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Jabberwock island. A refugee to the unfortunates of an event that its residents no longer seem to recall. A place where its 16 residents live in complete peace, with each doing their own part in this little community. They all have their routine, each day except for Mondays, to work as hard as they can in maintaining the island they were going to spend the rest of their lives on. And of course, to make sure things went as smoothly as possible, they had appointed a leader, someone who was capable of keeping everyone together, someone whose intellect and talents could not even be compared to the others, not even humanity itself. Someone, who at this very moment, couldn't do anything, no matter how much his life could depend on it, if such were the case, all because of one mishap.
Hinata Hajime. No matter what, he couldn't move a single muscle since he made his way to the island’s restaurant. He sat down at a table at the corner, right next to the big windows that gave the view to a pool and lines of cottages a bit further away. It was exactly 7:46am. He could guess just by the way the sun looked off in the distance, thanks to the gift that no other person he ever knew, or might as well ever existed, possessed. Assortment of talents, knowledge and understanding of every profession and speciality. A most wondrous present, to be able to comprehend and know all of these things. There was no one better suited for such a miracle than himself. He didn't know why, but it felt right, like the universe knew well that he was the only one capable of using this miracle for the greater good. Yet despite the fact that he should know the answers to even the unsolved mysteries of life, there was one thing he couldn't understand. It didn't matter what came to his aid, he couldn't find an explanation to such an odd happening. Ultimate Psychiatrist, Sympathy, Scientist, Neurologist. He sought these talents so many times the previous night, just to figure out the unsolved equation that stood about 3 feet in front of him.
Yesterday, since it was Monday, everyone decided it would be a good time as ever to throw a party out as the summer breeze had started to affect the morale of the community. Whilst it would be a wonderful opportunity to go out on the beach to enjoy the ocean and get a little tan, for all its 16 residents, they had to keep working to ensure that everything kept running smoothly, and that the restoration and improvements of the island were to be completed hastily and most efficiently. So, when Friday came, Hinata had proposed to everyone that they should all gather in 2 days at the beach, as he would be doing a party to help everybody cheer up and have a pleasant time in order to regain their footing under such harsh conditions. Everyone, of course, agreed and began planning out what everyone would be in charge of helping for the party. They knew if they didn't speak up now, by tomorrow, Hinata would have done everything by himself, regardless if he had a busy schedule, or was under a massive wave of stress. Try as he might, every attempt at doing anything on his own for the island, if it involved something that the others would help, they wouldn't leave his side, no matter if he said he would be fine. Someone with all these skills was bound to come with the 2-package deal that is reluctantness to look for anybody’s help, stubbornly believing that everything could be done without bothering other people.
So, as everyone gathered around at the restaurant, enjoying their breakfast, they organized everything just as the time arrived to begin today’s chores. Just the idea of a party was enough to lift everyone's spirits for that day and the next. Not a single break was spent without some mention of the event, talking about what they would bring to it and what fun activities they could do. But as the Ultimate Luck would have it, not everything was all rainbows and sunshines. As ironic as it was, be it intentionally or not, the one who seemed to barely show any interest was the Ultimate Lucky Student himself. Komaeda Nagito.
Hinata expected as much from him, as much as he shamed himself a bit for thinking so lowly of one of his friends. But could he really blame himself? Komaeda was always looking down at himself, praising everyone else but pretending like he wasn't even a human being. And he was the hardest shell to crack out of everybody, somehow even harder than Nanami Chiaki, the Ultimate Gamer who seriously had to work on her sleeping schedule and refused to talk about anything about herself. While in some conversations Komaeda would share some things of his life, they all sounded so nonsensical it only made Hinata question even more who and what was the white-haired man. He couldn’t press further than what he was given, as Komaeda would just go on a tangent about his worthlessness and how someone as great as Hinata shouldn’t be worrying about the trash that he was. It is true that everyone in the island had their own personal grudges, so as the Ultimate Therapist, he hoped to be able to help everyone with their internal problems, given that, of course, they would let him. But there was no progress he could make with the enigma called Komaeda Nagito. And things seemed only to have gotten worse as he observed the pale man in these last days.
In one of the islets connected to the main island, a curious building stood tall over everything in Jabberwock. A ruin that no one knew truly what resided inside, and if it was even something they should look into. Hinata made sure to put a note in the back of his head to take care of that building the next day, but for some reason, as he awoke, he would simply forget about that. It almost felt like something didn’t want him to acknowledge not even a little bit of that place. And he was very well aware of that, as there wasn’t anything stopping him from looking at the building and knowing it existed. And whenever he wanted to check it out, he would remember that he had thought of doing that before, thus beginning a constant cycle of forgetting and recalling.
He still tried everything he could to get himself to remember. A physical reminder to check the place would only be the logical solution, but whatever he used suddenly disappeared by the next day. He was skeptical that someone in the island was responsible for this, but in one of these cases, he found the note he had used to remind himself on the trash bin of his room, all words completely scribbled the same way he would when correcting something he had written with no eraser in sight. He couldn’t even ask someone else to remember him, because no one seemed to be able to acknowledge at all the existence of that place. With the exception of Nanami. She could see and even talked with Hinata about the ruins when he asked her. She was curious just as much as him but even when she came looking for him to remind him to explore that anomaly, he had no clue what she was talking about and simply dismissed her to continue his routine for that day.
But then one day, there he stood. The equation that no talent of his could solve. Komaeda Nagito, staring directly into the ruins Hinata had begun to accept he would never know the insides of. And it became a common sight, as every day after that he would catch glimpses of the lucky student sneaking away to look at that place, or lose focus during the tasks that brought him to that islet, staring off at the direction of the building or right at it, if he happened to have to pass by somewhere that gave view to there. Hinata tried once to ask him during one of their break times, but the man looked strangely at him, just like when he would ask him any other time when Komaeda had no clue what that building was, but now he definitely knew what it was, so why was he pretending like that place never existed? Was he lying this whole time, and only now did he start to slip up?
When Monday came, Hinata was too focused on helping prepare things for the party since he woke up, checking on everyone to see if they needed help on their preparations, that only when afternoon came did he notice he didn’t see Komaeda once. He immediately went to check on his cottage, and when he placed his hand over the door, it opened slightly, and even after opening it completely, hoping silently Komaeda would forgive him for invading his chambers, the strange man was nowhere to be seen. After that, he went to the only other logical place he imagined he could be at without giving any sort of headsup, the shores of Jabberwock island and its islets, which took quite a long time to look through every inch of the beaches, but no luck. He wasn’t even at the ruins, the only other location he could imagine Komaeda could be going off to. Maybe he was inside? No, he shouldn’t go inside… There’s probably nothing in there, maybe his subconscious knew that, and that’s why he discarded the idea of looking any further.
As he stood in front of that mysterious building, he felt something land above his right eye. Then another, another and then another. Droplets. Of water, he realized as he rubbed his face and blinked quickly at the foreign sensation. Of course he knew what it felt like to have water streaming down his face and body, but…
It has never rained in Jabberwock before. Something was wrong. He knew that without even thinking about it.
He immediately rushed back to the restaurant on the main island, where everyone was at before he left in search of the lucky student. Whenever things felt strange like this, his first instinct was to check on everyone. Their safety was his responsibility, and he couldn’t care less if ensuring every resident was safe meant risking himself.
As he set a foot inside the building, he didn’t even bother to soak himself at least a little bit due to all the rush. And as he got to the upper floor, he simply stood still at the doorway, panting heavily from all the running as he stared at the figure in front of him. Shocked was not enough to describe what he felt at that very moment.
“Oh? Well would you look at that! How unlucky… Seems like you were the only one out in the rain...”
That raspy voice. That greenish coat with red squares adorning its right side. Those white streaks of messy barely attended hair that transitioned to a pale red by the end. Komaeda Nagito, The Ultimate Lucky Student. Right there, just two steps away from him, looking back at him as he remained with his back turned to Hinata. He took a moment to regain himself, looking around the room and seeing that everyone was still inside since the moment he left. But they all looked confused, with the exception of Nanami that he couldn’t quite tell from the distance through her tired expression if she was any lost like the others.
“Where… Where were you?” — Hinata said as he rested his arm against the wall to support himself, the adrenaline slowly leaving his body. He stared directly at Komaeda’s eyes, analyzing his expression despite the fact that it was impossible to tell what that man’s intentions were.
“Hinata-kun, haven’t I already told you? There’s no need to worry about someone as insignificant as I.” — Komaeda replied, slowly turning himself around to face Hinata, a tiny smile on his face, — “But if you really insist… Allow me to be selfish and say I was merely taking a walk, and just arrived here a few minutes before this rain began. How lucky of me! But I see you didn’t have that benefit… If only I could swap our places, I would accept it without a second thought…”
“Hinata, please do something!!! Just shut his mouth already, its creeping me out!” — A voice rang from the other side of the room, belonging to Saionji Hiyoko, who now looked distressed as she clinged tightly to Koizumi Mahiru’s arm.
“What? Huh- Someone, please tell me what has happened since Komaeda arrived…” — Now the one that looked confused was Hinata, who also had just finished regaining his breath. These talents really have some pretty good benefits.
“Well… As Komaeda said, he just got here a few minutes ago… No one really gave him attention, but then he simply started talking about our ‘hope’… He looked at us all strangely when we had no clue what he was talking about, then he just… kept going, until about some seconds ago, which is when you arrived.” — Sonia Nevermind was the one to answer his question, her hands held together as she kept switching her attention between Hinata and Komaeda, her expression filled with worry. Hinata wasn’t sure who exactly she was so wary about, but it probably was the strangely lucky man.
No one said anything. Hinata took his arm off from the wall and held his chin, crossing his other arm over his bicep as he looked down at the floor, beginning to piece everything up till this point. But like careless hands dropping down their wrench on the stream of working cogs, halting the complex machinery from fulfilling its purpose, his line of thought was quickly interrupted as Komaeda came into his view, seemingly having bent down to stare directly at Hinata’s face, his expression unreadable with his head tilted to the side like a curious animal.
“Hinata-kun… Was your right eye always hidden away like that?”
“What…?”
“Ah… I am deeply sorry, I shouldn’t ask something like this. How rude of me to interrupt your line of thinking to ask something as meaningless as this. I must just be seeing things, truly, I do not wish to bother you with this. But if you would excuse me, I would like to return to my cottage… But you are currently standing in front of the stairs…”
The pale man sheepishly raised his hands as he straightened himself, having now caught Hinata’s attention. He still had that smile on his face, his eyes closed. He looked like he was caught red-handed doing something horrible. Not that he would be capable of that, despite how odd he seemed. Right?
Hinata sighed, moving to the side to make way for the other to pass through. As Komaeda walked down the stairs, his hands now inside his pants pockets, Hinata felt a gentle hand rest on his shoulder. He looked over to Nanami, her brows furrowed, seemingly looking worried.
Well, he could worry about Komaeda later, as a few seconds afterwards everyone began to voice their worries that they wouldn’t be able to throw a party now that an unexpected rain continued to pour outside. Everyone looked almost in complete despair at such an unfortunate turnabout, and as a beacon of hope himself, he decided that just this once everyone would be free from any work tomorrow so they could hopefully enjoy themselves. Of course, they would have to work even harder the next day, maybe having to subtract one of the break times, but that was a bridge they were going to cross later, everyone agreed on.
Eventually the rain died down and everyone made their way back to their cottage. Hinata still lingered at the restaurant for a few minutes, before sighing deeply and heading back to this room. He pondered when he turned the doorknob to check on Komaeda, see if he was really at his room, but if he continued to walk around in these soggy clothes, he was bound to become sick, and he really didn’t want to chance it, as he had some bad luck of his own.
And back to the present he now was. He guessed it probably was somewhere between 8:10am with how long he spent in his thoughts, not paying attention to the sun as he continued to stare at the specific anomaly.
The lucky white-haired man had long since sat down on the opposite side of where Hinata was at, eating the absolute bare minimum that most definitely wouldn’t be enough to fill all his nutrients for the day, his Ultimate Nutritionist would guess from taking a quick glance at his plate.
He thought back at what Sonia had told him last night. “our hope”... Komaeda never spoke of things like this. Honestly, Hinata wasn’t quite sure what kind of things Komaeda enjoyed speaking about at all. In the few conversations they had, he figured he enjoyed talking about books, especially mystery novels, and he enjoyed spending time at the beach, just taking in the sight in silence. But something about “hope”? Specifically one that the residents seemed to have?
And once more he was interrupted by the frightened scream of Tsumiki Mikan, who seemed to have just arrived alongside Mioda Ibuki and Tanaka Gundham. She rushed to Komaeda’s side, almost practically crying as she clenched her hands together, begging to know what happened to his right arm. Right, that was what has been keeping Hinata from doing anything ever since the pale man made his presence. For some odd reason, there were bandages wrapped around his arm, starting from his wrist and going down who knew how further.
“K-Komaeda, please, d-did something happen y-yesterday? Y-you’ve been acting so strange, is e-everything alright?” — Tsumiki spoke softly and she slowly began to unwrap the bandages on Komaeda’s arm, who offered it almost reluctantly. She still kept her eyes fully on him.
He kept silent, looking at his plate as he smiled, despite the apparent worried expression he had on his face. As the Ultimate Nurse finished unwrapping everything, she took his arm and moved it around, left and right, gently rubbing his skin with one of her hands as she searched for any scarring, but there was nothing. She slowly began to place his arm back at the table when he swatted it away, looking at her with some big smile, his eyes closed. She jumped back, startled by Komaeda’s sudden reaction, her arms almost hugging her head, like that would be enough to protect her from whatever threat, and cried out for forgiveness. The attention of the room was quickly changed however with the arrival of Owari Akane, Nidai Nekomaru and Sonia, who all greeted everyone with the most excitement Hinata had ever seen them.
As Mioda dragged Tsumiki by her arm to talk with the others, Komaeda sighed and went back to wrapping his arm back with the bandages. It was rare to see the luckster annoyed, is what Hinata assumed he was feeling now from taking in his face. It took a minute or so of trying for Komaeda to give up trying to cover his arm, slamming both arms on the table as he let out an irritated sigh. He passed his left hand’s fingers through his hair, before pulling himself up from his table, grabbing his plate and his bandages, rolling the sleeve of his right arm down. He kept that same arm behind his back, having stuffed the wrappings on his pants pockets, and began walking towards the kitchen to place the rest of his food he had barely touched on the kitchen’s window. The man left, and Hinata had realized he was standing up, an arm extending out in his direction as Kuzuryu Fuyuhiko snapped his fingers on his face, seemingly bringing him back to his senses. The Yakuza only looked at him with confusion bearing his face, shrugging his arms and walking towards the table where Pekoyama Peko and Souda Kazuichi sat.
For the rest of the day, Hinata once again didn’t catch sight of Komaeda. He was about to search for him again before Nanami took his hand and told him to be careful to not stress himself over this. She was his closest friend on the island, and the one person that cared for his physical and mental health the most. She always reminded him to not let stress overcome him, which he always thanked her deeply for serving as an anchor. If she wasn’t so busy playing games whenever she could, he would appoint her as his right-hand man to manage the island, but she would definitely decline since it would mean she would barely have time to play.
Hinata listened to his friend's worries, but as they continued to prepare everything for the party this afternoon, his subconscious still worried for his whereabouts. But that worry ceased when, by the time everyone had almost finished preparations, that familiar green coat appeared on the corner of his vision as he was hunched over a palm tree after finishing tying some decorations. He looked up to the sight of Komaeda, once more staring at him with the same look when he asked something about his right eye. They continued to look at each other in silence, Hinata wanted to ask where he was until now, but he was quickly lost trying to instead read him. Komaeda gave a faint smile, which got Hinata out of that small trance, clearing his throat and pushing himself up. He looked down and rubbed his hands on his thighs to remove any sand that may have stuck on his hands, but when he looked back up, the white-haired had already turned his back and was walking away. This was his moment to know just what Komaeda had done yesterday, but as bad luck would have it, he heard Hanamura Teruteru call out for his name to help bring the food he had just prepared to the tables at the beach. He sighed as he went on a light jog to where Hanamura was; not all was lost, he would just ask him later at the party. It was fine.
It was not, however, fine. As the sun set almost completely and the party went on, he couldn’t get a single opening to talk with Komaeda. He didn’t know if this turn of events were to blame on his own luck or the lucky student’s that kept him away during the entirety of the event. Most of the time Nanami kept dragging him around to try out all the fun activities everyone had prepared, and they would always arrive just when Komaeda had finished trying out the activity, moving onto the next, again and again. Soon enough though, she got tired and decided to go back to her cottage to play something, despite Hinata requesting that she rested more. She again reminded him to not stress over things as she was leaving, and he was left questioning if she could see that much through him. He was trying everything to not seem like he was trying to find any excuse to talk with Komaeda, was he being that obvious? Well, either way, now was the perfect time to question the luckster…
…Only to have that hope crushed when Souda immediately wrapped an arm around his neck, appearing out of nowhere with a drink in hand, inviting him to a fun game with the other boys, but which excluded Komaeda who seemed to be more interested in the activity the girls were going to do. Okay, now whoever's luck was at fault this time was starting to get ridiculous. Or maybe Komaeda was just being smart and doing everything he could to avoid confronting Hinata. But why would he do that? Maybe he’s still angry about this morning… But the only person he could possibly be angry about would be Tsumiki, and he was going to hang out with her and the other girls. Was he maybe creeped out with how much he kept staring at him? Ah… Way to go, Hinata.
He really wanted to enjoy the game the boys had set up, where they had to throw little balls in the various cups lined up, but all he did was watch from the side with a neutral expression. If he wasn’t standing up, he might as well be confused for a corpse. Souda and Kuzuryu kept giving him weird glances, but they didn’t try to ask him anything, just focusing on the game. It actually startled everyone there when Hinata finally moved, his gaze snapping to the figure he saw walking in the background towards the campfire at the middle of the party’s area, beginning to jog in his direction despite the questions being raised behind him.
When he got close, he saw that alongside Komaeda was Mioda and Owari, who seemed to have come here to grab something to eat. He was somewhat to the side of the pale man, but still behind enough that he couldn’t notice him. His right hand is holding onto his chin, and it left Hinata staring once more for a bit too long at the bandages at his arm. He stood in front of the campfire, with Owari in front of him eating some meat on a stick. Everything was quiet, eventually broken by the sound of chewing and the cackling of fire, as well as the cackling from Mioda’s own awful attempt at being discreet. After a minute or so, with Hinata still unmoved, Owari gave a light pat on Komaeda’s shoulder, which startled him slightly at the sudden touch, before walking towards where Mioda was trying to balance two plates in her hands, most definitely filled with snacks for the other girls, or entirety for herself, but not before taking a quick glance back directly to Hinata, which prompted the luckster to turn around, curiosity in his eyes as he smiled enthusiastically. He assumed Owari must have seen him just intensively stare at Komaeda, which he was a little embarrassed, but was happy to see she knew he wanted to talk with him alone, or as it usually goes for her, she merely had a gut feeling which seemed to almost always be correct, surprisingly. Hinata would have to thank her later for the help…
“Ah, Hinata-kun at last wishes to talk with me? What a delight!” — Komaeda spoke with such delight in his voice, his smile trembling ever slightly.
“Huh?- What, no-”
“Its fine! I don’t know what I could have possibly done to upset Hinata-kun, but its not like that matters. I completely understand if you didn’t want to talk with such a miserable person. Such radiance of hope such as yourself, you do not need to shine your light over such darkness…”
“Komaeda-”
“Or maybe I’m just being a bit too hopeful… I bet you wanted to talk with Owari-san, actually… Oh… I’m deeply sorry for this, Hinata-kun… Truly, whatever it is that you need me to do to atone for such a thought as this, I will do it, I deserve any scolding you wish to give-”
Hinata grabbed Komaeda’s shoulders tightly, interrupting him before he could continue this spiral of self-loath, shaking him slightly as he spoke, — “Woah, woah, too fast, too fast! Let me speak, please-”
Komaeda went completely still, his smile dissipating away into a neutral expression. For a minute, Hinata was caught off guard by the sudden change of his face, but he shook his head and let go of Komaeda, taking a deep breath while holding the urge to fidget with his nails. He never felt this nervous talking with the man in front of him, perhaps it was the fear that he would run off as soon as he tried to ask anything. Prying into the ocean of mystery that is Komaeda required a plan to traverse its water. One single wrong turn would anger the ocean, waves pushing away back to the shore, making any traversal impossible until the fury of the moon ceased.
“I’m not upset at you, or anything like that- I’m sorry if I made it seem like I was ignoring you today… Please, understand I’ve been trying to talk to you during the whole party. I really, really, need to know what you were doing yesterday… And I can’t allow you to run away again.”
Hinata spoke those last words with a serious tone he rarely ever used. He hated having to talk with such an intimidating voice to his friends, but it unfortunately was at times the only way to get everyone to listen to him, so that they would not fall under such despair.
“You’ve… Been acting so strange since yesterday. Are you okay? Did someone do something to you, Komaeda? Please… Let me help you, just… This once.” — He clenched his fists, looking off to the side as he finished, preparing himself for the absolute worst.
Maybe he wasn’t using the right words for this. Trying to get Komaeda to open up was always so hard. It felt like he was on a complete “different difficulty”, as Nanami would describe him in the few times Hinata vented out to her. The same words he used on the others, reaffirmations about themselves, it never worked on someone like Komaeda, obviously. He despited himself too much and for too long that trying to pull him out of that well he got himself into would be impossible, but Hinata wanted to be proven otherwise. That is what the greatest hope is for.
He looked back at Komaeda after all he got was silence. He was still, his face having practically not moved a single inch (not that he could be sure, reading Komaeda’s microexpressions is absolutely impossible despite his talents). Once more they stared in silence at each other, and patiently Hinata waited for the other man to probably gather up his thoughts and prepare the right words to say.
Hinata flinched as Komaeda moved, caught off guard once more by the incalculable variables that composed the formula in front of him. He slowly looked up at the sky, and Hinata couldn’t help but follow his eyes. He seemed to be looking specifically at a very bright star. The brunet squinted his eyes, surely there had to be more than just a star he was looking at.
“Don’t you think its… Kinda weird how much Nanami-san tells you to not stress over things?” — Komaeda muttered, lost completely in the sea of stars right above them.
No answer.
“I… I think I saw something I shouldn’t have… But, it looked so beautiful… How selfish of me…” — The luckster continued to speak at the lack of response, a smile beginning to creep its way to his face.
For a moment, Hinata thought he saw that star stretch. No, that wasn’t a star, now that he focused completely. His Ultimate Austrologist knew that. A line stretched through the sky, and as he dragged his eye across that strange line, he saw it come in contact with another, and then another, and another. It was a grid of some sort, barely visible through all those stars, but now that it was brought to his attention, his talents would not stop focusing on it.
“These bandages… They seem to be a part of me… It just feels right to have them… Like that was how it was supposed to be since the beginning.”
“...What? hold on-”
“The sky looks so fake now… I… No, I can’t be overcome by such despair now…”
Despair… He’s heard that somewhere, just when?
“Hold on, hold on- Go back- What… What did you say about Nanami?” — Hinata spoke with uncertainty poisoning his voice, one of his hands’ fingers passing through his hair. He looked down at the sand, silently trying to keep himself under control.
“Hmm?... Wh- Hinata-kun, are you okay?”
His expression fell to shock, his brows furrowed as he slowly looked up at Komaeda. He wasn’t smiling. His face looked the same since he touched him, just now he was looking down at him. Hinata blinked furiously, was he going crazy? Was it not Komaeda that was speaking just a few seconds ago? And why did his eyes look… So strange?
He slowly dropped his hand down, his eyes darting around as he focused down on those eyes. Something was different. Spirals intertwined themselves around his irises. Like hope and despair danced against each other. Hinata had never seen that before, but he instinctively knew exactly what those eyes meant. How? How how how how how —
“What the hell did you see?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?- I didn’t say anything!”
“Komaeda. What did you fucking see?”
He grabbed Komaeda by his long jacket, pulling him closer as he stared even more deeply at those eyes. Why was he like this? This isn’t right. Did he go inside the ruins? How? Was he always able to go there? What was any of that he heard?
“Hinata-kun… Hey, are you there?-”
“Answer me, goddamnit! What did you see there, in those ruins?!” — The brunet yelled, his voice shakily, at the luckster, in search of the answer that was that anomaly that stood in front of him.
Hinata felt cold, long and thin fingers slowly placing themselves on his arms. They hesitated a second to move any further, but seeing as he didn’t give any reaction, they wrapped themselves gently around his skin. And gradually, Hinata rested his face against Komaeda’s chest, having now recognized that those sensations around his arm were the hands of the person standing in front of him.
He heard Komaeda sigh, the soft breeze that came out of his mouth passing through his hair, — “Seems like you saw right through me, huh? We can talk about this tomorrow… You don’t seem well…”
Hinata only burrowed himself further in the embrace of Komaeda. He was right, whatever it was that just happened there, just took completely any energy he had for the rest of the night. He would simply have to take the man’s word for it, and they would talk about everything tomorrow. He wasn’t going to let him run away after all, so even if he was going to try to use his luck to avoid this conversation, he was sure his own luck would overcome his, just this once.
He simply closed his eyes, a strange, yet somewhat familiar wave of sleepiness overcoming his mind and body. It was like caring hands came to hold him tightly as his consciousness fell to silence. Long, soft hairs curling themselves around his face, that he knew for certainty were of someone, or something, that only wanted to protect him from whatever it was that he just heard and saw. He would wake up tomorrow having forgotten any of this happened, everyone would wake up tomorrow having forgotten about this. Its the only way. Its for the better good.