The corridors stretched before them like the entrails of a monster.
Since their clash with the masked man, the air had grown heavier, as if each meter forced them farther from the surface… and the light.
Mayu led the way in silence. The blade she'd reclaimed still hummed faintly in her hand, as though it retained the memory of their last fight.
But it wasn't the battle that consumed her thoughts.
It was the look she had never seen—and the touch she had felt.
That fleeting caress on her cheek. Almost… human.
Something was wrong. This clone, this machine, this weapon… none of it felt like any other.
She had hesitated.
And that hesitation was a weakness the Institute's creations were not supposed to possess.
"You know we should rest," Seth murmured a few paces behind her.
"We're exhausted. And you… you haven't said a word since the masked man."
Mayu didn't answer.
She didn't want to stop. Not now. Something was calling her from the depths of this base—something she knew couldn't wait any longer.
They passed through a twisted metal arch scorched by a past explosion. On the floor lay debris, torn cables, and a set of fresh footprints in the dust.
Mayu crouched down.
She brushed the prints with her fingertips.
Still warm.
Someone had just passed this way. Not alone—two or three people, moving quickly.
She stood and turned to Seth and Lia.
"There's activity. They know we're here."
"You think it's the clone?" Lia asked, her voice tense.
Mayu shook her head.
"No. He wouldn't have fled."
She lifted her eyes to the dark corridor ahead.
"These are guardians—or freed test subjects. It doesn't matter. We don't stop."
They pressed on.
The deeper they went, the more the corridors seemed corroded by damp and neglect. Crackling hissed through fractured speakers overhead—fragments of distorted recordings: "…project… X… failure… purge…"
Finally, they arrived at a different door.
More massive, framed in armored steel and sealed by an old biometric lock.
Mayu stepped forward and placed her hand on the sensor.
A click.
The door sighed open in a mechanical groan.
Inside lay a half-lit chamber bathed in an eerie blue glow.
Rows of stasis vats stood shattered in a semicircle. Glass shards littered the floor, cables hung like vines, and at the center loomed an empty metal chair.
But that wasn't what chilled Mayu's blood.
It was the bank of screens lining the walls. Dozens of loops played out experiments, tests, combat simulations.
And in the blurred footage… she saw herself.
Younger. A child. Screaming, thrashing, crying inside a vat.
And beside her, in other videos… a male figure.
Same stance. Same fury.
Mayu stepped closer. One screen crackled as the boy raised his eyes to the camera.
Azure eyes.
Her heart skipped a beat.
"He's…" she breathed, voice breaking.
Lia came to her side, stunned.
"He looks like you."
Seth frowned. "No coincidence. Another clone, right? A twin?"
Mayu stood frozen.
No. He wasn't a twin.
He was him.
She knew it, though she couldn't explain how. Repressed memories resurfaced in fragments: a figure beside her on cold nights, a hand gripping hers when tests became unbearable.
They'd grown up together. Then he vanished.
She'd never known his name—but now one word filled her mind.
Akira.
Unspoken. Unpronounced. Yet instinctive.
As if her body remembered better than her mind.
A low hum sounded. Something was coming.
Mayu spun around, senses razor-sharp.
A metallic scrape grew louder—precise, deliberate.
They ducked out of the chamber just as a grotesque mechanical creature lunged at them: a hideous fusion of flesh and steel, scarcely human.
The battle erupted instantly. Seth opened fire, slowing it. Lia leaped aside, slashing at its metal limbs. Mayu sprinted into the chaos.
Her strikes were exacting, savage.
She saw through the creature: she wasn't fighting it—she was fighting injustice, the past, the pain of abandonment.
She struck again and again until the monstrosity collapsed in a hissing, smoking heap.
Mayu panted, fists clenched.
Behind her, Lia laid a hand on her shoulder.
"You knew you'd find him, didn't you?" she asked softly.
Mayu said nothing.
She looked down the corridor, where more doors waited.
Every step she now took… brought her closer to him.
And she wasn't sure she was ready.
But she had no choice.