(AN: This is a little one-shot that I came up with, might be a little Americanized, though. This is just a sweet conversation between 7 or 8 year old Hajime Hinata and his mother. This contains spoilers for SDR2. Enjoy!)

Hajime was sitting at a park bench table, taking a huge gulp of water, wiping the sweat off his face. He and some kids in the neighborhood had just finished a quick soccer game, and their moms had brought lunch and drinks. Hajime turned to his mother, who was sitting beside him, and asked a simple question. "What does 'talent' mean?"

"Where did you hear that from, Hajime? And don't forget to drink the rest of your water, alright?" She smiled, looking at her son. Of course she was biased but he was a handsome boy, if only that one hair would stay down…

"Okay, Mom." Hajime answered, "But I heard Mrs. Yamamoto and some of the other moms say something like 'Kudou's really talented, I bet he could play professionally when he grows up.' And then Sayomi's mom said 'well, he comes from a successful family so what do you expect?' but then they started talking about something else, so I stopped paying attention. Did you bring any kusamochi?" He rummaged through his mother's shopping bag and to his disappointment, found sakuramochi. "Aww… bleh…"

"Come now, it's your father's favorite. Anyway, talent means that you're really good at something."

"So that means big kids have more 'talent', right?"

"No, it doesn't exactly work that way. Talent is more of the amount of skill you have, does that make sense?"

"So, does that mean if I practice really hard, I can be 'talented' too?" Hajime's mother hesitated when he asked this. She knew deep down that Hajime wasn't particularly talented, physically or academically, but he worked hard, and had a good head and heart, and that was all a mother could ask for. She wasn't sure what to say to those big, innocent, green eyes.

"Talent isn't really the thing, the thing is that you work hard and do your best, okay?"

"Okay, Mom." Hajime then took another drink of water, and the water turned an alarming shade of red, and something white was in it. Hajime fished out the white thing from the cup and held it out triumphantly. "Look Mom! I lost a tooth!"

"Yes, you did, Hajime. Let's see, a bottom tooth. Here, let me have it. We don't want you to lose it, ok? You are growing up so fast." After taking the tooth from her son's tight grasp, she pulled him into a tight hug, never wanting to let him go.

*'**"***"**'*

Hinata's mother gazed around the city, which was nothing but rubble. All the death and destruction bothered her, of course, but what really brought her despair were the Reserve Course suicides. She couldn't believe her son would do that to himself, and a corpse was never found. It was a small, impossible hope, but it was what kept her going after her husband was killed in one of the countless riots. But what gave her even more hope was the sudden end of the killing game that had taken place inside of Hope's Peak. If the tapes were true, then the true mastermind behind all of this was dead, and Hope's Peak was no longer guarded and free for her to investigate whatever that remained. She had only been walking for two hours since the broadcast, when her hopes were brutally cut short. The roar of a machine was the last thing she heard before at least ten bullets entered her body, leaving only one breath left of her life, her dying wish escaping her lips. "H-hajime…" Her eyes looked up, and spotted a dark figure with red eyes on top of a nearby building before finally closing.

Souda adjusted his beanie, glanced at his latest victim, and wiped some tears from his eyes. Whether they were tears of joy or sadness, he couldn't tell. The despair that his own machines killed Junko left him with a feeling of accomplishment, and emptiness. So he continued on his rampage, cursing those that lived, while Junko didn't.

(AN: Hope you enjoyed! Or is it despair…? But yeah, my head canon is that Souda kills Hinata's mom on the day of Junko's death and that one of the girls murdered his father during a raid to try to rescue the DR1 kids. And that Kamukura witnessed both of their deaths. Ouch.)