Memories- Part 2
Hajime POV
I have been having strange dreams lately. Each and every dream would be the exact same. I would sit in a lake of gold with the sun smiling warmly at me as gorgeous flowers of blue blossomed around him. The lake would then change to a frightening shade of neon pink, the sun would shrivel up into pathetic nothingness, and all the flowers would wilt, leaving me, once again, imprisoned in that endless realm of darkness.
Despite the conditions that all of us were stuck in, for the next few days, our lives continued peacefully. Of course, Monokuma still showed up to bother us, but we decided to simply ignore him.
Over a short period of time, Mikan had grown quite protective of Shuichi. She was always mindful of his condition and worried about him much more than she cared about herself. Soon, she decided that the hospital Shuichi stayed in was too far away from everyone and demanded that he stay in someone else's mini cottage.
Mikan was more than glad to offer Shuichi a spot in her own cottage, but I was there to intervene. It would be rather strange if Shuichi stayed with Mikan since the two were of opposite genders. Hiyoko and Kazuichi were the first to point this out.
Plus, I had a small ulterior motive of my own. I could no longer deny this weird urge to remain by Shuichi's side. It was almost as if Shuichi was a magnet, constantly attracting my full attention whenever he came into view.
I was prepared, at least, I thought I was. I was totally ready for any sudden faintings or occasional mood swings. However, I was not ready for Shuichi's unusual... habits.
Shuichi slept, a lot. But that wasn't the problem.
Shuichi slept whenever, and wherever, he wanted to. "Wherever" included the floor, the bathtub, underneath the sink, in the closet, underneath the table, hanging from the ceiling, on the couch, behind the TV, outside the hut, on the roof; basically anywhere, but on the bed.
Apparently, Shuichi had something against comfort.
I couldn't bring myself to be angry... just... slightly frustrated and rather perplexed. For Shuichi's sake, it would be better to sleep on a proper bed.
. . .
"HOLY- G-Good morning Shuichi..." I said politely. Shuichi rubbed his eyes, yawned and slowly crawled out from under the bed. "I almost stepped on you..."
When Shuichi let out a small tired whine, I smiled gently and patted his head, admiring how his hair was always silky smooth despite him not actually making any effort to maintain it.
"Zuzu."
"Yes, yes, we can go for breakfast once we're finished getting ready," I said. "Wait here, I won't take long. Don't go back to sleep."
While I was occupying the bathroom, Shuichi fell asleep again, this time with his foot hanging off the bedpost. After wasting 7 minutes attempting to wake Shuichi up, Mikan came knocking at my door wondering why Shuichi wasn't at the restaurant yet.
When Shuichi heard Mikan's voice, he immediately woke up.
SHUICHI HOW COULD YOU?! I THOUGHT WE HAD SOMETHING SPECIAL!!
We got ready as fast as we could, put on our swimsuits and made our way to the beach. I carried Shuichi all the way. For a boy his age, he was surprisingly light, and it was no wonder.
Ibuki and Sonia had decided to plan a beach day today, so during the previous day, I took Shuichi to the supermarket to find some swimming gear for us. It was actually quite difficult to find something that fit him. In the end, we were able to find some plain black trunks for him.
It was also my first time seeing Shuichi without his clothes. He had really pale skin and was incredibly skinny, without any visible muscles or abs. Also, he had feminine hips. However, he seemed to be rather insecure about his body, so we got him a jacket to cover up. The jacket was a little oversized though, but he seemed happy with it.
I wonder if we'll be able to see Shuichi smile today...
By the time we arrived, everyone was already running around, yelling and smiling. Kazuichi was eyeing all of the girls and drooling. Fuyuhiko was questioning his friendship with him. Nekomaru and Akane were stuffing their face. Hiyoko was yelling at something. Ibuki was cannonballing into the water. Mikan was on the floor.
"Shuichi's here!" Sonia said, smiling in her beautiful pink swimsuit. It was definitely a change from the one-piece we saw on our previous beach day.
Suddenly, Shuichi was swept off my back and surrounded by everyone.
I guess I don't exist now...
"HEY! Let's play volleyball!" Kazuichi suggested after a while. Everyone loved the idea. But when Shuichi got up, Mikan immediately stopped him.
"No no no no! S-Shuichi! Y-You can't!" she stuttered in a worried tone. "W-What if you get h-hit in the face? What if you trip?! What you if you faint from heatstroke?!"
Shuichi was not allowed to participate in any sports. A few of the girls didn't want to participate either so they all went to play in the water. Meanwhile, Shuichi sat underneath the umbrellas, hugging his hat as he watched all of us idiots run away from the ball as Akane and Nekomaru raged into a bloody war.
"METEOR SHOWER! METEOR SHOWER!"
"NONONONONONONONONONONONONNONONONONONONONO"
"RUN!!!!"
"WHAT GAME ARE WE PLAYYYYYIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGG?????!!!!!!!"
"MOTHERFUCKEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!"
The rules for this game were simple. Stay in the court; stay alive.
. . .
Third Person POV
It was very loud. Everyone was screaming as the volleyball went back and forth from the ridiculously buff Nekomaru to the flexible Akane. Shuichi's expression didn't change, but his eyes were darting left and right so fast that he eventually got dizzy.
Shuichi flinched when he noticed Sonia staring blankly at him.
"Shuichi~" she cooed. "You have such a pretty face... And your hair is so long and silky..."
Shuichi blinked.
"It's covering his face..." Chiaki muttered tiredly.
"OOH! OOH!" Ibuki squealed. "Can we style it? PLEASE? PLEASE! PLEEEEEAAAAASSSSSSSEEEEEEEEE!"
"Will prolonging our "pleases" make him more inclined to say yes?"
Shuichi blinked, then nodded his head.
For the next few minutes, the girls played with Shuichi's hair. They styled it, argued with each other on whether it looked nice, and then untied his hair. This continued to repeat and repeat. Shuichi's hair was tied into braids, small pigtails, buns, and so much more.
Shuichi waited patiently and hid his discomfort when Ibuki accidentally tugged his hair. He just sat at the side, hugging his knees and staring into the sun.
Pretty...
Shuichi's grip on his hat went a little bit tighter. He stared at it blankly.
"S-Shuichi! Don't look d-directly a-at the sun!" Mikan said, flailing her arms around in worry. "I-It's bad for your e-eyes!"
"Aww! Mikan's such a worrywart!" Ibuki laughed as she gave Shuichi her hairstyle.
The boys groaned, trudging up towards them before collapsing onto the warm sand due to exhaustion. Shuichi didn't know what was going on. He crawled towards Nagito and patted his cloud-like hair to make sure he wasn't dead. When Nagito didn't respond, Shuichi trotted to Hajime and poked his ahoge.
"I'm... alive..." Hajime groaned. "I think..."
Shuichi didn't say anything, but he stared at everyone else laughing and yelling.
"Shuichi," Nagito said, smiling. He seemed to be fine now, his energy completely restored. "Would you like to play by the shore?"
Shuichi nodded. Mikan was about to cut in when Hajime stopped her, chomping down on an apple.
"Calm down Mikan," he chuckled. "It's just by the shore. I'm sure the sand won't engulf him or anything."
"B-B-But crabs!"
"We've had a beach day before and we never saw a single animal!"
Nagito took Shuichi by the hand and the two began building sandcastles and playing with the water. Hajime joined them soon after, ignoring Nagito's hateful comments. As more and more people joined them, what was supposed to be a fun little activity quickly escalated into a huge scale competition between Ultimates.
"Low and behold! My creation!" Kazuichi yelled loudly. "I call this masterpiece: Dream!"
Kazuichi made a spaceship. It wasn't quite detailed, but it was huge, consuming an ungodly amount of sand and stood tall and proud amongst the other sand sculptures. Everyone stared upon its majesty and clapped politely.
"Dream", By Kazuichi Soda
Hajime noticed Shuichi's eyes light up like two little twinkly stars.
"Hey, Shuichi likes it!" he said, smiling.
"HELL YEAH!" Kazuichi was so happy that he did a little celebratory dance right there in his green swimming trunks.
I had no idea Shuichi's opinion was such a sacred thing here... Hajime thought to himself as he watched his friend worriedly. What have you become, Shuichi?!
"Oh shut it, loser!" Hiyoko spat, eyeing Kazuichi's spaceship with an unamused look. "You haven't won yet!"
Hiyoko's sculpture seemed to resemble a creepy doll sitting in a flower garden. The doll had short hair and was wearing traditional Japanese robes, staring straight into everyone's souls with her slightly lopsided eyes. Hiyoko clearly didn't put much effort into the surrounding flowers but poured most of her time into shaping a big exquisite sand-rose.
"The doll is beautiful!" Sonia complimented. "Well, as far as sand sculptures go..."
"Of course she's gorgeous! I made her!" Hiyoko yelled.
"Suna", By Hiyoko Saionji
"But "Suna" just means "sand"...?" Hajime muttered in confusion.
"BE QUIET!"
"Yes madam..."
When Shuichi noticed Hajime looking down sadly, he patted his back (Shuichi was too short to reach his head) reassuringly.
"You're my only real friend here Shuichi..."
"??!!"
"OOH OOH! ME NEXT! ME NEXT!" Ibuki squealed excitedly. "I introduce to you... THE EPITOME OF ROCK AND ROLL. I... don't know what that means!"
The "Epitome of Rock and Roll" was a chaotic whirlwind of sand. Apparently, according to Ibuki, it was supposed to resemble "a girl with a fiery passion". It ended up looking more like a sad lump. There were the remains of a foot though.
"M-M-M-My masterpiece!" Ibuki screamed. She collapsed on her knees dramatically and started wailing. "Who would do this!!!"
Shuichi stared at Hiyoko, who had an awful lot of sand on her pair of sandals.
"Shattered Soul", By Ibuki Mioda
"Hahahaha... pathetic..." Gundham whispered, chortling darkly. "Such puny and pathetic sculptures. Nothing you mortals ever craft, could even begin to compare, to the might of GUNDHAM TANAKA!"
Gundham's sculpture was another horrifically tall statue that took up a lot of sand, so much so that there was a crater around the statue that sunk in deeply to the ground. Gundham had made... himself, standing tall and powerful, surrounded by menacing animals of all kinds. Even his four cherished hamsters somehow looked dangerous.
"Omnipresent God", By Gundham Tanaka
Everyone clapped, impressed by this sand sculpture. Gundham let out a victorious "hmph" and grinned smugly.
Nagito just drew a four-leaf clover on the ground with his finger.
"Lucky", By Nagito Komaeda
A lot of the others got confused and argued that it was supposed to be a sandcastle competition. As a result, their sculptures weren't quite as impressive as the rest. Others just built what they wanted to. There was:
"Novoselic Castle", By Sonia Nevermind
"Can I Eat The Sandcastle?", By Akane Owari
"I Did My Best", By Hajime Hinata
"CAVE OF MANLINESS!!!", By Nekomaru Nidai
"Legacy Of The Yakuza", By Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu
"Syringe", By Mikan Tsumiki
"Hey, Chiaki," Hajime said, turning to the Ultimate Gamer as he spoke. "What did you make?"
"Huh...?" she muttered. "Oh, I think... I made a hill, and then I fell asleep."
"I Have To Pick A Name For This?" By Chiaki Nanami
Hajime's smile immediately dropped and he just deadpanned at Chiaki. He sighed, not really that surprised, and turned to his left.
"What about you Shui- Where did he go?"
"What?" Fuyuhiko asked, walking up beside him with a popsicle.
"WHERE DID SHUICHI GO?!" Hajime yelled. Mikan pointed to the far side of the beach, where Shuichi and his sand-sculpture were located.
"Zzzz...", By Shuichi Saihara
Shuichi had used sand to create a magnificent bed. The details were drawn by his finger and it was quite impressive. Shuichi was now currently sleeping on the mattress, with his head under a roundish pillow, and had even collected a bunch of sand to bury himself in as a blanket.
OH, SO NOW YOU WANNA SLEEP IN A BED!
"A-Ahahaha..." Mikan giggled. "I t-think w-we should let him nap f-for a while..."
Hajime sighed, gave the sleeping Shuichi a rub on the forehead, and left him be.
The next game the students decided to play was a game that Hajime quickly dubbed "Water War". And Akane and Nekomaru were put on separate teams again. It doesn't take an Ultimate to figure out the events that transpired soon afterwards.
"TSUNAMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!"
"NOT AGAIN!"
"THIS IS NOT FUN AT ALL!!!!"
"#~$^!%^%*^$&*(&$#!!"
"RUN EVERYONE!"
"IBUKI WHY ARE YOU BEATBOXING??!!"
"SHIT!"
The last of the lot was Fuyuhiko's voice when he suddenly tripped over something and fell on his butt. Everyone's eyes widened and they gasped when they realized what had transpired.
Fuyuhiko had stepped on Shuichi's beloved hat. Being the old and fragile thing it was, the billet of the hat broke off and so did a lot of the bizarre objects affixed to it.
When Fuyuhiko dropped down to his knees and tried to fix the hat, a quiet gasp revealed that Shuichi was wide awake, standing right behind them with his eyes wide.
"I'm so sorry, Shuichi. I understand that this hat is important to you." Fuyuhiko apologized profusely. "D-Don't worry, I'll fix this as soon as I-"
For the first time since they had met him, Shuichi's facial expression changed; from blankness, to fury. Suddenly, he lunged at Fuyuhiko, tackling him and pining him to the ground, his arm pulled back in a punch. Fuyuhiko managed to move his head just in time, but Shuichi's punch created a fist-sized hole in the ground, shocking everyone.
When Shuichi opened his eyes, they were blood red and furious. His body seemed to have gotten a huge boost. The muscles on his body bulked out more and his veins popped out. He was growling angrily too, his sharp teeth bared.
When Fuyuhiko ran away, Shuichi charged towards him again, his arms stretched out and his nails sharp. Fuyuhiko kept dodging to the best of his ability, but Shuichi's attacks were relentless.
For someone so small, skinny and supposedly weak, Shuichi was incredibly fast, and shockingly strong. When Akane tried to reprimand him, yelling for him to calm down, a swift kick in the stomach was enough to send her flying to Nekomaru.
Fuyuhiko was pretty agile and could dodge quite well, but Shuichi did manage to scratch him in a few areas. And it was clear that he had no intention of stopping anytime soon.
"Does anyone here know how to sew?!" someone yelled in panic. "Hurry up and fix this!"
Hajime didn't know what happened next, but he had to protect Fuyuhiko and Shuichi. Shuichi never said anything, and his facial expression had never changed until today, but somehow, Hajime knew that he was a good person, an angel, a saint. He knew that Shuichi would never wish harm upon anyone. This state he was in, wasn't one of his choosing.
It was clear to see that Shuichi was already tired. He was swaying as he stood and he took deep breaths. He lunged towards the injured Fuyuhiko for one last attack, but before he could, Hajime grabbed a random stick and put it in his mouth, pulling him closer so that he couldn't move. Shuichi growled loudly in resistance, but Hajime stood his ground.
Shuichi was weakening already, but he continued to struggle in Hajime's grip.
"C-Calm... down, Shuichi!" Hajime grunted. Shuichi shrieked and, with a strong kick, he propelled himself and Hajime far behind until Hajime's back harshly hit a tree. "It's ok Shuichi! It's ok!"
Hajime had always thought of himself as an average person, unspecial in every way. But suddenly, in this moment, he felt strong, he felt wise, he felt a million things all at the same time. He didn't understand it.
"It's not your fault Shuichi..." he whispered. Shuichi shut his eyes and continued to fight back. When he reached a hand up to the sky, to the sun, Hajime held it gently. "You tried so hard to save them... but... they doomed themselves... It wasn't your fault..."
"I'm here now, Shuichi. You are safe. Shuichi, remember who you are."
Shuichi's eyes went back to their usual gold as they widened.
"Zu...zu..."
Shuichi's vision was filled with colours. Blacks and whites, purples and pinks, greens and blues, reds and yellows. He could see, broken fragments of silhouettes. There seemed to be people in his vision, swirling amongst the mess of colours. Shuichi saw waned smiles and faded tears.
All of a sudden, Shuichi's heart was overfilled with a bunch of emotions. He stared into the sun, at the hand holding his own. He let out a choked sob and soon, he burst into loud wails.
Hajime sat behind Shuichi, wide-eyed and shocked as Shuichi sobbed his heart out until his eyes went puffy and red. Shuichi's cries were slowly reduced to sniffles and hiccups as exhaustion took over him. He curled himself into a little ball on Hajime's lap and fell asleep.
"He's asleep..." Hajime whispered, staring at everyone else, who looked back at him in shock. "He's asleep..."
Hajime's head was pounding so hard that he couldn't think straight anymore. Now, it was Hajime's turn to collapse.
There's a reason for everything...
The only difference is if I'm going to continue this or not. Also, why do I feel that my fics getting shorter?