First Blood and The Hope's Peak Massacre

I didn't know how to describe it. I don't think I'll ever know how to describe it to anyone ever again. This day was the beginning of the most horrific experience of my life so far. The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History was about to begin, and I didn't even know. There was one thing that I knew for sure, though: The world will never be the same.

My name is Kira Usamino. I'm a student in the Reserve Course. Only a short while ago did my classmates at the Reserve Course started protesting outside of Hope's Peak Academy. A short while ago, a scandal involving the Student Council and the staff of Hope's Peak emerged. It costs a horrendous amount of money just to attend the Reserve Course, and we all thought it was to pay off the debt for creating new facilities. Turns out that money was used on some kind of project gone horribly wrong, I don't know, I wasn't given the whole story. But we were mad, and I mean VERY mad.

Many of the students felt that we had been cheated out of our tuition money to involuntarily create a monster, that they were squeezing out our money for their own wicked cause. There were even rumors that the student council was murdered by that monster, and the school was trying to cover it all up. If you ask me, though, it all sounds like over-exaggerated lunch room talk. I mean, I've heard plenty of insane theories going around, but that one is absurd.

Weeks after this scandal broke out, I started noticing that many of the other classmates around me were acting strange. Some starting protesting, and some were even acting openly hostile and aggressive. People began boycotting classes to protest outside of Hope's Peak, and some of my friends tried to encourage me to join them. Of course, I was more focused on my schoolwork than some movement, and besides, I wasn't risking getting arrested for protesting.

This movement against Hope's Peak began: a "Parade" against what they thought was the corruption of the wealthy and talented by using the lower classes to exploit them dry. The media has dismissed them as a common protest, yet the protestors claimed that it was much more than that: they claimed that it was a revolution. A revolution against the rich and powerful. They demanded the firing of the Hope's Peak faculty. I even saw several of my friends holding protest signs, and one of them even tried to climb the barricades before security stopped her.

But it wasn't happening only here. News of this spread across the internet rapidly. Everywhere I've seen has forums focusing about how the rich have continued to persecute and humiliate the poor and talentless across the world to assert their dominance over society. People have started protesting in the streets, calling out the government for their actions, and even tried assaulting the National Guard. Up until then, nothing too extreme had emerged.

Until today.

Today I was going about my usual business, trying to go to all of my classes and work efficiently. But for the past few days, the recent protests made by the Reserve Course students have been getting much more violent. They've attempted to break down the front gate of Hope's Peak, and even tried to assault members of the Main Course there, before being held back by the authorities. They've been there for three whole days, standing there, spreading their message to tear down the wealthy.

Then, a few hours ago, the protestors turned their attention from the Main Course building back to the New School section and the Reserve Course buildings. I saw the whole thing unravel in front of my eyes out the window. Hundreds of angry, bloodthirsty bandits bursting down the New School and Reserve Course doors and entering inside like a frenzy of ferocious fire ants, over-running the place. I couldn't even recognize them as the friends and classmates I used to know. They were savages; armed savages. Clubs, knives, weapons, pitchforks, whatever they could use as a weapon, they brought with them.

This wasn't a protest anymore. This wasn't even a revolution anymore. This was a massacre.

By the time they stormed the halls and began invading the building, I was already panicking in my classroom. The school announcements told us to barricade our classrooms if the mob was close-by, and with my luck, they were near my side of the building. The other students and teachers in the building were panicking. Several had already tried to flee through the elevator, but that was practically futile, since the mob of students were all waiting for them to arrive. We were all panicking like scared children, all struggling to figure out what in the hell was going on here. Then, our teacher instructed us to grab anything that could be used as a weapon against the onslaught of rioters in the halls.

All I could hear was the loud banging on the class door from the outside, the rioters relentlessly striking it repeatedly. We tried to barricade the class-door as best as we could with our desks, and we quickly grabbed anything we could've used to defend ourselves. The other classmates were working to keep that door barred and held. Given the few options left, I was left to use a chair. Still better than nothing, I suppose. I just hope those doors hold up long enough, she thought. If those monsters get in here, who knows what kind of horrible things they'll do. Kira made sure to firmly grasp the end of the chair, ready to strike if she needed to.

I could feel goosebumps rising on my arms, my legs shaking. Then, from the other side of the door, the loud banging turned into the sound of swinging of an axe, and after a few sharp swings, it made a small hole in the door, from which one of the protestors looked inside of.

"There they are."

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POV 2

I don't know how it began, or what started it. I don't know what caused my classmates to start purging the school, to start ruthlessly murdering each other like rabid animals without empathy. I don't know if life will ever be the same ever again.

All I know is that I must do whatever it takes to survive, no matter the cost.

My name is Taro Rutamai. I'm a student in the Main Course of Hope's Peak Academy. I know that might sound awesome, to be with all of the other talented kids, but I don't have an ultimate talent. Or at least, I've never been given an official "Ultimate Title" before since I ranked the best in two fields rather than one. If I'm being frank, I've been fine without a talent, though. I'm just here to catch up on my studies and graduate. Well, with what's happening now, I'll doubt I'll ever get the chance to do that.

Before the onslaught of rioters burst into the school, I was instructed to head to the nearest hiding place I could find, and eventually I found the rec room on the second floor. Everybody else around me was screaming, either trying to duck for cover, running through the halls to get to the exit as fast as possible, or to get a weapon, so no one followed me inside. I found all of the materials I thought I needed.

I made sure to bar the door with the help of the vending machine inside, which took me several minutes to push in place against the door. But I'm glad I did. As I hid inside of that room, I could hear loud banging, tearing, and screams of terror from the other side of the door, yet the vending machine provided me with enough cover so that no one could get in.

I was trapped, looking for anything that I could use as a weapon, or a way to escape. There weren't any windows in the room, so breaking outside wasn't an option. The vents were small for me to sneak in. I guess that I'm trapped in here until the psychos are gone. Well, if this isn't my lucky day. Fortunately, I was able to find a knife stashed in the back of the rec room, probably used for cutting food, but it was still sharp enough and lethal enough to be used as a weapon. I'm not the best equipped when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, but I'm strong. I'm even a partial athlete here, but I haven't trained for anything relating to life-or-death situations.

Taro sat back against the wall, listening to the moment when the screaming would stop, but it didn't. More blood-curdling shrieks of horror filled the halls, some even crying out for mercy, and the sounds of bludgeoning and beating made him sick, imaging the evil and twisted things going on outside. Why in God's name are they doing all of this?! This was only about a protest against Hope's Peak, now they're trying to overrun the entire facility? They're not even acting like normal humans anymore.

I sat there, waiting for what felt like hours, begging for the screams to finally stop, my heart beating as I could hear someone yelling muffled telling me to open the door. I could feel my blood running thin, my own skin becoming cold, desperately holding onto the knife. Please just stop...just stop…Leave me alone, you sick bastards...

It felt like I waited there for hours of that torture. I couldn't let go of my fear. I had to sit there and keep waiting, for the hope that maybe the mob would pass by and I could escape. And then, suddenly, silence. No screams, no beatings, no cries for mercy. A sign of hope.

Taro didn't feel as if the chaos was over yet, so he made sure to wait just a little while longer before walking out of the room. Still nothing. Perhaps the worst of the storm has passed, he thought. Taro made sure to keep a careful hold of his knife to be sure, and carefully tried to push the vending machine away from the door. It took a couple minutes, but he was finally able to do it. Alright, I need a plan of action. If there's no one in the halls, try to find the exit to the building as fast as I possibly can. If I can avoid any of the rioters, that would be great. If there are any of those insane students out there, run like hell. If one of them tries to get too close to me, don't hesitate to stab them with the knife. My life over theirs.

I gently opened the door.

"What the fu-"

The words disappeared from my mouth. A haven't seen such a gory, disturbing mess in my life before, at least not that I have ever seen before. The walls were covered in all kinds of graffiti and other messages, some in spray paint, but most of them were written in blood. How could he tell? The deformed bodies of several students were lying on the ground, some lying back against the walls, others mutilated. And not just any mutilation. He was too shocked to say anything else.

These bodies looked like they had been repeatedly struck to the point where they looked as battered up as a punching bag. One student's face was caved in so much that it looked like the remains of someone swinging a bat at a pumpkin. Great, now I'm getting flashbacks of that zombie show I watched. He felt like he was going to throw up. Taro had a hard time even looking at the dead bodies. The people he once called his own classmates and friends were reduced to a mess of flesh and blood.

Some of these students were his friends in class. He even recognized a girl he knew from his robotics class, whose stomach had taken several knife stab wounds to the point where she bled out. She was lying in a pool of her own blood. Taro said his final condolences to her before trying to stomach together what was going on.

They're killing each other. And then defiling their bodies like this. Why the fuck would anyone do this? What is happening around here? Fuck this, I'm not wasting time any more wondering what's going on. I'm getting out of this god-forsaken place as fast as I can!

Among the graffiti that Taro noticed on the walls was a large spiral drawn in blood, several messages involving "DESPAIR", "SHE WILL LIBERATE US", "KILL OR BE KILLED", among other things. Other repulsive language was written on the walls, but Taro was more focused on finding the exit to the building. Let's see, where's the goddamn exit? Wait. I need to think about this. If there are more of those freaks waiting for me at the front, then I need to think of any other possible ways to get out of here. Let's try looking for the elevators first.

Taro reached the end of the hallway near the elevator area. He reached out and pressed the button to send him to the lower levels of the school, but it didn't work. In fact, the power to the elevator was cut off. It wouldn't work. Shit. I'm not getting out of here this way. I guess I'll have to do this the old fashioned way instead. Taro made sure to firmly grasp his knife as he went searching for the staircase.

Given the circumstances, after a good fifteen minutes of searching through more dead bodies of friends, teachers and students, Taro came across the stairwell leading to the bottom floor. He decided to slowly walk near it since he could hear some talking going on downstairs. Someone's here! I need to see how many of them are there. Good to know what exactly I'm dealing with here. He crawled down on the floor and briefly saw two Reserve Course students near the bottom of the staircase talking to each other. Thankfully, neither realized Taro was watching them.

"Alright, we've been ransacking this place for hours now. I'm pretty sure everybody in this building is dead by now," one of the two said.

"Don't be so certain. Class 78 is still out there. Plus, there could be survivors that we missed here. We have to make sure there are no survivors. Junko's orders."

"I'm pretty sure most of them are dead now, buddy. What's the harm with letting a few insignificant pests live?"

"I'M SORRY, you wouldn't want to go back to Junko to tell her that we didn't complete our mission, would you?!" This one struck fear into the other Reserve Course student.

"N-n-no, not at all."

"Good. Then find the rest of the mob and tell them that we're doing a total re-search to make sure everyone in this building is dead. You check down here. I'll make sure to go upstairs and check myself."

With that, the scared student ran off to alert the other rioters, and the aggressive one sighed in annoyance as he brandished his bloody pipe weapon beside him. Taro immediately tried to sneak away to avoid making too much noise, but the other student caught a brief glimpse of him at the last moment. Caught off guard, the other student frantically walking up the staircase.

"YOU THERE! Are you friend or foe?!", he shouted at Taro. Shit, he saw me! Taro did the one thing his mind told him to do, and started running down the hall like there was no tomorrow. "Hey, get back here, you Main Course dog!", the student kept shouting.

Thanks to the head start, Taro was able to get a good distance away from the other student before he finally arrived at the top of the staircase. Before he did, Taro made sure to hide in one of the classrooms to take a moment to breathe. He carefully tried to peer out of the door, seeing how far away the Reserve Course student was from him.

The freak started to bang his pipe on the ground in a melody-like tone, humming like a deranged serial killer. "Boy, oh, boy, wherever could he be? Let's play a game of cat and mouse to find out, shall we?", he said to himself. He continued walking down the corridor, getting closer to the room Taro was in. Okay, calm down, just calm down now. He's right there, but I think if I time this right, I can take him. Yeah, I just need to get lucky, wait for the right moment to strike, dodge the pipe, and take him out. Or maybe I should just try to avoid him altogether?

However, he was left with no time to make a decision. The student caught yet another quick glimpse of Taro and immediately ran at the room where he was hiding. "Caught you now, bitch!", he screamed, showing the door out of his way. Taro jumped back and pulled out his knife, holding it in a defensive stance. The other student didn't seem to take the time to think of a battle plan and instead violently swung his pipe at Taro.

Thanks to his reflexes, Taro was able to dodge it, right before it would've hit his chest. The student then swung again and aimed for Taro's left leg, and managed to strike it hard. Taro cried out in pain as he almost lost his balance, but managed to keep standing. The student swung a third time, but this time, Taro managed to dodge the attack and lung at the student with his pocket knife, since he left his right side unguarded.

Taro stabbed the other student in the side before pulling his knife back. The other student yelled, seeing the blood from his wound drip down onto his uniform. In a fit of rage, the student smacked the pipe down on Taro's arm, making him drop his knife and crying out in pain. A nasty purple mark was left on his arm.

The student then tried to tackle Taro while he was distracted and go for a side-strike, but Taro grabbed ahold of the pipe before he could. The two fought in an aggressive tug-of-war like conflict over the pipe before Taro used his size advantage to knock over the student and pin him down. The other student, completely dumbfounded by this, accidentally dropped his pipe in the process.

Once he had him right where he wanted, Taro placed his hands around the student's throat and started choking him. He tried to squeeze, yet the student desperately tried to get Taro off of him. He gagged as he tried to grasp for breath, but Taro was dead-set on strangling him. In an act of desperation, the student bit Taro's hand to get his attention. It left Taro with only a bite mark, but it hurt enough for him to lose his grip. The student took his chance and shoved Taro off of him.

Fuck, that little bastard bit me! As Taro was lying down, he quickly saw that the pipe was laying right next to him. Taro didn't even have time to think and immediately grasped the pipe, before turning around and swinging it like a bat at the Reserve Course student. He put all of his strength into that blow, which struck the student square in the forehead. The pipe made a loud metal clank as it struck the student's head, causing blood to spray out. The student then fell to the floor, dead, blood still leaking from his head.

Oh my God. Did I really just do that? Did I really just kill a man? Did I really have to do this?

His grip on the pipe loosened, and it hit the floor with a loud bang. He couldn't believe what he had done. He knew that the guy was trying to kill him. He knew that the asshole probably deserved it, and he probably had killed some other students, too. But Taro was still shocked that he actually ended a human's life. Never before had Taro felt such guilt before.

No, stop feeling pity for him! He got what he deserved! He attacked and tried to kill us, and we killed him in self defense! You shouldn't feel bad at all about this, he tried to tell himself. If we had let him live, he would've alerted everyone else where we were, and we'd have more trouble on our hands than before. He was hellbent on killing us. That wasn't a normal student, that was practically a rapid psychopath!

Taro normally wouldn't think about these things, but he needed something to cope with. Besides, that guy and the other rioters are the ones who are killing everyone. I can't feel a moment of pity for them if I want to get out of this place alive. I can't hesitate, or I'll else I'll end up like the rest of my peers here.

After spending the next few minutes arguing with himself, Taro devised a plan. I need to find a way how to get past these guys and get to the front entrance. Once I'm there, I need to run like hell. Try to run to the nearest police station or other place to take cover. He kept thinking about what he was going to do, as he picked up his knife and the bloody pipe, preparing to fight anyone else that came across his path.