Part 2 Prologue: Ultimate Hope VS Ultimate Despair
"Hahahahaha... Die...! All of you, die...!"
A pink-haired man sat astride an enormous robot, raking the surroundings with indiscriminate machine-gun fire. Every time he laughed, a flash of sharp teeth made the madness carved into his face all the more pronounced.
"Hey...! You lot, wipe out that side...!"
The instant the words left his mouth, the eyes of the motley robots lined up behind him began to glow. In another second, an indiscriminate slaughter would have crashed down upon the people who hadn't managed to flee, still trembling in terror.
"Former Ultimate Mechanic, Kazuichi Soda. That's far enough."
From among the crowd of refugees, figures in black suits burst into the open.
"Y-you're... who the hell are you...? I don't know your face, but... are you standing in my way...?"
"Soda... so you really don't remember me... We even worked together at Hope's Peak Academy..."
"Anyone who stands in my way... dies...!"
Soda wrenched the robot's arm around, meaning to crush the person who had dared to block his path — then his face twisted, and he muttered under his breath.
"...What? What's wrong with this thing...?"
"Give it up. Every last one of your machines has already been neutralized. Surrender quietly."
"...You hacked all of them...? Well. That's impressive, I'll give you that... but you think that means I'm just going to let myself get taken...?"
Soda switched the robot to manual control, his eyes drowning in despair as he murmured to himself.
"I'll kill them all... If I kill everyone... then in the end, all that's left is despair..."
"...Everyone. Get ready."
"Understood, Ms. Fujisaki!"
In a darkened factory, a man in a chef's hat hummed a little tune as he cooked with single-minded devotion. The dishes he was preparing looked exquisite from the outside. The ingredients and chemicals packed inside them, however, were perfectly designed to plunge anyone who ate them into despair.
"Someone eating my cooking and falling into despair... isn't that just the best...?"
He packaged the finished dishes with painstaking care, tucked them into a bag, and was about to head off somewhere when a presence brushed against his senses and stopped him cold.
"Wh-who's there...!?"
"...Haa. Why do I always get stuck with the creepy jobs... Even if it is my karma talking..."
"I said who are you...!"
The panicked man snatched up a kitchen knife and waved it around in a frenzy, but the man it was pointed at didn't so much as flinch.
"Teruteru Hanamura. A long tail always gets caught, you know. You really thought you could spread that much grotesque food around and not get found out?"
"B-but... I've got hundreds of front factories. How did you even...?"
"...I may not be good at much else, but I've gotten pretty confident in my fortune-telling."
A man in night-vision goggles cut nimbly through a sky full of falling artillery. For all his heavy build, not a single bullet so much as grazed him; every round buried itself in the earth instead.
"Th-there...! That's a ringleader of the Remnants of Despair! Capture him...!"
Fully armed special forces closed in and surrounded him at last. He let out a sigh, pulled off the night-vision goggles, and raised his voice.
"You fools. The Remnants of Despair have already left this place. Friendly fire? And you have the gall to call yourselves the Future Foundation's elite?"
"...B-but...!"
"Silence. We don't have time. Hurry and—"
"Don't make me laugh."
The special forces hesitated, confusion flickering across their faces as they started to lower their weapons — and in that same instant, a voice identical to the one they had just been hearing rose from behind their own ranks.
"How dare you wear my face. Has your nerve finally outgrown your body?"
"...!"
The man who had arrived with reinforcements — lean where the other was heavy — fixed the surrounded figure with a cold stare.
"I hear you contributed considerably to the Togami family's downfall."
"...Hmph."
"For the crime of falsely claiming the Togami name, I will make you pay in full."
"Everyone...! Watch our show together and despair...!"
"Forget all about hope... and fall into some nice, fun despair, 'kay...!"
Two women performed on an enormous stage. The performance itself was beautiful. The audience, watching that beauty, was sinking into despair.
The show climbed toward its climax. The crowd roared, hands reaching into coats for the weapons they had brought along — and then, from far off, a different kind of shouting began to swell.
"Huh...? What...? New fans...?"
"Don't think that's it... Those folks... they ain't despairin'."
A vast crowd appeared as if from nowhere and closed in around the two remnants of despair and their audience alike. From the heart of that crowd, someone stepped forward.
"This is truly dreadful. A performance is meant to give hope to everyone — not despair. Mioda... Saionji... just why have you become like this...?"
"You... have such a punchable face...? I think crushing that ugly thing might finally put me in a good mood..."
"Not understandin' the beauty of despair is the worst...! Everyone, let's show these people what despair really is...!"
The blue-haired girl who had spoken first closed her eyes and listened to the roaring at her back.
"I... believe in my fans. In the agents of the Future Foundation. In hope."
"Maizono! Maizono! Maizono!"
"Waaaaaah!!!"
She opened her eyes, fixed the two women with a steady look, and made her declaration to the crowd still chanting her name.
In a plaza packed with people, a woman stood upon a high platform and delivered a speech.
"Subjects of the Kingdom of Despair...! These are difficult times, yes — but let us steel ourselves and eradicate those detestable hopes...!"
"Eradicate!!"
"As of this day, our Kingdom of Despair... enters a fight to the death against the Future Foundation...!"
"Waaaaaaaah!!!"
A red-haired woman circled them, photographing the sky-high morale from every conceivable angle.
"Nice... this one came out well too... Definitely despairingly good propaganda..."
"L-Lady Sonia...! Ms. Koizumi...! We're in trouble...!"
"What's the matter...? This is an important speech—"
"The Future Foundation's elite forces have launched a surprise attack...! You must evacuate immediately...!"
The words were barely out before armed troops stormed the plaza and leveled their weapons at the two figures on the platform.
From among those troops, a heavyset man emerged, dripping with cold sweat. He set down an elegant chair with great care. A moment later, someone strode out with regal composure and settled into it as though it were a throne.
"The Future Foundation... you interfere with us to the very end. However... this time, we will not go down so easily..."
"My. Is a mere princess of a single nation attempting to defeat a queen?"
"Th-that line just now... was truly magnificent...! Lady Celestia Ludenberg, for this promotional material, if we take the present scene and that line and render them as an illustration—"
"This is a rather important situation. We can discuss that later."
"Wh-what about the composition, then...? I know that right now, given our positions, we're looking up from below, but for the promotional material we really ought to adapt it so that you're looking down from above, and then we add that line from a moment ago, and—"
"Would you shut up already, you fat pig!!"
"E-eeeeeeek! I'm sorry!!"
The woman in the chair closed her eyes for a moment, gathered her composure, and slipped back into her poker face as though the outburst had never happened. Then she addressed the troops behind her.
"My slaves... no. My knights. Capture those two remnants of despair."
"H-help...! Monsters... they're monsters...!"
"Wh-what are those things...? It's like... they're being controlled by someone—"
"Hey! Snap out of it! You zone out here and those things will trample you to death for sure!!"
A pack of animals had appeared without warning in the middle of the city. Lions, tigers, gorillas, bears, giraffes, elephants, hawks — predators and giants alike — tore through the streets without the slightest hesitation, leaving ruin in their wake.
"O Destroyers of Worlds, who shall pass judgment upon this false realm! Bestow your salvation upon humanity, who have committed sins they can never repay...!"
At the head of that procession, a man walked with the beasts at his command. Someone stepped into his path.
"Gundham Tanaka! Your atrocities have gone too far! Can you not see the people suffering before your very eyes!?"
"For a mere mortal to bar my path is an act worthy of praise... however. There are times when one must know one's place..."
"There's no reasoning with you! This Kiyotaka Ishimaru will not permit any further destruction! Troops! Advance! Combine your strength and drive out the ruin before our eyes!!"
"Yes, sir!!"
"Whether you are nothing more than moths hurling yourselves into the flame, or god-slayers who would defy the sacred will of the heavens — this Gundham Tanaka shall put you to the test himself!! Come forth!!"
Watching the Future Foundation's elite charge toward him, the man cried out in a voice thick with arrogance — and the battle was joined.
"Hehehehehehehehe... Stay still now... The pain will only last a moment..."
Inside a dilapidated hospital in a ruined city, in a hospital room so dark it seemed to swallow the light, a woman sat with her eyes gleaming and a syringe poised over someone.
"Gyaaaaah..."
"Groooh... groooogh..."
"Hnnngh... s-stop...! Please... j-just kill me!! I don't want to end up like that...!!"
The man bound tightly to the bed screamed at the sight of the needle. All around him, people who had already received the injection were twisting into horrific shapes, their own screams filling the room.
"You mustn't die... That is something I, Mikan Tsumiki — the world's greatest health committee member — cannot allow... You have to stay alive until the very end... and feel despair... with your entire body, right up until your final moment...!"
"H-help me...!"
The needle was a breath away from breaking the man's skin when a baseball came flying out of nowhere, shattered the syringe, and buried itself in the wall.
"...!"
"Geez. I put in for a different assignment because I really didn't want to run into that manager guy again — and I end up getting stuck with a creepy job like this."
"Why... why are you interfering with me...? Why? Why? WHYYYYYY!?"
Having lost all reason, the woman snatched up another syringe from beside her and lunged — only for someone charging in from the side to strike the weapon from her hand and send her sprawling to the floor.
"How dare you... try to hurt Leon... Who the hell do you think you are...!"
"Hey... Kanon... we need her alive, so take it easy..."
"Y-yes..."
"...Guh!"
"Owada? You okay?"
"Yeah. I can still hold. Asahina — how about you?"
"I'm still okay too, but... if this keeps up..."
"Damn it, when the hell is backup getting here...? They said we just had to hold a little longer...!"
"Kakakakakaka!! Why's everyone making such a fuss? Just stab and slash everything like I do!! Puhuhuhuhu!!"
Atop a burning bridge, a handful of Future Foundation operatives were barely holding their ground against an overwhelming tide of despair.
"Peko. Eliminate that annoying four-eyes first."
"Yes, Young Master."
"You lot... your movements are quite impressive. But you're still a long way from reaching this Nidai...!"
"Still... it's been a while since I've had opponents this fun...?"
"...Carelessness is forbidden, Owari."
"Kuzuryu, come on... there's no way I'd lose to those guys..."
The Future Foundation fought with everything they had, but the sheer weight of numbers pressed them steadily onto the back foot. Exhaustion was starting to show on every face when the most perfect possible reinforcements arrived.
"You've all done well. I'll take it from here."
"O-Ogami...! You made it...?"
At the appearance of the woman called the strongest in the world, the Remnants of Despair — so swaggering only a moment before — swallowed hard.
"The rest of you, reorganize whoever's still standing and go support Kei's position immediately. It sounds like they need backup over there just as badly as we did here."
Then she stepped forward alone, placing herself between the army of despair and everyone behind her. She swept her gaze across the Remnants of Despair and spoke, quietly.
Makoto Naegi looked at the white-haired man smiling in front of him.
"Hahahahaha... so luck really does cancel out luck? Offsetting my luck with yours...! Amazing...!"
"Nagito Komaeda. Why do you have your memories?"
"That's not what's important, underclassman... What's important is that I no longer have any intention of resisting. Right?"
"...That's not something a person who just drove an entire unit to the brink of annihilation should be saying."
"Hahaha... my luck doesn't move according to my will, you see... But thanks to that, I get to be captured by someone who shares my 'luck' — and who is the 'hope' I've always admired...!"
"..."
"So then... will you transfer me to the Future Foundation now...?"
On the wrecked roads of a destroyed city, a force beyond counting had closed in around a single man. Helicopters hung in the sky above him. Armored vehicles sat waiting along the asphalt. A vast body of troops, armed with every weapon imaginable, held their positions in taut silence, waiting for the order.
A short distance away, in a temporary base, four people had been watching the surrounded man with their nerves drawn tight — and the urgent report that had just come in left them unable to hide their shock.
"What do you mean...? He suddenly disappeared...?"
"Th-that's... we had him completely surrounded, I know we did, but... before we knew it..."
"...Kei. What do you think?"
"..."
"...We pulled every last soldier from the 13th and 14th Branches for this operation. And it ends this emptily... Honestly, I thought even this might not be enough. I was ready to offer up my own life..."
"Ikusaba. Stop talking about throwing your life away. You promised."
"...Alright. Then Kirigiri — what do you make of the current situation?"
"...I don't know. He's an extremely unpredictable individual. We should remain on guard for now..."
"He... isn't someone we need to be wary of..."
"...Nanami. I understand where you're coming from, but right now—"
"Th-this is bad...!"
An agent burst into the meeting room in the middle of their grim discussion, voice raw with urgency.
"You need to get out of here immediately!"
"What's going on? Why—"
"H-he's... here...!"
"It's been a while."
The man who opened the meeting room door froze every person inside it in place.
"Ka... Kamukura... Izuru...?"
"Hi... Hinata..."
"...I'll handle things here somehow. The rest of you, take the emergency exit in the back—"
"That won't be necessary."
Izuru Kamukura — or Hinata, as some of them called him — reached into the pocket of the agent standing frozen beside him, drew out a pair of handcuffs, and closed them around his own wrists.
For a moment, silence filled the room.
"...Just what are you planning?"
Kei asked it through a body gone rigid with tension. The man only looked at the people in the meeting room, his face empty of expression, and murmured quietly to himself.