A/N: Well, welcome to part one. Please, if you have any questions, concerns, or criticisms, review!

Hinata woke up, awoken by the incessant knocking on the door. "Come on, Hajime-kun, you have a phone call!" Nanami called through the door. He groaned and got up, and stumbled over to the door, wrenching it open and grabbing Nanami's phone out of her hands.

"Hajime Hinata," he groaned.

"Heya Hajime, you up for lunch?" came a cheerful voice on the other end. Nagito Komaeda, whom Hinata hadn't seen in years. "I found you a couple of days ago, least you could do is thank me."

"S-sure," Hinata said, and he yawned. Getting up was difficult. "Where-"

"I'll pick you up, I've got just the place in mind," Komaeda replied. "Bye!"

"Yeah, sure, bye," Hinata said, and he pressed the 'end' button. And then Nanami swiped the phone back from Hinata.

"Ask next time," she growled, and she left Hinata standing in the doorway, and slammed her door. Hinata sighed and went back into his "room" and changed, just in time for someone to knock on the door.

Hinata opened the door again and found Komaeda waiting, his hair as white and vibrant as ever, still wearing jeans and a dark green sweatshirt like the past three years had never happened, and plastered with a huge smile. "Hajime, it's great to see you again," Komaeda said, and he pulled Hinata into a bone-crushing hug. Hinata gasped for breath and then glared at Nanami when she started giggling.

"C'mon, Hajime," Komaeda said, and with an arm looped around his head, started dragging him through the apartment.

"What're you doing?" Hinata gasped, "I told you, I was never interested in you, Nagito!"

"Don't worry, Hajime-kun, Nagito-kun respects you," Nanami said from behind him.

"Yeah Hajime, but just bear with me!" Komaeda added slyly, "Otherwise, people might think that you're living with your girlfriend and thus make her into a target, right?"

"Ah." Hinata sighed and gave in, and stopped trying to struggle out of Komaeda's grasp. "Bye Nanami-san," he said, "looks like I'm off to work."

"Have fun!" she called back, and then Hinata and Komaeda were out the door.

"Let's link arms, be like dignified American couples," Komaeda said.

"No."

"I see you care so much about number four- ah, Chiaki-san's health."

"Shut up." But Hinata still did as directed and was pulled to the elevator shaft, pulled across the lobby into the car garage, and did his best to look at the floor so as to avoid the dirty looks and chuckles he knew he was receiving. Before long, Hinata and Komaeda were in Komaeda's shiny new sports car. "Let me guess," Hinata said, "you won it in a lottery."

"Nah, some lady wanted to sell it cheap to get back at her ex-husband," Komaeda replied. They entered the car, and when Hinata sat down he felt a little prick on the back of his leg.

"So, where're we going?" Hinata said. He yawned again, and tried to rub his leg.

"A nice place I know out in west Tokyo," Komaeda replied. He smiled again and put the car into reverse. "Just go to sleep, I'll wake you up when we're there."

"Huh?" Hinata yawned again and then he felt his eyelids closing. Komaeda gave him one last smile as the world went black.

Hinata woke up to voices. "Komaeda, when is the food going to arrive?" someone, a voice vaguely familiar from his school days, said in English.

"Calm down," another voice- Komaeda- replied, also in English. Hinata heard glasses and metal clinking. "Looks like Hajime's up."

Hinata sighed and opened his eyes. He was sitting up at a table in a dim room, and he was wrapped in blankets- though he could feel belts or ropes or something tying him to the chair. Sitting at the table with him was Komaeda, across from him, and two men he didn't recognize. He quickly looked around, and saw that he appeared to be in a private dining room of some sort based on the walls and the door behind Komaeda, and that the table was covered in cutlery and glasses. Eight chairs, four (including himself) occupied, ringed the table; a large bottle of wine was in the middle of the table, and a couple of baskets of bread were scattered around it. The door opened and a woman wearing a strange black-and-white mask entered the room and holding a tray with five dishes on it, closed the door, set the tray on the table. Then she sat down in one of the empty chairs, next to Komaeda, and pulled the mask off.

The room remained silent, giving Hinata time to think. The first man, to his right, was tall, pale, and had a long scar down his face; the second man, to Hinata's left, was also tall, chubby, and had his black hair tied back in a ponytail. The last person, the woman sitting next to Komaeda, was the only other person that Hinata recognized, based on her long brown hair and cheerful smile: Sonia Nevermind, so-called Ultimate Princess, whom he hadn't seen for four years.

"Good afternoon, Hajime," Komaeda said, in Japanese. "Please meet Iyatso Tsuji," and the tall, scarred man bobbed his head, "and Saul Tsuji," and the ponytail man nodded, "and you already know Sonia."

"Hello again, Hinata-kun," Sonia said, and she smiled at him.

"Pleased to meetch ya," Saul Tsuji drawled. "So's Iyatso, but he's mute." Iyatso Tsuji nodded again. "We're brother-in-laws," Saul said. "So, I understand yer Komaeda's old friend?"

Hinata took a deep breath and then looked directly into Komaeda's eyes. "Why am I here? Why am I tied up?"

"Relax, Hajime," Komaeda said. "We don't want you running off is all. This place is run by Despair- we'll find you and catch you, but I don't want to take any chances."

And with that one word- "we"- Hinata was rendered speechless. He felt as if someone had stabbed him with a knife. "Surprised, Hinata-kun?" Sonia said. "Why do you think I was wearing that mask?"

"Thanks for leaving your door unlocked, by the way," Komaeda added. "I hope you liked our presents."

"Why are you telling me this?" Hinata growled. Komaeda smiled back but said nothing. The knife twisted. "I trusted you," Hinata hissed. Komaeda just kept smiling- his expression didn't waver in the slightest. And, with dawning comprehension that Komaeda was not the man he remembered, Hinata shouted, "Why are you in Despair!?"

"Why not?" Komaeda said, and he shrugged. His tone was calm and collected- it seemed that he didn't care about what he'd done to Hinata. "I guess I just wanted to be part of the despair that hope will power through."

"I joined to be with Nagito," Sonia said, taking his arm, "and because of all the serial killers they employ. I get to meet them!"

"Iyatso joined because he lost his voice," Saul said, "he used to be 'Ultimate Opera Singer', but after an accident, he was never the same. And me? I joined because my wife was hospitalized and the only way to heal her was to join Despair. She was Ultimate Archeologist, I was Ultimate Linguist."

Hinata looked around the four, and resolved to just get them talking. He felt as if his blood was freezing. "So, if I call for help-"

"You'll die," Komaeda said. "See, you're not supposed to be here. I run this cell, and you'd better thank me for saving you from Masaru's thugs."

"You... run this cell?" Hinata said.

"Yeah," Sonia said, "welcome to the Minato cell, Despair. We're not big enough to go out in the open like we can in America or Africa, though."

"And why are you telling me?" Hinata repeated.

"Because we are the despair that hope will power through," Komaeda replied. He smiled and leaned forward. "Hajime, you cannot repeat what happens today to anyone, including Nanami-san. I don't want blood on my hands."

Hinata stared at Komaeda. "I know that she's all you have left," Komaeda said, "you told me all those years ago. And just because the something you two once shared has withered away, it's not dead."

Iyatso grabbed a dish from the tray. "Let's eat," Saul said. They ate in silence, and Hinata refused to let Komaeda or Sonia feed him, leaving Hinata to stew in, well, despair at his friend's betrayal. Once the four Despair members were done, Komaeda got up from his chair, pulled the blankets off, and pulled out a knife. "You can walk back to Roppongi from here," Komaeda said. "Tell anyone about our meeting, Nanami-san dies. Got it?"

Hinata nodded stiffly, his body felt leaden. "And," Sonia said, "you're coming to our wedding."

"In return," Komaeda said, "we'll keep Masaru off your backs. We need him gone anyways, and he's much more ruthless then I am. He wants to go up, I can tell." Komaeda cut the ropes.

And thus the meeting ended. The restaurant was bustling but no one seemed to notice Hinata as he left, and as soon he was back in his new apartment he slammed the door and collapsed onto the ground as his mind replayed Komaeda's warning and betrayal over and over again.

It was two in the morning, at a little apartment in western Tokyo. They were both in bed- she was facing him, thoroughly asleep, her right arm underneath a pillow, her left arm in the space between them, while the man was staring up at the ceiling, awoken by his constant nightmare. She was lucky- she wasn't there. An engagement ring glittered in the light pouring in between the blinds.

A phone buzzed in the darkness. The woman stirred, but with a soft platitude, she drifted off into sleep again. The man picked up his phone, and flipped it open. A message was displayed- "Brave soldier of KDA, we salute you for your service..."

Hinata awoke under the gray sheets of Nanami's room. Nanami was off to his right, peering down at something. He turned his head slightly to look at that something, which turned out to be an oral thermometer. "No fever," she muttered. "But Nagito-kun said... oh! Good, you're awake!"

Hinata said nothing, only peeling his blankets away and sitting up. "Sorry," he croaked, "What did Nagit-Komaeda say?"

"He called me and said you weren't feeling well at the restaurant, that you had a fever-"

Hinata interrupted her with a brief, hacking laugh that sounded like a particularly violent cough. He wished it had been just a fever-dream, but the way Komaeda was acting... "I'm fine, Nanami-san, let's just go... fix up my room or something," Hinata said, and, not listening to her protests, he stumbled out of her room.

The rest of the day was spent preparing Hinata's room. Hinata worked in guilty silence as Nanami talked about her newest game and speculated about the newest Smash Bros. game, but it wasn't long before she realized that he wasn't saying anything. "Is something wrong, Hajime-kun?" she asked him, sitting down on his bed. Hinata kept hanging his clothes in his closet.

"Hajime-kun?" Hinata turned to his bags and closed them. He had finished with his room. He'd put the bed against the wall, added a small desk, and put up drapes. The room no longer smelt of smoke, and he'd put up pictures from school and from America on the wall. He avoided pictures of his days with Komaeda or Nanami, however. "Hajime-kun, why aren't you talking?"

"Sorry, Nanami-san," Hinata said, and he put his bags in his closet and closed the door. "Can we eat here for dinner?"

"Sure," Nanami said, "although I'm not a very good cook-"

"I'll handle it," Hinata replied. They left his room and walked to the kitchen. It was a nice kitchen, filled with modern appliances and covered in digital displays. He pulled the refrigerator open and set to work. "Can you chop vegetables?"

"Yeah," Nanami replied. She set to work and said, "So, other than being sick, how was your date with Komaeda-kun?"

Hinata ignored her and focused on cooking. "C'mon Hajime-kun, it's been years! Weren't you glad to see your old friend?" Nanami said.

"Yeah, I'm glad he's the same as ever," he lied, as airily as he could, but he knew he just sounded tired- and sick. "Nanami-san, he's getting married soon."

"I know! He's so lucky- Sonia's so happy now! After what happened with Tanaka-san and Souda-san, I thought she'd never start dating again," Nanami said, chopping away obliviously.

"She was dating them?" Gundam Tanaka, Ultimate Animal Breeder, had died in prison a year ago, after committing suicide; he'd killed Ultimate Mechanic Kazuichi Souda in a car accident in what the courts, and Kirigiri, believed was a deliberate act of murder.

"That was one of the motives," Nanami replied, "or at least, that's what she told me."

"I thought they were talking about a hamster! I worked on that case!"

"That was what Tanaka-san claimed, not the truth," Nanami said. "Plus, I bet you were distracted, what with the 'brave soldiers of KDA' thing."

"Yeah, I was," Hinata replied. And that was the last of their discussion.

An hour later, after dinner in the TV room was over, Nanami and Hinata were in her room, playing a new Mario game; Nanami sitting on the end of her bed, Hinata in front of her. Naturally, Nanami was taking every chance to send Hinata into a bottomless pit, to the point that before long he was just watching while she blitzed through the game. While they played, they talked about their lives post-celebration, about Komaeda and Sonia's upcoming marriage, about KDL and Togami Robotics, about the video games industry, and about the ongoing scandals plaguing the Americans' former president and new president.

"Well, hopefully their new president will just pardon that whistleblower," Nanami said, as she cleared world 5. "I like his hair."

"He's a Republican," Hinata said, "and Clinton, Bush, and Obama are all urging him to continue spying on the world. Snowden's staying in Russia."

"Yeah, well, a girl can hope, right?" Nanami said. "You going to bed now?"

"Not yet," Hinata said. Nanami played on in silence for a little, and then Hinata said, "Nanami-san, why'd you really take me in?"

"What?"

"I ran away. I got scared. Then I turn up, beaten half to death, and you decide you want me in your life all over again?"

Nanami said nothing, though Hinata could see that she was starting to tremble slightly. Then she made Mario jump, and he went flying into a pit... "Hinata-kun," she whispered, "all that time ago, after we graduated, you said I was the only family you had left. I remembered that, even if you didn't."

She returned to her gaming and the two said nothing for the next half hour. Finally, Hinata stood up and stretched.

"Hey, out of the way!" Nanami snapped, her composure regained. Hinata turned around, and then tackled her to the bed. "What are you doing, we're not like that anymore! That's not what I meant!" she gasped.

And then Hinata put his mouth next to her ear and hissed, "Nagit-Komaeda says he'll kill you if I step out of line. He's in Despair. 'Don't tell anyone or she'll die', is what he told me." Then he got back up. "Sorry, but I just hope you'll trust me," Hinata said. Nanami stared at him as he left the room.

With a knock at the door, Hinata woke up. "I'm going to work now, Hajime-kun," Nanami called, "you should go do whatever you KDL soldiers do too!"

Hinata groaned and got out of bed. Before long, he was up, washed, and ready for work. His gun was on his person hidden, his official police pass was in his wallet, and he was ready for a day of work.

Which was what he did. He disguised himself and paid a visit to Masaru Investment Inc., where he learned nothing, and then visited Masaru's apartment in Roppongi. He failed to discover anything there; he only narrowly avoided a pair of shady men emerging from Masaru's apartment shortly after Hinata finished examining the immediate surroundings.

"Ya think Persia's out to get 'im?" drawled the first man exiting; he was a tall, skinny man with pale skin, short black hair, and an unlit cigarette dangling out of his mouth.

"Shut up, Athens," snapped a second man; that man was tall but portly, tanned, and had bleached hair. "Leave off the boss, let Xiong Nu do the thinkin', all right?"

The first man, Athens, snorted, "Aw, shuddup, Sparta-san," and trudged onwards, his head bowed, and as such didn't see Hinata take a picture of him as he passed; the other man, Sparta, followed suit. Hinata was able to take a picture of Sparta's back. And they probably had to be thugs in order to be so stupid as to use code-names in the law-abiding world, Hinata decided.

He spent the rest of the day milling about the 19th floor, now disguised as a janitor, keeping tabs on Masaru's apartment. No one came and no one left, until finally, as Hinata was busy scrubbing the wall near an elevator in an attempt to keep Komaeda off his mind, the elevator door opened and out stepped Ryotsa Masaru.

The picture had not done Masaru justice. He was huge, for one thing, and his mere walk exuded power and confidence. His suit was not exactly loose fitting and Hinata could see that Masaru's arms and chest were very muscular. His glasses were wire-framed, just like at graduation, but Hinata could see a screen flickering on Masaru's right lens; his black hair looked just like it did in the picture, though. "Greetings, janitor-san," Masaru said as soon as he stepped off of the elevator, and he bowed. Hinata quickly stood up and bowed back. Then they both straightened. "I'm pleased to see that someone has cleaned this wall at long last," Masaru commented, glancing at the wall (which, in Hinata's opinion, looked no different). He paused, and then said aloud, "Sorry Nidai-kun, I was speaking with a janitor." Then Masaru walked to his apartment, ignoring Hinata's eyes boring into his back, and entered.

Once he stepped in, Masaru said, "Watch your back, janitor. There are men here who mean you much harm." Then he shut the door.

Hinata returned to Nanami's apartment to find her already there, frying something. "Working hard, Nanami-san?" he said once he'd snuck up on her.

Nanami glanced to the side almost immediately. "Oh, it's you," she said, after a moment. "Take the pan."

"Right. How was work?"

"Boring. I see you're a janitor."

"Yeah."

And that was all they said that night. They ate in silence, and then Nanami left for her room and Hinata for his.