PROLOGUE · 6 · Fiction and lies

“I’m tired of your shit! Speak up, now!”
“Stop ignoring us, stupid robot. I’ll destroy y- what? Noah says he’ll destroy you too.”
“Oscar says he’ll destroy you too too!”
“I didn’t… Not that I will not do it.”

I can hear voices from very far away. Only darkness surrounds me and I feel a very strong pain in my lungs… I feel lost, I do not know where I am, and I am a little scared, but my head feels heavy and I cannot open my eyes. So many feelings and almost no thoughts. I cannot seem to remember what happened to me.
“Is he up yet?”
I hear this voice a little bit closer, but I cannot recognize it nor really understand what it said.

“Kids nowadays can’t wait just a few minutes…”
“No, we can’t! We don’t want to! Don’t play dumb, you perfectly know why we’d want answers now. There is no fucking reason for us to wait.”
“Sadly poor little Andi isn’t the one who decides.”
“Fuck it, I’m destroying it.”
“I wouldn’t recommend it.”

I do not understand anything that is happening around me… I try to open my eyes but they just will not. I might start to freak out, mom, where are you?
I try and try, and I manage to open my eyes for just a second, and I see light, but they just close back on their own.
“Hey, are you awake? Can you hear me?”
This person’s voice echoes in my head but at least I can understand what they said – I try to open my eyes again and I manage pretty easily this time, though I have to blink for a few seconds before I can actually look in front of me.
“Are you okay?”
A beautiful young red-haired man is standing above me, looking worried, and I wonder who-
“Oh, right. Akiro.”
I suddenly remember everything. The long corridors, the gymnasium, the plushed bear. My lungs still hurting a little bit, I force myself to sit up, and I look around, only even more confused to find myself in the exact same room I was before.
“Looks like it.”
Realizing I had been ignoring Akiro’s questions the whole time, I look at him and try to speak.
”Oh I-I… yes.”
“You can take your time, you know…” he answers.
“I know a few people who wouldn’t agree with that statement.”
Standing not too far from the both of us is Chloe, who grins when I look at her.
“But take your time if you need to.”
“What is happening?”
I pass my hand through my hair, trying to breathe as correctly as I can. I think I remember everything, and what I am the most confused about is why we are all still here, when the bear had made it sound like we were going to change places…
“Nothing special, really… You’re the last one to wake up, and I think the bear is waiting for you before he explains anything.”
“Oh… Oops?”
I look around and it seems that no one else than Akiro and Chloe has noticed that I have woken up. I guess all I have to do now is actually get up, but before I do that, I look at the young man who woke me up.
“I thought you stuttered a lot more?”
He looks away and laughs nervously.
“A-Ah? D-do I?”
“Oh come on now, did you have to make that remark? Just get up before someone murders you!”
Chloe does not really look mad, but she is definitely annoyed.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to bother anyone!”
I breathe in and force myself up, still feeling a little bit uncomfortable. That done, I walk towards the bear and everyone around it, and it seems that it notices me because it says:
“Sleeping beauty’s back! Now’s my time to shine!”
Since it was already on the platform, it jumps up and once again heavily falls sitting on it.

The heavy sound made most of us walk back a few steps.

“Hello and welcome to Hope’s Peak Academy! Upupu… I can’t keep myself from laughing!”
The bear helps itself up and continues:
“I am Monokuma, your headmaster!”
“What the fuck? Why would I be in a school? Why would the headmaster be a plushed bear?!
“I want this joke to be over already…”
“This… This doesn’t even sound like a joke…”
This is too confusing. I do not even know how to react.
“This is not a joke! This is a very serious game!”
“This bear is so stupid! Games aren’t serious!”
“Then I am glad, because the dumbest characters have a tendency to survive the longest.”
“Then does it mean I’ll survive? Wait, what am I saying?”
“Don’t… put yourself down like that…”
“Well anyway, you’re gonna have to get used to my beautiful face, ‘cause this is your home now.”
“Hell no! I’m going home!”
“Good luck with that, because you’re stuck in this school.”
“Bullshit, this is not even a school. We all came here through long-ass corridors and there are no other doors here!”
“Look around, the doors have disappeared.”
We all do, and notice that indeed, the only difference with before is that there is only one big door instead of sixteen smaller ones.
“What… the fuck…”
“Upupu… Use your eyes for once, instead of your dirty mouth!”
“Fffff-”
“Anyway, as I was saying… You will now all have to live in our beautiful, improved, Hope’s Peak Academy… I’m sure as Ultimates, you are all familiar with Hope’s Peak!”
“No one knows Hope’s Peak Academy.”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing…”
“What even is it?”
Monokuma sighs and sadly looks down.
“Wow… They all suck…”
“You suck!”
This is all I can think of. This situation does not make any sense and I do not know if I should trust what is *definitely* a plushie or not…
“It’s the school from the Danganronpa series, isn’t it?”
Jan walks towards the bear, and I look at him confusedly.
“Dan… gan… ron-pa?”
“Yes. It’s an old Japanese series of videogames, anime and whatnot. It invented the concept of Ultimate students.”
“I-I remember hearing about this…”
“First time I hear it. The concept of Ultimate comes from a videogame?! I’m sorry but it sounds too weird…”
“He’s saying the truth, though.”
I was about to say I doubted it too but Lois seemingly appeared out of nowhere and also walked towards Monokuma.
“Do I need to explain Danganronpa to them or are you planning on doing it?” she directly asks him.
Monokuma looks at her and looks happier already.
“Please do! Everyone hates my beautiful voice anyway. Everyone has crappy taste.”
“Sure.”
She turns around and looks at us all, looking unamused as possible.
“Please listen to me and don’t interrupt me. I’ll try to explain everything as clearly as possible.”
She glances at Jan.
“If you have some complementary information, feel free. Now, then.”
We all silently agree to listen to her. I think we all trust Lois more than we trust this weird bear anyway… So she starts telling us about Danganronpa.
“As Jan just said, Danganronpa was mainly a videogame series, though it had some sort of extended universe that you could discover through novels, manga and anime. Its first game aired in 2010 and the last in 2017.
The main Danganronpa games had a pretty simple plot: talented students, called Ultimates, were stuck in a school or on an island and forced to kill each other. Monokuma, the exact same bear you see here, was the headmaster everytime, and he claimed that the only way to escape was to kill someone and get away with it – everytime a murder occurred a trial took place, and in the games, the murderer would be found out everytime and executed.”
“That sounds awful…” I hear someone hush.
“The concept of Ultimate was pure fiction, and invented especially for this game.
Anyway, the series had its public, it was fairly well-known, but nothing too special. It was just a Japanese videogame series, you know? When the last game aired, it got the series slightly more popular, but that was it.
One day, though, before anyone realized the series had blown up. It’s not even clear how or why, but suddenly, a few years after the last game had come out, everyone knew about Danganronpa and everyone loved it. This is when they decided to make it real.”
“Huh?”
“Not to worry, murder is not what interested the public. The last Danganronpa game had even made a good case of showing what the series should not become – its story was actually that Danganronpa had become a real TV show and kids’ minds were modified so that they’d think they were Ultimates and be forced to kill each other too. No, this is not what anyone wanted.
Everyone wanted the Danganronpa universe – the safe one, at least – to be real. Everyone wanted Ultimate students. This is why and when they started searching for extremely talented kids everywhere. From that day on, anyone could take a special test that would let them know if they were the Ultimate whatever… And that’s just our life, so I think you know about it.”
“All these serious tests and seek for talent in people… Is just due to everyone becoming a huge weeb?!”
“Pretty much, but not only. With years passing, people started to forget about Danganronpa, like they would any kind of game. The fact that Ultimates came from a game is barely even covered in History in schools, and people, like you, now think it’s just normal and that it must always have existed. Rare are those who are still Danganronpa fans, or even just know about it.”
“Tests being taken regularly to figure out who’s the Ultimate at something so that they can follow accurate studies or become famous just seems normal to me…
“It does to me too.”
“The only thing that was taken from the Danganronpa series was the concept of Ultimate, and it really worked. Anonymous people from everywhere proved to be more talented than we could have even imagined. Every possible category must have an Ultimate now… But that’s nothing negative. The one thing I am worried about is…”
She turns around and looks at Monokuma.
“The fact that this evil being was brought to life… And that it’s saying that we’re all stuck in the school from Danganronpa… And going to kill each other…”
“I think it bothers everyone.”
“Let me guess… We can’t actually attack you.”
“Upupu…”
Monokuma starts to dance.
“Upupu… Upupupupu… UPUPUPUPUPU!”
“Why would anyone like a game with such an annoying mascot?”
“Why would anyone like you?”
“Your words do not even reach me.”
“I saw you get angry much faster earlier… But whatever!”
He calmly looks at us all before he stares at Lois and says:
“Of course you can’t hurt me! That would be against school regulations! Do you want to get speared like Junko Enoshima’s sister, and have your body destroyed like that coach guy?”
“If he only talks in Danganronpa references, life’s going to be tough for most of us.”
“Tougher than your classmates being murdered, or the constant risk of dying?”
“Wha- Why would any of us decide to kill?”
“You don’t know any of us.”
Keith stutters some kind of answer and becomes pale.
“Anyone could quickly be driven insane by claustrophobia or constant fear of the others, anyone could just have it in their blood, anyone could have a good reason to want to get out as soon as po…”
“Sh-shut up!”
Fists clenched, Akiro interrupts Jan and almost runs towards him.
“Don’t say stupid shit like that! What do you want, for everyone to think you’ll kill them? I won’t let you! I won’t let you kill anyone!”
Jan looks surprised and hesitates for a few seconds before he tells Akiro more than he tells everyone:
“… I’m not killing anyone. I’m just saying that… I’m scared too. And I think it’s the healthier choice here.”
He turns to Keith, still pale as ever.
“Don’t trust anyone. We don’t know who’s sane and who isn’t. Whoever you befriend, stay on your guards. You don’t want to lose your life to a friend, or anyone for that matter.”
“You’re… You’re accepting this situation too easily.”
“I’d like to be able to say that I’m just being pessimistic for the sake of being pessimistic… But in this case, I lack the hope to think that we’re going to find a way to escape.”
“Nothing will happen if you don’t try. But we might have to go through it for a little while at least…”
“And I sure wish we could trust everyone.”
“Emily’s not murdering anyone! She’s happy with her pastel girlfriend here!”
“I’m not..!”
“We’ll save you from her, Isabella, before you give up and try to escape.”
“I will not let anyone kill my little friend.”
“We’ll find a way out before anything like that happens!”
“Exactly! We’ll work together and escape before anyone loses hope…”
Everyone wanting to survive and escape makes me feel better already, and I could almost be able to forget the threat, as long as I know I am alive and well.
Looking at Jan, I add:
“And if anyone is already feeling too pessimistic, we’ll help them feel better and protected!”
“How sweet.”
“You know the same goes with you, Lois. Real life won’t be like what happened in the games! There won’t be any murders or trials, we’ll be smart enough to find a way out!”
She grimaces, but I want to make her feel better so much that I keep on talking.
“I know it’s hard to trust strangers… But we’re intelligent, complex beings, we can trust each other and still be careful! This is real life, there is no way we can’t find or create a way out. There is no way our families are not going to find us! A school isn’t so small that you can’t see it!”
She looks away.
“I don’t think…”
“I just know everything is going to be fine. There is no need to worry. Us killing each other would just be crazy, and I know we’re all nice and smart and won’t do tha-”
“Stop it!”
I am taken aback by how upset and frustrated she looks.
“The stronger the hope, the stronger the despair that’ll come out of it!”
“Upupu… I love that quote.”
“Quote?” Either way, she ignores Monokuma’s remark.
“You’re being ridiculous! Can you hear yourself? Convincing yourself and everyone that everything is going to be fine, filling yourself with hope so much you might cry with emotion, thinking that everybody is your friend..! With a smile on your face you’ll go out of this gymnasium, and, and…”
I do not know how to react. She looks like she might start crying, but instead she is yelling at me.
“And what is going to happen when you’ll find out that there is no way out?! How despairing will it be? Use your brain a little! You’re only bathing yourself in lies, convincing yourself of something you can’t believe in!”
“N-no, I…”
“L-Leave me alone!”
She turns around and runs to the door, opens it and gets out. We hear her running away, but we all stay still, too surprised to do anything.
“No, I..! Come back!”
“Wait, she can’t just… Oh, well, she knows the drill anyway. She doesn’t need my explanation.”
No one answers, everyone ignores Monokuma. I just stare at the door, feeling sorry, and extremely bad that I said the wrong things… I could have never imagined that Lois would react in such a way and I want to hit myself in the face for being so stupid.
“She… She just believes in fiction way too much…”
“Yeah, it’s gonna be fine…”
Even Emily has become pale, now, and is acting calm.
A few seconds pass, and suddenly we all find ourselves looking at Jan.
“… Damn.”
He looks at us all.
“Listen, I don’t have any choice but to try anyway, so… Don’t worry about me. I’ll help you guys out. I can’t say that I don’t agree with what she’s saying… But it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Whatever happens, we’ll find a way to make it fine.”
I am a little relieved that he feels this way, but I cannot help but think about Lois and how *she* feels.
“Upupu… What a strong introduction… I believed in you to make it so beautiful! Anyway, I have a surprise for you! Are you excited? Do you want to know what it’s about? Would you die to know what I have in store?”
It did not even pause. This time we all listen to it, and the more I hear its voice, the sicker I feel. I have never hated something as much as right now… And I would pray any gods to make it shut up so that we could start to search our way out.
“Just say it.”
“Aw… These kids are out of patience so fast… Man, I almost don’t want to do it anymore… But there’s that scary-looking huge guy so I’ll say it anyway… Even though he’d get killed if he hit me… But whatever… I’ll say it.”