Hope's Peak Academy. Still somehow standing in
1946, founded to teach the most talented of students, said to be the hope of the nation.
I guess hope was what our country needed more than ever, the war over and lost, our cities bombed to rubble...
A-anyway, I should be introducing myself. My name's
Enoshima-
[ ]
Asuka
[ ]
Tsubasa
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Hotaru
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I've, er, attracted some odd comments about my looks over the years. I'm real scrawny, with
freckles across my face, and my
messy hair is the usual
black on one side but
bright pink on the other, of all things. I wear
shorts but still cover my legs with
stockings. My parents say my gender is male, so guess I'll go with that...
I had no idea what I'd be doing with my life after the war, I mean, I couldn't even imagine when or how the war would end. That I was even here still alive felt... weird, like I had to check I wasn't a ghost. So you could see how grateful I was to Hope's Peak, not just for accepting me as a student, but for giving me any purpose now at all, really.
Specifically, I was being admitted as the Ultimate:
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Pilot. I'd been fascinated with flying since, well, ever. I was... one of the 'volunteers' for the kamikaze missions, but against our purpose I managed to make it back alive, the war ending before I was to be sent out again.
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Survivor. I was... there in Hiroshima when the bomb fell. I lived, but I knew I was one of the lucky ones.
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All-Rounder. I could do a little of everything, I had to, just to make it through those years. And now many more specifically talented people were gone, while I was still here...
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Medic. After the bombs fell as I look upon all the bodies I couldn't take it. So I fixed up anyone I could come across best I could, they even managed to avoid Walking Ghost Syndrome. Somehow. Anyway they call me the Fallout Angel now...I never quite liked the nickname. (Astra Myst write-in)
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Well, you could say Hope's Peak had reason to feel lucky too, as it was, pardon the pun, hopeful to know it even still existed. That the school hadn't been annihilated as a firebombing target or shut down if not seized by the Americans.
While in the past the high school had liked to advertise what nation-famous names were attendants or graduates, given 'recent events', they'd been a little quieter recently. I'd gone around checking newspaper and listening to the radio for any info on who'd be there this year, who my potential classmates could be.
Well, my search wasn't always in vain, as lying on my rickety bed the night before, I heard one radio presenter say,
"And to the country's surprise, Hope's Peak Academy is about to re-open its doors. Though information on new students this year understandably remains classified, we can say a few words about them.
Firstly, we have the 'Ultimate Captain'," the presenter said with nary a crackle,
"She was but a servant girl aboard a ship, but when all capable crew members aboard were either killed or severely wounded, she rose and proved a natural in charge of the ship".
Ultimate Captain? Well, goes to show that my life at Hope's Peak would be the end of me hearing about the military. Then again, what with we all just went through, it'd be fairer to expect that most of my classmates would have military ties. I sighed, we all had more than enough experience in war now to go around…
"
Next, the Ultimate Miracle-worker," the broadcast resumed, "
A pious Christian teen whose prayers and rites it is said kept his town safe from bombing, he's been noticed by the Vatican who say he could be a contender for Pope upon coming age, Sainthood even".
Pope? Saint? Wow, I admit I knew very little about Christianity, despite Italy having been one of our allies. A miracle sounded like what we all could use right now, and hey, maybe he could help improve relations with the US, they're a big Christian country, aren't they?
"But this being Hope's Peak, he's not the only one with his sights set high. Ishimaru Toranosuke, the Ultimate Manager who already is a genius at politics, could one day be our own Prime Minister.
And... there's even me," the presenter finished with, as she giggled,
"The 'Ultimate Radio Presenter', and why no, I'm not joking. I hope to see you all there!"
Hold on, the announcer was going to be my classmate? That was weird to think about I mean, I listen to the radio a lot yet I've never met a presenter face to face, far as I know at least.
I turned my radio off for the night and tried to get some sleep, though as excited yet anxious as I was that took more than a while, as I tossed and turned the whole time.
I wished I'd stayed awake the whole night, for when I did open my eyes the next morning...
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qt28PUco6M
I found myself in an utterly unfamiliar room. Springing out of my now unknown bed, I opened the windows... to see nothing but a vast cave 'outside', with no sunlight to be seen.
I collapsed, having no explanation for what had just happened other than it being a nightmare. And then, oh no, it got worse.
Next thing I knew, I heard a strange voice, constantly shifting in pitch, speaking in my head.
"Hey, relax, I'm gonna get you out of here, trust me. Listen closely, your life is on the line, but just do as I say, and you might survive this. And you want to survive, don't you?"
Clutching my own head, I slowly stood back up, gritted my teeth, and mumbled "Who-who are you? A-and survive what? How are you even in my head?".
"
How much I can tell you is… we'll say confidential. Look, you wouldn't question a commanding officer, so you don't question me," was what it told me, crackling from ear to ear, "
My job here basically is, well, the Ultimate Mission Control. I'm communicating to you through an electronic signal installed while you were unconscious, got that? As for what you're up against, hmhm, you'll find out soon enough".
I… guess that helped. In the meantime, I looked around my room to see exactly what sort of place I was in, other than just 'underground'. It wasn't too inspiring, dark green walls meeting a reddish-brown floor and a shadowed ceiling, basics like a wooden desk and trash can, but what really stood out to me was a weird box with a screen on the wall, looking like a miniature cinema.
Wait, I think I'd heard about this invention. They called it a 'television', right? They were pretty rare, American too, think it was mostly the military that used them. Wait, a television, and we're now occupied by America… s-so, I have been captured by-?
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"Listen up, you yellow-bellied ankle-biters!" the box then flickered on to show the image of a snarling…
eagle doll? Its beak was studded with
stars, and its talons coloured in patterned
stripes. "I want you all to report to the Gym pronto, that's an order ya hear?! Hmph, I expected you <Japanese> to be punctual, don't tell me I was assigned ta babysit a bunch of fresh meat slackers. 'Pride of the nation' my ass!".
The television then blipped off again, and I guessed there was nothing for it. Those being all the instructions I had from The Voice and that television bird so far, I reached out, trembling as I did, and slowly opened my new room's door
I stepped out into the hallways of what looked like a badly lit school dormitory, what lights there were hissing on and off. The oaken floorboards creaking a little as I walked, it wasn't long before yet another figure, a gangly stranger stepping out from the shadows, introduced themselves to me.
"Huh, they nabbed you too, sweetcheeks?"
he said in a voice gravelly beyond his years. Getting a better look at him, I could see this new person wore a
pinstripe suit and tap shoes, had s
piky steel-grey hair beneath a
trilby whose points rose to look like
cat ears, and had
razor-sharp teeth forming a jagged grin. But even those weren't his most noticeable feature, as while he was of above-average height, even he was dwarfed by what looked to me like a
giant cello case he carried behind him.
I didn't know how much to tell this guy, like if I could speak about that voice or not, but I did manage to say. "Y-Yeah, looks like it. Er, right now I'm just trying to find out where I am, my only lead is that, er, eagle told me to head to the Gym".
The
steel-haired stranger let out a rickety chuckle, before he smirked at me, "We're at Hope's Peak Academy, kid, the one and only. Yeah, doing a cruddy job of livin' up to the hype, ain't it? Heh, you'll be wanting to know who the hell I am too, I take it? No less than the Ultimate Jazzman, kid, you're practically in the presence of hepcat royalty, and the name's
Sakamoto-"
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Genpachi
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Tokihiko
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Yuuma
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