Yee I am glad that everyone enjoyed that last chapter. So sorry for the wait! Work was all over the place and I'm currently on vacation. We headed down to LA and all that. Yall see the new anime for dangan ronpa? My son Hajime is so beautiful ahh! Anyways let's get started yeah?

Who We Are

Chapter 8: Fear of the Unknown

"Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will."

-James Stephens

Chiaki was...interesting to be around with. She was quiet for the most time, murmuring softly to herself or staying close to Hajime. "Um Chiaki...where are we?" He asked, the air around slightly strange. He felt this strange chill, it was starting to give him goosebumps. On a hot sunny day, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean somewhere. This was definitely strange.

He pauses when hearing Chiaki snore next to him her cheek pressed against his side. Wha? Asleep again? How could she fall asleep just standing up?! "C-chiaki?" He asked gently reaching over to poke her. Chiaki was pretty short compared to him, so he was a bit stiff as she lifted her chin up with a yawn.

"Ah..I'm sorry..I dozed off.." She says the sound of her patting her cheeks no doubt to keep her awake. "Hmm...it seems like we are at some building..it looks pretty strange." Hajime could feel something touching his cane so he leaned over feeling vines against cold stone. "Almost like a temple you would find in Tomb Raider.."

He wasn't sure just what Tomb Raider was but judging by the cracked stone, or the vines it did sound like an ancient ruin. "I have...a strange feeling about this place. It's got a weird vibe to it." He licked his lower lip pulling his hand away from the stone. "But...then maybe it's something special."

"Hmm let's go somewhere else and explore." Chiaki stated quickly puffing her cheeks out. She grabbed Hajime by the hand and pulled him away from the building. Since when did she get so pushy?

Heading out Hajime was still being dragged by the small Chiaki, there was something strange going down at that place. Ugh if only he wasn't blind then he could explore the place by himself and didn't need any help from anyone. He huffed when Chiaki stopped pulling on his arms. "A library."

In an instant when the doors opened he could smell the dusty paper and the smell of leather. He breathed in softly finding himself a bit at home. No doubt there were tons and tons of books. Were there ones with braille? He wouldn't mind reading, it would definitely take his mind off things.

"Hmm to have such a library here, but not a single person around.." Peko's voice whispered behind him and he turned his head to acknowledge her. "As expected..this island is most likely deserted as the rest."

"I am in a little bit in shock!" Sonia adds, "For such a small island to host an installation on the level of the national library back home."

"Hmm...But why would a resort have such a large library...do you think they have ones with braille?" He asked letting his fingers touch the binds of the book. He couldn't read, after all the letters didn't have indentations for him to trace.

Sonia makes a small gasp and Hajime can hear Chiaki softly snoring in the background. That girl and her gift to just fall asleep. "Oh! Is that the language that you can read? We should go looking for some! Yes!"

"Wha? No no it's okay, I was just asking. You don't need to do that!" Hajime says quickly shaking his hands and he hears both Peko and Sonia chuckle softly.

"Oh Hajime, we are going to provide some entertainment for you. Let us begin!"

Before Sonia could begin a small pop could be heard and the familiar giggling of Monomi. "Ta-daaaah! Monomi is here! I've been reading a book hehe!" She bounces a bit and then stands next to Hajime her ears brushing against his calf. "Lookie lookie! Here you go Hajime!"

He makes a small noise tilting his head to the side, Sonia is the one to take whatever Monomi had for Hajime. It felt like a book and he blinked his brows lifting up in surprise. "The NeverEnding Story?" He asked feeling the indentations, they were in braille. "Why?" He asked feeling a little suspicious.

"Wha? Whaa? Hajime doesn't like my gift uuu.." Monomi sniffles, "I thought you wanted the book. I went and looked for it too!.After all I prepared the library for you all!"

Hajime furrowed his brows at that, "You prepared this? And I didn't ask for it, I was just wondering." But he wasn't going to give it back, there was no point. He never read any of the Western Novels so it was worth the read he supposed..

"Tee-hee! Of course! It's a place where everybody can study in peace and harmony. That's what being a student is all about!"

"...Stop talking as if you're our teacher." Hajime mutters shaking his head to the side. Honestly how could this rabbit even be their teacher? "You know I think I understand you less that I do Monokuma. Who even are you? What's your true identity? What do you want?" He couldn't help but poke and prod at the rabbit. Damn thing was getting annoying popping up and just being a nuisance.

"T-true identity? That sounds so bombastic." Monomi stammers and then there is a pause before giving a yelp and shouting goodbye.

Giving out a frustrated sigh Hajime ran a hand through his hair still holding the book. "She ran away as soon as things got uncomfortable for her...she's getting more suspicious by the minute." He would have to keep on eye on her. Figuratively of course.

"All the same, I cannot imagine like her building a library as big as this one.." Sonia hums and taps her chin, "According to this tourist brochure, there are many wealthy people taking long vacations on this island. This library was surely built using their contributions."

Pausing Hajime looked to her, or well at the direction he believed she was in. "Wait tourist brochure?"

Sonia happily explained that there was tourist brochures that talked about just what this island was and who usually came around. Interesting enough, this island was completely deserted. The question was, why? Why would such a big tourist trap be shut down just for a couple of students? Having no tourist here is one thing, but having no people? No islanders or anything? That was completely suspicious. Hajime didn't like this, but Sonia and Peko didn't seem too bothered by it. Was he the only sane one here? ….Probably.

Not to mention Monokuma coming in here and planting this idea that the island they were on may not even be real to begin with. An artifical island? Did that even make any sense?

Thinking hard he gripped the book that Monomi had gave him, his brows pinched as a frown settled on his face. So many questions and no answers. It was definitely frustrating to him. He didn't like things that he didn't understand. Like this island situation, or Nagito...or Teruteru. All were just... well he couldn't explain it so it annoyed him. His mind was just a flurry of questions and more questions. Soon he felt a small headache forming and decided to just let out a sigh letting go of this for now. Perhaps later he would go and think about all this, but for now it would be best to just...explore.

He pursed his lips at hand reaching over to touch the spines of the books before he felt a thin hand gently...pet his hair, threading fingers through his spiky hair making him jump and nearly crash into the bookshelf beside him. Who was touching his hair?!

"Apologies." A gentle voice whispered, Peko? Peko was touching his hair? "I could not...I apologize fully for my actions." She was talking quickly and Hajime shook his head with an awkward laugh leaving his lips.

"N-no it's okay. Err...I just don't expect you...to be.."

"Touching your hair? Forgive me...it looked very interesting to me. I wanted to test a theory."

Hajime tilted his head still not over the fact that the all serious swordswoman had petted his hair. "Theory?" He repeated dumbly. Just what theory had his hair in the equation?

Peko gave a small hum her body shifting a bit, she probably was nervous for explaining herself. "Your hair. It looks very spiky, but I wished to see if it was truly as hard as it looks. But when I placed my hand on your hair...it was quite fluffy. Forgive me but I am very fond of fluffy things but they are not too fond of me." She says with a small sad sigh. Oh..Peko..was her gaze too intense for animals?

"I uh...see." So...his hair was fluffy feeling to her and she was just attracted to fluffy things? Hajime couldn't wrap his head around this but...he had heard and dealt with stranger things he supposed. Like a murderous teddy bear that wanted them to kill each other.

"Indeed. Please excuse my moment of weakness. I have a friend who has the same condition where h-their hair is quite soft."

"Oh? Interesting. I suppose my hair is just strange. It's spiky but it's not really tough feeling. Except for the random hair that will never stay down." Hajime says gesturing to his hair with a smile on his face and Peko gives a noise of agreement.

"It is quite interesting. I have taken too much of your time Hajime. Excuse me." With that she leaves and Hajime wonders if he was still collecting hope fragments would he of gotten one just now?

He could hear Sonia not too far from him flipping through books making small noises as she was reading.

"What are you reading Sonia? Something interesting? Philosophy? Politics?" ….That's what princesses read right?

Sonia makes a small giggling noise as Hajime walks closer. "Actually it's the latest issue of an occult magazine. This particular magazine has a mission to uncover the all kinds of mysterious background mysteries!"

Hajime blinks rapidly, "Thats...uhhh a little unexpected? Is it...err any good?" He expected something more...regal for the princess, but he wasn't the one to judge people on what they read. If anything they should read whatever they want.

"Oh it is very good!" Sonia says, Hajime could imagine her eyes sparkling as she spoke. "I..It's not like I read it every month! This issue in particular has a special feature on serial killers!"

He wasn't too sure if that was an excuse or just a random bit of information. Hajime gave a small chuckle tilting his head. "Sounds interesting...not exactly something I would read but that's just me. You don't need to be ashamed of it." Hajime didn't approve of the judging types, he did his best to keep himself from doing so.

Sonia makes a small gasp and suddenly he's pulled into a long conversation about these serial killers. Genocider Syo and this...Sparkling Justice person. They all had different motives and different ways to kill, how Sonia was so excited about all this...Hajime would have not a single clue. He felt a little odd knowing that Sonia was into this kind of stuff, but she seemed to be enjoying herself and that was all that really mattered. Especially in a time like this. She leaves with a farewell skipping off and out of the library leaving Hajime a bit confused and overblown with all this new information.

Chiaki stands next to him, he's able to detect her from her footsteps and the smell of strawberries? It must her shampoo. "Are you-" She stops to yawn and Hajime can't help but chuckle, was she still tired? "Ready to check out the other places?"

Hajime takes a deep breath and nods, "Yeah. Let's go sleepyhead." He gently nudges her and Chiaki just hums taking his hand and guiding him despite him having a cane. She must not know about it being able to help him. He felt his cheeks heat up at a girl touching his hand. He didn't have any friends at school, considering his disability and his average..ness. This was all new to him. Having friends and being with people that didn't really treat him like a fragile glass statue.

The second island was not exactly different from the first, it had many places to explore. Hajime mostly had to drag Chiaki around since she was starting to doze off every single second. Seriously how could one even sleep like this? Especially standing up! He wanted to ask if he could learn the art but decided it would be best if they only had one person that randomly fell asleep.

What was next was the pharmacy. It was stuffy and smelled of pills. Hajime wrinkled his nose, knowing this smell very well. He had to go to the doctors often because of his blindness, his parents were always trying to find ways to cure it. He had...honestly given up with the thought of being able to see, but they didnt. Every so often he would be sent to a doctor's office getting told the same information over and over again. It got tiresome and boring.

His thoughts were interrupted by Mikan loud squeals. "Hwa! Hwawawawaaa!" He could hear footsteps going back and forth as she was making happy noises.

"What is it Mikan?" He asked closing the door behind him as Chiaki also gave a small noise of confusion from Mikan just about squealing and screaming.

"Ahh I-I'm sorry! I just got so excited I started yelling." She hums with a happy giggle. Oh..was it the medicine then? She was a nurse after all. "Uuu I just get so happy w-when people start to talk to me. Until now I-I thought everyone either thought I was g-gross or simply j-just hated me."

"I don't think anyone hates you Mikan." Hajime replies shifting his weight a bit. He wasn't sure why the Nurse was so self destroying. It seemed her and Nagito were almost on the same boat when it came to self confidence. "So this is a pharmacy right? I can smell all the medicine.."

Mikan makes a small noise at his statement a small sob escaping her lips before she nodded. "Ha-Hajime you're so nice…" She whispers and then hums, "B-but yes you are correct, this is a pharmacy. Are you in need of some medicine now?"

Hajime quickly shook his head, "No, no I'm good for now. I'll be sure to tell you if I do feel bad or if I'm in need of some medicine." Some painkillers would have been nice when he first got here and the sun was basically baking his eyes. Thank God for the sunglasses….Ibuki...had got him. Swallowing he pushed that thought away.

"Hehe! T-thank you Hajime. When you're not feeling well m-make sure to come to me. I'll give you lots...and lots of shots." She makes a strange noise and Hajime nearly backs away from it. Maybe this wasn't the best idea on his part.

"Hajime will make sure he tells you if he feels bad Mikan." Chiaki finally speaks and she gives a hum to the Nurse. "We need to explore the rest of the island, I think."

"Y-yeah. See you later Mikan."

With that they both leave the pharmacy with Mikan saying a sweet goodbye and the sounds of pill bottles shaking can be heard as well. Hajime sighs when they get outside, feeling the sun hit his face once again. It was nice.

"Do you not like medicine Hajime?" Chiaki asks as they walk towards their next destination.

"Mm yeah. I have to take a lot because of new procedures and all that...my parents still believe we can find a cure for my blindness...though I really don't believe they will." Hajime isn't sure why he was telling her this, but Chiaki just...she had this aura to her. Like he could talk to her for hours upon hours and not have to worry about her going around and telling people.

"I..see. I think maybe there is a way to cure your blindness. You never know."

"Hah it's just like my talent, I know it's there..I just can't seem to grab it."

Chiaki stops and gently pulls on his shirt getting Hajime to halt and turn his head. "Sometimes having a talent isn't what makes you special...At least that's what I think." Before he could even comment she starts walking again. Hajime furrows his brows licking his lower lip.

They get to the next place in no time, the walk was quiet and a bit awkward but Hajime didn't mind. His brain was already going through that conversation beforehand. Hajime wasn't sure what to think. He wanted to know his talent so bad. He was just...so average and boring. The only leg up he had was that he was blind but that didn't really help. Despite having no ability to see, he was still plain. Average. God he hated that word. He longed for Hope's Peak because everyone there..was special. They were going to change the world someday. And he wanted to be apart of that.

It was a quaint little diner, Chiaki read the sign for him and described just what it looked like. She seemed to be more alert now which was definitely nice. They open the door and Hajime can hear the little bell and the smell of food in the air. He also smells gunpowder and cinnamon. Fuyuhiko?

"Oh it's you. Can't you see I'm eating?! Scram, shithead." Fuyuhiko snarls and Hajime doesn't flinch he just leans on the counter top with a brow lifted as he takes his glasses off for a small moment.

"Why does everyone ask that? Can you see this? Look at this…" Hajime huffs putting his glasses back on while Fuyuhiko makes another growling noises. When Byakuya said he was a small dog...maybe he was a little right.

"Oh shut the fuck up. You're think you're so special with not being able to see. Fuck you."

"I don't know how and why you think that, but it's definitely not true. I was exploring the island with Chiaki and just wanted to check this place out. We are not here to just mess with you." Hajime says as he turns a bit hitting the stool with his hip chewing on his lip to keep him from crying out. Ouch damn it.

"You dropped your cane Hajime."

"I know I know...can you please get it for me?"

Chiaki bends down and grabs the cane gently placing it back in his hand. Hajime gives a small thank you to the Gamer.

"How did you even come here anyways Fuyuhiko?" The Yakuza wasn't exactly at breakfast so there must of been someway that he was able to find out about all this.

"What are you? A fucking monkey? Can't you understand anything? I said. Leave. Me. Alone." Fuyuhiko states before mumbling under his breath. "Hmph blind ass fucker trying to fucking mother fucker…"

He grumbles for at least a second saying more profanities that were basically for Hajime before huffing a bit. "I came over here, found this place and decided to get a bite to eat. There, get lost."

"Really blind ass fucker?" Hajime couldn't help but ask not even flinching when Fuyuhiko slammed his hands on the table he was sitting in.

"I have fucking heard enough from you! Get the fuck out of here!"

Hajime swallows hard still not going to forget that this guy nearly caused him to drown, or that he was calling him names. He stood his ground and took a deep breath. "I honestly don't know what's on your mind, but there is one thing that we all have in common. We are stuck here on this island. And that's not even all of it. We have no choice but to work together on this. I am pretty sure you know that as well as the rest of us but...why the hell are you avoiding all of us?" He had to ask and he wasn't going to leave until he had an answer.

The diner was quiet, the only sound to be heard was the waves and Fuyuhiko's harsh breaths. He must really be pissed at Hajime. "Feh. It's not like I'm avoiding you because you're fucking special. I decided long ago that I would stop relying on people."

Hajime didn't say anything but just tilted his head confused to why Fuyuhiko wasn't trusting of anyone.

"Not even om the Kuzuryu Clan..I'm going to live by myself, without anyone. I don't need to depend on their fucking power. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a Yakuza through and through. I just...I gotta point to make. Ima prove it, and there ain't nobody that's gonna stop me." Fuyuhiko pauses and sighs, "Plus it's not like the family is gonna crumble without me. My little sister would be more than happy to take my place."

"You have a little sister?" Hajime asks after a moment. But Fuyuhiko makes a noise and stomps his foot.

"Shut the fuck up! Who gave you permission to talk about that?"

Hajime puts his hands up in surrender ignoring the fact that Fuyuhiko was the one to bring it up.

"Anyways...I have no intention of hanging out with a bunch of idiots. In this situation we are in, sticking with other people...shortens your lifespan. Both Ibuki, Teruteru and Byakuya are proof of that. Mess with someone else's concerns...you definitely get the axe."

"Thats not true and I'm sure you know it." Hajime says quickly his brows furrowed.

"Offend are ya? Fuck if you're that easily offended you shouldn't of bothered me. I'll take down as many lives as I can, if it means I fucking survive. Now make like a tree and fuck off."

Hajime huffs gently taking Chiaki's sleeve. "Fine. Wasn't worth talking to you anyways. Enjoy your burger. Asshole." He grumbles under his breath stepping out of the diner. Off to the next spot then. Ugh.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! It's sort of a filler until we get to the juicy parts of things. And for people asking me not to kill a certain person, dont. I have a map of how things will all pan out and if your character dies I'm not sorry. It's just how it was planned. So no death threats please? Haha well thank you all for the support for this story! If you have any questions or requests or anything really feel free to PM me or ask me things on tumblr! I changed my url to HopesPulp.

Until next time!