This story contains spoilers for the True Ending and possibly other endings of the game 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors. If you haven't finished playing or watching both the Safe Ending and the True Ending of 999, do not read this fic. If you haven't played or watched them though, I would recommend that you do so immediately because this game happens to be fantastic.

Hello again. I first learned about 999 from a Nintendo Power article, but I forgot about it soon afterwards. Thank heavens someone reminded me because that game is fantastic. But, I was disappointed with the ending. No tearful reunion with Akane, no apologies from either her or Aoi (Santa)… And to make things worse, the creator, Word Of God, has said in an interview that Junpei just spends the rest of his life trying to find Akane but never catches up to her! I think I speak for many when I say that that just ruins my day… so, I'm rewriting the canon, and although there's a possibility of a sequel already, I'm going to write my own version of that sequel. (For reference, the title is pronounced Nine, Nine, Nine Two: Zero Point One). It's not likely to have the kind of detail or depth as the game, but I'm hoping that it'll do the trick for those of us who want to find out what happens next. So I thought; what better way to reunite Junpei and Akane than putting them in another life-or-death situation… That'd work really well, but I couldn't think of any good setting. And that's when this came to me… I hope I do this game justice, though I probably won't… But I'm blathering:

Once again, everyone read this carefully, 'cause I'm gonna say this again: I do not own 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors. It is property of Nintendo and Aksys.

Also, I feel compelled to warn you that I may end up not finishing this story, although I really hope I do finish it. Here's hoping and hopping that I retain the motivation required to complete this fic. Anyway, I'll stop wasting your time: On with the story:

999 II:

Zero.1

Chapter 1: The Cell

Junpei woke with a start, coughing up dust from the grit that had fallen from the ceiling. His head hurt terribly and he was feeling extremely dizzy.

"Well…must've been some helluva party last night…"

He put his arms out to steady himself, and was surprised and somewhat alarmed to find that he was lying on a stone block instead of his bed.

"Huh? Did I fall asleep in an alley or something?"

The smooth texture of the block and the fact that he could not see the sky suggested that, no, he did not.

He was wearing the same clothes as he had been yesterday from the feel of it, a green sweater with black stripes going down the arms and a pair of faded dark blue jeans.

"Okay, so what happ—" He stopped in mid-sentence: He knew what happened;

Everything from the last night had come back to him in a flash.

He got home around midnight. It was dark in his apartment, as he hadn't bothered to turn the lights on when he'd left that morning, even though he knew he'd be home late. Crickets chirped outside his window and he yawned. He was about to go to his bedroom when he saw it: The window was open. He didn't remember leaving it open that morning, and it would have been unsafe anyway because he was going out for so long after his classes ended. He went over to the window to close it.

"Waitamunite…" he said suspiciously. He knew this routine, and would sooner have God drop holy dead frogs on him every morning for the rest of his life before he would fall for it again. Junpei listened carefully for the hiss of escaping gas or the shuffling of clothing. He held his head out the window and took a deep breath, held it, and started stalking the perimeter of his living room. Finding nothing at first, he took another deep breath at the window. That was when he heard something shuffling behind him from the direction of the closet across the room. He dashed to the closet hoping to catch his housebreaker before they caught him, but in the end he found nothing; the closet was as empty as it was when he left that morning. Still, he needed to be sure. He turned on the closet light and stuck his head inside. The shuffling sound came again, this time from directly behind him. He didn't even have time to spin around and get a look at his attacker before he was dealt a blow to the head with something that felt like a club. His last thought before being out cold was a frustrated scream heard only within his own head:

'God-DAMNIT!'

"Oh no…where am I this time?" Junpei asked himself; not that there would be anything else in the room to hear him.

At least he didn't think there was. It was too dark for him to even see his hand in front of his face.

He looked at his left wrist to check for a Nonary Watch, not finding anything. He did however feel something around his right wrist.

"And there we go," he said, looking at the LCD display on the band that wrapped around his right wrist, "5 again? Go figure. Why is it on my right hand though?"

He pondered this for a moment, and upon not reaching an answer, he continued thinking aloud.

"Did I swallow a bomb in my sleep too?" he continued wistfully; "Duh, life just isn't simple enough for me to go a year without having explosives shoved down my throat,"

Just to be sure that he couldn't in, fact, get the thing off, he turned his wrist over. No such luck. It was clasped around his hand, no buckle just an automatic release function that would respond to certain requirements that he assumed he already knew: That he either got outside or his heart rate reach zero, an impossible task he knew unless he were Edgar Allan Poe.

He lay back down for a moment, carefully lowering himself down onto the slab of rock he was lying on. That done, he rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. It was at that moment that he fully woke up, and the frustration of having been kidnapped hit him in full.

For Christsakes, it had only been …nine months actually now that he thought about it… since the first time.

"Only nine months! The HELL!" he hissed to the dark room. His eyes still hadn't adjusted and were certainly taking their sweet time to do so.

Staring straight up at where he assumed the ceiling would be, he slammed his left fist down onto the stone bed only to find that it hit something soft and rather yielding to his touch. It was slightly elevated from the rest of the rocky platform that he was laying on as well. Still looking up at the ceiling, he ran his hand over it. Trying to figure out what it could be. He certainly wouldn't get anywhere by trying to look at it, and the light from his 'watch's' LCD display was too dim for it to be of any use. Not to mention it was on his other hand.

He continued to run his hand over it, kneading it slightly before, to his horror, whatever it was he was touching moved. Not moments later he heard a high-pitched scream felt a rush of air pass by his head as something took a swipe at him.

He stiffened, a chill running up his spine. His eyes were finally getting used to the dark and he tried to sit up while keeping his left hand firmly in place on the…whatever it was…

To his shock, he heard a whimper of discomfort from beside him. And then he discovered what he had been trying to distinguish in the dark:

"Okay, I know someone's in here with me," said a girl's voice, clearly unnerved, "I don't know who it is, but can you please stop groping me!"

Junpei's mouth hung open as another numbered watch came into view on his left. He'd been feeling up some girl that he'd never met! This was going to be awkward as hell! As if sensing the growing tension in the room, the lights chose that moment to come back on, blinding Junpei–and presumably the girl he was in the room with–and getting yelps of discomfort from both parties as they felt their eyes burn.

He heard a gasp as he slowly removed his hands from his eyes in an attempt to ease his eyes into adjusting. An oddly difficult task due to the fact that the lights seemed to be flickering.

"J-Jumpy!"

His eyes shot open, his hands falling to his sides. He ignored the fact that he could swear he heard screaming coming from his retinas. Looking back at him was none other than Akane Kuroshiki; the girl he'd been wondering about for the past nine months after they escaped from Building Q.

And then a realization hit him with the force of a wreaking ball: The girl he'd unknowingly been molesting had been Akane.

"AAARRRGGGHHH!" he howled, "You stupid! Moronic! Dumbass!" he berated himself.

"Jumpy, are you okay?" Akane asked, sounding genuinely concerned—he hoped she was. He knew from recent experience that she was a really good actor. And with that thought, something else struck him: Seeing Akane here, both of them wearing Nonary Game 'watches.' Something wasn't right here. This couldn't be a coincidence…

"Yeah, fine, just realized I groped someone important to me, that's all…"

Akane giggled awkwardly, a blush spreading to her cheeks. Junpei didn't give her enough time to dwell on what he'd just said though; he had to voice his suspicions.

"Akane," he began seriously, "Were you the one that kidnapped me?"

"W-What! Of c-course not!"

"Was it Santa? Aoi…I mean."

"No! I d-don't even know w-what I'm doing he-ere!"

"You understand why I'm suspicious right?"

"Y-Yes! And you're completely justified, b-but I swear, I'm-m not responsible for this!"

"You're sure?"

"Yes!"

"Positive?"

"YES!"

…

"Okay. Now we can talk."

Akane breathed a shuddering sigh of relief. For a possible or even former mastermind, she wasn't very composed. It made him wonder if her innocent behavior inside Building Q was entirely an act.

There was an awkward silence before she spoke again.

"I don't even know how I got here…"

"What's the last thing you remember before waking up?"

"I was trying to sleep in my brother's van. We don't…actually live anywhere, so we just use the van. I heard the door open, and I thought it was Aoi, but then I saw white smoke and heard the door close, and I passed out. I'm sure it was Soporil gas, but…who would be using it?"

"Maybe…" Junpei thought aloud, "It could be a devoted employee of Cradle Pharmaceutical, trying to get revenge for getting his or her boss thrown in jail."

"That's possible."

"The question is…where exactly are we?"

"Well, we both have these watches, so there's really only one place where we could be; Building Q."

"Look around you, do we look like we're on an ocean liner?"

"Um…" Akane stammered. She took in her surroundings for the first time since the room lit up. The sources that their only light was coming from were a few burning torches that were hung on the walls of the room. As Junpei had suspected the 'bed' really was made out of stone, more of a stone slab than a bed really. There was a small bathroom stall that offered little privacy and a sink with a small mirror above it on the other side. Beneath the pipes of the sink was a hole about the size of a small rodent. Whatever mouse had been here must have had some really strong teeth to gnaw through the wall though because the whole room appeared to be made from stone blocks.

"We look more like we're in some sort of cell…" said Akane.

"I think you may have missed something."

"Why would you say that?"

"You weren't startled by anything when you looked around the room. Look over there," Junpei pointed towards the part of the room behind them. As he suspected, Akane gasped at what she saw. There was a cast-iron door with a reddish-brown 11 painted upon it. One corner of the room was draped in shadows and impossible to see into. Junpei got up and slowly walked over to the door. As he examined the door, he found that something smelled somewhat odd. Almost metallic in fact. He rubbed his hand over the door, and the disturbing realization dawned on him as he felt the texture of the first '1': "This isn't paint," he hissed, his voice shaking, "This is dried blood!"

Akane gasped sharply and put a hand over her mouth. Her eyes were wide. Meanwhile Junpei had noticed that there appeared to be a card reader that was reminiscent of the one he first encountered in his cell in Building Q. There was a small red light on it. There was nothing he had to lose, so he decided to try the handle. It was locked.

"Oh my god," he said, deadpan, "We're locked in. I'm surprised and terrified," he sighed, "Well, if this really is a Nonary Game then we'd better…uh…take our first turn I guess," he said, "Let's look around and…well, as you put it, 'seek an exit'."

"Okay, I'll check out that dark corner, you check the washroom area." Akane clasped her hands together, and started taking her scarf off. Junpei hadn't yet noticed what she was wearing, but she was looking extremely pretty even in the somewhat well worn clothes that she had on. She had on a blue skirt that went down to just above her knees and a comfortable-looking fitted top with bell-shaped sleeves, and a color to match her skirt. The scarf that she had just taken off she was wrapping around her right hand, and had come off to expose how well the top accented her curves, as well as revealing a tastefully modest amount of midriff. He felt his ears start to burn as he realized that he had touched that midriff without knowing it not ten minutes prior. Then he noticed that she had turned to face him and was also blushing. That stone tile on the wall behind him was just fascinating wasn't it? He simply had to get a closer look at it and not take his eyes off of it for at least five minutes! Nothing in the world could possibly be as utterly enthralling as this particular square-shaped piece of rock that looked just like hundreds of other square-shaped pieces of rock that framed the room.

Akane meanwhile had taken a torch off a wall using her scarf to cover her hand. Junpei had barely gotten around to looking at the bathroom stall before he heard Akane scream, scaring him out of his wits. "What's wrong? What happe—" He stopped short. He'd looked across the room to where she was standing. She had dropped the torch, and from what illumination it provided he was able to see what had terrified her. He himself was having some difficulty keeping his gorge down at the sight: In the previously hidden part of the room stood the skeletal remains of a human being. It was not slouched over in the posture of the dead; rather, it really was standing up. As though it were… alive. The thought made his skin crawl. The tattered clothes it was wearing covered little of the remains. The bones had been picked clean by scavengers. Likely rats judging from the hole he had seen in the wall.

The brunette inhaled sharply before shuddering and moving a trembling hand towards the dry corpse. "Ugh," she shuddered again, "I guess we know whose blood that is on the door. At least he'd be my guess," she said, pointing at the bones before reaching slowly into a frayed pocket.

"Anything in there?" Junpei asked.

His companion hesitated for a moment before moving her hands around the body's thighs. She sighed in disappointment.

"No. Nothing in any of his pockets," she said. She smiled back at him. "Well, nothing to be afraid of anymore," she surprised him by grabbing the skeleton by its shoulders and scattering it across the floor in the other corner of the room. The lower jaw snapped off, and they both grinned at a glint of light they saw coming from the jaw's pallet. Akane ran up to it and reached the shiny object first. There was the sound of tape being torn off and;

"It's a key, Jumpy. Have you seen anything that might need a key?"

"Not yet, but you've done a lot more than I have already. I'll just, uh, get to work I guess."

"Okay. Let me know if you find anything."

"Yeah."

Junpei looked at the toilet and then at the sink. Something glinted in the mirror and he walked up to the source, pulling a shiny object taped to the mirror off.

"A yellow key?" he mumbled to himself, "Hey Akane, what color was the key you just pulled out of that guy's mouth?"

"Red. Why?"

"Because, I just found a yellow one."

"Hmm. Then it stands to reason that the next one we find should be blue. Primary colors and all that, you know?"

"Yeah, that makes sense. Now blue key where would you be hidden so that I couldn't find you?"

Junpei looked over at the toilet. There was no lid. Just a seat, a bowl and a tank. He looked inside the bowl. There was no water. It looked clean enough though. He didn't want to touch the sides to find out how clean they actually were, but he decided to lower his head into the bowl to see if there was anything slightly down the drain. Nothing.

"Uh, Jumpy, what are you doing with your head in the toilet?"

…

Junpei wracked his brain for a witty response. Finding nothing, he lifted his head up.

"…I—I'm sorry, Akane. I just haven't got an answer for you. I'm…I'm actually kind of ashamed…"

"I don't really see why…I don't think I want to know why actually. No offense, just… going on the present circumstances."

"Yeah. I'll just check the tank."

He got up and lifted the tank lid off. He grinned. He pulled a white briefcase out It had three keyholes in it.

"Haha! I found something that we need!" he shouted triumphantly. "Huh? What's this on the back?" Junpei turned the briefcase over to find a wrench taped to the back.

"What am I supposed to do with a wrench?" he asked himself.

"Nuts, I can't think of anything," Junpei replied.

"Well, maybe you should bolt over here and see if you can find something," he continued. Akane rolled her eyes, but she snickered behind her hand. It was barely audible, but still: 'Score!' thought Junpei.

"Jumpy, why don't we just use that wrench on the pipes under the sink?"

"Good plan!" he dropped the briefcase on the stone table and hopped back over to the sink, crouching underneath it. He took a look at he pipes, quickly finding the nut shaped fixture and took twist with the wrench. He made another turn, and then another, and another, until finally the two pieces separated. He dropped the wrench and felt around in the pipes.

'Hooray! He thought to himself, dirty black lead flakes! Just what I've always wanted!'

"Nothing in there…he groaned in disappointment."

"I'm not sure. Did you try running the water?"

"…No, I guess not. Let's try flushing something out."

He twisted the knob on the sink. Surprisingly enough, the water actually ran. And moments later, there was a clinking noise on the floor at his feet. He turned the water off to find a white key on the floor.

"White?" said Akane, "I thought it'd be blue. Well, let's try these keys out."

"Agreed!"

They put the yellow key into the first keyhole. It fit in the slot, but when they tried giving it a twist it wouldn't move.

"That's annoying, it fits but doesn't turn!" snorted Junpei.

"Don't worry, we still have two more keys left."

They tried the red key. Once again, it fit. However, this time it actually turned.

"Yes!" shouted Junpei, "Yellow key, you're up again." He inserted the yellow key into the second keyhole. It fit, and it turned.

"Haha!" Junpei pumped his fist in the air as he took out the white key. He put it into the last keyhole…or at least he tried to.

"What gives? It doesn't even fit!"

"Maybe there really is another key," suggested Akane.

"Well, we better start looking then."

The two of them searched the room from top to bottom. Junpei started by using the wrench to disconnect the pipes on the toilet. Finding nothing, he started seeing if anything in the room was loose, an endeavor resulting in the mirror over the sink to fall over and break cleanly in half over his head. Akane tried examining the skeleton further, but this course of action brought them nowhere closer to opening the briefcase. Junpei was beginning to get frustrated when he noticed an odd shadow being projected on the wall behind one of the torches. He slowly approached the torch and snatched it off the wall. He examined the torch from all angles. "Well, this hasn't been very enlightening," he thought aloud. And then he noticed the shadow from earlier. It was being projected on the ceiling this time. His eyes went wide and a triumphant grin spread itself around his face. He'd figured out where the third key was hidden: Without a second thought he turned the torch upside-down over the sink. He was rewarded by the clink of metal against the ceramic surface of the sink.

"Found it!" he announced, getting Akane's immediate attention.

He ran some cold water over the blue key that had been inside the torch, steam erupting from the hot metal. He almost panicked when he saw it get washed down the drain before remembering that the only place for the water to go from there was the floor at his feet. He picked up the key and jammed it into the third keyhole on the briefcase. It fit, and it turned. There was a snap as he heard the briefcase unlock. Inside were a calculator, a pen, and a notepad, similar to the ones that he'd gotten the last time he'd been in this situation. There was also a small white box with a keyhole on it.

"Do you think…" Akane began.

"No doubt about it, that white key goes in this box."

He dug the white key out of his pocket, placed it into the box's keyhole and gave it a twist. The box's lid popped open revealing six numbered keycards, ranging from 3 to 8.

"I'll give you three guesses as to where these go," Junpei said turning to face Akane.

"So… I'm guessing that this door's number is '11' because that's the sum of out numbers," she started slowly, "but because '11' can't be a digital root maybe we have to get a digital root of 2 from 11? "

"That makes sense."

"Okay! So, Mr. Card Reader, how are you doing today?" Akane said taking out the '5' and '6' cards.

The device's nondescript red light stared back at her.

"So, if I'm right, it should be '5' and '6'."

[5 + 6 = 11, 1 + 1 = 2]

She swiped them through the card reader and pulled the lever. There was a buzzing noise and the red light on the device continued to stare back at the two cellmates.

"Let's try a different combination maybe? It probably has to be three digits."

Junpei thought for a moment, going through a few possibilities in his head. He realized that no combination of three numbers could add up to 11. The lowest cards they had were 3, 4, and 5.

[3 + 4 + 5 = 12]

"I'm gonna go out on a limb here, but I think it's the best shot we have," stated Junpei, "Could you hand me the cards please."

Akane did so without hesitation. Junpei immediately picked out the '5', '7', and '8'.

[5 + 7 + 8 = 20, 2 + 0 = 2]

He slid each of the three cards through the reader. It wasn't 11, but it was still a 2. He pulled the lever, and…

A beeping sound came from the device and the red light changed to blue.

"I think that's our ticket out of here," he said a grin.

He grabbed the handle and tried turning it. Sure enough, it moved without resistance. He swung the door open and they exited into a long torch-lit hallway. They walked for a few minutes before coming to another door. It was a regular wooden door with a brass knob. He gave it a turn, and pushed it open.

They could barely believe what they saw on the other side.