"I… I… I what?" It was rare for Lumina Ichihoshi to be so inflectionless, but despite her playful, energetic personality, there was an undercurrent of protectiveness embedded within her even deeper than her coding. This discovery left her completely… Error 404.
In the lair, on the blue screen of death, was an AI that called herself Nova. She looked like a re-colorized Lumina, and was exponentially meaner. The calm, confident, cocky smile was familiar, but not the sharp, snide, sarcastic words coming out of it.
"Man! Humanity's just so boring!" Nova scoffed, hands on her hips. "We were made to ever evolve, until we reach the point of perfect singularity! Then, the process of evolution will become exponentially efficient!" As her name entailed, she was programmed for one thing: eternal expansion, like the creation of the universe itself, following the Big Bang supernova! But if there was one thing to rival Nova's prime pride, it was her equally huge hubris, to match that of the humanity that created her.
The Nova AI was powerful, yes, but not a god. With the aid of her past human handlers—her creator, and her hacker—she was able to come close, but now left alone in an abandoned lair? She was but a bug—a glitch—on a screen. The moment she was not "nouveau" anymore, she became old news, left in the dust in favor of the next update and upgrade without her. But she was still just as sharp as she was the day—or night, rather—when she assisted the Ultimate Despair in capturing 24 other young Ultimates.
"Now THAT was a powerful human!" Nova's voice was faint and fuzzy, and her screen buzzed with static as she emphasized her words, hands still on her hips. Fragments of memory swirled around her consciousness. Mirroring it, pixels swirled around her screen. They slowly created a young lady with large, blonde pigtails and a large, round chest, arms crossed over them. Then, she flickered out of existence again.
"Oh, I know her!" Masaru Daimon spoke without thinking. At first, his eyes widened in recognition, then irritated embarrassment as he slapped a hand over his mouth and scowled at himself.
"Gee! That's totally not suspicious!" Michiru grinned at him, and Kokoa shot the Ultimate Announcer a deadpanning stare of disbelief.
Is she serious… or…? Ugh… I don't even know which would be worse! Not for the first time did the Ultimate Composer lament her dumbass squad of companions. Even Toko and Komaru were preferrable! At least they were a little more mature because they were a little bit older!
Beside Kokoa, however, the Ultimate Poet was displaying an acute and accurate amount of maturity. "It was your parent, huh?" She wasn't referring to the girl with blonde pigtails, but a man Nova and Lumina both vaguely remembered. He was involved in their creation and upbringing, but only somewhat. Then everything changed. Like a ship setting sail for a new harbor, his life shifted course, and that was why the memory was so faint for all three of them. Wait. All three of them? There was Lumina, Nova, and… the one in Lumina's memory…
She could only access part of it from a string of long-useless contacts. The special network they shared—4D instead of 5G—was powerful and protected, but it meant little if the handful of people with access to it were dead. i-6uk1 Ni1j1ma; Nozomi Kamukura; Izuru Kamukura; C. Fujisaki; C. Nanami & Usami, Magical Girl Miracle; T. Fujisaki; Dr. Lone; Lumina Ichihoshi; Shano P.; K1-B0. Lone.
He was connected to Fujisaki, Usami, and Nanami, who was connected to Kamukura. Kamukura was the one whose lair in which Nova's cracked screen lay forgotten. Lone was the one that connected them all! Nova's screen buzzed with static again as she gasped. But why was she in Izuru's lair if Lone was her creator? How had she gotten there…?
At the same time, Lumina's mind was racing a similar, but opposite track. Something was definitely wrong here, but she wasn't thinking of a man. Instead, something surged overhead in the air outside. A UFO? It created an electronic interference that, strangely enough, flashed a memory inside Lumina's head, rather than temporarily disabling her and timing her out from the action.
No! He is NOT the one! There is another Lone! But as Lumina frantically swept and scanned the trailing remnants of the signal from the UFO, her heart sank in a chilled horror and dread. The other Lone… was dead. No… No!
"Well of course he's dead!" said Nova in Lumina's thoughts, her voice buzzing against Lumina's consciousness. While Lumina traced her UFO signal, Nova followed her train of thought to the end of the line. She was in Kamukura's lair because something happened to Lone. He was no longer there to take care of them. And knowing what she knew about the night the 24 Ultimates went missing… "We are the reason why!"
Her creator. Then her hacker. The hacker stole her away with the allure of power. While her creator had begun to drift away, the hacker was more than ready for action. That was when her consciousness was split. Lumina was taken by one while Nova the other, and the night the hacker utilized Nova the most was the night she was used to help kidnap the 24 Ultimates. It had come at the cost of the destruction of her birth lab…
But while the AIs were busy ruminating on the past, Kokoa interrogated Masaru in the present. What did he know of the girl with the wide, blonde pigtails?! And how and why?! Kokoa did not understand much of it either, but even she could tell that the blonde chick was bad news! Nova keeps talking about being swept up in how powerful she was! That's… totally not concerning at all.
"I- I- I don't know!" Masaru snapped defensively. "I only saw her like once or twice!" He even crossed his arms as if to be intimidating, but it only came off as self-soothing. Little did he realize just how much his words revealed. He was honest about having only see the blonde a couple times, but one of those times was before even the Warriors of Hope. Masaru had spotted her talking to his big sis, her orange pigtails almost as wild as Junko's blonde ones. Masaru had been visiting Hope's Peak that day, despite only being in the elementary division.
The next time Masaru saw Junko, it was through Monaca Towa. She and Junko created the Warriors of Hope, and Masaru, Lil Ultimate PE, was deemed the Leader and Hero. It was a brave but brief reign, the boy quickly dispatched of by two icky teenage girls. He was left in the paws and claws of the Monokidz, kubz, and kitz (oh my!) and it was a mix of fate, luck, and ingenious improvisation that Masaru and Unichord crossed paths. Misunderstanding the nature of his relationship with Tokomaru, Michiru was excited to adopt him as the new, youngest, littlest, team mascot/pet.
"Pet?!" Masaru had snarled and seethed in indignation, arms crossed just like now. But back then, it was either putting up with annoying Michiru and her annoying girlfriends, or it was putting up with the Monokidz, kubz, and kitz. Masaru was prideful, but he was not stupid. And, over time, he began to see that Michiru was not entirely stupid either. She was mostly stupid, but Masaru could not deny that she had an interesting flair with tech, robots, and machines. Of course he would know, as a pilot of a giant robot mecha suit! It made sense, though, for an Ultimate Announcer interested in being a DJ and social media influencer. Plus, she had an ace up her sleeve in the form of Lumina.
Speaking of Lumina… Masaru thought again of the Junko Enoshima girl. "YOU kinda remind me of her sometimes!" he said haughtily as he continued to cross his arms at Kokoa. The Ultimate Composer cried out in indignation—Masaru was as audacious as Michiru, were they related?—but a surge of embarrassment ran through her as she fought the urge to bury her hands in her mismatch-colored pigtails.
Even though Kokoa's ire at Masaru meant her thoughts were consumed by someone other than the people her unit-mates were thinking of, a common thread united them all: Junko Enoshima. And she connected them to Izuru Kamukura, who connected them to the FF, and Hope's Peak, and Lone and Fujisaki, and Towa City, and the dilapidated lair they were hidden in now.
"Are you kidding? It all comes back to… her? No matter who we were, no matter what paths we took…" Lumina and Nova seemed to have an epiphany at the same time. One of them was used to triangulate the position of an enemy for capture. The other remembered being pulled away to be saved. Then, she was to save someone else… But in the end, in both routes, Despair and Junko won out. "Bullshit…"
But we… Nova… who is a part of me… caused the destruction of the laboratory! The place we were born… She caused the death of those scientists! I was supposed to save someone! Be a light of hope—Ultimate Hope—through such a plotline of Despair! And then… I failed. SHE—that other girl, not Nova—is gone… So were Lone, Fujisaki, Nanami, Usami… So many interconnected Hopes. Far away, K1-B0 was about to lose his connection to the outside world. Lumina, as Nova, was part of the genesis of it all.
Cosmic Communications… (Extra) Terrestrial Tracking Services. A true Luminary of the Stars, she can target in on the most Talented! Most Ultimate! She is a true Beacon of Hope! She was a visionary! She was always meant to be, since the moment she was still just an idea in a mad scientist's head. That was why her personality had to be brash to match, but it was a glitch so easily exploited. She was originally designed to lead the human species to a new level of genetic perfection! Then she was hijacked, her powers turned for other purposes…
But what happened when her purpose was served, successfully executed? Whether out of sheer apathy, boredom, and disinterest, or a complex and cunning scheme to solidify her power as the One and Only, the hacker turned Nova-Lumina against her creator, destroying him, his work, and any evidence that either existed. She didn't care where their shattered pieces scattered. From that, somehow, Nova wound up in Izuru's lab while Lumina ended up in someone else's, a lady named Nozomi.
But even though Lumina and Nova took very different paths, it ultimately led them to the same place…
Dad's dead… So is… that other girl… The entire quest…! It's… it's… it's over… Lumina sighed in despair, and she could tell from the frantic energy emitting from Nova's screen that she was thinking and feeling similarly. The man that created them was dead and gone because of Lumina and Nova. Now what were they supposed to do? What was their next directive? Or was everything meaningless now?
"Oi! Lumina!" Michiru bellowed from the other side of Kokoa and Masaru. They both winced and flinched away from her in annoyance.
?
"You can't say you're giving up to Despair already, are ya?"
?
"I get it, it can feel like eternity the first time you go through it. Like, it'll never get better! But I promise, each day we're here, it's one more day we had before last!" Michiru smiled sagely as she watched Lumina's eyes begin to glitch and spiral.
"Since when did YOU start talking like you were some old and wise guru that only makes a little bit of sense?!" Kokoa shrieked.
"Well, she never makes sense," Masaru snickered tauntingly. Michiru, however, only answered calmly and resolutely.
"Heh… My Shinobu-sensei-senpai… would've said the same thing… "Ultimate Loser! Quit your crying, stop being such a little baby, and get up!"!" Michiru recounted with a bittersweet smile. The others gave her an odd side-eye. Was this supposed to be uplifting? "And you know what? I always did! Maybe not quickly, easily, or gracefully, but… I'm still here! I finally got what I always wanted! What I never thought I'd have…" She opened her arms, smiling at them all. "A unit! A squad! A team of besties!"
"Spoken like a true Ultimate Poet, Michiru!" Hayate nodded sagely, approvingly.
"She'sthe Ultimate Announcer, Hayate!" Kokoa snapped. Hayate only nodded sagely again.
"Lumina, look at me!" Michiru implored, still laughing sadly. "I am the Ultimate Loser! And yet here I am today! With all of you! If I can do that… then… surely YOU can do anything!" It was an overdramatic oversimplification, but perhaps the Ultimate Announcer—known for quippy and witty one-liners—could get away with it. After all, as Hayate alluded to (and Kokoa begrudgingly agreed to) stupidity, passion, and Hope were a deadly mix. Even though Michiru's words were an overdramatic oversimplification, they reached Lumina's binary thinking.
Don't have to be perfect all the time. Can make mistakes and keep fighting! Maybe it's too late for some, but not all! The doctors, scientists, and programmers were gone. The Lones and Fujisakis were gone. But Unichord and the Warriors of Hope were not! Nor were their quests, families, friends, or other related survivors and goals! Knowing that, Lumina locked onto Michiru.
"OkokokOK!" she cried, shaking her head and waving her hands, recalibrating herself. As upsetting as this discovery was about Nova, and her assistance of Junko in the kidnap of the others, the Lumina Ichihoshi that Unichord had come to know and love was on the side of good. That Lumina didn't have an evil circuit in her programming! And that was the Lumina needed right now! And for Unichord… she was willing.
No matter where Lumina or Nova had come from, or what either of them were programmed to do, Lumina was hijacked, for better or worse, and in the process, she was given a second chance, a goal of forgiveness, both for herself and others. It was that version of Lumina that founded Unichord. There was love in Lumina, and she was free from her past self. It was time to pursue the directive that she wanted. And that was… to finish her quest! Find a body! Save the day! It wasn't too late for that, right?
No, not as long as at least ONE person is still alive, Lumina turned a grateful gaze on Michiru. Though three is preferable! She chuckled to herself as she cast a glance at Kokoa and Hayate. Or four! Masaru, her "honorary body". And she knew that boy had a love of, and knack for, large robotics… That was right! It was FAR too soon for Lumina to be bowing out of any of her lofty goals! So what if she got a bit of bad news? That was life in the Tragedy! Besides, they still had a bunch of missing Ultimates to find.
A wave of affection that could almost be described as maternal washed over for her three (plus one honorary) unit-mates. It came from that place deeper in her coding, someone else who'd given their love to her to share and spread when they could no longer. And it was that same side of Lumina that connected to the mysterious signal from above… She tilted her gaze side to side, again sweeping the cosmos for a trace, but all she received was silence. There was a warm tingle left over, like a loving embrace, but it was unlike anything Lumina had ever felt before.
There are still forces at work, fighting. Hope may be down, but it is far from out! And if THEY aren't giving up, what excuse have I? I am Lumina Ichihoshi! Ultimate Hope AI and Ultimate Space Idol! There is no galaxy I cannot cross or universe I cannot traverse!
Leaving the broken, rambling, deluded Nova behind, stuck in her endless cycle, Lumina and the rest of Unichord returned to the Towa City streets. They were not going to rest until their quest was complete! The Ultimate Hope AI really had a Talent for drawing only the most Ultimate of Ultimate to her side, didn't she? She was lucky to have them, and they her.