A/N: This story will have six chapters in total. I can tell you in advance that I won't be able to update regularly, so please bear with me. It may just be six chapters, but they're all over 10k words. Also, there have been some changes to the canon timeline to make things work. The students of class 77-B are in their third year.

I hope you'll enjoy the story!

Last edited: October 27, 2017.

A boy with long, dark hair was quietly sitting on his bed. His back was leaning against the wall behind him and one of his legs dangled off the side of the bed. His curtains were almost fully drawn, blocking most of the daylight out. His room was enfolded in darkness.

From just outside his window, he could hear voices of students who were on their way to class. His sharp ears were able to pick up every word of their conversations, and he passively listened to them, unimpressed by their meaningless banter and inside jokes.

They were dull.

Izuru Kamukura could think of no good reason to go to class, and so he had chosen to remain in his room, doing the same thing he had done over and over again for months.

He woke up and waited for the day to pass.

It was no more dull than attending class.

A knock sounded on his door.

"Izuru? It's Miss Yukizome. Are you in there?"

Izuru didn't answer. He remained still on his bed, waiting for his homeroom teacher to give up and leave.

"Are you dressed?" Chisa Yukizome asked strangely cheerful, "Answer me if you aren't. I wouldn't want to walk in on my new student!"

Izuru blinked when he realized that his new teacher had already decided to enter his room, whether or not he gave her an answer. He still kept quiet and was not surprised when he began hearing tinkering sounds from his locked door. A few moments later his door opened. His eyes didn't need any time to adjust to the light from the hallway, and he could clearly make out the form of his new teacher strolling into his room.

Chisa Yukizome did need a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the dark, and when she spotted Izuru, she smiled widely at him.

"Good morning, Izuru! What are you still doing here? You're missing your first day of school!" She glanced around his room with a frown on her face. "Why is it so dark in here?"

She walked towards his window and pulled back the curtains. His window revealed a cloudless blue sky, and his teacher even took the liberty of opening up his window, so that he felt a light breeze.

"That's better," Yukizome said, peeking her head just outside the window for a moment and then looking back at him with the same unwavering smile on her face.

"This is forced entry," Izuru said.

"I just opened up your window."

"You broke the lock on my door."

"Oh, that. I'll fix it in a minute."

Izuru remained quiet, because he saw no point in arguing with his teacher when she was feigning ignorance on purpose. He didn't need to look at her to know that she was studying him, wondering what she would have to say to get him to come to class.

"So, what are you doing here exactly?" Yukizome asked him curiously.

From the corners of his eyes, he could see that she was looking around his room, maybe trying to follow his gaze to see what he was looking at.

"I guess I'll let it slide this once, as you're new here," Yukizome resumed, after a pregnant pause, "I didn't mean to break your lock, but I was worried by your absence in class. I wanted to make sure you were fine."

"I am."

"I'm glad to see I was worrying over nothing! So, come with me to class, Izuru. I guess it is my fault for not sending someone over to come get you this morning. It must be very confusing to find your way around here on your own."

Izuru knew Yukizome was trying to manipulate him into coming with her gently by pretending she hadn't realized he was skipping class on purpose.

Izuru looked at his teacher, really taking her in for the first time. Her long, red hair was pulled back into a pony tail, and he made note of the fact that she was wearing a white apron over a blue dress. By far, her most distinctive feature seemed to be her persistent smile.

"Class attendance isn't mandatory."

"I see. You are going to get along just fine with your classmates," Yukizome said, "They said exactly the same when I first started teaching them. It's a common mistake."

"It's not a mistake," Izuru said, "Class attendance isn't necessary for the Main Course students, according to the official school rules."

"You read the official school rules? Such an eager student!" Yukizome said, clasping her hands together with a level of enthusiasm that Izuru would need a few seconds for to get used to. Surprisingly fast, she pulled out a small book from under her apron. "But I am afraid I have to tell you that we of Class 77-B have slightly different rules, and all 244 of them are written down in this cute school guide we all designed together! The first rule: homeroom is absolutely mandatory."

Izuru stared at the obnoxious pink rabbit on the book's cover, moments before Yukizome opened up the rulebook and casually flipped through the pages to give Izuru an idea of what its contents looked like. His photographic memory picked up on a lot of rules that seemed oddly specific.

"This copy is for you! I'll just leave it for you here. You can have a look at it later."

Izuru's eyes cautiously followed her as she put the book down on his nightstand. He was not surprised when she suddenly turned towards him with a glint in her eye. Before she actually reached him, he had thought of at least more than a hundred different ways to avoid his advancing teacher, some of them ending violently for her.

He knew better, of course. Violence was out of the question.

He didn't move a muscle, but Yukizome made no move to grab him. She halted just in front of his bed, put her hands on her waist, leaned forwards for a bit and smiled.

"Izuru, you are truly a rotten orange!"

He stared.

"You're coming with me!"

Yukizome briskly turned around, without touching him, as if she was completely sure that he would follow him on his own. As if being called a rotten orange was supposed to motivate him to follow her. Nevertheless, he got up from his bed and when he entered the hallway, she was to his left, fixing his doorknob with a screwdriver, still with her unwavering smile in place.

He followed her to the classroom. It didn't matter if he spent his day in a classroom or in his dorm. Time passed all the same.

"Everyone, please welcome your—"

Chisa opened the doors to her classroom with enthusiasm, but that feeling was soon replaced by something else. She should've known better than to think her students would behave while they were all still speculating about their newest classmate.

It didn't take a lot for this class to fall into chaos, and she had been away for a whole fifteen minutes.

Mikan was on the ground, yelling apologies while at least half of Gundham's twelve Zodiac Generals were attacking her. She was wrapped tightly in Gundham's long scarf, and as she was struggling to get free, she kept kicking against Fuyuhiko's desk. Gundham was turning an unhealthy shade of blue while Sonia did her best to pry his scarf away from his neck. Peko was standing over Mikan, while Mahiru seemed to be the only one to actually try and help disentangle the Ultimate Nurse. Peko held out her sword threateningly towards Teruteru, who had tried to sneak his way over to their side of the classroom. He insisted he only wanted to help Mikan.

Hiyoko was looking especially pleased as her eyes roamed the classroom, and Chisa was pretty sure she was the one responsible for the chaos. She usually was.

The chaos could've been even worse if Akane and Nekomaru had been present, but they seemed to have left the classroom in her absence.

"Just a moment, Izuru," Chisa said with an apologetic smile towards her newest student.

It took her a couple minutes to calm the class down. Gundham wasn't pleased with the way she had saved his life and cradled his shortened scarf as if it was an injured animal. He looked paler than usual and stared at her accusingly. She heard him mutter something about an Atropos under his breath, but she had other things on her mind.

Just when she thought she had everything under control again, Nekomaru and Akane returned. As they burst through the door, Nekomaru nearly knocked the door off its hinges. If Izuru hadn't stepped away from the door just a few seconds in advance, he could've been seriously injured.

Only after loudly arguing about who had won their spontaneous race, did Nekomaru and Akane realize that their teacher had already returned to the classroom. They returned to their respective seats without her having to say anything, both laughing nervously under her threatening stare.

"Now that I finally have your attention, please welcome your new classmate!"

Chisa looked back, gesturing Izuru to come forward.

"Izuru Kamukura."

His introduction was short and to the point. Before Chisa could stop him, he had already moved towards the empty seat in the back by the window.

"Izuru is the Ultimate Hope," Chisa added, her smile never wavering.

"What does that mean?" Akane asked, confused.

"Hope? This must be a sign that Nagito's going to return any day now. No way that his luck will allow him to miss out on this." Kazuichi's face turned ashen. "I'm going to die for sure this time."

"Please," Fuyuhiko hissed, "You know how unpredictable that creep is. I wouldn't be surprised if he suddenly showed up out of the blue because you mentioned his name."

"Nagito, Nagito, Nagito!" Hiyoko said in rapid succession, while looking smugly at a speechless Fuyuhiko, "See, nothing happened! I didn't know you were superstitious, Baby Yakuza!"

Fuyuhiko eyed the doorway suspiciously for a couple of seconds, before he sent a fuming look towards the blonde girl.

"Don't call me that, you little shit!"

Ibuki turned in her seat, smiling at Izuru, "Your hair is even longer than Ibuki's! Ibuki likes it! Pleased to meet you, Izuru!"

"You can't seriously like the overgrown seaweed that grows out of his head?" Hiyoko said.

"Hiyoko!" Sonia said, looking at the other girl with a frown, "Mind your manners."

Gundham still hadn't lost the slightly blue hinge on his face, but he was glancing towards the back of the room with a suspicious expression, tugging the twelve Zodiac Generals into his shortened scarf with tenderness, as if protecting them.

Chisa had intended for everything to down go a bit differently. It would've helped if Izuru had actually shown up for the first half of the class. She looked around the class, noting that some students rushed to introduce themselves to their newest classmate, while others waited until things had calmed down for a bit.

Chisa felt a sense of unease.

From the moment she had entered his room, to this moment where he was surrounded by his classmates who were trying their best to give him a warm welcome, she had not seen him react to anything at all. His face remained disinterested.

There had been plenty of things that most people would've reacted to. Chisa breaking into his dorm, calling him a rotten orange, the chaos of the classroom, the arguments of his classmates, the comment Hiyoko had made about his hair. Most boys his age would've at least had a reaction to Mikan's antics. They may have been startled by the combined force of Akane and Nekomaru racing against each other. But Izuru…

Chisa caught a glimpse of his face.

Izuru just looked bored.

"Chiaki to Earth?"

Dazed and slightly confused, Chiaki raised her head to see where the voice had come from. In front of her desk stood Sonia, looking conflicted. She seemed to be glad that she had finally caught Chiaki's attention. Sonia had never resorted to taking away her Game Girl Advance as she was playing it, but Chiaki could tell that this was one of the moments she'd almost been about to.

"…Eh?"

Sonia looked at her, a shook her head lightly. "You're our class representative, Chiaki. You should've been the first to introduce yourself to our new classmate."

"New classmate?" Chiaki repeated, only after a long pause on her part, where her brain was still alternating between figuring out the best strategies for the game she was playing and the words that were coming out of Sonia's mouth.

"Were you sleepin' or something?" Kazuichi asked with a grin, "You never noticed the crowd next to you?"

Chiaki looked to see what Kazuichi was pointing at, and for the first time noticed that many of her classmates had gathered around the desk that had been unoccupied for the past three years. This was probably a sign that she should sleep longer and more frequently, just as Mikan and Chisa always urged her to do.

"A new classmate…?" Chiaki repeated, her brain still trying to catch up.

Kazuichi snickered, and Sonia nodded solemnly.

"Yes, he does not seem to like talking much, though."

Chiaki looked sideways again, for the first time taking in the new student. Ibuki seemed to have taken a liking to his dark, long hair that not just rivalled her own but was even longer. However, where Ibuki took great care of her hair, the new student's hair seemed to hide half of his face behind a curtain of messy and uncombed hair. Chiaki wasn't the only one who had noticed.

Ibuki's eyes were positively sparkling as she held a lock of his long hair in her hands, and to Chiaki's surprise he didn't even react. It looked as if he didn't even notice that Ibuki was touching his hair.

"You need to comb your hair more often, Izuru! Do you know how much potential you have? Ibuki can comb it for you! Right now, I have a spare brush with me!"

"Or I can do it!" Teruteru offered, comb already in hand.

The new student jerked his face back, so that Ibuki was no longer playing with his hair. He looked at both Ibuki and Teruteru with a strange indifference, neither with any warmth nor coldness.

"Don't."

Chiaki blinked, her heartbeat suddenly speeding up.

"You're right," Akane said, with a big smile on her face, "You should just cut it all off! That much hair is impractical. It's just a matter of time before you have an accident. You can't run with that kind of hair. You'd trip or something."

"Or you'd get stuck in a train door!" Ibuki said with a gasp, "Your career would be ruined!"

"Can I interest someone else in some combing?" Teruteru asked.

Chiaki blinked a couple times more and moved away from her desk. Hesitatingly, she walked towards the new student's desk. It felt like the distance was longer than it actually was. She stared at him, and she felt slightly disappointed to see red eyes staring back. His gaze was intense, in the same way that Peko's gaze could feel intense. Maybe it had to do with the colour red. She didn't find what she had hoped to see. The hair should've given it away, but when she had heard his voice, just for a moment…

"Chiaki… what are you doing?" Sonia spoke up uncertainly, not too far behind her.

Chiaki hadn't noticed that the conversation had come to a sudden stop until Sonia called her name, and she was pulled out of her daze. Only now did she realize that she was leaning in a bit too close to the new student, trying to look for something on his face that was not there. He just stared back at her blankly.

She straightened her back, and took a step backwards.

"I'm sorry," she apologized to the student, "I just thought… you reminded me of someone. I'm Chiaki Nanami, the class representative. Nice to meet you."

"You know someone who looks like Izuru?" Ibuki said, looking at Chiaki as if she had suddenly become a stranger, but then her eyes started sparkling again. "You should introduce him to Ibuki! He would be perfect for—"

"You know there's things like wigs, right?" Fuyuhiko snapped, "You idiot!"

"You're an idiot!" Mahiru snapped, quick to jump to another girl's defence, "Wigs would fly off!"

Chiaki left her classmates to their banter. She looked back to the new student. He didn't seem interested in their conversation in the slightest.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name," she said.

"Izuru Kamukura."

Chiaki spent so much with her eyes plastered to a screen that she was actually better at distinguishing voices than faces. She recognized that voice. There was no mistaking it, not now that she'd heard his voice for the second time.

"Hajime?"

The boy looked at her blankly. It was Ibuki who answered in his stead.

"No, it's Izuru!"

"Hajime?" Chiaki repeated, trying to urge her new classmate to speak again.

"I hate to break it to ya, but that's not even remotely close," Kazuichi said somewhere behind her.

Suddenly, Chiaki felt the weight of hands on her shoulders and when she slightly turned her head, she noticed that Sonia was the one who was touching her.

"Chiaki, when was the last time you slept?"

"I… uh…" Chiaki's head was still spinning, because even though his face didn't seem to match, that was still Hajime's voice she had heard—but at the same time, she couldn't quite remember she had last taken anything more than a short nap. "Um…"

"I will bring her to her dorm!" Teruteru volunteered.

"Stay away!" Sonia said ferociously, pulling Chiaki backwards and lifting her hand as if to physically stop the Ultimate Chef. "I will bring her to her room."

"I'll come with you, if you d-don't mind!" Mikan volunteered, "I could have a look at Chiaki…"

"Thank you, Mikan," Sonia said with a welcoming smile towards the Ultimate Nurse.

Chisa didn't try to stop them. Even their teacher was worried about her, Chiaki realized.

"I will come too!" Kazuichi volunteered.

"No."

"M-Miss Sonia!"

Chiaki let Sonia push her out of the classroom with a gentle touch on her shoulder, and they were quickly accompanied by Mikan. Chiaki barely listened as Sonia asked her questions, although she did nod every now and then. Mikan walked along with them, just one step behind them, letting Sonia take the lead. Chiaki zoned out, her thoughts drowning out the concerned questions from her two friends.

Are you making memories? Make lots of them.

Chiaki let out a brief sigh, and closed her eyes. Maybe her sleep-deprived brain had fooled her. Maybe her desire to see Hajime again, just to know if he was okay or not, had made her think that their voices sounded the same. Izuru didn't look like Hajime. He didn't even speak like Hajime, though they had a similar voice. She had barely interacted with him, but she knew they were two completely different people. She felt stupid for calling him Hajime.

They ended in front of her dorm room, and she opened it and walked through the door, followed by her worried friends, hoping that a bit of sleep would clear her head.

Hajime Hinata was supposed to not have had any friends, not in the Reserve Course department and definitely not in the Main Course department. It had been part of the reason why he had been chosen for the Hope Cultivation Project and not someone else.

Either the project leaders had been negligent and allowed such information to pass by them, or his past-self had managed to withhold information from them by his own skill.

Izuru highly doubted it the latter.

Hajime was supposed to not have left much of an impression on anyone. Still, one of the other students had called him by that name, just minutes after he had entered the classroom.

"You must think Chiaki is a raving lunatic!" Hiyoko Saionji said, covering up a smile with her hand, "Don't worry, this is how she usually acts when she is off her meds. Last time she looked at someone with that kind of face, we never heard of the poor guy again! Don't worry, though. I'm pretty sure he isn't dead. Probably just locked in her basement."

"Geez, don't say such weird things!" Mahiru Koizumi chastised the other girl, putting her hands akimbo. She turned to look at Izuru, her face turning apologetic, "Really, don't listen to Hiyoko. Chiaki would never hurt anyone."

"On purpose," Hiyoko added.

Mahiru merely shot Hiyoko a warning look, before turning her attention to Izuru again.

"I bet that she spent the entire night gaming again. No matter what we tell her, she just can't seem to put a game down once she's started. I'm sure Chiaki wasn't trying to be rude, or anything…"

Izuru said nothing, preoccupied with his own thoughts.

Chiaki Nanami's knowledge of his past-self put the entire project at risk. It didn't really matter why there was someone at Hope's Peak who could tie Izuru to his past-self, it only mattered that there was. He knew what the project leaders would want him to do. They would want to know. Her knowledge could tie Hope's Peak Academy's research department to human experimentation if the information was ever properly utilized.

The chances of that happening were nearly non-existent. An extraordinary amount of chance and luck would have to be involved. Hajime Hinata no longer existed, not in person and not on paper. Not just that, but Izuru was capable of convincing Chiaki Nanami that he was a completely different person than his past-self. He could even make her do some investigating which would forever put her doubts to rest—or he could just wait it out. He wasn't going to be at Hope's Peak forever. He wasn't even going to be here for more than a few weeks.

Ibuki Mioda caught his attention by grabbing hold of his hair again.

"Izuru, just hear me out…"

Izuru didn't bother to stop her anymore.

"Izuru!"

Izuru recognized the voice of the girl who called out to him. He ignored her and kept walking the same pace in the hallway. It was in between classes, and the hallways were filled with students. He hoped the girl would lose her interest or her patience and leave him alone.

He knew better.

"Izuru!"

The voice sounded a lot louder this time. Nearly everyone in the hallway paused to see who was screaming, and some were more interested to see who the girl was screaming at. He heard some students mutter and yell as they were roughly shoved out of the girl's way. He heard her approaching quickly, the sound of her heels familiar to his ears.

He felt her long, fake fingernails digging into his shoulder as she roughly stopped him from walking. They both knew he allowed her to do so. This meeting had been fated to happen from the moment he set foot in the main building.

Junko Enoshima used her hold on his shoulder to make him face her. Her smile was strained.

"I thought you'd be happier to see me again, Izuru. Don't you remember me? Your only friend? Don't remember this perfectly dressed specimen of a woman who was the only one to visit you when you were… not well?"

Her casual pause went accompanied by a quick glance towards some of their fellow students, who were nearby sporting curious looks on their faces.

"This is a reunion between two old friends!" Junko snarled, "Don't you monkeys have better things to do?!"

Some students quickly scattered away.

"Izuru!" When Junko turned towards him again, nothing remaining from her snarl. Her carefree smile was back, and she swung one of her arms around his shoulders. Izuru immediately shrugged her off.

"So cold, as usual... Are you still bored? I'm bored! Let's do something fun!"

"Who are you?"

She stared at him for a moment, and then raised her hand to her mouth.

"Don't… don't tell me you're mad. Are you mad? I—I can't believe it…"

"Move aside," he said. He resumed walking.

As expected, Junko wasn't about to let him go that easily. As long as she was still following him around, he wasn't going to return to his dorm. He didn't want her to know where his dorm was this soon. He had no doubt that she would find out fast enough, but it was unnecessary to make it any easier for her than it already was.

"You are mad at me," Junko said, her voice lower than before, and her wide grin was replaced with a conniving smile, "You are mad, because you enjoyed my visits! You like me! Well, not that I can blame you, of course. Who can resist me?"

He drowned out her annoying voice, and walked without a destination in mind. He was trying to figure out a place where Junko would not follow him, but she was tenacious when something caught her interest and would probably even follow him into a sinkhole.

"Izuru? Izuru!"

Izuru turned his face and looked her into her eyes.

"Stop following me."

"You didn't hear a word of what I just said, did you?" Junko said, her eyes sparkling. "I didn't stop visiting you because I wanted to. I stopped because I was suspended. Yes, they dared to suspend me! I told them the truth, that it was fucking Mukuro, but they didn't believe me thanks to that little dirty…"

Junko's fists were balled, and her she grit her teeth—and then suddenly, she remembered she had an audience. She straightened her back and composed herself immediately.

"Ah… It doesn't matter right now. What matters is that I never left you willingly, Izuru. In fact, I thought a lot about you. You were constantly on my mind."

"You bore me."

Junko's mouth actually twitched a little at that.

"Have you really forgotten everything?" she asked, her voice soft but her calculating eyes never leaving his face, "I'm the only friend you ever had. I'm still the only friend you have. I'm the only one willing to overlook that rotten personality of yours. If anything, remember that."

There was a sudden silence.

Classes had started a few minutes ago, and they were the only students left in the hallway. Junko was staring at him intently, expecting some kind of response. Izuru looked away first.

"See? I knew you'd come around. Let's meet up tomorrow, okay? Meet me in the cafeteria, during lunch. I'll be waiting, Izuru! We're going to have fun now that we're back together again!"

After shaking off Junko Enoshima, Izuru returned to his dorm. It was exactly as he had left it that morning, his window still open thanks to his teacher. A breeze moved his curtains slightly. Izuru didn't bother to close the window nor his curtains when he sat down on his bed, resuming his position from that morning. It was as if he had never left at all.

He listened to the clock ticking for a while, and now that his window was open, the voices of students outside were a lot more pronounced. Izuru listened to the students passing by beneath his open windows for a long time. Their conversations were almost painfully trivial, void of any sort of meaning, empty and boring.

He had once thought that everything unfamiliar had the potential to be of interest, but he was rapidly changing his mind. Things were simply interesting for as long as they were unfamiliar. He had been sent here under the guise of developing his talents further, but the truth was that their project was failing. No one could provide him with the incentive he needed. He was always in the presence of the same predictable minds, asking him the same questions, asking him to perform the same actions over and over again.

It was mind-numbing, and he had been growing tired of it.

His apathetic demeanour had been of no concern to anyone until the moment they realized that it was affecting their research.

He watched the shadows in his room grow taller and, until his entire room was engulfed by darkness. The school grounds finally quieted down.

His thoughts went to Junko Enoshima more than once. Months ago, her visits had been the only thing breaking the monotony of his life. Even though the chances were extremely low, especially given her current state, there was a slim possibility that she might be able to provide him with what he looked for.

He knew he would only be disappointed once more.

No matter how many times he turned out to be right, the smallest bit of hope still resided somewhere inside of him.

He wondered when that last bit of hope would finally die.

Chisa always felt uneasy leaving her class to their own devices, no matter for how short a while it was. Her students could be a force of nature when left unmanaged. Still, Chisa had never allowed absences from her class without a valid reason. If she wanted to instil that into her newest student, she needed to be strict with him from the start.

The locks to the dorm rooms had never been a match for her toolbox. She had had a lot of time to practice her lock picking skills when she had been a student herself. Juzo said that she was the reason he always slept with one eye open. She did knock on Izuru's door three times, before taking it out. It was only fair to give her student a chance.

Izuru was lying on his side on his bed, fully dressed in his student uniform. She had a suspicion that he had never changed into sleeping wear the night before. He was not moving from his bed, staring at her through his half-lidded eyes. Just like the day before, she felt a little uneasy in his presence. His red eyes almost seemed to glow in the dark, and he made no effort to acknowledge her presence, aside from silently staring at her.

Glancing around his room, she felt there was just something off. It looked exactly the same as the day before, except that his desk was now soaking wet. That night it had rained. Apparently, Izuru hadn't bothered to close his window and curtains. It was still drizzling outside. Without saying anything, she walked towards the window and closed it. She glanced at the completely empty and soaking wet desk.

"Do you want to get sick or something?" she asked Izuru, and turned to look at the unmoving student, "You should take better care of yourself, mister."

"Why are you here?"

"You're late for class again. I'm here to pick you up."

"It's not mandatory to—"

"It is!" Chisa interrupted. She felt a bit unnerved. Izuru still hadn't bothered to sit up. There was a feeling gnawing at her that there was something wrong with her student, and that it was unlike anything she had dealt with before. "Homeroom is where we all come together as a group—that includes you!"

Izuru remained quiet.

"Come on, Izuru. Let's not keep the others waiting for too long. I just hope the classroom is still one piece when we return."

She went back to the hallway, and found herself closing the door behind her. She knelt in front of the door, fixing the lock she'd unscrewed just a few moments ago. Someone walked past and casually greeted her, as if she wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary. She really wasn't sure whether or not Izuru was going to come outside in a bit or not. She'd decided to give him a little space as she fixed the lock.

Just as she was done, the door opened.

Izuru stared at her with the his unchanging expression—but she was mistaken, she realized in a split of a second. She thought there was a slight difference in his expression, a moment before they locked eyes and he quickly hid it.

Game over.

Chiaki stared at the screen in front of her, choosing to quit the game rather than to try and challenge the final boss again. It wasn't her usual way of doing things, but it wasn't as if she couldn't beat the final boss. She'd beaten him a few times before, after all. The real problem was that she was having trouble focussing.

She was so aware of her classmates that it was distracting her. Still, it was one classmate in particular whose presence she really couldn't drown out that easily.

It felt wrong to try and picture Izuru without the long hair and the red eyes. It felt wrong to imagine his hair a few shades lighter and his eyes in a different colour. It was wishful thinking at its worst. It was weird. It was even a kind of creepy thing to do.

She couldn't say that she had completely given up on Hajime—she still sometimes choose to play games around the Reserve Course building in hopes of finally running into him again—but she didn't know why she kept thinking of Hajime every time she looked at Izuru. He was completely different from Hajime. He was a another person entirely.

The thought that they were perhaps related had crossed her mind, but there hadn't been any recognition in his eyes when she had called him Hajime.

She had called him Hajime, she remembered once more. She felt embarrassed by what had happened the day before. It had taken her a good night's rest to realize that it was crazy to think her classmate was anyone else than who he said he was.

Chiaki wasn't sure why Hajime had so suddenly and insistently invaded her mind.

She had not seen him in a long time. At one point, she had realized that there were only two options: either, he no longer was a student at Hope's Peak or he was avoiding her. She liked to think that he would've said goodbye to her if he had had to leave the academy or if he had chosen to leave for whatever reasons. That left the second option…

Izuru spent the entire class staring out the window. He initiated conversation with no one, curtly answered when someone asked him a question and no one was able to uphold a conversation with him for very long. He didn't seem interested.

It seemed he was just waiting for class to pass.

He turned his head, and her heart skipped a beat when their eyes met for an instant.

She quickly turned her head away, looking to the black screen in front of her, hoping he hadn't noticed her staring. She knew better.

The cafeteria was crowded when he entered, and he was semi-tempted to leave straight away. Still, he found himself interested in what Junko Enoshima had to say, and that's what kept him from exiting the crowded space.

Junko noticed him straight away. She waved him over with a big smile.

As Izuru made his way over, he noticed the absence of Mukuro Ikusaba straight away. His eyes wandered through the cafeteria, but she was nowhere in sight. Neither was she anywhere hidden from sight. She wasn't the type of person to leave Junko alone for a long time.

"I saved you a seat," Junko said, as if blissfully unaware that despite how crowded the cafeteria was, she remained seated at a table for four by herself. "I also got you lunch. I remember how bad you are at taking care of yourself, Izuru. I bet you've already skipped several meals since arriving here, haven't you?"

He didn't answer her, and instead inspected the lunch she'd gotten him.

"What, don't you trust me?"

"Where is your sister?"

"What are you talking about?" Junko said, knitting her eyebrows together, "I don't have a sister."

"Mukuro Ikusaba."

"What about her?"

"Where is she?"

"Why do you care about that waste of life?" Junko asked, her face turning serious. Any hint of a smile instantly disappeared and it was hard not to notice the slumbering anger in her eyes, "We'd all be better off if that vermin had never existed in the first place. Izuru, can't you go and kill her for me? Pretty please."

Izuru stared at the blue-eyed girl in front of him, who was looking at him expectantly. Izuru felt disappointed. He'd come here in hopes that Junko Enoshima might provide him with what he was looking for. If this was all she had to offer then he had wasted his time.

"You're probably thinking that I'm boring, aren't you? Heh, you'd be right about that. I've been angry at Mukuro for so long, that I'm even boring my fucking self. Mukuro has chosen her own side, and I wish her the best. Chapter closed, close the fucking book and burn it. Sayanora bitch!" she spat out the last word, "Let's move onto much more interesting things, such as you, Izuru."

She smiled brilliantly, moving closer towards him.

"I did a little digging, did a little asking. I mean, it isn't every day you just randomly walk into the Ultimate Hope, is it? So, they decided you were ready to let loose into the world, huh? Or, ready enough. What a coincidence, that just when I need someone, my old friend arrives at this godforsaken place. Everybody leaves me, Izuru. First fucking what's-her-name, then fucking what's-his-name. And they dare to patronize me! He's all like: Look, Junko, I like you and all, but you have some real problems! And she's all like: Junko, my therapist told me you're like poison to me! Actually, I made that up. Poison sounds more poetic than what that excuse for a therapist actually said. Problems? Can you believe that? Do I look like I got fucking problems?!"

"Yes."

To be honest, he could've easily kept quiet. He had said it just to spite her.

Junko looked at him with raised eyebrows. Then she started laughing, and her laugh grew slowly in volume and intensity. Izuru noticed some students at the tables nearest to them had started getting up, throwing nervous looks at the Ultimate Fashionista.

Izuru started eating his lunch, aware that Junko might take a while, depending on her mood.

"And that's why you're here," she said, after she was done laughing, "All that brilliance, so talented, yet cannot say a single nice word to save his life. Life must be so boring for you… but I could help you out. Are you interested?"

Izuru was listening.

Izuru had to admit that he was curious how a high school student had managed to discover a hidden floor underneath the school. He knew the blueprints of Hope's Peak, and officially this floor didn't exist. It wasn't nearly as spacious as all the other floors. There were several rooms. It was hidden well, and they had to pass through several hidden doorways and trapdoors before they finally arrived at their destination.

Junko led him around by his hand with her usual enthusiasm. After having jerked his hand back for at least three times, he stopped trying to fight her and let her drag him around.

Fighting against it really wasn't worth the effort.

There was a room with a drawing board and a lot of blueprints for some lethal looking devices, a room containing multiple bookcases filled with numerous memoirs bearing the most self-indulgent titles and some other bookcases which were filled with banned books on violence and some atypical world views. She seemed to have done a lot of research of how to engulf the world into despair judging from the room that was filled with world maps that were covered in thumbtacks and connected to each other by yarn.

"Soooo?" she asked, still not letting go of his arm, and staring at him with her big blue eyes, "What do you think? Are you in? This must beat that continuous state of boredom you are in, right? First, we take over this school, make everyone suffer for their treatment of me, and then we take over the fucking world!"

Junko had truly not changed at all.

"Do I inspect a glimpse of interest there? Hmm?"

Over a year ago, she'd offered him a possible end to his boredom. She had been different, and she had been interesting. Yet all this time had passed, and she remained completely the same.

It was a disappointment.

"I pass."

Her grip on his arm tightened, just as her smile suddenly seemed to strain a bit.

"I misheard that."

He remained quiet. Her fingernails dug into his flesh, but he didn't flinch.

"You cannot pass," she hissed, no longer feigning ignorance.

Her grip on his arm got even worse, and Izuru yanked his arm back before she left a bruise.

"You cannot pass," she repeated, taking a step forward. Her face was scrunched up in anger, there was rage bubbling up inside her, threatening to spill out. "I know your secret, Izuru. You're a fucking human experiment and they're afraid you'll go onto a killing spree unless you're somehow socialized. They're endangering the regular students by throwing you in their midst! You're a fucking time bomb! If this is made public, Hope's Peak will be closed forever and you'll be locked into a fucking laboratory and they'll never let you out! All I need to do is to give them one fucking name, and they'll be able to figure all this shit out of their own! Do you realize how many journalists I know, Hajime fucking Hinata?! I'm a model!"

It was a strange place for her to run out of steam.

She was breathing heavily.

This had been her second chance and still she hadn't done anything unpredictable. Junko Enoshima wasn't very interesting at all. Despite all of her meticulous planning and obsessing, she missed the tools to put her plans into work. She'd chased away her allies and had revealed her true nature for everyone to see, her earlier plans had failed and she had been suspended for it. She had lost the trust of everyone around her, and now she was clinging onto him because he was her last hope.

He stepped away from her, and her eyes burned.

"I'll tell it to everyone, I swear!"

"Go ahead," Izuru replied, "Why should I care if Hope's Peak closes?"

"You really don't care if you're thrown back into a research facility?" she asked, incredulously.

"What does it matter?"

Junko blinked, her anger dissipating, a startled look overtaking her face. Izuru saw it as the right moment to turn around and leave. Junko didn't try to stop him, but as he was climbing the stairs that were supposed to lead back to the school grounds, he heard her making her way towards the bottom of the stairs. Her voice echoed after him.

"Do you truly not feel anything at all, anymore? I pity you, Izuru."

Izuru never slept easily. He wasn't the type to twist and turn in his bed, but he was very prone to staring at the same spot for hours on an end. He never quite knew when sleep would take him, because feeling sleepy was very similar to his usual state. When he eventually did sleep, his brain still had trouble resting. He woke frequently in the middle of the night, always feeling as if he had done nothing more than close his eyes for a moment.

Junko's words wouldn't stop echoing through his mind that night. Perhaps it was because he had really nothing more interesting to think about, or perhaps Junko had managed to get under his skin, despite him knowing very well that that her way of operating.

His poor sleeping habits had not been a problem until now.

Now, he had to keep to a schedule. He had classes to attend.

Most of all, he had a very demanding teacher.

"Izuru."

He blearily opened his eyes, and it took him a moment to focus. The moment he realized he had fallen asleep, his mind instantly awoke. Still, his body seemed to weigh more than it usually did. His head was dully aching. He had slept extremely poorly ever since he'd arrived at Hope's Peak. He pushed himself up from his bed, noting the familiar apron his teacher liked to wear next to his bed. He looked up, expecting to find irritation on her face. If she was in his room again, it meant that he had really overslept this time.

She frowned at him.

He waited for her to say something.

"Have you been sleeping well?"

"It wasn't on purpose."

"Oh, I believe that," she answered, but not in the slightly mocking tone he would've expected her to use, "Have you had any sleep in the past few days?"

"Yes."

"Enough sleep?"

"Yes."

"Eight hours' worth of sleep?"

"No," he admitted after a pause.

"Thought so. You don't look so good, Izuru. It may be best if you go to the nurse's office."

"I feel fine," he protested.

He wasn't even sure why he did it. It had never helped him before, so why should it now? Yukizome's expression changed a little, and her shoulders suddenly relaxed.

"If you'd prefer, I could ask Mikan to check up on you. If you'd rather not go to the nurse's office."

Izuru was about to decline, but then he paused. He closed his mouth, and thought about it for a second. Yukizome waited patiently for him to come to a decision, but seemed strangely pleased when he preferred Mikan visiting him over going to the office himself.

She exited his room while saying that Mikan would be there in a couple of minutes, leaving the door a chink open. Izuru didn't feel like getting up from the bed and closing it. He didn't move from his bed, and just waited for the Ultimate Nurse to arrive.

Her arrival was announced by the sound of something falling, and a couple of different voices in the hallway asking someone if they were alright. Very soon afterwards, a completely flustered Mikan Tsumiki entered his room, carrying a bag with her. She seemed to be even more flustered when she suddenly remembered that she had walked into his room without knocking.

"I'm so s-sorry! I w-wasn't thinking! The door was o-open, and I-I…"

Her loud apology grated on his headache. It must've shown on his face, because Mikan quickly quieted down. She seemed nervous to approach him, but she didn't let it stop her. She started asking him questions about how he felt and if he had any particular reasons to be stressed. She asked him about his sleeping habits, frowning a bit when he answered her truthfully. After a couple of questions, she started digging around in her bag, and eventually her hand emerged with a box of pills that was simply labelled with an animal sticker.

"This isn't a long-term solution for insomnia, but for now it will help you to get some sleep. Y-You look like need it."

Izuru stared as she opened the box, and shook out an unlabelled pill and didn't recognize it. She must've made it herself.

He remembered that he had been explicitly instructed to go to the research department if he wasn't feeling well. In case he wasn't able to, they expected him to give them a call. He couldn't remember ever having had a pill or another form of medicine before. The researchers had been afraid that it would have had unexpected consequences or that it would lead to faulty conclusions during tests.

So when Mikan returned from his bathroom and handed him a glass of water together with a sleeping pill, he knew he should've rejected it. He could've said he had some sort of condition. He could've pretended to swallow and hide the pill under his tongue.

Instead, he took the glass of water and the pill and did what Mikan expected him to do.

She smiled nervously after he handed her back the glass of water.

"Um, these pills are pretty strong. You'll probably be asleep until dinner. They're not really meant for casual use, and they're c-certainly not a long-term solution for insomnia… but they will help you get the sleep you need, for now. S-sleeping is very important."

After she left, he closed his eyes. He didn't even remember falling asleep.

The next morning, Izuru awoke feeling different. He could vaguely recall he had had a dream, which must have been side-effects of Mikan's pill. He couldn't remember ever having had a dream before. He was not supposed to be able to dream.

Still, his head felt clearer, his body lighter and for some reason, he really wanted to take a shower. He was early and he had plenty of time to take a shower before classes started. He made his way to his bathroom. His hair always took a while to wash properly and usually he didn't have the patience to do it. If he didn't do it properly, his hair became a tangled mess, and sometimes he just opted to skip showers so that he didn't have to deal with it in its entirety. It had been months since he had brushed his hair himself.

Someone knocked on his door.

"Izuru?"

He looked at the alarm clock on his nightstand, and realized that his hair had indeed taken longer than he had thought it would, as usual. It was too early for his teacher to persuade him to come to class. He recognized the voice on the other side of the door, and it wasn't his teacher's.

Chiaki Nanami blinked when the door opened, as if it was completely unexpected and she needed to process it for a bit. There was a handheld console in her hands, but her attention was fixed on him. His hair, to be more precise. She was openly staring. She seemed to be in the habit of doing that.

"Why are you here?"

His question jolted her out her thoughts.

"Mikan wanted to bring you breakfast, but she... had an accident. I wanted to ask if you have any preferences, but... you don't look like you're ill… Maybe we could get breakfast together?"

Izuru thought about it for a moment, but he really couldn't think of any reason to decline. He was as good as ready, and he would've left for the cafeteria to get something to eat regardless of Chiaki's company.

Chiaki seemed to be immersed into her game as they were walking, and he kept quiet. He took in the students they passed on their way to the cafeteria, some of whom could be classified as morning persons, and some obviously were not. They passed the odd sight of a blond, bespectacled boy hurling harsh insults at a nervous-looking girl who wore her long purple hair in two braids. From the conversation, Izuru could gather that the boy was missing some undergarments and he suspected the girl was responsible for it.

Izuru's mind clouded. Boring. Insignificant.

He and Chiaki entered the cafeteria and found a place to sit and eat their breakfast. Chiaki put a straw in her drink, and managed to continue gaming while drinking. Izuru was sure she must've tried something similar with food at some point in her life.

"I haven't yet apologized for the other day," Chiaki said, and he turned to look at her. She was looking at him over the screen of her Game Girl. "Sorry for acting so weird on your first day… I didn't mean to be rude… I was really tired."

"Your classmates already explained it," Izuru said, belatedly realizing his mistake.

"Don't you mean our classmates?"

Izuru nodded, putting another bite in his mouth as an excuse not to say anything on the matter. Chiaki was still looking at him. He could feel her eyes burning.

"Do you want to play a game with me after our classes are finished?"

"I don't have a Game Girl," Izuru said, nodding towards the handheld console in her hands.

"We could take turns or I could borrow one from someone."

"I don't like gaming."

"Then what do you like to do?"

Izuru wasn't sure how to answer that. To him, you just did things. He did things. Just because he was good at something, didn't mean he enjoyed doing it. He did it because he had to, because someone told him to do it. He was curious how it felt to enjoy doing something, to be as immersed as Chiaki was into her gaming.

Chiaki was looking at him, still waiting for an answer, he realized.

"Other things," he answered.

"Miss Yukizome lieeeed!" Ibuki yelled after she spotted Izuru in his seat.

He and Chiaki had been one of the first to arrive at the classroom. He was waiting for class to start, looking at the window and ignoring Ibuki's shout. Chiaki was in the seat to his right, also oblivious to Ibuki's shouting, though it was for other reasons. As absent-minded as she was, she was also capable of sustained focus.

"She said Izuru was sick, but look at him!" Ibuki grabbed the person nearest to her, and that happened to be a very startled Kazuichi, "He has never looked better! Ibuki cannot believe how beautiful his hair is! He would make the greatest—"

"Could you please shut up about that guy's seaweed hair?" Hiyoko said irritably, pushing herself past Ibuki through the door, "and move aside, idiot!"

Ibuki let go of a squirming Kazuichi and quickly made way to her own seat. She wasted no time grabbing his hair and feeling it up. She even smelled it and asked him what shampoo he used. Izuru wasn't sure how to respond to the girl, so he just ignored her.

It was when Teruteru suddenly also got hold of his hair and started smelling it, that Mahiru emerged from somewhere and demanded that both classmates leave Izuru alone. Ibuki let go of his hair, slightly reluctant, muttering that she couldn't resist and Teruteru returned to his own seat, calling Mahiru a killjoy.

"Geez," she huffed, crossing her arms and staring at him with an accusing look, "You should stand up for yourself! I can't believe you need a girl to defend you. You are a boy, right?! Act like it!"

"Actually, I'm not so sure he is a boy," Hiyoko drawled.

"Hiyoko!" Mahiru hissed, shooting a look towards the blonde girl, and then she immediately looked to him, "Izuru!"

He looked at her with a frown.

"Are you just going to let her say that? Honestly, stand up for yourself!"

"I don't think he can. Just look at him. He looks like a—"

"Hiyoko, that is not how you treat other people!" Sonia had only just entered the room, but she had apparently overheard enough to decide to step in.

"Honestly, I'm not even sure if I'd classify him as that! He seems more like a robot to me."

Izuru drowned out the other students, returning his attention to the window, and looked at the school grounds. Some students were already hurrying to make it to their class on time, others were just leisurely strolling. He caught sight of Chisa Yukizome walking alongside one of the security guards, a tan, muscled man who towered over her.

Yukizome and the guard remained chatting for a couple of minutes, before she eventually checked her watch, and quickly made way towards the building, visibly startled. Two minutes later, she entered the classroom, panting. Her eyes immediately went towards the clock on the wall, just in time to see it strike the exact time that class was supposed to start.

"Sit down!" she said to the students who hadn't yet settled down. She took in the class for a moment and she couldn't hide her surprise when they landed on Izuru. A smile appeared on her face, and she wasted no time in starting the class. She split them in groups, and had them complete a quick group assignment. Its topic was cleaning, and it soon became clear that the test was aimed in one student in particular. Kazuichi wouldn't stop grumbling as he answered the test. A suspicious amount of questions were about oil.

Izuru ended up in a group with Hiyoko, Fuyuhiko and Sonia, and he knew right away that it would be far more trouble than it was worth. He didn't know what he had done to Hiyoko, but she had taken a clear dislike to him.

"This is supposed to be a group assignment," Fuyuhiko reminded him with a frown, when the others were still discussing the answers to the first two questions, and he had already filled in the entire first page.

"Let robot boy be robot boy," Hiyoko said, though she seemed irritated when she noticed what Fuyuhiko was referring to.

"Please stop calling Izuru that," Sonia said.

"What? Why? Izuru doesn't seem to mind, so why should you?" She turned to Izuru, smiling. "You don't mind, do you, robot boy?"

"No."

"See?" Hiyoko said, though his answer hardly seemed to satisfy her. "Tell her why you don't mind, robot boy."

"Your opinion means nothing to me," he answered, matter-of-factly.

The stunned silence that followed was broken by the sound of Fuyuhiko snickering. Sonia stared at Izuru with wide eyes, at a loss for words.

"You… I…" Hiyoko stammered. Her eyes were getting watery, "I saw you with that ugly pig whore, Enoshima!"

Fuyuhiko's snickering stopped.

"Is that true?" Sonia asked.

"It is," Izuru answered, even it wasn't anyone's business.

"I saw you two, alright! Eating together in the cafeteria, as if it was some date!" Hiyoko was now standing up, unafraid to cause a scene, "It was a disgusting sight. That whore just shows a bit of cleavage, and you disappear with her into some closet. You are a brainless idiot, thinking with your—"

"Hiyoko!" Sonia interrupted, sounding horrified.

"And that is why I call you robot boy. You'd have to be a complete failure of a human being to be willing to go anywhere near her, let alone f—"

"Hiyoko!" Sonia interrupted again, even more horrified.

"You may not give two shits about my opinion, but I think you're a horrible, disgusting excuse—"

Hiyoko was shut up when something hit her in the back of the head. Chisa Yukizome had appeared at her side, her arms crossed and with a stern look on her face. In her hand was a rolled up newspaper. Hiyoko rubbed the back of her head, before looking towards her teacher with anger and betrayal.

"Miss—"

"Apologize to Izuru, now."

"But—"

"Now."

"No!" Hiyoko said resolutely, backing away from the table, "I meant what I said and I'm not going to apologize!"

Hiyoko sprinted towards the door, pushed it violently out of her way and fled into the hallway. Izuru noticed that their teacher had ample of opportunity to stop the girl, but she chose not to.

"Well…" Kazuichi said awkwardly, "It's never really a group assignment if it doesn't end in someone causing a scene."

"That was uncalled for," Sonia said disapprovingly.

"M-Miss Sonia!"

"What was that about?" Chisa asked, studying the faces of the three students in front of her. Izuru waited for someone to answer, but then he realized that neither Sonia nor Fuyuhiko seemed to be willing.

"I don't know," he answered reluctantly.

"I'm sure it is all a misunderstanding," Sonia said.

Behind him, he heard a chair scraping over the floor. Moments later, Mahiru hurried towards the door, hastily apologizing to Yukizome, and adding that she needed to find Hiyoko before she hurt someone. Hiyoko and Mahiru didn't return to class, and the remaining time with Fuyuhiko and Sonia was awkward. Both kept looking at him, and when he looked back, they quickly glanced away.

His involvement with Junko seemed to unsettle the other students.

He also didn't know why the Ultimate Traditional Dancer would harbour such intense feelings of dislike towards the Ultimate Fashionista, who wasn't in the same year. Considering that it was Junko who was involved, he could imagine a few scenarios.

Still, he didn't care enough to ask.

Izuru wandered throughout the school grounds without really going anywhere.

Upon returning to his dorm, he quickly discovered that someone had thrown a stink bomb against his door. The entire floor smelled as if someone had died there, and his room was the worst. He'd thought that he could get used to the smell if he just gave it some time, but a serious-looking boy, with big black eyebrows and intense red eyes had forbidden him from entering his own room. The boy insisted that the floor wasn't safe for anyone until they knew for sure that the stink bomb was, in fact, nothing more than a simple stink bomb.

Apparently, getting on Hiyoko's bad side was not without consequences.

Izuru wandered outside, idly following the paths he came across, seeing the school grounds with his own eyes, instead of looking at a layout. He almost walked past a big fountain, when he suddenly realized how desolate the area was. This place in the gardens was a good distance away from the main building. In fact, it was much closer to the Reserve Course building.

Reserve Course students didn't have their talent to fall back on, and the only thing keeping them from failing was studying intensely and passing their tests. All of their classes required attendance, not just the one with the eccentric teacher who made up her own rules. Even though Main Course students had more time to roam the grounds, they usually didn't stray far from the main building. There wasn't any reason to.

Izuru just wanted to return to his dorm, but he didn't care much for receiving another lecture by the self-appointed guardian of his floor. He settled for the fountain, lying down on the edge, hoping no one would disturb him this far away from the main building.

For a while, no one did.

When the sun began to set, he heard someone approaching him. He kept his eyes shut, hoping that the other person would think he was asleep and leave him alone. The person came closer and closer, and Izuru realized that they had come too close. He opened his eyes, just in time to warn Chiaki of his presence. Her eyes had been glued to her screen. She nearly sat on him.

Izuru pushed himself up and lowered his legs back to the floor.

"What a strange place to meet you," Chiaki muttered, her thumbs suddenly no longer moving.

"I could say the same."

"I come here often... It's a good place to game without interruptions."

"There are quiet spots closer to the main building."

"This spot is special," Chiaki said.

He felt that this was where he was supposed to ask why that was the case, but he really didn't like asking questions when he wasn't interested in the answers. He kept quiet, wondering if his dorm room had been cleared yet.

"Do you want to game with me?"

He was about to decline, but then he thought better of it. Attending classes was not one of the things he was tasked with when the project leaders had decided to send him to Hope's Peak as a student. This was a perfect opportunity to test his talent against the original Ultimates. He would have something to report to the headmaster, if he wanted to.

"Sure," he said, reluctantly.

They took turns playing the game that she had on her. Chiaki had set a good high score and it took Izuru two tries to beat, and then it took another two times to beat his own. He was surprised when Chiaki took her console back and suddenly switched it off.

"Why did you do that?"

"You aren't enjoying yourself at all, are you?" Chiaki asked, looking at him. After they started gaming, she had moved a lot closer to him to watch the screen. "You shouldn't force yourself to play just because I asked you. It's okay to say no… and it isn't much fun for me to lose from someone who looks bored."

Izuru kept quiet.

"It's been a while since I was here with someone," Chiaki said. She looked at the trees opposite of the fountain, "I used to come here with… the friend I mistook you for, on your first day. We used to play games together here, and just talk. He wasn't very good at it, but he did enjoy playing games."

Chiaki kept reminiscing about her friendship with that boy, his past-self, even after he had stopped listening to her. She didn't seem to mind his silence.

"I haven't seen him in a long time…" Chiaki said, finally nearing some sort of conclusion, "I tried asking after him, but they didn't want to say anything. I wonder…"

Izuru kept quiet.

Chiaki blinked. She looked up from her lap, and suddenly became a bit flustered, as if she just remembered whom she'd been talking with.

"Thank you for listening to all that. I'm… not really sure why I told you all of this. It's not as if you know him. I guess you really do remind me of him in a way… even though you are really different from each other."

She stared at the black screen of the handheld device she was holding, her grip tightening a little, almost unnoticeably. To Izuru, not a lot went unnoticed.

"I've never really been able to talk to anyone about this. I'm not really good at explaining myself, and I'm sure anyone else would've just teased me," she trailed off, her fingers ticking against the sides of the device in her hands, "Lately, I can't stop thinking about it. I wonder what happened to him. Is he even still a student here?"

For a moment, Izuru thought that Chiaki had finally run out of words to say on the subject. Of course, those who have trouble explaining themselves rarely run out of words to say. This conversation could take hours.

"What do you want me to say?"

She slowly averted her eyes from her lap, turning her head to look at him. He could see her hesitance, as if she was afraid that she was about to make a mistake she would not be able to undo.

"You're… the Ultimate Hope, right? So, maybe…"

How predictable. She wanted him to give her hope. So was her simple interpretation of what his ultimate talent entailed.

He could remain quiet. She would eventually get the hint and leave. He could also choose to fulfil her expectations and offer some useless words of platitude. He knew that those were only temporary solutions at best.

He could also choose to handle this properly and put an end to the subject at hand.

"If you really want answers to your questions, go to the administration office."

"I've tried. They won't help me."

Izuru felt a pang of irritation at the sheer predictability of it. Of course, the girl would not be able to think outside the box. He really had to spell it out for her.

"You don't need their help," he said, "The information you seek is there, regardless."

"You mean…" Chiaki said slowly, a look of bewilderment spread over her face. She finally understood what he meant, "You mean… breaking in? But that's…"

"Against the school rules," Izuru finished the slow-witted girl's sentence, speeding their conversation up a bit. It had continued on for long enough. "If you're caught, you'll be suspended for a while."

More likely, that would depend on whether or not she'd tell the truth when she got caught. For the sake of talent, Jin Kirigiri was willing to overlook misbehaviour from his students. Junko's presence at Hope's Peak testified to that. Izuru estimated that the chances of Chiaki successfully breaking and entering into the reserve course administration data center were extremely unlikely. There were many more factors that weighed in on this, and if she did manage to break and enter successfully by a stroke of luck, that would just be the first of her troubles.

All things considered, Chiaki Nanami had no chance of succeeding.

Chiaki remained lost in thought for a long time. Eventually, Izuru got up from the edge of the fountain and left without saying goodbye.

Despite the cleaning staff's work, the stink bomb's smell hadn't lessened at all when the evening came. The smell was so strong that many students had gotten sick from inhaling it. Eventually, it was decided that all the students whose dorms were on the affected floor were better off spending a night in the gym instead. Folding beds and sleeping wear had been provided for them. They could use the gym's dressing rooms to change.

Izuru already wasn't a good sleeper, and he had never shared a sleeping space with twenty adolescents before. He didn't get a wink of sleep that night.

When he entered the classroom, he didn't miss how pleased Hiyoko seemed to be with herself.

Some of the other students' behaviour towards him had changed. Sonia greeted him with a forced smile. Mahiru turned her head away when she saw him and didn't greet him at all. Ibuki spent very little time playing around with his hair that class.

Chiaki greeted him without raising her eyes from her game.

He spent most of the class staring at the window, just like he had done during every other homeroom class. Even on the school grounds nothing changed. The same students always hurried across the school grounds, late for something. The same teachers and academy personnel always lectured the same tardy students. Everyone followed their own routine, repeating the same day over and over again with very few adjustments, none of them worth mentioning, never the wiser of their own insignificance.

"Have a nice weekend, everyone!" Yukizome told the students, when class was finally over.

Just as Izuru was about to get up from his seat, Yukizome looked at him.

"If you could stay behind for a moment, Izuru."

When Hiyoko laughed about that, Yukizome quickly reminded her not to forget about her detention that afternoon and her laugh quickly died down. After the last student had left the classroom, Yukizome walked over to him and sat down on Chiaki's empty chair.

"Today is the last day of your first week at Hope's Peak," she said to him, smiling, "I just wanted to ask you about your first week as a student here. How has it been so far?"

"Fine," he replied.

"Did you run into any problems?"

"No."

"Are you sure about that?" Yukizome said, raising her eyebrows, "I heard that you were among the students who had to spend the night at the gym, thanks to Hiyoko's stink bomb."

"It was fine," Izuru said.

"Did you get any sleep in there? You look tired."

"Not much," he answered honestly. "It doesn't matter."

"Did you get to know your fellow students for a bit? It can't hurt to know the other students you share a floor with. You never know when you might need to borrow something!"

"No. I was tired."

Yukizome frowned.

"Mikan told me you have trouble sleeping. Was she able to help the other day?"

"Yes."

"Oh, really? That's great! As expected of one of my students!" Yukizome's smile returned in full force, "Mikan did tell me she only gave a temporary solution. Did she mention you can always visit the nurse's office if anything's wrong? Mikan helps out in her spare time, but we also have fulltime, fully qualified staff working there. There is at least one staff member present at all time in the nurse's office. The head nurse may be able to help you with your insomnia, too."

Yukizome waited for him to say something.

"You really don't like the thought of going to the nurse's office, do you?" Yukizome asked, glancing away from his face with a frown, "I can't force you to go, of course. But, you should know that there are options for students who are struggling with problems, no matter what kind of problem it is. And our medical staff doesn't bite. Mikan was great, wasn't she? She's still an apprentice, though."

"I'll look into it," Izuru lied.

"Good!" Yukizome said, "So, how are you getting along with your classmates?"

"Fine."

Once again, Yukizome frowned. It would've been surprising if she had let him get away with that.

"Really?" she asked, "To me it seems there's some tension in class. Hiyoko was pretty upset, yesterday. What happened?"

"You should ask Hiyoko."

"I'm asking you."

Hiyoko had refused to answer her questions, then.

"I don't know," he said.

She looked as if she wanted to say something, but refrained herself.

"I care about all my students, Izuru," she said, after a short pause. She looked him in the eyes. "I want you to know that if you ever need someone to talk to, my door will always be open. I will never turn my back on any of my students. Just remember that."

"Okay," Izuru said, "Are we done?"

He felt Yukizome's eyes burn in his back as he left the classroom.

Shortly after knocking, Chisa heard a voice from inside the room.

"Come in."

She pushed the door open and cast a quick glance through the headmaster's spacious office. It was empty, aside from the headmaster himself. Jin Kirigiri was behind his desk, staring down at some papers. Despite the time, he wasn't getting ready to leave his office yet. It was possible he had forgotten the time.

"Chisa, what can I do for you?" he asked.

She'd been staring without knowing. A little embarrassed, she stepped into the office and closed the door behind her. She didn't want anyone to overhear their conversation. She quickly made her way over to his desk.

"I have some questions about my new student, Izuru Kamukura."

He didn't seem surprised at all. If anything, he looked as if he had expected it.

"Is something the matter?"

"I know he's been my student for just a couple of days, but… I don't want to say that there's anything wrong with him, but there is something… off. I'm worried about him," she hesitated for a bit, "You don't look surprised, though."

"I'm not," Jin replied evenly. He leaned forwards in his chair, folding his hands. "I had hoped that it wouldn't be necessary for us to have this conversation, but I can't say I'm surprised."

"Why not?" Chisa asked, puzzled.

"I know Izuru's parents well. I can imagine why you would be worried."

"You can?" Chisa asked, surprised, "Why?"

"His parents worry, too. That's why they sent him here."

"What?"

"You didn't recognize his name?" Jin asked. Chisa stared at him, confused. Jin pointed towards one of the paintings in his office, "Izuru Kamukura and the founder of Hope's Peak Academy. You would've recognized that name if you hadn't skipped all those history classes."

Chisa was too focussed on the painting to her right, under which a little gold-coloured placard hung, to pay any attention to Jin's comment. The aged man from the painting stared back at her, his face proud.

"Izuru Kamukura founded this academy to create a place where personal talent could flourish freely, wishing to inspire great hope in everyone who was witness to the accumulated talent. Your student was named after his great-grandfather. Izuru's parents are very keen on their privacy and they asked me not to bring Izuru's background up if it could be avoided."

"Why would they do that?"

"My guess is that they just want Izuru to fit in. Izuru didn't just inherit his name from his grandfather. You must have wondered about Izuru's Ultimate title. Izuru was named the Ultimate Hope because he embodies his grandfather's ideals: he is accumulated talent."

"Accumulated talent?" Chisa repeated, "You mean he has more than one talent? How many talents does he have?"

"We don't know how many, exactly," Jin replied, looking her in the eyes, "We tried to determine how many when his parents enrolled him, but… Izuru isn't always cooperative."

Chisa blinked a couple of times, trying to process the information of one student having that many talents. There were other students who had multiple talents, but this sounded out of the ordinary—it sounded bizarre.

"Why… why did his parents send him here?"

"Izuru and his parents discovered his many talents while he was growing up, one at a time. He was talented at anything he gave a try. He understood everything with ease. He remembered everything in detail. He can analyse complicated situation in seconds, he can predict accurately what will happen based on facts," Jin studied her reaction, "Frankly, Izuru is bored. His parents sent him here in hopes that he will finally find something to stimulate him, something that will rouse his interest. He has never before attended a school. He doesn't have much experience socializing with peers. We hope that other Ultimates will be able to provide him with what he needs."

"I can barely get him to get out of his room."

The words slipped out of Chisa's mouth before she could stop them.

"That's exactly why his parents send him here. He has so much talent. It would be a loss if it all went to waste."

"Why did I have to come here to hear this?" Chisa asked, suddenly feeling a flare of irritation, "Why didn't you tell me immediately? Why didn't you tell me when I asked you the reason for his Ultimate title?"

"His parents asked me not to," Jin answered, evenly as always, "They didn't want anyone—not even his teacher—to perceive him with any preconceptions."

"Do you really think I'd treat him differently because of his family or because of his talents?" Chisa asked, feeling another flare of irritation, "He's still one of my students, and none of my students get to skip my class!"

Chisa's mind was still reeling—but in a better way than before. She felt she could work with this. Her conversation with Jin made her feel she understood her newest student a bit better—and that she'd be able to get a better understanding of him in the future. She felt that it would be hard to motivate someone like Izuru, but she wouldn't be Chisa if she didn't at least try.

She missed the hint of a smile around Jin's lips.

If Peko had been surprised to hear Chiaki's voice, then she had already masked her surprise by the time Chiaki had slid the door shut behind her. She felt nervous. She'd actually inspected the rest of the hall to see if there were any other people around, but it seemed like just Peko was making use of the practice rooms at the moment.

Still, it didn't help to make her feel better. She felt she was doing something wrong.

"Is something the matter?" Peko asked, lowering her practice sword.

"Not really," Chiaki lied, doing her best to come across as natural as possible. "There was something I wanted to ask you about… I was wondering, what is the best way to break into a room?"

Peko slightly raised her eyebrows.

"That depends on the room and security. Is there any reason you're asking this?"

"It's for a game. It's… really realistic."

Peko seemed as if she was about to say something, but then changed her mind.

"Tell me more about this game."

It was easier to explain this way. Chiaki even had to admit that it sounded like a compelling game, but unfortunately the mystery she was trying to solve wasn't just the plot to a mystery game. This was about Hajime, the first person to ever become her friend, even before she had befriended any of her classmates. Peko asked her some questions about security, but Chiaki knew next to nothing. All she knew was at what time personnel locked the building, and what staff members were prone to working over-time and on what days.

She'd spent a lot of time waiting outside that building but knew almost nothing about the inside. All she knew was that the staff really didn't like main course students walking about.

"If it is the Reserve Course building you are talking about, I have some ideas."

"No, no!" Chiaki protested in a hurry, feeling her face heat up. "I am just talking about a game, honestly!"

Chiaki was startled when she heard the sliding door behind her open. She noticed that Peko didn't seem surprised at all. Chiaki quickly turned her head, and saw Ibuki in the doorway. Her colourful classmate shook her head while sporting a cocky grin.

"Chiaki, you really have to try better than that! Ibuki could hear your lies all the way from outside."

Chiaki desperately tried to come up with words to say.

"Ibuki had been wondering why you spent so much time around the Reserve Course building. One mystery solved, and another one to go! Let's find out what happened to your friend!"

"It's… a game." Chiaki tried, one last time.

"If it's truly a game, then let's play it together," Peko suggested.

"It's a one-player game."

"Then we'll watch."

Chiaki remained quiet, her mind reeling.

"Come on," Ibuki said, "We're your friends. Let us help."