[A/N] Doing this to maintain any semblance of normalcy. This is the last part of the prologue, btw, so we'll start up with Chapter 1's daily life shortly. Hope you enjoy, guys, and thanks for always sticking with me. So many people deserve what I have, so I'm just trying to be as grateful as I can be.

Edited as of 12/2/22

Sayuri

"Your name is Fujiko Teruya? My name is Sayuri Asai, but why was that name chosen for me? Why have we derived meaning from that order of symbols? In that way, why have we derived meaning from poems? Who knows?"

The girl beside me gives me an empty smile, as though trying to pretend she can follow my train of thoughts. "You have like, the cutest vibes going on, but I'm not good at getting philosophical and whatnot," she admits, running her hand through her silky golden hair.

"Do you feel bad about that? You know that that's not necessary, right? Doesn't art require hardship? And what could be a more fitting hardship than inadvertently alienating those around you?" I ramble. Stop talking, Sayuri.

"No, no! Don't get me wrong, you seem super cool. Adorable as heck, exploding with creative energy, and one smart cookie! The only problem lies with the fact that I'm really NOT a smart cookie. Hopefully I can keep up with you."

"Why are you so hard on yourself?"

"It's good to be real with yourself and others. My brains have never been anything to gawk at, so I won't pretend to be a smartie. But I made a place for myself as an Internet star doing makeup, so that's what I choose to prioritize!"

"Hmm. How did you come to appreciate makeup?"

"We really should get going. Any idea how to get out of here?" she asks, ignoring my question. I guess I've realized that I tend to ask very probing questions very quickly.

We'd checked the door first, of course. Practically as soon as I'd woken up. But it won't budge a bit. Maybe it would've if we were stronger, but who knows? "Shall we search the classroom?"

"Oh, a chance to trash a classroom?! Hell yeah!" She immediately stands up on a desk and starts confidently strutting across them, kicking snacks and notebooks off of them. I try to examine these items for clues, and in that moment she entirely towers over me. A wild smile crosses her lips.

"Did I say 'trash'? I believe I said 'search,' did I not? Could you please avoid making this trickier than it needs to be?"

"Aw, c'mon. It's so much fun! I'll let you trade places with meeeeee!" she offers. What takes stronger precedence in my mind: my respect for notebooks and the wonders and marvels of the human experiences they may contain, or the maddening, spiraling desire for new experiences to quench my curiosity and inspire my soul?! Ah, what a conundrum of priorities! She shakes her hand a bit, offering me help onto the desk. Ahhh, this fuzzy feeling... that's the feeling of poetry. I take her hand— perfectly manicured, might I add— and rise, like a delicate bird, to the desk. Fujiko hops off chipperly, and starts scouring through the rubble of a shattered city. My steps aren't as elegant as hers, since I'm quite a bit shorter. But it's... a nice romp!

She giggles in that model-esque way. "You really are so cute!" And then she frantically starts pointing. "Hey, hey, I found something that seems promising! It's a poem! What's the five-seven-five one called again?"

"You mean a haiku, right? May I take a look?" She hands me a black, white, and red notebook.

The digital world

Holds the challenge that you face.

Find the key within.

"Is there anything electronic in here? Like a tablet or a laptop?" I ask, nearly falling over as I drop off the desk. We actually get down to business now, and very quickly find a black, white, and red tablet. It's empty except for one little app. No app store, no settings, nothing except for a single, solitary app. It's almost horrifically daunting. Like a swirling, chaotic void of rainbow staring me in the face. And I open it.

It's simple. A color game. One of those ones where you have to find the different hue. It has a start button and a basic instruction: Hit 100. "Okay, lemme do this. My eyes are super adjusted to this type of thing, since I'm used to comparing shades of foundations and lipsticks," Fujiko instructs, her playful, frivolous disposition all but forgotten. I silently set the tablet in her hands. I watch as her fingers and turquoise eyes dance across the screen. First, they start off composed, instantaneous. But gradually, her eyes gaze with more intensity as she focuses on finding the right one. At one point, she grimaces.

"What happened?"

"I got that one wrong. And it gave me a little zap. That's not great."

"Can you handle it?"

"It's easy! I just won't make any mistakes anymore! I'm already on stage thirty-eight! I've got this! Time's ticking though, so I gotta go!" She tries to give me a reassuring smile, but it's transient as a shooting star as she buckles down once again. Thirty-eight out of 100. That's... not super close. And I'm not saying I don't have confidence in the eye of the Ultimate Makeup Artist, but I concur with her; that's not great. She goes a little quicker, but shortly after, she lets out another grunt of pain. "That one was a bit of a doozy!" she admits with a pained grin.

"Can I have it?"

"But I have to—!"

"Let me rephrase that. Give it to me and tell me which ones you think are different. It IS getting worse, right? Don't you need your hands to apply makeup?"

"Don't you need YOUR hands for poetry?" she asks, still playing.

I laugh a little bit, more out of nerves than anything. "Wouldn't it be cool if I learned to type with my feet?"

She gives me a look of wariness before handing it over. She instructs me tersely, doing her best for my sake. I get a few hearty zaps, and I was right; they get a little worse every time. My hands ache. But we manage to get to 100 before the time runs out. Then we get a new instruction: Compose a limerick including the color of the last stage. Fujiko winces. "Mauve. That's difficult."

"No worries." I hit the button for a voice recording.

"There once was a boy that I found

I met everywhere— all around

His shirt that was mauve

And his attitude suave

Served to make me feel so safe and sound."

After a few moments, the door clicks. "Is it unlocked now?" I ask.

Fujiko rushes over. It swings open at her touch. She gives me a hug and we walk out silently together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fujiko

Sayuri and I stumble around until we happen upon the infirmary, cause we wanna make sure we take care of our hands. Permanent scarring isn't really something I wanna add to my image. Props to those who can make it work, cause that's like... the biggest power move against whatever they may have dealt with... but it's not for me. Luckily, the door is really obvious, all done up with hearts. Two people are already in here: a real tall, broad-shouldered man with the cutest little formal outfit gently tending to a wound on his ankle, and a girl in a pirate costume loudly bragging about her pain tolerance as she dresses her arm. Her sun-kissed skin is really nice, but I can immediately tell that she's a bit much for me. The ways she's trying to, like... assert her dominance or whatever... gets me riled up. But when they finally notice us, they seem to wait for us to finish rinsing off and bandaging our mild burns. Sayuri's are a good bit worse, and I really am super duper grateful to her for taking those. I think if I had gotten all of the zaps, my hands would be too injured to use for a while. "Arr, lassies, do it smartly 'n handsomely now, then!"

"I'm not handsome. I'm pretty," I respond, a little more forceful than I want.

"Agh, that ain't what I meant, wench! I mean, dress yer wounds quickly but well," she calls out impatiently.

"We're doing the best that we can. Take a chill pill, honey," I advise, glaring a bit.

She laughs, nudging the guy in the arm. "Har har! Ye got a little bite to ye! I like ye! Ye're more of a riot than this lug o'er here!" she cackles. Yeah, well you didn't make the greatest first impression, yourself. We all introduce ourselves as we finish up with our hands (and Wakumi accidentally gets Monterio's name a little wrong, so I have no faith that she'll remember mine).

"Weren't we meant to all gather in Meeting Room A for orientation or something? We should look there, right? Shall we go?" Sayuri suggests. We all decide that's a great idea.

Eventually, we find it, and open the doors wide open. A few people turn their heads, and one girl runs straight up to Monterio and hugs him, excitedly telling him exactly what happened in her challenge. I have to stop my jaw from dropping at this utter goddess of a human being. Her hair is bright red and it lightly twirls and her dress perfectly fits and hoolllly shit I'm gonna die. Literally EVERY girl in the room, including the ones that filter in after us, are like soooo gorgeous and I can't handle it! In their own ways, of course. Some are delicate, some are glamorous, some are intriguing...

And then a scratchy voice fills the room. "Well, hello there, my sweet chickadees! Seems like everyone is right as rain. Great! We wouldn't want anyone missing the fun! Let's get things rolling!" It's a goofy, strange voice, but it makes me feel jittery and I don't like it one bit!

"He said, 'That's called foreshadowing!' you know!" the red-head Kana yells out.

"Wha-wha-what?" the voice reacts.

"When you told Monterio and Wakumi that they didn't need to know you because they'd be getting info too early. He said that's called foreshadowing, so stop hiding and get your ass out here!" Everyone kind of snickers a bit at her outburst and Monterio's mildly embarrassed smile.

But all the joy drains from the air as a black and white bear bursts into the room. For some reason, I'm not confused; there's been too much weirdness today already, so I've started just casually accepting it. No. Instead of confusion, I just feel this overpowering fear. My hands start to shake.

"Who are you? Wh-What's going on here?" Sayuri asks.

"Yeah! Why did we have to go through that whole song and dance?!" Gou yells.

"I am Monokuma, your camp director forever! I'm beary happy to see you all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!"

"What do ye mean fore'er, ye obnoxious li'l picaroon?! I don't have fore'er!"

"Ah, I do so love this little tradition, but we know the drill, don't we?" he grins sadistically. Why?! We're gonna die, I can feel it! "Essentially... you're stuck in here forever. There are no keys to leave this building. The key... is murder!"

"You can't be serious," Nari counters, seemingly daring him with her eyes.

"Oh, but I am! Your choices are quite simple! Stay here, living a peaceful life forever, free of worries... or kill someone and get away with it!"

"S-So... if we don't kill, we'll never see our friends and family ever again?" Chimon squeaks, looking close to tears.

"That's exactly right! Aren't you a smartie?" The poor thing immediately starts sobbing.

"This h-has to be a lie! That's— this is— all of this is batshit insane!" Yuu cries out. He tries to take a step forward and crumbles to the floor. His breathing gets all heavy.

"Why?" I ask meekly. "Why us? What did we do to deserve this?"

"Nothing! This isn't any of our faults! It can't be!" Tozen responds.

"He is right. We could not have known what would occur if we came here," Azumi nods. "Now, Yuu, may I help you coach your breathi—?"

"Get back!" He cuts her off. She backs up.

"You guys can off me first, if you want. It'll be less of a waste. Besides, I'm... exhausted," Joanie exhales.

"No! That's definitely not true! Don't worry! None of us will kill each other! I have faith!" Bisque yells encouragingly.

"Exactly! We'd never even think about it!" Gou agrees.

"How can you be sure? How could you possibly know that someone isn't already plotting your death?" Monokuma asks with a chipper lilt to his voice. The room is filled with a horrible, heavy silence. Anyone. There are sixteen of us. It's not impossible to imagine that SOMEONE is considering it.

"What do you take me for? No matter who is operating you, I have no doubt that I can outthink you," Keiji breaks the silence, giving off almost an irrational level of confidence. "So everyone relax."

"Right. Whoever's in charge of this sick bullshit, we'll find you, and we'll end this. That's the only way," Ren balls up his fists.

"I'd love to see you try. Ah, the despair on your faces when you realize it's hopeless... I bet I won't even be able to put a price on it! Now, before I forget, there's one last thing you need. Your very own, specialized e-Handbooks!" Nobody moves forward to grab one. Eventually, Hachi, who hadn't said a word this whole time, looks through them and takes hers. She turns it on.

"It's personalized? But it doesn't have any flowers... just because it has my name and info doesn't make it—"

"Zip it, you little twerp."

"Don't insult her!" Gou shouts, as if on impulse.

Hachi doesn't even react to any of that. Dang, that girl is ballsy! Following her example, we all gradually find our handbooks and scroll through them. These rules... are sickening.

"Down ta the depths! What happens if we don't listen to yer law? Cause I really want ye to kiss the gunner's daughter, ye psycho! I mopped the floor with yer minions in the armor!" Wakumi threatens, cracking her neck menacingly.

"But the robot dog we encountered had all sorts of weapons that could chew you up and spit you out. If this guy's the big boss, he definitely does, too. Don't you go making any stupid decisions on a whim," Joanie warns.

"Correctamundo! I like how observant you are, Joanie! What happens is that you die! I don't get to show off very often, but if you attack me, I'd be glad to make an example out of you! Naughty children get punished!"

"If I can talk... I think it might be best if we try the outsmarting plan. I know someone like me doesn't have the right to say this," I admit, "but we clearly have some super smart people here! Genius level, even! I'm sure... all our combined talent will help us get out alive, just like with the earlier challenges!" I don't even know if I believe what I'm saying, but I gotta try.

"What happened? Can you account for your dramatic shift in demeanor? And why is it so wonderfully compelling?" Sayuri beams at me. She's shaking but she tries to stand up taller for me.

Gou gives me a look that warms my soul. "Because that's hope, Sayuri. And we need to believe in that with everything we have in us!"

"I will! I promise I will!" Bisque swears, hopping a bit.

"That's so cheesy. But I guess it's worth a shot," Nari bites her lip.

"I mean, yeah! We can't go giving up before we try! I'll make sure to take care of you guys to the best of my ability!" Tozen offers.

Yuu gets up from the floor, having finally steadied himself. "If it isn't obvious, I'm literally terrified. But I'll do my best, too. There's nothing else I c-can do, after all!" Yuu nods.

"Duh! Were you ever thinking any differently? Fear answers to us!" Kana stands proudly. Monterio wordlessly squishes her shoulder in support.

Monokuma laughs. "I can't wait to see that hope crushed to smithereens! Welp, I guess it's about time I leave you to it! But one last thing. If you think you're alone... you never are!" Several white and red robotic dogs run through the doors, practically flooding the place. "For those of you who haven't been acquainted yet... these guys are the Camp Counselor, Moninu! They'll be sending me reports and footage often... particularly if any funny business goes down. And of course, I'll be doing some check-ins as well! I wouldn't be a good director if I let Monoinu do all the work! Besides! I can't leave my favorite little killing game participants for too long! With that... I'll see ya later!" He throws a smoke bomb from out of nowhere and vanishes.

We all take a minute to just soak everything in as the dogs filter out of the room. "How long has it been since we got here?" I ask softly.

"Well, my guess is that we probably passed out around seven. It should be around ten to ten-thirty right now, given where the sun was when Keiji, Hachi, and I got out of the courtyard. Garden. Whatever it's called," Nari estimates, dragging a hand through her (gorgeously silky and long) dark hair.

"Let's split up, troops! Groups of three or four! That'll help us get to know each other, too!" Gou instructs.

"Aye aye!" Bisque giggles, saluting him dutifully.

"You got the spirit, laddie!" Wakumi slaps him hard on the back and laughs raucously, making the poor sweetie flinch. Azumi immediately draws him in, and Tozen very obviously hangs around her to let her know he's also coming. Ren, Nari, Keiji, and Yuu clump together pretty quickly as well. I gravitate toward the dancers, and I'm lucky enough that they let it happen. Gou and Sayuri pick up Chimon, and Joanie, Hachi, and Wakumi, seeing that they're the last ones, join up.

Our expressions are really different. Some of us look confident, others stoic, others nervous. But I can feel determination so powerful that it could totally rattle the room.

"Alright, everyone. Let's go explore and look for a way out. We'll meet back up here in roughly half an hour. Does that work?" Gou asks.

"Sounds like a plan!" Kana confirms. And off we all go, diving headfirst into a situation so much larger than we could ever imagine.