Chapter Text
“Excuse me, is this yours?”
Makoto Naegi holds out the Nintendo DS case, to which the girl in front of him gasps.
“Oh no!” She takes it from him in frantic motions. “Please be okay, Peachie-chan!” She frantically opens the case, only to sigh in relief when the DS inside of it is unharmed. “Thank goodness. Good thing I splurged for the protective case!” She puts the pink, princess Peach themed DS back safe and secure in case, then back into her cat backpack, sighing visibly in relief. Then, she turns towards Makoto. “Thank you so much! I've been looking for her everywhere!”
“...Her?” Makoto blinked, and the girl blushed.
“Oh, sorry,” she apologized, “Peachie-chan was my first gaming console, and I suppose as Ultimate Gamer, she's especially important to me. I know she's not really a person or anything, but… Ah, before I came here, I didn't have many friends… And I suppose I was lonely. She was there for me through it all. How did you find her?”
“Ah…” Makoto blushed. “Well, it was just luck, really… I wasn't even sure it was yours, but—well, you have a Peach pin on your bag, so I thought…”
“Wow, what amazing luck! It reminds me of Nagito's luck, actually… I'm Chiaki Nanami, by the way! Who are you?”
“I'm Makoto—Makoto Naegi, Ultimate Lucky Student for the newest year.”
“Oh, you're a year younger than me! Plus, my years Ultimate Lucky Student is in my class—I mentioned him, Nagito Komaeda. Um… It's always fun to play against him. Luck can help you a lot in games. Would… Would you like to try?”
“...Try?” Makoto blinked.
“I-I mean, would you like to play with me?”
“I guess?” Makoto scratched his cheeks. “I'm not the best at games, though. My sister always trounces me!”
“That's okay,” Chiaki said, smiling. “The company matters more than winning or losing, right? What matters is if you have fun!”
Makoto smiled back, her grin infectious. “I like that philosophy,” he agreed. “I'll play.”
“Hello? Can you hear me?”
Makoto worried his bottom lip, as he stared at the screen showcasing the Neo World Program. The AI Chihiro Fujisaki made, World Observer, should have had the time to shift through the Remnants memories, and assume the form of their ideal image of hope. In all honesty, Makoto wasn't sure what it would be. Hope, to the Ultimate Despairs, was an enemy. He was unsure if giving them that hope back would even help.
When he heard about survivors of HPA, Makoto Naegi felt hopeful. There was a girl, after all, with a bright grin, that he always played games with. They called him Ultimate Hope, nowadays, but Makoto was sure Chiaki Nanami was more suited for the role. He searched for her face among the group, but it always came up empty.
World Observer came into focus, however, and Makoto couldn't help but gasp.
“Chiaki?!”
Right in front of him, staring out from the screen, Chiaki Nanami blinked lazily at him, muted surprise on her face. She said, hesitantly, “...Naegi-kun,” with almost no familiarity in her voice, and Makoto calmed at the uncertain look on the young AI's face.
That was right. This wasn't the Chiaki he knew, but World Observer, taking the form of her.
“...World Observer, why do you look like Chiaki?” Makoto asked, calming his racing heart. Understanding dawned on the girls face.
“Naegi-kun, did you know Chiaki Nanami?”
“...Yes,” Makoto admitted. “I did, in our time at Hope's Peak. I lost track of her during the Tragedy, but…”
Pity flashed on her face. It was painful to look at, the way it twisted her face into something sad. “Naegi-kun, I did what you asked of me,” she said. “I searched their memories and took the form of their hope. It just happens… that each and every one of their hope was Chiaki Nanami.”
Makoto sat back, amazed. Chiaki Nanami was really such a girl, wasn't she? To become hope to the most hopeless people on the planet, to be their light. But… That didn't explain World Observer's sadness, and it didn't explain where said hope has gone. After all — the Remnants had all lost faith in hope, had lost hope itself, and succumbed to their despair. If Chiaki was out there, would that have happened?
“...What happened to her?” He asked, his heart in his throat, “You saw it in their memories, didn't you? Please, tell me.”
“...Naegi-kun, she's dead.”
Pain lanced through him. Makoto swayed, dizzy. “How?” He asked in a shaking tone, wondering who else the Tragedy will take from him — most of his class, and now Chiaki Nanami, too.
“Junko Enoshima… She killed her.”
Why? He wants to ask, but he already knew the answer. He said it himself: Chiaki Nanami was hope. More specifically, the Remnants hope, and without her, why wouldn't they fall to despair? It was the same reason she targeted Makoto himself, in that killing game: hopeful people were the most dangerous of all. There were details he was missing — how she died, why the Remnants would follow Junko after she killed her (did they even know it was her who did it? Or did they betray Chiaki too, these people who see hope as an enemy?) — but the why of it, the why of it was obvious.
A pointless question to ask. He swallows it like glass. Even knowing why, he doesn't understand it.
“...I see,” Makoto murmured. “Thank you for telling me, Observer-san.”
“...Are you going to be okay? With me taking this form?” She sounds just like her when she talks like that, concerned and caring, and Makoto smiles.
“Don't worry,” he says, his eyes sad but gleaming with warmth. “Chiaki-chan would want this. She would want us to help her friends. And this… This may be the best way to do it. Just… tell me one thing, N-Nanami-san. Did they love her?”
And the girl now known as Chiaki Nanami answers, “More than anything.”
(Makoto hates that he cannot tell if she is lying.)