- "Listen to me, Clover. No matter what happens, you can never lose hope. You have to remember what's most important, and that's to have faith, and to have love. If you can remember all of those, that'll bring you good luck. Snake -- I mean, your brother--... He's not dead. He's alive, somewhere... I'm sure of it. You've just gotta believe in that..."
- — Junpei, giving the four-leaf bookmark to a crying Clover and comforting her in the Operating room.
Junpei Tenmyouji (天明寺 淳平 Tenmyōji Junpei) is the protagonist of Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and a major recurring character in the Zero Escape series. He is a survivor of three of the life-or-death games (In the good endings).
In 999, he is a college student who was kidnapped by Zero and forced to play the Nonary Game (specifically, the Second Nonary Game) with his bracelet number being 5. His first name is revealed by his childhood friend Akane Kurashiki before the codenames are established, so the other players of the Nonary Game simply call him Junpei, though Akane calls him Jumpy (or Junpei-kun in the Japanese version).
In Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, he is 68 years old in this post-apocalyptic future where he plays the Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition. He uses his family name, Tenmyouji, as he is not familiar with the other participants. This also serves to hide his identity from the others, although he reveals it to Clover and Alice in certain timelines. Tenmyouji's identity as Junpei is also intended to be a plot twist.
In Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma, he is a participant in the Decision Game and a member of Team C along with Akane and Carlos. Having worked for a detective agency in hopes of locating Akane to no avail, Junpei is much more misanthropic. Zero Time Dilemma also reveals that the Tenmyouji (and Akane) in Virtue's Last Reward is actually from another timeline, brought to that timeline by the Transporter, with the original Junpei from that timeline being deceased. At the end of the game, Junpei and Akane plan on marriage once their work is complete; Junpei joins Akane's organization Crash Keys to locate a religious fanatic who plans on eliminating all life.
Appearance[]
Junpei has slightly disheveled medium-length brunette hair, brown eyes, and a slim build. It is stated by Uchikoshi that he also happens to be a sneaker head.
In 999, Junpei wears three layers of clothing on his torso. The first layer is a long red and black checkered flannel, slightly rolled up on his forearms. The second layer is a light gray sleeveless zippered hoodie. The third and top layer is an unbuttoned cyan vest highlighted with red along the pockets and buttons. He also wears blue rolled capris and navy/purple/pink/white sneakers. Like the other players, he wears a bracelet on his left wrist.
In the past, Junpei wore two layers of clothing on his torso. The first layer is a red long-sleeved shirt. The second layer is a striped black-and-white polo shirt. He also wore cargo pants and blue sneakers.
In Virtue's Last Reward, Junpei, more commonly referred to as Tenmyouji at that time, was a typical old man with slicked back white hair and wrinkled skin. He wore a plain light blue collared shirt with a turquoise bolo tie, long black pants, and black shoes. Like the other players, he wears a bracelet on his left wrist.
In Zero Time Dilemma, Junpei was designed to look less childish. His darker clothing reflects his new darker, cynical and pessimistic outlook and attitude towards life after experiencing and surviving the Nonary Game, as well as a year of searching for Akane to no avail and being involved with an underground detective agency. His hair is slightly longer compared to his 21 year old self but still kept in the same style. While his eye color in 999 was brown, in Zero Time Dilemma, it has a more reddish/purple brown color. He now wears a black v-neck t-shirt. In art, he wears a black-with-red-accents leather or faux leather jacket but he never actually wears it in-game due to animation difficulties. Junpei also has black pants and black shoes with a gumsole. Like the other players, he wears a black bracelet on his left wrist.
Personality[]
- "The man you can trust the most. The reason being, he's the protagonist! He will be the reader's other self, and by the reader choosing his action (i.e. which doors to select), they will advance the story. If you cannot trust in what he is doing, then you probably can't trust anyone. He has a strong sense of justice, and is rather hot-blooded. Clearly a determined and daring young man; many are moved by him boldly facing off against evil. He's a childhood friend of June's."
- — Kotaro Uchikoshi [1]
According to the 999 novelization, Junpei is a rather ordinary and unremarkable guy who is almost done with college. He lacks a job and employment prospects. He hasn't experienced much failure or setbacks in his life. He did not oppose the adults around him; he'd gone through life doing as they said and going with the flow - a good little boy, never really asking any questions. Now, free to do as he wishes, he finds himself at a loss for motivation and passion: "I'd sleepwalked through my life so far; there was nothing that truly grabbed my heart." This sets Junpei up as a somewhat confused young adult who is unsure what to do with his life, and doesn't really care about anything that much.
Although Junpei was very serious throughout the Nonary Game, he was very prone to making jokes despite the serious atmosphere that arouses when the players of the Nonary Game were investigating a room they needed to seek a way out of. Apparently, his jokes only result in leaving him with no friends, other than Akane. One of the comments Junpei says in the 3rd class cabin is "And that's why I have no friends."
He may also be interpreted as a slight pervert, even trying to peek up Akane's skirt in the demo version of the game:
Junpei: Hey, Akane...? Do you think you can climb up that ladder and see what's at the top?
June: S-Sure. I guess I don't see why not...
There she goes... Now stay calm, Junpei. Just glance down... Oh crap, she turned around!
June: U-Uh, Junpei... Why are you looking at the water? A-Are you...
Junpei: N-N-No! Of course not! Ha ha! I wasn't using the reflection on the water to look up your skirt... Do you really think I'd do something so... so crude?!
June: You just practically admitted it! How can you be thinking about things like that at a time like this!?
Junpei: S-Sorry...
Sadly, my plan didn't work.
Despite this, he was shown to be very caring of other people, a trait that Akane admired. One example of this trait being exemplified was when Akane had her intense fevers and to Clover after Snake had disappeared and was thought to be dead. In the Submarine Ending, Junpei's emotional connection to Akane is shown.[2]
He also has a strong sense of justice and stubbornness and will make sure people are put in their place.
Junpei is also shown to be intelligent at times, especially with his wit. For example, in 999, he enters many escape rooms at the player's discretion and is a helpful asset solving the puzzles. He tricks the others to go through Door 3, if the player chooses to. He manipulates Ace into admitting he has prosopagnosia. He manipulates the voting with the paper so that he can go with anyone he wants. He solves Sudoku (or the final puzzle in The Nonary Games) in less than 9 minutes. In VLR, he misleads Sigma by promising he won't open the Number Nine Door, omitting the part that he will still leave if someone else opens it, prompting Sigma to reply, "That's some shady shit, Tenmyouji!"
Junpei is based on the "Challenger" Enneagram of Personality, much like how Junpei is the protagonist of the game and how he seeks the truth. After he wakes up to find he's been transported to a strange location, he takes it upon himself to figure out all the cryptic clues and ensure the survival of everyone trapped with him.
After the Second Nonary Game, Junpei became cynical and says he's "done with playing the action hero" because he "grew up". This is a result of the second Nonary Game and disappointment from looking for Akane to no avail.
After a virus outbreak which killed the majority of the human race and years of struggling to survive on a post-apocalyptic Earth working as a garbage collector, Junpei became very bitter about life and was rather stern and grumpy, not trusting others easily and lacking patience. From the very beginning though, he trusted Quark completely as, revealed later, Quark became his adopted grandson. He was very strict raising Quark because he wanted Quark to be strong enough to live on his own. He also trusted Clover with his life in many of the life or death situations present in the Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition, due to his past with her.
During Zero Time Dilemma, hardened by the events he underwent in his detective profession, Junpei is almost unrecognizable to Akane, and some of his behavior disgusts her. He is sardonic, pessimistic, jaded, ruthless and unfazed by the carnage of the Decision Game. He mentions that he has lost his "hot-blooded hero" attitude, becoming more of a realist who has lost faith in humanity. He is more misanthropic and says, "Humans aren't as beautiful as I thought..." At many times he comes off as cold, rude, and snarky to others. However, deep down, Junpei retains several aspects of his old self including his sense of humor, fun and enjoyment. He especially continues to retain his undying love for Akane, as he's always trying to protect her and make choices for her benefit in multiple routes during the game, even at the cost of his own life.
Background[]
In an elementary school in Japan, Junpei was classmates with a girl named Akane Kurashiki who was a lonely outcast. Akane was perceived as "strange" and even came across as "scary" to some. Not many people wanted to be friends with Akane. Junpei always saw her alone, sitting in a corner, curled up and hugging her knees. Junpei befriended her in 2012 and they were classmates for six years. They hung out a lot, going to a pool, a fair, playing snowball and card games such as Old Maid, and once went to a festival where Akane wore her late mother's yukata.
One summer in 2018, Akane and Junpei were tasked with taking care of the school's pet rabbits, but one day, all of the rabbits in their hutch were brutally slaughtered, having been slashed to death with a knife. Akane saw the mangled and bloody rabbit corpses and cried. What was once a calm herd of rabbits full of life, became a still image of mangled bodies, flesh, entrails and gore on the floor. This incident horrified and traumatized Akane for life, showing the violence, brutality and cruelty humans were capable of, as well as humanity's unremorseful attitude towards killing innocent defenseless animals - a side of humanity that Akane didn't know existed.
Upon seeing her shocked and saddened face, Junpei set out to find and ambush the culprit. Junpei looked very serious and told Akane something she would never forget - something which made her feel some sense of relief.
- "Don't cry. I'm gonna catch the person who did this."
- — Junpei to Akane
The two deduced that the bunny killer would return, as their school also kept guinea pigs and roosters and the killer would want to kill those as well. Every day for their entire summer vacation, the two sat and waited at dusk for the killer to show up so they could expose them. Despite that the killer never showed up, Akane still felt it was worth it since the animals weren't attacked.
The killer, or more accurately, killers turned out to be five eighth grade students from a different school. Junpei watched the students preparing to torture a kitten by soaking it with gasoline and lighting it on fire for fun and entertainment, and he inferred that they were the ones who killed the rabbits. In a manner of revenge for that incident, Junpei jumped forward, snatched the kitten, gave it to Akane, and fought the five students all by himself. A scared Akane ran to the police. When she returned to Junpei, the culprits were gone, leaving Junpei covered with bruises all over his body, especially his face. When Akane asked him why he didn't run, he said that the 8th graders threatened to hurt her like they had hurt the rabbits, and he'd become too angry to run away.
After the incident, the two then moved to a hill and looked over the town, talking about what happened among other things. Junpei gave her a "For-You" doll named Junpei as a memento since Akane was moving to another school in June. The doll turned out to be a "voodoo" doll, a fact that Junpei was not aware of when he bought it. They decided to not name the doll Junpei, as was suggested; instead they opted for "June", as June was the month which they ended their time together.
Nine years later in 2027, when Junpei returned home on an unfortunate night to find his apartment window opened, he went to close it only to see a reflection of a figure with a gas mask on their face. Suddenly, the room was filled of a strange white gas coming from a gas canister on the floor, making him collapse.
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors[]
When he woke up, he found himself stuck in the 3rd class cabin. He tried to recollect what happened earlier and started banging on the metal door to call for help but to no avail. Suddenly, he spotted a small circular window nearby and concluded that he was on an early 20th century ship. Before he could do anything else, the window started to crack and water began to gush out of the cracked window. He quickly found a way out of the cabin after solving a puzzle related to digital roots and quickly made his up towards the central staircase.
When he reached B Deck, he encountered seven other people. Their interaction lasted only a matter of seconds before all of them rushed towards Door 4 and Door 5. While the other seven people were examining the two numbered doors, Junpei quickly rushed towards the central staircase only to stumble onto a girl he recognized as Akane Kurashiki. Before he could do anything about it, a voice had spoken through the speaker and the seven players rushed towards the room. The voice in the speaker introduced himself as Zero, the captain of the ship they were trapped in. Junpei quickly recognized it as the man in the gas mask he saw in his apartment.
After listening to Zero's announcement about the Nonary Game, he and the other players decided to split up temporarily to investigate the sections of the ship they were able to access. Their search, however, ended hopelessly as their only means of escape were the numbered doors. As the group argued about listening to Zero, Junpei suddenly interjected and told them to comply with Zero for now. They agreed to, but they had to choose their codenames since they suspected Zero kidnapped people he didn't associate with. Junpei was not allowed to choose a codename as Akane, given the codename June afterwards, accidentally revealed his real name to the group.
When they approached a man whom Junpei described him as "bird's nest", the man refused to give a codename and suddenly took hostage of Clover, threatening to kill her with a knife if they do not cooperate. He forced her and Ace to work with him into opening Door 5 with the RED, causing Junpei to wonder why the 9th Man had knowledge of how the numbered doors worked. The 9th Man let Clover go as he promised and proceeded to enter Door 5 by himself. Junpei tried to stop him but to no avail. After a couple of seconds, the 9th Man soon realized that the DEAD inside the door wouldn't work with just himself so he begged Junpei and the others to help him escape before it was too late. Junpei tried to help the 9th Man by activating the RED but found it wouldn't accept his bracelet. Knowing he would soon die, the 9th Man warned them that one of them had lied to him and tricked him into killing himself, before the bomb in his body detonated.
The players decided to see what happened to the 9th Man and opened Door 5. The scene was grisly; the bomb inside of the 9th Man's body exploded, spraying his internal organs in all directions. June had a major feverish breakdown after seeing his body and Junpei quickly comforted her. Snake soon explained to the group that the 9th Man died because he went into a numbered door by himself. Snake took out a sheet of paper with braille on it, explaining how the RED and DEAD worked. Reassured from knowing how the doors work, the players split themselves up into two groups of four players each.
If Junpei chooses Door 4[]
Ace, Snake, Clover, and Seven went through Door 5 while Santa, Junpei, June, and Lotus went through Door 4. Junpei and his group rushed down the long hallway behind the door and authenticated at the DEAD with only a few seconds to spare. While investigating the 2nd class cabin, June told him that a curse supposedly sunk the Titanic and the source of it was an Egyptian mummy (All-ice) which had apparently been preserved in unmeltable ice aboard the ship. Junpei continued searching their room, eventually deciding to go check up on Lotus and Santa. During his search, Santa stopped him and insisted that he should take a 4-leaf clover bookmark that he had found in the sofa. It is up to the player if Junpei accepts the bookmark.
Junpei's group escaped the cabin but soon found themselves in a kitchen. They realized that they needed a key card to escape and started their search of the room. While looking through the pantry, Junpei found a rusted knife. June mentioned that the knife was futile and that a book called Futility written by a man named Morgan Robertson effectively predicted the Titanic sinking, years before it actually happened. Junpei ignored the story and later used a bottle of oil he found to unlock the door to the freezer. Lotus left immediately, but a pipe near the door had burst, closing it, and the handle became frozen from the inside, locking them.
The three quickly searched the room and after looking at a bag of dry ice, he inquired why carbon dioxide doesn't turn into a liquid. June decided to cut into the conversation and told them that carbon dioxide goes through sublimation. They start talking about different substances and their freezing point and June mentioned that there was a type of ice called Ice-9 that freezes and melts at 96 degrees Fahrenheit. Santa interrupted them, pointing out that they were going to freeze to death. They went back to their search, and eventually, Junpei developed a water-bottle bomb and they successfully escaped the freezer. They eventually found the Saturn key card and escaped the kitchen.
If Junpei chooses Door 5[]
Junpei investigates the 1st class cabin and casino with Snake and Seven.
Reunion[]
Behind the double doors was the Large hospital room. There were three numbered doors in the room, Door 3, Door 7, and Door 8, and rows upon rows of thin beds. The other four players caught up to them and they noted that a part on the bottom of each RED was missing. They split up to find the parts, but after about an hour, Junpei gave up and went back to the hospital room to meet up with the other players. He found that the RED parts were mysteriously put back in and noticed that Snake was absent. They split up to try to find him, with no results. Lotus insisted that they had to move on and came up with a proposal: one person had to stay behind, while the other six split themselves between Door 7 and 8. June protested but Ace settled the argument by injecting himself with Soporil so Junpei and June couldn't bring him along.
If Junpei chooses Door 3[]
Should Junpei choose Door 3, Santa will say that that is impossible, as it would leave yet another person behind and asks him to choose again. If Junpei insists on Door 3 (a decision which is later revealed to be motivated by his desire not to leave June), he will then trick Seven and June into authenticating, and finally scans it himself.
- 7 + 6 + 5 = 18 = 1 + 8 = 9
This still isn't enough to make a digital root of 3, so Junpei says either Santa, or Lotus and Clover could come with him.
- 7 + 6 + 5 + 3 = 21 = 2 + 1 = 3
or
- 7 + 6 + 5 + 8 + 4 = 30 = 3 + 0 = 3
At this point, Santa, Clover and Lotus realize it's a potential life-or-death situation as to who scans their bracelets at the REDs next. Despite Lotus and Clover getting a running headstart, Santa manages to pass them and scan his bracelet at the RED. Santa enters Door 3 with Junpei, June, and Seven, and leaves the incredulous and desperate Clover and Lotus behind.
Junpei, June, Santa, and Seven investigate the shower room after leaving Lotus and Clover behind with Ace. Upon finding a corpse believed to be Snake's, June has a mental breakdown from the sight, and screams eerily. During her panic attack, June bangs on the exit door until her knuckles bleed, and begins pulling her hair out and asking Zero what they did to deserve to end up in the Nonary Game.
Junpei stops her, holding her until she has calmed down and has regained some sanity. June collapses to the floor and sobs. After a long moment of comforting her, he sets her down to one corner, and starts searching the room with Santa and Seven to open the exit door. After picking up the broom in the utility stall, June will speak up. She mentions an incident in their shared past where they were assigned to take care of the rabbits back in middle school. The rabbits were mysteriously killed, and they spent the rest of summer hidden behind the rabbit hutch in hopes of catching the killer. Junpei says that the rabbit killers never appeared during that summer, but June is convinced that them hiding there stopped more rabbits from being killed. Junpei states that that summer with June was one he would never forget. June reminds him that he only volunteered to help with the animals after she did, and is convinced it was because he wanted to be with her. Junpei unconvincingly denies this, knowing that that was exactly the reason why he volunteered. Fortunately for Clover and Lotus, the group returns. A furious Lotus slaps Junpei hard across the face for what happened before.
If Junpei chooses Door 7[]
Junpei decided that he wanted to go through Door 7, thus they split themselves in two groups: Clover, Junpei, and Seven through Door 7 and Santa, June, and Lotus through Door 8. Junpei's group authenticated and soon found themselves in the Operating room.
While looking through a chemical closet for parts and other hints, Junpei turned to leave and found Seven not leaving, but instead thinking about something. Seven explained that he was just looking at a bottle of EDT and told Junpei a story about how EDT crystals hydrate. Junpei asked him if he knew anything about Ice-9 and Seven started muttering about a woman on the ship and a Titanic survivor named Dashiell Gordain who bought her and the Gigantic. Seven told him that he couldn't remember anything else and they both left to meet up with Clover.
They managed to solve the puzzles of the operating room but as Seven was about to exit, Junpei realized that Clover wasn't present. He backtracked and found Clover worried that her brother might be dead, and she might be the next victim. To cheer her up, Junpei gave her the bookmark Santa gave to him earlier, and she teared up and thanked him. She then told him about an experiment that occurred in the ship. The experiment had been testing the ability to use an invisible field to communicate information. Clover later explained Locke's socks theory and the Ship of Theseus theory to Junpei but Seven interrupted her, telling them that they must proceed.
If Junpei chooses Door 8[]
Junpei enters Door 8 with Lotus and Clover and investigates the Laboratory. Junpei learns of prosopagnosia from Lotus. Using her amazing programming skills, Lotus brute forces a computer and helps her group escape. If Junpei chose Door 5 earlier, Clover also tells Junpei about her brother's car accident and that his left arm is fake.
Reunion[]
To their surprise, they meet up with the other players back in the hospital room. With Ace awake, they decided to see what doors their keys can open. Before they leave, Clover insisted on checking Door 3 and took Ace and Seven with her, with Santa, Junpei, June, and Lotus looking for other doors to open.
Santa and Lotus left to see where the Earth key would lead them and Junpei went with June to check out the Saturn elevator. After a sexual-innuendo filled conversation, they took the elevators down to E Deck and found Door 6 waiting for them. They quickly headed back up and exchanged information with Lotus and Santa, who had found Door 1. The four of them head back to the hospital but Ace solemnly informed them that they had found Snake's body, blown up like the 9th Man.
Junpei went with June, Lotus, and Santa to go look at the body. They enter the shower room through a door Seven had left open and are shocked to see the horrifying remains. The stench in the room had become unbearable so they left to go back to the hospital room. The players discussed who the murderer might be and where Zero could be hiding. The clock chimes, signaling to the players that it was three in the morning.
They rushed to to the Mercury elevators to see where they led to. Junpei and June took the elevators down to the bottom deck, where they find Door 2. They went back up to inform the others and then discuss their options of who was to go into which door. Junpei suggested that they should vote by ballot. They agreed and wrote their votes down. To guarantee that he would get his way, Junpei had multiple papers so he can switch out his choice after seeing the voting results. Ace and Clover wanted Door 1, Seven and Lotus wanted Door 2, and Santa and June wanted Door 6. This made Junpei's vote the tiebreaker.
Submarine Ending[]
This ending occurs if Junpei chose Door 3 earlier (excluding iOS version) or if Junpei chose Door 2 during the vote. Junpei enters Door 2 with Seven and Lotus. While they were investigating the Confinement room, Seven started to feel dizzy but regained some of his lost memories. Seven stated that he has been inside this ship before, in the very same room. He told Junpei that there had previously been an experiment used to control children and recalled some of the names such as Aoi, Light and Nona Kashiwabara. He began to mumble about Cradle Pharmaceutical and told Junpei he got bits and pieces of his memory back.
Seven stated that he had been a cop who was looking for the kidnapped kids back in 2018. Seven had got a tip from one of Cradle Pharmaceutical's workers that a ship would be leaving port that night, taking the children to a large passenger ship out at sea. He had headed to the wharf and got on board the ship. When Seven was sneaking around, he saw men in black suits carrying the children away in bags. Suddenly, someone came up behind him and told him to drop his gun. Seven complied with the request and got injected in the neck with a needle, which knocked him out cold. After some time, he woke up to find himself in a cell. While looking for a way out, he heard the voices of children and realized that the kidnapped children were on board with him. He quickly found the source of the voice, which happened to be a vent covered up by his bed. Seven then crawls inside of the vent but cannot remember what happened next. He had presumably saved some of the kids but one of them had died, a girl. After Seven explained all of that, Junpei wondered what the experiment had to do with the Nonary Game and Zero, but he was unable to see any connection between the two events.
After they solved the Confinement Room puzzle, Junpei, Seven and Lotus headed into the Torture room, with the door locking behind them. The three players were daunted by the appearance of the room and Junpei suggested that they search it as fast as possible. They found that in order to escape the room, one of the three players had to be a subject in a brain experiment. As Seven was too large to fit in the chair, only Lotus and Junpei were eligible subjects. Junpei tried to convince Lotus not to do it, but she volunteered anyway. She hesitated to get into the chair and revealed to the two that she has daughters, asking the them to tell her daughters that she always loved them. Lotus began to tell the two their names when Seven and Junpei are surprised by her mention of Nona. To explain the surprise, Seven told Lotus about him being a detective.
When Seven is done, Lotus explains that she had been seeking this information. 9 years prior, her children vanished for 9 days. When they came back, they refused to talk about it. According to doctors, they weren't hurt, but Lotus was still suspicious that something terrible had happened. However, she couldn't make the two talk, since they'd then have to relive what they experienced. The two eventually took on normal behavior, and Lotus found it only more difficult to talk to them about it. She eventually decided to search for what happened on her own, but couldn't ever find any information. The police and media were silent.
This experiment was performed on the children in the First Nonary Game at a hospital owned by Cradle Pharmaceutical. In a Ganzfeld Experiment, two children (likely siblings), were placed in rooms far away from one another. In one room, a child (now called Q), was shown video images. In another room, another child (now called A), was blindfolded and put into a reclining chair. Q was told to send the images to A by thinking about them. With their senses cut off, A was asked to guess what images Q was looking at. The whole thing was passed off at counseling for the children that Cradle Pharmaceutical tested on. Junpei said that that was likely the experiment they had done on the ship and that someone from Cradle Pharmaceutical had been desperately wanting to test it to see if it could be used to control people, but he nor Seven could see how it is connected to the Nonary Game. The chair then threatened to shut down, and to take an hour to recover its system, so Lotus sat down and Junpei resumed the chair's puzzle. After completing it, obtaining the Sun Key, Lotus stated that her life may have been shortened, and the three decided to leave the room quickly.
Junpei, Seven, and Lotus headed back to the central staircase to open the Sun door. However, once they had reached it, they discovered Ace, Clover, and Santa, all dead. Seven checked Clover's pulse, but it was too late. Lotus took the Sun Key from Junpei's pocket. Extremely scared, she insisted that they leave before the killer returned. She put the Sun key into the keyhole, but discovered that someone had already unlocked the door. After heading down the hallway, they found a large door which they immediately assumed to be locked. But Seven opened the door accidentally by stepping in front of it. He got suspicious as they had not encountered other automatic doors before this one, but Junpei decided to head through anyway.
As he entered the Storage, he was shocked to find June, who was bleeding out on the floor, and barely alive. The two of them shared a short, but emotional heartfelt conversation. Junpei stops using her codename "June" since it didn't matter anymore and calls her "Kanny". Akane thanks him for everything and tells him that she was happy to see him again one last time before she dies. Junpei tells Akane that he is going to check a nearby submarine, but Akane tells him not to go, and instead, be close to her when she dies because she doesn't want to die alone. Akane tells Junpei that their childhood memories together made her very happy and that they were like treasures to her. Her eyes close and she dies, and Junpei breaks down and cries after witnessing her final moments. During this last conversation, Akane failed to tell Junpei who killed her (Ace).
After some time had gone by, the 5 o'clock bell rang and Junpei only then noticed that Seven and Lotus had not followed him. He went back, only to find both of them dead in a pool of blood. He noticed that someone took Lotus' bracelet, but at that point, he didn't care. In an almost zombie-like state, Junpei returned to the storage and discovered a submarine. As soon as he reached for its hatch, he was stabbed in the back by whoever murdered the others, and he fell into the water. Before drowning, Junpei remembered all the deaths that had occurred and wondered who could've killed them all (the killer is Ace since he was pretending to be dead and no one checked Ace's pulse).
Knife Ending[]
Junpei chose to go through Door 6 with Santa and June, and Ace came along, as that allowed them to enter, while Seven, Lotus and Clover went through Door 1. They entered the Steam engine room. Once they headed downstairs, June's fever returned, and she collapsed. Worried, Junpei propped her up next to a wall where she could rest. Ace and Santa also seemed concerned, so the three got on with solving the puzzles in the room.
Afterwards, Junpei went to get June. When he found her, she claimed she's okay and is feeling better, but seemed embarrassed of the fact that she worried him. When they went back, they found Santa sitting on the stairs, looking at a picture. He said that the picture is of his deceased sister who died 9 years ago. Santa asked if they had ever heard about the tale of two Santas. He explained that at one time there were two Santas, a white and a black Santa. The white one gave presents to the children who were good, and the black one would punish the bad children by playing tricks on them. According to Santa, the Black Santa's tricks kept getting worse and worse. White Santa got angry about this and killed Black Santa. While killing him, White Santa got blood all over his clothes. Santa said this is why Santa Claus's clothes are red, the red being the remains of Black Santa. Santa then asked himself if he is White or Black Santa.
They then entered the Cargo room. When trying to solve the face card puzzle, Ace struggled with it, and wondered what he should do. Junpei mentioned it was pretty obvious what needed to be done, hinting at Ace's prosopagnosia. After having solved the Pushmaster 5000 puzzle, Junpei had the crates lined up in a way that everyone could reach the coffin. Santa approached it and joked about there being a mummy inside. Junpei pushed him aside and opened the coffin himself. Inside was a rusty key and a golden revolver. The group examined the revolver closely and found that it was loaded with six bullets. They decided to leave it inside of the coffin, as obtaining it would leave one player gaining an unfair advantage over the others, which would cause problems between them. Junpei grabbed the rusty key and the group followed him to the exit near the metal staircase.
After having left, they found the Chapel and noticed that there are two Door 9s. Santa acknowledged that Zero never said there was only one Door 9 and Junpei realized everyone had been tricked and that there had been a way to save everyone, had they been alive. Afterwards, the group went to find the others. They found Seven and Lotus, but Clover went missing. This began a search for Clover. After having searched the large hospital room, Junpei and June decided it would be best to split up to cover more ground. Before doing so, Junpei thought about himself and June and how he used to call her Kanny.
They split up and Junpei headed to E Deck to continue his search for Clover. Upon arriving, Junpei found Lotus, dead. Once he noticed her bracelet was gone, he realized that the person who killed Lotus must be the one who would benefit the most from the number 8 bracelet. But before he could think about it any further, someone stabbed him in the back. Junpei collapsed to the floor, bleeding, and his vision began to fade. He watched as the killer (Ace) left before dying.
Axe Ending[]
Junpei chose to enter Door 1 with Ace and Clover, which lead to the Chart room. Among other things in the room, there was a desk, in which Junpei found a pocket watch in one of the drawers. Ace appeared at the door, asking to see it, but left when Junpei told him to go away. Junpei's head then began to hurt and he lost track of time. When he got his bearings straight, Ace returned. He slipped the 2 and 6 papers (from the vote) out of Junpei's vest pocket, exposing that he cheated. Despite this, Ace wasn't concerned as he still got to go through Door 1.
After they were done in the Chart room, they entered the Captain's Quarters. The group suspected that it must be Zero's hideout, which made Ace and Junpei feel nervous. Not Clover though, as she felt there is nothing to lose. They walked in to find a dead man dressed like a captain. He appeared to have been killed with the axe that was placed right next to him, and he was wearing a bracelet with 0 on the face of it. Junpei came to the conclusion that the dead man is not the real Zero, as the evidence seemed too straightforward. Ace went to investigate the communications office, leaving Junpei and Clover alone with the dead man.
When Junpei examined the monitors, he pressed a button to try and get something to happen. The screens changed, each having a letter on it and together they displayed "ZERO". Junpei asked Clover if she thought the corpse is Zero, and she said that she thinks one of the players is Zero. Clover then said that finding a way out first is more important. While Junpei was walking away, he saw Clover smile, which seemed unfitting for the situation, but he figured his mind was just playing tricks on him.
Afterwards, Junpei found an ALLICE file, which he looked through in hopes of finding information, but neither he nor Ace could read it, as it was written in hieroglyphics. A key card dropped out of the file, and it read "BOTTOM DECK LIBRARY" on it. After they were done with the puzzles and headed through a hallway, Junpei found a map of the deck they were on. Then, he realized Clover wasn't following him and Ace. When Junpei went back, he saw her and noticed she was hiding something in her pockets. When he asked her what it was, she dodged the question, and said they have to hurry. As she ran past him, he noticed something that looks like a big wooden stick, sticking out from her collar. He tried to ask her about it as well, but she ignored him.
Afterwards, Junpei found June and she informed him that they have found the last door. When they headed towards Door 9, Clover stopped and suggested they go through Door 2 first. Santa said he doesn't see the point of doing that, but Clover convinced him and the rest. They all agreed to do it in hopes that they find something important. However, not everyone could go through Door 2 at the same time. The group decided that Santa, Clover, June and Seven would go through Door 2. They went down the elevator, leaving Junpei, Ace and Lotus. While they were waiting, Ace asked Lotus to go somewhere with him, saying he wants to show her something. Junpei questioned this, but Ace assured him that he'll show him later.
After some time had passed, Clover appeared out of the elevator alone, and Junpei asked where everyone else is. She ignored his question and instead wondered where Ace and Lotus went. Junpei answered, and then repeated his question, asking where Santa, June and Seven are. With an odd smile, Clover dropped three bracelets on the floor; the ones which read 3, 7 and 6. Clover revealed that she murdered Santa and Seven because she thought they forced Snake through Door 3. She had also killed June, since June had gotten in her way and she "had to die too", trying to defend them. Clover placed her hand on Junpei's shoulder and smiled. To him, her face looked like a mask made from stretched human skin. The smile that parted Clover's lips did not extend to her eyes, which were dead and empty.
She offered her hand to Junpei, and insisted they go through Door 9 together, since she had picked up the number 0 bracelet earlier (4+5+0= 9). Still in a shocked state, Junpei closed his hand around hers. At that moment, Cloved raised an axe she had hidden behind her back, and chopped him with it. As Junpei screams in pain and bleeds to death on the floor, his body writhes in agony, shudders and twitches, spasming as he goes into shock. Junpei screams until his throat is torn and bloody and his cries echo across the room. Eventually, his movements slow, then fade until there is no more strength left in him. Junpei feels his body begin to go numb, and then no longer feel pain or anything. The last remnants of his conscious mind begin to fade, leaving a twisted, broken corpse. The last thing he saw was Clover's twisted grin as she walked away with his number 5 bracelet.
Safe / Zero Lost Ending[]
Junpei chose Door 6 with Santa, Ace and June. In the cargo room, he soon discovered that Ace owned a company called Cradle Pharmaceutical and thought that he may be suffering from prosopagnosia. After discovering the chapel and finding the two Door 9s, the group met up with Lotus and Seven near the central staircase. They told them that Clover was missing and the players split up to go try to find her. Junpei took June with him and the two searched the large hospital and the shower room. In the shower room, Junpei realizes that the body there is not Snake's since it has a bone from its left arm, and he remembers Clover telling him in the laboratory that Snake's was prosthetic.
They then left for the stairs, when Seven came out of nowhere and informed them that Clover had been found dead in the 1st class cabin. Junpei tried to find a pulse on her, but couldn't find any, and regretted that he couldn't help her earlier. He noticed that she had been stabbed in the back. He proceeded to ask who had found the body first, and Seven answered. Junpei reminded him about the plate he had stuck in between the door to keep it from closing and implied that Seven had probably killed Clover. Seven denied this, saying that he was wondering about the safe the group had not been able to open earlier. While looking at the safe, Junpei realizes that someone may have opened it earlier. He then believes that Clover came to the room to open it.
Junpei looked around the room for clues on the combination for the safe and decided to check the hallway where the 9th Man's corpse lied. He saw that the 9th Man's bracelet was missing, even though it had been there when Junpei had examined the hallway earlier. Seven called him back into the room and asked him to have a look at a slip of paper Clover had in her hand. It said that "Truth had gone, truth had gone, and truth had gone. Ah, now truth is asleep in the darkness of the sinister hand." Junpei pondered and found that the "sinister hand" refers to the bracelet, "gone" was referring to "left" and "truth" was referring to "right". Junpei looked down at his bracelet and pressed the buttons on the face in this order: Right, Left, Right, Left, Right, Left. His bracelet then flashed the following numbers: 1,4,3,8,3,4,2, and 1. Junpei tried those numbers as the combination on the safe, and it opened.
Inside the safe was a piece of paper and Junpei read it to himself. After reading the contents, Junpei requested that everyone follow him to the large hospital room. He says he knew who killed Snake and Clover, which got the other players' attention. They followed him to the room and before he started explaining, Junpei asked that Lotus, Seven, and Ace authenticated with him to open Door 3. Instead of placing his palm on the RED, he had it scan his bracelet, and it worked, revealing that the REDs and DEADs only scan the bracelets. Junpei then tricked Ace into admitting that he had prosopagnosia to the entire group. Junpei soon proved that the body in the shower room belonged to somebody else nicknamed Guy X (Nagisa Nijisaki) instead of Snake, got Ace to admit he was the Cradle Pharmaceutical CEO Gentarou Hongou, showed Ace's motive to killing Guy X he had mistaken as Snake, and how Ace killed Guy X with the 9th Man's bracelet Ace had stolen. Junpei also revealed that the Nonary Game was also played in 2018, and that it was run by Cradle Pharmaceutical.
Ace started roaring with laughter and congratulated Junpei for discovering that he had the number 9 bracelet. Ace started telling the group the story of how he got it. With Ace's story done, Junpei asked him if he killed Clover, and he heartlessly admitted that he did. He had killed her because she knew information that would blow Ace's cover. Ace soon pulled out a golden revolver found in the cargo room and took Lotus hostage to escape. Before he left the room, he told the other players that he had indirectly killed the 9th Man by lying to him about the operation of the REDs. With one last threat of pulling the trigger, he ran out of the room to go to the chapel. Junpei was about to chase after him in pursuit, but June suddenly collapsed from another fever. Santa insisted that he will take care of her and Seven and Junpei rushed to the chapel, finding Ace and Lotus had already gone through the small 9 door. Seven and Junpei realized that they couldn't go anywhere, as their digital root is not 9. While thinking what to do next, they heard a pounding in the room and found that it was coming from inside of the coffin.
Seven tried to open the coffin by force but fails to. They found a keypad on the side of the coffin, which is how it opened. Seven mentioned the safe combination Junpei had used and suggested that they try the same set of numbers on the coffin. Junpei considered that a ridiculous idea, but tried it anyway. He punched in the numbers on the keypad, and to his surprise, it opened. Groggy, but still alive, Snake sat up from the coffin. Junpei and Seven informed him of everything that had happened since he was in the coffin, only omitting Clover's death. The two tried to ask Snake how he got stashed inside of the coffin, but to no avail, as he didn't remember anything about his kidnapping. They found that they couldn't go through Door 9, as their digital root was 5. Seven mentioned that he had been given the 0 bracelet from Clover and decided to test the RED by using the bracelet, himself, and Snake. The RED does not open the door. Snake suggested that the bracelet's value was not actually 0. The three experiment with different combinations until they found that the bracelet's value was 6. As a last resort for all 3 of them to continue, Snake slid the bracelet off of his prosthetic arm and threw it into the coffin.
The three of them ran through a hallway until it eventually ended at the incinerator. They used the lever to open the door and found that Ace and Lotus were already inside, standing in front of the final Door 9. The automatic incineration process activated and Ace taunted Snake and told him about how he had killed Clover. Snake started shaking with rage. Ace went on to describe how he had killed her and how much he had enjoyed it, making Snake even angrier. He told Ace that he was going to kill him and charged at him, but the man fired off a shot from the revolver and Snake flew back. Ace demanded that they hand Lotus over to him, and that if they didn't, he will shoot them (one bullet for Junpei and Lotus each, and three bullets for Seven). Just as he was about to pull the trigger, Snake stood back up and started walking towards him. Scared, Ace fired his remaining five bullets into Snake, which knocked him down a second time.
Snake still managed to crawl over to Ace and he grabbed onto his legs, saying that they will burn to death together. Junpei pleaded with Snake to come with the rest of the group, but Snake refused, saying that he had failed to keep his sister alive. With one last desperate charge, Junpei tried to save Snake, but Seven restrains him and dragged him out of the incinerator. With one last look through the window, Ace burned to death along with Snake as the incinerator activated.
Junpei started walking away and tiredly told Seven and Lotus that he will go retrieve Santa and June at the large hospital room but found them missing. He then rushed back to the chapel and found June laying on the floor. He rushed up to comfort her but Zero suddenly spoke up on the speaker and told Junpei that the game was over and that Zero had lost because Junpei had chosen the wrong path. He heard the door slam behind him and Junpei left June to go check it out. When he came back in, June was mysteriously gone. Junpei screamed out her name, and suddenly, a Soporil bomb exploded, knocking Junpei out.
True Ending[]
After receiving the Safe ending, the True ending can be unlocked. In order to get the True ending, Junpei must go through Door 4, accept a clover bookmark from Santa, listen to a conversation about ice in a freezer instead of leaving, go through Door 7, ask Seven if he knows about Ice-9 when the opportunity arises, give Clover the clover bookmark when prompted (to prevent her going axe crazy), then enter Door 1.
Junpei decided to go with Ace and Clover through Door 1, leaving Santa, June, Seven, and Lotus to go through Door 6. Junpei and his group opened up the Earth door and go into Door 1, finding themselves in the chart room. While sending Ace to investigate the other half of the room, he tried to start a private conversation with Clover, asking her to finish her story from the operating room. She refused, saying that she did not want to talk about it, but asked him about whom he suspected to have killed Snake. The only possible option had everyone except Junpei, June, and Clover working together. Junpei dismissed it as unlikely, and Clover agreed, suggesting Santa and Seven killed Snake. Clover started to elaborate, but Ace interrupted them. He told Junpei that he wanted to talk to him and the two left for the wheelhouse. He told Junpei that he knew about Junpei's "trick" to get the door he wanted by reaching into his pocket for the papers. Junpei later found the pocket watch needed to open the exit and the three of them continued on. Practically right outside the door was the captain's quarters.
They found a corpse of a man wearing a captain's outfit, a bracelet on his wrist that had "0" on its face, and a bloody axe next to his body. After investigating four computers, Junpei laughed, feeling like Zero was mocking him. He asked Clover if she also thought the dead man they nicknamed 'Cap' was Zero but she insisted that Zero was one of the players. Junpei also noticed that it would be too obvious if the dead man was Zero, as the clues in the room felt too contrived. He and Clover examined the body closely for more clues and mentioned that he had an easy death compared to Snake's, who had a bone sticking out of his left arm.
Clover quickly changed her expression to a look of surprise. She asked if Junpei was sure if it was the left arm and he confirmed it. Suddenly, she started crying and leapt in Junpei's arm, thanking him and told him that Snake was still alive somewhere. She also thanked him for the bookmark that he gave her, and he mentions that Santa gave it to him. Clover said that Santa must have been one of the subjects on the ship with her brother, because he knew the "leaf words". Clover decided to finish up her story about the experiment that happened on the ship. She revealed that the Nonary Game was played on the ship. Clover mentioned that a girl had died on the ship Snake was on. Clover was about to reveal her name, but Ace interrupted them again.
Ace needed Junpei for yet another thing. Clover agreed to talk with Junpei later, and Junpei went with Ace into the communications office. After helping Ace look through the room, Junpei opened a drawer and found a file with the Uranus key card inside. The keycard had the words "Bottom deck library" and remembered what Seven had told him about ALL-ICE. Junpei explained his theory to Ace and told him that he thought the coffin was hidden somewhere beyond the library. Ace suggested that the ALL-ICE might still be alive, as she was possibly frozen through CAS (Cells Alive System). Ace concluded that she might be the one who murdered the captain in his office, as none of the players could have accessed the room before they came in. The key needed to activate the keypad on the exit was found underneath the file.
Junpei typed in the code, and the three rushed down the central staircase to meet up with the other players. An excited June told them that they had found Door 9 and, full of excitement, they rushed to the elevators. Door 9's location turned out to be the chapel and to Junpei's surprise, there were two sets of Door 9s. That meant everyone could escape but Clover calculated all of the possible combinations and concluded that if four people go, three stay behind, and if three go, four stay behind. Seven attempted to sacrifice himself so the other six can leave, but was met by harsh criticism from the other players. Santa spoke up and flatly stated that he was against leaving Seven alone. Santa quickly got out a golden revolver and held June hostage. He ordered Ace and Lotus to authenticate at the big Door 9. Santa forced them through the door and after nine seconds, it closed, leaving Junpei, Clover, and Seven alone in the chapel.
As the room became quiet, they heard a pounding noise. They quickly looked around the room for the source of the noise and soon found it was coming from the coffin. A keypad was on it but no clues on the password for it. While Junpei was thinking, a voice in his head told him the sinister hand tip. He pressed his buttons on his bracelet in the correct order and eight numbers blinked on the display (14383421). He typed in the numbers on the keypad and the lock on the coffin opens. To their surprise, Snake emerged out of the coffin. Clover leapt into Snake's arms and tearfully welcomed him back to the group.
After Clover calmed down, Junpei and Seven told him everything that had happened since he was gone. They asked him why his clothes had been replaced, but the only thing he remembered was being knocked out by soporific gas while looking for the RED parts. Snake mentioned that it was 4:30 already and that they had to get moving. They authenticated and the small Door 9 opened. Before they entered, Junpei quickly wanted to see what the value of the captain's bracelet was. After some testing, they found that the bracelet had a value of 6. Snake assumed that June's bracelet was flipped and that it was actually 9 and that Santa's bracelet worked as the 0 bracelet. Snake inferred that Santa was Zero and that he set the entire game up.
Running out of time, they proceed through the small door 9. Searching the hallway that led from the door, they found a door with a Neptune symbol on it. They didn't have the key to open it, so they looked around more, eventually finding a door with a Uranus card scanner next to it. Junpei opened the door and they found themselves in a huge library. Junpei remembered that ALL-ICE might be nearby and started his search. While they were searching for a way out, Junpei confronted Snake and asked him to tell him about the experiment that happened 9 years ago.
They move up to the top floor and Snake starts talking. He had been told to keep quiet of the events 9 years ago in the braille message Zero had given him. Snake was sure that even if Zero was Santa, he wouldn't kill them because he was in the same group as Snake. Snake told him that the experiment was organized by a group called Cradle Pharmaceutical and the details of the experiment. Before they leave, Junpei asked if Snake was sure there had been 18 kids in the experiment since the news reported on 16. The two remaining kids had no relatives known but their names were Aoi and Akane, Akane being the girl that had died during the experiment. Shocked at Snake's answer, Junpei started to ponder whether the Akane Snake was talking about was the same person as June. Since Snake did not reveal her last name, so Junpei reassured himself that they were not the same person.
They concluded their investigation and finally found the way out. It led them into the Study, a room full of junk lying around everywhere. Junpei looked around and found that all of the puzzles in the room had been reused from earlier areas. He solved all of them, and they each gave an emblem to him. At the back of the room, the group found a coffin. Seven and Junpei were thinking that it could be Allice's coffin. Junpei nervously opened it but there was no body in there. It wasn't completely empty; an emblem and the Neptune key were inside of it. Junpei went to the computers in the room and inserted four emblems on a pad on the table.
A drawer underneath the computers opened up, revealing a picture of the four Cradle Pharmaceutical executives. He recognized three of them: Cap, the 9th Man, and Ace. Junpei found a message scrawled on the back, revealing to him that Ace was Hongou, the creator of the Nonary Project. Seven looked at the picture and suddenly told the other three that he remembered everything. Seven soon told his story as a detective who had been investigating the disappearances of children nine years ago and how he was involved with the Nonary Game, Seven told them that there were four children found trapped in the incinerator, with one of them being Akane who had died. When Junpei asked him what was the dead girl's last name, Seven told him it was "Kurashiki".
Junpei stood there in utter shock, not being able to move. Seven identified one of the boys he was with as Snake and that Aoi was Santa, Akane's brother. Junpei concluded that the body in the shower room was the fourth executive Nijisaki and that all of the murders so far were of the people who were involved with the creation of the First Nonary Game. He concluded that Santa had to be Zero, and he was getting revenge for the death of his sister. Suddenly, they heard a rush of water. It was 6 A.M., meaning that nine hours have passed. They took the 0 key card and rushed out of the room. They dashed to the Neptune door and put the key in, finding themselves right outside of the incinerator. Junpei pulled the lever and the door opened.
They walked in to find the other four players in the room: Ace and Lotus next to Door 9, Santa sprawled on the floor holding his stomach, and June leaned up against the wall, exhausted. Ace had sucker-punched Santa in the stomach and was now holding the revolver up against Lotus' head, forcing her to authenticate. To Ace's dismay, the door didn't open, no matter how many times he tried. Seven saw his chance and he charged at Ace, knocking him over. Ace kneeled on the floor and Junpei got him to admit that he had killed the other three executives and how Zero manipulated him to do so. Junpei tried to get Santa to admit that he was Zero, but he denied it, saying that he was merely an assistant to Zero.
Santa told Junpei they were playing the Nonary Game to get revenge on the executives and to save Akane from dying in the past. Santa then told Junpei that the siblings participating in the First Nonary Game were split up. There was a mistake however, when Akane got put on the same boat as Santa, as she was supposed to be with the other group. June had mysteriously disappeared while they were talking - in actuality, she sneaked out of the incinerator while the other players weren't looking. Santa pointed the gun at Ace, holding him hostage, and left the rest of the players in the incinerator.
The incineration process started and a computer came out of the incinerator's floor. The 12-year old Akane made a connection with Junpei through the morphogenetic field and told that she was possessing Junpei in the process, that she saw what he was seeing, and she was the one who made Junpei remember the password for the coffin in the first place. She told the story as to how she got thrown in the incinerator in the first place. Akane called for his help from the past and he acknowledged it, finally realizing that Akane had planned for this moment and that she was Zero. Realizing the purpose of the Second Nonary Game, he gave her the solution to the sudoku puzzle, allowing her to survive. In addition, young Akane gives Junpei a string of additions: 2 + 4 + 5 + 7 + 8, which is the solution to open Door q.
The digital root of 9 doesn't work in the present, but Junpei quickly realizes that the "9" was really a "q" and that equals 26 in base-27. The five of their numbers add up to 26 (digital root as 8) so they quickly authenticate and escape the incinerator just in time. Back in the past, Akane had also escaped, sailing in a lifeboat with Seven and the other eight kids.
Junpei and the present day players escaped outside and found that they were inside Building Q in Nevada the entire time and that their bracelets didn't seem to have detonators on them. It turned out that Santa and June had left earlier, indicated by the tire tracks. They had left them a SUV and a tied-up Ace in the trunk. With Clover behind the wheel, they raced down the desert, hoping to catch up to Santa and June, but they never do. During their trip, Junpei spotted a hitchhiker by the road who highly resembled All-ice. He asks her if she is All-ice, but she only tells him that she might be the mummy.
Detective agency[]
When the Second Nonary Game ended, Junpei spent a year trying to find Akane to no avail. He quit school and joined a small detective agency in hopes of finding information on Akane, risking both his life and his morals dealing with the dirty, dangerous criminal underground. He sneaked into places involved in human organ trafficking and witnessed people die. He realized humans weren't as beautiful as he thought and seeing all of this darkened Junpei's outlook on life and humanity, taking a severe toll on his mental and emotional health. He also turned towards drinking to block out the pain and memories.
At some point in time, he worked with Seven to destroy Free the Soul's headquarters.
Eventually, he got intel from his detective firm that Akane joined the Mars Mission Test Site (Dcom) experiment and he used "force" and "coercion" to force his way in.
Mars Mission Test Site and Decision Game[]
In December 2028, Junpei was a part of the team that participated in the Mars Mission Test Site (Dcom) simulation in the Nevada Desert. For the first few days, Akane acts like they've never met, greatly annoying Junpei.
On December 28, 2028, Akane and Junpei seriously talk for the first time after the events of 999. Junpei is annoyed by Akane's silence and for ghosting him for a year. She tells him that she didn't want to contact him because she doesn't want to jeopardize everything she has worked for and that when the time comes, she will tell him everything. Akane then walks away, but not without faint tears in her eyes.
On December 31, 2028, it turns out the simulation is a trap. In C-END: 1 (the timeline leading to Virtue's Last Reward), it is shown that Junpei died during the C-Team execution, but another Junpei from a different timeline arrived into the Virtue's Last Reward timeline using the Transporter. This Junpei's memories were erased by the bracelet drug at the end of the game when Akane forcibly injected him with it. He forgot about reuniting with Akane again.
Radical-6 outbreak and apocalypse[]
He survived both the Radical-6 virus outbreak as well as the antimatter plant explosions in 2029 which killed 6 billion people. Junpei became a junk collector in the post-apocalyptic world. The trauma of the outbreak made him become a bitter person.
He started carrying a picture of Akane with him. He would occasionally speak to it as if the girl in the photograph was really listening to him. Junpei continued searching for Akane for decades, but to no avail, likely unsure of whether or not Akane even survived the apocalypse.
Despite being bitter about the outbreak and apocalypse, Junpei has become wiser through suffering and witnessing the suffering of others. He has formed relationships and ended them, and has thought long and hard about why the outbreak/apocalypse had to happen, what the meaning of life and humanity and existence is, and about "God's" role in it (although he seems to have anger towards a god who would allow so much suffering, saying that such a god can go fuck themselves). He has also seen the perseverance and kindness of humanity in the darkest of times as well, preventing him from being a complete misanthrope. Although Virtue's Last Reward doesn't detail a lot of Junpei Tenmyouji's life after the apocalypse, it can be inferred that he has many stories to tell, some of which are likely heartbreaking.
Quark[]
In 2064, on a rainy night, Tenmyouji found an abandoned orphaned crying baby and took him home. Tenmyouji decided to become the baby's adoptive grandfather. Because of how tiny Quark was as a baby boy, Tenmyouji named him "Quark", based on the elementary particle. Tenmyouji raised Quark on the post-apocalyptic planet. Tenmyouji also taught Quark to be respectful of others and to be polite.
When Quark turned six, he started helping Tenmyouji with his work. He had no knowledge of his adoption until he was seven, when he began to suspect that Tenmyouji might abandon him once he was able to live on his own.
One day, Tenmyouji got Quark a root beer float, a drink made by putting a scoop of vanilla ice cream in some root beer. Root beer was an extremely rare drink and a luxury in the post-apocalyptic world and costed a fortune. Quark has taken to saying "Root beer floats my boat," which warms Tenmyouji's heart.
Eventually, Quark got into a fight with Tenmyouji about how the parts Quark found were completely useless. Quark became angry, shouted, "I don't CARE!" and ran off, hiding in an abandoned building. When Quark decided he should come back and apologize, it started raining. Quark wondered if Tenmyouji adopted him out of love, or only for the sake of working for money. The rain didn't stop, so he decided to go home even if it continued raining. On his way back, he found Tenmyouji and realized he had spent the whole night outside looking for him. Quark was very happy to see him, but quickly ran to the doctor for help since Tenmyouji obtained a near-fatal fever and almost died.
After Tenmyouji got better, he explained to Quark that he was an old man, and that meant he was probably going to die sooner rather than later. Tenmyouji was strict with Quark because he wanted to make sure he would be able to take care of himself when he eventually dies and said that he never regretted adopting him. Quark wanted to be with him forever, even if Tenmyouji said otherwise. After this ordeal, the two became even closer and he promised to look after Quark for the rest of his life.
Tenmyouji was contacted by Sigma Klim, who informed him that if he wanted to see Akane, he needed to come to the Moon. Sigma also had a condition: if Tenmyouji revealed sensitive information that could disrupt the Nonary Game to the other players, both him and Quark would die. Tenmyouji agreed to this, but insisted that Quark would come with him. Upon riding the rocket on January 23rd, 2074, they were knocked out with Soporil.
Virtue's Last Reward[]
Afterward, they woke up in separate AB Rooms in Rhizome 9 as participants of the Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition. Realizing the danger of the Nonary Game, Tenmyouji regrets bringing Quark along. During his time in the facility, he uses his surname, Tenmyouji, in order to hide his identity from Clover and Alice.
Tenmyouji END[]
On Tenmyouji's route, he heads with Sigma and Phi to the Infirmary. They find the Radical-6 article, but before they can show it to anyone, Sigma finds Akane dead. Tenmyouji recognizes her and becomes very depressed because of this. He betrays Sigma and Phi in the first round of the AB Game, bringing his BP to 6. He searches the Infirmary for a way with Quark, when Sigma enters, he refuses to answer questions about who he is or his relationship with Quark, and he berates Sigma and the other players for not trying to figure out who killed the old woman. He thinks the person is Zero Sr. and brushes off Sigma's reasoning that everyone is single-minded, trying to escape. After he refuses to answer Sigma's questions, Sigma goes to ask Quark who is behind the partition with the old woman. However, Quark said they were talking too fast, suffering the first affects of Radical-6, but states that he is fine now. Sigma thinks it's due to him being near the corpse, and Tenmyouji takes him away.
He then goes through the Chromatic Doors with Sigma and Clover and searches the Pressure Exchange Chamber with them. After Dio opens the AB gate, they head back to Floor A and find out that Alice and K had found the Axelavir for Quark. He thanks them for saving his grandson and tells Sigma to put the memory card they found in the PEC, into the computer in the Infirmary which he realizes is a transmission from the Mars Mission Test Site. He then explains that Radical-6 originated from there and what the simulation was about, but he doesn't tell them the full story, as it would take him more than 10 minutes to explain, longer than the deadline they had to play the AB Game. Heading to Warehouse A, he agrees to ally with Sigma, after he tells Tenmyouji he won't pick betray, due to Clover having 6 BP and he won't let Clover convince him. Tenmyouji mentions that Clover may try to seduce him or make a bargain with him, which Clover brushes off as Sigma being disgusting when he liked the suggestion. Though Clover does try to seduce Sigma, he picks ally, resulting in Tenmyouji having 8 BP.
Soon after, Alice is found dead and Clover tells everyone that she will kill the rest of the players if no one admits to causing her death. However, Sigma remembers Latin Journal in the Laboratory about Radical-6. Although Phi is confused as to why he knows this, she translates the text anyway. After Clover calms down, Phi explains to her that Alice had Radical-6 and killed herself. Later on, Tenmyouji and Sigma discover Quark awake in the infirmary and feeling better. After Tenmyouji hugs him and cries in relief for a few minutes, Quark asks him where everyone else is. Sigma tells him about the White Chromatic Doors but omits Alice's death and his infection in his explanation.
They head through the White Doors together and search the Director's Office. While there Sigma sees the picture of Akane Kurashiki and he explains that he has searched for her his whole life. Tenmyouji, Clover, and Quark escaped the facility. Tenmyouji and Quark betrayed Sigma upon learning that Sigma was actually Zero upon to the hologram in the Director's Office they viewed after he forgot the picture in that room. Sigma asked him why he chose to betray, but doesn't answer his question, but promised him they won't open the Number Nine Door. Clover then opens it, and Tenmyouji counters to Sigma, saying that HE didn't open it, so didn't break his promise. The three leave the facility, though Quark gives Sigma a letter explaining what kind of person Tenmyouji was and tells him they will meet again.
Phi END[]
On Phi's route, after solving Room Q's puzzle along with Sigma and Phi a hologram message began to play. An old woman appeared in the hologram, who Tenmyouji recognized as Akane. Akane told Sigma and Phi why they were brought to Rhizome 9. During the message, Akane acknowledged Tenmyouji, knowing that he was in the room with them. Akane told him that she would like nothing more than to be with him, but she had much to do to make that future and asked him to wait just a while longer. After the hologram recording ends, Tenmyouji collapses to his knees and cries. Crestfallen, Tenmyouji took out the picture of Akane when they were children and solemnly stayed quiet and averted his gaze from the hologram.
Following Phi's ending, everyone cooperates so that everyone has at least 9 BP to escape the facility, though they leave Dio behind because of his Myrmidon status. When they leave, Tenmyouji reveals that the year is 2074 and that Radical-6 has killed six billion people. Sigma then remembers that he has the key tied to his ankle and returns to the facility with everyone following.
When they reach the B. Garden, Sigma remembers a keyhole in a tombstone from his visit to the B. Garden in one of the alternate timelines. A single Treatment Pod rises from the ground but needs time to defrost. Sigma thinks that Akane will be in the pod but instead, a clone of Sigma appears. After discovering that his appearance is not the one of his youth, Sigma turns around to see that "K" has shed his armor, revealing that in this timeline, Akane had replaced Kyle in the armor suit. Akane reveals the true purpose of the Ambidex Game: to develop Sigma and Phi's esper timeline jumping abilities. Akane then attacks Phi with Dio's Myrmidon knife, with Sigma jumping in the way to protect her, forcibly sending both of their consciousness back into the past in April 2029.
Another Time END[]
- "The survivors overcame their own misery and loss, and made the best they could of the hand they'd been dealt with. Isn't that worth something? Isn't that the best thing that humans can aspire to? Is there really any point to a world where everything is happy? Are people who struggle for a better life just idiots? Being human is about fighting even when it seems hopeless, and finding happiness even in a world that hates it."
- — Tenmyouji to ?, on the meaning of the happiness, suffering and hardships that comes with human existence
After the conclusion of the Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition, an unknown entity in Kyle Klim's body entered the Pressure Exchange Chamber to see Tenmyouji and Quark about to leave Rhizome 9 in order to return to Earth. When he was asked why, Tenmyouji explained that despite the mission they were used for in order to create a better future, they cannot change the current "future" they live in as the future they lived in has already been set.
Though Tenmyouji admitted that while it is nice to have an ideal future to work out the way Akane planned, he tells him that there is some worth to an existence that has struggled through hardships and sadness, and denies the possibility of being erased in this timeline. Nonetheless, Tenmyouji had another reason to continue to live on for: Quark.
Tenmyouji feels he has no desire to speak with Akane because she is no longer the Akane he knew. He comments she must have seen some pretty awful things over the years and may no longer be human. He claims that the Akane Kurashiki he knew is not here, or anywhere.
After his explanation, Tenmyouji and Quark bid farewell to ? and left the facility to return back to Earth.
Zero Time Dilemma[]
Junpei reappears in Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma. He is a participant in the Mars Mission Test Site simulation and a prisoner of the Decision Game created by Zero II. He is a member of Team C with Akane and Carlos. Junpei is trapped in Ward C in the Underground Shelter. Reunited with Akane, the two used to be connected by strong bonds, but ever since being assigned to Team C in this game, they always have conflicting opinions.
Since the events of 999 a year prior, Junpei quit college and joined a detective agency, primarily to find Akane. He has since worked closely with Seven, even helping to destroy a major base of Free the Soul. However, after several months, he received his first lead to reunite with Akane. In the Decontamination Room, he reveals that he threatened those in charge of the Dcom experiment and forced his way in.
The Coin Toss[]
Junpei finds himself trapped in a room along with Akane and Carlos in the same room with a bracelet on his left wrist. He suggests trying to escape, only for Sigma to point out that there are bars on the door. When Zero walks in and flips the coin, Junpei calls it red or blue (opposite of what Mira says).
If Carlos Is Correct (CQD END: 1 (Pay-off/Beginning Of The End))[]
If Junpei called it correctly, he calls out Mira for guessing wrong whearas it is the other way around if Junpei guessed wrong. Zero indeed does set them free, but not before putting everyone to sleep, causing them to forget the recent events. When everyone wakes up, they are outside a Dcom facility in Nevada. and do not remember anything.
If Carlos is Wrong[]
Junpei calls out Mira just the same if he was correct and vice versa. Since Carlos got it wrong, Zero states that a game where 6 people must die will begin, and puts them all to sleep again. They forget the events of being locked behind bars.
12:00: They wake up again in a room now with bracelets around their left wrist and a recording of Zero playing. He tells the story of a woman being murdered since she chose another path due to a snail, stating that 'life is simply unfair'. He then shows a map of the facility divided into 3 sections and separates the participants in teams. Junpei is on C-team with Carlos and Akane. He then points out the big door with a red x over it, stating that it is the only way to get out, and 6 x passes would be needed to unlock it. He also states that an x pass is revealed whenever someone dies. Zero further elaborates that they will have 90 minutes before the bracelets inject them with memory erasing drugs that make them forget the last 90 minutes and put them to sleep. He then explains the first decision to make: vote for a team to be executed. The team that receives 2 votes will be executed and their x passes will be revealed.
Junpei, Carlos, and Akane explore ward C but don't find an escape route. Junpei wants to vote for a team, saying that they have to vote otherwise they die. Akane suggests spreading the votes such that each team gets a vote. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to reach other teams. Meanwhile, they also find writing on the wall saying 'let the game end when I treat two', and a force quit box that seems to be locked. Carlos asks who Zero is, and Junpei mentions him and Akane being trapped in a similar game and encountering the first Zero. Akane insists that they have no connection. Carlos then wonders what Zero's purpose is, and Akane states that if they lose the game, 6 billion people will die as mankind is facing a crisis. Carlos asks Junpei and Akane about their relationship, stating he learned about it when they were all in Dcom for 5 days. They say they signed up separately, however.
Carlos' dog, Gab, then comes through the vents and the group finds him. Carlos then writes down on a paper that C-team will vote for D-team, D-team should vote for Q-team, and Q-team should vote for C-team. 5 minutes before the vote, Junpei realizes that they can go against their note and vote for Q-team to get their x passes, while Akane insists that they stick with spreading the votes. Carlos is forced into a decision, with Junpei telling him to vote for Q-team and Akane telling him to vote for D-team.
Q-team Execution Timeline[]
If Carlos chooses to go against his note and pick Q-team, while D-team follows the note and also picks Q-team, they will be executed. Zero states that since they voted, they deserve a 'reward' and the memory loss drug will not be injected, so that they can feel the potential guilt of killing a team.
18:10: Junpei, Carlos, and Akane wake up in the infirmary.
D-team Execution Timeline[]
After the vote where Carlos chooses to follow on his note and vote for D-team to be executed and Q-team goes against the note thus executing D-team, Junpei is likely killed in his sleep by Mira, who is unaffected by the bracelets and is thus not asleep. Mira then likely dismembers him and puts the parts of the corpse in the pantry. Junpei's death, when found by Carlos and Akane, causes any trust between them to shatter.
No Team Executed Timeline[]
If Carlos follows up on his note and votes for D-team, and the other teams follow the note too, Zero states that since they voted, they deserve a 'reward' and the memory loss drug will not be injected, so that they can feel the potential guilt of killing a team.
18:10: Junpei, Carlos, and Akane wake up to find themselves trapped in the decontamination room. Akane confronts Junpei about him wanting Carlos to vote for Q-team but he brushes it off, not thinking of it as a big deal. When Carlos inquires as to why there is animosity between two childhood friends, Junpei explains that after escaping he quit school and joined a detective firm to find Akane. He further elaborates that this firm worked underground and he saw horrible sights that made him rethink his views about humans. He later got intel that Akane was signing up for the Dcom experiment and forced his way in. The conversation moves to the religious cult Free the Soul and Junpei disagrees with Akane's claim that the Zero of the last game and this game are unrelated. After Carlos calms him down, Akane explains that she signed up to stop a dangerous plan by Free the Soul.
At this point, Zero announces the voting results and states that all teams voted for different ones. He expresses disappointment that no one seems to grasp the essence of the games and offers one last chance for them. He then states that the other 2 teams are in similar decontamination rooms and the yellow button will kill off both teams via hydrogen fluoride showers. Zero concludes by saying that if one team presses it first, the other teams won't get a chance. Junpei immediately runs to the button to push it, only to be stopped by Akane. He pushes her out of the way, only to be held back by Carlos. After yelling about how he did not come this far to die, Carlos throws him out of the way and takes the decision upon himself.
Doesn't Press the Button[]
Nothing happens for 3 minutes but just as C-team starts to think that none of the other teams pressed the buttons, Zero elaborates that the showers may not necessarily activate immediately when the button is pressed so it is unknown if a button for another team has already been pressed. At the 19:30 mark, they are put to sleep with the memory loss drug making them forget the past 90 minutes.
Presses the Button[]
Junpei is glad that Carlos pressed it and tries to assure him he didn't do anything wrong but then Carlos confusingly states that it wasn't him who did it and it was more like he was controlled. At the 90 minute mark, Zero makes them sleep but doesn't inject them with the memory loss drug.
C-team later wakes up and goes to the door with the X on it. Carlos still feels bad about what he did and Akane theorizes that he was controlled by a parasite. The X-passes from the 6 deaths are entered after Zero announces them and the door opens. Junpei and Akane walk out but all of a sudden Carlos says he can't, stating that he promised to save the two in another history. Both urge him to quickly exit but Carlos remains inside as the door then shuts.
Branching timelines[]
In one timeline, Akane eventually reveals her feelings towards Junpei, when he suggests killing himself in order to receive a final X-Pass for Akane and Carlos to escape. Junpei proposes to Akane with her ring, though he puts it on the wrong hand. Afterwards, the two embrace.
C-END: 1 (Apocalypse/Fly Me To The Moon)[]
In C-END: 1 (the timeline leading to Virtue's Last Reward), it is shown Junpei's memories were erased by the bracelet drug at the end of the game when Akane forcibly injected him with it. He forgot about reuniting with Akane again.
CQD-END: 2 (Pay-off 2/The Final Decision)[]
In the Junpei and Akane post game files, it is revealed that Junpei has officially joined Crash Keys and gotten engaged to Akane. During his time since joining it, Junpei has kept close contact with Carlos and his sister, Maria. Together with Akane and Carlos, the three vowed to find the religious fanatic, and help Maria to control her SHIFT powers enough for her to be able to live life normally. He has also begun to plan his wedding with Akane, intending to send invitations to Aoi, Carlos, and Maria.
Etymology[]
The first part of Junpei is 淳, meaning "honest" (Chinese) or "pure/affectionate" (Japanese). The second part, 平, can mean "plain/flat/even/level", "calm/peaceful" or "ordinary/average". It is easy to see why this name was chosen for Junpei as he is an average, yet kind guy.
Tenmyouji isn't a "real" Japanese name that anyone in Japan uses. It was made for Virtue's Last Reward and is an assemblage of Japanese sounds (like the funyarinpa). It literally means "space, sun, moon, earth". This sequence represents an astronomical phenomenon, possibly a syzygy, or a reference to the "total lunar eclipse".
天 = ten = space (can also be interpreted as sky or cosmos)
明 = myō = sun + moon
寺 = ji = can mean "temple", but 寺 can also be read as "tera". In Latin, "terra" means "earth".
In the 999 Answers, Uchikoshi says that if Junpei would have had a codename, it would have been either "Hand" (5 fingers), "Star" (5 points), or "Penta" (pentagon -- a 5-sided shape).
Quotes[]
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors[]
- "OOOOOOWWWCHGODDAMNIT! Gah! What the hell!?" (falling off a bunk bed)
- "I've gotta die someday, but I sure as hell don't want it to be here!"
- "Do any of you know what the fuck is going on here?! Who's Zero?! What's this "Nonary Game"!? C'mon! Anybody? Anything?! What the hell is going on?! What are we doing here?!"
- "There's a little blue platform protruding from the shower wall next to the knobs. It's for putting soap on. I used a shower once, so I know."
- "What the hell are you smoking?!" (to Akane who theorizes the ship they're on is the real Titanic which slipped through time)
- "What do you mean "what the hell is a funyarinpa"? You mean... you don't know?! How could you not know?! That's... that's practically blasphemous. Say you're sorry! Apologize to the funyarinpa! Goodness, you are such a rude woman."
- "It's Butterfly. Cho "Butterfly" Yusofa. This is the head, and this is the nose and the mouth... What?! You mean you... you don't know? He's a former pro wrestler, and a huge movie star! He was just in this movie called "Man-Bag"! Oh man, it was so sweet... He was all like "Nom nom nom", throwing the bag around like a big mouth... And then, like, guns and gadgets and stuff would fly out of it... Damn, just thinking about it gives me chills."
- Lotus: "If we ever get out of here, you should treat yourself to a nice dinner out."
Junpei: "What makes you think a poor college student has the money to do something like that?" - "Wh...wh...wh...why the hell are you bringing up June!?" (when Lotus feels sorry for June if Junpei takes a girl out to dinner)
- "C'mon, it's not like I need to know this crap... Geez..." (when Lotus calls Junpei ignorant for not knowing the types of food plates)
- "...Urge to kill... rising... His death will be slow." (after Seven sings a song for him)
- "Really Clover? I expected more from you." (after Clover makes a pun about a missing organ being "or-gone")
- "A bottle with people liquid in it. W-Wait, what?! What would "people liquid" even--oh...oh! It wouldn't even be this color--aah! Why am I even thinking about that?! The liquid in the bottle is purple! Purple!"
- "A bottle for storing people liquid. Aah! No! No! What the hell am I saying!? What kind of pervert am I!? It's purple! It's just a purple liquid! A bottle with a purple-colored liquid in it!"
- Seven: "Damn. What the hell took you and Clover so long? You playin' doctor in there or something?"
Junpei: "Maybe. Jealous?" - Seven: "Playing with mannequins, huh? Didn't know you were into that kinda thing, Junpei..."
Junpei: "..."
Seven: "..."
Junpei: "You're a dick." - "W-Well, I mean, of course you would, that's the way it works. I mean, I've never heard of anyone getting soaking wet... somewhere... else..."
- "W-Well, I dunno, I think I'd probably... You know... like it."
- "...Really? I mean, I kinda think any guy would do the same thing, you know? What happens, happens, right? If you get the chance, you've just gotta go for it. That's what a man's supposed to do, I guess."
- "Uh, that... doesn't really seem like the sort of thing you oughta admire someone for..."
- "...Well... I mean... Usually it doesn't... go inside... the man... I mean, generally..."
- "Thank you, Captain Obvious. Ace... You really kinda suck at making jokes..."
- "We're gonna be fine... It's gonna be all right, June. It's going to be okay, Kanny. I'll be here with you, okay?"
- "Kanny... What the hell happened to you... How did this happen...?"
- "N-No way! No way am I gonna let you die! I'm gonna save you, I promise!"
- "Don't gimme that "I was" crap! You're gonna see me again lots more times! You've... You've just gotta hang on, all right Kanny!?"
- "No! I mean yes! Yes, it will happen! We'll go all sorts of places, Kanny! You hear me?! I promise! We'll go wherever you want! Yeah, really. I swear."
- "No, Kanny! Don't fall asleep! Kanny! Kanny! Kaaaaannnnyyyyy!"
- "Oh my God... Oh holy shit... No... No way... This's gotta be some kinda joke... This... this can't be real..." (to Clover after she throws the bracelets on the floor in Axe ending)
- "Hrk...guh-gaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" (killed by Clover in Axe ending)
- "What do you mean, "orders"? What the hell makes you think you can order us around?! Who the hell's gonna listen to you?!" (to Santa)
- "I get everything now... At last, I finally understand what all of this means. I know why the Nonary Game was held today. I know why we were kidnapped and brought here. It was all for this moment. All of this was planned out to lead to this one moment. Oh my God... This is... this is insane! I... I can't believe it, but there's only one possible answer... June is-- Zero is-- Akane Kurashiki. She recreated the history of the future that she had a glimpse of, 9 years ago. She tried to save herself that way 9 years ago-- No! She's trying to save herself right now! That means that there's only one thing for me to do. Even if this is all some sort of insane plan... I will save her... I will save... Akane Kurashiki. I must save her, no matter what!"
- "Yeah, I know! Just hang on, all right? I promise I'll get you out of there! I'm not gonna let you die! I promise! So don't worry, all right? Just give me a few minutes. ...Okay?" (to young Akane while solving the Sudoku puzzle in the incinerator)
Virtue's Last Reward[]
- "So it looks they grabbed you too then, huh? Welcome to the goddamn club." (in the anime)
- "It stands for Adult Erotic Doctor." (about the AED in the infirmary)
- "Yo, yo, yo, where my boys at? Tee to the en to the myo-yo-gee! Dropping the sickest beats till this puzzle completes!"
- "I was going to take your side, but after that load of horseshit, you're on your own." (to Alice after she claims her reason to live is to wear clothes, eat food, and fall in love)
- "Hmph. Well, maybe we'll get lucky and you'll pull your head out of your ass." (to Dio)
- "I don't like people who break promises."
- "So, that's how it is, huh... Promises are made to be broken, I see." (to Sigma)
- "Well, in any event, your idiotic paranoia has given Clover 9 BP. How do you intend to deal with that?" (to Sigma)
- "Stupid?! What about this is stupid?! We're talking about my LIFE you self-righteous dick!" (to Sigma)
- "Hmph. Hard to trust someone who tried to kill me."
- "The last guy I fought went home in an ambulance!" (to Sigma, in the Infirmary after Sigma chooses Betray)
- "I can't wait to get out of here and back to my, uh, grandpa videos."
- "That's enough! Shut your damn hole or I'm picking betray!" (to Sigma)
- "Like hell, you son of a bitch!" (to Dio)
- "That's insane! Listen to yourself! There's no way in hell I'd have left Quark all by himself to go plant a goddamn bomb!"
- "Her name is Akane Kurashiki... I've been looking for her for a very long time..." (showing Sigma his photo)
- "Yeah, of course I do! How could I forget? That little girl was you, Akane..."
- "Pretty soon the bodies started to pile up. Some people would take a dive off a building or shoot themselves in the head. You know, the classics. But for some it was poison, or fire, or asphyxiation, or the noose... Plenty of people jumped in front of trains or cars. One pilot on a passenger airline drove his plane into the ground. Most forms of transportation ground to a halt pretty fast. That meant food couldn't get distributed, and thousands of people who weren't even infected died from starvation. Everywhere you went there were just... piles of corpses, covered in flies and rats and crows. I don't know what Hell's like, but I imagine it's a lot like that."
- "Now, the truth is that's mostly just rumor. Nobody really knows what happened. But I've got my own theories. I think that the bombers had already been infected... And when they died, they took billions with them. The ultimate "if I die, you're coming with me" gesture I suppose." (about the Antimatter Plant Explosions)
- "Killing most of the world, no matter how bad things had gotten was not a sane plan. Even if it wasn't directly responsible, Radical-6 killed most of the people on Earth." (about the Antimatter Plant Explosions)
- "If you're saying re-writing the past will erase all these other timelines... then whatever god wrote those rules can fu--"
- "The Akane Kurashiki I know isn't here. She's not anywhere..."
Zero Time Dilemma[]
- "Why don't we toss in some ketchup and pickles too. Maybe next time he comes back he'll be a hot dog." (about Gab)
- "It's Diana! That bitch betrayed us!" (before his execution)
- "Sorry, but I am done with playing the action hero... Because I grew up."
- "Aww, guess we can't order a bunch of pizza then."
- "*laughs* What the hell are you smoking, Carlos? I'm fine, see? Look. All limbs attached and accounted for." (after Carlos explains he saw a vision of Junpei's head in the Pantry)
- "I've seen people die. Horrible, cruel deaths I never wanted to see... So many... I'm probably becoming numb... I've snuck into places running human organ trafficking like they're trading cookies. Saw a coworker I'd just finished eating with pushed off a rooftop the other day."
- "Humans aren't as beautiful as I thought..."
- "So everyday, after work, I'd drink myself to sleep. I slept in my bathtub with the shower running. It was the only way I was able to get the scent of blood off me..."
- "I'm no longer that little boy who played Old Maid with you years ago." (to Akane)
- "Yeah I am! Drunk on life!" (in response to being asked if he was already drunk)
- "Akane's right. the cameras I used for work were about the size of a woman's nipple. Well, I guess not uniformly. Nipple sizes differ."
- "There's a Japanese saying: assume everyone you meet is a thief. It means you should never trust strangers so easily." (betraying Carlos for the first time)
- "That'll come back to bite you in the ass... Carlos... I swear, I'll get you for this...!" (being betrayed by Carlos for the first time)
- "Please don't think badly of me for this. Later." (betraying Carlos in a re-game)
- "You piece of shit! You tricked me!" (being betrayed by Carlos in a re-game)
- "Wanna play hoops? We could use Gab."
- "SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!" (beating Carlos)
- "I'm sorry... I never meant to ever cause you pain like that..." (to Akane)
- "You're fucking kidding me." (Waking up)
Trivia[]
- Junpei is bilingual, fluent in Japanese and English. He attended elementary school in Japan and, in the English-language versions of the games, is living and literate in America.
- In the Japanese version of 999, instead of "Jumpydoll", it is "Grapedoll". Junpei found a "voodoo" doll, but he misheard it as "budo". In Japanese, the word "budo" (ぶどう) means "grape". Because this pun would be lost in translating it from Japanese to English, the localizers opted for Junpei mishearing "voodoo" as "For-You" instead.
- In Danganronpa, Toko Fukawa makes the exact pose used by Junpei in the Axe Ending. It may be a developer joke, since both series are published by the same publisher and the creators of both series are close friends.[3][4]
- In the 999 character popularity polls, Junpei ranks #6 in Japan and #5 in the United States.
- It is interesting and notable that Junpei didn't seem to know that Akane had a brother, despite being friends with her. It's also possible Junpei did know Akane had a brother, but he simply never met him, or Junpei did meet Santa but didn't recognize the older Aoi. Even if Junpei knew the name of her brother (Aoi), Aoi used a codename (Santa).
- He has a tendency to get attached to objects, like a chair or a doll, as seen in the 1st class cabin, casino, and the laboratory. They could be his comfort objects, possibly as a way to help provide relief from the psychological stress and tension of the Nonary Game. He also has a tendency to talk to himself out loud, which makes Snake curious.
- Junpei always wears Calvin Klein underwear. [7]
- Junpei has a collection of videos in a locked cabinet that are inappropriate for Quark.
- Like Alice, after any first round of the AB Game, Tenmyouji's BP will always be 1 outside of the scenario in which Sigma chooses Ally against him.
- Junpei's favorite drink is scotch.
- Junpei is one of three characters who have appeared in all three games, the others being Zero and Akane Kurashiki.
- Several of Junpei's expressions from the iOS port are used in Virtue's Last Reward. For example, hand on chin while thinking, grin, palm on forehead while exasperated, looking away to the floor when disheartened, and raised arms to symbolize anger. This may make his identity in Virtue's Last Reward easier to figure out.
- In Room Q, when Phi mentions that the door to the room says "Q", he says "Really? Now someone's just being a smartass." This is a reference to Door q in Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, when everyone thought that the lowercase "q" on the door was a "9".
- Junpei's status icon in Zero Time Dilemma is designed to appear like a Voodoo doll, a reference to the doll that he had given to Akane before they went their separate ways in their childhood.
- In Zero Time Dilemma, he is symbolized by a V (Roman numeral for 5, his bracelet number in 999) on the slot machine in the Rec Room. The blue outline and red plaid texture reference his clothing in 999.
- Junpei studied bitcoin in college.[8]
- On Twitter, Junpei's VA talked about how he had asked if the line about Carlos being interested in him was meant to be taken seriously. This question was then answered with a yes, which means that Junpei, Light and Santa are all LGBT characters, and the only ones in the Zero Escape series, with Junpei being Bisexual, Light being Homosexual, and Santa being either Bi or Pansexual. [2][3]
- In Zero Time Dilemma, the X-Passes used to represent Junpei are Quark, Five, Jump, Ring, Hate and Doll.
- Quark - The child he adopted in the VLR timeline. Apparently, this was a detail Delta had known; as Delta cannot SHIFT, he presumably knew this by mind hacking either Sigma or Phi (who did remember the events of that timeline).
- Five - His bracelet value in 999.
- Jump - Akane nicknamed Junpei Jumpy when they were kids (and uses the nickname during 999 at points).
- Ring - Junpei gave a ring to Akane in the game.
- Hate - This one is somewhat more ambiguous, though it presumably refers to how Junpei became very cynical, especially during VLR.
- Doll - Junpei gave Akane a voodoo doll as a child; Akane's determination to hold onto it is what caused her to almost be killed during the First Nonary Game.
Gallery[]
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors[]
Virtue's Last Reward[]
Zero Time Dilemma[]