What Rules Cannot Hold (A Naekusaba story)

Postscriptum II: Our Despair

Shadows played on the walls of the school's dimly lit interior. With all the windows being shut, the revelry outside was like a distant echo, and the school's threshold was an entrance into a different world. Even the fireplace, usually crackling fiercely, seemed to have died down in response to the desolation at hand. 

Before seeing Nagito, Makoto resolved to go to his lab again. He largely forgot about that place after going there with Mukuro, but a gnawing suspicion that he had missed a significant clue enticed him to go back there. Checking that place again meant no harm, and if his suspicion was wrong and there was nothing else of interest, then he wouldn't have to worry about it ever again. 

One last time, Makoto repeated to himself as he walked into the hallway. To go there wasn't a case of mere curiosity for him, but of an irresistible temptation. The echoing of his footsteps often dissuaded him from going further, giving birth to a voice telling him that he was doing something wrong. But Makoto's reasoning managed to drown that voice with a flurry of justifications every time. 

When he arrived at his lab, Makoto noticed that the note with his name was gone. That, however, was too trivial to arouse any concern, so he entered the classroom and immediately rushed to the cabinet. He groped underneath it, pulled a small latch and felt the key in his hand. Whether he placed the key there or not, he couldn't remember. 

After pushing away the cabinet and opening the door, he looked back into the hallway through a thin slit that the classroom's open door left. For a moment, he desired to lock the door, leave this classroom, and to return Mukuro. They'd spend the rest of the night together, oblivious to all the nonsense that has been trying to split them at every opportunity. 

But Makoto brushed away this childish fantasy, though he continued to be accosted by it. 

Sitting down on the room's creaky floor, Makoto perused the files lying nearest to him, yet the documents contained therein were different from those he remembered leaving. He and Mukuro found a collection of student accounts of people they knew. The accounts he was holding right now belonged to people completely unknown to him. Those documents were terse and uninformative; they didn't state where the particular ultimate studied previously, nor how they distinguished themselves. The pile he was reading through had to be a compilation of multiple classes, as he counted over a hundred different students. 

Expecting the last file to be the same as others, Makoto read through it carelessly and was about to put it away when he decided to take another look. Unlike previous student accounts, this one didn't include the student's picture, or many personal details, but presented a detailed selection of the student's achievements. 

The boy's name was 'Danno' and he attended Hope's Peak as an Ultimate Polymath. In his formative years, he surpassed several ultimates, something that was never seen before. He enrolled in Hope's Peak shortly after his talents brought him some fame. The school staff were mesmerised by his case, and the people that taught him were inclined to call him the best ultimate. However, as the years went by, Danno's progress slowed down and with that, he began to struggle against students whom he previously surpassed in their own talent.  One day, he stopped attending classes altogether, dropping out a few weeks afterwards. Apparently, the headmaster desired to meet with the boy in person to persuade him to reconsider his choice, but Danno was stalwart in his decision and refused to continue his study. The last note stated that his whereabouts were unknown and that he vanished after leaving his home. Later on, it was rumoured that he joined the infamous DICE organisation, but no known evidence substantiated that claim. The 'approved' stamp that marked the reports of many of Makoto's classmates was at the end of this student's file as well. 

Makoto felt dizzy when he noticed that there was another document stapled at the very back of the report. He opened it and slowly read the title, 'The Hope Cultivation Plan'. The document's contents read like something Nagito would write, though it was more systematic and methodical in its presentation, referencing experiments, figures, and conclusions similar to those Makoto read about in the volumes he examined with Mukuro. The text was difficult to understand, so Makoto wanted to believe that he misunderstood it - that he wouldn't be able to understand it. He had to put it away before his anxiety compelled him to do something foolish. But what he read was the truth. The plan consisted of harvesting talents from current ultimates, imbuing a chosen subject with them; the complication of harvesting a talent was almost always death.