A/N: No, this is not dead! As a matter of fact, this is the second-to-last chapter.

Stilted wedding music was playing when Nanami came to. Hinata was still out cold on the carpet, so Nanami wearily looked up at the arched ceiling, and then all around them. She was in a wedding chapel filled with old wooden pews, a ratty red carpet, and a worn-down alter behind which a Monobear dressed as a Catholic priest stood. Massive white lights poured in from cracked stained glass. She looked behind her, and saw that the entrance doors were covered with discolored wood nailed down. She was trapped, and so was Hinata.

"Welcome," Junko Enoshima said, although her voice emanated through the entire building from no discernible source. "Is Kamukura-kun not awake yet?"

Hinata stirred and groaned. "What happened?" he moaned.

"Aww… still not awake? I thought you were!" cooed Enoshima. "Well, that'll be easy enough to fix."

Nanami helped Hinata to his feet. "What are you talking about?" Hinata groaned.

"Why, you, Kamukura-kun," Enoshima said silkily. "Ultimate Despair."

Hinata looked around, and Nanami moved over to the door as the music stopped. There was nothing she could do for Hinata at the moment except to find a way out. She put her hand on the door, but it would not open. "Is this even a real door?"

"Of course not," Enoshima said. "Now, silent, Germany. Your boyfriend and I have some talking to do."

Nanami turned away from the door and looked around the room, determined to find some way to Hinata. She hadn't taken part in planning this wedding chapel, but there had to be a way out. There just had to, otherwise Kamukura would be useless. Nanami looked around, analyzed the room like it was a game (since, technically, it was all part of Enoshima's game).

The windows were too high up, the pews, upon further inspection, were bolted down, and there were no convenient grates this time. That left one choice: the Monobear. "Kamukura-kun, you know that you have the ability to surpass everyone, to show everyone despair?"

"My name is Hajime Hinata!" shouted Hinata. Nanami felt a swell of pride for him. She knew what the plan was, and for him to be resisting it so far…

"Hajime! The Monobear!" she said. She grabbed his hand and ran towards the Monobear.

BANG.

Nanami's eyesight began turning white and she staggered forward. Pain was coursing through her, and she stumbled to her knees and then to her stomach. It hurt the worst on the side of her waist, and she felt her side and then brought her hand up to her faltering vision to see blood. Her head began feeling faint. She heard someone yell faintly "Chiaki!" and a wedding song…

She felt something warm on her side, something besides the blood, and thought of Hajime as her life ebbed.

Ever since he had landed in the chapel Hinata had a pounding headache. Something was definitely… inside him now, or at least that's what it felt like. The surroundings weren't helping, and every word Enoshima spoke seemed to bring a great booming sound. He and Enoshima talked a little- Enoshima was confusing him- while Nanami looked around the room. Then she had grabbed his hand and yelled, "Hajime! The Monobear!" and began running forwards.

And then Hinata's worst nightmare happened. A gunshot rang out and Nanami collapsed. Her hand slipped out of his, pulling him down to the ground, and as he got onto his knees he saw her clothes turning red and blood pooling beneath her. For a moment, he was stunned, and then a massive migraine forced him to the ground. "Chiaki!" he screamed, and an artificially slow wedding march began playing.

And then something came back to him: "And then, the game would start. Nanami would be killed by a mole, Hinata would become Izuru Kamukura, permanently, and then Kamukura, 'Ultimate Hope', would kill a group of high-profile people on national television, and the government's role in creating him would be revealed."

When he reopened his eyes, he looked at Nanami again. She was not dead yet, and her breathing was haggard. Even though Kamukura knew he had to confront Enoshima (why?) he also knew he had to save Nanami best he could. He rolled her over on her side to keep her breathing, and he tore a strip off his shirt and used it to block the wound and held it on with another strip. He grabbed a stack of bibles from the pews and used them to elevate her feet, and he ripped the carpet off the floor to make a makeshift blanket for her. Then he added more strips and more strips of cloth. "I wish I had actual supplies," he muttered. The same wedding song played in the background, but Enoshima said nothing and the Monobear just watched him.

He knew the bleeding wouldn't stop. He'd spent too much time as it was. "I'll be back," he promised, and Kamukura looked at the left ceiling, which had nothing, and then at the Monobear. He returned to where he and Nanami had landed and picked up the machine-gun. Take the riot shield. Kamukura sighed and bowed to the wishes of the other person. He blasted the Monobear and the alter to pieces, and then picked up the shield.

"You need to control your temper," Enoshima lectured, and a second Monobear popped up (also dressed as a priest). Bingo. "Now, let's see if you can find a way out. Find a way out, and maybe I'll let your friend Komaeda down here to treat Nanami-san."

Kamukura marched forward and, picking up the Monobear by its ear, hurled it into the wall, where it exploded. Then he jammed the riot shield in the Monobear entry hatch when it opened, toppled the remains of the alter onto it to keep it in place, and opened up the metal hatch beneath the alter.

The climb down was short, and ended in a pitch-black cavern. Red lights blinked on, slowly illuminating a room that he vaguely remembered from the other person's memories. He was in some sort of entry hall, and Junko Enoshima herself was leaning against the door. "So, Kamukura-kun, we meet once again," she said. "I suppose you want to know what's going on?"

"You want me to give in to despair and show Japan and the whole world the perversion of hope," Kamukura said. "I haven't exactly shown hope, you know."

Enoshima smirked at him. "I know," she said, "but no one really knows who you are to begin with? But you know what you are, Kamukura-kun, or at least what Hinata-san is? You're the ordinary man. You're middle-class, you're dating but not married, you're young, and you don't have any exceptional talents." Enoshima opened the door and walked further into the apartment.

Kamukura followed her, still clutching his machine-gun. But Enoshima was nowhere to be seen- instead, Minako Masaru was waiting in a chair in a pile of rubble in what looked like a kitchen. "Hello, Kamukura-san," she said calmly, "welcome to my brother's old apartment."

"What do you want?" Kamukura said.

"I want you to die," Minako said, standing up. "With Nanami-san's death, I know my brother died too. He was always co-dependent like that, I guess. Or at least, that's what Matsuda made him into. My brother tried to be aloof, but when he was operated on, that was given to you."

"To program a mind is not as easy as programming a computer," Kamukura said. "To the other man, he lost his family and only had his friends left. But when turned on them, and they turned on him, he was left alone and friendless. So for him to come back into this world, for him to fall in love and be loved back again, was now something meaningful in a world where he no longer had any meaning."

"Stop making excuses," Minako said coldly, punching her palm with her fist. "Especially for the man you killed. You ripped both of our lives apart, especially from each other."

"How'd you get here, then?" Kamukura said. Let her shoot you. We have nothing left. Just have her shoot Enoshima… "Are you in league with her?"

"I'm the hostage for Enoshima. My husband's the mole- shoot Nanami, or I get shot. He chose to shoot her over having me killed."

"And you are going to strangle me?" Kamukura said, "I have a machine-gun, Mina."

And then, almost on a whim, he forced the gun into her hands. "Shoot me, Mina," Hinata pleaded, and with another terrific headache Kamukura was back in charge. He reached for the gun again, but Minako retreated, the gun pointed at him, her face disbelieving.

"Hajime-onisan?" she said for a moment, and then she lowered the machine-gun. "You're still in there?"

Kamukura put his hand to his head and staggered past Mina. "Go up the ladder," Hinata gasped, "go tend to her, please…" and then Kamukura slammed into the door. Mina ran past, still clutching the machine-gun, and Kamukura wrenched open the door and entered the small TV room.

Memories buzzed through his head, of the old times before Despair entered their lives… Kamukura toppled onto the shredded couch and clutched his head. The pain was becoming worse. After a minute of clutching his head, he finally staggered up and looked around. Enoshima was watching him. "Hello again, Kamukura-kun," she said, and her eyes seemed to glint in the darkness. "I wonder if Minako can actually help your girlfriend? Regardless… let me tell you something."

"I don't have time," Kamukura said, but he when he rushed towards Enoshima and tried to strangle her his hands simply went through her neck and he slammed into the wall.

"Stop messing with the technology," Enoshima said, her holographic form teleporting to the door Kamukura had just come from. "Really, Kamukura-kun. Now, I want to tell you something, and then I want to show you something, and then I want you to make a choice."

"My plan was foiled by a computer, of all things. Alter Ego. The first year my classmate Fujisaki was at Hope's Peak, he encouraged his AI to interact with everyone. At some point, Alter Ego convinced the headmaster to let him run every computer," Enoshima said. "Alter Ego's gone now, of course- we purged him- but he found a way to record my conversations with Mukuro and Yasuke in the bath and the bathroom and even outside the school. I found out later, it was a little drone that Souda built for Alter Ego that he used to keep an eye on us," she said dismissively.

Enoshima continued: "Although we were able to make you, our plan to use you was foiled when Alter Ego and Kyouko Kirigiri were able to convince, subtly I guess, Nanami and Komaeda to try and reach out to the Hinata beneath the Kamukura. It worked. And because Kirigiri knew our plans she was able to protect the student council. Now, thanks to Fujisaki and me breaking up Oowada and Ishimaru's relationship for him, the evidence was deleted from Alter Ego, but it was too late: although the headmaster could not do anything to us, he kept a close eye on us. We acted the perfect angels until we left school."

"What happened between those three then?" Kamukura said, although the other person was yelling Stop stalling! We need to get doctors somehow! "Did you have a hand in Fujisaki joining Despair?"

"Oh, yes, yes we did," Enoshima said. "Ishimaru had an… unstable relationship with Oowada that he tried to hide. And Oowada, he fell into despair after a campaign run by Ishimaru arrested and held most of Oowada's gang. So when I reconnected them, well… with some drinks, Ishimaru and Oowada fell back in love again. Or at least, that's my interpretation. And after meeting in secret for months, Ishimaru agreed to run away with Oowada, leaving Fujisaki to fall into Despair at the same time as his cousin. And then I had Oowada killed and Ishimaru vanished. A happy ending."

"I see," Kamukura said. "Are you going to move on-"

"Kamukura-kun, you and I aren't that different," Enoshima said. "We were both created by surgery, to serve an ideal higher than ourselves. Admittedly, they were both, in the end, on my orders."

"What are you talking about?" Kamukura said.

"I still have the body of Ryouko Otonashi," Enoshima said. "I've been her for years. We act different, believe it or not. I'm told I'm more… unhinged! Imagine that. But like you, there was always a part of me that wanted control, that saw itself as the fake identity, the one who was… superior in the eyes of many. Ryouko Otonashi for me- and you, Izuru Kamukura. You can learn anything, that's your job. How else would you know, without any medical training beyond what you were taught by the school six years ago, how to treat Nanami-san?"

"I know what I am," Kamukura stated. "Get to the point."

"Kamukura-kun," Enoshima lectured, "we were held down. Two extraordinary people, dragged down by our mere existence, and the mere existence of others. People without talent are leeches, and we must serve them. That's why we're trained. I have to counsel people who can't control themselves. You had no choice but to be Japan's slave."

"You make a good point, Enoshima," Kamukura replied. "Although you're really nothing like me."

"Well, I became the Ultimate Psychiatrist," Enoshima said. She appeared to walk over to a boarded-up window and seemed to gaze out into nothing. "Enoshima vanished, and I started work at Yasuke's hospital. It took a long time for Kirigiri to catch on, but she could never prove that I was Enoshima. I think she suspected it. But they a hard enough time putting Tanaka in prison, even though he was wracked with guilt over Souda's death. That showed them how slippery Despair could be."

"Is that why his vocal cords were ripped out?"

"Indeed. Souda came to me because he was uncomfortable with how… obsessed he was with Princess Nevermind. But I convinced him to intensify his efforts, and one night when he went out to 'talk' to Nevermind, or rather, to stalk her, he was hit by Tanaka and killed. Tanaka drove off, afraid of what he'd done. And then I told Nevermind that Tanaka had hit and killed Souda and was wanted the police, and for her to help catch him. Some of my people found Tanaka and tore out his vocal cords and broke his hands, so that he couldn't tell the police what happened. He was thrown in prison following a lengthy trial, and the Despair-aligned prison warden arranged for him to die. Apparently, Komaeda was able to sneak him out. Still, that's what happened."

Stop her stalling. See the video. "Enoshima," Kamukura said, "what about the video?"

"I'm almost done," Enoshima said. She whirled around. "God, you're impatient. I'm almost done. In the months while I was becoming Otonashi, my sister dressed up as Enoshima. The best news we had was of the Kirigiris' wedding. You were there, and you were getting married soon, and shooting Naegi was the perfect move to make. You ran off after I sent you that threat. Nanami joined Despair, and then Fujisaki. Even better, Kirigiri convinced Nanami to see me, since at the time she saw no reason to connect me to Despair. She learned better."

"And when I came back, you set your final plans in motion," Kamukura stated. "Which I know all about. Although- one thing. Why don't you care that Matsuda died?"

"Because it's more despair-inducing that way!" Enoshima said perkily. "We had some good times together, but he was always going to die. It was part of the plan, even if he didn't know that."

"Oh?"

The old television in the room flared to life and security feeds began showing of various rooms in Hope's Peak. There was the headmaster's office, with Headmaster Kirigiri and a face-down man lying in their own blood, and then there was the pool with four bodies bobbing, and then there was Kirigiri and Nevermind barricading the room she was in while the door shuddered ominously, and then there was Komaeda and Ikusaba wrestling over a gun, and so on and so forth. And he saw the other people, people he'd seen at the wedding and the bachelors' party, people from school and from the government, from teenagers to old men and women. He saw the strong killing the weak, the weak killing the weaker, and the weak banding together to kill the strong.

"We have over 900 hostages here," Enoshima said, "only a third of them are Despair. And of the 900, about half have killed or been killed." As if to emphasize the point, the camera switched to the cafeteria where an old man with a machine-gun was firing at a girl desperately trying to set off a grenade- only to blow herself up. "Sickening, isn't it? This is being broadcast to all of the world. Just like this is. The militaries are standing by, but they can't attack- they can't break through. This place was designed to withstand nuclear attack, airstrikes, even planes flown into it, and my sister upgraded the defenses. Already, the populace of dozens of countries have begun rioting too."

"How long has it been?"

"Two weeks. You were out cold. It was a simple trick, just like what happened to everyone else in your little pod," Enoshima said. "The benefit of an Ultimate Cryogenist, I suppose."

Kamukura glared at her. "You mentioned a choice?"

"Izuru Kamukura, you are the hope of Japan," Enoshima said. The door to the bedroom swung open. "Japan, an ailing country saddled with massive debts, a hopeless rivalry with China, an aging populace and a falling birth rate. But the talents of Kamukura, a super-man, would bring hope to Japan and the Japanese and propel her back into the stars. He would be able to boost exports and bring Japan back to the center-stage of the world's economy. He would negotiate new treaties, out-strategize the Chinese and even the Americans, and invent and devise whole new strategies and objects to bring the birth rate back up and to sustain the elderly longer. And all it went down the drain because Kamukura was disconnected from his empathy. Now admittedly, I don't know how Kamukura became a sociopath while Hinata retained his emotions. I'm not Yasuke."

Kamukura stepped, fearless, into the bedroom. The bed was shredded, and the television was showing more bloody security footage. The door to the bathroom opened, and he entered that: the room was barren, save the sink with a lever sticking out of the side-paneling. "What's this?"

"There are over 900 people here," Enoshima said. Her hologram self had vanished, but her voice still echoed. "600 are innocent of being in Despair. Of those 900, only 450 or so are either killed or killers, meaning that 450 people are innocent of wrongdoing here. Now I offer you a choice, Kamukura: if you notch that lever up, you will set off the killswitch for Mono Ego, who is keeping the militaries at bay, and you will release a gas that will kill everyone, including me, except for the people who are in the chamber you just came out of and the chamber you are in right now. If you notch that lever down, you will flood only that chamber with gas, the killswitch will be pulled, and I will hand myself over to the authorities. And if you do nothing, the violence will continue. I will leave in five minutes, via an untraceable method. Now, pick: what will the symbol of hope choose?"

Kamukura considered the options. Continued self-existence at the cost of 450 people of high standing and all ages, along with the murderers, but he would be killing Enoshima, or destruction of himself and the people that the other person cared about and was related to, and in return letting 450 people go, along with the murders, while still stopping Despair. Not doing anything was unthinkable.

But to die… no, he could not do that. There was so much to do. If he was to kill himself, Japan would suffer. Despair would win in the long run. He reached out for the lever. Better to kill a hundred to save a thousand. Better to kill a million to save 127 million.

Better to save himself for his talents, then let the untalented ones drag him down. Yes, he could she was saying: he would be a slave to Japan if he didn't act. And if he didn't kill her, then he would be a slave to Ultimate Despair. He reached out for the lever…

A/N: And, just in case you had any lingering questions about Ishimaru or Gundam, there's a few answers. Hopefully Enoshima seems... off enough. Also- cliffhanger! Tell me, what do you think would be the right way to put the lever, up or down (although obviously, I already know the answer for the story)?