"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!"

-

"Well, are there any questions?" Monokuma asks. No one answers. The awkward silence is heavy, and our sudden mistrust in everyone else isn't helping. "No? Alrighty then, assembly adjourned. Explore! Make friends! Go wild— I can't wait to see how!"

Monokuma slips back to wherever he came from behind the podium. Gon and the white-haired guy, Frosty, are quick to hop onto the stage and follow. They circle it, and Frosty opens a small drawer. Gon raises his fist, and smashes it. What the hell.

"No clue where he went, guys," Gon says somberly. "We should all split up to look for him!"

"No, we should not." Frosty pinches the bridge of his nose. He looks as apprehensive as he does stressed. "We should all get to know each other. We might be here a while, and we should know what we're working with. I'm Killua Zoldyk, Ultimate Assassin. ...I know that sounds bad given the circumstances, but I'm hoping it'll be better to just tell you all now than have you find out later."

Nobody dares to say anything, but some people trade choice glances. Nagisa-chan and the guy who came in with Shinoa share an especially long look. I try to catch Mikaela's eyes for guidance, but he's busy looking from Shinoa to Gon. I'm not sure how I feel about him looking to that guy for guidance.

"I'm Gon Freecs, the Ultimate Fisherman! I'm actually better at hunting than I am fishing, but I have a long way to go to reach the top, so I couldn't claim it in my title." He pouts, and Killua gives him a playful look. He makes a show of opening his mouth to add something but Gon slaps a hand over his mouth and continues. "Killua is also a better hunter than me, which is also why I couldn't choose it."

Gon's hand flys away from Killua's face and he looks at him in disgust. Killua grins impishly. Gon wipes his hand on his pants. Ew. Beside me, Mikaela takes a step toward everyone else and smiles softly the way he does when he wants to encourage others. 

"My name in Mikaela Hyakuya, and I'm the Ultimate Survivor. I have experience with handling crises, so please feel free to come to me if you're worried or just want a friend to talk to talk to." He gives a small nod to everyone and gives them another, more hopeful smile. As he looks to his right, Shinoa steps up next to him and give a similar smile.

"I'm Hiragi Shinoa, the Ultimate Leader. Feel free to treat me the same as Mikaela," she says. She sounds pretentious. "Let's all work together and get out of here soon."

There's a pause as we wait for someone to go next. Gon and Killua make their way over to us, and Mikaela gives me an expectant look. 

Before I can speak, the redhead from earlier announces, "I'm Karma Akabane, the Ultimate Sadist—I look forward to getting to know and spend time with you all!"

The look in his eyes is unnerving to say the least. Next to him, Nagisa-chan says, "I'm Nagisa Shiota, the Ultimate Student Teacher. Please take care of us. ...and forgive Karma." 

She's so formal, and she's cute. Mikaela looks impressed. I hope he's not interested, because I'd have to give up my second-in-line spot to him. 

It wouldn't be the end of the world, I guess, since there are other cute girls. That one girl is taller than me, and the strong looking brunette is a little off-putting. Anya is cute, but she's almost too sweet and soft looking. The one with glasses is basically glued to that generic looking kid, and the blonde just looks stupid. 

That leaves Nagisa-chan and Shinoa. 

I think the better option is pretty clear.

-

We've all agreed that taking the peaceful, cooperative route, as Mikaela called it, is the best course of action. After we finished our little icebreakers, we decided to explore the school together. 

We only have access to one floor, presumably the first, but we have no way of telling. There's a huge kitchen and cafeteria with enough food to sustain us, and Monokuma made an announcement saying that it'll be regularly replenished. We each have our own room, and they have monograms of our faces next to them. 

It'd be cool if they weren't unnerving and if we didn't have to wonder when and how Monokuma got them done.

-

All of our rooms are in the same hallway, which is progressive but kinda defeats the point of trying to keep us separated. Like, I get the idea, but the lack of distance is one less thing stopping me from making "friends" with Nagisa-chan across the hall. 

My room is in between Mikaela's and Kazuto's rooms, which is fine. Mikaela is, expectedly, a good neighbor. Kazuto is okay. He plays videos games very... passionately into the early hours of the morning (when I'd prefer to be asleep), and he's just kinda painful to talk to. It's hard to take him seriously. He also breathes loudly.

Anyway, the rooms are nice but pretty weird. There's a full-size bed on the right wall from the door, and a plain white table across from it. Between the bed and the wall is a desk with a drawer and file cabinet, and on the wall are two more bolted windows. There's a bathroom to the right of the bed and desk and empty floor-shelves between the table and the floor. The floor is obnoxiously blue with plasticky tiles, and the wall paper is red with what looks like something between flowers and faces. 

I get that it could be worse, like, a lot worse, but if I'm going to live here for the rest of my life I'd like to at least not hate my room.

-

I've started to get to know my classmates, which is nice. The tall girl's name is Momo Yaoyorozu. Her burly friend's name is Ochako Uraraka. They're both nice, but Ochako is a little pushy. I have plans to play Uno with them later in the cafeteria. They said I could invite some others, but they wanted to keep the gathering small so they could "get to know people more personally," in Momo's words.

I need to try to start my laundry before I head over. I also want to check out the storage room I passed on the way to here earlier. Momo found the Uno in there earlier, and I want to find something else entertaining. I packed my DS in my bags, and I'm hoping that my phone might be with it.

My back burns from the effort of carrying my laundry basket. I really should have done it before I left home, but it was easier at the time to just stuff it in a suitcase and worry about it later. The door to the laundry room is open when I get there, and I straighten up and catch my breath before stepping inside. Nagisa-chan has her back to the door. I should see if the school has a gym. 

"Hey, Shiota-san," I say, placing my hamper next to the long white folding table. Sweet relief... Can I ask her what she's cleaning? What if it's personal? What if she's offended by me thinking she'd be irresponsible enough to put off laundry?

"Hi, Hyakuya-kun," Nagisa replies. She gives me this soft smile. Cute. She chuckles. "Did you pack dirty clothes?"

I'm glad I didn't didn't ask. "...Yeah. It was easier at the time?"

"I get that. I've already put my stuff in, so I can help you separate yours if you want."

"Yeah. Yes. ...Please." I return her smile. This is stupid. I'm stupid. Why do I have to separate my clothes? Shirts and socks and go in together, right? ...Is that why they disappear? The machine confuses the smaller socks for lint and takes them? 

Nagisa-chan comes to stand next to me and pulls a blue polo shirt Mikaela gave me and a pair of jeans out of the hamper and places them on the table together. Oh. I reach inside and begin to pull out all of the green items. Thankfully, the only pairs of underwear in there are green, white, or black, which are all colors I separated from the pile. 

"So... what were you washing? If you don't mind me asking."

"I packed a jacket I borrowed from Karma last trimester, and I figured it'd be polite to wash it again before giving it back." Ouch. Maroon isn't a good color on her, anyway.

"That's nice of you. Have you and Akabane-san known each other for while, then? You seem close."

"Yeah, I guess. We only really settled into being friends again a few months ago, but we've known each other since our first year of junior high. What about you and uh... Hyakuya-san? Pardon me for asking, but you guys don't really look alike, but you're clearly related."

"Oh, um... he's kind of my adopted sibling. We were at Hyakuya Orphanage before the occupation, and we stuck together until our escape attempt. We reunited finally after it ended. He won't let my parents adopt him, but yeah, he's always been family." My tongue tastes sour, but I can't help smiling. 

"We're kind of the same, then, with the whole separation thing... obviously yours was more, well yeah, but uh... yeah. We have something in common," she says. Her stammering is cute, too. We put my laundry into different washers. "Are you doing anything after this? This is all I had on my agenda today."

"Actually, yeah. Do you want to maybe check out the storage with me? I wanna look for my phone and DS."

"Sure! Finding my phone and PSP would be nice, actually. Do you want to go now?" I nod and move to open the door for her. She walks past me, then turns back to wait for me to match her pace.

The walk to the storage room is quiet, but it isn't uncomfortable. When we get to the storage room, we start rummaging through boxes, making more small talk as we go. When she has trouble reaching a stack of boxes, I take the opportunity to reach over her to take them down. She gives me that smile again, and I grin back before going to look through some other stuff. She's sweet, and subtly funny. Her mannerisms are cute, too, and I'm kinda looking forward to her relaxing around me.

"Hyakuya-kun! Is this it?"

Nagisa-chan pulls out a plastic bag with my DS and phone in it, along with some other small miscellaneous stuff of mine. She pulls out another bag that's probably hers. She hands me mine, and we both take a moment to open them and check them over. The time is close to when I have to meet Momo and Ochako in the cafeteria.

"Hey, uh, Shiota-san. I agreed to play Uno with some people in the cafeteria in a few minutes. Would you maybe want to come with me?"

"I would, but I want to try to contact some people, and I'm a little tired. I think I'm going to take a nap before dinner." Nagisa says. She pauses before quickly adding, "We should totally hang out later, though! That Monokuma thing actually left my comics in my room — we could read them together if you want..."

"Yeah, yeah sure, that sounds good! I'll, um, walk you... walk with you back to your room, if you want." 

"Thanks, I appreciate it. That's really nice of you..."

"Uh, yeah, of course," I reply. My chest feels warm. "...Shall we?"

"Shall we?" she parrots. I open my mouth and close it again as she chuckles again. She leads the way, and I scramble to follow. 

When we get to her room, she turns to me with gleeful look in her eyes. "This situation sucks, but I'm glad I'm getting to know you because of it! You're really fun to talk to..." She trails off and looks away from me for sec before meeting my eyes again. "You should just ask me next time you can't figure out your chores, though."

I flush as my jaw slacks, feeling some queasy emotion between embarrassed and offended. "Shiota-san–"

"Just Nagisa is fine."

"–Nagisa- I wasn't confused!" She gives me an unimpressed look. "I didn't know I was confused."

"It's fine Yuu-kun, I was just teasing," she says soothingly, "you're probably running late, so I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yeah, uh, okay. See you later, Nagisa. I uh... had fun with you, too. Bye..."

She smiles as she steps into her room and soft shuts it behind her. I feel like a led-on puppy. My chest burns. 

"Yuu-kun," huh?