- "If you want to transport live koi from Brazil to Japan, putting only koi fish in an aquarium will result in most of them dying. But by adding something in that same container, you won't lose a single one. A piranha."
- — Mira to Eric and Sean, on koi and self-preservation
Mira (ミラ Mira) is a Decision Game player in Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma. She is dating Eric who considers her his "angel" and "beautiful goddess". After the events of the game, she becomes his wife. Along with Eric, Sean and Q, Mira is a member of Team Q.
Although Mira is typically calm and level-headed during the game's events, she is in reality a cold-hearted serial killer. She has been credited with at least eighteen murders. Since she was partially responsible for the Radical-6 outbreak and subsequent Antimatter Plant Explosions, she also had a hand in countless other deaths.
Appearance[]
Mira has long rose brown middle parted hair that reaches halfway down her back and bright green eyes. Her long fingernails and toenails are painted black. Her skin appears slightly tanned. She wears gold-colored hoop earrings.
She wears a red track jacket with three-fourths sleeves, which is zipped down to her abdomen. The jacket has a navy stripe and zipper on both sides, which only seem to be decorative zippers. The jacket also has zippers on the upper arms, which also seem to be decorative. Underneath her jacket is a purple bra lined with a thick black stripe with decorative studs on it. Her bra hangs from the back of her neck.
She wears black short shorts with red laces corseted on the sides. Her shoes are black platform sandals with straps and red heels. A black-with-gold-decorations belt is around her waist, although most of the belt is hidden under her jacket and only seems to appear on her right hip.
Mira wears a thin gold-colored fashion bracelet on her right wrist which is very similar to her earrings. Finally, she has a black bracelet like the ones the other participants are wearing on her left wrist.
When she attacks D-Team after Diana chooses not to press the button in the Healing Room, she wears a hooded cloak which obscures her identity, but her nails are clearly visible.
Personality[]
- "Not much phases me. I'm just not that type. You could've been a Martian for all I care."
- — Mira discovering Sean is a robot
Mira has a similar personality to Lotus and Alice, in that she seems to act based on logic, not emotions. She is brutally honest and not afraid to speak her mind. ("Eric, I'm going to kill you. Do you have any last words?") Mira has also been shown to be intelligent and cunning; she is an avid fan of reading books and knows about the Sleeping Beauty problem. At one point, she read a book on metempsychosis and discusses philosophical theories of its importance in relation to memories and the concept of reincarnation, as well as the value of memories in relation to identity. She can also be manipulative, and is annoyed when Eric doesn't catch on.[1]
Mira is assertive when it comes to her opinions, and Eric is often persuaded by her, such as when he changes his coin color guess. She thinks of herself as dull and clumsy. She hardly shows emotions, which can make her seem unnaturally calm during the Decision Game. She is even friendly to Sean, possibly because she knows his role in the Decision Game and the truth of his existence, and defends Sean from Eric's constant blaming and berating.
In reality, Mira is unable to fully grasp the nature of emotions. Ever since she was a child, she was always perceived as "callous" and "unfeeling" by others. She has a warped sense when it comes to the source of emotions; her mother explained when she was young that emotions come from a person's heart. Mira took this phrase literally as a child and developed a fascination with the human heart.
When she was formed in her mother's womb, the genes that formed her brain cortex governing emotions never formed correctly, resulting in emotional and empathetic impairment. Nonetheless, she is shown to be a skilled actor and mimic, able to observe how others use emotions and reproduce them for her own gains.
When Eric is shot in the heart by Sean, Mira is more upset by the fact that his heart has been damaged by the crossbow arrow rather than Eric being in pain and suffering, showing where her priorities lie.
She views humans, especially men, as pathetic and uninteresting "naive helpless weaklings" who are "amusing creatures simply there to be exploited."
Her motivation, according to her, for becoming the "Heart Ripper" is a quest for another beautiful heart that will cause her to feel emotions, just like the heart of her first victim.
Background[]
Since Mira was a child, she has struggled with being able to understand and process emotions. Her mother told her that "Deep inside a person's chest is an object called a heart; this heart controls their emotions and changes their expressions." Mira tried her best to find out what her mother meant, including trying to learn how to smile and making facial expressions and emotions in a mirror, but she never got it right.
Mira mentions she would "practice" on animals, heavily implying she hunted, tortured and killed animals in her childhood, likely to examine their hearts.
Later, she decided to murder a seemingly random woman around her mother's age with a knife to see what a "heart" is. This woman is implied to be Eric's mother in the snail story because she is heard mentioning the importance of smiling. If so, then this murder occurred in 2011.
Mira kept killing people afterwards to examine their hearts, and became known as a serial killer called the Heart Ripper.
In 2026, Mira killed at least three people. The bodies of two of the victims, Virginia Bailey and Jeffery Foret, were found in Roseville and Sacramento, respectively. By the time of Zero Time Dilemma, Mira has killed 18 people.
At some point in time, Mira saw Eric at an ice cream parlor in Nebraska. She noticed there was something "different" about Eric's "heart" compared to other men, and she wanted to satisfy this curiosity as to what was different. The two entered a one-sided relationship. She hid her murders from him and Eric never suspected her.
On December 25, 2028, Mira joined the Mars Mission Test Site (Dcom) experiment in Nevada because she claimed it looked "interesting" and "fun". The prologue also implies Mira was also interested in the money she would receive for participating. Eric joined her so they could participate together.
In reality, Mira was going to be an accomplice of Zero (Delta) and his organization Free the Soul. It is unknown how long Mira and Delta have known each other, but it is implied they have a history together.
Zero Time Dilemma[]
Mira is a member of Team Q with Q, Sean and Eric in the Decision Game created by Zero II. Mira is "trapped" in Ward Q in the Underground Shelter.
Branching timelines[]
In various histories, Mira acts as a serial killer, further increasing her victim count over 20.
C-Team executed[]
Radical-6[]
Q-Team finds themselves trapped in the Biolab and eventually come across samples of Radical-6.
Should they choose to inject Radical-6, following Eric sharing some personal details of his past family life, Mira takes it jonkingly and laughs, then claiming she's "clumsy". She proceeds to kill Eric with a scalpel and then stabs Sean while laughing maniacally. Later, should D-Team not press the blue button in the Healing Room, Mira enters the Lounge concealing her identity with a black robe and uses the scalpel to kill Sigma, Phi, and finally Diana once she opens the X-Door. Mira escapes successfully.
D-END: 1 (Circle of Fate/A Rabbit In My Future)[]
Should Q-Team not inject Radical-6, Mira secretly takes one of the doses without anyone's knowledge. Later, D-Team sets a bomb in the Decontamination Room to force open the door, only for Zero to catch wind of their plan and place Q-Team behind the door to be killed by the explosion. Sigma tries to deactivate the bomb but fails and loses his arms and right eye.
On the other side of the X-Door, D-Team meets the dying Q-Team. Mira takes revenge by injecting Phi's leg with the Radical-6 virus she secretly took, and dying shortly after. Diana cannot face killing Phi and so takes Phi and Sigma out of the facility on the elevator, releasing Radical-6 via Phi in the process. Sigma realizes that this is the timeline that leads to Virtue's Last Reward, and comments that perhaps the next Sigma will do better.
D-Team executed[]
Shortly after the vote, Mira kills Junpei and decapitates him, slicing off his head, arms and legs. It is unknown why Mira goes to such lengths to defile his body, possibly to horrify Akane and upset her enough to blame Carlos. It is also possible (and more likely) that although being responsible for his death, she was not the one who cut off Junpei's limbs and head. When found, Junpei's torso/chest shows no signs of being open/torn apart, which would technically go against Mira's obsession of physically touching human hearts and her overall modus operandi. A theory suggests that the true culprit behind Junpei's dismemberment and decapitation (and possibly his very death, directly) was Zero II himself; possibly seeing the events through his mind hacking ability and acting accordingly to keep the timelines consistent. This is further supported by the fact that Junpei's limbs become part of the room's puzzle.
Triangle[]
Junpei's death causes a confrontation between Carlos and Akane. If Carlos kills himself, Q-Team awaken in the Study, where they eventually end up in a three-way stand-off due to only one more X-Pass being required to escape.
If Sean shoots no one, Eric launches a grenade at him, killing both Sean and Delta. Mira returns home with Eric visibly uncomfortable, and later murders him while in bed together.
Mira is visibly shocked if Sean decides to shoot Delta.
Should Sean try to shoot Mira, Eric intervenes and takes the arrow to his heart, greatly upsetting Mira, who is distraught that his heart is ruined. She then shoots Sean and Delta with the gun.
Q-END: 1 (What is Love? Don't Hurt Me)[]
If Sean fires an arrow into Eric, this causes him to slump over. Mira proceeds to shoot him with her gun to end his life, then reveals that she is the Heart Ripper, the serial killer who extracts victim's hearts, after gouging Eric's heart with the arrow. She does this because she has never felt or understood emotions except by literally touching someone's heart. Eric is the first time she has touched the heart of someone who truly loved her. At this point, the last of the 6 X-Passes is revealed. Mira, Sean and Gab leave the shelter, with the remaining participant's (Akane's) fate being unknown.
Q-END: 2 (Real Zero/It Came From Within)[]
Should Akane be the one killed as a result of the altercation between her and Carlos, Delta proceeds to strangle Mira and put an electronic key in her mouth. Mira fought back while dying and managed to scratch Delta on the neck. Her death causes conflict between Eric and Sean, and her body is later discovered again by Diana and Sigma from another timeline. Later, Delta reveals himself as Zero, admitting he killed Mira and revealing her role in the Decision Game.
CQD-END: 2 (Pay-off 2/The Final Decision)[]
Despite not being an esper, Mira (together with the other players) manages to SHIFT to the timeline where the Decision Game is averted in the coin toss.
Later, after being convinced by Eric, Mira eventually turned herself in to the police for her crimes as the "Heart Ripper" after learning about the true scope of emotions and conscience thanks to her time in the Underground Shelter, and potentially by resonating with everyone via the morphogenetic field. Both Eric and Sean refer to her murders as "sins" that she should atone for.
While incarcerated, she and Eric officially wed and she sports a ring on her finger. During a visit by Eric, Sean was brought along. It is mentioned that Mira's smile is real and she no longer needs to plaster a fake one, implying that her psychopathy and emotional disorders were cured to a degree during her time in the shelter. Sean blows a hole in the prison wall, takes Mira's hand and quickly headed for the transporter device in hopes of using it send Mira back in time to stop herself and atone for her crimes.
Quotes[]
- "I want to see what a "heart" is. I think I'm the only one who doesn't know. Hey, that's where you hide it, right? I know where it is. Hurry up and show me!" (killing a woman as a child)
- "Cut it out. Me, an angel? You gotta be kidding. *laugh*"
- "At least he's quiet now." (after punching Eric unconscious in the Decontamination Room)
- "No need to blame yourself. All you did was make the right choice." (after Sean presses the button to shower six people to death in hydrofluoric acid)
- "God, how dumb can you get..." (about Eric)
- "No! Not there! If you do it there, then his heart will be gone! Your heart, I have to... What a waste..." (when Eric is shot in the heart)
- "See what you went and did? And lest we forget, you tried to kill me, didn't you? Better not try to weasel out of this..." (shooting Sean and Delta)
- "Geez... this couldn't have ended any shittier."
- "Eric, I'm going to kill you. Do you have any last words?"
- "You're asking ME that? You're the one who took the first shot." (Sean asks Mira why she killed Eric)
- "I haven't really been able to understand emotions my whole life. Anger, sadness, pain, fear... And things like love... So when Eric said he liked me as much as he did, I didn't know why."
- "Ever since I was little, I've always been told I'm callous and unfeeling. Why did the faces on people change? I never understood what expressions were. I'd take a mirror and practice making them every day, but they never quite looked right. One day, my mother told me something. Deep inside a person's chest is an object called a 'heart'... I remember thinking, 'That's unfair.' Why was everyone hiding this important thing inside so no one else could see? I wanted to see what it looked like."
- "I'm going to touch Eric's heart." (while digging around in his chest)
- "Oh! This... this is it! I knew Eric would be different! I had a hunch when I first met him and I was right! I told you, didn't I?! And his last words were exactly the same as my first's! How incredible is that?!" (goring Eric's chest open)
- "Oh... Ah... This person really, truly loved me... So this is love... This..." (Mira ripping out Eric's heart and feeling it)
- "Ahahaha.... hahahahah! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" (after killing Eric and Sean)
- "It was you, wasn't it? You set the bomb... That's okay... You deserve something nice in return... Maybe you've heard of it...? That virus... Radical-6... Well...? Do you... like it...? My present... to... you..." (injecting Phi with Radical-6)
- "It's been a long time, Sean. It's good to see you." (Mira being truly happy)
- "Eric was the one who convinced me. He said I should pay for my sins so we could be together."
Trivia[]
- Mira's name is unusual and unique. ミラ is close to "mirror" in Japanese (ミラー). It was likely chosen because Mira "mirrors" people's expressions and she mentions she would practice making emotions in a mirror.
- Mira being a psychopath was hinted on the "4infinity" site which had "psychopath" on it. In the launch trailer, she is seen saying "interesting" while smiling and covered in blood, another hint.[2] In the final game, she never says "interesting" during the scene.
- Mira is similar to Gentarou Hongou and Dio in the sense that she is a "danger variable", although this time, she is an accomplice of Zero. She is allowed to run rampant around the Underground Shelter, unhindered by her bracelet. She is also apparently allowed to kill anyone she wants.
- Sean implies Mira and Q (Delta) have a history together. In Q-END: 2, Sean notes that Mira always called Delta "Q".
- Mira's favorite ice cream flavor is raspberry sherbet.[3]
- Mira loves to read books.[4]
- Mira knows what a "horizontal tango" is. She mentions "If Eric and I did the horizontal tango, the baby might end up psychic", an allusion to Phi and Delta.
- At the very beginning of the game, Mira wonders if their situation is a result of "someone's one-night mistake, maybe Diana's". This is a reference to Diana getting it on with Sigma in D-END: 2.
- While discussing the Force Quit Box near the beginning of the game, Mira suggests that it will be "forced to end your life", which is exactly what it does. It's possible she knows this due to being Zero's accomplice.
- Mira's status screen doll is designed like a Bratz doll. Like Mira, Bratz can be seen as generally attractive, possibly a reference to how many men have fallen for Mira's beauty, only to end up as one of her victims.
- Uchikoshi's Comments (Source: ZTD Premium Art Booklet): ''The other games featured a sexy femme fatale and Mira fills that role here. I think her design works as a sex symbol no matter what part of the world you're in. I remember the CG modeler asked, "Shall I add jiggle?" and I reflexively answered, "Yes, jiggle, by all means." "Jiggle it is then." The results should be obvious, I think.''
- Mira's X-Passes are Kill, Rip, Heart and Virgin.
- Kill - What she is very proficient and experienced in doing.
- Heart / Rip - She is the heart ripper; rip because she is very violent, heart because she always removes them.
- Virgin - The meaning of this one is ambiguous. It can be interpreted as Mira not being able to feel true love, or possibly indicating the status of her relationship with Eric. Or it might be a reference to one of her victims - Virginia Bailey.