"R-Really…?" Tsumiki asked, looking up from her hands and at Hinata. She had sworn Saionji chose to pick on her because of the very same reasons she had been bullied her entire life by anyone else. She supposed some of those reasons were the same, like the fact she was weak and gave herself up easily, but she didn’t know anything about Saionji’s home life.

"I… I didn’t know th-that…"

"Yeah...I'm not supposed to tell anyone because, in her words, 'If you do, I'll poison your food with yellow gummies and stop on your corpse!'." Hinata shrugged. "But, it's just our little secret...She doesn't need to know you know." The brunette gave a small smile in response, patting Mikan's back lightly. "If she's still bullying you, I could try talking to her and seeing if I can get her to lay off."

~❁~ She continued to tug at his shirt more until she managed to pop off all the buttons, still keeping their lips pressed but started to release soft groans from her throat. Not sure why she was doing this exactly, she didn’t really want to question it, she just allowed her body to do as it wanted, and if Hinata wanted to push her away, he was more then welcomed to tell her to stop. Seeing that the male was not doing so, her nails softly went to his now bare chest, giving it gentle scratches upward to his shoulders, then scratching down those strong arms under the fabric of his shirt, pushing it off slightly from his shoulders now.

He wanted to ask her what exactly she was doing, but at the same time he was sure he had a vague idea of the situation. He let out a few small noises of his own into the kiss, finally feeling the last button of his shirt be ripped off as though he was about to be murdered...Alright, maybe a little too far on that front. His exposed chest felt a slight breeze, and he let out a surprised noises as he felt Akane's nails slowly examining his torso. The real kicker was when she lightly scratched at his shoulders, causing him to let out a gentle moan through the kiss. He helped to pull the rest of his shirt off, deciding to go along with the situation.

~❁~ Before she could question what he was doing she was pulled on top of the male now, suddenly feeling the contact of his tongue licking her lips, causing her to softly let out a please groan, her lips slowly parting before giving a rather passionate kiss from the brunette. She wanted to pull away, question 'what the hell he was doing? why did he do that for?' but the longer his kiss lingered, she understood what he was trying to show her. It wasn’t much, nothing but a kiss, but when his arms pulled her close, wanting her to stay near, she finally returned the kiss, acknowledging that he did in fact want her around, he didn’t want to toss her aside, like everyone had in the past. She soon found herself pressing her hands against his chest, caressing the toned muscles she felt under the fabric of his shirt, fingertips gripping onto it tightly as she began to pull it apart, already popping off the first two buttons. Not sure why she was doing this, she simply allowed her instincts to take over.

As Akane began to finally return the kiss, he let out a mental sigh of relief. It was telling that she was on board with the kiss, and that he wasn't doing anything he wasn't meant to be doing. Hinata relaxed into the kiss, pulling her closer to him and deeper into the kiss with a smile on his face. It had been quite a trip to get to the point he was at, but at the same time he was glad it had all happened. The sound of tearing fabric was a little more than worrying to him however, and his eyes darted down to his chest to see what exactly was happening, to be greeted with Akane's hands tearing his shirt open. Okay, this was happening now. 

~❁~ She still couldn’t help but hold this feeling of worry even as he spoke, saying he was alright. She could see it in his expression he was upset over the events that had happened to Nanami. ’…should’ve just kept m’ mouth shut…I only made ‘im feel like crap…’nd e’en after he cheered m’ up..I go ‘nd do a stupid thing like that…’ “Listen um…I’m really sorry again fer what I said…I shouldn’t ha’e ‘nd…i…it’s gettin’ late, I’ll just be goin’ back now..” she began to stand up as she spoke, just kinda feeling like crap herself, wanting to leave now and give him space. If he didn’t’ wish to speak to her again, she would understand. It wouldn’t be the first time she was promised by someone they would stay only to watch them leave her life forever.

Hinata was about to tell her once again that everything was fine, but suddenly she started talking. "N-No, Akane wait..." He tried to say, but she was already going up to leave. He couldn't think of anything else he could really do, so simply went with his instinct. He quickly leaned forward and grabbed her arm, pulling her back so that they were laying on the bed, Akane on top of him. Hinata then leaned up to lock lips with her again; it wasn't exactly the greatest plan, but it was a way to both show off his feelings, and get her to stay. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, closing his eyes and hoping she'd get the point and not try to pull away again. It was big risk, but that was what he did best, right?

Noticing that he casually took a seat next to her, she moved away from him a bit. Even though he claimed that they knew each other once, he was still a stranger to her.

“We did? —Was I special to you?”

Her face now turned to face his, eyes examining his appearance. Spiked hair with one part standing up and eyes that looked melancholic and longing, there was something about him that felt a little.. familiar? No. That wasn’t the word for it. Perhaps it was.. — [home ? ]

"Then you must now that I was a program, right?"

Perhaps asking these kind of questions wasn’t best. After all, it might trigger some bad memories for him. But there were still so much she needed to know about her previous life and Alter Ego wasn’t giving her enough information.

"I...I guess you could say that..." Hinata replied, not wanting to give himself away too much yet. "I considered you my best friend at the least." As she moved away, it made him feel a little awkward; realizing that he was still stuck in the moments where she actually knew him.

He turned to her in response and examined her features. Still the same old Nanami he knew before, down to the little Galaga pin in her hair. Her eyes were dancing over him, probably trying to scan if he was any kind of threat to her or something. He couldn't help but crack a small smile, even if she didn't know who he was...it still felt good to know that she was safe.

"Yeah...yeah, I know." Hinata nodded, biting down on his lip to stop a depressed sigh from escaping. "It came as a suprise to everyone; but we know...Quite an amazing program, at that."

normalhighschoollevelahoge

The girl still engrossed at the console currently on her petite fingers, noticed a person’s presence but didn’t really acknowledge it since she was too fixated on her game. Her fingers swiftly tapped the buttons, creating combos and kills till the words ‘Victory’ appeared on her screen. She quickly looked up at the person that had entered the room a few minutes ago till going back to her game.

"Hello." The gamer said, loading a new game file. "Is there anything you want from me..?"

Well...this was more than a little surprising for the male. There she was, sitting and playing her game as if nothing bad had ever happened. "Nanami..." He smiled lightly, approaching her and kneeling down to see what she was playing. New game, never seen it. "I didn't expect to see you again, Nanami..." He greeted, waiting for a response but not receiving one...Alright, she was just engrossed.

The greeting however, felt off. It was as if she had never met him. "Nanami, it's me...Hinata."

|| normalhighschoollevelahoge

 Her cheeks puffed out a bit as she attempted to find the right kind of retort to his come back, coming up rather empty handed.

"That’s what Hajime-chan thinks, and Ibuki would come up with a good comeback, but she can’t, so just imagine that Ibuki said something mind blowing that totally made sense!”

After a few more seconds, a giggle bubbled from the musicians lips, falling back onto the sand, not seeming to care too much about getting sand in her hair. "Worry not, Hajime-chan! Ibuki does know how to take a break sooooometimes, although not too often." There was more she could say and she could ramble on for days about herself, but she had to pause it all, attention falling onto what Hinata had said. 

"If there’s something bugging Hajime-chan that much to where its buzzing and bugging and bumming around in your head, then Ibuki thinks it’s best to let it out and get it all clean in there in whichever way is best! Talking, running, playing music, screaming a bunch. There’s a bunch of things to help with that!"

Hinata grinned a little at her words, obeying her request and making a shocked expression. "Whoa! You got me there, Ibuki." After a few seconds he broke down in laughter at the strangness of the situation. Talking to Ibuki was almost like entering another world; even if you were depressed before, she seemed to open the gates to heaven and make you laugh either way.

In response he laid back on the sand, remebering that the key to hanging out with Ibuki was doing what she did. He would be more worried about getting sand in his hair, but his Ibuki-length hair was long gone at this point. "Well, at least you know that 24/7 is a pretty bad thing to do; 23/7 seems like it'd work for you, though." He replied with a shrug of his shoulders. The brunette closed his eyes for a moment, simply listening to what she had to say before speaking up again.

"Yeah, that's why I was sitting here and thinking; that's really the best way I can get rid of things without you here. But, now that I have the scream-queen herself, I should be able to do a lot more." He chuckled, sighing with relief and feeling himself at least a little more relaxed than before.

~❁~ She seemed a bit calm down, the worse seemed to be over for now as she rested her palm on her cheek and her elbow on her knee while she sat next to him. What was she thinking anyways? She wasn’t too sure herself but she looked him over for a moment, a small chuckle escaping her lips. “well…for a first kiss, ya seemed t’ know what yer doin’…so I mean…if it were t’ e’er happen again…I wouldnt’ say no..” Typical honest Akane, she simply refused to lie even if it came to admitting such an embarrassing thing. “hm..but also…I could’ve sworn ya had a thing fer Nana-….shit, I’m sorry I didn’t mean t’….” 'Great job akane, ya probably upset him now..'

"Heh...maybe it's just second nature..." He joked, the awkward grin still on his face. "And...yeah, I wouldn't say no, either; you seemed like you knew what you were doing too." Hinata smiled, before it fell of his face again. That was one way to open old wounds that were just starting to heal over. He took a deep breath and bit down on his lip for a moment, shaking his head. "Nah, it's fine. That's all in the past, nothing to do about it now." He shrugged, trying to not let it bother him too much. Problem being that it had always been bothering him, and now that was coming to light now. "You're my focus now..." 'Shit, you're making everything worse for yourself and her.'

Upon him asking his question, Fukawa looked right at him for a moment before responding, “No, a-actually, you don’t.” Although her accusation was short-lived, she still didn’t trust this boy. “No, there were six, including m-me.” He seemed to know about her classmates, or at least the ones who survived that horrible place way back when. “Other, o-other class?” Fukawa questioned before hearing the next part. “Wait, you were the ones t-to start the despair in the world? I kn-knew it!” Now she was back to square one, thinking he began the despair in the world like she previously had.

"Yeah, I told you that...That's why we're here. That despair crap's all over, and we're back to being the depressed and barely-abled students we always were. The Future Foundation put us here to monitor our behavior and rehabilitation...The reason there's five of us left, is the same reason there's only six of you left." He explained, realizing she wasn't going anywhere now. "We're the ones that Junko played for fools, yes." He confirmed once again, leaning against the door frame and putting his hands into his pockets. "We're barely able to do anything at all, so if you're afraid of me or anyone else, you're putting your fears in the wrong place."