[When victory is defined differently on each side—achieved by a touch in one direction, and by a gunshot aimed at the person trying to touch you in the other—the game is not fair, and the war is not a war. Both sides believe they are playing their own game, with their own conditions, their own rules, their own logic, while the cold truth is that there is only one game, and its sole law is trust.]
[Trust…that small word that topples cities and builds others.
Will the team succeed in proving it?Or will it crumble as it did before them, swallowing them with betrayal as it swallowed those who came before?]
[...Mouse]
Mouse was fully aware of this paradox, as if he had lived it a thousand times before. He emerged from the shadows carrying his pistol, walking with quiet steps among the fake humans that filled the streets like breathing ghosts of lies. Every face he saw looked the same, every gaze held the same meaninglessness, the same coldness, the same emptiness that made death seem like a merciful choice.
He stopped in the middle of the road,the place lit by a faint blue neon light, the air polluted with the smell of metal and ash. He stood there, waiting for a team member to reach him.
His thoughts raced,recalling them one by one:
The shy Yuko who only spoke when necessary,the noisy Miko who filled the void with words, the confident Ryuji who thought the world could be controlled by will alone.
But he knew the game wouldn't be that easy.Nothing was the same anymore. He didn't even trust his own voice when it called their names.
And soon, his suspicions were confirmed, Yuko appeared in the distance,walking slowly, raising her hand towards him, featureless, colorless, like a watercolor image trying to hold itself together before fading. There was no life in her face, as if she was just another trick by the system or an unknown rule of the game.
Mouse wondered to himself:Would he be able to recognize her?
But the answer didn't require time, He raised his pistol,looked at her for just one moment—then fired directly at her head.
The sound of the bullet echoed against the metal walls,its reverberation ringing in his ears, and the body fell before him without a word, without even bleeding.
Later,he would realize it wasn't the real Yuko, Just another illusion,created to shatter his trust, to obstruct his path towards his future goals.
He saw it as nothing more than an obstacle,so he removed it like dust from his shoulder.
He continued walking down the street.One by one,illusions resembling his old friends fell around him—in their features, their movements, even their voices—but he didn't stop.
Every bullet he fired silenced a memory,and every corpse brought him closer to a peace he had never known.
His hand didn't tremble,his heart didn't race, he felt nothing, As if his insides had become a locked room inhabited only by echoes.
[...Ryuji]
In the northern part of the city—that bustling, sleepless night city—Ryuji, in turn, was making his move.He carried his pistol and walked among the artificial lights shining like glass snakes on the ground, Then he suddenly stopped in front of a small shop that seemed unreal,like a holographic projection.
Strangely,it sold real food. Food with a smell and sheen different from anything he knew in the Lower Dimension.He entered the shop with slow steps,took a small cake in his hand, looked at it in amazement as if it were a treasure, then put it in his mouth.
He closed his eyes as he chewed,savoring its taste very slowly.It was warm,full of the real flavor of life, unlike the cold, metallic food he was used to, food that tasted of rust and rotten memories.
For a moment,he felt his heart remembering what it was like to be truly alive, But he lost control.
He began eating with unparalleled voracity,devouring the cakes one after another like someone trying to swallow the remnants of his dreams.
He wasn't breathing,he wasn't thinking.
Until he suddenly felt a hand touch his shoulder from behind.His body froze,his voice trembled, he said in a faint whisper:
'Damn it...I failed.'
That touch was the end of the game for him.
[...Hiroshi]
And in another street of the city, Hiroshi, the old man carrying the samurai sword, walked with slow, steady steps,He stopped in the middle of the road and sat on the ground,in the ancient seiza sitting posture of a samurai.
He placed his sword on his lap,closed his eyes, and whispered:
'If my eyes are closed...the earth will tell me the truth.'
Only moments passed before he heard heavy footsteps approaching.
It was Katsuro,one of the team members, walking towards him with his massive steps.
He approached until he was just a step away, At that moment,Hiroshi moved with lightning speed, jumped back in a stunning acrobatic move, then surged forward, his sword flashing like a lightning bolt, and severed Katsuro's head with a single strike.
The head rolled on the ground,emitting metallic sparks. It wasn't human, but another android.
Hiroshi said coldly:
"These empty dolls wandering aimlessly...they hinder me."
Then he rose and attacked them one after another,cutting off their heads, cleansing the place of falsehood, as if he was fighting an idea more than he was fighting enemies.
[... Mouse]
As for Mouse, he was still in the center of the city.
The dead around him were like faint shadows,and the blue light reflected on his pale face,But what came next wasn't a touch of death...but a touch of life.
Yuko appeared in the distance,approaching slowly, raising her hand in silence.Her face had no clear features,her eyes were empty of any expression, but behind that emptiness, there was something—fear perhaps, or a small hope hiding in the depths.
Mouse raised his pistol towards her,his finger touching the trigger, while the air between them grew heavier and heavier.
She didn't stop,showed no fear, even though her heart was beating wildly.
She raised her hand further,slowly, as if raising the hand of hope itself, while Mouse raised the hand of pain.
Then the unexpected happened.He lowered the pistol to the ground,very slowly, as if all of time had frozen with him.
He raised his hands,then his head towards the sky, closed his eyes, and surrendered to a mysterious moment whose meaning he didn't know.
Yuko approached him and touched him.
Nothing happened.
No bullet,no explosion, no end.
Just a simple warmth at his fingertips,a warmth like life itself.
Then she came closer...and hugged him.
Mouse slowly lowered his head towards her.Her heart was close to his,he could hear its fearful beats, and he saw that innocent face that reminded him of an old goal and a promise.
She moved away a little,shyly, looked at him with childish fear, while a small, rare smile formed on his lips, as if for the first time in years.
She said in a soft voice:
"How did you know it was me?"
He answered with a sideways smile:
"Even though I have only one eye...I see what ordinary humans don't. Like the calluses on your skin from gymnastics."
She looked at her hand in surprise,then said with a sad smile:
"Yes,you're right."
She added:
"On my way to you,I saw you kill many copies of our team, I was hiding and watching. That's when I understood this was the game the real one."
"I passed by all the team members,but I trusted you specifically."
Mouse said,averting his gaze towards the horizon:
"Well done,Yuko..."
[...Shinji]
And in the depths of the city, far from them, Shinji was living his own chaos.
He carried his machine gun,aiming it at the androids like a child playing a video game, He was laughing,screaming, making war sounds with his mouth as if he were an actor in a theater of madness.
Suddenly,he felt a touch on his shoulder.He turned slowly to find a perfect replica of himself—his fake twin brother.
He took a step back,raised his weapon, but nothing happened.He looked at his wristband and said with a faint smile:
"I knew it...this is who I am."
And at that moment,everyone on the street began turning towards him.
Dozens of cold faces—men,women, children, old people—all looking at him with the same gaze.
He screamed in fear:
"Oh no...!"
And the crowd rushed towards him with inhuman speed,like a storm of shadows.He ran with all his might,firing in every direction, his voice mingling with the echo of gunfire.
The entire city seemed to be collapsing,everything was moving against him.But he kept running,clinging to his last hope of living... or to the delusions he had always believed about himself.