"Let's go inside and get settled, Mikaela. It's been a long morning. We can take naps when we're done."

"What are we, six?"

"I can guarantee we weren't napping much at that age."

"Okay. Wow. Yeah. Let's go inside."

"Too much?" I grin. Mikaela's lips quirk up slightly. I take it as a win. He starts to walk into the gates. I follow eagerly. Mikaela turns to me and begins to say something...but I can't hear him. My vision begins to black out around the edges, and I see Mikaela's softened expression before everything goes black.

-

The air is cool around me as I slowly come to. I sit up and raise my arms above my head. Hours must have passed since I fell asleep. It's getting dark, so much so that my eyes have to adjust to the lack of lighting. 

I rub my eyes and turn to look out the window. A metal plate with large bolts covers it, and I'm sitting closer to the center of the room than my usual seat by the window. The walls are a sickeningly yellow tinge and the paper peels ever so slightly in one corner. Dust covers the edges of my desk, dark brown and wooden, unlike my grey desk at school. 

I didn't just sleep through geometry.

The chair screeched back and tumbles over as I stand. All of the desks are dusty. I whip my head around and find a camera in the back corner of the room. What the hell? Where am I? Last I remember, I was with Mika, and we were... 

But- I think- Hope's Peak is supposed to be in top condition.

I pat my hands along my sides, and backside, and scan quickly for my bad. Alright. This is fine. Totally fine. I glance again at the three large windows. All are covered, and the bolts are too big to be loosened with even a large hand wrench. Okay. I walk briskly to the abandoned teachers' desk. Also covered in dust. Fine. I try all the drawers. They all open, but there's nothing in them. Where there would usually be a small cupboard for cleaning supplies in the corner, there's the camera by the ceiling and even more dust. 

New plan. I start toward the double doors cautiously. There's probably just an empty hall with more dust. I might be too high up to have jumped, anyway. I push the door open and peek outside. There's no one, but the floors are clean. Alright. I glance back to the room, up at the camera, and abandon it.

It's silent for a moment after the door shuts behind me, then I hear slight noise nearby. I take a right outside the door and then another around the corner. There's a long hallway with an awkward, small wide portion in the middle. It's square and looks like it could almost serve as a lounge if there were chairs or a small couch. Clearly, this is Hope's Peak Academy, I mean, it's a school. It's just... I keep walking passed the nurse's office and two bathrooms. I try the door to the men's room, and it's locked. Ahead of me, there's a staircase that's also blocked off. 

I take another right at the end of the hall toward the noise. The room I walk into is void of people but filled with their achievements. Trophies, metals, and other prizes line a shelf partially encased in glass. A katana sits, sheathed, on the shelf next to a samurai helmet accented with gold. I look past it and continue forward. Pushing through another set of double doors, I have to squint and blink from the bright light. 

When my eyes adjust, I take in the gym and all of the people standing in it. They all look... interesting. The doors slam shut behind me and I jumped. Mika walks over briskly from where he was talking to a cute girl with pale, baby-pink hair and glassy green eyes.

"Yuu-chan!"

"Mikaela–" my chest swirls with anxiety and relief as I meet him in the middle– "do you know what's going on?"

"I don't, and it seems like everyone is in the same boat. Did you also wake up in a classroom? Anya shook me awake in ours after she woke up."

So Anya's the girl.

"Yeah, but there wasn't anyone in mine," I say. "Why did everyone come to the gym?"

"The guy at the front, Gon, heard an announcement to meet here when he woke up. He went around knocking and ended up meeting with me, Anya, and that guy over there–" he points to whose gotta be the textbook definition of 'some guy'– "Sorata. Sounds like he woke up a while before the rest of us. His knocking is actually what woke Anya. After us, Gon went back a little while after to knock again and met Sonohara and Ayanokōji. After that, people just kinda trickled in."

"How many more people do you think there'll be? I mean, this is obviously Hope's Peak... the plaque confirms it if it wasn't obvious before... So, the class size should be almost up, right?"

"Well, with you here Yuu-chan, we're probably only waiting on one-to-four more people. Hope's Peak used to usually take in classes of twenty for our track, but the last two years have only been sixteen."

At that, I look around the room and finally take in the people around me. Most of them look pretty normal, if not boring. There is this one girl with blue hair and a guy with white hair, and Anya, and that 'Gon' guy, but other than that... I don't know, I guess I expected more. 

"You sure have a lot of pent up anger for someone your size, Pixie Stick!" The gym doors slam against the wall as they open, and two people– both interesting-looking– walk in. I'm not sure if they're being friendly, arguing, flirting, or something in between. The girl is small and colorful. The guy, though... something about him just totally pisses me off already. "I heard this place has a gym—maybe you should let some 'a that pent up anger out... not that those arms need the work!"

He grins, and his eyes shine with mischief as he ruffles her hair with a strange familiarity. 

"I'll work on that when you look the part to comment on me," the girl says calmly despite how her fingers twitch. "you've got a zit coming in, Puss Prince."

"Sure, but that can be fixed. What d'you have going for ya?" the girl pauses, and his eyes light up in triumph. He raises a hand to dismiss her before she can snap back and turns on his heel toward the blue-haired girl. "Hey Nagisa-chan..!"

"Yuu, I know her!" Mika says. "Shi-chan! You never told me you were going here!"

'Shi-chan' half-heartedly trots over with a soft look on her face. Her eyes light up as she truly sees him, and her shoulders relax. She has brown eyes and her hair is tied back some way that makes no sense. Why bother pulling it up if the back is down and the front is still in her face?

"We haven't talked in a while, Mikaela. It seemed like it'd be bragging if I suddenly reached out to tell you I got accepted here," she says earnestly. "I'm glad you're here with me, though. This whole thing's kinda freaky, but I trust you to have my back."

"Of course! I'm sure it's not nearly as crazy as this all looks so far, anyway." Mika looks at me quickly before looking back at her. "This is Yuu-chan, by the way! I told you about him during the occupation."

"Hi Yuu-chan, I'm Hiragi Shinoa, Ultimate Leader! I was the 'chief' for our team. Mika told me that you actually managed to escape Sanguiem early on in the occupation! Great job."

I can't explain it, but this girl just makes my skin crawl. What's her deal anyway? Why not go after that other jerk? If anything I'm her friend's brother, so why's she so... I don't know... like this?

The P.A. system goes off before the sound of machinery going off fills the room for a moment. An unsettling toy bear jumps up onto the podium from nowhere, getting all of our attention. It's half-black-half-white, and the black side has glowing red eyes that look like they were torn into the fabric. The bear addresses us, but its voice is coming from the speakers, rather that the thing itself.

"Good morning boys and girls! Or should I say good evening? You all had quite the naps!" Its voice is cheery and mechanical. Its black button eye on the white side is cold and dead. "I'm your headmaster, Monokuma!"

"Aren't you a toy?" a boy with black hair blurts out.

"I am no toy. I am Monokuma, and you will address me as such!" It doesn't sound human, but its tone is so normal that I almost look past it. "Anyway! Before I was so rudely interrupted, I was going to give you all a short orientation!"

The room is silent with anticipation as Monokuma pauses. It looks over us all with a hungry look, and out of the corner of my eye I notice that Anya girl shrink back a little.

"As some of you have noticed, things here are a little different! If it makes you feel any better, your upperclassmen and our alumni haven't been keeping this a secret from you! As everyone knows, our class sizes have been shrinking the last couple of years. Part of this is because your generation really lacks talent, which, what awful timing, but it's also because we've been experimenting! Sixteen has proven to be an ideal number to allow both person relationships with everyone and clique-ing, which you teenagers love to do!"

"What's that gotta do with how we got here, though?" Gon asks, eyes bright. I kinda wanna punch him for looking so unaffected.

"Great question! You see, due to all the problems your world is facing, I've come up with a solution to get only the best of the best out into the world as quickly as possible!" Monokuma's smile stretches impossibly wider as my stomach sinks. "You could even graduate today, if you're careful! All you have to do is kill somebody!"

What?