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

Chapter 44 ((Princess Sorana))

Chapter 44

Bastard. Selfish, arrogant, bastard. Even if he’d been on my side, I would’ve killed him just from being a replica of Daisuke Shiroi, because his father ordered the death of my own father and mother. Bastard. Prick. He deserved a thousand deaths, and more, all gruesome, all long and torturing and goddamn it if his systems shut down because I’d get someone to turn him back on just to endure some more torture for the thirty years I’ve spent all alone and without any family, estranged from the Dorei population and known as the “Useless Princess.” 

They even kicked me out of my own home, until Rikka and Eve came back to “save” me. I still didn’t trust them, but that was a moot point now since the two of them were “erased,” according to Daisuke. None of that mattered, though. He’d claimed that there was a Dorei still in the premises of the sanctuary that was my “sister.” Though I didn’t believe the sister part, I couldn’t ignore the fact that she was a Dorei. As soon as I find her, I’ll take the two of us back to where all the rest of the Dorei’s are hidden and hope that Rikka eventually leaves. 

That’s if Rikka ever decided to actually leave. 

Ignoring the halls behind me - as Daisuke had pointed out there was a battle going on back there - I listened for feet shuffling about or any telltale signs that someone else could be in the halls before me. Long before, I’d learned well to distinct between what was a man’s feet and a woman’s, and how far from me they were. A useful skill when you were a Dorei Princess on the run. Nothing really came to my ears though, and I was left to blindly search for the mysterious Dorei. 

It’s always been this way too. Always searching for Dorei’s, looking for ways to get them safely to the sanctuary without giving out the location to the Kurai’s. Then after that, finding and locating their family, friends and ensuring that they too have a safe trip to the sanctuary, and of course, with each Dorei saved, there’s ten more waiting for me or Rikka to save them and on and on, it branches to an infinite number, even though there’s a finite amount of people we can save within the timeframe of their life before they’re sucked dry. 

Monster’s, all of those Kurai’s were. Though I held respect towards Rio for resisting me those first few days that I thought he was a living breathing clone and not a machine like the rest of the Kagami. Even though he too, had believed he was a Kurai. Still, I hated them all. Even Takeyama had points where I wished I could simply bash him to bits, with all that arrogance pressed tight into his mind, despite his pacifist ways towards the Dorei. 

In all honesty, I hated anything that was made by the Kurai’s. Their hands were poison, and their creations were their veins, spreading out through the underground haven that used to be a shared world between the two species and killing all of the life we Dorei’s create through natural processes, nothing of their artificial intelligence and whatnot. They were destroying it all, to this day. Rikka was such an example, killing off their own creations and targeting the innocent Dorei’s in the building too.  

With a sigh, I began to wipe at the oil-like residue from when I stabbed Daisuke off the sword, stopping for a moment to use an old trick I’d learned back in the day. Hopefully it works with tiles too. With careful precision, I took the sword and stabbed it straight into the white tile, using what muscle I had to dig it in deep. After the initial vibrations from it being stabbed into the floor died away, I bent down and pressed an ear to the cold metal, listening.

Someone was near, just not enough for me to hear them. And the small vibrations from their steps were getting bigger, suggesting that they were coming my way. Just, from what direction? Biting my lip, I pulled at the sword, struggling for a minute or two because of the resistance the tiled floor made, but eventually pulled it out successfully. Then I started running forward, determined to find the Dorei. 

It wasn’t long before I heard footsteps, soft and light like a woman’s, but a bit on the trippy side, no doubt in fear of what might be behind them. Had to be the Dorei. This was good. I continued on running, meeting up with the owner of the light footsteps moments later. 

The woman I faced looked much older than me, even though I was a good forty or so years old, counting the time I’d been alive before maturing. Long black hair followed behind her, whipping past her face when she skidded to a stop. I’d opened my lips to say something, only to be interrupted by the woman. “You! You’re- you’re Sorana! The Living Princess!” As if being recognized wasn’t unsettling enough, she was instantly met with a bear hug by the woman after her exclamation. 

“Whoa- wait, wait, who are you?” I tried to push her away, but the effort seemed futile, her thin yet toned arms tight around my small fifteen-year old body. It was embarrassing, being so easily restrained by this girl, even though she probably didn’t mean for it to be like that. Even so, we couldn’t stay this way with a killer on our track. “Excuse me? I’m sorry, but you need to let go of me. There’s a killer out there and you’re putting us at risk-”

“Wait, you can help me! You know where Eve is, right? You know where her body is hidden, right?” She looked at me with wide, innocent puppy eyes, clasping my hands to show how desperate she was to find Eve. The only problem was, how did she know who Eve was? And who the heck was she?!

Confused, I watched the woman with narrowed eyes. “Why do you need to see Eve?”

“Because I can save her!” 

“It’s true,” came a soft, child’s voice from ahead of us, the opposite direction from where the fight Daisuke had heard had been.  Immediately, I grew tense, pushing the woman behind me and taking out my sword to face Rikka head on. The Kagami-bitch was going to pay for stealing the face of her little sister and using it to torture her. All of the damn Kagami’s in the world were going to pay. “This girl here was specifically born and bread to save Eve once her body begins to shut down, and I’m here to stop that.” 

“Oh? Well guess why I’m here? To KILL fakes like YOU!” I lunged, sword at the ready with mom and dad’s names etched within the blade in black ink, along with the names of my fallen sisters and the family crest. This sword was my family, and with it I was going to kill the damn fakes. All of them.

“You know, you rushed to quickly to your end.” and it did happen all too quickly, my body falling at the sudden disappearance of Rikka’s body, no longer able to use her body to keep my own body balanced once the sword had pierced her chest. He sword clattered below me, and I made to pick it up and push my self up, only to feel a blade pressed into my spine. “Princesses should not try to play the knight in shining armor. It’s a disgusting contradiction that only leads to your doom.” 

Rikka pressed the blade down, and I knew this was my end. I knew that I’d die at the hand of my pretend baby sister, and it made me want to cry. Break down and weep. Yet, for some reason the death blow never came, replaced by an angered shout of protest from Rikka. Feeling the absence of the blade, I flipped my body around and stared stunned as the woman pointed a black blade of her own - that was protruding from her wrist, blood coagulating around the “wound” - at Rikka’s chest. 

“Listen here, I have one mission in life and that’s to get Eve to live so this whole thing can end, you here me? It’s time the Queen awakens, and I’m not going to let some fake like you try and stop that, so now go to hell and say hello to the nice people at the Database. I’m sure they all missed you.” On the words ‘missed you,’ she stabbed Rikka in the chest, just as I had with Daisuke, and twisted hard, messing up with her internal structure and powering out her body. 

Saving the two of us. Breathing hard, I brought a hand up to my mouth and tried to control myself. So close to death. I was so close to dying, and that woman - surely she can’t be a Dorei! - saved me with a dagger that came from her wrist!

“Are you listening to me, Princess Sorana? You need to lead me to the Queen! I have to revive Eve so that the Dorei’s can rule in peace again!” Blinking, I stood up on legs made of lead and nodded. I ad to do as she said, didn’t I? She saved me, after all. 

What the hell is she though?

And who’s the Queen?