She was waiting at the fountain, just like she did every day.
She didn't know why. Hinata had stopped coming here over a year ago. He had clearly moved on. She should really do the same.
But she couldn't. Especially now, when the so-called "Parade" of protesting Reserve Course students was getting bigger and louder by the day. Was Hinata a part of this? Was he hurt? Was he in some kind of trouble?
Could this be why he'd disappeared?
She was so wrapped up in her worries that she couldn't even concentrate on her new Fire Emblem game. Finally she just switched it off, drew her knees up to her chest, and sighed.
"Chiaki Nanami."
Her head shot up. "Hinata?"
But no, she saw as she turned to face the voice, it wasn't him. The boy standing before her had messy dark hair, sandals, and a white shirt that was only partly tucked in. He had dark circles under his eyes, like he'd witnessed far too much and was starting to come undone from the weight of it. Furthermore, he was gazing down at her in a way that immediately made her uncomfortable.
"Your classmates speak very highly of you," he said.
Her eyes narrowed in recognition. "You… you're from Class 77-A, aren't you? Why are – "
"I don't approve of everything Enoshima is doing," he cut her off, as though she hadn't even opened her mouth. "But I know how she works. I know the kinds of people she goes after. If someone can be saved…" He suddenly took a step closer to her, and she instinctively scooted down the bench, too wary to take her eyes off of him.
"Trust me. This is only to assuage my own guilt."
In one swift motion, his hand shot out and he snatched something away from her.
She gasped as her hands flew up to her head. She wasn't even sure what he'd done until she saw him turning away from her, carefully examining the small lump of plastic he suddenly had in his hand.
"This will do."
"That – that's my hairclip!" she cried. It was the spaceship from Gala Omega, the first game she'd even beaten to 100% completion, when she was only four. "What are you doing? Give it back!"
"You'll get it back tomorrow," he said, not even bothering to look her in the eye. "In the meantime… stay out of trouble. I don't need any more complications."
And he turned and walked away, leaving her sitting alone on the bench, too shocked to say another word.
She never saw him again. But she returned to the fountain the next day and found her hairclip waiting for her on the bench, in the same place Hinata had always sat with her before.
––
Chiaki Nanami was dead. Among the first wave of casualties in what would later be known as The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History. Her body was shoveled into an incinerator, the same one that had disposed of Sato and Natsumi Kuzuryuu and so many others whose deaths were inconvenient to Hope's Peak.
Had Yasuke Matsuda still been alive, he would have requested an inspection of the body and found, to his utter disappointment, her hairclip was missing. That task instead fell to his collaborator Chihiro Fujisaki, who discovered the same thing.
At that point, the academy was on the brink of total despair, and ultimately, it was just another failure that was forgotten as the world came to an end.
––
"She's really in there? She's in there right now?" said Akane, clenching her fists so tightly her knuckles were turning white. "We can bring her back?"
Hajime had called for an emergency meeting at the hotel restaurant, saying attendance was mandatory for everyone on the island. (He was pretty sure this was an emergency.) Now he and his classmates were seated around the familiar room where they had gathered for breakfast every morning, both here and during their own Killing Game.
"And you learned this where? From Gekkogahara?" asked Mahiru, folding her arms with a distasteful look on her face. "But she wasn't even real. She was some brat piloting a robot."
"Whether she was real or not," muttered Hajime, still fingering Chiaki's hairclip. He couldn't even bear to take his eyes off it, now that he knew how important it was. "I looked into her and Matsuda's notes on the Neo World Program. It's all real."
"Regardless. You should consider why some troublesome girl who allied with Junko would share this information," said the Imposter. They were no longer impersonating Byakuya Togami, but they were as imposing as ever. "Surely she had some ulterior motive."
"…I'm sure she just wanted to cause us more despair. Because she thought the brain scan was gone for good." That had to be the reason. Hajime wouldn't accept anything else. "But it's not. I have it."
"So the question now is… what do we do with this information," Peko said softly. "If we uploaded her into the program… she would exist as her own avatar, with all her memories. Is that correct?"
"Doh! Of course we're going to do it!" Nekomaru pounded his fists on the table, his eyes flashing with lightning. "Why wouldn't we? She'd do the same for us, wouldn't she?"
"Yeah. I'm with Coach," said Akane. "How's it fair that the rest of us get a happily ever after when she doesn't?"
Gundham threw back his head and laughed. "Pwahahaha! Providence has smiled upon us at last!" he boomed. "A chance to retrieve our beloved Class Rep from the jaws of the Netherworld itself?! Not even one as fiendish as I would turn a blind eye to this opportunity!"
Not surprisingly, Nagito had something to say as well. "Chiaki… your death was the catalyst that drove the world to despair," he sighed. "But now there's a chance that after all this time, we may be able to save you?"
His face lit up somewhat creepily. "I can't think of a more fitting way to restore hope to this world! Oh, Chiaki… your return will be a beacon of hope more powerful than anything your lowly classmate has ever seen!"
Hajime sighed. "I had a feeling you'd say something like that," he muttered. "This isn't about hope, Nagito. This is about saving a life."
"Hey. If you say something dumb like her death being a 'stepping stone', Imma bop you on the head," Hiyoko growled at Nagito.
The Ultimate Lucky Student merely hummed and leaned back in his chair. "You may think this isn't about hope, Hajime. But wasn't Chiaki the one who always brought hope to us? She united us all under one banner and made us believe in our futures. If she couldn't be called a true embodiment of hope, then who could?"
The Imposter could obviously tell Nagito wouldn't stop for a while unless someone cut in. "Does anyone else have something to say on the matter?" they asked wearily.
Some of the other students didn't look as excited about this plan as the others. Mikan, in particular, had withdrawn into herself and started wringing her hands together.
"We've all done… such horrible things," she whimpered. "We were m-monsters… we destroyed the world…"
She hid her face in her hands and started crying. "W-what if she hates us? What if she rejects us?"
"Oh, great… here she goes again," Hiyoko muttered.
"She's right, though," came another subdued voice… Ryota, still something of an outsider after all this time. "I… I never really got to know Nanami. But I know she was a kind person who always believed the best in everyone."
He hugged himself. "If we brought her back… we'd have to face up to our pasts. We'd be destroying her image of us. Can we really do that?"
"There's one other thing none of you guys have mentioned," Fuyuhiko spoke up. He was sitting with his legs crossed and his arms folded, his one good eye closed. Everyone turned to face him, somewhat surprised to hear him contribute.
"What? What other thing?" asked Hajime.
Fuyuhiko opened his eye. "Whether this is what Chiaki would want."
The others looked stunned. "Right… we'd be doing this without her permission," said Mahiru, sounding guilty.
The others started discussing this, but suddenly Hajime wasn't listening to them. Would Chiaki want to be brought back, especially if it was only as an avatar? It was a good question, but one he already knew the answer to. He flashed back to Izuru's final memory of her, lying on the floor, covered in her own blood, anguished tears filling her eyes.
I don't want to die.
"She would," he said firmly. "She would want this. I know it."
The others all looked at him, but no one said a thing.
"I don't believe this is a matter that can be settled tonight," the Imposter spoke up after a moment. "I propose we reconvene after a week and put this to a vote. We won't be doing this unless the vote is unanimous." They looked out at the others. "Does that seem fair to everyone?"
Hajime felt a stab of pain. No, no, no, he didn't want to wait a week, he wanted Chiaki back now. She'd been gone for too long already. But his logical side – his Izuru side – knew that was selfish, and foolish. Any number of things could go wrong. The very least he could do was use this time to iron out any potential complications.
"…Yeah. That's fair, I guess," he muttered, and his classmates seemed to agree.
––
Hajime barely ate or slept that week. He knew that sleeping would make the time go by faster, but his time was too valuable to waste like that. He spent nearly all his time seated inside the main control room for the Neo World Program, typing away at the central computer.
He had already uploaded the data from Chiaki's brain scan into the computer, just to confirm it was compatible with the program. It was, beautifully so. Now he was double- and triple-checking every single aspect of the program, poring over the existing notes, making sure everything was in working order, that nothing could go wrong. That nobody could come along and upload an errant virus that would ruin everything.
He had to save her.
Occasionally Kazuichi would join him, probably out of a desire to feel useful in some way. He would tinker around with the computers and the pods, confirming what Hajime already knew, that everything was in working order. He would bring Hajime his lunch too.
"You're obsessed," he said after several days had gone by.
Hajime leaned back in his chair and started rubbing his eyes. Staring at a computer screen for days on end was putting a strain on them. "I suppose I am," he admitted. "But… it's my fault she died, Kazuichi. I could have helped her and I didn't. I… I owe this to her."
Kazuichi nodded slowly. "Yeah… I get it," he said. "I guess if the same thing happened to Miss Sonia, I'd probably be sitting where you are right now."
He looked like he wanted to say something else, but it took him a moment for him to gain the courage. "Just… don't lose sight of why you're really doing this, y'know?"
Surprised, Hajime opened his eyes and faced the other boy. "What do you mean by that?"
Kazuichi started blushing. "Ah… I don't really know, actually," he admitted. "That just sounded like something you guys would always say to me."
Hajime sighed and shook his head. "Get some lunch, Kazuichi. I know you haven't eaten yet either."
––
Finally, a week had passed. The sun was sinking over the ocean, flooding Jabberwock Island in hues of orange and gold. Hajime walked silently up the path to the hotel, not even acknowledging his classmates falling into line one after another as they arrived from various places on the island. He was too tired. He had too much on his mind.
Within a few minutes, everyone had gathered inside the restaurant, and the Imposter stood up to take charge as they always did.
"All right. Just to confirm everyone knows what's at stake here. We're voting on whether or not to upload Chiaki Nanami's consciousness into the Neo World Program."
No one else said anything, and they continued. "We've had a week to discuss this amongst ourselves. If what Hajime has told us is correct, we will… effectively be resurrecting her as a digital avatar with all of her memories, up until the moment of her death. This will likely be a traumatic experience for her. We will have to discuss how we will explain this all to her to make this as easy on her as possible."
They paused. "And of course, she will be unable to leave the Neo World Program."
A few students nodded slowly.
"And, as we've previously established… we would be doing this without consulting her on the matter. Maybe she will be happy with this. Maybe she won't."
Another pause. "And that's it. Does anyone have any other questions before we vote?"
The room was silent.
The Imposter nodded. "Right. Mikan, if you would?"
Mikan gasped and practically jumped out of her seat. She immediately began walking up and down the rows of tables, handing everyone the same thing. A small cut-out square of paper and a pen.
"Everyone, please write 'Yes' if you agree to this plan and 'No' if you do not. Then fold your sheet of paper and return it to Mikan," said the Imposter. "We will only be moving forward if the vote is unanimous."
And with that, a deathly stillness fell over the room as everyone bent over their sheet of paper. The only sound came from the scratching of pens. Some students immediately and confidently scribbled out their vote, while others paused, looking unsure.
Hajime looked down at his paper. He'd always been haunted by that memory – Chiaki bleeding to death before his eyes – but this past week had been worse than ever. It had been in his dreams. Every time he closed his eyes, she was there in the darkness, crying, reaching out to him.
There was no question.
He wrote something down on the paper, folded it up, and walked over to give it to Mikan.
After about ten minutes, the last person to vote – Ryota – finally returned his ballot to Mikan with a shaky hand. She in turn handed the votes over to the Imposter, and everyone watched in complete silence as they unfolded the papers and counted them one by one.
It felt like the whole world was watching.
Finally, after reading the last vote, the Imposter slowly looked up at their classmates.
"Well, everyone," they said. "It seems we will be welcoming back our Class Rep."
The tension in the room shattered.
"HOORAY! Then it's settled!" Ibuki cheered, leaping up onto the table and fistpumping the air. "Ibuki's going to throw a Chiaki's-Coming-Back concert tonight at the park! Everyone's invited! Except you, Teruteru."
"Hey! I swear I won't do anything perverted!" shouted the diminutive cook, waving his fists. "No more looking up skirts for me! I promise!"
"This is wonderful! This is glorious!" Sonia started twirling around the room in pure joy. "We'll finally all be together again! Oh, if only Miss Chisa were here…"
Everyone else was chattering at the top of their lungs. Everyone except Hajime. Letting himself smile for the first time in over a week, he sat back and pulled Chiaki's hairclip out one last time, running his thumb along its edges. It occurred to him that before long, he wouldn't even need it anymore.
Chiaki… you don't have to worry anymore. We're coming.
––
A/N: So this is by far the biggest number of characters I've ever had to juggle at once. This will be fun… while it lasts…
