Prologue #9
Midnight Disaster
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DAYTIME
OST - Despair - Syndrome, Mr. Monokuma's Lesson, Re Mr. Monokuma's Tutoring
GLANCING away from Anzai, I began to notice that I wasn't the only one who had thought it a good idea to look around the room. Most of the introductions that were taking place had finally ceased, leaving a sense of restlessness lingering through the air.
Seeking to break the eerie quiet that had fallen over us, Amane spoke up first.
"And?" he raised an eyebrow as he met the tense gazes of all the others, "That's it, right? Our introductions are all finished?"
"Seems so," Shion confirmed, holding a hand to his chin in thought as he glanced off to the side.
"And they still haven't started the entrance ceremony..." Anzai pointed out warily.
"Ceremony?" Tahara questioned in surprise, tilting her head as she put a finger against her chin, "What makes you think we're going to have a ceremony?"
"We all received a strange note, right?" the executioner asked for clarification.
"Yeah, that's right," Roka agreed.
"The note welcomed us to our 'new academy' and told us to meet at the auditorium," the blue-tinted brunette explained, her palm raised, "Was I not supposed to think that the school would be holding a ceremony?"
"Come to think of it, you did say something like that earlier..." Amane recalled, "Something to do with eighteen seats?"
"I guess it wouldn't be that farfetched to think of it as a ceremony," Sarada commented as she held a hand to her chin.
"Yeah, they have a bunch of banners and seats out and everything!" the Ultimate Revolutionary agreed, gesturing towards the blue banners that had been hung up in the auditorium.
"Don't you think they're taking too long if this really is a ceremony?" I lifted my index finger to emphasize my point.
A good amount of time had passed already.
"Now that I think about it, the paper had been unclear about when we were supposed to reach..." the Ultimate Missionary spoke up in realization, "Maybe we were too early?"
"Some of us took a whole break before we got here, how can we possibly be early?" the stern voice of Niou Maebara stressed as she met the girl with a sharp gaze.
"She's right," Ritsuki nodded, "If anything we're late."
"Mhm," Tahara also seemed to agree, before changing the subject, "I've been meaning to ask this for a while now, but we're all students here, right? What class are you all in?"
"Does that even matter?" Kyoden glanced off to the side impatiently as he proceeded to tap his foot on the ground repeatedly.
"Trust me, this could be important," Shion announced quite seriously, "It concerns our collective safety."
"Um, I'm pretty sure that I'm supposed to be in Class 49," the Ultimate Pickpocket spoke up, appearing a bit confused by the sudden change of pace.
"Same here," Amane agreed.
"I was also entering the 49th class," Anzai acknowledged, clasping her hands in front of her lap once more.
"We're all in the 49th class?" Sarada questioned, covering her mouth as a look of dread took over her face, "This isn't good."
"What do you mean?" Heiji wondered curiously.
However, before any of us could respond, things quickly took a turn for the worse.
An unusually happy voice, filled with nothing but sadistic, bone-chilling glee filled the air.
"Hey there, howdy, hello! Is everyone here? Good! Then let's get things rolling!"
It was a horrific sound, one that seemed to know no remorse at all.
As I listened to the voice, I could feel nothing but endless amounts of despair in my heart as it brought back images of that strange creature that the rest and I had seen not even an hour earlier. Of the jagged red eye that had pierced straight through our souls as it yelled at us, before deleting all of the Ultimate Hacker's files.
If that wasn't bad enough, it felt as if I had heard a similar speech pattern before all of that occurred... It actually sounded familiar.
Flinching at the sound, I stumbled a few steps backward, gripping my head tightly as flashes of a past experience ran through my mind. Screams of horror and terror... laughs of joy and glee. All of it repeated over and over in my head as I attempted to regain my sense of self once more.
Next to me, I could hear Shion calling out to me in concern.
"Hey, Murano, are you alright?"
"Snap out of it!"
That was Sarada.
"What's wrong with him?" Anzai asked in pure concern.
"I-- I don't know!" Tahara chimed.
"Please, take some deep breaths," the soothing intonation of the Ultimate Hypnotherapist rang out as he placed a hand on my side.
As if the voice hadn't even noticed the calls of concern that echoed throughout the auditorium, it continued its monologue of an introduction.
"Now then, sorry to keep you all waiting! Let's leave all this worthless talk behind!"
"What the hell is that blasted voice?" the Ultimate Blackmailer finally snapped, glaring around the room to find the culprit.
"Where is it coming from?" Niou raised an eyebrow as she joined him in his search.
"That podium, maybe?" Amane guessed, glancing towards it in suspicion.
As we took this all into consideration, we all silently directed our attention towards the centre of the auditorium's stage where the podium was in question... only to see what appeared to be a monochromatic teddy bear, popping into existence suddenly before us.
While we all stared it in shock, the creature began to speak.
"Why hello there!" the abomination tilted its head curiously, "Thank you all for waiting! I am Monokuma! The headmaster of this institution!"
I was hardly able to take its words with a grain of salt.
Laughing incredulously, I responded. "...What?" I inquired in confusion, unable to wrap my head around its appearance, "Headmaster? You must be joking..."
"Hey! Back off, bub!" the self-proclaimed principal sneered at me angrily, lifting a clawed paw in the form of a threat.
"H-- headmaster?" Roka repeated in bewilderment.
"But you're just a teddy bear!" Ryu agreed, pointing a finger at it to emphasize its appearance.
"I... am... not... a... teddy... bear..." the thing stressed to us, "I... am... Monokuma!"
"Puh--" a high-pitched chuckle came from the Ultimate Puppetmaster, Niou Maebara, "--Ahahahahaha! You seriously expect us to let a thing like that lead us?"
It was the first I had seen any sign of amusement from her since I had gotten here.
The rest of us were all surprised.
"Why you...!" the bear raged at the fact that he had been ridiculed.
"Wait, guys... isn't this that thing that we saw--?" Tahara began to point out as Ritsuki quickly covered her mouth before she could completely blow her cover.
I shook my head in response. If my intuition was right, it wouldn't be good to let Monokuma know just who exactly had been the one to see it.
Though there weren't many options to choose from...
"Why a bear of all things?" Anzai questioned aloud, "Couldn't the school have chosen something else?"
"If this is a joke, it's certainly not a good one..." Shion also gave his own two cents as he subtly shielded Sarada from sight.
Now that I thought about it... in the end... Sarada had been the one to attach something to the camera.
There was a good chance that Monokuma had seen her.
"I'll have you know that I am in fact quite handsome!" Monokuma corrected them pridefully, "I'm the perfect mascot!"
"Still," Nahoko began, raising her palm as she spoke, "To say that you're our headmaster is pretty ridiculous..."
"Say Shion, what kind of high-grade weed do you think Monokuma is on?" Amane nudged the Ultimate Drug Lord to see his response, "Can I get some?"
"Even if I had any... I wouldn't give it to someone as difficult as you..." Shion informed the kid.
"Whaaaaat?" the shorter magenta-haired boy appeared to be shocked, "You think I'm difficult? But I'm precious!"
"Preciously pretentious," Kyoden snorted as he folded his arms.
"Ooh, hear that, Amane?" Roka instigated in amusement.
"Guys... I don't think it's good to keep angering Monokuma..." Pandora warned the group quietly in concern as she tugged at the swindler's sleeve.
"Why not? It's fun," the fox-attired boy asked in confusion, "I haven't even mentioned how shitty he would be as a spirit animal yet..."
"Ahahaha," Roka snickered, "That would be a great one!"
"A great one would be me telling you all what you're walking into..." Monokuma cracked up, clutching his sides with glee, "But that'll come later."
"What we're walking into?" Seiran raised an eyebrow in questioning.
"That aside, who is controlling you?" Ritsuki demanded after having released Tahara, "Who is your master?"
"Master?" Monokuma tilted his head innocently, "Whatever could you be talking about? Monokuma is Monokuma!"
Ritsuki bit her nail at the evasive response.
"I doubt he's just going to tell you outright," Sarada sympathized as she glanced at Ritsuki from behind Shion, "This is all probably just a ploy."
"I guess you're right," the amnesiac relented, calming down.
She was probably stressed that she had a new variable to consider apart from her amnesia.
"Now then!" Monokuma changed the subject, "I bet you're all just dying to know where you are!"
Seiran narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "And how do we know that you won't just evade the question like last time?"
The bear shivered dramatically, simultaneously breaking into a cold sweat.
"Can a robot sweat?" Heiji voiced the rest of what was probably our thoughts.
"You're a smart one, Missy!" he grinned, ignoring the Ultimate Bomb Technician, "I won't tell you where you are... but I will tell you what you're in!"
"Actually, I just want to know what you are..." Ryu commented in clear inability to grasp the situation.
"I'd like to know that too actually," Hayato agreed, his hand outstretched.
"All of you shut up!" Niou yelled in anger, her mirth completely gone, "We need to learn more about our situation!"
"I thought they'd never end their banter," Seiran sighed in exasperation.
"If you want people to do something, it's best for you to simply be assertive," the Ultimate Puppetmaster began to counsel the Ultimate Sharpshooter.
"I'll take that into consideration," the Tomeo acknowledged.
I wasn't sure how happy I felt to know that two of the most irritable people in our class were beginning to bond.
Fortunately or not, Monokuma decided to put that to a stop.
"Quiet! Quiet!" the bear threw his hands up to end our conversation, "Don't you all want to know what place you'll be unable to escape from?"
"Unable to escape...?" Ryu's face was covered in clear panic.
"What do you mean?" Anzai was clearly distressed.
"Geez, that's what I'm going to tell you!" Monokuma declared once more with a sigh, "Just be patient!"
All of us quieted down.
"Now then, you all are located in an impregnable underground fortress! Nothing but pure dirt on all sides!" our headmaster proclaimed gleefully.
Meanwhile, I simply couldn't understand just what I was hearing.
"Wha...?" I was stunned speechless.
"An underground fortress?" Tahara was similarly perplexed, "But how...?"
Monokuma tilted his head curiously. "Didn't you all ever wonder why there are no windows in this place?" he burst out into a cackle as his eye gleamed maliciously, "Well, that's the reason why!"
"Well, why don't you show us then?" Heiji prompted the stuffed animal.
"I can't show you... Do you want to die that much?" Monokuma wondered in confusion, "Though that is welcome here..."
"Welcome?" Ritsuki repeated in surprise.
"It seems his statement may be likely then," Kyoden acknowledged the fact that he refused to show them, "Were he to open it up, this place would all come crumbling in on us..."
"And we have a winner!" Monokuma sneered sarcastically at the deduction.
"Well?" Shion prompted, "Why have you trapped us here? What do you want?"
"What do I want?" the bear thought this question over in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"Cut the crap! You wouldn't have told us this unless you wanted something," Shion snapped, throwing out his hand in irritation.
"Raniero is right, you must have a way for us to escape," Iwane nodded in agreement, his arms folded, "You should just come out with it."
"Geez, you intellectual types take all the fun out of revelations," Monokuma stared at the ground despondently, "Actually, it's rather simple. To leave this place, you guys have to graduate."
"Graduate? How exactly...?" Ritsuki inquired suspiciously.
"By committing murder, of course," two voices revealed simultaneously.
"Murder?!" Pandora shrieked in utter horror.
"Yeah, sure, we can do that," Amane agreed instantly, before flipping into a rage, "No, seriously, what ze hell?!"
"'What the hell?' is right! We're not just gonna start killing each other!" Heiji adamantly refuted, clearly distressed by the notion.
"You're both right-- that's insane," the Ultimate Hypnotherapist agreed as he glared at Monokuma in clear hatred.
"Hold on, Monokuma wasn't the only one to speak just a while ago!" Shion realized belatedly, "Hey, what did you just say? Murano?"
The whole class stared at me in shock.
"The only way we can escape this place is by killing each other," I repeated hopelessly with a chuckle, my palm raised as I placed my other hand on my side, "For fun. As a game. For a stupid cause like survival. All of us will start killing each other."
Monokuma giggled. "Looks like somebody already knows the cause."
I stared at the ground in silence.
"Naturally, any killing alternative is fine," Monokuma continued to explain, "Stabbing, drowning, asphyxiating, bludgeoning, electrocuting, shooting, poisoning, immolating and more! Either way, you gotta kill each other if you wanna escape to the outside world!"
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Roka yelled in disbelief.
"Even if we were to kill each other..." Tahara pointed out, "most of us are at a disadvantage as it is! Just look at these talents! This is the Nocturne Institute! We'll be massacred!"
"All you've gotta do is be a bit creative," the bear ignored her concerns, "That's what the killing game is all about!"
Anzai reprimanded the bear fiercely, "Execution is a job, not a past-time! You can't find enjoyment from this! That's pure madness!"
"Ahahahahaha," the bear laughed in glee, "Oh, but I can, Miss Third Killing Talent!"
The executioner instantly fell silent.
"Regardless of your intentions, you can't just begin to advocate murder..." Yuhara lectured the headmaster with her index finger raised.
"Is that so?" Monokuma tilted his head curiously, "You know, people like you are usually the first to die in the game..."
The peaceful missionary seemed pretty horrified to hear that as she used her hand to cover the lower half of her face.
To be honest... I couldn't blame her.
"How do you know so much about this?" Shion began to ask me in concern, "Is this what you were freaking out about earlier?"
Silently, I nodded, unable to force myself to speak much more.
This whole situation had become too strenuous for me to properly endure.
Nudging Shion out of the way, Sarada came to stand at my side, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder in worry.
"Murano..." the Ultimate Judge inquired patiently, "What's your last name? You never told me earlier..."
"Hold on, Sarada, you don't think--?" Shion began to ask for clarification.
"It's highly possible, Shion," the judge stared at the drug dealer sharply, "Based on his talent and appearance... he could be a survivor."
Grimly, he accepted her answer.
"Please, tell me," Sarada turned to face me once more, her eyes filled with concern, "who are you exactly?"
Finally, I decided to tell her.
"My full name is Murano Varamatsu," I replied reluctantly as I met her somber orange gaze, "I'm a member of the Varamatsu Family of Criminal Investigators... Or at least I was until that incident..."
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