And here it is, the conclusion of The New Game! This was intended to be a part of The New Game, Part Four, but as you can see it needed to be its own thing because, well, because I'm me and I'm long-winded. I hope you enjoy it! I'm glad it didn't take me months to write. :D
The New Game, Part Five
The New Game, Part Five
Nanami sat silently for a very, very long time, but the others had no pretensions towards waiting for her to speak. "The traitor?" Koizumi said, looking pale. "But that's… I don't think we should be pointing fingers right now, especially not at Chiaki-chan –"
"She IS the traitor!" Souda shouted. "She's gotta be! It's definitely not me, and it's definitely not Hinata, so it's either her or Kuzuryuu!"
"Me?!" Kuzuryuu jerked his head up. "Now wait just a second –"
"Souda-kun, Kuzuryuu-kun, that's enough." Nanami folded her hands in her lap, and cast her eyes down at the floor. Then she slowly turned to her left, towards the plaque. "You're right," she said. "It's true. I'm the traitor."
A smile spread across her face, and she relaxed her shoulders, as if a weight had been taken off them. But the rest of them, far from returning her sentiment, recoiled in horror. Mioda's jaw dropped. Saionji scrambled as far away from Nanami as she could get, hiding behind Koizumi and peeking over her shoulder. And Hinata… he'd made the guess, and seen the proof, but he hadn't wanted to believe it was true…
"You're...you're really not fucking us around, right?" Kuzuryuu said, his fists trembling.
"No, I'm not," said Nanami. "I wouldn't gain anything by lying about it."
"Then start talking," Kuzuryuu said. "I want to know everything that's been going on here from start to finish, and I mean everything. For one thing, what's the Future Foundation, and what do they want with us?"
Nanami stared blankly at Kuzuryuu, her eyes wide with what looked like curiosity. If she was going to answer, though, she didn't get the chance before Souda interrupted. "Yeah! And why did they bring us here?" he said. "Why did they take our memories? And what was up with all the Hope Shards?"
"And for that matter, who was Monobear?" Koizumi said, moving closer to Nanami, with all traces of doubt now gone from her face. "Who was he really working for? How'd he get to the island at all?"
"How'd all this weird stuff happen, anyway?" Saionji pulled roughly on her pigtails. "The talking bears and all the other magic – bullshit – whatever stuff –"
"Who even is Chiaki-chan?" Mioda said, eyes wide. "Is she really a Super High School Level Gamer? Or is she a secret double agent?"
"And, hey, what's going on outside, anyway?!" Saionji interrupted. "Someone's gotta be looking for us, right?"
"Can you talk to the Future Foundation?" Koizumi said. "Can you tell us why they're not here yet?"
"I…" Nanami opened her mouth, and then closed it again. She tapped her fingers against the edge of her skirt, and looked from one face to the next. Perhaps she was confused. Even Hinata could hardly remember half of what they'd asked. But she didn't say anything for a long time, and her eyes grew sadder with every second that passed. "All this… that's…"
"Hey, spit it out," Kuzuryuu said.
Nanami shivered, and then squinted her eyes shut, and lowered her head into her chest. It almost looked as though she was having a seizure. Hinata's heart dropped into his stomach, and he felt frightened to his very core – but just as he was thinking of extending a hand to her, her eyes opened again.
"I can't," she said.
Look of confusion spread across everyone's faces. "You…can't?" Kuzuryuu said.
"You can't what?" Hinata said. "You can't answer us?"
"I'm sorry," said Nanami. "I can't…I really wish…"
"Why not?" Saionji spat. "It's an emergency! We're all gonna die!"
"T-that might be what she wants," Souda said quietly.
"NO!" Nanami scrambled toward Souda, and extended a hand, but he pulled himself away from her, and fixed her with a terrified stare. She sat frozen for a second, before she retreated. "No, that's not true. I…"
"You?" Mioda said, looking heartbroken.
"I… can't." Nanami looked down. "I'm sorry. I really can't."
"Can you…tell us why you can't?" Koizumi's fingers tapped rapidly against her wrists, and her expression was etched with concern.
"I just can't." Nanami screwed her eyes shut, trembling.
"You already said that like five times!" Souda seemed to be getting more and more agitated with every word he said. "If you really want to help us, then why can't you just do it!?"
"You…you don't understand." Nanami shook her head, and Hinata could swear she looked as though she were about to cry. "I would. I really would. I desperately want to. But I can't."
"You…" Hinata gave Nanami what he hoped was a reassuring look, but she did not look at him, or say anything in return. He bit his lip, trying to put two and two together again. "Will they do something to you? Or…"
He trailed off, expecting Nanami to finish his sentence, but she didn't, and he simply felt awkward. He had nothing to finish it with, and no reason to even think of what might be stopping her. If the Future Foundation had threatened her in some way, it couldn't be anything worse than what she was already involved in. And if it came down to her life, he wanted to defend her with all he had. Even if he truly didn't know who this person in front of him was. Even if yet another friend of his had betrayed him…
"They already have," Kuzuryuu offered. "Whatever they've done, you couldn't talk even if you wanted, could you?"
Nanami's eyes brightened, but she said nothing. It was still all the answer that Kuzuryuu had needed; his face relaxed, and he sat back. "There's not much to be done about that," he said. "This is even more fucked up than I thought..."
"I don't understand." Hinata gave Kuzuryuu an odd look; he didn't know why this should reassure him. "How could someone stop someone from talking?"
"Lots of ways," Kuzuryuu said. "But it's not like she can tell us."
"It could be dark magic," Mioda offered.
"Or a bomb in her digestive tract!" Souda said.
"Oh, don't be ridiculous!" Koizumi turned to face Nanami. "They have to be threatening you somehow. Or your family, or…"
Kuzuryuu scoffed, but Koizumi was too focused on Nanami to respond. Nanami shook her head. "It's… it's not anything I can explain," she said. "But it's not important."
"I'd say it is," Hinata said. "I mean, this is stuff we need to know. Isn't it?"
"Yes," Nanami said quickly.
"Then Chiaki-chan's secrets are just that?" Mioda said, dropping her head.
"N –" Chiaki started, but then paused, and closed her lips tight. "I don't know," she whispered through them. "I just…don't know…"
"Nanami…" Hinata paused there, reconsidering what he was going to say next. "I have a question. Well, a lot of them. But one, in particular."
Nanami stared into empty space for a moment before she looked up at Hinata, saying nothing. "So, you know…you know something, but you can't tell us about it. But you told us that you were the traitor, just now. Why couldn't you tell us before?"
Nanami kept looking, and kept her mouth closed. Hinata bit his lip, trying to put the pieces together. "Could you tell us before?"
More silence. "You couldn't, could you?"
"No."
Hinata's eyes went wide. "But… you couldn't tell me that. You couldn't, because..." He snapped his fingers. "Because I hadn't guessed it yet. If we can guess what you'd say if you could tell us, then… then there's no reason for you to keep it a secret anymore. You can tell us if we're right, like what you did when I said you were the traitor –"
"Yes!" Nanami said, jumping up onto her knees. "Yes, I can absolutely do that!"
She rocked back and forth in her seat, by all appearances eagerly awaiting Hinata's response. That was an empathic answer if Hinata ever saw one, so he smiled back at her. "It'll work, won't it?" he said
"It should," Nanami said. "I know you're all very intelligent. That's how you got to be Super High School Level in the first place."
Mioda beamed at the compliment, while Koizumi and Souda shifted uncomfortably in their seats. They appeared to be the most uneasy around Nanami now; Saionji was angry but interested, and Kuzuryuu the pinnacle of calm. "The first questions were yours, Kuzuryuu-kun. You wanted to know what the Future Foundation was, and what it wanted with you."
Hinata half-hoped she would keep talking and answer her own question, but she sat in silence, watching them with inquisitive eyes. "Seriously?" Saionji said. "This is life or death and we have to play twenty questions?"
"It's not twenty questions, it's just really hardcore guessing," Mioda said. "And Ibuki can do really hardcore guessing because that's the way she goes through her own daily life!" She tapped her finger against her chin. "Hmmm… Ibuki's got it! They're an international organization of super villains, and they're holding us hostage for all of the world's gold!"
Nanami was perfectly still and silent. Mioda pursed her lips, and tried again. "Nooooooo, wait! They're a bunch of studio executives, and we were randomly selected for one of those TV reality shows –"
"Okay, enough," Kuzuryuu said. "They're part of Hope's Peak. That stupid rabbit already said they put this together."
"She's not stupid," Nanami said, gritting her teeth, but that was all she said.
"In the beginning," Koizumi mused, "Usami said that our purpose was to 'form bonds' with each other, and gather Hope Shards by forming those bonds… that must have been what the Future Foundation wanted, if she was a part of it. But… did they have any other motive?"
Nanami nodded, but kept quiet. "That still leaves the question of who they are," Hinata said. "Clearly they have the resources to carry something like this out, but…"
"You don't even know where to begin to guess," Nanami said.
Hinata paused. "No."
"That's alright. We can move on for now. Souda-kun, you asked about why you were brought here, and the Hope Shards, and your lost memories."
"Yeah, well…" Souda scratched his head. "That's kinda why I asked. I've got no idea…"
"As far as why we were brought here," Hinata said, "Well… the only thing I can think of is it had something to do with us being at Hope's Peak –"
"Yes," Nanami said. "That was very much a deciding factor."
"And it was really important for all of us to make friends," Mioda said. "Ibuki knew that from the way Usami kept going on and on about it!"
"That doesn't tell us why," Koizumi said. "But I can't even think of why…"
"Then…our memories," Hinata said, interrupting Koizumi. He felt grim all of a sudden, as if a darkness had settled in the middle of his chest. "We did lose them. That wasn't some kind of lie Monobear told."
"It wasn't," Nanami said. "You did lose your memories."
"But how can they just take someone's memories?" Hinata said.
"The Future Foundation's resources are extensive," Nanami said, in a monotone that implied she had no more to say on the subject.
An awkward silence ensued, until Koizumi looked up from her lap to face Nanami. "The pictures from the Twilight Syndrome game," she said, a choking sound making its way into her voice. "They're really real. I really took those pictures."
"You did," Nanami said, hanging her head. "I'm so sorry."
"Then…" Kuzuryuu caught himself mid-breath, and closed his mouth. "That must have something to do with it. Something to do with my sister's death…"
"But not everyone here was involved with that," Hinata said. "So it can't be the reason we all lost our memories."
Kuzuryuu gritted his teeth. "That's not…"
"Was there some reason they needed to take 'em?" Souda clutched his hands to his head. "Really… w-what happened to us?"
"I…don't…" Nanami looked from one face to the next, looking more and more uncomfortable. "I can't…"
"Chiaki-chan can't what?" Mioda said.
"The Future Foundation would never have taken your memories without a reason," Nanami said. She spoke in the same monotone as before, as though the words were well-rehearsed.
For a moment Hinata thought she was dodging the answer they needed, just as she had before. But then something long-forgotten, or perhaps long-repressed, pricked at him from the edges of his awareness. The Memory Fever. Monobear had mentioned it, before the Impostor had destroyed him… but he'd never had the chance to properly explain what it was.
He'd said that Tsumiki had had it, and that she'd given it to the Impostor. But nothing about their behavior had suggested anything to do with memories. He hadn't even noticed any common behavior between them. None except their joint attempts, and successes, at murder…and at despair, he thought.
For a split second he knew some part of the real answer, and his mind was overcome with the effort to understand it. But then he pushed it away, in the hope that he would never have to find it again. "It's something big," he said. "Something so big, we can't even imagine it. It's… it's dangerous." He hugged his knees to his chest. "It's something we needed to forget."
Nanami said nothing, but the mournful expression on her face told him all he needed to know – or didn't, for that matter. The others looked at him with wide eyes, waiting for him to elaborate, "I don't know anything else," he said. "I don't even know where to begin –"
"Then Ibuki thinks we should forget about it and move on for now!" Mioda said, speaking very quickly. "Let's see, let's see… What about Monobear? He's not really Monomi-chan's older brother, is he?"
"Absolutely not," Nanami said. "Monobear has never been affiliated with the Future Foundation in any way, shape, or form."
"Then he's some kind of enemy!" Mioda said.
"I hardly need to tell you that," Nanami said in a small voice.
"But you can't exactly tell us who, can you?" Hinata said.
Nanami lowered her head. "No. I can't." She paused, and then spoke more quietly. "To tell the truth, I don't completely know…"
"You don't know who Monobear is?" Hinata said. "But, I thought –"
"I'm sorry," Nanami said, sounding curt. "I can't tell you what I don't know."
"Then what about Chiaki-chan?" Mioda said. "Can Chiaki-chan tell us who Chiaki-chan is?"
Nanami paused for several seconds before she replied. "You already know a lot about me, Mioda-san."
"We don't know anything about you!" Souda said. "We didn't even know you were the traitor!"
"I really don't have that much to hide," was all Nanami had to say in response.
"Then you're saying you're really a Hope's Peak student," Kuzuryuu said, slowly enunciating the words. "You're not just some plant they hired to pretend to be one of us?"
Nanami stared down in silence. Kuzuryuu furrowed his brow. "Then you're not. It's a lie."
When she still didn't speak, Kuzuryuu pounded his hand against the floor, wincing as the pain moved through it. "Well, what is it?" he barked. "It's gotta be one or the other!"
Nanami's lips were trembling, and her fingers twisting in her lap. "Not everything is so easy to understand," she said in a monotone.
"That's not an answer!" Saionji shouted.
"And if it's not, then there's no chance of getting one, is there?" Koizumi gave Nanami an odd, desperate look – one that suggested betrayal above any other emotion. But, again, Nanami didn't answer. She lifted her hand, reaching out to Koizumi, as if she were about to comfort her – but when Koizumi didn't take the offered hand, she set it down again, and turned her head away.
After the briefest of pauses, Koizumi spoke again. "Can't you just – tell us what you can tell us? I don't have any more idea what's going on now than before, and if I just have to keep guessing… well, it's just not getting anywhere, again and again and again..." She grumbled. "It's not that I'm mad. I'm just…never mind."
She pulled her knees up to her chin, and hung her head between them. This time Nanami moved closer to Koizumi, and set a hand on her shoulder, but Koizumi didn't move, and neither did anyone else.
"I'm sorry," Nanami said. "We can drop the subject, if you'd like."
"No," Koizumi said. Nanami leaned even closer, waiting for Koizumi to continue, but when she didn't, Nanami moved back again.
The silence fell again, feeling more oppressive than ever. It did feel to Hinata as though something had changed, but not as though anything had gotten any better; he couldn't look at Nanami without seeing her as something different, something untouchable, and so he tried not to look at her at all. And the others… he could almost swear they'd looked more hopeful when they hadn't had any hope of knowing the truth. But now…
"She could probably tell us all about the Impostor," Kuzuryuu said. "If any of you would actually bother to ask."
A chill swept across the back of Hinata's neck, as Togami's face flashed through his mind. "Wait, she can?" Souda said, trying hard not to look at Kuzuryuu. "But we didn't even ask about them yet…"
"But that doesn't even matter…she CAN!" Mioda's eyes went wide at the realization, and within a second she was up on her feet, rocking back and forth on her heels. "She was talking and talking and talking and talking about Byakuya-chan earlier and Ibuki didn't even realize what she was trying to say, even with her razor-sharp realizing skills!"
"That's right," Hinata said, perking up as the gears in his mind began to move again. "You hadn't told us you were the traitor yet, so you claimed you were being vague. But everything you said about them and their nature, you knew it for sure!"
"I did!" Nanami said, with a level of enthusiasm so sudden that even Koizumi perked up. "That's exactly it!"
"Then you must know a lot about them," Hinata said, laughing despite himself. "And if you do, can you explain all this?"
His heart skipped a beat as Nanami's face fell – but it didn't fall far, and she was still smiling. "I can tell you what I know," she said. "But what I know isn't as much as what you might want. In a lot of ways, I'm just as curious about them as you are…"
Nanami looked as though she were about to say more, but Hinata could tell there was no need for her to make excuses for herself. All six of them were now sitting at attention, and if they felt anything like how Hinata felt, they were eager for the chance at new information. Even the Four Dark Gods of Destruction seemed to be listening; they'd all gathered at the top of Mioda's head, staring and staying remarkably still.
"Hinata-kun," Nanami began again. "You know much of what was classified, don't you?"
"I know…" Hinata put a hand to his chin. "I know that they were always meant to be a member of our class. And I can figure the Future Foundation knew who they really were. But they were still brought here as Byakuya Togami, so chances are that y– that the Future Foundation kept their identity secret for a reason."
"That's all correct," Nanami said. "If not the whole truth. It wasn't necessarily us that made the decision to keep the Impostor's identity secret." She twisted her hands together. "Directly speaking, it was Hope's Peak Academy that initially made the decision to enroll them as Byakuya Togami, the Super High School Level Heir. Indirectly… neither of us really had a choice."
"Didn't have a choice?" Saionji said. "What, were they threatening them or something?"
"That's not something so simple," Nanami said. "For the Impostor to live a life as anyone but Byakuya Togami at that point in time, to be truly exposed for who they were, would have been impossible."
Hinata couldn't wrap his head around what he was hearing, and from the look of things neither could anyone else. "So, they're a master of disguise or whatever," Souda said. "How hard is that to understand? It's kinda stupid for them to be in disguise all the time."
"Disguise is putting it too lightly," Koizumi said, her voice hollow. "Isn't it?"
"You put a disguise on and take it off," Hinata said. "But this… this is different…"
"It may be very difficult to accept," Nanami said. "But you will have to, without reservation or hesitation, if you ever hope to understand them."
That didn't quite calm everyone, but it did stop their questions, giving Nanami another chance to talk. "In the interest of telling the truth…my superiors and I know very little about the Impostor as a person," she said. "Of course, Hope's Peak did their own research on them when they were enrolled as a student. We have reason to believe that they'd compiled an extensive historical and psychological record on them, but if it ever existed, it has long since been destroyed."
"Destroyed?" Hinata said. "By who?"
Nanami stared at Hinata for several seconds, and then went on, ignoring his question. "Their personal record is incomplete to the point that we know nothing about them as an individual. We do not know their name, age, gender, place of birth, or true appearance. We don't even know how much of this information they could tell us. No birth records exist for them, and no outstanding reports of missing persons can be traced back to them.
"They were only brought to the attention of Hope's Peak by a rumor in the criminal underground of a certain city, concerning a person with an extraordinarily talent for impersonation. I don't know the full history of how they came to be found and enrolled in the school, but we know that for years they'd been wandering across Japan, adopting the personalities and likenesses of persons across a wide range of appearances, male and female alike. Whenever they were discovered to be a fake, they would disappear, never to be found again. We don't know exactly how many personalities they have taken on, or how long they may have spent in any given place. We attempted to replace some of their lost historical record when they entered into our hands, but we were unable to do so. But by then…well, it didn't matter so much."
The group was silent for several seconds. Hinata, at least, was trying to form a picture of what he'd just heard – but he'd found it hard to reconcile with what he'd thought he knew for a fact. Togami had claimed to be the richest of the rich, and Hinata had always imagined Togami in the lap of luxury. But to think of them wandering from city to city, changing identities wherever they went… always running, running from the kind of discovery that could be their undoing…
"Is that it?" Saionji said, snapping him out of his own head. "That's all you know?"
"It is. They were always a very secretive and mysterious person," Nanami said. "And they have…a particular discomfort with the possibility of discovery. I could never learn any more about them, and by the time we'd arrived on the island there was no way for me to treat them as anyone but Byakuya Togami..."
Hinata felt as though a pin had dropped in his mind. "Wait," he said. "That time in the cottage, that's what you were doing. You told them all about this, didn't you?"
"That time in the cottage?" Koizumi said. "Wait, what are you talking about?"
"You're…that's very observant, Hinata-kun," Nanami said. "I told them that I knew their secret, but I didn't go into any more detail. They were in pain. They desperately wanted to protect us, and they were in danger of collapsing under the pressure. They felt they had done too much harm for you to be able to trust them again, and that it had all begun with the very first moment they'd lied to you about themselves." She turned to Hinata. "I'm not surprised that they would want to confess their identity. Even if it was too late."
Hinata remembered the look he'd seen on Togami's face, just moments before he'd had to leave their cottage. Their pained expression, their apologies… and then in the next second he remembered the joy on their face when he'd directed them to interact with the others at the fireworks show, and the tenderness with which they'd held Mioda close. And then, in the end, that night at the hospital, the fear in their eyes, the desperation he'd seen just before they'd vanished…
"So you do know more about them," Hinata said. "You just said you didn't."
"Those are only personal observations," Nanami said. "I couldn't tell you anything you don't already know."
"That's… that's right," Hinata said. He did know, though. He'd always known those moments had been genuine; he couldn't imagine them as some calculated part of a disguise. It didn't matter whether that disguise was Byakuya Togami, or… or if…
"But Byakuya-chan was wrong." Hinata was surprised that Mioda had been so quiet. She'd absorbed all the information that Nanami had had to give her about the Impostor with wide, expressionless eyes, and Hinata could only imagine what might have been going through her head. "Byakuya-chan thought we'd hate Byakuya-chan if we ever found out that Byakuya-chan wasn't Byakuya-chan. But Byakuya-chan didn't even realize how many secrets Byakuya-chan wasn't keeping…"
"That's a lot of Byakuya-chans," Souda mumbled, then snickered to himself when the mumble caught everyone else's attention. Hinata tried not to return the snicker, but found himself doing so anyway. Then Mioda joined in, more loudly, but it didn't lead to any kind of cascade of laughter. Nanami, Saionji, Kuzuryuu, and Koizumi were still taciturn, and gave no reaction to the others' laughter.
"Speaking of that," Koizumi said, preventing another silence, "is Byakuya Togami a real person? Or…did they just make him up?"
Hinata felt an odd, strangled tension replacing the darkness in his chest. "The Togami Conglomerate's definitely real," Kuzuryuu said. "The family does dealings with them all the time..."
"It is real," Nanami said. "And there is a real Byakuya Togami. The Impostor patterned themselves off of his personality and appearance."
"A real Byakuya Togami." Hinata hadn't yet had the time to think of just where the Byakuya Togami persona had come from. The Impostor had engaged in enough theatrics for it to be completely made up. But, he'd been wrong… somewhere out there in the world, there was someone who shared their name and their face…
"So… there were really two Togamis?!" Souda shouted.
"Twogamis?" Mioda looked far more shocked by this information than the rest of them.
"And I thought one was bad enough," Saionji said.
"There is truly only one heir to the Togami Conglomerate," Nanami said. "But both of these people shared the same name at the same time."
"But why were they imitating this guy, over anyone else?" Hinata said. "It seems like a pretty random disguise…"
"And it seems like a pain in the ass," Kuzuryuu said. "Putting on all that weight just to imitate this guy? That's a lot more trouble than it's worth."
"That's…" Nanami hesitated, but only for a second. "Byakuya Togami's persona was the one they had adopted when they were admitted to Hope's Peak. It was determined that we should allow them to continue, both to ease the transition to the island and to create continuity with Hope's Peak's decision to do the same."
"That's not an answer," Saionji said.
"It's the one I have," said Nanami. "Although… I do have my own guesses as to their motives."
"And what are those?" Hinata said.
"They're…not really relevant," Nanami said.
"Because Byakuya-chan isn't Byakuya-chan, anymore?" Mioda said in a small voice.
"I…" Nanami stared at Mioda for a moment, before her eyes went wide in horror. "No, absolutely not, that's not what I meant –"
"Is there gonna be any way to get Byakuya-chan back?" Hinata heard the beginnings of a sob in Mioda's voice, but only one, before she quickly stabilized herself. She didn't look desperate, or even upset – just inquisitive, as if she were asking about the weather.
"To get them back…?" Nanami's face fell, and she did not speak for several seconds. "If there is, or isn't, I don't know. It was Monobear that implemented the Memory Fever. I can't know why they never recovered, or even how they could be recovered at all."
"The Memory Fever," Koizumi said, haltingly. "Then, what happened to them… it had to be something to do with their memories?"
It was exactly what Hinata had tried not to acknowledge, and to push away from the forefront of his mind. Their memories… the Impostor's memories… but what in their memories could turn them to the kind of person that would kill three of their friends? He didn't understand at all, and he could see from the looks on their faces that the others didn't, either. And Nanami only looked more distressed than ever, even if she wasn't speaking.
In the midst of his confusion, he remembered something he'd forgotten. Enoshima-dono. Tsumiki had called the Impostor by that name just after she'd transferred the fever, if that was indeed what she'd done, and that same name had been the 'password' that had allowed Monomi to speak during the trial. It had certainly shocked and confused him at the time. But he'd let it slip his mind for days at a time, because Impostor had never called themselves Enoshima, or even given them any clue as to who Enoshima was. If they'd considered it so important, and if Tsumiki had called them by that name, then why hadn't they been told anything else about it…?
"Listen," he started. "I –"
"Urgh! Why are we still doing this?" Saionji bashed her fists hard against the ground, making an enormous thumping noise, before she jumped her feet, fists still clenched. "Big Bro, you said that crying about the Impostor would help us. But you agree with me, right? We're just crying about them even more. This is stupid, and I don't care."
"Wait – what?" Hinata blinked, his mind suddenly blank. He'd lost whatever train of thought he had, and he didn't know if he could get it back. "Saionji –"
"Let's get down to business," Saionji interrupted. She left Koizumi's side and set herself down at Nanami's, pulling roughly at her hair. "The Future Foundation. Tell them to get their butts here before we starve to death or get ourselves killed!"
"Hey!" Hinata shouted, but Nanami sat silent, and didn't react to the hair pulling. But she still looked sad, even sadder than she had when she'd been talking about the Impostor.
"Well?" Saionji said. "Come on!"
"She's not able to contact them at all, Hiyoko-chan," Koizumi interrupted, a snarl in her voice. "We've been over this. Do you really think she wouldn't, after all this time?"
"I have no idea," Saionji said, without looking at Koizumi. "She was lying to us as much as the Impostor was. Why should we believe anything she has to say? For all I know, she's the one that's telling them not to come for us."
"Saionji-san, I assure you, I'm not," Nanami said in a small voice.
"But why would they put you out of the loop?" Kuzuryuu said.
"Is it something the Impostor did?" Souda said. "Did he mess with… wait, do you have some kind of secret cell phone or something?!"
"I don't." Nanami looked up at the ceiling, and stared into the nothingness. "Monomi was the only one ever able to contact them. She had to be. But after Monobear cut her off, we were unable to reach them altogether…"
"Then you're a piss-poor excuse for a traitor," Saionji said, pulling harder on her hair.
"Hiyoko-chan!" Koizumi ran to Saionji's side, grabbed her roughly by the shoulders, and pulled her away from Nanami. She was clearly livid – and even more than with Nanami, she looked betrayed. "What do you think you're doing, anyway? You – this entire time –"
"NO! Don't yell at me!" Saionji scrunched her eyes shut, and folded her hands over her ears. "You've been doing this the entire time! Just yelling and yelling and yelling!" Tears began to well in the corners of her eyes. "All I try to do is help, but all you do is hate me –"
"I don't hate you!" Koizumi shouted. "We've been over this, already, a hundred times –"
"It's alright," Nanami said, in a small voice. "It's a difficult thing to deal with –"
"You can't keep doing this, Hiyoko-chan," Koizumi said, talking right over Nanami. "This hostility, to everyone and everything… I know you're scared, but we can't –"
"Damn right I'm scared!" Saionji shouted. "We're still here, and all the traitor has done so far is talk! Maybe if she'd just talked before Hinata got us stuck here that'd be different –"
The mention of his name snapped Hinata out of the shock he'd fallen into. "I did not get us stuck here!"
"You kind of did," Kuzuryuu mumbled.
"But I wasn't –"
Hinata gripped at his head, scrunching his eyes shut as a sudden pain split his head. It was gone just as quickly as it had come, but he held his head in his hands for several more seconds before he looked up. He heard some shuffling as the others came closer – or as they moved further away, he couldn't tell. He almost didn't want to look, no matter that he knew he'd have to.
The silence returned, and hung heavy and still for several more seconds before, unseen by Hinata, someone rustled and moved to stand. "You're right," Kuzuryuu said, though Hinata couldn't tell who he was talking to. "About one thing. We don't have any more way to get out of here than we did before."
"You –" Koizumi started, but didn't get the chance to finish. Kuzuryuu's footsteps receded into the distance, before they stopped altogether. Koizumi swore under her breath, before she fell silent again.
"We don't have to stop thinking about it," Mioda said in a small voice, but when she only got mumbles in response, Hinata heard another shuffling of feet. Then he heard small, rapid steps, which he could only guess belonged to Saionji.
By the time he opened his eyes, he'd been left alone. Koizumi had moved back to her place by the pillar, where she sat, alone, without looking at anyone. Saionji and Kuzuryuu were nowhere in sight. Souda and Mioda were pacing by the front of the door, and Nanami had retreated to the back of the room, kneeling at the foot of the spears and crests, as if in prayer.
He had a mind to approach one or the other of the groups, just to make conversation or bring reassurance, but he had the feeling that no one wanted to meet his eyes. Perhaps it was all in his head, but…
But he sighed, instead of finishing the thought, and moved his head back. As it bumped against the stone of the nearest pillar, he wondered what else he could possibly have done to help – and in the next instant he realized that he'd never gotten back to bringing Enoshima up. He could easily stand up and do it then and there, though. He could bring them back together, and see if there were any clues that they'd missed…
…but to what end? he thought. He had nothing constructive to say about the name, and if he didn't then there was nothing that Nanami could tell them about it. It would only be another dead end in a line of dead ends, another layer in their layers of despair. In the end, despite the protestations, Saionji was right. They'd run in circles and gotten nowhere.
The light from the outside faded as the day wore on.
Hinata couldn't say for sure how much time had passed, since didn't have his Electronic Student ID anymore. He could only think that he'd lost track of it when he'd been on the beach, or… or when he'd been sleepwalking. Either way, it wasn't as though knowing the time would help him much. Day and night were the only times that had ever mattered on the island, even from the beginning, and they mattered even less when there was nothing exact to wait for.
For another, he'd spent so much time drifting in and out of sleep, keeping his mind as blank as it could be. He exchanged some scattered words with Souda when he came to stay with Hinata at his pillar, and made no secret of being grateful for the company, but none of the others came within his reach, not even Mioda or Nanami. It was almost mid-afternoon when enough of them got together to have a lunch of two takoyaki each, and even then no one spoke very much, not even to ask more about everything they'd just heard. Perhaps it was because they knew that there was nothing new to say, and nothing that would get them past the threshold. So they parted in just as much silence as they'd come. Their dinner, also two takoyaki, passed in much the same fashion.
At about nine forty-five, when the threshold outside the front door had gone dark but for the lights of the carnival, Koizumi took out her Electronic Student ID and began checking it obsessively. Then, after some time, she announced that it was ten o'clock. This stirred some level of interest in their ranks – an entire day had gone by, and none of them had fallen victim to the Impostor's execution threat. It was something to acknowledge and be relieved over, but it wasn't the biggest of conversation topics.
So they settled back into their places: Hinata and Souda against their pillar, Koizumi and Saionji against separate pillars, Kuzuryuu far out of sight… and Nanami, curled up on the ground underneath the shields and spears, fast asleep. Hinata stared at her for some time. He hadn't noticed when she'd fallen asleep. Had she been sitting in silence the entire time, waking and sleeping? No one had tried to approach her, not in the entire time they'd been trapped. Were they afraid of her, and what she might do? Was he afraid of her, as much as anyone else? He did feel a kind of tension in the back of his mind, as though he wasn't looking at the person he'd known for so long. As though she'd been taken away, and been replaced with someone that only looked like her.
He wondered if the others felt the same way, and he hated himself for thinking about it at all.
Mioda had been pacing back and forth across the same spot of ground for several hours, and continued to do so as ten o'clock passed. Hinata was surprised there wasn't a significant dent in the floor, or at the very least that Mioda had the energy to continue walking. He watched her for some time, trying to interpret the look on her face, but it seemed to change every time her hair swung in front of her face. One minute she was angry, another miserable, and the next happy, if only faintly.
Only when Koizumi had stood and started towards Mioda did he notice that she'd been staring, as well. She stood awkwardly in Mioda's path, her hands straight at her sides, waiting for her to return. When she did, she stopped at a respectful distance from Koizumi, and said something that Hinata couldn't hear. They continued in this fashion for some time, until, unexpectedly, Koizumi raised her voice just enough to make her words clear.
"You're not even listening to me, Ibuki-chan," she said. "You just said yourself you have no what you're doing, or even if you can. It's just going to be more danger than you're already in!"
"Ibuki knows that," Mioda said. "But if Ibuki's already in danger, then taking even more risks won't even matter!"
"And what are you going to do if you can't even get outside?" Koizumi's eyes went wide, and lines of fear were drawn on her face. "This is a losing battle and you already know it!"
"Ibuki does know!" Mioda tapped her foot rapidly against the ground. "But it won't be a losing battle if Ibuki wins…"
"I don't want you to end up like Akane-chan!" Koizumi's voice tilted up to a shout, before she caught herself and lowered it to a whisper. "If you put yourself in a vulnerable position, you're going to die!"
"Ibuki didn't even say what she was going to do!" Mioda said. "All she said was that if there's a way, she's going to find it – and the danger doesn't matter if she's already in danger!"
"But it does!" Koizumi looked as though she were about to burst into tears. "Ibuki-chan… this is your life. And you don't even know what to do with it yet."
For a moment, Mioda still looked confident. But then her hand touched her chin, and her smile began to fade. Koizumi's did, as well, and for a moment she looked tense. Hinata considered trying to intervene and learn more – but he decided quickly against it when Koizumi spoke again. "Waiting for the Future Foundation would be less of a risk, you know."
Mioda mumbled something inaudible, but Hinata thought he could hear "Chiaki-chan." Koizumi nodded, and was silent for a time, thinking, before she spoke. "You know…there is the other Togami. Whoever he is. He's gotta be at least a little like the person we knew. Right? He's probably just as pompous and self-serving, anyway. I'm sure … if you want to, you could… well, y'know. Look him up."
She grinned, looking not entirely confident in what she'd said herself. "Of course, he is a pretty important guy. So he might not be all that easy to –"
"Mahiru-chan…" Mioda turned to Koizumi, looking like she was about to laugh. "Does Mahiru-chan even believe what she's saying?"
Koizumi was surprised, but only for a second before her brow creased. "No," she said.
"But at least Mahiru-chan tried! But Ibuki knows you can do better than lying." Mioda winked. "Still, Ibuki doesn't think Mahiru-chan can convince Ibuki that she's wrong."
Mioda beamed at Koizumi, who looked about as downtrodden as Mioda had ever seen her. She shuddered, then turned away from Mioda, and stepped away. "Don't go outside, Mioda," she said. "Just… just don't."
Mioda didn't reply, at least not in any way that Hinata could hear, and even before Koizumi was back in her seat she'd started pacing again, now audibly mumbling to herself. As far as Hinata knew, he was the only one that had heard their conversation. No one else had reacted, at the very least. Had they all been awake, thinking the others were sleeping? It was certainly possible.
He looked over at Souda, who lay not far away. He was definitely asleep, curled up under the tattered remains of Nanami's jacket. He was whimpering and shaking; Hinata could only imagine the horrors he was dreaming about. Not that Hinata's own horrors would be any better… but he was holding up remarkably well, given where he'd been just days before. Was it the adrenaline keeping him together? It might be. But he couldn't hold up forever, he knew. None of them could, and least of all Mioda, if what he'd seen was any indication.
He felt a stroke of inspiration, one he knew he had to share. "Hey," he said. "Souda."
"H-Huh?" Souda shifted slightly, wincing in pain.
"I was thinking… we can break whatever rules we want in here, right? It's not like there's anything they can do about it."
"Y…y'think so?" Souda blinked sleepily at him, before he shook his head, not entirely waking himself up. "Whysat?"
"The one about contacting the outside," Hinata said. "The Impostor, and Monomi… both of them acted like they were talking to someone, in thin air. How d'you think they did that?"
Souda was silent for a second, before he turned away again. "Some kind of earpiece, probably."
"Probably…" Hinata shivered. "I didn't see anything, though. Do you think…?"
Hinata heard a light snore; Souda had fallen back into the sleep he'd never quite woken up from. Hinata considered poking him, but in the end decided to let the moment go. "G'night, Souda."
Souda mumbled, but didn't wake up again. Hinata turned away, and, once he'd mustered the nerve, looked up at the ceiling. He couldn't see anything that looked like a recording device, but if he looked closely enough he thought he could see something like a shifting shadow – nothing even remotely human, but enough to suggest a presence that could see him.
"Are you really out there?" he said. "Can you hear me like this?"
For a second Hinata wondered if he'd get a response from somewhere – but of course, he knew he wouldn't. "I'm just going to assume you can," he went on. "I don't really know how that would work, but that's what the Impostor's been doing, and that's what Monomi did, too. Maybe they had some kind of microphone hidden, I don't know. But I guess it doesn't matter –"
"Keep it down," Souda mumbled.
"Right." Hinata took a deep breath, and continued in a lower tone. "I don't know what's stopping you from helping us. Maybe it's something important we don't know about. But whatever it is… we've all come up with ways to get out of horrific situations before. We've survived up until now. And we can keep trying. But we're still counting on you. We can't get over anything. We're just a bunch of defenseless kids, even if we all have Super High School Level talents…"
Not that I would know what my talent is, he thought. Have I been using it somehow all this time and not knowing it? "So we need your help. That's all there is to it. And if you can't…well, a sign of why would be nice. Then at least we could feel like we're getting somewhere."
He stared up at the ceiling for several seconds, watching the light from above play tricks on his eyes. He thought he could see the shadow moving, and something vaguely human dropping down from the eaves. But he didn't see it fall any further, and in the end he decided it was a trick of the lights.
"And, hey," he said, in a much quieter tone, as Mioda's downtrodden face flashed in his mind. "If you can find some way to get them back to how they used to be… well, that'd be…"
That'd be a lot more than I can possibly ask for, he thought.
"Never mind," he said.
He tilted his head back again, but only for a second before he closed his eyes. He felt his worries dissolve a bit, just as they had the last few times he'd tried to sleep, and for a few moments he only allowed himself to focus on the flashes of color at the back of his eyelids. It wasn't long before he'd stopped, assured that he could fall asleep with only minimal difficulty.
THUNK.
THUNK. THUNK.
Hinata ignored the first two THUNKs, unsure of whether he'd imagined them or not. But as the sound grew louder, he shuddered, and opened one eye.
He could see Nanami and Kuzuryuu stirring some distance away, rubbing their eyes and muttering things he couldn't quite hear from where he was. "Hhhh… Nanami?" he said. "Kuzuryuu… what's-"
THUNK. Nanami and Kuzuryuu started and ran for the door, leaving Hinata behind. Hinata followed their lead and stood, pulling Souda by the arm until he woke. Once he was standing – a process that took remarkably little time – he waved him wordlessly toward the center aisle of the room, to which he ran without checking to see if Souda had caught up.
The others had gathered in a semicircle around the rubble that surrounded the doorway; Hinata and Souda were the last to join them. On top of still being half-asleep, Koizumi looked curious, Saionji terrified, Mioda anxious, and Kuzuryuu tense. Nanami was nowhere in his field of vision; whether she stepped away, or was she hiding behind someone, he couldn't tell.
Hinata heard the THUNK again, but couldn't tell its exact source. All he knew, for now, was that it had definitely come from the outside. "Oh, come on," Kuzuryuu said. "What do they think they're doing now?"
"I-It might not be them!" he heard Souda say close to his ear. "Could be the Future Foundation! They're finally here!"
"The Future Foundation?" Nanami stepped forward on Hinata's other side, breaking the semicircle. "But…"
"But it's only one guy," Saionji interrupted. "There's supposed to be six! Mr. Porkfeet said!"
"Only one guy –?!" In the darkness, Hinata didn't see the context for Saionji's statement at first – but when he did, his stomach did a backflip.
There was a man standing outside the castle, just inside the threshold between the road and the entrance. His face and the better part of his body were obscured by the darkness, but Hinata could tell that he was tall, and powerfully built – far too much so to be the Impostor. But very little else was apparent. He couldn't even tell what kind of clothes the man wore. But he could see the smallest, shadowy details, like the way his collar fluttered in the breeze – the only movement, thus far, that he'd observed the man making at all.
"It has to be the Future Foundation," Koizumi said. "It couldn't be anyone else."
"No," Nanami said, in a small, still voice. "It couldn't be. It's not. But…"
"But what?" Mioda said. "But Chiaki-chan's not sure?"
"Then w-who is it?" Souda said, shaking with fear. "If it's not them, and it's not us…"
"Then we'll just have to find out who it is!" Before anyone could stop her, Mioda bounded forward and cupped her hands around her lips. "HEY! Guy! Are you from the future?"
"Mioda!" Hinata and the others looked at her in horror, but the man outside the door offered her no answer. He stood perfectly still, and for the longest time he didn't appear to respond or react to them. Then, with another loud THUNK, he took a step forward. THUNK. And another. THUNK. And another. THUNK.
"What is he doing?" Kuzuryuu said. "Why isn't he answering us?"
"And why's he making all that noise?" Hinata said. "Those are some heavy footsteps…"
"Maybe he has really heavy shoes?" Mioda said.
"That's..." In the dim light of the castle, Hinata could kind of see the man's shoes – and as he did, he took a few steps away from the door, nearly backing into Souda. The man's legs were thicker around than Hinata's waist, and his boots were made entirely of a metal that glinted unmistakably in the light. They were more like the lower half of a suit of armor than they were like any kind of ordinary footwear. He wasn't even sure how the man could move in them, or why he'd chosen to wear them at all…
And then he realized it wasn't just his shoes. His hands, his chest, his face… the only explanation he could think of was that he had to be wearing some kind of full-body armor and mask under his clothes, because they were made entirely of metal that glinted at he stepped into the light. Hinata found himself reminded of a mecha's face, or the kinds of cheap plastic Kamen Rider masks he'd seen at festivals…
Souda made a strangled sound, somewhere between horror and delight. "I- I can't believe it," he said. "It can't be… it is, but it –"
"It?" Hinata swallowed.
"It's a robot!" Souda shouted, pointing directly at the man. "A real, live robot!"
"A what now?" Koizumi shot Souda an angry, desperate look. "That's ridiculous, it's definitely not a –"
She took another look back at the man, as if to accentuate her point, but when she did, her face went white, and her jaw fell open. One by one the others looked up in curiosity, only briefly questioning her reasoning before they, too, shrunk back in shock.
Up close, the man's face still looked like a Kamen Rider mask – but it was though it had been made with a certain set of specific features in mind. The eyes. The scar. The earring. And on top of that, the shirt, the coat, the scarf… Hinata couldn't comprehend it. Not if he had a hundred years to mull it over. But the details were unmistakable…
"Tanaka…kun…?" Nanami's voice had risen to a shout – and in the next instant she'd turned on her heels, grabbing the collar of Saionji's kimono as she went. "Tanaka-kun –!"
The machine that resembled Tanaka lowered its head and charged forward. It had no trouble entering the castle, and crossed over the pile of rubble at the entrance with a flying leap. Its thick, metallic legs made even louder THUNKS as they slapped against the flagstones.
The shockwave sent Hinata tumbling into one of the pillars, which connected hard against the side of his arm. He fell to his knees, trying to orient himself, but the sudden surge of pain was keeping him from making rational decisions. He could hear screams from all sides, and the continuing THUNK THUNK THUNK of the robot's footsteps, but he couldn't tell who was screaming, or where, let alone just where the robot had gone.
Until a shadow fell over him, and a final THUNK hit his ears.
He tilted his head, looking all the way up. The robot was much taller than Tanaka – in fact, it was three feet taller than any human being Hinata had ever seen – but despite the metal the resemblance was unmistakable. Even up close the clothes on its metal body were scrupulously accurate, although he could see that it was not wearing a shirt under its jacket or scarf, or boots on what he now realized were its bare feet.
Not that he got to examine them for very long before it lunged at him. The next few seconds were a blur, but before he knew it he'd dodged, and the robot's metal fist connected with the pillar with an enormous CRUNCH.
A hail of rocks hit his back at high speed, hard enough to bruise, and he felt the lesions on his hands reopening as he attempted to crawl away. He was moving without thinking, panting and struggling for breath, unable to find the words or the higher brain function needed to scream.
He saw Koizumi pass him without looking down, holding Saionji in her arms. He wanted to call out to her, but he still couldn't speak. He felt as though he were in a dream, one of those ones where your voice didn't work, and no matter how hard you screamed you couldn't make yourself heard…
CRACK. SMASH. SLAM. The THUNK of the robot's feet had disappeared under the sound of the building's destruction. His vision blurred as he looked back around and saw it barreling into walls, collapsing pillars, reaching and grabbing and collecting empty air. It never stopped moving, not for a second, and its head was always turning, scanning, and pinpointing its next target whenever it happened to find it. It would have had all the distinguishing features of Tanaka's face, if Tanaka had no mouth, no nose, and glowing yellow eyes –
His thoughts were cut off by a loud SMACK, and then a wet, splattering sound, followed almost immediately by a scream – "HIYOKO-CHAAAAAAAAANNNN!"
He turned his eyes to the floor. He couldn't look. Not when he didn't want what he knew he would see. Another scream split the air, a wordless scream of sheer pain and anguish, but it wasn't Saionji's. He didn't hear another word from her, and he couldn't turn himself to see where she was.
He was going to die if he stayed here. He'd come to think of this place as the only safe spot in the world, but now that Robo-Tanaka was here, he didn't know whether he'd be safe ever again. He couldn't even think of WHY it was there. Had the Impostor sent it? Was this their way of crossing the threshold, of overcoming that fear of mice? And why the actual hell did it look like Tanaka?
Every moment he wasted thinking about this was a moment he or one of his friends could be dead. For now, there was only one place they could go.
He scrambled to his feet. The castle entryway swam before his eyes, but he couldn't see anyone near it – or hear anyone, anymore. But the room was big. He had to assume they were alive.
"RUN!" he screamed, until his vocal cords were hoarse. "RUN – EVERYONE – RUN!"
He saw someone materialize in the corner of his vision, too far into the darkness to be distinguished, and then he saw them run for the exit and disappear. Who was it? He would never know. But it didn't matter. They were safe, weren't they? They had to be safe, after all they'd survived…
He took a quick look around. Collapsed pillars. Another scream. "RUN!" he shouted again, if it would reach anyone, and then, on his own advice, he ran. He couldn't go back for the others without risking his own safety, and then they'd both be dead. They'd have to regroup outside, decide the best course of action, and then, if they encountered the Impostor –
"Ngh!"
He felt something soft under his feet, and immediately jumped back. "Nanami –!"
He bit his tongue to stop himself from screaming aloud. Nanami was alive – blessedly alive – and he'd almost stepped over her without seeing her. He hadn't done any damage himself, thankfully – but her chest and upper thighs were covered in broken rubble, her face and neck were streaked with blood, and her breathing was shaky, and shallow…
Without another thought, he bent and pushed the rubble aside, utilizing a strength he didn't know he had. He found her blouse had been torn open, but her stomach was only bruised – her leg, unprotected, had a series of gashes crisscrossing the sides. He felt panic filling his mind, and for precious seconds he stared, unsure of what to do. "Nanami," he said. "Nanami, please…"
Nanami moaned, and opened one eye, but didn't respond. Her gaze was glassy and unfocused; Hinata looked again at the specks of blood on her forehead and realized he didn't know where they'd come from. Had she hit her head so hard that she'd suffered damage he couldn't counteract…?
Go.
He couldn't stay. He couldn't leave her. He didn't know if anyone else needed saving – but she was here, and he could save her. But if he tried to save her, he didn't know if he could save himself… but she was his friend. And she had so much more to tell him…
You have to go.
He knelt by her side, and wrapped her arms around her waist and shoulders. She wasn't as hard to carry as he'd expected, but adrenaline could have been fooling him there.
She has to go, and so do you.
"Hinata…" Nanami mumbled, her voice a low, weak whine. "Hinata…kun…"
"No, not now." Hinata clenched his teeth, tears streaming from his eyes. He'd never, ever been happier to hear her voice. "Don't try to talk. You'll be okay… I know…you will…"
"Hinata-kun…" Hinata couldn't reply, or stop her for that matter. He took a step, and then another, and then another. He knew that if the thing that looked like Tanaka were to come after him that he'd have no chance of outrunning it. He was running, but he felt as though he were getting nowhere. The ruined pillars stretched on for as far as he could see, and the darkness was just as long and impassable…
But then it was gone, and his heart gave a jolt as he crossed the threshold. He was outside. The walls around him still seemed to go on forever, but he was still running, still going…
He couldn't say he'd left because he'd preferred a possibly painless death to a certainly painful one. THUNK. He wasn't dead. THUNK. He was still running, and he was even picking up speed…
THUNK. He wasn't going to live. He wasn't going to make it. Any minute the Robo-Tanaka would catch up to him, and he'd be squashed flat like Mr. Ant – like Saionji, if she'd been squashed at all – and he'd die, they'd all die. But he wasn't dead. He saw the lights of the carnival pass before his eyes, and he felt Nanami living and breathing in his arms, and she wasn't dead, he wasn't dead, he wasn't dead…
This isn't the right kind of despair for you.
He felt his feet leave the ground. He stumbled, scraping his knees bare, and struggled to keep a hold on Nanami, to protect her head and every other part of her. Her eyes were opening and closing, but he needed to keep her awake. If he didn't, he'd lose her, that much he knew…
The despair you deserve is the one that wipes out all its lesser forms. That stands at the gates of hope and opens itself to its own destruction.
He struggled back to his feet. He had to hold on. He had to take another step. And another step. And another… and another…
This is only a distraction. A pathetic display. A showing unworthy of the talents I know they have.
He took another step.
But it won't be long, now. Not long until the truth of the matter comes out, and not long until the day we can all test our luck.
He took another step.
Run until you find the future, Hinata-kun. Run until the very last shreds of despair have been raised and crushed by the greatest possible forces of hope.
And then he stopped, staring ahead, and let the lights dance in front of his eyes until his knees gave out, and they fell away. Then his head hit the pavement, and from there he remembered nothing.
FIVE DAYS LEFT
The Heir is gone, the heir remains
The heir is shrunken small
Inherits pain, inherits hate
Despair's consumed them all
This marks the end of Chapter Four. Chapter Five will be called "The Future Foundation." Thank you all so much for sticking with me so far.
- - Carth
