Chapter Text
They say there’s a wildwolf at Hope’s Peak Academy.
That’s really not nearly as big of a deal as it sounds.
Many middle and high schools throughout the world are full of wildwolves. In most cases, this doesn’t matter, since students are given the day before and after each full moon off, so as to not reveal anything and to protect the school from potential liabilities; the latter of these is the most important when it comes to a boarding school like Hope’s Peak – can’t force students to live on campus where they’re likely to be attacked by a wildwolf classmate, after all, if you want your school to actually survive.
Point of fact, most boarding schools allow for their wolven students to leave together in packs to surrounding open territory during the full moon. It lets those with control get their zoomies out, and it keeps the wildwolves away from their much more vulnerable human residents. (Wolves can take care of wolves, after all, and most of them know to stay away from the wildwolves, even if wildwolves don’t have the control to stay away from them.)
So all in all, the idea that Hope’s Peak Academy has a wildwolf enrolled and living on its premises honestly isn’t nearly as scandalous as it sounds.
It’s just the assumption that someone – anyone – who has the sheer talent to be an Ultimate at anything should naturally have the ability to control their wolf.
As if being good in one area automatically makes you good at every other area in your life.
Despicable is what it is.
But no one calls it that.
Three days into her stay at Hope’s Peak – barely enough time to get her apartment set up to her liking – Ultimate Fashionista Junko Enoshima is called directly to the headmaster’s office.
Junko’s never met Jin Kirigiri, although she’s heard a lot of stories about him. Just like there are a lot of stories of Hope’s Peak and its students, there’s a lot of talk about its headmasters. There are even rumors that the first headmaster, the found of Hope’s Peak itself, Izuru Kamukura, might still be alive somewhere hidden within the school. That one’s mostly been disproved by various Ultimate Hide-and-Seek students throughout the years, seeing how none of them have ever found him, but the rumor persists. Probably because people love adding to legend around an already legendary school.
However.
Current Headmaster Jin Kirigiri is something special. A former Ultimate, like most of the staff, but one who discarded his talent almost immediately on graduating – if not some time before. The former Ultimate Detective who isn’t involved in any detective work, and who almost seems completely divorced from his entire family. Some people say that he was just bad at his talent, despite his being an Ultimate – that he was grandfathered in by being a legacy admission instead of earning his spot based on his talent (the same way that someone from the Kuzuryu or Togami clans are often assumed to be enrolled). Others say that he simply decided he wanted to spend his life doing something else – that despite the fame and fortune that comes with being a former Ultimate, he’d set his sights on what he thought was better or more entertaining or more fulfilling. But still others say that he’s deep undercover, investigating a case deep within Hope’s Peak itself.
Of course, that last group often tends to be the one that believes Izuru is still alive somewhere.
Junko’s read most of the major theories. In her latest interviews, she’s talked about some of them, because when the fashion magazines get tired of asking about her dating life or her beauty regime, they ask about her new school and the validation that must come with being scouted by Hope’s Peak. (She hadn’t needed that, but she doesn’t say it. Arrogance sells, sure, but she hasn’t built her brand on that. She’s built her brand on being honest and approachable – someone you want to get a sake with, once she’s old enough to drink. But that means she can’t be honest about knowing Hope’s Peak would scout her. Not without wording it very carefully (particularly in terms of personal self-worth; she doesn’t need a school to tell her that she’s valuable, that sort of thing). Arrogance on her doesn’t sell.)
But when it comes to theories? Junko doesn’t really put much stock in any of them. Bullshit until proven true, you know?
(Except the wildwolf. But that’s just personal interest.)
Junko knocks on the headmaster’s door with one knuckle before chirping in the energetic voice she maintains in public (not just public appearances, but always), “Enoshima Junko here to see you, sir!”
Odd that there’s no secretary or personal assistant to lead her back to the room, no one to make sure that their esteemed headmaster isn’t busy doing something wildly more important than whatever he’s called Junko to his office for, but Junko doesn’t hold that against him. This likely isn’t even his primary office, just a room set aside for moments like this, when he needs to talk to a student but can’t have her joining him where he and the other staff have their places set up for interactions with each other. It’s a bit of a waste of space, but with all the Reserve Course student money funneling in and the new building and everything—
Well.
“Come in.”
Jin’s voice isn’t nearly as deep as Junko imagined. He never gives interviews, and Hope’s Peak rarely has press conferences with the headmaster himself. All of their announcements come through underlings who are given a script to stand by, even the one opening the school up to those less talented to buy their way in. (The Reserve Course classes aren’t the same as those for someone in the Main Course. Junko didn’t have to go here to know that.)
Point being that there are very little recordings of the headmaster’s voice.
Junko imagined it lower than it is. Booming. Impressive. But it’s neither of those things. Just an average, ordinary voice from what must be an extraordinary man.
No one ordinary or less than that would be headmaster of Hope’s Peak Academy.
Junko slips through the door. “You wanted to see me,” she says, folding her hands behind her back and leaning not so subtly forward, twirling here and there in her short skirt, “right, headmaster, sir?”
“Shut the door.”
“Ooooohhhhh.” Junko’s eyes grow wide, and she raises a hand to fluff one of her twintails. “That fast, huh?” She turns and places a hand on the door. “You’re just naughty. Wait ‘til the others hear about this.”
The door shuts.
“Are you done now, Ultimate Breaker?”
Junko pauses. A smile curls about her lips. Then she turns to him, adjusts the black-and-white wolf ears headband atop her head, and then props a hand on her hip. “Appearances are everything, headmaster. I’m sure you understand that.”
He doesn’t seem bothered by the shift in her demeanor.
That’s fine.
Jin gestures to the chair across from him. “I have a proposition for you.”
“Oh?” Junko raises one brow as though she’s surprised. She steps forward and lounges in the high-backed chair, crossing one long leg over the other and then clasping her hands on her knee, her fingers interlaced, red fingernails ever brighter under the light. “This doesn’t have anything to do with that wildwolf rumor, does it? I figured the academy would have ways around that sort of thing.”
“We do.” Jin’s expression never changes. Probably he believes he’s dealt with unwieldy Ultimates like her before. (He has no idea.) “But you’re here for a reason—”
“To expand my status as the Ultimate Fashionista, of course.”
“—and if you do not prove any growth in your talent by the exam, then you will be expelled.” Jin doesn’t falter. He glances up just enough to meet Junko’s eyes, as though to prove just how serious he is.
Junko snorts. “How can a judge test what I do for growth? Fashion’s one thing, but breaking a wildwolf? It’s not nearly as complicated as people think.” She raises a hand so that she can stare at her nails. “Just because I can do the impossible.” Her glance returns to Jin. “How do you measure growth in that? You can’t.”
Jin’s gaze lifts to the fake wolf ears atop Junko’s head, one ear just in front of each twintail. Then his gaze drops to her left shoulder, where the scars her sister left behind show thick and dark against her porcelain skin. “You aren’t a wolf yourself.”
If she was, her scars wouldn’t have—
“Neither are you,” Junko admits. Then her gaze grows dark, and she bites out, “What’s your point? You need me to break one of your special students?” She nods to his window. “Just point to them. It’s that—”
“Find them on your own,” Jin interrupts. He places his hands on his desk.
“What?”
“Consider that your avenue for growth.” Jin looks at her cooly. “Find the wildwolf. Break them. Then we’ll see where to go from there.”
Junko feigns annoyance. “You expect me to find your wildwolf with no heightened scent of my own? Poor form, headmaster.” She leans back in her chair. It might be poor form, but it’s not a problem. He might think she’ll call on her own werewolf sister to help her out – wildwolves have a slightly different scent from your average werewolf, so that someone like Mukie knows to stand on edge, if she’s paying attention (and Mukie is always paying attention, even if it’s just to protect her) – but that isn’t necessary. Wildwolves carry themselves differently from everyone else. Ashamed, mostly. It’s not hard to tell.
The question is—
“Poor form or not—”
“Don’t worry about it.” Junko smirks. “Give me the year, and I’ll find your precious wildwolf, break them, and hand them to you on a….” She snorts. “Not a silver platter, of course. Maybe an iron one.” She pushes herself up from the chair. “Need anything else, headmaster? Or are we done here?”
Jin’s expression still never changes. “One more thing—”
“Don’t tell anyone?” Junko gives him a wink.
Jin meets her eyes again and then nods once.
Junko’s demeanor changes again as she leaves the headmaster’s office. She pulls her skirt down just the slightest bit before skipping along the hallway. There aren’t a lot of people here, so mostly she’s maintaining this character for herself, but she’d rather have it up and not have to worry about it than stalk along the hallway brainstorming and have someone notice that something about her is off.
The nondisclosure isn’t an issue; she doesn’t have to tell Mukie for her sister to find out. Besides, the other werewolves could figure it out, too, if they paid attention, but most of them will be too focused on all the other smells you can find around campus to catch the faintest whiff that something might be off with one of their classmates. Not more than the stench of athletics or….
Besides, a wildwolf has ways of hiding their scent, if they want.
Mukie’s just better at picking them out. Has been ever since she broke. It’s what set her apart when she joined Fenrir, after all.
Not the point.
This is a challenge, direct from the headmaster to Junko personally.
And she’s going to have fun with it.