Abandon All Hope: Part 1.
Is Akeru ok?
I gave her a calm lecture. She’s headed off to bed.
Are you sure you don’t want her hear to hear this? I know she’s a kid, but she seems to be mature enough to handle the story.
I’m not trying to stop her from listening. It’s just late and she needs rest after today.
In fact, you do too, but I know I can’t convince you to leave.
I need answers Komaru. And I need to hear it from Maya.
Right...where the hell do we start with this?
Why don’t you begin by explaining who it was that trapped you in a Killing Game and why?
Kyoko, you read the file. Don’t you already know?
I know. But like Makoto said, he wants to hear it from YOUR mouth.
I know he trusts me, but he also wants to have faith in people, and he’s counting on you to tell the truth...all of it.
Yikes. No pressure or anything.
Ok, so...
There was a group of us who were handpicked to be students at an Ultimate School called Freedom Academy. I’m sure you already know about it.
Yes, we know this part. Kyoko and Byakuya discussed it with us before.
They said that there were shady rumors about how after the first class was brought into the academy shortly after it first opened. And then not too long after, the the studen’t all went missing and the academy shut down.
But I guess we know what happened.
Yeah...
Alongside Hunter, Kouji, Maya and me, there were a bunch of other kids who were conducted into the academy as well.
August Clarke, the Ultimate Model...
Chet Perez, the Ultimate Astronomer...
Kami Kanako, the Ultimate Lawyer...
...Kokona Tamashiro...The Ultimate DJ...
Marie Filliet, the Ultimate Volunteer...
Ricardo Montague, the Ultimate SFX Artist
Tamako Fujiwara, the Ultimate Supernaturalist...
Victoria Hester, the Ultimate Naval Officer.
And...Caesar...He kept his talent a secret from us, but his true power was the Ultimate Marksman.
Four: There was also Ashe Sivale, the Ultimate Hypnotist. He was a bit of a special case.
Wait, wait, there’s a few things there that don’t make sense.
First of all...I recognize one of the names in there...
You mean Kokona?
...
Tamashiro...is that...?
Yeah...she is...WAS...Kazue Tamashiro’s daughter.
She had a passion for street and party music that went against Kazue’s standard of high-society, so she ditched him...
I see...
The other point was...what about you two?
Yes, Four and Oliver weren’t part of that explanation.
Well, here’s a fun fact. I’m actually one academic year older than everyone else in the group.
And that’s not me bragging. The truth is-
You were something akin to a traitor or spy that infiltrated the group, and were part of the class when you weren’t supposed to be, right?
How...did you know that?
Seems to be a running pattern. Every Killing Game we know of has one. Ours had Mukuro Ikusaba, Junko Enoshima’s sister.
Technically our Killing Game had Sakura as well.
I would argue Ogre’s case was much different.
But why did you infiltrate the Academy, Four?
Because of my older sister, One Kaiden. And yes, that’s her actual name.
One had had a hand in the construction of Freedom Academy. Our family is very...aristocratic, and at the time we were allies of Fang Inc.
Again, not bragging. I’m not some uptight rich kid.
That’s extremely debatable. Rich kid, alright, but not uptight? Ehh...
Pfft. Touché.
In any case, One went missing shortly after construction of the Academy finished...My family didn’t know what happened to her and, given that she was the heir to our family name by default, we kinda needed her back.
I decided to investigate her, on account of being the only member of my family who was high school, and I infiltrated the academy under the guise of a student. I was given the title Ultimate Biochemist, due to studying elemental reactions and chemistry as a profession.
That’s how I’m able to create chemicals that help us burn through safes and create forgeries.
Ash Sivale was in a similar place. He wasn’t really a student, but was an employee of the Freedom Academy staff. He was hidden among our class to spy on us.
And you’ll never guess who it was that REALLY ran the show behind the scenes.
Fuckin’ Emilia Feng...!
What did she DO to you?
I think you’ve figured that out already. You’re already aware, thanks to Four’s little slip of the tongue that happened earlier, that a Killing Game began.
The rules of it were probably as they were for whatever Killing Game you guys were part of. Basically, if you killed another student in cold blood, and got away with it, then you would be allowed to leave Freedom Academy and return to the surface. Everyone else who failed to catch the culprit would also be killed.
“Return to the surface?”
I don’t remember if I mentioned it or not, but Freedom Academy was a very unique institute.
It’s entirely submerged underwater, off the coast of the continent.
An underwater school!? That’s crazy!
But if they got caught during the class trial, they would be executed instead...and that’s how we ended up losing many of our friends.
To enforce the rules of the academy, Emilia, who was secretly running the whole, enforced a certain...character...to monitor us.
Let me guess. Kerokuma, right?
That’s right.
Maya: Emilia had been planning an event like this for many years even before the Tragedy, but a lot of inspiration for how she decided to run it came from Junko Enoshima’s own Killing Game. She created her own version of the mascot.
Makoto: So it’s true...Kerokuma isn’t some defense mechanism designed to oppose the Monokuma’s...it’s just Monokuma with a new coat of paint?
Four: Makoto, you ok?
Makoto: I’m fine. I’ll explain what I’m talking about after you guys are done.
When the Killing Game began, really close friends of ours starting dropping left and right, like flies...I’d made very quick friends with both Marie and August but...then...
The latter killed the former, and then he got killed too. After that, we lost Ricardo, who got killed by Kami, and then she also died.
Kokona...was killed by Tamako. A-And so was Chet, since he witnessed the crime.
Caesar killed Victoria because of some bad history between them...and...
Lastly, Ash hypnotized me into trying to kill him, but his death was a result of suicide, which is why I’m still alive.
Not only that, but Emilia also smuggled in a traitor of her own...Someone who ran the Killing Game for her in secret while she observed.
The true Mastermind...
Who?
...
...
YOU!?
*Maya and the others all point at Oliver.
Guess that’s my queue to take over.
*Oliver, casually leaning on a desk this whole time, gets up and begins to state their case.
When we first did introductions, I didn’t tell you guys what my family name was. Not because I didn’t trust you, but because I usually don’t go around advertising it, in case anyone draws a connection.
But...Makoto and Akeru already discovered the full truth.
My full name is Oliver Feng. Emilia Feng...is my mom...
She made me CEO of a secret offshoot of Fang Inc. called “New Hope Corporation.”
I’m the one...who trapped everyone inside Freedom Academy...and forced them to participate in the Killing Game. Secretly, there was also supposed to be a hidden rule in the Academy System that made it so that I was not allowed to be killed.
Oliver...!
I don’t believe it...
But then...why?
Why what?
If you were the Mastermind who trapped all these guys inside Freedom Academy, then how come they’re so chummy with you?
Because you guys don’t know the full story. Even though Oliver was protected from death, the Freedom Academy Killing Game wasn’t just something that Emilia dumped Oliver into...
The Killing Game and Emilia’s plans for it...were...the only reason...Oliver was even born...
...
Wait, wait, waitwaitwait...You mean to tell me that you were born JUST to be apparatus in Emilia’s sick game!?
That about sums it up, yeah.
No way...!
Oliver...
...
Oliver, how old are you?
22. Why?
So Emilia was planning a game like this way before Junko Enoshima got into Hope’s Peak...
What the the REASON? Why would she do such a horrible thing?
Junko Enoshima hosted her multiple Killing Game’s so that she could get sick kicks and plunge the world into an even deeper state of Despair.
But...yeah, she’s insanely evil, that much is obvious, but what was EMILIA’S motive? She’s more meticulous than Junko and is heavily reliant on her plans and schemes to protect her public image. She doesn’t kill people and hurt people just because she can. She always finds a way to PROFIT off of things she does. So what was the reason?
Heheheh! We’ve got a real analytical prowess over here.
The Killing Game served many purposes, but the primary one was...
A psychological experiment to see what extremely talented and capable individuals would do in a dangerous situation.
In the eyes of my mother...and I guess me at the time...it was no different than basically every science experiment ever. The students who were abducted were the dependent variables; we threw in our INDEPENDENT variables and waited to see what would happen.
We also recorded the results. We never broadcasted them though, hence why no one in society knows the Killing Game even happened.
Well, what DID you do with the footage?
What do you think Emilia would have done with the footage?
Capitalize off of it?
Give this man a prize. Yeah, she sold the footage to a lot of high-class members of Fang Inc’s inner circle. People like Tamashiro, who paid a hefty sum for entertainment.
I’m getting some MAJOR Squid Game vibes from this...
And your families? Emilia didn’t kill them right? That’s what Junko did to ours.
Like you said, Emilia may be a sadistic bitch, and yeah, she has one or two mental disorders, but she’s not trigger happy. Unlike Junko Enoshima, the purpose of the experiment was to get the reactions from the captives, not to drive them into Despair by taking away everything they love. Emilia opted for a different solution, and unleashed her secret weapon.
Which was?
Cold hard cash...
She paid our families off so they wouldn’t investigate our disappearances.
Are you KIDDING ME!? She even paid off your FAMILIES!?
Fuck that! How can you still stand to be around them even after all that!? If my parents chose to line their pockets over my safety I’d genuinely want to kill them!
...
I wouldn’t ACTUALLY kill them, but I’d be mad.
I was SUPER mad at my parents when we finally got the hell out of there. I didn’t know at all why the hell they would just pick a heaping load of bucks over me.
But...turns out I made a wrong assumption. They told me that when I went missing, they were told by Fang Inc. that I was safe. The money was then given to them as compensation for how I wasn’t able to contact them.
They had no idea about the Killing Game. Had they known what had happened, I’d imagine they would’ve tried to rescue me. But I know full well that would have ended in vain as well.
Emilia’s too powerful. Remember what we said about how she owns her own section of the police?
If your families had contacted the authorities, your requests would have been silenced. And had they persisted, I’d imagine Emilia would have silenced them too.
My family was in a different state. It...ok, I’ll say it like this.
As I mentioned already, my family is very aristocratic. I went into Freedom Academy to look for my sister as a young member of high society...
...I came out as the daughter of a family that had fallen from grace, and ended up on the streets.
What!? You mean-!?
The Kaiden Family tried to rescue One and me...They failed...and lost everything.
But it’s not like I hate how things have turned out for me. I never really cared much about money and high society...My parents however, are really struggling to find a job that keeps us off the street.
Maya was also willing to let me move in with her. I help with the rent by working in the cafe.
Hehe...Anything for you~
Alright, but that still doesn’t explain why it is that Oliver is somehow now fighting against his own teammates. Did you see the light?
Four hit me with some sad reality. I was under the impression that I was the one who founded and owned Freedom Academy, but I was just delusional.
Plans to develop Freedom Academy started 27 years before the Killing Game even happened. I wasn’t born by that point. So she was able to bust through my delusion pretty quickly.
What do you mean by “delusion”?
...
Let me explain. It went a little something like this from what I remember...
To Be Continued...
//Because this chapter is two long and has to be split into two.
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