Mended Branch (DR3 x OC)

Chapter 4.5: Festivities

After the fiasco that was July, everything seemed to have mostly gone back to normal, of course, with the exception of a few things.

On the bright side, Katsumi's workload had been eased off significantly. She felt horrible about it at first since everything about it just felt... well... wrong. Eventually, though, she started feeling the upsides, and, what could only be described as a feeling of liberation. To be honest, it was downright cathartic, like she could finally gasp for well-needed air at the surface of the water.

Because of Mikan's constant hawk monitoring of her, she started sleeping earlier too. She definitely wasn't used to it, but now, she had never had more energy in her life.

Unfortunately, on the other hand, there was the expulsion of Seiko, the suspension of Nagito, Chisa's transfer to the Reserve Course and... the unexplained disappearance of Hajime.

Obviously, after several months, those matters managed to get temporarily pushed aside, since Katsumi could only worry so much after almost half a year. Back then, the one with no explanation especially bugged her a lot. A month after not having seen Hajime, she and Chiaki tried asking anyone they could, but they came up empty-handed. Plus, there was only so much they could do, so they were forced to give up rather quickly.

After all these months, Katsumi had still been keeping in touch with Seiko and Nagito. After such a long time, it was kind of hard to hold a grudge against Nagito for such a long time, so she eventually gave in and started talking to him again.

As for Seiko, despite having been expelled, she was currently doing much better. Right after expulsion, she received a lot of aid and support from some graduates of Hope's Peak Academy, which included Chisa, Sakakura Juzo and most notably, Munakata Kyosuke, the former Super High School-Level Student Council President.

After the incident, Chiaki had started aggressively planning as many group activities and events as humanely possible, tiring Katsumi out a bit, but overall, lifting the mood during the first month. They pulled through the harsh, gruelling month after Chisa's leave and everything was smooth sailing after that... mostly. To be honest, there was only so much you could do without a proper adult role model, but this came extremely close.

December. The end of the year was nearly here and they were about two-thirds into the school year.

Katsumi and Chiaki were on the bench in front of the fountain, aggressively mashing the buttons on the game console, until finally, and expectedly, a sound rang out, signalling Chiaki's victory and Katsumi's unsurprising loss. She finally let out the breath she was holding in, setting down the controller.

"Hirata-san, that was awesome!" Chiaki suddenly exclaimed. "You almost beat me on that..."

"Ah, thanks..." I mean... it was after half a year of practicing just this.

Chiaki set her console down. "Hirata-san, I was thinking, since Christmas is coming up..."

"Another party?" Katsumi had already anticipated this inevitability.

"Yeah..." Chiaki looked a little awkward from how fast she was to react.

"It's just my opinion, but hasn't the class thrown enough parties? You seemed drained, too."

"Um... well... I feel like the more I do this, the more comfortable I am with all this interaction, as nerve-wracking as being class rep can be. 

"I guess I can handle another party, but don't expect for me to be too enthused."

And we're planning on going out to visit the shrine as a class during New Year's...

"It's okay, Hirata-san. I understand. Let's see... what we need for this party..." Chiaki put a hand to her chin. "Some supplies similar to the Halloween party we had last time should work, right? Food and drink, games, decorations, all those things? Well, I'll just ask Hanamura-kun again for the food—maybe it should suit the holiday theme—and we can buy the drinks later. I might find some people in the class to help with setting up decorations."