A/N: As for the timeline, I'd say there are about... four weeks in-universe left in the story by the end of this chapter. You'll see. But this is the start of Komaeda and Sonia's wedding, as well as the end of the flashbacks to Hinata leaving.
"Hajime, please, come to bed..." Nanami begged. Hinata was standing at the kitchen table, still dressed; he turned to face Nanami. She looked paler, and she had bags underneath her eyes. She stumbled forward and grabbed Hinata's arm. "Come on, please."
Hinata sighed and let her guide him into her bedroom, although Hinata could see that she was starting to tremble. "Hajime, please," and she collapsed onto the bed. She hadn't been getting sleep lately for some reason.
"Chiaki, just go to sleep," Hinata said, as if that would make things better. He began getting ready for bed. "Here, I promise that things will be better tomorrow."
"Do you promise?" she said. He nodded. She crawled to her side of the bed and tucked in, and then watched him, anxiety written across her face, as Hinata finished his preparations and went into the bathroom to brush his teeth. When he emerged, he flicked the lights off and crawled next to her. "Hajime," she whispered, "please... do you still love me?"
"Of... of course I do," Hinata whispered back, and he pulled her closer to him and buried his face in her hair. It smelled like strawberries. "If I wasn't, would I do this?" he murmured into her ear, and then kissed her full-on the mouth. Evidently, she hadn't been expecting it, but before long she returned the kiss. Then he broke off.
"G'night, Hajime," Nanami said, and she grabbed Hinata's hand. "Please... please be there for me..." And then she fell asleep, lost in her exhaustion.
Hinata watched her sleep for a little, and then extricated himself from the bed, a difficult task since Nanami had ensnared Hinata's legs in her own. Then he got dressed again. He paused, watching Nanami sleep, and gave her a final kiss goodbye on her forehead, and left her room. He softly closed the door and walked over to the kitchen table, where he wrote out his goodbye note, and, having completed it, pulled his engagement ring off and set it on the note. He added his apartment key and then he opened the closet, grabbed his suitcases, and shut the door.
Before long, he was at Narita International Airport, ready to go anywhere in the world, just so long as she would be safe. But out of the corner of his eye, he could've sworn he saw a bride with a dress turning blood-red walking in the crowd…
Hinata and Nanami were staring down at the sparkly little wedding invitations they'd received in the mailbox. "You are invited to the royal wedding of Princess Sonia Nevermind and President of TR Nagito Komaeda" it announced, "to be held at the embassy of Novoselic in Minato ward, Tokyo, on Thursday, 26 September." Beneath the official invitation was scrawled, in Komaeda's handwriting, "you're especially important, Hajime! You might not be best man, but you will be sorely missed if you don't show up."
Hinata showed the invitation to Nanami, who'd also received a copy that she hadn't opened yet. "Looks like he's threatening you," she said.
"Looks like it," Hinata said. "Doesn't he realize that people have work on weekdays?"
"He's probably only inviting Hope's Peak graduates and other rich and powerful people," Nanami said. "When's the wedding?"
"The twenty-sixth."
"Damn. That's when Wind Waker HD come out," she said, and sighed. "And there I go again, worrying more about video games than my friends..."
"Is Komaeda really our friend anymore?" Hinata said, "Or Sonia, what with their membership in Despair."
"They apparently spared me," Nanami pointed out. "I don't think they're all bad. Still, that gives us eight days to get the clothes and wedding gifts and all that," she said, "you'd think we'd get more warnings."
"The mysteries of the rich," Hinata said, and he looked out of the lobby windows to see the sun setting. "More like a week, really, if we're not counting the day itself."
"I'll say." Hinata and Nanami entered the elevator. "So," Nanami said, "you still haven't told me about your dinner with the Masarus. Is his wife-"
"Yeah, she's my sister, and she's as torn-up about me as I am about her," Hinata said. Nanami shook her head.
"You'd think that, after years of not seeing each other, you'd actually care," Nanami griped. Hinata shrugged.
"Like I said, hospital, remember, Tiki-san?"
Nanami punched Hinata lightly in the arm. "Don't do that again," she said, and the elevator door opened.
They entered Nanami's apartment. "So," Hinata said, "you doing anything tonight?"
"Why do you wanna know?" Nanami said, and she half-smiled. "Planning something?"
"Maybe," he said, and he walked towards the TV room. "I might or might not've found a bad video game-related movie when I was shopping earlier today after work ended, but I just don't have the heart to actually watch it."
He turned his head to see Nanami's reaction- she looked interested: her head was tilted, her eyes were open slightly widened, and her eyebrows were furrowed. "Keep talking..." she said.
Hinata smirked. "And I was wondering if a certain lovely lady could help me keep my wits about me?" he said.
Nanami sighed and shook her head, but she walked over to him regardless. "I'll help," she said, "on one condition."
"And that is?" Hinata said, and he opened the TV room door and bowed deeply.
"That you stop acting so weird," Nanami said, but she giggled and said, "although I'll admit, this is a good way to keep our minds off of Komaeda-kun."
"As you wish," Hinata said, and he followed Nanami through the door. "You work the Blu-ray, I'll get the snacks."
"And what's the occasion?"
"Just a bit of fun," Hinata said innocently, "I have no ulterior motive, okay? I just want to have a fun night with my new friend Chiaki Nanami."
"How kind of you, Hajime-kun," Nanami said, and she giggled again.
The movie was fun for all the wrong reasons: the acting was horrible, the special effects laughable, and the plot ridiculous. Nanami spent almost five minutes ranting about how the movie butchered the game, and Hinata complained for even longer about improper search techniques and gun safety. But in the end, they still had fun.
At the end of the movie, they heard a buzzing sound from the door. Nanami rose to get it, leaving Hinata to remove the movie from the Blu-ray player. When she returned, she was holding a couple of white-and-black teddy bears in her arms. "Aren't they cute?" she cooed, and she dropped them all on the couch. "A present, from Chihiro-kun, my cousin."
"Yeah, I haven't forgotten him," Hinata said, and he picked one up. It was just like the teddy bears spying on the Kirigiris, the headmaster, and the one in Masaru's room. Nanami picked one of them up and, humming, she turned her back on Hinata to put a bear on top of the TV, giving him the opportunity to examine it more closely.
He was sure that its little black eye was a camera…
"Hajime-kun, what are you doing?" Nanami said. Hinata glanced up from his seat on the couch to see her standing over him, a curious look on her face. "Something wrong?"
"Headmaster Kirigiri has one of these," Hinata said, "he was scared of it."
"Well, you know that Chihiro-kun wouldn't hurt a fly. These things aren't dangerous," Nanami said, and Hinata almost wanted to believe her. However, his protests fell on deaf ears; Nanami said that there was no way her cousin would miss any sensitive electronics in the bears, and besides, she couldn't see any either. Hinata was just paranoid.
"Well," she said, putting the final bear on top of the shoe rack, "thanks for tonight, Hajime-kun." Then she kissed him, lightly, on the cheek and walked to her room.
"G-g'night, Chiaki-san," Hinata said, in a stupor, and she winked at him before entering her room. Hinata stumbled to bed and fell asleep, caught in a strange sort of bliss that he knew, deep down, he really shouldn't be feeling.
Wedding shopping and clothes rental took place over the weekend. At a loss as to what to buy two wealthy and powerful people, Hinata got Komaeda and Sonia a waffle iron; Nanami got them a vacuum cleaner. As for clothes, they had to follow the traditional royal dress as per Novoselic tradition: gray, gray, and more gray. Gray ribbons, gray bow tie, gray suit and dress. Apparently it signified purity or something in Novoselic, something ironic considering the princess and her fiancé, to say the least.
As for Hinata and Nanami's relationship, their flirting continued. To a certain part of Hinata, it made no sense; surely such things would just drag up bad memories. They had also watched another bad video game movie on Friday, mocking it together; it scared Hinata how much Nanami could get into it, screaming insults for daring to defile Mario. And it also scared him how much it reminded him of earlier, better times; fortunately, this wasn't something they did when they were younger.
And, above all, their jobs continued. Nanami was forced to use a vacation day to attend the wedding; Hinata, meanwhile, had found out from Mina that the Masarus were also attending, meaning that Hinata now had a work-related reason to go to the wedding.
The 25th brought with it a surprise: a phone call from Nekomaru Nidai. "Hey, uh, Hinata-kun," he growled, "be at Komaeda-kun's bachelor party at my place or, uh, you'll be in danger!"
Nidai terminated the call and Hinata stared at his phone. Nanami walked into the room and glanced at it; Hinata explained, "Nidai just called me and tried to threaten me into going to Komaeda's bachelor's party."
"Ah. Well, I've been invitedto Sonia-san's party and I chose to go," Nanami said, "you might as well go to Komaeda's too."
Hinata sighed. "Fine."
Nanami left the room, giving Hinata time to change. Figuring that the party would just be a whole bunch of alcohol or something, Hinata dressed in his most disposable jeans and t-shirt and joined Nanami in the main hall of the apartment: she was dressed in a nice dress. "Not going high-class?" Nanami said, arching an eyebrow, but Hinata did not respond.
Another unpleasant surprise came when they reached the main lobby of the apartment building, where the Masarus were waiting. "Ah, janitor-san, four-san," Masaru said, bowing slightly, "we were just discussing you two!"
"About?" Hinata asked.
"About you needing a car," Masaru said. "Nidai-kun's place is pretty far from here, and so is Sonia-san's place. If four-san here drops you off at his place first, she'll be very late for Sonia-san's party, and this a royal tradition or something, so it's very bad to be late. Take it from me."
"You have experience in these matters?" Mina said. Masaru nodded.
"Little visit to Novoselic that went wrong," he muttered. "So," he added, turning back to Hinata, "how about you drive with me to Nidai-kun's penthouse, while four-san and Mina drive in their cars to Sonia's house." Hinata glanced at Nanami, and she shrugged. Hinata sighed. Again.
"Fine," Hinata said, "I'll go with you." At least Masaru was also wearing cheap-looking clothes, and even Mina was only dressed casually.
Once they'd arrived at the carpark, Hinata said goodbye to Nanami and, after some prodding from her, to Mina as well; then he got in Masaru's car.
Rain had started to fall by the time Masaru had driven out to the road, although the light was just as intense as ever, and the traffic was heavy for a Tokyo night; Hinata and Masaru were going at a snail's pace. "Masaru-san," Hinata said, staring out into the rain and traffic with boredom, "why did you call Nanami-san 'four-san'?"
"Because that's what my boss calls her," Masaru said, and added unnecessarily, "Britain."
"And why would Komaeda call her that?" Hinata added, glancing at Masaru to see him frowning slightly.
"He's an executive for Togami Robotics," Hinata said. "Ever since he's been in charge, that branch of the Togami conglomerate has had a whole bunch of lucky breaks- a corporate spy is accidentally discovered by a KDL agent, a state prosecutor gets drunk one night and flushes his investigation on the company down the toilet, a top competitor is busted in anti-corruption probes, a robotics researcher working for Honda jumps companies over a slight misunderstanding- the works."
"And Nanami-san is the fourth-most important person?" Hinata said.
Masaru nodded. "She's the fourth-highest ranking executive in Togami Robotics," he said, "hence her high salary and cushy apartment."
They drove in silence, Hinata digesting the information. His very rusty detective skills were kicking in- Masaru sounded confident, so this probably was the truth. On the other hand, he was also a terrorist. And, most importantly, he had never heard Komaeda call her "four-san".
"Masaru-san, who's the number four member of Despair?" Hinata said.
Masaru shrugged. "Depends on who you ask," he elaborated after Hinata shot a glare at him, "some say it's a member of the planning committee. Some say it's a cell boss. I think only the big bosses really know. Why, are you suspecting Nanami-san?"
Hinata gulped. "O-of course not!"
Masaru snorted. "I see," he said, but he did not elaborate.
"Masaru-san," Hinata squeaked, feeling ridiculous as he did so, "who's number four in Minato?"
"Not Nanami-san," Masaru replied coolly. Hinata flinched. "In case you're wondering, it's Mina. It goes Britain, Austria, France, and Spain. Nagito Komaeda, Ryotsa Masaru, Sonia Nevermind, Minako Masaru. You really should ask your boss these things, she already knows."
"Because she has a spy," Hinata said. Masaru nodded.
"I might even know who it is," Masaru said, "but I can't spring the trap yet."
"And why do you tell me so much about you, then?" Hinata demanded.
Masaru smirked but said nothing.
Hinata sighed. "Masaru-san," he said after a minute of staring out into the storm, "who is Izuru Kamukura?"
"The founder of Hope's Peak Academy," Masaru said calmly. "Why?"
"And what about Yasuke Matsuda?"
"'Ultimate Neurologist', graduated five years ago, top neurosurgeon in the world. Does this have something to do with Kamukura?"
Hinata did not reply, and this time Masaru sighed. "Masaru-san," Hinata said, "you said that you were recruiting Hope's Peak graduates. Does that include Hiroshi Nakejawa?"
Masaru appeared to ignore him. "Masaru-san? Nakejawa?"
Masaru said nothing but stared stonily forward. Clearly, Nakejawa was far more important than the sculptor had let on in Hinata's first- and only- meeting with him. "What about Athens and Sparta?"
"Athens and Sparta work for Persia, one of the big bosses," Masaru said. "I don't know much 'bout them, though. Sorry."
"What do you know about the Monoscope?"
"Never heard of it."
"And the Monochrome project?"
"Not my jurisdiction."
"How close are we to Nidai penthouse?"
"Close. Maybe time for a last question."
"Where is Junko Enoshima?"
Masaru's knuckles turned white on the steering wheel. "I don't know," he said through grit teeth. "And even if I knew, I can't tell you."
He pulled the car into a parking garage. "Here we are. Run ahead, he's on the 19th floor," Masaru said, "I need to, ah, call Mina. Sort things out, see if she's there yet."
"Calling ahead so that you can get some goons to kill me," Hinata said, and he got out of the car.
"You're too important to the game for that!" Masaru called, but Hinata did his best to ignore him and headed to the elevator. "And believe me!" he heard Masaru yell, "we'll be getting to know each other better, brother-in-law!"
Hinata snorted and waited for the elevator doors to close.
A/N: Hopefully, I've raised more questions than I answered here. Next time: the bachelor's party. As always, questions and comments are welcome!