"How bout this spot?" Fuyuhiko said, while walking.
Sonia and I managed to catch up to the group of Akane, Fuyuhiko, and Kazuichi that was looking for the best place to set up camp. Sonia decided to walk back a couple steps, to stay away from Kazuichi, so I decided to walk at her pace, because if Kazuichi saw me, he'd assume the girl who gave me my haircut wasn't far behind.
It also seemed Sonia was more comfortable around me, for some reason. It was probably because I saw her differently than Kazuichi did.
As an Ultimate with only one Talent.
Wait, no!
I shook my head quickly to get the thought out of my mind. I saw her as just a regular girl.
Kyoko occupied my thoughts so much that I couldn't see other girls as anything but regular girls. I started to daydream a bit about her, but Kazuichi's voice struck me out of my thoughts.
"Yeah, this place looks good!" Kazuichi gave Fuyuhiko a thumbs-up.
We stopped in a flat, grassy area next to a gray mountain wall, which meant it was blocked on one side. The beach was only a couple feet away, so we would know if anything was approaching us.
And if we looked upwards, we could see the entrance to the Neo World Program room, which was always a plus.
"Hey Hajime, when'd you get here? I almost didn't notice ya' with all that hair gone." Akane spoke up after turning around. Kazuichi turned around as well, knowing what her comment meant.
"Not too long ago." I responded
"You ready to go huntin'? I'm getting pumped!" Akane yelled
There wasn't really any other way to get food, so yes. We'd have to go hunting.
"Yeah, let's go." I answered
Akane turned around and started running into the forest, and after giving the rest of the Remnants a look, I followed her just as fast.
Even though I was Hajime Hinata, I still had my Ultimate abilities.
As I got further away, the voices of Fuyuhiko, Sonia, and Kazuichi discussing how to set up camp got softer and softer. I ran as fast as I could as the scenery around me changed into a luscious jungle, with incredibly tall trees, long vines, and large plants. The grass around here was getting taller, and I could sense Akane slowing down a bit. I easily caught up to her.
"Wow Hajime, you caught up to me already? That's pretty good." Akane spoke as she continued running.
I nodded, not knowing how to respond to that. We both continued running, looking around for any sign of movement. Leaves rustling, steps in the dirt, anything.
It wasn't long before I heard something in the distance, and my ear twitched. Instantly I stopped running to focus my senses, but it took Akane a couple seconds to notice.
"Huh? Do ya-" Akane said, a bit too loud.
So I cut her off with a whisper, "Shh. I hear something."
I began walking slowly and quietly towards the sound, and Akane followed me, ruffling the grass a bit.
After a couple steps, I stopped abruptly. I saw a yellow chicken strutting about in the forest, occasionally pecking the ground in search of food. Akane's eyes lit up at the sight, and she began walking slowly towards the chicken, her mouth starting to water.
I could tell that the chicken noticed Akane, but I didn't want to interfere again. Either way, my whispering would probably distract the chicken even more, now that we were closer.
With one swift movement, Akane jumped at the chicken. But it just barely escaped her dive, and started running away in the opposite direction.
"Arghhh!" Akane yelled, as her face slid in the dirt.
I quietly sighed, and began running after the chicken. The chicken could run fast, but it was no match for me. It tried to swerve to drive me off its path, but it was futile. Within a couple seconds, I caught up to it and grabbed it by the neck.
I stared into its eyes, the look of fear and nervousness apparent. It was ruffling its feathers as quickly as it could, in the vain Hope that it could somehow free itself. However my grip was too strong.
I'd have to kill this chicken. There's no other way. It looked so helpless, so scared. Killing innocents is something that Junko would do, and I didn't want to be a part of that anymore.
But it was either it, or us. Either we found food, or we died.
I wasn't going to let myself die. Not without Kyoko.
I stared at the chicken for a couple seconds more before Akane interrupted my thoughts.
"Nice job, Hajime! You caught it!" Akane said, as she brushed the dirt off her face and started walking over to me.
Without a second thought, Akane took the chicken from my hand and snapped its neck, instantly killing it. I didn't flinch.
"Whattaya waitin for? Let's find more chickens, I'm getting hungry!"
Akane gave me back the chicken to hold, and she started running off again.
And we spent the rest of the day catching chickens, Akane trying her best, and me actually finishing the job. After we caught a couple of them, Akane suggested that she hold them, because that's what her muscles were for. So she followed me around, holding all of the chickens I caught. I eventually became accustomed to snapping their necks myself, as Akane's hands were full. It didn't feel like anything, really. The fact was, I was used to this.
At the end of the day, just as the sun was setting, Akane and I walked back to the campsite. She was holding six chickens, and I was holding two.
As we approached a clearing, I could see the true color of the sky. It was a typical mixture of orange, purple, and pink, except that those colors blended in with the dull, permanent redness of the sky. This created various shades of red, some lighter, some darker, which was actually somewhat beautiful. The more I looked at it, the more it reminded me of the constant conflict between Hope and Despair.
I looked ahead, to see much more of a campsite than I expected. There were three small huts made of wood sitting a foot or two away from the mountain wall. They seemed to be bound up decently well, with vines from the jungle, and they were only about four feet tall. The rest of the wood was stacked neatly against the mountain.
I turned to my side, to where the grass stopped and the sandy beach began. There were five small wooden logs arranged in a circle, and in the center was some firewood. Sitting on the logs were Fuyuhiko, Kazuichi, and Sonia. Fuyuhiko was concentrating on starting a fire, so Sonia noticed us first.
"Wow! You sure found a lot of food!"
Akane grinned sheepishly, "Well, Hajime really did-"
Everything. Her incompetence is better wasted somewhere else.
My mind was acting up again. Planting thoughts inside my head... It was getting annoying. So I decided to cut her off there, to fight these thoughts.
"We made a great team."
I didn't want them to see me as the Ultimate Ultimate. I'm Hajime Hinata now. I do have these powers, but they don't make me who I am. I make me who I am.
And, maybe if they think I'm more like them, then maybe, eventually, I can convert them to the side of Hope. And then, hopefully, I'll finally be the Hajime Hinata that I decided I'd be.
Kazuichi turned our way and, when seeing what Sonia saw, whistled lengthily, "Looks like we're havin' a feast tonight!"
Akane responded quickly, dropping her dead chickens near the log seats, "Yeah! I can't wait!"
I followed her lead, dropping my two chickens onto the pile as well, without a word. Fuyuhiko noticed our movement, and looked up. His eyes fell onto the large pile of chickens, and they widened in amazement. He then looked up at me and my glazed, dark red eyes. I could tell he wanted to say something, but after a second, his eyes dropped off and he continued to work on the fire.
After a couple minutes, Fuyuhiko got the fire started. The setting sun was almost out of the sky now, the colors almost fading.
With the fire started, Akane didn't hesitate to begin cooking, "So, how'r we cookin' these things?"
After a second of silence, I responded, "Well, we should take the feathers off first. I'll set up a rotisserie using the extra wood, and then we can start cooking them."
"What're we waiting for? Fuyuhiko, where's the knife?" Akane yelled, having more vigor than before.
"Calm down. It's right here." Fuyuhiko tossed the knife to Akane, who dodged it quickly. The knife blade stuck itself in one of the chickens, and Akane pulled it out with a snarky expression. Then, with just as much enthusiasm as before, she started using the knife to slice off the feathers of each chicken corpse.
I then stood up and walked over to the wood pile, and grabbed three long straight sticks, one significantly thinner than the others, and brought them over to the fire. I took off my right shoe without hesitation, and as the other three Remnants watched, I drilled the two thicker sticks into the ground on either side of the fire.
"Akane, can I borrow that knife for a second?" I turned over to her, sitting near her pile of chickens.
It seems she just finished skinning a chicken, so she agreed, "Make it quick, alright? I'm hungry!"
I walked over to her and grabbed the knife. I then started hacking at the center of one of the two thicker twigs, creating an indent that we could use to hold the thin one.
"Hey! What the hell? You're gonna break my knife, bastard!"
"I'm sorry, but we need to do this to cook the chickens."
Fuyuhiko scowled a bit, and then reluctantly agreed, "Fine..."
After another couple of seconds, I finished the rotisserie. I then traded the knife back to Akane for the skinned chicken, which I skewered with the thin stick. Walking over to the fire, I placed the skewer above the fire, took a seat on a log, and started turning it slowly.
"Oh. So this is a 'rotisserie'..." Sonia responded
The other three Remnants began talking, but I tuned their conversation out. I just turned the chicken mechanically, making sure it was cooked enough.
I stared into the chicken as I turned it. So... boring...
By now, it was almost completely dark, save the fire and the sparse moonlight we could see between the clouds.
My mind started to wander a bit, and naturally that focused my mind on Kyoko. I went through all the events we shared together.
And then I remembered the book, still inside my jacket. I'd have to see how she saw these events...
After some time, all of the chickens were cooked. We each grabbed one, with the exception of Akane who grabbed two, and started eating.
"Mmm... Good job, Hajime!" Akane said, barely able to get the words out between bites.
"Y'know, for wild chickens, this ain't bad at all..." Kazuichi responded
"Damn right!" Fuyuhiko added
"Thank you."
That was all I could think of, unfortunately, as I took another bite of my chicken.
For the most part, dinner was silent because everyone was busy eating. I haven't cooked wild chickens before, but my Ultimate abilities surely helped in making them taste good.
Fuyuhiko finished first, so he dropped the chicken bones to the ground. After he wiped his mouth with his sleeve, he began speaking.
"We've got food. We've got shelter. At this rate, Peko and the others'll be free in no time!"
"Yeah! This shouldn't be hard at all!" Kazuichi joined in
"I cannot wait!" Sonia responded as well
"And then those fuckin' bastards will pay. We'll kill them. We'll rip their organs out while they're still alive and watch them suffer."
Fuyuhiko's smile shifted into a more sinister one, his eyes increasingly becoming more twisted along with his thoughts.
"We shall rip through their bodies with spears and watch them bleed to death!" Sonia added, showing the same expression as Fuyuhiko
"We'll drop them from a tall building and see their blood splatter the ground!" Kazuichi said as well.
Thankfully, Akane was still eating the leftover chicken, so she didn't join in. At this point, their eyes, just like their minds, were completely warped, their Despair visible.
That's what Junko could do. She could change from a normal girl into a crazy Despair-filled madwoman in an instant, and back. It only makes her second form less predictable.
And more Despair-inducing.
But I've made a choice. If I was true to my word, I'd have to stop the Remnants from wanting to get revenge on the Future Foundation.
But in order to stop them, I'd have to...
I'd have to convert them to the side of Hope. Otherwise, I couldn't say I truly changed.
As much as I wanted to intervene, however, my mind increasingly wanted me to just ignore everything, and let them do whatever they wanted. It all felt so... pointless.
But in the end, what really convinced me to speak up was the fact that Kyoko was a part of the Future Foundation, and I needed to protect her.
"Is revenge really what you want? Is killing all those people really worth it?" I spoke, almost breaking the three Remnants out of their trance. They looked at me forcefully.
"Yes... They need to die... They need to feel Despair... Just like we felt back then..." Fuyuhiko chanted.
"You... Aren't you one of us? A Remnant of Despair?" Kazuichi interrogated
I didn't say anything, but I stared more intently at him.
"Shouldn't you feel the same way? The way of... Despair?"
"Maybe I learned something."
"What exactly could you learn... that would rid your mind of glorious Despair?" Sonia inquired
"That there's more to life than just Despair. Everything gets boring after a while."
Including you four
Shaking off my thoughts, I continued, "And sometimes, you have to let go of yourself to truly try something new."
After I made my final statement, I got up and walked back to the huts. The three Remnants were in a semi-trance state, not knowing whether to shift back to reality or back into Despair. It looks like my speech did its job.
But the fight isn't over yet. Hopefully, I'll make more progress tomorrow.
I forgot that we didn't assign the huts yet. Naturally, I was drawn to the smaller hut out of the three, which was built for one person. But that would only reinforce the fact that I was different from them. That I stood out from the others. Every little step counted, if I wanted to really change. Yet, my body tensed up slightly at the thought of sharing a hut...
"Y'know, Hajime, you can take that hut if you want it."
Akane's voice pierced my thoughts. I turned back to her, and it seems she was finally finished with her chicken. Because there was no more food left.
It also looked like the other Remnants were back to normal. Kazuichi, hearing Akane mention hut assignments, spoke up
"Yeah, that's fine. As long as you don't take the one in the back. I built that one for me and Miss Sonia!"
"Um... It is rather scandalous for boys and girls to sleep in the same hut." Sonia retorted
"Yeah, she's right. Akane and Sonia would have to be in the same hut. I'll take the other hut with Kazuichi to make sure he doesn't pull any shit." Fuyuhiko agreed
"Hey, hey! That's no fair!" Kazuichi responded, but no one said anything else
I nodded my head at the four of them, and proceeded to enter my hut. Something inside me told me that I would be more comfortable in this hut, anyways...
I had to lay down because there wasn't enough room to stand. I didn't feel like sleeping yet, so I decided to take a look at Kyoko's book.
I read the first section of it, our first meetup ever since I became him. Reading it made me chuckle a bit, at both my actions and hers.
I didn't have time to read more, because the others were heading back to the huts. I hurriedly put the book away, so they didn't see it.
"Good night." I said to the others. I couldn't let my one person hut exclude me from them.
It seemed Akane was the only one who heard me, because she was the only one who spoke back
"Night!" she said, with a wide grin on her face.
With that out of the way, I got into a more comfortable position to sleep, closed my eyes, and waited.
But sleep didn't come easily. It never did anymore.
My mind was too occupied, too full of thoughts.
Sleep is for the weak...
Doing nothing. How boring...
This hut is not optimally built...
I tried my best to shove these thoughts away. Luckily, it started raining, which did interrupt them. The slight pitter-patter of rain on the grass and wood was a very soothing sound, and I focused on it, which led me much closer to sleep.
Drip
I felt a cold, wet raindrop fall onto my nose and splash all over my face. I opened my eyes slowly, and a glazed look appeared on my face.
The roof of the hut wasn't sealed off properly, so it was leaking.
For a mechanic, Kazuichi is foolishly incompetent at building things...
The thoughts flooded my head again, just as rain began to flood my jacket. I sighed, not knowing what to expect anymore.
It's tough to force back an old self, especially when everything you look at causes it to act up.
As much as I wanted to fight the feeling, it looks like I'd have to fix this hut...
I wouldn't want this book getting wet, now...