Two Sides Of The Same Feather

B4 Part Three

(dfjkdffkjnfjfnfgdfgjfng @d0ir__ I love you and your art)

"What kind of traps do you think that guy laid?" I ask. Hinata scratches his head.

"'Not sure. Nothing but trouble I'm sure. You better walk behind me. We're brains and brawn after all. If brains gets hurt we're screwed." He mutters.

"Aha, I'm not that smart..." I laugh nervously.

"Hush, there's no room in the ninety minutes for your self-deprecation. So until we're past this, at least pretend to be confident in yourself." He growls at me. I cock my head.

"And that would be useful to you, Sir?" I confirm.

"Hajime, dumbass. Let's walk. Put your guard up." He corrects, brushing past me. I quickly hurry to catch up to him.

Nothing out of the ordinary seems to happen the first few moments we're walking. But after a little while my nose twitches with a new, strange smell. Huh.

"Hey Hajime, do you smell smoke?" I ask suddenly. He frowns at me, sniffing at the air himself.

"Yeah, now that you mention it." He responds suspiciously, glancing around rapidly.

"It's probably just nothing." I decide, tucking my hands in my pockets. His pale pink lips press together as he shakes his head. Well, he's allowed to be suspicious in a place like this.

Suddenly his head snaps up. "Ko, look out!" He shouts, hoisting me up by the elbows and hugging me tight to his chest as the floor tile I was standing on abruptly goes up in flames.

I let out an involuntary shriek, clutching tighter to Hajime as I watch it burn. That would've been me if it weren't for Hajime...

"How did you know it was going to do that?!" I gasp. He grunts, refusing to let go of me.

"The smell suddenly got stronger and I followed my instincts," He looks out at the ground ahead of us, "Fire tiles. Some of these will randomly burst into flames and we have no idea of knowing which ones are which."

I beam at him. "Excellent deduction skills, Hajime!" I praise. He rolls his eyes, pink dusting his cheeks slightly.

"Well it's obvious." He mutters. I step away from him.

"So what's our game plan?" I ask.

"The smoke scent seems to increase seconds before the fire strikes. But there's no way of knowing which tile will be the one to burst into flames. What do you make of that, Ko?"

"Is this something that can really be solved with logic? The Floormaster doesn't seem the type to lay things out in puzzles and patterns." I muse.

"Tick tock, Ko, we're running outta time." Hajime reminds me.

"I wish we could see if a tile was smoking..." I mumble.

"Tough. I didn't see any smoking tile," the brunet grunts, "let's just fuck it and run like hell until we're outta here."

"There's no way that's safe."

"Hell if I care. It's the only idea we've got and we're running out of time. Alright?"

"Hajime..."

"Ko, shut up. You're going to get us killed. Let's get running. Be sure to keep up." He grunts.

He grabs my wrist and suddenly we're flying across the floor. I nearly trip and stumble over my own feet, struggling to keep up with him.

"Keep up!" He hisses over his shoulder.

"I'm...trying!" I pant back at him.

The tiles all around us start to steam intensely, ready to burst into flames.

"Hajime, we need to go faster!" I shriek.

"No shit!" He growls back, picking up the pace.

I can feel the heat of the fires on my back as the fire rapidly draws closer to us. Up ahead I see a purple curtain leading into a pitch-black room.

"There!" I pant.

"I know!"

Just as the fire is about to graze my back, Hajime disappears into the curtained room, yanking me in after him. The curtains immediately draw to a shut behind us.

"Obstacle One Cleared." A robotic voice announces from out of no where.

I hunch over, placing my hands on my knees, trying to draw in some air. Hajime simply sighs, wiping a bit of sweat off of his forehead.

Once my vision is a little less blurry, I take the chance to look around the room.

The lights are dim in here, you'd have to squint to really make out anything. Up ahead are two separate halls with no way of seeing what's within them. And hovering right above where the paths split is a monitor flickering to life.

The excited stupid face of the Floormaster Kokichi suddenly fills up the screen. He claps his tiny hands together excitedly.

"You actually solved it! That was an interesting method, Hajime, but effective!" He squeals.

"Shut the hell up you tiny grape!" Hajime growls, pointing his weapon at the screen.

"Anyways I will now explain this next obstacle," He continues as if Hajime had said nothing at all, "Hajime and Nagito will each pick a hallway! You cannot go down the same hallway. One hallway is full of despair-filled obstacles and the other, just a peaceful walk to the next challenge. The choice is yours! Alright, see you later!"

   And with that, the monitor shuts off. Hajime and I turn to each other, dumbfounded.

   "So, how do we settle this?" I ask. He shrugs, indifferent.

   "You can pick whichever side you want. I'll go the opposite side of course." He replies casually, kicking at the floor. 

   Hmm.. With my luck I'll pick the safe hall. But I don't want to risk hurting Hajime. I'm the one who wants to die and not him after all.

   "Ah, in that case...I'll take the one on the left." I decide. He nods curtly.

   "Great. See you soon, Ko." He chirps. And with that he disappears into the hall on the righthand side without looking back.

   I turn back to the left-hand hallway.

   Alright, I have to do this. I'm getting Hajime out of here.

   Here I go.

   Gathering myself together, I proceed down my hallway.

   It's quiet and uneventful, which only worries me further. If nothing is happening here...then Hajime is stuck in the Despair Hallway. And it's all my fault. 

   He's going to kill me. Ah-I mean he's going to do that eventually but he's going to be disappointed with me.

   Ahh, Hajime please forgive me...

   "Well Well, Nagito Ko-Mae-Daa~" A high-pitched voice rings out over the speakers. Is that...Kokichi?
  

   "Kokichi?" I call out hesitantly.

   "Nope, I'm actually Izuru Kamakura....just kidding!~ It is Kokichi! I need to talk to you about something!~"

   I stop walking momentarily, cocking an eyebrow.

   "About what?"

   "Come to the end of the hallway...and I'll kill you swiftly and painlessly. You want to die right? Because you deserve it, righhtt?~"

   "Yeah, but-"
 

   "Oh why be alive any longer than you have to? You can just die now, neehee!~"

   "But-"

   "Don't you worry about Hajime, he'll be taken care of, of course~ So, what do you say?"

   "I-"