Warning: The following chapter may contain some explicit and uncomfortable content for some viewers. Reader discretion is advised.
"What? What do you mean by that? How can Mizuki not be Mizuki?"
"I'm saying…That isn't her. Can't you tell?"
I shook my head. I don't see anything at all. Either Saki's pulling my leg or this situation is much worse than we thought.
I stared at Mizuki. Could Saki be right? She had been acting sus since the lights turned on. But maybe she was just spooked by our situation?
"Hey, you. Fuck off, bitch. Stop looking at me like I got shit on my face."
We (as in Kuro and I) stared at Mizuki in shock. That voice sounded like Mizuki. Her face looked like Mizuki. But the words were definitely not Mizuki.
Mizuki never, I mean never, uses vulgar language. The rest of us can't say the same about it, but I mean it when I say Mizuki never curses. She's always sweet and caring. Quiet sometimes, but her actions speak louder than her words.
Saki was right. This can't be Mizuki. There's no way.
I took a step closer to 'Mizuki' and leveled my weapon at her throat.
"Who are you? Where is she?"
Mizuki, no, the imposter, maliciously grinned at me.
"What do you mean, little girl? You blind? Mizuki's right in front of you. You're looking at her right now."
A vein almost popped in Kuro's forehead and he clenched his fists.
"You are not Mizuki. Don't even dare to pretend you are."
Almost ready to burst in anger, I added,
"Call me that again and see what happens to your smile."
The imposter howled in laughter, almost falling over. Wiping tears from her eyes, she smirked at us.
"Oh, you innocent, little girl. I'm not as easy to kill as you seem to think. And by the way, I never said that I was Mizuki, did I? You all just decided that yourselves."
She's not Mizuki? But who else could be? Who else was in front of us? The guy she had supposedly killed? Who was…a corpse. Nah, there's no way.
Wait a sec. This new information almost managed to make me forget the fact she had called me a little girl again. Almost. And she had purposely smirked at us before speaking—as if she had known I wouldn't kill her right away because we need information.
My knuckles turned white as I gripped my katana tighter.
Kuro placed his hand over mine–quietly holding me back.
"Who are you?"
The imposter's mouth curled into a twisted smile. No, wait. Her entire face was twisting and morphing. The features blended together and smoothed out to become a white, oval mask with facial features painted on in black ink. Curved, squinting eyes, and a gigantic smile. Her body lengthened, growing taller and more muscular. Her curves smoothed out and were filled in with corded muscles. Her hair retracted into her scalp and shimmered from long, brown hair to short, jet-black hair. Where the Mizuki look-alike had been standing was now a tall man wearing a smiling mask and flipping us off.
I was petrified. The way he shifted to his true form brought back dark memories.
Looking at our baffled faces and gaping mouths, the man read the question that was on all of our minds.
"Secrets are meant to be kept as secrets. Label me however you want, you egotistical scum. But you're not getting anything info out of this pie hole. Besides, my bitch brother would probably castrate me if I told you."
Reaching into his shadow, the man pulled out a pitch black scythe. Then, with one flick of his wrist, the far wall gained a door with the destroyed ends of pipes and wires spewing steam and sparks everywhere. Escape route acquired, he kicked the body at his feet towards us. Flipping it over.
"Thanks for letting me borrow her. I'll be on my way now."
Saki swung her blade in anger toward him, but before the blade even reached him, he was already gone. He was too fast.
Sure I would regret it, I looked down.
Grayish hands peeked out from the sleeves of a black jacket. A still chest that never drew breath. Long hair fanned out on the floor. A mask covered the corpse's face.
I sank to my knees. Slowly. Very slowly. I reached out for the mask. Mizuki's mask.
Just before my fingertips touched the mask, I hesitated. What if I didn't want to actually know what was under the mask? There was no way it could be something good.
No. We have to know. For Mizuki.
I yanked off the mask in one swift motion. And froze.
The room went dead silent.
Mizuki's face was frozen in an expression of pure terror.
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Moonlight from outside poured into the dark room from the gaping hole left by the man behind the mask.
I desperately shook Mizuki's cold body, trying to get a response from her. Any response.
But nothing.
Nothing but the ice cold, slowly stiffening body of our teammate.
I felt something shatter inside me. Broken, I looked up at Kuro. But I found no solace in his empty eyes. Instead, it was Saki who kneeled down next to me and wrapped me in her arms. Pulling me in towards her chest, she murmured comfortingly in my ear.
"Don't hold it in. It's ok. I'm here. I'll stay with you as long as you need. It'll be okay. Everything will be okay. Just let it out. I won't leave. I promise."
This gentle, out-of-character Saki was the last blow. I crumbled sobbing in her arms.
"What do I do? What do we do without Mizuki? She…she was like an older sister. She was the first one who accepted me when I joined the Egotistics. Now who's gonna cook for us when we go on long missions?"
Saki patted me comfortingly on the back the entire time.
When I had calmed down, Kuro gently picked up Mizuki's body in a princess carry.
"Let's go home. There's nothing left for us to do here. Let's take her home."
Saki and I solemnly nodded in agreement and followed him out the door.
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"…here to honor the passing of a dedicated member of Squad 5, Mizuki. She died bravely in battle, defending her squad to her last breath. And thus, she deserves one of the highest recognitions that I, leader of the Egotistics, can bestow upon a fallen member. Norman, would you do the honors?"
Norman, looking more solemn than I had ever seen him before, slowly climbed the steps to the platform. He was dressed in a formal black suit and had a white rose tucked into his breast pocket. In his hands was a red velvet box with gold trim. He turned to the small crowd of people who had been close to Mizuki and revealed a small, black plaque with gold lettering engraved on it.
"I hereby invite the members of Squad 5 to join us on stage and complete the ceremony by placing their fallen squadmate's plaque on the Wall of the Remembered."
To be honest, I had been in a sort of daze for the whole ceremony, but I snapped back to the present when I saw Kuro and Saki starting to move toward the stage.
Joining them, the three of us matched each other step by step as we approached Boss and Norman. As we drew closer, I read the gold lettering on the plaque.
Mizuki
Squad 5
04/23/2050
Honorably sacrificed her life
to save her squadmates.
Never forgotten.
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After the ceremony, Kuro, Saki, and I had a private meeting with Boss and Norman. We told them everything that had happened during our mission.
While we were talking, Norman stroked his beard. Thinking deeply about something. Meanwhile, Boss became increasingly concerned as we got further and further into the story.
"We've had incidents in the past where there were threats towards our organization, but none of them included shapeshifters."
Norman leaned in closer to Boss and started whispering towards him. It was inaudible to us, but I guess whatever Norman said was bad because Boss's expression was like he had bitten into a sour lemon.
Saki stepped in and spoke out.
"Well…care to enlighten us with your thoughts?"
Norman stepped away from Boss, and Boss cleared his throat.
"It's all a speculation, but we believe this 'masked man' that attacked you may be a member of the Obake Clan, one of the three ancient calamity clans in Seokyo."
Confused, we all looked at each other questioningly. Why would some ancient clan be important as to who the man was? Kuro asked Boss and Norman the question we were all dying to ask.
"What's the deal about these 'ancient clans'? What significance does it even have with the death of Mizuki?"
Norman waved at us to sit down, then started talking.
"Look kiddos, I don't want you young'uns to ever experience what we did in the past. I'm going to share some history, and I want you kids to promise me that if you ever encounter people like the ones I'm about to describe, run away as fast as you can and don't look back."
All of us are on the edge of our seats. We all looked at each other and nodded in unison so Norman would tell us more.
Norman smiled, sighed, and started talking. Boss leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. Guess it's not a happy story.
"Long ago, before Seokyo Institute was founded and created, the government kidnapped people to use as human subjects. Their goal was to 'gift' these lab rats with abilities, then breed the superpowers to create weapons of war. There were 87 reported disappearances (and probably another 50 that weren't reported), but only three came out alive. The rest of the subjects were brutally killed by the extreme experiments. Fortunately, the 3 who survived all succeeded and had different abilities. One person could shapeshift and mimic other subjects, another manipulated blood, and the last was able to heal any wound no matter how terrible the damage was. The government then built the Seokyo Institute. A place where they locked each of the three subjects in the basement with a mistress or master in hopes of creating offspring with their powers, which tragically worked..."
I shuddered in disgust. I knew the government was terrible, but doing this against their own will? It sickened me. Norman continued on.
"...The three people later founded three clans: Obake, Nitäl, and Kvasir. They later became known as the Clans of Calamity with clan members possessing the abilities of their respective founders."
Norman took a deep breath and finally revealed the most crucial information.
"I believe the person you encountered belonged to the Obake Clan, the Clan of Shapeshifters."
The mood in the room darkened. So much information has been revealed, but I needed to know more, so I spoke out.
"Where are these clan members now? Do they all work for the government?"
Norman shook his head.
"From what I know, the clans were actually a major part of the revolution in the Raid of Seokyo Institute. After the raid, they spread out to different regions of Seokyo. Not everyone in the Clans of Calamity is evil."
Boss chimed in while lighting a cigarette.
"We actually have some members of the Calamity Clans working here in the Egotistics."
We leaped out of our chairs, shocked by the sudden news.
"WHO?"
Boss chuckled at our surprised expressions.
"Don't worry. You'll meet my Willows very soon."
Willows? I'm assuming it's probably the code names Boss gave the group. We let out a groan but at least he didn't say we would never meet them. It's not impossible.
The clock chimed and Norman got out of his seat.
"I think that's pretty much it on what I have to tell you guys."
He brushed his hands and opened the door for us.
"Alright kiddos, let's leave Boss to his cigar. Don't want you inhaling his cigar smoke."
We had no more questions about the clans or their history, so we stood up and filed out of the office. However, before we returned to our dorms, Norman stopped us and whispered.
"Also, keep this a secret from the others, will ya? It's confidential and it's the first time we've heard anything about the clans since the raid. Don't want to start a revolt or anything down here ya know."
Kuro, Saki, and I all nodded in agreement as Norman gave us his typical gleeful smile. We walked to our dorms to rest. I wanted to think more about the clans and their history, but all I could think about was Mizuki.
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Opening the dorm room door, a glimpse of Mizuki's belongings drenched me in memories of her and me.
Overwhelmed, I rushed out of the room and slammed my fists on the kitchen table.
"What did she see? What could have terrified her literally to death?"
My throat choked up. We'll never see Mizuki's smile again. We'll never hear her laugh or listen to her lectures. She'd never banter with Norman again or train with us in the training room. She wouldn't be there to calm us down when Kuro and I got heated up.
She was gone. Forever.
Maybe Mizuki wasn't the one to shine the brightest and stand out above others, but she was always there to support us. We would never have gotten this far without her. Who did that creepy smiling dude think he was to kill a member of our team? Of our family.
I looked at Kuro. His head was buried in his hands. He's blaming himself for her death. I know he is. Because I'm doing the same thing. It's only been a couple of days but we're still mourning. She was more like family to me and Kuro.
We all panicked when the lights went out. And it only got worse when Mizuki was separated from us. We didn't know how to react.
No, that's not where we first went wrong. I should've stopped them when I noticed the suspicious guards. Or at least when we entered. It was so obviously a trap. But we walked right in like headless chickens.
Saki looked at our gloomy expressions. She couldn't help but speak out.
"I know you guys think I'm being insensitive, but you can't just sit here moping all day long. Yes, Mizuki is gone. Yes, we could've all handled things better, but we can't change the past. If you think just sitting around crying and begging for sympathy is going to make Mizuki's soul rest, you're wrong. She was a rebel. She was a fighter. She was an Egotistic. But we now know the abilities of the person who killed her, so instead of us asking for sympathy, let's make the person who killed Mizuki beg US for sympathy."
I blinked. Saki's words hit home. She was right. Mizuki wouldn't want us to break down because of her. She'd want us to get back up and continue fighting. It doesn't matter how many times we get knocked down, the winner is the one who can stand up one more time than they were knocked down.
"Ok, Saki. Go get your gear. Let's go practice."
Kuro interrupted our conversation.
"Count me in too. I can't stand feeling useless. Let's go."
Saki pondered it for a bit, then nodded.
"I'll fuckin kill him."
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Whack.
"GAHHHHH I MISSED ONE, AGAIN! HEY OLD GEEZER. WHY'D YOU MAKE THIS SO HARD?"
Norman looked up from his desk and laughed.
"This is training, not play, Saki. It wouldn't be training if it were too easy."
Saki sighed loudly—making everyone laugh. We had all been struggling to finish this obstacle course for the past few days, but no one had been able to beat the last challenge.
This course seriously had everything you could think of. Rock climbing walls, tightropes, mud pits, moving platforms, falling objects, monkey bars, swinging vines, flying fruit…literally everything. And the last part is easily the worst. The person completing the obstacle course has to perfectly block attack 20 dummies coming straight at you all at once without getting hit at all, and the worst part is…you only get one chance. If you get hit, it's the next person's turn and you have to do the entire course all over again.
"Yui, your turn!"
I groaned, making everyone laugh again. Obstacle courses are such a pain in the ass. Why can't they just make up their mind about what kind of challenge they want to give us?
Saki bumped me with her shoulder.
"Aw, come on Yui. Remember what we're doing this for?"
"You're right. Ok, let's do this. Imma complete this course before you can even say you're hungry."
Saki clapped me on the back, knocking me into the course.
"That's the spirit!"
Then I fell into the pit.
Everyone was roaring with laughter at what just happened to me. I stood up and brushed my clothes, then sent a scalding glare at Saki, who was on top of the course.
"...whoops-"
I climbed the ladder and went to the back of the line to wait my turn once more. Ouch. I rubbed my butt. That fall kinda hurt a little.
Suddenly, the door to the Egotistic base swung open, accompanied by a booming voice.
"WE'REEE BACKKKKK!!!"