Chapter Text
Makoto wasn’t new to strange occurrences after becoming the headmaster of the new Hope’s Peak Academy. It was almost weekly that a group of kids would try to start a riot, or declare themselves the “New Ultimate Despair” (as if the original title wasn’t corny enough.) Kyoko would normally give them a stern look, and then that would basically be the end of it. After all was said and done, though, it was a pretty peaceful life. The 81st class was doing especially well… or was it the 82nd? He could never remember. Grades were high, his friends were doing well, and the world was slowly recovering after what felt like an eternity. He didn’t have much to complain about. His favorite part about it, though, was how the newer ultimates would take after the ones from the past. The students would look through the history book in the main lobby, pick a favorite, and base their entire personality off of them. The “Ultimate Metalhead” quite liked Ibuki. The “Ultimate Game Developer” basically worshiped Chihiro. Almost every ultimate from the past was someone’s favorite.
Except for one.
He didn’t blame people for not liking him, he was relatively normal looking. If anything, he was kinda creepy. But, still. He thought someone would take a liking to Nagito Komaeda.
That name actually came up quite a lot from the Future Foundation reports that would come across his desk. Every few weeks a ship would sail out to Jabberwock to check up on class 77-B to bring them supplies and make sure nobody was dead. Makoto was now on the board of directors for the foundation, so he was the one who made the order to keep an eye on them. Unsurprisingly, the most problems were caused by a certain white-haired schizophrenic. It seemed like every Friday he would “Accidentally” be blowing up a part of the hotel, or be knocking on Hinata’s door at inappropriate times of the night. Despite this, everything was going pretty well. Hajime kept everyone under control the best he could. He and Makoto would often send notes back and forth to each other, just for communication purposes. Hinata seemed lonely without Nanami, but all things considered was holding it together pretty well. Problems came and went, but in the end they would figure things out.
Everything was going well, until a certain Saturday late in the summer.
Kyoko walked past Naegi’s desk, tossing a paper envelope onto it without much thought. It was a Saturday, and most students were just ready to be done with the week, so the school was pretty quiet.
“Don’t leave your clothes in the car. It looks unprofessional.” said Kyoko, not even glancing at Makoto as she walked by.
“I sleep and eat here half the week, Kyoko, you know I don’t have time to bring them home every day.”
Popping her head back out of her office she just entered, she shot back, “Well unless you want to keep dealing with students asking me why your clothes are in my car, maybe you should start working less late.”
Embarrassed, he looked away, and started to look through the envelope that Kyoko handed him. Mostly grade slips from failing students who he had to call into his office later. It was his least favorite part about the job.
And that’s when it happened.
The phone started ringing. Putting it on speaker, Makoto recognized the voice as the elderly secretary they hired a month back. She was normally dazed and confused, but she got the job done.
“Sir, you uhhh… seem to have a visitor. He specifically asked to see you.” She said, sounding pretty puzzled.
“I don’t have anything on my schedule today, I don’t remember if I’m open…… wait, how did they get into the school? The doors are locked during class hours.”
“Uh, well, it seems that the doors. Malfunctioned. While he walked up to them.”
Makoto sat for a good 5 seconds, completely bewildered by what he heard. He shook his head before replying, “Well… I guess we can’t do much about that then. We probably should just send security after him, but can you at least tell me his name first?”
There was a bit of mumbling on the other side of the speaker, and he heard a polite laugh before the secretary replied back, “He says his name is ‘koo-mah-ee-dah?’”
Kyoko, who had just walked out of her office, spit out the tea she was drinking. Her and Makoto exchanged a look that silently said “No fucking way.” He quickly replied, “Ma’am, tell security to escort him up to my office. Right now.”
“Right away sir.”
Naegi slowly sat back in his chair in amazement. This couldn’t possibly be who he thought it was, right?
* * *
Sat in his office, was the same white-haired schizophrenic Makoto had heard so many complaints about on Jabberwock. He was completely silent for a good 2 minutes, still processing the fact that Nagito just… walked into the school.
“Nagito. I want you to answer this question honestly. How, in god’s name, did you get here?”
With a polite smile, Nagito’s head tilted slightly to the side. “Oh, it was nothing special, really. Especially for someone with such a disappointing talent as me. An abandoned ship washed up on Jabberwock while I was taking a walk on the beach, and I used it to find my way to the mainland.”
“Of course it did.” Naegi replied. “And, do you even know how to sail or drive a boat? And how did you not starve?”
“Well, I brought some food with me, for one. I felt bad stealing from the others. Hajime was suspicious, but I eventually convinced him that everything was fine. Oh, and I really just got lucky with the sailing. The winds blew me right to you.”
“Of COURSE they did.” Makoto replied, closing his eyes and rubbing his temples. “Listen. What do you even want here? Were you not happy on Jabberwock?”
Komaeda looked out the window for a few seconds with a pensive look, before turning back to Makoto with the same smile as before. “The others don’t really love my presence. I understand why, considering how much of a piece of trash I am compared to them,” Nagtio said. “And besides – I have a proposal for you.” His eyes started to become crazed as he spoke. “I want to join the battle against despair… I want to propagate the new hope in the world. I wish to see this new, hopeful world unite as one. I want to see it rise like a phoenix from the ashes of this broken world, and triumph over all other hopes! I want to join you in your mission to-”
“I’m gonna stop you right there.” said Makoto. “Your eyes are doing the thing again. I talked about this the last time I sent you a note. You need to learn to control yourself, Nagito.”
Nagito’s eyes returned to semi-normalcy. He knew what Makoto was talking about. The last letter he sent to Jabberwock included a special section for him, talking about his “issues” as Makoto called them, and how they could begin to help them through a psychiatric treatment plan. Nagito wasn’t too sure about that. He didn’t love being an outcast among people he admired so much, but he also didn’t consider himself to be worthy of their love either. How would fixing him make him any more worthy of attention?
“I understand. Sorry for being as worthless as I am.” Nagito returned to his polite demeanor.
“It’s fine.” Makoto said, taking an aspirin. “Now, what is this ‘proposal’ you were talking about?”
Nagito was sure that whatever he answered, Makoto would say no. Why would anyone want to listen to what he had to say in the first place anyways? Despite this, he also thought that maybe, just maybe, Makoto would let him see the hope that he was desperate for.
“I want you to let me be a Future Foundation agent.”