Oh, how time flies by so fast.

To Hajime, it felt like it's only a moment ago, he was still back at home with Hope's Peak Academy's invitation letter in his hand, and then the next thing he knew, here he is, comfortably sitting down outdoors on the cabin's wooden stairs, surrounded by his classmates and teachers.

He smiles. The people around him aren't just his class anymore. He's proud to say they're his friends as well now.

His eyes close, letting himself reminisce about the months that happened since everyone in their class passed the yearly exams. He remembers that the main course's new building was finally unveiled on the first week of October; since then, most of the Ultimates have moved there, Class 77-B included. True to the rumors, it was a lot bigger than the old main building, probably at least twice its size.

There was a lot of stuff that happened during those months, he's not going to lie. So much stuff happened, he might take a while to recall half of them.

He opens his eyes, passively checking through his surroundings. The skies above them are a deep dark blue. He looks over his phone to check at the time, and sure enough, they still got thirty minutes left before midnight comes.

Pocketing his phone once more, he looks over to check what his classmates are up to.

From what he can see so far, he sees Ibuki is playing around with one of the firecrackers, while Ryota is staying close by to make sure she doesn't hurt herself. Nagito, Mikan, Mahiru, and Hiyoko are there with those two as well. While it's a bit hard to see what Mikan is doing there with them, it's easy to see why the other three are there.

Nekomaru is steadily preparing their barbeque and other delicacies for the evening. Akane's there with him for assistance. This isn't the first time Hajime saw the Ultimate Cook prepare their meals; in fact, he's sure he's seen the burly guy do it multiple times now. Still, it awed Hajime just as much as it did during the first time Nekomaru did his specialty in person.

Kazuichi is off to somewhere, probably nodding his head off to whatever Sonia and Gundham are talking about at this time. Whatever it is, the shark-toothed guy probably still doesn't understand a word of their stimulating conversation.

Though he can't see them from here, he's sure that Natsumi and Peko are just relaxing somewhere nearby. Although Natsumi's not as brash as she used to be, she still hasn't let herself come close to anyone as of yet, even if she already allowed almost everyone to call her by her first name.

Lastly, Teruteru…is still being Teruteru. That's all he's going to say for that guy. At least he isn't bothering anyone that much at this time.

"Hey, Hajime." A feminine, but also rash voice calls out to him.

Hajime lifts his head, not even surprised at who it was. "Oh, Natsumi. What is it?"

Natsumi glances around their surroundings a couple of times, before telling him, "It's funny. I was going to bust in some booze and watch you all get wrecked," She playfully shakes her head while still keeping that shit-eating grin on, as if she hadn't confessed about her plan to mess with them. "You know, just for the hell of it. It would've been fucking hilarious."

Though his classmate's 'prank' was morally questionable at best, he chuckles. He palms over the side of his neck. "I'm honestly glad you didn't go through that in the end, but if you don't mind me asking, what made you change your mind?"

There's some uncertainty in her voice once she replies to him. "If I got everyone drunk their asses off, a certain someone would get himself here and beat my ass up, hospital security and staff be damned. You get what I mean?"

'Yeah, that sounds like something he'd do.' He quietly agrees while nodding. "Well, even if you managed to sneak those kinds of drinks in, you do realize you'd have to get past our teacher first. You know that ever since that incident, Ms. Yukizome has been a lot more vigilante with our food and drinks."

"Guess so. I'm only telling you this because I know you wouldn't snitch on me." She shrugs her shoulders.

Hajime sighs. His yakuza classmate is kind of right with that, to be fair.

After about a minute of awkward silence between them, Natsumi excuses herself out of there, waving a hand in his direction. "Well then, see ya."

Now that he's by himself again, he softly exhales. While he's glad that everyone in the class is here to stay for one more year (and hopefully, until graduation), it still feels like something is missing.

Or rather, his mind corrects—someone is missing.

"I'll see you again, Hajime."

'What did she mean by that?' One of his hands starts to clench as he puts it over his chest. He knows it's been months since they last saw each other, but Chiaki's words from their last conversation have always been stuck at the back of his mind.

He never thought that his chest has would ache this much. Why didn't he do something about it? He could handle total strangers just fine, but he couldn't do anything for the girl he considered as his first true friend.

Before he can wonder about it any further, he feels someone's hand over his shoulder, snapping him out of his thoughts. He turns his head to the side, looking over who wanted to get his attention.

He almost jumps back in surprise once he sees Kazuichi's face a bit too close to him. He takes a steady breath, letting himself calm down enough to ask his friend, "Kaz? Is there something wrong?"

The shark-toothed guy blinks once in confusion. "Huh, what do you mean with that?" It takes him a second to take those words in and he quickly shakes it off. He takes a seat right next to him, elbowing the counselor at the side. "Hey, I should be the one asking that."

Hajime snorts. "It's nothing to worry about, really. It's just that…" He shifts his legs to a more comfortable sitting position. "It's hard to believe a year has passed already since I got here."

"Yeah, I have a hard time believing that too," Kazuichi admits, crossing his legs. He turns to face him. "But come on, Hajime, you shouldn't look so glum right now. It's not just New Year's that's coming up within five minutes. It's your birthday too."

He chuckles, shaking his head. "I guess you're right. I shouldn't be worrying about this kind of stuff too much, not when I should be celebrating with you all."

It's funny when he thinks about it. He remembers as he grew up, he didn't care about his birthday that much. It's not that he hates celebrating his birthday; it's just that it's not much of a big deal to him as it is to other people. He doesn't want to sound self-centered but, he always knew that New Year's Eve was, and always will be, a bigger priority for everyone else

He never thought that something like this would happen to him. This is the first time people actually celebrated his birthday with him, not just the New Year's. If he's being too hopeful, then he might say that maybe this midnight won't be the only time either.

The animal breeder lightly punches over his shoulder. "See? That's the Hajime we all know."

The two boys talk a bit more, at least, until the animal breeder gets literally dragged away by a certain swordswoman and team manager duo, as in they just grabbed his arms and walked away with him. Kazuichi shouts his apologies out even as those two pulled him away; all while Hajime laughs and waves awkwardly at his soul brother's situation.

Two minutes left before midnight comes.

"Come on, everyone!" Ms. Yukizome calls out to them, waving her arms around to get the attention.

'It's time.' Hajime gets himself up to his feet. He follows to the spot where everyone else has gathered.

Including Ms. Yukizome, all fifteen of them huddled together. Since he's the birthday celebrant, they had him in the middle. As soon as Mahiru's done with setting the camera on a timer, she joins them shortly after.

'10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…'

At the end of the countdown, everyone else in the class proudly chants three words as one, harmonized voice. It happened around the same time as the camera clicks and the fireworks in the sky blew off. As deafening as those fireworks were, those weren't enough to overpower their words.

"Happy birthday, Hajime!"

Kazuichi wraps an arm around him. It's a bit rough and almost made him fall off. As the first one to speak up for the New Year, he asks him, "So, what did you wish for, Hajime?"

He lets out a soft laugh and shakes his head. "You know I can't tell you that."

"Come on," Kazuichi pushes deeper. "Not even a hint?"

"Nope." He adamantly says in a joking tone.

While Kazuichi kept pestering him about this birthday wish, a solemn look slowly makes its way to the counselor's face. He wonders if it's noticeable, but then again, in case if anyone does notice, he can always tell them he's feeling somewhat bittersweet, since he just turned a year older a minute go.

'I know that my birthday wish can't be considered realistic in the slightest. If anything, I'd even say it's too childish. But…'

Hajime closes his eyes.

'I wish we could all stay like this forever.'

The Steering Committee members' footsteps clack through the underground lab's pristine tiles.

While on their way, the four old men looked back on their experiences, the ones that they've shared since the past months.

They can recall the disastrous experience everyone had in dealing with the reserve course students they've chosen for the project. All of those subjects from the previous batches were failures, all of whom had either expired or had to be forcibly put down.

This time was marginally better compared to the previous one. As usual, most of the subjects expired and at least a handful of them had to be put down. Right now, only two subjects from the same batch remain, but with the way things are going, the other one didn't have time left before he expires as well.

Everyone's efforts in The Kamukura Project, or The Hope Cultivation Program as they presented it to their test subjects, would've been all for nothing, if not for one thing.

The other test subjects never made it past the first few procedures, and even if they did, their bodies or minds would give out later on. But this one managed to make it this far without too much ill effects.

The worst that happened to that particular subject was that she had been struck down with a fever three days ago after going through one of the more intense procedures. It was worrying at first, but once it became apparent she didn't suffer the same debilitating side effects the other expired subjects had, there'd been a glimmer of hope.

And just as the researchers hoped, the subject's fever is slowly waning away since then.

It's a shame that the subject forgot about her place. She thought she could outsmart them. For all their complaints about the way the current headmaster handles the school, the Steering Committee knew when to give credit where it's due. Without him, who knew where the test subject would've gone to?

It didn't take long for them to reach their destination.

One lone contraption sits still in the middle of the room. A team of researchers is handling it, and from the way they're moving, it looks like they're almost done with the current procedure.

The four men approach closely enough to observe the procedure better, but not close enough to be within the subject's space.

Mr. Sasaki grumbles under his breath while glaring against the test subject. It's rendered unintelligible because of the bandages wrapped around the lower part of his face, starting from below his lower lip; if the other three could understand whatever he wanted to say, they'd say the words he's letting out is less than professional.

"Cease your complaints, Mr. Sasaki. It's already been days since that incident happened," Mr. Akiyama cuts in. "You should be glad that the worst only led you to drink in a straw for a few more months at most." He dismissively shakes his head at the end of that.

Mr. Sasaki grumbles some more after hearing that, crossing his arms and looking away from his colleague in silent frustration.

As for the other two, they watch the procedure with great interest. At the moment, their test subject is semi-conscious, meaning that she is awake. However, it also meant that she lacked the right judgment to make any reactions towards everything within her surroundings.

Whenever any of the surgeon's hands pass through or whenever the tools they used prodded deep inside, the test subject's body would twitch every now and then.

'Yes, this one has promised great potential. I'm glad that the subject agreed to come along in the end.' Mr. Minami chuckles to himself after briefly sneaking a look over the surgeon's handiwork. 'It'd still be doable, but it would've also been a lot harder to pull some more strings if the subject didn't agree to participate in the project.'

It's still far too early to say, but perhaps in time, they'd see the results of their extensive labor bear fruit at last. Perhaps everything they've been working for up to this point wouldn't have gone to waste. The Steering Committee knew it in themselves that this subject won't be a disappointment like all the others that came before.

When the last incision was done, the subject's chest slowly rises and falls, breathing without making a single noise.

Mr. Mizushima steps forward, coming closer while the other three follow behind him. He looks down on the test subject, regarding her with a smile, clasping his hands together. He knows that the test subject won't be able to answer him properly, but he felt like it's only right to tell her a few things.

"Aside from the..." The old man clicks his tongue. "...Two setbacks we've had, your skirmish with Mr. Sasaki and your little escapade, to be more specific, you shouldn't need to trouble yourself any further, Nanami. As a matter of fact, you should be grateful. Our country, no…" He shakes his head, pausing as if to correct himself.

Seven more words are released from his lips before the machine closed around the subject.

The heavy impact of those words will remain, even if the subject shall no longer remember everything after this. Before the machine closed in on her, Chiaki Nanami, the ordinary person who was once nothing more than a simple reserve course student and now, one of the many test subjects for this project, heard the old man's serene yet detached words:

"The world shall not forget your sacrifice."

A/N: And so, the second year starts. The tone of the fic will probably shift to a more relaxed one, to prepare for future stuff that'll happen, if you know what I'm saying. *wink wink* Of course it doesn't mean everything is back to sunshine and rainbows like nothing happened.

Now with that said, I'm going to take a break from this fic for a while. If I'm estimating correctly, it'll come back by around December 7.

EDIT: Decided to remove lines mentioning first and second batches. I thought that it'd be a bit better to keep the exact number of participants more ambiguous.