Juro Izumi (Two Loops Ago)/Story

> I can't go on... My head... feels like it's splitting...
>
>

***The section below contains spoilers for the story of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. It would be ill-advised to scroll without caution if you want to have a blind experience with the game, or have not completed it in its entirety.***

## Two loops ago

### Escaping to the past (2104, 2 loops ago - 2089, 1 loop ago)

Originally from the year 2104 two loops before the main timeline, Izumi has taken refuge alongside Chihiro Morimura and Tsukasa Okino inside a UFO spaceship buried beneath the city during the Kaiju invasion. They studied the alien technology inside and learned of how close it is to theirs, as well as the Kaiju's destruction of previous time periods labeled as 'Sectors'. During that time, Morimura wishes to confess her love for Izumi, but the latter apologized as he cannot answer and promised to reply to her confession after the disaster is resolved.

When the countdown inside the UFO that they discovered ran out, the Kaiju have already begun the destruction of their sector after taking control of the UFO's mainframe. Left with no other option than to escape to the past, Okina sacrifices himself by sending both Morimura and Izumi to the past via a shift to 'Sector 0'. This in turn saved Izumi and Morimura and allowed them to escape into a new loop of their previously destroyed timeline.

Having gone back 16 years into the past of their time period, Izumi encourages Morimura that they must move on and survive in the past by themselves. Knowing that the invasion will happen again, they must warn everyone and prepare for what is coming as well as trying to a way back to the UFO to find the means to save everyone.

## One loop ago

### The bombing of Shikishima facility and arrest (2104)

After entering a relationship during the 16 years growing up in the new loop, both the adult Izumi and Morimura participated in the bombing of a Shikishima facility connected to the interstellar development project that they suspect is connected to the Kaiju invasion. After the facility was destroyed and most of its researchers were killed, Izumi stayed behind to stall for time and allowed Morimura to escape before the authorities captured him.

Taken to the underground interrogation room and registered under the prisoner number 426, he was drugged to prevent escaping and divulged information that revealed his history and knowledge of the invasion that is to come. The officer Heizo Onishi of his era brought both Juro Izumi and Tsukasa Okino of the current loop to meet the prisoner, both of whom have been mentioned during his interrogation. Soon afterward, the kaiju begins their attack, leaving the adult Izumi's actions for naught.

### The truth of the world, Universal Control and the massacre of the 'candidates' (2065)

After the Kaiju invasion of Sector 1 in 2104, Izumi managed to escape from prison and traveled to the other sectors, reuniting with Morimura and meeting the students of the current loop they are in. At some point, he eventually discovered the truth of his world being a virtual one after uncovering past logs of the original 15 space colonists in 2188 on Project Ark, an endeavor to continuing the human species through cloning after a nanomachine infection wiped out humanity in the real world. The log of 2188 Izumi and how he took upon himself to adopt the eight-year-old Megumi Yakushiji in the real world would also become one of the most important memories for the current Izumi.

He also learned about the UFO's true identity as 'Universal Control', a mainframe that runs and maintains the AI civilians and the five sectors of different time periods, along with Sector 0 at the core of the five as a failsafe for backing up the data of the 15 candidates for humanity's future. This knowledge explains why each time period 40 years apart are given the name sectors. and also explains how Izumi and Morimura were able to enter a new loop with their memories and existence intact.

Izumi would then discover that part of UC's environment coding was borrowed from a video game 'Mighty Kaiju Deimos' by Tsukasa Okina (2188) as a shortcut to the mainframe's completion. However, this opened a flaw for Ryoko Shinonome (2188) to take advantage of, who was sick of humanity's deception and callousness after being used by the Tetsuya Ida of the real world. The Shinonmome of 2188 integrated the Deimos Code into Project Ark that exploits the game coding in UC's environment, allowing kaijus to appear and purge the sectors and leaving the final phase of Project Ark in a never-ending loop.

This revelation allowed Izumi to discover that the D-Code control key is unknowingly being passed around between the 15 'candidates of Project Ark, those compatible with the nanomachines 'innerlocitors' that will allow them to transfer their memories into their real bodies inside the growth pods as soon as they are mentally strong enough. The adult Izumi then attempted to eliminate the students who are the candidates for Project Ark, believing that it would stop the invasion. Having already killed six of them, including both the current loop's Morimura and his younger self, Izumi was about to finish off the young Tetsuya Ida before being shot from behind by the adult Morimura. His final words before passing out were that he did it all for her.

Since he was shot with a syringe gun, Izumi did not die. He apparently gave up on killing the Compatibles at this point, instead focusing on trying to delete the D-Code from their minds. To that end, he created DD-426, a program designed to sever the D-Code from the target's brain. However, since it does so by attacking nanomachines that also handle memory functions, it caused severe headache and memory loss and even risked reducing the subject to a mindless husk. Therefore, Izumi never used it.

### Survival, escape into the next loop, and demise at Sumire Bridge (2097)

Izumi eventually escaped into a new time loop by backing up his data in Sector 0 during the final battle. By the time UC start the loop again, he returns to Sumire Bridge in 2097, the same location where he and Morimura escape to in their past, he is reunited with the adult Morimura once more.

However, he identified this version of Chihiro Morimura is a simulated human AI of 16 years ago when they escaped, her backup data from Sector 0 not updated by the Morimura that grew up with him and died helping Tetsuya Ida enter into the new loop. Izumi began to recount to the current Morimura of their original past and even hinted the truth of the world to her though knows it will be lost to her if he explained it now.

Despite asking for Morimura to allow him to escape, Morimura then asks if he means to take more lives after four individuals, include Tomi Kisaragi, Tamao Kurabe, Keitaro Muira of the previous loop, were killed by him. Knowing that Ida lied about it and accused him based on Izumi's past actions, the man attempted to dissuade Morimura from shooting him based on the belief that their love for each other should not have changed since the day they met. It was all for naught however as Morimura pulled the trigger of her phaser, ending his life.

## Current loop

### Resurrection as 426 (2100)

3 years after his original version's death, Tetsuya Ida has been repeatedly installing and deleting the backup data of Izumi from Sector 0 into an isolated android in order to torture and extract information from him on his research into downloading memories into a physical body via the innerlocitor as well as the Deimos Code. To add further insult and ridicule, Tetsuya also started addressing Izumi as '426', his prisoner number. Presumably, Ida also learned about DD-426 from him during this time.

On 426's latest revival inside the android, he learned of Ida's conjecture that Izumi was responsible for the death of his love interest, the Tomi Kisaragi from the previous loop, and how Ida wanted his innerlocitor research so that he can transfer her AI mind from her android body into the Kisaragi of the current timeline despite the Tomi AI's wish against it. 426 attempts to change his situation by getting Ida emotionally worked up by voicing out how manipulative he has become and what he could have done to get what he wanted in front of Kisaragi, even remarking how the multiple backups of her AI could be Ida's contingency plan to erase and start her over.

By the time Ida started the process of deleting 426, the AI Izumi took the chance to escape by switching and transfer his data with the Kisaragi android thanks to a button remapping left behind by one of his previously deleted incarnations. After Ida left, the now freed 426 reactivates the android he was previously trapped in which now has Kisaragi's AI. 426 apologizes to her and said he needed this body more than her, and immediately escaped the Shikishima underground facility.

### A new plan and escaping Sector 1 (2104)

Despite escaping in the Kisaragi android, 426 has no means of shifting between different sectors due to the loss of his original body that gives him the biometric ID access needed to travel between the gates. During the four years he has been trapped, In order to put an end to the kaiju invasion and pass on his memories into a new body, 426 comes up with a plan to defeat the kaiju by unlocking the full features of the Deimos game system in the Sentinel pilots' nanomachines. While this would make the kaiju more of a threat than before, it will allow the pilots access to upgrading their sentinels and allowing them to fight on even ground. This would also require targeting whoever has the control key to summon the kaiju in order to exploit and re-balance the game for both sides.

426 returns to the desolate facility where he was once trapped and rescues Ei Sekigahara of the current timeline, who was forced shifted into the facility after the failed defense of the Kaiju invasion in 2064. Understanding that Sekigahara's nanomachines and sentinel are infected with the DD-426 code that led to the downfall of the 2064 defense, 426 offers to create a code in the form of pills to stall the memory-damaging effects induced by the nanomachine infection. In return, Sekigahara aided 426 in shifting back to 1985 where the latter expects the one person holding the Deimos Control Key is there.

### Targetting Natsuno Minami (1985)

By the time 426 arrived at Sakura High School in 1985, he begins his pursuing Natsuno Minami, who was unaware of herself as the holder of the Deimos Control Key. Trapping Minami in the girl's bathroom at the North Building, BJ summoned Tamao Kurabe from the previous loop, who is currently an android after her original body's demise during the last loop's final battle, to fight off 426. The Kisaragi android body was destroyed in the fight, but not without 426 hijacking Tamao's body and swapping their data. Finally cornering his target, 426 shot and incapacitate Minami with the nanomachines and erased both her's and BJ's memory of him in the process, stating that he will be 'the one giving orders' to the kaiju. With the first step to his plan complete, 426 then takes the damaged Kisaragi android with him and hid it in the Old Buiding at the school.

### Assisting Yuki Takamiya (1985)

With the Tamao Android body, 426 blends into the school and takes on the name Erika Aiba while avoiding drawing suspicion to himself. During Minami's disappearance from school, 426 begins following and assisting Yuki Takamiya in finding out where Minami has gone, while at the same time injecting her with the upgraded nanomachines that alos erased Takamiya's memories of the process.

However, 426 underestimated Takamiya's deductive abilities after she uncovered 426's tracks, her discovery of the nanomachines inside her at the Shikishima Dock where a Sentinel is hidden, and her checking on the real Erika Aiba in a hospital. Cornered by Takimiya, Morimura, Renya Gouto, Ryoko Shinonome at Sumire Bridge once more, 426 makes his escape by jumping off the bridge but not before being riddled by Morimura's phaser gun.

### Meeting Juro Kurabe (1985)

After escaping from the bridge, 426 made his way towards the Tokisaka Shrine where he was cornered and betrayed by Ei Sekigahara, who ended up working for Tetsuya Ida in exchange for getting rid of DD-426's effects, at gunpoint. Juro Kurabe, the Juro Izumi of the current timeline whose mind was damaged from piloting his sentinel for too long and given a new personality by the Tamao Kurabe of the previous loop, also happened to be close by to watch the two face each other.

After failing to stall for time by telling Sekigahara about the missing 2188 logs BJ is after, 426's android body was shot before he could reach him. After Sekigahara wondered if Morimura manipulated him into doing this and leaves the scene, Juro emerges from his hiding spot and was shocked to see the android body on the ground.

Despite the Tamao android body having sustained damage, 426 was able to reactivate it and catch Juro off-guard. Remarking that this is his lucky day, 426 transfers all his data into Kurabe's nanomachines before the body gives out. By the time Juro comes to, 426 appears before him and projects himself in the guise of a high school student, calling himself Kyuta Shiba.

Hacking into his memory, 426 convinced Juro that he is a long time friend of his, and tells him to hide the Tamao Android body in the dumpster nearby so no one can find it. After the deed is done, 426 erased Kurabe's memory of the event and continues onwards his mission.

### Converting his memories, and 'contract' with Megumi Yakushiji (1985)

Living on inside Juro's nanomachines, 426 would discover that Morimura had attempted to instill the memories of his Izumi self into Juro. Due to the violent memories clashing with Juro's gentler personality made by Tamao, the boy himself was close to having a breakdown. 426 immediately fixed this in his Shiba disguise by converting his memories into videotapes for Juro to naturally watch and assimilate them easily. He would also learn of Morimura's attempt to restore herself as a human candidate by implanting her memories and personality into Iori Fuyusaka, so he turned the memories into vague dreams that would not take over Fuyusaka's mind

Having no physical body to carry out his plan to prepare the sentinel pilots for the game to determine their fate, 426 reaches out to Megumi Yakushiji by projecting himself to her vision in the disguise of a cat. Given the name 'Fluffy' by Yakushiji, he offers to help her bring back the memories of the Juro Izumi of the current timeline. In exchange, he asks for her to carry out a mission as 'magical girl' to 'seal' the power of 'witches' with the syringe gun that he has been using to upgrade the pilot's nanomachines, naming it a 'magical gun'. Yakushiji, who loved the Juro Izumi she met in 2025 before fleeing to 1985 after the destruction of her home, eventually accepts his contract.

### Daily Life, and 'sealing' the 'witches' (1985)

While handing Juro his videotape memories and erasing all recollections that would bring Juro close to the truth, 426 had Yakushiji use the 'magical gun on Renya Gouto, Keitaro Miura, Shu Amiguchi, and Iori Fuyusaka with success despite the girl having doubts about shooting them with the nanomachine enhancements.

426 would also instruct Yakushiji to rescue Nenji Ogata from Okino's hideout after he was taken in to be used to find the D-Code Key inside a mental mind loop network connected by the nanomachines. While Yakushiji was rescuing Ogata after shooting Takatoshi Hijiyama with the 'magical gun', 426 appeared in his adult Izumi form inside the mind loop and convinced Ogata not to reveal Minami as the current holder of the key to summon the kaiju. Soon after his rescue, Ogata was also injected with the nanomachines and loses his memories of Yakushiji's involvement.

Eventually, 426 in his cat disguise would reveal partial truths to Yakushiji about his goals, the Deimos Code, and the purpose of 'sealing' the 'witches' he identifies before having her go after her best friend, Tomi Kisaragi, next. At some point, Ei Sekigahara (who was close to losing all of his memories by DD-426) would come to them and ask to be given the shot with the upgraded nanomachines despite having resisted them earlier as one of their initial targets on their mission.