"Are you all in position?" Sakura asks her friends with her telepathy.
"Yes, Saku-chan." The three say, watching the older girl from a hidden angle as she walked towards the HKT building.
"For the record, I still think this is crazy though." Chaeyeon complains. While the group spent the whole day yesterday finding a place for Hitomi's parents to hideout, Sakura had thought of a plan to get into HKT again and relayed it to her teammates who weren't exactly enthused. Chaeyeon was especially worried, and opposed the plan from the beginning. In the end though, they couldn't come up with any better options, so she was forced to agree.
"Trust me, Chaeyeon-ah. This time will be different..." Sakura responds confidently. "...we have a friend on the inside this time."
"But what makes you think we can trust her? You haven't even told us who it is." Chaeyeon continues, not being convinced.
"Let's just say I cashed in a favor. Now, focus. She's coming. No matter what happens, don't help me. Just follow the plan." At that moment a brown-haired girl walks up to Sakura. She was wearing a checkered blazer over a white blouse and a brown skirt- the uniform for mutants who are stationed at HKT.
"Murashige?" Nako says aloud when she recognized the girl approaching Sakura. Since she also lived at HKT for a while, the short girl was aware of many of the other mutants in the facility. Anna Murashige, mostly referred to as Shige, was another veteran of HKT, but it was only now that Nako realized that she was acquainted with Sakura.
"You know that girl?" Chaeyeon asks.
"Yes, she must be Kkura-chan's inside help." As she says this though, Shige activates her ability, absorbing the material from the wooden bench next to her and whacks Sakura across the head, knocking her out and cutting off the team's mental link. Civilians all around now begin to scatter in fear at the mutant's attack.
"YAH! What kind of friend is that?!?" Chaeyeon shouts as she tries to rush over and help Sakura, but Hitomi uses the plants around her to hold the older girl back.
"No, unnie. We have to trust that this is part of Saku-chan's plan!" The peach-cheeked girl tries to reason.
"And what if it isn't? What if this was a trap?" Chaeyeon continues to bombard the two Japanese girls with questions as Murashige picks up Sakura and lugs her into the HKT building.
"Listen, Chaeyeon-unnie. If this was a trap, we can just go save Sakura ourselves, but personally, I'm going to trust Shige. We need to make sure Kkura-chan's distraction isn't in vain." Nako says, putting her foot down.
"...Fine, let's make it quick then." The older girl eventually says. Kkura, you better know what you're doing. She thinks.
~~~~
When Sakura wakes up, she's strapped to a chair in a holding cell. In front of her was a familiar woman with long black hair wearing a black lab coat, Dr. Koyama. Next to her was her friend, Shige. Sakura had contacted her last night, and the younger girl quickly agreed.
"Sure Kkura-chan. I'm tired of hanging around here anyway. Just tell me what I have to do." Shige had said.
So far, the plan had been going accordingly. Shige had knocked her out, to use her as a diversion for Chaeyeon and the others to get some funds to get back to Korea. Still, she and Shige did have another mission which was stealing data on the clone project.
"Welcome back again, Sakura. I'm surprised you let your guard down so easily after escaping. You're getting rusty." Dr. Koyama tuts. "Good work, Murashige. You're probably our most reliable operative left after Sakura and Jurina betrayed us." She then says, giving the aforementioned girl a pat on the shoulder.
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2. Project IZ*ONE II
Action*IZ*ONE superhero AU* A couple months have passed since the incident in Busan, but IZ*ONE's work has only just begun. A new threat is now looming and it is up to them to put a stop to it. Though separated for now, they still fight for the same cause...
