Chapter 1: Prologue: Mission Unknown (Part 1)
(Welcome to my Talent Swap AU! This will be based off on the Gates to Mars but with slight changes to make it more interesting. Don't be scared that it's only 7 chapters. You don't have to read that story to understand what will happen in this story. It's just optional. But I'll provide a link to Galactic Melancholy, the story GOM is a sequel to: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13240815/chapters/30287301
Are you still me? Enjoy the story!)
???: My name is Mikan Tsumiki… I'm the Ultimate Lucky Student… But I'm just a normal girl. I have no direction for my mind and life. But when I was accepted into Hope's Peak, I was thrilled, to put it lightly. I thought things would get better. At least, that's what I thought at first…
When Mikan Tsumiki came to, she found herself propped up on a chair in a mysterious room.
???: Hey, are you awake?
Mikan: Yes..
???: Hinata-kun, there's a sixteenth student here!
Hinata: Yes, there is!
Mikan got up.
She saw two people: a boy who wore a green waistcoat over a white long sleeved shirt, and black dress pants, and a girl. The girl had long ankle length sable hair in two twintails on either side on her head, tied with red ribbons. She wore a white long sleeved top, a red tartan skirt, and a black tie. She had red eyes.
Mikan: What are your names?
Hinata: I'm Hinata, the Ultimate Animator. And this is….
???: Maki Harukawa, Ultimate Programmer. And that's all I have to say on the matter.
Mikan looked down at herself. She had slightly disheveled long dark purple hair with an ahoge sticking out, a pink blouse, a white sailor collar, a red chest ribbon, a light blue skirt, white stockings and silver shoes. Overall, she looked like your typical high school student.
Hinata: Let's go explore this mysterious place. We may find something.
The room led to a mysterious corridor, and that corridor led to a door and that door led to a dining room.
In that Dining Room, there were a bunch of other people.
The door they had just gone through opened, revealing a tan busky girl with medium length chestnut hair, a red jacket wrapped around her waist, blue shorts, white trainers and a white t shirt.
???: (Interested) Hm, so you're the last student. Maybe we can finally get together and figure out what's going on around here. (Straighting up.) My name is Aoi, the Ultimate Martial Artist, but my friends just call me Hina.
Mikan: And I'm Mikan Tsumiki, the Ultimate Lucky Student. (indicating to Hinata and Maki) And these are my friends - the Ultimate Animator Hajime Hinata and Maki, Ultimate Programmer.
Suddenly, Maki wandered off, only to find what may possibly be one of the scariest students here.
He was very tall, looked like an adult, had brown skin, had brown wild hair, wore a white shirt, yellow capri pants, white socks with brown zori sandals on his feet, and had a black swords bag strapped to his back.
Maki: (scared) Eek! Don't kill me!
???: Do you and me look like we're gonna have a problem?
The offended man leapt up.
???: (normal) Oh, sorry to scare you.
I get that reaction a lot. My name is Hiro, the Ultimate Swordsman.
Maki: (worried) Do you have an actual sword?
Hiro: Don't worry. I have a bamboo sword.
Suddenly, they heard singing.
Hinata: What's going on? What's that sound?
Maki: I think it's coming from over there.
Mikan: It's singing.
They followed the singing and found a young boy singing to another boy.
The boy had spring green hair, with luscious eyes to match. He wore a white suit with a light blue bow tie, and light blue boots with forest green ribbons.
The boy turned to the trio.
???: Oh. Hey there, guys. I didn't see you. By the way, my name is Rantaro Amami. You may call me the Ultimate Pop Sensation.
The boy Rantaro had been singing to appeared. He had navy hair. As for his outfit, he wore a black gakuran under a dark blue jacket (which was decorated with Pokeball badges), black shoes and a blue striped tie.
???: I'm Shuichi Saihara and I'm called the Ultimate Gamer. (nervous) But…
Suddenly, Shuichi was thrown across the room by a girl. She had long dark green hair in two braids tied with white ribbons. At the back of her head was a green ribbon. As for her attire, she wore a blue seifuku with a white tie, and white stockings with black boots.
???: I'm Tenko, the Ultimate Supreme Leader, though I hate men!
Shuichi: (confused, getting up) You hate men?
Tenko: Yes, I do.
Maki then spotted two boys sitting at a table.
One was muscular, with straight short dark brown hair and violet eyes. He wore a fashionable leather jacket, over black pants and black boots. The other was pale and tall. His black hair, punctuated by a single white streak, fitted his brown jacket, brown trousers, black shoes, black shirt and dark purple flowing scarf. His eyes had mismatched colors, with one being gray and the other being red.
The muscular guy turned to the trio.
???: Hey, guys I didn't see you here. By the way, name's Mondo Owada, the Super High School Level Fashionista. It's nice to meet ya.
Then the taller guy turned to the trio.
???: I believe it's time for introductions. I am called Gundham Tanaka. I guess my talent is Ultimate Writing Prodigy.
Maki: An author?
Tanaka: Yes. By the way, have you heard of Grizzly Tales?
Mikan: I haven't.
Tanaka: It was a series of books aimed at children. It was a series of cautionary tales about a bunch of bad children who met gruesome endgames. Whether that be getting killed, mutilated, subjected to involuntarily shapeshifting, or kidnapped by something/someone else. It was also adapted into an animated series. I loved those books. I also watched a few episodes of that series. I have fond memories of it. Sadly, the series ended in 2006. The books also ended in 2001. However, Grizzly Tales was not quite done.
Maki: What do you mean, 'not quite done'?
Tanaka: The book series was revived in 2007 shortly after the show's cancellation, starting with adapting several of the stories found in seasons 4, 5 and 6 to the printed page, albeit with a… much darker moodset to them, alongside a few new ones to spice things up. Eventually, the books became more and more focused on new stories until the final two had only new ones, as they had run out of old episodes to adapt. These stories, alongside the dark atmosphere of the books, were adapted in Seasons 7 & 8, which also featured four all-new stories. But it still didn't bring over the remaining stories from the first four books, which I loved, much to my disappointment.
Rantaro: I remember those books. I loved them so much!
Tanaka: Mr Pop Star has fond memories of my favorite book series. This new series had a mixed reception from fans of the original series, myself included. On one hand, it was great that the series was back. (His face falls) But this new series would also bring in a lot of controversial changes to what had been a stable of the original.
Rantaro: I watched the new series, and I hated it. The first of these changes was that the setting had completely changed. The new series had a new host, as well. They also had a change in the animation.
Tanaka: (shaking my head) Rantaro, thanks for the info. When you love a book series/TV show as much as I loved Grizzly Tales, you are bound to come upon a book or season that you don't love quite as much as the rest. For me, it was several. Later books fell…flat for me. Seasons 5 and 6 used a strange mix of traditional animation and Flash animation, so I didn't watch them. I didn't watch the holiday special for Grizzly Tales. It looked… strange. And I hated seasons 7 and 8! They were so much… darker. The last two seasons, you see, had a grimmer atmosphere, a crueler host with a more grotesque appearance, and quite a bit more amounts of gore. The HotHell Darkness also added a sense of hopelessness to the kids' efforts.
Rantaro: I watched the series a lot. I was scared of the narration, though I was never scared of the animation. But "Bunny Boy" was the first time I became scared of the animation. It was the first time I ever saw blood! They showed a kid get chopped up! But then I watched "Sick to Death". Oh my god. They showed a person getting sucked into the vacuum cleaner piece by piece, with organs shown in such vividly disgusting detail, it was just…. Ew!!! After seeing that episode, I didn't really mind "Bunny Boy". At least the kid getting torn to pieces by the combine harvester never made me want to throw up.
Tanaka: I also watched the episode. That getting sucked into the vacuum scene was terrifying the first time I saw it, and it was the first time I was scared of the animation. I became scared of vacuum cleaners. I can't clean with vacuum cleaners without thinking of that episode.
Maki: I also watched the series. I was horrified by the narration, but I don't ever remember being horrified by the animation. But "Sick to Death" was the first time I was horrified by the animation. There was blood everywhere! Seriously, I had to take a break after the episode was over.
Shuichi: I've read a lot of kid friendly books. Though I avoided ones like this series for being… too dark.
Tanaka: I agree with you, Saihara. They went places that most books for kids would never dare attempt.
Suddenly, they heard chatting.
Two girls were sitting there.
One girl had long straight black hair, set back with a pink hairband. She wore a white blouse with a black knee length skirt with white frills at the bottom, a blue sailor collar and a pink tie.
The other girl had wild strawberry blond hair with a blue butterfly hair clip in and pale blue eyes. She wore a pink seifuku with a sky blue tie, white socks and black Mary Janes with ladybugs on. Her top had a ladybird badge on one side. She wore a ladybug patterned backpack.
Mikan: Who are you two?
???: I'm the girl whose skills in entomology will go down in history! I'm the one, the only, the legendary Ultimate Entomologist herself, Miu Iruma!
???: And I'm Ibuki Mioda, the Ultimate Affluent Progeny!
Mikan: And I'm Mikan… this year's…
???: Ultimate Lucky Student.
Mikan turned to see the source of the speaking was a boy who had pink hair. He wore a black hat, a greenish yellow trench coat over a white dress shirt, black pants and black shoes.
Mikan: Yeah! How'd you know?
???: You look like a typical high school student, and only Ultimate Lucky Students look like that. Name's Kazuichi Soda. I'm the Ultimate Detective! Nice to meet ya!
Just then, a young man with spiky black synthetic hair who had taupe skin only in the face and the rest of whom was metal and white, in the shape of a military style uniform, and had black "boots" appeared. His eyes were blood red. Interestingly, he had black lines going down his eyes, maybe it was a form of makeup?
???: I'm K1-Y0, Ultimate Robot. But please address me as Kiyotaka.
???: Do robots have dicks?
Kiyotaka: That's robophobic!
Mikan looked around to see that the speaking came from a girl. Her short black hair has a single silver streak, and was pinned with a violet ribbon on one side. She had freckles and grey eyes. She wore a white long sleeved top, a red bow tie, a brown waistcoat, a black pleated skirt, violet and white striped knee socks and black Mary Janes. She had a dark purple and white backpack.
???: I'm the Ultimate Cosplayer, Mukuro Ikusaba.
Mikan: What's cosplaying?
Mukuro: Cosplaying is the art of dressing up as characters! Though I mainly make cosplays, I do like wearing them.
Across from her was a girl who had long light blond hair tied in a ponytail with an azure ribbon, reaching to her knees and light grey eyes. She wore a black hairband with a red heart stuck to the left side, a black blouse with a red tie, a bluish black pleated skirt with hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs on the bottom, black socks, and red shoes.
???: My name is Sonia Nevermind. I'm the Ultimate Gambler. Charmed, I'm sure.
Next to Sonia was a short boy with cropped auburn hair and jet black eyes. He wore a black jacket, a white shirt, a blue tie, black pants and black trainers. His jacket had cutesy smiley face buttons on.
???: My name is Hoshi, the Ultimate Gymnast. Though because my main expertise is ribbons and hoops, you should call me the Ultimate Rhythmic Gymnast.
Suddenly, the intercom came on.
???: Head outside for information, please.
The 16 students headed outside. Little did they know that their curiosity would turn into something else entirely.
(That's part 1 of the prologue! Next time, we'll meet Mono-Peko! As for the cast….
Who do you think will be the first to die? Who will die? Who will survive? Who's your favorite(s)? Least favorite(s)? General first impressions?)
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