Danganronpa – A Story of Growth and Love

Chapter 4 – Ultimate Unknown

(Hajime's POV)

I still couldn't believe what had happened. It was the night before the opening ceremony at the academy, and I was busy getting ready for another year at the Reserve Course building at Hope's Peak, when I got a call from the headmaster. After a recent staff meeting, he and the other teachers decided to try something new at the academy. The idea was to have reserve course students come over to the main part of the academy to learn with the other Ultimate's. Their hopes with this were to have that some of the reserve course students gain a sort of talent through this whole process, and if it worked, they could get even more students at the academy.

However, they didn't want to transfer a whole bunch of students right away, so they decided to bring one student over to start with. If they managed to get some sort of talent from this, then they could start moving more students over. So, who was the student they decided to choose from hundreds of students? Well, that student was me, Hajime Hinata. I've been going to Hopes Peak's Reserve Course building for the about a year now, and all my grades were above average, so I was the perfect candidate for this. I instantly said yes to the headmasters offer, and I knew that things would finally be changing for the better. The other great thing about this, I no longer had to take part in that wired experimental project. I never wanted to do it any way, but if it was my only way in, then I wouldn't have had much of a choice.

After the ceremony took place, I was guided around the school by my new homeroom teacher, Ms. Chisa Yukizome of class 77-B. She was honestly one of the nicest homeroom teachers I've ever met, and I was already looking forward to learning from. After she gave me the grand tour, we reached our final destination, class 77-B. "Well Hajime," she said, "I showed about everywhere I could think of. I'm looking forward to teaching you."

"I should be the one thanking you for the tour Ms. Yukizome." I said, "Not that I know my way around, I definitely shouldn't be late for any of your classes."

I turned to leave, but Ms. Yukizome tapped my shoulder. I looked over and she said, "I know your trying hard to hide it, but you don't need to be nervous. I'm sure your classmates will welcome you with open arms!" She said with a smile.

"Thank you for the reassurance Ms. Yukizome."

"No problem Hajime. Listen, if you ever need have any worries about school work or anything else, just come and talk to me, okay?"

"I will. Thank you for the offer. Anyway, I'll see you in class tomorrow."

"Yes, of course. Have good afternoon Hajime!"

After that conversation, I started to walk over to my dorm room. I still can't believe this is actually happening. Starting tomorrow, I'll be learning alongside Ultimate students. Still, I was nervous about tomorrow. Not so much about the other students, but rather with how I still didn't have a talent. I knew that I would stand out, to them I was probably just another average student who didn't belong here. I pushed all of those thoughts from my head by the time I reached the dorms, nervous that I would run into any of the other students. Thankfully though, no one was around, so I got to my dorm room with ease.

Once I got to my room, I unlocked the door with my room key and entered. I saw that all my bags managed to get here, so I decided to start unpacking my stuff. After all, I had nothing better to do. I was about halfway through when I heard a knock on my door. Curios, I walked over and answered the door. "Maybe it's Ms. Yukizome? Maybe she had forgotten to give me my textbook or my e-handbook?"

Yet when I opened the door, I didn't find my teacher standing on the other end. Instead, I was face to face with a pink haired girl with an 8-bit hair pin. She was wearing the school's uniform, so she must've been a student here, but why was she at my door? I feel like I've seen her somewhere before, and upon closer inspection, I remembered where I saw her. It was at the opening ceremony this morning, since we both arrived a bit early so we decided to talk for a bit. Now, what was her name again, and did I even introduce myself to her?

"Well," I thought, "No time like the present then." Turns out though, she had the same idea.

"I don't think we introduced ourselves earlier," she said, "My name is Chiaki Nanami, the Ultimate Gamer. And you are?"

"Oh, my name is Hajime, Hajime Hinata. Sorry, I thought I told you my name earlier." I said with small blush.

"Don't worry about it," she said, "I was still a bit drowsy this morning anyway. I just saw you walking to the dorms and I thought I should introduce myself properly. Anyway, if your still busy unpacking, I'll let you get back to it."

She started to walk away, but before she got to far, I said, "Uh, wait, Chiaki!"

She turned around and said, "Yes Hajime?"

"Uh, do you mind if we talk a bit more? I don't know many of the other students here, and I wouldn't mind learning a bit more about you. That is, if it would be okay with you?" I asked.

I waited for her response, but before I could say never mind, she said, "Sure. I wouldn't mind talking for a bit."

"Really? Thanks Chiaki, you're the best!" I said happily.

"I don't know about that, but thanks." Chiaki said with a smile. "Let's head down to the dining hall and talk their, okay?"

"Sure thing, let's go!"

2 minutes later, Chiaki and I were sitting at a table in the dining hall, talking about what classes we where in. She told me she was the Ultimate Gamer, and turns out we were in the same class. That made me feel a bit better, since now I at least knew who one of my classmates were. After some more discussing, Chiaki asked me, "Do you know how to play co-op?"

"Co-op?" I asked back.

"You know, Co-op? Multi-player games?"

"Oh yeah. I do know how to play some co-op games. Why do you ask?"

She brought out two handheld game consoles from her pocket and handed one to me. I turned it on and it brought a racing game. Chiaki's had the same thing, so I guess she wanted me to race her.

"You don't mind playing with me, right? I know I'm the Ultimate Gamer, so I might have an advantage, but you don't mind right?"

I put on a confident smile and said, "Bring it on Chiaki." My response brought an instant smile to her face, and with that, we started playing the racing game. I knew Chiaki was the Ultimate Gamer, but she completely destroyed me. We had done about 19 races, and she won first place in all of them. But on race 20, I somehow managed to tie her for first. I was shocked, but when I turned to Chiaki, she had big smile on her face.

"Wow," she said, "I haven't tied anyone on that game since I was 4! You did a great job Hajime!"

"Thanks Chiaki," I said, "You were good teacher. I doubt I would've tied you if not for learning all the best tricks and shortcuts from."

Chiaki blushed and said, "Oh… really? Well, you were a good student Hajime. Thanks for playing with. Do you think we can play more tomorrow?"

"It was no problem Chiaki, and I would love to play more with you."

I noticed that I still had the console in my hand, so I gave it back to Chiaki. But she handed it back to me and said, "You should keep that. That way, we'll be able to play anytime, anywhere."

I thanked Chiaki and put the small console in my front pocket. When I looked up, I noticed that the sun had started to set. I looked down at my watch and saw that it was 7:00pm. When Chiaki and came here, it was 2:30pm, so we just spent the last 4.5 hours talking and gaming. I was about to tell Chiaki, when we both started to smell something from the kitchen. It looked like the kitchen staff started to prepare meals for the students. Upon smelling the cooking food, I realized just how hungry I was. I looked over at Chiaki, who had a similar look on her face.

"Are you hungry Chiaki?" I asked.

"Very hungry." She replied.

In no time, more of the students started to enter the dining hall. Before I knew it, all the other tables were filled up, so I asked Chiaki if she would want to eat with me. She smiled and agreed, so we got up and got some food. We both got bowls of ramen, with Chiaki having a soda while I got some water. We talked some more while we ate, and once we were done, we dropped off our dishes in the kitchen and headed back over to the dorms.

Being the gentlemen that I was, I walked Chiaki to her room before heading back to my own. When we got there, she unlocked her door and went in, but turned to me and said, "I had a lot of fun today Hajime. Thanks for that."

"Any time Chiaki, any time. Have a good night."

As I walked back to my room, my mind went back to my earlier thoughts. Sure, I was still nervous about being around all of these Ultimate's, but at least Chiaki was pretty nice. As long as she was here, I think getting though this shouldn't be too bad.

All done with another chapter! I hope you enjoyed reading this one. In the next chapter, Hajime will be meeting the rest of class 77. With Chiaki there, things should be okay…I think? (JK) Next chapter should be up soon!