A/N: By chapter 10, we'll be past the wedding, which I think I'll post a bit early since I was late with this part.

When he arrived at Nidai's fancy penthouse, the party was already in full swing. After being quietly let in by Iyatso Tsuji, the scarred, mute opera singer, he turned right from the spartan entry room into a kitchen filled with expensive-looking appliances and white-coated waiters carrying food and alcohol in and out of an adjoining dining room while Teruteru Hanamura and his assistant chefs cooked furiously in both the main kitchen and an adjoining side-kitchen.

Hinata snuck out of the kitchen before Hanamura (who was currently shouting orders) could notice him, and into the dining room, where he found two very unusual guests: Makoto Kirigiri, and a tall, blond man with piercing eyes that Hinata recognized as Byakuya Togami.

"Ah, Hinata-san," Makoto said, waving to him from a corner of the room, "you just arrived?"

Hinata joined Makoto and Togami, observing the room as he went. It was large, with partygoers continually cycling in and out wearing everything from sullied shirts to impeccable attire. A glass table housed all of the food and alcohol, both of which seemed to be overflowing; already, a man was passed out underneath one of the stainless steel chairs. As for the walls and lighting, they were all white, which made a very strange contrast for a wall-screen of some pine trees and a wooden cabinet in the opposite corner through which a large black-and-white bear was surveying everything.

"So this is Hajime Hinata," Togami said, eyeing Hinata. "Kirigiri and I were just discussing you."

"You were?" Hinata said, glancing at his boss.

"His wife," Togami said, as if it were obvious.

"You know that you can just call her Kyouko, right?" Makoto said quickly, "It's always confusing when we're together-"

"You let her do all the thinking anyway," Togami charged. "I'm going to go find a bathroom." And he stalked off.

"So that's the great Byakuya Togami," Hinata commented as he and Makoto watched Togami march off. "One of our class used to love to impersonate him before he died."

"Togami-kun can be a little abrasive sometimes, but his heart's in the right place sometimes," Makoto said, and he laughed nervously and put his hand behind his head. "So, did you get threatened here too?"

"Yep."

Makoto's arm returned to his side. "I see," he said. "Well, shouldn't you go congratulate Komaeda-kun?" He pointed to the door through which the partygoers had been cycling. Many of them looked or were acting drunk.

"And you, sir? Are you gathering intel or something?" Hinata said.

Makoto blinked. "Well, yes, but only after everyone's drunk," he said. "And besides, Kyouko says I'm not allowed to drink, not after what happened in third year with Mukuro Ikusaba-san…"

Makoto trailed off and he walked over to the table and picked up a bottle of water. Then Togami returned. "Of course he only has three toilets," Togami murmured, "and of course he has to just sit there in the toilet and loudly announce the movements of his bowels-"

"Nidai?" Hinata said sympathetically. Togami nodded. "He's like that sometimes, especially when heavily drunk."

"I won't ask how you know that, since clearly you plebeians know such things," Togami said. Hinata fought off the urge to point out that all of the guests he had seen so far were rich and powerful men he recognized from the news and from Hope's Peak. "Take, for instance," Togami said, pointing at the pine trees painting, "that screen. Its real version is in the Tokyo National Museum, and it completely cuts into the decoration. Or take that cabinet," he added, nodding to the teddy bear cabinet, "while the bear is not at odds with this… post-modern interior design, the wood is completely out-of-place."

"Celes-san's been teaching you?" Makoto said.

"Taeko has taught me a lot about design, yes," Togami said. He turned back to the screen. "Of course, they're so conspicuous perhaps because they're trying to hide something poorly…" And with that pronouncement, he walked back to the screen and tilted it, revealing a completely-black monitor. "Fascinating…"

But then Makoto put his hand on Togami's arm and nodded towards the bear, which had seemed to turn its head to watch him. Togami shot a glance at the bear and let the screen fall. "How strange," Togami said, and, brushing his arm off, he left through a set of doors onto the outdoor balcony where two men were busy drunkenly kissing.

"Anyway," Makoto said, "go say congrats to Komaeda-kun, will you?"

"Uh, sure," Hinata said, and he made his way to the door. The door lead into a large room with mats against the wall and exercise equipment shoved against the side of the wall to make a very large… dance floor? Hinata couldn't tell- he had never actually been to a bachelor's party, considering that he had been cut-off from all his friends by running away to Osaka and that Makoto's party was cancelled out of police concerns. In any case, he was pretty sure that all those rich and powerful men were drunk or drinking, many of them clutching fancy-looking beer bottles, and many of them already passed out against the wall. He saw everyone from a young mayor of a certain famous town to the weaver of a famous tapestry he'd seen in LA.

But the most distinctive feature was the raised platform with all of the music equipment on it, manned by none other than Chihiro Fujisaki, Nanami's cousin who'd sent over the black-and-white bears. He looked much the same as his schooldays: short and feminine. He did not, however, have a dress on. And he was also someone Hinata did not want to meet: he had never spoken to Fujisaki after he ran to Osaka, and Fujisaki would probably not take the news that Hinata was living with his cousin again well.

But before Hinata could retreat somewhere, he was greeted with, "Hey, shithead!"

Hinata turned to his right to see Fuyuhiko "Babyface" Kuzuryuu, his hair streaked back, with one eye out. "I see you ran into some cops in the last three years," Hinata said, as evenly as possible. They had never been the best of friends in school. Or friends at all, for that matter.

Kuzuryuu cackled. "Yeah, don't worry, I lost my eye thanks to someone who didn't much like me as the boss." He balled his hand up into a fist and punched his palm, grinning savagely. "He's at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean now…"

"Lovely," Hinata said. Hinata was saved by the arrival of Leon Kuwata, the 'Ultimate Baseball Player' and former upperclassmen.

"What's up, Hinata-kun? Haven't seen you in -hic- forever!" Kuwata exclaimed. Hinata could smell the beer he'd been drinking.

"Fuck off," Kuzuryuu snapped when Kuwata shoved him aside to stand next to Hinata.

"Same to you, buddy!" Kuwata snapped back, and he turned back to Hinata. "So, when're you goin' to come and see our band again? You and Komaeda-kun used to come and see it all th' time!"

"I've been busy," Hinata said quickly. "Are you still in it-"

"Ibuki-san on the guitars, I'm on drums, and Sayaka on the vocals, yep!" Kuwata said proudly. Kuzuryuu shook his head and slipped off into the crowd. "We've been trying to find a -hic- bass- you play?"

"Never have, Kuwata-kun. Have you seen Komaeda-kun?" Hinata said, edging away from Kuwata.

"Yeah, he's over there -hic- somewhere," Kuwata said, pointing towards Fujisaki. Hinata's heart dropped, but he thanked Kuwata nonetheless and began making his way around the right edge to see if he could find Komaeda.

Komaeda was nowhere in sight, so Hinata slipped into a slightly-ajar door. He was in a bedroom, but no one was in it; the bathroom, however, revealed a man snoring away against the shower wall and someone was slumped over the toilet, also sleeping. Hinata quickly closed the door to the bathroom and sat down on the bed to think about his conversation with Masaru.

For one thing, Masaru didn't want him to know about Nakejawa. This warranted investigation. And for another thing, he had to ask Nanami why she'd never mentioned Komaeda being her boss at work and why Komaeda never called her number four in public- and, if Masaru was lying, Hinata would have to find out why Masaru was really calling her number four.

Hinata heard the door snap shut and he glanced up to see Fujisaki. Hinata stood up quickly. "Hello, Hinata-san," Fujisaki said slowly and emotionlessly. "It's nice to see you again." He advanced towards Hinata.

"Hello, Fujisaki-san," Hinata said back carefully. Fujisaki walked right up to Hinata- even now, Hinata was still taller than Fujisaki- and put a hand on Hinata's shoulder.

"I heard you moved in with Chiaki-san," Fujisaki said with a bizarre cheerfulness that, with a start, Hinata realized he had heard all those years ago when Nanami had pretended to be cheerful shortly before he left. "Is it true?"

"Uh, yeah."

"I see." Then Fujisaki slugged Hinata, hard, right to the stomach. Hinata stumbled back, doubled over and seeing black spots, and then Fujisaki punched Hinata's head, sending him sprawling onto the bed.

Hinata, wheezing, looked up to see Fujisaki glaring at him while he rubbed his hand. "Did that hurt?" Hinata spat.

Fujisaki narrowed his eyes further. "Hinata," he said coldly, "that's for what you did to Chiaki-san. And the second one's for not apologizing."

Hinata forced himself up. "I did apologize," he snapped, "I apologized to Chiaki-san."

Fujisaki growled and punched Hinata in the chest again, although it was noticeably weaker than last time. "Don't say her name, you- you-!"

"You what!?" Hinata roared back, and he reached for his gun, "are you threatening me? I'm not going to apologize to you since I already apologized to who's important-"

"Apologize, Kiyo-kun!" Fujisaki snarled; based on the look in his eye, it was clear that Fujisaki was no longer entirely focused. "Apologize before I kill you, you filthy traitor!"

The door slammed open and Masaru, Togami, Makoto, and Komaeda rushed in. Fujisaki charged forward and pinned Hinata to the bed, growly as if he were a wild animal; Hinata pushed Fujisaki to the side and began imagining the best places to shoot Fujisaki to kill, how to overpower him and bash his head against the wall or slowly strangle him-

And then Masaru had pulled Fujisaki away and Togami was leveling a gun at both of them. Fujisaki was starting to sob something about "Kiyo-kun", and Makoto put his arm around Fujisaki's shoulder and lead him out of the room; Togami, Komaeda, and Masaru waited in the room with Hinata.

"Why were you fighting," Togami demanded, pointing his gun at Hinata.

"I was- we were- we had a disagreement, that's all," Hinata said. But burning shame over his thinking of how to kill Fujisaki was starting to eat into him… "He didn't like that I moved in with Nanami-san, thought I hadn't apologized, and I already had."

Togami narrowed his eyes but lowered his gun. "Very well," he said. He turned his back and left the room.

"Will you be fine for the wedding, Hajime?" Komaeda said. He had a tie tied around his head and he was flushed slightly, but otherwise seemed fine. He even had his usual green hoodie on. "I don't want my best man to be out-"

"Best man?" shouted Hinata, turning on Komaeda, "we're enemies, and I don't have the outfit, the wedding's tomorrow-"

"Nidai-kun is dead drunk and I'd rather you be my best man anyway," Komaeda said, no smile on his face, but he sounded sincere. "Hajime, you were my best friend, no matter what's happened since I walked out of that little café. Don't worry, the kingdom of Novoselic will have an outfit ready for you, too, or at least that you have the right accessories."

Komaeda started for the door, and Hinata said, "Well, fine. Congratulations, by the way. Komaeda-kun." Komaeda gave Hinata a weak smile.

Then Komaeda left the room, leaving Hinata alone with Masaru. "Hinata-san," Masaru said quietly, "I have one piece of advice for you: tell Nanami-san. If anyone'll be able to clear things up between you and Fujisaki-san, it's Nanami-san."

Then he, too, left the room.

Hinata sat down on the bed, his head still swimming as his mind replayed the many ways he could kill Chihiro Fujisaki, whose only crime was concern for his cousin and mistaking Hinata for a Kiyo-kun… the door clicked open again, revealing Makoto Kirigiri.

Wordlessly, Makoto shut the door and sat down next to Hinata. The thump of music continued, unabated, from the room next door. "Hinata-san," Makoto said, "you didn't fight back?"

"I was going to," Hinata said. "But I need to tell you something about that…"

"Yes?"

"I was… I was thinking of ways to kill him when you arrived," Hinata admitted. Makoto did not flinch away, like Hinata was sure he would. "I don't blame him for attacking me either, even if…"

"Chihiro-kun says that you reminded him a lot of Kiyotaka Ishimaru, his own ex-fiancé who ran away to be with a 'real man'," Makoto said slowly, obviously carefully picking his words. "It was shortly after you left for Osaka, too."

"But what about-"

"I don't know, Hinata-san. I'm not a psychiatrist, just a lawyer," Makoto said, "well, more a househusband these days, but I still do some legal work." He stood up. "Or maybe, you're having Izuru Kamukura show up?"

"Even if I am," Hinata rejoined, "that doesn't excuse-"

"Then apologize to Chihiro-kun," Makoto said.

Hinata stood up as well. "Maybe," he said, "but I'd better do it tomorrow, when he wouldn't dare attack me." Makoto frowned slightly. "In the meantime, I need to make a call."

Hinata left the room, edged past the still-partying crowd, past a set of double doors through which he could see Fujisaki talking to Saul Tsuji, and out onto the balcony. The men from earlier had disappeared; now, the only people outside were Iyatso Tsuji, who playing with a hamster of all things, and Byakuya Togami, who was sitting down on a chair and looking off into the rain. The balcony was covered with a metal roof, at least- thank God for small details like that.

Togami glanced sharply at Hinata and then returned to his gazing off into the rain. Tsuji, meanwhile, pulled up his own chair and looked as if he desperately wanted to say something to the hamster, yet could not- he would open his mouth but no sound came out. To be honest, he reminded Hinata of his old friend Gundam Tanaka.

Hinata pulled out his phone and called Nanami. The phone rang once, twice, three times before being picked up. "Hello, this is Chiaki Nanami," Nanami said; she sounded tired. She sounded like she tried to stifle a yawn and then added, "May I- may I ask who's calling?"

"Check your caller ID," Hinata said.

"Oh, hey Hajime-kun," Nanami said. She sounded a bit more awake now. "Sorry, I was just sleeping-"

"At a party?"

"It's really boring, I already congratulated Sonia-san and it's not like they have any games out yet," Nanami said. "Right now it's just all sex stuff, dunno why."

"N-novoselician tradition?"

"'We've got to make an heir'," Nanami replied, in a rather high-pitched voice. Then, normally, she added, "that's what the royal person talking inside was saying, anyway, don't see why the rest of us have anything to do with it- anyway, what's wrong?"

Hinata told her about his conversation with Masaru regarding her, Komaeda, and the number four thing, as well as his fight with Fujisaki. He left out, however, his planning how to kill Fujisaki as well as not directly accusing her of being in Despair.

"Yeah, he calls me that," Nanami said when he finished. "Komaeda-kun's always been strange like that. You'd have to ask him why he doesn't call me that when we're together, though."

"And what about Fujisaki-san?"

"I'll talk to him, clear things up. And Kirigiri-kun's right, you should apologize tomorrow. See you later." She terminated the call, and slowly, Hinata stored his phone back in his pocket. Looks like he had to talk to Komaeda tomorrow as well.

"Talking to your girlfriend?" Togami said.

Hinata glanced at Togami, who'd turned slightly to watch Hinata. Togami crossed his arms and leaned against the wall while Hinata protested, "We're not like that anymore."

Togami rolled his eyes. "Hinata," he said, "I want you to know something: I have robotics research missing." Then Togami checked his watch and left the balcony, leaving Hinata alone with Tsuji.

Tsuji's hamster squeaked and scurried into Tsuji's clothes, hiding. Then it popped out of Tsuji's collar and crawled over to his shoulder.

Just like Tanaka.

And then Hinata realized what had been staring him in the face: Iyatso Tsuji was Gundam Tanaka, freed from prison no doubt by Despair.

"Tanaka?" Hinata said, advancing on Tsuji. He knew, at least, that Tanaka had killed Souda; in school Hinata had been friends with them both, though he knew they were both rivals for Sonia's hand. "Gundam Tanaka?"

Tanaka rapidly shook his head, and then pointed inside and then made a stroke across his neck with his finger. "Can you talk?" Hinata said, still advancing.

Tanaka shook his head even harder. Then he pulled out his phone and scrawled something on it. Holding it up, Hinata saw that he'd written: "The Dark Gods of Despair ripped out my voice!" Then he threw another terrified glance at the window. This time, Hinata followed his gaze: the black-and-white bear was now sitting there, right outside the window, watching them both.

Tanaka scrawled "Monobear!" and then ran past Hinata, leaving his phone in Hinata's hands. Hinata watched him go, and then set out to find Makoto again.

He found him talking nervously with Kuzuryuu. "Look, what I'm sayin' here is that that shithead had it comin'!" Kuzuryuu was saying, and he slammed his fist into his palm like a judge's gavel. "I don' know why you legal types think he had a right to live after everything he did-"

"-yes, but Nakejawa-san-" Makoto replied, but he stopped when Hinata arrived, holding the phone out. "Yes, Hinata-san?"

"Tell Kirigiri-san that Gundam Tanaka is still alive, and he left this phone behind with me," Hinata said, and he gave the phone to Makoto. Kuzuryuu's eyes narrowed at Hinata and Makoto, and he stormed off in the direction of Komaeda. "What were you saying about Nakejawa, Kirigiri-san?"

Makoto blinked, and then said quickly, "We were talking about Commissioner Nakejawa's fall from Hope's Peak."

"Oh yeah, he told me that he was on the selection committee," Hinata said. Makoto nodded.

"Kyouko was on the board with him, although they didn't like each other much," Makoto said. "And we also think he had something to do with the Kamukura project. But enough about that, are you enjoying yourself?"

"Not really," Hinata said.

"Oh, good, I wanted to get back to Saya-chan," Makoto said, fidgeting. "Listen, Hinata-san, I'll drop you off at Roppongi."

The car trip back was not very exciting. Makoto's car, true to form, was neat and organized; Hinata had the "pleasure" of listening to Makoto and his wife talk via phone for half the ride back, occasionally inputing his opinion or the facts about Tanaka, Fujisaki, and Togami's missing robotics research, and then spent the other half of the trip listening to Makoto talk about all the amazing things Sayako had done recently.

When Hinata stumbled into the apartment, he felt drained. Slowly, he made his way towards the shower, but heard that it was on and instead slunk into the TV room and turned the news on.

"…the site of a major terrorist attack… believe to be part of a suicide cult… the part that most perplexes firefighters is the untouched black-and-white bear found in the apartment remains…"

Hinata stopped the channel on that news report. "The low-end apartment was the home of, amongst other people, famous djounshi artist Hifumi Yamada, who barely escaped the fire and has now been hospitalized for smoke inhalation," the anchor reported.

The news report continued, and Hinata realized that it was very odd that Yamada was not at Komaeda's party considering the massive amount of rich and famous people, or even simple Hope's Peak graduates such as himself or Makoto. And the Monobear had been watching the entire time…

Hinata quickly glanced at the little Monobear sitting on top of the TV. The big one at Nidai's penthouse could move, but that one had not; the only disappearing Monobear in the apartment was the one… holding… his phone…

He bolted up and ran into his room, but a quick search yielded no Monobear. As a matter of fact, every Monobear was where it should be. The only rooms he could not check, for obvious reasons, were Nanami's room and the bathroom.

So he returned to the news. "-tor Megure was unavailable for comment. And now, the weather!"

The weatherman burst into song, and Hinata turned the TV off. The news always got weird after a certain point, and apparently tonight it would start with the weather. So instead he left for his room to wait for Nanami to come out of the shower.

After about five minutes, he heard it shut off, and he rushed out of his room. All to see Chihiro Fujisaki in a towel.

"Fujisaki!?" Hianta said, backing away from him.

Fujisaki gave Hinata a wan smile. "Sorry about earlier, Chiaki-san cleared it up with me," he said. "And then she sent me here to shower off, see if I could get some soberness- the subway stop is closer to here than to my apartment in Shibuya."

Fujisaki then entered Nanami's room and, before long, emerged in a fresh dark green dress. "I'll be going now," he said, holding his head, "see ya at the wedding."

"S-see you," Hinata said, watching the boy he'd fantasized about murdering leave the apartment.

Nanami returned home a half-hour later. "Hello, Hajime-kun," she said as she pulled off her shoes; she straightened up, looked into Hianta's eyes, and said, "no fights tomorrow, okay?"

"Yes, Chiaki-san," he replied, rubbing the back of his head. His cheeks felt hot. "Uh, could you back away a little-"

Nanami looked away and then began marching towards her room. "Very boring party," she said, "or, at least, that's what Mahiru-chan told me. I was asleep for most of the time-"

"Chiaki-san, could you make sure that all the Monobears are in place in your room?"

Nanami arched an eyebrow but agreed to do it. No Monobear was out-of-place, in her room or in the bathroom.

The phone-holding bear had vanished entirely.

A/N: Next time, the royal wedding, and a bit more. As always, if you have any questions or comments, please review!