"...imi...Mi...Mimi!"
Mimi's eyes flashed open at the loud shout that shook her senses. She breathed heavily as air surged into her lungs; as if her breathing was suddenly unblocked. Her eyes shook as they swept through her surroundings.
She felt a soft, gentle hand stroke her forehead that was soaked with cold sweat. Looking up at the person holding her in their arms, her eyes widened.
"Big sister?" Mimi's voice came out small and hoarse. When she heard her own voice, her eyes widened even further and she raised her hands.
Two small, tiny hands hovered in front of her. Her eyes blinked. Then, her hands went down to her chest where she felt...nothing.
She was a child!
Faced with the sudden realization, Mimi stared back at her eldest sister, who looked at her with a concerned gaze. Emily Hirogori rubbed her back to warm up her little body. It was only then that Mimi realized that she was trembling as if she had gotten a cold.
'Ah. So this was her father's new simulation.'
Her sister, her child body...none of it was real. Once Mimi realized this, her heart clenched a little.
"Are you okay?" Mimi heard her sister's soft, soothing voice ask.
Raising her bright violet eyes, Mimi blinked. She suddenly smiled. "I'm all right, big sister. I just had a nightmare."
Emily Hirogori frowned before she unraveled the covers and cuddled in beside her.
"Then I'll sleep with you to scare them away." Emily rubbed her cheek against Mimi's round, soft one.
Mimi giggled. "Big sister, that's not possible."
Emily scoffed. "Nonsense. Of course, it's possible. If your big sister is here, won't you only have good thoughts?"
Mimi went silent, and something briefly flashed before her eyes. At that moment, she shifted her little body and wrapped her arms around her sister. Startled by her sudden affectionate actions, Emily glanced down.
"Mimi?"
"Just for a while..." Mimi's voice murmured hoarsely. She sounded pitiful. "Just let me hug you for a while."
Even if it was a simulation, it felt so real. Even her scent was accurate. For a moment, it felt like her big sister was there.
Emily smiled softly and raised a hand to stroke the little girl's hair. She gently kissed her forehead before hugging her back.
"Hug all you want, because I'll always be here," Emily spoke softly against her head.
Listening to her words, Mimi's wrapped arms around her tightened.
'If only those words were true.'
...
Mimi didn't know when but she very quickly drifted off to sleep. When she woke up, she was no longer in her bed. And as expected, Emily was nowhere in sight. Mimi's body and face instantly scrunched up.
She would have never expected to wake up on a hard linoleum floor, surrounded by dried blood and an old newspaper.
Suddenly, a large hand shook her as if assuming she was asleep.
"Back in the closet," A man's thick voice ordered curtly.
He forced her up to stand on her feet, and Mimi glanced around.
It was a worn out house. This was probably a ransom exchange simulation when she looked at her appearance in the mirror. While her dress was torn and slightly dirtied from blood and dust, it couldn't hide how expensive it looked.
Mimi was pushed into the closet before the door slammed behind her. Hearing the distant slam of an outer door, she knew she was alone in the house. She couldn't scream for help since he didn't gag her, meaning they must have been far from people.
With a calm face, Mimi raised her tied up hands and took a hairpin from her hair. A moment later, she was poking blindly at the doorknob with the thin hairpin. She felt no sense of rejoicing when she heard the mechanism give and felt the doorknob turn in her hand.
To be honest, she was quite disappointed with this sloppy kidnapping simulation.
Mimi turned to the outer door, which led to the kitchen and ran out that door. It was night and, of course, the house was in a forest. It was foggy and hard to see in the dark, her vision was limited.
Then, there were gunshots.
Cursing under her breath, Mimi sped up her pace. Pushing through the cold grass and tall dark trees, she hardly knew where she was going until she detected the sound of cars passing by. Realizing she was near a road, she clenched her teeth and somehow found the strength to increase her speed.
As the sound of cars grew even louder, she finally sighed in relief. At that moment, she stood on the side of the road and quietly waited for a car to show up.
When car lights came in sight, she stood in the center of the cold road and raised her hands in the air. The car immediately stopped and a young man stepped out.
Without an expression on her face, Mimi approached the man and said: "I'm rich. I'll pay you if you drive me ten miles from here."
The man was stunned, but without a second thought, agreed. Mimi guessed the simulation made people stupid. Sitting in the passenger seat, Mimi asked him to remove her ties. He obediently did as he was told before driving forward.
While driving away from the area, Mimi saw on the side of the road in the woods the man who kidnapped her, staring at her with a strange, twisted smile on his face. She paid no heed to him and shut her eyes to fall asleep.
When she woke up again, it was morning. However, she was still in the car with the man who saved her. Glancing down, her shabby clothes were no longer dirty, but perfectly clean. She turned to look up at him and noticed his expression was rather peaceful as if they were two friends traveling together on the road.
Shifting her gaze to the window, Mimi saw they were now in the city.
'She missed Tobias.'
The two drove down the city, the location unknown. When they suddenly drove toward a crosswalk, Mimi's eyes widened in alarm at the sight before her.
"Stop the car!" She tried taking the wheel from the man, but as if programmed, he kept driving until he hit the figure in front of him.
The car jolted and as if finally realizing what had happened, the man panicked and stepped out of the car. A crowd formed and surrounded the figure lying in the center of the road.
Mimi stayed within the car; tension grew in her face and limbs, her mind replaying the scene that just took place.
Swallowing the lump in her throat, she opened the car door and stepped out. Not a sound was able to process through her ears as she walked over toward the crowd surrounding the body on the road. The closer she stepped, the more the panic in her heart grew.
With every step she took, the crowd moved aside, as if making way for her. When she made her way to the center, everything in her body crumbled. Pure terror surged through her veins, icy daggers straight to the heart.
"T-Tobias?"
Laying in the center of the crosswalk with blood pooling from his head, was Tobias. Mimi breathed heavily, suppressing her urge to scream like crazy.
'This wasn't real...none of this was...'
From the corner of her vision, she saw the man's eyes twitch. Without a care that it was a simulation, Mimi ran toward his side and grasped his bloodstained hand.
"Tobias?" Her voice cracked.
Tobias's brows furrowed in pain before very slowly, his eyes opened. As if recognizing who the figure kneeling in front of him was, his eyes softened.
"Mimi..." He murmured her name in his low, deep voice. His voice was as gentle as the wind.
Mimi lowered her head to see the same, unchanged soft expression on the man's face. Lifting her hand to touch his cold face, Mimi's heart clenched as she realized the outcome of his fate.
"Tobias...you're going to be okay, right?" She squeezed his hand even tighter. Despite knowing this wasn't true, she still couldn't help but ask.
It took a while for him to respond, his eyelids were slightly drooping. After a while, he chuckled with a slight knit in his brows - showing clear signs he was in pain.
"I said I would always be by your side, remember?" He replied naturally with a smile.
Hearing the certainty in his voice and the same indulging affection, a lump developed in her throat and before she knew it, something warm streamed down her cheeks.
"Why are you crying?" Tobias softly whispered.
He raised a trembling, bloodstained hand to her eyes, and wiped away the tears, but this only seemed to stain her cheeks with blood.
He noticed the sight and frowned. "Sorry."
Through teary eyes, Mimi laughed softly and shook her head. "Fool."
Unable to handle the depths of the man's affection, Mimi leaned forward and kissed him. The kiss was slow but full of love and emotion. Eyes closed, they savored the taste and softness of the other's lips as they moved lazily against each other.
When they finally parted, Mimi felt his large hand stroking her cheek. Despite his cold touch, she still felt warm.
"I love you," Tobias said in a near whisper.
Holding the hand on her cheek, Mimi smiled. "I love you too."
Tobias's mouth curved in a smile until just like that, his eyes closed and the hand holding her cheek went limp. Mimi's body and heart felt numb. With glazed eyes, she stroked the man's cheek and closed her eyes.
She no longer wanted to feel these painful emotions. She wondered how long it would be until she was nothing but a broken, empty shell.
In the end...the Hirogori training succeeded.