Nagito's eyes were still shut. His condition worsened, he was as pale as the corpses Hajime investigated during the Killing School Trip, some of which Nagito himself caused. He was, as Byakuya, or... Makoto... somebody put it, a vegetable. Maybe it was Junko, which would be ironic. The woman, no... the thing Nagito hated most was who described his current state.

He wasn't the only one, of course, but he was one of many still stuck, dying. Hiyoko and Teruteru both 'woke up', and the Ultimate Animator, Ryota Mitarai, survivor of the Hope's Peak slaughter, was with them, having been a friend of some of theirs during their school days, particularly Mikan and the fake Byakuya, who he knew as 'Ryota Mitarai', apparently.

Still, though, Sonia, Akane, and Fuyuhiko made frequent trips to visit their friends, hoping they would wake up, knowing they probably wouldn't. Even Hiyoko would come occasionally, muttering apologizes to those she bad mouthed. Teruteru was usually not far behind, asking for forgiveness from Ryota, and apologizing to the impostors' lifeless figure.

Hajime himself made his usual trip to where his friends lay, a small hello to Hiyoko and a forced smile to Sonia being his only reactions to the rest. Other than those two, among the living he wasn't super close with the others, and at the moment, just didn't care enough to fix that. Ryota was practically a stranger, hell, he forgot the guy's talent and last name most of the time. Among the dead, he had a few closer... friends.

Mahiru Koizumi, the Ultimate Photographer. She was a bit rude, but her heart was bigger than Hajime ever thought possible. She was almost like family to him. Hajime never thought he'd ever regret something more than her death, but...

Chiaki Nanami, the Ultimate Gamer. She had her head in the clouds and didn't show much emotion, probably for good reason, considering she wasn't even real. Even if she wasn't, she made him feel real. She made Hajime feel that something, the something... only one other person made him feel...

Nagito Komaeda, the Ultimate Lucky Student. He was a psychopath. He justified his thinking and his actions with 'hope', while causing the deaths of the impostor, Teruteru, and Chiaki, and killing himself. Hajime, and everyone else, hated him with every fiber of their being, but despite that, Hajime also yearned to see him again, holding on to an empty hope that he actually just wanted the best for people. Everyone else would probably laugh it off, say it was just wishful thinking. Hajime felt compelled to agree, considering what he did, but still wanted to see him awaken anyway.

Despite what Toko, Yasuhiro, or anyone else from Future Foundation said he did while the world was plunged into Despair, Hajime still wanted him to wake up. Maybe it was out of boredom. Maybe it was because he thought Nagito was just hurting. Maybe he wanted to personally tear his heart out.

Hajime wasn't sure. He didn't even fully understand Nagito. He could piece some things together, but he couldn't paint the full picture. He never would be able to, at this rate. Hajime alone waking up was a miracle, let alone the other 4 survivors, plus Hiyoko and Teruteru a few days later.

Hajime arrived at the chamber. He wasn't sure what it was called. Kanon or whatever her name was probably told him at some point, but at the moment, he couldn't care enough to remember.

The remaining victims were all lined up. Some of them, like Mahiru or Nekomaru, had frequent visitors, others, like Mikan, were barely acknowledged. Peko probably wouldn't have anyone either, but Fuyuhiko came to see her often.

What Fuyuhiko or Akane or whoever did wasn't of any concern to Hajime's at the moment, he just wanted to see Nagito again, and perhaps pay Mahiru some respects as well.

But just his luck, the annoying idiot in the yellow jumpsuit was already doing just that.

Hajime walked past him, straight to Nagito. He could visit Mahiru another time.

Of course, he couldn't put what he wanted to say into words. This always happened, whether someone else who wasn't dying was in the room or not. The talent-less Hajime Hinata wasn't good with thinking or words, after all. He wasn't really good at anything, and Nagito certainly liked hammering that fact in whenever he got the chance.

Even if he could say anything, Nagito wouldn't hear him. His jumbled words of anger and hope and despair and lies would all be lost, like every other word that's been said in the chamber, directed at the corpses belonging to his former... Friends. Friends, enemies, peers, brethren in the killing harmony, whatever they were called.

Why was he even here? He had nothing to say to anybody, especially Nagito. Hajime stood up to leave, making a quick pace back towards the entrance. Things couldn't be that simple though, could they.

"Hey... Hajime..."

The unlucky sonuvabitch stuck talking to Kazuichi Soda slowly turned around. "What, Kazuichi?"

"... I... I'm sorry... About... Nagito."

Was he? Was he sorry that Nagito had died? Or was he sorry Hajime was sad about it? Was he even sad about it? He definitely cared, but... Was it sadness?

"No you aren't. You're just sad I am, and I don't even know if I am!"

"Then why the hell are you visiting the psycho instead of spending time with the people who are still alive?"

"Because he doesn't get any visitors, even if he is crazy... It'd..."

"Do you see Gundham getting many visitors?" Kazuichi shouted, he didn't have a lower volume button, sadly. "Sonia's barely comes in here anymore, taking up your place as the one trying to make sure we don't all go to shit!"

"...Chiaki's place."

"..."

There, he shut up. Hopefully that'll keep him quiet long enough to walk away. Hajime couldn't deal with this right now.

Nagito would probably be talking about how Hajime could never deal with anything or something. Hajime didn't know. Nagito worked in ways he could never understand no matter how much he wanted too.

"Hey! Wait!"

Dammit.

"What the hell happened to you, Hajime?"

"Finding out Chiaki isn't a real person, we all killed thousands of people, and also our friends are dying!"

Kazuichi did his usual groan, followed by "You haven't even acknowledged all of them since we left the game!"

The Impostor, Teruteru, Mahiru, Peko, Hiyoko, Mikan, Nekomaru, Gundham, Nagito, Chiaki. Who was he missing?

"..."

"..."

Seriously, who?

"Earth to Hajime! If you're gonna ignore me at least don't stand in the middle of the path, jackass!"

"Shut the hell up."

Kazuichi opened his mouth, then closed it again. He stood there, anger, then disappointment, flashing in his eyes, before looking down. "What the hell happened to us? Especially you. You weren't acting this way before."

What is he talking about? Well, its Kazuichi, so, probably nothing, but if it shuts him up... "What?"

"You were the only one who didn't go insane when we learned all of... That... And... We're all finally getting back to normal but you're going insane!"

"I'm the one who knew the psychopath and the AI!"

"We all knew them! Nagito screwed with us just as much he did you, and we all just wanted to believe he was the same person he pretended to be before he tried to kill us all! And Chiaki wasn't just there for you! Neither was Mahiru or anybody else! We all lost friends, we all lost people we cared about, we all saw people we trusted turn out to be bloody murderers! Nagito isn't any different from the rest of them, so just admit you care about him, because you're doing a pretty bad job lying to yourself about it?"

...

Why even deny it? This entire time, Hajime has just been coming up with excuses, poor ones, to justify wanting to see Nagito.

"Kazuichi?"

"What?"

He... Should probably make it up to Kazuichi. He did tell him to shut the hell up, after all.

"Since when did you get so smart all of a sudden?"

"What the hell's that supposed to mean!?"

"I was just joking, sheesh, Kazuichi."

People are weird. One minute, Hajime wanted to punch Kazuichi in the face, the next, they were running off to go play that arcade game.

Emotions are complicated, and putting them into words, even in his head, wasn't something Hajime could do well.

He'd be sure to ask for Nagito's input when he could, considering how good that bastard was as stringing together his ass-backwards ways of thinking into actual, captivating sentences.

But enough about that, Nagito was great and terrible and all, but now's the time to kick this lovable dumbass mechanic's butt at Vs. Ice Climber.