Archive of Our Own

  Hinata woke up at his cottage, slowly opening up his eyes as he adjusted to the light seeping into his room through the curtains. He took a deep breath and as always, his mind was immediately working with all the talents blessed to him, not giving him a single moment of silence before the day truly began. His brain went on to retrace the events that led to where he was, as his thoughts went on, he realized he didn't seem to recall how he ended up back at his room. Logically, he began to map out what had happened yesterday from the memories he still recalled, all inside his own mind palace, while passing a hand of his through his hair. 

  There was a party yesterday at the beach, and by the afternoon or so, he finally caught a glimpse of Komaeda, whom he had been worried about, since he had disappeared once again. Then, he wanted to talk to the man about what was going on with his sudden shift in behavior, but be it by his own luck or Komaeda’s, he didn't get the chance at all until way later, when Nanami had gone off to sleep and he had been dragged to play something with the boys, despite not wishing to engage in it.

  And then… Nothing. It was all seemingly foggy from the point he approached Komaeda by the campfire. Had Hinata drunk something when he was speaking with the pale man? He wasn't one to drink much, only indulging in it during celebrations, and something like this party could be a perfect opportunity for it, but he was too set on talking with Komaeda that he barely even drank or ate anything. So why was it impossible to recall anything that he had talked with him?

  He furrowed his brows, pushing himself off the covers of his bed and standing up to stretch his arms. He glanced over to the clock on the wall in front of him, and deeply sighed again once he realized that it was 10 minutes until he had to begin on his tasks for the day…

  Wait, 10 minutes?

  How long had he been sleeping for?! He always made sure to wake up before everyone else, waking up at times as early as 4am to look over the schedule for the day as well as some other things. There was no time to do any daily exercises or even look over the island. He simply rushed over to his table, just below the cottage’s window, grabbed the list of the tasks assigned for today and bolted out to the restaurant, where everyone was already situated and had finished their breakfast. Everyone seemed to look relieved upon his arrival, but he spent no time pondering why such expressions bore in their faces.

  He frantically began listing off what everyone had to do today, approaching the table filled with food while his eyes remained fixated on the clipboard. He made a quick pause once he was past the half of the contents written down, biting down on a plain loaf of bread, and he could have sworn he saw in the corner of his eye Hanamura raise his finger, ready to say something before Nanami placed a hand on his shoulder, seemingly silencing him immediately.

  Hinata went back to dictating what was left in the list as fast as he could. Because of yesterday’s party being on a day they would normally be working around the island, after the unexpected rain from Monday rendered them unable to set the event up, today was going to be filled with even more tasks to make up for the loss. Once he was done laying it all out for the residents currently occupying the place, he placed it below his armpit to clap his hands together, commanding everyone to go off to their tasks for the day and apologizing for taking so long to arrive.

  As everyone walked out, whispering between each other, most likely theories as to why so on the point like him was so late, he took a deep breath, and took the clipboard from under his arm and up to his face. After what felt like an eternity of recollecting his thoughts completely for the day did he realize something: where was Komaeda?

  He was so focused on not having the schedule be disrupted that he hadn't even questioned the others as to where the whereabouts of the luckster were. He lightly banged his head against the paper in front of his face, groaning irritably and quite loudly. Great, he had vanished once more, most likely off to the ruins, again, where Hinata had no way of how he could get himself to go. He was about to plan out to talk with Komaeda today before he looked over the time earlier, and it seemed like he would not be getting any answers today, instead having to worry about someone like that pale man for the rest of the working period.

  He swallowed down a lump in his throat at that thought. It made him seem no better than the others' wary stands against Komaeda, when he himself was so bent over understanding the unexplainable equation of luck, regardless of how odd he seemed since the very beginning. 

  Well, he would have to hope that he would show up at some point today, just like he had yesterday when the time of the party arrived. And surprisingly enough, the enigmatic man made his presence by the afternoon, rushing over to Hinata and asking him what was needed of his “useless self” for today. Overwhelmed by the shock of Komaeda’s sudden appearance, the brunet merely instructed him and waved him off, and by the time the pale man was out of his sight, he remembered he had to ask him about his behavior, but most importantly, what had he talked with him yesterday that he couldn’t remember at all. But that would have to just wait, maybe he’ll be lucky once more and ask during break hours…

  But the pale man was gone once more, returning only after the tasks had resumed (Hinata silently wished he could punch Komaeda after talking once more about some “hope”), and vanishing away by nighttime, when everyone had finished their work and headed back to their cottages to rest for tomorrow’s tasks. Hinata stopped by Komaeda’s place but there was no one inside, so he merely walked back to his room, laying down on his bed without even changing any of his clothing as he stared at the ceiling. Once more he began to worry about the luckster, his Ultimate Analytic going through every possible scenario. Of course, the most logical answer once more was that he was off somewhere by the ruins, but what if something else had happened? He couldn’t discard that possibility, else he would be putting his guard down to some possible threat. Not that the pale man could be one, of course.

  Eventually his thoughts began to disperse, his consciousness slowly leaving his mind palace as tiredness overwhelmed his senses after all the mountain of tasks done today. At least there was something good out of them having to skip out on a whole day of work, and that was practically having to do double the tasks he normally would do during a day, making it so that his body was far more exhausted than what he was used to, which meant that hopefully, he would get most definitely one of the best sleeps of his life…

  “Hinata, are you awake?”

  His eyes shot wide open, pushing himself immediately up from his bed on pure instinct. At first he thought it might have been Komaeda calling out for him, but after that quick shot of adrenaline subdued, he realized it was a feminine voice, most definitely belonging to Nanami from the other side of the door. She must have knocked beforehand, but Hinata mustn't have noticed, given that his focus was inside his own mind.

  He ran a hand through his hair, which at this point had become a way to soothe himself from the constant worries in regards to the luckster. He made his way to the door, his eyes blinking slowly as the exhaustion still plagued his body, and as he turned on the doorknob and pulled it open to himself, he stood there, observing the quite odd sight. 

  Nanami and… The man himself, Komaeda, crouched slightly behind the girl with his hands resting on her shoulders, like he was trying to hide away. He smiled widely, and Hinata only blinked slowly; had Nanami gone out to find Komaeda and was now notifying him of where the man was this whole time? Nothing else made sense, there was no way these two were actually spending time together this whole time. Nanami was the only other person on the island besides himself that didn’t get uncomfortable around Komaeda, but she also wasn’t exactly interested in growing closer with him exactly because of his behavior. You could say she tolerated him, but somewhat more than Hinata, who at times could not bear all of the negativity spouted out of the mouth of the Lucky Student.

  Hinata cleared his throat once he realized how Nanami kept looking up at him with confusion in her face, — “Nanami? Is there something you need?” — He decided to ignore for the time being the complete presence of the man.

  “Ah… Well, Komaeda and I… We wanted to talk with you…” — She raised a finger in front of her, holding onto the strap of her backpack. Komaeda continued to peek through behind her, changing the weight of his body from one side to another almost every second.

  “Oh, sure, of course- If its an emergency, please go ahead.” — Hinata replied, moving away to the side to give space for both of the visitors to enter his cottage. 

  Nanami stepped in first, shrugging Komaeda off her shoulders, and sat down on the couch just next to the door just automatically, like she had already memorized the layout of the place with how many times she came to Hinata’s cottage to play games and vice versa. On the other hand, Komaeda had never once stepped foot inside the room. He stood by the door, looking around like Hinata’s cottage was anything extraordinary. He hadn't bothered to decorate anything, all he had done was move the couch to a different spot from the usual of the other cottage's, just so he could put a desk with a chair. Yet, to those greyish green eyes, it was like he had just seen a wonder of the world. Those same eyes that now as Hinata observed, brought back a memory from yesterday. He had seen something strange take form in those pupils. Something…

  He shook his head, his subconscious dispersing any of that memory, like he had never recalled anything. Once more he felt like something pushed away a key he had found to a hidden treasure he was sure now he would forget its location. But he shrugged that sensation off, he had people coming over to his room, there was no time for him to stand in absolute silence as he tried to delve in his own mind, in search of what kept him from recalling certain things.

  Komaeda was taken out of his apparent trance when Nanami pulled him to sit down on the couch, having to push herself up just slightly to reach the sleeves, since it was once again rolled up, revealing bandages that wrapped around his wrist and down to his arm. The pale man blinked rapidly, sitting down right beside the girl while sheepishly rubbing his arm.

  “Right… So what do you both need?” — Hinata said, crossing his arms below his chest, his eyes once again focusing on the right arm of Komaeda, just like two days ago.

  As it turns out, they had come here to help Hinata recall what happened at the party before he gave out from a strange sort of exhaustion. Hinata had come after Komaeda, who had arrived at the campfire alongside Owari and Mioda, who wanted to grab some snacks for the girls. Nanami seemed a bit sad that she missed out on a fun activity, and when Hinata asked what it was that they had planned for their girls night (plus Komaeda), just out of curiosity and to hopefully release a bit of his own tension, the luckster didn’t answer, saying it was a little secret, which Nanami agreed that it wasn’t something a boy like Hinata would understand… The brunet refrained from commenting on how hypocritical it sounded, considering that, you know… How did she even know about what they were doing yesterday more importantly? Maybe it was the exhaustion from today’s work, because how could someone as gifted as Hinata not be able to figure something such childish?

  Well he would have to just leave that mystery pinned somewhere for him to solve later, because Komaeda continued retelling the event of yesterday. Hinata had practically begged the luckster to open up, which the smaller man was sure to be an exaggeration but remained in silence so that the other could finish speaking, and as Komaeda stared up at the sky, seemingly preparing himself to speak, Hinata suddenly lashed out against him, asking him what he had seen “in those ruins”. The luckster admitted he was rather shocked that despite not saying any words, Hinata already knew exactly what he was trying to muster up the courage to say, but he should have expected from someone “shining with the brightest hope”.

  Hinata sat down at the border of his bed, his arms still crossed as he gazed down at the floor. That was quite a bit to take in. His mind seemed to try to refuse to acknowledge what he had just heard, like once again, something deep inside wanted to stop him from remembering things.

  “To be honest… I really want to tell you… But its quite hard to put into words what I saw there, in those… Ruins, I guess that’s how you’re calling it?” — Komaeda continued, scrubbing the back of his neck as he looked away at the window next to the bed.

  “Komaeda…” — Nanami stared deeply into Komaeda, her hand grabbing onto his sleeve once more, careful to avoid as much as lightly brushing her fingers over the bandages.

  The white-haired man pulled his arm away from her, putting a smile over his face as he furrowed his brows. Hinata only watched them both by the side of his vision. He really wanted to focus on his thoughts for just a moment…

  “I know! How about we both go to the ruins? We could go right n-”

  “H-Hinata’s clearly tired. We could try tomorrow, I think…” — Nanami quickly interrupted Komaeda, rising up to her feet and grabbing once more onto the pale man by his coat’s side, pulling him with such ease he seemed like he was merely paper.

  Hinata turned his head around completely to stare down at both of them, confusion taking shape in his face. As he raised his hand out to get their attention, Nanami opened the door and before Komaeda could even muster up a reaction, she began frantically pushing the man out to the door. For a moment, Hinata had forgotten just how weak the luckster truly was, and it made him wonder just for a few seconds how he didn’t get horribly cold yet, until it hit him that Komaeda is just extremely lucky. He was already sick, he was already supposed to be dead, but there he was, alive and kicking, and seemingly screaming for Hinata’s name as Nanami continued to drag him away until Hinata could no longer hear his wailing.

  Hinata’s mind fell once more into silence, but it didn’t take long for it to quickly pick back its pace. Okay, that was… Definitely the weirdest night he ever had. He laid down his back against the sheets, his legs still dangling out of the bed. Everything that he was told seemed to click nicely like a satisfying puzzle game. It was in these little clicks that he also remembered an odd occurrence from that day, that it seemed like Komaeda was completely unaware, since to him, Hinata had only begun yelling at him for no apparent reason.

  Hinata had heard Komaeda’s voice, saw strange spirals move around his eyes and a smile creep his way while the luckster continued to stare off to the sky. A sky that was seemingly “fake”, according to Komaeda’s own words just a few minutes ago. He spoke about something he had seen, something he never was meant to, but what stood out the most to Hinata was the pale man’s remark in regards to Nanami. What was so strange about worrying about one’s own friend’s well-being? Hinata was the appointed leader of the island, he had loads of burdens only he could shoulder thanks to his gift, which would naturally cause him to become overly stressed, that much he was very much aware. So what exactly was so odd?

  He felt the same tiredness from before the sudden visit rush over his mind, so he decided to just keep things pinned off somewhere so he could return to it tomorrow, alongside the lingering question of why Nanami had come here alongside Komaeda, when this was a matter that only happened between him and the luckster? And of least importance, what sort of activity was it that the girls had that he wasn't the type of guy or something to understand?… Maybe Komaeda would be willing to answer…

  As the day began, he immediately scanned around the restaurant in search of Komaeda, but as he found out, the man had actually been at the place just a minute or so before Hinata arrived, according to Kuzuryu. And the Lucky Student didn't make his presence even as the brunet started to list out the jobs of the day. There was a little bit of hope once again that he would show up sometime in the day but to his dismay, the enigmatic figure didn't show up at all. Hinata concluded that Komaeda must probably be somewhere in the ruins, which once again he told himself that he would go check, maybe later or tomorrow, like that thought hadn't crossed him before ever in his silence. Definitely not at all.

  In the meantime, Hinata decided during lunch time to also get the answers to another question, which would probably be easier to ask Nanami herself: why was she at his cottage alongside Komaeda? From the notes scattered around his mind, the only conclusion that he could get was that she was there as a form of emotional support? Komaeda did seem to have tried to seem smaller or hide away behind her, so maybe he was scared to talk and the gamer had proposed to help? There were still quite a few possibilities that made sense, sure, but this seemed like the most logical one, even if both of his “friends” weren't exactly close, but Nanami was practically a best friend to him, so maybe Komaeda hoped that she could help ease his anxiety…

  Yet despite all of the scenarios that ran through him, losing his patience over Nanami was something he didn't expect. Maybe he was still tired, his body must be acting strange due to the longer time of sleep he had this week, messing with his mind. Maybe its even just all the stress he'd been having over Komaeda. He wanted to find an explanation for his sudden outburst against Nanami so he would feel less guilty. He would never yell at someone so dear to himself for no reason. Even something as merely wanting to not answer a question. Such a childish reason to be mad at someone; everyone has their moments, maybe she just didn't want to talk about it at the time. And why did she asking him to not worry too much about the luckster again upset him that much? There's nothing wrong about voicing one’s concern about another. Nothing!

  He stared at Nanami for what felt like forever to himself. He mumbled an apology to her and turned around on his heel, leaving behind the girl’s cottage where he had found her and resuming the tasks that he had for the day. Hinata couldn't say a word, simply letting himself go on complete autopilot. He just wanted to go back to bed, bury himself in the covers after such a string of bad events. For the first time, he felt mentally exhausted with everything, wanting to just be alone for a few hours, with no one but the sounds of the mechanism of his own mind. Maybe tonight he would try to read a book, or play some game he had left on his shelf to try out later. But the thought of those two activities just made him feel worse as he walked to his room. It reminded him of Komaeda and Nanami. These would be things they would love to do, just by themselves or even with him. Everything about his life really seemed to center around these two, now that he realized.

  Maybe he should just sleep, let his consciousness drift to absolute silence. He was experiencing a new type of low that seemed to make him feel so sluggish and miserable, so just a nice rest would help him a lot, his own talents concluded that.

  Hinata stepped inside his cottage, took off his shoes, his tie and unbuttoned only a few buttons of his shirt, and slowly made himself as comfortable as he could in his bed. All he needed was a nice rest. A break from everything that had happened, even if only for a few hours. He couldn't stress himself over these things. His mind drifted away, eyes closed as he felt familiar hands wrap themselves around him. Long locks of hair, drifting aimlessly over him, a presence that he knew without even thinking only wants the best for him. Everything will be okay. You won't remember anything, no one will. Its for t—

  A knock echoed from the window by the door. Hinata opened his eyes almost instantly. How wonderful. He was just about to fall asleep and someone had decided that at this time of night would be the ideal moment to talk with him. Well all he had to do was to tell them off. He may be the residents’ leader or whatever, but he's also more importantly a human. And right now, he just needed to sleep, away from the annoyance that his life had become recently.

  As he rose to his feet, he heard another knock, making him click his tongue in annoyance as he buttoned up his shirt back up, walking somewhat quickly to the door because, after all, he just. Wanted. To sleep.

  He twisted the doorknob, running once more his free hand through his hair while pulling back the door, — “Hey, look, sorry but whatever it is that you need, I can resolve during the mo-”

  “Ah, Hinata-kun! I'm so sorry for this, I hadn't realized you were already asleep… How inconsiderate of me to not ponder such a possibility…”

  Hinata blinked rapidly, his eyebrows shot up in surprise as he looked at the green coat, floating against the wind alongside those white and red messy locks of hair, those eyes that seemed so bright even under the dim moonlight. The Ultimate Lucky Student stood in front of the door, towering just slightly above the brunet with a neutral expression.

  “I suppose I can speak with Hinata-kun later, then… Your sleep is more important than some words from a lowly trash, what a fool I am…” — Komaeda continued, his eyes looking away at a random spot of the cottage’s stairs, his hand wrapped in bandages twirling a loose strand of his hair.

  The pale man placed a foot behind himself, which Hinata figured he was probably about to walk away, like he hadn't disappeared the whole day for the second time. He grabbed onto Komaeda’s hand that toyed around with his locks, and pulled the man inside. He forgot once again just how light the luckster was, doing it with such ease that made Komaeda yelp out in surprise, almost tripping if he hadn't wrapped his arms around Hinata. One of his feet dangled in the space behind them, just barely out of the cottage, his face almost buried completely on the chest of the smaller man.

  Neither of them spoke anything. Komaeda continued to look down at the same spot he was earlier, which made it seem like he was just staring intently at Hinata’s chest, who just looked ahead, finding some random speck of dirt in the cottage in view to focus on instead of the somewhat awkward situation he had just created while both of his hands were raised up on his hands, like he was just caught red-handed. 

  Everything in Hinata’s mind went completely silent, which confused him for a moment, wondering if he was falling asleep at that very moment. The machine only stopped when he truly needed rest, so why was the anomaly that is Komaeda’s very existence making those complex lines of cogs and wires stop in their tracks, just by being so close to him?

  He brushed off the possibility that had popped on his mind and slowly placed his hands around Komaeda’s shoulders, pushing the man away to hopefully make this less awkward. For a moment, it seemed like the luckster’s hands wanted to hold onto Hinata for just a bit longer, but immediately after his arms simply dropped to his sides, straightening himself up by himself as he brushed off Hinata’s hands from his shoulders, an awkward smile growing on his face.

  Hinata sighed, rubbing the back of his neck with one of his hands as the other just dangled around his side. He looked off to the side while Komaeda closed the door behind him slowly. Once it shut, the pale man clapped both of his hands and cleared up his throat, his eyes focused entirely on the right side of Hinata’s face.

  “Right, uhm… Just… Make this quick, okay? I really need to sleep…” — Hinata said, placing down the hand that once was on his neck, on his hips. The lights of the machinery that was his mind seemed to be turning back on slowly, and he really wished for a second to hug Komaeda so everything up there would quiet down.

  “Of course! I wouldn’t want to burden Hinata-kun, of all people, with the sight of myself… It will only take a minute or so!” — Komaeda replied with quite a weird enthusiasm. Hinata only rolled his eyes; this wasn’t at all the time for him to stress himself over the man’s self-loathing. But at that moment, Hinata remembered he had to question Komaeda about one more thing from that day.

  “Actually, before that… I really need to ask you something about the party…” — The spiky-haired man raised a hand, making his way back to his bed so he could sit down on its edge, just like last night. With that same hand, he offered the spot beside him for Komaeda to sit down, — “You… Told me something that day. At the campfire. Right?”

  “Hmm? Do you mean before you collapsed on me?” — The pale man tilted his head to the side, his eyes lingering at the spot Hinata had gestured to, before looking down at the same spot as before, — “Well, based on your reaction from then, you surely seemed to have heard something. But I hadn’t opened my mouth at all.”

  “Are you absolutely certain? It… Sounded just like you.”

  “You know I’m not a liar, Hinata-kun. I might be a scum, but even I wouldn’t treat you symbols of hope like this… If you mind me giving my theory; could you be misremembering things?”

  “I never remember things wrong. I can tell just fine when the events I recall are real or not…”

  “Ah, of course… I apologize for ever doubting someone as gifted as you… I will refrain from voicing my theories to you, of course Hinata-kun wouldn’t need my input with all of those talents…”

  Hinata let out a deep sigh, holding onto the bridge of his nose. He still felt completely drained mentally, and it didn’t seem like it would take much for him to lash out for the second time in these last hours. And Komaeda seemed to realize that, as he cleared his throat once again, dropping both of his hands behind his back and moving his head back in place.

  “Fine. Maybe I remembered something wrong… Or I just, imagined things, if I was really that tired, according to you last night.” — Hinata paused for a moment, rubbing both of his hands through his face, — “Right, right… What was it that you needed to talk with me?”

  “I can just tell you tomorrow, its fine. You seem tired once more, and I really don’t want to bother you any long-”

  “What. Did you want to walk with me?”

  Hinata saw Komaeda's body completely stiffen up, like a deer caught in headlights as his eyebrows arched upwards in shock. The brunet turned his attention to the floor, whispering an apology. It felt almost like deja vu. He was about to lose his posture just like with Nanami earlier, and he really, really didn’t want to fall asleep with an even worse feeling of guilt.

  “Rough day?” — The pale man spoke after a minute of silence, his posture much more relaxed. He strided slowly over to the spot in the bed Hinata had gestured towards earlier, who still couldn’t take his eyes off the floor.

  “Yeah… But- Please, you can tell me right now. I’ll think it over once I wake up, if it really is an emergency.” — Hinata looked over as Komaeda’s coat came slightly into view. The man now sat a bit further away from where he had offered. He had his legs crossed and had situated himself at the edge of the bed across from him.

  “Well… I merely wanted to ask if Hinata-kun would like to go to the ruins so I could show you what I saw… Like, right now. But, you don’t seem well, so we could simply try tomorrow?”

  Hinata’s body completely stopped working, with the exception of his mind that still worked on various thoughts. His eyes widened up; of course, the ruins. He had forgotten of its existence through almost the whole day, and if it weren’t for Komaeda just now, he wouldn’t have remembered it for god knows how many days. He needed to know what was inside, but… Not right now. His body still felt so damn tired. But he was going to forget it, and even if Komaeda reminded him, it wouldn't make a difference.

  “Yeah, about that… How do I explain this without it sounding just like bullshit…”

  “Oh, Nanami told me about it. You seem to forget to go to that place by the next day. I already have a plan prepared, in case we couldn't go today.” — Komaeda raised his arms, a grin rising on his face. Hinata felt like he was about to hear the worst idea in the world, and, well… — “How about I tie you up and drag you across at night to the ruins? With my so-called talent, I reckon I could pull it off even without your assistance. Not saying your help would mean a bad thing, of course… Haah.”

  Hinata must have heard it wrong. Right? Right???

  “Unless, of course… Hinata-kun might have some other idea? Judging by your silence and shocked expression… It seems like my plan isn’t that great… Well, I guess I should have expected this. How foolish…”

  “Yeah, no fucking shit!” — Hinata blinked rapidly, completely caught off guard by the most ridiculous way to get into a damn building, that one’s brain just did everything it could to prevent them from going in. I mean, it could work, he supposed. No one ever tried forcing him to go in. Not that anyone would, apart from Nanami, but this is levels of crazy and weird that the only person on this island would ever think of doing would be the headache that sat all giddy in front of him.

  “L-Look, I don’t think that it isn’t great… Maybe it could even work, but- Maybe I can think of something else. That just sounds so-” — He stopped to make an exaggerated movement with his hands, trying to put more visually the word he was trying to find, — “Embarrassing! What if someone walks in on us? Everyone already seems to look so strangely at you. This would just make it worse!”

  “Relax, Hinata-kun. I really don’t mind what others think of me, really. But, if you are so worried about it, well, I guess I can’t convince you otherwise…” — Komaeda giggled, his eyelids half closed as he finally stopped looking at Hinata’s face and now paid attention to some spot next to his feet. His right arm raised up, his hand loosely hovering over his face, — “To stand against hope, that is just not my thing. And I would hate to make you feel any form of despair… So, I’ll leave you to think of a better plan. I am certain you will be able to do it!”

  The word “despair” ringed against Hinata’s mind, just like it did back at the party. A word that felt extremely familiar, but he couldn’t at all figure out why. He knew very much the meaning of it. It was the opposite of what Komaeda has been praising so much these days. It is the result of losing all one’s hope, and falling into a feeling that can only be described as absolute despair…

  “You’re making the same expression from when you fell asleep on me, Hinata-kun…” — Komaeda looked up to Hinata, the smile on his face long gone as he noticed the state of the brunet. His arm dropped down a bit too quickly, and he pushed himself off the bed, — “I suppose I should leave you to rest… I have long since overstayed my time here, anyways. You said it yourself you need to sleep, so…”

  Hinata didn’t say anything. He only nodded slowly, hoping that Komaeda wouldn’t take it as if he was agreeing that the pale man’s presence there had long since become unwelcoming. He was just tired and he really needed to rest a bit so he could hopefully think of some way that Komaeda would be able to get him into the ruins without creating the most awful memory of his whole life.

  He pushed himself further into the bed, placing his arm over his eyes as he heard footsteps make their way to the door. He heard it click open and soon after the sound of the door open and close. Then, more faint footsteps that very clearly were not heading further into the little settlement of cottages, but he wasn’t going to question where Komaeda was heading off to.

  His consciousness very quickly drifted away, but this time, he didn’t feel the warm familiar feeling of something, or someone, closing in and holding him to protect him. It made him anxious, but he ignored it for now. He must just be too tired to really pay attention to anything going on inside his own head. Maybe this feeling wasn’t even real from the beginning.

  Despite his best efforts to think of something else that didn’t involve getting tied up and dragged off to somewhere he didn’t seem to remember, he couldn’t think of any other alternative. Komaeda was extremely weak, somehow even more than Saioji, who at most times just eats nothing more than gummies. Though, at least she commits to a healthy diet, if you ignore those snacks. The luckster doesn’t even care about what he would be eating for the day, much less the quantity. Hinata had a feeling that he might as well just be forced to eat spoiled food and he wouldn’t complain. Honestly, that possibility might even have been a reality, considering the crazy stories he had heard from the man himself.

  Back to the point… Hinata didn’t want to be unconscious through the journey to whatever place it was that Komaeda had to make such an insane plan to get him into, so the luckster couldn’t simply drug him and carry him. He wasn’t going to trust him to drive one of the golf cars that Souda had gone through hell and back to get working so we would have some way of moving around the islands without wasting so much energy. That man’s luck be damned, they were definitely going to get themselves in an accident, which might draw the attention from the residents, leading to the same fate if Hinata decided to follow through with Komaeda’s plan, but it honestly felt so much worse.

  So he simply gave up, and waited for when Komaeda would show up with hopefully just a rope. He didn’t want to think about how he was even going to be able to drag him, considering how, again, weak that man really is. But lady luck has its weird ways, even more so with Komaeda. 

  As the days went on, he felt something in his own subconscious telling him this was a bad idea. That all of this wasn’t worth it, for his own safety, and the others’. But he had to. It reminded him why he had agreed to such an egregious plan. He had to know what it was that Komaeda saw in those ruins. Who knew what would happen to the other residents if they saw it? The luckster had already changed quite a lot, and he had disappeared for whole days and hours. The island’s safety was in his hands, and he would do whatever was needed to keep everyone safe, even if it endangered himself.

  But that feeling quickly subsided. As 2 more days passed, he seemed to have already forgotten something important he had spoken with Komaeda. His memories were once again foggy and mumbled together. He gripped onto his head with a hand as he walked back to his cottage, trying to focus as much of his brain he could. He stepped into the path that divided into the boys and girls section of the cottages when he heard hurried steps approach him from behind. After so many years of living alongside the same people, as well thanks to his talents, Hinata could recognize exactly who each footstep belonged to, no matter what pace they were moving. 

  But those sounds didn’t seem to belong to anyone on the island. It sounded like some form of slippery sneakers, but the only people that used that kind of shoes would be someone like Nanami or Souda, but the weight between each step seemed too light for them. Everyone called out his name as well as they approached ever since the one time he punched Kuzuryu right on his missing eye out of pure defensive instinct. This had to be some stranger, surely. But how did they even get into the island? 

  His muscles tensed up. He curled his fingers into a fist and quickly turned around as those steps got even closer. But whoever, or even whatever thing that was, dodged swiftly to his side and soon enough, the figure was right behind him. He felt a jab soon after on the back of neck, a hit given with absolute and certain precision to hit nothing more than his nerve to incapacitate his whole body. And the figure succeeded, as Hinata quickly fell head-first against the concrete from the path. For a moment he could’ve sworn he heard something on his crack, but he still kept his mouth shut, only letting out a hiss of pain escape his mouth. He didn’t want to alert anyone that currently slept in the cottages, even if he couldn’t move at all. If he were to die right now, it didn’t matter. Everyone else would still be safe and someone could definitely take his place-

  “Ah… Hinata-kun, I hope you didn’t break your nose… I may have made a little bit of an oversight…”  

  Komaeda Nagito. Hinata thought for a second that he might have, be it by bad or good luck, stepped out of his cottage and come face to face with the perpetrator. But the voice came behind him and way above. Hinata heard those same sneakers move to the side and the shuffling of the luckster’s coat as he crouched down, placing gently his hands around the brunet’s arms, slowly turning him around.

  For a moment they both locked their eyes, and Hinata felt a strange feeling of familiarity, something akin to a deja vu. This exact same view… Komaeda hovering over him, his lips slightly parted. Except… There wasn’t any sand clawing onto his clothes. He hadn’t just woken up after passing out from being overcome by so many emotions. There wasn’t any rabbit that greeted their arrival on the beaches of…

  “Hinata-kun? You can speak, yeah? I hope Tsumiki didn’t lie to me or anything…”

  “H-Huh? Yeah… Yeah- What?!” — Hinata yelled out a bit louder than he would’ve hoped, catching Komaeda completely off guard as he stumbled back, almost completely falling on his back from just barely avoiding tripping on something behind him… A rope?

  “Haah, don’t tell me Hinata-kun has already forgotten our plan.” — The luckster sighed, pushing himself off the floor while he held onto the rope with one of his hands, — “I mean, I guess Nanami really was being honest, despite how crazy that sounded. But I thought it would take much longer for you to forget about it!”

  “What the hell are you talking about? Hey!-” — Hinata instinctively tried to move his hands towards Komaeda, despite the very vivid memory of mere seconds ago of getting struck right on his neck, incapacitating his entire body.

  Komaeda wrapped the rope around Hinata’s body, and that was when it finally clicked what was going on. Right, of course. A few days ago he had agreed to be tied up and dragged across Jabberwock so Komaeda could get him to see something that he had seen. Something that was… Where exactly?

  “Right, right, this plan… Are you uh, going to ever tell me where we are going?” — Hinata sighed, his eyes shooting up to the sky as he quietly tried to relax himself. He thought he saw some strange line between some stars, which seemed to connect to another line and another, but he probably was just imagining things.

  “I… Already told you?” — Komaeda finished tying up Hinata and rose up to his feet, grabbing onto the line of the rope that he had left out to be able to drag Hinata, — “So, you do remember about the plan… But not where we are going?”

  “Uh… Maybe I didn’t hear it…”

  “Hinata-kun, you never let anything you hear go unnoticed. Which, speaking of, is why I had to change my shoes, in case you were possibly wondering...” — Komaeda gave a quick pull to see if the rope was tidy enough and if he would be capable of moving Hinata’s body. He moved the man about 5 or so centimeters, which he hummed, pleased.

  “How… Did you know that?”

  “Hmm… Lucky guess.”

  Hinata sighed; of course the Ultimate Lucky Student would figure this out with purely luck. Komaeda was smart though, it wouldn't surprise Hinata if he was just bluffing, be it for whatever reason.

  They remained in silence, sometimes broken by Hinata grumbling from pain, which during the first time he complained, Komaeda opened his mouth to apologize, but it sounded more like he was cursing himself. When he hit his head again against more concrete and hissed from the sharp pain, Hinata cutted off the luckster before he could say anything, begging him to stop calling himself the most useless human being possible.

  Soon enough their destination became quite clear. They were heading towards the islet that had been labeled by the number 2, so at least Hinata didn’t have to worry about having a concussion by getting his head repeatedly banged against the floor… Well, maybe he was going to have it, actually, because through the whole way of the bridge, his head couldn’t stop rattling up and down against the floorboards. At one point he simply yelled out for Komaeda to shut his mouth completely, because he didn’t stop once apologizing.

  “Fucking hell- Are you sure I can’t simply walk? What could possibly be that needs me to be tied up like this?!”

  “I am so sorry… I’ll tell you in a few minutes, please trust me, Hinata-kun…”

  “Well in a few minutes I’ll just force you to say it anyways!” — Hinata wanted so badly to cross his arms at that moment, but his body still couldn’t respond and they were tied up by a rope, afterall. If his Ultimate Martial Artist was correct, it should only take him a few minutes, maybe something like 15. He wasn’t too sure, given that his brain was more focused on all of the pain he currently felt. Hinata didn’t even want to begin to think how much worse he’s going to feel after that timer runs out and his nerves start responding to him once more. God, how thankful he was for those talents now and whatever unexplainable factor it was that gave him a much higher tolerance to pain.

  At some point, Komaeda had purposely turned Hinata around so that he wouldn’t be able to see the building behind Komaeda. The brunet tried to argue, but he gave up after a minute as the other man’s smile didn’t twitch at all. He could slowly feel the pain from all the bumping against dirt and whatever else creeping through his body, which left him with a sour expression as he closed his eyes to focus on anything that wasn’t the fact he would have to rest for almost a week. And the pain, of course.

  “Haah… I thought just rendering Hinata-kun’s body useless would have made the trip less exhausting… But… You mind waiting a second for me to catch my breath?”

  “Yeah, yeah… Go ahead… I won’t be moving, for a while…” — Hinata scoffed, mumbling a thank you now that they finally stopped moving. He heard the sound of something hitting the floor beside him, which as he glanced to the side, was just Komaeda who threw himself back to lay down beside Hinata. He was breathing quite heavily, slightly faster than the average human, as well as for the beating of his heart, which Hinata could hear slightly. He really seemed tired. For some reason his Ultimate Doctor really wanted to focus on that. But soon after, once again, the machinery ceased and everything was silent in his mind. 

  Hinata only stared at the hair from the man beside him. Despite the pain slowly worsening, and the fact that he was still tied and his body was still rebooting, he really wanted to place a hand over on Komaeda’s face and fix the absolute mess that those white-colored hair strands looked after all the effort to drag Hinata’s body. He was always curious about what the lucky boy’s original hair color was. It was actually quite a fun way to pass time, throwing random guesses, at the same time using logic but also just the first color that came into mind. A lot of the time he would conclude that it might have been some form of orange, despite how much it didn’t seem to fit Komaeda’s somewhat alt-style. And now that he thought about it, it was quite weird seeing him using something that isn’t one of his many black boots, filled with spikes and unnecessary belts.

  He stopped himself from going any further in whatever rabbit hole he was about to go to just because of Komaeda. He truly was such an interesting puzzle to try and solve, despite how impossible it seemed to piece anything together and how blurry the image looked, making it impossible to start by placing the jigsaws from the corner and slowly slotting in the missing pieces in the middle.

  “Uh… Does everything hurt a lot? I still need to drag you inside…”

  Hinata blinked rapidly, completely caught off guard by the quiet raspy voice of Komaeda. He looked off to the side, clearing his throat as he felt his cheeks warm up once more, just like a few days ago when he had accidentally pulled the luckster to his embrace.

  “Fuck, yeah… But, I’ll be fine… It’ll probably pass in a few minutes…” — Hinata replied, his voice just barely failing as he fought himself to not grumble anymore complaints, — “Where did you bring me to? Its definitely not the beach house… I’m just barely feeling grass under my limp body. Thanks for that, by the way.”

  Komaeda laughed at the sarcastic remark at the end of Hinata’s sentence, pulling himself up to sit as he stretched out to grab the rope, which he then pushed himself to stand up. He took a deep breath and pulled Hinata even further, not bothering to answer the brunet’s question.

  “Hey, Komaeda… I’m sure you can tell me now… Just where are we-”

  He shut himself up as the tall building he had been ever so unlucky to forget to check out came into his view. He could only see the tower that stretched out to the sky, vines and roots having long overtaken it completely. Hinata always found those ruins strange and reminded him of some school, but he couldn’t ever place his finger on which one exactly. It felt familiar, just like the words of “hope” and “despair” that Komaeda had been praising and complaining, respectively. 

  Immediately, his mind started racing through a thousand lines of thoughts once again. And every single one told him to get out of there. But his body was still unresponsive, the pain in his body slowly growing as his nerves started to function once again. The rope was extremely tight, but he could probably find some sort of sharp rubble to place his body against and cut through it.

  Everything became dark in almost an instant, the only light he could see were from the moon outside and the far away lamp posts he had been begged to by the residents to install. But soon enough, the futuristic circular door he had always found to be the weirdest thing about that building closed, and Komaeda sighed out as he slumped down to the floor behind Hinata.

  Hinata heard the shuffling of a bag from where he had heard the luckster. For once his body started to listen to him as he wriggled side to side to hopefully loosen the rope. It actually worked quite more easily than he had expected. Maybe it really wasn’t as firm as he had been made to believe.

  He shot up to his feet, almost losing his footing immediately as his body seemed somewhat slow to respond still. The rope seemingly broke itself as soon as he started moving his arms around, which got a surprised hum from the man that sat behind him.

  “Well, cheers to whoever’s luck did that.” — Komaeda commented, a small laugh leaving his mouth as Hinata heard the sound of more shuffling and a bag being zipped shut. Or maybe it was something else. 

  The room was completely pitch black and as Hinata turned around to face the pale man, he was immediately blinded by the light of something coming out of Komaeda's hand, the other hand which now grabbed onto something on his chest.

  “No flashlights on my face! No flashlights!” — Hinata quickly yelled out, his arms pulling up to shield his eyes from the blinding light. Komaeda slowly moved the light that most likely came out of a flashlight away from the brunet’s face, the light now facing down but still in an angle that illuminated their faces somewhat.

  Hinata dropped his arms back to his sides once he felt the light subsided and as he looked down at what was in Komaeda’s hand, he was certain now it was just a flashlight. The taller man laughed once more, — “Ah, I’m so sorry… I merely got a bit curious… But I guess I could’ve tried this out some other way that didn’t hurt Hinata-kun more then I’ve already hurt you tonight…”

  Hinata opened his mouth, ready to scold Komaeda, even though he had no blame in the fact he almost caused his own flashlight to die out just because he dared to try to see what lied beyond the right side of his face, but he was taken back as his attention was caught instead to the corridor behind the man. Komaeda quickly turned his head around once he noticed where Hinata was looking, his shoulders tensed up but soon after relaxing once he realized there was nothing there. He took a deep breath, turning himself completely and started walking down the apparent hall. Now, Hinata could somewhat make sense of what it was that the luckster held on, which it was as he had suspected as well, to just be a black bag, with the top shaped somewhat like a cat’s head. It reminded him of the pink one Nanami carried around, which made him wonder if she had given it to Komaeda or had he found it on some random spot, knowing how his luck worked after Hinata observed it for years.

  But he decided to leave that question for some other time. Hinata followed somewhat behind Komaeda, keeping up as much as he could as his body, especially his back and head, ached.

  “Oh, right. I don’t have any other flashlights… Hinata-kun wouldn’t mind if I took the lead with it, yes? I am the tour guide after all.” — Komaeda looked back briefly to the smaller man, a smile growing on his face. Hinata didn’t give any answers. He continued to look around their sides until the white-haired man hummed in search of confirmation.

  “Huh? Oh… Yeah, its fine… I think I adjusted well enough to the dark already, I won’t need it.” — Hinata just replied with the first words his mind had prepared to quickly dismiss Komaeda so as to not waste any time analyzing the space around them, — “So this is a school…”

  “You already figured that out? Well, I suppose there’s still some signs lying around that would give it away. A shame, I wanted to tell you later as a surprise… But, its hard to hide anything from you, isn’t it?”

  “Well, except when its something you are hiding from yourself…”

  Hinata’s thoughts halted as those last words echoed against the ruined halls. He reached a hand to grab onto Komaeda’s arm, which happened to be his right one, the one involved in bandages, — “What the hell was that for?”

  “Huh? I was complimenting your talents, Hinata-kun. I apologize… Did it sound like I was judging you?” — Komaeda sheepishly replied, trying to pull his right arm back on instinct as soon as Hinata had touched.

  “No, no, that I understood. But you said something after…”

  “I… Didn’t say anything?” — Komaeda looked down at Hinata’s hand, his brows furrowed as he tried once more to pull away from his grasp. Hinata blinked rapidly and let go of the man’s arm, fearing that he might have been holding onto it to give a bit too much force.

  “Your lips were moving and it clearly was your voice coming out of it, Komaeda. What do you mean… Me hiding something from myself?”

  The luckster eyes fluttered at the mention of his name, a shiver running through his body, Hinata had barely noticed. Komaeda looked off to the side, before turning back to where he was facing, — “Hinata-kun. I didn't say any of that… And I’m not a liar, remember?”

  “Yeah… Sorry. I guess… I must be hearing things wrong, again.” — Hinata replied with a tint of anger seeping through his voice which he hadn’t realized had made it through. Komaeda only sighed deeply, and they continued walking in complete silence.

  In that silence, Hinata took this moment to try to make sense of what this place was. A completely runned down school, sealed away by an even oddly placed futuristic door. Which, from what he remembered, seemed to be only opened through a keypad next to the door, which required a password to be imputed. He never got the opportunity to try to piece together whatever clues there were to find the code. There wasn’t anything that stood out on the islands that could have served as a clue to the answer, so how did Komaeda figure it out? Was it just his luck once again? Hinata had his own, too, but he supposed it wasn’t as extreme as the other man’s.

  “Hey, uhm… How did you get in here? Well, most importantly… How did you figure out the password?” — Hinata finally broke through the awkward silence as they turned around a corner, the light shining at a series of staircases that lead upwards.

“ The same way that always gets me what I want. Luck.” — The luckster replied, and Hinata could just tell by the way Komaeda spoke that he was smirking, — “Sorta, actually. You know the amusement park over in number 4?”

  “Yeah… Don’t tell me it was hidden somewhere in that fuckass funhouse?”

  “God, no. If I had searched everywhere and had only that place left to find the code, I would’ve just given up. I could be forced by my kidnappers to go in there, and I would fight tooth and nail to not go in there.” — Both of the men laughed. For a moment Komaeda seemed to say something, but he changed his mind, — “The code was actually just lying around on that castle. Yeah, the one we couldn’t ever figure out how to get in.”

  “Is that so? And how did you go in? Luck?” — Hinata picked up his pace to stand beside Komaeda, bumping his elbow against the man’s left arm, which got another laugh out of him.

  “You know me so well, Hinata-kun.” — Komaeda replied with a smirk on his face. The way his voice lingered on his name made Hinata shiver for a moment, not exactly sure as to why, “There was a gap at the back of the castle, but after I explored and left, a bunch of rubble fell down and blocked it. Such good luck and bad luck, one moment after the other…”

  “I think you should be less sad about the fact you won’t be going back inside, and more happy that your luck didn’t make it fall on your face…” — The brunet scoffed, rubbing a hand over his elbow. His body still ached so badly from earlier. Komaeda only shrugged, stopping on his tracks once they reached the first step of the stairs.

  “You think your back can handle a flight of stairs?” — Komaeda looked over to Hinata, the flashlight just barely hovering over his face, threatening to shine over his face once again.

  “Does it look like I got a choice…?”

  “Nnnope.”

  “Urgh… Can’t you just tell me what’s up there?”

  “Its much easier if Hinata-kun sees for himself.”

  “Well, then you should have thought about a better plan that didn’t fuck over my back-”

“What are you both doing here?”

  Both men turned their heels around to look behind themselves, the ever familiar voice of a tired woman surprising both of them. Nanami Chiaki, the Ultimate Gamer, stood just a few steps away from them. How did Hinata not hear or see her following them?

  Komaeda quickly shone the flashlight over Nanami, who raised her arms up to shield herself from the light. She closed her eyes and sighed deeply, moving her hand loosely to signal the luckster to move over the object.

  “Nanami? Shit- When did you get in here?” — Hinata hovered a hand over Komaeda’s hand that held the flashlight, petting it lightly as if to tell him that it was fine to lower it. Nothing.

  So Hinata turned his head around to look over at Komaeda. He looked like he was completely frozen. His eyes stared with those same spirals, a mixture of both hope and despair, somewhere right above where Nanami stood. His mouth was agape, and as Hinata followed his eyes; there was nothing. Nothing at all. So what the hell…?

  The small woman still covered her face with her arms, grumbling something to herself. Hinata grabbed Komaeda’s hand, which seemed to take him out of the trance he was. The brunet backed off, completely caught by surprise from Komaeda taking a deep breath, like he had just submerged from the deep waters, looking for any form of air to reinvigorate his lungs. He dropped the flashlight and his hand gripped onto the bandages of his right arm, his eyes now looked down at his feet. Was this a panic attack? Had he been caught so off guard by Nanami’s sudden appearance that it scared him this badly?

  “Hey, hey, Komaeda- Focus- Look at me, please- Hey!” — Hinata moved over to the front of Komaeda, gripping onto his shoulders as he slowly pulled him further down so that both of them were eye to eye. For a moment, the pale man’s eyes softened once he was in his sight.

  But soon after, Komaeda swatted Hinata’s hands away with his arms, stepping onto one of the steps of the stairs behind them. His breathing seemed to steady itself as he placed his left hand over the wall and rubbed his eyes with the right one. He took a deep breath and without a word, merely turned around and started heading upstairs.

  Hinata felt conflicted. Once more his consciousness screamed for him to leave. Nanami slowly approached him, grabbing the flashlight that had been dropped and placing her free hand over one of his shoulders.

“Hinata… I think… We should head back.” — She whispered from behind, her voice sounding as tired as ever. Strangely, however, it felt like she wasn’t suggesting that they should leave, but rather, ordering it. Like the input of a controller, demanding that their character performed the action that the player needed. Like an administrator's command, requesting the termination of their program’s process.

  “But, you’re so close… I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take a look, right?” — Nanami spoke again, but it seemed like she was contracting the words she had just said barely a second ago. It was her speaking, right?

  “Hinata… Whatever it is that you are hearing… Please. Do not listen to it. I cannot follow you beyond this point… I can’t protect you.”

  “I… Need to know. What if the others… I can’t leave him.”

  “It is… Corrupted. It needs to be quarantined, and I cannot risk you coming near it. Please…”

  “That won’t eliminate it.”

  > ... _ 

  > Do you understand the risk we are about to take? 

  > ... _

  > Okay. 

  > Please. Be careful. _

  Nanami slowly lets go of Hinata’s shoulder. The man takes a step forward onto the stairs. And then another. Another. You won’t regret this, don’t worry.

  Hinata climbed through a few flights of stairs. He couldn’t be bothered to count. He couldn’t care for what rubble and rooms lay around these other floors. He knew where he had to go. After him. After the truth.

  Like the white rabbit, leading you to the depths of wonderland, in search of the truth.

  Hinata stopped moving when he saw a classroom’s door, right in the middle, between the stairs he stood and another one that led to another floor, another place. Despite the absolute darkness and dust clinging to this school, somehow, an unnatural glow kept coming out of the wooded orange door in front of him. It was completely clean. That was where he had to go. Where the truth awaited him. Something that despite everything he did, he couldn’t hide it forever from himself.

  He slowly approached the door. He felt once more familiar strands of long hair hover over him, coming out of something, or someone, right behind him. Hinata wanted to turn around into the embrace of those hands. But… The truth was right here. For once, he needed to do things for himself, without someone looming over him, protecting him. 

  He deserved to know what was kept so hidden here.

  Hinata placed his hands over the doorknobs of the door. He took a deep breath and pulled it open. He closed his eyes for a moment. The moment he would open it, there was nothing he could do to go back.

  He slowly opened his eyes. He saw some sort of white fabric right in front of his eyes. And soon enough, he realized that was Komaeda’s shirt. Hinata looked up, to those familiar greyish green eyes. They looked down at him, a glint of what seemed like… pity…

  “You’re not the one supposed to see this…”

  “...Huh?”

  Komaeda grabbed Hinata by his arms and quickly dragged him down the stairs. The brunet tried to look back at what was inside, but instead he almost tripped down the stairs, which Komaeda held onto him for just a moment to prevent him from falling, before continuing to pull him out of there. Out of the ruins.

  As they ran out of there, Hinata noticed that Nanami had long since disappeared after he had gone… He had gone… Where was he headed before Komaeda grabbed onto him? And why did all the pain from being dragged against literal concrete disappear?

  His mind was completely quiet, but in a completely uncanny way. He couldn’t feel the presence that resided on the back of his subconscious. It was like… He had disappeared. Like he was never there.

  Once both set foot outside of the ruins, the door behind them immediately shut, the distant sound of a big safe’s mechanism slotting back into place to lock away the school. Komaeda let go of Hinata’s arms, and the smaller man simply fell head first into the grass, believing that he was still being dragged by the luckster.

  As he pushed himself back up, mumbling from the pain, he sat down and rubbed a hand through his forehead. Why was everything still so silent? Why wasn’t the machinery moving?

  “Hinata… Are… You okay?”

  Hinata looked up to a rather odd sight. Sonia Nevermind, the Ultimate Princess, had her knees bent slightly, her hands gripping onto her knees as she bore a worried expression. Behind her seemed to be Owari, who had her fists clenched as she showed her teeth to whatever was in her sight, and right next to her, Kuzuryu who looked just where the taller woman beside him did, as well as Souda who stared briefly at Hinata, completely taken back before looking up beyond, the same spot the other two next to him were looking at.

  Soon enough, more footsteps approached their direction, and Hinata tried as much as he could to recognize who those sounds belonged to, but they were overlapping each other too much. He didn’t have this difficulty before. What was going on?

  “Holy fucking shit, what is that?” — Souda yelled, earning a slap on his forearm from Koizuimi who had just arrived next to him.

  “The gates of hell… They have at last seeped their way into the overworld…” — Tanaka spoke right after, gripping onto his scarf while he tried as much as he could to hide away the fear that seemed to creep into his face.

  “E-Everyone, please step back! Hinata-kun, a-are you hurt?” — Tsumiki broke through the crowd, rapidly crouching beside Sonia who was now looking up at wherever everyone else seemed to, with the exception of the Ultimate Nurse that appeared extremely worried about Hinata, who shook his head rapidly and looked back at where everyone was looking.

  There was nothing other than the ruins he had just gotten out of. Wait… Did everyone now see it? Up until this point, the only people that seemed to acknowledge that building was him, Nanami and just recently, Komaeda… What the hell was going on???

  “Is this… A school?” — Hanamura whispered as he held onto his chef’s hat like at any point the wind would sweep it away from his head.

  “Why would a school need such a funky looking door?” — Mioda chimed in, the usual enthusiasm she spoke with every word had been replaced with pure skepticism and fear.

  “Well, it looks quite ugly. Hey, you sloppy pig, are you sure Hinata didn’t get any weird bacteria after leaving such a run down place like this?” — Saionji quickly appeared next to Koizuimi, looking down at Tsumiki who yelped out a stuttering apology. She was the only one who appeared completely indifferent in regards to the seemingly sudden appearance of a run down place in front of everybody. But she was clearly scared, as she held onto Koizuimi’s hand while her own hand trembled.

  Hinata covered his ears with his hands, bringing his knees up as he almost turned into a ball. This was all too much. Too much. Too much!

  “Hinata-kun… Are you okay?”

  His eyes shot up behind him, a familiar raspy voice. Komaeda stood still, his left hand half-way reaching down to Hinata. Next to him, Nanami gripped into her hoodie’s cat hood, her eyes constantly shifting between the residents that stood in front of the 3. She looked down at Hinata and slowly approached him, grabbing him from under his arms and helping him stand. He still held for a few seconds onto her, feeling a light sensation of dizziness overcome him. He heard Sonia yell out something to the other residents, and soon enough, everyone’s voices seemed to disappear, leaving only the faint rustling of the grass below them.

  Hinata took a deep breath, then another, and another, closing his eyes. His mind was still extremely quiet. Where was it? Those talents? Him? His breathing began to slow down. He looked back at Komaeda, who stared right ahead to the others.

  “Komaeda…”

  “Later.” — The luckster replied. His left hand was formed into a fist, digging onto his own skin. It moved left and right, and Hinata assumed he most likely was trying to resist the urge to reach out onto something.

  Hinata blinked a few moments, and each time, his eyes remained closed for even longer. He heard Nanami call out for his name, and a few seconds later, she mumbled something. Right after, he felt two pairs of hands hold onto both of his hands, one that seemed to belong to the girl and the other pair, to Tsumiki. 

  Hinata let his consciousness drift away once more, and for the first time, there was nothing, or no one, reaching out to hold him. It felt like he was about to fall into an endless void, nothing to ease his fall. There was nothing telling him that everything was going to be fine, that tomorrow he would forget everything. Everyone would.

  There was merely silence… And soon enough, the absolute darkness, as the sounds from the world around him vanished away.

  This wasn’t the first time he felt alone. He had been alone before, many, many times. He just couldn’t let himself remember.

  But he wasn’t here anymore. It was just Hinata Hajime: the man with no talent, who wished he could become a god.