Jax Martini-Richards had hardly been able to believe his eyes when he'd received the letter in the mail.  It had been from a school called Hope's Peak Academy, and he had gotten a scholarship there for reasons that weren't quite explained.  But that was okay, because there was no chance he could ever get a scholarship otherwise; he just wasn't that kind of student.  He did know, though, that he had to pull himself together and make a strong impression.  There were definitely going to be geniuses of all kinds there, so he couldn't.  Act.  Stupid.  He doubted that being at the top of the dog training field would be seen as "talent" among whoever he would meet.  God, he was getting himself worked up already, and he wasn't even there yet.

He clicked the latches on his suitcase shut before rolling it out of his bedroom and to the front door of his apartment.  Jackie, his service dog, trotted up to him, her tail wagging.  He hesitated, thinking back to the letter.  They'd never said he couldn't bring a licensed service dog... but at the same time, they never said he could.  He thought for another long moment before taking a deep breath.

"If I get expelled, it's your fault.  But I do need you and can't go more than a few hours without you, so you're coming," he said.  Jackie's tongue lolled out of her mouth as she stared up at him with shining blue-and-brown eyes.  

Jax took one last look around before composing himself, walking out the door with his dog, and not looking back.  

***

The building was beautiful- that was the first thing he noticed.  It was also empty and oddly quiet as he stepped in.  He was immediately met with a table of tablets- er, digital handbooks- with labels next to them.  Jax didn't recognize any of the other names, but he was surprised to see that there were only nine others that seemed to be attending the school.  Strange.  He took in the massive hallways as he walked, using the map feature on his digital handbook to eventually locate his room.  This was when things really began to feel fishy to him.

His windows were bolted shut.  Why?  Did they expect him to try to escape?  Couldn't they have opted for shades or curtains instead?  Had this room housed someone who had needed the extra precautions?  And why were there cameras in there, too?  Questions spun wildly in his mind, but he had a feeling that he wouldn't be finding out any time soon why things felt so... off.

As if sensing Jax's rising anxiety, Jackie nudged his hand with her wet nose and licked his fingers gently.  He couldn't help but giggle a bit at how much it tickled.  She certainly was a smart dog.  

"I guess all that there is to do is to look around," he shrugged, tugging on the strings of his faded red hoodie.

He opened the door to find some sort of brochure sitting on the ground in front of him.  Curious, he opened it up to see a note instructing him to be at the gym by eight o'clock for some sort of "entrance ceremony".  Which was odd, because when he glanced at the time on his digital handbook...

Oh sh*t.

It was seven fifty-nine.

"We gotta go!" Jax bolted down the hall despite not knowing where he was going, Jackie hot on his heels.  

Frantically, he re-opened the map on his digital handbook as he ran, nearly dropping it several times as he tried to figure out the layout of this massive place.  He bolted down several massive hallways, past rooms that he had no idea belonged in a school, and finally found himself outside of the gymnasium.  He could hear light chatter as he approached, his introverted heart pounding as he slowly slipped inside.

Jax was most certainly surprised to see only eight- he had to re-count several times- other people there.  None looked older than eighteen or younger than sixteen, like he was.  As he took a nervous step forward, sixteen eyes of varying colors all shot towards him.  Great, he loved attention.  It was his favorite thing next to public speaking.  

A young girl about his age with long brown hair and green eyes was the first to react.  She ran towards him, her dark blue bandana and pin-covered satchel bouncing against her teal-rimmed cyan shirt as she ran forward, her black sneakers slapping against the gym floor.  She extended her hand to him in such a fast, aggressive move that Jax jumped slightly.

"Hi!" she squealed. "I'm Narwhale!  You seem lost, but that's okay- everyone here is really nice and we're going to have such a great time!!"

Jax just nodded, shook her hand, and went along with whatever this small girl was saying.  She definitely had a lot of energy, and he had no idea how on earth she managed to fit all of it into her petite body.

"Okay, okay, let me introduce you to everyone!" Narwhale then grabbed his wrist and dragged him towards the rest of the group.  Oh hell no.  Diving headfirst into a group of people was not something Jax Martini-Richards did.  

She positioned him right in front of a blonde girl with two messy buns and icy blue eyes.  This girl wore a baggy pink and grey-sleeved top with a black skirt and gray sneakers, but the two most notable things about her were the pink flowers in her hair and the camera dangling from a strap around her neck.  She gave him a friendly smile.

"This is Tommie!  She's been showing me the coolest photos she's taken on her camera!  They're the coolest pictures I've ever seen!" Narwhale exclaimed.

Tommie's cheeks flushed, and she tapped her camera sheepishly.

"They're nothing," she mumbled.  She then looked back up at Jax and asked, "And you are?"

Right, he hadn't introduced himself yet.  

"I'm, um, Jax," he stammered.  So much for calm and collected.  Jackie nudged his hand sympathetically.

Tommie looked down and gasped upon seeing Jackie. "Oh my god, she's so cute- can I pet her??"

"Uh, sure," Jax agreed, and then both Tommie and Narwhale were all over Jackie.  At least it gave him a moment to-

"Yo, I don't think I've met you yet!" He was then face-to-face with a blue-eyed boy with dark hair tied back in a ponytail.  He wore a baseball cap and varsity jacket with baggy black cargo pants, as well as a big grin on his face.

"I'm Evan," he continued.  He paused before adding, "I can tell from the look on your face that you're confused and a little overwhelmed- how do I know, you may wonder?  Well, I'm exceptional at reading expressions because I'm an actor!"

"Yeah, okay, cool," Jax said.  He really wanted to go back to his creepy psych ward of a room right now.  And sleep for the next five years, too; it was too much social interaction already.

"Excuse me for a moment," a new voice chimed in.  The next thing he knew, he was a good distance away from the others.  

"Thanks for that," he sighed, running a hand through his hair and turning to face his savior.

It was a young woman in an oversized olive jacket that didn't quite sit on her shoulders, an orange turtleneck sweater, and black pants.  Her golden hair was short and a bit messy, but the most striking thing was her emerald eyes.  Something about them was just so... deep and mysterious.  Hm.

"Of course," she said, snapping Jax out of her thoughts. "While Evan may understand facial expressions, I understand the emotions behind them.  I'm Dawn; I'm somewhat of a psychologist.  If you ever need to get some air, I'll be one of the first to know, maybe even before you."

"Oh." Well that certainly was proving his theory right. "Thanks."

"I'll leave you alone now." And with that, she turned and headed back to the group.

Just as she did, though, the sound of the loudspeakers crackling to life filled the room.  

"Hello there, I'm Monokumace... or just, y'know, Ace-  Whatever, I'm your headmaster."

Jax's gaze shifted to the podium in the gym, where a strange black and white dragon-like creature suddenly popped up, using its small cyan wings to make it to the top of the stand.  One of its eyes was a stormy blue, while the other was a bright red and shaped like some sort of slash.  It flipped through a stack of index cards as it began to speak again.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, you all think you're tripping balls right now.  Rest assured, you're not.  Whew!  With that out of the way, lemme..." the dragon began flipping through the cards again. "I'm Ace, yeah, said that... where's the frickin'... no, that's not... aha!  Here's the direct quote that I definitely didn't steal.  Ha.  'Overflowin' with potential, you high schoolers...are none other than the hope of the world! In order to protect our wonderful rays of hope, yer expected to live here on campus and nowhere else!  In other words, yer gonna spend the rest of yer lives in here!  For those of you who wanna leave I've established a certain rule! You are free to murder however you like. The only student permitted to leave is one who has committed murder. It's a simple rule, and the only one. Beat! Stab! Club! Slice open! Torch! Crush! Strangle! Cast a curse!'"

At the stunned silence they received, they added, "Yeah, maybe I should've just paraphrased it."

"What the hell?" a voice yelled.

Jax watched as a muscular young woman with freckles in a tight-fitting black tank-top, baggy sweatpants, and a long gray bandana tied around her forehead that mixed in with her long ponytail of curly brown hair stepped towards the podium.  Her green eyes narrowed as she lunged forward and grabbed Ace by the throat.

"What.  The.  Hell," she repeated.

"Hey, hey, acts of violence against the headmaster is a HUGE no-no!" Ace gasped. "Self-destruct sequence initiated in three... two..."

Startled, the brunette tossed the dragon-thing in the air, and a deafening BOOM ran out as it exploded, raining small bits and pieces of metal and wire down on everyone.  Jax had partially disassociated at this point, so he only understood under fifty percent of what was going on.

"Whew, told ya!" Another Ace popped out from behind the podium. "Can I explain now?  I can do this all night, if you really want."

When nobody responded, they nodded. "Great.  Well, if any more rules are broken, you will be punished?  Okie dokie?  Moving on!  Like I said, if you wanna get out of here, you gotta kill each other!  Easy as that!  Oh, and don't get caught.  You won't like that, either.  Happy murdering!"

They retreated behind the podium again, disappearing.

"...I know I said it twice already, but what the hell?!" the girl who'd lashed out earlier demanded. "What kind of stupid joke is this?"

"You nearly died just now.  I wouldn't take it as a joke," Dawn advised.

"So what do we do, then?  Kill each other?" the brunette grunted.

"Preferably not.  There's definitely a way to avoid that," an unfamiliar person with dark hair and orange eyes said.  They wore a short-sleeved purple dress shirt with dark gray dress pants.

"We should all get to know each other instead!  If we're all stuck here, why not be friends?" Narwhale suggested.  Jax nearly laughed out loud; this kid was funny.

"I'm just gonna explore, there's so many photo opportunities everywhere!" Tommie grinned, then turned on her heel and walked away.

Jax looked down at Jackie. "How about we go back to the room and sleep on whatever just happened?"

She barked.

"Yeah," he agreed. "I could really use a good stress-relieving nap."

***

(1940 words :00)

Ayyyy we're done the first chapter!  If you couldn't tell, the basic storyline does line up with the actual Danganronpa.  I couldn't fit all of episode one in one chapter without it being too long sooooo yeah-

The hours and hours of research are paying off!!!  

I... watched so many executions.  Thankfully that means EVERYONE has a planned execution now!  It's just a matter of which ones get shown ;)

Ok that's it baiiii