Naegi wakes up.

Huh? Where... am I?

He had woken up in what looked like some sort of classroom. It was dimly lit, giving off a sense of shoddiness. Giant metal plates cover the window, kept in place with huge screws. Cobwebs litter the corners of each room, though no bugs were visible anywhere.

I last remember entering the gates of Hope's Peak... Was that a dream?

"Oh!" As Naegi looks down on the desk he was asleep on, he sees a napkin. On it, written with a red marker, was a single sentence.

"Come to the gymnasium"

"The gymnasium?" Naegi wonders out loud.

What's going on here...?

"I guess I might get some answers at this gymnasium... Now, to find where it is."

Naegi gets out of the desk, wincing slightly at feeling his stiff joints creak. Just how long had he been sleeping there?

"I have a bad feeling about this..."

"Oh great, another plebeian joins the fray."

An annoyingly smug voice echoes throughout the gym as Naegi walks in.

"Eh?" Surprised, Naegi glances around. There were several other students standing around.

"Hey there dude." A tall, muscular man with a giant brown pompadour steps up to greet him.

"H-Hey! I'm Makoto Naegi."

"I'm Mondo Owada. The Ultimate Bike Gang Leader!" Owada points at himself with his thumb, grinning confidently.

"So, how did you get here?"

"I just... kind of woke up in a classroom." Naegi laughs nervously. "I'm not really sure how I got there though."

"Aw man! You too?" Another person steps up to greet him. This guy is also pretty tall, sporting a crazy hair style. Long braids of brown hair spike up from his head like a porcupine. "It's the same thing for everyone else, too!"

"Really? That's weird..." Naegi's head starts to hurt. This was getting confusing. Did all of these guys wake up with no memory too?

"Oh yeah, I'm Yasuhiro Hagakure. The Ultimate Clairvoyant, at your service! Hit me up if you ever wanna get a fortune told."

Ultimate Clairvoyant... I've read about him online. Apparently he has a 30% accuracy rate. Not too impressive to be honest.

"Your name is Makoto Naegi?" A blue haired girl suddenly steps up and gives an intense stare at the luckster.

"Yeah...?"

"... Oh! I knew it! We went to junior high together! Do you remember me?" Maizono smiles brightly, gazing at Naegi expectantly.

"You're Sayaka Maizono, right?"

The Ultimate Pop Idol, Sayaka Maizono... I've seen a couple of her shows before. The way she dances around is pretty mesmerizing. She always looks so pretty on stage, it's almost like she's a doll or something...

"I'm not a doll! I'm alive, a real person!"

"H-Huh?!" Naegi gapes at Maizono in shock. "Did I say that out loud?"

"No, I'm an esper."

"Seriously?!"

"Just kidding. It's just intuition!"

"... Oh."

Maizono giggles at Naegi's dumbstruck expression. "Sayaka Maizono, Ultimate Pop Idol."

After that, Naegi went ahead and introduced himself to everyone else.

"Byakuya Togami. Ultimate Affluent Prodigy. Now if that's all, I would like you to remove yourself from my presence."

"Yo! Leon Kuwata, Ultimate Baseball Player. What's up?"

"T-Toko Fukawa... I'm the Ultimate Writing Prodigy... Not that you would care though."

"Hey! Aoi Asahina, the Ultimate Swimmer. You can just call me Hina though! Hope we can get along!"

"Mukuro Ikusaba... Ultimate Soldier..."

"I am Sakura Ogami. My title is the Ultimate Martial Artist."

"H-Hello. I'm C-Chihiro Fujisaki, the Ultimate Programmer. Sorry, I just get kind of embarrassed when I introduce myself like this..."

"Greetings. I am Celestia Ludenberg, the Ultimate Gambler. I would much prefer for you to call me Celeste though."

"Hifumi Yamada! I'm the Ultimate Fanfic Creator... But if you want, you can call me by my nickname - The Alpha and The Omega!"

"Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Ultimate Moral Compass! I hope we can get along in our educational crusade!"

Last but not least...

"Um, Hello! I'm Makoto Naegi, the Ultimate Lucky Student."

"... Kyoko Kirigiri."

"..."

"..."

"Um, what's your Ultimate Talent?"

"Do I need to tell you?"

"Well, I guess not..."

"Then I won't."

I couldn't find any info online about her either... She seems pretty mysterious.

"Ahem! If we are all finished with the formalities, I would like to introduce myself too!" A cheerful, girly voice suddenly comes from the podium on the stage.

"Huh?" Naegi turns to face the podium. A girl with giant strawberry blonde hair had appeared out of nowhere!

Was she there the whole time?

"I'm Junko Enoshima! And I would like to welcome all of you to the most despairingly despairful game ever!"

"D-Despair?" Hagakure questions anxiously.

"Right right!" Junko twirls on stage, happily giggling to herself. "I have prepared a game for you lucky students! It's going to be A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!"

The students could only stare, flabbergasted, at this girl parading around without a care in the world.

"First off, I would like to introduce someone else who will be joining you in this game!"

*BOOM!*

Out of nowhere, a giant crashing noise suddenly explodes in the gym.

"Woah!" Naegi, who was standing at the front, falls backward as a gigantic box, covered in a tarp materializes in front of him.

"You! Ahoge boy! Unveil the cage! Pull the tarp!"

Naegi looks around before pointing to himself. "M-Me?"

"Yes you!" Junko smiles in a sickly sweet manner, hair suddenly transforming into two clean pigtails. "Would you do this widdle favor for ol' me?"

Blushing slightly, Naegi nods. "O-Okay..."

*Fwoosh*

Grasping the blue tarp, Naegi pulls back as hard as he can, revealing a rusty cage.

"What the hell is that thing?!" Owada points at the thing inside of the cage in horror.

The mentioned thing in the cage seemed to be some sort of animal - A monochrome bear. It was rather large, towering over all of the other students, though it was extremely skinny.

Imprints of bone and veins popped out of its face, giving off a sinister look. Half of his body had pure white fur, and the other half was covered in black fur, in a sort of yin-yang style. The white half of his body was decorated with a single beady black eye, one that seemed to small for the bear's body. On the black half, a lightning shaped eye, colored an evil red, was glowing brightly.

Lastly, the claws that decorated the paws of the bear were unique - instead of there being regular claws, it seemed like various knives and daggers were crudely stitched into place. Scars and stitches were visible all over his paws, and some spots were even oozing dark blood. Surprisingly, the blood seemed extremely thin.

"That thing is my precious creation! I call it Monokuma!" Junko rubs her body and moans in ecstasy. "Doesn't it look so despairingly beautiful?"

"I-Is that... blood...?" Fukawa's eyes suddenly roll back and she promptly passes out.

"Hey! Fukawa, are you okay?" Asahina rushes over to Fukawa. "She passed out!"

"I don't blame her..." Yamada backs up from the cage, face quickly turning green. "That... Monokuma thing looks disgusting!"

"Grrrrrrr..." A deep growling noise emanates from the monochrome bear, causing several students to flinch.

"Next up!" Junko hops down from the stage and begins running around, handing each student some sort of tablet.

"Huh? What's this?" Naegi looks down curiously at the tablet as he boots it up.

Name - Makoto Naegi

Height - 5 ft. 3 in. (160 cm.)

Weight - 115 lbs. (52 kg.)

Chest - 29 in. (75 cm.)

Talent - Ultimate Lucky Student.

On it, a bunch of info about him was listed. On top of that, the names and portraits of every other student was also listed.

"It's your student e-handbook! It's going to be very important for our game, so don't loose it!" Junko winks and jumps on top of the cage, causing the Monokuma to growl again.

"Grrrrr..."

"Attention all students! The Carnage School Life at Hope's Peak will begin in 12 hours!"

"C-Carnage School Life?" Fujisaki yelps.

"Yep Yep! For the next 3 weeks, you guys will live in the same building as Monokuma here! Of course, he won't be in this filthy cage."

"You mean, you're gonna let that damn thing out?" Leon's face pales quickly.

"Fear not, food and water will be replenished every day in the kitchen!" Junko pauses and puts a hand on her chin. "Though that's also where Monokuma will be primarily living..."

"We're gonna have to get past that thing to eat anything?" Realization starts to dawn upon Naegi. "B-But, we might get hurt if we go near it!"

Junko blinks and stares at Naegi in disbelief. "Yeah, that's the point."

"For a student to be willingly put in harm's way in a school setting..." Ishimaru takes a deep breath. "THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE!"

"Oh, get that stick out of your ass."

"PROFANITY IS ALSO UNACCEPTABLE!"

"Anyway, you guys will do your best to survive against Monokuma! There are hidden weapons all over the school, so exploration is encouraged!"

"Ughhh... I'm already so bored of explaining! Let's just get to the action already!" Junko starts jumping up and down impatiently on top of the cage, agitating the bear.

"GRAGH!"

"H-Hey, I don't think you should make that fuckin thing angry." Owada comments.

"Read your student e-book! The rules of this game are written on there."

*Beep!*

At once, beeping noises ring out from the student e-book as the rules were updated.

Once again, Naegi looks down to read the new additions.

Rule #1 - Students may reside only inside of campus.

Rule #2 - "Night time", is 10 PM to 7 AM. Some areas, such as the kitchen and gym, are closed during night.

Rule #3 - Sleeping anywhere except for the dorm rooms is prohibited.

Rule #4 - Destruction or obstruction of cameras is prohibited.

Rule #5 - Violence against Monokuma is encouraged! Try your best to kill him :)

Rule #6 - If Monokuma dies, or 3 weeks pass, then the surviving students are free to leave Hope's Peak Academy.

Rule #7 - Additional rules may be added at Junko Enoshima's discretion.

"Have fun and good luck!" Junko says gleefully.

Junko jumps down from the cage and throws some sort of ticking device into the cage.

"This thing is a teeny tiny bomb. In 12 hours, it will blow up, freeing Monokuma from his dinky little cage!"

"No way..." Maizono gasps, putting both of her hands over her mouth.

"Let the games begin!"