Chapter 98 Chapter 98 The future.

"Wait a moment."

When Hyuga Hajime said, "Then in those memories, I saw one of my friends... Nanami died," Komaeda Nagito, who had been unusually quiet for a while, suddenly spoke up.

Upon hearing his voice, Tsukino and Chiya, like the other two, instinctively looked over.

By this time, the strange expression that Tsukino and Chiya had seen on Komaeda Nagito's face had completely disappeared, and the unnatural blush on his face had also faded away. Now he looked much more normal.

Tsukino and Chiya knew who Hyuga Hajime was referring to when he mentioned "Nanami".

That was a girl named Nanami Chiaki, who possessed the talent of an "Ultimate Gamer." Although Tsukino and Chiya had never met her, they knew that she was a classmate of Ohma Kokichi and Komaeda Nagito, and also the class representative of undergraduate class 1-B.

He is also Hinata's friend.

It's normal to be shocked and bewildered upon suddenly hearing the news of a classmate's death in the not-too-distant future. However…

Although he finally spoke up after the topic of "Nanami's death" came up, Komaeda Nagito's expression didn't show any shock or disbelief. His first words were just to further confirm the accuracy of his guess: "The 'Nanami' that Hinata-kun mentioned earlier... could it be referring to 'Nanami Chiaki'?"

Hajime Hinata nodded in agreement.

"Eh—it really is Nanami!" Ohma Kokichi, who was also a classmate and acquainted with the others, widened his eyes. "How terrifying! From what you just said, Kohinata, Nanami's cause of death seems rather unusual? Could it be murder?!"

It must be said that both of them are... frighteningly calm in some ways.

At least that's how it appears on the surface? But even if they appear calm, it doesn't mean they're truly indifferent.

"Um... about this, and the God Throne Project." Hyuga Hajime didn't deny it, but he didn't elaborate either. "I hope to discuss this with you all separately later."

"Oh~? Talking to everyone here individually?" Ohma Kokichi looked surprised. "That sounds so mysterious! Is Kohinata going to take over the detective job? Hmm, it seems that Kohinata, who has a lot of memories from the future, really knows a lot of things that no one else knows... Could it be that I, the evil mastermind, have finally fallen into Kohinata's hands?"

Please don't make a face like you're contemplating whether or not to kill Hinata after saying that.

Tsukino and Chiya were internally complaining when they heard Komaeda Nagito's voice.

“I don’t mind talking to you alone, in fact, I’m looking forward to it,” Komaeda Nagito replied. “After all, I… am very curious about some things in the future. I also have a lot of things I want to know from Hinata-kun.”

Tsukino and Chiya's gazes shifted subtly between Hinata Hajime and Komaeda Nagito.

He could sense a familiarity in Hinata's attitude towards Komaeda, completely different from their initial meeting. This meant the two knew each other in the future, and their relationship seemed...pretty good?

This piqued the curiosity of Tsukino and Chiya.

After all, in the future, Hinata's original personality was erased, and he became "Kamukura Izuru". When Hinata Hajime was recounting his experiences, although he omitted many parts to keep it short, he still revealed some aspects of Kamukura Izuru's personality.

Would someone like Kamukura Izuru have good friends?

Tsukino and Chiya didn't really believe it. They felt that there must be another reason why Hyuga Hajime and Komaeda Nagito became acquainted in the future.

I wonder what Komaeda Nagito thinks about this. He can see the change in Hinata's attitude towards Komaeda, so I suppose Komaeda Nagito himself can too.

What are the thoughts of Komaeda Nagito, who chases after hope and therefore idolizes people with extraordinary talents, when faced with artificially created hope?

There's no clue at the moment... but since those two are going to talk alone later, their attitude should become clearer. But since it's "alone," Tsukino and Chiya's little bit of curiosity probably won't be satisfied.

And now...

Since we're going to keep things brief, and the focus is now on "why Hyuga Hajime's personality wasn't eroded by his memories and instead turned into his current state," we naturally won't dwell too much on topics like "Nanami Chiaki" and "artificial hope," which Hyuga will address later.

After a brief chat, the group, each with their own thoughts, quieted down again and listened as Hyuga Hajime continued to recount his later experiences.

Even before Hinata had finished speaking, they already had some ideas about what would happen next. Since Hinata Sono was here so confidently, it meant he hadn't ultimately chosen to leave, but instead went to the old school building.

Sure enough, the next second, Hyuga Hajime continued, "At that time, I confirmed with the god in my mind that Nanami's death was not in his memory. In other words, her death happened after the student council members killed each other in the old school building."

Tsukino and Chiya listened and nodded, indicating their understanding.

Hajime Hinata: "I had to choose between staying and leaving, and in the end I chose to stay and move forward."

Tsukino and Chiya continued to nod.

Hajime Hyuga: "As expected, the closer I get to the old school building, the more memories I gain about the future. And these memories, like the memories of 'Nanami's death,' are not limited to the time when student council members were killing each other. I saw things that were even further into the future."

Tsukino and Chiya nodded again.

Hyuga Hajime: "But the final result is good. I gained my memories, but my personality was not corrupted as a result. However, it would be impossible to say that I was not affected by 'Kamukura Izuru'. Now I should be considered Hyuga Hajime who 'possesses a portion of future memories and Kamukura Izuru's abilities'."

Tsukino and Chiya continued to nod.

Hajime Hinata: "..."

After waiting for a while but hearing nothing, Tsukino and Chiya were speechless.

He belatedly realized, "...Huh? It's over?"

Although he could understand that Hinata omitted a lot of details in order to keep things brief and not worry others...

But isn't this skipping a bit too much content?

*******

Hajime Hinata downplayed his experiences after making his decision.

His words and determination were one thing, but when he actually put them into practice, everything he encountered was exceptionally difficult.

Hyuga Hajime wanted to know more about the future.

Of course, right?

How could one remain indifferent after witnessing that person's death?

At the time, Hajime Hinata only saw a fragment of memory. He didn't know why Chiaki Nanami had to go through such an ordeal, who caused it, or what day, time, and place she died.

Besides this, there were other reasons that made him hesitate about "whether to really leave" even before he witnessed Chiaki Nanami's death—he had experienced the cloth strip incident in the preparatory school building and knew that in order to successfully resolve the anomalies, the more information about the anomalies he needed, the better.

Although Hajime Hinata believed in the abilities of those three people... what if...?

After all, who knows what strange beings might do or what special powers they might possess?

On one side lies the mystery of Nanami's future death, and on the other side are her companions whose safety is uncertain due to the limited timeframe of their imprints.

Hajime Hinata no longer wanted to hesitate.

The more memories one sees, the more severe the erosion becomes. But this also means that this erosion cannot be achieved overnight.

So what if he gets a little closer and gains a few more memories?

Hajime Hinata knew very well that even if he thought, "If I really can't hold on any longer, I'll leave," it would be very difficult to leave unscathed when that time came.

However, overthinking is pointless. Sometimes, Hajime Hinata is the kind of person who is hard to sway once he makes up his mind, even if he knows that what he is about to face may not be a good thing. That's probably why he agreed to participate in human experiments in the future.

Hajime Hinata entered the Hope's Peak campus and headed towards the old North Campus building.

He was quite lucky; he only encountered two or three guards at the central square, which was the only way to get around, and he managed to hide behind a tree and avoid them all.

By the time he had no energy left to hide from anyone, he had arrived in the North District, where... he did not encounter any more guards.

He was almost swallowed up by memories of the future, and the part belonging to "God's Throne Flow" made his emotions and thoughts increasingly chaotic.

However, before he completely lost himself in his memories, he also saw some different scenes within these many memories.

That too, is a memory from a future where people are killing each other, even more distant than Nanami's death. —Hyuga Hajime was certain of this.

However, after encountering those memories, the sense of disconnect that made Hyuga Hajime feel uncomfortable gradually dissipated.

Hyuga Hajime was unaware of what had happened. He only knew that the version of himself in that more distant memory seemed somewhat different from the "Kamukura Izuru" in his previous memories... Moreover, unlike the previous situation where he could only passively receive memories, after encountering those memories that did not cause him any discomfort, similar memory fragments then actively flooded into Hyuga Hajime's mind.

Why does this happen?

But overall... it doesn't seem like a bad thing?

Memories from the future entered Hyuga Hajime's mind calmly and gently, while earlier memories from "Kamikura Izuru" were as if blocked by an invisible hand, obediently kept outside, and would flow into his mind one by one in an orderly manner after being sorted out.

Then……

After a while, Hyuga Hajime, snapping out of his reverie, suddenly realized that he hadn't heard Kamukura Izuru's voice in his mind for some time.