(A/N: …)

Unknown Time

Unknown Location

When Chiaki next woke up, it was not to the surroundings of the place she had called home, but to an empty classroom: Classroom 1-B of Hope's Peak Academy. Wait, how did she know that?

"Oh, that's right, I'm a student here," Chiaki said, "But…where is everybody?"

Chiaki got up from her desk and exited the classroom. She then walked through the strangely empty school building. "There's no one here," Chiaki thought aloud. "But why?"

As she walked around for a little more, she then remembered. This was the old building. She and her classmates were supposed to be in the new building. No sooner had she thought that, the background suddenly changed and Chiaki was taking her head off her desk again as she awoke with a jolt. All around her, fuzzy silhouettes of pink and blue surrounded her desk. There was someone up at the front of the board giving a lesson, but Chiaki couldn't make out their details.

"This is…my classroom," Chiaki said. "But where are…?" She looked around the room. Every seat was full, except for one. "Ah, that's right! Mitarai-kun's always absent and in his place…" As Chiaki trailed off, the Ultimate Imposter suddenly became a fully-visible figure wearing Ryota Mitarai's face and clothes.

Chiaki looked at the other members of her class that were still alien to her. She could not remember their names or faces and she could not hear their voices. Bored, Chiaki took out her Game Girl Advance and began playing it. It was a game she had beaten fifty times over.

"Boring," she muttered. "But…why?"

Because I'm not playing with my friends.

The scene changed again and Chiaki was brought to a scene where she had set up a large 16k resolution TV monitor in the classroom and everyone was gathered around playing on her game station.

"Ah…AH!"

A large light bulb went off in Chiaki's head as she suddenly remembered practically her entire class. She remembered this day. She remembered this party and the aphrodisiac that they all got infected with afterward. Teruteru, Gundham, Sonia, Hiyoko, Mikan, Mahiru, Nagito, Kazuichi, Nekomaru, Akane, Fuyuhiko, Ibuki, and Peko, those were the names of her classmates. She remembered them all. Yes, those were her classmates, her friends. So then…where was Hajime?

As Chiaki's consciousness seemed to split from the scene in her memory, she strolled over to the boarded up window where Akane and Nekmaru had made a huge hole in the wall. Hajime was on the other side of that wall. Chiaki pulled on one of the boards. It was nailed down tight.

The memory surrounding Chiaki sprung to life as Kazuichi noticed her tugging on the wall. "H-hey, what are you doing? You're going to hurt yourself."

"I have to get outside. Hajime…" Chiaki grunted as she pulled on the board, "Needs me!"

"Hajime…who's Hajime?"

"Ah…" How could her classmate not know who Hajime was? No, that's right, her classmates shouldn't know who Hajime was…only she had ever met Hajime. She and…

The next thing Chiaki knew a dark wave of dread washed over her. She was in a cage, an elevator heading down and the face of a person she trusted, her teacher, her eyes swirling like a hypnotic spiral.

Chiaki felt herself falling down a well and began to panic knowing that a pit of deadly spikes waited for her at the bottom, but as she braced for impact and death, she had an epiphany as she remembered everything.

She remembered psyching up her classmates, leading them to where Yukizome had been kidnapped. She remembered Mikan pushing her through a wall. Both Mikan and Yukizome had betrayed her, forced her to walk a game of death that led her straight to—

Chiaki gasped when she remembered her own death. Dead…she was definitely supposed to be dead. Injuries like that…how could she be alive?

She remembered her own last words. "I don't want to die." She wanted Izuru to remember her. She wanted Izuru to remember himself. Had he remembered? Moments before her death, had he remembered? Had he saved her? Is that why she was alive? Had her hope been so strong that it had literally saved her life?

Chiaki suddenly felt like she was drowning in an ocean of black water. She could see bubbles floating above her mouth, but she was breathing.

A single light was sitting upon the surface, floating above the water's waves. Puffing her cheeks, Chiaki swam up to it, but the light just seemed so far away. Chiaki did not give up though and kept swimming towards the light. Eventually a hand reached down and pulled her up to the surface, only for Chiaki to find herself standing on the shores of Jabberwock Island. More importantly, she had come face to face…with herself.

The color of her hair was a bit paler than her real hair color and she was wearing a dark hoodie over her school uniform as opposed to the brown one she preferred, but it was definitely herself that she was staring at.

"Who…are you?" Chiaki asked.

"I'm you…I think," her doppelganger replied. It even sounded like her.

"I…don't understand," Chiaki said.

"Walk with me," her doppelganger told her. Chiaki complied and walked alongside her doppelganger across the beach and towards a hotel resort, passing a market and an airport along the way.

"We're in your head, or rather…our thoughts are being mixed together."

"I still don't understand," Chiaki said. "What exactly is going on?"

"You lost your memory after your near death experience," her doppelganger explained. "Well…it was a closer to death experience than most. Quite frankly, if not for Izuru-sama, you would not have survived."

"Who is…Izuru?" Chiaki asked.

"Didn't you remember everything? I wasn't supposed to interact with you until you got your memory back."

It then hit Chiaki. "Ah, Hajime's other self."

"Yes, Izuru Kamakura, my…well I guess he's sort of like a creator. My original creator, Chihiro Fujisaki, created the basis for my program. You may call me Alter Ego." Alter Ego then explained to Chiaki how she came to take her form. She explained about the Neo World Program and how her classmates all wanted to see her again, which helped Alter Ego itself create a personality for everyone to interact with. How Izuru had modified her programming and brought her to this facility with the proper knowledge needed to fix Chiaki.

"…But a program is only that…a program." Alter Ego said, looking solemnly at the sandy ground. "These…should be your happy memories. You should have been the one to stand by your classmates, even through the worst of it all."

"Worst?" Chiaki asked. She then remembered what Izuru had told her and shown her about the state of the world and the damage that had been done to it.

Alter Ego grabbed Chiaki's temples and put her forehead against hers. "I will share my knowledge with you, Chiaki. Hajime created this program so that I could give you the knowledge you need to understand everything that happened while you did not have your memory, why he could not simply give you back your memory. Or rather…why he didn't want to."

"What do you mean?" Chiaki asked.

The background of the sandy beach and everything on it faded and Chiaki and Alter Ego were now standing in a black void. "I am more than just a therapeutic computer program. I am an ever evolving AI. I have knowledge of everything that was ever taught to me, including things that are unknown to you. But I can share that knowledge. It was what Izuru-sama asked me to do when he copied my data from the Neo World Program and modified me for his purposes."

"Izuru…did that?" Chiaki's memory was currently without the two years she'd spent with Hajime's other self so her knowledge of Izuru was limited.

"Well...it is likely that Hajime-sama influenced him, but I probably shouldn't talk about Hajime-sama as though he is another entity. They are both Izuru-sama after all."

That's right, Chiaki remembered. Izuru had said as much that he and Chiaki were the same…

She remembered. She remembered those two years. It was completely coming back to her now. Izuru had taken such good care of her with Hajime unable to do little more than be a footnote in Izuru's brain. But now, it seemed, Hajime had come back and he wanted Chiaki to do the same.

"Are you ready?" Alter Ego asked her.

"Wait," Chiaki said. "I…I still…" she paused and then admitted. "I'm scared."

"I imagine you might be. The unknown is always scary, but…" Alter Ego lifted her head off of Chiaki and smiled at her. "As long as you are filled with hope and look towards the future, you can make the unknown not so bad…probably."

Chiaki smiled. Alter Ego's current state was definitely a convincing version of herself. She had nothing to fear. "Okay," she said. "I'm ready."

Back in the real world, Hajime monitored Chiaki properly, waiting for her to awaken. The readings he was getting were good. It still boggled his mind that he understood all of these wavy lines and flashing lights. He couldn't even see what was going on in Chiaki's head the way she could. His program was not as flashy or as state of the art as the Neo World Program. It wasn't meant to be anyway.

Hajime had already removed the anesthetic from Chiaki once she was unconscious. The fiddling he was doing with her brain patterns, with alter ego's help, would keep Chiaki asleep until she was ready to wake her up.

Hajime continued to monitor the program and machine he was working with until he was certain that Alter Ego had given Chiaki the information she needed to understand exactly what had happened. She needed to know what had become of her classmates. She needed to understand why he, as Izuru, hadn't helped her earlier. She needed to know that she hadn't been betrayed, that Junko had victimized Yukizome and Mikan before she and her class had set foot in that facility together.

Hajime worried of what Chiaki would think. Would she still be herself when she woke up? Would she still want to be around him? Would she want to be with her friends?

Well, he'd have his answers soon enough. Alter Ego had finished its program and all that was left was to wake Chiaki up with a simple jolt to a specific neural synapse.

Chiaki woke up on the operating table, the electrodes connected to her brain coming loose as Hajime remotely signaled them to disconnect from where he was sitting. "How are you feeling?"

Chiaki clutched her head. Even now, everything she had learned was a lot to take in. The Remnants of Despair, The Tragedy, even the Final Killing Game. Hajime had made Alter Ego reveal all to Chiaki. Tears splashed from her face as despair hit her like a runaway semi-truck. "It's my fault," she sobbed.

Uh oh, Hajime thought. He strode over to Chiaki. He had a feeling what was going through her head.

Tears continued to come down Chiaki's face. "It's my fault!" she exclaimed again. "If I hadn't told everyone to come with me to save Junko…none of this would have—"

Chiaki stopped when Hajime put his arms around her. "We cannot change our past, only our future. No one realized the true depravity of what Enoshima was trying to do," Hajime told her.

"Hinata-kun…"

"We never know if our decisions will lead to hope or to despair, but I don't think your decision to save your teacher was the wrong one. It was the right thing to try and do, you just didn't realize what was happening…and neither did I. If anything, I should apologize. Because of me…because I loved Hope's Peak Academy so much, I…"

Chiaki held Hajime's arm with both of her hands. "It's not your fault," she sobbed. "I'm the one who…"

Hajime held Chiaki tighter, which got her to stop crying. "It's not your fault. No one could ever blame you for trying to do the right thing. No one can be blamed for that. Even in failure there are good intentions. Even in success, there are bad ones. I've spent the last several years analyzing Junko Enoshima and the fact of the matter is that she would've just found another way to bring despair to the world, until someone finally got rid of her. We have to thank Makoto for that. No, Chiaki, if anyone should apologize, it's me…for lying to you for so long…and for forgetting you. If I had remembered you any later..." Hajime snuggled Chiaki closer to his embrace, "It definitely would have been too late."

"Hinata-kun…" Chiaki sniffed.

"I'm still Hinata-kun. I thought I was Hajime now."

Chiaki simply sniffed, sat on the exam table on her knees and kissed Hajime on the lips, her hands upon his chest.

This is our future now, Hajime thought.

And no one will take it away from us, Chiaki thought, practically finishing the sentence of what Hajime was thinking. The two were in sync for that precious moment.

When it passed, Hajime was still holding Chiaki by the hand. "We should get going. Everyone's waiting for us at Novoselic Castle."

"Are they really?" Chiaki asked.

Hajime smiled at her. "Everyone wants to see you again. I still haven't told them that you're still alive. I…" Hajime scratched his cheek. "Kind of forgot you were here." He waved his hand erratically back and forth. "I'll explain on the ride over. Now, come on, let's get your things. It's time to say goodbye to this run-down building."

"Is it really?" Chiaki asked. "But…this is our home…I think."

Hajime smiled. "If it means that much to you, we can make it a proper home when the world is back to its old self. We have a lot of work to do before then, Chiaki. Now, grab what you can and let's go and take our steps together towards a bright future."

Chiaki smiled. "Okay."

Epilogue

With Chiaki in tow, Hajime returned to Novoselic. However, he didn't introduce everyone to her right away and encouraged Chiaki to make herself scarce. He wanted to surprise everyone at dinner that night.

As always, Teruteru made the food. He was more than happy to and a buffet was spread out across the royal dining hall. Sonia, as host, sat at the head of the table, as expected of her by her peers. And after everyone had gathered around the table, a resounding declaration of "Ikadimasu!" signaled the start of the meal.

Akane was the one stuffing her face the fastest and the most, tearing through plates of food like a wild, angry beast. "Hey!" Hiyoko exclaimed, who happened to be sitting next to her. "Quit slobbering everywhere! You're getting your disgusting dumbness germs on my plate, you fat ass hog!"

"Mrrf Uguf Orinugalph," Akane responded incoherently as she chewed.

Mahiru banged her spoon at the table and pointed it accusatorily at Akane. "Don't talk with food in your mouth? Were you raised in a barn?"

At the foot of the table, Hajime had yet to even take a bite or even load up his plate. He was watching and waiting and doing a head count to make sure everyone was at the table. 17 place settings, 16 people in attendance. It seemed no one had noticed the extra chair Hajime had snuck in and set up. He'd volunteered to set the table after all. And now, using his Izuru-gifted analytic ability, Hajime knew that Nagito would soon be leaning over to him and asking…

"Hey, Hajime, are you all right? Aren't you hungry?"

Perfect timing.

Hajime put his napkin on the table and stood rigidly. "Everyone, if I could have your attention please!" he declared.

Everyone stopped eating and looked at Hajime…except for Akane. She continued to chew her food, albeit quieter, but still looked at Hajime.

"You have my undivided attention," Teruteru said with a sly expression.

"Hey, if you have to take a shit, you don't have to announce it to all of us, you know," Nekomaru said.

Both comments were predictable, but amusingly predictable to Hajime. "It has nothing to do with that."

"Well don't keep us in suspense, what did you want to tell us?" Ibuki asked impatiently.

"Rather than tell, I should probably show you." Hajime said. He turned towards the slightly ajar doorway and beckoned someone waiting outside forward. Into the dining hall stepped Chiaki Nanami, breathing and unharmed and, above all else, hungry. She smiled at her classmates in silence and just waited to see what their reactions would be, as she and Hajime had planned.

There was dead, stunned silence throughout the whole room as 15 shocked faces and 29 shocked eyes stared holes at Chiaki's face.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! What the fuck is this?" Fuyuhiko suddenly shouted. "Are you trying to screw with us, you bastard? I swear to god I'm going to gut you and hang you from a tree by your entrails if this is some sort of practical fucking joke to you." Hajime then saw tears coming out of Fuyuhiko's good eye. "I mean…it's gotta be a joke…right? We…we watched you die."

"I know disguises," The Ultimate Imposter said. "And that…" tears now fell from his face too, "that is not a disguise."

"A robot maybe?" Ibuki asked with genuine curiosity. "Mechanami has a nice ring to it, you know."

"I don't know," Teruteru said, fingers clutching, blood dribbling from his nose, "maybe I should…examine her to see if she's…" he licked his lips, "fully equipped."

"Or, you could let someone who's not a total sleaze ball, or, you know a girl, check…that."

"I concur," Gundham said, already posing and with his hamsters out of his jacket. "Leave it to me! Go! My Twelve Zodiac Generals! Reveal this witch's true form!"

With squeaks of varying pitches, the twelve hamsters leapt from Gundham's apparel and onto Chiaki's body, poking at her legs, cheeks and shoulders.

Chiaki began to twitch involuntarily and laughed. "It tickles," she said.

Gundham's mouth dropped wide open. "By the old gods, this cannot be! No machine, including the great Deus can be…ticklish!"

"So then…that's really Nanami?" Ibuki asked.

"That's what it seems like," Sonia said, as confused as everyone else.

"B-b-b-but w-w-we a-a-all watched get s-stabbed! W-with that many wounds a-anyone would be killed easily."

"I'd sake that's true, usually," Nagito said with his usual unnerving calmness.

"Usually? I'd say more like definitely," Mahiru stated snappily.

"And yet," Nagito said with a bright smile. "Here's our class rep in the flesh without a wound on her body."

"It's a trick! It's gotta be a trick! Or she faked her death…or something!" Kazuichi exclaimed.

"Well, I wouldn't exactly say she faked what we saw happen to her, but I'm willing to wager she's got some guardian angel," Nagito said and then folded his arms, looking at Hajime with a calm, satisfied smile, "Isn't that right, Hajime?"

That was just like Nagito. He probably had figured out the whole thing already. "Yes," Hajime said. "I saved Chiaki…when I was still Izuru Kamakura." He bowed to his friends. "I'm sorry for keeping it a secret, but Chiaki was suffering from amnesia and you were all still brainwashed with despair. I was worried what might happen to her and I had to keep her still being alive a secret from Junko. Until only a few hours ago she still didn't remember any of you. It was a miracle I was even able to save her, but…I'm still sorry I kept it from you."

"Why are you apologizing?"

Hajime looked up. It had been Akane who spoke.

Akane now had the biggest grin on her face. "Chiaki's alive, right? I mean, this is awesome! Now our class is all back together!"

"No, not all together," Hajime said, looking to the side.

The mood was suddenly brought down as everyone realized that Yukizome was no longer among the living. "B-but…you brought back Nanami to us…can't you do the same for Miss Yukizome?" Kazuichi asked.

Hajime looked to the side in distress. "I'm sorry, but that's not possible."

"What? Why not?" Hiyoko whined. "Are you playing favorites? Huh? If you can bring that narcoleptic gamer back, then you can bring back our teacher to! You've got all the talents, right? So bring back Yukizome right now, do you hear me?"

"It doesn't work like that!" Hajime exclaimed. He then lowered his voice. "When…when I saved Chiaki…her body hadn't gone cold yet and she was still bleeding out. I had to use almost every talent at my disposal to keep her alive." Hajime sighed. "By the time we found Miss Yukizome, her body was cold as ice and rigor mortis had already set in. I saved Chiaki's life using various talents, but even I can't resurrect the dead."

"But…but that's not fair!" Hiyoko exclaimed, tears forming in her eyes. "W-we…have to get Miss Yukizome back! It's not…it's not fair!" Hiyoko started to sob uncontrollably and Mahiru gave her a hug.

She smiled at Hajime. "What Hiyoko's trying to say," Mahiru said, "Is that you did a good job bringing Chiaki back to us. We just wish…you could've done the same for Yukizome."

"Yeah, I feel the same."

An awkward silence then permeated through the air, sans the scurrying feet of Gundham's hamsters returning to the body of their owner.

"Um, if I may," Nagito said, his voice piercing the silence.

Everyone looked at him, even Hiyoko as she rubbed the tears from her eyes.

"I know we all want Miss Yukizome to be here with us, but we shouldn't let the despair of her death get us down. Our hope, Chiaki Nanami, has returned to us, so let's celebrate that hope. Let's let our feast tonight symbolize our hope."

"All I needed to hear!" Akane said, smiling cheerfully. "Let's dig in!" she immediately returned to eating.

"Speaking of the symbols of hope," Sonia said, "Since we are no longer the Remnants of Despair, we need a new name for our group. I've tried to think of a name over the past several days, but I don't think I have anything good."

"Any name you could come up with I'm sure is fine Miss Sonia," Kazuichi told her.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Then let us be known henceforth as the Seventeen Miracles of Oz!" Gundham cackled.

"I think we could come up with something far less fancy than that," Mahiru vetoed.

"Why don't we let Nanami name it?" Nagito suggested.

"That's an excellent idea, Nagito-chan," Ibuki stated. "Wow, that's not a sentence I thought I'd say any time soon."

"How about it, Chiaki? Do you have a name?"

"Hey! Why are you calling Chiaki-chan by her first name?" Ibuki suddenly asked. She gasped. "Could it be? Have you two already said your vows?"

"What? No!" Hajime exclaimed.

"Hajime, how could you? I distinctly remembering you promising to marry me," Sonia said, heartbroken.

"I don't remember doing anything like that!" Hajime exclaimed.

"Hajime…" Mikan said, her voice suddenly in a creepy contralto. "I distinctly remember you telling me that we should get married." Her eyes had a crazed darkness to them, but not like despair. They appeared to harbor something far more sinister. "Was that a lie?"

"I…I didn't…"

"Wh-what are you all saying? Hajime's my slave! He promised!" Hiyoko shouted accusatorily. "Get your hands off him, you dirty skanks!"

Okay! I definitely didn't promise that! Hajime exclaimed internally.

Chiaki watched as the majority of her classmates, one by one, began shouting at Hajime and saying things that they were owed by him or things he promised to do for them, much to Hajime's absolute confusion. Chiaki tuned them out for the majority of the chaotic ordeal, especially when Peko defended him, only for her to try and guide Hajime over to Fuyuhiko, whom Hajime had apparently become the sworn brother of.

"What the heck is going on, goddammit?" Hajime shouted.

Chiaki continued to dote on an idea for an organization name as dinner and its accessories began to get turned upside-down.

"Oh! You want some of this? You're going to regret it!" Nekomaru shouted. Chiaki then heard the sound of a chair being used as a weapon.

"Ah! Please do not destroy this castle! It's all I have left of my former life!" Sonia exclaimed.

"Why me?" Ryota whined as he got under the table, clutching his head and shaking in fear.

And through the whole ordeal, Chiaki continued to think until, finally a name dawned on her. "Ah, I've got it!" She hadn't said it that loud, but somehow everyone heard her, turning to look at her. Their positions were…interesting, especially with Akane standing on a chair with Nekomaru in an arm bar and Ibuki trying to use Byakuya's imposter as a noble steed—though his dour expression and bulk made him more like an angry bull—complete with cowboy hat and saddle. Chiaki figured she was better off not trying to figure out where Ibuki obtained either object.

"Why don't we call ourselves the Secret Hope Society?" Chiaki asked.

"I like that name. It has the word hope in it," Nagito said with a smile.

"Well we all know where you set the bar," Hiyoko snapped.

Kazuichi whistled. "I like the name. Makes us sound like a bunch of renegades."

"Well, Hajime told us we have to stay off the grid for a bit, so I thought we should all be a secret and, well, we're living together so that makes us a society," Chiaki then smiled brightly, "and we're fighting for hope across the world," she then chuckled a little, "but in secret."

"I vote for it!" Ibuki exclaimed, thrusting her arm into the air.

"All in favor?" Sonia asked.

"Aye!" Went the entire room.

"Well that's all well and good, but now," Mahiru said and cleared her throat before shouting, "Can we all work together and clean this mess up?"

Everyone exchanged awkward glances and then promptly and on person fled the room, leaving Mahiru alone. "Very funny!" she shouted. "I will seriously hunt all of you down and make you clean this up! Care about the mess you made!"

"Tag!" Ibuki said, suddenly touching Mahiru on the shoulder. "You're it!"

"Grrrrr!" Mahiru growled and then began chasing after everyone with a mop.

Until the wee hours of the morning, laughter and merriment echoed through the halls of Novoselic castle, the home base of the newly formed Secret Hope Society. The future was certain, but that suited its members just fine because no matter what, they would face each day together and they would tackle their futures as a group one step at a time.

END

(A/N: And I think I'm going to cut it there. Danganronpa is known for leaving its protagonists with uncertain futures so I'm sure you all can figure out where this is going from here on out, not to mention having to untangle the mess I created at the end there is not something someone with a lot of bias like myself can reasonably fix. (Hint: Mikan is my waifu). But in all seriousness, this story was designed to basically add to the events of the Danganronpa 3 anime and give an even happier ending than the one we were already given because Chiaki deserves to live dammit! Even if it's not something that you can just tack onto canon, I feel it's a good healing session for anyone still scarred by the anime.

Speaking of scars, if this wasn't enough to your liking, don't worry, I have another project coming down the line. It's called One Year Ahead, One Mile Behind. It's basically a reboot of the entire DGR universe starting with day 1 of Class 77 of Hope's Peak Academy. More details for you all when the story actually gets posted, but I can say that it will be a collaborative effort with my good friend username Setsubou.

But until then, I hope you all enjoyed this short little story and, as always, from all of me, to all of you, let your hearts stay human, and your wrath draconic. Ja ne!)