The second day of Hope's Peak Academy's Culture Festival has officially begun.
If anyone ever thought that the first day was already hectic, well, it's barely even been a few hours at most by now, but it looks like the second day is about to outdo that.
Again, the first day has already been filled to the brim with a lot of people, consisting of fellow Ultimates, reserve course students, Lil Ultimates, and even complete outsiders. Based on how extremely busier things have gotten, the amount of people might've doubled, no, at least tripled in size compared to how it was yesterday. And that's without the fact that it ended up reaching national news too.
Despite the ever-growing demand and the crowds of people getting bigger by each minute though, somehow, the whole school is still able to manage that, even if it ended up making the students at least thrice as busier. It helps that there's plenty of shops and attractions to choose from, too.
Though, since there's a lot of them, there were some that have become so well-known, they more or less became the unofficial highlights of the event.
One of those would be the haunted house attraction of Class 77-B. It was surprisingly popular, despite literally everything about it, along with being filled with nightmarish stuff that ordinary people can't even begin to imagine. To the point that even the most strong-willed of people, both Ultimates and non-Ultimates, would come out as sobbing and shaking wrecks after their trip in there.
Aside from that, there's also the school play of Class 78. Apparently, they went with an original story, instead of going for any popular established ones. From what a lot of people have said, the play's story was surprisingly moving; it might've been thanks to Hifumi Yamada, the Ultimate Animator, who created the concept, the script, and even directed through the play.
It's even more impressive considering that, even though everyone in that class is an Ultimate (obviously), most of the cast had zero acting experience, since acting basically had nothing to do with their talents.
There's a lot more other than those two, but so far, those are the ones that people talked about the most, along with a cross-dressing maid café from one of the other classes.
In any case, the culture festival of Hope's Peak Academy has gotten bigger than before, and it's not exactly going to slow down just yet.
It didn't take long before time started blurring out a lot more, and before anyone knew it, they're slowly approaching at least halfway through the end of the school festival.
Hajime finds himself sitting by one of the public benches. He lets out a deep sigh of relief, and then stretches out his stiff and sore limbs. He'll admit that even though the whole event was pretty exhausting, it was also pretty fun too.
At the same time, though, he feels grateful for Sonia taking over managing the haunted house at the meantime. It helped in giving him some much-needed rest, especially after how hectic these past days have been.
He hears some steps nearby. Out of curiosity, he turns his head around, and then sees that there's another person by his side, another boy, to be exact. If he had to guess, that boy probably took a seat there just now.
As he looks at that newcomer some more, he watches the boy stretch his back with a hum. Judging from the look on his face, he looks pretty exhausted. Not exactly the soul-sucking kind of exhaustion, but more like the 'did nothing but a bunch of chores and other related activities for the whole day' kind of exhaustion.
Hajime blinks, having noticed the thick strand of hair that's sticking up on the boy's head. He immediately recognizes who that person is. If he isn't wrong, then that boy might be Makoto Naegi, the Ultimate Group Leader.
Without even thinking about it, he suddenly blurts out, "You're Naegi, right?"
The boy turns to face him after hearing his name. There's a surprised, and also, somewhat flustered look on his face. Naegi blinks for a few times, stuttering out a few half-formed words, before finally calming down and then replying with, "Ah, yeah. You're…Hinata, from Class 77-B, then?"
At that moment, Hajime suddenly realizes just how awkward the whole situation was, and it's technically his fault for causing it in the first place. "Yeah, I am. Sorry for disturbing you." He replies with a rather sheepish nod.
Naegi waves a hand off. "No, no, it's okay. You don't have to apologize for it."
Several quiet moments go by them. It's so quiet, someone might even be able to visualize a couple of crickets chirping in the background.
Hajime quickly realizes how awkward it's all starting to become, and so, he tries to think of a way to break the ice that's now forming around them, so to say. Glancing back at him, he asks, "So, uh, what brings you here?"
"We just did the last show of our play today." Naegi replies, a weary smile coming over his face. "Everyone's gone off to go have some fun after we're finally done with it. I just went here to catch my breath for a while, but I should be able to join back with them after this."
Hajime painfully smiles in sympathy. "That does sound like it's a lot to deal with." He can't even begin to imagine how exhausting in managing the whole school play routine of Class 78 would be, especially with Naegi's position in mind. Not to mention, the preparations their class had to do beforehand.
Naegi breathes out. "It really was, especially when I made myself catch up to everyone after I got sick for at least a couple of weeks. No one blamed me for it, but I felt so bad for it."
'Yeah, I remember that. Maizono covered for you during those meetings too.' Hajime lightly shakes his head. "It can't be helped. But you know," He begins, gently steering the conversation to something a bit lighter. "I've seen the play too. Honestly, it was way better than how people said it was. I didn't expect those kinds of crazy plot twists, especially the one that happened at the ending. And then there's how everyone acted so well too."
Naegi awkwardly chuckles, slightly scratching at the back of his head as a faint blush goes over his cheeks. "Wow, haha. You, uh, really think so?"
Hajime sincerely nods. "Definitely."
A few more seconds of silence go by them, before Naegi points out, "So, Hinata, I'm guessing you're here for the same reason too?"
"Yeah," Hajime leans back on the bench. "I guess you can say that."
Time passes by them as they keep talking with each other some more. Now that the atmosphere is cooling off from the initial awkwardness, something dawns upon Hajime. Though he has seen Naegi a few times already, especially during those Student Council meetings, but believe it or not, this is the first time he's actually talked to him like this.
Hajime internally frowns, thinking back on the complete silence Enoshima has given him these past months. "Hey, Naegi. Would you mind if I ask you something?"
Naegi turns to him. "Sure, what is it?"
Before a single word can come out of him, Hajime starts to feel cold at that moment. 'Is it really okay if I bring this up to him right now?' Swallowing all his will, he then says to him, "I've heard that one of your classmates is the Ultimate Detective, and I was wondering about a few things—"
Naegi shoots him a highly confused look as he interrupts him. "Wait, Ultimate Detective? What do you mean by that, Hinata?"
"Huh?" Now it's Hajime's turn to be confused. He isn't sure if he heard that right, but he continues his question with, "Uh, you do have someone who's the Ultimate Detective as your classmate, right? I thought that Hope's Peak Academy's forums mentioned something about that."
Naegi pauses, as if he's thinking about that some more, before shaking his head. "I did hear about the same thing from those forums, but no, I don't think we have an Ultimate with that exact title." He pauses for a split second, and then adds, "Then again, Kyoko has worked with detectives before, so I think some people heard about that and then confused that information with her title. But the truth is, she's actually the Ultimate Analyst."
"Wait, the Ultimate Analyst?" Hajime repeats in disbelief.
"Yeah, Kyoko's the Ultimate Analyst in my class. It's not the first time someone got confused about that." Naegi confirms once again with a nod. "If it isn't too much trouble, why are you asking about it?"
Hajime slightly shakes his head as he replies, "It's nothing. But thanks for telling me about it, anyway." He internally reviews the new piece of information Naegi gave him, wondering to himself, 'Though, if there isn't actually an Ultimate Detective in Class 78, then that means…'
The realization suddenly hits him, and his eyes go wide. Without any warning, he then gets up from his seat, turns to face Naegi, and slightly bows in apology. "Sorry if this was really abrupt, but I think I've got to go now."
"Huh, okay, then…?" Naegi awkwardly replies, all while looking really dumbfounded at the entire situation.
Not that Hajime can blame him for it, though. He knows that if it was him in the same situation, he'd act pretty much the same way, no doubt about that. But for now, there is a certain 'fashionista' he has to talk to.
Searching for a certain fashionista was a lot more challenging than expected. Matter of fact, Hajime isn't even sure on where he'd start at all. For once, he wants to curse out on how ungodly big the main course's school area is. He knows it's going to take him forever before he can find where Enoshima can be.
But still, he's got to try somehow, at the very least. It's either now or never.
And so, that leads to him searching around the school, starting off with inside the building itself, no matter how futile it felt. Rather predictably, he isn't able to find anything about the fashionista, even when he asked some of his schoolmates around for her. From what they told him, no one's really close to her.
By the time he's sure he's searched most of the classrooms and asked just about everyone in the building, he decides to take a short break for now. He puts his hands over knees, panting a lot harder than he ever did in his whole life.
He has no idea how long he's been running around, looking for Enoshima without a single clue, and he's sure that he must've looked so weird in front of his peers. Though, he decides not to think about that part for now.
As soon as he manages to catch his breath once again, Hajime straightens up his back. He inhales one more time, closing his eyes, and then slowly exhales. He's still on zero progress, but nevertheless, he wills himself, going back on the search.
Since he didn't find even a single trace of Enoshima anywhere in the school building, he supposes he should start looking around the school grounds itself, which would be even more challenging. If the building is already ridiculously big, the school grounds as a whole might as well be twice as much.
At the very least, he's slightly thankful that the crowds of people aren't as big now, but it still made walking around a bit tough. He already lost count on how many times he had to say "Sorry" or "Excuse me" every time he ended up rubbing shoulders or bumping into someone without meaning to.
As he's going on his way, his eyes dart and scan around at every corner he can see. He's keeping himself alert in case if he ever manages to spot a familiar pair of blonde twin tails. As per usual, still no sight of that fashionista around here.
Before he can take any more steps, he then hears something growl. He puts his hand on his stomach, quickly realizing that he hasn't eaten at all this afternoon.
Left with no other choice, he decides to put his search on hold for now. Walking around, he looks around at the available food stands, wondering which one he should try out. From what he can see, there's a takoyaki stand at that area too—
Hajime slowly blinks, all while a look of heavy disbelief slowly making its way over his face. He reviews the sight before him a few more times, even rubbing his eyes a few times while he's at it, double-checking if he's lost it already.
As soon as he confirms that yes, what he's seeing is real and that no, he hasn't lost his mind yet, he does a few things that any reasonable person would do in his position. He closes his eyes, pinches the bridge of his nose, and then audibly sighs out loud in exasperation. He never felt so tempted to slap himself silly, until now.
'Seriously? She was right there all along?'
There's Enoshima herself, all right, sitting down on one of the available seats without a care in the world and munching on a whole bowl of takoyaki. Right before she can stab the last takoyaki with her toothpick, she notices him. A smile goes over her face as she giddily waves at him. "Oh, hey there, Hinata! Long time no see!"
At that moment, Hajime can already feel some of his veins popping up. It doesn't help that she's so casual about it too; way more casual than he's comfortable with, to be honest. Still, as annoyed as he is with her, he bites down his grimace and forces himself to smile, even a little bit.
"I guess I could say the same thing to you, too." He replies in a half-casual, half-deadpan tone as he makes his way towards her. Once he's right in front of her, he puts his hand down on her table. "So, would you mind telling how the Ultimate Detective is your classmate if she doesn't even exist?"
Just like that, the once cheerful expression Enoshima had a couple of minutes ago immediately drops. A mild frown makes it ways over her face as she looks around their surroundings.
Without breaking eye contact with him at all, she stabs the last takoyaki in her bowl with far more force than she needed. She takes a bite out of it, and in a few seconds, it's gone. After she's done with it, she sets the toothpick back on the bowl.
"Ya know," She begins, as a passive-aggressive kind of smile goes over her face. "We can't exactly talk right here. There's lots of people running around since it's the school festival, and who knows if those old geezers put up some cams or bugs around here."
A bead of sweat runs down Hajime's forehead. "What the hell do you mean by that?"
Enoshima winks and playfully replies to him, "You'll see what I mean real soon~!" She proceeds to stand up from her seat, and without even bothering to warn him, her hand snakes out and then grabs him by the wrist.
Hajime tries to protest, but soon he finds himself getting dragged away from there. He glances around at their surroundings, trying to check on where exactly Enoshima is planning to take him. His face starts flushing all over beyond belief as soon as he realizes that she's dragging him off into the student dorms. He can't do anything but pray that no one has spotted them like this and get the wrong idea.
Though, in case if things do end up going south, he knows that he should be able to pull himself off her. Or, if he really has to, push her off him and then run off as far as he can.
Soon, both of them enter Enoshima's dorm room. "Alright, we're here!" She cheerfully announces to him, acting like there's nothing awkward about a boy and a girl entering the same room at all.
On his end, Hajime's trying the best he can to stay calm as much as possible. He still isn't sure on how he's supposed to feel about this, especially with him taking a seat on her bed. "Enoshima, I don't know what you're planning, but one of your classmates told me that there is no Ultimate Detective in your class—"
She puts a finger over his lips, cutting him off. "Oh, don't be so silly, Hinata." She then snickers at him, like she finds his shocked expression to be pretty funny. "I'm THE Ultimate Detective."
He stares silently at her for a few seconds, processing the information in his mind. No matter how many times he goes over it, he isn't sure if he heard that. "Huh? It's…you? You're joking, aren't you?"
"Sure, I don't look the part, but it'd be sooo boring if I was that obvious."
"But…I thought that you're the Ultimate Fashionista?"
Enoshima looks at him like he's the crazy one. "Do you seriously think that someone can have only one talent?"
"Not exactly, but I'm sure that Ultimates only get one title while they're attending Hope's Peak Academy." Hajime shrugs.
She wags a finger at him. "Oh well, it'd be too complicated if I were to explain it you right now, so let's get on with what you're here for. I assume you're here to ask about the progress regarding your ex-girlfriend, aren't you?"
He can't help but growl in irritation. "For the last time, we weren't like that at all."
"Whatever you say, lover boy." Suddenly, she dons on a pair of eyeglasses and also somehow managed to do her twin tails into a single ponytail within the blink of an eye. "The truth is, I wasn't able to find anything about her."
Hajime raises a brow, suspicious about what she's implying. "How come?"
Enoshima is pretty nonchalant about his response. "Yeah, that's exactly my reaction too. I still have no idea why it's that, and I'm the best goddamn detective in the world. Though," She runs a finger over chin. "I did find something you might find interesting about your favorite school."
"What do you mean by that?" He murmurs, feeling his blood run cold at that moment.
"To say that I've found a lot of dirt surrounding Hope's Peak Academy would be quite the understatement. There's so many that I've found, it might take a whole day or so to get through them all. But for your sake, I'll go over to the bigger ones and get to the main point." She pushes the bridge of her glasses. "Before we get into that, let me ask you one thing, Hinata. You do know about how a good number of the reserve course resents the main course, right?"
Hajime bites his lip. He doesn't like where she's going with this, but he slowly nods. "Yeah, I do."
"Do you know why that is?" She presses further.
"It's because they don't have the same privileges as Ultimate students, isn't it?" His eyes narrow.
She shakes her head with a smile. "That's partly why, but you've got that wrong, Hinata. The truth is, what's actually going on in the reserve course is a whole different can of worms. Envy and resentment towards the Ultimates is only scratching the surface."
'What the hell are you talking about?' Hajime has never felt so tempted to snap at someone like this before. And yet, he can't bring himself to do it, at least not right now. The least he can do is wait and hear everything she has to say before he can call her out on it.
"Believe it or not," Enoshima continues. "There's a lot of cases of teachers mistreating or even abusing their students, along with the school using the tuition paid by the reserve course for prettying up the main course's school grounds. Then there's also some allegations of the school as whole committing bribery and tax evasion, among other things."
Upon hearing that, Hajime can't take it anymore. He suddenly stands up, barely holding himself back from yelling at her. "Hope's Peak Academy can't be doing that!"
"Oh? And why not, Hinata?"
"Because…" Hajime grits his teeth. He shakes his head. "I just can't see them doing any of those things you're accusing them of."
"But I'm not accusing them at all. That's all based on what I found so far."
"It could easily be from people making up lies about the school." He rebuts, his fists involuntarily clenching and shaking.
"Sure, go ahead and believe that, then. In any case," Without any warning, Enoshima goes forward and traces one of her long nails along the side of his jawline. "You'll keep this between us. Isn't that right, Hi-na-ta?" She says that to him in a chipper, sing-song tone.
From the way she presented, it sounded less like a request, and more like a threat.
Hajime quietly gulps. He isn't sure exactly what Enoshima is capable of, but something tells him that he should take her word for it, at least for now. Wordlessly, he slowly nods at her.
"I'm so glad we're thinking on the same level here. Don't worry, I'll still let you know if I find anything about your friend, but remember that, okay?" She giggles, letting him go and now acting like she hasn't threatened him at all just now.
"Y…Yeah. I'll be sure to keep that in mind." He mumbles back in reply, all while wondering to himself, 'Was it really a good idea to get her involved with this?'
Since no one asked him about it, Hajime supposes it's safe to assume that no one saw him with Enoshima a while back. He doesn't want to think about any of that anymore, and so, he pushes them to the furthest corners of his mind.
Early evening has already come around, officially ending the school festival.
As popular as it was, Class 77-B's haunted house attraction didn't win the competition. Instead, the award went to one of the classes that did a cross-dressing maid café attraction. It didn't bother anyone at all, though, since managing the haunted house was still pretty fun in its own right.
Though, without even realizing it, Hajime ended up tuning out most of the remarks from the closing ceremony. He couldn't help it, not when his mind keeps on thinking back on the talk he had with Enoshima not too long ago, no matter how much his pushes it back.
He only snaps out of it once he feels someone put a hand over his shoulder. He turns to face that person, and sees Kazuichi's worried face staring back at him.
"Is there something wrong, Hajime?" Kazuichi asks.
Hajime forcefully smiles and then shakes his head. "It's nothing. I was just feeling a little tired from the festival, that's all."
The other boy frowns, and presses on a little further. "You sure about that?"
"Yeah, I'm sure." He reaffirms with a quick nod.
Thankfully, Kazuichi didn't press any further than that, and for once, Hajime is kinda glad that no one else in the class questioned him about it too.
Once everything about the closing ceremony is done and over with, all remaining Ultimates scatter around outside of the school gates. A good number of them are talking about what they're planning to do this evening.
Even everyone from Class 77-B isn't an exception to that. Sonia and Ibuki, in particular, are pushing towards a karaoke night for the whole class. It isn't the final decision, but at least half of them are leaning towards that idea.
Their conversation is filled with other talk similar to that, with some of them pushing for a different group activity altogether. Though, the evening karaoke idea is still in the leading one by a landslide.
At least it was like that, until Ryota ends up blurting out,
"Hey, has anyone seen Ms. Yukizome?"
Chisa holds in a breath, keeping herself steady at her current position. She carefully adjusts the cap on her head, tilting it at an angle to keep anyone from recognizing her immediately. So far, no one has spotted her yet, especially not the one person she's keeping an eye out at this moment.
Normally, she'd be heading home immediately after this, especially after all the exhausting work she's been doing for the festival, along with the usual (and just as exhausting) school duties she has to do.
But then, she ended up hearing some reports from Juzo, something about seeing Mr. Tengan come over to the founder's statue a bit too frequently, over the course of these past few months. He said that he heard about it from some gossips around the reserve course, though because of his whole 'head of the security' duties, he never had the time to check it out for himself.
So, that leads her right to where she is now; her discretely tailing after their former headmaster. While yeah, there's nothing about those rumors that should be worth investigating, but she can't help but find something a bit…off about them.
Don't get her wrong, it's not that she hates him or anything like that, really. Mr. Tengan is a good man, she knows that. It's just that, well…it's kinda hard for her to put it more clearly, but, she guesses she just had a gut feeling about it.
So far though, there isn't anything too incriminating yet, since it's just her following him around to wherever he might be going to. From how things are looking, it looks like he's just talking a normal stroll around these school grounds, even though it's already this late.
Then again, if it turns out there's nothing to worry about at all, then she'd leave immediately without any fuss. And of course, she will also mentally apologize to Mr. Tengan for following him around without him knowing about it.
Suddenly, she watches him abruptly stop by. Accordingly, she discretely does the same, her eyes following through the light shining from his flashlight, and as soon as she sees it shine on something, she swallows.
There's no mistaking it. That's the statue of Izuru Kamukura, the founder of Hope's Peak Academy.
'Looks like those rumors were right. Though, now I wonder why he visits here that often' As she thinks about it more, she inwardly muses, 'Heh, maybe it's because he's feeling nostalgic?'
Without any warning, Mr. Tengan then turns around. His eyes seem to be darting all over the place, almost like he's checking if anyone has followed him. He's even moving his flashlight around to check on his surroundings.
Chisa feels her heart stop for a moment when the flashlight comes millimeters close to shining on her face, having narrowly dodged it at the last second. All without making a single noise that would give her position away.
After what feels like a long minute, Mr. Tengan breathes out, turning back as he visibly relaxes.
Chisa thinks that's the end of it, preparing herself to leave as quietly as she can, but then her eyes narrow as she notices something. 'Wait a minute.'
Thanks to the light still coming from his flashlight, she watches him press on a slab at the wall. Shortly after that, something begins to rumble. Her eyes still following the flashlight, she then sees what looks like to be stairs leading down, which she assumes would be a secret entrance of some sort.
Chisa watches the former headmaster begin descending on those stares, his flashlight dimming as he goes further down, until he slowly disappears from her sight, right into the underground's darkness.
She then notices that the entrance is about to close. Although she has no idea about wherever it might lead into, she wastes no time and discretely follows him in as well.
A/N: I think is arguably one of the tougher chapters I've put out so far. Also, let's just say, the next chapter should get even more exciting, at least in a certain kind of way, heh.
Side note, as for why Hajime didn't realize the truth a lot sooner, I like to imagine that Ultimates are kinda isolated from each other in a way, at least when it comes to their respective classes. Whether that was by HPA's design or not is up to debate.