John and Mikoto are headmates, at least one of whom had killed someone, which put them into the supernatural prison of MILGRAM.
Their relationship throughout the story is rather one-sided: Mikoto, while trying his best to keep up appearances and be friendly with all other prisoners and the Warden, finds his image of a "successful", conforming person very important, and is horrified of the idea itself of John potentially existing, as well as due to the lack of communication has a very negative view of his actions. John, in turn, having seen Mikoto at his lowest around the time he split, is incredibly protective of Mikoto, thinks of him as a very moral person who always does his best, and would do anything to ensure his comfort, no matter if it harms himself.
Trial 1 (Season 1)[]
During the first trial, Mikoto consistently reaffirms that he is unaware of any murders he could have committed and brushes off the consistent lapses in his memory, as he doesn't know about John's existence or himself having Dissociative Identity Disorder altogether.
Mikoto's first Trial music video, "MeMe", is often visually concentrated on Mikoto's confusion and subconscious fear of the unknown – John often is drawn in it with his eyes hidden, and the middle of the MV contains a scene where Mikoto falls to the ground with a horrified expression on his face, with John seemingly standing behind him. However, the song itself is a duet, and John's part of the lyrics is often concentrated on his attachment to Mikoto and his overall objective throughout MILGRAM to protect him.
“You don’t have to keep it in and hide it away / 'I' will save 'me' / Snuggle together and say 'Good night'”
— John, in MeMe
John's main appearance in the Trial 1 voice drama happens when he fights the prison warden, Es, after they bring Mikoto to the brink of a panic attack during the interrogation.
Post-Trial 1 Intermission[]
John and Kotoko draw in a fight during Kotoko's attacks on the prisoners who received "not forgiven" verdicts, with Mikoto as her first target.
In a timeline conversation for Kotoko's birthday on Dec. 15, 2022, after Kotoko threatens to kill Mikoto in the next fight they have, John yells and swears that he'll "crush anyone who tries to harm" Mikoto.
In a timeline conversation for Mikoto's birthday on Oct. 6, 2023, Mikoto appears to be questioning John's potential existence, asking for his motives in committing a murder. John answers that everything he did was for Mikoto's sake, but Mikoto is unable to hear him.
Trial 2 (Season 2)[]
The second trial music video is primarily from John's point of view, depicting the situation the two were in before MILGRAM. John there one-sidedly laments about Mikoto being too harsh on himself, overworking and constantly being under high amounts of stress; he believes Mikoto is already doing his best and that is enough. Since he's unable to stop Mikoto himself, he promises to protect him and take on the problems for him. He also subconsciously wishes for Mikoto's approval, asking him in the lyrics to "cling to" him and sing his gratitude towards him.
In Mikoto's second trial voice drama Mikoto mentions that he's come to a realization his blips in memory aren't simply a case of bad memory, however, unlike the previous timeline conversation, he tells Es he's decided it must be a case of "sleepwalking". John, in turn, discloses to Es that he was supposedly the true culprit behind the murders, begging them to forgive Mikoto, and repeats that Mikoto is a person of pure heart and could never be involved in killing someone. He also promises Es that if they vote Mikoto "forgiven" he will eventually "disappear" (likely implying alter dormancy), burying any knowledge of the murder with himself so it can never bother Mikoto again.
At the end of the voice drama Es tells Mikoto that John is someone who is his friend, to which Mikoto replies that he doesn't know anyone by that name.
During prisoner 09's Trial 2 interrogation, John and Mikoto are asked several questions related to each other, with a switch happening after Mikoto is unable to handle some of the questions about the murder. In question 6, Mikoto admits to feeling uneasy about John's potential existence. According to question 7, he's implied to believe John is the one responsible for the attacks on "unforgiven" prisoners between the first and second Trials, which were in actuality committed by Kotoko; although the answer can also be read as him simply being disgusted by the idea of John doing "something like [what happened to the attacked prisoners]" - ie, harming or killing somebody.
“Q.07: What are your thoughts on Mahiru [one of the attacked prisoners]? A.07: It's cruel / To think I did something like that / I can't just go along with it”
John later in the interrogation answers the question of what violence means to him vaguely, saying he'd only done it to help Mikoto. He also says anything that troubles Mikoto is unforgivable to him, that if there's one thing he would protect at the cost of his existence, it's Mikoto's life, and that he'd like to apologize to Mikoto for everything that happened. A switch happens again afterwards, potentially implying answering that last question was too heavy for John.
Quotes[]
Kotoko – “…What a carefree person you are. Someone as atrocious as you won't be forgiven next time too, surely. When that time comes, it'll be your last. Next time, I'll kill you.”
John – “Haah? Why don't you try it then, you lunatic. I'll crush anyone who tries to harm 'me'… I'll make sure to thoroughly beat you at your own game…!”
Mikoto – “Is it true… There's really another me? These tattered clothes, and scaring everyone, it's all because of him. They say I'm a murderer… Isn't it unreasonable to expect me to believe that? …Can you hear me talking like this? If you can hear me, then answer me. Why are you doing such horrible things? Hey. It's your fault things have become like this. …Answer me!”
John – “Ah, ahhh!! Because, I did it for your sake…! Because you would break apart!”
Mikoto – “What am I doing…? There's no way you'll conveniently give me an answer. I should just stop thinking about everything already… I'm so tired…”
“Welcome home, another day, another day with that hardly barely there of a smile / Keeping things at bay, you're doing your best / 'No, I need to do more…' say what? You're going to break”
— John to Mikoto, in Double
“Just the two of us, relieved, aren't you? I'll protect you (us)”
— John to Mikoto, in Double
“Hey now, I saved you, right? / So why in the hell are you crying? / Cling to me, hoist me up as your 'savior' / Stand up and sing your gratitude”
— John to Mikoto, in Double
John – “Yeah. I… probably come out to ease the stress he experiences. The fact that I come out for longer just means that he's constantly under extreme stress.”
Es – “Stress… Namely the environment of MILGRAM, right?”
John – “Right. Your decision to not forgive him is especially stress-inducing. That's why he's entrusting me with his heart.”
“Just put yourself in his shoes for a moment! He was bottling up all his stress! Kept dealing with it all by himself the whole time until it exploded! It's not like he just decided he wanted to hurt somebody! He's not the kind of person who could do stuff like that! He always looks out for others, always reads the room, tries to get along with everyone around him! He couldn't do something like that… He was on the verge of exploding! That's why I was born. It's obvious, isn't it? He didn't do anything!”
“I think… I might be the person he wishes he were. The person who stubbornly stands his ground, who doesn't cry himself to sleep from stress, who gives people their just desserts. If I hadn't been born, I'm sure he would've reached his limit and fallen apart.”
“If you forgive him… then I'll disappear. That's right. I'll have to disappear eventually, anyway… Disappear, and take it all with me. I was… born to protect him, after all.”
Prisoner 09's Trial 2 cover song, interpreted by many fans to be a duet between Mikoto and John.
Fanon[]
0909 is a quite popular ship in the fandom, with a large fanbase on Twitter. It started to rise in popularity on other platforms since the release of Mikoto's Trial 2 music video and related voice drama.
In the fandom, the ship is often interpreted as John being one-sidedly in love with Mikoto, with Mikoto being unaware of his existence altogether or having conflicting feelings about him, or, primarily in an environment post-MILGRAM, with the two of them learning to cohabitate and living together happily.
On AO3, both tags John/Kayano Mikoto and Kayano Mikoto/Kayano Mikoto are listed in top 10 most written ships for the MILGRAM fandom. It has 50+ works romantically. 0909 is John's most written ship, as well as Mikoto's second most written ship, mostly rivaled by the most popular MILGRAM ship on AO3, Mikofuu, as well as ships like Shidomiko, Kotomiko and Mikomappi to a lesser degree. Shipping involving the two with some of the other prisoners, like Fuuta or Shidou, or a fan-theorised third alter in the system, also occasionally happens.
September 9th, as the ninth day of the ninth month of the year, is considered by many fans an unofficial holiday of the ship, and fanworks are often made dedicated to it.
As Mikoto and John use a different first person pronoun, "boku" for Mikoto and "ore" for John, John also uses these versions of "I/me" to differentiate between the two of them, and rarely ever uses their names – except the end of Mikoto's second Trial voice drama "Neoplasm", in which he emphasizes that it was him, John, and not Mikoto, who committed a murder.
In the fandom, John is also commonly called "Orekoto" due to the aforementioned fact.
Both Mikoto and John first mishear John's name as "Jan", a popular Japanese dog name, when Es offers to name John in "Neoplasm".
A few official artworks, such as the Double MV cover and 2nd Anniversary-related art, depict John and Mikoto with the expression on their face divided between the two of them. Of them, in the 2nd Anniversary official illustration of the ninth prisoner has the hand on John's side hugging the hand on Mikoto's.
Mikoto in Undercover
Several moments in the Undercover MV show Mikoto with his cheek cupped, which is often interpreted by the fans as showing John trying to comfort him.
In a tweet from Oct. 6, 2023, MILGRAM writer Takuya Yamanaka discloses Mikoto's birthday flower being liriope, and points out the flower shares a name with the mother of Narcissus, a figure in Greek mythology who fell in love with his face reflected in the water.
The official art for Mikoto's birthday from 2021 depicts him with a liriope flower as well, sitting on a half-and-half birthday cake. The cake design is the only one to visually parallel a wedding cake of another character, Kazui Mukuhara.
Gallery[]
MeMe: Mikoto, fallen down in the prisoner mindscape
MeMe: John standing behind Mikoto inside the prisoner mindscape
Double: John and Mikoto standing in front of each other with their hands covered in paint
Double Cover
Mikoto's 2021 birthday cake art
2nd Anniversary official illustration of Prisoner 009
