Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material appearing in this story. The OC's belong to their respective owners.

"So. What do you want to talk about?"

"Hmm, I'm actually curious about your past." Junko said before grimacing at what she said. "Was that too straight forward? I'm sorry…"

"No no, it's fine. Given how you said I remind you of someone you know, it might help differentiate this person between us."

That might be hard, but why not…

"So, back then-"

Several Years Earlier

"I was in a close relationship with my mother when I was younger. She always loved me to the core and always encouraged me to do anything I wanted to be. She was also a tanuki Faunus. When I declared I wanted to be a neurosurgeon when I grew up, my dad was taken aback… but my mother? She was all for it. She encouraged me to work on my studies and would always support me no matter what, claiming I'll be the "Ultimate Neurologist", if you will."

"Oh, so your Ultimate title was born out of sentiment?"

"You could say that. However, one day… everything changed."

Yasuke's mother woke up, groaning and rubbed her head. A five year old Yasuke opened up the door and approached her with a friendly smile. "Good morning, mommy. How are you?"

His mother looked at him, squinting her eyes and tilted her head in confusion. It was as if she didn't recognize him. "Who… who are you?"

Yasuke laughed. "Very funny, mom. It's me, Yasuke!"

"Yasuke?" She whispered to herself before brightening up, but with a bit strained. "Yes, Yasuke! You are my sweet… little boy. Come give mommy her morning hug."

"Okay!" Yasuke still smiled as he came to hug her, but then his father walked in.

"Morning, honey!"

"Morning, uhh… who are you again?" She asked

"Mom…?" Yasuke's smile disappeared.

"Honey? You feeling okay? Are you hung over from the wine you drank last night? I told you that particular brand had a kick to it." Her husband quipped.

"What kick? What wine? I don't recall any of that last…" She squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to remember. But then she opened her eyes, pretending as if nothing was wrong. "I mean, yes, I had wine from last night. I'm sure that is what's bothering me…"

Her husband's face drooped. Something was seriously wrong. To Yasuke, it felt just like a teasing game that she would always drop on them just for fun and games, but to his parents? It wasn't like any of that.

And the husband had a feeling about what it was.

"…Son, why don't you head down before breakfast gets cold." He told his son.

"Okay!" Yasuke listened and headed out of the bedroom.

When he was sure that their son was far enough, his father sighed and sat on the bed next to his wife while bearing a conflicted look.

"We may have to move your schedule to today." He said.

"I'm afraid you're right." She admitted with a pained look of her own. "Why did I have to be like this? Why in front of our own son…?" She questioned herself as she began to tear up.

"Don't." Her husband said in a scolding yet soothing tone as he embraced her in comfort. "Don't ever blame yourself for this. None of us could have known that something like this would happen. All we can do now is hope that things will get better."

"I hope you're right, my love…" She returned the embrace while burying herself to her husband's torso, weeping her heart out.

"I hope you're right."

"I didn't know it at the time, but my parents had been making medical appointments for my mother for the past months after finding a problem in her. Months turned to weeks, weeks to days after that morning… and… well…"

The doctor walked out of the room, sighing in defeat and looked at the husband. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do. We tried everything, but I'm afraid her memory will soon be completely obsolete. Your wife as you know her will soon be gone."

The husband teared up, swallowing the lump in his throat and nodded. "I understand…"

"Does he know?"

"No…"

"It's best if he knows right away. My apologies… but we're going to have a nurse look after her twenty four seven until… you know…"

"Right." He nodded. "Yasuke? Come here for a moment."

Yasuke walked over to the duo, looking at the doctor with a quizzical expression. "Is she okay? Did she have an upset tummy?"

His father knelt down. "Son, there's something we need to tell you."

"What is it?"

"From what the doctor explained to me, he said it was a very rare incurable disease that happens in one in a trillion. It's a disease that is extremely similar to Alzheimer's."

Junko gasped. "Just like in my world…"

"What?"

"I-I mean, that's terrible…

"Yeah…

Yasuke teared up. "Wait, so… that means she won't… remember who I am…?"

"She won't remember who she is either. She'll be a completely different person now. As far as she's concerned, you two are complete strangers in her own home. I wouldn't put it past her if she acted irrationally. I hate to say this, but your mother is gone."

"...How long will this last?" His father asked.

"Depending on the patient? It'll take years until the disease finally kills the host. Sometimes it's just a few days, but considering she's healthy as can be… I'm afraid you're going to have to endure this for a long time."

Yasuke teared up, immediately running to his mother's room. "MOM!" He cried, but his father caught a hold of him.

"It's too late, son… she's gone." He said sternly, but with a clear crack in his voice. "It would be better for us if we give her some space, and perhaps not mention who we are too much. She might even feel better…"

"But-"

"No buts, young man! It is all we can hope for…" He said as he walked away. "I'll be in my study if you need me…"

"He locked himself in that study for the remainder of my mother's life. In fact, he used it as his new bedroom. He only ever came out just to either use the bathroom or if he needed more alcohol."

"What about you?"

"Well… I tried to make friends with her. I was hoping seeing me would help jog her memory. I was still young, but I had hoped she would at least that by seeing me, she'd have a better time remembering me. So I spent time with her… but the results were unfavorable…"

"What did you say my name was again?"

"Vanera." The nurse said.

"Right… Vanera, that's my name. Who are you again?" She asked as she saw Yasuke come in.

"Hi… um… are you happy to see me?"

"Yes, um...Who are you?" She asked.

"I'm your son, Yasuke. Remember, mom?" He asked with a friendly smile, not seeing the nurse cringe.

"Yasuke... I have a son. I am a mother." Vanera concentrated on what she said before shaking her head. "No, of course not. I'm no mother, and I have no son… no, that's wrong. That's all true, is it? A son…? Ngh!" Vanera grasped her head, feeling a sudden surge of pain.

"Oh no!" The nurse immediately went to her care to nurse the headache.

Yasuke paled as he ran out the door in tears.

"Every day, I tried to make friends with her, hoping that one day… somehow, it'd work. I wanted to believe my mother was still in there somewhere. So every day, I went into her room. On the days that she was out of her room, I'd try to bring her flowers when she was in the living room."

"What is this?"

"Flowers! Red roses, to be precise."

"R-roses?" She reached for the flowers to hold, but winced when she felt the thorns poked by the thorns. "They hurt."

"B-but those are your favorite…"

"A flower that hurts could never be my favorite!" She smacked them away from her.

"But… I love you…"

"You love me? But why?" She asked. "You're a complete stranger. I've never seen you before… have I?"

"Now now, I believe that's enough for today…" The nurse said, giving Yasuke a sympathetic look as Yasuke teared up and ran back into his room, crying.

"He's crying? Did someone hurt him?" Vanera wondered.. "...By the way, who are you again?"

"Years went by and the memory loss… and at that moment, I decided to truly become a neurosurgeon. At that age, I kept flip flopping on what I wanted to be. First it was medicine, then I wanted to be a firefighter, then an accountant… but then I decided to go back to my first dream. All because… I thought there was an actual cure to this rare disease. I felt the doctors could've done better… they just… gave up. I thought there was something I could do. Eventually, I actually succeeded into becoming a neurosurgeon… however no one came to my graduation. My mother was deteriorating and I doubt my father could've cared less that I actually became a neurosurgeon."

"So you went right to work…"

"I was racing against time, hoping to find some cure for my mother. Years of relapse… not to mention what mom said to me one time;"

"You want to become a doctor? Pah! They never do anything right. You're just going to be another failure just like all the rest!"

"Ouch…"

"I hoped I would find a cure in time. Find a breakthrough… something. However… just when in the middle of my research… I heard the news."

"What do you want, father?" Yasuke answered as he was holding a beaker, swirling the liquid inside of it.

"I know things have been… strained… between us, but I felt that I should be the one to inform you…She's gone, Yasuke…"

Yasuke froze. "You mean…"

"She passed…"

Yasuke's hand fell limp as the beaker fell to the ground and shattered upon impact. He didn't bother cleaning up the mess as he leaned against his desk. Tears swelled in his eyes. "No… I was too late…"

"It's not your fault, Yasuke. You tried everything you could…"

"I was too late…" Yasuke clutched his head, falling on the ground as his knees landed on the broken glass. He let out a loud scream of despair as a few of his colleagues came rushing in.

"Yasuke, what's wrong? Speak to me man!"

"I felt like a failure… I couldn't save the one person I loved the most. The news wrecked me… and when I came home to check on dad, he looked relieved."

"Her passing is actually good. She lived a good life…"

"I was hoping to find a cure for her!" Yasuke said. "I thought she would stick around for just a bit longer… I-"

"You wanted her to keep suffering?"

Yasuke stiffened. "N-no… I…"

"This is really just a blessing for us. She wouldn't want us to worry about her anymore."

"How would you know?! She was your wife! She was my mother! How can you be so calm to-"

"That's enough, Yasuke!" His father shouted. "She's gone and there's nothing you can do to fix it. Your so-called neurosurgical medicine wasn't made. You failed to save her, just as I failed to be with her at her last moments. That's part of life. We have to live with being failures."

"I'm not-"

"The funeral will be held in a few days. It's time we all moved on." He walked past him, bumping his shoulder. "I'm going to move forward… and it's best you do the same, otherwise you'll be living in your own delusions. Neurosurgery… a waste of time. But I suppose it's a better position than being one of those Huntsmen dogs."

"How could you say such a thing?!" Yasuke yelled, but his father kept walking. "Father!"

"I never thought of it back then… but it struck dad in a way I never thought would be possible. He changed ever since my mother fully lost her memory… and I was doing my damnedest trying to get my mother to remember. And to make matters worse? Dad started dating a year after the funeral. He immediately asked the first woman he saw. And then a few months later, they were wed. Next thing I know, I have a half brother."

"What's his name?"

"If I recall correctly, his name is… Damian Desmond."

Yasuke looked at a picture of his family, staring at his mother in the painting with a blank look in his eye. A young Damian, at five years old, approached him and looked at the painting.

"Pah. Talk about ugly." He said.

"...Who's ugly?"

"The tanuki faunus. I'm not sure why this picture is up here in the first place. But whatever, the ugly faunus is dead and that's all that matters. Good riddance, I'd say."

"...You take that back…"

"What was that?"

In a flash, Yasuke grabbed Damian and shoved him into a wall, his hand in his throat and giving him a hateful glare.

"Don't you ever disrespect Faunus ever again. If I catch you disrespecting her one more time… I'll break every bone in your body. Do you understand?"

Damian whimpered, his face pale. "Y-yes…"

Yasuke dropped Damian. "Piss off…" He walked off.

"Honestly, I could have handled that better… I was still grieving that it didn't register that I was this close to breaking a kid's skeleton. And my father definitely wasn't happy when he found out. Gave me a good scolding too. But I wasn't going to put up with it."

"Then maybe I should just move forward, otherwise I'll be living in my own delusions. Isn't that right?" Yasuke snarled the last part as he walked out of the study and slammed the door shut.

His father just sat there in silence, processing what had transpired. A moment later he sighed in sadness as he pinched his forehead.

"I deserved that…" He muttered before glancing at a small photo of Vanera. "Truly I did…"

Back in the present…

"So that's it. I've become a self proclaimed "Ultimate", just in remembrance of my mother." He said before frowning, closing his eyes and punching a wall in grief. "And yet… I still feel like a failure. I've saved every patient I've come across, yet I still can't move on from what happened…"

"So, is… is this why you've acted like a jerk when we met? You put on this tough guy act just so no one knows how sad you are?"

Yasuke closed his eyes, letting out an amused "hmph". "If that's how you want to believe, Ryoko."

Junko softly smiled. "I suppose so."

"So… I've told you about my past. So, tell me about yours."

Nearby, Aoi eavesdropped on the entire conversation and headed over to Kyoko's room.

"Kiri, we got a-... uh… why is Bowser in a hospital bed?"

"Would you believe me if I said Umber's latest summon is Jotaro Kujo? Did you not hear the chaos?"

Aoi sweatdropped. "Is that what that was all about? I thought some Heartless got loose… ah, never mind! I just got a breakthrough on Yasuke."

"Go on…"

"Okay, so this guy's a far cry from what we're used to. From what I've gathered, he became an Ultimate Surgeon in remembrance of his mother. Turns out, she had this rare disease, like we're talking one in a trillion chance of this happening. It's basically similar to Alzheimer's."

Kyoko hid a grimace. "...I see."

"Not only that, but when he found out, his mother was a shell of her former self and kept breaking Yasuke's heart when he tried to get her to remember. And his dad? Immediately locked himself in his study and drank his sorrows away. No one came to his graduation and his mother passed when he was looking for a breakthrough."

"...So this is a man who lost everything. Just like someone I know…" Kyoko muttered the last part to herself.

"It didn't help that his old man seemed nonchalant about the whole thing and got remarried a year later and… now he's still secretly depressed because he couldn't save his mother, feeling like he's a failure."

Kyoko closed her eyes. "I see…"

"Poor dude needs a hug, honestly…"

"I agree on that front, and you know what else?'

"What?"

Kyoko smiled. "I'm actually happy to be wrong about him."

"So now what?"

"Well, once I start feeling better… perhaps we can do something to cheer him up."

Aoi smiled. "Agreed!"

Back with the duo…

Yasuke blinked. "Well… shit. And I thought my life was fucked up."

"I'm still not proud of it… I'm glad I'm a changed person thanks to Chiaki, but… the past still haunts me sometimes."

"I don't blame you. Hell, I'm surprised your sister forgave you for that."

"Yeah…" Junko then smiled. "But… maybe we can move on together? We can start over and… ya know…" She suddenly grasped his hand. "Work on moving on from the past?"

Yasuke stiffened before he closed his eyes and gave her a small smile. "I… I would like that."

This one was suggested by Wyvern! ...Well, technically, he basically wrote some scenes he had an idea for and I just collabed with him but... eh, it is what it is! So anyway-

Ibuki: *shoves noise cancelling headphones in my ears*

Huh? Ibuki, what are you-

Ibuki: *puts headphones on herself* Three, two, one...

Deadpool: *blowing air horns* NINTENDO DIRECT! NINTENDO DIRECT TOMORROW! WOOOOOOO! COME ON, BRING ON MY OWN GAME TO THE SWITCH! YOU KNOW YOU WANNA!

*sweatdrops* Oooooh.

Ibuki: You're welcome~!

Well, I was wondering when we'd get a Direct this month or have a severe drought until September. Maybe we'll get Metroid Prime 2 and 3 Remasters before we finally get Prime 4.