Chapter Text
“How boring… To think we all went through that for a fate like this…”
In another dimension quite alien from the being’s former one, protracted locks of pitch black flowed around the mystic throne of great proportions. Blood red eyes viewed and perceived a violaceous room, barren save for its dark walls and architectures.
The being appeared to be a boy no older than seventeen years, dark flowing hair waving in front of his face against an imaginary wind. Over his body was nothing more than a tattered hooded cloak the color of night. He viewed a screen, projecting past memories of carnage and killing; of horror and bloodshed. But despite it all, the being only looked at it with utter apathy.
“If this is what being God meant, then I’d have never bothered with that stupid game,” he sighed. “I wonder how long it’s been since that fateful bloodbath I conquered?”
The corpses of several unknown high school students playing on screen no longer meant anything to him. But, when one certain image was displayed, the deity felt a sudden twinge of interest amongst his inner sea of indifference. On the screen was a dismantled classroom containing young girl with large strawberry blonde pigtails, cackling mad above the bloodied corpse of another girl with short black hair as she herself held the weapon of murder.
The image of the pigtailed girl made the deity feel something for once in a very long time: melancholy. The feeling only grew when images on images later, the girl with the pigtails met her own cruel demise right in front of his former self.
“I thought you of all people would make it out… Junko,” the deity sighed, looking at the girl’s corpse's image one last time. “You were always the superior player, after all. Even getting rid of the two people you held dearest to you.”
Suddenly, the deity sprung an idea. When the idea was too far gone to be taken back, he leaped up to a high altitude until he reached far beyond the walls of his realm, filled with absolutely nothing but pure darkness followed by some sort of a spacial realm. Within seconds, the deity was transported to a specific point in time, viewing the process as if it were nothing extraordinary.
He'd managed to have gone back to the exact point before Junko encountered the girl who would lose her life at her red-manicured hands. The deity stayed remotely hidden, but when Junko looked at her rectangular dark pink flip cell phone with a devious grin, she gasped when she felt her body be pulled into a separate and smaller, yet equally bloodied and ruined, darkened room.
"Hey!" she proclaimed angrily, "Who the hell did that?!"
"Me," the deity answered, making his ominous presence known to Junko.
"Hmm? And just who are you, sir?" Junko questioned, suddenly erudite with a teacher's ponytail and glasses. "I can't say I recall ever seeing you in my life before."
"Let's just say you already know me, Second. However, I now go by Izuru. Izuru Kamukura, that is."
"Upupu, nice to meet you, Kamukura!" Junko chirped, now cutesy with curved pigtails. "Oh, won't you tell me what you want with me? I'm so curious that I just gotta know!"
“I’m asking you for a favor,” Kamukura told her. “In the timeline I’m from, this whole Survival Game has ended with me as the victor.”
“You?” Junko wondered with her normal expression, only more confused. “Can’t say I’ve seen you around during everything. How did a no-name like you beat everyone? Beat me, even?!”
“That’s a story for later. Right now, I’m asking you to do something for me. And knowing you, I’d say it’s an offer you can’t refuse.”
“Oh really? What have ya got in store for me, Kamukura?”
“How does helping me start a whole new Survival Game with you by my side sound?”
Junko blinked with surprise at Kamukura’s offer. On the one hand, the thought of bringing despair and carnage to a newer pack of unsuspecting victims sounded like her ideal fun day, but on the other, she seemed to be having fun with the one she was in right now. Allowing a skeptical “hmmm…” pass her nostrils, Junko raised an eyebrow at the bored Kamukura.
“Tempting, tempting, tempting…” Junko pondered teasingly. “What’s in it for me exactly? Why should I help you?”
“Because, being God isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Such a bore, it is…” Kamukura sighed. “Not only that, but you’re the only able-bodied person I know that can make things at least somewhat interesting.”
“True, no one else has my taste in fun. Not even the conformist I’m forced to call my sister. What else?”
“If you agree to help me, I will grant you half of my powers until I find a new successor. That way, you’ll not only be half-immortal, but you’ll also be nearly as powerful as the God you’re talking to.”
The girl’s sky blue eyes lit up with wonder at the offer, her lips pursing into a small “O” shape. Her luscious lips stretched into a mischievous grin as the offer made even more promising thoughts cross her mind. With that, Junko cackled in her typical fashion until she found herself drooling with mania.
“So, I assume we have a deal, Junko?” Kamukura questioned, offering his hand.
“Yes, we do!” Junko agreed, taking the palm and shaking it until her face stretched with pain when Kamukura jabbed a sharp hand into the female’s abdomen.
Kamukura removed his hand after a few seconds, the gushes of blood fading from his limb and Junko’s midsection until they were rendered non-existent. A newfound feeling coursed through Junko’s veins; a feeling of pure exhilaration as she felt stronger than ever before.
Junko’s new associate opened an erratic pathway in the ceiling that seemingly contained the very cosmos themselves. Kamukura offered another hand and asked if she was ready, but just as she was about to take the palm with a yes, Junko’s mind flashed to another person and idea. With that, she refused the hand, confusing Kamukura greatly.
“I’ll be right back,” Junko told him, running out of the room.
In another room of destruction, a girl with bobbed black hair and a tattered white short-sleeved school blouse and dark colored skirt was locked in combat with a tall snake-like guy with frisky body-length dark hair and a long tongue. Currently, the girl was dodging the taller male’s every move, both holding onto their flip cell phones for dear life.
“Come on, Diary, don’t fail me now!” the girl pleaded, looking at the screen on her black phone and skimming through each message.
“What’s wrong, Ikusaba-san?” the male teased with a hiss, “Is your Diary not giving you any good predictions? Quite a shame.”
The girl known as Ikusaba continued to dodge every attack the guy was throwing at her. In the nick of time, her cell phone made an obnoxious sound not unlike that of a static interference. One look brought subtle determination to her eyes as she unsheathed the knife in the scabbard strapped to her thigh.
“Game over, Madarai-kun!” Ikusaba proclaimed, thrusting the knife deep into the unsuspecting opponent’s cell phone, causing pieces of wire, glass, and plastic to chip out of the damaged device.
Madarai stared at his broken cell phone in disbelief, the words “DEAD END” vaguely appearing on the damaged screen. Within seconds, his body started to twist and shift until it was nothing more than a vortex of what used to be his form. The vortex imploded so much that Madarai faded from existence, leaving behind his broken Future Diary and a victorious Ikusaba.
The girl in question, however, was neither horrified nor elated at seeing yet another Diary Holder meet their demise. Instead, she left the ruined classroom with something else similar on her mind. But, Ikusaba was cut from her thoughts when Junko surprisingly ambushed her, holding a cloth to the girl’s nose and mouth until she’d passed out from the fumes.
“Take a little rest, Mukuro-chan~” Junko purred, dragging the girl with her. “We’re just gonna take a little detour.”
Minutes later, Junko arrived in the smaller room with the unconscious Mukuro in her arms. Kamukura looked at the girl as if she were some strange alien from a distant planet, then giving Junko a blank stare that hinted at confusion.
“Trust me, we’ll need her,” Junko insisted. “For once, my sister will actually be good for something!”
“Are you sure, Second?” Kamukura wondered.
“Of course! I’ll explain everything later.”
Kamukura nodded without any particular cares and reopened the sky portal of infinite dark space, grabbing onto Junko’s wrist tightly and looking straight up.
“Don’t let go of her,” he told Junko, her perky nod signalling for him to ascend through the portal of darkness, leaving behind the area of utter ruin and bloodshed.
When Mukuro at last awakened, she was surprised to find herself in a mysterious room tinted with a strange violet light. In front of her was a large upside down dome made of a strange rock, the throne inside occupied by an enlarged Kamukura. Floating beside him with her new powers was a crown-bearing Junko, which surprised Mukuro even more.
“Well well well!” Junko proclaimed in the “high and mighty” tone of an arrogant ruler, “Look who’s finally awake! So nice of you to join us, big sister!”
“Junko-chan?” Mukuro wondered, “Where am I? How did I get here?”
“My throne room, and your sister brought you here,” Kamukura answered, looking down at the disoriented Mukuro. “I am the God of this realm, Izuru Kamukura.”
“The God?” Mukuro wondered before realizing something odd. “But how?! I’m still alive, so you couldn’t have possibly won the Survival Game!”
“Oh, but I did win,” Kamukura explained nonchalantly. “All I did was rip you and your sister from the past and bring you here to the present. At least I’m not as bored now as I’ve been for who knows how long.”
“What do you want with us? Explain yourself, Kamukura-sama.”
Kamukura changed from his giant form of divinity into a brief swarm of darkness, shrinking himself to Mukuro’s size as he met her face to face, Junko right beside him after she floated downwards.
“Ikusaba, we’re going to play a little game,” Kamukura explained without much emotion. “You along with many new oblivious pawns are going to be a part of it.”
“In other words!” Junko beamed, now adorable and perky, “We’re gonna start a whole new Survival Game with a bunch of new friends!”
“Another Survival Game?!” Mukuro gasped, “N-No, I refuse! After what happened in the one you took me from, I will not subject myself to another ridiculous test.”
“Aww, why not, big sister?” Junko pouted, still cutesy. “Oh! Is it because of Naegi~?”
A nerve was struck inside of Mukuro as Junko’s words pierced her heart. Kamukura had the screen project a memory of a boy with light brown hair and olive green eyes jumping in front of an unsuspecting Mukuro, taking a mortal stab to the heart instead of her. When the clip version of Naegi dropped his phone, the static-covered screen on the device read “17:30: [Bad Luck] Took a stab wound for Ikusaba-san. At least she gets to live on now…” above the words “DEAD END”.
Just as the memory version of her had, Mukuro stared at the screen with horror and sadness, tears streaming down her face as she shut her eyes tight so as not to witness anymore of the traumatic scene. Off the screen went at Kamukura’s command, and he looked at Mukuro without any significant facial expressions (in contrast to Junko, who had a delighted grin on her face).
“You can fix this, Ikusaba,” Kamukura told her. “If you participate in the new Survival Game, you can make all of that go away. As if it never happened in the first place.”
“Make it all… go away?” Mukuro wondered.
“You got it, Muki!” Junko assured her, putting an arm around her twin sister’s shoulder. “As you know, if you kill everybody, you get to be the new Goddess!”
“Does that mean I can save Naegi-kun?” Mukuro asked. “I can bring him back?"
“Well, Ikusaba, you see--” Kamukura started.
“Duh, Mukuro!” Junko interrupted. “A God can do anything! So what’s stopping you from bringing back your beau?”
“Enoshima, wait,” Kamukura said, “there’s one little thing you--”
“I’ll do it,” Mukuro agreed without letting Izuru finish. “I’ll partake in the new Survival Game and take your place, Kamukura-kun.”
“YEAH, THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKIN’ ABOUT!” Junko cheered, her voice gruff as she made hand gestures with her crossed arms. “BIG SIS IS IN THE GAAAAME!”
“Very well then,” Kamukura sighed. “Once the game has started, your old Diary will be restarted so you can have all new predictions on it. Since you’re already familiar with the rules, there’s no need to be redundant.”
“Ya ready to be a Goddess, Mukuro?” Junko asked her sister.
“Whatever it takes to make things right,” Mukuro agreed with little emotion in her tone.
“Good. Be on the lookout for any and all Diary Holders. One wrong move, and you'll have met a premature Dead End,” Kamukura warned, making Mukuro fade out until she was no longer in the room. “Enoshima, come with me. We’ve got work to do in lieu of the Survival Game.”
Ascending with an ecstatic Junko back to the throne, Kamukura began work on a whole new test of skills and wits that would determine his rightful successor.
Ten unknown objects apparated as Kamukura and Junko started conversing and tinkering with them. Both knew that when they were done, everything would start to fall into place according to plan.