(Unknown Location)

(Time Unknown)

(Let Us Sing of a Hollow Victory Plays...)

The electromagnetic field had transported Naegi through a pitch black world of nothingness, making him feel nauseous. Unable to see anything upon coming back to his sense, he was surprisingly able to hear a low rumbling sound of the machine but it was very faint. He also felt a pain rushing to his feet and flowing all the way to the top of his head. This crucifying pain made his body feel like it was in a twisted dream, spinning and spinning like it was never-ending. However, soon enough the world came back to its normal state. His feet touched the ground and a few moments later he heard a louder machine rumbling.

(Let Us Sing of a Hollow Victory Ends...)

(The Physics Room on the Third Floor of Hope's Peak Academy)

(Saturday, August 21st 2010)

8:00am

(Welcome to Despair Academy Plays)

He opens his eyes and sees that he is standing in the physics lab room as before when he departed ; although the Ultimate Detective was no longer there.

When he moves his head slowly and cautiously left to right still feeling a slight dizzy, he searches his surroundings as he discovers that no one else was in the room.

'Did I make it...?' thought Naegi, noticing the room looked about the same.

He looks towards the windows, and he suddenly got struck by an epiphany: the windows did not have metal plaques on them.

(Welcome to Despair Academy Ends...) (Beautiful Days Plays)

Unable to believe his eyes, he quickly ran over to the window and places his hands against the cool glass. His eyes registers a perfect blue sky and a healthy world spreading out beyond the limits of the school. All the run-down buildings that he remembered were still standing, even ones he didn't recall from the future too to his belief.

He was finally officially home, after all those crazy murders and class trials that they all had to go through in the process. Taking his mind off from the past/future, he examines out the window more accordingly, spying a courtyard to the far left. Right below the window was a tree, encircled by some bushes. He couldn't see far, considering that the East Wing of the school was blocking most of his view.

A tear of joy rolls down Naegi's cheek as he opens his mouth wide in glee.

"I... I did it. I actually did it!" he exclaims excitedly.

He took his hands off the glass window as he turns around to the exit of the physics lab with a serious look on his face.

"I'm back everyone...now... I'll save you all!" he cries clenching his hand with pride.

Naegi walks as silent as possible cracking the door open, he looks down the hallway to his right and then to his left. From what he could see, the coast was clear. Confident of this, he fully opens the door and walks out; quietly shutting it behind. He stops for a moment in the middle of the corridor, thinking.

'The hallways seem too quiet at the moment...' thought Naegi.

Looking back towards the physics lab, he spots a gorgeous clock above the door. The time was 8:03 am.

'I wonder where everyone is right now?' thought Naegi.

He looks back down the hallway before casting his glance at the objects in his range of sight.

'Let's think back...'

Naegi closes his eyes and reorganizes his thoughts.

'When I was standing at the gates, I had to make my way into the halls for the meeting at 8:00 am, but I arrived here at 7:10 am. I was fifty minutes early, so if it's three minutes past 8 in the morning, that means the meeting has already started!'

As he quickly realizes this he walks down the hallway and, soon enough, found the stairway that leads him to the first floor. Still holding the time machine in his hands, he decided that he could probably slip it in his green hoodie pocket. Whilst he was descending the stairs, he used one hand to open the pocket and stuffed the machine in with his other. Surprisingly, it was a perfect fit: quite some luck.

He starts to jog, then went even faster when he reaches the first floor. When he finally reaches the bottom floor, he sees that the gym was to his left. He stops and listens to a muffling voice ahead of him.

Beyond the door he could hear someone's voice now clearly echoing in his ears.

(Beautiful Days Ends...) (Trial Underground Plays)

"As you all know, the building in which you stand today is the prestigious school known as Hope's Peak Academy. All of you are here due to your talents, and are the best of the best, out of all schools in Japan."

Naegi immediately recognizes this as a man's voice. It was a voice he recalls hearing once before, but it was not clear enough at the moment for him to recognize its beholder.

Naegi slightly opens the door and sneaks his way into the trophy room, making his way stealthily to the gym doors as he peeks through the window. He could see at least over a hundred people there! There was staff: secretaries and teachers; but most of all, students.

Everyone was sitting in chairs, paying close attention to the man standing on the stage at the back of the gym, behind a podium stand with a microphone attached.

'Wait a second... Is that the headmaster? Jin Kirigiri?!' thought Naegi dumbfounded by his sudden realization.

"It's a great honor to have new students attending at our school. We all hope that your stay in this academy will bring you a very successful future!" Jin Kirigiri announces through the microphone.

'So this is Kyoko's father...'

"Now, I'll explain to all of you the regulations at our school..." replies Jin.

Naegi looks around more at the students as the principle continues on with his speech. He could find every single person he knew who would be murdered in the future: Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Celestia "Celeste" Lundenberg - real name Taeko Yasuhiro, Leon Kuwata, Hifumi Yamada, Mondo Oowada, Chihiro Fujisaki, Sakura Oogami, Mukuro Ikusaba and even Sayaka Maizono. All of them - right there before his very own two eyes.

'This can't be real...this almost feels like i'm looking at an illusion but...' thought Naegi as he trails off distracted by something.

He looks again at Oogami and notices that something was off.

'Hold on... She's a bit more thin, and doesn't have as much muscle from what I recall. Could this be what she looked like before she became the strongest person in the world?' he thought realizing that it did make a lot of sense.

Looking away from Oogami, he spots Ikusaba sitting further away from the others and lastly Enoshima to her right. Judging by the looks at the back of all their heads he could most likely notice which person was who; since their appearances to him were all very distinctive.

Considering everything he knew, Naegi had a strong urge to barge into the gym and accuse Enoshima of her heinous crimes. Unfortunately, he could only picture how badly that would turn out for him. This was because, one, no one would believe him; two, his younger self was sitting in that very room beside Maizono; three, everyone would think that he has gone insane, since Enoshima has not yet done anything, and four, if he were to simply walk in now and be spotted by the entire class of students and teachers populous of the school, there was a possibility he would unravel a time paradox and drastically change the future.

'Perhaps I should travel a little forward in time to just before the tragedy? No, not yet! First, I should try to see how things played out before the incident. Maybe I'll remember something important that can be used against her'

He looks around at the other students present in the assembly, wondering who had invented the time machine. Slightly frustrated at digressing, he returns to his previous thoughts.

'There's nothing I can really do at the moment... Though perhaps I could try talking to Kyoko Kirigiri: she might listen to me.'

The thought of Kirigiri unclenched a vivid flashback.

"I'll be waiting for you." Those were Kyoko's last words before he had traveled back in time, and they were imprinted into his memory. Her expression at the time, which had been a mix of determination, happiness and sadness has filled him up with hope just before the world had turned black.

He took one last look at the assembly being held in the gym and quietly makes his way out into the corridor. He soon passes the infirmary, once again in deep thought.

'If only there was a certain place and time that I could talk with her alone, without any interruptions or any people nearby to notice...'

He stops, looking at the gift shop. Smiling lightly, he continues to walk down the hallway, then decides to sit down on a bench near one of the classrooms. He couldn't stop thinking about the events that he had been through in the past two weeks, especially watching almost all of his friends and classmates fall into despair, and preparing to give up on each other until he gave them some hope - hope for a better tomorrow and for an even brighter future.

In the end a lot of them gave in, mostly due to the 7 deadly sins: greed, envy, sloth, wrath, gluttony, lust, but most of all, pride.

'It's almost as if Enoshima knew how to trigger our ambitions to make us do anything to get out of the school. It does make sense though - this school probably has documentation about us, so when Enoshima eliminated Jin, she was able to look through our personal files, thus learning everything about us. That's just invading our privacy... Well, to her, it probably wasn't. Then again, she was our classmate; she might of got to learn about us that way too.'

Naegi clenches his fists and stood up. He was getting more and more furious as he thought about the past/future events, but he knew he must focus on the events to come. This was a precious second chance, where he has the power to save the entire world from what it would become. His time here was extremely important in ensuring the world turns out to be okay in the end.

With that time machine, still in his pocket, he must make sure that he doesn't lose it otherwise it could cause a major predicament with whoever may find it. Naegi knew that the tragedy has yet to occur as all his classmates at the moment remain safe and sound in the happy lifestyle.

'I wonder...if it was possible that Junko's plans were already planned before this...but I should worry about that when the time comes' thought Naegi keeping a positive attitude.

No matter how difficult this task may become for him, he knew that he cannot give up no matter what stands in his way in the near future or more so the forgotten past.

After all, Makoto Naegi is not only the Ultimate Lucky Student but also the Ultimate of Hope.

(Trial Underground Ends...)

Author Notes: What did you guys think of chapter 2?!

Once again I thank DarkNite 88 for proofing as a beta reader on this chapter too!