Chapter Text
C H A P T E R # 0 1 : Confusion
Nagito sat there, looking at the entire scene with a dumbfounded expression. Everyone around him are acting normal, it's as if they think that the greatest, most despairing tragedy didn't happen. He wanted to ask someone if they know what's happening. However, for some reason, he couldn't move his mouth to speak. Nagito felt stunned, speechless, and overwhelmed at this situation.
'Is this a dream?' he thought to himself.
For the sake of confirmation, Nagito pinched his cheek very hard. It hurts, so that means it isn't a dream.
He immediately calms down, which spares him from getting weird stares if he screams right now. He thinks for a while, trying to remember what happened. Both him and Hajime were hit by the odd technology that Souda was holding, which accidentally fell onto the ground and exploded. It released a flash of green light, only hitting both of them in the process.
Judging by how he observed his current surroundings, it seems that he got sent back to the past. Could it be that the device that Souda was holding.... Was it a time machine, not a teleporter?
'I wonder if Hajime also got sent here with me...' Nagito thought, feeling nostalgic as he continues to look around the place.
It didn't took a while, Chisa Yukizome noticed something strange about Nagito. Unlike before, the boy seemed regretful and longing. This concerned the teacher and called him out.
"Komaeda-kun, are you alright?" she asked in concern.
Nagito blinked, snapping out from his thoughts as he noticed the teacher talking to him.
"Eh?" he says, noticing that everyone in the classroom are looking at him. He felt awkward, overwhelmed, and confused, but he tried to keep his cool. "Oh, sorry, I'm fine. To think you would care for a lowly scum like me, as expected of our teacher. There's no need to waste your concern for a pathetic trash like me." he chuckled with assurance.
Everyone just sighed. His classmates looked at him, clearly weirded out. While some of them looked annoyed.
Yukizome-sensei scolded him about not being a lowly scum, telling him that he shouldn't think that way about himself. Nagito tries his best to contain all of his emotions as he sees Yukizome-sensei talking to him alive and breathing.
'Am I really in the past?.... This felt so unreal, but it is the only theory I could come up right now.' Nagito thought. He also wondered about Hajime's whereabouts right now. Could it be that he's still in the Reserve Course? It better be, because it would be bad if he arrived in a timeline where Hajime is already Izuru Kamukura.
Nagito thought of going there immediately and see him, but he brushed off the thought, thinking about the possibility that the boy might not remember him. He frowned, feeling sad about that thought. If Hajime doesn't remember him, that means they are both strangers once again.
"U-Um.. Komaeda-kun..." a shivering voice interrupted his thoughts.
Nagito snapped back to reality, facing the person who called him. He sees Mikan looking at him with a concerned expression.
"A-Are you really okay?... You l-look pale... Do you want me to check up on you?..." Mikan says, then a moment later, she cried and started apologizing. "I-I'm sorry i-if I'm bothering you!"
Nagito raised both of his hands, trying to calm down the girl. "Oh, don't worry, you're not bothering me. A lowly trash like me wouldn't dare to insult an ultimate like you." he says with a comforting tone.
As Nagito tries to get to stop Mikan from crying, his attention lands on Fuyuhiko. He couldn't help but stare at the yakuza who still has two eyes instead of one. This gave him memories about how they all used to live their lives as students who aren't yet a Remnant of Despair.
Fuyuhiko noticed the weird stares coming from Nagito, which made him snap at the marshmallow haired boy.
"Bastard. What are you looking at? Is there something on my face?" he glared menacingly.
"Your eye...." Nagito mumbled. For a moment, he realized that he said it a bit loud, making him quickly snap his mouth shut.
"Hah?" Fuyuhiko arched a brow, looking at him weirdly. "What? You've got a problem with my eye?" he asked, narrowing his gaze.
Nagito chuckled nervously and shook his head. "Sorry, I didn't mean to stare." he apologized, which made Fuyuhiko click his tongue. Then he turned to Mikan, trying to assure her. "Oh, and Tsumiki-san, I'm really fine. I'm just feeling a bit... tired. Just kinda sleepy." he tells the nurse.
Mikan stopped crying and smiled at Nagito. "I-I see then... You should get enough rest Komaeda-kun. L-Lack of sleep..is bad." she reminded him.
Nagito just smiled and nodded.
"Are you sure that there's really nothing wrong with you, Komaeda? You seem to be acting weird today." Peko asked in her usual calm voice. Judging by the tone of her voice, she seemed curious.
"What do you mean? This guy is already fucking weird to begin with." Fuyuhiko huffed.
Nagito just chuckled.
Everyone seems to be acting normal, they are like what they used to before. Slowly, Nagito has come to fully believe that he really is in the past. Once getting a full idea about everything that's going on, he immediately pulled out his phone, checking the date today.
He sighed in relief when he realized that he didn't land on a timeline where Hajime is already Izuru Kamukura. Not only that, he also didn't do the bombing incident yet, which means everything is still fine...for now. That means he haven't met Hajime yet. And now, Nagito is back in being alone again. He remembered that he didn't had much connection with everyone when they were still students in Hope's Peak Academy. Such thought made him sad again.
'We aren't the Remnants of Despair yet.... So what on earth should I do right now?...' he thought to himself. This situation made him somehow clueless, he thought about preventing the greatest tragedy. However, messing with time could have grave consequences. What if it caused a butterfly effect which results him ruining the future even more? Judging by his luck cycle, anything could go wrong too.
Nagito secretly took a glance at Chiaki. He would be lying if he says this isn't bothering him. After all the pain and sadness they experienced because of her death, it's so hard to not remember such despairingly horrible memories.
He remembered that Hajime told him that he used to hang out with Chiaki before the tragedy happened. So is it possible that Chiaki is currently hanging out with Hajime in this timeline? If that's the case, should he follow her in order to meet Hajime?
No, that would be probably weird. Not only that, Chiaki might wonder how Nagito knew about Hajime. He might be accused as a stalker since they haven't met yet.
Nagito started overthinking. He still couldn't bear the thought of him and Hajime being strangers again. Knowing his feelings for the brunet, it might be hard for him to act normal. Perhaps, it's better if Hajime doesn't remember him. A trash like Nagito doesn't even deserve to stand by his side, this is probably a punishment he must face for all the things he had done. Someone like Nagito isn't worth remembering anyway, he's just a piece of filth who deserves to be alone.
However, even despite those thoughts, he still wants to see Hajime.
A few minutes later, the class has finally ended. Looking at the clock, it seems it's already lunch time.
As most of the students went out the classroom, Nagito wondered if Chiaki visits Hajime at lunch. He looked at the ultimate gamer, who's now grabbing out her lunchbox. He watched her get up from the chair and walk towards the door. His other classmates also went outside.
Nagito sat there, feeling a bit hesitant. Despite the possibility of Hajime not remembering anything, should he still go out and find him?
Nagito thinks he must still go see Hajime, so that he could convince him to reject the Kamakura Project.
Yes, that's right. Despite the possibility that his beloved might not know or remember him, he will still search for him.
Being sent back to the past must be also a blessing, a sign that gives Nagito the chance to assist the symbols of hope, making hope shine even brighter. He felt honored to be granted by such opportunity, to think a disgusting bug like him would be blessed by such wonderful thing, he couldn't help but feel so lucky.
Once Nagito finally reached to a conclusion, he did something shameless such as following Chiaki. To think he would follow the ultimate gamer without asking for permission, he couldn't help but think how truly disgusting he is.
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Meanwhile, at the Reserve Course building, Hajime is now screaming internally in his thoughts. Just like Nagito, he also felt confused and overwhelmed by the situation. He couldn't help but almost freak out seeing Natsumi sitting beside him, especially his classmates, all alive and breathing.
Hajime used his hands to slap both of his cheeks, trying to confirm if this is a dream or not. He also tried pinching his cheek so hard that it hurt even more.
"Hey, dumbass. What the hell is up with you?" says a female voice, interrupting the brunet's thoughts.
Hajime turned to face the familiar blonde haired girl. He couldn't believe it in his eyes, Fuyuhiko's supposed to be dead sister is now talking to him.
"Hey, don't ignore me. Are you half asleep or somethin'? You look stupid right now." Natsumi huffed.
"Y-You're... You're alive..." Hajime blurted out, still in a daze.
"Hah?" Natsumi arched a brow, starting to glare daggers at him. "What the fuck do you mean I'm alive? Of course I am. Seriously, are you on drugs? You seem out of it."
Hajime raised both of his hands in defense, quickly shaking his head in denial about the ridiculous assumption. "What? Of course not!" he exclaimed.
Unfortunately, his voice was too loud which made the teacher and the students look in their direction. It felt embarrassing. However, Natsumi didn't really give a shit.
Hajime scratched his head, giving out an awkward smile. "Sorry, I was spacing out earlier... Just thinking a lot." he says, coming up with an excuse. He looked at everyone apologetically for suddenly interrupting the class.
Natsumi scoffed, proceeding to mind her own business. While the teacher just looked at Hajime in an annoyed expression and the students just shook their head, not really caring about it.
Hajime just sat there in silence, he's now panicking internally. Just what on earth is going on? Is he really high or something? Did the effects of having Izuru Kamukura's abilities cause him to hallucinate?
Brushing off those thoughts, for now, he should try first to take deep breath and assess the situation. As he scanned around the area, everything about it felt so familiar, so nostalgic. It made him remember how he used to sit here most of the time, staring at the main course building so longingly. He remembered those times how he was so desperate for talent, reaching to the point of signing a contract that would end up badly for him.
Hajime gritted his teeth, all the pain and regrets washed through him. Such bad memories made him want to hurl.
After a few moments, he composes himself and tries to remember what happened before ending up in this situation. Earlier, Souda was holding a weird ball-like technology, saying it was a teleporter. Then Mikan tripped and crashed onto the ultimate mechanic, causing both of them to fall on the ground and break the device. After that, a wave flash of green light was released, which directly hit him and Nagito.
From what Hajime observed, it seems the device wasn't just a teleporter... it was a time machine.
Speaking of Nagito, Hajime wondered if the boy was also sent here with him. He wasn't sure...
Should he go see him?
But what if he was wrong to assume that Nagito also got sent here with him?...
What if Nagito doesn't know or remember him?...
Those thoughts made Hajime frown, he felt sad at that moment. Doesn't that mean they would be strangers again?... He remembered that Nagito didn't like him yet because he's untalented, so it means they won't get along for a while in this timeline. Both of them didn't meet yet, Hajime hasn't met everyone yet in Class 77, except for Chiaki. So once again, Hajime is back again in such a gloomy place.
However, if he really travelled back in time.... Isn't this also an opportunity? Now that he had come to think of it, doesn't that mean he's back again in being talentless? He could just refuse the contract, then he won't be Izuru Kamukura. Then he wouldn't help Junko Enoshima in destroying the world, he also wouldn't have to go through lobotomy and other painful experiments once again. He wouldn't be a Remnant of Despair who would kill thousands of lives.
Now that he had come to think of it, doesn't that mean he's back again in being talentless
Hajime sat there in silence, waiting for the clock to struck at lunchtime.
He started scribbling in his notebook to kill time, clearly not listening to the teacher's lesson. Before he became Izuru Kamukura, Natsumi died because of Sato's misunderstanding about her killing Mahiru. Then after Natsumi's death, Fuyuhiko killed Sato as an act of revenge for the murder of his sister.
"Hinata."
"Hinata Hajime."
Hajime closed his eyes and thought about it for a while. Unfortunately, a loud voice interrupted him, making him snap back to reality.
"HINATA HAJIME! Are you listening to me!?" booms an angered voice.
He gulped when he saw his angry teacher, who's now looking at him in pure annoyance. It seems that he was scribbling so loud that it disturbed the rest of the class. He lowered his head in shame as he sees everyone looking at him in attention.
"Since you don't seem interested in listening to my lecture, I assume you probably know the lesson, so come forth and answer this problem. If you got it wrong, leave this class!" the teacher says with an angered expression.
Hajime started to sweat as his classmates were snickering at him, while others just looked annoyed. He felt so embarrassed at this situation. Honestly, it feels weird that he's back in class, going to school again when he's actually an adult (mentally).
A moment later, he heard some whispers coming from his classmates.
'That guy seems to be acting weird, is he half asleep or something?'
'Jeez, what on earth is with Hinata today? Is he trying to be funny?'
'What a weirdo, I guess I understand why he doesn't have friends.'
Hajime frowned at those comments. Rude. For your information, he has a friend in this timeline, which is Chiaki. He just decided to ignore his classmates and just stayed on his seat, looking at the problem on the board. It seems that their teacher was discussing about physics. The topic is all about distance and displacement.
'Shit. What should I do? Should I answer it? I don't even know what our lesson is right now.' he thought frantically.
Hajime gulped again, mentally reading problem number 3:
A laser beam is aimed 15.95 degrees above the horizontal at a mirror 11,648 m away. It glances off the mirror and continues for an additional 8570 m at 11.44 degrees above the horizon until it hits its target. What is the resultant displacement of the beam to the target?
For some reason, he immediately know the answer. He wondered why.
"20,202.70 meters..." Hajime blurted out, then he added, "...and the tangent for direction is 14.04°" he answered meekly.
Everyone's eyes widened in shock, looking at him in disbelief.
Hajime flinched, still nervous about why they're acting like that.
"U-Um, during my calculations, I rounded off all the numbers in nearest hundredths, that's why the final answer isn't a whole number..." he explained.
This made everyone gape at him even more. Natsumi was surprised and Sato gave him a curious glance.
Which made one student stand up in outburst.
"What the heck!? There's no way you could've answered that in a single glance! You probably just guessed the answer!" exclaims the random student.
"Yeah, there's no way you could've done that without writing your computations! That problem obviously has a long process of solutions. Heck, you even need to draw an illustration of a triangle for that!" says a female classmates.
The rest of the class also agreed with them, accusing Hajime about guessing the answer.
That's when Hajime realized that it wasn't something to be solved mentally, which made him more ashamed at the situation. So he's guessing that he probably got the wrong answer.
He's too overwhelmed by the time travel situation, which causes his mind to be a bit hazy. Of course there's no way he could think straight when getting transported suddenly in a different place.
In order to fix this, Hajime stood up and bowed at the teacher in apology, telling him that he'll just leave the class in order to spare himself from humiliation.
Just what on earth is he thinking? Guessing a problem like that? He isn't Izuru in this timeline for goodness sake, he's talentless. He doesn't have his abilities anymore because he is in the past.
After Hajime left the classroom, his classmates just chuckled about how he embarrassed himself.
The teacher shook his head in annoyance, muttering how rude the brunet was. Then he asked his other students if they want to answer the problem.
A moment later, there was one smart student who volunteered to answer and walked forward to solve the problem.
Once the female student finished answering the problem, she gasped in shock.
This made the teacher wonder why his student is suddenly surprised. "What's wrong, Ayumu?" he asked.
"Teacher.... Remember what Hinata said earlier?"
"Yes?... What about it?"
"He said the answer was 20,202.70 meters.... It is also the final answer I've reached into..."
At that, everyone gaped at her, even others stopped talking and shifted their attention towards the smart girl.
"W-What did you say?" the teacher asked. He looks baffled.
"He even got the tangent of direction right, it's 14.04°" the female student said.
At that moment, everyone choked on their salivas.
Meanwhile, Hajime is contemplating whether he should go see Chiaki or the 77th class. Heck, he doesn't even know if he should go see Nagito later... despite the possibility that the albino might not remember him...