Hope Behind Despair

As Makoto Naegi walked through the darkened halls of the long-abandoned Hope's Peak Academy, he felt that something was eerily wrong. He made his way into the gym, where many other people were gathered. The faces that he saw in the gym looked oddly familiar, but he didn’t seem to know any of them.

There was Celestia Ludenberg, a Victorian looking girl with pale skin, she had long black hair that went down in pigtails that looked like many tires stacked on top of one another. She seemed bored and kept twirling around in place.

Chihiro Fujisaki, a nervous looking girl with short brown hair, who was dressed in a long sleeved dark-green jacket, with a white shirt with a peter-pan collar on the inside. She had a tan colored skirt and dark blue knee socks.

Mondo Ohwada, a burly looking boy with a punch perm styled in a 1960’s pompadour. He was wearing an inky black gang jacket, with big baggy pants that were also black.

Junko Enoshima, an irritable looking girl with pink hair that was tied in pigtails.

There was Kyoko Kirigiri, who had light purple hair styled in a longer bowl cut, with a French braid on one side of her head. She had a dark purple jacket, with a white school shirt on the inside. She had a dark purple skirt and black boots.

Aoi Asahina, a tan skinned individual who was wearing a scarlet jacket. She was wearing white t-shirt underneath the jacket, as well as denim shorts. Byakuya Togami, he was wearing glasses, and had eyes as sharp as an eagle. He seemed like a serious boy, who didn’t say a word to anyone.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru, who was an enthusiastic and outgoing person who was trying to cheer everyone up. There was another boy,

Hifumi Yamada, who was as fat as a ball. He had small glasses and small eyes. He was always reading comic books. Leon Kuwata was an angry looking person, who was glaring at everyone. He had red hair and a grouchy looking expression.

Yasuhiro Hagakure, he was a tall boy with crazy hair sticking out in all sorts of directions. He was wearing a moss green jacket with beach sandals for shoes.

Sakura Ohgami was a muscular looking female, who had long white hair that reached to her waist. She had scratches all over her, so people were kind of avoiding her.

Sayaka Maizono had long blue hair that stopped a little above her waist. She was avoiding everybody, she looked scared and kept blinking. There was another girl with super long French braids standing in the corner. Her name was

Toko Fukawa. She had big glasses and kept adjusting them and looking around and regarding everyone with suspicion. She glared at Leon, who was playing with a baseball and throwing a tool kit up and down.

“What?” he asked. “I’m good at baseball. And if you’re suspicious of my tool kit, there’s only a screwdriver inside.”

“Uh-um,” Chihiro Fujisaki walked over to Makoto.

“D-did you also wake up in a dark classroom?”

Makoto thought for a moment, he did remember waking up in a classroom. One moment he was at his house getting the mail, the next moment he had woken up in a classroom. He had been so confused, there were even chalk body marks on the classroom floor. Suddenly, a squeaky high-pitched voice sounded through the speakers, as a black and white bear rose up onto a platform from the gym floor.

“Hello everybody! It seems you have all found your way into the gym! I am your headmaster, Monokuma (Monobear in English)! Welcome to Hope’s Peak High School! You are all gifted students who have been accepted into this school!”

“What do you mean ‘accepted’?” inquired Sakura. “You kidnapped us and took us into this long-abandoned school.”

“Upupupupupu. Well, that’s one way to put it! I must be going now to eat my squid! Also, you’ll find a student handbook in your pocket! There are rules on it! Dorms are on the second floo-aaah!”

Monokuma fell off the platform and disappeared. Just as Naegi looked around, he heard a *bing* noise in his pocket. He took something out. It looked like a mini tablet. It said, “RULES: If you want to escape, you have to sacrifice a friend.” Chihiro squeaked nervously from over Naegi’s shoulder.

“W-What does it mean by sacrifice?” Chihiro asked uncomfortably. “I-I hope it doesn’t mean what I think it means.”

Naegi thought hard. He saw many people edging away from others. Trying to get to the door. Toko was wringing her hands and sweating like crazy. She bit her lip and flinched every time someone looked at her.

“Oh and also!” Monokuma’s voice rang through the loudspeaker. “The night hours are from 10:00 PM to 7:50 AM! Make sure not to go wandering out in the night hours, or else someone may stab and kill you! Upupupupu!”

“Ki-kill?!” Aoi shivered. “I can’t do this anymore ( >・<)!” She ran crying out of the gym.

“Don’t worry everybody!” Naegi cried. “There is always a ray of hope behind despair!” He thought for a moment. Something clicked in his head. “I get it! Monokuma only gave us two options for this! Kill, or be killed! It’s the inevitable fate. He wants us to murder each other to survive!”

“That’s right!” said Monokuma’s voice. “Survival of the fittest! Also, I gave everyone some pictures to look at! Clues, clues~”

“Everybody, can you all bring the pictures over here?” Naegi asked.

Everyone hurried over and put their pictures in a row in front of Naegi. He squinted at the pictures. His brain wheels started spinning and whirring. He examined the pictures closely. They were photos of everyone in the gym. They were all laughing together and smiling. What? He thought. Did we all know each other before this? I need more time, but it’s entering the night hours.

“I’ll keep your pictures for now. I think I can figure something out.” Naegi announced.

Everyone filed up the stairs into their dorms. Naegi couldn’t sleep that night. He kept tossing and turning in the bed, when he heard a scream. He shot up. Naegi flung open the door to the hallway. Many others were poking their heads out of their dorms.

“What’s going on?!” Hagakure asked, sticking his head out.

Sayaka’s dorm door was open. It seemed that the lock had been busted open. There was a metal bat lying on the floor next to it.

Without a second thought, Naegi leaped into action. He ran towards Sayaka’s dorm. Kyoko Kirigiri followed close behind him. They pushed the door to Sayaka’s dorm open. A pool of blood was leaking under the bathroom door. Naegi realized that it seemed that the doorknob had been unscrewed, which meant Maizono had locked it from the inside. He pushed the door open. There lay Sayaka Maizono, there was blood all around her. A screwdriver lay next to her. Was someone this desperate to get out of here?! They would go to such extremes as to murder?!

Chihiro screamed. Naegi’s vision seemed to be blurring. He took a step closer and felt for a pulse in her wrist. Dead. She was dead.

“Wait, let me see something.” Kyoko had pushed past Naegi.

She moved Sayaka’s body a bit, to see the wall behind her. In her own blood, the number “73011” was written behind her. Her left index finger had blood on it, so it was safe to assume that she had written the words by herself.

“A dying message?” Naegi inquired.

Suddenly, Monokuma’s voice rang out.

“Ding ding ding! A body has been found! Everyone please proceeds to the trial room! Who killed Sayaka?!”

As they descended the stairs to the trial room, Naegi looked around. Chihiro looked faint. Hagakure was stunned. Celestia had her eyes closed. Toko looked like she was about to vomit.

Arriving at the trial room, everyone took their positions around a huge table. Naegi was still contemplating the death of Sayaka, when Monokuma arrived.

“Alright everyone, let’s start the debate!” he announced.

Naegi had seen some clues at Sayaka’s death site. There was a metal bat, a knife, a baseball, and blood had been dripping from Sayaka’s head. Naegi thought hard. He thought back to when they had all met in the gym.

“Wait,” Leon said, interrupting his thoughts. “There was a metal bat, I swear I saw blood on the handle of it. I did see Hagakure holding a bat earlier, so it must have been him!”

“That’s wrong!” Naegi said out loud. “I’ve figured it out, Kuwata, you said you saw a metal bat earlier? It wasn’t covered with blood; it had been used to break the handle of the door to Maizono’s room!”

“I- well, I- you” Leon stuttered.

“Plus, how would Hagakure have gotten hold of the bat in the first place? The metal bat was locked in the storage room. If I remember correctly, earlier, you said to Fukawa, ‘What? I’m good with baseballs’ or something like that. There was a window in the storage room, and there was a button that opened the door to the room right on the wall across from the window. So, if you were the Ultimate Baseball pro, you would have easily thrown your ball through the window and to make it hit the button. Then, you would have opened the door and grabbed the metal bat. And if I recall correctly, you had a tool kit with a screwdriver in it? May I see it now?”

“I- moron! I wouldn’t kill her! I- I- mean why would I? I don’t have any personal grudges or anything!” Leon tried to reason.

“Not personal grudges, but you must have wanted to get out of here, didn’t you?”

“Moron moron moron!” Leon screamed. He was at his breaking point. “Shut up, shut up!”

“I’ve figured out everything Leon! You killed Maizono! Even if you didn’t leave evidence, Maizono helped us figure it out! She wrote 73011 behind her, if you flip it 180 degrees, you get the name Leon! There was a faint line between the two ones, so it spells out LEON. You’re guilty!”

“DING DING DING!” Monokuma said, “debate time is over! Let’s move on to the voting!”

“N-no!” Leon screamed.

“LEON is guilty, time for the punishment!” Monokuma announced.

“NO!” Leon shrieked.

“Time to die!” Monokuma said, giggling.

A huge anvil fell onto Leon, killing him instantly.

“There’s always a ray of hope! We’re all going to escape from here!”