#hinanamiweek

“-And that’s how it goes.” Chiaki put down the book, glancing over at Hajime to see how well he’d understood all that. Judging from his face, not nearly as well as she’d hoped.

“So, I kinda get the first two. After saving the world, he travels back in time to save it again in the past, thus creating two distinct timelines, the one that he left, in which the world was nearly destroyed, and the one he returned to, in which he was able to stop the villain before the destruction ever happened. Am I right so far?” Chiaki nodded. “My problem is with this third timeline. All the Hero’s time travelling should have only created two distinct timelines by this series’ own internal logic. So where’d this third one even come from?”

Chiaki smiled and showed Hajime the diagram again. “The third timeline’s a little different. It wasn’t created by the Hero’s actions, like the other two were. No, the third timeline is more of a ‘what-if’ scenario, an alternate universe...I think.”

“...I still don’t get it…” Hajime didn’t understand how Chiaki could keep all this straight, yet still couldn’t even remember to eat breakfast half the time.

“An alternate universe is like another Earth, only different. Something happened in the past that changed the present somehow from what it is in the ‘original universe.’ Alternate universes can be very similar to the original, or they can be absolutely nothing alike. It all depends on how much that singular change affected the timeline.”

Hajime thought for a second. “So, that change might be something like, if I had decided not to tell you about the Hope Cultivation Project? If that hadn’t happened, I most likely would have gone through with the operation. And who knows where we’d be now, if that had happened?”

“Exactly.” Chiaki said, putting the diagram down. “Or like if I hadn’t asked you to help me wait in line for the day-one Gala Omega release, the clerk wouldn’t have mistaken us for a couple and then…”

“Then I might not have actually asked you out on a date that day,” Hajime smiles, remembering. “Which led to you introducing me to the world of gaming outside of just Gala Omega…”

“Which led to us going to that convention together…”

“Where I secretly bought that ring…”

“And I secretly bought a blue feather…”

“And we both ended up proposing to each other at the same time.” Hajime finishes up the memory, looking down at the blue feather pinned to his shirt, and the ring on his finger. “You know, I’m pretty glad our life turned out like this. Although, I’m pretty sure most couples wouldn’t be discussing video game timelines on their wedding night.”

Chiaki giggles. “You were the one who asked! But,” the smile dropped off her face, “seriously, Hajime...I’ve never once gotten this far in a dating sim before. Up ‘til now, I’ve just been going off of what I know from them. Where do I go from here?”

“Ugh… how did I get here?” He mumbled to himself as he tried not to slip down the ladder. Planting his feet firmly on the floor, he looked into the mirror across from him.

“Wow. I look awful.” He stated. Why lie? He looked exhausted. But what caused him to be so exhausted?

With a gasp, he remembered.

He was sitting at his desk, at home. It was very late, probably midnight. The sounds of the city could be heard through his bedroom window.

Finally deciding to go to bed, Hajime closed his window. As he did so, he heard a door open, followed by footsteps. Hajime lived alone.

Worried, he grabbed a lamp from his nightstand and with a yank, unplugged it, throwing his room into darkness.

Holding the lamp like a bat, Hajime carefully walked out of his room into the hallway.

Standing in his living room was a person, wearing a hooded cloak and a gas mask.

“Wh-Who the hell are you?!” He shouted, visibly scared. The person said nothing.

In the back of his mind, Hajime heard a hissing noise, and spun around. The room had begun to fill up with a white smoke.

Failing to not breath it in, Hajime started coughing. After a few moments, he collapsed, and the lamp in his hand shattered next to him.

The person moved to stand next to Hajime’s nearly-unconcious body, and began to speak in a staticy voice.

“Consider this a privlege. You have been chosen.” Chosen for what? screamed the back of Hajime’s mind.

“You are going to participate in a game. The Nonary Game. It is a game…where you will put your l i f e on the l i n e.”

Snapping out of his thoughts, Hajime took a step back. “Gah! Who the hell was that guy?! …What happened before that? …Why are my feet wet?”

Turning around, Hajime noticed the water pouring out of the window in the room. The door, which he now noticed had a big red “5” on it, seemed to be locked. There was also a sort of bracelet on his left wrist, which also had a “5.”

After a few moments of freaking out, Hajime took a deep breath. “Okay, okay. I just have too… I have to seek a way out. Yes. Okay.”

—————–

Hajime opened the door after a few minutes. It actually wasn’t as hard as he thought.

After swimming down the hallway to another door, the water began to rise even faster. He booked it up the stairs, until he ran into a group of people.

There were eight people in total, and they were all running in the opposite direction of Hajime.

“Don’t bother going up there, all the doors are locked!” Someone shouted as they ran past.

“Yeah! We gotta check C Deck, c'mon!”

Hajime spun around, trying to stop them. “Wait! But it’s flooding down there! I’m pretty sure D Deck is completely submerged!” he shouted.

“Then what do you propose we do, huh?” A girl with twintails glared at him as she ran past.

“I… I don’t know? Stay up here and on B Deck, and pray for a miracle?” He half-heartedly shrugged.

He felt someone bump into him from behind.

“Oh, sorry. I’m in a bit of a hurry, could you move? …Wait. Shouldn’t you come too?”

This girl seemed much less frantic than the rest. Her soft pink eyes looked tired, not scared.

Hajime found he had lost his voice. “Uh… I guess? But I’m pretty sure it’s flooded down there…”

The girl shrugged. “Then I guess we’ll have to swim.” And with that, she walked down the stairs.

——————

The water had stopped. All the doors were locked. Hajime and the other eight people were now standing in C Deck, brainstorming about what to do next.

Suddenly, there was a ringing, and a familiar staticy voice.

“Welcome aboard.”

It was the person who had kidnapped them.

“I welcome you all, from the bottom of my heart, to this vessel. I am Zero… The Captain of this ship. I am also the person who invited you here.”

After Zero said this, there were some shouts. The twintailed girl demanded to see him.

“You are here to participate in a game. The Nonary Game. It is a game where you will put your life on the line.”

Zero explained that the rules were already in our pockets, and then signed off.

After reading over the rules, we understood a little better. We had to team up to go through the doors with numbers on them, and eventually we’ll reach the Nine Door.

After a bit of discussion, someone mentioned that we should introduce ourselves. Someone else said we needed to keep our identities hidden from Zero. In the end, we decided on codenames.

“Sweeeet! I love codenames! I’ll go first!!” The twintailed girl bounced around. “Alright, alright. I’m number six!” She raised her left fist in the air. “You can call me Mono!!!”

“Wouldn’t that be a better name for two?” Someone asked. Mono glared at them.

“I’ll go next.” A blonde girl stepped forward. “I am Number One. My codename shall be Rosie! Like Rosie the Riveter!” She smiled, and did the pose from the infamous WW2 poster.

“…Oh, I guess that means I’m next.”

It was the girl from earlier, the one who lagged behind. Her short hair bounced slightly as she walked closer to the group. “…I’m number two. My codename is Galaga.”

“Oh, like the video game?” Hajime asked, surprised he could remember such an old game when he couldn’t remember his address, or even his family.

Galaga turned towards him, eyes wide. She grinned, and nodded. “Yes, exactly! It’s a very good game, espically for it’s time period. I’ve got one of the highest scores in the wor-”

“Hey!” Mono interrupted. “There’ll be time for that later! My sister is speaking now.” She grinned and turned to a girl with short black hair.

The girls cheeks turned slightly pink at the attention. “I’m number three. Call me Fenrir.”

A boy with cloud hair stepped forward next. “I’m number four. I’ll be Lucky. I’m sure you all will figure out why soon enough.” Lucky had an unsettling smile that sent a shiver down Hajime’s back.

Galaga tugged on Hajime’s sleeve. “Hey, you’re number five. What’s your codename?”

“Uh…” Hajime racked his brain for some clever way to relate to five, but found nothing. Then he looked for something personal, like most everyone else did, and found nothing.

“Um… I’ll be… Five?”

Mono groaned. “That’s so boring! You can’t come up with anything else?”

“Um..” Hajime didn’t get the chance to stand up for himself, because Galaga did it for him.

“I think Five makes it easier on everyone. Why have to do some nickname?” She said as she stood in front of Hajime.

Clearly, this girl was special. He just wasn’t sure how special yet.

—————–

After a pink haired guy now known as Mecha and a scarf-wearing stranger known as “Supreme Overlord of Ice,” or “SOLOI” for short, introduced themselves as seven and eight respectively, there was only number nine left.

The short man refused to introduce himself, saying it was pointless because he wouldn’t be seeing them anyway.

Just then, he grabbed Galaga by the arm and held her in a chokehold. Before anyone could take another step, he flicked out a pocketknife and aimed it at her throat.

He scanned his bracelet and then Galaga’s.

“Now. Fenrir, was it? Get over here and scan your bracelet.”

After a moment of hesitation, Fenrir calmly walked over and scanned her bracelet. The Nineth Man ordered her to back off, and she complied.

Suddenly, he shoved Galaga towards us. I moved without thinking, catching her so she wouldn’t slam her face on the floor.

The Nineth Man had opened the number 5 door. He waved goodbye as it closed.

But Hajime wasn’t really paying attention to that. He was more worried about Galaga. As he helped her up, she hugged him tight.

The moment was ruined by the sound of screaming and pounding.

The Nineth Man was trying to get out. The group could hear a faint beeping from the other side of the door.

“Please! Let me out of here! They lied to me! They said this wouldn’t happen!! Please!! Help!!!!”

After that last cry for help, there was an exploding sound. The room was dead silent.

Then a faint beep. The door had changed from “OCCUPIED” to “VACANT.”

After a frantic discussion, Mono, Fenrir, and Hajime scanned their bracelets to open the door.

Inside was a frightening sight.

Blood and flesh covered the walls. In the middle of it all was a bracelet with the number nine.

Slowly, the doors closed again.

Hajime backed up into Galaga. She looked pale. After a moment she grabbed his arm.

Hajime was unsure how this girl managed to trust him so easily, so quicky, espically in their current situation.

But, somehow, he found himself trusting her too.

A short girl with strawberry-blonde hair and pink eyes nicknamed “Galaga.” Stuck in this hellhole for an unknown reason.

Surely, nobody here actually deserved to be here, right? Nobody could have done something to deserve this.

The clock chimed ten times. They had wasted an hour of time, which was all too precious at the moment.

They had eight hours and eight people. They had to seek a way out… they had to seek a door that carried a nine.

“Everyone, I have some exciting news for you all today!” Yukizome announced to her class, getting most of the student’s attentions. She turned to the door to the classroom.

“You can come in now.” She said, presumably to whoever was standing outside of the classroom. The door slide open and in walked a male with brown hair and green eyes.

Wait, isn’t that… Chiaki had looked up from her game at Yukizome’s announcement, and her eyes widened as she realized who walked in.

“Everyone, meet your new classmate! Please, introduce yourself.”

“I’m Hinata Hajime. Nice to meet you all.” Hajime introduced himself.

“He’ll be joining us starting today. As for your seat, how about right next to Nanami-san?” Yukizome pointed to the seat right next to where Chiaki’s was. Hajime’s eyes widened slightly, but he nodded, moving to the seat and sitting down. He looked over at Chiaki and waved, smiling slightly. Chiaki returned his smile and wave.

I’m surprised he’s here but...I’m glad.

Once Yukizome had finished with her lecture, the rest of the class surrounded Hajime at his seat.

“You’re Hinata right? Nice to meet you!”

“It’s rare to get a new student at a time like this, but it’s nice that you’re here now!”

“You have a talent like us right? So then what is it?”

“Um...well…”

“Everyone! Not all at once, you’re overwhelming him!”

“Hey, Nanami. You know him right?”

“Hmm?” Chiaki looked up from her game to see the rest of the class staring at her from Fuyuhiko’s comment.

“Yeah, I met him on the first day of classes...I think.”

“You think?”

“Well...I’m not really sure about the day but it was around then, right Hinata-kun?” Everyone’s attention turned over to Hajime at her statement.

“Ah, yeah. It was around then. We meet when Yukizome was looking for the rest of the class, though at the time I wasn’t a part of the Main Course…” Everyone shared a look of confusion at the last part of the sentence.

“What do you mean?”   

“Well, I was part of the Reserve Course at the time, but they called me in a while ago and found out I had a talent and here I am now.” Hajime explained.

“So then what’s your talent?”

“Well, they don’t want me to tell you just yet. Something about them having to get all the paperwork and the like finalized before I can tell you all what it is. Even Yukizome doesn’t know what it is.” Everyone nodded in understanding at that.

“So you can’t tell them what your talent is?”

Hajime looked up from his game over at Chiaki. They were sitting at their usual spot by the fountain. He shook his head.

“No, I could, but I didn’t want to.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“Because I wanted to tell you first.”

Chiaki looked over at Hajime at that statement, surprised. “Hinata-kun what-”

“Remember when we first meet here, and you told me that there’s more to life than just talent?” Chiaki nodded and Hajime smiled. “You were right Nanami. Talent really isn’t everything, since I had more freedom than any of you, but it allowed me the freedom to do this. And I’m grateful for that.”

Chiaki flushed at the comment, looking away a bit. “Hinata-kun...I didn’t really do anything you know, it was you that made the decision.”

“I only made it because of you. You were the one that said I have more freedom than the any of you, including our classmates. So I had the freedom to find what talent I have and to let it be known. Plus...I wanted to be someone you could be proud of…” Hajime trailed off at that last statement, cheeks flushed.

“Hinata-kun, I would’ve been proud of you no matter what, you know that, right?” Hajime nodded. “I am proud of you, for being able to find something you could do, and I’m glad you’re here now, with me and everyone else.”

“Nanami...thank you. I should tell you what my talent is now right?” Chiaki nodded.

“I’m the Super High School Level Counselor. Or something along those lines. Do you think it suits me?”

Chiaki nodded, grabbing one of Hajime’s hands.