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'Lies don't fit snugly into disguises. Eventually the cloak falls off and you're left staring at the naked truth which is always an uncomfortable situation'
—Richelle E. Goodrich

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The large glowing sphere descended slowly into the already darkening sky, giving it a beautiful apricot colour and signalling that dusk had arrived. But as beautiful as the evening was shaping up to be, the day was going to be anything but good.

Yasuo and Nobuo ran ahead, lugging a traumatized Tadashi behind them. The bodyguards had stopped chasing them quite a while ago and since it was late, nobody was seen in the vicinity around them.

Silence loomed over the two ahead, each lost amidst their own thoughts. Tadashi, on the other hand, couldn't feel anything yet. As if his body had gone into withdrawal mode, rejecting every thought and everything he was doing, he was just blank.

While they were running, Tadashi's cell phone vibrated in his pocket and he stopped running. Unsteadily, he reached for his phone and put it to his ear without even checking the Caller ID.

"Hello, Matsumoto," Ayame's voice echoed over the receiver. Tadashi felt his heart skip a beat. "What happened?" she asked, her voice as monotoned as usual. "Where are you? Are you all right?"

Am I all right? Tadashi's mind processed it slowly. Images of what had just happened flashed through his head and he began shaking, suppressing his whiny snuffles and the urge to puke. Shinzo.

Yasuo, noticing Tadashi's reaction, snatched his phone out of his grasps and put it to his ear.

"Hey, Kobayashi. Could you tell everyone to meet up at the school?"

Ayame took a while to respond. "Something happened, correct?"

"Yeah," Yasuo replied in a shaky tone.

Ayame inhaled a breath. "Got it. The CRF clubroom is fine, isn't it? I'll get everyone I could reach to come. However..." She stopped for a pause before whispering, "Is Matsumoto all right?"

Yasuo gave the trembling brunet a small glance. Gritting his teeth, he looked away from him. "We'll see you there," he said, and hung up immediately.

Yasuo tugged Tadashi his way, not bearing to look him in the eyes. Nothing but guilt washed over the seemingly fearless teen.

"Let's go."

☻ ☺ ☻

Ryuu, Haru, Akira and Ayame were already present in the room when they arrived. Worried expressions were painted on all—well, mostly all—of their faces, and Ryuu raced up to Tadashi once he walked in.

"Tadashi, you—"

Ryuu's words caught in his throat when Tadashi ignored him and merely walked toward the back of the room to take a seat. Ryuu took in Tadashi's despondent expression as he stared blankly towards the ground, distributing no signs of emotions or interest in whatever was happening.

Ryuu's dark brown eyes were as wide as saucers. "Tadashi... What..."

"Are you all right, Tadashinn?" Haru spoke up, stepping up to the silent brunet. He tilted his head to the side, holding up his snack with a weak smile. "Want it? If you eat it, I'm sure you'll feel better. It's a new flavour, and—"

Tadashi's head rose to look at his orange-haired friend. At the sight of the tears threatening to spill down his face, Haru's hazel coloured eyes widened, and the words instantly got lodged in his throat.

Tadashi lowered his head, cupping his face in his hands. Vivid images flashed through his mind. Her body, limp and hitting the floor. The blood gushing from her wound. His uselessness to even stop the situation—to even save her.

Everyone shot worried glances in Tadashi's direction, not knowing how to react to it. Tadashi was always the one with the most optimistic view of these events. The most cheerful even when everyone wasn't. They had never seen him like this before, so they didn't know what to do about it.

Ayame Kobayashi swallowed hard before clearing her throat and breaking the dreadful sounds of Tadashi's quiet sobs. She turned her gaze to both Yasuo and Nobuo, her eyes narrowed, her expression stoic.

"What happened?"

Ayame's words were enough to snap everyone's attention to the two. Ryuu, who was clenching his fists at the sight of Tadashi, glared at them hard for an explanation. Haru, despite looking blank, expected an answer also, along with a worried Akira.

Yasuo took a deep breath before replying, "Shinzo, she..."

At his pause of not being able to convey the message, Nobuo spoke up instead.

"Worst case scenario, Izumi Shinzo is dead."

Everyone's reactions were similar. Shock enveloped every single person, including Tadashi.

Dead? No...

"What do you mean?" Akira's voice trembled as she put a hand over her mouth. "Izumi was just alive hours ago! We saw her!"

Nobuo avoided her gaze. It was his fault for not reacting in time. He should've acted without listening to Yasuo or another one of his students wouldn't have had to suffer.

"There's no way she's dead!" Akira shouted, before running up to Tadashi. She seized his hands pleadingly. "Right? That isn't true, right?"

Tadashi didn't move. He stared at the ground, his own shock of everything getting the best of him. Akira, uneasy at his reaction, backed away slowly.

"No..."

Ayame furled her fingers into fists before knitting her eyebrows together. "Ishikawa, Mr. Nobuo, tell us in detail what exactly happened."

☻ ☺ ☻

The small building in the far off corners of Kyoto was for overseeing whatever was occurring in the large city, and only the small-status Inohara family was aware of it. Many cameras and monitors were set up inside and workers came in and out of the place for their work. But a certain group was able to enter and view everything even without permission from the boss of the place. And this very group just happened to be inside this building right now.

Screams and yells travelled quite the distance from the building and Katsura Inohara shut her eyes to tune them out. Nausea washed over the female, but she gulped back all traces of it. She brought him here on her own accord to help stop the disaster. She had no right to complain with his methods.

It did go against what her parents had told her, but she had no choice. For her mistake, her family was going to suffer. And she wasn't going to let that happen no matter what.

After what seemed like hours, the front entrance of the building slid open. Out came a male wearing a black ski mask over his face and plaid clothing. He held a computer chip in his hand and despite just meeting him for the first time, Katsura knew he was smirking from ear to ear.

"Are you done?" she asked him.

The male laughed sinisterly in response, "Of course I am."

Just like on the phone, his voice came out deep and husky. It didn't match the body in front of her. He was definitely using a chip to change his voice.

"Actually, I was done a long time ago," he went on, shrugging dismissively. "But controlling them and seeing their reactions were pretty hilarious so I couldn't help it."

Katsura shivered at his tone. It was malevolent; one enough to invade your nightmares for an entire lifetime.

Her gaze slid toward the open building doors which were coated in fresh blood, much like the mastermind standing before her.

"Don't worry, Katsura. I didn't kill them," the male said after noticing her reaction. "I just had to immobilize them for a while."

Katsura didn't even want to know what "immobilizing" meant to this male. Instead, Katsura opened her mouth to ask a question, "Why are you doing this?"

"Why?" he repeated with a snort. "That's wrong, Katsura." He let out a scary laugh. "Shouldn't you be asking me to remove my mask? I'm right in front of you~!"

She swallowed hard and his green tinted hues met hers.

"Don't you want to know who I am?"

Katsura clenched her teeth but deciding not to let her emotions get the best of her, she bit her lip. "You'd show me?"

Amused, the male chirped, "Nope~! But that wasn't a very fun reaction now was it? I did help you didn't I?"

"You look more content than I do."

"Hmm, true. But are you telling me I should be sad after I willingly helped you stop the disaster before it manifested?"

Katsura narrowed her eyes into slits. "What are you planning? Didn't you want to kill everyone in the CRF? Then why help me?"

"You seem to have the wrong idea about me, Katsura."

The brunette flinched at his sudden change of tone. All traces of his cheerfulness dissipated.

"I'm not trying to kill you all. It's a game. One where victory will be decided once everything's played out the way I want. And you and the Kitoshi's; they're apart of the plan to make it happen."

He sneered arrogantly, holding up the computer chip in his hand.

"As for the deaths... Once I get bored of someone, I get rid of them." He crushed the chip in his hand, a wide smirk painted under the mask he wore. "As simple as that."

A high-pitched scream belonging to a woman enveloped the entire area, startling Katsura. Her head snapped towards the building where she saw a new puddle of blood curl out and spill over the steps. A feeling in her gut told Katsura that the person had now died, along with the others the male said he had "immobilized."

Waving over his shoulder, he turned to leave. "It was nice meeting you, Katsura. Let's meet again in the futu—"

Katsura raced after him before he could leave, grabbing him forcefully by the shoulders. "Wait! You just—"

At her touch, the male's body instantly crumpled to the floor, limp and unmoving. Heart stopped, Katsura stared down at it, both perplexed and freaked out. Little blue and red sparks flew about the thing, catching the female off guard. Quickly bending down next to the body, she didn't hesitate to pull off the mask, only to find herself staring at a robotic, jerking piece of metal with a microphone attached to the mouth and a lifeless human head occupying the top of it. Katsura screamed at the sight of it, spiralling backwards and landing on her butt.

The mastermind had tricked her.

Through her shock, she noticed the small index card laying on the body of the robot. The sight of the thing caused Katsura to fill up with anger. Spiteful with rage, she slammed her fist into the ground, leaving a dent in the process. He killed them on purpose... He used her to get to this location to kill all the Kitoshi's. He wasn't planning on civilly resolving the disaster at all!

'I left you something special inside. Check it out before the police take it away. Please consider it a present from me to you. I've got to thank you for being so gullible, after all.'