This story was requested by insertcoolnicknamehere_420 on Archive Of Our Own (AO3). This is Pre-Despair.

This is an AU where Hajime does have a talent, but he realized it too late and signed up for the Reserve Course.

Little: Ibuki
Caregiver: Hajime
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Class 77... They are a bundle of chaos thrown into a classroom. It's like the principal saw the most chaotic people and decided, "This will be our 77th class." While they are all crackheads in a way, they also need to compose themselves like other people. Ibuki Mioda, The Ultimate Musician, is no exception to this rule.

She goes into little space, Chiaki was the first one to find out and introduced Hajime to Ibuki.

One thing about Hajime is that he always has a deck of cards on him. He is most commonly found with a regular deck of cards, UNO, and surprisingly to most people, Phase 10.

Most people don't even know how to play Phase 10 anymore as it is not as common to find. But Hajime, being the searcher he is, found a box of the elusive card game.

As of present, Hajime was watching over Ibuki as she was in little space. Ibuki got into his bag and pulled out Phase 10, she had never seen this game before. She waddled over to Hajime and poked him a few time, "Was dis?" She asked in a very curious tone.

Hajime chuckled a little bit and said, "This is Phase 10, a rare card game to find nowadays." Hajime said as he took the box from Ibuki. "Would you like to play, Honey Bun?"

Ibuki nodded her head fervently. She really wanted to play this new game. She sat at the table and Hajime sat across from her. He handed her a card with ten things listed.

Ibuki could most definitely read, but was confused what these instructions meant.

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A few rounds later and Ibuki had won seven out of ten matches. "Dat was fun, Daddy!"

Hajime smiled as he stood up, he walked over to Ibuki and picked her up. "It sure was, Honey Bun."