"Hahahahaha... Die...! Die, all of you...!"
A pink-haired man stood atop a gigantic robot, spraying machine-gun fire at anything and everything in sight. Every time he laughed, those sharp teeth flashing into view only made the madness stamped across his face look even more deranged.
"Hey...! You bastards, sweep that side clean...!"
The moment he finished speaking, the eyes of the bizarre assortment of robots lined up behind him began to glow. And just as they were about to unleash indiscriminate slaughter on the civilians still trembling in terror, too late to evacuate—
"I am Souda Kazuichi, the [Ultimate Mechanic]. This ends here."
Men in black suits burst out from the crowd of refugees.
"Y-You... who the hell are you...? I don't know who you are, but... are you seriously getting in my way right now...?"
"Souda... so you really don't remember me after all...? We even worked together at Hope's Peak Academy—"
"Anyone who stands in my way... dies...!"
Souda tried to bring the robot's arm crashing down on the person who had dared obstruct him, but then his expression twisted as he muttered under his breath.
".....What? What's wrong with this thing...?"
"Give up. Your machines have already been completely neutralized. Surrender quietly."
".....You hacked all my machines...? Well, sure, that's impressive, but... did you really think that means I'll just let you take me...?"
Switching the robot into manual control mode, Souda muttered with eyes steeped in despair.
"Kill them all... If I kill them all... then in the end, the only thing left will be despair..."
"...Everyone, get ready."
"Understood, Fujisaki!"
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In a dark factory somewhere, a man in a chef's hat hummed to himself as he busily prepared something.
The dishes he was making looked exquisite on the outside, but the ingredients and chemicals hidden inside them were perfectly tailored to plunge anyone into despair.
"Someone eating my cooking... and falling into despair because of it... isn't that just the best...?"
He carefully packaged the finished dishes, tucked them into a bag, and was just about to head out when he froze at the sudden sensation of someone's presence.
"Wh-Who's there...!?"
"...Haaah, why do I always get stuck with the nastiest jobs? Even if it's karma, c'mon now..."
"I said who are you...!"
The flustered man snatched up a kitchen knife and waved it wildly, but the man at whom the blade was pointed remained utterly calm.
"Hanamura Teruteru, if your tail's too long, you're bound to get caught. You really thought you could spread that much grotesque food around and never get found out?"
"B-But... there should've been hundreds of dummy factories... how did you...?"
"...I may not know much else, but these days, I've gotten pretty confident in my fortune-telling."
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A man wearing night-vision goggles advanced nimbly through a rain of gunfire pouring from the sky. Despite his massive build, not a single bullet so much as grazed him; they only slammed uselessly into the ground around him.
"Th-There...! That's one of the leaders of the Remnants of Despair! Capture him...!"
But once he was finally surrounded by a fully armed special forces unit, he let out a sigh, removed his night-vision goggles, and barked at them.
"You fools, the Remnants of Despair have already left this place. Friendly fire born of sheer incompetence? And you still dare call yourselves an elite squad of the Future Foundation?"
".....B-But...!"
"Silence. There's no time. Hurry and—"
"Don't make me laugh."
Just as the special forces, confusion written all over their faces, began lowering their guns, the exact same voice they had been hearing until moments ago rang out from behind them.
"You dared impersonate me? Have you got a death wish?"
".....!"
A lean man had arrived at some point with reinforcements in tow. He glared at the man trapped in the encirclement and spoke.
"I hear you played no small part in the downfall of the Togami family...?"
"...Hmph."
"For the crime of usurping the Togami name, I'll make sure you pay dearly."
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"Everyone...! Watch our performance together and despair...!"
"Forget all about hope... and sink into delightful despair, got it...!"
On a massive stage, two women were performing. The show was beautiful—yet the audience watching that beauty was being driven into despair.
At last, the performance surged toward its climax, and just as the cheering audience began pulling the weapons they had brought from inside their clothes, a roar rose up from far away.
"Hm...? What's that...? New fans...?"
"Doesn't look like it... Those people... aren't in despair."
A huge crowd had suddenly appeared, surrounding the two despair-ridden performers and their audience. Then, from the center of that crowd, someone stepped forward.
"Honestly, this is dreadful. A performance is meant to give hope to everyone, not despair. Mioda... Saionji... just why have you changed like this...?"
"You... have one seriously punchable face, y'know...? I don't think I'll feel better until I smash that ugly mug in..."
"Not understanding the beauty of despair is the worst...! Everyone, let's show them what despair really is...!"
Hearing that, the blue-haired girl closed her eyes and spoke as the cheers rising behind her washed over the stage.
"I... believe in my fans, in the agents of the Future Foundation, and in hope."
"Maizono! Maizono! Maizono!"
"Waaaaaaah!!!"
Then she opened her eyes, glared at the two women, and declared to the crowd chanting her name:
"Everyone, let's put an end to this performance of despair—together."
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In a plaza packed with countless people, a woman stood atop a high platform delivering a speech.
"Citizens of the Kingdom of Despair...! Though these are difficult times... let us endure, and exterminate those loathsome forces of hope...!"
"Exterminate!!"
"As of today, our Kingdom of Despair enters a war to the death against the Future Foundation...!"
"Waaaaaaah!!!"
As their morale soared sky-high, a red-haired woman photographed them from every possible angle.
"Good... This one turned out well too... It'll make for some despairfully excellent propaganda..."
"P-Princess Sonia...! Koizumi...! This is bad...!"
"What is it...? This speech is important right now..."
"An elite force from the Future Foundation has launched a surprise attack...! You need to evacuate immediately—!"
Before he could even finish, armed troops stormed into the plaza and leveled their guns at the two women on the platform.
Then a fat man emerged from among the troops, sweating buckets as he hurriedly set up an elegant chair. A moment later, someone strode forward with regal poise and sat in it with imperious arrogance.
"Future Foundation... You insist on interfering with us to the very end. But... this time, we won't go down so easily."
"My, does a mere princess of a single nation truly think she can defeat a queen?"
"Th-That line just now... it was absolutely magnificent...! Lady Celestia Ludenberg, for this round of promotional materials, if we include an illustration of this exact scene along with that line from just now—"
"This is an important situation, so we can discuss that later."
"Th-The composition, then...? Even if the current positioning means we're looking up from below, for the promotional version we should adapt it so you're gazing down from above, and add that line from earlier, and—"
"Would you shut up already, you pig bastard?!"
"E-Eeeeeek! I'm sorry!!"
The woman seated in the chair closed her eyes for a moment, reined in her emotions, then returned to her poker face and addressed the troops behind her.
"My slaves... no, my knights. Capture those two despairs alive."
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"S-Somebody help...! Monsters... they're monsters...!"
"Wh-What are those things...? It's like they're... being controlled by someone..."
"Hey! Snap out of it! If you stand there spacing out, those things'll trample you to death!"
Out of nowhere, a horde of animals had appeared in the middle of the city. Lions, tigers, gorillas, bears, giraffes, elephants, hawks—predators and giant beasts alike tore through the streets, ravaging the city without restraint.
"O destroyers of the world, who pass judgment upon this false reality, bestow salvation upon mankind, whose sins can never be repaid...!"
At the very front of that procession, a man walked while commanding the beasts. Someone stepped forward to block his path.
"Tanaka Gundham! Your atrocities have gone too far! Can you not see the people suffering before your eyes!?"
"For a mere mortal to stand in my way is, perhaps, worthy of praise... but there are times when one must know one's place..."
"Reason won't reach you! I, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, cannot forgive any more destruction! Men! Advance! Join your strength together and drive back the ruin before us!!"
"Yes, sir!!"
"Whether you are no more than moths hurling yourselves into flame, or godslayers capable of defying the sacred will of heaven, I, Tanaka Gundham, shall test you myself!! Come!!"
As he watched the elite troops of the Future Foundation charge him, the man roared in a voice swollen with arrogance and plunged into battle.
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"Heehee... ahahahahahaha... Stay still... the pain will only last a moment..."
Inside an old hospital in a ruined city, in a pitch-dark patient room, a woman with gleaming eyes was trying to inject someone with a syringe.
"Gghhheeeek..."
"Ghooo... ghhoooook..."
"Nngh... d-don't...! Please... j-just kill me instead!! I don't want to end up like that...!!"
A man tied tightly to a bed screamed at the sight of the syringe, and around him were people who had already been injected, their bodies grotesquely warping as they shrieked in agony.
"You mustn't die... I, Mikan Tsumiki, the world's greatest health committee member, simply can't allow that. You'll live to the very end... and feel despair with every inch of your body... until the final moment...!"
"S-Somebody help...!"
Just before the needle could pierce the man's skin, a baseball came flying in out of nowhere, shattered the syringe, and embedded itself in the wall.
".....!"
"Good grief. I didn't want to run into that manager lady again, so I asked for a different assignment... and this is the creepy job I get stuck with?"
"Why... why are you interfering with me...? Why? Why? Whyyyyyyyy?!"
The woman, having completely lost her reason, grabbed another syringe from beside her and lunged forward, but someone rushing in from the side struck her, knocking the syringe from her hand and sending her sprawling to the floor.
"You think you can hurt Leon big bro...? Who the hell do you think you are...!"
"Hey... Kanon... take it easy. We need to capture her alive..."
"Y-Yes..."
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".....Ghk!"
"Owada? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I can still hold out. Asahina, how about you?"
"I'm still okay for now too, but... if this keeps up..."
"Damn it, when the hell is backup getting here...? They said we just had to hold on a little longer...!"
"Cackle cackle cackle!! Why's everyone whining like that? Just stab and slash everything in sight like me!! Puhihihihihi!!"
On a burning bridge, a small group from the Future Foundation was struggling against an overwhelmingly larger force of despair.
"Peko, take out that annoying four-eyes first."
"Yes, young master."
"You lot... move quite well... but if you think you can reach Nidai... you're still far too green...!"
"Still... it's been a while since I've had opponents this fun..."
"...Don't let your guard down, Owari."
"Jeez, Kuzuryu... it's not like I'd lose to losers like these, right...?"
The Future Foundation fought back desperately, but they couldn't overcome the numerical disadvantage and were gradually being driven onto the defensive. Just as exhaustion began to drag everyone down, the most perfect reinforcement possible arrived.
"You've all done well. I'll take over from here."
"O-Oogami...! You made it...?"
At the arrival of the woman called the strongest in the world, the Remnants of Despair who had been swaggering moments ago began swallowing dryly.
"Reorganize the remaining personnel and hurry to support K. It seems that side is in just as urgent need of reinforcements as this one."
Then, standing alone against the army of despair, she slowly swept her gaze across them and said in a low voice:
"Now then, come at me all at once."
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Makoto Naegi stared at the white-haired man smiling in front of him.
"Hahahahaha... So luck really does answer luck, huh? To think you'd cancel out my luck with your own...! Amazing...!"
"Nagito Komaeda, why do you still have your memories?"
"That's not what's important, junior. What's important is that I don't intend to resist anymore... right?"
"...I don't think that's something the guy who nearly wiped out an entire unit a minute ago gets to say...?"
"Hahaha... My luck doesn't exactly move according to my will, you see. Still, thanks to that, I get to be captured by a fellow 'luck'—and by the 'hope' I admire so much...!"
"....."
"So now... will you transfer me to the Future Foundation...?"
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On a shattered road in a ruined city, an enormous force had one man completely surrounded.
To capture that single man, helicopters hovered overhead, armed armored vehicles waited on the road, and a massive military force bristling with every kind of weapon stood tense, awaiting orders.
Meanwhile, at a temporary base some distance away, four people watching the encircled man with taut nerves could barely hide their shock at the urgent report that had just come in.
"What do you mean by that...? He just vanished...?"
"Th-That's... we definitely had him surrounded, but somehow... before we knew it..."
"...K, what do you think?"
"....."
"...We pulled in all the forces from the 13th Division and 14th Division for this large-scale operation... and for it to end this pointlessly... Honestly, I thought even this operation might not be enough, so I was prepared to throw away my life too..."
"Ikusaba, stop talking about throwing your life away. We promised, remember?"
".....Okay. Then Kirigiri, what do you think about the current situation?"
"...I don't know. He's far too unpredictable. For now, we should at least stay on guard—"
"He... isn't someone you need to be on guard against."
"...Nanami, I understand your position too, but right now—"
"Th-This is bad...!"
While the people in the conference room were in the middle of a grave discussion, an agent suddenly burst in and began speaking in a frantic voice.
"You all need to get out of here immediately!"
"What happened? Why exactly—"
"H-He... he's here...!"
"It's been a while."
The moment the man appeared in the doorway, every person in the conference room recoiled in shock.
"K-Kamukura Izuru...?"
"H-Hinata..."
"...I'll handle this somehow, so you all head for the emergency exit in the back—"
"That won't be necessary."
Kamukura Izuru—or the man called Hinata—pulled a pair of handcuffs from the pocket of the frozen agent beside him, clasped them onto his own wrists, and said:
"I surrender."
For a moment, silence swallowed the conference room whole.
"...What exactly are you plotting?"
K asked, every muscle in his body wound tight. But the man merely looked over the people in the room with a blank expression and muttered quietly:
"As expected, you're all still so boring..."