Chapter Text
Rays of the setting sun peeked through fluffy cards, warming the pavement below Hinata’s feet. The grass sparkled with droplets of dew, and the afternoon breeze felt cool and refreshing against her cheek. By all means, it should have been a perfect afternoon.
Except, of course, for the fact that Hinata was standing stiff-shouldered before the foreboding entrance of the “Graveyard Manor”. She clenched and unclenched her fists, shifted from foot to foot, wiped her open palms on the front of her skirt- then winced at the damp marks they left behind. A cautious hand grazed Hinata’s shoulder, causing her to flinch about a thousand miles into the air.
“Hey...we don’t have to go in if you don’t want to, you know? These kinds of things are just meant to be fun. Don’t pressure yourself, okay?” Chiaki reassured, lulling her nerves with a warm smile.
“Ahaha, oh my god! Look at that basic bitch, she’s trembling. Imagine getting that worked up over just the thought of a few lame paid actors in shitty ghost costumes!” Hiyoko’s voice trilled, clawing into the direct center of Hinata’s frontal lobe.
Her fingers tensed around the denim fabric of her skirt. “I’m not -”
Hinata’s bluster was choked short by a clap to the back that was far too enthusiastic for its own good.
“Aww, hey - it’s okay to be scared, that’s the whole point of haunted houses! You’ll have fun and loosen up after a few spooks, satisfaction guaranteed.” Kazuichi pondered for a moment before adding, “And if you somehow end up not having a good time after all, I’ll take you out for drinks after - It’s a win-win!” She gave Hinata a thumbs up and one of her signature sharktoothed grins.
“Fine, I’ll go-”
“Besides,” Ibuki chimed in, “Don’tcha wanna live it up a little? Let loose? Live life on the edge? Don’t be such a stick, Hajamjams! Life is sooo unpredictable! You never know when you’ll lose all of your memories and emotions, so you might as well make the most of everything that comes your way! Yahoo!”
“Guys!” Hinata erupted, exasperation fraying her nerves, “I’m going in! I already said I’m going in!” Immediately, her friends erupted into cheers. Hinata tried - rather unsuccessfully - to stifle a grin at the praise.
“In fact,” Hinata’s mouth blurted, racing miles ahead of her brain, “I’ll do you guys one better! I’ll go first, and get through the whole haunted house alone!” This ignited a fresh wave of hoots and whistles, Kazuichi pumping a fist so enthusiastically that she clipped Akane in the jaw. Akane accepted this as a challenge to a fistfight, and happily obliged by socking Kazuichi soundly in the stomach.
Hinata basked in the center of attention modestly, a grin plastered on her face - until her brain began to catch up with the implications of what she had just promised.
Sweat began to condense on her brow. She shot Chiaki a meaningful look, communicating via telepathic signal that Chiaki needed to bail Hinata out of her own idiot bravado immediately. The signal was effectively blocked by the game of Tetris the boy was now completely engrossed in.
Hinata lingered at the door of the house for as long as she could while keeping her pride intact. Trembling fingers hovered to twist at the knob before pulling back to wave at her friends again, and olive eyes scanned the weathered door frame for the umpteenth time before swiveling to burn holes into Chiaki’s skull. The faces watching her began to flip from expectant to doubtful.
“Aww, all that big talk for nothing! How pathetic,” Hiyoko called, with such scathing sincerity that Hinata felt her organs shrivel a little.
Hinata drew in a deeply offended sputter of air - as if she were preparing to dive deep underwater - and barreled into the haunted house.
Mechanically produced fog immediately clouded her senses. She coughed, squinting to make sense of her surroundings. A long, narrow, hallway loomed ahead of her, shadowed doorways interspersed along its length. The door creaked shut behind her, a resolute thump sealing her fate. Eerie, disjointed music blared from tinny speakers hidden in the walls.
Jesus. Why the hell did you say you were going alone, again? This is how idiot kids die in horror movies. They isolate themselves from the herd acting all cocky, strut into a haunted house, and then a real axe murderer hiding out there has a time of turning stupid teenagers into taxidermied decorations.
...This music is driving me crazy.
“Gee,” Hinata spoke out loud, “It would be really tragic if, oh, I don’t know, an axe murderer popped out of one of those doorways. Truly horrific.”
There was a pause, then an almost imperceptible murmur and shuffle of footsteps. Hinata skittered past the first door with her back to the wall, peering at the old worn boots that peeked just beneath the door with suspicion.
As she walked past the second doorway, frantic metal clanging noises began to emanate from within the dark in rapid succession. Low grunts, groans, and keening noises joined the cacophony.
“Wouldn’t it really suck,” Hinata mused out loud, a ball of nervous energy, “If those noises turned out to be from a convict rattling the bars to their cell? Sure hope they don’t reach through the bars and try to kill me.”
The noises stopped abruptly, clearly taken aback.
Wait a minute. If I just guess what’s going to happen before it happens, then nothing will happen because of how anticlimactic it’d be? God, I bet horror movie protagonists wish they had known how simple it is to not get killed.
Mentally patting herself on the back for figuring out the trick, Hinata proceeded to sprint towards the nearest exit sign. Two encounters left unscathed was the extent of which Hinata was willing to push her luck tonight.
…
“That haunted house wasn’t fun at all,” Hinata slurred, pointing an accusatory decorative toothpick at Kazuichi.
Kazuichi sighed. “C’mon...that’s why I’m buying you drinks, aren’t I? Besides, you can’t say it sucked if you chickened out before the good bits. You’re judging a book by the first two pages.”
Hinata pondered this for a moment. Her frown steepened. “I bet you don’t even read books.”
“What the- of course I do! You think I’m illiterate or something just because I don’t dress like a nerd anymore? I read books every day! Tons of ‘em!”
“Oh yeah?” Hinata snickered. “Name one.”
“Easy. The Bible.” Now it was Kazuichi’s turn to look smug.
Hinata made a noise halfway between a grunt and a cough. “I meant name...ten.”
“Already done, sucker - the Bible’s basically a buy one get ten!” Kazuichi chortled, elbowing Hinata in the side. Hinata joined her, chuckling uneasily as she silently tried to recall what genre the Bible was.
Her laughter trailed off when she realized that her friend had been completely silent and still for some time. Forehead knotted in concern, she reached out to tap Kazuichi on the shoulder and promptly got her hand swatted away. The other girl’s eyes could reasonably be mistaken for saucers implemented in her skull.
“Shhh…okay, so you know I’m completely straight - obviously, right?”
“Ummm…” Hinata frowned.
“I am. Anyways, isn’t that blonde girl over there kinda smokin’ hot? I think she’s looking at me. Is she looking at me, or the girl behind me? You think I could get her number, or maybe get her to let me shine her shoes, or make her breakfast in bed, or-”
Hinata stared at Kazuichi, nonplussed, before her eyes promptly shifted out of focus.
When her vision regained clarity, Hinata saw that her friend had vanished.
Hinata rose to her feet and stumbled off the bar stool, gripping the marble counter for balance.
“Kaz?” Oh, that cool countertop feels nice. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to rest my head there for just a bit…
Hinata shook her head groggily. No matter how drunk she was, she owed it to herself to not be the drunk idiot knocked out cold at a public bar. Just need a little fresh air to clear my head. I can do that.
Wobbling like a deer on stilts, Hinata staggered on two left feet towards an exit that suddenly seemed far too far away. When she finally reached the doorway, she drooped triumphantly from the frame, holding on for dear life. The sun had long since dipped below the horizon, leaving a pitch-dark, moonless night sky in its wake. Hinata dropped to a crawl, hardly able to see further than two feet away.
“Boy,” she slurred. “I sure hope there’s no crazy vengeful ghosts around here to sneak up on me while I’m boozed out of my mind. That’d make the plot for a shitty B-movie.”
“Hello.” A cheerful, mild-mannered voice greeted her from behind.
Hinata yelped and scrambled backwards ass-first before realizing that the voice had come from behind her, then scrambled forwards and fell on her face into the grass. She gave a feeble attempt to lift her head and turn to see who the speaker was, but it was taking all of her focus just to remember which direction was up. After a moment of reflection, she decided that an effective solution to this dilemma would be to drop to the ground and roll onto her back, like a goddamned ninja turtle.
Above her loomed a tall, lanky, spirit with wisps for hair and eyes of gravel. It had a face pale as the moon, with dark smokey rings on its eyelids. Hinata blinked. Upon further inspection, it seemed that this face was far too close to Hinata’s for comfort. She screamed and shielded herself, ready to be haunted or maimed or whatever the hell ghosts did to drunk idiots who went out into the middle of the pitch-dark night alone.
“I don’t have any money on me! My parents are already broke sending me to private school, so they wouldn’t be able to afford a ransom if you kidnapped me - plus I would honestly make a really bad hostage! A-And if you really want my soul, that’s pretty average, too! And I’m boring, I’d be no fun to scare! Just leave me alone! Go back to the haunted house or s-s-something!” Hinata blubbered, kicking wildly at where she approximated the ghost was standing.
Nagito Komaeda watched with rapt attention as the girl beneath her writhed and fired sluggish kicks at a tree trunk.
“That was a very interesting story, Hinata-san! And it’s true that I do have quite the ghastly face - astute observation, by the way, I’m also lowly and worthless - so I’ll be sure to note your recommendation of residence.”
Hinata sat up with a jolt, wincing as her brain seemed to come loose in her skull at the motion. She suddenly felt very, very, cold.
“However,” Komaeda rattled on, “I regret to inform you that I have not, in fact, been sent to retrieve your soul. You see, I couldn’t help but notice you exiting the bar on your hands and knees, and I wondered if this was because you were searching for earthworms or simply incredibly inebriated. It seems the latter is the case - a shame, as I’m rather fond of worms.”
Hinata silently debated over whether or not becoming violently ill would allow her to escape this interaction. Did ghosts ever get grossed out enough to leave?
“Either way, I wanted to make sure you were alright. The woods around here can be rather dangerous, you know. You might even encounter a creature spookier than me, haha! An actual ghost, that is.” Komaeda clasped her hands together, rather breathless by the end of her monologue.
Hinata had understood approximately 30% of what had just been said, but that 30% had been sufficient to gather that she had, yet again, made a disastrous mistake.
“So just to be clear,” she iterated, tongue feeling heavy and foreign in her mouth, “you aren’t a ghost.”
“Not yet, no!” Komaeda agreed cheerfully. “Would you like me to be one? I could certainly try wrapping myself in your sheets and poking holes in them!”
“Hold on, how do you even know my name?” Hinata mumbled, brain lagging sorely behind in the flow of conversation. Her eyes widened, then narrowed to slits as she began to process the implications of the new terrible thing the not-ghost had just said. Komaeda patiently folded her hands.
“I’m not letting you within ten fucking feet of my bed,” came Hinata’s belated rebuttal.
Something unexpected twanged in her chest when she saw the not-ghost’s face fall.
“...because,” she continued, nervously, “I just got new sheets. They’re navy blue, and they’re floral patterned, and they smell like fresh linen and they match my underwear, and if you cut holes in them my parents are gonna be pissed. And I’m gonna be pissed. And you wouldn’t look like a ghost at all, because ghosts need white sheets.”
Hinata paused. Groaned. Immediately turned to the nearest tree and kicked it at full force.
“What an athletic display! You truly seem to have it in for those trees tonight.” Komaeda remarked, parlance infused with a carefully crafted cheer.
“And you,” Hinata gritted through her teeth, deliberately avoiding eye contact by staring down the vertical zippers on the other girl’s boots, “never answered my question.”
Komaeda offered a politely blank stare.
“How do you know my name, asshole!” Hinata exploded.
“Ah! About that.” Komaeda grinned in delight and ushered the tragically inebriated girl to take a seat on the grass. Hinata’s limbs obeyed automatically, buckling beneath her to sprawl across the ground unceremoniously. The not-ghost had the good sense to refrain from commenting on this.
“It’s about time we get formally introduced, isn’t it? I’m Nagito Komaeda, the ultimate lucky student. I recognized you, Hinata-san, from the reserve course at Hope’s Peak Academy - although it makes sense that you never noticed me, since I’m clearly the most undeserving of ultimates to ever hold such a title. But what a sad and insignificant existence you must lead with no ultimate at all - a human without any talent is more akin to a worm, don’t you think? Honestly, I don’t know how you’ve managed to befriend so many ultimates.”
Hinata, for the second time that night, seriously considered the repercussions of vomiting all over the anemic-looking girl’s shoes. Perhaps it would actually be an improvement. She began to rise to her feet, leaning against the tree she had previously mistaken for Komaeda’s legs as balance.
“Listen,” she snarled, “I don’t know who you think you-”
“But,” Komaeda continued, placing a bony hand on Hinata’s head and gently pushing her back down to a kneeling position, “As I mentioned earlier, I really am quite fond of worms! They’re such easy pets - and more importantly, my luck cycle has little impact on their naturally short lifespans. I hope my little analogy doesn’t carry over in that department, haha! I would want you to live a long, healthy life - that is, of course, unless the plane crashes and we both die on the trip back from our honeymoon. That would be a wonderful case of tragic irony, wouldn’t it? The world works in such mysterious ways. Anyways, I’m in the habit of spending time with my worms to get to know them a little better. What do you say about meeting at the local cafe downtown tomorrow at three in the afternoon?”
Hinata wondered if it was possible that she was hallucinating this entire conversation. That bartender looked kind of shady, right? I wonder if he slipped roofies into my drink or something.
….Actually, drugs are probably really expensive...who would waste a good roofie on someone like me? Maybe the drink was originally for somebody else.
She glanced up, dimly aware that she had just been asked a question. After a moment of contemplation, she decided that the safest course of action would be to nod vigorously until the figment of her imagination left her alone.
“Great!” A genuine smile crinkled the corners of Komaeda’s eyes, gravel softening to fine sand. “It’s a date then. Come now, I’ll escort you back home.”
