Hope’s Peak Academy--or, as they say, the ruins of. The main building is still intact, but the rest of the campus has crumbled into heaps of debris, plaster strewn around and dissolving into dust. The sight of her old school in such disarray--where she had so many happy memories only a year or two before--causes her heart to ache, and the petite investigator holds onto the hands of the two people on either side of her a bit tighter. They all had stood here once before, students with smiling faces, under the drifting petals of the cherry blossoms...now the trees are ashen, the sky tinged an uncomfortable red. As much as they loathe to say it, think it, this is their reality--but it’s still difficult to adjust after having their lives torn apart by an unhinged woman’s whims.
The Future Foundation has sent out a large portion of their Fourteenth Division to scout out the area in the hopes of recovering evidence regarding the tragedy; there is always the chance for survivors, of course, but no one says a word--so long, and they have surely been tainted with despair now. Still, she holds hope within her heart, even as the three of them are separated for the time being; even now they are still worlds apart, her still a most ordinary girl while they hold some semblance of sway. Of course, she doesn’t mind; investigation has always been her forte, and walking through the school with a pistol in her hand reminds her of the ‘good old days.’ Only eighteen, and she feels an eternity.
The click-clack of high heels echo through the empty ruins, and as she delves deeper and deeper that spark of hope within her begins to dim. However, she comes to a stop as she sees--a laptop? How strange, how curious for it to have survived so much; it looks ordinary, but surely it must be extraordinary. Cautiously she approaches the device and taps a few keys; again to her surprise it lights up, text scrolling across the screen. A name, one she’s only seen and heard postmortem; belonging to a wolf, not a girl, someone she never had the chance to meet--but oh, how she wished she had. The thought of another girl who liked guns warms her heart once more, but it is too late--surely there is no way to revive the dead, is there?
It takes her a moment to think up the password; Junko Enoshima is not what immediately comes to mind upon hearing ‘onee-chan.’ However, she’s poured over the files more times than she can count; they all have, trying to puzzle out the motives and meaning of Super High-school Level Despair to no accord, unfortunately--or perhaps fortunately; hope should not be so contaminated. Either way, here she is, one of the greatest discoveries of the Future Foundation before her...but what happens next is something no one would have expected, even a girl usually found with her nose in a book. After all, it certainly isn’t every day that a computer starts talking to you--but then again, when has anything in Hope’s Peak been considered ‘everyday?’
A hand flies to her mouth, and emerald eyes widen; her expression surely mirrors that of the girl on the screen. “This is...Ikusaba-san...?”
