Disclaimer: I do not own Dangan Ronpa or any of it's characters.
The Path to Hope.
Hajime rubbed his eyes tiredly as he made yet another round the transparent capsules holding his comatose fellow students, for lack of a more accurate term.
Yet again, Hajime saw only the pale, lifeless, mutilated forms of the Ultimates. He'd physically vomited, the first time that he had seen his friends as they really were; scars, wounds that had not really healed, body parts that had clearly been hacked off, and replaced with parts from Junko's body. He'd known that the Ultimates appearances would differ from those of which he had become so accustomed, and the final trial against Junko had warned Hajime that he'd see things that he'd rather not see, but there was a stark difference between remote knowledge, and seeing the condition of his friends with his own eyes.
Hajime reached the end capsule, the one holding Hiyoko, thankfully almost completely covered by a kimono, before slowly turning around, and starting his patrol in the opposite direction.
In theory, the idea was that all the comatose students would be watched twenty-four hours a day, in the event that a miracle occurred, and any of them woke. The five students that had "survived" the mutual killing game on Jabberwock Island would take it in turns to watch over all the students.
In theory.
In truth, Sonia, Akane and Fuyuhiko had the best of intentions, but their watches tended to focus a little too closely on those they had held deepest in their hearts during their time on the island, Gundham, Nekomara and Peko respectively. All of them were aware of the danger; although all five of them dreamed of a happy reunion if and when any of the comatose students awoke, in reality; there was every possibility that any of the sleeping students would become violent if they did awaken, with their memories of their time as the Ultimate Despair returned.
As a result, Hajime had found himself spending more and more time watching the sleeping students. He didn't begrudge doing the task at all, but hours after hours spent watching the pale, lifeless faces of the people that he would have called friends sapped his energy, leaving him feeling depressed, drained and exhausted.
Strangely, the one person that Hajime had come to count on was Kazuichi. During the mutual killing game, Hajime would have laughed at himself if he had ever thought he could rely on Kazuichi, as short-tempered yet flighty as he was. After they had escaped the game though, Kazuichi had changed, becoming more stable and serious.
One of the first things Kazuichi had done upon their escape was create the non lethal taser guns that could be used if any awakened student did become violent, relentlessly drilling the other four in the use of the guns. When Sonia had tried to voice a protest, Kazuichi explained in a deadened tone, his face expressionless, that he had had a lot of experience in both taser and machine guns, back from when he used torture and kill people in the streets for no other reason that they had happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, because that was simply his preferred method of spreading despair in Junko's memory, as a member of the Ultimate Despair. To that, Sonia had no retort, and she hadn't said another word on the subject since.
Kazuichi was the only one that Hajime could trust to watch the sleeping students properly, and Hajime knew that Kazuichi would replace him any time, with no complaints if Hajime asked, but the fact was that Hajime preferred his state of physical and mental exhaustion to sleeping.
It didn't happen every time, but it happened enough that Hajime had started to feel like his mind was just waiting for him to close his eyes, to fall into even the lightest of slumbers, so it could bring back those memories that Hajime tried so hard to keep sealed away when he was awake...
The metallic smell of blood was so strong that it stuck in the back of throat, and brought tears to the eyes. Screams so loud that they hurt the ears echoed off the walls, screams of pain, screams for mercy, screams for forgiveness.
Izuru stood watching in the shadows as a Hope's Peak student ran, tears streaming down their face towards a nearby door. With the strength borne only from sheer panic, the student tugged and struck out at the door to no avail. The student leans against the door, gasping for breath through their tears. There is some movement, blocked by the student, Izuru can't see exactly what happened, but the student lets out a scream of agony, and stumbles backwards from the door, hands covering their face, blood spurting from between the fingers.
The student's scream has attracted the attention of another student. The second student creeps along, a blood stained meat cleaver in their hands.
"Forgive me...forgive me! I don't want to be killed! Please, forgive me!" The second student speaks even as they raise the meat cleaver, and bury it in the head of the first student, whom collapses immediately, blood and bone leaking onto the carpet.
The second student pulls the meat cleaver free, and stands there, staring at the body of the first student.
Izuru is bored. He doesn't care about the pain these worthless people are going through. His only interest is the acquisition of new talents. He knows he won't get that here. He doesn't care about the situation around him, save for his irritation at the presumption of Junko Enoshima. Izuru knows that Junko threw him into this exercise in tedium to further her own plans. That Junko thought to use someone so beloved by talent as Izuru in her ridiculous little plan...
The heaving sounds of the second student's sobs begin to grate on Izuru. Holding the knife he had acquired at the start of this farce, he silently moves forwards, and effortlessly slits the throat of the second student.
Every time Hajime woke from that dream, he always felt like he was drowning in blood; even though he knew it was only his imagination, he found himself gagging on the scent of blood, while he felt as though his body was being covered in a sheet of warm, sticky blood. No amount of washing helped remove that feeling, those stains of blood would never be cleaned.
Hajime hated to admit it, even to himself, but even more than his cold-blooded killing of the student, he was most bothered by the complete lack of emotion Izuru had felt. No sadness, no anger, no terror, no horror. Only boredom, laced with irritation. Hajime remembered being taught an English phrase once - "Apathy is the greatest evil." How could he, no matter what had been done to him, just have stood by and do nothing while people had suffered?
Hajime realised he was standing by Nagito's capsule.
I...never understood why you always said we were alike. Even before I realised what type of person you really were, I didn't think we were that alike. Now, I see how similar we were.
When Hajime had entered the Neo World Program, all he remembered was that he had always wanted to enrol at Hope's Peak, so that he could stand tall, and make a bright future for himself. He didn't remember the way he used to inwardly rage, knowing that it was an impossible dream, that he was unremarkable in every way, that he'd done everything but blackmail his parents into paying the extortionate fees to enrol him at Hope's Peak Academy Prep school, even though Hajime was already aware that the Prep school was just a scam to raise money for the main Hope's Peak Academy.
Hajime's desire was so strong, he'd only been in the Prep school for less than six months, when he'd been taken aside by Jin Kirigiri, the Headmaster. Hajime could now clearly recall his excitement, Jin never came to the Prep campus. Jin had spoken kindly, but firmly to Hajime, telling him that Jin had noticed Hajime's fascination with the Main Academy, but Hajime simply lacked the required talent to become an Ultimate. Jin had calmly continued that even despite Hajime's lack of talent, there was still a possible way that Hajime could be admitted to the Main Academy, but it was...dangerous.
Hajime, almost feverish at the idea of reaching his life-time dream had demanded more information. Jin explained that the Main Academy had been researching talent for years, and finally, they were ready to move to human experimentation, to finally attempt to achieve one of Hope's Peak greatest goals, to create a human with all the talents of all the Ultimates that had passed through Hope's Peak.
The creation of Ultimate Hope.
Out of all the students in the Prep campus, Hajime had been selected as the best candidate for the experiment.
Hajime had been awestruck. Jin leant forward, and spoke in a friendly, confidential tone, telling Hajime that the experiment was dangerous, that it would involve an operation on the brain, and imploring Hajime to carefully think it through for a few days before he decided, and that Jin would understand if Hajime decided against it.
Hajime listened respectfully, but as soon as Jin had finished speaking, Hajime had demanded that he be allowed to undergo the experiment. Jin had sighed, and repeated his warnings, but Hajime was insistent. Jin didn't try to argue the point any further, he just gave Hajime the date and time of when the experiment was to take place, before standing up, and shaking Hajime's hand, congratulating Hajime on his entrance to the Main Academy, with a smile that did not touch Jin's sad eyes.
Hajime hadn't felt any fear; only determination. Even as he entered the room where the experiment was to take place, and he lay on the table, watching as a masked man stood over him with a syringe filled with aesthetic.
That was the day that worthless Prep Student Hajime Hinata died, and the day that Ultimate Hope, Izuru Kamakura was born.
Jin had not quite been entirely honest, Izuru was admitted to the Main Academy, but he was not permitted to study with his peers, he was kept isolated, subject to constant surveillance by the teachers of the Main Academy. Hajime might have felt let down by this, he wasn't a social butterfly, but he wasn't a solitary type either. Izuru simply didn't care. Everything except for the desire to acquire further talent, and his boredom at being forced to live in sure a dull world had been buried deep inside Izuru, along with Hajime.
When the first mutual killing game occurred, the blame for the murders of the council members fell entirely upon Izuru. It wasn't true, he had only killed one of them, the others had killed each other, and it was Junko that was responsible for putting them all in that situation to begin with, but Izuru simply didn't care to defend himself. In any case, Hope's Peak Academy decided to cover up the incident to protect their Ultimate Hope, and Izuru was hidden away.
It was in his hiding place that he had been picked up by the Future Foundation. With his talents Izuru could have escaped them, even though the Ultimate Detective was with them, but he had no reason to, and therefore had allowed them to capture him. While he was in captivity, he found out about the Neo World Program. A simulation designed to allow the remaining members of Ultimate Despair, and Izuru Kamakura, to be reformed into the people they were before entering Hope's Peak Academy.
Izuru would have dismissed the idea of the Neo World Program as boring, except for the fact that it would provide him with the perfect opportunity to get his revenge on Junko for her presumption. Junko had told him, before she dropped him into the killing game that she had created an AI version of herself, since she was aware enough that with her personality, and plots to create and spread despair, that she would probably be killed sooner or later herself.
Izuru had acquired Junko's AI program after she had executed herself. He knew that Junko had planned for this; that was the reason she had told Izuru about the existence of her AI program. Izuru could have simply destroyed the program, his talents encompassed computer programming, but that wasn't enough. He wanted her to feel the despair she loved so much as her plans fell apart around her. To do that, Izuru would need to sneak Junko into the Neo World Program, allow her to infiltrate it, and then he would completely destroy her. This plan would have two benefits; he would have his revenge on Junko for using him, and he would teach the Future Foundation not to repeat Junko's mistake.
The only hitch in Izuru's plans was that even he wouldn't be able to escape the memory wipe he would have to undergo to enter the program – he would revert to Hajime. Izuru had considered that problem, then discounted it. He may revert to his original personality, but Izuru's talents would still be there, even if Hajime was unaware of them. The thought that Izuru would be exposing the remnants of despair to danger when Junko infiltrated the program didn't even cross his mind.
I caused all of this.
Hajime continued his patrol, his steps heavy, as his gaze fell on each of the sleeping students in turn. He can feel his lids start to fall...
"Hey, you need to sleep," Kazuichi said, behind Hajime. "I'll take over."
I know he's right. I gotta sleep, but I really, really don't want to.
Hajime met Kazuichi's eyes. Behind that grim, haunted gaze, Hajime can see that Kazuichi fully understands Hajime's feelings, and from the shadows beneath Kazuichi's eyes, Hajime can tell that he's not the only one trying to avoid sleeping.
An electronic beeping starts up breaking the silence. Sluggish with tiredness, Hajime starts trying to locate the cause of the noise. Kazuichi is more alert, he swiftly steps in front of Hajime, drawing his taser, to point it directly at one of the pods, where the door was slowly beginning to rise...