The Fire Shadow

YUKI

Taiga looked like he had just been hit over the head with a metal bar. He looked at Kotori with wide eyes, as she rambled and flailed her arms, typing things that blinked in and out of existence in one of her one hundred hologram screens.

"You're lucky, I managed to keep your first name! Apparently, there was a lot of babies being named Taiga on the year you were born, well, on the year I made you to be born, since you're now twenty one, not eighteen," said Kotori, animatedly.

"He doesn't look twenty-one," said Yuki, ignoring Taiga's glare. "He's got the face of a newborn."

"Well, you have the height of a newborn," said Kotori. "And you're twenty, so that's that!"

It was Yuki's turn to glare. Kotori gave her a thumbs up and went on rattling.

"Also, I added a couple of pounds to your weight, so you better hit the gym, I didn't change much of your appearance, but if you have any requests, ask away! I haven't uploaded your file yet!"

A flash of horror twisted Taiga's face. "Requests?"

"You know: eye color, hair length, face structure," she said. "My robot-wardrobe can do anything, so don't be shy!"

"I think that won't be necessary... Thank you," he said. "You can also take those pounds back."

"No way, you're the son of Executors and you're now being maintained by the Government," said Kotori. "You can't be a sack of bones."

"I'm not—"

"You are," said Yuki, smirking.

"So, if you don't want to change anything else, we're done," said Kotori.

Yuki waited as she made her magic. As she typed on her keyboard several screens turned black, and then an hologram appeared in the middle of the room. It was Taiga, standing up with his arms extended on his sides, surrounded by letters and numbers that spiraled around him. Taiga's eyes, illuminated blue and green, followed his own ID data as it pixeled away and was substituted by all the information Kotori had just relayed. "Kobayashi" turned into "Nakamura", "Circle Four" into "Circle Two", his parents named turned into the names of the Executors whose ID files Yuki was sure Kotori had already changed, his school's name was substituted by another one, his life's summary was completely rewritten. Finally, a loading circle appeared, and then, the hologram disappeared.

"Well, done!" said Kotori, turning to look at them with her wide white smile.

In just a few seconds, Kobayashi Taiga had ceased to exist, and Nakamura Taiga had taken his place. It was terrifying, really, how Kotori could erase people from the face of Earth, turning them into something that had never existed at all.

"That easy? Is no one going to notice?" asked Taiga.

"Of course not! I leave no traces," said Kotori, sounding offended.

"But, how can you even access the ID files?" asked Taiga, still looking at the space where his own identity had been rewritten in front of him just seconds ago.

"Oh, I work at the Ministry of Information & Data," she said offhandedly. "Though I'm sure I could infiltrate even if I didn't."

Yuki didn't think his eyes could be wider, but apparently she was wrong.

"Ko," she said. "I need you to lend him some clothes. I grabbed these from the Warehouse, but they smell like cockroach shit."

"Sure, thing!"

Yuki signaled Taiga to follow them. They both stared, doubtful, at the different outfits Kotori's robot wardrobe projected on his body.

"Oh, this suits you," said Kotori, as a t-shirt made of reflecting plastic materialized on Taiga's shoulders.