Danganronpa 4: Impure Hope

Chapter 1: Hell's Peak (PART ONE)

Chapter 1: Hell's Peak
Part 1

"Mom, I'm scared," my son said as we pulled up to the building.
"It'll be okay," I reassured him. "School isn't as scary as you think."
"But I don't know anybody!"
"You'll get to know the other kids with time, hon."
"I want to go to Lara's school."
"Ichi, we don't have the money. You'll like it here, trust me."
I stepped out of the car with him and read the sign. "Hope's Peak Academy." A long time ago, it was a high school, but they closed it down for some reason. I don't know why, but I heard it was bad.
My name is Aikono Okimoto. I'm 26 years old, and my son, Ichigo, is being enrolled at Hope's Peak. About ten years after it closed down, I got a flier in the mail that said the school was being reopened for elementary students. Ichigo has been homeschooled ever since I adopted him, so this was a great opportunity. Sure, the school was a little bit sketchy because of its past, but it's the only one in the area that we could afford to send him to. Plus, he could do with some real friends. He didn't have many, except for Lara, the little girl across the street from us. So I was excited to enroll him here.
Ichigo grabbed at my arm and tried to pull me back to the car. He had been anxious about this new school for weeks, and he made it very clear that he didn't want to go. But if I wanted to keep my house, I had to get a full-time job, which meant I could no longer homeschool him. I pulled back as he engaged in a tug-of-war game with my right arm. "Honey, we have to go inside."
"I don't want to go inside, I want to go home!"
I sighed and knelt in front of him, placing my hands on the sides of his shoulders. "Okay, listen. If you can behave while we're here, we can get some ice cream on the way home. Does that sound good?"
He took a minute to think, and then he nodded.
"Good. Come on then." I took his hand and began to walk to the front doors with him. Although the closer I got to the school, the more skeptical I became. It looked dingy and old, and clearly hadn't been touched in the ten years it was vacant. But I told myself it was fine, and it didn't matter how the school looked as long as my son got an education. But as soon as we stepped inside, Ichigo was snatched out of my hands by the silhouette of a person, while somebody behind me grabbed me by my arms and held me back. I fought and flailed around, trying to get my son back, but to no avail. The person behind me put a cloth over my mouth and nose. I kicked and screamed for a minute straight until my vision blurred, and I could feel myself become dizzy. After that, everything went dark.
I woke up later in what appeared to be a gymnasium, based on the floor. My sense of time was completely lost, and the whole room was spinning. It took me a bit to come to my senses, and then I realized; Ichigo was still missing.
I stood up and looked around, but the room was too dark to see past my hand. I started calling my son's name in a panic. But when I got a response, it wasn't his voice. Instead, it was the gentle voice of a woman. "You're stuck here too?"
I was relieved I wasn't the only one in this situation. Hyperventilating and stumbling over my words, I began to tell her what happened. "Yes, yes, I walked in here, and they took my son, they took me. His name is Ichigo Okimoto, he has white hair and he was wearing a brown vest, he has this weird theater mask that he never takes off, and he-"
"Okay, I'll help you find him. Just don't leave the room, we don't know what else is out there."
I took a deep breath. "Okay, good idea. Do you think we should spread out or stick together?"
"I say we stick together... if we separate, one of us might get lost, or seriously hurt."
She offered her arm to me. I took it and used it to assist myself in standing up. "Thank you," I told her under my breath.
"Anytime. Now let's go find your son."
We walked around the gymnasium, taking small, careful steps as we did so. Suddenly, I tripped over what felt like another person. I was hopeful for a moment, but it was too big of a person to be Ichigo. It was definitely an adult. The woman gasped softly. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yes, I'm fine... but who is that?"
I got closer to the person. I hesitantly turned them over and put a hand on their chest. It moved up and down rather unsteadily, but at least they weren't dead. The lights above us flickered a bit, giving me a few seconds to examine him. The person I tripped over was a man, who looked about thirty-something. He wore a dull orange jacket and a chef's apron. "Maybe one of the school cooks," I thought to myself. "But what would he be doing in here?"
I reached into my pocket to call the police, but nothing was there. It became apparent to me that I had been robbed while unconscious, and I wouldn't be shocked if everyone else had too. Suddenly, the man sat up, coughing and sputtering. I laid a hand on his back and pushed him upright. He breathed heavily and looked around, frightened by his new surroundings. "What is this? Where am I?" He asked, a panicked, angry tone in his voice.
"We don't really know either," the woman told him. "We all just... woke up here."
That's when somebody else called from across the room. "Raiden! Is that you?"
"Yeah, yeah, it's me!" he yelled back. "Damn, they weren't kidding when they said this place was haunted!"
"Haunted? This isn't a haunted house, this is a school, didn't you know that?"
"A school? No, no, I was supposed to help renovate this as a lab," the woman insisted.
The man shouted to the person on the other side of the room. "Ria! You said this was just a horror attraction!"
"Yeah, I thought it was abandoned!"
The two began to argue, their voices overlapping each other. Everything was so overwhelming. I had no idea what was going on. Finally, I snapped at them. "Please! Can somebody just help me find my son!" I shouted, my voice breaking as I was on the verge of tears.
"Mom?" an exhausted voice spoke from a different direction.
My head whipped around in the direction of his voice. "Ichigo, it's me, where are you?"
"I don't know!"
All of a sudden, the lights turned on. We definitely weren't alone; there were nine other people in the room, all unconscious and on the floor. "It all happened to them too, didn't it?" I thought aloud. "Who would do this kind of thing?"
While the others that were awake went around waking people up, I ran to my son and lifted his mask. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"No Mom, I'm okay," he insisted. There were a few scrapes on his cheek, but no blood. I hugged him tightly. "Ichigo, baby, listen to me, I want you to stay close to me for now, okay? I don't want anything to happen to you."
He nodded, tears streaming down his pale face. I stood up and held him to my side as I gazed at the scenery in front of me. I counted the crowd as more and more people woke up; there were eleven more people in the room. Including me and my son, that made thirteen people in total. It became very clear to me now that this was not an elementary school. This was a sick, twisted trap set by some sick, twisted person.
Once everybody was awake, I stood before them in the midst of the chaos. "Is everybody okay?" I shouted. The whole room went silent, and all eyes were on me. No response, so I carried on.
"Good. Now, does anyone have any clue what's going on?"
One of the others stood up, his cheap-ass eyeliner running down his face. "Are you the one who set this up?" he cried angrily. "Whatever you're planning on doing with my sister, you're gonna have to go through me first!"
"I don't know your sister, and I sure as hell don't plan on doing anything but keeping you and everyone else safe."
I sighed and continued my speech. "Okay, so was everybody taken by those weird people?"
Everybody nodded. Quiet chatter filled the room as everyone discussed what happened to them. From what I heard, it all sounded like the same story; drugged and knocked unconscious, only to wake up in the gym.
"Okay, we need to think. Why are we all trapped here? Did this psycho have some kind of genius reason? Because if so, I'd better hear it right now, and it better be good."
That's when I heard a voice behind me. An ugly, high-pitched, horrifying voice. "If you must know, the reason is entertainment!"
I jumped back, pulling my son close to me and holding onto him for dear life. I was expecting some sort of intimidating, Jigsaw-looking, tall and creepy man, but instead was greeted with this small, robotic bear-ish thing. His black and white figure stood before me with a proud stance and his hands behind his back. I took a second to look him up and down, confused on whether I should be terrified or not. The bear began to laugh. "Yeah, yeah, take a picture sweetheart, it'll last longer."
He carried on with his disgusting laugh. I backed away, tightening my grip on Ichigo. "Who are you and what do you want?"
"Didn't I tell ya? En-ter-tain-ment!"
"You sick bastard, how is this 'entertaining'?!"
"You've got a lot of nerve talking back to me, missy. Keep it up and I might just have to kill you. Or better yet, your son. So zip it."
I kept my mouth shut after that. A tsunami of tears poured from my eyes. I couldn't stand the thought of my son dying. Not after all he's been through. Not after he finally found a family.
"Now that that's out of the way, welcome to the killing game everyone! The life-or-death match! The contest of kill or be killed! Now, I'll cut to the chase, you're all stuck here for the rest of your lives! Only way to get out is to kill somebody else! But don't think it's so easy to leave. Once the body is found, the class trial will begin soon after, and all evidence will be used. So choose your victims carefully..."
The whole room stared in pure horror. "Kill or be killed?" What the hell did he think we were?
"But don't worry, it's not all bad! You all get your own rooms, three meals a day, free reign of the unlocked floors until curfew, and a tiny mint on your pillow! What can I say? I'm a villain, not a monster."
"Who cares about the fuckin' mints?!" a woman from the crowd shouted. I looked to see where the angry noise came from. She stood tall in her scandalous outfit and hot pink boa scarf, with her kinky stripper boots and fishnet stockings. "Listen man, I got work in a few hours, and I don't have time for this! Just give me the goods so I can leave!"
"No can do, sweetheart!"
"What do you mean 'no can do'?! I'll crush your tiny bear skull!"
"You see, everyone was advertised something different. You were offered three bags of coke, the tranny thought he had a gig here, the witch kid does his little magic tricks in here, and-"
"Witch kid?" yelled a boy in a top hat. "It's voodoo doctor! And it's not just some birthday party bullshit, it's dark magic rituals!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Point is, you all got punked!"
So I wasn't really sending him to school, huh? I should've known. What kind of a mother am I? Sending my son to an overgrown, shut-down, melancholy school just because I saw a stupid fake-ass flier?
"On your way to the dorms now!" the bear exclaimed. "But don't take too long. Introductions will be held back here in ten!"
With that, he jumped up and disappeared into the hole from whence he came. Everyone was so lost. We had no idea where to go until a woman in scrubs pointed to the door. "Guys, look! The sign points us to the dorm hallway!"
She was right. There was a sign right above the gymnasium doors, directing us where to go. "Nice going! Come on, let's stay close until we get there. Don't want anybody getting lost."
As a group, we all began walking down a hall that seemed to be endless, although it was only a matter of two minutes before we reached the dormitories. Each door was marked with our names in alphabetical order, meaning Ichigo's room was right next to mine. I was relieved he'd still be close to me, but I was scared. I wish they'd let him share a room with me, but then again, I didn't plan on arguing much. God knows what that bear would do if I didn't comply with him. I gently grabbed Ichigo's arm. "Remember, ten minutes, and then we're going back to the gym. Stay in the room until I do our secret knock, and do not open the door until you hear it. Got it?"
"Got it."
With that, I took a deep breath and let go of him. Tears stung my eyes as I shut the bedroom door behind me. I've always done my best not to cry in front of Ichigo, because in the mind of a child, things aren't that bad until a grown-up cries. I slid down the door and held my knees to my chest as I sobbed. My son was my whole life. I've never been a very religious person, but in that moment, I dropped to my knees and prayed to whatever god might be out there to not take my son away from me. When I stood up, I noticed something on my pillow. An ID card. I picked it up and saw my face and name, along with a note right under it: