A/N: Written for EvilMuffins for Fandom Growth Exchange 2017.

For clarity's sake:
-dialogue in [brackets] is Hajime;
-dialogue in italics is Chiaki;
-and dialogue in bold is Izuru.

Darkness.

Nothingness surrounded him. More than that, he too was nothing... he had no body, no senses. His consciousness was floating in limbo, cut off from any possible stimuli... except one. Her voice. Well, not voice exactly; he didn't hear her speak words aloud, but rather, he "heard" her thoughts.

The third game really improved when it came to a lot of the minigames, she was saying. Except for the rhythm game... that one just got more annoying instead of less. Hey... are you listening?

[Of course I am!] Hajime hurried to answer. [I just get distracted sometimes... I can't seem to get used to closing myself off from my body entirely. I don't know how you do it so easily...]

Hmm, Chiaki thought back. Maybe it's because... at the end of the day, the body is yours, isn't it? So it's easier for me... because I don't feel like I should be in it... maybe?

[That could be it...]

If you need to, you can ask Izuru to finish up what he's doing so you can come back out...?

[No, I'm okay. I'm sure he won't take too much longer. What were you saying about the third game in the series?]

Hajime did his best to listen as Chiaki continued to ramble on, but he found his mind wandering again, this time to how they had ended up like this in the first place, nearly a year ago now.

Waking up from the Neo World Program had been... an experience.

He woke up lying flat on his back, in a fairly small space - a coffin, he first thought, when he reached up and found a "ceiling" only a few inches above his head. It didn't take Hajime long to realize that he must be back in the real world, that the simulation had shut down. He must be inside a pod of some sort, to maintain his sleeping body during his time in the simulation. But there were thoughts of confusion still echoing in his head... and some of those thoughts weren't his own.

Where am I? How is asking that even possible? Shouldn't I be dead... deleted? What's happening?

And from somewhere else, another thought emerged:

Well. This is interesting.

His throat tightened. [What the hell is going on?] he thought.

Ah - is someone else there?

[I - I guess so? Where are you?] Who was speaking? How could he hear... her?

I don't know... I'm lying down... I think?

His heart skipped a beat as memories jolted back into place. [Nanami? Is that you?]

Yes, that's me. I just don't understand... how do I still exist? She paused. And how can you hear me? I'm not even talking...

Indeed. I certainly did not predict this.

There it was again... a voice that sounded like his, but that he definitely had not thought. Who was the owner of this voice? And if the other voice was Nanami... then how was that even possible? Had she managed to avoid deletion? Based on her own confused thoughts, she was as clueless as he was. Hajime turned over the matter in his head again and again, looking for an explanation, before the other voice cut in again.

Enough of this.

And Hajime felt his hands moving without his direction, to the sides of the pod. It was a bizarre sensation, feeling his hands move without his knowing what they were doing. He had the brief thought that he should be panicking about this, but that thought was buried beneath sheer shock and confusion.

His hands closed around handles, twisted, and pulled. And the "ceiling" above him began to lift up and out of sight, revealing the larger room he was lying in. His hands then returned to his sides and stilled.

There.

That - that was - what? I still don't understand...

Try looking in a mirror.

Hajime slowly sat up, noticing as he did so something shifting behind him. He reached a hand behind his back and found a mass of black hair.

"Ah, Hinata! You're awake!"

Hajime looked up at the speaker, who he dimly recognized as Makoto Naegi. One of the voices in his head gasped.

Did he just say Hinata?!

Indeed.

"How are you feeling?" said Naegi.

"Uhhh..." Hajime hesitated. He wasn't even sure he knew how to describe it, let alone what to say. "I'm not sure... there's something..." Wrong was what belonged in that blank, but he hesitated to say it.

Then his mouth closed of its own accord. His hands, which had been twisting the fabric of his jacket, stilled. He felt himself sitting up straight, the tension in his face falling away. Then his body spoke.

"In the interest of expediency, I will explain," said his mouth. He vaguely registered Naegi's expression twisting into alarm. "During the shutdown, the memories belonging to 'me' - Izuru Kamukura - became available again. As those memories are completely distinct from those of Hajime Hinata's, we perceive ourselves as distinct beings, operating the same body. This I predicted as a possible outcome. What I did not predict is that alongside Kamukura's memories, and Hinata's memories, another set of memories is also now located here... those of the AI Chiaki Nanami."

Oh.

The presence - Kamukura - left his limbs, and Hajime felt himself in control again.

Understand now? said the voice. Kamukura's voice.

Yes... I think.

Hajime was dragged out of his recollections when Izuru "spoke", interrupting Chiaki's ramblings.

You both can come out now, he thought to them. It's ready.

Gratefully, Hajime reached out for his body and, with some effort, opened up awareness of his senses. Feeling rushed back, and for a moment the sensory input was overwhelming, when before he'd had none. Gradually, as he acclimated, he found himself newly able to make sense of everything. He still wasn't in control of his body - but even just being able to see and hear and feel was preferable to the nothingness.

He was standing in front his bathroom mirror. On the counter were a pair of hair clippers, which was not unusual; thanks to his hair growing faster than normal, haircuts were fairly regular, especially when he wanted to keep his hair short.

His gaze was dragged up to the mirror, and his breath would have caught if he was the one controlling his lungs. Instead of cropping his hair short, as Hajime usually did, or letting it grow long, as Izuru tended to do, Izuru had cut it to fall around his shoulders, in a style closely mimicking Chiaki's. In fact, it matched Chiaki's hairstyle near-perfectly, down to the bangs and the locks of hair curving down around her face. The only difference was the hair color... and his ahoge, which remained stubbornly present.

Chiaki gasped. This is amazing, Izuru!

There's more.

Hajime felt his body turn and walk into the bedroom. Having his body move under someone else's power would never stop feeling unsettling, but he tried not to let it bother him too much. After all, Izuru and Chiaki had to deal with it much more than he did. And it was better than the occasions where two (or worse, three) of them tried to control his body at once. Those usually ended up with him walking into a wall, or shoving a forkful of food into his mouth when he was trying to talk, or accidentally stepping into the pool.

Souda had had a good laugh at that last one.

Izuru steered his body to the bed. Laid out on the bed was an outfit: white button-down shirt, pale pink skirt, dark blue leggings... and a familiar dark blue hoodie, complete with cat ears on the hood.

Is this what you've been working on all those times you asked for privacy?

Izuru nodded. You deserve to feel comfortable in this skin... as much as that is possible, anyways.

Thank you, Izuru... that means a lot to me.

You should thank Hajime as well... he offered to keep you company while I worked on this.

Thank you, Hajime!

[It was nothing.]

Don't say that... weren't we just talking about how you don't like closing yourself off from your body? So... thank you.

[Well, I couldn't leave you alone while Izuru prepared this. So, you're welcome.]

Hajime felt a shifting as Izuru yielded control of his body to Chiaki. She reached for the clothes on the bed, then hesitated. Are you sure this is alright, Hajime?

[I'm sure.] Wearing a skirt was hardly the end of the world... and besides, his body... wasn't just his anymore, was it?

She nodded with a smile and dressed carefully.

There is one more thing. Look in your right jacket pocket.

Hajime metaphorically held his breath as Chiaki reached into the pocket and drew out a Gala Omega hair pin, previously owned by the living Chiaki Nanami.

This is...!

Hajime thought you might like it.

[To complete the outfit, you know?]

Chiaki stared at the hair clip for a long moment. Hajime thought he knew why.

[You're not a replacement for her,] he thought quietly. [You're your own person. I just thought... since Izuru already had it and all...]

I understand... I think. Thank you.

She reached up and clipped the hair clip into place and turned to examine their body in the mirror once more. They looked... well, they looked as if Hajime was trying to cosplay as Nanami, only he hadn't gone through with dyeing his hair. It was honestly some very impressive work on Izuru's part. He knew Izuru didn't consider it so, on account of nothing being impressive when accomplished by the Ultimate Everything - merely expected.

Hold on.

[Hey, Izuru?] he thought. [Is there such a talent as the Ultimate Cosplayer?]

Not in the history of Hope's Peak students so far. But it would be a plausible talent.

Hajime grinned internally at that thought: Izuru Kamukura, Ultimate Cosplayer. Then he mentally nudged Chiaki. [Ready to go?]

Chiaki smiled. Yes, I think so.

She stepped out into the hallway and made her way to the mess. The floor shifted slightly as she walked, but at this point they were all used to it. It was something to be expected from boats, after all.

When Chiaki entered the mess, Sonia was the first to turn and notice. "Oh my gosh!" she gasped. "Chiaki! You look fantastic!"

"Oh, so that's why Hinata's been sewing so much recently, huh?" Souda asked. "Or... Kamukura? Uh. Either way, great job!"

"Izuru says thank you," Chiaki said.

Izuru silently scoffed.

Hush, Chiaki thought. He was complimenting your work... there's no need to be rude.

False pleasantries are boring. But it's no matter; do not let me distract you.

"Quite accurate," Pekoyama was saying.

"Eh? What's all this?" Hanamura bustled out of the kitchen and came to an abrupt halt. "O-oh... This is..."

Hajime felt his eyes narrowing in a glare; for once, even he could not have said whether it was him or Izuru who had briefly taken control.

"Ah! That's... very impressive handiwork! I'll just go finish the... uh... the steak, shall I?" He hurried back into the kitchen without a backwards glance.

[Good,] Hajime couldn't help but think.

Chiaki rolled her eyes. Just ignore him, she admonished. She took a seat at one of the back tables, next to Pekoyama and Kuzuryuu and across from Mitarai and the Impostor.

Mitarai smiled shyly; Impostor looked at them with an unreadable expression, before shaking their head and chuckling. "Sometimes I forget about your talents," they said. "But this... It wouldn't take much more effort to fully utilize your Ultimate Impostor talent, so that your body would resemble Nanami in every way."

"Mmm... probably not," Chiaki agreed. "But I think I like it better this way, you know?" She reached a hand up and fiddled with their ahoge.

[Did you leave it that way on purpose?] Hajime asked Izuru. [Or did you try and fail to make it behave?]

The only way to make it behave is to grow it out or cut it off completely... but I judged that leaving it as it is would be well-received, Izuru replied.

[Well, I think you were right about that.]

Chiaki smiled.

More and more people wandered into the mess, all of whom made sure to offer their compliments. Komaeda was a full three minutes into a speech on the hope that Hinata, Kamukura, and especially Nanami were bringing their class, when the kitchen door burst open again.

"Give it a rest, will ya?" Hanamura barked, interrupting Komaeda's speech (to everyone else's relief.) "It's time for the main event!"

"Hmm?" Chiaki turned around and gasped. Hanamura was presenting a cake in the shape of a Gala Omega ship. On the cake, icing carefully spelled out:

Happy Birthday, Chiaki!

"I didn't even realize..." Her brow furrowed. Silently, she asked Hajime and Izuru: Wait, I thought my birthday was supposed to be March 14th?

That was indeed the birthday of the other Chiaki Nanami, Izuru confirmed.

Then…?

Hajime followed with, [But... you were instantiated when we all got put into the Neo World Program, right? Today is a year from that day. So I thought that today fit better as your birthday.]

Oh! A wide smile broke out across her face. I didn't even think of that. Thank you... both of you. If only I could kiss you right now...

The wish is mutual.

[Yeah, definitely,] Hajime agreed. [But... instead of focusing on what we can't do... why don't we enjoy what we can?]

Chiaki smiled. I understand. Aloud, she said, "Thank you... thank all of you!"

"'Twas nothing!" Hanamura said, setting the cake down in front of her.

"Anything for our class's hope," added Komaeda.

"All right! Now we can get this party started!" Souda cheered.

"And eat some CAKE!" yelled Owari.

"Should we not sing 'Happy Birthday' first?" Sonia asked.

As her classmates broke out into a cacophonous rendition of "Happy Birthday," Chiaki closed her eyes and smiled, basking in warmth.

[Do you want to make a birthday wish?] Hajime asked.

That's not necessary... I already have everything I want.

Hajime and Izuru smiled.