Nekomaru wasn't pulling any of his punches, he was trying to severely hurt Hajime. luckily for him, Nekomaru hadn't been able to land a single punch. But he can't get cocky, one mistake and he'll be in big trouble. Fighting a man who's hellbent on killing you... you can't afford to make a mistake. A lot of blocking and evading, but he didn't see an opening. He had no choice, he had to throw a punch eventually, he might as well do it now. It landed and was strong enough to push Nekomaru a few steps back, Hajime was in control now. Punch after punch, Nekomaru couldn't evade or block them. Then the moment came where Hajime was able to knock Nekomaru down to the ground.
Akane: "...Hajime?" Akane seemed to be awake, but barely able to move. Her voice was so soft, but Hajime was still able to hear her. The moment he did, he turned his attention to her. Not the smartest thing to do while in the middle of a fight, but he was concerned. But he turned back towards Nekomaru pretty quickly, refusing to give Nekomaru a chance to jump him from behind.
Before Hajime could make his next move, he felt a slight dizziness hit him out of nowhere. He felt like he was about to pass out, the syringe Nagito used on him earlier is already taking effect. He could barely stand up straight, but this didn't make sense, it took a whole day for the syringe to affect Nagito, but it's only been a few minutes for Hajime.
Akane saw how he was acting and didn't know what was going on. She used a nearby table in order to get back on her feet, but she fell to her knees because of how much pain she was in. Her expression went from annoyed to terrified once she saw someone standing behind Hajime.
Hajime felt something go around his neck, but he wasn't fast enough to react when someone started to pull on the fabric around his neck. That fabric was a scarf, and he immediately recognized it, not only does Hajime have to deal with Nekomaru and the effects of the syringe that was injected into him earlier, but now he has to deal with Gundham too.
Nekomaru was getting up, and he was carrying something in his right hand, a kitchen knife. If things weren't bad before, they're terrible now. He can feel himself getting weaker and weaker, Hajime tried to escape Gundham's grasp, but he was pulling the scarf extremely hard, trying to choke him. He couldn't do anything except pull the scarf in order to loosen the grip around his neck. He almost succeeded, until he felt a massive amount of pain coming from his lower abdomen. He looked down and saw a knife protruding out of his body... Nekomaru stabbed him while he was distracted.
Akane: "HAJIME!!!" Akane felt tears running down her face, she needed to do something, right now, but she could hardly stand up.
Nekomaru pulled the knife out of Hajime and stabbed him again in the same place, causing him to bleed... A LOT. But the pain wasn't as bad as before, because he used one hand to grab the knife as it was being stabbed into him, trying to lessen the impact. Meanwhile, his other hand was pulling on the scarf in order to prevent passing out by strangulation. Hajime kicked Nekomaru in the gut in order to push him back, that gave him enough time to pull the knife out and cut through the scarf. He was free. Once he caught his breath and threw the knife across the room, he turned around and saw that Gundham disappeared. Once Hajime turned his attention back to Nekomaru, he got punched right in his stab wound, causing him to start coughing up blood. Nekomaru then held him by his tie and punched him right in the face, causing Hajime's head to split open and begin to bleed. Nekomaru let go and just watched Hajime fall to the ground. It looked like he was about to continue the beat down, until he heard Akane's voice.
Akane: "HEY... LEAVE HIM ALONE!!!" That definitely caught his attention, but something else did that too.
Teruteru: "Akane! Catch!" Teruteru was at the top of the stairs, signalling to Akane. She saw him throw something and even though she was hardly able to stand, she was able to catch it. It was a jar filled with a strange green liquid, and Akane immediately realized what it was. She smiled as she opened it and chugged it like her life depended on it, and it technically did. Akane felt the effects right away and in no time flat, she started to grow intense muscles that matched Nekomaru's. Suddenly, all the pain she felt before was just gone, she felt nothing but immense strength taking over.
Akane: "This is it... it's going to end here... I'm FINALLY going to beat you!"
===========Timeskip===========
Kazuichi: "Miss Sonia! I need to show you something!" Kazuichi had just arrived at the cottages, hoping to find Sonia. If anyone would know what to do with Gundham's hamsters, it would have to be her.
Sonia: "Kazuichi? Are you not supposed to be in the control room?" She seemed already annoyed by him just being there, but if it's something important, then she had no choice but to hear him out.
Kazuichi: "Look!"
Sonia: "A-Are those... Gundham's hamsters!?"
Kazuichi: "Yeah. They were sleeping in Gundham's pod alongside him, I figured he might listen to you if he sees you with his... Four Dark Devas of Destruction, geez... that's annoying to say."
Sonia: "...Thank you, Kazuichi, we might be able to help Gundham now."Kazuichi felt really good after making Sonia smile, but that was cut short when he saw something floating in the pool.
Kazuichi: "H-Hey, isn't that-"
Sonia: "Nagito!" They immediately ran towards the pool, checking on their unconscious friend. Kazuichi reached out to grab a part of Nagito's body, trying to drag him to the edge of the pool and pull him up onto solid ground again.
Their efforts were interrupted when the hotel lobby doors opened, a familiar face walked through and locked eyes with the two of them, it was Gundham. His scarf was much shorter than it usually was, but that was thanks to Hajime. apparently, he jumped over the railing to get down the stairs faster, he must've been hiding in the lobby after his scarf was basically cut in half. He hid so well that Teruteru didn't see him while making his way up the stairs, only leaving his hiding spot when Teruteru was in the restaurant. Sonia slowly approached him with the Four Dark Devas of Destruction in hand, he definitely noticed and started to stare at her hands. Kazuichi continued focusing on getting Nagito out of the pool, leaving the talking to Sonia.
Sonia: "Gundham... please stop this... we are here to help you, please... let me help you." Gundham's eyes were full of despair, and Kazuichi couldn't help but keep his distance, Sonia was the exact opposite. She wanted to help him, even if it meant putting herself in danger.
Everything was going well, until the lobby doors opened once again. This time, two people left the building, Teruteru and Mahiru. He was helping her out of the kitchen while Akane was keeping Nekomaru busy. Going across the room wasn't possible, so he couldn't help Hajime. Gundham turned around and stared daggers at Teruteru. Before Gundham could do anything, Peko and Fuyuhiko tackled him out of nowhere, surprising everyone there. They pinned him down while Mikan kneeled down beside him and injected a syringe into Gundham's arm. A few seconds later, Gundham passed out. He was no longer a threat.
Kazuichi: "Where'd you guys come from?"
Fuyuhiko: "While we were searching the airfield, we ran into Mikan. She was carrying a bunch of syringes and said they would help get Nekomaru and Gundham under control, so the three of us came here hoping to find one or the other. Glad we got here before he could do anything."
Mikan: "Mahiru... are you okay? W-What happened?" Mikan ran to her side, helping Teruteru hold her up.
Mahiru: "Akane needs help... Hajime's badly hurt... please help her. She's on her own, if we don't help... Nekomaru will kill her. Teruteru and I will take Gundham and Nagito to their cottages, so they can rest. The rest of you go and help Akane."
===========Meanwhile===========
Nothing but anger can be heard in Akane's voice as she continuously threw punches at Nekomaru. He dodged a lot of those punches, but she was able to land most of them. For every two punches Nekomaru lands, Akane lands five in retaliation. But something felt different, she felt that either she has gotten stronger, or he has gotten weaker. It seems all that training paid off, he was still a challenge, but if this was back in the virtual world, Nekomaru would've won by now, since Akane wasn't as strong as she is now.
Every punch she landed got harder and harder, she was actually trying to hurt him. This went on for a while until she decided to attack his legs, which caused him to fall to his knees. Akane took advantage of the situation and kneed him in his chin, making him fall back onto the ground. She then reached down and grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling nothing but his upper body off the floor. Without a single word, she clenched her fist and started punching Nekomaru with all her might. The look in her eyes, it's almost as if... she wanted to kill him. Anger and frustration, that's all she felt, there was no holding back on her end. When she stopped the assault, Nekomaru was unconscious, but for Akane in her state of mind... it wasn't enough.
Akane stood up and went over to the knife, picked it up, and returned to the unconscious team manager, holding the knife in both hands as she thought about what the right thing to do was. Unfortunately, she was too angry to think. Her eyes resembled Nagito's from the first trial, all the despair she was feeling clouded her judgement. She took the knife, closed her eyes, and plunged the knife into Nekomaru's chest... At least that's what she thought.
At this point in time, the green liquid Akane drank earlier had run its course, and she didn't have muscles like Nekomaru anymore, so not much strength went into the stabbing. When Akane heard a grunting noise that didn't match Nekomaru's tone, she opened her eyes, only to be horrified with what she saw. It was Hajime, he grabbed the blade before it could touch a hair on Nekomaru's body. It looks like he saw the whole thing go down and tried to drag himself over to her the moment he saw her with the knife in her hands. His left hand was holding his lower abdomen as it continued to bleed, while his right hand was holding the blade of the knife, causing his hand to bleed since it cut him the moment he grabbed it.
Akane: "W-WHAT ARE YOU-"
Hajime: "It's okay... you did it, y-you... won." After saying that, Hajime collapsed. It took all the strength he had left to keep Akane from killing Nekomaru, this made her anger disappear instantly, and was instead replaced with concern and shock.
Akane: "H-HAJIME!!!?... HAJIME!!!" Akane threw the knife away and held him in her arms. "PLEASE... WAKE UP!!! WAKE UP!!!" Fuyuhiko, Peko, Sonia, Mikan, and Kazuichi made it to the restaurant, they couldn't believe what they saw. Sonia was shocked and started to cry, Peko felt guilty that she couldn't get here sooner, Mikan also started to cry, Fuyuhiko was trying to fight off the tears, and Kazuichi couldn't help but shiver. They couldn't do anything... they felt useless. "HAAJJIIMMEE!!!"