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I stand in front of the school, hands feeling clammy and grin growing on my face. To be standing in front of an elite school like Yandere High School feels almost imaginary — well, it's something.

Yandere High School is a prestigious school for teenage prodigies (read: Ultimates), the best of the best spread throughout the entire country all brought together into one place in hopes of nurturing those talents and turning them into pillars of the future.

I sigh dreamily, readying myself to enter the campus and prepare for my first day. After a few moments of just go, I stride past the gates and onto their grounds — the first steps towards my future.

Then, I lose consciousness immediately.

"Augh, my neck," I groan, sitting up slowly and raising my head from the hard surface it was resting on — a desk?

I stand up, rubbing my eyes. I'm in a classroom? How did I get here? And . . . why am I in here specifically?

I glance back down at the desk, finding a note — report to the gymnasium by seven.

I look over at the clock on the wall; six-forty-two.

Gasping, I hurry out of the classroom and scramble into the hallway, not a clue where the gym is. I hastily guess my way down corridors until finding a pair of two large metal doors, seemingly fitting for a gym.

Upon pushing them open and stepping inside, fourteen other faces stare back at me. I feel a gut instinct inside me swelling up; something's wrong.

"Who are you?" a boy with black hair questions.

"She must be the one who's kept us here!" a brunette suggests.

"Yeah, what's going on? Why keep us here?" a black-haired girl asks, "and who are you?"

"I — I'm —" I inhale slowly. "I'm Funneh, the Ultimate YouTuber. Uh, what's going on?"

"What do you mean? That's why we're asking you! You're the one who brought us here, aren't you?" a teal-haired girl accuses.

"What? No! I don't even know what's going on," I defend, shaking my head.

The boy with black hair from earlier sighs. "Then come on. Someone's gotta know something."

I warily wander into the gym, keeping to myself as I observe each of the interesting people that seem to be my age, not upperclassmen.

"You said your name is Funneh, right?" a voice asks from behind me.

I spin around. It's a girl with brown hair and yellow eyes. "Um, yeah. You?"

She holds out her hand. "I'm Gold, the Ultimate Chef."

😌

I accept the gesture, shaking her hand. "I'm Funneh, the Ultimate YouTuber."

"Ultimate YouTuber, huh? What content do you make?" she asks with yet another reassuring smile.

"Well, really mostly video games, vlogs. I just kinda play," I explain, shrugging, "but besides that, I do wanna know, where are we?"

"Um . . . the gym of the school, but other than that, I don't really know," Gold explains. She glances around. "Everyone just came in here one by one. We all just have the same story."

"If you ask me, I think we're being kidnapped," another female voice says out of the blue.

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm sure there's a logical explanation to this," says yet another female voice, one that sounds much calmer than the others.

"Logical? You call this logical? What kind of life did you live?" gasps a male voice.

More chatter amongst everyone follows up, before a guy with black hair and green locks wavers over to us with a friendly smile on his face, a smile I recognize from seeing on the Internet — Evan, famous musician from the band The Exiled Angels.

"Hi," he hums out, waving his hand. "I'm Evan. Ultimate Musician at your service." He jokingly makes the motion of a bow with a dorky grin.

"Ultimate Musician, huh?" I inquire, raising an eyebrow with a friendly smile, "well, good on ya."

"And I'm LunarEclispe. Call me Lunar. I'm the Ultimate Artist," another girl approaches behind him, presumably from seeing everyone gather.

"So, we're just gonna introduce ourselves and no one invited me?" another boy, one with black hair like mine, questions with a small chuckle. He turns his attention to me, "I'm Draco. I'm the Ultimate Gamer."

"Who's that?" I question, pointing over to another boy with black hair, seemingly standing off alone. I notice a black-haired girl lingering in his vicinity, but she isn't close enough to call it more than a coincidence.

"That's Senpai. He's the Ultimate Lucky Student."

"Ultimate Lucky Student?" I question.

"He was picked from a raffle. Supposedly, the guy's got incredible luck. Seen it happen, too. Just earlier, he found a five dollar bill right after he walked in here," Evan explains.

"Saw it too," a boy with spiked red hair walks up. He keeps his hood pulled over, concealing majority of his head. "I'm Alec, the Ultimate Hacker."

"Hacker?" Gold wonders aloud. "Like . . . a criminal hacker?"

Alec seems to retreat further into his hood, a straight face on. "I'm just a student."

"Speaking of students, I had a real weird experience. I stepped onto campus and bam, I knocked right out. When I woke up, I was in a classroom and told to come here in the gym," Draco admits.

"Wait, really? Me, too!" gasps Gold.

"How about everyone else?" Alec asks.

We all nod.

"It's . . . not a coincidence, right?" yet again, someone else joining our growing ensemble of strangers-turned-acquaintances — if you can even call us that — says. His hair is blue like mine. "I mean . . . it's suspicious."

"Yeah, it is pretty fishy," Evan agrees.

"Uh, are you guys sure we're actually in Yandere High?" Lunar questions, her eyes shifting around.

"Positive," Alec confirms, "look at the design on the floor. See? It's Yandere High School's insignia."

"What?" I gasp, looking around at the windows and doors, "but everything is bolted shut and blocked off! How could this be the school?"

"It seems none of us have that knowledge on our situation, but this all looks intentional," a female voice adds from across the room.

"Who are you?" Lunar questions.

"Oh, I'm Evelyn Wynd, the Ultimate Detective."

"And I'm Rainbow! I'm the Ultimate Comedian," exclaims a pink-haired girl who seemingly appears out of no where.

"What about the others?" I question.

"Oh, them?" Gold asks, pointing to the remaining people who have yet to introduce themselves spread out across the room. I nod.

"That girl over there is my sister, Aly," Alec directs over to a girl with black hair. She's staring off with an expression on her face that I can't read. "She's the Ultimate Dancer."

"Those two divas over there? That's Felicia Weiz and Britney Betterthanu. Felicia's the Ultimate Model and Britney's the Ultimate Fashionista," Draco elaborates, motioning over towards a dirty-blonde-haired girl and a brunette.

"The girl over there talking to Senpai is Valerie Maki. She's the Ultimate Confectionist," Lunar says, pointing to another pink-haired girl.

"And her? That's Yandere. Apparently, she's the Ultimate Student, meaning she just excels at everything academic," Lunar informs.

"I see," I slowly say.

"At least we all know each other now. It'd be worse if we were all complete strangers," Gold sighs.

"Um . . . we are all complete strangers. I don't . . . I don't really know any of you," Kyran murmurs.

"I meant it as in at least we all know who's who," Gold corrects, "I don't know what's going on, but at least we have that assurance."

"Man, what's the deal with this?" Evan asks no-one-in-particular as he stares up at the windows on the walls of what looks like a gymnasium, where everything is shut tight with metal blockings and bolted down. There's not a single way to get out.

"We're trapped." Evelyn frowns.

"I still can't find my phone," Draco whines. He turns the pockets of his pants and jacket inside out in an attempt to check again, but to no avail. "What about you guys?"

"Huh?"

Quickly, we all check our pockets and clothes, only to find nothing just like him. Evelyn says someone probably took them from us when we were all unconscious in classrooms. So none of us have our phones, but if that's the case, then who took them?

"But why?" Kyran questions.

"That, I don't know," Evelyn sighs.

"Well—" Kyran's cut off by a voice.

"Mic check, mic check! One, two three! Why, hello, Class 78th!" a high-pitched voice yells out, "I'm Monokuma, your principal!"

We all turn around and right at the edge of the gym sits an animatronic bear, half of it white and the other half black. It sits on a podium with the school's crest in a rather lazy stance, and quite frankly, if we weren't in this situation, it wouldn't seem threatening at all.

"Who are you?" Rainbow questions, furrowing her eyebrows before correcting herself with, "I mean, what are you?"

"Didn't ya hear me? Have some respect! I'm Monokuma and I'm your principal!" the bear —or Monokuma— announces.

Slowly, everyone huddles closer together in a pack, with the people who were farther away now closer. We're all trapped in the dead center of the gym, with only each other as our comfort.

"This is disturbing," Evelyn murmurs.

"No kidding," Evan agrees.

"I said have some respect!" Monokuma yells.

This is weird.

"Now, before you all go yelling at me, this is for your own good! The outside world you know is no longer safe, and to keep you all protected, none of you are allowed outside of this school! I assume you're all wondering how long you'll all be in here and approximately . . . the rest of your lives!" Monokuma explains.

What.

What did he just say.

"Each of you have your own living quarters inside this school, or rather, dorm! And by living quarters, I mean permanent living quarters!" Monokuma laughs.

"This is insane!" Kyran gasps.

"Why, thank you!" Monokuma thanks gratefully.

"Don't take that as a compliment, you — you — you thing!" Draco gasps with an aghast expression.

"We're . . . we're going to be here forever?" I hadn't even noticed that Alec's sister, Aly, has joined our group. She stands near her older brother.

"Ah, don't worry! All your needs are perfectly cared for! In the kitchen, we have a lifetime supply of food to last you all, air and water, bathrooms, and living quarters! And all for the rest of your life!" Monokuma enjoys our reactions of fear just a little too much to keep us calm.

"What about our families?" Valerie questions, to which Monokuma ignores as I speak next.

"Wait! So, all these metal plates on the windows, those are to keep us in here?" I gasp.

"Yup! You're here for keepsies!" Monokuma sings.

This isn't happening.

It can't be.

"So . . . we're just supposed to spend the rest of our natural lives inside this — this — this building?" Felicia yells out.

"Pft, natural lives? Please! There is a loophole!" Monokuma hops to his little paws, almost waddling.

"Tell us," Evelyn and Yandere command.

"MURDER!" Monokuma exclaims, jumping forward off of his podium and flipping throughout the air until landing before us. "The student who murders a classmate and gets away with it will be permitted to leave this building scott-free!"

"WHAT?"

"Yup! Mutilating, stabbing, clubbing, slicing, beating, crushing, torching, strangling, cursing, poisoning, pummeling, bludgeoning, you know it, you can do it!" Monokuma cheers far too enthusiastically for any of our tastes.

He can't be serious.

"You know what you kids and a salmon have in common? You both have no idea just how amusing it is to watch you all flop around without knowing your slaughter will be coming soon! Upupupu!" Monokuma chortles, somehow magically pulling out a salmon and carrying it in his . . . paws.

"What? What's the point in making us do this?" Rainbow questions, fear quickly tainting her voice.

"This is just nuts!" Senpai gasps.

"Look on the bright side! I'm letting you all get away with murder! For reals!" Monokuma chortles yet again.

"And what will you do if we try to stop you and escape?" Yandere questions quietly.

"Is that a threat I hear? I'll have you know, school rules strictly state that no harm comes to the principal at the hands of the students under any circumstances!" Monkuma yells as we all let Draco, Senpai, and Alec grab the bear.

Hoisting Monokuma up, Monkuma's red eye quickly starts to blink, increasing in frequency with every passing second. Without any hesitation, Evelyn yells, "QUICK! THROW HIM! JUST TRUST ME!"

Doing as Evelyn commands, Alec, Senpai, and Draco all toss Monkuma to the other side of the room where suddenly, it explodes into pieces.

"It could have killed us!" Draco gasps.

"Oh, God, this is real?" Britney screams.

"S-So it's gone?" Kyran hopefully questions.

"Nope! I'm still here!" Monokuma announces, quickly popping up from behind the podium, "consider that a verbal warning! This now concludes the introduction to your orientation! Here's to you all enjoying the rest of your contained and not-exactly-long lives!" And with those words, Monokuma disappears behind the podium.

"So, to escape here, we are to kill one of our classmates and succeed in getting away with the crime?" Yandere slowly spells out for all of us.

"Y-yeah, but.... this... t-this is all just a joke, right?" Kyran stutters out.

"If one of us hasn't taken his words to heart, that is."

I glance at everyone surrounding me — Class 78. I shiver, because I don't know what's going on or who to trust, but something tells me that it's far worse than just this.

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