Prologue: New Beginning

The sound of incoming footsteps managed to wake me up and I found myself sitting on something rather comfy but the room was dark, so I could see nothing. Come on, what happened to me? This question always appears in my mind, but I couldn't find an answer until someone switched the light on. I blinked my eyes because of the sudden light and someone entered inside the room, there's a chance the footsteps I heard earlier belong to them.

"I figured someone would be here," said a girl's voice. I turned back and saw a girl looking at me with a smile on her face. Her physical appearance was probably due to albinism, since she had long silver-white hair which reached her waist with a black headband, red eyes and a paler skin tone than usual. She wore a white shirt along a green necktie under a dark blue blazer with yellow outlines and buttons, a skirt of the same color as the necktie, white socks and black shoes. The girl came close to me and sat on an armchair adjacent to the sofa where I was and asked:

"Hello, how are you feeling?" Her tone was calm, almost soothing. She kind of reminded me of those high-class girls from Jiyugaoka and she didn't look threatening, but I felt a bit uneasy with her around.

"Um... Not well. But who are you and where I am exactly?" I ask back, a bit rudely. The girl didn't mind the tone I used and laughed instead.

"It's pretty impolite to ask someone's name without introducing yourself, you know?" she said as if my reaction towards her was amusing. "We're all in the same situation, after all, so calm down."

"...We?" I repeated, confused.

"The others, me included. Even if 'classmates' would be a more fitting name," she said simply. "We were supposed to attend Hope's Peak Academy as new students..."

When she mentioned Hope's Peak Academy, I started to remember what was going on: I was also supposed to join Hope's Peak Academy as freshmen and even came a bit too early since I was excited about joining the school as a new student, and when I entered Hope's Peak Academy's building, my senses started to fade to black and I became unconscious, before waking up here with no idea what happened…

April 2nd, 20XX, Kaburagi Antique Store, Tokyo

"Your scroll is indeed beautiful, Mr. Kiyohara, but I can only buy this for 28,000¥," I said to a middle-aged man, Mr. Kiyohara is a regular customer in the store well-known for his stubbornness and he insisted on selling his hanging scroll more than its real value. The exchange between him and I started 30 minutes ago but it felt like hours.

"How a young girl such as yourself could understand the real value of that painting?" Mr. Kiyohara scoffed, amused by the price I suggested. "This painting was made by Hisanobu Kano, you know! He was a famous painter from the Tokugawa period, '28,000¥' is too cheap for one of his works!"

"Well..." I sighed, almost exasperated by him. Nothing annoys me more than customers who don't take you seriously because of your age, and I know that painter's reputation too. "I believe you concerning its value, but you have noticed the damage present on the painting, right?" I asked as I pointed out the damages in question to Mr. Kiyohara. "The painting is still in good condition, but there is some traces of moisture on the lower side of the scroll and-"

Mr. Kiyohara just feigned ignorance about that fact and interrupted me. "How could I? It was painted 200 years ago, it's natural there are damages on it due to how old it is. I don't see how its price should be lowered because of that."

"Of course it should. When a painting of this kind sustains some damage, it loses some of its original value. I can see even the box in which you conserved the scroll is also a bit damaged, Mr. Kiyohara," I explained after a fast glance at the old box, whose varnish had started to peel in some areas. "I can only buy your scroll and the box for 28,000¥. It's the only price the store can offer, you can take it or leave it."

In the end, Mr. Kiyohara reluctantly agreed concerning the painting's price and left the store once the deal was concluded. I sighed once again and started to clean the shop. I started to lift some books dating from the Meiji period to put them back in the bookshelves when I heard footsteps coming from the back of the store.

"You did well, considering it was your first appraisal, Manon," said a voice behind me, I turned and an old man in his sixties appeared from the back of the store with a kind smile on his face. This man's name is Rui Kaburagi, the owner of the store and also my grandfather. He was once a famed curator who worked in many museums worldwide until he opened his antique store in the capital 20 years ago and manage it by himself since then. My father also works as antiquarian, but he's actually in Australia with my mother for their wedding anniversary since two weeks and I'm under my grandfather's care until they come back from their trip.

"It wasn't easy, Grandpa," I shrugged. "Mr. Kiyohara was truly stubborn about Kano's painting. It's a beautiful piece of art, okay, but the amount he wanted was too high,"

"I would've done the same thing, don't worry. 28,000¥ is already a solid price for this scroll," Grandpa said in a reassuring tone, pausing to check the clock before continuing. "By the way, you should go home for today. Your new school year starts tomorrow if I'm not mistaken, and it's 7:30PM already,"

"But what about the shop?" I asked. The cleaning was not finished yet and there were a lot of things to put in order in the store. We've received too many items lately and they just get in our way.

"Leave it to me; I'll clean the rest tonight. After all, you were excited about joining Hope's Peak Academy since the school scouted you."

"That's right and as the 'Ultimate Antiquarian', no less," I replied as I recall the contents of the letter we received last month. The title Hope's Peak Academy gave me always makes Grandpa and some of my friends laugh when they think about it, but my family have worked as antiquarians for generations. I'm not as competent as Grandpa and Dad, but I've a good insight of valuable items and renovating old items at least.

"Still, I wonder why you kids are all excited when it comes to Hope's Peak Academy..." Grandpa said as he cleaned the shop. "The same nonsense happens every new school year when they announce who they enrolled,"

Grandpa don't understand why Japanese youth and even from overseas want to study at Hope's Peak Academy, but for many high-school students, joining and graduating from this school is the best way to become a respected member of society. If I successfully graduate from Hope's Peak Academy, then perhaps I could try to change people's views about antiquarians as the reputation we have in some circles is not really positive.

"Let me help you with that stuff, Grandpa," I said smiling. "You're a bit too old to handle all these things by yourself,"

This remark earned me a gentle smack on the back of my head by Grandpa and I heard a "Kids, these days...". We kept on cleaning until it was 8:10PM, then I left the store after saying goodbye to Grandpa. On my way home, I thought again about Hope's Peak Academy and what kind of classmates I might have. According to some rumors, some are already kind of famous in their own field, but I don't know much about them, at least not enough to make a full judgement.

Once at home, I made the preparations for tomorrow such as choosing my clothes and went to bed, waiting impatiently for the new school year.

My train of thoughts were interrupted by the girl who snapped her fingers while standing in front of me I understood I forgot about her while I tried to recollect my memories, which were still foggy, that said, it was still rude of her.

"Sorry about that, it's just you looked like you were lost in your thoughts. Are you always like this?"

"I'm a bit absent-minded, yes..." I say, embarrassed. I bow my head in apology and she steps back from me. It's at this moment I noticed something on the sofa. It was a weird black device that looked like a small tablet or smartphone with Hope's Peak Academy's emblem on the back. I hadn't noticed it when I woke up, so immediately I picked up the device. "What is it?"

"I don't know either," the girl explained, holding her own device in her hands. "When I woke up, I saw this inside my pocket. Maybe it's an electronic student card belonging to Hope's Peak since my profile was displayed on the screen when I booted it up. Plus, it's got the Hope's Peak emblem on it…"

"I see..." I mutter, watching this black device further. As she said, when I opened my own device, my profile instantly appeared on the screen with my personal information, such as my height and my weight, birthday and talent. There some applications too, but aside from the map, they were blank.

The mug totally matched how I look: I've the same medium blond hair styled in a bob cut along dark purple eyes and I was pale-skinned. Instead of Hope's Peak Academy's uniform, I wore my old school uniform: a long-sleeved white sailor uniform with a black collar and a red bow under a beige cardigan, the skirt and knee-socks of same color as the collar and light brown loafers.

"Anyway, we should leave this room," the girl suggested, clapping her hands together. "You can stand up, right?"

I nodded and got up from the sofa, which allowed me to see more of the room, which was fairly well furnished to say the least. White bricks were used for the walls which contrasted with the oak parquet flooring and ebony furniture sat on the left side of the room. A large plasma TV, positioned on top of another furnishing, lay in the middle of the room, with a DVD player situated beneath it. Two black leather armchairs were positioned on the left and right side of the red carpet, with the sofa sitting in the middle in front of the TV.

I'm in a living room, huh? I thought to myself. It's quite classy. The right side of the room had just a large table with chairs around and two windows with large sheets of metal across them, which were held in place by huge bolts. Another odd thing I noticed was a black camera in a corner of the ceiling filming the surroundings silently. Talk about weird.

"By the way, I still don't know your name," the girl says.

"Oh, that's right," I say, even though I asked her name first. "My name is Manon Kaburagi, Ultimate Antiquarian. Nice to meet you even if it's in unusual circumstances,"

"Nice to meet you too, Manon. My name is Izayoi Asakura and I joined Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Info Broker," Izayoi says calmly.

As soon we introduced each other, the black device in my pocket emitted a faint tune. I picked it up and saw the application 'Students' Profile' has been updated with Izayoi's profile, and she was right about her talent. However, Info Brokers are -from what I've seen- often employed to sell important secrets, often for a lot of money, and Izayoi looks rich enough for that.

"Something amiss, Manon? Don't tell me my talent scared you?" she asked, giggling.

"Not in particular," I answered in a half-shrug. "For starters, I just met you today, Izayoi. So I can't judge you or your activities,"

"Hm... You're quite a no-nonsense individual, you know that?" she said, looking at me while folding her arms.

"Then, you're the complete opposite in that case. What kind of person snaps their fingers in front of somebody's face?" I ask, sighing. I recalled what Izayoi did earlier. What if her fingers actually hit one of my eyes? I could end up one-eyed because my interlocutor didn't choose a safe way to bring me back to my senses.

"Well, excuse me," Izayoi replied, pouting "I know snapping fingers at someone is less painful than shaking a body part,"

"If you say so..." I sigh again, ignoring her weird logic. I decided to change topic and ask Izayoi about something I was curious since the beginning. "What kind of people are our classmates?"

Izayoi's expression changed to a thoughtful one and replied. "Our classmates are special, yes... Some might look intimidating at first glance, but they don't bite," After her answer, Izayoi let a small laugh as if she said a good joke. I take she's always cheerful and eager to not take things seriously in spite of her talent and her outside appearance.

"Are you ready, yet?"

"Yeah..." In the end, Izayoi and I went out of the living room while its door closed by itself. The corridor was long and straightforward with the walls painted in a darker shade of red and lighted by the same lamp in the living room since the windows were in the same state as the ones in the previous room. However, as we walked through, the only noticeable thing was another active black camera which was in the same position as the one in the living room.

Despite finding myself in an unknown place, I was somewhat impatient about meeting my classmates since I was intrigued about them and perhaps some might have a clue about what's going here, but I was still uneasy about how I ended up here and especially why.

A/N: Greetings to anyone who will read this. I decided to rewrite the 1st part of the prologue since it felt incomplete, short and had a few grammar mistakes here and there. I wanted to thank Gazooki for the submission form along the advices he gave me and started anew. For now, the cast has 7 female students (Manon and Izayoi included) and 4 male students and I'm still looking for more obviously. The rules concerning the application to Despair's Extra Class are below:

1. I'll only accept OCs submitted by PM. Any OC submitted in the reviews will be instantly ignored mainly because spoiling a character' secret from the get-go wouldn't be a good idea.

2. OCs who were already submitted to other SYOCs will be also ignored. It wouldn't be fair to see a re-used character in this story when I rejected a 'unique' one.

3. Talents such as Ultimate Hope/?/any 'canon' talents will be also rejected although in the latter's case, you can be original about it. A fine example, Hiyoko was a dancer, but she was specialized in a field at least.

4. Since this story happens in Japan, the characters must be Japanese or half-Japanese at least. However, I can accept one or two foreigners students in the cast.

The submission form for Danganronpa: Despair's Extra Class is below.

Name:

Age (15-18):

Gender:

Ultimate/SHSL Talent:

Nationality:

Physical Description (weight, height, appearance, clothing etc.):

Personality:

Speech/Mannerisms:

Background (significant past events, family, secrets):

Likes:

Dislikes:

Possible Motive:

Role during Investigation/Trial:

And I think it would be good enough for now, I wish you good luck for the submission!