Author's Note: This fic is a pre-despair AU that assumes the cast of SDR2 were all in the same class at Hope's Peak. The first fifteen chapters of this story are being posted all at once. This fic has been available on Archive of Our Own for almost a year, but I decided to post it here for people who do not frequent that website. The version posted here may be slightly different than the version there, as I sometimes go back to make minor edits and will not transfer the original author's notes from AO3. Line breaks are represented by a "..."

SPOILER WARNINGS for Hinata's talent, Chapter 5 investigation, and various free time events.

The first few chapters are pretty rough, but I hope you all enjoy!

...

Kazuichi Souda could not have been more excited – or terrified - to attend Hope's Peak.

Coming from a poor family with an abusive father, not to mention the bullies he dealt with daily, mechanics were all he had from a young age to cope with his situation. He'd never had any lasting friendships; all the other kids picked on him for his glasses or his teeth or his panic attacks or his sensitivity... but that was all going to change! All his work with machines had finally paid off, and now he had a new start at the most prestigious school in the nation. He'd even changed his look so no one could pick on him for his glasses or general dorkiness anymore. Besides, the people here would be more accepting, right?

Souda nervously looked up at the towering main building of the academy before taking a deep breath and walking in.

Once inside, he made his way to the faculty office using the map that was provided for him. A long line of new students waiting to talk to the headmaster was forming, so the mechanic scratched at his newly-dyed hair and sighed before taking his place in the back. In front of him were an average-looking boy with a spike of hair sticking straight out of his head and a small girl clutching a game console in her hands.

They look nice enough, Souda thought nervously. iBut they're talking, so maybe I shouldn't bother them...

His thoughts were interrupted as the short girl smiled at him. He grinned back before panicking and quickly making his face blank. Shitshitshit they saw my stupid teeth they're gonna think I'm a freak it's all over I'm never gonna make friends why did I even think I could try... He felt tears already building up in his eyes and struggled to keep them from spilling out; they would just hate him more if he started crying like some baby -

"Ah, are you okay?" the girl asked quietly.

"W-what?" Souda blinked a few times to dry his eyes and quickly slapped another smile on his face. "Yeah, yeah, I'm just, uh, a little... overwhelmed! This school is really big, y'know? Kinda confusing... I was never good with directions."

The other boy turned around and smiled. "Yeah, I understand. It seems really easy to get lost in here." He seemed a bit surprised upon taking in Souda's appearance, but he didn't say anything about it. "I'm Hajime Hinata, by the way. And this is..." He looked down at the girl; evidently he hadn't learned her name yet, either.

She stared off into space for a few awkward moments before saying, "...Chiaki Nanami."

Souda nodded. "The name's Kazuichi Souda! I'm a mechanic, probably one of the best there is!" Confidence, confidence, he reminded himself; all the popular people at his old school were always brimming with it to the point of being cocky.

His two classmates didn't seem fazed, at least. Hinata seemed to wait a moment for Nanami to state her talent before saying, "I'm just a reserve student... I got here through testing. You can probably tell what Nanami's talent is just by looking at her, right?" He smiled down at her, noticing that she had become enraptured in her game after withdrawing from the conversation.

"A gamer?" Souda blinked; it didn't seem like much of a talent, but insulting other people certainly wouldn't make any friends, so he grinned instead. "That's cool! And hey, Hinata, hard work can be just as good as talent, y'know? I only got where I am today because I've been workin' with machines since I was young!"

"O-oh, really?" Hinata said, looking a bit startled. He smiled back after a moment. "That's really nice of you to say, but it must be nice to have something that you specialize in... I'm not particularly good at anything."

"Nah, that can't be true!" Souda protested. "Y'must be really smart if ya took all those exams, right? I can never focus during those things."

"Well, I guess, but it's really not much compared to everyone else here... they're all so unique."

"Hinata," Nanami interjected. "Don't put yourself down. Everyone has something unique about them, and you're not an exception just because your talents aren't as obvious." Hinata looked at her, touched. "...That's what I think, at least."

He was about to reply, but Nanami was called into the office at that moment, so she waved to both of the boys and said that she'd see them later.

Souda noticed that Hinata couldn't keep himself from smiling.

"Ah, young love!" Souda swooned. "She must really like you, man; that was a nice little speech."

Hinata adjusted his tie and coughed. "N-no, you said something nice, too... I'm sure she was just going off that."

Souda winked. "Whatever you say."

...

That night, after an extensive tour of the campus, Souda made his way to his dorm room, exhausted. When he opened the door, it looked as though the other student sharing the room had already made himself comfortable; there was a banner of a pentagram hanging up on the wall, a huge metal cage for rodents with plastic tubes extending from it, a small pile of lettuce and other vegetables in the corner, and a stench of wood shavings that permeated the area.

Wow, I can't wait to meet this guy, Souda thought, dumping his bag on the floor. He could hear the shower running in the bathroom, so he at least had a few minutes to unpack before he met his lunatic roommate.

He had just finished setting up his stereo and was contemplating how he could get his cart of tools delivered to the school when the bathroom door opened to reveal the strangest man Souda would ever meet.

Though obviously not dressed in his everyday clothes, his bizarrely dyed hair and bandaged arm combined with his differently-colored eyes, one of which had a scar running through it, left an impression of danger. Souda immediately felt uneasy, though he couldn't say that his own appearance was much less intimidating.

"Yo," he ventured. "I'm Souda, and I guess we're roommates."

The other man stared at him for a moment before bursting into laughter that made Souda even more uncomfortable. "Ahahaha! Are you playing a joke of some sort, mortal? One cannot simply be the 'roommate' of Gundam Tanaka! Few, if any, are worthy to approach me, and those that wish to must pass an initiation! What sort of powers do you possess?"

"Uh... I fix stuff?"

"What type of 'stuff' do you speak of? Failed incantation circles? Demon summonings gone awry? Can you perform an exorcism?"

"N-no... I make and repair machines."

The man, apparently named Tanaka, laughed again. "Unworthy! You are unworthy to be in my presence, let alone share a dwelling with someone of my caliber! Leave immediately."

"But... this is the room I was assigned! The teachers on the tour said that every other room is taken!"

Tanaka's expression turned serious. "If you value your fleeting life on this planet, I suggest you find another room in which to reside. The poison running through my veins will kill you if you stay around my dark aura for much longer."

Half of Souda's mind suspected that this guy was full of crap and the other half wanted to jump out the window. "Didn't y'know that you'd be sharing a room when you got here?"

"Ha, of course I was aware of that! I simply expected that those with authority would choose someone more hardened from years of experience with the dark arts so as to gain a resistance to -"

"Hey, they chose me, okay? I don't think roomin' with you is gonna be that great either, but I'm too tired to talk to the headmaster right now. I'll do it tomorrow if it'll shut ya up."

Tanaka thought for a moment. "...Tch. Very well. I suppose one night may be tolerable, but..." his gaze flicked over to the cage against the wall, "...do not, under any circumstances, come into contact with the Four Dark Gods of Destruction. That is a decision you would soon regret."

"Don't touch... your hamsters? Sure, whatever." Souda went back to sorting through his things, leaving Tanaka sputtering on the other end of the room about treating his dark gods with such disrespect. He might've been dropped on his head as a baby or somethin', Souda mused, taking inventory of the scrap metal he had brought with him.

The rest of the evening went on largely without incident; Souda went to bed shortly after realizing he didn't actually need to unpack anything if he was hopefully going to switch rooms with someone the next day, and Tanaka was too preoccupied attending to his hamsters to say anything more.

...

Souda dragged himself into class the next day with bloodshot and baggy eyes. He looked around for a desk to collapse into and was surprised to see Hinata and Nanami talking near the windows, so he made his way over to them instead.

"Hey, guys," he said.

Hinata turned around and jumped back a little. "Woah, you don't look so good... did you get any sleep?"

"No. The goddamn hamster ran on its stupid squeaky wheel for hours." Souda tried to brighten up a bit. "But hey, I might be switching rooms today, so it's all good!"

"...Hamster?"

"Yeah, my roommate's fuckin' crazy... he kept talking about summoning demons and he owns hamsters that he calls gods or somethin'. M'gonna talk to the headmaster about it later."

"Mm, when I don't get enough rest, I tend to just fall asleep anywhere... that could help, maybe?" Nanami offered.

Souda grinned. "Yeah, I'll try that if class gets too boring!"

Hinata seemed a bit bewildered at the exchange but, before he could respond, he heard the classroom door open and looked over Souda's shoulder toward the noise. "Who the hell is that..?" he muttered to himself.

Souda and Nanami directed their gazes toward the door, and Souda screeched in surprise before whipping back around to face Hinata. "That's him! That's my roommate!" He turned around again, noticing the small heads poking out of Tanaka's muffler. The breeder walked over to a desk in the back corner of the room, sat down, and started petting one of the balls of fur. "...Seriously? He brought his hamsters into class?"

Hinata seemed as though he were about to say something, but at that moment, the most stunning girl - no, goddess - Souda had ever seen stepped into the room.

"Holy crap," he whispered. Everything about her was perfect: her large, inviting eyes, her long hair that billowed around her back like a cape, the small smile that never seemed to leave her lips... and her figure. Damn.

Souda had to go talk to her.

"I... I'll be right back," he muttered, walking over to the other end of the room. He attempted to compose himself before reaching the girl, but she noticed him approaching and smiled wider, which just made him flustered all over again.

"Good morning!" she said brightly.

"Hey, I'm Kazuichi Souda! What's your name, gorgeous?"

"I am called Sonia Nevermind, heir to the throne of Novoselic. I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Mister Souda!"

Souda's eyes widened. "A... a princess? Is that your talent?"

"Indeed! My mother and father have been raising me since birth to prepare for the day when I will rule the country." Her eyes brightened suddenly. "I'm hella excited to be here, though! I have always wanted to visit Japan and learn of its culture firsthand!"

"Ah, that's great! I hope you like it here." He wanted to say more, but the room had filled with students and class was about to start, so he took a seat and suffered through a lecture on the importance of hard work, trying his best not to doze off.

Even with such a beautiful girl in his class, school still really sucked.

The next few months progressed in a monotonous manner; Souda, following Nanami's advice, often fell asleep in class for a few moments every day before the teacher yelled at him. He caught glances at Sonia when he was awake, hung around Nanami and Hinata often, and generally studied very little. The headmaster had denied his request to room with another student, considering how full the school was and how the two roommates had never really fought or threatened each other's safety. Tanaka didn't seem terribly pleased to hear this, but Souda figured he'd learn to deal with it.

In the weeks leading up to winter break, the mechanic noticed a disturbing trend; Sonia had been hanging around Tanaka quite often, gazing adoringly at the hamsters he carried around at all hours of the day and chatting enthusiastically. She still seemed friendly around Souda himself, but he couldn't feel the connection that she seemed to have with his roommate. It was probably because he was always petting some cute animal, working in some of the facilities provided by the school and doing... breeder-y things. Whatever. Souda figured that if it wasn't for the furballs he was always carrying around, Sonia wouldn't even be interested in him.

And then Souda knew what he needed to do.

He needed to buy the goddamn cutest, fluffiest animal the world had ever seen.