Inai Ni Yami ((Within Darkness)) {{FINISHED}}

Chapter 43 ((Daisuke S.))

Chapter 43

Rikka’s gone down. The good one, at least. The one that belonged to ShiroTech is still lurking about, but no doubt about it she was either gunning after me now or the Dorei. After all, the remaining few that I knew of here that are of importance would be me, the Dorei, Eve and Sorana. Who knows what happened to Zakiya, since he was never so involved in the fighting in the first place. Still, he might already be gone and in the Database, with the rest who’d kicked the dust. 

If the Database still existed. 

No longer in a rush because no one followed behind me, I took easy, slow steps. I didn’t really have a destination, yet my legs carried me to the room I’d hidden Eve away in, so that Takeyama’s psychopathic self wouldn’t be able to find her. And it’s not that I did that because I liked Eve, or even held any feelings towards her that went in the direction of affection. I was only interested in the technology in her, the things that made her move and controlled her memory base. 

I’d already gone ahead and hacked the memories of the rest of the group: Takeyama had the implanted memories of Kuro Shiroi, Yuki one of a head surgeon, Keisuke some lonely shop owner, Rikka the damn princess, and I already knew who I was. Damn despicable, too. 

Yet, when hacking into Eve’s memory base I was met with an instant block. One that she was consciously unaware of. It pissed me off to be bested, since not even I could erect such a big block in conscious state. And maybe if she’d been an empath, I would’ve been able to understand why it’s so strong - but she was a shadow user, not an empath so all understanding was flushed down the toilet, figuratively speaking. 

And lately, with her mind being so unstable and different memories of different people showing up inside of her, I thought maybe the block had dispersed and that’s why she was so unbalanced. Kind of like breaking a dam and having the ocean water that was all her mixed memories and the spring water of her current life mix all into one pool. That was not the case, for the block was still there. Bigger than the last time I’d checked on it too, and with the “coma” she’d gone into, things had become more complicated. Now I couldn’t hack into her mind, period, because her mind was shut down. “Off,” like a computer.

And that put me on edge. 

Then the Dorei had to come along back at ShiroTech, and as we’d been going up the stairs, she’d gone ahead and explained to me the true meaning of her existence and the reason she so closely appeared to be ‘Eve,’ even though she was a separated being entirely. ShiroTech had made her as a clone of the previous princess eve, using DNA samples that had been frozen. She was the perfect physical clone of Eve with a living, breathing body and  beating heart. The Kagami Eve, on the other hand, was the perfect clone of Princess Evelyn’s memories and brain waves. 

Before the Dorei, they’d planned on using Evelyn Cole Bailey’s body for the mind transplant, as she too fit the profile for princess Evelyn, just not in terms of the eternity living. ShiroTech had only been planning to use her as a test subject before they used the Dorei. But Steve went ahead and complicated things, getting the two of them critically injured. They could only be saved through the NiKagami program. So they both were stored into Eve’s memory base, though Steve was only half in there, half in another, incomplete, NiKagami body. 

After the failed attempt, all the pressure went on to the Dorei clone of Evelyn. The procedure was simple, too. Once she reached maturity and could go on living eternally, ShiroTech planned on implanting Eve’s memory base into the Dorei through what they called “Wire Transplants.” The whole thing could be done without equipment from the lab, as it was all in Eve’s body. And the Dorei had been instructed on exactly how to do it so that Princess Evelyn could be reconstructed completely, with a new living body and the knowledge of the world above through Evelyn Cole Bailey, knowledge of the Kagami’s through Eve and knowledge of the current Dorei world through the Dorei, Deidra. 

It was all so perfect. 

Then, our group with Takeyama formed, jail broke Eve and a good portion of Kagami’s - who were later on captured and shut down - and the plan was ruined. But, there was another thing. Eve’s body had a time limit that would be set the moment the Dorei had matured - and she had - that would giver her a certain amount of days to have her mind transferred to the Dorei before she was completely lost. 

The clock was already slowly ticking, and soon Eve’s body would be no more, and the chance to reawaken Princess Evelyn would pass. And for some inane reason, the Dorei had been more than willing to give up her body for Eve, though she now had the chance to live free. She was too obedient a slave. 

That didn’t matter to me. I’d gladly use her as soon as I could to get Eve back alive and get a  hold of her body’s technology, take it apart bit by bit without having to deal with the repercussions of a broken Kagami. After all, unlike the other Kagami’s, I still followed perfectly after my original, even if my appearance was deceiving. 

As Daisuke Shiroi, it was a wonder the others hadn’t figured out how I’d known all the passwords to ShiroTech’s computers and storage bases. They’d all naively believed in me, and my “hacking” skills. Of course, I did have skills with hacking, I just didn’t use them as much as everyone believed me to be doing so. Even Takeyama, the brave and fearless leader never blinked once at who I’d claimed to be - an ex-Kurai hacker that had gotten killed for hacking into ShiroTech’s computers, with the name Len Shiizaki - and he’d gone ahead and blindly given me all his trust. 

Damn idiot, he was. 

Pausing, I glanced behind me. What sounded like a battle or a fight of arms was echoing through the halls, an estimated fifty or so feet from my current location. Had Rikka already found her next target? Or was she playing with the Dorei’s body, for surely the poor thing wouldn’t be able to fight a single bit with her fleshy, killable body. Kurais, Dorei’s, human’s… all of them were obsolete, useless beings that craved to be as high up as the Kagami’s, eternally strong, eternally powerful… 

“Everything in this world with a heart should just die,” I muttered, continuing on my path to the room. 

“Is that really what you think, Daisuke?” Ahead of me, a flash of red hair streaked forward, and a moment later Sorana was attempting a stab at my chest. She got me in the shoulder instead, pinning my body to the wall. “You may have set yourself up nice and cozy with all the Kagami’s, but I never trusted you, Daisuke Shiroi.” I blinked, surprised to actually be addressed by the name. Even at ShiroTech the staff had refused to call me that. “As a princess who’s lived longer than thirty years and seen people live, lie, and die, I’ve got a pretty good judgment when it comes to who’s the good guy and who’s the bad one, and you never passed up as good to me.” 

“Didn’t know I had to pass a damn test for the Princess too,” I mumbled, watching with disgust as black oil splattered down my arm. That was gonna take a while to fix up, if I dislodged my arm fast enough from the Princess’s sword. “And anyway, if you can even “erase” me, you’ll only die yourself. Rikka’s psycho Kagami self seems to be out to get your blood and-”

“I know. I’m the one who put the sanctuary on lockdown and evacuated all the rest of the Dorei.” Again, I had to blink. What a smart Princess, indeed. “Yuki and Zakiya were supposed to help me find and eliminate Rikka but the power keeps flickering, and during one of the blackouts, we were all separated.” So Zakiya is here… Huh, maybe that’s the fighting I heard?

“Well, Princess, I’m sorry to tell you that Yuki’s been erased, Zakiya is no doubt probably fighting Rikka a good fifty or so feet from us, the rest of the Kagami’s that came with me are also dead and there’s a stray clone of Eve wandering the premises without any sort of weapon to protect herself. It’d do you good to dislodge your weapon, forget me and go in search of your little Dorei friend. Or sister, I guess it is?”

Her eyes narrowed, watching me. Green jems flashed in the depth of those orbs, and before I knew it, she’d pulled the sword out of my arm, stabbed it back into my chest, twisted and-

God, she got me. 

Blinking hard, I looked around me at the blank space that was the Database. As expected, everyone was here, including the psychopathic Takeyama, who was cradling a transparent Eve in his lap. Well, well, well, looks like I can try hacking into her here, too.