Hopeful Days IX – Together Again
Time feels like it stops as the two friends gaze into each other's eyes.
"May I?" Asks the brunette, pointing to the bench.
Chiaki shakes her head and giggles, her smile never leaving her face. "Of course."
The Luckster sits down, and a gentle breeze flies past the two. "It's been a while." Makoto says, turning to face the older girl. "How's it going?"
"Hectic." She replied with a soft chuckle. "Although that may be an understatement when it comes to my class… I think."
The brunette can't help but smile, he missed that little quirk of hers more than he was wiling to admit. "I've met some of them." He comments, moving his gaze to the courtyard. "Seems like a handful."
"You have no idea." Chiaki looks to t, heourtyard too, a soft smile upon her lips. "Having twiling game by myself is very rare these days."
"Sorry for interrupting then." Makoto says, scratching his cheek.
"Don't be, actually I-" The gamer blushes, before giggling and moving closer to him. "-I'm happy that you interrupted me today!"
Blushing, the brunette turns to face his childhood friend, only to feel his own cheeks burning even more.
In just a year Chiaki went from cute, to actually the most beautiful girl Makoto has ever seen.
Her round face, sleepy pink eyes and, admittedly, quite curvy body are the perfect mix of cute and attractive.
While the brunette didn't like to think about his childhood friend like this, well, he was a hormonal teenager and those thoughts are simply inevitable. Plus, Chiaki being this close didn't help things.
"…!" The mauve-haired girl gazes into his eyes with a blush on her cheeks, she hesitates for a second, then she pulls the boy into a hug, making him blush even more. "Y-You have no idea how much I missed you!"
"C-Chiaki-chan?" Makoto asks confused, before hugging her back. "I've missed you too.
"I-I still can't believe you're actually here!" Chiaki says, not letting go of the boy for even a instant. "I- we have so much to talk about! And play! And-" She stops for a second, then pulls the hug apart and blushes. "-S-Sorry."
"F-For what?"
The Ultimate Gamer turns around and looks towards the garden once again. "It's just-" She stops and blinks slowly, thinking of how to put her feelings into words. "It's been a year and even though we barely talked with each other, I still consider you my best friend… I think." Chiaki si s, before looking back towards Makoto. "I always thought of how I wanted you to be here with me, so we could play and hangout together." Fiddling with her thumbs, Chiaki asks. "But now that you're here, I feel like I'm taking up your time, time that you could be spending meeting with your new classmates, making new friends… I think."
There's a small moment of awkward silence, before Makoto chuckles lightly.
"You know what's funny? I thought the same thing!"
"Huh?"
"Yeah." The brunette smiles and locks eyes with the gamer. "I wanted to met up with you as soon as I stepped into the school, but I kept thinking to myself how, well, you probably have other friends that you made in that one year we haven't seen each other." He looks up into the tree covering the two of them and sighs. "I mean, with all those amazing people all around you, why would you want to hangout with me?" Chiaki was about to protest, but Makoto continues. "I'm honestly honored that someone as amazing as you still considers me a friend Chiaki-chan!"
"Makoto-kun…"
"So, I'd love to be with you again, so long as you wanted to hangout with me, of course!" He smiles that one innocent and pure smile that Chiaki missed so much.
"… I'd love to-" She closes her eyes and smiles back, feeling the wind blowing her hair back. "-I think!"
The two laugh out loud and Chiaki turns her portable console back on.
Moving closer to her so he could see the screen, the two friends are transported back to days long gone for the first time in a while.
Luck.
What is luck?
What it means to be 'lucky'?
For a girl like Nagito, it meant being at the right place, at the right time.
Waking up, the white-haired girl didn't thought today was going to be particularly interesting, after all, classes wouldn't even begin until next week.
Which was good. Really good.
She could have a week of peace without having to deal with those stupid, talentless nobodies from the reserve course. Especially that… wench with the big chest, she was the worst of them all.
Thankfully, reserve course students are only allowed in the school once classes start, so she didn't need to worry about them right now.
While taking a bath, Nagito's thoughts went from the talentless whore to the new lucky student.
Naegi Makoto.
Just thinking of his name was enough to make her punch the wall of her bathroom.
How dare someone like him refer to Nanami by the first name, as if they are friends!
His job was to be a stepping stone for a younger Nanami.
That's it.
He should have disappeared from her life after that.
Yet, somehow he managed to get an invitation to this school.
The audacity!
Although stopping to think about, Nagito assumed that by itself was a form of luck. To be chosen after an incident destroyed the original invitation, but make no mistake, bus luck ran out the moment he stepped into this academy.
Walking out of the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around her body, the white-haired girl starts to dress herself, all while humming happily.
Yes, she didn't need to worry about that boy.
Soon enough, he would leave Hope's Peak, be it of his own volition or not.
Her undefeated luck would make him quit, just like all the other lucky students before him.
The rest of Nagito's morning went like it normally does.
She wandered the school and hoped to stumble upon something interesting. Which happened a little bit before lunch break, when she was walking past her classroom.
"Oh, Nagito-chan!"
The white-haired Ultimate turned around to the voice of her teacher. "Yukizome-sensei?" She asks, arching a eyebrow.
"Nagito-chan! Good timing, could you do me a favor?" The redhead adult asks and the Luckster nods. "Good, could you bring Nanami-chan here? I'll kinda busy right now and need her help some documents."
"But of course!" Just at the mention of the class representative's name was already enough to make Nagito smile. "I shall fetch her right away!" The Ultimate bows politely, then turns around and starts running off.
"You don't need to bring her here if she's too busy!" Yells Chisa but the other girl was already out of earshot. "Geez, that girl gets excited too easily!" With a sigh, the woman enters the classroom once again.
One may ask.
What is that makes Nanami special in the eyes of a… peculiar individual such as Nagito.
The answer is quite simple, actually.
Her undying, hope .
No matter how sad or bleak the situation is, Nanami's sense of optimism and hope for the future was always a shining light in midst of the darkness of despair.
Nagito loved that hope, she loved it so much that it was painful sewing it be tainted by the likes of Hajime and Makoto.
The Ultimate Gamer was special, she was the hope that this school desperately needed. She and she alone was the motive why class 77-B was still intact and so close together.
Making her way into the courtyard, where Nagito knew Nanami liked to play in her free time. The Ultimate Lucky Student stopped in her tracks.
There was Nanami, sitting down in the bench on the center of the courtyard, talking and laughing with someone.
And that someone was Naegi Makoto. Because of course it was.
Seems like he didn't listen to her warning and that brought a smile to the white-haired girl's face.
Guess trash like him will need to be taught a lesson personally and Nagito couldn't possibly wait to crush him with her luck.
After all, there's only place for one piece of lucky trash in Hope's Peak.
Hopeful Days IX – Together Again
A little bit of a chapter with a focus on Nagito, considering she's gonna be more or less the predominant antagonist of this arc, better start setting her up now.
Anyways, hope y'all liked the chapter and see you around!