Immediately as the two girls entered the room, the sounds of curious voices echoed through their ears.

"Hey! Two new students!"

"I wonder if this is everyone…"

"There's usually sixteen students, so I think this is everyone."

"I wonder what their Ultimates are..."

As the teens began talking to each other in hushed voices, Blair stood there staring at her new classmates. As she expected, they all looked so different. There was one girl that was absolutely rocking the lolita style, a style Blair had never seen anyone wear in public before, a girl- I think they're a girl- with bulging muscles that were more impressive than any bodybuilder she'd ever seen, and a guy two had… hair that looked like corn on the cob? But they all had one thing in common. They were all extremely talented at something, which was why they were here. And she was in the midst of them.

But what she didn't realize what that she was making a fool out of herself gawking at everyone

"Um… Blair? You okay? I just introduced myself. Did you want to do the same?" Aoi leaned toward her side to look Blair in the eye, waving her hand over her face to get her attention. Blair blinked, noticing everyone staring at her.

Oh geez, I blanked out again!

Blair shook her head to relieve herself from her daze. "Hello!" She began. "Nice to meet you all. I've heard a lot about you all from the internet, and…" judging by the expression people's faces morphed into, she could see that last bit was taken the wrong way. "Oh, no!" she said, waving her hands in the air. "I don't mean that in a creepy way, I just mean that I've heard that you're all really great and- nevermind. Anyway, my name's Blair Hiriyama. Ultimate Jiu-jitsu Master." She bowed curtly.

Aoi and Blair were greeted with some 'hi's' and 'nice to meet you's' but one girl got straight to the point.

"Hey, Hiriyama, did you happen to wake up in a classroom by any chance?" The nervous expression on the girl's face, and the soft touch of her voice told Blair that this girl was probably a shy one. She was quite short, wearing a poofy green skirt and had short hair.

"You can just call me Blair," Blair told her. "And yes, I did, actually."

"That's what I thought. The same thing happened to the rest of us, and we're trying to figure out what's going on."

"And there are no teachers anywhere," a guy with huge hair that stuck out in weird angles added. "Taka checked the whole building."

Blair assumed Taka was the guy near the front with the white uniform, because of his serious expression and slight nod. Plus he just radiated teacher's pet vibes. But underneath all that, she felt she'd seen him before… but she quickly shook off the feeling.

"So… we all just woke up here with no way of knowing how we got here?" This was all pretty suspicious.

I need to call Shi-Shu, she thought. Out of habit, she tried digging into the pocket of her bag for her phone, but she ended up turning her pockets inside out in the process, finding nothing.

So, she tried searching her backpack for it, but… the familiar weight on her back was gone. Huh? Where's my bag? It had all my the stuff in it. Just great…

"I'm missing my phone, too." Blair added. "And my bag."

"It's not just you, all of our things are missing too." A girl that appeared to have a keen taste in fashion told her. Just like Taka did, the girl looked oddly familiar, with her thick hair,and that snarky voice of hers. Blair's first thought was that she was some sort of celebrity, but it felt like she knew her from something else. She put a bit of thought into it before giving up.

"Phones and everything." A girl in a sailor uniform with long, metallic blue hair chimed in.

"Wait. Everyone's things are missing?"

"Yeah, dumbass. That's what I just said!" The girl with so much sass that Blair let out a huff of annoyance.

"I may be a dumbass but at least I don't sound like I came straight out of a crappy teen rom-com," she muttered.

"Huh!? You wanna say that again?" The girl took a step toward Blair, and she swore they were about to get into a full on fist fight, but Taka stood in the middle of them.

"Stop! There will be no fighting if I can help it!" He told us in an oddly serious voice. His face was oddly serious looking too, his thick eyebrows arching so much it looked like they were stuck that way. Blair smirked at the fact that he was looking at the other girl when he said it.

"Thanks for that, I guess," She thanked him.

"Hey!" He snapped back. "Don't act like you're innocent! All good students show up at least 10 minutes early for class!"

"This isn't even class though," She defended herself. I had a feeling I wouldn't get along with this guy.

"Same goes for you, Asahina!" The same guy practically yelled. Wow, he really is a real stickler about the rules.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" Aoi yiped. "We just all need to calm down! Let's all introduce ourselves to each other first! Then we can move on to whatever else sound good?" I could tell that Aoi's bright aura was something that helped calm everyone down a bit. She was good with people, that's for sure.

"Psh, fine." said a guy with a leather jacket. He was the one with the hair that looked like corn. Geez, he looked familiar too. Why was Blair having so much deja vu today?

And with that, everyone began awkwardly introducing themselves, usually starting with the person they saw first. Blair decided to do the same. She scanned the room in an attempt to find someone who wasn't already talking to someone else.

Eventually, her eyes settled upon someone who she gasped at the sight of. Her breath was taken away by not only the sight of them but the sheer hope she had that they would be here.

That's right. It was…

A fellow red-head!

Yeah, yeah, she knew. Being a read-head wasn't so rare of a thing that you would stop and stare at one of them from across the street. But in Japan, it was a pretty rare quality. Blair was mostly Japanese, herself, but because of the shred of Irish in her, she was born with a thick bed of orange hair. And was sometimes bullied for it in her childhood. She'd never really met a Japanese person who had red hair who wasn't related to her, so that's why she was so excited to see someone like her.

Out of excitement, she waltzed up to him and smiled, catching him off guard slightly by tapping him on the shoulder.

"Hey, are you Japanese?" Blair asked rather bluntly. It occured to her that this guy might not even be Japanese, since, even though Japan wasn't very diverse in race, there were some people here who weren't native to the country. Blair wanted to be sure he was, but judging by his skin tone and the shape of his nose and eyes, she was pretty sure he was.

"Um… yeah?" He looked confused by the freckled girl's blunt question.

"Yes! You see, I'm mostly Japanese, too. But I still have red hair. Well technically it's orange, but I'm still a red head. I've never really met a Japanese person with red hair! Is it real?"

He looked not just more confused by my last question, but genuinely concerned for my ability to socialize. "Um, yes?"

For some reason Blair found herself staring at his gotee, which was tied in a tight braid on his chin. She also noticed his other features, too. He had thick, spiky red hair, and was wearing a plain jacket and white shirt. He looked mildly annoyed, and sort of tired. His blue eyes glared at her as he answered her question, "Why are you staring at me like that?  Geez… It's Leon Kuwata. Ultimate Baseball Star."

"Sorry," Blair said, sensing his annoyance.

"Tsk."

"Anyway, I think 'Ultimate Baseball Star' is really cool. I always wished I did do something like baseball. The only sport I've ever done is jiu-jitsu." She wasn't just trying to be nice by saying that, she actually did want to play a sport at one point. She joined a soccer team when she was younger, but after an incident where she picked up a praying mantis and shoved it in someone's face, everyone thought she was weird and made fun of her, calling her 'mantis girl.'

"Well if you want to play, then why don't you?"

"I'm not sure. I just never really got along with other kids…"

Leon rolled his eyes, then hesitated before continuing. "Between you and me, I never really wanted to become the Ultimate Baseball Star. I was kind of forced into it and was driven away from my real passion. What I'm trying to get at is, don't let anyone get in the way of what you want to do."

And with that, he walked away, leaving Blair to wonder what the hell that conversation was.

Well I guess I should talk to some other people.

She turned around to find someone else to talk to when she felt the weight of a body crash into her.

"Hey!" A sort of high pitched female voice snapped.

Blair quickly turned around to face her. "Sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"I don't care if you didn't mean to. You still-" her voice got quiet as if she was embarrassed to say it. "Y-you stepped on my f-foot."

That's all? Okay, she's kind of a pansy.

"Um, sorry." Blair replied with less sincerity.

The girl in question was a few inches shorter than Blair, with long hair tied in braids, glasses, and a sailor uniform with a long skirt. She looked extremely annoyed with Blair, as if it was her fault that she bumped into her. But the freckled girl decided not to make a big deal out of it.

"Anyway, I'm Blair Hiriyama. Ultimate Jiu-"

"Yeah, yeah. Ultimate Jiu-jitsu Master, you already introduced yourself. Your annoying voice is still ringing in my ears." She flinched a bit, as if she was genuinely bothered by Blair's voice.

"Well you're a blunt one, aren't you? I can respect that. What's your name?"

She hesitated for a bit before answering. "Toko Fukawa. Ultimate Writing Prodigy."

Blair put her finger on her chin. "Toko Fukawa… that name sounds familiar. Hm.... Oh! Did you write a book called 'So Lingers the Ocean?' I read it not too long ago."

"Y-you've read my book?" Toko bit her lip in nervousness. "Did you like it?"

"Well," Blair began, "the way you write is amazing and so was the plot. But... the relationship between the main character and the love interest was kind of toxic."

"T-toxic?"

"Yeah. The guy was just so mean to her and-"

Toko brushed it off quickly, getting visibly more pissed by the second. "Well wh-whatever. You obviously don't understand what love is." And with that, she stalked away, leaving Blair dumbfounded. She knew she had a knack for pissing people off, but never made someone walk away in anger that quickly.

Uh… well I just had two of the weirdest conversations ever within the span of five minutes.

"What was that about?" A voice from behind Blair suddenly asked. It took the girl a few seconds to realize that the question was directed at her.

Blair turned around, looking at the source of the voice. And she'll be honest, for a second, she was caught off guard. The girl- she's a girl, right? She's wearing a skirt so she's probably a girl- was at least a head and a half taller than the orange haired teenager. It didn't take her long to figure out that this was the girl Blair noticed when she first walked in, with her tanned, scared skin bulging with muscles. She was wearing a regular uniform, and had long white hair.

"She got mad because I critiqued her book," Blair informed the muscular girl, to which she nodded.

Blair had worked with big, strong people like her before, so she was used to being around people like that.. But she was still just a tad bit intimidated. Maybe it was just because the other girl was an Ultimate. She didn't know.

"What's your name?"

"I am Sakura Ogami. The Ultimate Martial Artist."

Martial artist? Oh. So she's basically just a better version of me.

"Sakura Ogami… Oh! I remember now. You're an MMA fighter, right? I remember seeing you on TV! You were awesome! You even beat the boys!" She punched her fist in the air at the word 'awesome.'

Sakura chuckled. "Yes, I am an MMA fighter. You said you did jiu-jitsu, correct? Jiu-jitsu was one of the first martial arts I trained in," Sakura replied.

"Really?"

"Yes. I'm a bit rusty, but I would love to spar you some time." She told me with a genuine smile.

Wait. Is the Ultimate Martial Artist really asking me to spar with her? Blair gaped at the idea.

"Um, yeah! I would like that!"

**~**~**

During the time provided, Blair managed to talk to everyone and learn all their names. A lot of the conversations she had were… interesting, to say the least. It involved some roasts [mostly on her end], backing away, and forcing some people *cough* Byakuya *cough cough* to shake her filthy hands because it was extremely rude not to shake someone's hand when they offered. The nerve of some people!

But… There was this one girl who stood by the wall the whole time, not wanting to talk to anyone, apparently. The girl had long white hair that faded purple at the tips, and pale skin. She was wearing a brown jacket and boots. She had this mysterious gaze in her purple irises, too, as if she was seeing something the rest of them couldn't.

Blair wasn't sure why, but she got this feeling in her chest that she couldn't describe whenever she looked at the white haired teenager. It was like she knew her, but not in the same way that Junko, Mondo and Taka looked familiar. [She probably just saw those three in a magazine or something.] It was like she knew this girl personally, but at the same time she didn't. Like, if you were friends with someone in a past life, and you met them again in your next one. That's what it felt like. It was a strange feeling that Blair wasn't sure what to do with.

That was probably why she hadn't talked to her yet. But, if they were going to be classmates, she knew it was inevitable that she would talk to the introverted girl eventually. Why not start now?

Blair made her way over to the girl, who was staring at the floor, deep in thought. She looked so focused that Blair was a little afraid of scaring her. But her the white haired girl didn't flinch when Blair greeted her.

"Hey! What're you doing here all by yourself?"

"Minding my own business," she replied in a silky voice.

A few seconds of awkward silence filled the air between them, before Blair interrupted it.

"Um… what's your Ultimate?"

"I don't feel like telling you that." She didn't look me in the eye when she gave her reply. Just stood there with that concentrated frown on her face.

"Um, okay. That's fine." Blair tried to strike up conversation a bit more, but nothing seemed to stick with her.

"Please leave me alone," she eventually said.

"Not until you talk to me," Blair said stubbornly. She knew she knew this girl from somewhere, and she refused to give up without a fight.

It was then that the pale girl finally looked Blair in the eye, annoyance flashing in her irises.

"Why do you feel such a need to talk to me? You don't even know my name."

"Sure I do," Blair blurted out. "You're Kyoko Kirigiri."

A shocked expression struck Kyoko's features for only a moment, before her stoic mask was placed back on. She studied Blair, befpre she asked carefully, "how do you know my name."

The orange haired teenager opened her mouth to reply, but the words didn't form. She found herself asking, wait… how do I know her name?

She honestly had no clue. She thought she knew this girl. In fact, she knew she knew her from somewhere. But besides that sense of deja vu in the back of her mind, she only remembered this girl's name? That made no sense. Was she going insane?

As soon as her mind began spiraling, everyone's attention was brought to a high pitched voice that suddenly echoed throughout the room.

"Hey there, howdy, hello! Is everyone here? Good! Then let's get things rolling!" It was a happy voice. A little too happy in her opinion.

Blair turned in the direction of the voice, which was located in the stadium in the front of the gym. She was a bit confused by what she saw. It was a…stuffed bear? Black on one side and white on the other. It couldn't be the bear that talked, though. Could it?

"A teddy bear?" Chihiro quiried.

"I am not a teddy bear!" It retaliated. "I...am… Monokuma! And the school's headmaster!"