Chapter Text
Hajime Hinata woke up in the operation room. The scientists murmured among themselves. Something went wrong? He should be… But before long he felt the mental toll take on. His head was hurting like hell. His body was tingling. He shut his eyes closed and forced himself to turn off his brain like he often did recently when thoughts were overwhealming. He sighed with relief as he fell asleep and the pain disappeared.
Izuru Kamukura woke up in the operation room. The scientists looked at him with shock. They had most likely realised that their operation had partially failed and instead created a split personality. Not that it mattered to Izuru. He sat up and heaved himself out from the machine. The scientists rushed to his side, measuring every small difference from who he previously was. The memories, the unnescessary things they had removed and pushed away to create a talent like him. His name was Izuru Kamukura, a very important person to these scientists whose name he had inherited.
“Izuru…” a scientist said to him, with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
Greed, success, a question.
“You failed.” Izuru said, stunning the people silent in the room. “But I can’t expect more from ordinary people.”
Izuru sighed. Why had they created him? A person filled with such potential, the reason was most likely the other part of him. The scientist turned to each other and begun discussing what had happened. One of them showed a screen to another.
“It seems that Hajime Hinata’s memories still linger as a split personality. In order for Izuru to gain full control, we need to do another surgery.” she explained.
“Are you crazy?!” the other one said. “Only this operation took most of our rescourses we got from the reserve course. We will need to wait at least a year until we have enough funds.”
“So what are we going to do about the subject?”
The scientists all looked at each other silently, until one, the old man that had first spoken to him spoke up.
“Let’s have him return to the reserve course for now.” he said. “We need him at Hope’s Peak to keep track of him. We will have the subject report to us whenever he is Izuru and try his abilities then too. For when he is Hajime… study him from afar to see how he changes too, and call him in for weekly check ups so he doesn’t get suspicious.”
“We are hiding the results then?”
“Hmm… yes. Until we can let Izuru take over fully, the subject can pose as a cover by being ordinary.”
The scientists scrambled to make the reports of the operation as some gave Izuru clothes to put on. He followed the scientists out in the corridor, as they nervously showed him the room he could use whenever he wanted, most likely the room he should have used if the operation had succeded. Izuru walked into the room as the scientists closed the door behind him. From the small window they seemed to observe him as he walked up to the lone bed. He did not feel tired. His digestion had been improved to fully consume anything he ate, he could rest his body at will and his brain stored memories while he was awake, that he had seen on a small screen by the operating table. He could have decided to be Izuru Kamakura forever, but there was a small thing inside him. Curiosity most likely, urging him to fall asleep to awake Hajime. He laid down, closed his eyes and let go of his thinking.
Hajime woke up in the empty room he had been using until now. He figured the scientists must have moved him there after the experiment had failed. His head wasn’t hurting anymore at least, he actually felt perfectly fine. Possibly even better than before he had gone through with the operation. Maybe it didn’t completely gone wrong. he thought to himself and a slight smile spread on his lips. Maybe I will finally be enough… Hajime heard a sound outside the door and went to open it. The scientists he had seen before in the operation were talking, about him it seemed, as they stopped the moment he walked outdoors.
“Ah Hinata!” the head scientist greeted him politely. “You’re awake.”
“How… did it go?” asked Hajime, gripping the inside of his pockets of the clothes he had been changed into.
“Well, it didn’t go as planned.” he confirmed to Hajime’s disappointment. “But it didn’t go bad either.”
Hajime was happy that he had been of help.
“Then, what should I do next?” he asked, keeping a straight face.
The scientists looked at each other, unsure.
“We want to monitor how you’ve changed after the operation, so we are putting you back into the reserve course for now.” another scientist answered. “We want to do regular check ups, so return here on friday.”
Hajime nodded slowly, well it was to be expected.
“What about payment? I don’t think I have enough for next term.”
“Don’t worry about it. As an important part in the project your tuition will be paid.” the head scientist said with a smile. “So do your best in school from now on Hinata.”
Hajime followed the scientists out of the building where the staff exchanged to those with less conspicuous clothes and kindly escorted him to the dorm building a bit away from school. They said goodbye and Hajime went up to is small apartment on the second floor. His key that had been returned during the walk there fit right in. He hadn’t been there for a long time and a nostalgic feeling welled up inside him. The small room with only one window, the bathroom, the shelf with books and games about everything. He locked the door behind him and laid down on the bed, but strangely he didn’t feel very tired despite the late hour. He thought about the schoolwork he needed to catch up to. How his classmates would react when he came back. And most of them all, how he would apologize to Chiaki. His heart felt heavy thinking about her. He must have been gone for… he sat up and picked up his phone from his desk to check. It had gathered some dust, and of course it was dead. Dang it. Well at least half a year must have passed. The scientist didn’t provide me with the date, only the tests were counted. He put it into a charger and laid it to the side. In the end it didn’t matter that he had been gone for a long time. Now he had hope for the future. But he didn’t last long in his thoughts as the worry snuck back. He picked up a book from his shelf he had read before, and spent the night reading it all again.