The Thorns of Despair: False Love's Hope - Nagito Komaeda x Reader

Chapter 8: Despair-Inducing Choices

A/N (IMPORTANT): This is probably the last update I will do for about three weeks. I have my mocks in a week so I have to focus on revising for those. Sorry for making you all wait for a while but I promise that I will be back!

See you all in a few weeks!

~Your POV~

I walked to school, dragging my feet along the ground. Losing Seiko and Nagito practically took all the happiness away from me. Each day was torture and the only light I had was when I visited Seiko or when Chiaki made some kind of fun event in the classroom. I felt like my life was painted with shades of grey and Nagito was the colour that brightened up my world. But he was gone and he had taken the paintbrush away from the canvas, leaving a ruined, unfinished mess on what was once pure white. I felt as if everything had become so dull. I missed him. I really did. I loved him with all of my heart and soul, but he would never look at me. I knew that when I attempted to confess to him. It still hurt. Was hope really all he cared about? I wanted.... I really wanted him to look at me too. Sighing, I walked into the classroom for another boring day of school. But this day wasn't as boring as I thought it would be. I don't remember much of what happened that day. All I remember is crashing into someone and falling to the floor. But this was the day that I would never forget. Because it was the day that turned my world upside-down.

"Ow...." I mumbled, standing up and brushing the dust off of my clothes. "Are you alright?" I asked the girl I had bumped into, who was laying in a heap on the floor.

She had long, thick strawberry blonde hair, which was tied back into two pigtails. She also had a bunny hairclip and a red and white bow in her hair. Despite it being tied up, it still reached her waist. She wore a black cardigan over her white dress shirt. Her top buttons were undone and her white tie was loose. Slowly, she smoothed out her red miniskirt and I glanced at her red nails before I made eye contact with her. Her eyes were blue like the ocean and I was drowning, but not in the good way. I felt like her manicured hands had pulled me underwater and I was running out of air. Her nails were digging into my skin and I was choking on the water as I fell deeper into the darkness. I froze as she stood up, pupils shrinking and eyes widened in fear. She grinned at me and she almost looked like a Cheshire Cat like she was going to play a game with me. 

"Well well well. What do we have here?" she asked innocently but the dark undertone sent shivers down my spine. Then, she let out a giggle and embraced me tightly without warning. 

"W-What the-" I stuttered as I struggled to escape her grasp. Back then, I was an idiot. I didn't realise that once she had me, there was no chance of me escaping and seeing the light again.

"You're so cute!" she swooned before pulling away slightly and looking into my eyes. Her eyes had a sinister glint that made my blood run cold. "This is, completely and utterly, a Despairingly Fatefull Encounter."

She asked me for my name and my story. I found myself answering her before I realised what I was doing because her eyes were staring into my soul. I didn't know how she did it but one look in her eyes sent a wave of despair through me. In return for talking to her and confessing all of the untold feelings in my heart, she told me her name. She was a year younger than me, my underclassmen. Her name was Junko Enoshima.

"Hm, I see... so you're so truly, madly, deeply in love with him but he is so obsessed with hope that he doesn't even try to look at you? Oh you poor thing!" she cooed, hugging me once again. 

It was then that she did it. I will never forget.... I will never, ever forget.... how she impaled my aching heart with the Thorns of Despair that day.

"Then why not put him to the test?" she asked, turning to me.
"Huh?" I mumbled quietly, looking into her terrifying eyes and feeling calm. 

"He loves hope, right? So~ Become hope!" she told me cheerfully as that cheshire cat-like grin made its way to her face once again.

"Become.... hope? How could I do that?" I questioned her, letting the idea corrupt my mind and my love for him.

She giggled. "Save everyone from the darkest depths of despair, of course! (f/n) (l/n), the Super High School-Level (talent) and the Ultimate Hope too! It sounds great, doesn't it? Doesn't it~?" 

The poisonous thoughts began infecting my mind. 'The Ultimate Hope.... me? The Ultimate Hope? I'm just a high school girl. I only have (talent), I could never be as amazing as that.'

"Of course I love hope. There is nothing better than hope and I could only love the Ultimate Hope that comes from two hopes colliding."

'But Nagito would love me if I became the Ultimate Hope. As I am, I mean nothing to him. Why couldn't I just.... change? Change into someone he would love. Finally be noticed and appreciated for him. Seeing a precious, genuine smile on his face, reserved only for me....'

"I'll do it! I'll become the Ultimate Hope and win his love. I'll also stop all of the tragedies going on in Hope's Peak Academy!" I proclaimed with a grin.

I never saw the twisted smirk Junko made behind me when I said that.
"Oh? Aren't you ambitious? But how do you plan on doing such a thing?"

I turned to her. "I want to make everyone happy. I'll keep them smiling because their happiness and want of a future full of happiness spreads hope. Happiness is hope. I will ease their worries and be strong for them, so that they can eradicate despair from their hearts." I answered, voice unwavering as I felt the new-found confidence I had swell within me.

"You're very kind." Junko said.

"So are you. Thank you for helping me." I replied  then heard the bell chime. "Well I need to go to class. Bye! I'll find you and talk to you again at some point!" I said then ran to class.

"Please do." Junko said and waved until I was out of sight.

Then, a sickening smile replaced her friendly one. "Ahaha. That's right. Love him. Love him and hate everyone else. Don't worry, I'll teach you how cruel other people can be and how horrid real life is later. For now, let your love and desire to be loved grow. Because that, (f/n) (l/n), is your despair."

Meanwhile, a boy with fluffy white hair sat on an aeroplane. In his hands was a briefcase. It was dropped by a man who had ran past him in the airport, wearing a mask with a black and white bear's face. The briefcase contained a lot of information that piqued Nagito's interest. Inside was the interviewer's notes regarding the suspicion of Junko Enoshima is various catastrophes that recently befell Hope's Peak Academy. Also inside were notes from the mastermind herself. Her plans of brainwashing the Reserve Course with Ryouta Mitarai's talent, the ideas for The School Life of Mutual Killing and most importantly, the successor to her title of the True Ultimate Despair. The name of a girl who was so pure and beautiful that tainting her with despair was unforgivable. 
(f/n) (l/n).
Fortunately, the briefcase also contained a gun. And Nagito would not hesitate to use it for the sake of protecting hope from the awful despair Junko Enoshima was spreading.
"To think that I would be able to find out all this by being suspended and seeing someone drop this by chance, I really am lucky."