Hajime wanted to rip the monitor off the wall when the Monokuma morning announcement woke him up. He was just getting used to waking on his own on the real Jabberwock Island, and now he had to deal with this again. It was just a minor annoyance, but one that was easier to deal with than his own worries.

He did end up getting Chiaki to sleep in her own cottage, with the promise that they would talk more later. Now in the morning light, Hajime already realized that he needed to tell the others. They had another ally, another friend to help them with this task. Not to mention that thanks to Alter Ego, Hajime's cottage was a safe place to talk without Monokuma overhearing.

Hajime got dressed, and it was only when he got done brushing his teeth did he look in the mirror. He expected to see himself as a teenager, days before starting Hope's Peak. What he was was a boy who almost looked like that, if you ignored the fact one of his eyes was so red it almost looked like it was glowing.

What…? My avatar shouldn't have changed…

But then Hajime recalled what the others told him about the graduation trial. How when Hajime merged with Kamukura, his hair turned white and eyes red. Akane commented it was like he went super saiyan.

In real life his body was different. There was a scar across his forehead that went completely around his skull, even if most of it was covered by his hair. Once he cut his hair, it turned out it wasn't black, but just really dark brown. Most notable change was the one green eye and one red eye. Which apparently was strong enough to overwrite his Avatar.

Why didn't anyone tell me? Hajime wonder, a little annoyed from being caught off guard.

And a little annoyed from how excited he was from something so unexpected. He didn't predict this happening. It didn't make sense from what he learned about how the Neo World Program worked. And yet…

Hajime frowned at his reflection and rushed outside. It was only then he noticed something else changed from last time.

Monokuma was staring at him, right outside his door. Not inside to tell him about the Monokuma plushies.

"Puhuhu, I was wondering how long it would take you to wake up."

"What are you doing here?" Hajime demanded, and it was taking all of his resolve not to punt the bear like a ball.

"Now is that anyway to speak to your headmaster?"

Hajime tried to just walk past him, but the bear just continued.

"Hey, hey! Here I was about to let you know how your cottage is broken, and you're just walking away!"

"Broken?" Hajime asked, because from what he could tell nothing was different from his cottage this time from last time.

"Yeeep! The cameras don't work, and I can't va'vose my way in!"

Shit. He's talking about the deadzone. I thought it would take more time for him to notice.

"I want to think it's just an accident, buuuuut I do know of one person who could do something like this… right Kamukura-senpai~?"

Hajime froze. He knew that calling himself the ultimate Hope would clue the Junko AI that he remembered being Kamukura, and the Monokuma would use that to mess with him. Knowing that still didn't prepare him from hearing Monokuma say the same exact thing that she use to.

"Don't call me that!" Hajime yelled even though he knew that Monokuma just wanted a reaction.

And that was what Hajime was giving him.

"Puhuhu… Don't worry, I'll keep your secret 'Hajime Hinata'," Monokuma said with a wink before straight up disappearing.

Hajime just stood outside his cottage seething because anger was easier to deal with than the panic that started filling his mind.

Why am I panicking? I already knew this had a chance of happening, so why…

"Hinata?"

Hajime turned around to see Peko slowing down from a light jog. He almost forgot that the first time, Peko was trying to get Kazuichi (who was nowhere in sight) and himself to the hotel to meet with everyone. The fact she could have overheard what Monokuma said to him…

"Are you alright? I heard you yell and saw that so call Monokuma disappear," Peko asked, right to the point and Hajime was grateful it was her and not someone else. If she overhead Monokuma calling him Kamukura, she wouldn't waste time and just asked him what that meant.

"Yeah… He was just trying to mess with me."

"You should try better to keep your cool. None of us want a repeat of last night."

"Yeah…" Hajime said even though he didn't really agree.

Even if Hajime lost his temper and tried attacking Monokuma, he doubted the bear would just execute him for breaking a rule. If he thinks Kamukura is playing the game, there is no way she would let him die without maximizing the despair the others would feel. And none of them were close enough for that at the moment. As far as Monokuma and her know.

"I came to bring you to the restaurant. Everyone is already there having breakfast and to talk about our situation."

"Everyone?" Hajime asked, wondering why Kazuichi was there instead of in front of his cottage.

Peko just nodded, and Hajime walked with her to the hotel. Neither of them spoke as they walked the short distance past the pool and up the stairs. Hajime was too lost in thought about the best way to use his cottage now without clueing Monokuma in that the others needed to be watched as well.

"You're late, Hajime," the imposter's voice broke Hajime out of his thoughts effortlessly.

"Sorry…" Hajime muttered as he took an empty seat next to Kazuichi (who was looking nervous) and grabbed some food.

It seemed like everyone else was already finished eating, and while they were talking about the situation, Kazuichi leaned over.

"Sorry man, I really tried to wait for you, but Monokuma was guarding your door and told me to scram."

Hajime figured it was something like that.

"It's fine, do you mind if we swing by my cottage after breakfast? I…uh…have something to show you," Hajime told him.

Gathering all of the survivors to his cottage at once would be too suspicious, but if he got them one or two at a time it would be fine. Hajime might also have to invite others to his cottage to keep any noticeable patterns from occurring, but it was doable.

"Sure thing soul bro!" Kazuichi said a little too loudly in his ear before leaning away.

Suddenly, there was a crash. Hajime looked over to see that Tsumiki somehow got a bunch of cords wrapped around her feet and was falling. It felt like it was happening in slow motion, and all Hajime needed to do was stick one arm out to catch her (he knew he shouldn't be changing things like this, but…).

"Ahh! I'm sorry!" Tsumiki cried out, tears threatening to fall even though Hajime stopped her from tripping.

"It's fine, just… uh… stand still while I untangle your feet…" Hajime said as he let go of her (she did sway a little but remained standing) and only took a moment to look at the mess before finding the one cord that unraveled it all.

"What an amazing display from the ultimate hope!" Komaeda suddenly said, which reminded Hajime about that whole issue, and suddenly everyone was looking at them.

It was better than everyone looking at Tsumiki's compromised position, but Hajime was really not liking the attention.

What I did wasn't too weird, was it? I mean, anyone could have stopped her from falling.

"You didn't look up her skirt did you?" Koizumi asked, completely breaking Hajime out of his worries and putting new ones in.

"What? No! Why would I-"

"She probably did it on purpose. Bet that sank was hoping someone would look," Saionji interrupted, and that was enough for Tsumiki to actually cry.

"W-w-what? Noooooo!"

"That's enough!" Sonia yelled, and while Tsumiki gave out another yelp, it seemed it shocked her out of her panic. "We gathered here to talk more about our situation, isn't that correct Togami?"

"You're right. Everyone is here and mostly finished eating," Imposter said, and for someone reason gave Hajime a glare at his unfinished food, "Then let me pose a question for you all. That Monokuma thing ordered us to kill each other, so under these strange circumstances, what do you think we need right now?"

Hajime almost let out a sigh of relief. Sonia was able to direct the conversation back to what they originally covered with only a few words. And the others were doing a great job as well, even with a few hiccups.

Sure it's not perfect, but it's close enough we should be safe. Hajime thought as the imposter appointed himself as the leader and lead them all to Jabberwock Park to look at the timer.

It was annoying looking at that thing. Just a test to see how quickly the Junko AI can change the graduation protocol. Something to make them all worry and just another reason to act more recklessly with an unknown timer on their backs (though now that timer was also a reminder of how much time they had before they could do the shutdown. Once it was down to one day…).

Hajime almost wanted to say something. Wanted to call out Monokuma and tell him he knew this was pointless. See just how the Junko AI would react to that.
But it was too soon. This wasn't something they could afford to mess up, which is why they all agreed to take things slow. Only change what was truly needed. Accidents were bound to happen since they were all humans who weren't perfect, but they needed to be cautious.

Hajime was so wrapped up in playing along that he almost missed Kazuichi following him back to his cottage. Almost. He did notice, and had to slow down a little so Kazuichi would walk with him instead of struggling to keep from running to keep up with his brisk walking pace. That was something he did even before the project. Hajime always was a fast walker, and used to jog to places when he could.

"So what did you want to show me?" Kazuichi ended up asking after trying a few times.

Hajime figured there were other questions he wanted to ask, but couldn't with Monokuma watching.

At least that wouldn't be as big an issue now.

"Alter Ego was able to turn my cottage into a deadzone. Monokuma was hanging out at my cottage because he noticed the cameras weren't working, but it seems like he's not going to interfere," Hajime explained as soon as he closed the door after Kazuichi followed him into his cottage.

He probably should have also mentioned that Monokuma believes he's Kamukura, but the words just didn't want to come out.

And Kazuichi didn't give him much time to try.

"That's… great! So we can talk about whatever now and don't have to worry?"

"As long as all the doors and windows are close, no one should be able to overhear us either."

The deadzone that he came up with Alter Ego before entering works by making an area of the map disconnected from the rest of the simulation when all the 'exits' were closed. Assuming Alter Ego used that same design, it meant that even if Monokuma wanted to eavesdrop by hanging out at the door, he wouldn't be able to hear.

"Should we get the others then? We have so much to talk about! I mean, the party is still happening tomorrow right?"

"Yeah," Hajime said as he turned around and opened a random drawer.

There was a notepad and a pen. Just want he wanted.

"We still can't have Monokuma too suspicious of us, so I'm going to have to pass out a note to the others. But for the party, I still think it would be best to let it happen. When the imposter goes into the kitchen looking for weapons, I'll just point out the one in the meat."

Hajime didn't think that would give Hanamura enough time to find another weapon. The Imposter was pretty thorough the first time.

"I guess that could work… but what about Komaeda? He was planning to kill someone from the start!"

"I'm pretty sure Komaeda's plan was to have Hanamura kill him," Hajime explained, though he didn't really get why he was trying to argue about this.

"That doesn't make it any better!"

"I know, I'll just… stop him. The blackout only lasted a few minutes. I can just grab onto his arm and keep him from getting the knife during that time."

Hajime finished writing his note to the others, vague enough that no one who wasn't one of the survivors would think much of it, before turning to look at Kazuichi. He didn't look happy. Hajime hated stressing his friend out this much, but this was the best solution.

"So, you don't need us to do anything? We're just going to let the party happen and trust that getting that skewer and stopping Komaeda is enough?"

"It will be," Hajime said, sounding way more confident than he felt.

Telling Kazuichi that it had only a 78% chance of success wasn't going to help. There was a lot of room for error, but it was still a higher chance than anything else Hajime came up with. At least for the long term. There was a lot they could do to stop that murder, but that would increase the chance of Monokuma figuring out something was wrong and coming up with a different motive later on.

They needed the game motive to stay the same to give them extra time. Even the despair motive won't be bad once Hajime goes into the runes and see if he could fix it. Both will let them get closer to their true goal without Monokuma being aware of what they know.

"…if you say so soul bro. I mean, I trust you, but…" Kazuichi trailed off, not finishing his thought even though Hajime gave him enough time too.

"Do you mind passing out these notes to the others for me?" Hajime asked, and as he expected, Kazuichi lit up with having something to do.

"Yeah! Sure thing!"

Hajime thanked him again as Kazuichi grabbed the pieces of paper and soon left. Kazuichi wasn't the best person to subtly pass information to the others, but it was nice seeing him less stressed out. At this stage, there wasn't much for him, or even the others, to do besides try to also keep things the same as last time.

"Speaking of which," Hajime commented out loud as he thought.

He remembered hanging out with Komaeda not long after their first breakfast meeting. It was before the trial, before Hajime knew Komaeda as anything but a calm boy who was willing to stick with him. He remembered enjoying hanging out with Komaeda, and wondered if that was part of the reason he kept trying to understand the white hair boy even after finding out who he really was.

Now Hajime had to deal with a Komaeda who knew him as 'the Ultimate Hope' and didn't remember any of their past interactions. In a way, it was easier that first day since there were usually other people besides Hajime and Komaeda. Hajime wasn't even sure if they could keep their conversation the same, but until tomorrow it was important to keep the number of deviations down. That meant hanging out with Komaeda.

Not to mention Hajime might be able to figure out if Komaeda still plans on forcing the killing games to start.

Hajime headed to the beach without even bothering to check his e-book, and just like the first time, Komaeda was hanging out in the sand. It was a little strange seeing the boy act so carefree considering what he must be thinking about. Almost enough to make Hajime question if he was wrong, that maybe things have already changed enough so Komaeda wouldn't be desperate enough.

No, I can't afford to be thinking like that. I can't let myself be caught off guard like last time.

"Komaeda!" Hajime announced his presence as he walked closer.

Komaeda stopped whatever he was doing in the sand, and stood up quickly.

"Ah Hinata! Did you need something from me? I'm always happy to help the Ultimate Hope!"

Hajime had a moment where he thought about just turning around, but he already knew why he couldn't do that.

"No, I don't need any help. I just… wanted to see if you would like to hang out?" Hajime said, almost cringing from how lame that sound.

Komaeda didn't seem to notice. He just gave that disarming smile while holding out his hands slightly.

"I'm not sure you should waste your time with someone like me. Surely you would rather spend time with one of the ultimates with a real talent."

Not this again. Hajime thought, trying to not feel a slight twinge at the 'real talent' part of his statement.

"If I wanted to hang out with someone else, I won't have come looking for you."

"Ah, well, I'm not sure I understand why you would do something like that, but it's not my place to question the Ultimate Hope."

It almost sounded like Komaeda was being sarcastic, but one look at his face proved he was being sincere. Which was worst. Hajime wasn't sure if he could survive redoing their conversation if he was going to act like that the whole time.

Wait… Komaeda tried coming up with what my talent could be. But he has no reason to do that now.

There was no way he could steer their conversation in that direction. Hajime whole reason for hanging out with Komaeda in order to keep things the same was gone. It was still better to hang out with him, but it seemed like Komaeda was waiting for Hajime to make the first move. And he and no idea what to talk about.

"Uh, what were you doing before I showed up?" Hajime ended up asking after what was way too long of a pause.

But Komaeda just stepped to the side to show off… a pile of sand?

"I was trying to make a sandcastle. I've never had much luck with one, and I thought maybe the bad luck of being stuck here forced to kill each over might be enough to give me some good luck, but it seems that's not the case," Komaeda explained with a nervous laugh.

That… wasn't what Hajime was expecting. There was no doubt in his mind that Komaeda was already making plans to start the killing games (even if he hoped that wasn't the case). Hajime realized that he was expecting to see signs of that planning, that it was something he missed last time due to being too up his own head. But Komaeda wasn't really the type of person to let things like that worry him. From what little he knew, Komaeda's whole life was a rollercoaster of good luck and bad luck. He had to take moments like this to just… peacefully try making a pitiful sandcastle (there wasn't enough water, he was using a bowl from the kitchen instead of one of the pails from the market, he was-) or he would brake.

Just like that, it felt like something clicked. Like he was starting to understand Komaeda just a little bit more.

"…would you like some help?" Hajime said without really thinking about it.

"Oh," Komaeda said in shock, his eyes wide and mouth slightly parted before it broke into that fake smile of his, "Oh, no, you don't need to waste your time with something as hopeless as helping me build a sand castle."

"It wouldn't be a waste if we both have fun doing it," Hajime said, and he was pretty sure that was something Nanami told him before.

"If that's what you think…" Komaeda simply said before sitting back down, and after only a moment of hesitation, Hajime joined him.

"I, uh, don't really remember the last time I made a sandcastle, so I might not actually be much help."

Hajime couldn't remember doing anything to test a sandcastle building talent in that lab. It seemed like it would be a silly talent to give him, but he was giving an ice sculpting talent which he thought was just as niche. And before Hope's Peak, the last time he was at the beach was during a weekend trip with his parents before he started middle school.

"I'm sure it will turn out fine with you here," Komaeda said, and Hajime was pretty sure he wouldn't have noticed the change in his smile if not for the number of body language related talents in his brain, but it was no longer a mask.

It felt like one of the rare moments where Hajime was seeing Komaeda smile because he was happy.

He looks nice when he's smiling like this, Hajime thought as he returned one of his own absentmindedly.

Thankfully, they didn't talk much as they worked. Hajime went down to the water to fill the bowl up for them, and even without any sandcastle molds, it started to look less like a mount and more like a structure. Not impressive, which clued Hajime in that he really didn't have any sandcastle related talents which was… kinda nice? As Kamukura, it felt like everything he tried to do was done to perfection. But he never tired building a sandcastle. It was pointless and boring (not to mention after the first year most of the sandy beaches in Japan were swallowed by the rising ocean).

And here Hajime was. Making a shitty sandcastle and laughing about it with Komaeda of all people.

This is the future I want to fight for. Hajime realized suddenly.

A future where they can just be happy in the moment. Even once (if) they get everyone out alive, there was still the long road of recovery ahead. The world was still messed up by their actions, but it wasn't the end. They still had a future, and for a moment, it felt like Hajime could see what it would even look like.

Maybe this will turn out alright, Hajime dared to think as he placed a stick into their castle to symbolize a flag.

It was dumb, but it was also fun and maybe that was enough.


Okay, so Kazuichi knew the plan was to let the party happen and to just, let Togami (fake Togami? Better Togami? Twogami?) find all the skewers during the party, but the closer they got to that day the more worried he got. They can't just toss the skewers since that would be littering, which means it will stay in that box where anyone with the key could open, and what if Hajime fails to stop Komaeda from stabbing someone? What if Komaeda stabs Hajime because he was standing next to the table?

No one else seemed worried. Or, they were worried, but not about that. Kazuichi just thought they shouldn't have the party at the old building, which is how, in the middle of the night, he found himself messing with the electrical box with a flashlight in his mouth. It shouldn't be that strange if the electricity just, didn't work. They were already warned that the old building was under repairs, so no one would know that Kazuichi was the one to break it.

Well, expect for his other survivors, but they would understand. It would be better if they could just talk about it, but Hajime didn't want Monokuma to get suspicious with them all meeting up in Hajime's cottage. It should be fine. This was a much better plan, and while Kazuichi was half hoping Monomi would stop him, she never showed up.

Which was a good sign? Maybe.

Last minute changes will be less time for people to plan murder, and then once Monokuma drops that dumb game thing, they should be good. Expect for Komaeda doing other stuff, but not much they can do about that besides tie him up.

Yeah. This was just safer for everyone.


A/N: We are now pass the halfway point of what I already have written. Though I am almost done with chapter 8. Once again, this story is on ao3 under the same title and user name and has all the current chapters if you don't want to wait. Otherwise, thank you for giving this story a chance!

And super thank you to BrickBoi for leaving a review. I do find it a little odd how there aren't a lot of fics about Hajime and the survivors trying to save their classmates, especially since the second game came out long before the anime. It does make for some interesting ideas.