I don’t even remember what happened before. All I can feel around me is an endless cycle of darkness and emptiness surrounding me, and some terrible chills coming down my spine. It felt like...no, not loneliness, no, something different. It felt like...despair. So this is what Asahi told me about. About why those people were acting all insane and killing everybody. That empty feeling of despair...I can feel it. Just then, he could slowly hear the faint noise of someone speaking to him. He slowly woke up to hear the faint voice of someone, though. His senses begin to regain, and he hears the soft tone of a girl speaking something inaudibly. After a few moments of confusion, Hiroshi finally readjusts his eyes and finds that he is laying down in a hospital bed with an IV shot in his right arm, a cast for his left arm, and several bandages across his body. I guess those bandits must’ve beat me up pretty badly, I guess. An instant feeling of pain shot through his body, as the pain from his wounds finally caught up to him. After reacting, he heard the same voice as he heard from before. 

-

“Are you okay? You were pretty roughed up when we rescued you.” 

-

Hiroshi noticed the girl that was speaking to him. She seemed to be around his age, maybe a year older, he couldn’t really tell. The girl had a bright pink jacket with a fur inner collar, light yellow shorts, and white thigh socks, along with a pair of pink boots with straps. She also wore a yellow hat with a small strawberry bobble on top, with seemingly light orangish hair, and light grey, almost . Overall, her appearance seemed to look very sweet on the outside, but that was about all Hiroshi could make of this girl. She seemed to be getting a bit impatient with Hiroshi, though. 

-

“Well, are you okay? It’s rude to keep someone waiting. Especially the people who saved you and your friends’s asses out there.” 

-

Hiroshi wasn’t expecting sass from the girl, so he answered as modestly as he could. “Wait, you...you saved us?” Just then, the idea that came to his mind hit him like a sack of bricks. He hadn’t the faintest idea where he even was at. “Wait, where are we? And where are my friends? And who are you, exactly?”, he asked the girl. She gave him a tired glance and replied, “I guess you aren’t familiar with the Ultimates at Hope’s Peak High, are you?” 

-

“Did-did you say Hope’s Peak?”, Hiroshi asked. 

-

“Duh. Of course. It’s where I was attending school. Or at least, where I used to attend school.” She looked a lot more serious and stern now. 

-

“You used to be an Ultimate? Like, in the Main Course Ultimate? What happened?”, he asked. 

-
“It’s about time I explain this to you,” the girl said with a sigh. “My name is Ruruka. Ruruka Ando. I’m the Ultimate Confectionist. Or at least I was until I got kicked out of Hope’s Peak Academy. DON’T ASK WHAT HAPPENED. It was a horrible day,” she said.

-

Ah, so she’s a confectionist? Doesn’t that mean she bakes things or something like that? “Confectionist? Like, what do you do for your talent?”, Hiroshi asked. “Easy. Basically, I make the most delicious sweets and treats that are incomparable to any other. No one in the industry can rival the scrumptious sugary sweets that I make. Don’t believe me? Try one for yourself, uh...say, I never got your name,” Ruruka replied. 

-

“It’s Hiroshi. Hiroshi Tanimoto. I’m no Ultimate. I’m just a Reserve Course student. But...thank you for your help. Say, is there anyone else here in the building? Like, where are we? And who are you with?”

-

The girl was a little hesitant in answering at first. “Normally, this would go against protocol, but I guess you deserve to know what’s going on. You’re inside of the recovery unit here at the HQ of the Future Foundation. Those are the people I work for. And they’re the people who saved you and your friends from the Remnants,” she said. “In fact, I’m actually the head of Future Foundation’s 8th Division, if you’re really interested.” 

-

“The Future Foundation?”, Hiroshi asked. He swore he heard that name before. When he and his friends were hiding out in the city in survivor camps, he heard rumors about a group of that same name. Some claimed they were trying to find any survivors left and rescue them, others said they were no better than the rioters and killers running amok through the blood-filled streets. Given the state of where I am, though, I’m guessing they were right about the first part. But he had no clue what the organization actually was. “You said 8th Division, right? So, what does your group do exactly? I’ve heard some talk among some of the survivors, but I don’t actually know what it is,” Hiroshi told Ruruka. 

-

“I see. The Future Foundation was founded by the alumni and remaining school council of Hope’s Peak Academy, very shortly after the ‘Tragedy’, as some people are calling the apocalypse now, happened. Their goal: to restore and rebuild the world and undo the damage caused by the sick f***s responsible for all of this, Ultimate Despair. And part of that goal is saving survivors like you and seeing if you’re eligible enough to become a potential future member. If you really want to know, the 8th division is in charge of long-term stable food procurement. So basically, I’m in charge of making sure we have enough food to last us through this living hell.”

-

Hope’s Peak Academy...those words rang through Hiroshi’s head. Those people who were responsible for all of those horrible things that happened. The Tragedy Of Hope’s Peak, that Kamakura Project, all of that! He would’ve been much angrier, but several months of living through the apocalypse gave him plenty of time to get over it. Besides, if they were now the only chance he and his friends had of refuge, then he had to take it. It’s better than nothing. 

-

“The guys who made the Kamakura project? And the Tragedy of Hope’s Peak? Why would they-” 

-

Ruruka gave him a disappointed look. “Don’t give me that. Hope’s Peak wasn’t responsible for the Tragedy of Hope’s Peak. Or at least, not entirely. That was the work of Ultimate Despair, too. There were spies on the inside that orchestrated the event that led to the Parade, and eventually, the Tragedy itself. Now it’s up to whatever is left of Hope’s Peak to keep society from crumbling apart all over again.”

-

Hiroshi was very confused about this. All this time, I blamed this entire thing on them.