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Hope was resilient, even in the face of overwhelming despair. Hajime Hinata and his classmates were proof of that. It was a shock waking up inside of a pod after defeating Junko Enoshima, but Hajime had work to do. He was the only one who could wake up his friends after all. It wasn’t easy, but his newly regained skills made it possible.
Not everyone was able to be revived at the same time, but with time Hajime was able to wake everyone up. Each time, memories of Jabberwock and the real world collided violently inside the minds of the former Remnants of Despair. They had done many terrible things to humanity while overcome by despair— and Hajime, who was Izuru Kamukura at the time stood by and simply watched. This pain was temporarily shadowed by the discovery that everyone was alive once people began to stir from their tanks, quite groggy and overwhelmed. It had worked though, everyone who had died during the killing game was now alive and well! After so long, everyone was together again.
The joyful reunion didn't last though. It was evident someone was missing: Chiaki Nanami. The Ultimate Gamer they had met during the killing game was an AI reconstructed from their memories. The real one had been slain by Junko and they had all watched it happen. Despite being both Hajime Hinata and Izuru Kamukura now merged into one mind, they had both felt profound sadness over her and her AI’s deaths. Reliving both at once left Hajime choked up as a somber atmosphere filled the room.
He felt his hand drawn to his breast pocket. Fishing inside, he retrieved something small and angular. He looked down to see a white, red and blue pixel spaceship in his hand for a few moments before his vision became clouded with tears that finally came. That’s right. He’d held onto her hairpin all this time. Even Izuru had felt the need to keep it despite having no memories of her aside from her death.
It took time for everyone to come to terms with everything that had happened, both in the real world and on the island. Thankfully, the strong bond that everyone had shared allowed them to overcome all the regrets that tied them down and look towards the future. Hajime had felt awkward at first, since technically he was not part of their class, but everyone welcomed him with open arms even after he explained his role in everything that had happened as Izuru. He’d waited until everyone was awake to do so.
“I can’t believe you went through something so horrific… or that Hope’s Peak was the one to let it happen,” Sonia had expressed after hearing his story.
“Human experimentation… that’s fucked up,” Fuyuhiko agreed.
“Unlike you all, I… chose to go through with it. Junko had no part in it. I-I just… wanted to be able to stand beside you all,” Hajime explained through gritted teeth. “I wanted to be able to stand beside her.”
“We’ve all done things we’re not proud of,” Mahiru countered.
“Hey, doesn’t that mean Hajime actually had a talent that whole time?” Ibuki chirped. “He has like, all of them..!”
“Technically… they’re all artificial, though. I’m no real Ultimate Hope.”
“You were able to slay the beast known as Junko Enoshima and free us from our torment,” Gundham began.
“I think that makes you an Ultimate Hope, Hajime!” Sonia finished, clasping her hands together.
“Yeah, so what if it’s artificial? You saved all our asses!” Akane added, to which everyone murmured their own agreements.
“You should be thanking Chiaki, not me. She’s the one who helped us all…”
“Ugh, stop being so whiny and just accept our thanks!” Hiyoko barked.
”O-okay, okay..!” Hajime surrendered, holding up his hands defensively and causing everyone to laugh. The path ahead was far from easy, but he wasn’t alone.
The world had not paused while they were away, that much was made clear. They had been fetched by Byakuya Togami— the real one— in order to help stop the Future Foundation crisis and recover Ryouta Mitarai, who had been part of their class but fled before everything happened. His technology had been used to brainwash countless people into despair, and now he wanted to use it to brainwash the world into only having hope. In the end, they were able to stop him. Hajime didn’t know him aside from a few vague memories of Izuru’s, but his friends seemed happy to reunite with him so it was worth it.
In order to preserve the reputation of the foundation, they shouldered the blame for the killing game that had taken place. There was no way they would be welcomed back into society after everything they’d done while brainwashed. Most of the Future Foundation wanted them killed aside from Makoto Naegi. It was his hope that had gotten them put in the NEO world program in the first place with the hopes of restoring them to their past selves. Izuru had been the one to put the Junko virus in there with them.
But, in exchange for taking the blame, they would be allowed to vanish to the real Jabberwock island and live out the rest of their lives together in peace. That would be fine.
“If only you were here to see us now…” Hajime murmured to himself as he gazed out to the ocean horizon. “Chiaki…”
—————-
It was after everyone became settled on the island that Hajime had an idea. In order to revive everyone, he had restored the NEO world program to its original state. During his work, he stumbled across the data compiled from him and his friends to create the AI that took the form of their deceased classmate. With it, he’d be able to recreate her with her memories from the island intact. He would be able to show her that her sacrifice had not been in vain.
But the problem was she was still an AI. She wouldn’t be able to experience the real world with them, as she’d be confined to a computer world. He ran through various ideas in his mind as he contemplated it before the booming voice of Nekomaru calling for him to come back for dinner interrupted him.
“Be right there..!” he shouted. It had been strange seeing faces and hearing the voices of those who had died at first, but it had become a testament to the hard work of those who believed in them so that they could be there now. With Nekomaru, he had to get used to seeing his actual body and not a robot’s on top of everything.
“Wait..” Hajime murmured as an idea struck him. It was true that everything that took place in the virtual world wasn’t actually real, and that’s why monokuma was able to make Nekomaru into a robot. But perhaps, Hajime wondered, maybe it would be possible to do something similar with Chiaki. If he could create a body to host her AI, she’d be able to experience life with the rest of them. If anyone would be able to do it, it had to be him since he had the knowledge of all known ultimates crammed into his skull. Robotics, programming, and more… maybe it was possible. He could also enlist the help of Kazuichi Soda, the Ultimate Mechanic, to help too. The idea of being able to see Chiaki again was a flame of hope that began to burn within him. He wasn’t proud of his skills, but if he could use them to bring her back, maybe it would be worth it.
Dinner was great thanks to Teruteru as per usual, with everyone stuffing themselves to the point of it becoming painful. Hajime found himself a little scared of how much some of his friends could eat. Afterwards, everyone helped clean up. Soda offered to do dishes, so Hajime accompanied him.
He had decided that it would be best to not announce his idea to everyone just yet; he wouldn’t want to disappoint anyone if it ended up not being possible. Hajime waited until it was just the two of them in the kitchen before speaking up.
“...Hey, Kazuichi?”
“Yeah? What’s up, dude?” the pink haired mechanic questioned, temporarily looking away from the pan he was scrubbing to look at Hajime. Things had gotten a little tense between them near the end of their stay in the virtual world, but thankfully they’d smoothed everything over in reality.
“I had an idea that I wanted to talk to you about. Is that alright?”
“An idea, huh?” Soda echoed curiously, his interest now piqued. “Lay it on me.”
“So… I’ve spent a lot of time working on the NEO world program, restoring it so that I could wake you guys up. During that time, I… came across a bunch of data,” Hajime started.
“Data, huh? What about?”
“...It contains the building blocks that were used to create Chiaki. The one we met in the simulation.”
Soda blinked, seeming unable to speak for a moment. Chiaki was a sore spot for everyone, after all. It was hard to talk about her without feeling sad still. “...The AI of her that the world made from our memories?”
“Yeah…”
“So… what’s your idea?”
“You remember how in the game, monokuma was able to put Nekomaru’s consciousness inside of a robot body?” Hajime spoke slowly, studying the reactions of his friend before elaborating too much.
Soda furrowed his brows as he listened before his eyes lit up with recognition. “I think I see what you’re suggesting here…”
“You do? Um… what do you think?”
“You wanna bring her back and put her in a robot..!” Soda exclaimed.
“H-Hey, not so loud, please..! No one else knows about this!” Hajime hissed urgently. “But yeah, that’s the general idea… I thought I’d talk to you since, uh…”
“You want my help, right?”
“Yes. I think with our talents, we’d be able to pull it off… then we’d get to see her again. But I don’t know how the others would feel about it.”
“I don’t see why anyone wouldn’t want to try and bring her back if it’s possible,” the mechanic answered with a shrug.
“So you’re… okay with it?”
“Yeah. This place just doesn’t feel the same without our class rep, y’know? I can build a body!”
“Thank you…” he replied with a small smile. Hope swelled within his heart now that he had help. With teamwork, perhaps they’d be able to make his idea a reality.
——————-
Despite being pumped full of all the talents known to Hope’s Peak, Hajime was still human. He required food, water and sleep just like everyone else. He also had other responsibilities to attend to to ensure everyone could retain their comfortable life on the island, as chores were dispersed among everyone equally. This meant that he and Soda only had certain windows of time to work.
Days bled into weeks, when then bled into months. Hajime was going to go crazy if he had to stare at any more lines of code. He took breaks and helped build the robot with Soda when he could, but he was the only one with the skills needed to adapt her AI to the real world.
But eventually that hard work would pay off when a cheerful declaration from the Ultimate Mechanic pulled Hajime out of his computer-based trance. “Done! Holy cow, I never thought it would end…”
Hajime turned his head, only to be greeted with a nearly lifelike reconstruction of Chiaki sitting on the floor beside a very relieved looking Soda. She had a few places on her joints where her robotics were exposed for better movement, but other than that it was shockingly lifelike. The last time he had looked, she had been a framework of metal and wires. “This is… amazing…”
“I made her as lifelike as possible! The skin is silicon, and there’s thermal pads embedded within it so she’ll feel real too! She will have to be charged at night, but it’s the best I could do for a machine like this. Plus, with the animatronics I used for her face, she’s just as expressive as she was! Well, actually, that wasn’t much, but… anyways, you get the idea! All she needs now is a brain!” Soda explained proudly. “How’s all that going?”
“I shouldn’t need much longer. There’s a lot of data that has to be crammed into this hard drive…” Hajime mused as he turned back to the screen.
“I’ll go ahead and get her hooked up then, make sure all the robotics are working.”
“Alright.”
——————
“Alright, I’m putting the drive in…”
“Got it. I’ll start the boot sequence,” the artificial hope affirmed as he began typing away at the console that hosted the NEO world program. “I hope this works…” he found himself murmuring under his breath.
Once he hit start, all they could do was wait for her to come online. Since they’d never done this before, neither of them knew how long it would take. All they could do was wait.
A wave of grogginess washed over her as she was suddenly pulled into consciousness. What was going on? The last thing she could remember was talking to Hajime, and then… nothing. She slowly peeled open her eyes and blinked a few times. She could make out something pink and yellow… what was that?
“...Chiaki? Can you hear me?” a gentle, yet eager voice softly called. It sounded very familiar. She tried to look in the direction the voice was coming from, but her eyes hadn’t adjusted yet. All she could see was something white beside the pink and yellow blob. Whose voice was that…?
“She looked at you, that’s a good sign, right?” Soda offered as he intently watched the robot he helped build spark to life. “The cameras in her eyes aren’t calibrated yet, she’s still booting up.”
That other voice was also familiar. What was going on? Her body was beginning to gain feeling, but it felt… different somehow. She slowly curled her fingers, noting the new stiffness they seemed to have. It was like she was waking up from a really heavy nap after pulling multiple all-nighters on a new game.
“Chiaki? Can you give us a sign that you can hear us?” that same voice urged.
The way it— no, he said her name, it was almost like… “Ha..jime..?” Chiaki asked weakly.
Hearing her voice for the first time in god knows how long caused him to choke up as a swell of emotions washed over Hajime. They’d done it! Soda let out a cheer while he sat in stunned silence for a moment. “Y-“ he finally started to answer, but his voice cracked and he paused to clear his throat before continuing, “yes, I’m here.. you’re safe.”
“Where…?”
“We’re… home. We beat Monokuma and Junko. Everyone is okay,” he explained as gently as he could. “Everyone.”
Even in her dazed state, hearing those words brought a small smile to Chiaki’s face. “You… did it.”
“Yeah… but only because of you.”
“How am I… here?”
“We’ll explain all of that soon… first, how are you feeling?” Hajime asked.
“Mmn… sleepy…”
“Well, you’re still waking up. Don’t strain yourself. Kazuichi and I will make sure you’re in full working order,” he assured with a small, tender smile. She was really here talking to them again. It was like a dream come true.
—————-
“Aaaalright Nanami, lets make sure you can hear alright. I’m going to play some noises of different pitches and volumes, if you can’t hear any of them, let me know.”
“Okay…”
Hajime watched as Soda conducted various field tests to make sure her systems were functional once Chiaki was fully awake. This included her eyesight, hearing, joints, speaking, reaction time, problem solving, and much more. It was quite lengthy. Ultimately Hajime just let him conduct most of them, as he was too frazzled to think clearly. How could he? They’d basically brought Chiaki back to life! This version of her, anyway.
“...Alright! Looks like she’s good to go!” the bright haired mechanic declared.
“Good to go?” Chiaki questioned as she looked herself over. Soda began unhooking various wires and sensors from her while she looked at Hajime curiously.
“Err, well, yeah… to put it simply… we took you out of the NEO world program, built you a body, and brought you to the real world. If that’s overwhelming, don’t w—
“So… I’m a robot? Like Nekomaru?” the pink haired gamer blurted out before Hajime could finish. “But more realistic… like Aigis or 2B..”
“I- I mean…yes, basically. He’s actually what sparked the idea,” Hajime explained.
“And our classmates… they’re all okay?”
“Yes… Everyone is, now that you’re here.”
“I’m so glad…”
“I hope it’s okay we uh.. put you in a robot,” Hajime apologized awkwardly. It must all be so strange to her right now.
“If it means I get to spend more time with you all, it’s more than fine, I think,” Chiaki assured with a nod.
“I hate to break up whatever’s happening here, but… how should we tell the others? They don’t know we did this at all!” Soda interrupted, tossing his hands up in the air.
“We could bring her to dinner. Or would that be insensitive? She can’t exactly… eat…” Hajime murmured.
“That’s fine if it means I get to see everyone again.. I think.”
“They'll be happy to see you. We’ve.. all missed you, Chiaki.”
“Let’s go, then... I don’t want to keep them waiting…” she urged in her familiar sleepy tone.
“Yeah..! Um, how does your body feel? Is walking… comfortable?”
“It’s hard to explain… but not uncomfortable,” Chiaki mused as she tested out the joints in her knee.
“Good to hear… if anything feels off, just tell me or Soda, okay?”
“Mmhm.”
“Alright, let’s get going, guys! I’ll… warm the crowd up. Don’t take too long though!” Soda exclaimed before hurrying on ahead of them.
“Right. Let’s go see the others,” Hajime agreed before leading Chiaki out of the lab.
——
It was warm out, though the sensation felt dull to Chiaki’s artificial body. She could tell exactly what temperature it was, but it didn’t feel like it should to her. Neither did the breeze that danced through her and Hajime’s hair. Not even the way sand crunched beneath her shoes felt quite the same as she was used to. Even Hajime seemed… different.
She listened attentively as Hajime recounted everything that took place during her absence. Defeating Junko, discovering his second identity, waking everyone up on the real Jabberwock island… ah, Izuru Kamukura. She had data on him, knew he had every talent Hope’s Peak could pump into him… and that Hajime had agreed to undergo human experimentation to become him.
“Hajime?” she spoke up.
“Yeah? What’s up?”
“Why… did you agree to let them do those things to you?”
“Ah… um, well..” he stammered. “I wanted to be someone worthy of standing alongside you, Chiaki.”
“Me..?” she echoed. “My only talent is playing video games, though…”
“That’s not true at all! Everyone’s told me stories about the things you all did together. And you never treated me differently just because I was a reserve course student with no talent. We played games together after school almost every day…”
Chiaki was quiet for a time, having stopped in her tracks. She looked up at him with a melancholy expression. “Hajime…” she started. “I’m just a copy of that Chiaki, you know… I don’t have any of those memories,” she explained hesitantly.
“That may be true… but you’re you. Um.. it’s like… you know, when you start a new game. You’re still you, you just started over to have a new adventure. Like, Link is still Link, and Mario is still Mario even if you start a new game. That’s what I think, anyways. But even if things are different… we all still have memories together, don’t we? You love your classmates all the same, don’t you?”
“...Mm..” Chiaki hummed thoughtfully as she listened to Hajime ramble. “I’m not one to think too hard about anything… but you’re right. The time we spent together means more to me than any game.” She paused, thinking of what she wanted to say next. Hajime waited patiently, taking in everything about her. “Thank you. For giving me an extra life. I’m glad… that our goodbye wasn’t forever. Knowing that I’d never get to see you all again… that was way scarier to me than dying, I think.”
“I’m glad too… in the end, those skills that I had put into me are the reason I’m able to talk to you now. I’ve made mistakes, but… I’d do it all again if it meant I could see you, Chiaki,” Hajime admitted. “I’d do anything for you.”
“I wouldn’t want to be here if you had to lose yourself in the process.” She crossed her arms and looked up at him, nodding as if to affirm it for herself too. “Even if I don’t remember it… I already lost you once, didn’t I? Never again.”
“...I’m sorry,” he replied. It was something he’d never gotten to say to her back at Hope’s Peak. “But I promise I’ll stay right here with you this time, okay? It’s technically my new game too. So uh, we should… make this one better than the last play through, don’t you think?”
Chiaki’s gaze softened as he spoke. No matter what form she may take, one thing was clear— Hajime was special to her. This time, she would not lose the game. She gave a nod in place of words, for there was nothing else she could say.
“Well, haha… ready to keep going?” Hajime asked, visibly more red than when they had started their conversation.
“Hm…” Chiaki pondered for a moment. She reached out and took Hajime’s hand in hers. It was different— but it was warm. It was Hajime. Before he could say anything, she squeezed his hand affirmingly. “Mmhm, now I am.”
“Let’s not keep everyone waiting, then.”
“Agreed.”