Naegi wasn't quite sure how he had gotten here. Not the Future Foundation's break room, mind you, just how he had gotten to this point in his life.

When the doors of Hope's Peak Academy opened to reveal the world was, indeed, in the condition Enoshima had claimed, it was like a punch in the gut. Naegi knew it had been wishful thinking, but part of him truly believed she had been lying the whole time. It wouldn't have been unreasonable in the face of everything else. Fortunately, the Future Foundation had already gotten a squad ready to retrieve them once the group escaped. The nature of the Final Class Trial made it clear that the game was about to end one way or the other, so the organization prepared for the best-case scenario.

And now, here he was. Sitting in a break room. Looking at a styrofoam cup of lukewarm coffee. Pondering what was next. The former Ultimate Therapist, one Miaya Gekkogahara had offered to put the survivors through a program she had developed that could reverse the effects of their memory wipe. All of Class 78 had agreed to the procedure, feeling it would be the best way to try and reconcile their old world with this new one. Even so, none of them could shake their doubts.

The sound of the door opening snapped Naegi out of his contemplation, and he turned to see his visitor.

"Hey, so this is where you've been hiding!" It was a blond man in a white suit, wearing a white fedora. Naegi remembered he had introduced himself as Koichi Kizakura. He vaguely remembered hearing he was a high-ranking member of the Future Foundation and worked at Hope's Peak before The Tragedy.

Not waiting for an invitation, Kizakura sat across from Naegi, and pulled a flask from his suit jacket. "Want me to Irish up that coffee for you?"

"I'm only..." Naegi paused. "Wait... I've aged 2 more years, so..."

Kizakura put the flask away, "I'll take that as a no. How you holding up, kid?"

"I'm still trying to process all this," Naegi replied. "For me, the world was normal less than a month ago."

Kizakura smirked. "I wish I could say the same. What I wouldn't give for a sense of normalcy again."

"We'll get there," Naegi reassured him. "With everyone working together like this, it can't be too far away."

"Man, Kyoko wasn't kidding," said the ex-scout, "You really are the Ultimate Hope."

"That reminds me, I've been meaning to ask you something. Why do you call Kirigiri by her first name?"

A somber tone draped across the table as Kizakura adjusted his hat. "I'm a friend of the family. Or I was, anyway. Jin was like a brother to me."

"Jin?" Naegi was about to ask for clarification before it dawned on him. "You mean Headmaster Kirigiri."

"Yeah." Kizakura recovered the flask and took a quick swig before continuing. "Remember that picture you found in his office? With Kyoko's adorable pint-sized self? I was the one who took it."

"Really?" the young optimist inquired.

"Mm-hmm." Another swig. "Before this all went down, he made me promise him something. That I'd do whatever I had to to protect her."

Naegi chose to keep quiet at that. It was nice to get confirmation from an outside source that the Headmaster truly did care about his daughter, in spite of their strained relationship.

"Thanks."

"For what?" Naegi asked.

"For getting her out of there alive," Kizakura explained.

Naegi almost replied with 'no problem', but that couldn't have been further from the truth. He instead went with, "Happy to."

That got a smile out of the slightly-tipsy blonde, and caused him to raise his head to give Naegi a very serious look. "And that's why I wanted to talk to you."

"Huh?"

"Well," Kizakura began, "now that Jin's gone, I need to get back to protecting her. And step one is dealing with you."

This left the poor brunette very confused. "What did I do?"

"Nothing yet," the older man clarified, "but let's keep it that way. So, obvious question here. What are your intentions?"

A blush crept onto Naegi's face as he began to realize what his elder was talking about. "My intentions? You mean, with Kirigiri?!"

"Bingo," the self-appointed interviewer shot back, "Now, I may teeter on the edge of a drinking problem, but I've got a long memory. I seem to recall you, the doujin guy, and the drug dealer peeping on the girls when you had the chance."

There were quite a few things in that statement Naegi could have responded to, but it was hard to do so, given he was about to die of embarrassment. "I didn't- well, I did, but..."

"If you're only interested in her for her body, I may need to let her know about that little adventure."

"NO!" Naegi just about shouted. "That's not... I mean... can I collect my thoughts for a second?"

Kizakura simply shook the flask in his direction. "Want that Irish coffee now?"

"Maybe," the poor boy admitted. He took a breath before continuing. "I really don't know what came over me when I did that. I swear, I'd never do something like that normally."

"Yeah, seemed weird," Kizakura acknowledged. "Regardless of your intentions, you might want to let her know before someone else tells her."

"Her and Asashina," Naegi corrected, "I'll talk to Hagakure about it."

"So, you haven't answered my question yet."

"I'm... not sure to be honest," Naegi replied. "I mean, I'd be lying if I said I didn't think she was attractive. She's just... the most amazing person I've ever met."

"I'd be offended if you knew me better," Kizakura joked. "Talk is cheap, kid. I want something more clear-cut here."

Naegi searched his heart for a definitive answer. "I really like her," he began. "I'm not sure if she feels the same way, and if she doesn't, that's fine. I'd love to just be her friend. But if we could be more, I'd really appreciate that."

"Okay, let's play the hypotheticals game," the drunkard replied. "Let's say you two date for a while and it goes sour. What happens then?"

Naegi winced at the idea, but bounced back. "I'd hope we could still be friends. I've never really had a serious relationship before, so I can't be sure what that would be like. But, she's important to me. I want to be a part of her life."

"And if she doesn't want you to be?"

That brought back bad memories. Naegi flashed back to when he was keeping Oogami's secret from the group and how angry Kirigiri was with him. "I'd leave her be. However much space she needs, but I hope it never comes to that."

Kizakura let out a low whistle. "You say that like you could see yourself marrying her."

Naegi blushed again. "Maybe..." he muttered.

The blonde shook his head. "Bold thing to say, kid. I respect that." He extended his hand. "I think she's in good hands."

Naegi smiled, and returned the handshake. "Thank you, sir."

With that, another figure arrived at the door. In fact, it was the topic of the previous conversation. "Naegi, Gekkogahara says she's ready whenever we are."

"Thanks, I'll be right there." He turned to face the older man. "I'm glad we could talk like this."

"Anytime, kid." Kizakura looked to Kirigiri. "Ready to finally remember your Uncle Koichi?"

"I'm iffy on the subject," she replied.

"Brutally honest as ever," Kizakura chuckled.

As Naegi and Kirigiri left the room, Kizakura walked over to the coffeepot to make a cup of his own. Irish, of course. And as he did so, a thought crossed his mind.

"Maybe I should've told him they were dating before they lost their memories," he considered. "Eh. They're about to find out anyway."

AN: This ended up being a lot less humor-driven than I thought it was going to be. Whatever. Looking forward to Naegiri Week.

By the by, I didn't mention Fukawa during the peeping discussion because, even though she appears in the image, she wasn't with the group when they all went to the bathhouse. Her being there is a continuity error, so I guess in this version she wasn't there.