Junko is still talking about punishment and execution somewhere in the dark, promising despair. Mari is standing there with Nagito's hand around her throat talking about making choices; he can feel how her body reacts but she stands there and chooses to keep talking to him anyway. Every second they stand here the darkness encroaches and the light grows further away.

Hope follows despair. It has never been something he chooses. Terrible things happen, and good follows them. It is a force of nature. Certain special people shine under adversity. He devotes his life to that kind of hope; to encouraging those kinds of people to embrace disaster for the good that only they can create from it.

And where has it gotten him? Where had it gotten everyone?

Hinata isn't here; only Nagito can hear his voice somewhere in his mind. Hinata chose the future. Hinata chose a future for the rest of them, too. And that really did create hope, didn't it? Nagito had watched his former classmates (former Remnants, the others, the people who live on the island with me, so many phrases because to imply they had any other association with worthless, pathetic Komaeda Nagito is an insult to them) keep trying.

Nagito releases Mari. He's looking at her like she's something important; like the first green sprouts after a difficult winter.

"We should catch up with everyone else."