To anyone who follows me here, this isn't RWBY. Also, sorry I haven't been working on the on-going story :S

This one's been sitting on my drafts for over a year. Hinanami Week gave me the excuse I needed to actually finish it. So, thank you for that.

ALL THE SPOILERS FOR DANGANRONPA 2 AND 3 (the anime, not the game)

Move On

Hinata walked inside, shutting the heavy door behind him. The room was barren, walls filled with metal and not a single piece of furniture in sight apart from a small blanket in the center. Enclosed and with no windows, it seemed more like a bunker than anything else, but to him it reminded him of the deck of a ship. It reminded him of before.

As he sat down atop the blanket, he felt the cold surface drain his heat even through the layers of cloth, but it bothered him not. His classmates didn't understand his fixation with that room, a desolate compartment belonging to the now decommissioned Monokuma Toy factory, but they didn't pry. After all, they too were yet healing from the simulation, and the air was still heavy and off-putting between some of the class members. Each one of them was doing whatever it took to return to normal.

It was that privacy, above all else, that drove him to the room. There he could stop worrying about the safety of those that had just woken up from the coma, and focus on his own well-being. No one needing him or his immeasurable talent inside that room, instead, he was the one who was seeking help. For that, he would gladly withstand the cold. He would never get the warmth he truly needed anyway.

Closing his eyes and steadying his breathing, the boy concentrated, and allowed his mind to wander off, searching. Before long he found what he was looking for, but prefered to wait rather than open his eyes again. And just like every other time, his reward came in the form of a piercing pain in his chest.

"You know you can't keep doing this forever, right?"

That voice. The sweet melody of her words. Hinata breathed in deep, trying to keep his tears away, and looked up at the faint figure of her body.

"What else am I supposed to do, Nanami?" His throat clenched, when he tried to speak, but she understood regardless.

"You need to move on. How can you be happy if you keep clinging to someone who's already dead?" Her face was gentle, not a trace of malice in it, but those words cut through him like butter, and the pain only became harder to bear.

He was Izuru Kamukura. The man of a thousand talents, the Hope of humankind. He had overcome Junko and her despair, defeated the simulation and even managed to nurse his comatose friends back to health. Just like he had been a key player in the trials, uncovering the truths the others could not piece together, he had become the pillar on which the 77th class stood, the one person leading them through their recovery. They relied on him, on his strength and perseverance, the same perseverance that had promised them a future outside the cruel game.

He was afraid, overwhelmed, but inside that room he needn't be. Nanami was the only one he could show weakness to. Because unlike everyone else, she… she didn't need him.

He didn't find it in himself to answer her. How could he? She had been there for him when no one else had, both in Hope's Peak and Jabberwock Island. She had given him strength when he thought he had none, guidance when he'd been lost, and companionship when he felt so different and isolated from the other students off the 77th class. And then she had been ripped away from his arms.

Mistaking his silence for consent, Nanami kept going. "Maybe you should find someone else, to help you move on. Like in Silent Hill 2. Okay, that was not the best example… I think."

Once again, Hinata found himself at a loss for words. Was she really suggesting he sought romance? That wasn't only an absurd idea, inconceivable, but also quite unlike her.

"What about Komaeda? He seems to like you a lot. Should've triggered some flags already."

The boy failed to suppress an amused snort. "I don't think he really likes me as much as the hope he imagines I have inside me… or whatever, I can't really make head or tails of what he says all the time."

She pressed a finger against her cheek, pensively. "What about Tsumiki?"

"Don't you think she has enough on her plate already?"

"Fair enough. Peko? Komaeda says you used to have a crush on her."

He cursed the Ultimate Lucky Student and his perceptiveness under his breath, all the while blushing furiously. During their free time spent together, Hinata had unexpectedly grown fond of the swordswoman, particularly the soft side that she kept so well hidden from the world and her yearning for cute animals. The disparity between that side of her and the stoic persona she kept in public were quite endearing, but that all felt like so long ago. It had been before she cold-bloodedly committed murder, and he got a glimpse into yet another part of Pekoyama that he wasn't sure he could ever deal with. Luckily, Kuzuryuu seemed to be very much up to the task.

"Hard pass."

Nanami puffed her cheeks. "You're just dodging."

"Maybe it's because I don't want to move on." The former reserve-course student avoided her gaze, but he could feel her eyes disapprovingly burning into him.

"Didn't you choose to forge your own future when you beat Junko Enoshima?"

"I did…"

"Then what changed? You knew I wouldn't be there."

Tears began pooling under his eyes, bottled up emotions threatening to explode within him. He spoke, but his voice cracked. He sobbed, shivered, feeling the tears roll down his cheeks freely. She couldn't console him, she couldn't touch him, hug him and whisper in his ear that all would be alright.

She wasn't real.

She wasn't there.

He didn't even know if Nanami was a figment of his imagination, or some ghost channeled by one of his Ultimate abilities, a shadow of someone who had once been alive.

Hinata felt alone. Cold. Meaningless.

All the talent in the world, and he couldn't save the one who mattered the most to him.

"I just…didn't think it would be this hard."

Nanami said nothing. He wondered if she was still even with him, but was too afraid to look up.

"Everyone needs me. The others… they are in so much pain. The memories are still so fresh."

Silence.

"Mioda wakes up every night screaming, you know? Gasping for air. I think she has nightmares about being hanged. Not that she would tell me, she always pretends like nothing's up, acting the goof she always is."

…

"She's not the only one either. Saionji has panic attacks if she wakes up and Koizumi isn't there. Kuzuryuu spends every night outside Peko's door. He thinks we don't know. Hanamura hasn't even gone near the kitchen since he woke up, anything even remotely hot has him running to the bathroom to throw up. They're all…in such bad shape. And I'm the one who has to put them back together. Tsumiki helps, but she's barely keeping it together herself."

"But you're not alone."
"But I am! Soda? Oowari? Sonia? It's too much for them to handle! They need me. They need…No, they need Izuru Kamukura."

She grew silent again. Maybe she wanted him to let all those emotions pour out.

"Everyone looks up to me to be strong, to guide them. I can't give them that. I'm not Izuru. I'm Hajime Hinata. The reserve course student, the talentless idiot who thought he could be something more." The tears dried up in his face, but his body remained shivering.

Nanami chuckled.

It struck him that he had never heard her laugh in all that time. It was such a foreign sound, almost out of character. His gaze sought hers, needing an explanation. How could she be laughing when he was tearing his heart out in front of her?

"I wish I could slap you right now." For some unfathomable reason, she was smiling. Softly, kindly, just like she used to when she was alive.

"Huh?"

"Weren't you Hajime Hinata when you arrived at Jaberwock Island? When time and again our friends died, and we were forced to piece it all together, not a single one of us detectives? Weren't you Hajime Hinata when you figured out the culprits before almost anyone else, when you led a scared and confused class through trial after trial?"

"I..."

"Weeren't you Haijme Hinata when you beat Gala Omega five times in a row? I mean, even I think that's impressive. Unless you were lying to me back then?" The ghost figure pouted slightly, in a daunting change of topic that he tried his best to follow.

"No, I wasn't!" It felt like such ancient history, a time before despair. "I could probably beat it twenty times times in a row."

"You wouldn't..."

"I'm the Ultimate Gamer too." He puffed his chest out smugly.

"If you beat my high score I'll never answer again when you call me." There was fire in her pink irises, and she moved her face closer to him to emphasize the glare.

For that he found no answer. The prospect of letting go was much too hard to consider.

"How do I help them? How am I supposed to keep doing this, Nanami?"

"Trust them. Our classmates don't need Izuru Kamukura. They need a friend. Something…normal." The former gamer reached her hand to his face, stroking his cheek, except he could feel nothing. After how many times he'd summoned her, that part never got any easier. "And who better to give them normal than you?"

Hinata snorted, wiping the tears off his cheeks. Normal. He had spent his life running away from that word. He had rued being common, cliched, uninteresting, longing for talent to make him stand above the crowd. Why would someone want normal? Why would someone want him?

"You make it sound so easy…"

"And you're making it harder than it needs to be. Soda trusts you more than he trusts himself. Kuzuryuu adopted you as his brother. And they're not the only ones. Believe it or not, you're one of… them." For a second it seemed like she was about to say 'one of us', but quickly recovered.

"Maybe you're… Wait, how do you know about that?" The toast and the promises made to Fuyuhiko had happened behind closed doors, she shouldn't have the slightest clue about it.

The girl shrugged nonchalantly. "Server admin privileges."

Hinata coughed, trying to keep his mind from what else she could have seen. Sonia wasn't the only one ashamed of some of her behavior before the cameras. Not that he had anything to worry about now that they were out of the simulation.

Their banter was interrupted by the sound of a fist pounding against the metallic door. Slowly, since it took great effort, the entrance clanked open and a boy with bright lilac hair peeked his head inside.

"Hey, Hajime. Were you talking to someone?"

He looked away, trying to keep his reddened eyes from view. The mechanic couldn't see Nanami, so there was no reason to let him know. It would only make him out for a deranged fool. "Just myself. Something wrong?"

"Nah, don't worry. The guys are all up, and were wondering if you wanna, y'know, have lunch with everyone together. Like we used to." Soda scratched the back of his head embarrassedly, as if he was asking him out on a date.

"Alright, alright, I'll be right there. Just give me a second."

The intruding man nodded solemnly and closed the door again.

When he turned around to the spectral silhouette, half expecting her not to be there anymore, he found her gazing back at him intently. "See? One of them."

Hinata sighed heavily, feeling his shoulders stiffen. "I guess you're right as always. Gekogahara taught you well."

"I should start billing you consultation fees."

He chuckled, somewhat bitterly, and got back on his feet. Calling out to her was always just as painful as saying goodbye. Perhaps she was right about that too – he was just falling back on an unhealthy behavior.

"I shouldn't keep them waiting." Without another word, he turned his back to the girl and began walking towards the outside. It was brisk and rude, but it was how they always did it. It hurt less.

This time, however, her voice called out just as he jerked the door handle back. "Hey, hey."

"Yes?"

For one last time, Nanami smiled at him. A sight no one else would ever see but him. His most prized memory.

"One step at a time."

He nodded, and closed the door behind him. "One step at a time."