A.N. (11/10/20) - Midterms are the worst.

DNAngel (12) - Home Ec

Nagi saw someone that he was meaning to talk to for a while.

"Hiwatari!" Running up to him, Nagi slowed down as he neared. "I'm so sorry for leaving without saying goodbye. I didn't know when you were gonna come back, and I remembered I had something important to do and you suddenly disappeared when I tried to go look for you and—"

The other boy interrupted him. "It's alright, Kujikawa-san."

Nagi almost cried right there at having someone finally say his name right for once.

"Oh thank goodness, I wanted to apologize a while ago. But then I got sick because I stayed out so late and then you were gone by the time I recovered and then I saw you just no—" Nagi paused as a thought crossed his mind. "Actually, I was wondering. Why did you invite me that night? You never really told me."

Hiwatari stared at him for a few seconds.

"...I wanted to check something with you. But I guess I was incorrect in my assessment. You aren't him."

Nagi just stared at him for a few seconds as he took in Hiwatari's words. Wait, he couldn't mean… no, he does.

"When you mean him, you don't mean…"

Hiwatari gave him a mysterious smile before walking away, leaving Nagi standing by himself in the hallway.

Nagi wondered if he was being pranked. 'Seriously, even Hiwatari thought I was Dark?! What in the world made him come to that conclusion?!'

Then again, did it ever say in the anime that he knew Daisuke was Dark before he debuted? Sure, the Niwa name might've clued him in. But it wasn't a guarantee, so he might not have known that Daisuke was Dark. But how does that connect to Hiwatari believing he was Dark?

Nagi heard the bell begin to ring, and hurriedly rushed to class.

}-{

Since his schedule until now was kinda wack, it dawned on Nagi that this was the first time he was having Home Economics here.

The Home Economics teacher - a Mr. Kaseda - spoke in a loud voice. "Alright class, you know what to do, we've already discussed this last class. Since Kujikawa transferred in, I'll have him join the group with the least amount of people."

Nagi found himself looking at the two people in the back of the room. Looking back and seeing the teacher pointing in that direction, he guessed that was who he was working with from now on.

The two students weren't anyone he knew. His new group members were a boy and a girl, with one of them being someone he vaguely recognized as one of Risa's friends. The other person was someone Nagi didn't know though.

Standing next to the counter, he greeted the two energetically.

"Hey, my name's Nagi. Guess I'll be working with both of you."

The two exchanged glances before the girl introduced herself first.

"Nice to meet you. My name's Mari Ishii, but just call me Mari. I'll just say I'm glad we have another hand to help around." She gestured to the boy next to her. "This here's my partner, Takuto-kun."

The other boy waved. "H-Hey."

"So Nagi-kun," Mari began. "Are you any good in the kitchen?"

Nagi almost snorted. Oh please, as a former self-sufficient college student, that wasn't even a question. With the quarantine happening around the time he died, he almost had to learn if he wanted to feed himself. Takeout can only go so far before everything tastes like sandwiches and pizza.

"I know a bit of the basics. Just give me a few days to adjust to your group's pace and I'll be good."

"Great! Takuto's a wiz with cooking, and I have a knack at it myself. It's great that we have another member who'll be able to keep up with us. With the three of us, we'll keep our place at the top of this class."

A fire lit in her eyes, and she posed by pumping her fist in the air. Takuto awkwardly clapped from the side.

At least his groupmates seemed like nice people.

}-{

Hiwatai walked through the school alone while classes were going on, having excused himself earlier to prepare for his plan later today. Nobody else was around because of that.

A voice broke the silence. "He truly is an interesting individual, isn't he. He kinda reminds me of a hyper puppy."

"You're talkative today," Hiwatari muttered under his breath. "I'm still surprised that you made a mistake like that."

"I never claimed that young Nagi was Dark in the first place, Master Satoshi. I merely said that he had a strange aura about him. You merely misunderstood a passing thought of mine." Krad hummed in Hiwatari's thoughts. "Interesting to note, that aura of his seems to have grown stronger than the last time we saw him. Quite peculiar, no?"

"That's his business," he replied sharply. "As long as he has nothing to do with Dark, we'll ignore him."

Krad never took an interest in other people before, to Hiwatari's knowledge. A grudging relationship with his father and the host of Dark aside, this was the first time Krad seemed to acknowledge another person.

And that was definitely not a good thing.

"Hm, protective of him aren't you. Are you beginning to see him as a friend?"

Hiwatari forced Krad into the recess of his mind, causing Krad to stop talking. Rubbing his head, he continued to walk down the hall.

Today, he'll confront Niwa and finally force him to change into Dark right in front of his eyes. Now that he's finally figured out Dark's identity, he can move on to the next step of his plan.

}-{

Mari seemed to be a talkative person since she was able to manage a conversation with Nagi the entire time they worked. Takuto joined in every now and then but mostly kept to himself.

Nagi saw Daisuke in the background working with his group, which consisted of Rika and Saehara. Looking past them, he also waved at Risa, who noticed him looking. Waving back, she was soon accosted by the rest of her groupmates to get back to work.

The three of them cleaned their station as they finished prepping their meal for the day.

"Nice to see you weren't just all talk. Usually, I eat with Takuto after we're done. But Risa's been gossiping about something juicy recently, and I've got to hear it." She grabbed her own meal, a bowl of delicious smelling beef stew, and began to make her way over. "I'll be eating with her group now, have fun you two."

That left Nagi alone with his other groupmate. Turning to him, Nagi asked, "Does she usually leave to eat with Harada-san?"

It took a moment for the other boy to reply.

"Not really," Takuto replied, tilting his glasses back into place. "She'd feel guilty if she left me alone, so it's only happened once before. I think she's hoping that we get along while she's gone."

Nagi did note that their group conversations mostly centered around Mari. Which meant that Nagi didn't really talk that much with Takuto in comparison.

Might as well fix that. "I'm guessing you're good friends?"

He shrugged. "She's friendly, and we have fun talking to each other. I guess that makes us friends. It's been just the two of us since the year started, so that made it easy for us to get along." He took a glance at Nagi. "But I'm glad you're joining us. There's always room for another hand in the kitchen."

Nagi smiled. "And another mouth?"

Takuto smirked back. "Definitely. We need someone to clean up our plates."

He laughed at that. "Well, I'm definitely your guy then." Holding out his hand, an old practice that Nagi never seemed to forget, he reintroduced himself. "Nagi Kujikawa, newly transfer student. Happy to join you."

Takuto took his hand. "Name's Takuto Maruki, glad to accept you."

I'm free for now, which means more time for me to write!

Persona characters as classmates in Azumano Middle School. A fusion crossover really makes things interesting sometimes. Not that Nagi knows who he is...