Travel with Caution

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Chapter 1.1: Jade POV

I open my eyes to the sound of something piercing the wood beside my head. It clears my thoughts enough for me to process the dangers of my situation. My eyes widen in panic as I look around for where it came from, I move my head down as I prepare to stand when I hear it. Another arrow hitting the wood, a tree, right where my head was.
My head clears entirely this time but instead of the clarity I'd expect, I'm blinded with panic and I can only run. The arrows keep coming, like someone is trying to hunt me as their prey. As if subconsciously filling that role I keep running despite wanting to hide or see who I'm running from. I note absentmindedly that I don't know where I am, there are no landmarks that I can recognise, just trees that spiral upward almost endlessly. My legs start to hurt from the running and the plants scratching against me but I don't stop, I can't, the arrows remind me of that everytime they fly past me.
Willing myself to gain some control back from my legs I pause to look around. The forest seems to ease up a bit, the trees almost disappear the further I look ahead of me. Without thinking I walk out of the woods to the clearing, almost forgetting about the hunter behind me. With my heart pounding and legs burning I come across a girl. We seem to have awoken quite differently, as I was awoken by a chase and she seems to be lounging here in bliss. Though, she still seems the same amount of lost as me if not a little more. I walk up to her. She can't possibly be more dangerous than the woods, can she?

"Hey," I stutter out to the girl in the middle of the meadow. She whips her head towards me and just kinda stares at me. I had no idea when the hunter would catch up to me so I rushed to say, "Hey my name is Jade and I understand if this seems strange but we need to go. I'm being chased and I don't know when they will catch up".
The girl took a second but after a moment she spoke up, "Hey, um... I just woke up, would you know where we are or even why we are here... oh also my name is Lana wait do you want my age.. Wait, we just met. Also what do you mean about someone chasing you?"
She was going to keep going but at this point I was right in front of her and an arrow whizzed past me and her, shutting her up. I turned my head back and started backing up away from the trees on the north side of the meadow.
From the trees a girl in what looked like street combat clothing with blonde hair that is tied back in a high ponytail and widow bangs stalks out from the trees. She has a bow raised and an arrow already knocked again looking ready to shoot me and the girl Lana next to me down.
Though before she does she opens her mouth and says, "Who are you and why did you bring me here?" And well that made me pause she thought that we or at least I was the reason why we were all here in the middle of a jungle or forest or wherever the h*ll we are. Which I mean kinda explains the whole trying to kill me the second I open my eyes.
"I don't know who you are or why you think that I or Lana, who is the girl on the ground, brought you here but we didn't. I woke up and then you shot at me and then I found Lana once she woke up, so can you please put down the arrow so we can talk about this before someone gets hurt." I say as calmly as you can when someone looks like they are about to revoke your living rights.
She hums and takes a second but after a minute she lowers the bow to her side she still has the arrow knocked in the bow, however, she wasn't pointing it at me and Lana so I take it as a win. She sighs and mutters out, "Fine you don't seem to be lying to me just know that if you are it won't turn out pretty for you". At this point I will take what I can get so I'm not going to mess with her.
So I simply smile and say, "Thank you for not trying to revoke our living rights anymore. That is very much appreciated um... anywho my names is Jade Moon"
Lana jumps in "Hey yo names Lana Heartfilla nice meet ya"
The other girl just stares and said, "Hello to you too, my name is Charlotte Hornet, I wouldn't say it was a pleasure to meet you due to circumstances but all the same it was interesting"
Lana waves at her. I just give a smile and Charlotte starts to walk over to us and finally puts her arrow back in her quiver and her bow around her. Lana finally stands up once Charlotte reaches us. I was about to ask what we all thought we should do since you know we are still in the middle of a meadow in the middle of a jungle/forest.
Out of nowhere a grating laugh comes from every direction and a tiny white and black bear comes out of the trees which seems to be where the laugh is coming from. The thing announces, "Well well well, this is where you three have been, don't you know we are on a schedule hurry it up you need to meet the rest of the class" Charlotte goes from relaxed to hostile the second the bear started to talk and by the end she was glaring. Lana just looked confused as to what was going on.
It seemed I was the only one who was questioning a. why a bear could talk b. who are these other people who are to be our "classmates?" Lastly I think that Charlotte figured out that this bear is probably the one or is at least a person for a reason we are all here. Though I do think I'm the only one who thinks that the other people that he is calling our classmates may also be kidnapped people. Though I think Charlotte is more thinking about killing the bear and Lana doesn't seem to think about these things if any of how she has been reacting to this situation is telling me anything.
Charlotte shouts, "Who the f*ck are you and how the f*ck can you talk and if you take another step towards us I will shoot" At this point she put herself between the thing and me and Lana.
The bear just grins and says, "Well the names Monokuma I can talk because I am your principle and I wouldn't recommend trying to harm as that is against the rules however we can go over those once we get to the gym and you meet all your classmates" after saying all of that he turns around and started walking back the way he came and calls back at us, " Hurry up you  already wasted enough time."
We followed the bear, reluctantly, of course. As we follow him I see a lot of details that I missed the first time in my panic. Lana was sitting in front of what seemed to be a garden when I found her. It was hard to tell given how overgrown and downright abandoned it looked from the outside but I could see planters through the broken windows. I wanted to study it for longer but I realized that Charlotte, Lana and... the bear had already walked further into the forest.
The forest was dark, painfully so. Almost like the trees sucked all of the light from the sun straight out of the sky as soon as we entered. Despite how hard it was to see there was something I noticed. In what I assumed to be the middle of the forest there was an abnormally large tree that seemed... almost fake. It was the only thing not covered in moss or vines or broken somehow.
The sight of it filled me with dread though I couldn't place why. Not that I wanted to. It made me want to get out of here faster, like being near the tree spelled out our doom. I shivered yet kept going.
The rest of the forest was uneventful. Well as uneventful as a dark forest with a giant suspicious tree that you're being led through by a living teddy bear can get. It got almost boring before we hit the trail. The trail led to an odd looking school building. It was old, most likely from the same time period as the garden on the other side of the forest. The bear stopped outside and gestured for us to enter.
I thought about disobeying the thing and running another way, anywhere but where he wants. But I watched Lana take a hesitant step inside and then followed her in. The inside was dark too, though not in the way the forest was. While the forest seemed to swallow the light, preventing it from entering entirely. The school felt like it was made to be dark, the lights were dim, the windows tinted, the only light streaming in coming from the cracks in them and the walls a grey that you wouldn't see in a school.
It also felt cold, not physically though. The warmth inside was uncomfortable, like whoever set the temperature couldn't feel it properly and just guessed what it should be set to. However, it was still cold. The type of cold you'd feel at a funeral or when you're scared. The cold that would fill you with dread.
The bear wasn't lying about us being last it seems, the gym was filled with kids, there were 13 of them to be exact. They all looked to be around the same age, too. Whoever kidnapped us had been targeting us. The thought of being watched to see if I was a good pick for this made my skin crawl.
The kids were talking amongst themselves until they noticed us, their faces filled with obvious confusion and poorly masked panic. They seemed like they wanted to ask us questions but feared the answers that they knew were coming. Before anyone could gain the courage to do so anyway, the bear walked in.
The bear hopped onto a podium that was set up on and stage and began his speech I assumed he was talking about early, "Pupupu, Hello students of Hope's Peak International I am your principal Monokuma and you are the lovely ultimate students have been brought here to have a nice field trip" before the teddy bear could continue a short kid with greyish hair with a pink zip up hoodie and white pants interrupts him.
"No, that's wrong! I'm going to Saya Highschool and also how in the world is a bear our freaking principal? Also, if this is our school where are the teachers? Why are we in an abandoned school? None of us know where we are" I elaborate off of what this kid is saying  once it looks like they're done and before Monokuma has a chance to respond.
"To go off of what that kid said, why is this school in the middle of nowhere? Also, I don't remember getting here. I literally woke up in the middle of the forest with no clue as to why. Also Charlotte and Lana don't know how we got here either. You kidnapped us and you expect us to just go along with you because you say so."
Another kid who was really tall with hair full of shades of green and blues with black streaks comments, "Can we just leave? I don't want to be here no offense and also I'm signed up for CalTech and I don't want to miss my first day of school there. I have been waiting all summer to go, so could you please let us go".
Before anyone else could get more questions in the Freddy Fazbear reject yelled at us, "IT'S RUDE TO INTERRUPT YOUR PRINCIPAL WHEN HE'S TRYING TO TELL YOU THE RULES" he calms down and speaks quieter, " You are lucky I'm so forgiving, anyway, what I was trying to tell you because of this field trip you have been brought here to this campus to participate in a game." He paused for a moment something I can only assume was for dramatics, "A killing game the only way to leave is to kill one of your classmates and get away with it you will all be getting tablets which have the student handbook and all the rules and the codes to your rooms and the map of the grounds, now if you excuse me I will leave you to your killings Pupupu. Good luck and happy murders."
With that the half and half polar bear disappears from behind the podium, leaving me and a bunch of other kids alone in the gym with the exception of Char and Lana, all the others are strangers, lovely.
The first person who talked spoke up again, "Well since that thing just left without really telling us anything and the fact we don't know each other we should introduce ourselves, don't you think? I will go first so my name is Shona, I go by they/them pronouns as I said before I go to Saya Highschool in Italy and I woke at what I think is a track."
After them the others looked at me I think because I was the second person to speak to Monokuma so I say, "Well the names Jade Moon I'm from England though for the last three years I have been going to school in New York City called Westerbrook High School with she/her pronouns." I give them a small smile to try to come off as non-threatening.
The third one who talked took that as their cue and gave a very cute, shy smile and muttered out in a soft voice, "Hi, I'm Silas, I was supposed to start at CalTech this year and I'm 15... Oh, I'm from Canada and go by he/they and I woke up in an indoor room."
After those two I nudged Lana to speak because she is a nice person from what I can tell so it would be better then Char or someone who could be hostile. She took the hint and smiles brightly so bright that I think I need shades and by Char's face she wished she had some too.
"Hey, hey, hey! My name is Lana Heartfilla. I'm from Texas and 16 was goin to Drey Swell Highschool before we all showed up here. I go by she/they pronouns and oh I woke up in this really pretty meadow next to this building with a lot of widows! Oooh also Jade found me and Char Char was chasing Jade for some reason but after we talked she stopped," I stopped them from continuing by putting a hand on her chest because she was going into a ramble. So they stopped and just continued to smile.
At that point either people were looking at her like she was insane or bored. The next to go was Char, "My name is Charlotte Hornet I'm from Scotland though my dad is American  I was going to Morrow High before this and I am 17 pronouns are she/her."
Right after her this kid who is taller than me and has blue hair that I thought was white for a second due to the fact that they was standing in the light that was coming through the broken windows in the gym introduced themself, " Hello there I'm also from Scotland as the very fine Ms. Hornet I am of the age 17 and also went to the school Morrow High. I go by the pronouns of he/him when I woke up I believe I was in what would be called a cafe."
A kid who was just a little shorter than me with no shoes simply passed around a paper that said their name was Walabo McDuffin and was Australian and used Bun/Bunself and said that bunself was 17 years of age. Due to the fact that bun used paper to say this I think bun was probably mute or just didn't like talking but bun seemed like a nice person. However I saw the same look in bun's eyes that mirrored mine so it seems bun was also observing everyone which was something I saw in three other people. Walabo, Shona and Silas though there was another kid who kinda had it but they looked like they were trying to hide it.
They went next, "Morning, others. My Name is Axel, no other name should be required for me. I don't feel the need to hold myself down with pronouns so if you feel like wasting my time by interacting with me, save me the hell and call me anything. Anyways I attend Ouran High school in Britain as head of all of my classes. I'm also 17. As much as I'd love to keep talking about myself, I don't think any of you deserve to know anything more about me."
Ah so the reason why he is hiding the fact that he is also observing the rest of the kids is because of his inferiority complex clashing with his god complex and making him act flamboyant. Well it seems like that's going to be a little annoying but maybe it could be fun. Who knows this is the first time he talked so he could chill out.
"My name is Chiaki Ito I live in Britain alongside Axel who's last name is Wilson, the reason why she didn't tell you is because he is embarrassed about it, we go to the same school and are the same age we have been friends since we were in diapers, I'm half japanese I woke up with Axel in a classroom. Oh and I go by she/her pronouns. Thank you for your time."
Axel stuttered out what I think were denials but Chiaki smacked him upside the head which made him quiet down. A short kid started laughing and then introduced themself, "My name would be Aoi Takahashi. She/her. I am adopted which is where my last name comes from since I am not Japanese myself and I am French. I am 16 and go to Drey Swell Highschool same as I believe Lana."
A much shorter kid with heels and orange hair goes next, " Hi my name is Naomi Long I use she/her pronouns, my mom is African and my dad is Korean I'm 16 I go to Westerbrook High as well", she was looking at me when she says that so it seems she remembered that I was the one who said so which surprises me since a. I was one of the first and b. She wasn't paying attention at the time but I guess she could have figured it out due to the fact I jumped to attention when she said her school.
The one who so far has looked bored finally spoke up, "My name is Novah Miller I am 17 and I went to the school Rain Carter Academy, pronouns any, I am Russian."
The next person to talk seemed both bored and mad but that could be because they were really short, not as short as Naomi but still short, "Eito Nakamura 16 pronouns he/zer from Spain went to Nekoma and am living in Japan."
Amongst the last kids was someone who was radiating calm energy and had a soft smile since the beginning, they finally said, " I go by Hydra Saito I am from Greece  I am 16 and I go by the pronouns of she/he/they, since I am genderfluid if I am wearing a purple coker I go by she, if green he and black they. The school I went to was Greenwater high." He was wearing a green choker as of now so I will have to be mindful of that but he seems like he's pretty nice.
The last person to go was a kid who throughout this entire time seemed to know more than they were trying to let on. Also, they seemed to be trying to study us, not because they don't know who we are but to see how we are reacting to this situation. Though to be fair I was doing much of the same and even Chiaki kinda did that.
"Hi, my name is Riku Water, I'm 18 and I go to Karasuno High. My pronouns are she/her, I am half German and half Japanese, I am living in Japan right now and it is very nice to meet all of you." With her everyone had told each other who they were.
At least I thought for a second but I finally noticed that there was another person who was hiding in the shadows. I saw them when I came in but because of the fact that the bear started talking and they disappeared I forgot about them. It seems everyone was about to start talking without them saying who they were so I pointed her out.
"Hey someone still hasn't gone yet so we should wait for them don't you think"
Everyone, even the Riku girl looked shocked so maybe she didn't know as much as I thought she did. The person in the shadow looked me dead in the eye like they didn't expect anyone to notice them, so it would seem they were used not being seen. I maybe shouldn't have said anything but they don't seem mad so maybe it's not that bad. Oh, it's not that bad, they smiled at me, ok, at least I didn't upset them.
        They open their mouth and say, "Well I'm surprised you guys realized I was here though thank you for letting me introduce myself, My name is Loki my pronouns are they/them I am from Korea and it is very nice to meet you guys, though, I wish it was in a different setting also I go to Sage Highschool.
        With Loki that was officially the last of the 16 students who were in the gym stuck in the middle of a jungle trapped here by a talking bear. With no idea how we got here and told the only way to get out and back to the lives we used to live was to kill someone.       
         The group seemed unsure of what to do after we were finished with introductions. Most opted to look around while some explored the gym in further detail. I left the gym, almost immediately, to escape the feeling of dread pooling from it that the introductions seemed to have distracted me from.
         Taking out my handbook I remembered we have to look at the layout of the school. My stomach drops to see that it's tailored strictly to the 16 of us, our names on our rooms and everything. I want to look around more but my curiosity gets the better of me as I head to my room. It's almost directly past the gym and, luckily for me, flanked by Lana and Char so I'm surrounded by the two I'm most familiar with. I get to the door and enter my code, as I walk in I'm greeted by a room that reminds me more of a studio apartment than anything else.
It is fully furnished yet entirely lacking in decorations or any sort of color. The only thing notable being the stairway to what I assume is a basement. That and the fact that there's a full kitchen. I wander around until I find a bed, suddenly reminded of how weak my legs feel from today's events. I sit down planning to think of everything that's just happened.
Make sense of everything, make an escape plan. Anything really. Yet before I know it the fatigue wins over me and I pass out, ending today on a blissfully anticlimactic note.

(Bonus that doesn't have to do with anything)
--
Charlotte: I've only known Lana for about a day but if anything were to happen to her I'd kill everyone here and then myself
Lana: :D?
--
Monokuma: *says literally anything*
The class: oh my gosh would you shut up for TWO SECONDS
--
Charlotte: I trust Jade and Lana
Also Charlotte: *Tries to kill them on sight*
--
Jade: wakes up in a pretty forest
Jade two seconds later: I find myself running for my life
--
Jade: wakes up and tries to fall asleep
Jade's subconscious: you may not sleep, there are enemies nearby
Jade: h-
Charlotte, shooting at her from the trees: Bonjour
--
Jade: *Wakes up*
Jade: *chuckles* I'm in danger

A/N
Hello hi greeting. This has taken two years of planning and one year of writing and we are still writing. We will constant update because we work on this when motivation strikes. Though we do want to try to work on this. We hope you enjoy and you be patience we us since we are still in school and don't have the best grammar. 

Sincerely
1__Tsumugi__1 and Duckduckkill
duckduckkill

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⏰ Last updated: Oct 24, 2021 ⏰

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