"What's the point of this, huh? Let's start with the basics, then. The why. I'm no different than the rest of you. Don't claim to be, even standing up here. I never wanted to be special in the first place, and I can only assume most of you really didn't, either. At least... not for what you're known for."
"They're all the same: My parents. The Future Foundation. Every fucking person in power who thinks they can just control other people--try to force them to think the way they want or get them to do the things they want. Anyone who upholds those shitty notions that being talented, gifted, is the bar to reach. That you're somehow better than others. That you have to overwork yourself, give up parts of yourself for their sakes, shackle yourself to a future or a title that will never let you go until the day you die.â
"There's no catch. This is my last resort. If you can't make a simple decision like this--one that I hope should be easy, regardless of your feelings towards me, then maybe there's no hope left for this stupid world, after all."
Homura Akimoto, the mastermind of the fifth killing game.
CW For HANGING in the video: 1:38-1:49.
That...an incident which plagued history in its mystery, in the danger, in the confusion that it caused, was a fabrication. 25 years ago, a student took fate into her own hands and caused a massacre at Hopeâs Peak Academy, with the first killing game. That gameâs master, Junko Enoshima, would go on to become an infamous name in history, and even long after her passing, the Future Foundation, the group behind Hopeâs Peak and its many students, regretted her influence. After a schism which involved the departure of members who had been involved in one of Enoshimaâs killing games, the foundation...looked to new Hope. The Hope Video, a device, a tool created from the very brainwashing that Enoshima once used to upturn the world, was used by the Foundation to slowly cause the world to forget her influence, in hopes of no one ever using her or the killing games to come to fruition again. Four times was enough for a lifetime.
But a true tragedy canât be covered forever. With a visit to government offices on a trip with their family, Akimoto investigated the Future Foundation covertly, and upon learning of their secret history...began forming a plan.
It took time, but it was time they were able to spend wisely. Finding an old relic of a robot that Enoshima used to host her games, and remodeling it in their own image. Hatobi. Using the stool pigeon to stage a take over of Hopeâs Summit, after inserting their own name into the schoolâs roster. Using the very video the Foundation brainwashed the world with to make the students forget how the incident all started, and joining their ranks for a killing game proper.
Back in the present, Homura confronted the survivors of the cast, returned from their very own faked death, and told their story. When the Bad Omen abilities of Fukashi Kaisen were starting to turn the tide against them...they needed to take a way out, and have an excuse to get rid of their once vital insurance. But now, their time was over. It was no dramatic, bloody end. They didnât want execution. A final vote, and it was done. Destroying the Hope Video, preventing the Future Foundation from ever controlling the world again...they were finished. Homura parted from the survivors, awaiting the judgment of the law, as eight students would walk through the hidden corridors of the school, one last time, to final, apparent freedom.
Time has always been a funny thing.
A construct created by the world for people to manage their own, self-created problems. People could give themselves more of it when they hadn't started a project soon enough, or when they claim they didn't have enough of it, or even when someone else wasnât being reasonable. They could even wait, and wait, and wait, and still have just as much or as little as they did at the beginning as long as they were determined enough. Nevertheless, despite the strange and fickle nature of it, the things that happened in whatever short amount of time given could be an inconceivable number. The world, though, which had been around for more time than anything else, was still capable of changing.
This seemed to be another period of that, dramatic as it would be.
There had been ensuing debates on what was real or and not real for weeks after the incident known as âThe Fifth Killing Gameâ which occurred at Hope's Summit University once its perpetuator was arrested by the authorities, and its survivors rescued. And in a series of reports led by two of the students involved in the event, Kiyoemon Eiichiro and Hikari Chino, a laundry list of accusations and claims were launched at both the Future Foundation as well as the Hope's line of schools, which prompted immediate national and international investigations. Along with the help of anonymous testimonies from former Future Foundation employees and rumored Hope's Peak students, suspicions were confirmed as a worldwide plan was quickly verified, leading to the arrests of several top officials of the Foundation. Future years of Hope's Peak and Hope's Summit would be immediately suspended, pending future investigation.Â
As for the students lost in the incident, funding from a recently discovered offshore Future Foundation bank account has been seized and poured into a national funeral service and are to be donated to the families of the lives that were taken away. In addition, plans were drafted to enact a national holiday to remember the students that were lost in the initial tragedy, which would be publicly documented for the world to know, and with more responsible aim, never forgotten again.
Since then, a national controversy has been brewing considering the implications of the talent system, as well as the dangers that students were put under and would be put under in the future due to the history of the Hope's line of schools and the fate of many of its former students. Of course, there are always those who will do their best to keep things the way they are just as much as there are those who will fight for change. As a result of that, Hope's Peak had just as many  detractors as it had defenders, be it former students, parental board members, or members of the public.
But the future was, is, and will always be uncertain.
As the world turns, it changes.Â
The past of Junko Enoshima, the present of Homura Akimoto, everything else before, and after.
Another killing game, but its survivors, as there almost always were, had their own stories to tell, and would continue to live on. There would always be more time even if it felt like there wasnât. There were lives to lead and horizons to see. Recovery to be had. People to be remembered. Mistakes to be made. Things would happen at their own pace, but it would change all the same, and there would be moments of good and bad. But as the past was finally revealed, and there was nearly a roadmap for the future⊠There was and is only one last thing to be said.
No matter what happened next, for these moments, and for those horrors....  Â
Farewell, fateful dread.
YOUR SURVIVORS:
Nani Jackson, the Ultimate Beautician
Ui Tabikawa, the Ultimate Deltiologist
Circe Silver, the Ultimate Cryptozoologist
Hikari Chino, the Ultimate Festival Planner
Kiyoemon Eiichiro, the Ultimate Conspiracy Theorist
Wakana Fujiwawa, the Ultimate Manga-Ka
Kara Dahlstrom, the Ultimate Princess
Hiroko Masaru, the Ultimate Voice Actor
Credits by Tori, Vina, and Sidney. MM Reveal by Vina. MM Design by Sidney. Epilogue by Pip.
