#and based on my parents i have ZERO idea when it'll fully happen??

[handsometimr]

The biggest mystery in zero escape: wtf did Junpei study???

Ignoring Uchikoshi's suggestion that Junpei studied bitcoin in college. In this ramble, I'll be Over Sharing My Headcanons©. The good stuff is under the cut.

Junpei is a social sciences degree guy 100%. I've seen other headcanons in fics where he's a business major, which I mean he really does with a capital D fit the vibes for, socially sciency and all. The way he (in 999) laments having no friends / job / money screams social science guy (I would know).

Now, personally, I'm inclined to think that out of all the social sciences, he's a linguist. His wordplay, references to pop culture, and puns across all the games suggest he's a man of many big words, enough so that he can twist his words to his favour (see: manipulating the other characters sometimes. Junpei "yeah I never said I would open the door myself" mf Tenmyouji). Perhaps his wordy wit is most epitomised by the conception of the funyarinpa on a whim by assembling random Japanese sounds. And God he must've loved the idea of codenames in 999. Too bad he could never give himself a smartly thought out codename based on his bracelet. The cherry on top of this is explaining that Japanese idiom to Carlos. Assume everyone you meet is a thief. Finally he gets to put his knowledge of culture and words to badass use.

Linguistics!Junpei also fits with his whole thing of being Just A Guy who lost his faith in humanity. Studying linguistics, how humans have evolved languages to describe love. Hate. All sorts of human-ness. He really was just a man who thought that people were awesome. But as a detective he learned that humans have a common language in death, showing that words do NOT speak louder than actions. First it was akane sweet talking him and then ghosting him, now he doesn't know how to convey his thoughts honestly because of the horrors of his job.

So here is how the headcanon fully goes. Junpei, since grade school, was always good at picking up other languages and picked apart their meanings in comparison to his native Japanese. He liked learning English and Chinese in school when growing up in the suburban part of a small Japanese city. So when he got older he just accepted that maybe linguistics was for him, since that was what he was good at.

He was average in science and maths, history and geography. His best subject in high school was, as expected, English. So when he applied to college he went for linguistics. His classmates went for Medicine or Law or Politics but Junpei didn't want the responsibility over people's lives like that. So he just accepted that, hey, might as well study something I'm good at. I'll just become a high school English teacher or something. His parents were fine with whatever, he's their only child, at least he's good at something.

So then he went to university, and in his second & third year lived abroad in America as part of his linguistics degree. He lived like the average student in in the US of A, which unfortunately was like his only useful life experience immediately after the 2nd Nonary game [*]. At some point he watched Back To The Future to study how English was some decades before he was born, history of language yadda yadda (I've never spoken to someone who did linguistics so sorry if this sounds off). He's back in Japan for his fourth and final year and had a pretty exhausting day in a boring seminar when he returned to his dorm and got kidnapped.

After the whole second Nonary game fiasco, Junpei was travelling the world speaking the languages he learned: Japanese (mother tongue), English (fluent), Chinese (conversational), Spanish (picked up while in America). This took him far since he managed to hit the bullseye on pretty widely spoken languages it just so happened, but still he couldn't explain in words why he wanted to find Akane. If he loved her or not. After a while he needed money so he joined that detective agency™, it'll also help him find Akane, two birds one stone. Well, we saw how that turned out. Now he was both globetrotting AND traumatised!

He probably settled in America upon becoming a detective, dual citizenship ftw, and better not make mom and dad disappointed in his choice of job. They knew he dropped out but they knew his son was smart, he didn't need a degree to let his language skills flourish. They assumed he got a pretty good legal-related job and managed to talk himself into high wages. Oh, the wages were high alright, to make up for the shit he saw. Mr and Mrs Tenmyouji are just worried about their boy, who after November 2027 didn't really open up to them about anything. Sometimes mom would bring up That Girl You Were The Best Of Friends With but Junpei would just shrug. Dunno what happened to her.

After the decision game, Junpei just accepts how cool he is for being a humble polygot. Explaining the cool etymology of his astronomical family name to Astronomy major Phi (another headcanon for another day) is one of his favourite party tricks. He also wrote a think piece on Puns and the linguistic significance of cats after Sigma meowed too close to the sun.

TL;DR (I don't blame you if you didn't read all that yap) I like to think Junpei was a linguistics major. I'm a strong believer that he's a servant to social science because he's just like me fr.

[*] I think all the 2nd Nonary Game participants assumed they all got kidnapped from Japan. They probably all spoke Japanese during the Nonary game. Hence after the reveal that they're in Nevada, Junpei was designated How Tf Do We Get Back To Japan guy and What Do We Do In America expert.