Marigolds In The Wind

7.

Hajime woke up a little later than usual, rubbing his eyes to get rid of any remaining feelings of tiredness. He rolled out of bed and hurried to get changed, he must've been late considering he didn't hear the morning announcement. Hajime hurried off towards the restaurant, mid-tying his tie when he stopped in front of the restaurant.

"Is that... crying...?" Hajime said to himself.

Hajime slowed his pace a little, making his way up into the restaurant. The first thing he was met with was a sobbing Akane. Hajime went up to her, trying to get her attention.

"Akane...? What's wrong?" Hajime asked.

But he didn't get a response, "Akane? Hey? It's not like you to cry, what's going on??"

Akane sniffled, "I-I'm scared...! I don't want to do this anymore...!" She cried.

"Ah-" Hajime didn't know how to react.

Hajime looked around for the others in the restaurant. The only other people there were Nagito and Hiyoko. As much as Hajime wanted to respect Nagito's wishes and leave him alone, he was still concerned. Nagito was just staring off into space, so Hajime decided to go see what's up.

"Nagito... do you know what happened to Akane? She's acting kind of strange..." Hajime asked.

Nagito was quiet for a moment, before springing to life, "Hajime, be careful! That's probably not the real Fuyuhiko!"

That really threw Hajime for a loop, "huh..? Wh-what?"

Nagito looked dead serious, "I know. The real Fuyuhiko is already dead... that's why... that's probably Fuyuhiko's clone!"

"Nagito... what are you talking about...?" Hajime didn't get a thing he was saying.

"Also, I heard from Monokuma that Nekomaru couldn't be saved" Nagito just kept going on, completely disregarding any of Hajime's questions, "it's sad... but a transfer student is apparently going to replace him, so let's all give our best to give that person a warm welcome!"

"I- Nagito are you messing around with me?" Hajime asked.

Nagito looked a little offended, "of course not! I always speak the truth!"

Hajime just nodded and backed off, going to see if Hiyoko had any sense of what was going on, "Hiyoko..?"

"We should've kept Nagito tied up..." she said.

"Huh, why?" Hajime asked.

"He lied to me and said that Mahiru was still alive!" Hiyoko looked like she was fuming, "and not just tied up.. no..." she shook her head, before looking Hajime dead in the eyes, "I won't be satisfied until I peel off his face and expose the meat so we can't identify him anymore..."

Hajime sighed to himself, why was Nagito telling such pointless lies? It didn't make any sense to him at all.

But before Hajime could continue his thought process, he was interrupted by another voice entering the restaurant. He turned his head, Ibuki?

"It may be rude of me, but I would like to say my greetings first thing in the morning!" She said. It was strange, this didn't sound like Ibuki at all, "good morning! I look forward to working with you all today!"

Hajime opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Nagito, "be careful Ibuki! Hajime wants to kill you and eat you!"

"Nagito?! Wh-what the?!" Hajime was taken aback.

But surprisingly Ibuki went along with it, "Mr Hajime! I am not tasty! Please don't eat me!"

"Nagito's lying! Can you not see that?" Hajime bit his lip nervously, what was he supposed to do?