power on our side, don't you think?"
"..that's true, I guess," he nods, smiling a tiny bit, "So I guess we're not totally powerless."
"Not at all! And, if we are in some sorta kidnapping scenario, maybe if we "prove they can trust us" or whatever, we can gain an easy way out!" you smiled brightly, "This situation is weird, but it's anything but hopeless."
"Exactly right!" Makoto spoke up, walking over to you two with a cheerful smile of his own, "I get your worries, too, Hajime. And Shuichi, you guys are both uneasy, huh?" he fixed his jacket, and gave a determined look to his fellow males, "But, we can't lose hope yet just because everything seems bleak. I'm sure if we band together, eventually, we'll see a good final outcome!"
The two more reluctant males looked at each other, before smiling a bit, and nodding.
"But, really, we can't band together properly if Y/N has no idea who the others are, can we?" Shuichi points out.
"Yeah, that's true.." Hajime nods, "....well, I guess it's time for a huge meet and greet, then."
You laughed nervously as you nodded, "Yeah....hoo, boy, this is gonna take a while, isn't it?"
Makoto laughed a bit, and the four of you turned to go explore the area and meet the others.
"Well, I think the amount of interesting people you'll meet could make up for the time," he points out with a small confident smirk. You raise a brow, then just nod and take his word for it as you all began the trip to meet everyone.
And that, dear friends, is how our story begins.