The first thing that one Chiaki Nanami saw was that a hail of rain fell onto her room's window. She was just waking up from her sleep when she heard the rumbling roar of the hurricane outside. She blinked once or twice before sighing. It was another new morning in the Nanami household. The Ultimate Gamer woke up enveloped in a bluish-darkness. The clouding storm preventing her from seeing her room like how she was accustomed to see. There were various lights in her room, mostly coming from all of the stationary consoles waiting to be booted, and one night-lamp shaped like her favorite video game character.

Chiaki slowly pulled herself out of her bed and slipped her feet into her flippers she got from a game's limited edition. The game wasn't really that good, kind of fanservice-y in-fact, but since the mascot is cute, she welcomed them to stay. There was a sense of disappointment in her eyes when she saw that school was cancelled. It was something about a storm caused suddenly by a change in the weather. Meteorologists didn't know what was going on, but many speculated on global warming. It was plausible, since the season is going on a transition from fall to winter. Either way, she need to plug off all of her consoles from the electrical outlet before the blackout happened—or if it will happen anyway.

She sighed.

Her sadness was visible as she looked into the mirror. Chiaki wasn't really an expressive girl, but when she showed any slight change in emotion, it would truly show. There was something tugging on her heart, and she knew what. She calmed herself and took a deep breath in and then out, before calming herself once more.

And then she sighed again.

After plugging off all of her console, she turned to her handheld and booted up a game. After making her selection out of all of the icons available to pick, she tossed herself onto her bed and felt herself one with the world... of the game. She wasn't the Ultimate Gamer for nothing, because doing that was just natural for her.

A High Score again.

Or another World Record.

Or another High Score and another World Record.

It was either that or the other. However, Chiaki didn't ever feel that she was getting bored to her games. She was just really happy to always be able to play her games. It was just a simple joy that stemmed from her hobby, it wasn't anything special. She didn't even know why she was chosen as the Ultimate Gamer, that title made so little sense to her that she'd rather not associate herself with it. She's just a girl who loves to play video games.

And the storm continued to rumble outside, and her stomach began to grumble. It wasn't so loud that it could be heard across the room, but it was more like a silent rumbling that only the sharpest of the souls could read upon. Either way, Chiaki slightly blushed, and placed her handheld she was playing onto a flower-motif pouch she recently bought.

"Maybe I should ask Mom to cook me something for breakfast," Chiaki thought to herself, but then she pondered upon it further. "On second thought, I'd rather have Mom teach me what to cook for breakfast. Maybe she'll let me cook the Miso." As Chiaki said that, her mother called from downstairs in a cheery, but unsure voice. Chiaki opened the door and replied, despite the storm causing quite the roar outside.

When Chiaki asked her mother to teach her how to cook, her father slowly peeked from the tip of his newspaper. He got the gist of something going on, but it was probably just a father's imagination. Or it was a father's instinct to protect her daughter. Either way, he was exceptionally curious on the topic.

"Geez, Dad. I'm not a kid anymore!" Chiaki shouted in a moderate voice, but she was pouting in exasperation. "There's nothing more to it. I'm just learning how to cook so I can cook! It's better to learn it from Mom than I would from a certain friend I know, right?"

"A male?"

Chiaki nodded.

And her father slumped on his sofa, defeated. Chiaki's Mom could only giggle at the sight of her husband, and then continued to take her daughter into the kitchen, but not before instructing her to take some things from the refrigerator. "Oh by the way, Chiaki. Have you unplugged the consoles? We don't want another incident like Blackout number 6, right?"

"I already did, Mother. Thank you for reminding me."

"Really, consoles these days are so flimsy. A little bit of power outburst and their circuits fry. I can see the appeal of those games, and it makes me glad that it got you somewhere in life, what with being an Ultimate at all... but..." Chiaki's Mom sighed. "But, back then, I was worried that you'll be a geek your entire life with nothing else to speak off of. Your Mother is glad that she was proven wrong."

"Alright, Mitsuki, that's enough." Chiaki's Father sharply interjected. "Chiaki, just ignore your mother. She always has a bad mood whenever there's bad weather. She's just rambling about at this point."

"Iruka," Mitsuki replied, silently. "You're cooking your own breakfast today."

"B-But why!?"

"Don't worry Dad, I'll cook up your breakfast for you!" Chiaki replied with a determined smile, but in her usual low voice. She was huffing a courage from her nose and pulled her balled hands close to her as if she were pumped. No, she is pumped. "I'll cook the best meal I'll ever cook yet! And I'm not going to replicate a video game I know, so just rest assured!"

Iruka smiled before reclined back into his seat.

"Oh yeah, Mitsuki," Iruka called his wife. "Have you seen the news? Something really interesting is going on right now."

"Oh, you mean the Satellite made by the Otonashi Foundation? Yeah, that was all the talk in the neighborhood. Ms. Suwa have been talking about it non-stop, I'm kind of worried for her obsession sometimes." Mitsuki stopped to instruct her daughter to crack the eggs perfectly, though she seemed to already know how to do that. "Still, the thought of that thing being made just as recently as two months ago. Whatever was it made for, I wonder, to make it in such a hurry?"

"Well, the head of the foundation, Ryoko Otonashi, said that she intend to create another multimedia, multipurpose satellite for Japan's usage. For all intents and purposes, she was keeping quiet about what it was really for. Considering how big the project is, especially from the sponsors, it was no wonder they wanted to keep it a hush. Could be something to observe the stars, could be something akin to a space-station with space hotdogs, or... it could be used to fight back aliens."

Iruka and Mitsuki laughed, but Chiaki could only look at them with confusion in her face. "Did you say... space hotdogs?" Chiaki placed one finger on her chin and looked elsewhere. "What constitutes a space hotdog? Does it need to be a hotdog made in space, or do you need to make it in a zero-gravity environment?" then she looked at what she was making right now, a Hamburg Steak. "That's no good, I can't make it like that."

"Relax, lil' Chiaki," Iruka laughed. "Just make something and I'll be sure to eat all of it. Your father's words are never of a lie!"

Chiaki nodded in response.

"Ah, Chiaki, you shouldn't knead the meat yet. We need to let the sauce soak into the meat first before we soften it."

Chiaki hurriedly stop what she was doing and looked at the half-kneaded bowl of meat before her. It looked like a bunch of crushed red mush with barbeque sauce. Irritated at the sudden revelation, she pouted once more.

"I'll confess tomorrow."

"Stop it."

"Hey, Natsumi. I'm going to confess to someone tomorrow. I'll tell you the rest later!"

"Natsumi, please stop."

"And look what happened when you got cocky. A typhoon happened. Serves you right for leaving me hanging. You douchebag." Natsumi yelled from her cellphone. As she sat on her bed holding a pillow modeled after a stuffed toy, her voice that came out of her throat harassed Hajime Hinata from over the line. "So, since it's already tomorrow, want to tell me all about this "confession" thingy? I must say, whoever it is the Ultimate Emo fell in love with would be someone of the utmost emo of the emo."

"I'm sorry, but she's nothing like that," Hajime's response tipped off Natsumi, as she was too taken aback to respond properly. "If anything, Chiaki Nanami is a girl too radiant for me. So much so that the shadow she cast to me was bigger than my own body."

"Oh, quite the poetic virgin you are, Hajime," Natsumi laughed it off, but there was sadness in her heart. Especially since this matter actually concern Hajime. "So, being in constant emo-state makes you at least a little bit poetic. I must say, whoever Chiaki Nanami is, she sounded like someone you'll get along easily with. Is she another reverse student I am not aware off of?"

"No, she's not," Hajime scratched his cheek. "She's the Ultimate Gamer. I know, it's shocking, but I want to confess to her."

"As an Ultimate?" Natsumi stood from her bed, instantly alerting Peko who had just appear with a plate of sweets of various kinds on her hand. After setting it on a nearby table, she pulled herself out of the room and disappear, leaving the young mistress to her devices. "Oh, I get it, it's just a shallow admiration. As expected from Hajime Hinata, always finding the easy way out. Do you want to confess to her just for the prospect of having confessed to an Ultimate and getting away with it?"

"No," Hajime shook his head. "No, what I wanted was to confess to her as sincerely as possible. Not to confess to an Ultimate Gamer, but to confess to a girl whose name is Chiaki Nanami." Triumphantly, Hajime nodded from over the line, and Natsumi could feel that he was really determined about it. There was hope in his voice, and that hope made her bit her lips in frustration. "That's why, it's only right that I tell my closest friend about it. Honestly, aside from you... and Sato, as much as I don't know what she was thinking most of the time, are my only two friends. And out of the two of them, you are the one I trusted the most."

Natsumi sighed.

"Hajime."

The sudden change in voice tone made Hajime jump. Did he offend her in some way? Hastily, Hajime replied with a stutter. "W-What is it, Natsumi. I'm sorry, was it too presumptuous of me to say that you're my best friend? I-I'm being totally honest here, that I'm really glad that you are one of my friend that I am proud to call my... uh... besties, was it?"

"Hajime," Natsumi replied back. "Hajime, listen to me."

"Y-Yes?"

There was a deafening silence among the two of them. Hajime could only wait while holding his own spit in anticipation. The sound of a roaring rain was heard outside, and Hajime couldn't help but be extremely nervous about it. Then he heard a weak voice from the opposite of his line, a sniffling and low voice that was struggling to let the words out of her mouth. Hajime was definitely freaked out at the sudden revelation, but somehow he knew what was going to happen next.

"If there was anything that I've learned and admired from you... is that however troubled you really are, you will always find the time to help others. You've straightened my problem with Sato, going out of your way to even take her crazed beating for me. If you weren't there at the time, I might as well have been gone for good from this world. Imagine that, a daughter of the Yakuza being saved by a no-named nobody. At that moment, when I looked at your dislocated hand, all I could feel was only my weakness. Do you remember how much you begged Sato not to do anything rash? Despite the fact that one of your limb is almost broken beyond repair?" Natsumi stopped. She was rambling on and on and if she continued further, she might not be able to stop herself from straying off of the topic. "What I'm trying to say is," she continued. "What I'm trying to say is... that I... from how you patched my relationship with Sato, and how you even stuck with me despite all of my moments of weakness and all of my faults... how your back seems to get bigger and bigger as I stare at it when you walked a bit in-front of me... all I could see is how great you truly are, Hajime. Despite of what you usually acted. When you put your mind into it, you'll probably succeed magnificently." Natsumi stopped again, but this time her throat felt hoarse. "What I'm getting at is... you'll probably succeed in confessing to her, to Chiaki Nanami... but before that, let me say what I've held back on saying... since a long, long time ago."

Hajime was confused at that point, but then he realized something. He realized that it was at that moment that Hajime knew that he was the biggest asshole of the day, and maybe of the many years to come.

"Hajime, I'll only say it once: I love you."

There was only the sound of rain outside, a ruinous ambience filling in the air. All of a sudden, the entire block of where they resided received the fated blackout. The atmosphere between them becoming more and more awkward at the second.

"Alright, I'll wait for my reply tomorrow, or the day after," Hajime couldn't hear nor see it, but he knew that Natsumi was struggling not to let all of her nasty emotion flew forth and just stick to her guns. "I'll... talk to you tomorrow, alright? Okay, bye."

There was a click, and the Hinata household fell into silence.

Komaru looked through the window. She is lovesick, yes she is, and a boy two to three years older than her was the leading cause of it. She honestly didn't knew better. Hajime Hinata, a boy that Komaru had noticed only yesterday, was placing an image of someone else on Komaru's self. It was a totally low blow for her, and she was infuriatingly mad at him, but there was always this sense of morning longing afterward, especially to a lady who had just awakened to her hormone recently.

"Komaru," Junko called from her room's door, her expression totally annoyed at her little sister's lovesick appearance. "Go get dressed and help me cook breakfast. A girl like you need to eat and exercise a lot if you want to get a big breast and butt. Come on!" Junko walked to Komaru and pulled her out of the bed, "And stop using your pajama whenever you sleep. Learn to sleep in your underwear for goodness sake. It'll increase your pheromones!"

"Big Sis," Komaru said weakly. "I want to die."

Junko stopped for a while, but biting her lips, she resisted her utmost urge to grant Komaru's request. "C-Come on Komaru, don't j-joke around! I... I might do it for real, you know?" Junko couldn't do anything but fake a laugh. "B-Besides, if you're killed now, I won't-won't be able to-to be together with my darling so PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T MAKE ME DO IT!"

There was an intense expression in Junko's face, and Komaru was understandably terrified at it, especially when it was so out of the blue and so out of character to what the Junko she had known for long would do or say. Her Big Sis' grip on her shoulders was firm and strong, but her face was full of frustration, desperation, and despair. As Junko realize what she was doing, she quickly pulled her hands from Komaru and turned around without saying a word.

Quickly, after she had gone out of Komaru's room, she rushed toward Makoto's room and slammed it wide open. A startled brown-haired male jumped on his bed and stared at the girl on his doorstep right now with concern. With tears in her eyes, she leaped toward her fated other and hugged him with all her might, while crying in frustration.

"What happened, Junko?"

"...I did something to Komaru," Junko placed her face deep inside Makoto's chest. "Something that I can't ever let her unsee. It was so sudden that I do not know what came over me. When she said that she "wanted to die", with an expression so rich in despair, my mind started to move uncontrollably." Junko turned upward to Makoto, with tears gushing out of her face. "Please, make me forget about all of these bad things rushing through my head, Makoto! I beg of you!"

"No."

"No?"

"No," Makoto shook his head. "I'd rather that you'd accept yourself for who you really are, Junko. I'll make you accept yourself as the Ultimate Despair again, and then I'll do my best to accept you in return." With a sigh, Makoto smiled. "It's nice that you have moments like these to show me, Junko. Most of the time, I felt that I'm the wife of the household."

"Dummy. Of course I'm going to be the wife of the household," Junko smiled wryly. "A weak-willed woman like me is better suited to wear the skirt in the relationship... unless," Junko turned to Makoto with a bit of her signature condescending smirk. "Would you rather that I take the lead in the relationship, Makoto? Maybe mix up our kinks a little bit for a day?"

"Yeah, I don't think so."

The sound of rain filled the silence of the cuddling couple. As the door closed, the two of them turned toward the bed and rested themselves there. Afterall, it was still morning, and they had all the time in the world to enjoy the day.

"Interesting,"

Kyoko Kirigiri stood on the directed street with an umbrella sheltering her body from the hailing water. She looked around the street where there were traces of a hit-and-run that was still present from five months ago. From the destroyed guard-rail to the slightly bent cables atop of a certain electric pole.

Seeing that the storm was about to come, she quickly retreated into the safe confine of the Kirigiri personal sedan and moved away from the crime scene. The pictures were slowly being lined up inside her mind.

"Junko Enoshima... Makoto Naegi... Mukuro Ikusaba..." Kyoko slowly understood what was going on and nodded in her finality. "I've finally found another connection that bound them together."

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