The Blackout

The speedy, consistent travel of the subway train made Hiroshi feel lost, anxious to a point. The insides of the subway car were filled with people from all over the city, desperately hoping to get home quickly. Hiroshi was traveling along with two of his friends from the Reserve Course, trying to get back to the main building as quickly as possible. Today they had taken a field day away from their studies to go out and have some fun, something to get their mind off of the rioting and the other horrible things going on in the world.

Hiroshi was sitting near the back of the subway car, looking out of the window to see the flashing lights inside of the tunnel. On his left was his friend Kenzo, and on his right was his other friend, Asahi. Kenzo was a somewhat flirtatious kind of guy. He was always trying to impress or joke around with the more attractive girls in our school, among other things. He's got neatly trimmed blond hair, a sharp chin and hazelnut colored eyes. At the moment, he was busy with his phone, checking his notifications and texting his other friends.

Asahi was much different than Kenzo. Asahi doesn't spend much time around other people very often. He's often focused on his schoolwork and his athletic abilities in his free time. Despite that, he is a good and loyal friend once you get to know him, if you can manage his temper. With everything that's been going on, Asahi's been wanting to join in the protests at Hope's Peak like all our other peers are doing, but from what I've heard, his parents have forbidden him from doing so. Not to mention Kenzo and I talked him out of going there. He was busy taking a phone call at the moment. I didn't ask him who he was calling since I didn't want to be rude. He was known for being a bit semi-violent, but he was kind towards his friends. He had very curly, thick black hair, with orange eyes, and several freckles across his face.

For me, I guess you could say I look fairly good. I have this dark brown hair that's sort of messy, but not too much, and I have jade eyes.

Times were already bad enough with the Parade going on. In the course of the past few months, things at both Hope's Peak Academy and the Reserve Course Department had gone to hell. People were freaking out over the scandals going on, and some of my classmates even started vandalizing the school lockers and classrooms. A few of them were even arrested for trying to attack security at Hope's Peak. Sure, I'm not going to pretend like I wasn't upset or angered when these secrets came out, but I wasn't this aggressive about it.

I don't know about all of the details, but I think my other friend, Asahi, told me a little more about it. He said that some of the details were shady, but he did his best to summarize it. There was some kind of mass email sent out to everyone in the Reserve Course, including me, about this 'alleged' incident that happened once some kind of science experiment went horribly wrong. Others say that this incident was somehow involved with the "deaths" of the Student Council, but all I've heard from the Steering Committee is that they're actually somewhere overseas studying abroad. I'm telling you, this shit has gotten so insane that I honestly don't know who to believe anymore.

It wasn't until that leaked email that all of these protests and violence has been happening. I just...I-I...it's fucking insane. All of that tuition money, every penny that my family gave to this school, and everyone else here in the Reserve Course, was used to create a-a... a fucking murderer! We have every right to be angry at Hope's Peak. After what they did...I'm even considered leaving the Reserve Course. But my friends here...not just Kenzo and Asahi, but my other friends, too...I made so many good friends at this place.

I know, it's been my lifelong dream to someday get into the Main Course. Hope's Peak was only for the truly exceptional, but the Reserve Course was my chance. The mere upper layer of the talentless masses of society. I thought that this school would change my life, that it would hopefully give me the education I needed for a successful career ahead of me. That it would give me some kind of satisfaction. Lies.

What was it that one girl told me about this place? He remembered this example he was told about the Reserve Course: say you go to a fast food restaurant somewhere in America that is connected with the meth industry. On the inside, you go in and might order some deep fried chicken, but that place isn't there to solely serve you your food. It's there to act as an illusion to disguise the meth operations. Some guys could be in the back, dealing and creating meth. It looks like a restaurant, and it is. But it wasn't made to sell you fast food.

That was exactly what the Reserve Course was, she told me. On the outside, it's an example of hope and tuition to get an education at Hope's Peak. But it's not there to truly help anyone get into the Main Course, or prepare you for the future, either. It's there to squeeze out money from 'sad, delusional misguided plebs' as she called me, so they could use their funds to spend it on things they are more concerned with. Mainly, their own benefit for the talented. The rest could burn for all they cared. She told me she had connections to the Yakuza, so no wonder she used that example. I can't believe she was right.

If this is what the so-called wonderful Hope's Peak Academy really does - if this is what Hope's Peak is truly like, what the "cream of the crop" do in their free time, then I want no part of it! My parents probably wouldn't approve of it, though. They already spent a lot of money just getting me into this school, and they sure as hell won't want me wasting my education away.

But now even some of my friends are wondering why they're even sticking around. Hell, we can't go a single day now without there being some kind of riot or violent protesters tearing the school apart! Jesus, I thought this place would be perfect when I first showed up. I would've never thought that I would be this dead wrong.

"You look stressed out," Kenzo said to him, sitting criss-crossed. "I can tell. You're twitching like crazy again."

That was a bad habit of mine. When I get nervous or anxious or incredibly stressed, I do things to get my mind off of it, like twitching. It's been a mental issue I've been dealing with for the past few years.

"No shit, Sherlock. I can't go a day now without that Parade bullshit on the news or people in school talking about how we should fight back. The past few weeks have been absolute hell for me. I can barely even focus on my life anymore."

Kenzo didn't seem to mind my harsh tone. By now, he's already gotten used to my anger issues. "I feel you, man. I can't even say my own opinion on the matter without someone getting angry at me for being an 'obedient little canine' like some have called me. But hey, at least we got away from all that today. We really needed this free day to skip school," he told me.

"Yeah. Besides, with all the students that have been protesting, I doubt our teachers will even notice that we're gone," I told him.

"Let's just make sure none of them know that we did this, okay? I don't want to get caught for this, you know," Asahi said, still on the phone. He seemed to be much more anxious and concerned now, for some reason.

"Relax, we've got you covered. By the time we get back, no one will even notice that we left," Kenzo told him, with a smug smile.

I started thinking about the issue again. Just a few weeks ago, it was just a lot of students protesting. That's it. But now it's escalated to the point where some have been treating it like the next French Revolution. I wish I was making that up! This anti-talent movement is getting to everyone's heads, and now people are acting more violent than ever. It has more to do than just the crazy shit going on here.

To me, it feels like everything is going to hell right now. I've hardly been able to catch a break myself with all of this shit going on right now. My classes are hard, finals are coming up, and I can't focus on anything. While all of these aggressive thoughts memories ran through his head, Hiroshi's friends were also arguing with each other.

"It's all bullshit! All of it!", said Asahi. "I'm tired of the ways things have been. All I want is to join the movement to improve things for all of us at the Reserve Course!"

"We can't just go around and become part of the mob, for God's sake, Asahi! I'm not getting arrested for attempted breaking and entering! Besides, this stupid Parade has been infecting all of our minds. We skipped school today to get away from that sort of thing, you know," Kenzo said to him.

"Anything's better than the way things are going now! Wake up already! Since the beginning, Hope's Peak has been doing nothing but filling us with false hope," Asahi replied as he was about to perform a filibuster. "We're told to stay in school, follow the rules, keep our heads down, pay our fees, and not to question our superiors, and what do we get out of all of it? Our money gets spent creating a freak of nature!! Aren't you sick of it?! Being treated like you're worth nothing to the rest of the world?! Because I am!"

"Calm down. Half of the 'scandal' stuff going around right now is mostly rumor talk, from what I've heard. I know it's a serious topic, but you've got to let it go, Asahi. We should just try to get a moment of relaxation away from this nightmare. Come on, why not try again on the weekend if we have the chance? We're all in need of a nice, long break, to get away from this shithole situation," Kenzo said calmly.

"Okay, can both of you shut up?", Hiroshi angrily told them. The other passengers were starting to notice them, so he didn't want his friends creating unwanted attention. Who knows who get triggered by Asahi's argument.

*sigh* "Fine, I'll pipe down, but don't expect me to change my mind. If you're not going to fight for your fair treatment, then I'm going to fight for mine, and for everyone else in the Reserve Course," Asahi told Kenzo before remaining quiet.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," Kenzo said in a taunting tone. "Let's just focus on getting back home without tearing each other apart first."

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Elsewhere, the two subway conductors were at the driver's cab, busy keeping track of the train's next stop.

"We'll be coming up at our next destination in around 1.3 miles. Be ready."

They were too busy to notice the man walking on the tracks ahead of them. The man was wearing a strange mask, half white, half black, with the left white side showing an ordinary black eye and an odd smile, while the right black half showed a sharp-toothed grin smile, with a sharp red eye as well. The man was wearing a gigantic, leather suit that seemed like he had some kind complicated explosive rigged to himself. In fact, in his other hand, he was holding his cell phone, finishing an important phone call.

*Destination reached. Proceeding with caution. Preparing to take action. Alert the insider. Glory to despair.*

By the time that the train had reached him, which was a few minutes, the two conductors desperately tried to stop the subway and pulled the brakes. The subway car screeched to a halt, stopping mere inches away from striking the man in the mask. The two conductors were very pissed off at this strange man.

"Hey asshole, get off the train tracks! We could have fucking killed you! You're delaying the ride for everyone else!", one of the two screamed at him. The man couldn't hear much, though, due to the glass on the subway blocking out a lot of the noise.

But before any of the three could react in time, all of the lights in the subway and the tunnel went out. The tunnel was practically pitch black, with barely any light visible to look around the area. Strangely, the masked man seemed to be surprised by this, too. This wasn't part of the plan. Time for improvisation. The masked man's red eye glowed in the dark, menacingly, staring at the two conductors, as he put his cell phone back into his pocket and pulled out a pistol instead.

To be continued...