After picking up Nagito from Akane's cottage, Nekomaru led them to his cottage.
"I apologize for asking, but why is Izuru under surveillance as well?" Nagito asked. "Is it because of his comment after the last trial?"
"Yeah, Byakuya said it was a good idea to keep an eye on him too." Nekomaru explained.
The four of them fell into relative silence for a while, Hajime and Izuru speaking to each other softly while Nekomaru did some exercises in the corner. Nagito was sitting on the floor, watching the brothers for a while.
As he was watching, he noticed something.
"Pardon me Hajime, but are you alright?" He asked. Hajime looked up curiously.
"What do you mean?"
"It just seems like you're having some trouble breathing." At that Izuru gave his brother a hard look.
"You wore it to bed last night didn't you?" He asked. Hajime didn't look his brother in the eyes.
"N-noooo…" He mumbled, making Izuru sigh. Nekomaru sat up, stretching his arms.
"If you've been wearing that thing all night and for most of today you should take it off. You could seriously hurt your ribs." Hajime blinked at what Nekomaru said, confused.
"Wait. How'd you know?" He asked.
"I heard you guys talking about it the other day. One of the kids I coached last year was the same way. He was pretty stubborn, kept wearing his binder to practice until he nearly collapsed one session. After that I made sure he just wore a sports bra." Nekomaru explained.
"Oh…" Hajime felt a little relieved at knowing that Nekomaru wasn't going to judge him.
"Go on, take it off. I won't look if that makes you feel better, but if you've been wearing it for so long it's not healthy." Nekomaru said, turning around and covering his eyes.
"But…" Before Hajime could say much more, Izuru gave him a serious look.
"Hajime." Izuru firmly said, making Hajime sigh in defeat. He turned to Nagito.
"You turn around too." He ordered. Nagito turned around.
He reluctantly took off his binder, folding it and setting it on the ground. Izuru tossed him a sports bra that he carried around for when Hajme took off his binder. Hajime put it on and then his shirt, crossing his arms over his chest.
"If… it'll make you feel better you can wear my jacket." Nagito offered once he was given the OK to turn back around. "I don't want you to feel uncomfortable Hajime. Plus it'll be more useful to you than it is to someone as worthless as me."
Hajime gave Nagito a glare. "Stop that. You're not worthless. I'll be fine alright? I just don't want to go out like this."
"That's fine. We can sit in here and talk about stuff I guess. If you want I can give you one of my famous massages. Akane says they're pretty helpful for back pain." Nekomaru offered, scratching his ear. "If you're comfortable I mean. None of us will make fun of you or judge you."
Hajim thought for a long moment before sighing. "Sure. What's the worst that could happen?"
Nekomaru ended up giving Izuru a massage as well, after some convincing from Hajime.
"That was the best thing I've ever felt. Plus, you need to relax too. You're too stressed lately." He said.
Hajime was about to convince Nagito to get one as well when there was a knock on the door.
Akane slammed open the door without even waiting for an answer, making Hajime hide behind Izuru nervously.
"Monomi just defeated a Monobeast, we got another island open! Chop, chop! We've got some investigating to do!" She exclaimed, running off after giving the information.
(This is seriously short and I am ashamed. However, there is reason for this. I've started to get… burned out writing this all out. I still love this AU to bits, don't get me wrong, but this fic has been going on for almost 2 years now, and I honestly didn't think I'd get this far. In order to keep myself from getting too burned out, I will be skipping the events of chapter 5 and moving on to the final trial, and most likely expanding more on the events outside of the Neo World program.
I am also working on another project at the moment. A fan video series that I am going to call Dangan Ronpa: Welcome to Camp Despair.
It is in the early stages of development at the moment, but I have made a discord server for it in case anyone wants to help out, as it is only myself and one friend working on the writing and plot.
Here's the link to the discord: /WApTaxP )