Then, who are you?

*This story is based off of the anime, Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School, Despair Arc*

“And who are you?” He said.

That’s where it all went downhill. He didn’t remember me. Back then, I realized how I had underestimated this whole game. I wasn’t a game at the time to me- it was my life. But that just proves how naive I was. Lives were meaningless to her. I really thought that I could end this, but it’s pretty hard for one girl to stop the end of the world against a mastermind who had been planning this her whole life. But, there was nothing I could do now, except grab a bucket of popcorn, a soda, and watch the beginning of this twisted story.

“But-don’t you remember me? Not even all the games we played together after school? For all those months? You’re Hinata. Even though your hair is different and so are your eyes. ” I protested.

“Oh, that must have been before.” He stared back at me, his eyes seemed to show no emotion.They were nothing like the eyes I remembered, full of joy and hope. It didn’t help that I was next to my possibly dead classmate, Komaeda. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. He was pulling out the gun, almost shooting him, but the next moment, Hinata had the gun and was pointing it at Komaeda, there was a shot, but yet his e-handbook somehow blocked the bullet from injuring him. He had been knocked out, but he wasn’t moving. Maybe he was dead?!

“Before? What do you mean?” I asked.

“Before the surgery. They removed all aspects of the person before me such as memory, personality, everything. For all you know, I’m a totally different person.” His voice was flat, with no emotion. It seemed that they had stripped him of any emotion, along with his memories. How could they be so cruel? Humans weren’t just some test subject. Unless, he had agreed to something like this. But the Hinata I knew would never. What would make him agree to such a thing?

“I know you’re Hinata. Deep down, I bet you know it too.” I said these words with more conviction than I thought. I truly meant them. “I’m Chiaki- Chiaki Nanami.”

“Honestly, what makes you think you know me? I told you, I’m nothing like this “Hinata” you knew before.” He said this a bit angrily. It seemed that I had gotten through to him, I just needed a bit more time. 

“If you’re not Hinata, then who are you? And what happened?” After I said that, the questions hung in the air, waiting to be answered. Neither of us spoke, we just stared at each other.

“Kamukura, who’s this chick?” A girl came by, with blonde hair and blue eyes, and two pigtails, sticking out of her head. “As much as I love a nice reunion, I think you two have stared at each other long enough.”

“She’s probably a classmate of Komaeda.” He looked down at me, like I was a piece of trash. I would never expect him, of all people looking at me like that. It hurt. No, I believed if he dug deep enough, he would find who he was before. All the times we played on the Nantendos, and every time we went to the game shop when a new fighting game hit the stores. Even though I beat him all the time, he never really seemed bothered by it. Those memories, feelings, they couldn’t just be wiped away just like that. What did they do to him? 

“Oh wait- I remember you, you’re class 77’s representative. Chiaki Nanami, Ultimate Gamer. You’ll be the perfect subject.” She said this with a very calculating manner, the opposite of the overly happy girl she was a few seconds before.

“How-how do you know all of that? And what do you mean b-.” I asked. As far as I knew, I had never met her.

“Because I want to meet you of course! You took the time to come down here, I just had to meet you! Now we’re going to watch a video and it’s going to blow your mind!” She exclaimed. She seemed overly happy again, it was hard to tell if she was faking or not. 

Suddenly, my homeroom teacher, Chisa Yukizome, burst in the room and threw a smoke bomb.“Nanami! Take Komaeda and go!”

”Wha-?” How did she get here, I thought that this was a top secret place. Did someone tell her? Maybe it was that boy that was here earlier. Then she must have went down the stairs, if she went down the stairs, that means I still have a chance to get out and warn the others!

“Honestly, what horrible timing, I was ready to fill the girl’s mind with despair, this appearance makes this seem like an anime or something where the hero comes in at the right time.” Pigtail girl said. But this isn’t an anime. This is real life, and fill my mind with despair, what did she mean? And if Ms. Yukizome stays, what’s going to happen to her? The school year isn’t over yet, we just got you back. My classmates need you, and so do I. Ms. Yukizome, please don’t go.

“What-Ms. Yukizome, what about you-?” I asked, but I could barely see through all the smoke. Worst of all, the smoke had made me start to cough. I stared to double over, coughing. Everything seemed blurry and disoriented. But I had to get out, but I also didn’t want to accept the fact that I might lose her, she had helped me in so many ways, she was one of the reasons I had decided to introduce everyone to gaming and it had brought the class together. She had helped me create bonds with all of my classmates. She was the reason that I met him. Hinata. I wasn’t ready to lose her just yet. 

“Take him, dammit!” She helped me up and pushed Komaeda into my arms. “Even though we’re not in the classroom, I’m still your teacher.” Even though I could barely see, I had a feeling that she was smiling at me. I guess I had no choice. But I swore to myself that I would come back, for him. I would help him become Hinata again. If I couldn’t do that, I guess we would just start anew, and become friends again. I don’t care how long it takes or if it’s the last thing I do.

The last thing I heard when I was stumbling out of the room, dragging Komaeda was the pigtailed girl saying, “Well, I guess we have our next test subject! Get ready, everybody! This is going to be fun, fun, fun!”