Hope is Unbreakable

I didn’t know what to expect from the International Branch of Hope’s Peak Academy’s Reserve Course, so i can’t say i got disappointed. At its core, it wasn’t all that different from a regular school. Behind the fancy name and their flashy brand of producing generations of talented people, or “Ultimates”, how they call them here, you have… well, a school. Though I have to say that the scale here is bigger than any other school I've seen before. The Reserve Course building is massive. 18 floors towering behind a nice entrance which extends outwards. The building is not only tall, but also very wide. It can easily host hundreds, if not thousands of students under its roof. The dorms were located inside of the building too, just on the far side of it. The main part of the building's exterior looked insanely simple. It was made out of regular white panels and featured the oh so familiar big balconies every 5 meters. This honestly reminded me of houses you see on the outskirts of Moscow and even more often in smaller cities in Russia. Didn’t know Soviet architecture was a popular style for Japanese schools. Jokes aside, the interior wasn’t anything fancy either. In my life I saw a few anime where the story took place in a Japanese school. Well, the inside of the Reserve Course building looked just like it. And to be fair, I didn't know what to expect so I wasn't complaining. It was clean and tidy, so I liked it. And I didn’t really have any ambitions about joining the Main Course or anything. Sure, if they do have a way for students to show their skills and talents and get noticed, I might try it for fun, but if not, then I won't be sad about it. After all, I didn't even know about the school until 3 weeks ago. Though it was painfully obvious where all the money from the Reserve Course entrance fees went, when you looked out of a window in a class. Right across, on a long walking distance tho, was the Main Course building, with its beautiful brick facade. Now that definitely looked like an elite institution. The classes weren’t anything new either. Math, science, literature, history, etc. — the exact same subjects I could’ve taken in Moscow, with the fact that literature and history were split into Japanese and World literature and history instead of Russian and World being the only major difference. Thankfully the school knew that most of us couldn’t speak or read Japanese, like, at all, so both the textbooks and our lessons were held in English. And this is it. There’s no creative projects. No sports clubs or things like that. Nothing that could hint to the fact that this is supposed to be a way for kids to discover their talents and get into the Main Course. The teachers weren’t any different either — regular levels of apathy, the classic “I don’t care” look on every one’s face. During breaks I liked to wander through the long halls. A quite pointless task if you ask me, since i couldn’t even eavesdrop on students outside of my International class due to language barrier, but it was interesting to see the hall not ending even after a five minute long walk. Now, the International Branch. As I said earlier, it was just a regular class like hundreds others inside of the Reserve Course. The only difference being that the class number plate above the classroom entrance was a more elite golden instead of regular silvery color, and it read “International Branch” instead of a number, which, funny enough, made it that much easier to find the class in the giant building for someone who was as new to the school as me. True to its name, my class hosted students from all over the world: USA, China, Germany, France, and many more countries. All of us speak different languages, come from different backgrounds, but we all have one thing in common: we don’t know why we’re here. Some kids have family money, and are very eager to show it off with luxury watches and accessories, and that annoying aura of someone who thinks they are superior to everyone. Others, like me, got invited through the lottery with no known entry conditions. A few students talk big - saying they will definitely be the one to get accepted into the Main Course. But most of us were still not sure what to expect, and pretty quickly switched from confusion to excitement about being in Japan. It may have seen that we were treated no different from other Reserve Course students. But that was actually not the case. The school had to keep an appearance of an organization that wanted to expand. And that led to us being given some benefits that no Reserver could even dream of. First of all - money. Crazy enough, but we were actually paid a tiny amount - but enough to be able to explore the Japanese capital in a reasonable way. I wasn’t sure why, since from talking to my classmates I learned that some of them had to have their parents pay for their admission, but I shrugged it off. A school would do anything for PR, and I have to admit, the “you get paid for studying in Japan” is a very good PR stunt. And secondly, while other Reserve Course students just came to the school on the first day and went to study, we actually had an entrance ceremony. They really put on a small show for that. Flags of all of the students’ countries behind the principal, his speech in which he talked about “expanding talent outwards”. They even showed a powerpoint presentation on a big screen about the school, subtitled to six languages actually. This was a questionable benefit if you ask me, I would prefer them not being so obviously exaggerating about this. But again, the regular Reservers didn’t get anything, they were just thrown into classes straight away. I was slowly getting into the rhythm of studying here. It was weird starting a school year again instead of preparing to finish it, since in Japan school runs from April to March, but this also meant that I already knew most of the subjects that we would be studying this year, so getting good grades shouldn’t be a problem for now. Every day, after classes ended, I took a walk around the nearby districts, very curious about how things were here. For the first few days I simply walked without a goal, inspecting every building in my way. After I mapped out the district in which the school was located in my head, I decided to look at what interesting activities I could find here. It wasn’t long until I found an arcade nearby. Curious, I decided to go there. In Russia, gaming is mostly a computer or home console thing. There are Internet Cafes, and they were quite popular some time ago, but again, people mostly played multiplayer computer games there. Arcades just aren’t popular at all, so this was my first time being in one.

***

Safe to say I was not disappointed. The moment I stepped inside, I heard a quiet digital chime playing from a ceiling speaker. The arcade was totally packed. Rows of machines stacked side by side, their screens flickering with oversaturated colors. At first I simply walked slowly between the aisles, taking the atmosphere in, without even touching anything. A claw machine jingles as someone fails to grab a stuffed toy. Rhythm games flash in seemingly impossible patterns. Soon I reached the part where older and more retro cabinets are situated. Interestingly, those seemed to be more popular with the players here. Deciding that going here without playing at least something is not worth it, I loaded a coin into a cabinet with an old school fighting game. This choice was admittedly not the best when playing solo, but I still enjoyed beating up the computer opponents. This game turned out to be quite challenging for me since I've never played on arcade controls before. All around me were other people playing games. Some were alone like me, some were playing together. There was a group of friends playing a racing game, the four of them constantly crashing into each other. After finishing with my game, I noticed a familiar face standing next to a nearby cabinet. And turning to face in that direction, I recognized him as one of my classmates from the International Branch - Felix from Germany. He was talking to a girl in an oversized black hoodie with cat ears or something like that. I couldn’t hear what they were talking about, so I wanted to walk up closer and listen. But before I could do that, they both turned towards the fighting cabinet and started the game. What i guessed was he decided to challenge that girl for a match. I didn’t think much about it and simply joined a few others who gathered around to spectate. What happened next gave me a good bit of a laugh. The girl wiped the floor with Felix. Like, completely. The poor dude couldn’t even land a single hit. Not even ten seconds into the round, he was pushed into the edge of the arena and sent into a permanent air combo with no way to escape it. Soon enough, the word “FLAWLESS” flashed in bold letters on the screen. Felix spat out some words about broken characters and moved his face a little bit closer to the screen, which obviously didn’t help him. The second round ended even quicker, completely humiliating him. I sensed something wasn’t right in the way Felix looked at the girl after the match ended. In the short time I knew him from the International branch I found him to be pretty prideful, but not to the extent of getting so riled up over some old arcade game. “You clearly cheated,” he points his finger at the girl. “There is no way a girl like you can play like that.” His tone was angry when he spoke, but his eyes weren’t. They didn’t show any emotion in fact. The girl in question didn’t respond to these accusations. She just blinked and wanted to turn around, probably to go and play a different game. Some spectators snorted in the background. It was like everyone pretended Felix and his accusations didn’t exist. This was making him madder and madder. Everything happened so quickly I couldn't even process it. Felix threw a punch. Right at the girl. But before his fist could connect with the back of her head, something stopped it. A dark glowing arm, floating right next to mine, its fist blocking Felix’s hand. It materialized as soon as I sensed something was not right, before I even realized it. Once I knew Felix couldn’t hit the girl anymore, the arm disappeared, just as the girl turned around to the thud from the contact. “Dude, why would you do that? Why would you try to hit a girl? And because of what, some shitty old game?” I tried to talk some sense into him, but to no avail. Felix didn’t seem like calming down anytime sooner, and the girl didn’t make things any better. Her face changed from calm to anger quickly, and she directed it to me for some reason. “It’s not shitty.” I blinked. Did she—? Did she seriously just— “Did she not notice she almost got punched? Or does she just… really love this game that much?” I couldn’t tell. And somehow, that made it weirder. As I wondered what was going on behind her pink eyes, Felix hissed and closed his eyes in concentration. Before I could react, a sharp pain hit my left arm after a loud bang. Looking down, I noticed a bright red circular mark on it, like if a ball hit me there. Turning my attention to Felix, I saw him holding a weird looking gun in his hand. It looked like a fancy flintlock pistol, but with a wider, bigger barrel, and it had an engraved silver revolver drum. Smoke was rising from the barrel. Felix, still not reacting to the outside world, spun the drum and shot again. “The hell is that thing?” I thought. I could see the bullet now, it was a perfect sphere made out of metal. I close one eye and try to focus on the bullet. It’s moving a little fast, but I am sure I can do it. I think of it disappearing, and then dropping down on the floor somewhere to the side, trying to focus on this vision, just like how I did with that rock when I stopped the phone thief. But I just couldn’t feel the bullet. It was a weird feeling, like if my ability didn’t exist at all and I was focusing on nothing. But that was not true at all. I had this ability for a long time now. I tested and tried it on many different things in the past, and concluded that it was in fact real and not just me going crazy. I could hide and then move objects with my mind. Some were harder to pull this trick off on than others. For one, I discovered I could only manipulate things that were not attached or held by anything, so it would not work on a car mirror or on a phone if someone was holding it. And for two, I couldn't move things too big or heavy, only something I could roughly hold myself. I had no other choice but deflect the bullet now and think about all this later, especially since Felix shot two more in my way. I focused on the bullet in another way now, envisioning it being deflected, and sure enough, the same glowing arm appeared, alongside the rest of the shadowy figure. The figure, or a spirit, rather, was floating in the air in front and slightly above my torso. The spirit was slightly transparent, but I could feel what it was seeing in my mind anyway, so I didn't have to worry about it obscuring my vision. The spirit had a humanoid appearance, and was built roughly like me, although it did not have a lower body. Around its waist it was simply turning more and more foggy the lower its body went. Its figure had a glowing purple outline, and the body was a very dark, almost black color dotted with white stars. It looked like a floating piece of Space itself. Instead of eyes, the spirit had two spinning, spiral shaped galaxies, bright magenta in color. The same galaxies were placed on the gloves of the spirit. The spirit punched the bullets faster than I ever could. A short clack is heard on every punch, as the bullets get deflected into nearby walls. Gasps erupt. Then screams. People start to run, knocking down chairs and stools. Felix tries to shoot at me again, but we can only hear the clicks of his gun’s trigger as he groans with disappointment. He ran out of ammo. I thought that at least now he would knock it off and stop. But no, of course he doesn’t. He walks backwards a little, opens the drum of his gun, and slaps a nearby stool with it. The stool dissolves. Turns into dust, which starts to glow as it gets sucked into the drum of his gun. Felix closes the drum with a click, and the gun flashes for a moment. Sure enough, he has ammo now, and so he very eagerly shoots at me again. I notice that this time, the bullets are different. Three of them are small, fast and shiny, while the fourth one is slow and big, and looks completely out of place. My spirit deflects the shiny bullets and catches the big one. With how slow it was flying, I might have even been able to catch it with my bare hands. I squeeze it, and feel the same springy material the seats of the stools are made of. “So he can turn the materials of objects he punches with his gun into ammo?” I deduce. There is no doubt now that this guy has an ability like me. In retrospect, it wasn’t hard to guess that I was not the only person on the planet to have a superpower, but this was still a crazy revelation to me. At least that would explain why I couldn't use my ability on those bullets. I try to call him out again, but he doesn’t react. While I was deflecting his shots, he managed to get a distance from me, roughly 10 meters. There was no way I could get to him fast enough to beat him up - either with my spirit or even my own fists, so Felix had an opportunity to look around for more objects to get ammo of. His sight focused on something, and his brows furrowed. I looked in the same direction, and noticed the girl from before, the one that beat Felix at the fighting game. She was the only person to not evacuate from the arcade, and was currently hiding behind the counter, peeking out to look at us from time to time. Her hood was pulled down now, so now I could see her face better. Her eyes were pinkish red, contacts perhaps? She had dusty pink hair which curled outwards, except for two locks that instead curled inward. Over her left eye was a hair pin, but I couldn't see what it was from my distance. The moment Felix saw the girl glance from above the counter again, he immediately turned his gun towards her. I did not understand why she wasn’t leaving. Cursing in my head, I punched a stool with my spirit, breaking off its leg, and made it disappear and then appear right above Felix’s head to get his attention back to me. “Oh no no no no no, you do NOT wanna lose sight of me, or that stupid head of yours is gonna have a bunch of bumps on it,” I say with a smirk as the stool leg smacks the top of Felix’s head. Still, I cannot close the distance to get a punch in. The moment I step closer towards him, Felix steps back and fires a few more shots at me. This keeps happening until I manage to get his back pressed against the glass window of the arcade. Thinking that I got him cornered, I rush towards him, eager to knock the sense into him and end this pointless scrabble as soon as possible. At the same moment, Felix slams his gun into the window, shattering it. Shards of glass dissolve and suck into his gun, and he fires glass bullets at me. Too close to dodge now, I realize I have put myself into this trap on my own. I have no other choice but to deflect the bullets, and obviously, once they come in contact with my spirit’s fist, they shatter into glass shrapnel, getting stuck in my arms, chest, and legs. Not deep enough to endanger my life, but man they still hurt like hell. With a yelp, I fall on one knee, hissing from the pain as I carefully try to pick out some of the glass shards from the smaller wounds. This gets the first reaction out of Felix, as he laughs like a madman. “This is what you get for standing up for a Main Course bitch!” He sneers, pointing at me and then the girl who was still hiding behind the counter. “Main Course?” For a second I tried to process what he meant, but then it clicked. The girl who beat him in that game was a Main Course student. This still didn’t make any sense though. Sure, I heard that many Reserve Course students didn’t like those on the Main Course, saying they looked down on those without a “talent”, but wasn’t Felix hoping to become one of them himself? I had to shake these thoughts off for now. Finally getting in terms with the fact that I cannot talk my way out of this fight, I start to think of a way to defeat Felix. Making an effort, I managed to stand up. Felix notices it, and starts shooting at me again. This time I deflect his glass bullets a little smarter, and manage to avoid the shrapnel. The same cannot be said however about a rhythm game cabinet behind me. The glass shards punch through the working machine with electric cracks, as the music coming from it stops abruptly. The chaos we created provides Felix with plenty of materials to get ammo out of, completely preventing me from using my ability, due to the fact that i have to constantly keep my spirit in front of me to deflect the barrage after barrage of bullets he shoots at me, as i cannot hold an object in that invisible space and have my spirit protecting me at the same time. In the very brief openings I get when Felix is reloading, I look around for objects to throw at him. It's ironic really, how we are both fighting for the same objects to use for our abilities. With how quickly he reloads, I do not have time to aim properly, so most of the time he can easily dodge whatever I summon around him. With every thing I place in the void and then throw at Felix, I get more and more tired. I’ve never used my ability so much in such quick succession, so I wasn't ready for the strain it was putting on me. And looking at Felix, he seemed completely fine, as if his own ability had no such limits. With my head hurting and my focus blurring, so did my spirit’s movements. It wasn't as fast and precise with its punches now, and was letting more and more bullets past its fists, all of them punching into me, making me stumble back and hiss in pain. Noticing my defense was weakening, Felix went for harder, tougher objects that would make slower, but heavier bullets. The big golden bullet he shot after punching through a cash register filled with coins would surely break some of my bones if it hit me, so I stood still and tried to focus all my strength I had left into punching it out. With a loud “VRA!” my spirit punched the bullet right back at Felix with all its power. My spirit punched the bullet so hard my right hand’s knuckles bled. For a second i thought i overdid it and might actually hurt Felix too badly with this deflection, this was mainly the reason why i refrained from punching previous shots back at him before, now i simply had no other choice. Felix defended himself with his gun and put it on the trajectory of the deflected bullet. The metals collided with a loud crack, and a small chunk flew off of Felix’s gun. In the next instant, a big cut appeared on his hand, and blood rushed from it. It was now time for Felix to yelp from pain. “So if I damage his gun I will damage him? And the same goes for my spirit I guess.” I thought, glancing at my bleeding hand. This was useful, as now I had a way of perhaps beating him without even getting closer and without hurting him too much, since if he didn’t block the deflected shot with his gun, the bullet might have made a hole in his arm. Our exchange continued, with me now trying to deflect the bullets back into Felix’s gun. But that wasn’t as easy as it may have seemed, as deflecting something into a moving object more than 10 meters away from me was a tough challenge. It wasn’t long for Felix to understand my plan either, so he was now actively dodging everything I sent back at him. This went on until he once again found something made out of glass to break for ammo, and now it was my time to run, which was made harder by the cuts in my legs. I wasn’t able to block everything this time, and so a few more glass shards went into my legs, making me fall onto the floor. I must have hit my head when I fell, as my vision blurred completely, and my ears were ringing for a few seconds. Looking up, I saw Felix standing right next to me. My spirit must have disappeared, or else he wouldn’t have come this close. His gun’s barrel was pointing right at my face. Maybe the hit finally put my brain back in place, maybe the fact he wasn’t shooting at me right away gave me time to think, but I had an idea. “If I can damage his gun with his own bullets, what if…” Just as he was about to shoot again, I managed to focus long enough to summon my spirit’s arm, grab the control rod of a joystick from a broken cabinet, and force it into the barrel of his gun. Admittedly, it was very risky, like holding a petard in your hand right as it is about to explode, but it worked. The rod was stuck hard enough inside the barrel to not fly out when Felix shot his gun, and the pressure inside of the barrel, without having an escape, created a small burst, cracking the gun’s surface all over. Felix screamed as deep wounds appeared all over his body, and we both finally collapsed. Just a few seconds later, sirens could be heard nearby. Turns out, this fight which I felt went on for hours, lasted only a few minutes.

***

Yuri was sitting hunched forward on the bench of a prison cell, his face buried in his hands. The cell was small, and he was its only occupant. His injuries were patched up by the medics, and the painkiller shot he was given made his legs feel a little numb even hours later. “Could I have stopped him? Before things went too far?” He was asking himself. His mind went back to the events preceding the fight over and over, and every time, he came to the conclusion that maybe there was nothing that could be done to prevent it. “Ugh, and the way he was fighting, how he looked at that girl… I don't think he would have let us go, it was like he really wanted to hurt us badly.” He knew something didn’t add up, but just couldn’t understand what, and why was Felix acting like that. He wasn’t reacting to anything at all, that was not normal, at least Yuri thought so. With an exhausted sigh, Yuri’s mind went to the damage their scrabble caused to the arcade - shattered windows, destroyed cabinets, broken chairs and stools. Yeah, nobody is gonna let that slide. “They might even deport me. The damage is at least a few thousand dollars… What am I even going to tell mom? How could I explain this?” Yuri sighed again and rubbed his eyes, then looked down at his bandaged right arm. Footsteps could be heard. A police officer came up to his cell. “Get up. Your lawyer has arrived.” A lawyer? Yuri guessed it was like a free lawyer provided by the state or something like that. Well, maybe if he can somehow explain what happened, he might be able to make it out of this situation. Walking up to an enclosed room made for private conversations, Yuri noticed there was a person inside of it. When the boy walked in, the person turned to face him. He wore a long, fancy white coat and a wide brimmed white hat with some weird golden symbols on it. The back of the man’s hat blended into his black hair so well it looked like it was cut there completely. The man spoke to Yuri in perfect English. “Yuri Volkov i assume. Sit down, please.” Once Yuri sat down, the man continued. “My name is Jotaro Kujo. Before you can tell me about the details of what happened at the arcade, answer me this question - for how long do you have a Stand?” A what? Jotaro noticed the confusion written on Yuri’s face, so he picked up a tablet laying on the table, opened a video on it and moved it closer to the boy. “This is security footage from one of the arcade’s cameras. As you can see here,” He pointed to Felix, “The other boy, Felix from what I know, has a gun of sorts in his hands, and you,” He then points at Yuri on the screen, “Have a spirit floating next to you.” This caught him off guard completely, as nobody could ever see his spirit in photos or videos before. “You can… see it?” Yuri asked. “Yes, those who have an ability like yours can see it. This ability is called a Stand. Think of it as your soul having a physical form, which manifests to help and protect you. Now, I repeat my question, for how long do you have it?” Yuri wondered why he would ask a question like this, but still decided to respond with the truth. “Well, since I was a kid, around the first year of school. Why do you ask?” Jotaro didn’t respond to the boy's question right away, and instead asked him another one. “And was today the first time you saw another Stand user?” Yuri guessed he meant Felix. “Yes, Felix was the first person I saw to have an ability like this, but… you mentioned people who have these… Stands can see them, but it seemed like everyone was able to see Felix’s Stand and couldnt see mine, why is that?.” “With every rule comes exceptions. Perhaps it was because his stand had to use existing objects to feed its ability, or maybe his stand is bound to a real object, like a prop gun or something like that.” After a short pause, Jotaro continued with the questions. “You both came to Japan recently, right?” “Yeah, we were both invited to the Hope’s Peak High School’s International Branch.” Jotaro thought about it for a moment. “Two Stand users in the same school… alright, now explain what happened at the arcade if you can.” Yuri tried to recall all the events that led to our fight. Even though he doubted Jotaro would believe him, Yuri still said that he found Felix’s behaviour strange and unusual. He explained that Felix was not reacting to anything others were saying or doing, and was only focused on the girl and him. Jotaro’s expression got even more serious when he heard that, and, to Yuri's surprise, believed him. He took a card out of his coat and gave it to Yuri. On the card there were two phone numbers written. “If you find another Stand user in your school, please call one of these numbers. The one on the top is mine, and the one on the bottom is for the Speedwagon Foundation. They know about Stands, so will understand what you mean.” Speedwagon Foundation, the name sounded familiar to Yuri, and then he realized - it was the name of the museum he had to write his history assignment on back home. So they also handle supernatural stuff like this? “Now, I won't ask you to not use your Stand again, but be mindful when using it. You can do a lot of good with Stands, but can also really hurt someone with it, and they will never even know about it. Oh and try to avoid fighting other Stand users, they can leave quite a mess.” The last bit Jotaro said with a less serious tone, but still with the same neutral expression on his face. He exited the room, and 5 minutes later, a different police officer came in to release Yuri from custody.

***

When I exited the police station, I noticed that the sun was pretty high up in the sky already. I must have spent the entire night at the station. I was glad to finally be able to stretch out my sore limbs properly. Spring came earlier to Tokyo than it did back home, so I walked rather slowly, enjoying the April sun. As I was getting closer to Hope's Peak, I noticed a figure walking towards me. I immediately recognized her as the girl from the arcade. She was looking down at a handheld console in her arms, so engulfed in her game she almost walked into a sign. She noticed me when she glanced up from her handheld, and her face changed into one of confusion instantly. “You… are out?” She asked me. I blinked, then nodded. “Yeah. Just now.” She tilted her head slightly, then spoke matter-of-factly. “I was going to the station. I wanted to explain what happened. Make sure they knew you weren’t the one who started it.” I stared, surprised. “Wait… seriously?” She gave a small nod. “I asked someone in my class to find out where you were. I thought if I went and explained it myself, they would let you go.” What kind of classmate can even do that? Though I did not ask about it. “Thank you,” I replied to her. “No, thank you for protecting me, you didn’t have to do that,” she said. “I couldn’t just let him hit you,” I responded, rubbing the back of my neck. “Especially since he was acting like a complete psycho.” We started walking back towards the school. For a moment, we walked in complete silence, but then she continued. “I didn’t see it all that well, I was hiding behind the counter. But he had that weird gun… do you know what it was?” she asked me. I was relieved that she didn’t get the full picture of the fight, this meant it would be easier for me to brush it off. “I dunno myself to be honest. Some kind of… prop gun? Or airsoft perhaps. You know, ones that shoot small plastic balls usually. Probably his one worked like that too.” Before she could press on, I decided to switch the subject. “You played that game so well, you completely destroyed him. It was fun to watch,” I complimented her with a small chuckle. The girl turned her face towards mine and said with a smile. “Thank you. It’s nothing special, really,” though in my opinion, her performance was anything but special. “By the way, you also go to Hope’s Peak right? Felix said you are from the Main Course,” I asked, nodding at her uniform. Unlike the Reserve Course uniform, hers was a light brown color, instead of black, and the ribbon on her collar was also not black, but red. She wore a black hoodie underneath her blazer. When I asked her that, the girl's smile faltered. “Yeah, I am the Ultimate Gamer,” I got very curious upon hearing that. “Wow, so you are like, very good at any game you play? And uh, does your talent only work with videogames? Or is it more vague and extends to board games?” The girl, clearly surprised from my bombardment of questions, immediately gets her mood back up and giggles. “Oh, right, I guess I should kinda introduce myself. I’m Yuri. Yuri Volkov,” she thinks for a moment, and then her eyes light up like stars. “OH, like the character from-” I don’t even let her finish her question. I roll my eyes and laugh. “Yeah, like the character from THAT game.” We both laughed for a few moments, and then she introduced herself with an even bigger smile than before. “And I am Chiaki. Chiaki Nanami,” she extended her hand, which I happily shook.

***

“Ugh, no, this just won’t do!” A girl with long blonde hair, styled into twin pigtails was watching security footage in a dark room. She rolled the video back over and over. The footage lacked audio, so she could only guess what words were being said before the two figures on screen started to fight. “Such a silly little thing like losing in a videogame brought him to despair so high he wanted to kill them both! It’s amazing but…” she closed the video and moved the file called “despair_video_5” into the “for later use” folder on her computer. “I need something more controllable for now,” she thought aloud, “His despair was wild and beautiful, like a fire. And just like a fire, it needs fuel, or else it will burn out too quickly.” Her thoughts were interrupted by the door behind her opening, and another girl walked in. “Did you get it?” The blonde girl asked. The other girl simply nodded and took a golden pointed arrow out of her bag. “Perfect. We can begin our experiment properly now.”