Hopeful Memories

Chapter 1

Hajime breathes in deeply, his eyes fluttering open as he rolls out of bed and rushes over to his closet. He takes off his shirt, going deep into his closet to find a shirt. Finding one, he pulls it on and shakes his pants off, kicking them to the side and grabbing another pair. Jumping into them, he runs into his bathroom, grabbing his toothbrush and squeezing toothpaste onto it. He hurriedly brushes his teeth before dropping his toothbrush and running out the bathroom, grabbing a vest and shrugging it on.

Jumping into his chair, he cuts the pieces of his mom's homemade pancakes into his mouth within two minutes, chugging down his orange juice and grabbing his bag. "Bye, mom!" He calls to the woman in the kitchen.

"Bye, sweetie! Have a good time at school, today! I hope the first day turns out amazing," she says from the kitchen. Hajime, although not visible to his mother, nods at his mother as he runs outside and accidentally slams the door. Normally, kids wouldn't be excited for their first day back at school. But it was different for kids at Hope's Peak Academy.

Hajime with a huge smile, strides over to the bus stop where his two friends, Makoto Naegi and Izuru Kamukura stand. "Hi, guys!" Hajime says, his friends looking at him strangely.

"You sure are happy!" Makoto comments, though in a positive manner. Hajime's happiness causes Makoto to smile himself, suddenly filled with hope for a good first day of school. "Did something good happen?" 

"Yeah, today's the first day of school, and we're all in fifth grade now! Isn't that awesome? I can't believe time flew by so fast, though," Hajime exclaims, putting a finger to his lips as he remembers the past years, also filled with good memories.

Izuru, like always, said nothing and instead stayed silent. He stares in front of him blankly, letting out a bored sigh. "This year might start off exciting, but it'll soon get boring. Like always." He states nonchalantly.

"Huh, that's... A strange way of looking at it." Hajime says, tilting his head at Izuru. "You aren't excited for grade five? But we have like... I think, four more school years until we reach high school!" He's basically shaking of excitement now, grin wide on his face.

"I  was excited for fifth grade. For a few seconds. Then I remembered the teachers there, giving us incredibly boring work that can be done in five minutes, if not less." Izuru responds without emotion, the bus soundly driving in the distance.

"Uh, I'm just wondering, Izuru. What's never boring to you?" Makoto asks from beside, intrigued by Izuru's quite strange personality.

With sudden movement, Izuru whips out a toy boat out of nowhere, looking at it with... Fascination? His expression looks the same as always, but there's a slight twinkle in his eyes while looking at his toy. "This is Boaty McBoatface," he says, suddenly going on a ramble continuously on boats somehow. 

Hajime, although wanting to hear his friend's interest, decided to tune out for a moment due to the information being processed all at once. He turns to Makoto, drawing his attention by poking him. 

"Hey, Makoto, have you seen Nagito anywhere? The bus is coming and he still isn't here," Hajime asks, concerned for his white haired friend. Despite hanging out with Makoto and Izuru on a daily basis, he considers Nagito his closest best friend out of the three of them.

"Nope, didn't see him this morning while walking down to the bus stop. Is he sick?" Makoto wonders, the two of them sharing worried looks. 

"I hope not. Maybe he'll show up late? It's not like him to miss the first day of school!" At the same time, the bus arrives and Hajime hopes to see a bundle of white hair run over to them to try and catch the bus. To his disappointment, he doesn't find what he's looking for.