Hajime sat next to Nagito in the doctor's office, as Mikan carefully wrapped up his hand and cleansed his wound. Nagito didn't make a sound, but Hajime watched his chest continuously sharply rise and then slowly fall back down, matching with the dabs that Mikan makes on his skin. Nagito couldn't even look anywhere near his hand - almost as if he was afraid of it.

"N - Nagito, I..."

"Hajime, please don't." Nagito replied. "We can talk about it later, okay?" He turned to warmly smile at Hajime, trying to convince him that he held no grudge or anger towards him. "For right now, mostly to get your mind off this, we should talk about Chiaki."

"Chiaki?"

"Yeah." Nagito went to wring his hands together, his usual anxiety reflex, but broke off it with a hiss of pain.

"I - I'm sorry Nagito!" Hajime frantically tried to help calm down the pain, but Nagito waved him off.

"No harm done Hajime, I shouldn't have forgotten that my hand just got impaled..." Nagito replied, despair and exhaustion filling his voice.

"... Nagito?"

"This entire thing is really my fault. I didn't try hard enough to convince you that you're loved, I-"

"I.... I know I'm loved Nagito, you... you showed me that." Hajime glanced away from Nagito, and for a brief second, Nagito didn't believe him. "Please don't blame yourself for my idiocy. I just... I don't think at that point it mattered..."

Hajime trailed off and for a few minutes there was silence.

"So... Chiaki?" Hajime asked.

"Right. I had an idea on how to get Chiaki back."

"Go on..."

"Well, you know she has no body, so even if we extracted her data completely, it'd have nowhere to go?" Hajime nodded, and Nagito continued. "Well, we do have a body... the last one in the chamber..."

Hajime gasped. "The Ultimate Despair!"

Nagito nodded. "Yeah. I ended up breaking into the chamber to get a look at it about a few days ago - with Kazuichi, Fuyuhiko and Nekomaru's help of course." He paused. "We found something out about the Ultimate Despair..."

"What did you find?"

"The Ultimate Despair is... they're a robot!"

"A what?!" Hajime flinched from shock and hit his head against the wall. After checking Hajime was alright, Nagito continued explaining.

"The Ultimate Despair is a robot that can change their appearance at will - that's how they were able to become Byakuya in the game. My idea was that once we extract Chiaki's data, we can use a virus or anti-virus - would have to ask Kazuichi about that one - to wipe the memory in the Ultimate Despair, and then insert Chiaki's data into it... the Ultimate Despair has the talent of being able to change their appearance at will, so Chiaki could change it to how she normally looks, right?"

Hajime paused, trying to take in all the information thrown at him by Nagito. "Y - Yeah, that... that sounds like a great idea!"

Nagito smiled at him, and Hajime felt his heart stop.

Before their conversation could continue, Mikan returned, and said they could both leave - while giving Nagito detailed instructions on how to treat his cut. Nagito nodded, while putting on both his gloves, to hide the mark on his non-metallic hand. Once he was certain the gloves were on, he felt comfortable seeing his hands.

"There's a chance... a chance you'll have to replace your entire hand, Nagito..." Mikan told him, tears in her eyes. Hajime violently flinched.

"Wait... you didn't block it with your metal hand?" Hajime asked, confused.

"Have you forgotten my talent, Hajime?" Nagito asked, looking saddened. "It's 'Ultimate Luck' - but I'm not lucky, my luck is simply in balance. What I wanted in that moment most of all was to save your life - I was lucky enough to reach you in time, and the consequence for that luck was that my other hand has become - possibly - fatally damaged."

"So... you may lose your other hand because... because of me?" Hajime whispered, feeling out of sync with his body - with his breathing.

Wait why can't he breathe? Why can't he see past all these dark spots in his vision? Why can't he hear Nagito anymore, even though he's shaking him by the shoulders? Why can't he get up? Why... why is he falling?

"HAJIME!" Nagito shouted, as Hajime's panic attack led him to falling unconscious.

"Sorry Nagito but get out of my way!" Mikan said strictly to him, waving him away from Hajime, and carefully lifting him onto the bed that Nagito was just laying on.

"W - What's going on?" Nagito fearfully asked.

"I... I'm sorry, but I don't know!" Mikan replied, checking Hajime all over to try and find a solution. "I... part of me is worried he forced himself into... into a coma..."

"A coma?!" Nagito asked, feeling faint.

"He... you told me what happened - he might not... he might not want to come back..."

Nagito ran back to the doctor bed with Hajime in it, and tightly gripped his hand, shouting at him: "Hajime, no, no, y - you can't die! I... I still have so much to tell you! I... I LOVE YOU, HAJIME! PLEASE... please... come back..."

Hi guys! Again this may seem shocking, but remember that Hajime hasn't rested yet, and this was just the last push that led him to falling unconscious like this. The fact he may be the reason Nagito loses his other hand... just was the final straw, and his guilt became too overwhelming to handle.

I just want to point out - I know NOTHING about the canon Ultimate Despair, so I'm sorry if it's vastly different from canon and upsets you, I just thought it'd be a nice solution to getting Chiaki back.

So... a small hint to next chapter - it's going to focus on Hajime, whose... fallen into a coma. I don't know anything about comas so please don't expect anything amazing, but it's going to essentially be Hajime stuck in a part of his past? It's not written the best, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Speaking of enjoying, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! There's only THREE CHAPTERS LEFT after this one - isn't that amazing?? We're almost finished with the entire book... feels kinda unreal, haha.

Anyways, I'll see you guys later today for the next chapter.

But for now...

Peachy out! 😊