“Listen carefully to everything I have to say.”

“Get on with it already!” 

Haruka’s face became rictus and she slowly turned to face me. “I have been observing you and your curse ever since.”

“That means…”

“I did place the curse onto you.”

This makes no sense. No hint was given that even relates to her in the slightest! She is also so ordinary and weak! How…?

“You look appalled, Izumi.”

I grit my teeth and get up to grasp her by her shirt. “WHY?”

“I could give you a brief explanation if you dispose of that aggressive attitude.”

“You don’t tell me what the fuck I do!”

Haruka raises one of her fingers with a malevolent smile. “Keep up that defiance and you’ll die without any information for you in the real world. You wouldn’t want that, would you Izumi?”

I let go of her and sit back down on the bed. 

“Good. I will now explain to you the Fragmenta Fatum. I am the leader of the group. Our objective is to collect the energy from shinkuro and harvest the souls of this world. The cause? To reshape the world.”

I laugh hysterically at the claim. “So you want to create world peace by killing a bunch of people? Can’t ya just fight with us all and it be all over with?”

“Do you think I would disobey the Universe? Even if I did, the souls and shinkuro collected would be void.”

“Universe? And why can’t you…”

“Your questions will all be answered soon. Let’s focus on the topic at hand.”

I hold myself back from screaming at her again. I just let out a deep sigh and moved on.

“Your curse.”

My eyes widen at the same time the words were uttered. 

“Tell me!”

“Ahem. That curse of yours is the mark that the universe placed on you because it needs your protection and power.”

What the fuck? This has to be bullshit! I don’t wanna take part in this stupid revolution they’re doing and I don’t want to be a slave to the very thing I hate the most!

“I object.”

Haruka smirks.

“If you fail to comply, your curse will be inflicted onto you forever.”

“That’s a win for me!”

“You won’t be able to leave. You’ll have to live in this loop until the Universe dies off.”

Shit. I can’t go through this suffering for an entirety. I get up and look out the window with Haruka. “Fine. Tell me what I have to do before I end up ripping your throat out.”

——————————————

5/28/19

“So you beat the hell out of a bunch of delinquents?”

Rei nervously answers, “Yes…”

A girl beside him began to chime in, “It was to help me! Please don’t get mad at your brother!”

I scrunch my face. 

“I’ll let you off the hook this time, Rei. Just don’t get yourself in trouble with any of those guys. They can be a real trouble if you aren’t careful.”

“Trouble? He all knocked them out with one good kick.” The girl started mocking Rei’s movements poorly. Why do I have to put up with this?

“Rei let’s go. We ha—“

“Wait! Me and Rei promised to go to a café to pay him back. Can we?”

He scored himself a date already!?

“O-Of course you can! Why not? I mean it’s not like I’m his parent or anything you know? Or am I? I don’t know ahhahah! No need to ask me!” 

“She’s gone now, brother.”

“Huh?”

“You were mindlessly rambling and she left and gave me her number.”

“Oh that’s… wait. Woah, woah, woah, number!? Where did you get a phone!?”

“I stole it off one of those big guys! The Great Rei strikes again!”

His second day of school and he’s already making big trouble…

Me and Mya made it home while Rei went with the girl. Mya made me come to her room to show me her progress on the website. She hovers the mouse over the publish website button. 

“I’m going to open it back up now that we’re away from the DES.”

“Before you open it, can we go to Mako’s real fast?”

Mya turns her chair in my direction. She tilts her head, “Why? You know she works for the DES right?”

I smirk. “You know how I got this new weapon right?”

We head over to Mako’s house. Her eyes sparkle as she glances at the presence of Mya. Mako leaps and gives Mya a bear hug.

“Hey Yaya!”

“Why are you hugging me so tight!? I need to breathe!” 

“You can’t expect me not to be excited to see you! I’ve only been seeing that loser every Sunday.” Mya and Mako start to laugh. Why am I always catching the strays? 

“Can we just get the uniforms already?”

“Yup! Got em’ right here!” Two uniforms materialize in Mako’s hands. She throws mine at my face and carefully hands Mya’s uniform. “Forged by yours truly!” I had Mako forge these uniforms for the PDE.

The uniform was a black trench coach with red lining and gold aiguillette around the shoulder. 

“I call it Carnifex. It’s not just ordinary of course. It comes with a specific ability that suits the owner of the uniform. However, that ability that is granted from Carnifex can only be used whenever the owner is using it. Once Carnifex is taken off, that ability is removed from the owner.”

Mya raises her hand as if we were in class, “Is there some kind of loophole to keep the abilities?”

Mako shakes her head. “I couldn’t find a way to do so. My power isn’t enough to forge permanent abilities into one’s shinkuro circuits. I’m lucky I was even able to forge the uniform with an ability to grant abilities based off of its owner’s shinkuro circuits.”

It’s a good deal and quite an impressive creation. Her being a forger is a blessing. Without her, we wouldn’t be able to have this amazing uniform. One day she may be able forge permanent abilities, but that would come at the risk of her being used for the DES if they ever found out. Even now, she is still very useful and would be dangerous in the hands of the DES.

“Oh and the hats. They also have something special.” Mako handed us each a peaked cap that matched our uniforms. The cap had the letters PDE on it. I gently smile. “Once worn, you will not be able to kill anyone else who has worn the hat! I’m so smart aren’t I?”

“Good measures, Mako. You thought ahead of me this time. Usually you’re the dumbass.”

Mako’s voice turns snarky, “Takes one to know one, Yuki.”

We all start laughing and are about to depart ways, but I had one more request from her. “The last two uniforms. Where are they?”

Mako throws two more at me. I force a smile and carry three uniforms at one time. We departed ways and went back to our house where Mya finally relaunched the PDE site. Almost at the same time the site was relaunched the website was being flooded with request.

“Um… I think these were pending…”

“We’re definitely gonna need more than one person for these.” Too bad Rei is on a date right now. Of course he’s gone when we need him most.

“Nex.”

A lightbulb went off in my head as Mya uttered the name. Nex Orphus! That idiot will be in it to help! I rush over to Nex’s Dorm down the street with his uniform and bang on his door. He opens the door and I shove my phone in his face with one of the request details.

“What the hell kind of job is this?”

“Listen, it’s from the PDE website and we need to get all these request done at once.”

“They think someone is a Deceit because they shower without soap!”

“I’d also think that they’d be a Deceit.”

Nex snatched the uniform and hat I handed him and put it on. He starts taking photos in the mirror of himself wearing it. 

“Damn! I’m a looker!”

I feel like I’m going to regret this soon. 

“Hey Daitan. Are you going to take one of the request?”

“I’ll get some work in, don’t worry. There are about 17 request currently open for us to take care of.” 

Nex tilts his head. “17? Don’t you think we may be late to these?”

“They all have specific deadlines. There is plenty of time. You’re stronger than me and Mya, right?”

Nex points at himself and exclaims, “Of course I am! I’ll get the jobs done as soon as executionly possible!”

At least he’s confident in his abilities. Speaking of which…

“Do you feel anything new?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like a new power?”

“No? Am I suppose to? Are you flirting?”

“Just activate your shinkuro!”

Suddenly, a huge purplish aura started flowing around Nex’s body and a strong wind causing things to fall off of his shelves. Nex’s eyes start glowing a red color. After a few seconds everything comes to a halt and Nex smiles at me. 

“This thing just gave me a pretty neat ability! Now I’m even more confident!” Nex jumps out of his dorm window before even giving me the chance to ask him questions. I guess I’ll have to figure out what his Carnifex ability is down the road. 

I get back home and hear loud screaming coming from Mya’s room. Is she okay?

“Mya! What’s going on!?” I run upstairs to her room and bust her door open. I see her slamming a black blob that has a singular eye on it. 

“Mya…?”

Mya chucks the blob at the wall.

“Ow!” 

I quickly turn to the blob. “Mya, did that thing just talk?”

“Yeah it did! It just popped out of my hand after I put on the Carnifex! Now my black arm and hand is gone!”

The one-eyed blob recovers. It transforms materializes into a humanoid form. 

“Does this make you more comfortable so that you won’t slam me against the floor!?”

I start to pull on my hair. “WHY CAN’T ANYTHING BE NORMAL!!!???”