#uchu.asks

It took a bit of convincing on your end, but he agreed when he heard it was a hidden spot with nice sinners and he wanted to see if that was true himself.

You were both having a great time. Lucifer was actually really enjoying the atmosphere and the food— especially since any rambunctious sinners stepped out as soon as they realized who he was. Since you couldn't exactly eat or be seen by most of the sinners there, you were just enjoying his company— watching him move between blueprints like a tornado of creativity.

He often muttered his plans in a way for others to think he was just thinking aloud, but really it was for you to understand what he was working on. He also kept glancing your way with this big dopey smile on his face. It was as companionable as you could get as a ghost hanging out in a public space with the king of hell.

Though you should've known peace doesn't last long for you.

Noticing a few sparks coming off a camera in the corner of the store, you know your time of leisure is over. The next moment, Vox appears in a burst of electricity in the centre of the room— his screen glitching slightly and scowl on full display.

He's quick to correct his mistake when he takes in the others in the room, slapping on a grin that hid his current irritation, but Lucifer did nothing to hide his own.

"What are— where did you even— why are you here?"

Lucifer growls, but Vox only rolls his eyes and brings his attention to the rest of the sinners still in the café.

"Everybody get out. I need to have a word with," His eyes dart to you for a moment before settling on the king, "Lucifer."

Nobody questions his sudden demand and make a break for the exit, not wanting to get on the overlords bad side. The only people who don't leave immediately is the staff, but they obviously looked like they were debating it. That wasn't good enough for Vox though.

"I said everybody."

Static underlines his last words, making the staff quickly start packing their things to leave like everyone else, which Lucifer wasn't fond with at all. He just wanted quality time with you, and while he was hesitant at first to come here he definitely wasn't complaining now. So for this TV to barge in and destroy the peace really got under his skin.

"Now hold on! This is their store you can't just—"

"It's okay Sir Morningstar." One of the staff interrupts with a quiver, "I'm sure it'll only take a moment and we don't want to interrupt. We'll just wait outside!"

They all rush out with their tails between their legs. As soon as the door closes behind them, Vox turns back to the both of you, dusting off the front of his jacket like he accomplished something.

"Now, since that's been handled," Vox narrows his gaze solely onto you, his previous anger coming back in full force, "What the FUCK was that!"

You hide behind Lucifer to hopefully avoid most of Vox's rage. Though it's pissing you off a little since you have no idea what he's even referring to.

Lucifer raises a brow at Vox's shift in demeanour. He angles himself a slight bit so he's blocking more of you from Vox, not caring if you've chosen to go invisible for the overlord or not with his sudden shouting.

"That was you getting rid of all the pleasant chatter, which was rude of you by the way. We were actually in the middle of something before you dropped by and ruined the atmosphere so if you could just—" Lucifer raises his hands to shoo him away, "go back to wherever you came from that'd be great."

"You can fuck off," Vox points at Lucifer— ignoring the overly dramatic gasp that came from him and looking past him to you, "but YOU! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU FUCKING COST ME!?"

Your face scrunches up in sheer confusion. You have no idea what you could've done to him that would make him so mad at you. Besides messing with him during a meeting, but you haven't done that recent enough for him to be yelling at you for it now.

"Dude, what are you even talking about???"

"STOP—" Vox suddenly stops and stares at you for a second, taking note of your expression and your posture, and sighs, "Stop coming into my room and flipping the whole thing upside-down with your freaky paranormal shit. Today I woke up, fell from the fucking ceiling, and needed Velvette to replace my head. This is after she filled an album with blackmail."

You still have no idea what he's going on about, but you don't have time to say that when Lucifer jumps to respond before you.

"I can't imagine your game was great to begin with. Maybe the replacement will help you."

Lucifer's shit eating grin doesn't falter when Vox fixes his glare onto him. Neither of their moods is help when you're clearly heard trying to hide your snickering.

Vox's screen darkens, "I'm not the one who's wife left without a word."

You can see the blow to Lucifer's own ego is instant in the way he filches back into you. The air grows tense as his eye's begin to glow harsher.

"At least I could keep a stable relationship for eons. How's that uhh… moth friend of yours by the way?"

Their argument continues to escalate and you've completely zoned them both out. You know by now that when any of them argue it's better to wait it out than trying to stop it.

You float a little bit further from the two, not wanting to catch either of their attention and be dragged into whatever feud they have going on... again. It's while you're looking around you spot movement in darkest corner of the café. The shadows seem to get more energetic as soon as you lay eyes on it, curling upwards into a familiar form.

Alastor's shadow then looks at the other two in the room, rolls its eyes (from what you can tell), and beckons you to follow it outside. You got nothing else to do, so with a shrug you follow it out the building and to wherever it wants to bring you. Nobody notices the shadows dancing along the walls, and since you can just fly through people it doesn't take long to reach your destination.

One of Hell's only parks quickly comes into view, and so to does Alastor himself— standing off in a secluded area by himself. His smile widens the moment he locks eyes with you, twirling his cane as his shadow melds with him again.

"Why my dear it's quite a pleasure! You sure took your time, I was beginning to think you'd let those two bore you to tears!"

You roll your eyes at what is basically his admission of stalking you, but you can't hide the grin on your face, "It's not like much others are able to see me. I'd take their petty nonsense over being by myself again any day."

"But why settle for them when you can be out here with me! I can offer you more than sitting in silence and accusations of tedium you hadn't even committed."

"Wait— how do you..." You trail of as his smile turns into a smirk, that alone was enough of an answer. "Okay then nevermind actually. What could you possibly offer that's better than what the king of Hell could do? We can't exactly talk in public either without you looking like you're on your last screw."

He suddenly hold out his arm and presents his staff to you, "Hold this for me."

You stare down at the staff like if you touch it it'll come to life and double curse your already questionable existence, "Why...?"

Alastor hums, "I know this may take a bit of energy for you to commit to, but if you can indulge me for a moment it'll be worth your time."

With a sigh, you hesitantly pool what little power you could into your hands and reach out to grab his staff. The eye on the microphone opens as soon as you make contact and stares directly at you— not once looking away. It was creeping you the fuck out, but it wasn't doing anything else.

"Okay, what now—"

"Okay, what now?"

You nearly screech when the staffs starts speaking in that old timey way you only recognize from cartoons. It takes you a moment to realize it repeated what you said back at you.

"What?"

The staff repeats what you said again, to your confusion and Alastor's growing amusement.

"Seeing as my shadows and other powers have no trouble sensing you, even after you do your little vanishing act, it's nothing to me whatsoever to have them speak on your behalf either. So," Alastor grabs the bottom of his mics cane with a bow and waves his other hand back in the direction of the park, "Shall we?"

Your face is nearly split from how much you're smiling. Being able to talk in public and go on a walk sounds absolutely delightful, but before you can speak a word—

"ALASTOR! I KNOW YOU'RE HERE AND I KNOW YOU FUCKING TOOK THEM!"

"WHY DO BOTH OF YOU HAVE TO INTERRUPT MY DATE—"

"Did they call it a date or are you simply forcing your views onto them like a—"

You can't help the sigh that escapes you as all three start arguing. Peace, truly, doesn't last long for you.

Best friends with Mikan and Komaeda for obvious reasons. (More like they're friends with Mikan and they force Komaeda to hang with them cause he's difficult lol)

Their biggest problem is that they have an extremely hard time pulling away after someone expresses they don't want or need their help, or when a situation becomes... unsalvagable. No matter how much a person expresses no desire to change, and no matter how unsafe it gets.

That last one is exactly what happened with Junko Enoshima.

Even after learning what her plans were (hard not to when they're galavanting around the school 24/7) they still tried to help her instead of telling someone, thinking she just needed time. Junko hated the patience and compassion they gave freely no matter what she did, which meant she loved them and wanted to see how U!Nuturer reacted to the killing game instead. She wanted to see just how far that kindness ticks before they implode.

Unfortunately for her, that didn't end up happening, as Izuru found them first and started dragging them around. Partly because he wanted to see if this one person Junko happened to be a little obsessed with would invite even a little intruige, mostly because he wanted to piss her off (somthing that worked really well since she was squeeling about it to her sister).

Eventually Izuru drops U!Nurturer once they start to become boring and are picked up by the Future Foundation. When the survivours of the killing game arrive at the FF, it's not hard for them to get U!Nurturer on their side to help gather the remnants of despair. It's also not hard to get them to agree to help the remnants within the neo world program since they also want their previous classmates back to normal.

U!Nurturer is really good friends with Makoto and Aoi, decent with Toko, Hagakure, and Kirigiri, and Byakuya thinks they're pushy but overall tolerable/useful.

That's all the backstory for Ultimate Nurturer (excluding pre-Hopes Peak idk what draft to go with for that yet lol), the actual fic would be within the Neo World Program and it's killing game. I would get into that, but it would have to be a seperate post since the story completely strays from cannon and the killers/survivours are all different. The post would be too long lol.

Likes Ultimate Nurturer

Hajime || They're trying to help him figure out what he really wants to do in life. He appreciates them immensely, even if he can't get around to believing everything they say

Mikan || U!Nurturer hangs out with her more than anyone else with no strings attached or cruelty involved. She clings to them hard once she starts to believe it's genuine

Komaeda || Baseline, they're an Ultimate, but they also constantly invite him to hang out.

Nekomaru || Admires someone else who got into Hopes Peak for bringing the best out of others, and sometimes pair up to help sports inclined Ultimates (tough love and soft encouragement go burr)

Ibuki || Convinced U!Nurturer to let her teach them any musical instrument so she sometimes steals them for practices

Gundham || U!Nurturer used to have a falcon and asked him how to better take care of birds. They got along like a house on fire afterwards

Sonia || Helped her acclimate to life in Japan and make more friends. She's very grateful and invites them (and Gundham) to cafes whenever she's free

Mahiru || She's more neutral than anything. Admires their dedication to care for and help those around them (especially Mikan), but spends too much time with Hiyoko to see much of them

Dislikes Ultimate Nurturer

Izuru || Junko won't shut up

Hiyoko || On one hand she likes being pampered, on the other it feels like they're talking down to her. She'd rather just avoid them

Akane || She doesn't want or need help to be a better gymnast and U!Nurturer is so weak. She simply doesn't care for them

Ultimate Imposter || There's nothing they could help him with. While he distances himself from everyone at the school, he goes out of his way to avoid U!Nurturer

Fuyuhiko || Holy shit go the fuck away—

Peko || Fuyuhiko hates them, and she doesn't care for the saviour attitude

Kazuichi || Mostly jealousy over Sonia. When he tried to figure out why Sonia like U!Nurturer (and Gundham) more than himself and finds nothing but them treating her like a person he declares a one sided rivalry. Gets more offended when U!Nurturer tries to fix his issues

Teruteru || He loves the spunk but please stay out of the kitchen dear god

When they all become Remnants of Despair they're all pretty keen on killing U!Nurturer one way or another. Since their entire talent was basically helping people, most of the Remnants wanted them gone as soon as possible so they didn't spread hope. Mikan specifically wants U!Nurturer dead to bring herself despair and fully cement herself as Junko's. Komaeda doesn't want U!Nurturer dead, but desperately wants to see them break and rebuilt over and over by whatever means necessary—to him dying is such a waste. Unfortunately for the Remnants, Izuru doesn't give them a chance to do anything.

The entire time U!Nurturer's with Izuru, he's basically beating them over the head with "not everyone needs or even wants your help" since that insistence is what Junko found interesting. Izuru's also the tiniest bit intrigued to see how long they'll go until they finally learn to drop lost causes. As soon as he's traumatized the little saviour complex/need to help everyone out of U!Nurturer, Izuru leaves them in the middle of the wasteland. He got all he could out of them and broke the good in them for Junko, so they became boring. He also knows the Future Foundation's been watching them the entire time, so he suspects the next time he's seeing U!Nurturer is on the opposing side. Surely something else that would annoy Junko... if she even makes it out of her scheme alive anyway.

When U!Nurturer gets put into the Neo World Program their memories of the tragedy get locked away for "emergencies only", so a lot of the relationships start the same. They bond with Gundham over animals (only this time bonding over the unfortunate lack of animals), Mikan's and Komaeda's pretty much the same but they get really rocky later on, Peko and Fuyuhiko don't like them until way later, Hiyoko avoids their coddling, and so on. There are a few that are different because of the setting though.

How Hajime feels about them flips flops the whole time (especially cause of the company they keep), Mahiru likes them way more and finds their will to help reassuring, their relationship with Teruteru is decent due to their level head (and the disaster they are in the kitchen gives him something else to think about), they don't really get to bond with Sonia since they're busy dealing with other people, and Kazuichi tolerates them more since Sonia's isn't running to them every other day.

Chiaki is a new case entirely for U!Nurturer. Since Dr3 isn't canon, Chiaki was never a real person and is just a companion AI made for the program. She makes sure to keep in touch with U!Nurturer since their goal is the same as hers and splits her time evenly between them, Hajime, and the rest of the class. When murders happen she does her best to keep them up to speed and always makes sure they're of sound mind before entering the trial grounds.

"Fine, let's say we agree and change Sugimura's heart, that still doesn't solve our problem with Okumura." Akechi's glare pierces through you as he continues to discredit the idea of changing his heart at all, "As soon as we finish, Shido is still going to expect us to do his palace. We're still in the same situation, but now we've wasted time dealing with someone else."

Ren pinches the mess of hair between his eyes, "I wouldn't say it's a waste of time."

With a roll of his eyes Akechi sits back in his seat, not attempting to entertain him even a little, "I don't care about your saviour complex. We don't have time to fight unnecessary people—unless you're fine with letting the false god take over?"

Ren doesn't respond, and you let your head fall into you hands and groan. Multiple scenarios rotate in your mind that all seem to run into the same end. Promising to look into Okumura later for Shido's peace of mind also stops you from doing anything else. It leaves the only other option as Shido's palace, but there's no way anyone is ready for how hard that will be. It'll also send a ripple affect through everyone in Japan so he's still best saved for later.

You want to scream, but since you actually respect Sojiro and his business you settle for muffled complaining, "God this is so annoying. It'd be so much easier if he just disappeared—"

You cut yourself off when a thought comes to you. One so stupid and reckless it might actually work.

"Wait… what if he disappeared?"

Akechi and Ren both stare at you in confusion, with varying degrees of curiosity and annoyance.

"What are you talking about?"

You get up to pace around the room, the movement helping you focus and not lose your train of thought, "Well if he disappeared, then Shido couldn't expect us to do his palace since not even he would know where Okumura is."

Ren's head tilts and his eyes scan your face, "How would he disappear?"

Akechi brings a hand up to his mouth as he thinks about what you said. His eyes flit around before he suddenly snaps his head to you—ultimately figuring out what you're alluding to

"No."

His expression twists into a sneer as he vehemently denies you before you can get out another word. You stop pacing to stare at him and stand your ground, determined to make him understand your point one way or another.

"C'mon Akechi, you can see this might be—"

"Shut up."

"At least let me finish my thought—"

"No, be quiet. We're not doing that."

Ren looks between you two as the tension in the room rises and finally decides to chime into the argument, "What are we not doing?"

Before you can reply Akechi jumps in trying to discredit you, "They want to bring him to the Metaverse so he's out of the way."

You sputter, "It's more than that! Maybe if you listened to my whole plan you'd know!"

"I don't need to listen to know it's idiotic."

Ren thinks on on it for a moment before looking back to you, "It's not a bad idea—"

Akechi nearly growls out in anger hearing Ren agree, "I'm not babysitting—"

Ren pats Akechi's arm to interrupt him, but he's only able to do it once before his hand is slapped away, "I was getting there. It's not bad, but we'd have to watch him the whole time so he doesn't run into a shadow. We won't have the time to do that."

You ponder on it for a little while, stumped on how to continue this idea that doesn't call for someone to stay with him 24/7. You're about to admit defeat when something nudges at the edge of your subconscious. Fleeting whispers is all it takes for you to understand what you need to do to get this to work.

"What if we brought him to my palace?"

Ren keeps his expression neutral, but Akechi looks like you said you'd climb to the top of Tokyo Tower and jump to see if you'd stick the landing. He probably thinks your suggestion amounts to the same thing.

You hurry on with your explanation so he doesn't interrupt you again, "Hear me out this time—that means don't interrupt me Akechi—if he disappeared Shido would be more focused trying to figure out where his lackey went and what we could possibly do about it instead of figuring out our identities or killing him. My palace is the perfect place to keep him secure without dying from either a shadow or Shido!"

Akechi still doesn't respond and continues to look at you like you have a death wish. The urge to shake him so he gives you any other reaction grows with each second, but Ren saves him the annoyance when he says something himself.

"How would we get him into your palace in the first place?"

Akechi looks at Ren incredulously, "Why are you entertaining this?"

You huff at his continued attitude. You'd be more annoyed if his behaviour hadn't reminded you of the edge you currently have against Shido and his gaggle of blind followers.

"Well, he's deep in the conspiracy, so he'd be afraid of Black Mask right?" Akechi swivels in your direction, his bafflement and anger come off him in waves, but you press on, "If you told him that Shido planned to kill him or something while you're Black Mask, then asked him to enter hiding he'd obviously listen. He doesn't have much of a choice if he wants to live."

"I don't have the outfit in the real world, and we don't exactly have the time or connections to make it on short notice."

"I know that. We'd have to trick him into the Metaverse so it works. Mementos looks the same as reality minus the subway so it's easy to get him in without realizing. Haru would make the plan easier, but it can be done without her."

"How would we get him to your palace without raising any alarms or encountering any shadows?"

While Akechi's speaking, Ren pulls out your chair and gestures for you to sit back down. You do so still focused on the debate wanting to make sure you rebut each of his claims, "My palace also normal outside my house. You can probably knock him out with an item when he agrees, switch from Mementos to my palace, and just walk the rest of the way."

"You expect me to carry that sorry excuse of a father from his apartment all the way to your house?"

You shrug, "My view of the world in my palace is incredibly limited, so it wouldn't take that long."

"That just means you need to get outside."

Despite the dig at you, it's noticeable how much his bite has wavered at this point and you can't help the grin that breaks out on your face. Crossing your arms over your chest you try to get back at him as smugly as possible, "No rebuttal? Does that mean you finally agree and think my idea is flawless?"

He looks away, still irritated how deadest you are on this idea, "No. You're insane."

He refuses to engage in the conversation any further. If this where any other time, you'd back off—let him cool down and maybe come around to talk about it later, but you can't do that here. Not for this. Though if he won't engage with you there's nothing to counter, so that leaves you with your last resort.

You temper yourself, trying to sound as sincere ad possible to hopefully get through to him, "Please Akechi. This might be our only chance."

It takes a few more minutes, but eventually he sighs and lets go of his anger. He slumps over in his seat and runs a hand over his face, his next words coming out muffled, "Fine. It's the only plan we've thought of that has any chance of working."

You smile and try to thank him, bit he waves you off. You sit there in silence lost in your thoughts when Ren suddenly places a cup of water in front of the both of you—one with a cute little bird on the rim and the other with a chubby bee. You have no idea when he left to get these, but you're not complaining since your throat desperately needs it. He sits back down and sips out of the rather small juice box he got for himself before opening his mouth and ruining your mood.

"This whole thing is ridiculous."

"What? The cup toppers or their death wish of a plan?"

You lean over to punch Akechi in the arm, and while he's cursing under his breath and muttering other obscenities, you bring your attention back to Ren feeling a little betrayed, "I thought you were on my side!"

"I am, and this plan can work, but Akechi's not wrong either." Ren takes another sip of his juice box, now dropping the veil of indifference he was wearing and watching you like one would an injured animal, "Are you sure you're okay with Okumura staying in your palace?"

It takes you a moment to understand what he's asking and why, then another to fully register everything you've been saying up until this point. You freeze in your seat realizing the risks you have to take just to save one mans life that may or may not even be worth it.

"Oh my god he's gonna be in my palace."