AUTHOR'S NOTE: think of this chapter as the HOPE ARC, but longer. also, it's not focusing on Makoto and his friends like the actual episode does, it focuses entirely on Hajime and his friends. thank you for reading. hopefully it's the ending you all wanted.

Everyone was on the ship they stole and were heading straight for the Future Foundation's headquarters. They were able to find out where their destination was through the maps on the ship and by interrogating the Future Foundation members they kept tied up. Once they became useless, the members were knocked out, there was no need to kill them. Using the GPS, the ship was basically steering itself. Everyone was able to relax or prepare before they arrive. They were all on the ship deck… listening to Hajime explain the plan.

"The main building is not the priority, there's a hole in front of the building… that's where we need to go".

"How many people are going to be there?" Mahiru was the first to ask a question.

"A lot, so… we'll have to split up".

"I had a feeling you were going to say that, oh well… continue".

"Gundham, Nagito, Peko, Fuyuhiko, Mahiru and Twogami. You guys will remain outside and make sure nobody gets inside… alone or together, it doesn't matter. I know you can do it". Hajime had a lot of faith in them, no sign of distrust in his voice.

"Of course, we can do it… I have Hope". Nagito replied while smiling.

"I going to put on a show they'll never forget". Ibuki sounded way too excited.

"You can count on us". Mahiru responded shortly after.

"I shall extinguish all who stand in our way". Gundham followed.

"We won't fail".

"How bold, though it'll be extremely dangerous… I wouldn't be much of a Yakuza if I sat this one out". Fuyuhiko and Peko gave their answers with smiles on their faces.

"Hey… why did you call me Twogami?" The Imposter looked at Hajime with confusion.

"Calling you 'the Imposter' is getting old, since you currently look like Byakuya Togami… I just thought of a name to call you on the spot. Is that okay?" Hajime gave him an identity, Twogami felt like crying, he felt… happy.

"I like it… thank you Hajime. no matter what happens, we will find Ryota and bring him home with us".

"While you're outside, Akane, Nekomaru, TeruTeru, Hiyoko, Mikan, Kazuichi, Sonia and I will go down the hole and take out anyone who sees us as a threat. After the threat is taken care of, we'll search for Ryota… and stop him?"

"Stop him? What do you mean?"

"You all remember the video Junko forced you to watch… it was… Chiaki's execution". Everyone was shocked to be reminded at how they all became Ultimate Despair. "Ryota plans to do something similar. But instead of Despair, his video will force you to feel Hope".

"Son of a bitch, why would he do that?" Twogami was sceptical about what Hajime just said. After all, he knew Ryota the best.

"I don't know, we'll have to ask him. Anyway… you all deserve to know something". they all looked at him. Akane had a worried expression on her face, she knew what was coming. "I saw Chiaki die… right in front of me".

"WHAT!?" Nekomaru was the first to speak up after a few moments of stunned silence.

"We saw her die, there was nobody there but her". Peko didn't believe him, until he continued.

"Not during, after. She was alive… barely holding on to life. I wanted to help her, but I couldn't move. I ended up watching her take her last breath… this is all I have to remember her by". He said as he reached into his pocket, taking out the pixelated ship hairpiece and showing it to everyone.

"IS T-THAT!? CHIAKI'S HAIRPIECE!?" Fuyuhiko was dumbfound, everybody else except Akane felt the same way.

"I'm sorry for keeping this from you, I wouldn't blame you if you were mad…". He felt like he was about to cry. Before he could say another word, someone hugged him, surprising everyone there. It was Akane, he could feel tears running down his face.

"You think it's your fault, don't you?" she let go and placed her hands on Hajime's cheeks, making him look her in the eyes. "It's not your fault, no one blames you".

Sonia walked up to both of them and wrapped her arms around them, embracing them as she cried. "You carried this burden for so long, I wish you told us sooner. Chiaki was our friend too, we loved her as much as you did".

Kazuichi and Fuyuhiko spoke up next, smiling as they looked at Hajime. "Look around you idiot, everyone here was as good as dead, but you saved them… you saved us".

"He's right, we'd all be lost without you. You're more than a friend… you're like the brother I never had. No matter what happens, I'll trust you to the very end".

"… Thank you. Everyone". Hajime smiled as everyone smiled back at him. They're all alive thanks to him. He couldn't feel happier. "We're here". Everyone turned around to see a collapsed building in the distance, they docked the ship and were about to leave before they heard him speak again. "You see that part of the building? That's the axis, Ryota's in there about to upload that Hope video. Before we go to him, we need to stop the Future Foundation first".

"How much time do we have?" Nagito asked out of curiosity, but It was important, too important to ignore.

"Not a lot of time, I think… maybe thirty minutes".

"We can do it. I know we can". Nagito said as everyone got off the ship and headed for the Future Foundation's headquarters on foot. The ones focusing on the outside went one way, while the ones focusing on the inside went the other way. Seven people outside and eight people inside. It was time to end this… the fight between Hope and Despair is about to come to an end.

The group split up as instructed and the pairings were formed. Outside, Gundham decided to go at it alone, Ibuki and Mahiru stayed together and decided to guard the hole so nobody can follow. Fuyuhiko and Peko naturally stayed together… after witnessing people parachuting in, they were on a root so they can be the first in line to deal with them. Twogami and Nagito went around the main building to make sure no one can attack from behind.

Inside, Kazuichi, Sonia and Nekomaru went down one of three hallways. Hiyoko and Mikan went down the second and Hajime, Akane and TeruTeru went down the third. Hajime's group hitting a fork in the road. He pointed to the hallway to his left… telling Akane and TeruTeru to go that way while he went the other way.

Hajime ended up finding a big door. As it turns out, that was the main office, where the first and murder of Makoto Naegi's new killing game took place. He entered the room and walked up to a body; Hajime knew this woman. "Miss Yukizome… you'd be proud, I've worked out what's important… she was absolutely right". He took out the hairpiece from his pocket and stared at it. "In and of itself talent doesn't matter… because that was never the aim, still… I can live with myself as I am. Yes… I've used my talent for terrible things, but by that same talent… I did bring everyone back. So, it evens it out… a little, you can wait for a miracle or you can make one".

"You take out this group, I'll take the other". Twogami left Nagito as he headed towards a guy in a white suit being corned by Future Foundation members.

Nagito saw a bunch of people shooting at each other. He was atop a large pile of rubble. He wondered what he could do to help as he tried to get closer to the edge in order to get a better look. As he did, he ended up kicking a pebble off the edge, which hit slightly larger pebble, which hit a rock, which hit a bigger rock and it continued until the gunmen beneath him were incapacitated by something that could resemble a rockslide. Nagito waved at the people he just saved; little did he know that Makoto Naegi was among them. "Good to be back".

Twogami made his way through a crowd of Future Foundation members until he made it to the guy in a white suit. He had no idea that he was helping the vice president of the Future Foundation. But in that moment… he didn't really care. Before he made it to him, he changed his look/identity from Byakuya Togami to Kyosuke Munakata, the very man he was helping.

"You mock me remnant, what is the meaning of this?" Kyosuke was clearly annoyed.

"Overdue atonement".

Peko kept dodging every single attack that was thrown at her, she jumped over a water tower, causing her opponent to attack it instead of her. The water tower broke open and water came flooding out. Her opponent didn't have time to react as Peko dashed through the water fountain the attacker accidently created and struck him in the chest with her bamboo sword. That wasn't even a challenge for her.

"You know, bamboo suits you better than a real sword". Fuyuhiko said as he walked towards her with a smile on her face.

"Yes, I noticed". She couldn't help but smile back.

Gundham was staring down a Future Foundation member that had a falcon with him, he can tell his opponent was afraid. "When the seal upon my true name is broken, the rising sun will scourge the multiverse to ash. Prepare thyself! It shall be the last thing you'll hear. The dread hour's upon us, held well at this moral. For my name is GUNDHAM TANAKA!" lightning struck, making his presence even more terrifying. The falcon left it's owner and rested on Gundham's head. He even had twenty hamsters on his person. Where did they come from? Who knows. "Shiver and sleep".

Nekomaru was fighting off a robot, how ironic. He was strong enough to push it back, but it kept resisting. "ALRIGHTY THEN! Full power it is!" Nekomaru turned his head slightly to look behind him after hearing a noise, he saw another robot. After ripping the first robot's head off, he was going to attack the second… but someone beat him to it.

"Yeah, Minimaru troops go!" Kazuichi's Minimaru robots attached themselves to the enemy and self-destructed, destroying the robot before Nekomaru could do anything. "Was that cool or was that cool!? Did you see!?" He turned to see Sonia looking elsewhere, he felt pretty crappy. "Dang it Miss Sonia, you're supposed to watch".

"Outstanding work".

"Huh? Did you just say-" He was thrilled to hear that from the girl he loved, little did he know… Sonia is dating Gundham. Telling him was not on her to do list. She just smiled at him.

"TERUTERU, MEAT NOW!" Akane shouted as she ran down the hall towards him and a Future Foundation member.

"Order up". TeruTeru threw a few pieces of meat in the air after cooking then and Akane ate all of them as she ran past him.

"YEAH! HEY IT'S JUSTIN BIEBER!" The Future Foundation member started throwing knives at Akane, hoping to hurt or kill her. But she wasn't having that. She caught the knives with her teeth and then bit then all in half, she's gotten A LOT stronger. Her opponent spit fire at her as a last resort, but she blocked it with two meats on the bone. The Future Foundation member was terrified as Akane took a bite of the meat that was now very well cooked. "Just the way I like it!" She then uppercut him with the meat on the bone. Besides Hajime, nobody was stronger than her now.

Hiyoko was backing away from multiple attacks by a Future Foundation member with long fingernails. "Okay… if someone could save me please". That's all she said before falling over, Mikan came to the rescue by injecting the attack with a sleeping drug.

"I came as fast as I could, did she get you?" Apparently Mikan left Hiyoko for a brief moment after discovering Kyoko Kirigiri's body. Thankfully, she was able to make it back in time.

"Way to take your time, dirty pig". Hiyoko got up and refused to look Mikan in the eyes. "…Whatever, thanks I guess". She blushed as she said that. And Mikan couldn't help but cry after hearing that from Hiyoko of all people.

Ibuki was playing extremely loud music in the main building lobby, making every Future Foundation member there to pass out from shock. One member however was wearing headphones, so she wouldn't pass out. They aimed at Ibuki using a sniper rifle, but right when they looked through the scope to confirm their aiming was accurate, Mahiru appeared and took a picture with the flash on, blinding the sniper for a quick moment. Enough time for Mikan to take the sniper's headphones off and watch her pass out like the others. "ROCK AND ROLL!" Ibuki shouted as she and Mahiru high fived, celebrating their amazing victory.

Hajime was the first one to the axis, but he knew it wouldn't be easy… or would it? there were a handful of Future Foundation members guarding the entrance, which seemed to be locked from the other side. But he knew he was going to win. "Step aside". The moment he said that, they all attacked him at the same time. But in the blink of an eye… he beat them all. To Hajime, his opponents were moving so slow, that he defeated all of them with hardly any effort. He took a grenade from one of the knocked up guards, pulled the pin and threw it at the door, destroying it and revealing Ryota Mitarai in the centre of the room. Waiting for the Hope video to finish uploading. "Hey! Ryota!" He turned to face Hajime and was surprised and terrified to see him again.

"Izuru Kamakura. You're too late so back off! Hope will win, even if have to die protecting it. the world is only moments away from never feeling Despair again!"

"Sounds dull, so that's the ned of feeling then? Hope is all anyone will ever know? Hope in place of say grief, losing a loved one?"

"I don't expect a man like you to understand! Human beings are weak!" Before he could continue, the others finally arrived. Ryota didn't know how to react.

"Maybe we really aren't that strong, I have my share of regret… that's something we all have in common".

"… yeah, I imagine we do. I enabled Junko Enoshima to do what she did! Because of me… countless people died. Even as we speak, people are dying! If not for me… you'd have peace. The years spent at school would be the best years of your life. But no, I was a coward and ran away. So, all of this is on my hands".

"If that's what you want to believe, go right ahead. At least now we know why you're doing this. You'd rather the past be forgotten, wipe the slate clean, we get it… stay your ground".

"That's the idea. It's what all of this is about. If it hadn't been for me, Junko Enoshima… would have never turned you!"

"I'd erase the past if I could, but it's not in my power". Once again Hajime stared at the hairpiece in his hand. "Somethings have to be remembered… Chiaki was real, I can't pretend like she never existed. We have her to thank for still being alive".

"Everyday we survive is a girt, one we can use to undo all this shit". Nekomaru smiled as he looked at Ryota.

"Do you not see? Atonement is our destiny". Gundham did the same.

"Not mine, not by a long shot… look at me, look at what I've done. I'm beyond forgiveness".

"As are each of us, forgiveness is not what we're seeking".

"Got that right". Kazuichi said after Sonia's reassuring comment.

"I don't understand, what am I supposed to do now?"

"Yes, you were wrong… but then so are we. You make mistakes, we make mistakes". Twogami changed his appearance to Ryota himself.

"No… don't do that. Don't try to lump us together… I'm alone, the blame belongs squarely on me!" the sun finally rose, and the rain finally stopped.

"Fine then… all the more reason to join us".

"Huh? Are you serious?"

"There's no need for you to be alone, not now".

"He's right".

"We'd be happy to have you".

"The more, the merrier don't you think?"

"Yeah, come join our team".

"No pressure do what you want".

"Those who join the path, find the law of order quick loyal".

"HAHA oh man I like that one!"

"Definitely among his better non sequiturs".

"Quit sulking and get on board".

"I agree, come with us".

"My wiener thinks you'll make a fine addition".

"EWW DON'T BE GROSS!"

"Is it wrong if what he said makes me happy?"

"A little bit, yeah".

"I've always admired that shining talent of yours, our team could use a guy like you".

"… Thank you, but I-I don't have the right to be a part of a team".

"Being our classmate's got nothing to do with your rights". Hajime felt Kazuichi's arm on his shoulder.

"No kidding dude, he's in the Reserve course".

"Hey".

"You want me to be… are you sure?" everyone just looked at Ryota and smiled. Is this really happening?

"Well come one, classmate". Ryota started to cry as he reached for the main computer, with five seconds remaining he shut down the upload. Everyone gathered around him as he cried. Twogami kneeled down to hug him, these were tears of joy, happiness… Hope.

After Ryota finished crying, they all headed back to the ship, wanted to return to their home. Jabberwock island. On the way back, they pasted Makoto Naegi. Hajime showed respect by his slightly bowing his head to him as they left.

"Uh… excuse me… Makoto Naegi". Mikan wanted to tell Makoto something, but before she could, Nagito pushed in front of her in order to talk to Makoto instead, causing her to fall over. Gundham, Kazuichi, Sonia and Ibuki ran after her.

"Wow, it's a real honour, forgive me sir but, we share the same good Luck. No wait that's not right, yours far outstretches mine. Though it's quite Lucky to have you as a colleague. Sorry upperclassman sir". That was all he could say before Akane and Nekomaru picked him up and carried him away. "Hopefully, we'll meet again!"

Everyone was back on the ship and were about to head home. "You look emaciated, are you eating enough?" Twogami now back to looking like Byakuya Togami, couldn't help but worry about Ryota's health. "There are only two certainties in this life".

"Yeah. Carbs and high fruitdose cornsyrup-"

"Less talk more stuff face!" Ibuki forced skewed meat into Ryota's mouth.

"AAAH! HOOTT!"

Hajime was at the front of the ship, alone. Looking out towards the ocean. "Hey, what are you doing here all alone? Party's just getting started". Akane was behind him, wondering what was going on inside his head. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just glad it's all over". He smiled at her, looking forward to what comes next.

"Me too, come join when you're ready, okay? Wouldn't be fun without you". She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, both of them were blushing as they parted ways.

"Full disclosure? Sure, I don't see why not. That way, when you entered the Neo World program, a cutting edge A.I was created in order to keep an eye on everyone. Codename? Chiaki Nanami. First, complied memories of a steamed authority figure? The idea was to fuse those memories into a single personality we could all trust. Imagine the surprise when it turned out they didn't have to bother. One memory overoad the rest. It was the same for all of you. Strange? Yes, but undeniably sweet. There was one person you'd all give anything to see again. Of course, I'm not a perfect replica. But you know what they say, if someone lives in our memory, they're never truly gone". Chiaki's voice echoed in Hajime's ears, he know he was just imagining it all, but he didn't care. "What do you think? Is this the miracle worth believing in Hope for?"

"I don't know… it's a happy ending at least, so there's that".

"Let's chalk it down as a win… thank you, for not letting me die in vain. So, shall we? Nature calls, there's still a lot of work to be done". Hajime smiled as he knew what to expect, the world's problems aren't his to deal with, that's the Future Foundation's job. Jabberwock island… improvements could be made.

"Hajime, better move if you expect to be any food left".

"Haha I'm coming". Hajime joined the others as the ship officially began it's voyage home. Ryota let his phone drop into the water, the weight's finally been removed from his shoulders.

The group made sure to record a video of their own before leaving, making the world believe THEY were responsible for the killing game that just took place. They helped Makoto in more ways than one. Taking the blame, bringing Kyoko Kirigiri back from the brink of death and finally returning home. 'The world needs Despair', that's what their message explained, the world sees the seventy seventh class as monsters, but Makoto and his friends know the truth. They were heroes… no one can tell them otherwise.

THE END