Disclaimer: I do not own Dangan Ronpa.
For Hinata, Christmas had never been that memorable. Well, it had never been memorable except for when Hope's Peak was involved.
In Hinata's earliest distinct memory of Christmas, he was seven years old. He had just finished unwrapping his presents from his parents and had turned towards the television, which had been showing a special Christmas performance. Onscreen, Hinata saw a wide variety of kids, though they seemed so much older at the time, dance and do magic tricks and perform all sorts of things that he had never seen before, or if he did, they had never been quite so amazing. After the program finished, a reporter made a small remark about how they were honored to have the students of Hope's Peak perform on their show. As the words registered in his mind, Hinata knew what he wanted in the future.
"Mom, dad, I want to go to Hope's Peak when I grow up," Hinata stated with a determination that was quite unusual for someone his age. His parents looked at each other and laughed.
"Well Hinata, you have to work hard if you want to got there. If you do, there is nothing stopping you," His mom replied gently. Though she might have only said that to appease him, Hinata had taken her words to heart. Throughout the rest of his elementary school years and all his years of junior high, Hinata always made sure to work hard at everything he did, but no matter what he tried, there always seemed to be people that were better than him.
By the Christmas of his final year in junior high, Hinata had realized for a long time that he was simply nothing more than average, though he still couldn't accept it. That Christmas was especially depressing since it was becoming blatantly obvious that no matter how hard Hinata tried, he would not be getting an acceptance letter from Hope's Peak when the time came.
His parents tried to make up for it by buying him more presents than usual, but he could not bring himself to feel happy. After all, Hope's Peak was his dream.
Hinata turned on the television as a last ditch effort to try to take his mind off of the future. Even with that goal in mind, he continued to think about what he should have done in the past to change his fate, and he couldn't really focus on what the television was saying until he heard the two words that mattered most to him, Hope's Peak.
He quickly tuned in and listened as they announced a new reserve course that ordinary students could get into by paying a ginormous amount of money and taking an exam. After each word the announcer said, Hinata could feel hope slowly return to him. He knew that if the competition were only ordinary students, he would be able to beat them. He would be able to go to Hope's Peak. Though it was only the reserve course, Hinata was sure that he would be able to somehow transfer into the main branch once he got to the school.
"Dad, mom, I have to go to the Hope's Peak reserve course."
His parents glanced at each other briefly before his dad cautiously replied, "We don't know… it is very expensive."
"Please!" Hinata begged. He needed them to understand that he had to go to Hope's Peak.
His parents shared another long look before his mom finally replied, "We'll see. It depends on how you do on your entrance exams. If you can do it, we'll support you"
Hinata studied endlessly for the exam, and when the time came, he managed to make the cutoff. Soon he was celebrating his first Christmas at Hope's Peak.
By some miracle, he had managed to befriend the super high school levels of his year, so instead of celebrating with the other reserve course members of his year, he was participating in a Secret Santa gift exchange that Sonia had to come up with and everyone eventually agreed to participate in.
"Ibuki thanks you for your wonderful gift! She shall hold a concert with her new guitar to honor this moment!" Ibuki exclaimed after Hinata gave her his present to her, a new electric guitar.
"I don't think that's a good idea…"
"Yes! You're right! This present has made Ibuki excited, so now she's hungry and has to eat! Why is Ibuki always hungry when she is excited?!" Ibuki shouted before she dashed to the snack table.
"Well she's as excitable as always, right Hinata-kun," a familiar voice said out of nowhere.
"Gah! What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to give you your present. My talent pulled through and I ended up with the ordinary person who I can relate to rather than a symbol of hope who I would not have been able to think of a present for," Komaeda answered with a smile.
"Shut up!" Hinata shouted angrily. This only caused Komaeda's smile to widen.
Hinata hated being around Komaeda. He always spouted nonsense about how the other super high school levels were symbols of hope. Not to mention, Komaeda made it a point to talk about how Hinata was average and not like the others. Boring. Part of Hinata still sometimes thought about how he had been friends with Komaeda. Komaeda had been his first friend at Hope's Peak. Hinata had thought that Komaeda was one of the normal ones until Komaeda finally started openly displaying how he thought the others were superior to the two of them. Komaeda still seemed to think that they were friends, and sometimes, Hinata would wish that they could be friends again, but then Komaeda would say or do something that reminded Hinata that Hinata was ordinary.
"Here, seeing all of these symbols of hope should guaranteed that you stay hopeful," Komaeda explained with a giant smile as he finally handed over the gift.
Hinata waited for Komaeda to leave before he unwrapped the gift. Inside was an album filled with pictures of the group through out the semester. The quality of the pictures was so great that Komaeda had to have gotten them from Mahiru. They showed a multitude of scenes, however, Hinata was not in many of them because they showed scenes from the classes of the main branch. Classes that Hinata, a reserve student, was not in. Though the present was supposed to bring hope, Hinata could not feel anything but despair. This present was a horrible reminder that he was different. Unexceptional.
"Next year," Hinata mumbled to himself, "Next year I will get in to the main branch."
Hinata failed at that, and by Christmas of the next year, Hinata was desperate. He paced the halls of Hope's Peak alone because he couldn't bring himself to look at all of his talented friends.
"Hajime-san!" Hinata looked up to see someone walking towards him. He recognized him as a teacher from the main branch and could not help but feel surprised that someone from the main branch knew his name.
"Yes sensei?"
"Hajime-san, how would you like to participate in a project?" The teacher asks with a strange gleam in his eyes. It made him feel uncomfortable, but he felt that participating in a project conducted by a main branch teacher could be exactly what he needed.
"What type of project?" Hinata asked cautiously. He was not stupid enough to not get some sort of information about it first.
"A project to transform you into the most talented person in history. If you are interested, I can explain to you the details."
Before the teacher was even finished talking, Hinata had made up his mind. He would participate in this project even if it meant giving up everything.
Hinata no longer existed at the time of the next Christmas, and the world was not able to celebrate the next several Christmases to come.
Now it is Christmas again, and Hinata is anxiously urging Souda to hurry up. He does not know whether their creation will even work, but he needs to try.
"Done!" Souda proclaims with a satisfied smile on his face. Everyone starts to gather around, but Hinata is the one closest to the screen. There was an unspoken agreement that he would be the first to speak.
For a second, nothing happens, and Hinata feels like he is about to scream. The screen flickers, and when it clears, the sleeping face of Chiaki Nanami appears.
"N-nanami?" Hinata asks slowly. He is terrified that this is just a hallucination of some sort, and he'll wake up to find that Nanami still has not been recovered from the game, and Souda's machine failed.
"Hinata-kun?" Confusion colors Nanami's voice as she glances around.
"Merry Christmas," Hinata manages to say before everyone else around them butts in and starts to excitedly speak to Nanami. Though he's a little irritated, Hinata does not really mind having their conversation cut short. After all, now they had all the time in the world to talk, and he knew that he would be able to celebrate next Christmas and every Christmas after with everyone.