[System - Sinner located]
[System - ∆¶§|∆¶Ωμ∆Π§∆|∆||¶§∆πΩ∆]
[System - Virus detected, Rebooting System]
[System - Reboot Time - 4 hours]
[System - Lock Dow...]
"Don't disappoint me." —A voice whispers in the void.
A full moon night, the sky was clear, the moon was shining bright, and the wind felt calm and cold. The alleyway was dark—no lights, not a single presence of any soul. The street was covered in a track of blood, a body was being dragged. A woman whose body was being dragged by a man—he was pulling her legs, and as he pulled further, the bloody tracks left behind the mark. The woman's eyes were still open, her arms were swinging in the dirt, her head was bleeding, and her body was covered in wounds. The man finally stopped pulling her body, he lets go of her leg and says, "Damn brat, he enjoyed more than me, and I'm the one who's doing the cleanup." The man kicks her body—"Damn b*tch was no fun." The man then leans down and grabs her hands and pulls her, he takes her on his shoulder—her blood covers his shirt. He then dumps her in the trash bin and closes it. He spits at the bin and says, "Wasn't even a v*rgin."
The man keeps on walking in the dark alleyway. As he was walking, his phone started ringing, and he answered it. "Yeah, what?" —the man asks. From the other side, another voice echoes and says, "Is it done?" The man says, "Yes, you dumbass. Why? You want to have fun with the deadass?" The man on the phone laughs, and the voice echoes through the alleyway. He hangs up. The man seems frustrated and annoyed. He keeps on walking. He exits the alleyway and reaches a gas station—he enters the store to grab a drink. "Damn, my head is hurting," —he says. He goes to the drink section and takes a cold beer. His head was spinning, and his vision was getting blurry. He looks at his beer and takes a sip. His vision gets a bit better, and he looks around. He takes another sip and says, "Next time, I'll go first." He turns around and suddenly notices a girl standing behind him. He stumbles and steps back. The girl was shocked and steps back as well. "Damn, what's your deal?" he shouts. The voice echoes through the store. The girl bends a bit and says, "I'm extremely sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." The man gets annoyed and says, "Whatever." He avoids conversation and tries to walk off—as he was about to, the girl says, "Excuse me, can you please help me?" The man turns around and asks what she needed. The girl says, "Can you please tell me which beer is better?" The man looks at her—he stares at her from toe to hair. The girl was wearing a red dress, a black jacket covering her chest and arms, her hair was black and silky. The man smiles a bit and says, "Sure." He grabs a beer and gives it to her and says, "This one is the best." The girl smiles and says, "Thank you very much." The man stretches his hand and says, "My name is Michael." The girl grabs his hand and says, "I'm Yuki, pleasure to meet you." They both smile, and the man offers her to have a drink together. Yuki looks at him and tilts her head and says, "It will be my pleasure, Michael."
Yuki and Michael start walking together. The road was awfully empty—usually, even late at night, cars used to pass, but tonight the roads were extremely quiet. Michael looks around every minute, and Yuki was talking—how she came to this town, her parents, her hobbies. Michael was feeling a bit odd but couldn't do anything but go with the flow. Michael takes a sip and says, "So, what do you do here?" Yuki takes a sip and says, "You wouldn't be walking with me if I told you." Michael looks at her and gets a bit closer and says, "Come on, it's not like you're a killer or something. How bad can it be?" Yuki looks to the other side and says, "I'm a bartender." Michael says, "It's not that bad. Even I used to work at a bar." Yuki stops walking and says, "It's that type of bar. Not the regular ones." Michael turns around and says, "Doesn't matter to me." Yuki looks up, and her eyes look surprised. "We all have to survive in this damn world. Not everyone can earn it clean—sometimes you have to do the worst to survive." —Michael's eyes look hollow, and his face was serious as ever. A moment flashes into his head—he sees a woman screaming, another woman crawling on the floor, bloody and wounded. Yuki comes close and hugs Michael from behind and says, "Thank you, Michael. Finally, someone said what I wanted to hear." Michael holds her hands. No words, no eye contact—just two souls existing in time. For now.
As the moment passes by, Michael's phone starts ringing. As Yuki is hugging him from behind, her eyes suddenly look sharp—she takes a quick look at the phone. Michael tries to hang up the call—Yuki suddenly holds his hand and says, "Who is it?" Michael looks at her and says, "Nothing important." Michael hangs up the call. He's looking at his phone and says, "You can let go now. We should go somewhere, right?" Yuki grips tighter, and Michael feels something off. Michael holds her hands and says, "You should let go now, Yuki." The grip tightens—Michael now struggles to get her off him. He holds her and says, "What the heck are you doing? Hey!" He pushes her back and turns around—"The heck, man?" As soon as Michael turns around, he doesn't see Yuki anymore. He looks surprised—he looks around but can't see her anywhere. Yuki disappeared within a flash. Michael looks around again and again but can't find any clue. How can a person disappear in the middle of a road? Michael says, "What the heck, man? I swear she was here. Where is she?" Michael looks everywhere but doesn't see Yuki—he then sits down near the side. He was losing his mind, thinking about how someone could be gone within a split second. Michael then looks at his phone—he dials a number. As he's typing a text, his head suddenly starts spinning, and his vision gets blurry. "Damn, I had too much beer today," —he whispers. Michael tries to get up on his feet but trips over. "Where did she go?" —he says. He finally gets up and starts walking. He's heading back to his apartment.
"Playtime is over." —A voice whispers in his ear.
Michael quickly reacts and turns back but sees no one. He then looks around—he's alone on the road. He rubs his eyes and starts walking again. As he walks, he feels a chill in his body—a sensation behind him, but he doesn't look back. He's too terrified to look back—his forehead is sweating, his vision is getting blurry again and again. He keeps on walking. Finally, he reaches his home. He's in the stairway—as he reaches the third floor, a voice whispers in his ear again:
"Did you miss me?"
He reacts again and looks back but sees no one. He then quickly runs toward his door. The lights start flickering—he reaches the door. He's looking for the key in his pocket. He tries to find it but sees it nowhere. As he's rushing through the scene, someone from behind calls out his name:
"Michael."
Michael stops—his body refuses to move any further. He's heard this voice before—in fact, just a couple of minutes ago. He slowly turns his head around and sees Yuki standing behind him. Yuki has the door key in her hand, spinning it on her fingertip. Yuki smiles and says,
"Looking for this?"
Michael's face has no reaction—his legs freeze up, his body refuses to take any action. A man frozen by time.
Michael's eyes widen, but he can't muster the courage to move his body. Yuki smiles and says, "Ohhh, I see. Your body can't handle my love, right? It's okay—you can move now." Michael takes steps back, faint—he grabs his chest, breathing heavily. "What was that? I couldn't move. What the heck is she?" —he whispers in his mind. Yuki leans a bit toward him and says, "You won't run, right? Because if you're thinking about it, I've got some bad news." Michael was trying to run, but his body language didn't express it yet—he only thought about it. His face looks terrified, and he's cornered by Yuki. Yuki puts a hand on his face and says, "What's wrong, honey? I thought you wanted to have some fun earlier." Michael's eyes look terrified, and his hands go numb. Yuki holds him and says, "Let's get inside, shall we? We can't have fun outside—that's for sure." She opens the door and steps inside. Yuki grabs Michael's hand and pulls him inside. The door closes.
Yuki smiles and pulls Michael toward the room. Yuki and Michael enter the living room. Yuki takes off her black jacket and says, "Phew! I'm so tired, you know?" A small fridge is there—she leans over and opens it. "You got beer here or what?" —Yuki is searching. Michael puts his hand behind his back and pulls out a knife—he steps toward Yuki and grabs her from behind. He grabs her neck and smacks her on the floor, then he holds the knife to her neck and says, "You're a cop, b*tch." Yuki looks into his eyes and says, "Cop? What's that?" Michael looks annoyed and grips the knife tighter. "Stop playing. Who are you?" —Michael asks. "I am—" As Yuki is about to say something, she suddenly stops and looks a bit tense.
"Stop playing, Yuki. You have thirty minutes left until the window closes." —A voice whispers in Yuki's mind.
Yuki's eyes turn serious again—her face completely changes. The playful, childish reaction fades within a split second. "Fine then. You want to know who I am, right?" —Yuki asks Michael. Michael grabs her neck tighter and says, "Now you're talking, b*tch." Suddenly, Michael's whole body freezes again—his stomach feels weird. He can't feel his stomach anymore. He looks down toward his stomach and sees blood spilling out of his guts—a big hole covers his stomach. He looks down but sees Yuki isn't underneath him. The knife falls from his hand. He crumbles to the floor—the bleeding isn't stopping. As he's rolling on the floor, he sees Yuki standing in front of him. He stretches his hands toward her and says, "Wh-What have you d-done?" Yuki points a finger toward him and says something. Michael has never heard this before—her voice sounds glitchy and weird, almost like a radio losing its signal. Yuki stops talking—she then makes a snap gesture with her hand and says, "Three... two... one..." Yuki snaps her fingers—Michael's eyes almost pop out of his skull. He screams in pain—his body is shaking. A black aura covers his body—it covers his whole chest. His vision is blurry, and his mind feels like it's about to burst. Yuki steps back and says, "Almost done." Michael's whole body stretches—his stomach starts splitting in two. Yuki stands there with a smile. A red glow starts coming out of his chest—Michael is screaming in pain. The red glow becomes brighter as a red, stone-like object starts pulling out of his chest.
"Extract." —Yuki says out loud.
Upon saying it, a red glowing stone pops out of Michael's body. As it comes out, blood bursts from his chest, and his body becomes lifeless. The red glowing stone hovers in the air—Yuki stretches her hands toward it and grabs it. She takes a close look and smiles while holding it. Michael's body is now a lifeless corpse. Blood stains cover the whole spot. Yuki looks at his body—her eyes express nothing. She stares at his face as she walks toward the door. Yuki grabs the door lock—just before opening it, she pauses. She looks back and lets go of the door lock.
"Fine then. Another toy, I guess." —she says.
She then walks toward his body again and kneels down. She brushes the blood from his face and leans in to kiss him. She looks into his eyes—a lifeless vision reflected in Michael's eyes. Without a second thought, Yuki kisses him. She kisses him for a while and lets go. She brushes his lips and says, "We'll play later, okay?" She smiles and says, "Good boy." Yuki gets up and leaves the apartment. The fragment was extracted successfully.
After Yuki leaves, a figure appears before the front door of Michael's apartment—the same figure that was seen by Kento in the stairway.
[System - Reboot completed]
[System - Contract violation detected]
[System - Deploying Punishers]
"I see... I expected nothing less. Well then, I guess we're trapped here again—but not for eternity, right? Shiro..."