Ibuki had been true to her word and held the longest, loudest concert Hajime had ever been to – probably loud enough that people could hear it on the mainland. Teruteru had even catered the event, even as Ibuki kept on yelling at him that he wasn't invited.

Hajime wondered where that girl got all her energy. He'd honestly wanted to leave hours ago… with everything that had happened that day, he couldn't really enjoy the music.

He yawned as he walked along back to his cottage, wondering how late it was. As he looked up at the positions of the stars and took into account their current latitude and longitude, he reckoned it was around two in the morning. (There was an Ultimate Astronomer talent in there, clearly.)

I really need to get to bed, he thought, rubbing his eyes. He'd slept so little this past week, he felt like spending the whole day in bed. He tried to stay awake as he stumbled down the dark path.

"Hey."

Hajime started at the voice, and as his eyes adjusted to the dark, he realized there was someone leaning against a palm tree and waiting for him.

"Oh… hey, Fuyuhiko."

The yakuza casually walked over to him. "That was some party. I think my favorite song was 'This Movie's Been Going On for Two Hours and We're Not Getting Any Younger'." He paused, waiting for something to fill the silence, and then spoke again. "You must be pretty happy right now, huh?"

"Oh… well, yeah, of course I am. Aren't you?"

"Yeah, sure… I guess it just doesn't feel real yet. I'm not gonna believe it until I see her with my own two… one eye."

"But… you voted to bring her back, didn't you?"

"I sure did." Fuyuhiko stuck his hands in his pockets, gazing up at the sky. "Once I thought about it, I realized… Junko was the one who took her from us. So what better way to say 'fuck you' to that bitch than by bringing her back?" He gave a self-deprecating little smirk and looked back down at Hajime. "Kind of a selfish motivation, huh?"

Hajime really tried not to think about Junko these days. "Well. You've got every right to be angry at her. All of us do."

"Yeah, well. I can't help but wonder how Chiaki would feel. She wasn't too big on revenge."

The two of them stood there in silence for a moment before Fuyuhiko spoke up again. "Why'd you vote yes, then?"

Hajime blinked. "Huh?"

"I mean, I know you miss her. We all do, but you more than anybody else. I just wanna know what you're thinking." He kicked the ground. "Is this really just for her?"

Hajime stared at him. This was starting to get too personal.

"Fuyuhiko… why are you asking me this?"

"I'm just trying to look out for you. Trust me, I know all about doing crazy things over a woman."

Hajime winced. That was certainly true… maybe Peko was still alive, but Natsumi wasn't. That had driven Fuyuhiko to take a life, before Junko had ever sunk her nails into his brain. That couldn't be easy to live with.

"I'm sorry," he muttered. "You lost someone too… she didn't deserve it either."

Fuyuhiko turned his back to Hajime, casually waving away the concern. "Don't worry about me. Just… think about what I said."

Hajime watched wordlessly as Fuyuhiko walked away. Even if he'd known what to say, he probably couldn't have summoned the will to say it.

––

As it turned out, he really wasn't feeling that happy. Not now that he could finally slow down and actually think about what they were doing. He had obsessively spent the whole week making sure the Neo World Program was ready for Chiaki – and more than that, waiting for the vote. Now that this was happening, he started having thoughts that he hadn't had time to worry about before.

What would he say to her?

Would she be happy to see him?

He dreamt about her again that night. She was on the floor, bleeding, crying, holding out her hand. This time, he did something he'd never done before, something he hadn't done in reality. He reached out his hand to take hers.

To his surprise, she suddenly grew a dark look on her face and swatted his hand away.

"It's too late, Hinata."

He woke up in shock. He'd never had that dream before. He sat up in bed, running his hands through his hair, breathing deeply and trying to slow his heart rate.

What was the matter with him?

Hajime had all the knowledge that had ever been housed within Hope's Peak, and he knew that dreams did not portend anything. They were reflections of a person's thoughts and emotional states. Not omens.

Somehow, he thought as he lay back down and tried to go back to sleep, that didn't make him feel better.

––

Hajime, Kazuichi, and a few others spent one final day preparing the pods for everyone – Hajime had built another one for Ryota, an easy but still time-consuming task for someone like him. The next morning, everyone was gathered in the central computer room, staring down at the pods, letting reality finally start to sink in.

"I can't believe we're really going back in here," Mahiru muttered as she hugged herself. Already she was looking claustrophobic.

"Yeah… the last time we did this, it was because…" Kazuichi trailed off, but everyone knew what he was thinking. They'd agreed to it because of Junko's promise to possess their dead bodies. To become vessels for the Ultimate Despair. There could be no greater purpose.

"Cheer up, everybody! This time will be much happier, because Chiaki will be there and nobody will be killing anybody else!" Ibuki cheered.

"We'll have all our memories this time too, right?" Nagito asked innocently. "It certainly wouldn't do for us to meet Chiaki and not know who she is."

Kazuichi nodded. "Yeah… we'll remember everything. Hajime and I made sure of that… well, mostly Hajime."

Ryota was wringing his hands together. All this talk of killing and memory wipes was putting him on edge. "I've never… done this before… is it safe?"

"This time, it will be perfectly safe," the Imposter assured him. "Hajime, why don't you explain to everyone how this will work."

Hajime nodded. "Right. So, you guys know the Neo World Program was developed to have an Observer – that's Usami. Her job was supposed to be to let us graduate once we'd fulfilled the objectives of the session."

"Eeeew! You mean you brought Usami back too?" said Hiyoko, looking disgusted.

"Well, without her, we'd be stuck," Hajime said matter-of-factly. "So, last time our objective was to gather all the Hope Fragments. I reprogrammed it so this time, our objective is just 'Find Chiaki'."

"Mwahaha! A brilliant plan indeed!" Gundham laughed in approval.

"Then once we find her… we can all throw a sexy bikini beach party!" Teruteru cheered, his eyes lighting up. "It wouldn't be the same without Chiaki!"

Hiyoko glared at him. "You really can't read the room, can you?"

Mahiru was obviously trying to ignore the peanut gallery. "So Hajime… what you're saying is that after we meet up with Chiaki, we'll be able to graduate whenever we want."

"But once we do leave… she will not be able to come with us," Sonia said quietly.

Hajime lowered his head. It was the truth. The one thing they couldn't undo.

"We'll visit her every day. We'll make sure she's not alone," he said, more to himself than the others.

"Well, I'm on board with this plan. Let's get started already!" said Akane.

"Right. We could be in there for a while, so everybody better have taken a good long shit beforehand." Nekomaru laughed heartily. "I know I did! Two of 'em!"

"Somebody else wanna sit next to this guy?" Fuyuhiko grumbled.

"All right then. If everyone is ready, let's get inside. Hajime…" The Imposter turned to look at him. "I'll leave the rest to you. We'll see you there."

As everyone else climbed into their pods, Hajime went over to the central computer and switched it on, spending several minutes booting up the Neo World Program, running some last-minute diagnostics…

And then the most important thing.

Here goes nothing…

He located the file that held Chiaki's brain scan and inserted it into the program. In a seventeenth empty data slot, next to the sixteen others that would be receiving neural information extracted from the pods.

And that was it.

He stood there looking at the screen for a moment, his heart pounding. Had he really done it? Had he just saved her? Had he redeemed himself for his failure?

Only one way to find out.

He walked over to the only remaining empty pod, trying not to feel uneasy from the eerie green glow coming from inside. He pressed a button on the side of the machine, and the door swung open. Slowly, carefully, he settled inside and lay down on his back.

Then the door closed, everything went black, he felt the electrodes attaching themselves and –

––

He opened his eyes.

He was lying on the beach on the First Island, the same place he'd found himself the last time he was here. He could hear the ocean waves and feel the breeze on his face. It all felt the same.

As he squinted against the sunlight, he realized someone was looking down at him.

"Hey… can you hear me? Are you okay?" said Nagito. "You seem pretty out of it." Suddenly he broke into a smile. "Hah… sorry. I couldn't help myself. Just like old times, right?"

"Very funny, Nagito," Hajime sighed, sitting up and getting a look around. The beach looked the same as it did in the real world… but whether it was the colors or the textures, there was something subtly off about it. Now that he knew this world was a simulation, there was an artificial feel to it that he couldn't ignore.

All around him, his classmates were starting to sit up too.

"SUCCESS! We have breached the gates of hell and begun our descent into Pandaemonium!" Gundham bellowed. "But of course, our victory was a foregone conclusion thanks to me, Gundham Tanaka! The Supreme Overlord of – "

"Yeah, yeah, enough already," Kazuichi muttered from right next to him.

"You dare interrupt my dramatic speech, mortal?"

"Everything seems to be in order," Peko said as she stood up and wiped the sand off her skirt. "We are all present and accounted for, and there are no issues with our avatars."

"Hmm… we don't seem to have aged backwards this time, though," said Nekomaru.

"Kyahahaha! I'm still taller than you!" Hiyoko laughed, pointing at Fuyuhiko.

Hajime stood up, his legs wobbling a bit as he did. It was true… everything seemed fine. Not everyone looked excited about being here again, but they'd made it, at least. So why was he still feeling uneasy?

Someone else realized it before he did.

"Shouldn't… Nanami... be here too?"

"Huh?" Hajime looked around, and his heart sank as he realized Ryota was right. All of them were standing on the beach… except Chiaki herself, the one they were doing this for.

"Oh no…" Mikan whimpered. "Did something go wrong?"

"Hajime. Do we have any way of knowing where she was supposed to appear?" asked the Imposter.

"Well, she's… different from us, but I didn't change the ingress point from last time. There's no reason why she shouldn't be here."

"Ooh! Ooh! Maybe she's hiding somewhere to surprise us!" Ibuki said happily.

The Imposter sighed and rubbed their forehead. Hajime found himself sympathizing with them quite a bit. "Everyone, why don't we split up and look for her. She must be somewhere on this island. We'll meet up at the park once we've looked everywhere."

Reluctantly, everyone did as the Imposter said and started wandering away from the beach, going off in different directions. Quite a few of them paired off together, such as Peko and Fuyuhiko or Sonia and Gundham. That left Hajime with…

"Well, Hajime. What say you we get reacquainted with this place together, hmm?" said Nagito, folding his arms and looking pleased.

Hajime sighed. "Sure… just like old times."

Nagito seemed quite content to go wherever Hajime led him. Trying to get his head together, Hajime found himself walking over to the hotel and opening the door to the downstairs lobby. This was where he'd first met… well, it hadn't been the same Chiaki, but still.

He stood in the doorway for a moment, bracing himself against the sudden rush of memories. He fought down a lump in his throat.

"Chiaki?" he called out, feeling a bit awkward. "Hello? …Are you here?"

No one answered, of course. He walked up the stairs and looked around the restaurant, but the room was empty and dark. The ceiling fans were off. There wasn't a soul to be found.

I'm getting a bad feeling about this.

Eventually he decided he was wasting time, and he turned around and left the hotel.

By the time he and Nagito arrived at Jabberwock Park, everyone else was already gathered there. He could tell from the looks on their faces that none of them had been successful either. He felt his heart sink.

"This doesn't make any sense… where is she?" Akane complained.

"Not only her… Usami is missing too," Mikan said quietly.

Hiyoko rolled her eyes. "Oh no. What are we going to do without the diaper rabbit?"

Hajime gave her a disapproving look. "Hiyoko, this is serious. We need Usami to get out of here."

In truth, he was trying not to let his fear show in front of the others. This entire thing had been his idea. If something went wrong… if it had been just a fool's hope after all… then everyone would blame him. And they'd be right to do it.

"Hajime… I know you're like, the Ultimate Everything and all, but isn't it possible you made a mistake?" said Kazuichi, as though reading his thoughts.

He shook his head stubbornly. "No. Not about this. She's here somewhere. She has to be here somewhere."

"Puhuhuhuhu… correct as usual, Hajime."

Everyone froze.

No… that's impossible… it can't be…

It was all so familiar. Enormous dark gray clouds suddenly rolled across the sky, blotting out the sun and plunging Jabberwock Park into darkness. The light island breeze suddenly dropped in temperature, making Hajime shiver. Without even thinking about it, everyone felt their eyes drawn to the massive statue at the center of the park…

And a certain black-and-white bear came jumping up from out of nowhere, landing right on top of it.

Peko immediately stepped in front of Fuyuhiko and unsheathed her bamboo sword. Sonia looked ready to faint.

"Ah-hahahaha! Didja miss me, kiddos?"

"AAAAAAAHHH!" Ibuki screamed extremely helpfully. "HE'S BACK! MONOKUMA'S BACK! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"

––

A/N: Place your bets, everyone! Who's making it to the end?