Numbers...

[Junpei didn't like math]. Never really had. Sure [he was good at it], he usually aced all his tests in high school and the exams in collage weren't too bad either. Calculators [weren't an absolute must] for him most the time, he just needed a moment to think, maybe a paper and something to write with [now and again]. No, it wasn't because he wasn't good at math, [not that he didn't understand the formulas or theories he was taught]. It wasn't anything like carrying a hatred for a teacher who taught the subject to the actual subject itself. Nothing as silly as that; and [Junpei knew silly]. He just...didn't like math.

No... That wasn't quite right, [it wasn't math that he hated]. He used to have loads of fun figuring out the equation; it was...it was like...like a...[a game to him]... People called him a bit of a nerd for it, always knowing just what to do for the tests. Of course, they always worshipped him when finals came though... He [didn't know where his knack for math had come from]; neither of his parents were exceptionally good at math, he had no tutor who showed him how to work the formulas. He just...[seemed to know math].

Some would call it a [hidden talent]... He saw it as a [curse and blessing] at the same time.

He didn't hate math. Although, after... [that game], he couldn't do any more maths. It would give him [horrible nightmares] on days he would go near any form of math. Why was that? How could a person be [so terrified of math]?

He wasn't terrified of math...it was...[the numbers in math].

Those numbers...they kept appearing in any math problem he was faced with. [0], [1], [2], [3], [4]...[5]...[6], [7], [8] and the last, most hated by Junpei...

[9]

Those numbers...they were really the [only numbers] out there since they made up every other number man had made.

And he [hated and feared] each and every one of them.

[Nine hours] to some people may seem like a long time. A person can do so much in nine hours; children go to school for [only six], adults work for usually [eight each week day].

For Junpei though? Nine hours...was barely enough time for him to [live].

When he was doing math, he remembered those short nine hours he spent on that [Titanic replica]...

He cried when he remembered those nine hours. [Dry sobs] would escape his broken lips; he had bitten them so much they were always sore. Junpei tried to hold in the [tears of fear and sorrow he still had held inside him]; no matter what though [he would fail at that]. The tears from his eyes would spill down his cheeks, soaking whatever shirt or sweater he had been wearing.

All the nightmares he had of the...[Nonary game] made him terrified to the extent of almost [killing his mother] when she woke him one morning. He couldn't live alone any more. Not in that small apartment he had [been taken from, forced to play the Nonary game]... No, he couldn't be by himself...not yet. After explaining to his parents, and crying to them for company...they couldn't leave him be. [Not even the cruelest, most unloving parents] could have denied the boy of the company he wanted - no [needed], in his life now. Junpei could not be taken on that game again; [never again].

[Akane], or [June] as everyone had called her while they played the game, had almost [moved in with Junpei] once they recovered from their experience. But Junpei realized that it could not ever work between them now. Every time he saw her...[he remembered]...

He remembered everything when he saw Akane. The [9th man's body]...all broken and destroyed. The smell of his [rotting flesh that slowly slid down the walls] where they had been thrown when the 9th man...exploded... He remembered the [blood freezing scream] the man let out just before he was blown across the room, [his body parts separating from him]. Junpei could almost see the [thick, dark red blood] that coated the walls, the floor, the ceiling and even the blood that had somehow stayed in the man's body, even after the [literally deadly explosion]. Junpei remembered when the man had [Clover] at [knife point], that sickening smile upon his face as he made [Ace] and Clover place their hands on the [RED], allowing him access into the [numbered door]... He remembered the look of pure terror on the dead man's face as he laid there in a lake - that could not be considered a puddle - of his own cooling blood.

His heart raced frantically when he heard any kind of [beeping noise]. Junpei had long since gotten rid of any watch or bracelet resembling item he owned. Anything that made a beeping noise was thrown out, or destroyed, [never to tick again]. Junpei would not be able to breathe when he heard the [tick...tick...tick...] of any clock. It made him think of the [81 seconds he had before he wound up like the 9th man]. Those few seconds were the most [dreadfully grim seconds] he had ever lived through. The red flashing skeleton head on the face of his [numbered bracelet] would haunt his dreams now and again, taunting him.

Junpei also couldn't be around any clock that rang when a [new hour] came around. He just...couldn't. When he was playing - [more so being tortured through] - the [Nonary game], every hour was called out by a large clock at the stair case. Every hour the clock would chime that they'd lost another hour, that they [were closer death]... It was almost as if the chimes weren't just telling the players how much time they had left...but [laughing at them for the time they'd lost]. Junpei wouldn't stand for those clocks. He knew his mind wouldn't be able to. He knew [he wouldn't be able to stay sane].

Nothing was the same for him anymore. Every time there was a loud bang, a crash of items, [he would scream]. Not a scream one would hear at the carnival, people on the rollercoaster's screaming in delight of the ride and the speed. No...Junpei's scream itself was enough to make a [person's teeth chatter], wondering what he was so deathly terrified of.

Many things had changed about Junpei when he escaped [alive] from the [Nonary game]. He was colder to people, he wouldn't trust them. How could he? The young man was scared, scared he would be forced to play the game a second time; [Snake] was forced to play again, why wouldn't they make Junpei?

The [Nonary game] didn't just change Junpei's way of life...it changed Junpei. Not for the better, but for the worse...

Junpei wasn't just a broken man now...he was destroyed.