29 A Thin Limit

"Huh?" After getting a glass of water for her friend, Shuichi realized her friend left without any advice. "Maybe her tutor picked her up earlier than usual" The young detective remained oblivious to the situation and thought there was no ill in her friend's actions.

"Is something wrong Shuichi?" The blonde musician approached her now weeklong boyfriend.

"Oh, it's nothing, I'm okay" Shuichi nodded, relieving Kaede of any small worries she may have. They didn't pay any mind to the topic and had breakfast while chatting.

Their relationship had finally reached a stable phase, which by no means was easy to achieve. Normally a couple would take a few weeks or even months to attain this. However, since this particular couple spent their whole days and nights together, this process sped up significantly.

The first days both of them still wondered how they should address each other. Bynames or cuter nicknames. When was it okay to kiss? Should they sleep together every night from now on? How should they act in front of everyone else? Eventually, days passed and their and their confidence in each other grew exponentially.

They resolved each and every single doubt they had, reaching a tranquil and lovely.

After a few minutes, the tutors arrive at the restaurant, to pick up their own students for their daily sessions.

"What a wonderful morning isn't it?" Suddenly without realizing a third guest had joined their table. In any other situation, both of them would've been startled by it, but this was a day to day sight for them.

"Good morning Nagito" Kaede greeted her tutor with a smile.

"Are you ready for today's session?" Nagito asked the couple.

"Yeah, though I'm kinda tired" Kaede responded.

"Well if you keep writing sheet music all night, you'll never get good sleep" Shuichi retorted, mocking his girlfriend.

"I can't help it," Kaede said, "A musician needs to practice every day, if not they'll lose their touch—"

"You two surely sound like a married couple" Nagito interrupted abruptly. Both of them blushed amazingly.

It was common to be teased by their friends, but a tutor was on another level.

"Hmm? What's the matter?" Nagito looked at them with puzzled eyes, turning his head left to right, catching a glimpse of their flustered faces.

"You sure have a hard time reading the atmosphere" A fourth person approached the table where the trio was chatting.

"Ah, Hajime! Good morning" Nagito greeted his longtime friend.

"Shuichi, ready to go?" The red-eyed tutor went straight to the point.

"Oh…? Yeah, I'm good to go" Shuichi shook his head, shaking his shock away. "I'll see you later Kaede" He gives a smile to her girlfriend and walked to the exit door with his tutor.

As Hajime approached his hand to reach the doorknob, another one appeared in his vision field. A hand. No, more like a whole arm covered in bandages, that quickly reached Hajime's hand. For Hajime, it appeared that the objective of this hand was never the doorknob, but his hand all along.

"Oh, I'm sorry Hinata-kun" The nurse Mikan Tsumiki withdrew her hand slowly without any shyness to it.

"Don't worry about it" Hajime tried to not make direct eye contact with Mikan and opened the door so she and her student could pass. As they walked beside him, Hajime caught a little smirk on the corner of Mikan's mouth. He gulped and started to get nervous about it, something Shuichi quickly caught up.

"Everything okay Hinata-senpai?" Shuichi realized the strange behavior of his tutor.

"Yeah, it's nothing…" Hajime reconnected to reality.

After this little exchange of words, they exited the restaurant.

"So, Kaede where would you like to go today?" Nagito asked her student.

"Hmmm…. Nothing comes to mind" Kaede answered. "Why don't we go somewhere you like Nagito?" The tutor was surprised by her proposal and immediately gave a small laugh.

"Hahaha, a beacon of hope like you, wants the opinion of trash like me?" Nagito quickly rejected her idea, "I have nothing in mind, so think harder"

"I know I've asked this maybe a hundred times already, but why do you hate yourself so much? Calling yourself trash and worthless" Kaede asked a bit annoyed by her tutor's reaction to her proposal.

"I don't hate myself. I just know what my place is in this life," Nagito explained his retorted ideals, "I'm just another rock to step on, another pawn used to reach the brightest of hopes. I'm perfectly fine with that. As long as there is hope at the end of the road, I'll be willing to be a tool for people like you to help them reach it. I'm willing to give my own life for hope" Nagito stared at the ceiling with a blank look, smiling.

An ominous smile.

For Kaede Nagito always exuded this masochistic aura, when talking about hope. But it goes beyond that.

Hope is Nagito's everything. His whole world revolves around hope.

"I just hope someday I can help someone reach that hope. Who knows? Maybe it'll be you Kaede" Nagito turned his head to see her student.

"Me? I don't think I can fulfill those expectations" Kaede smirked nervously.

"You don't need to think so lowly about yourself," Kaede didn't want to hear that phrase coming from him especially, "I saw you at Danganronpa and you out of everyone were the brightest"

Kaede felt uncomfortable about the topic, so she didn't comment on anything about it.

"Shall we go then?" Nagito stood up.

"Sure, let's go" Kaede followed him to the exit.

"How is everything with Shuichi?" Kaede stopped dead on her tracks. Hearing this question out of nowhere made her anxious. She could not find the words to respond, instead, she just looked at Nagito with an embarrassed face. "What you thought I wouldn't notice?" Said Nagito as he walked close to her student, which made her nervous.

Nagito approached Kaede's ear to whisper something.

"I'll give you a heads up. You are not the only one."