A Farewell to All Futures

Memories and Surroundings

Warning: mentioned brainwashing/demands for suicide, manipulation, violence, strangulation, stabbing, murder, death

***

Nikei whirled around with alarm on his face, seeing Mikado right behind him. "M-Mikado?! Where the flying fuck did you come from?! And how did you get behind me without these girls noticing?!" He exclaimed.

"You keep forgetting that I can teleport. You should really know that by now." Mikado deadpanned.

Nikei turned his head to the three girls. "I know something bad's gonna happen to me, so I might as well spill this. While I was in the code, Mikado changed the password to the lab's door. I didn't see it exactly, but the hint he put for himself is the day the class rep gathered the class as one. Come on, maybe it'll jog your memory or something!" He exclaimed, aiming that last comment at Sora.

"I doubt it though, her memories just don't have that information." The blonde chuckled and shook his head.

"Oh, will you just shut up?!" Nikei shouted, his anger suddenly returning. "You're just a goddamn Remnant wearing the skin of the one I loved! You can't ever replicate who he was!"

"Ah, but I am still him. Did you forget how you couldn't save him in time?" The wizard taunted. "And you didn't try to further pursue Junko either. If you don't believe me, the evidence is looking you in the eye, and I mean that quite literally."

"So, you're blaming me for your creation?" Nikei huffed with a dark smile. "That doesn't make any sense. After all, I didn't want you to be created either."

Mikado's mask turned dark as he glared at Nikei. "Then why didn't you save me? Even the real Mikado would be disgusted by your actions. I still cannot understand why he would love an inferior wretch like you."

"Gh!" Nikei tensed up at the wizard's words, his eyes going wide. "He fell in love with me because I saved him once!"

"And yet, you couldn't do it twice. Or stop the Tragedy, for that matter. You'd think the Ultimate Journalist's article would've gotten the culprit apprehended or something." Mikado sighed and shrugged. "Oh well, everyone is pretty much useless in this day and age."

"W-Wait, what 'Tragedy' are you talking about?" Yoruko questioned.

"In short, the apocalypse was upon us." Mikado summarized. "It was basically a war for the sake of war."

During Yoruko's question and Mikado's answer, Nikei had silently stared at Mikado with a careful gaze. "...He's still in there, isn't he?" The journalist monotonously spoke.

Mikado turned back to him with a confused look on his face. "Huh?"

"The real Mikado. He's still in there, just unable to resurface because of the lobotomy and the brainwashing. You might have his mannerisms and his way of thinking, but the real Mikado is still here and watching through your eyes, isn't he?" 

"...Of course, you're absolutely correct. How do you think Ultimate Despair works if we actually LIKE it?" Mikado questioned. "The brainwashing video was designed so that the victim's thoughts and actions would be twisted so that they would naturally gravitate towards despair against their own will. Inside, there's a part of us that hates this down to our core and despairs at what we do, and the brainwashing makes us LIVE for that feeling."

"That's...terrible." Sora breathed. "The real Mikado has to experience what you do."

"And all this time, you've been hating him and openly telling him to kill himself! How terrible!" The blonde laughed. "Well, as much as I enjoyed this emotional reunion, it's time to bring this to an end."