Author's note: This was an old idea of what would happen if it rained on the island instead of the weather always being perfect. Also wanted to add my ship for the fluffyness
If there was anything that Hajime Hinata would need to get used to, it would be the feeling of despair that would swirl within his insides the nights he would have to sleep after a school trial took place.
A fellow student of theirs-Mahiru Koizumi-was murdered by Peko Pekoyama, who then went through a brutal execution and mistakenly hurt Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu in the process. The grief-stricken boy witnessed his childhood friend hold him and his bloody eye in her arms until death took her grasp. Now he's in critical condition in the island hospital being treated by Monokuma- who knows what that damned bear could be tinkering with to a human body when he's just a stuffed toy.
Hajime didn't have the motivation to get up that morning; what's the point of waking up to another day of questioning the trust between your friends with a high paranoia that yet another murder would occur despite what they've been through? He would have stayed in bed the whole time if it wasn't for the usual obnoxious morning announcement that Monokuma gave. After it ended he forced himself to rise out of his bed and left his lodge, heading towards the hotel restaurant to eat breakfast and once again face his classmates.
Upon entering the hotel Hajime saw a shorter girl with pale pink hair playing with the game machine in the lobby. He was already used to seeing the girl on the contraption every day on his way to breakfast; sometimes she was so absorbed in her game that she wouldn't notice a morning greeting uttered to her, and other times she'd stand in front of it while also sleeping. Today was one of those days where she was fast asleep, snoring with a snot bubble ready to burst at any moment.
"Chiaki...?" Hajime poked at the Super High School Level Gamer repetitively until the bubble coming from her nose popped and her eyes were wide open.
"Ah, Hajime...good morning.", she lifts her hand over her mouth to shield her morning breath from her yawn. She seems tired as usual, maybe she was like him and had a hard time sleeping last night after what happened as well.
Hajime tries to strike some type of conversation with her as a way to get her more awake. He asked her, "Are you ready to go meet up with the others?"
But once he looked back at Chiaki, she had already fallen back into her deep slumber. With a slight chortle to his attempt at being sociable, he entered through the doors that lead to the hotel restaurant.
The room appeared the way it always does; the tables were covered in what looked like any breakfast food imaginable, and there were classmates here early getting a start on eating. Of course the Super High School Level Gymnast Akane Owari was probably here first to devour her food before anyone else could arrive. The others that were there were seated with little or no food at all on their plates. Hajime ponders whether to get food as well, but his churning stomach made him sit down and wait on the other surviving students to show up.
After a couple minutes, everyone was seated and ready to reflect on the events that lead up to them losing yet another two students-possibly three depending on how Fuyuhiko's condition surfaced. It was a difficult subject to discuss, especially after hearing the reasons why Peko killed Mahiru in the first place.
Just as the discussion was drawing to a close the students were shocked to the sudden arrival of Fuyuhiko, now wearing an eyepatch over his right eye. After Monokuma came to explain the results of his operation, Fuyuhiko claimed to have turned a new leaf and that he's a changed man now because of Peko's sacrifice for his survival. As expected, Hiyoko Saionji didn't believe a word he was saying since Mahiru-who was like a big sister to her-has left her side. She even showcased the memorial she put together herself in honor of her death, although upon noticing it it looked like something that would be used for a cursed ritual. There was a small dispute on the subject of the strange looking monument until it was silenced by a bone-chilling laughter.
A twisted and corrupted laughter from none other than Nagito Komaeda.
Nagito was the only person not attending the meeting and wasn't desired to be accounted for in the first place; yet here he is coming to ruin everyone's state of mind worse than it already was.
"What the fuck's so funny you gotta laugh, eh?" Fuyuhiko questioned the messy white-haired boy with a less intimidating snarl while trying to keep up his changed image.
"Because it's hilarious", Nagito did another creepy chuckle, "how you all are so naive to being pessimistic about this when you don't understand. Mahiru and Peko's deaths are for the greater good, for the hope that we can all make it out of here alive-"
Before he could discourse any further, Akane grabs hold of Nagito's shoulders and pins him roughly against the nearest wall.
"None of your talk ever makes sense so quit your yapping ya hear me?!" she shouted at him loud enough for him to shut his eyes to avoid the droplets of saliva escaping her mouth. He nearly fainted unconscious if it wasn't for the intervention of Nekomaru Nidai getting Akane's grip free from him.
"You shouldn't be using up your energy for this." Nekomaru explained while throwing both of them to the floor. "Right now we should be grateful that Fuyuhiko is on his way to recovery!"
The man has spoke the truth after all; Fuyuhiko somehow managed to survive a near death experience and all the survivors could do was quarrel with one another which resulted in physical violence. But what was a way for things to be more at ease with the rest of them? That very inquiry was made into an idea thanks to Kazuichi Souda.
"How about...we throw a party to celebrate?" the magenta-haired mechanic asked this into the atmosphere, open for any suggestions from his peers. Everyone felt speechless; why on earth would they have a party knowing well the penalty of going is the chance of another murder? They all remembered what happened at the last party they attended, so why try it again? Kazuichi noticed all of their worried outlooks and nervously scratched his head, a sweat drop dotting his cheek.
"H-Hey hey you guys don't have to be so tense, I'm just saying it would be a nice way to settle down after what happened ya know? Can't we just...promise not to commit another murder?"
Fuyuhiko looked up at Kazuichi with an expression of bewilderment, not taking this unbelievable resolve to this as if it were that simple of a solution. However, instead of getting hot headed like he normally would have done, he replied with a full intent of seriousness. "Do you actually think something like a fucking pinky promise will be enough for us not to kill someone?"
"Not really, but I just thought it be a nice change of pace..." Kazuichi held the back of his head with his hand and looked away from the others, afraid of what they-but mostly Sonia-thought of him. Suddenly a cold and pale hand touched his shoulder, and when he turned his head behind him Nagito was there with that hope-filled face of his.
"That isn't such a bad idea, Kazuichi", he began what hopefully wasn't another dreadful 'look on the bright side!' speech. "Having a gathering like this could be just what we needed to get us together. Just imagine, the horrific school trial could have been all it took to turn this around and have good luck with us!"
Great, it was that sort of speech. Most of the time, none of the students would fall for the pale green-eyed boy's words of encouragement, but oddly this time was different. They were still silent and yet the way they looked at each other, from left to right, showed that they did take Nagito's words to heart.
After moments of no further actions, Hiyoko unexpectedly stepped up to give the others a piece of her mind. "...I think we should do it", she said with an embarrassing blush while averting her attention from any of the others. Everyone was surprised that one of the ruder students thought having a party would be a good idea. "It would be a good way to honor big sister Mahiru, and I guess Peko too."
It seemed that Hiyoko wanted to devise an excuse so it wouldn't insinuate that she'd be celebrating Fuyuhiko recovering-she still wasn't very fond of him after all. But she was right; instead of being paranoid of what is to come they should be grateful of what is going on now. The mood of the room suddenly changed from doom and gloom to a slight glimmer of hope.
"See? I told ya guys it'd be a good idea!" Kazuichi yelled out, assuring the group that it was his plan to begin with and refusing to let Nagito take all the credit.
"We could eat food so good that Teruteru would be proud!" Akane bellowed heartily, with her mouth already watering from the thoughts of food filled her head.
"And Ibuki could play us some tunes!", said Ibuki Mioda, getting rowdy at the chance to take advantage of her talent.
Everyone was actually going along with this..., Hajime thought this to himself as he observed the multitude of excitement exhibited by his peers. Of course he had his doubts on anything that had Nagito to do with, but seeing the others' euphoria was much better than the suspicion of before.
"I'm not entirely sure what you're up to, but I'll go along with this party proposal," Hajime said, trying as hard as possible to not display concern in his tone.
"I'm up to nothing, I just want all us Super High School Level students to have some time to settle down," Nagito said with that playful voice of his.
"Where will this affair take place then? Because I'm positive we can't go where it was last time."
"Haha you've got me there!" The boy in the green jacket chuckled, not even sure himself of the location of the party.
Then Kazuichi took the lead for suggestions. "We can have a beach party by the beach house!"
"You mean like the one the girls tried to have at the place big sister Mahiru was before she was murdered?!" Hiyoko exclaimed as there were already hints of tears forming in her eyes.
"S-Sorry I wasn't thinking right I almost...sorry. We could just not go in there if it's too painful. I just thought it'd be fun since we don't have many successful beach time events, right?"
He was right. Sure there were probably selfish reasons to this scheme-like redeeming himself from Sonia's wetsuit- but it would be a blast to relax by the sea and maybe swim a little. Besides, the last time they did have fun in the water was before they learned the true intention of this "field trip" that they were forced to take part in.
"So would tomorrow at around noon be fine with you, Miss Hiyoko?" The blonde pigtailed girl was asked by Nagito in a more polite and sweet talking manner.
Although refusing to talk initially, she bluntly answered, "Hmph, it's not up to me, go ahead and do whatever you want."
"T-Then it's settled...!" squeaked an ecstatic Mikan Tsumiki, sparkling surprisingly in excitement.
"I wasn't speaking to you you dumb pig!" Hiyoko asserted back at the poor dark haired nurse who had done no wrong. Right away, Mikan went back to normal and stutters out her apology as if it'd make a difference to her whether she apologized or not.
The duration of the time spent that day was uneventful; it was much too soon for Monokuma to pull up another motive from his sleeve. After moping around for majority of the day, Hajime returns to his cabin right before the 10 o'clock announcements aired and went to sleep.
Having become acquainted to the obnoxious sound of a morning greeting promising a beautiful day, Hajime was startled by the roaring crash of thunder sourcing from outside his dwelling. It was the first time hearing it ever since being trapped in this Field Trip of Mutual Killing. Once he arose from his bed, the morning announcement finally aired with the same image of Monokuma sitting in an unknown location with a wineglass in hand.
"Um, this is a school announcement. Good morning you bastards!" He started off as he always did, but it wasn't until after that where things took a turn for the worse. "It appears that we're dealing with unBEARable tropical storms all throughout the day so if you made any plans then you're gonna have to cancel! Have a good dayyyyyy!"
After the sadistic bear finished the announcement off with his signature laugh the monitor went black; the only sound heard was the hard patter of rain droplets hitting the outside of the cabin. Of course that stupid jerk of a stuffed bear would find some way to sabotage their festivities. Oh well, the only thing the students can do is meet up at the hotel restaurant and discuss their ruined plans. The question is, how are they going to make it in this downpour? Luckily Hajime picked up an umbrella in case of there ever being rain, but what of the others? With cold fevers and drenched clothing clouding his mind he opens the door of his cabin, takes out his umbrella, and heads out.
Upon entering the restaurant it looked as if the room was divided; on one side were the drier students-Mikan, Sonia, and Nagito-, and on the other side were the students who were unfortunate enough not to have an umbrella or just didn't care if they needed using one-Kazuichi, Nekomaru, Akane, Gundam, Fuyuhiko, Hiyoko, and Ibuki. Every one of them were shivering from the cool rain soaking in their soggy clothing.
Nagito simply smiled to this situation, a grin so wide his eyes could barely stay open. "Well isn't this great?", he asked without any indication of sarcasm. After saying that he was rewarded with menacing glares from not just the wet students, but from the dry ones as well.
Kazuichi took off his dripping black hat to wring it then placed it back securely on his head. "C'mon guys don't let a little rain ruin our fun, its just what Monokuma wants!" No one wanted to hear any more pep talk, they already had enough always hearing it from Nagito. "I know we can't really have a beach party cooped up in the restaurant, but it doesn't matter where we're at as long as we have a good time celebrating Fuyuhiko's recovery and in honor of our deceased classmates."
The area became filled with both surprise and guilt; surprised that Kazuichi would say something so heartfelt, and guilty to the fact that they almost cancelled their plans just because of the weather. But of course, his main objective for the inspirational speech was to be acknowledged by Sonia-except Sonia was too focused on trying to play with Gundam's "Four Dark Gods of Destruction" to take notice of his daring lecture. The sharp-toothed mechanic held in a yell of dismay for coming up with such a thoughtful thing to say only for what he thought it to be for nothing. That still doesn't mean his words of encouragement didn't reach to the other Super High School Level students.
"Kazuichi's right, as long as we can eat and party and be thankful we should stay right?", Akane bluntly stated what was probably one of the first few things to pop up in her head-especially since food was the initial item listed.
Ibuki reached into her bag and pulled out a pink music player, frantically waving it in the air making sure everyone could see it. "Ibuki has some tunes on her iPod if that'll work for music, its not as good as Ibuki's rockin' skills but it would do and we got an amp!"
"See guys, it ain't so bad after all!" Kazuichi grinned as if he had found a new mechanical toy to tinker with, rubbing his nose in satisfaction.
For the first time since who knows how long, the whole group of surviving students were filled with genuine glee. Ibuki had plugged her music player to the amp which played a decent playlist of songs that wouldn't make anyone question the sanity of the punk-appearing girl. Akane pulled out tables beyond tables of food for them to eat from the kitchen, and oddly enough the delicacies tasted better than its usual mediocrity-maybe it was from the joyous atmosphere. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, including Hajime, until he noticed someone was missing...
Where is Chiaki? He pondered this to himself. Now that he noticed, he didn't remember seeing her playing the game in the lobby like she does every day as well. He knew that if she wasn't there then she must not have came to the restaurant at all.
"You guys can party without me, I think I left something back at my cabin", Hajime made up an almost believable excuse but didn't care what remarks would be thrown at him since he left in a flash.
Outside the winds howled like overgrown beasts that were too monstrous to be real. Their ferocious bellows nearly tattered Hajime's umbrella as he trekked back to the cabin area of the hotel. The only place he could think the pink-haired girl to be at was taking refuge in her cottage.
Once he opened the door without knocking, he saw how precise his inference was; Chiaki was sitting with her knees up and arms encircling them, shaking like a dainty little leaf by the foot of her bed. He'd never seen her in such a nerve racking state before, it was as if he was looking at a frightened toddler who lost their parent in a store.
'"Close the door behind you now, please..." the pale girl pleaded to him urgently. Hajime hurried himself inside her cottage and shut the door.
"Chiaki, why are you still in your cabin when we were supposed to have our party today?" The cow lick-haired brunette asked her as he knelt down to her level on the floor. He backed away slightly trying to give her space but was intervened by her shuddering hand grabbing a hold to the sleeve of his shirt.
"...You don't have to be so far away. Come closer, please"
Hajime heeded to her command, scooting himself closer to her. A boom of thunder was heard in the distance from the storm, causing Chiaki to make a quiet yet high pitched yelp and hide her face in Hajime's chest. A blush of pink rose from his cheeks as he thought to himself, It's strange seeing her like this, but it's also kind of cute.
After a few moments passed by, the shaken girl moved herself from Hajime and looked away from his direction, presumably from embarrassment that someone had to see her this way. She still hadn't explained herself, so he decided to break the ice between them.
"So you didn't come out because you were scared of the storms eh?"
Although she was resisting to confess, she decided it was time she'd come clean on the matter. "Yes, I don't like storms at all. Whenever I play a horror game with a storm occurring in it its so dark I can barely see without the in-game flashlight. This kind of darkness just feels different to me than regular nighttime darkness. And whenever the thunder-"
CRASH!
Chiaki shrieked once again from the thunder, this time bringing in Hajime into a tight embrace while hiding her face in his shoulder. He didn't know what to do to soothe the terror being exhibited by her, so he slowly caressed the back of her head like a mother would do to stop her baby from crying. By the way she stopped shaking so suddenly, you would have thought his unknown Super High School Level had to do with the talent of calming people down-it'd be an absurd skill but he didn't care otherwise. All he cared about for the moment was to settle down the poor gamer from her time of unease.
Once she ceased her shaking, Hajime lessened his hold of her shoulders and lifted his head up so that they were face to face. He didn't want to prolong his stay or else the others in the restaurant might wonder what's taking him so long.
"Come with me, I'll take you to the party." Hajime offered to be Chiaki's escort, but the girl simply shook her head as a response and lowered it in shame. He had to think of something to get her up. With his quick wits Hajime was able to find a possible solution to her problem.
"How about whenever the lightning strikes you, um, think of someone fighting! What game characters can you think of that might have lightning powers?"
"...well," the pink-haired girl's head rose up as she raised her index finger near her chin in thought, "there is Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII, then there's Cole from Infamous...oh and the Pokémon Pikachu."
"Ah that's just enough! So every time you see lightning imagine its from their showdown, and the thunder is the sound from their attacks clashing together."
In an instant, the expression on Chiaki's face changed from the worry of before to a small reassuring smile. He really did like that smile of hers, even if he only witnessed it when she'd go into detail about the games she's played.
"That just might work Hajime...if this was survival in a zombie apocalypse you would be the resourceful one who'd be the last one eaten."
That "compliment" she gave the brunette brought him to a seemingly endless laughing fit. He doesn't remember the last time he laughed so hard, but he knew after all that's happened, seeing Chiaki in a way he's never seen her before then soon reverting back to her normal self was something he really needed to give him a good time. Unfortunately he had to silence himself because of Chiaki's bewilderment to his chuckling.
"A-Anyways..." he embarrassingly went back to his point, "We should really get going now, I have my umbrella with me so you shouldn't be too soaked from the rain. You can stay close to me, if it helps."
Hajime shoots up from the hardwood floor and gives Chiaki assistance in standing next to him. As she held his arm tightly like a security blanket, he cautiously opened the cottage door and opened the umbrella. The high winds and heavy precipitation were coming down on the two as they made their way to the party with the others. Normally it was an easy walk from their location and the restaurant could be reached within a few minutes; however, the current weather conditions proved this to be a difficult task. The pale-faced girl was still a little frightened from the thunder and lightning, but by time they were halfway there she got better at handling their situation while continuing to daydream of the ridiculous battles taking place in the dark, stormy clouds.
After what felt like ages, they were finally approaching the restaurant entrance. Once the front doors were visible the both of them made a mad dash to it, hastily getting inside and closing the door shut. They were hunched over, panting in exhaustion from running the home stretch to the lobby. Hajime closed the umbrella and shook it vigorously in the direction away from them so the water didn't splash on them. When he walked towards the restaurant, he looked to his side and found that Chiaki had disappeared. He switched side to side trying to find her, but gave up after hearing the noise of an arcade game's main menu. Turning around, he finds the girl facing the console already engaging in a game.
"Aren't you going to come join the rest of us?" The brown-eyed boy asked her as he was careful in coming up to her in case it would ruin her concentration-which was highly unlikely but he still wanted to be courteous. She answered him without looking away from the screen.
"Parties aren't really my thing so I'll stay here and play. I know how you feel about everyone getting along with each other so you can go if you want."
At first, Hajime thought he should use this opportunity for the exact reason Chiaki stated; it was important that the students gain more trust and have time to relax like then he thought, when would he ever get another chance to watch this master of gaming at work without any crucial meetings or distractions interfering? So instead of returning to the restaurant with the others, he decided to lean in closer to get a more vivid viewing of the game screen. He then spontaneously thought of a suggestion.
"You're always so good at these, I think I'd rather stay here and have a pro show this beginner how it's done." He asked upon the Super High School Level Gamer herself, implying to her he'd rather spend his time with her than to go to some lame gathering.
"Is that so...?" While she initially pondered whether or not she should take the boy's request, in the end she nodded to him and gave him space so that they would be able to share the controls.
The two then spent the rest of the day taking turns on the game; Chiaki showing Hajime the controls and what to do, while the latter tried to the best of his ability to beat whatever silly level there was. The girl was yawning during the entire session, it always seemed liked she was lacking sleep. They didn't even notice when the time was a quarter till ten o'clock-the dreaded curfew marking an end to their semi-perfect day.
As the students were leaving, they looked outside and noticed that it had finally stopped raining. The sky was clear of any signs of clouds, with only a view of the moon and stars visible. There was still the feeling of humidity in the air and the smell of rain but besides that it was as if it hadn't stormed at all.
After everyone left the restaurant, Hajime and Chiaki were the last ones to leave so he offered to walk her back to her cottage. He exclaimed to her on the way there of how much fun he had being able to play with her while she'd just nod to everything he said. Once they were at the front of her cabin, they said goodnight to each other and went their separate ways. In his own cabin, Hajime was just in time to hear the nightly school announcement and went to bed. He thought of the others and if the day they spent together would really put a stop to any more murders being committed. He also wondered if Chiaki's astraphobia-her fear of thunderstorms-has been treated because of the advice he gave her, even if it's by a little bit. For the first time since he's been tricked into partaking in the Field Trip of Mutual Killing, Hajime actually was able to accomplish what Monokuma always said at the end of the evening announcements; 'Sleeping to the sound of the ocean waves.'
It was after the announcement when Monokuma ended the transmission of the broadcast. The monitor turned on it's own without anyone tampering with it, but was not on air for the other sleeping students to overhear what was being displayed. On the screen was a fuzzy silhouette; by the looks of the ambiguous figure it was undoubtedly a girl with wild, thick pigtails. She stood with perfect posture and it appeared that her arms were folded under her chest. A familiar voice was heard from the screen.
"Heh boooooring, for once I simulated a downpour expecting to feed off their despair only for some sappy fun time crap? You gotta be kidding me."
Her mood then quickly changed to a more depressed voice, and it looked as though she lowered her head in anguish.
"And to think I put all that time into getting the conditions perfect for a storm too, from the thunder and lightning to the wind and rain itself..."
Now the mysterious girl reverts her personality to one that was seemingly high and mighty, regaining her straight posture and placing her balled up fists on her thin waist.
"No matter, I'll just never waste my time on a stupid rainy day. I should have a good motive prepared for those chumps for the next killing to commence, and then sooner or later the 'Loser Foundation' would come to the rescue! It's all according to plan."
The last sound emitted from the monitor was the perverse laughter of the unknown figure, driven by her sole objective to demolish any signs of hope that may shine its way through the dark depths of despair. What she is not aware of, however, is that on the one day it rained the students only became closer to finding trust between each other and tthe will to live through whatever horrific events may come against them.