The silence in the room was heavy, as if the atmosphere itself had solidified. Then it happened.
Tokura Yoshi's eyes, which were still stretched out in the air, snapped open. But they were no longer the eyes of before. The white had completely disappeared, and in its place was only an absolute abyss of blackness, as if his soul had been swallowed by the darkness itself.
Instantly, the three girls - Lizes, Charlotte and Haruka - froze. Not as one who is shocked or frozen by fear... but completely immobilised. Every muscle in their bodies stopped responding. Pupils dilated, lips tensed. A petrification without a spell. A punishment without visible form.
-Lizes," said Yoshi, his voice strangely firm, deep, commanding.
The silver-haired girl trembled... on the inside. She could feel the sweat running down her back, her chest heaving from rapid breathing... but she couldn't move. Her body was rebelling against her, as if someone else was driving it.
-Deactivate the shackles.
The order was not a cry or a plea. It was simply a truth that could not be ignored.
-N-no..." he wanted to say, but his lips did not move. Only his conscience screamed.
And without his consent, without his will, his fingers lifted. The magic flowed, flickered, and the seal on the walls flickered before unravelling like a severed ribbon.
The magical chains that held Yoshi in place shattered into dust in mid-air.
He fell sideways, staggering, but not with weakness: with restrained tension. He rested his palms on the ground with a low groan, and as he rose, his face twisted.
-Tsk... damn...! -How many times... how many times did I tell you it wasn't him?
He stood up fully, his breathing ragged with a mixture of physical pain and emotional fury. He rubbed his wrists hard, as if trying to tear away the invisible mark they had left on him.
-Do you know the things I had to go through all this time... because of you?
He turned slowly, his eyes still tinged with black, looking at each of them as if they were a sentence.
-Do you have any idea what I went through... with no one to help me?
His words were like daggers thrown with precision. Each sentence, a wound.
-How I could hardly sleep, for fear of being found? How I had to hide like the plague? Always watching the shadows in case you guys showed up?
The hatred in his voice was not burning. It was cold. Painful. Direct.
-Why...? -Why do I have to pay for crimes I didn't commit? Why do I have to suffer... just because of the whim of bitches like you?
The words tore through the air like whips. None of them moved. Not an inch. But inside... they were screaming.
Yoshi looked down. Something in his expression cracked. A tremor in his cheek... a vein in his neck... and then he simply began to laugh.
A laugh. Dry. Broken. Macabre.
He held his head in both hands as he looked around him as if discovering a new and terrifying universe.
-Heh... heh... heh... heh... why the hell... did I spend so much time begging for your understanding? Why did I humiliate myself in front of you? -He stopped in his tracks. If I was going to be seen as him anyway... as Hideyoshi...
His smile widened. Too wide.
-Well..." he muttered, looking up with a fury that no longer seemed human. I will become him.
The silence became unbreathable.
-Come on, Hideyoshi," he said, speaking into the void. I know you're there. I don't know if you are just a voice, an echo, or the real you... but listen to me.
He leaned forward slightly, his expression distorted with a sick mixture of enthusiasm and dementia.
-I give you the opportunity to join me... in this cruel revenge.
He laughed again. Louder. More broken. Sicker.
The three girls looked at him. With horror. With despair. With a fear that surpassed anything they had ever experienced before. Because what they saw was no longer Yoshi. But it wasn't Hideyoshi either. It was something new. Something worse.
And then everything stopped.
The laughter ceased. The darkness in his eyes slowly faded... and a new look took its place.
It wasn't Yoshi's trembling gaze, nor the beastly look of before. It was something different. Calm. Precise. Serenely cruel.
-Liz," he called, in a calm voice.
She did not answer. But her eyes were pleading.
-Give me a blade.
His body responded. A magical obsidian blade formed in his hand. She threw it at him. And he caught it with ease, without even looking at it. Without hesitation.
-What? -Charlotte whispered.
Yoshi - or whatever he was now - brought the blade to the place where the wound had been cauterised earlier. And without hesitation, without even a frown... he cut.
A clean cut. Cruel. Brutal.
The blood flowed again. In spurts.
-Haruka," he called. Come over here.
The pale young woman, already lying on the floor, felt her body rise on its own. Like a puppet without strings.
-Use your regenerative magic here.
Her lips opened without his permission. And he muttered the incantation. A green and white glow covered the wound... and little by little, the lost flesh returned. The body regenerated. Everything... except its humanity.
But Yoshi wasn't finished yet.
He leaned towards Haruka. He whispered something inaudible. Her eyes widened with dread.
-No... no... no...! -he shouted mentally.
But his body was already acting. A new spell formed.
And then... the regenerated part... expanded. Brutally.
The three girls went blank. They blanched. Haruka, especially, almost fainted.
Yoshi... smiled.
-Do you remember that time...? When we played together..." His tone was casual, like someone remembering an afternoon of games.
-I only used a fraction of my magic that time... using my two abilities with so little mana was not enough.
He turned, crossing his arms as if he were at an exhibition.
-But now... it's different. I only used 'Dominion'. -His smile widened with something that seemed like genuine satisfaction. So it doesn't matter if I run out of mana.
He opened his arms like a prophet at his revelation.
-You... will always, always obey me. Because you have become... my property.
He looked at them again. Not as enemies. Not even as people. But as relics.
-Well," he murmured, with cruel slowness, "Who will be first?
Dramatic pause.
-Ah... how silly of me," he snapped his fingers. Who else could it be... but my dear Liz?
She wanted to scream. To cry. To run away. But she couldn't.
-After all, it is thanks to you that I am awake now. Or should I say... reborn?
His footsteps resounded like execution bells.
-Don't worry, Charlotte. -I haven't forgotten about you. You'll be second.
Then he looked down at Haruka. Lying. Panting.
-And you, my little Haruka," he crouched down with a wicked smile. This onii-san has not forgotten you.
He stroked her hair. She shuddered as if boiling water had been thrown on her.
-After all, you were the one who tried the hardest," she murmured softly. So... I'll let you rest a little while I look after your sisters-in-arms. Until you catch your breath.
His gaze became completely sickly.
-And then... I will give you lots and lots of love.