You could do nothing but follow security to the school building. Chisa located Hajime's homeroom and led everyone there.
"Wait! Seriously!" You were caught up in the stampede, having to seriously hustle to keep up with the brutes.
Juzo aggressively stormed into Class 1-A, wasting no time knocking.
"Hajime Hinata! We're looking for Hajime Hinata!" he bellowed. The classroom went silent. You pushed your way to the front of the group and stumbled into the classroom, falling against Juzo. Standing straight, you immediately looked to Hajime's seat at the back of the room. Hajime had already bolted up in surprise and cringed away from the dozens of eyes on him.
"You Hinata?" Juzo called to the teenager.
"Y-yes." Hajime's voice barely escaped his throat. Upon his answer, several guards hurried across the classroom and apprehended him, holding him by either arm. "What's happening? What did I do?"
"Don't say a word. You're coming with us," Juzo said.
"What?!"
"Hajime!" You ran to his side, just as panicked as he was.
"What's going on?" Hajime asked.
"I don't know. I don't know at all." You stayed close to him.
"Let's go!" Juzo yelled, leaving the classroom. The guards began dragging Hajime out of the room, giving him no chance to get on his feet.
"Stop! Don't be so rough!" You followed them out.
Back in the hallway, Hajime finally stood and brushed the guards off of him. "Quit it. I won't resist." The guards allowed Hajime to walk on his own under strict supervision.
"Hajime, they found poison in your room. In the milk carton you threw away." You stayed close to Hajime and explained what you could.
"What? How did that happen?"
"I don't know. There's no way you're responsible." You shuffled silently alongside him. "Right?"
"(y/n), I would never do something to hurt you. I had no part in this."
"Good."
"Knock it off, you two." Juzo stepped harshly between and shoved you both apart. "We don't need you deliberating with the suspect."
You groaned, the push jostling your system and reinvigorating your headache. Geez, all this commotion on top of being sick. I feel terrible.
Your leg unexpectedly gave out and you almost fell to the floor, just barely catching yourself. "Sorry..." you exhaled, unable to think between the pain and the adrenaline.
"Are you alright?" Hajime ignored Juzo's attempted separation, returning to you and placing his hands on your shoulders.
"I'm okay. Thank you." You kept walking.
"You should probably head back to the academy," Chisa suggested.
"No, I'm staying with him." You refused. "Where are we going?"
"To Jin's office. We have to let him know what we found. You'd better get ready to start confessing, Hinata." Juzo never dropped the bad guy routine.
"I have nothing to confess," Hajime stated.
"Don't bother with the lies."
"He has nothing to confess." You echoed Hajime statement, begrudgingly taking advantage of your Ultimate status.
"You aren't required to defend him, it's okay." Juzo immediately took a lighter tone to you. The discrimination here is unbearable.
The entire group entered the principal's office, forcing Hajime in. The guards left, leaving the two students and the two alumni with Principal Kirigiri.
"(y/n), there's no need for you to stay here. We can take it from here." Jin sat at his desk, his hands clasped together.
"I'm not leaving." You couldn't come up with a good reason to warrant you staying, but you hoped that your sternness would be strong enough.
Fortunately, it was. "Have it your way. Everyone, please take a seat."
"Hajime Hinata, you're currently convicted of poisoning the students of Class 77 by tainting the depressors in the infirmary and storing the rest of the poison in your dorm. What do you have to say for yourself?" Juzo remained standing.
"I didn't do anything." Hajime kept his speech to a simple sentence.
"There's no point wasting time lying. We can get this over with a lot quick if you'd just be honest."
"I'm not lying. I don't know how that evidence got to my room." Hajime didn't break eye contact with Juzo. The two men seemed to be engaged in a mental battle of fortitude.
"Quit being so stubborn. Get on with a confession and and your punishment will be less severe."
"I have no confession to make. The current evidence that exists isn't even incriminating. Where it was located just isn't enough." Hajime's brow furrowed.
"Of course it is. Nobody but yourself and faculty has access to your individual dorm. If you even think of suspecting faculty, you're out of your mind."
Juzo's right. Nobody else could get in.
"Do you plan to accuse someone of planting it in your room? Have you had any guests that you plan to blame?" Juzo continued.
"No. Nobody's been in my dorm but me."
"You're only incriminating yourself further, then."
"I know." Hajime blinked. His movements remained minimal as he took a moment of silence to think furiously. "Somebody could've put it in the milk before it was delivered, to incriminate a random student."
"There's too much of a coincidence to believe that," Juzo countered.
"Coincidence? What coincidence is there? I am a random student, am I not?" Hajime's tone raised ever so slightly. Keep calm, Hajime. Don't lose it.
Juzo sighed. "(y/n), you know this student personally, don't you?" He finally broke eye contact with Hajime to look at you.
He's interrogating me now? "Uh, yeah."
"What's he like? Does he have that sort of desire to be an Ultimate like most of those Reserve kids?"
"Um..." Well, yeah. He does. If I answer truthfully, Hajime will only look more suspicious. They're definitely looking for someone who would want to get into the Main Course through illegal means, similar to Natsumi. "He doesn't-"
"Yeah, I do. I admire the Main Course." Hajime replied in your stead. "You don't have to make (y/n) answer that."
"There you have it. You're going to tell me that it's a coincidence that somebody that's close with an Ultimate and wants to be in the Main Course has ownership of incriminating poison?"
"Like you said, most of the Reserve kids have 'that sort of desire to be an Ultimate.'" Hajime forced Juzo to look back at him. "It's not that far of a stretch."
"None that know an Ultimate personally. If anything, your friend could have conspired with you."
"Why would I conspire to poison myself?" You failed to see the logic behind his statement.
"People do crazy things for love." Juzo spoke as if he had experience in the subject.
"Wha-?! It isn't love. We're not in a relationship." You protested. Whether or not you were opposed to the idea, you didn't want the possibility to work against you two.
"Regardless, we can't deny that likelihood."
"You're going to convict an Ultimate of a crime against themselves? That's absurd!" Hajime went back to your original point. "If I was doing this with the intent to kill a student to get in the Main Course and (y/n) was willing to work with me, there's no way (y/n) would die for that sake, no matter how much we meant to each other."
"If I wanted to let him into the Main Course, I'd drop out before I'd resort to dying," you added.
"I can't fault that." Jin Kirigiri approved your point.
"There's something else," Hajime declared, apparently having thought of something. "I couldn't have gotten into the academy, much less the nurse's office. Security never lets Reserve Course students in."
Good point.
"Unless you think your security has become sub-par, Mr. Sakakura." Hajime took no fear in jabbing at the head of security.
Juzo frowned. "There's no way we would have let you slip through." As much as he wanted to convict Hajime, he also didn't want his pride to be hurt by a possible hole in his department.
This is getting somewhere. We're getting closer to proving Hajime's innocence.
"There's no way I would plot to kill myself and there's no way Hajime can get inside the academy. Therefore, how could he have done it?" You summarized what had been established.
The room fell silent. Everyone seemed to have reached a standstill in the debate. Finally, Juzo spoke again.
"There is no doubt that this crime was performed intentionally and maliciously. Until another suspect is presented, our only likely criminal is Hinata."
"He's right," Kirigiri said. "Proving his innocence isn't enough to free him. If he isn't guilty, then we must find the true person who is responsible for this."
So we have to find the real culprit now in order to protect Hajime. Who else would be behind this? Who else would poison the Ultimates? Or maybe try to convict Hajime? No, I can't assume they knew the poison would go to Hajime. It truly is random.
"I don't know who it would be," Hajime admitted. "The facts indicate that it must be somebody with access to the Main academy, but I don't want to accuse any Ultimates. I'd hate to antagonize any of them to save myself."
God, he really is perfect. He'd say that after what he knows Nagito thinks of him?
You watched Hajime, remembering your experience with Nagito.
Hold on. Let me back up. What if we assume they were trying to convict Hajime? Then this whole thing would be a setup to make him look guilty, maybe with the intent of getting him expelled. And of course, someone would only want him expelled if he was a bother to them or somebody they care about. It has to be.
"I think I may have an idea of who the real culprit is," you voiced the conclusion you had reached. "I...I think it's Nagito."