Nagito was the first to approach them, quietly asking them what was wrong, however, Hajime seemed to be too delirious to speak, and Izuru was crying too hard. It was at that moment that Mikan ran in, dragging Ibuki behind her.
"Aah! Izuru! Hajime! Come here." She yelled, running over to them and placing a hand on their foreheads, making Hajime stumble a bit, and Izuru flinch like he'd been burned. "I knew it!"
"You knew what exactly?" Byakuya demanded, looking at his classmates. Ibuki seemed to be just as out of it as Izuru and Hajime, though she looked… happier.
"Th-the three of them all have fevers! Very high fevers! Ibuki keeps talking very politely and does anything I tell her do without even asking questions! Izuru is a crying mess! Hajime doesn't even look conscious! He looks like he's sleepwalking his fever is so high!" The nurse replied.
"This… has to be Monokuma's doing." Nagito mused. As if on cue, Monokuma jumped out from seemingly nowhere and began to laugh, making Izuru cover his ears in fear.
"Ding ding ding!" The bear cried. "Things were getting waaaay too boring so I decided to spice things up a little! This little thing is something like to call "Despair Fever" it's a nasty little disease passed around mainly by itty bitty bugs that inhabit this island. Each case has different symptoms! Izuru looks like he has the "Coward Disease", Ibuki-"
"That is me." The musician replied quietly. "You say this is some kind of disease? Well I hope everyone gets better."
"Oh shut it!" Monokuma yelled, and Ibuki did, confirming what Mikan had said earlier. "And Hajime… well, I ain't sure, he looks kinda dead though, you should probably get him to the hospital before he keels over. It'd be way too boring if death happened so soon! Oh, by the way, the disease is also HIGHLY contagious… Good luck." With that, Monokuma left, leaving the rest of them to stare at each other in shock.
"H-he's right though! We need to get these three to the hospital right away! I'm not too sure how to treat this though! It's a new disease that I've never seen before… Oh! It doesn't matter I'm going to help them!" The nurse cried, gently pulling the three sick people along with her. However, before she could get far Hajime collapsed, hitting the ground with a painful sounding thud.
Immediately, Mikan ran to help him up but she wasn't strong enough.
"Let me help." Nagito offered, running over and gently lifting Hajime up. Hajime wasn't exactly light, but far from something Nagito couldn't handle. Izuru was curled in on himself, crying harder than ever. Nagito, with his hands full couldn't do much, and he felt bad. But relaxed a little when Nekomaru approached the crying teen.
"Izuru! You shouldn't cry! Everything will be fine as long as Mikan takes care of you all! Come on, let's get you to the hospital!" The coach urged, but Izuru shook his head and began to mutter something unintelligible. But Nekomaru seemed to catch it. "Izuru, you have nothing to worry about with Mikan! She wouldn't hurt a fly!"
When Izuru didn't make a move Nekomaru merely threw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and ran towards the hospital, with the others close behind. It seemed to take forever to get to the hospital, but by the time they did Hajime had regained consciousness, but still looked very out of it.
"I-I'll help them into some gowns, you all wait here!" Mikan said, rather forcefully, before leaving.
"What… should we do? I mean, this isn't something we can prevent! A disease? And it's contagious too! I mean, if it were just the bugs we could use bug spray but we've all been near the ones that got infected!" Mahiru yelled, her hair a mess from running.
"For now, we quarantine the infected, as well as the ones who touched them, meaning Nekomaru, Nagito and Mikan." Byakuya declared.
"Quarantine? You mean lock 'em up or something?" Akane asked. "Isn't that a little unfair? They might get lonely!"
"No… it's a good idea, I mean, it'd be bad if we all got sick. Plus… we shouldn't stay in our cottages either, since they might be contaminated too… I think…" Chiaki muttered, a worried look on her otherwise calm face. Everyone else nodded, including Nagito and Nekomaru, seeing the logic in them being quarantined.
"I agree. The motel would be our best bet. But… what if the ones who aren't ill and who haven't touch them going to do if there is an emergency? We won't know." Gundam mused, looking around at the others.
"Couldn't Kazuichi set up some kind of communication device between the hospital and somewhere else? After all, Nekomaru and I would most likely stay here since we're in quarantine, so we'd just some kind of way to communicate with you guys that way." Nagito suggested, looking right at Kazuichi.
"Well, it's possible, there are some spare parts on this island, I could try and set something up." The mechanic replied. Byakuya nodded, looking proud.
"I'm glad to see you all thinking for once. Very well, Myself, Chiaki, Kazuichi, Mahiru, Akane, Gundam, and Fuyuhiko will stay at the motel, since Fuyuhiko isn't here I shall tell him right away. Nagito, Mikan and Nekomaru shall stay at the hospital with Hajime, Izuru and Ibuki. Is this agreed?"
"Yes." Everyone replied, nodding. Everyone aside from Nekomaru and Nagito bid farewell and left the hospital, a silence left in their wake.
"I can see that you're concerned, you shouldn't be! After all, those three are strong, they'll survive this." Nekomaru yelled, smiling widely at Nagito. The white haired boy blinked, surprised that Nekomaru had seen his worry.
"I know that, still, I can't help but worry for them. This is a kind of disease that no one but Monokuma has heard of before. We don't even know if this disease has a cure…" He honestly didn't want anyone to die from something like this, it was such a pointless death to die.
While Nagito did feel like someone dying would create a great hope after the fact, part of him felt like any kind of death on this island was pointless. After writing that note and seeing how Sonia's death affected everyone, it made him feel a bit… guilty for starting the whole thing.
He had been planning on his death that night, or at the very least, him to kill someone. However, when Izuru and Sonia had gotten the job instead of him, he'd felt relieved that his plan had not worked, part of him still afraid. Though he felt like it would have been for the sake of a greater hope for someone to die, all the deaths so far felt meaningless.
They had given the others the determination to not let another killing happen yes, and it seemed like that determination was growing with each day, it still felt unsatisfying, like there was no hope being created. While the despair lasted for a while after a death, it faded, turning into spite. It felt like they were only living to spite Monokuma.
Nagito was broken out of his musings by the door opening, as Mikan stepped out.
"Oh? Where is everyone else?" She asked. Nekomaru explained the situation to her. "I see… well, everyone's in bed, though I did have to give Izuru a mild sedative to help calm him down. He's probably asleep right now. Hajime passed out again so I'm going to keep an eye on him. Ibuki went to sleep as soon as I told her to rest."
"That's good… they need as much rest as they can get right now." Nagito sighed as he said this, looking at the ground.
"Don't look so sad! Their conditions are stable as of now and I'll let you guys know if that changes, promise!" Mikan replied to him, looking worried.
"I understand, thank you Mikan. Nekomaru and I will wait here OK?" He said, giving her the best smile he could muster at the moment.
"Yes! We'll help you with anything you need as well! If you need our help with anything just let us know!" The coach yelled, but quieted when Mikan scolded him for being too loud in a hospital.
The coach and the lucky student sat in the lobby for the next few hours after that, and at one point Nekomaru left and got some cards from the supermarket, though it was more of a one sided game as Nagito kept winning.
The nighttime announcement seemed to come much later than usual, and with it, Monokuma appeared in the room.
"What are you two still doing here?! Get out!" The bear screamed.
"But, we're-" Nagito was interrupted.
"Did neither of you read the sign?!" Monokuma yelled, pointing to the poster on the wall. Nagito looked and it said that only one visitor could stay but only if it was a dire situation.
"Well… with Hajime's condition being a bit unstable, Mikan needs to stay. Nekomaru and I can go back to our cottages, but Mikan needs to stay." Nagito argued to the bear. Monokuma growled but just left, and so the two students took that as a yes.
"I guess we go now… this sucks though. Hopefully Kazuichi comes up with something to let us communicate…" Nagito said, looking at the floor.
"I hope so as well, but for now, we need some rest as well. We can't help the others if we're exhausted as well." Nekomaru replied, pulling Nagito along back to the first island and their cottages.
"Get some rest, I'll come get you in the morning." The coach ordered, not leaving room for argument, then went into his cottage.
Nagito sighed and did the same, collapsing on his bed, falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
(I have to apologize for the short chapter and long wait time. However… shit's been going down in life and it gave me 0 motivation at all. I've also decided to skip the exploring the island segments at least for now due to the fact that this fic will go on for like, 100 chapters if we keep going at this pace. So… I'm sorry.)