p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Makoto had called it the Avatar Suite. A total of twenty pods are laid out like numbers on a clock face, fifteen for the Ultimate Despairs, another five for emergencies; Hinata supposed that, at least, considering what happened with the Future Foundation and their intervention just a couple of weeks ago. The room itself is spacious, contained within the administrative building come facility on the central island - the landmass is almost entirely occupied by the large building, just as Sonia had read in that leaflet so long ago. The game seems to stretch away from the five remaining students - by now, it's little more than a bizarre nightmare to them. It still haunts them, though. They doubt it will ever stop. Watching your friends kill and be killed is a step up from what Hinata remembers of his nightmares as a child; he'd climb into his mother's bed, he'd fall asleep with her arms around him, her voice telling him he was alright./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Today he checks on his comatose peers in their respective pods pods. He and the other survivors have been awake for a fortnight or so now - the Future Foundation trio, the convenient survivors of the high school killing, had left the island as soon as humanly possible, to report back to HQ. Or so they had said. Hinata had no idea where HQ was, or what they were going to report, or whether they would even be safe when they got there./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"After all, the world's dangerous nowadays./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Wordless, but brow tightening in contemplation, he swipes a cloth over the top panel of one of the pods. The panel's transluscent, grey-blue in colour, and made of a thick, hard material. Makoto had told Hinata they were bullet proof, and Souda suggested testing the feature out on Komaeda's pod. (Of course, everyone else refused, but silently Hinata realised that Komaeda's would be the first pod he'd use.) They're very futuristic looking things, too - the kids left alive had been hesitant to touch them at first, as if fearing that this was still fiction, or that they'd break the equipment. Time alone had been able them that they were actually pretty robust - they had to be, in this day and age, especially as they played such a vital role in the Hope Restoration Program - and that they even had a backup generator which could keep them running for 24 hours in case of a power shortage./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"24 hours wasn't long enough, Hinata suggested. Especially considering power was near impossible to get back once it was gone in such a secluded place - a day was nowhere near long enough to accept that not only were your friends not going to wake up, but they were also officially dead./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"'Shut down'./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The thinnest sheen of dust lifts from the plexiglass window, and Hinata finds himself focusing more than is necessary on the serene face beneath it. The boy's pale, untroubled face is delicately framed by snowy white hair, split into awry waves, and for a while, Hinata just stands, rag twisted between his fists, halfway between feeling anger and some strange sense of longing. As close as he is growing to the other four (after all, the only company they have is themselves) he kind of wishes for the Komaeda he met when he woke up on the island to talk to him again. Sure, it was bordering unsettling with how calm he had been, but that calm was exactly what Hinata had found he needed in those first couple of /That, and he wanted to hear from Komaeda himself what had happened./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"With a resigned sigh, Hinata straightens out the cloth and moves on to the next pod./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It doesn't take him long to finish with the remaining tasks - just Ibuki's and the Ultimate Imposter's pods, then checking on the power usage and the conditions of the Ultimate Despairs, and he's done. Taking one last affirming glance around the Avatar Suite, he hoists his bag onto his shoulder, taking barely two steps forward before hearing a soft thud from behind him./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""...?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Turning carefully, he sees that his bag is open, the main flap of it hanging over. A couple of his belongings teeter onthe edge of the zip, and something had already fallen out - if the noise he'd heard was any indicator. With an irritated tutting sound, he places his bag back down and closed it, scanning the ground for the lost object./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"After maybe a few minutes of scanning and swiping his hands under the pods, Hinata's fingers curl around the felt handle of a small pink bag. He draws it out from underneath, brushing off the dust and a few moments pass as he stares at the object, almost like he expects it to respond. As if concerned that the bodies within the pods were watching him and judging his pensive attitude at the appearance of the bag, he quickly shouldered his own sack and looking almost furtively over his shoulder before shuffling towards the door./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He'd forgotten he had it, in all honesty. The cute felt face of a cat smiles up at him from the top of the bag, and it smells of washing powder. (When it had fallen off of Chiaki during her execution, there was a streak of blood on it. He couldn't let that stay.)/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Hinata doesn't put it away as he makes his way back to the hotel (their cottages are maybe more unkempt and older than they remembered, scattered with spiderwebs and the wooden panels of the walls beginning to creak and groan with age, but instinct led them to the ones they had been originally assigned, and that was the way that it stayed) thumbs rubbing over the furry surface of the fabric. He doesn't watch the road ahead of him as he walks. It's not like he's going to bump into anyone on this island, not when there's so many places to be and so little life to fill them with - it's a lonely idea, Hinata realises, and erases the thought from his mind. Jabberwock seems more deserted than it ever did in the past, even when there were only one or two more people to keep them company. Even now that the air reeks so much less of death./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Even when Chiaki, who was likely no more than a file on a database, was the only one left alive to comfort the five of them./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="font-style: oblique;"Having talent isn't the goal, /spanhe remembers she said. Crystal clear in his head, her voice rings out - he feels a pang in his chest at the sensation of her being very nearly next to him. span style="font-style: oblique;"There's something much more important than whether or not you have talent, right? What's important is that you believe in yourself. If you can't do that, no matter how much talent you possess, you will never be confident in yourself./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Hinata pauses, his feet coming to a halt in the middle of the quiet dust track, just staring at the bag as if he expects it to do something, to talk to him with the same sort of clarity that his mind synthesised./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="font-style: oblique;"I'll...be cheering for you, too./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He wonders for a moment if Chiaki knew about Izuru Kamukura. As part of the game, she should have, really - any background information would no doubt to be beneficial to someone who was supposed to be sharing the responsibility of the lost and despairing children entrusted into the hands of the game, after all. Maybe, as a human, she wanted to tell him about it./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But likely, as a string of code and nothing more, she was unable to. Maybe that's why she came back./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"With a swallow that hurts his throat, Hinata carries on his lonely way, the only sound on the road being that of his shoes against the dry dirt and the ocean a few hundred metres away./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"-/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He doesn't sleep that night. It storms as he lies in bed, the humid heat of the room dragging him out from under the covers and left to watch the rain pummel the window almost expectantly. With every drop that collects on the sill, dawn inches closer. Hinata figures the only difference between day and night is fundamentally just the change in light - he could always just sleep in the daytime./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Either way, he can't manage to drift off - every time he goes to settle beneath the covers, he feels his bed rocking, he hears thunder clap outside, and he sees her shadow in the doorway of the bathroom./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"-/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Hey, Hajime. We didn't see you much yesterday. What gives?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Souda's almost accusing tone snaps Hinata from his reverie over breakfast. Raising his attention from his plate of rice and tamagoyaki, Hinata gives the mechanic a blank look, fork pushing food around the plate even without his eye contact. He's tired, of course he is, and he's silenced by the known presence of Chiaki's bag on his bed, on top of the pillow. He knows nobody will go in there - he's locked the door, anyway, seeing as Ibuki didn't break it in the real world. "You seem distracted, man."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Do not bother him about it, " Sonia scolds mildly, though a smile remains on her fair lips as she focuses her eyes on Hinata. She's finished eating, and is sitting politely back in her chair with her hands in her lap. "I'm sure it's something private, is it not, Hajime? "/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Hinata offers something that's in between a head shake and a nod in response, and returns to his rice. It takes him longer than anyone else to finish, but when he does he finds that now even Akane's usually food-distracted eyes are on him - but now Souda is away from the table with his back to the rest of the students. His elbows are pointed upwards, hands behind his head; he's staring out of the window at the sky above. Being in such a secluded and exclusive part of the world has its benefits, Hinata supposes, and he's fairly sure the rest of them feel the same. Sure, he can't see his family, or his friends from the life before (and if what Junko said was true, then they're probably all dead anyway). Worse of all, he can't know for sure whether what Junko and the Future Foundation trio that visited them said about the rest of the world was true./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But he came quickly to the conclusion that maybe taking the m on their word without complaint was the easiest way to go about the situation./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I reckon we should do something today. Like, you know on the first day we got here, and Monomi gave us those swimsuits, and we all went swimming? Something like that." Souda's voice is quiet, but his voice has a positive chime to it. It kind of uplifts Hinata a little - and while none of them suppose for a second that he is completely innocent in what he's suggesting, what with two girls in the room, there is no disagreement./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Sonia twists in her chair to face him, nodding with a keen smile. "I think that is a nice idea, Kazuichi," she agrees, and Souda practically glows with pride./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"There is a creak from the other side of the table - Hinata turns his head. Fuyuhiko, who has been equally quiet this breakfast time, stands from the table and excuses himself audibly, padding out of the room. Despite the return of the missing half of his eyesight - when the avatars were uploaded into their current bodies, they all found the to be as undamaged as they were the day they fell asleep - he was growing quieter, more distant. Hinata didn't overlook the idea of it being his second loss of Peko (and everyone else, for that matter) for a moment. Things may be getting easier with every passing day, but Hinata knows it's as hard for the rest of them as it is for him. Losing the others once was a bad enough situation for a group of kids to be in, but in having the hope of them returning stashed as quickly as it had been a couple of weeks ago had been salt in their wounds./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Fuyuhiko still seem to be feeling the sting./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Y'know, Kazuichi, I think we can put the beach on hold for...just one more day, 'lright?" Akane's voice is uncharacteristically soft as she picks up her plate - cleanly polished, as ever - and begins piling all of the cutlery on top of it. Hinata just watches her slow movements, and then as Souda turns and moves away from the window. They talk quietly among themselves - Hinata doesn't know what about, little things, and though he can't tell what they're saying, the sound of their whispers is comforting. It's as if there was a point where they stopped being a group of friends stuck on an island together, and started being some sort of disjointed family faced with an awful tragedy. And though it's sad, though it's hard, they're all there for each other, and they'll make it through./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"That's exactly the kind of hope that Chiaki would encourage./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Hope is valuable. Sometimes it's all you have, and it's all you can rely on when you have nothing else. As Souda and Akane slip through the doors into the small kitchen, Hinata takes his leave, the door making next to no noise as he closes it behind him. The sky is a clear blue, and from the hotel he can smell the faintest hint of the salty ocean on the air. The Jabberwock Isles are beautiful, and they're safe, and they're away from the carnage of the Tragedy; even though their friends couldn't survive to see this, here the five of them stand in their stead, and that knowledge comes with a poignant kind of relief./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="font-style: oblique;"Yes, hope is valuable/span, Hinata reminds himself past the sour, stinging feeling at the back of his throat, past the tightness in his chest that rings with a distinct echo of Chiaki herself. His legs begin to drag him down the steps towards the hotel's outdoor pool. The surface glistens like a cut diamond in the sunlight, reflecting up onto the walls. span style="font-style: oblique;"If you have it, you have everything-/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"-is what he thinks. And he thinks it with such confidence that he sees her smile in his head, as if it's whispered to him, almost manages to imagine her hand grasping his. Her breathing at his side, warmth, closeness, hope, hope, hope./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He carries on thinking like that. Onlookers might have commented on the smile that begins to appear on his lips as he clenches his fist as if holding another hand within his own - until he sees smoke rising from the central island./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Today he checks on his comatose peers in their respective pods pods. He and the other survivors have been awake for a fortnight or so now - the Future Foundation trio, the convenient survivors of the high school killing, had left the island as soon as humanly possible, to report back to HQ. Or so they had said. Hinata had no idea where HQ was, or what they were going to report, or whether they would even be safe when they got there./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"After all, the world's dangerous nowadays./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Wordless, but brow tightening in contemplation, he swipes a cloth over the top panel of one of the pods. The panel's transluscent, grey-blue in colour, and made of a thick, hard material. Makoto had told Hinata they were bullet proof, and Souda suggested testing the feature out on Komaeda's pod. (Of course, everyone else refused, but silently Hinata realised that Komaeda's would be the first pod he'd use.) They're very futuristic looking things, too - the kids left alive had been hesitant to touch them at first, as if fearing that this was still fiction, or that they'd break the equipment. Time alone had been able them that they were actually pretty robust - they had to be, in this day and age, especially as they played such a vital role in the Hope Restoration Program - and that they even had a backup generator which could keep them running for 24 hours in case of a power shortage./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"24 hours wasn't long enough, Hinata suggested. Especially considering power was near impossible to get back once it was gone in such a secluded place - a day was nowhere near long enough to accept that not only were your friends not going to wake up, but they were also officially dead./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"'Shut down'./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The thinnest sheen of dust lifts from the plexiglass window, and Hinata finds himself focusing more than is necessary on the serene face beneath it. The boy's pale, untroubled face is delicately framed by snowy white hair, split into awry waves, and for a while, Hinata just stands, rag twisted between his fists, halfway between feeling anger and some strange sense of longing. As close as he is growing to the other four (after all, the only company they have is themselves) he kind of wishes for the Komaeda he met when he woke up on the island to talk to him again. Sure, it was bordering unsettling with how calm he had been, but that calm was exactly what Hinata had found he needed in those first couple of /That, and he wanted to hear from Komaeda himself what had happened./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"With a resigned sigh, Hinata straightens out the cloth and moves on to the next pod./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It doesn't take him long to finish with the remaining tasks - just Ibuki's and the Ultimate Imposter's pods, then checking on the power usage and the conditions of the Ultimate Despairs, and he's done. Taking one last affirming glance around the Avatar Suite, he hoists his bag onto his shoulder, taking barely two steps forward before hearing a soft thud from behind him./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""...?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Turning carefully, he sees that his bag is open, the main flap of it hanging over. A couple of his belongings teeter onthe edge of the zip, and something had already fallen out - if the noise he'd heard was any indicator. With an irritated tutting sound, he places his bag back down and closed it, scanning the ground for the lost object./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"After maybe a few minutes of scanning and swiping his hands under the pods, Hinata's fingers curl around the felt handle of a small pink bag. He draws it out from underneath, brushing off the dust and a few moments pass as he stares at the object, almost like he expects it to respond. As if concerned that the bodies within the pods were watching him and judging his pensive attitude at the appearance of the bag, he quickly shouldered his own sack and looking almost furtively over his shoulder before shuffling towards the door./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He'd forgotten he had it, in all honesty. The cute felt face of a cat smiles up at him from the top of the bag, and it smells of washing powder. (When it had fallen off of Chiaki during her execution, there was a streak of blood on it. He couldn't let that stay.)/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Hinata doesn't put it away as he makes his way back to the hotel (their cottages are maybe more unkempt and older than they remembered, scattered with spiderwebs and the wooden panels of the walls beginning to creak and groan with age, but instinct led them to the ones they had been originally assigned, and that was the way that it stayed) thumbs rubbing over the furry surface of the fabric. He doesn't watch the road ahead of him as he walks. It's not like he's going to bump into anyone on this island, not when there's so many places to be and so little life to fill them with - it's a lonely idea, Hinata realises, and erases the thought from his mind. Jabberwock seems more deserted than it ever did in the past, even when there were only one or two more people to keep them company. Even now that the air reeks so much less of death./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Even when Chiaki, who was likely no more than a file on a database, was the only one left alive to comfort the five of them./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="font-style: oblique;"Having talent isn't the goal, /spanhe remembers she said. Crystal clear in his head, her voice rings out - he feels a pang in his chest at the sensation of her being very nearly next to him. span style="font-style: oblique;"There's something much more important than whether or not you have talent, right? What's important is that you believe in yourself. If you can't do that, no matter how much talent you possess, you will never be confident in yourself./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Hinata pauses, his feet coming to a halt in the middle of the quiet dust track, just staring at the bag as if he expects it to do something, to talk to him with the same sort of clarity that his mind synthesised./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="font-style: oblique;"I'll...be cheering for you, too./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He wonders for a moment if Chiaki knew about Izuru Kamukura. As part of the game, she should have, really - any background information would no doubt to be beneficial to someone who was supposed to be sharing the responsibility of the lost and despairing children entrusted into the hands of the game, after all. Maybe, as a human, she wanted to tell him about it./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But likely, as a string of code and nothing more, she was unable to. Maybe that's why she came back./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"With a swallow that hurts his throat, Hinata carries on his lonely way, the only sound on the road being that of his shoes against the dry dirt and the ocean a few hundred metres away./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"-/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He doesn't sleep that night. It storms as he lies in bed, the humid heat of the room dragging him out from under the covers and left to watch the rain pummel the window almost expectantly. With every drop that collects on the sill, dawn inches closer. Hinata figures the only difference between day and night is fundamentally just the change in light - he could always just sleep in the daytime./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Either way, he can't manage to drift off - every time he goes to settle beneath the covers, he feels his bed rocking, he hears thunder clap outside, and he sees her shadow in the doorway of the bathroom./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"-/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Hey, Hajime. We didn't see you much yesterday. What gives?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Souda's almost accusing tone snaps Hinata from his reverie over breakfast. Raising his attention from his plate of rice and tamagoyaki, Hinata gives the mechanic a blank look, fork pushing food around the plate even without his eye contact. He's tired, of course he is, and he's silenced by the known presence of Chiaki's bag on his bed, on top of the pillow. He knows nobody will go in there - he's locked the door, anyway, seeing as Ibuki didn't break it in the real world. "You seem distracted, man."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Do not bother him about it, " Sonia scolds mildly, though a smile remains on her fair lips as she focuses her eyes on Hinata. She's finished eating, and is sitting politely back in her chair with her hands in her lap. "I'm sure it's something private, is it not, Hajime? "/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Hinata offers something that's in between a head shake and a nod in response, and returns to his rice. It takes him longer than anyone else to finish, but when he does he finds that now even Akane's usually food-distracted eyes are on him - but now Souda is away from the table with his back to the rest of the students. His elbows are pointed upwards, hands behind his head; he's staring out of the window at the sky above. Being in such a secluded and exclusive part of the world has its benefits, Hinata supposes, and he's fairly sure the rest of them feel the same. Sure, he can't see his family, or his friends from the life before (and if what Junko said was true, then they're probably all dead anyway). Worse of all, he can't know for sure whether what Junko and the Future Foundation trio that visited them said about the rest of the world was true./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But he came quickly to the conclusion that maybe taking the m on their word without complaint was the easiest way to go about the situation./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I reckon we should do something today. Like, you know on the first day we got here, and Monomi gave us those swimsuits, and we all went swimming? Something like that." Souda's voice is quiet, but his voice has a positive chime to it. It kind of uplifts Hinata a little - and while none of them suppose for a second that he is completely innocent in what he's suggesting, what with two girls in the room, there is no disagreement./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Sonia twists in her chair to face him, nodding with a keen smile. "I think that is a nice idea, Kazuichi," she agrees, and Souda practically glows with pride./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"There is a creak from the other side of the table - Hinata turns his head. Fuyuhiko, who has been equally quiet this breakfast time, stands from the table and excuses himself audibly, padding out of the room. Despite the return of the missing half of his eyesight - when the avatars were uploaded into their current bodies, they all found the to be as undamaged as they were the day they fell asleep - he was growing quieter, more distant. Hinata didn't overlook the idea of it being his second loss of Peko (and everyone else, for that matter) for a moment. Things may be getting easier with every passing day, but Hinata knows it's as hard for the rest of them as it is for him. Losing the others once was a bad enough situation for a group of kids to be in, but in having the hope of them returning stashed as quickly as it had been a couple of weeks ago had been salt in their wounds./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Fuyuhiko still seem to be feeling the sting./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Y'know, Kazuichi, I think we can put the beach on hold for...just one more day, 'lright?" Akane's voice is uncharacteristically soft as she picks up her plate - cleanly polished, as ever - and begins piling all of the cutlery on top of it. Hinata just watches her slow movements, and then as Souda turns and moves away from the window. They talk quietly among themselves - Hinata doesn't know what about, little things, and though he can't tell what they're saying, the sound of their whispers is comforting. It's as if there was a point where they stopped being a group of friends stuck on an island together, and started being some sort of disjointed family faced with an awful tragedy. And though it's sad, though it's hard, they're all there for each other, and they'll make it through./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"That's exactly the kind of hope that Chiaki would encourage./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Hope is valuable. Sometimes it's all you have, and it's all you can rely on when you have nothing else. As Souda and Akane slip through the doors into the small kitchen, Hinata takes his leave, the door making next to no noise as he closes it behind him. The sky is a clear blue, and from the hotel he can smell the faintest hint of the salty ocean on the air. The Jabberwock Isles are beautiful, and they're safe, and they're away from the carnage of the Tragedy; even though their friends couldn't survive to see this, here the five of them stand in their stead, and that knowledge comes with a poignant kind of relief./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="font-style: oblique;"Yes, hope is valuable/span, Hinata reminds himself past the sour, stinging feeling at the back of his throat, past the tightness in his chest that rings with a distinct echo of Chiaki herself. His legs begin to drag him down the steps towards the hotel's outdoor pool. The surface glistens like a cut diamond in the sunlight, reflecting up onto the walls. span style="font-style: oblique;"If you have it, you have everything-/span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"-is what he thinks. And he thinks it with such confidence that he sees her smile in his head, as if it's whispered to him, almost manages to imagine her hand grasping his. Her breathing at his side, warmth, closeness, hope, hope, hope./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He carries on thinking like that. Onlookers might have commented on the smile that begins to appear on his lips as he clenches his fist as if holding another hand within his own - until he sees smoke rising from the central island./p
