Several weeks had passed since Sonia had first come out of her pod. She was improving her motor skills, now able to walk effortly although not for long distances. The rooms around the facility had been renovated to suitable living environments, and all of them had settled down quite fine by now. "All of them" being the students that had woken up of course. The comatose kids were still unresponsive to stimuli.

Sonia sat in the cafeteria, aimlessly sipping at her tea. It was white winter tea, her favorite. She wondered how the Future Foundation had gotten a hold of any, seeing as how her country was plagued with chaos. Imports and exports should have been cut off a while ago.

She peered down into her delicate porcelain cup. The tea leaves at the bottom were withering. Withering away just like the people who grew them, she thought. She imagined a blaze burning down the plantation, the owners brutally impaled upon pitchforks by frustrated, faceless men.

A figure suddenly sat down in the seat across from her.

"Oi. Sonia-san, are you doing alright?" Sonia looked up and saw Souda's calm face staring back at her. He wasn't the same as he had been in the simulation. Whether this was because of the despair or the events on the island, she did not know.

Her lips formed a polite smile. It was one of the requirements of being royalty. Not that it mattered now, anyways. "I'm fine, Souda-san. Thank you for asking."

Souda's eyes turned dark and he looked down at the table. "Quit screwing around." Sonia tensed a bit in surprise. "We both know nothing's fine right now."

She, too, lowered her gaze. It was true, what he had said. None of their comatose friends had awoken, even after almost two months. Their hopes for a miracle were fading. Among the sleeping children was Tanaka Gundam, the boy who had sacrificed himself so that the others would not pitifully starve.

It felt different without his presence. She deeply wished for him to show up when Souda did, to sweep her away and leave a very brokenhearted Souda behind. It wasn't that she enjoyed his pain, but Tanaka offered an easy escape to Souda's constant worship.

She often went to visit him in the late hours of the afternoon. She had promised that she would watch over him, like he had over her back in the program. Sometimes she saw Kuzuryuu there, eyes focused on Peko's still body. They greeted each other politely, then grieved in silence until one of them got up to leave.

Sonia recalled how one time, she had seen Owari visiting Nidai as well. She did not see the gymnast very often, although Sonia had heard that she was usually off training somewhere. The occasional time she had shown up, her eyes were red and her voice was raspy.

"They're allergies," she pretended. "Stupid fucking island. With all of its dumb plants and exotic animals." Sonia's serene expression faltered for a moment. She remembered how Tanaka had complained about the lack of wildlife in the simulation, and thought how he would appreciate the diversity of the real island.

If only he were awake, she thought. I bet he would love it here.

Owari, noticing her mistake, bowed her head and muttered out something like an apology before walking over to Nidai's vessel. It was then that Sonia noticed she had been holding a bundle of clean, white flowers. Tenderly, Owari placed them above Nidai's chest and knelt down beside him.

"Hey, old man." Owari's voice was so quiet that Sonia struggled to make out what she was saying. "While you've been over here dozing off I've been training hard. If you don't wake up soon I'll pass right by you. I'll be the coach and you can be my athlete, and you wouldn't want that would you?"

As she stood up, Sonia noticed how much muscle she had regained.

Owari's health had significantly improved since they had first awoken. When she originally stepped out of her pod, everyone gasped in shock at her malnourishment. Her ribs were prominent and her limbs seemed thin and frail. She was unable to stand on her own and had collapsed almost immediately after being released. Her mind was in a state of shock from the sudden transference into such a deprived body.

Owari wasn't the only one who had experienced the after effects.

Following Pekoyama's execution, Kuzuryuu's right eye had been deemed unusable and had been removed from its socket in the simulation. When Kuzuryuu awoke in the real world however, he had reported feeling a strange discomfort in its place. After being offered a mirror he was met with the sight of Junko's bloody, mangled eye in place of his own. Unfunctional, it drifted aimlessly in random directions.

The Future Foundation had offered to remove it and Kuzuryuu had taken the proposition without a second thought. He was much more comfortable in his dragon-styled eyepatch anyways and felt reassured that the mastermind's eye was no longer part of his system.

Hinata, on the other hand, had no such option.

He had awoken in the body of Kamakura Izuru, which had not reverted to its prior state. His hair remained jet black and his eyes glowed a malicious red. The Future Foundation, which had been unsure of his stability given his experimental mind, had kept him under close watch for three days before finally deciding that he was, in fact, not Kamakura Izuru and had let him roam free like the others.

Hinata had cut and restyled his hair, but nothing could be done about its natural color. He had hoped that it was a temporary thing, and that his body would follow his mind and revert to its original state. Although, at this point, it seemed that no one's hopes would ever come true.

Sonia went back to lazily stirring at her tea. She took notice of how Souda's hair, without its dye, had returned to its innate shade of black. He still wore his hot pink contacts, although Sonia believed that this was because they had arrived on the island without any conscious notice, and hence Souda had not brought his glasses with him.

Souda pulled a tattered binder out of his bag and began to carefully flip through it.

"What's that?" Sonia asked inquisitively.

"This?" He pointed to the binder. She nodded and he continued. "It's all my old blueprints back from when we were… y'know. The Foundation guys gave it to me. Thought it might help me "come to terms" with my past self." He turned another page. "Look at this stuff…"

Inside were drawings of several death machines. Sonia recognized several of them from the class at Hope's Peak. There was Leon's execution, with mechanics drawn out on how to get the collar to grab him from the trial. Celeste's execution had been given considerably less thought, seeing as how it was a mere firetruck. Sonia was shocked to see the plans for Kirigiri and Naegi's executions, although both had obviously failed. Souda hadn't been able to do anything about Alter Ego. He was a mechanic, not a programmer.

"Souda-san, do you not find it strange…" she murmured.

"What?"

"The very students we tried to make despair, you even made their death traps, ended up saving us from that corrupted game. No, they wanted to save us in general." Her eyebrows furrowed. "Why would anyone ever do that?"

He shrugged. "Well, I guess it's that hope shit they were talking about. It's a miracle we woke up at all, let alone get our memories back. Let 'em keep dreaming is what I say."

"Sonia-san! Souda-san!" a voice called from across the room.

Naegi quickly ran over to their table. "What is it Naegi-san?" Sonia inquired.

"We've found… a way…" Naegi spoke inbetween breaths. Souda told him to sit down and catch his breath first, which he gladly did. After a while, he leaned forward and put his elbows on the table.

"Sorry. Anyway, we've found a way to export Nanami's personality out of the program, however-"

"Excuse me Naegi-san, but… who is this 'Nanami' you speak of?" Sonia and Souda both looked perplexed. Naegi looked back at them, confused.

"Nanami Chiaki…the ultimate gamer…don't you guys remember her? She was in the New World Program with the rest of you so she should be in your memories of the island! Hang on a second," He brought a small tablet out of his pocket and pulled up a picture of a girl with short, light pink hair and pale pink eyes. "Look! Don't you guys recognize her at all?"

"That girl…" Souda began. "I've never seen her before in my life."