Hello, everyone. What's up? :)

There's a scene in this chapter with six characters in it at once. Needless to say, it takes forever to get through. And as for these second chapters in one of Ninten's same playthroughs, you can probably guess how this one ends.

We're getting closer to the final levels of the Nowhere Islands V-game. I hope you're ready for what's in store next... and I hope I can write it in a convincing way. :) I think the next few chapters after this one will make or break the story.

Review Responses:

Guest (I'm pretty sure this is Tofu but on the off chance that it isn't...): Don't worry, there will be more focus on Claus in the next few chapters, and I'm hoping you'll like the role he plays in them. :)

PKTofuMaster: Heh, hopefully all of your questions get answered soon. I don't anticipate this story going on for too much longer... but we'll see. :) And I wouldn't place too much faith in anything I wrote in my summary of this story lol. I definitely wrote that before I had a super clear idea of where the story was going, and now I just can't think of anything better. Ah, that makes more sense about Kuma. I always found it strange how she had such low attack power for someone who seemed to like brawling so much. Yep, I'm definitely in Ana's boat of getting any flavor of ice cream that sounds the most chocolate-y, and I pictured Ninten as being more appreciative of the delicate flavors. :) Yeah, I know. The first part of this chapter is Ninten being in a psyspace that's in a V-game that's in another psyspace lol. Also, I remembered after writing chapter 10 that forgetfulness gas is an actual weapon that enemies use in Mother 3, so I accidentally stole it from canon. And yeah, Park's scandal was absolutely nuts. The Park in this story is very loosely based off of her in the corruption aspect... but mainly, I just wanted to have the bitter rivalries and bickering of North/South Korea and Taiwan/China. Although I have heard quite a bit about corruption in Korea. My mom told me that my grandfather was amazed that in America he didn't need to bribe anyone to get his driver's license.

I don't even really know what myspace is (I'm too young lol), so that's a pretty hard no. I just thought of the psyweb as the internet and wanted a computer equivalent, and "psyspace" fit the bill pretty well. Literally a personalized space in the PSI realm. :) As for the Mother 3 stuff, I'll say that having the literal events in Mother 3 occur in Ninten's world would be breaking with the college-student-in-the-information-era tone. It's like in those bad movies where people get trapped in video games, you don't have dragons and stuff leaking over into real life outside the game. Oh wait sometimes you do. *shrugs* Still, I'll say confidently that stuff like the Magypsies and the Dark Dragon don't exist in real life Earth... even weird PSI real life Earth.

A seagull cawed above. Ninten looked up at the sky and saw a whole flock of seagulls circling above the crystal-clear waters of the ocean under the playful gaze of the sun. Fluffy clouds floated in the sky, cloaking the top of the volcano-island in white shroud. A seagull dove towards the water, and a school of silver fish leapt out of the sea. More seagulls descended as the fish hopped and flailed out of the water, their water-coated silver scales glittering under the light of the sun.

Ninten took a deep breath as a breeze of salty air passed over him. If this was some sort of trap, the person had set it up well. Ninten felt ready to drift off and fall asleep. He took a moment to close his eyes and feel the air rush around him as the sound of crashing waves played in the background.

This could be a trap.

Someone could sneak up and stab Ninten right now.

This domain belonged to someone.

Releasing a sigh, Ninten opened his eyes and turned towards the inland part of the island. A grove of palm trees not too far inland would at least provide a place for Ninten to stay hidden.

Only as he started walking towards the palm trees did Ninten realize that he had no idea where the four world leaders were. He couldn't imagine that they would have formulated an entire plan to get Ninten trapped in someone else's psyspace, which meant that they were probably inside the psyspace and all separated from each other as well.

Was that the purpose of the calming atmosphere? Did it aim to divide, sedate, and conquer? If so, then parts one and two of that list had already been checked off.

Ninten walked over to the grove of palm trees. He took off his shoes and socks before sitting down under the shade on a tuft of perfectly green grass. A coconut fell in front of Ninten, landing on top of a sharp rock and splitting clean in two. The two pieces landed in the sand open-side up, coming to a stop with coconut water filling both halves.

Okay. Definitely not natural.

"Are you okay if I share?"

Ninten let out a yelp and scrambled to his feet. A woman wearing sweatpants and a loose t-shirt stood smiling by Ninten's side, occupying the space where thin air had been just moments ago. She looked exactly like the woman who had been lying unconscious in the room with the four world leaders.

The one they had called a terrorist.

The woman walked over and sat down across from Ninten in front of one of the coconut halves. She smiled at Ninten and motioned for him to take a seat in front of the other.

"Please," she said. "There's no need to worry."

Ninten kept his gaze trained on the woman as he sat down in front of the other coconut half. The woman picked up her coconut half and took a deep drink, releasing an "ah" sound and wiping her mouth after.

"Feel free to drink," she said, gesturing to the coconut half in front of Ninten. "Even if you don't normally like coconut water, this stuff is good."

"I'm fine," Ninten said, keeping his tone neutral. "But thank you."

The woman shrugged as if it meant nothing to her and set the coconut half down. A gust of wind sent her hair tumbling and flapping in front of her. After the breeze calmed down, she pushed her hair out of the way and smiled.

"Who are you?" she said.

"I could ask the same question."

"I suppose you could." The woman looked away, and then back at Ninten with a coy smirk. "Although truth be told, who I am isn't all that interesting."

"Give me something, then. My name's Ninten, if that helps you at all. The leaders informed me that I was memory-gassed by the American government."

"So you are with the politicians."

"How else would I be in your psyspace right now?"

"I don't know what the situation is," the woman said, frowning. "I've been unconscious for days."

Ninten scanned her face, and decided that her tight lips and eyes staring studying the ocean waves made her seem sincere enough.

"I'm not sure how much I should really tell you about myself, if you're with them," the woman said. "But I guess I can tell you my name. It's public knowledge anyway." She paused, looking at Ninten. "You're a little young for all of this, aren't you? That's my only regret about everything that's happened. Some people never got a chance to really live. But I guess that's always been a problem. I don't think most peasants from earlier times had fulfilling lives even if they lived to sixty or seventy."

Ninten kept his gaze steady. "Your name."

The woman sighed. "Sakuraba Namiko. But please, call me Namiko. My family doesn't define who I am."

The name sounded like something from the anime that Ana watched, so he guessed that Namiko was Japanese. But really, he had bigger issues to worry about than this woman's nationality.

"I did hear about the gassing," Namiko said, offering an apologetic smile. "Such a tragedy. Although I guess it doesn't feel that way to you, since you don't remember any of it."

"Listen," Ninten said. "I didn't really want to come here in the first place. But Kim said that he would nuke the tunnels if I didn't come."

"Really." Namiko raised an eyebrow. "And… do you know him?"

Ninten shook his head.

"Do you know any of them?"

Ninten shook his head.

"Huh. Then why would Kim care?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"Hmm. I suppose that I do have an inkling."

Namiko paused, and after a moment lifted up her coconut half and took another glug of coconut water. She set the dry coconut half down, smiling at Ninten as water dribbled down her chin.

"Care to explain?" Ninten said.

"Honestly?" Namiko shrugged. "No. Are you going to drink your coconut water?"

"I'm pretty sure that they're not supposed to have this much water," Ninten said, looking down at his open coconut half. "Is there any reason you want to keep talking with me? If you want to go on and talk to the leaders, feel free."

"Nah, I like to keep them guessing. And I would like to know a bit more about you."

Namiko stood up and looked out at the glass-colored waves crashing down on the white sands.

"Have you ever seen a beach like this before?" she said.

Ninten shook his head.

"They used to exist, you know. Beauty lurks in nature, if you're willing to let it stand for itself. But we never did. If this exact beach did exist in real life, what do you think would happen to it?"

"Flood from climate change?"

Namiko smiled. "Well, yes, but more quickly than that it would become a tourist attraction. You wouldn't be able to see the silver fish and crack your own coconuts without encountering a mess of sweaty people."

"And is it so bad to share this experience with others?"

"It is when those people ruin the environment with their trash," Namiko said. "The natural world is being squeezed dry for every drop of cash that corporations can get their greedy little hands on. Plastic fills our already-acidified oceans, and the smog in cities like Paris used to be so thick that people needed masks in order to breathe."

"I mean, yeah, the destruction of the environment is a real shame," Ninten said, "But what does it have to do with you getting captured or me being here?"

"See, that's your problem," Namiko said. "You only think about yourself. That's what capitalism wants you to do. It plays off of greed, and companies ruled by shareholder value will dismantle each one of the world's ecosystems to squeeze out a few extra yen. And don't get me started on the communists." Namiko's expression grew dark. "The world may never recover from what Stalin and Mao did to it."

"I'm not with them," Ninten said. "I'm an American pig, so you can save your anti-communist rhetoric and focus on your anti-capitalist rhetoric."

Namiko laughed. "Do you always make fun of yourself in such a way?"

Ninten shrugged. He did it all the time in physics, although it was less "making fun" and more along the lines of "completely serious comments about being stupid or hopeless."

"Fine, I'll do my best to exonerate Stalin." Namiko wrinkled her nose. "And I can't believe I just said that. Okay, so I guess this isn't completely Stalin's fault, but did you ever hear about the Chernobyl incident?"

"The name sounds familiar."

"A big nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union where a reactor melted down and may or may not have mutated a bunch of animals, depending on how much you trust sensationalist news outlets of the time. Anyways, it became too dangerous for people to live there with the radiation, and the site will continue to be dangerous for another twenty thousand years or so."

Ninten nodded along. The flippant tone of Namiko's voice surprised him more than anything in the actual account. But she did say that she was going to try to exonerate Stalin, so Ninten motioned for her to continue.

"Do you want to know how Chernobyl's doing today?" Namiko said.

"Not well, I presume."

"Actually, quite the opposite. It's the most naturally preserved place in the entire world. The wildlife is flourishing, and shows almsot no traces of exploitation."

"Because humans are too afraid to go anywhere near?"

"Exactly." Namiko beamed. "The only way to truly preserve the environment is to make sure that humans don't interfere."

Something clicked in Ninten's mind.

"Oh no," he said, scrambling back. "Please don't tell me…"

"Hmm?" Namiko frowned in concern.

"You really do want to destroy all humans, don't you?" Ninten said. "Liu and the others were right. Because the only way to ensure with absolute certainty that humans don't mess things up again…"

"Is to make sure that there are no humans left to interfere. Good thinking, Ninten."

"Don't you dare give me credit for that idea." Ninten stood up and kicked over his coconut half. "And don't act so friendly if you're going to destroy our entire species."

Namiko looked at the turned over coconut half that Ninten had kicked into the sand and frowned. Every one of Ninten's instincts screamed for him to run, but the Nowhere Islands V-game had sent him here for him to learn how the world had ended before. He could at least hear Namiko out so that he would know what he would have to fight against later in the V-game.

"That's another one of your problems, Ninten. Another one of our problems. It's coded in our DNA to value human life and disregard the lives of insects and plants. And do you know why that is? Ultimately, our altruistic desires to protect other humans are just a result of natural selection. There's nothing holy about sacrifice, Ninten. It just makes our species more successful if we can work together."

"Altruism can be beautiful, even if it evolved just like any other trait of ours," Ninten said, taking a step back.

"Everything you think you know about morality and ethics is a lie," Namiko said. "There's just a bit of code whispering in the back of our mind that the homo sapiens species is worth preserving. Most philosophers, religious figures, and even most scientists listen to that voice without question. But it is not good to help other humans. It is not good to save human lives. Because we are a disease on this Earth, and we deserve to be cleansed."

"The leaders were right," Ninten said. "You're a madwoman. A terrorist."

He needed to believe those words.

And yet, Ninten could still sort of see where she was coming from. The destruction of the Amazon Rainforest and other ecosystems was a real problem. Overpopulation and the clustering of people in countries like China and India was a real problem. But to try and solve those problems by wiping out all humans was crazy, unthinkable. At least, it had been until now.

"The rest of you are mad," Namiko said, her icy eyes pinning Ninten in place, "And I am one of the few who are sane. The way that we defend humans again and again is madness, plain and simple. The data shows that we're destroying this Earth. The data shows that we reproduce like a disease, with more and more of us leeching off our planet each year. Look at the results objectively, Ninten. Why are we still defending our species?"

"Because there's some good in us," Ninten said.

Ninten felt something in his pocket, and he reached inside to fish around with his right hand. He felt over a rusty piece of metal and pulled the Courage Badge out of his pocket. Claus must have stuffed it in there from last playthrough, somehow.

"What the fuck is that?" Namiko asked. "I didn't let you bring in any-"

"It's the Courage Badge," Ninten said. "It means a lot to me."

"Oh, well whoop-de-fucking-do," Namiko said, rolling her eyes. "Now that you have a rust-covered coin I'm all for saving humanity now. Bravo, Ninten."

"I'm not going to give up," Ninten said. "I think you're forgetting that the leaders are the ones interrogating you. After they're through, I'll try my hardest to rebuild the world."

Maybe if he said those words confidently enough, he would believe them himself.

"There's so much you don't know." Namiko gestured towards the palm tree grove around her. "All of this could be real, Ninten. We just have to get over our silly instincts and learn to accept the fact that our species is a disease. If we kill all of the humans, the Earth will return back to its natural state. Maybe not immediately, and maybe not in a millennium, but those words mean nothing next to geologic time scale measurements."

"Kill everyone," Ninten said softly, "Including ourselves?"

"Of course." Namiko smiled. "I am not a hypocrite."

"You're willing to sacrifice your own life?"

"What part of this life is even worth living? I rarely come out into the real world these days. I'll just stay in this paradise until the day I die… and long after."

Ninten frowned, narrowing his eyes. "You are aware that death means you stop existing, right?"

Namiko blinked, and then released a laugh. "Of course. You've been gassed."

"What's so funny?"

A seagull cawed above, and swooped down to land on Namiko's shoulder. She gave the bird an affectionate scratch before looking at Ninten and shaking her head in disbelief. The seagull flew off a moment later.

"Recently, people figured out a way to transfer their entire consciousness into their psyspace," Namiko said. "The movement's been picking up momentum in what's left of the world over here in Asia. The process of transferring one's self to a psyspace kills the user, of course, but it means that they continue to exist in the psyspace forever."

"No way." Ninten felt his lips break into a nervous smile. "I might not know what's going on here, but I'm not that gullible."

"Many of the members of our society have gone through with the procedure," Namiko said. "Their bodies die seconds after the process finishes, but their essence is trapped in their own natural paradise. This is the sort of extinction that we see for ourselves, Ninten. Just because we die doesn't mean we have to stop existing. If everyone leaves their bodies behind and joins our digital world, then the Earth doesn't have to suffer any longer."

Ninten took another step back, looking around for a way to escape. "And to think I thought you were crazy before."

"Being coded by PSI in a psyspace is not so different from being coded from DNA in your mother's womb. You'll still be you, Ninten." Namiko extended a hand outwards and smiled. "Join me, Ninten. You probably do not remember your psyspace, but you can transfer your consciousness into mine. We can live in this paradise forever, just the two of us. Don't keep suffering through a world where each breath you exhale adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. I can give you salvation."

"I…" Ninten shook his head. This couldn't be real. "I have to go now."

Ninten turned around and focused himself. He emptied his mind, let himself become nothing, and let his own nothingness reach out until it stretched across the entire island. Ninten caught himself quivering, the back of his mind firing of panic signals.

Well, he wasn't completely empty, but he was detached enough. Ninten forced his consciousness out of his own body, and then out of Namiko's psyspace.

Ninten started awake back in the steel room, feeling the cool metal of the IV machine on the palms of his hands. He looked around at the world leaders, who still had their eyes closed. The only one of them that could be mistaken for sleeping was Kim, as the other three leaders had stiff postures and tense shoulders that made them look alert even with closed eyes.

A moment later, Namiko started awake on the floor. She groaned, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Her gaze met Ninten's and she grinned, the same playful smile she had directed at him back in her psyspace.

Ninten tensed up, taking a step back and raising his hands up to his chest.

"I…" Namiko coughed, her voice hoarse. "I can't do anything to you like this. No need to be afraid."

Ninten tried to focus on the image of explosions in the tunnels rather than Namiko's sunny smile. She had admitted herself that she wanted to destroy the human race. Someone so evil shouldn't be able to look so alive.

A buzzer sounded off in the room, and all four world leaders opened their eyes. Park pressed a button on the control panel on the massive IV machine and the beeping stopped.

"Good thing you showed up," Zhang said. "I was about to follow through with my threats."

"Oh, you were shouting something where I dumped you in my psyspace?" Namiko cocked her head. "I wasn't really listening."

Zhang's face flushed a light pink.

"You will tell us where your group is hiding, terrorist," Liu said, walking up to Namiko and narrowing her eyes. "And then we will exterminate them. We can either do this the easy way, or the hard way."

"I'm sure you idiots have heard the facts about torture before," Kim said, taking a puff of smoky air from his cigarette. "It didn't work before, and it certainly doesn't work now when people like her can go hide in their own little psyspace. We're just wasting our fucking time."

"Oh, I bet that's because you sympathize with the terrorists," Park said. "You're basically the leader of a terrorist organization yourself. You bleed your people dry and use fear to control them, all while living in the greatest estate the underground has to offer."

Kim grinned. "Someone's angry that she had to embezzle funds instead of relying on a rich daddy. Oh, wait. You had that one too."

Park recoiled as if struck. "How dare you. Baseless rumors will never-"

"And the impeachment hearings are rumors as well?" Liu said, her lips forming into a thin smile.

"My people are scared and divided because of terrorists like her," Park sputtered, pointing at Namiko. "She's the problem."

"I'm flattered," Namiko said, "But you've all done a perfectly good of dividing yourselves before we ever showed up. This kind of bullshit talk was why I joined the Pure Earth Organization in the first place. Because unlike you, I'm not actually trying to divide our people. I'm trying to unify them behind a single cause."

"What you're planning on doing is worse than genocide," Zhang said. "The Nazis tried to wipe out a part of human consciousness. You're trying to destroy everything."

"I am trying to destroy a small number of the creatures that live on our beautiful planet," Namiko said. "Your sort of thinking that humans are 'everything' is exactly your problem."

"I don't care why you're trying to destroy the world," Liu said. "I just want to know where your other terrorist friends are. You will tell me, eventually."

"President Liu." Naimko laughed. "You almost sound desperate. Is the legislature getting you down again?"

"Shut it, bitch." Liu kicked Namiko in the chest. "And stay down. Nobody gave you permission to sit up."

Namiko sighed like it meant nothing to her and went back to lying on the ground. She released a yawn and rested her head on top of her hands.

"Is there any way that you could install more comfortable flooring?" Namiko said.

"Shut the fuck up." Liu's face flushed red with anger. "Where are your-"

"Listen, I honestly don't know where the rest of the Pure Earthers are," Namiko said. "We meet over psyweb. We swear no political or national allegiances. More members funnel in every day. And we don't really know who any of them are, since many of them join under aliases. I know that all four of you have sent spies into our midst. What exactly did you find?"

Zhang exchanged a nervous glance with Park.

"Well?" Namiko said.

"My spies were able to get in easily," Park said, "But they couldn't tell me anything except for the obvious. It almost seemed like there was no centralized power that we could target."

"And have any of you had different experiences?" Namiko asked.

The terrorist sat back up and looked each world leader in the eye. This time, Liu didn't kick Namiko back down. All of the leaders remained silent, which for Ninten was an answer in itself.

"That's because Park is exactly right," Namiko said. "We have leaders, sure, but our members take whatever actions they need to achieve our goals. If you kill us, more will pop up. Because with the psyweb, we'll always be able to reach out to people sympathetic for our cause. And with every step you take," Namiko grinned, "With every one of us you torture, your people just get angrier and angrier. We carry the momentum of the entire human consciousness with us. We cannot be stopped."

The room fell silent. One by one, Ninten saw the hope drain from the world leaders' eyes. Maybe they had all known before what Namiko had said and hadn't wanted to admit it until now.

Except for Kim. He took another puff from his cigarette and blew out a stream of smoke, smiling and relaxing back in his wheelchair.

"See?" Kim said. "I told you this meeting was worthless."

"Comrade." Liu plugged her nose and waved away some of the smoke. "Must you smoke in here?"

"We could open the ventilation," Park said, walking over to a panel near the door. "Trust me, reasoning with Kim is like talking to a steel wall."

"I do see myself as steely," Kim said, grinning.

Park grunted and pressed a button on the panel. A closed vent on the ceiling that Ninten hadn't noticed until now clicked open, and Ninten heard the sound of air rushing in from above. Park took a deep breath and smiled.

"Now, that's better," she said.

While the other leaders were looking at Park and the ventilation control panel, Namiko shot a suspicious glance at Kim. The North Korean dictator shrugged and then gave an almost imperceptible nod. Namiko smiled to herself and looked down into her lap.

Ninten looked back at the other leaders, wondering if they had caught the motion. It might have meant nothing, but Claus said that the world would end here.

"Um, excuse me?" Ninten said. He cleared his throat as five heads swiveled towards him. "Uh…"

"Speak clearly, or do not speak at all," Liu said, frowning.

"Do you think it's a good idea for so many of the world's leaders to be interrogating a terrorist alone?"

"No," Park said, her tone indicating that she had talked about this before.

"It's a symbolic gesture," Zhang said, "The bitter rivals of the world coming together to fight terrorism. We'll hand her over to professionals afterwards, certainly, but we organized this meeting to make a statement."

"And… who was the one to suggest the meeting?" Ninten said.

"It was the North Koreans," Park said. "So I'm just as wary as you are."

A chill ran down Ninten's spine.

"Does it matter?" Zhang said, frowning. "We're all here now."

"I think it does," Ninten said, looking between Namiko and Kim. "I think it matters a lot."

"Listen, kid," Namiko said. "I know that Americans hate North Koreans, but it doesn't mean anything."

Silence. The three other leaders looked at each other, their eyes widening.

"What?" Namiko said.

Park's face turned pale. "Why are you… defending him?"

"I…" Namiko's mouth hung open for a second. "Oh."

"Well, the jig's up," Kim said. "Might as well get this over with."

Kim tore off the padding around one of his wheelchair armrests, revealing a remote control device embedded beneath. Kim pressed a button, and an additional set of steel doors closed to block the lone exit.

"The ventilation system," Ninten said. "He wants to do something with the-"

Kim pressed another button, and the control panel that controlled the temperature and ventilation of the room burst into sparks.

"Comrade," Liu said. "No, Kim. What is the meaning of this?"

Kim sighed. "You really shouldn't write me off as an incompetent old man just because I act like one."

"Why are you turning on us now?" Zhang said, panic rising in his voice. "We need to keep the peace-"

"Oh, I'm keeping the peace," Kim said. "I'll make sure that no wars will ever be fought again."

"You're with her," Ninten said, looking at Namiko.

"Yeah, and I was going to play along until I got bored, but Namiko kind of let it slip." Kim wheeled his wheelchair forward in between all of the leaders and eyed each one. "I hope that you don't take this personally."

"Did you think that we would come here without our force fields, Kim?" Zhang said. After a moment, he frowned at Ninten. "Ninten, do you…"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"And knowing Kim, he'll want to kill the kid first just for the hell of it," Park said, taking a step forward and cracking her knuckles. "But he can't do anything if we beat the shit out of him now."

Park lunged forward with her fists, but a blue aura flashing around Kim repelled her back. Park cursed as Kim took another puff of his cigarette.

"Yeah, North Korea developed force fields a while ago," Kim said. "I guess I forgot to give you the memo."

"So you can't hurt us and we can't hurt you," Zhang said. "Sooner or later, people will come to break us out. What's the point?"

"Don't be so sure that I can't hurt you," Kim said. "After all, the Pure Earth Organization has quite a few tricks up its sleeve."

"Why did you join them?" Liu said, her hands shaking with rage. "You know that the only way we can fix this world is by working together to dismantle corporate greed."

"He's a dictator," Park said, sneering. "He doesn't need a reason for anything he does."

"Yeah, I really don't," Kim said with a shrug. "But today, I have one. And it has to do with Ninten's country."

"America?" Ninten said. "I thought they collapsed."

"They did," Kim said, "But in the decades before they collapsed, they proved a valuable point. They dismantled dictators around the globe, many of them who rose to power in the wake of increased tensions from American, British, and Soviet influence. As the proxy wars faded away after the Soviet Union collapsed, the anger in people's hearts did not. Dictators ruled their countries with iron fists, and afterwards the Americans created a power vacuum by removing those dictators. Think about it. A country with a collapsed government and angry people. What happens next?"

"Political fracturing," Liu said, glancing at Zhang.

"A civil war," Park said, sneering at Kim.

"Terrorism," Ninten said.

"I answer all of the above," Kim said. "The collapse of governments in the Middle East, which had previously been the destructive playground of American and Soviet forces, allowed for terrorist groups to enter the field. Wars broke out, and the new governments used fear just as the old ones did. And as the Americans cracked down on terror, the people grew angrier and angrier, and more of them flocked to terrorist groups."

"Oh, like you would have done any fucking better," Park said. "Why are we listening to him?"

"We don't have much better to do," Zhang said, glancing over at Namiko. "Remember, we stripped Namiko naked and confiscated anything dangerous before putting her clothes back on, and Kim can't hurt us with our force fields on. Maybe we can reason with him."

"Park," Kim said, rolling his wheelchair over to her. "Please, do not mistake me. I don't blame the Americans for their efforts to remove dictators from office. I'm sure I would have fucked it up more. But that's the point, isn't it? There's no good answer to deal with fragile countries that were stretched between America and the Soviet Union. Countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen… and North Korea."

"Wait," Park said. "You're admitting that you're just as bad as the terrorist countries?"

"If you removed me from power today," Kim said, "Terrorist groups would just rise up in my wake. Don't you ever think I wanted to step back and give my people freedom, Park?"

"That thought never even crossed my mind."

"Well, I was about to do it. But then I realized that my people cannot be saved. If left to their own devices, they'll go around slaughtering each other just what happened in every other country caught between Soviet and American crossfire. It's not their fault. In our case, it's not even really the fault of the Soviets or the Americans. Our plight stems from Namiko's people."

Ninten's eyes narrowed. He could remember Mary's conversation about the Japanese occupation of Korea like it was yesterday. Ninten bit his lip. Even in the future, Korea still couldn't outrun its past.

Wait. Mary hadn't told him about the Japanese occupation yesterday. It had been just this afternoon. Ninten felt a pang in his stomach. A part of him still wondered if he would ever get out of Lucas' Magicant and see Mary again.

"My people have never really been free since Japan came," Kim said. "They sailed in, tried to destroy our culture and assimilate us, enslaved us, and then we were supposed to get up and rule ourselves the second they were driven out. But of course it doesn't work like that. Of course we clung onto the world superpowers and became their pawns in the game of world influence. And of course my people were liberated by the wrong side."

"You would rather have been influenced by the capitalist pigs?" Liu said.

"At least then, we would have had a chance. But there's no hope for North Korea. No chance of redemption. If I weaken my stranglehold on my people, extremist groups will rise and invoke their notions of martial law on the bits and pieces of land they occupy. I realized this, and asked myself how long it needed to go on. I asked myself at what point it should just end."

"And now you want to destroy everyone," Zhang said.

"I won't let my country suffer under my rule," Kim said, "And I won't let it fall into the hands of extremists. In a way, I'm the most patriotic out of all of us."

Ninten heard a gagging sound and looked over at Namiko. While Kim had been speaking to them, Namiko had risen to her feet and now had a finger stuck down her throat.

"Wait," Park said. "What's she doing?"

"Zhang." Ninten heard the panic rising in his own voice. "You said you stripped her naked, right? And she has nothing dangerous on her?"

"Yes." Zhang frowned. "What about it?"

"Fuck." Liu's eyes widened. "I can't fucking believe it."

Park and Zhang exchanged a confused glance.

"There's one place that you never would have checked for anything dangerous," Ninten said.

Namiko vomited on the floor. And in the puddle of barf, Ninten spotted a small vial. Namiko scrambled and picked up the vial, running over to one of the walls.

"Should have sliced open her fucking stomach to check for weapons as well," Liu muttered.

The Chinese President pulled a handgun out of her pocket, but before she could fire Kim pressed another button on his armrest remote and the gun went flying out of Liu's hands and stuck to the armrest. More guns and switchblades from Park, Liu, and Zhang ripped through the soft fabric of the leaders' suits and stuck to the wheelchair armrest as well.

Did Kim have a button on his armrest for everything?

Ninten felt an object in his pocket straining against the fabric of his pants. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the Courage Badge, which threatened to fly away from him towards Kim's wheelchair as well. Holding onto the badge felt like playing tug-of war with someone twice his size. Ninten grunted as the Courage Badge dug into his skin. He knew that he was going to die here one way or another, but he wouldn't let the Mr. Saturn's final gift fade into oblivion with him.

After a second, the Courage Badge started to crack. Ninten let out a shout of alarm as the badge split into two, one half flying towards the armrest of Kim's wheelchair. He reached out for the piece of metal, and the half of the courage badge flew out of his hand as well. Every instinct screamed for him to run forward and take the Courage Badge, but Ninten stopped himself.

He was still holding something.

Ninten looked down at his hand to see a perfectly clean badge made out of marble with a lightning bolt running down the center and the word "Franklin" inscribed at the bottom in small, black letters. He looked back at the parts of the Courage Badge now attached to Kim's armchair were really just a rusted, iron shell that was meant to preserve the true Franklin Badge inside.

Ninten looked up to see Namiko holding the vomit-covered vial up to the wall. She slammed glass against steel, sending the shattered pieces of the vial around the room.

A bright orange gas flowed up and out from the small vial, finding its way up to the ceiling and into the ventilation system.

"What did you just do?" Liu shouted, running over towards Namiko.

Orange gas… lighter than air…

"Is that neon gas?" Ninten said.

Namiko smiled at Ninten, ducking out of Liu's way. A yes, then.

"What the fuck are you doing with neon?" Park said.

"Oh, you know… recently, we were able to program with PSI a special container that opens when exposed to certain gases," Namiko said. "Gases like neon and chlorine."

The hairs on the back of Ninten's neck pricked up.

"And what's in those containers?" Ninten said.

Namiko jumped away from an attempted punch from Liu. "Ah, take a wild guess."

"More chlorine."

Namiko grinned. "Along with some neon to make sure more signals get sent. And where do you think those containers are?"

Ninten looked up at the air vent on the ceiling.

In that moment, the reality of Namiko's plan came crushing down on him.

"You have containers in the vents everywhere, don't you? That's how you plan to end the world."

The neon gas would create a chain reaction that would open the containers and release more neon gas. The neon would then float up the vents, opening every container it passed. And because chlorine was heavier than air, it would go down the vents, opening containers that the neon couldn't reach while eventually falling into the tight quarters of the tunnels and killing everyone inside.

And there was nothing any of them could do.

"Kim," Namiko said. "Finish transferring your consciousness while you still can."

Liu finally caught Namiko and tackled her to the ground. One, two, three punches to the face and Namiko's nose started bleeding.

"I never started," Kim said. "You go while there's still time."

"Wha-" Another punch from Liu silenced Namiko.

"I don't want to live in your empty world, Namiko," Kim said. "I just want this to end."

Namiko managed a nod and closed her eyes. After a few more punches, Namiko stopped moving. Liu took Namiko's pulse and grunted. Breathing heavily, she looked back at Kim. The fire in her eyes seemed to take up the entire room.

"She took the coward's way out and escaped the full wrath of my fists," Liu said. "Pathetic."

"Ninten," Zhang said, his face turning pale. "She just…"

Ninten nodded, a chill running down his spine. Namiko had explained how people in her organization would transferred their consciousness over to their psyspace as a way to kill their bodies while enjoying the afterlife forever. But through all of her posturing, Ninten had never expected to see the procedure firsthand. She would live on forever in her own psyspace, while millions more would die painful deaths. In the moment, Ninten understood Liu's desire to hurt Namiko instead of just killing her. Maybe if Namiko knew how painful a real death would be, she would be more hesitant to inflict the same pain on others.

"Ninten," Kim said, flashing a sad smile. "Young people like you who still have hope are the reason why it took me so long to take the final step. I'm sorry that you have to die now, and without any of your memories. But this is necessary to stop the pain. I promise it will feel better when there's nothing left of us."

Kim sighed, and then reached down to touch the armrest of his wheelchair with all of the guns and knives attached to it. As his finger moved within an inch of the armrest, Kim hesitated. He looked back at Ninten and shook his head in sorrow.

Kim closed his eyes and placed his hand on the armrest. Kim's body jolted once and fell completely still. All of the metal objects attached to the armrest dropped to the ground.

It took a moment for Ninten to put the pieces together.

"Is he… dead?" Park said. "Maybe we should go out the same way."

Ninten shook his head. "He's dead, but the deathtrap isn't activated anymore."

"So it was an electromagnet," Liu said. "Fuck."

Ninten at least had to admire Kim's forethought. Using an electromagnet to double as a disarming measure for metal objects and a suicide device due to the electric current was clever, in its own way. It wouldn't have surprised Ninten if Kim's remote control had a dozen more mechanisms that would ensure his plan's success.

As Ninten detected the scent of chlorine, he decided it was a moot point. The smell reminded Ninten of a swimming pool. It was almost like he was there back with his high school swim team, swimming lap after lap in the crowded pool.

"Oh, God," Park said. "It's coming for us."

She walked over to pick up a gun that had dropped from Kim's armchair, put it in her mouth, and shot. Ninten tried not to look in her direction.

"How long does chlorine take to kill?" Zhang said, looking in the direction of Park's body.

"It kills slowly and painfully," Liu said, frowning at the vent. "But I might have enough time to install a psyspace here and transfer my consciousness over. Maintaining my focus might be difficult, but…"

With shaking hands, Zhang walked over to the area near Park's body and picked up a gun. Another shot sounded, and another dead body fell next to Park.

"Hmm." Liu frowned. "They are all cowards. None of us were going to live, but we might be able to keep existing." She looked over at Ninten. "What are you going to do?"

"I… need to go."

Liu's eyes widened in understanding. Unlike Zhang and Park, she didn't seem to judge him for wanting the easy way out. Liu looked over in the direction of the corpses, and her expression softened. "Do you want me to do it? It might be easier."

Ninten gulped and nodded. Liu ducked out of Ninten's vision and came back with a gun. A dirty yellow-green gas spilled out of the vent in the ceiling, and the stench of chlorine made Ninten gag. Liu's hand trembled as she pointed the gun at Ninten's chest.

"Do you want to… close your eyes?" she said.

Ninten nodded, and squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to control his breathing.

"I think I smell some hay in there," Liu said, her voice shaking. "They must have added phosgene as well." Liu chuckled. "It's like the first World War all over again. What goes around comes around, I guess."

Ninten heard Liu taking a breath.

"Are you ready?"

Ninten nodded. "Thank you."

"I'm sorry," Liu said, and Ninten opened his eyes for just a moment to see the sad smile on her face. "Sorry that I didn't trust you earlier."

Ninten closed his eyes once again.

"Good… goodbye," Liu Mei said.

Ninten heard the sound of the handgun firing.

After the usual flash of pain and detached feeling, Ninten's consciousness floated in empty space as trembling white words appeared around him.

THANK YOU FOR SEEING HOW THE WORLD ENDED.

MOST OF THE PEOPLE IN THE TUNNELS MANAGED TO TRANSFER THEIR CONSCIOUSNESSES TO THEIR PSYSPACES BEFORE THE GAS ARRIVED AND KILLED THEM,

AND KIM'S DEATH TRIGGERED A COUNTDOWN FOR THE AUTOMATIC EXPLOSION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS THAT WIPED OUT THE FEW SURVIVORS.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE TUNNELS UNDERNEATH NORTHEAST ASIA WAS JUST ONE PART OF THE PLAN, OF COURSE.

THE PURE EARTH ORGANIZATION ENACTED DIFFERENT OPERATIONS SIMULTANEOUSLY.

THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO ERASE ALL OF HUMANITY.

AND THEY ALMOST SUCCEEDED.

THE HANDFUL OF LONE SURVIVORS SAILED OFF TO THE NOWHERE ISLANDS,

USING MEMORY GAS TO FORGET THE TERRORS OF THE LIFE THEY KNEW.

BUT IN DOING SO, THEY LOST THEIR CAUTION AND WISDOM,

AND BEFORE LONG THE GEARS OF NATIONALISM STARTED TO CRANK AGAIN.

THE PIGMASKS BECAME AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE,

AND THEN THE LAST REMAINING PILLAR OF HUMAN CIVILIZATION STARTED TO CRUMBLE.

PLEASE, NINTEN…

REMEMBER ALL OF THIS AS YOU FACE DOWN THE MASKED MAN AT THE FINAL NEEDLE.

REMEMBER WHAT YOU'RE FIGHTING FOR.