A/N: By my count, there's two chapters and one epilogue left. We're almost there, folks.

"Hinata?"

Slowly, Izuru Kamukura opened his eyes. He was immobile, in a horizontal position, in a small… bed, covered with black-and-white sheets with a small logo on them. Kamukura glanced up and saw a bright white light emanating from the ceiling… artificial light. He glanced around him, and saw that he was in some sort of… infirmary, or a clinic or a hospital room. Whatever it was, it was private, and it was new.

There was nobody in the room.

The… door opened, and a man walked in. "Hello, Kamukura-san," the man said, and he stopped at the foot of the bed. "Don't reply just yet, your vocabulary should be almost finished reasserting itself," he predicted. Kamukura stared at the man. Was he behind this? "I am Dr. Yasuke Matsuda," he continued, "Ultimate Neurologist and student head of the Hope Creation Program."

"And I am Izuru Kamukura," Kamukura said. His voice was unsteady. "Ultimate Hope."

"Very good. I see Enoshima-san's discussion with you earlier stuck," Matsuda replied. Matsuda pulled up a chair. "You were once Hajime Hinata, of course. You aren't any more. Don't forget that."

"What do you want."

"I want your cooperation, Kamukura-san," Matsuda said silkily. "I want you to show the world what true despair is like…"

"Hinata?" the voice from nowhere repeated.

Matsuda payed it no heed. "What do you say?" he said, and a clipboard simply appeared in his hands. "Will you show the world its foolishness?"

"Who are you?" Kamukura said.

Matsuda smiled, and his face cracked. The old face slid off, revealing a woman's face underneath. "Does it matter, Kamukura-kun?" the woman said, "I am Junko Enoshima." She stood up and leaned forward. Her lab coat vanished, and her loosely-fit tie dangled over the bed. "The Ultimate Despair to your Ultimate Hope."

Kamukura stared blankly at her. "Why would Hope and Despair ally?"

"Because your 'hope' is talent. You are a tool," Enoshima lectured, "you will forever be in service to Japan. You will make her great again. And you will never have a say in it."

Kamukura continued staring blankly at her. What was this woman talking about?

"You may not believe me, but you'll see soon enough," Enoshima said. She gave him a very cruel smile. "Izuru-kun, your only role in life is to learn, to acquire new things… and that's all you'll want. Before long, you'll realize… you're superior to me, to everyone else."

Enoshima turned her back on Kamukura and began walking towards the door. Before she left the room, she glanced at Kamukura again. "You're damned to be held down by everyone else," she said, "I'm sure you'll realize soon enough."

She opened the door and then walked out of the room. The door slammed shut, and then the walls began creaking ominously. Kamukura glanced back up as the world began turning red. The ceiling vanished, showing a giant black-and-white bear… Monobear… looking down at him. "Hajime!" it said urgently, in a very familiar voice.

"Hinata!" the voice from earlier repeated, and the walls tore away from the room and went flying up into the Monobear's black half. "Hinata," the voice said, and Kamukura realized the Monobear was talking to him. Its voice was grotesque…

The floor vanished, and the bed went flying upwards, towards the glowing red eye.

"Hajime?"

Slowly, Hajime Hinata opened his eyes. Nanami, Komaeda, and Sonia were standing over him. "You've been asleep longer than the rest of us," Sonia said, and she backed away. Komaeda and Nanami followed suit, letting Hinata sit up.

They were in a dormitory highly reminiscent of Hinata's old school, Hope's Peak Academy. The difference, of course, was that the room had four beds haphazardly arranged in the center, and yellow police tape hung like a web on the door. Hinata quickly glanced around, but there was no Monobear in sighed.

Nanami still looked like she had last night, but Komaeda and Sonia were in their bedclothes. "Surprised?" Hinata muttered, glancing at Komaeda.

"I didn't think they had to knock us out," Komaeda replied.

Nanami pulled Hinata up and then went to examine the door. "I guess you were wrong, Sonia-san," she said, with her door on the handle. "It didn't unlock."

Sonia sighed. "Damn…" Komaeda muttered, "then how is this going to work?"

"I thought you had a hand in planning the game, Chiaki?" Hinata said. She nodded.

"It's just your simple lock-everyone-in make-them-kill-each-other game," she elaborated, "my job right now is just to observe, or at least that's what Monobear told me when I woke up. They're probably going to kill me anyways."

"Monobear?"

"Yeah, but he already left," Komaeda said. He nodded to a panel on the ceiling. "Something tells me he'll come back, though."

As if on cue, the panel opened and Monobear fell down into the room. "You got me, Britain," it squeaked, "well, listen up. The game's about to begin, the first of many! Now, this isn't going to be your typical game. There's gonna be no memory modification, no trials and absolutely no pesky friendships getting in the way! Kamukura-kun, you're already set up as the winner, so don't worry! Have fun! Give in, and bash away! We've specially retrieved everyone who's done you wrong!"

Monobear snapped its… paw, somehow, and a series of panels slid away from the wall. "Spared no expense!" Monobear said proudly, and he sprung back up into the panel. Hinata glanced away from the ceiling and back at the panels: all manner of weapons, from pipes and a riot shield to pistols and poison, were nestled on hooks and illuminated by a powerful overhead light. With a loud click, the door unlocked and swung open.

"So, should we arm up and fight?" Sonia said, uncertainty evident in her voice. "If this is a fight to the death…"

"This is a fight to the death for Izuru Kamukura," Komaeda pointed out. "We're all his enemies. I think Monobear intends for us to attack Hajime, and then somehow he'll become Kamukura from that and kill us all."

Nanami, Sonia, and Komaeda all stared at Hinata. "Don't worry, you'll probably kill me before I have the chance to become Kamukura," Hinata said. "Listen, if that's really a concern, just put a slug into my head, okay?" He walked over to the weapon rack, pulled off a pistol, and then handed it to Nanami. "Make sure I don't snap," he said.

Nanami was speechless. She tried to force the gun back into his hands, but Hinata simply sighed and said, "please."

"I'm not going to let you die, Hajime," Nanami said. "I'm not going to assist someone's suicide, not after what happened to me." She replaced the gun in its holder. "Especially not to you."

"Well, I'll hold on to the gun, just in case," Komaeda said, and he grabbed the weapon. "Want anything, Nanami-san, Sonia?"

"I don't want to fight," Nanami said. "Not unless people are getting hurt…"

"You planned it, that's the point," Komaeda said harshly.

"Lay off her," Hinata snapped.

"No, he's right," Nanami said. "Anything nonlethal?"

Komaeda looked over the tools, then shook his head. "I guess you could have the riot shield," he said, and he pulled it off its rack and handed it to Nanami. "Sonia?"

"Just give me a gun," she replied. "And Hajime-kun…"

"Nothing. If I'm going to be Kamukura, then I want nothing," Hinata stated. "All the better for stopping me."

"Right," Komaeda said. Nanami hoisted up her shield and gestured behind her, and Komaeda, Sonia, and Hinata moved behind the protection of the riot shield.

"I was actually gesturing to Hajime," she said, and Sonia and Komaeda laughed weakly and moved to the edge of the door.

And just in time, too, as a massive gunshot filled the air and a bullet slammed into the wall just behind where Komaeda's head had been moments before. "Come out, little Britain, I'll make you pay for abandoning me!" Hiroshi Nakejawa snarled.

Komaeda smirked. "Really, Netherlands? I thought it was Germany who betrayed you?"

"You're right," Netherlands replied, and he stepped into plain view. His hair was haggard, his skin was even paler than before, he had large bags under his eyes, and he was holding a massive rifle in his hands. "Time for the bitch to die," he said, pulling the rifle up to Nanami's head.

Komaeda fired, and Netherlands staggered back thanks to the bullethole in his skull. Nanami shuddered. "Looks like the bitch is dead," quipped Komaeda. "Idiot. Wonder how many are left?"

"How can… how can you be so…" Nanami said, but Komaeda snorted.

"Let's go, we're sitting dogs," Sonia said. The group of four carefully marched into the hallway, stepping over Nakejawa's corpse. "Where to?"

"Down the hall, into the nearest room, if this is the game I'm thinking about," Nanami said. They ran down the hall, Komaeda running backwards to cover their rear, "the Kamukura game is all of the dormitories of Hope's Peak, from first to fifth years. It's three stories tall, and has locker rooms for each class on the second floor."

"How'd you modify Hope's Peak?" Hinata said. No one had emerged into the hallway yet.

"We've had control of the school for months," Nanami said. "Jin Kirigiri was so afraid of the Monobears that Chihiro-kun planted in his granddaughter's room that he let us do anything. I don't think he knows about the weapons, though."

"I should hope not," Hinata muttered. They reached the stairs to see the Kirigiris, both with pistols in hand. They leveled their guns, but lowered them again.

"Hinata-san," Kirigiri said, "I heard some gunshots."

"Nakejawa tried to kill Nanami-san, so I shot him," Komaeda said matter-of-factly. "Anything going on up there?"

"We passed the Masarus," Makoto said. "Ryotsa-san's got his hands on a big lead pipe, and Minako-san's got a machine gun, so I think they'll be safe for now."

"Who else is in here?" Hinata said.

The Kirigiris shrugged, but Komaeda said, "Us and Netherlands makes seven people, and there are sixteen people in every game. That means we're missing nine others."

"Thanks for doing simple math for us," Hinata said. "Anything else up there?"

Kirigiri shook her head, and then the characteristic whirr of a machine-gun started up, from somewhere upstairs. Kirigiri and Makoto paled. "Let's get out of here," Sonia said quickly, and after Hinata kicked a bedroom next to the stairs open, the group of six huddled in the room. Nanami was the last one in and slammed the door, and then pressed her eye up to the peephole. Something thudded outside, and the machine-gun sound stopped.

"Is it Mina?" Hinata said.

"No, it's Hanamura-kun and Nidai-kun. But Nidai-kun's bleeding-" Nanami gasped and withdrew from the door. Hinata quickly took her place and looked through the peephole: Nidai had smashed Hanamura's head into the stairway and picked up the machine-gun, and was now using it to bludgeon Hanamura's head.

"Komaeda!" Hinata said, and Komaeda nodded and rushed forward. He kicked the door open, and Komaeda' began firing into Nidai's head. Unlike with Netherlands, he didn't drop: instead, he whirled around, just in time for Sonia to shoot him as well. He gave one final bellow and collapsed.

"Something's wrong," Nanami moaned, "the deaths shouldn't have started by now-"

Sonia crouched next to Nidai and examined something on his head. "His eyes look wrong," she said, "what happened-"

"I gave him some very potent drugs that I knew he had a violent reaction to," said Mikan Tsumiki. She stepped down the stairs and picked the machine-gun up. She looked like she was struggling to hold it. "Once Hinata's dead, I can go. I can go to the river and jump-"

Tsumiki was cut off by Nanami rushed forward and knocking her onto the stairs, sending the machine-gun rattling down the stairwell. Hinata stepped over to it and picked it up, examining it. Tsumiki growled and began getting up, only for Sonia to shoot her in the leg, causing her to buckle and hit the stairs in a painful-sounding crunch. "Are you judge, jury, and executioner?" Makoto shouted at her.

"Everyone here except you two and Hajime-kun are probably going to be in Despair," Sonia said. "They knew full well this would happen, and I'm not going to die just because of one bad thing that happened."

"We have too much to live for," Komaeda added. "You were right, Hinata."

"So," Hinata said, "one angry conversation last night is all you needed to turn on your boss."

"We did a lot of thinking on the honeymoon," Sonia said, "you were just the final push."

"Are you going to keep talking in full view of everyone else?" Kirigiri demanded, "c'mon, we need to get out of the way!"

"Kyouko, what about-"

"Self-defense. We don't have the ability to imprison anyone right now," Kirigiri said. "Although, can we stop shooting at the head?"

"I wasn't shooting at the head! I shot the leg!" Sonia protested, and then she took off up the stairs, followed by Komaeda and the Kirigiris. Nanami moved to join them, but stopped. Hinata was still staring at the machine-gun. It was surprisingly light.

"Hajime, c'mon!" Nanami shouted, and she set off up the stairs. Hinata sighed and followed her.

He followed Nanami up the stairs, but the senseless violence had seemed to awaken him to something. No one felt anyone remorse. One person was dead, two were dying, and yet no one even cared. True, Makoto Kirigiri had been appalled, but it seemed that he was so desensitized that even he didn't really care that a man had just been gunned down.

The Ultimate Student began examining the situation more closely. The group was waiting at the top of the stairs for him and Nanami, and they quickly evacuated into a vacated room; an empty weapons slot in the wall showed that someone had previously been in here, and the circle of beds was set up such that an open space for the Monobear was set up.

Perfect.

He set to work. "If we can get into the system can we stop Despair?" he asked Nanami.

She nodded. "But it'll be hard to do that," Nanami said, and she stared up at the Monobear panel. "We set up a tube system for the Monobears, but they're so large that it'd be easy for someone to crawl up one."

"Good," he replied. "I need a prybar." He looked around the room. "We need one if we want to stop it."

"Right," said Kirigiri. "And where do you propose we find one?"

"We just need a bar, right?" Komaeda said cheerfully. "So let's find some shelves or something and just make one!"

The panel on the ceiling lowered and Monobear appeared. "Hey!" it squeaked, "Attacking me won't let you escape! You need to either kill everyone or kill Hinata-san-"

Monobear was cut off by a burst of machine-gun fire. The bear toppled off of its platform and the platform quickly raised again. "Let's go," Izuru Kamukura said, "we won't have much time."

The trek to find a suitable shelf didn't take long. The locker rooms were still in the same place as before, and once Komaeda'd led Kamukura over to the room it was easy for Kamukura to fashion the perfect tool to pry a panel open. Thanks to Kamukura's machine-gun, it was easy for them to ward off any stray Monobears as well.

The locker room brought two distractions, however, as the group found another two members of the game: Mahiru Koizumi, who had been clubbed over the head but was found to be still alive, and Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu, who, for all his posturing, was obviously over his head. Kamukura really didn't care in either case.

"Hajime, she's our friend!" Nanami protested, "Regardless of whether Monobear is watching or not-"

"Who cares about her? Just save me!" wailed Kuzuryuu. Nanami shot him a glare and bent down to examine her friend. "There's no blood, I already checked after I hit her!"

Kamukura brought the end of his machine-gun down on Kuzuryuu, sending him toppling to the floor, and gestured to him. "Kirigiri-kun, please watch over Kuzuryuu and Koizumi-san once we leave. Barricade yourself in. And make sure they're both treated for any head injuries," he ordered. Makoto glanced at his wife, who nodded.

"Now we need a good room for a panel," Kirigiri said. "Any suggestions?"

"The closest rooms would be over by the hallway feeding into the school," Komaeda said. And thus they headed off, Kamukura, Nanami, Kirigiri, Komaeda, and Sonia.

"You can't break in!" snarled another Monobear, hopping into the hallway from the ceiling. Another burst of machine-gun fire left a smoking bear.

"When we get there, I'll go in first so I can lead you to the controls!" Nanami shouted.

"And I'll go along to provide help," Komaeda said, "Sonia, Kirigiri-san, can you two guard the room from the Monobears or anyone else who wants to intervene until we get to Despair?"

"Right," Sonia said, and Kirigiri sighed and nodded.

They reached the room easily enough- just another former dormitory- and with another Monobear machine-gunned down, Komaeda and Sonia pried the ceiling panel off, exposing the transport tunnel. Nanami went up first, her riot shield in hand, and then Kamukura followed with his machine-gun, and Komaeda brought up the rear. "This way," Nanami said, and she crawled forward.

The trek through the Monotubes was, all things considered, short. Kamukura did not have much to look at for most of the time besides Nanami's skirt, and the entire time was spent crawling through the large ducts was cramped and noisy. At one point they went through a duct with grates looking down at the swimming pool; the pool had turned red, and two bodies floated ominously in it.

They arrived at the hiding place of Despair. It was just a computer lab, the old data storage room, and there wasn't even a grate at the vent entrance to it. No Monobears had been encountered, but now there were half a dozen, screaming insults, when Kamukura emerged. Within seconds they had all been blasted out of the way.

"Great job, Hajime," Komaeda said, clapping Kamukura on the back. Then he clapped Nanami on the back, saying, "Great job too, Chiaki-san."

"Great job, Chiaki," Kamukura echoed.

"Great? You mean amazing! You little traitor, you've done your job better than you could ever think!"

A door with a Monobear face on it opened up and Dr. Yasuke Matsuda emerged, dressed in a medical coat. Kamukura wondered why exactly he was wearing a medical coat, except to push an image of being a doctor. "Hello, Persia," Komaeda said, "we've come to get rid of Despair."

"So you've come to fight off Despair, eh? You really think you can stop us?" Matsuda replied. He stepped right over to Kamukura, Komaeda, and Nanami. "As I was saying, Germany, you've done wonderfully well. Now, let's give the final push." Matsuda pulled a gun out of his coat and pointed it at Nanami's head. "Kill Britain or I kill you. Either way will work."

"I don't even have a gun," Nanami snapped. Matsuda smiled and, not keeping his gun off of Nanami, reached his other hand into his coat and pulled a second gun out of his coat. He handed it to Nanami, who put her shield on the floor. Nanami looked at Matsuda uncertainly, and then stared at Komaeda. She examined the gun, and glanced at Matsuda again. Matsuda gave her a smile.

Nanami shot him in the arm.

"You bitch!" Matsuda yelled, but with a second bullet in the throat from Nanami, Matsuda collapsed.

"Dead," Kamukura announced, when he bent over and examined Matsuda. Nanami threw the gun on top of his body and picked her shield up. "One down, one to go," Kamukura added.

"Hajime, please don't talk about him like that," Nanami said quickly. Kamukura shrugged and stood up.

"Into the breach we go, then," Komaeda said, and the three walked past Matsuda's corpse and the Monobears to the Monobear door. It opened easily, revealing Dr. Ryouko Otonashi.

"Hello, Kamukura-san," Otonashi said without even turning around. Kamukura heard a click behind him and glanced behind himself to see Mukuro Ikusaba holding her own machine-gun aimed at their back. Kamukura grabbed Nanami and Komaeda's arms and threw them at Otonashi, then slammed the Monobear door.

"Your sister won't have a part here," snarled Kamukura. Otonashi turned around and smiled at him. Kamukura locked the door and the door began shuddering as Ikusaba kicked it.

Komaeda aimed his gun at Otonashi and Nanami held her shield up, and Kamukura leveled his machine-gun at her. Otonashi kept smiling.

"By now, you really should know better," Otonashi said, her voice sounding more electronic. Kamukura and Komaeda opened fire, but the bullets passed right through her. "I'm waiting downstairs, Izuru Kamukura," she added.

Otonashi pixelated, and for a second or two appeared to simply be a large, pink-and-black pixel blur; then, she refocused as a blonde woman with a devilish smile and great fashion sense.

"I am the queen of Despair," Junko Enoshima said, and with a few gunshots Ikusaba was able to pull the door off its hinges. She grabbed Kamukura and roughly pushed him towards a hatch that opened just in time to let him in; Nanami followed, and the hatch slammed shut.

"All shall love me and despair!" Enoshima's booming voice announced as Kamukura and Nanami fell down a seemingly endless shaft.

A/N: Next time: part one of the climax! Kamukura's unknowingly fallen into Despair's trap, something that not even Matsuda was aware of, and now he and Nanami are on their way to confront the Queen of Despair herself, Junko Enoshima.

I know I featured this same room in the climax of my "Alter HAL" story, but I promise that the layout will be completely different. You'll see.

Questions, comments, concerns? Merely review.