After meeting their new mentors, Cedar had another worry.
"What about school? How are we meant to attend that?"
"I almost forgot."
Urashin's eyes then went to Sorl, who revealed completely black human-like bodies behind him.
"W-what are they?" Kaminari asked with slight horror in his voice.
Urashin took out sunglasses from his pocket and slid them on.
"They're hollow bodies, known as The Veiled. They'll walk around in your place, live your daily lives. That way, no one notices you're gone."
Cedar frowned. "But how can something like that even exist?"
Urashin didn't answer. The sunglasses reflected the faint light of the setting sun.
"Just place your palm on them. That's all you need to do."
Cedar hesitated, wondering how safe it could be. But the name echoed in his mind; had he heard it somewhere before?
'The Veiled...' Cedar repeated.
He decided to take a step forward, calculating the weight of the situation. There was no way the government would have approved of what they were about to do. Take down Lucian with the help of mentors.
Cedar hastily walked past everyone and approached the hollow bodies.
"Here goes nothing..." That was all he said as he reached his hand to one of the bodies.
There was a moment of silence after he did it.
But suddenly, the body started glowing white, blinding everyone, except for Urashin, who had sunglasses on for this.
As the flash disappeared. Surely enough, it was another Cedar before them.
He stood up, groaning.
"Where am I...?"
Cedar's clone looked around with a confused look on his face.
"You're a clone... Of me." Cedar remarked.
The clone froze for a second, his eyes flinging from side to side as if he was reading a book.
"...So I'm a copy of you, huh?"
The clone of Cedar seemed unexpectedly smart. It didn't take long for him to grasp the situation.
"Cedar's intelligence must be incredible... I've never seen anything like that." Urashin whispered to himself in shock.
Kaminari clapped his hands together.
"Fine, I'm next."
Yamikuro, Isabella, and Deia followed without a word.
They all placed their hands on their bodies.
And yet again, they flashed for a few seconds before turning to them.
Kaminari's clone stretched his arms out wide the moment he appeared.
"Alright! I feel great already!" His grin was big enough to annoy even the real Kaminari.
Isabella's clone raised her chin with confidence, gripping the hilt of her sword even though there was no blade.
"Let's see who dares challenge me."
Deia's clone only stood quietly, hands folded together, watching without saying a word. The silence almost made her seem heavier than the others.
But Yamikuro's clone was different.
It took a second too long for it to change. When it did, a scream that could only be described as coming from terror echoed in the street.
He had a look of disgust on his face. His nose was raised, his eyebrows closed in, and he looked around.
"What is this place...?" His voice was raspier than Yamikuro's.
But when his eyes met with the people in front of him, he inspected them top to bottom.
"Humans...? What could someone like you want from me?"
Yamikuro was startled and took a few steps back.
Urashin's sunglasses fell on his nose as he stared in shock.
What stood before them clearly wasn't Yamikuro.
It had the body of Yamikuro, one to one even, but the personality was of someone who saw himself above humans.
Everyone stood and stared, just like Urashin.
"Urashin... I thought you said it was supposed to copy my personality. What is this?"
Urashin was at a loss for words. Nothing like this had happened before.
"This wasn't supposed to happen. It was supposed to copy your soul, so why...? Something like this could only happen if you had multiple souls in you."
Yamikuro, who was already confused, turned to Urashin almost like he hoped to get a straight answer.
"Multiple souls?"
The clone of Yamikuro picked his ear and kept staring at them.
Urashin fell into thought.
"It's impossible that it copied someone else... I don't know everything about these hollow bodies, but I'm sure you must have someone else possessing you."
Yamikuro's mouth fell open after he felt like he had come to a conclusion that struck a slight fear in him.
"I do have something possessing me... the Darkness. So that's who he is, he's the Darkness?"
The clone tilted his head.
"The Darkness? Are you a fool, I'm—"
The clone froze. His eyes darted around as if he had lost something important.
"I'm…"
The words broke off. His lip curled, but nothing came.
Everyone watched as his expression shifted from confusion to cold calculation. He refused to let them see weakness.
At last, he straightened his back.
"…I am Namuh."
The air tightened around them, but the name didn't sit right.
Urashin's sunglasses slid lower down his nose, his eyes narrowing. Yamikuro's stomach dropped at the sound of that false name.
While the clone was distracted by others, Urashin's group —Sakei, Fuyari, Sorl, and Kaela— stood confused. They didn't speak about the fact that Yamikuro's clone was someone different, but they didn't do anything.
They lured away the other clones to inspect them further away from everyone.
But Kaminari caught on to the clone's lie, and he clenched his fist in front of him.
"Namuh? Don't take us for idiots... You clearly came up with it on the spot!"
Isabella also talked back to the clone, her voice showing annoyance at it.
"Namuh is just human backwards. Don't try anything funny. Who are you?"
The clone rolled his eyes.
"Tsch. I don't need to share my name with mere humans."
He then looked beside him, first to his left, then to his right.
"Where'd the others next to me go?"
No one could give him an answer before Urashin walked past them, closer to the clone.
"That's none of your concern."
The clone was confused as to why a human would act like this with him. But he decided to ignore the person trying to get him mad. It wasn't worth his time.
The clone kept looking around.
"Why am I in here even?"
Urashin kept staring at him.
"So you finally noticed?"
The clone's eyes dropped to Urashin.
"Answer me, human. Otherwise, I'll kill you."
Urashin stood tall, putting his hands behind his back. His confidence was strong.
The clone nodded.
"Fine then. Not like I care for human lives."
He raised his hand in front of him with a scream, and-
Nothing happened.
A ripple of pressure rolled through the air anyway, like the shadow of something that wanted to break free but couldn't.
The nearest Veiled staggered, its body flickering for a second before returning to normal.
The clone clenched his teeth, glaring at his own hand as if it had betrayed him.
Everyone stared at him weirdly, even the clones further behind him.
The clone immediately looked at his hand.
"The hell...?"
But he closed it into a fist and came up with an excuse.
"My powers haven't returned after being summoned to a place like this."
Urashin let out a disappointed sigh.
"We don't have much time to play around in here. You're Yamikuro Asaki from now on, got it?"
The clone had another look of disgust on his face.
"That name doesn't suit me."
"Deal with it," Urashin said as he called over others in his group.
Sakei was the first to speak.
"The training. Are we ready?"
Urashin nodded.
"Each of you will take the student I explained to you earlier."
Urashin and Yamikuro stood before all the clones.
"You five will start attending classes and taking over their lives."
Isabella's clone nodded.
"Fine."
Kaminari's clone scratched the back of his head from confusion.
"How's that supposed to work?"
Yamikuro stopped Urashin.
"My clone won't do."
Urashin stared at Yamikuro's clone.
"Well, Yamikuro Asaki. You'll obey, right?"
The clone let out a sarcastic smirk.
"I can kill you right here. Forgot to mention that detail earlier." Urashin said.
Yamikuro's clone's attention immediately went to Urashin and what he said.
"Kill me?"
"You are just a clone, so I can kill you with just my index finger if I wanted to."
The clone glanced at Yamikuro.
'So I look like that worm.'
But he sighed.
"Fine. I'll follow the others."
Urashin smiled lightly, giving the clone a slight nod of appreciation.
He then turned to others in a sudden move, his cloak floating in the air.
After everyone had a chance to check out their new pupils, Urashin spoke.
"One month."
"In one month, you will return here, ready to take down Lucian and his gang."
Yamikuro raised an eyebrow.
"Just one month?"
"One month may seem like a short amount of time, but the world moves fast. This time will be plenty for you to gain some control over your power."
Urashin then glanced at Rye, still standing on the rooftop, inspecting the clones and Urashin.
"How about you?" He asked.
Rye stepped next to Urashin, standing side by side with him, as they faced opposite directions.
"I won't need training."
He then whispered something others couldn't hear, and it seemed like Urashin understood immediately. Though it was hard to tell what he could've said, considering Urashin's typical unbothered face.
With that, Rye gave Yamikuro one last glance, almost like he reassured that they'd meet again, and disappeared with a step forward.
No one else reacted, Yamikuro would've, but he was still left shaken by the death of Kazuhiko.
Kaminari walked in the middle of everyone and threw his hand in front of him.
"Let's meet here in one month, then. Whoever is the weakest after this month owes the rest of us a month's worth of meals." He smirked.
Isabella rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything, and put her hand on top of Kaminari's.
Yamikuro also followed, and Cedar and Deia did too.
"With this. We'll officially become the people who'll change the world."
Smiles of excitement appeared on everyone's faces, except for Yamikuro's.
Even the mentors couldn't help but smile at that.
"Yeah!" They all said in unison and threw their hands in the air.
With that, the training to evolve their strength further than they could've expected began.
As they all took off with their mentors, a black cat sat on a rooftop, almost as if it watched over them.
Meanwhile, in Honor's world, outside space and time. The world with towering bookshelves, a big door that had a lock without a keyhole, and behind him was a window without a view to the outside.
Honor's head was down, staring at the paper before him.
He was still writing, as usual.
While he was trying to come up with a word to fit a sentence perfectly, something made his body shiver.
'Hm?'
He looked up from his paper, and that's when he felt it.
The presence of someone he knew from a while ago.
He was back.
All Honor could do was stare at the door with his eyes widened, and the pen dropped to the ground.
"Impossible... How could you have returned, old friend?"