"She told me she had an older sisternever met her, but she always said
Big Sister must be amazing and gentle."
Mitori's complicated gaze swept across Mikoto's face. Mikoto's heart gave a hard jolt.
"Dolly's life was so short"
Mitori's voice sank, heavy with helplessness.
"I watched her grow weaker every day, watched her suffer I couldn't stand it!
I begged the researchersbegged them to stop the tests, to let Dolly spend what little time she had left peacefully"
She laughed, a sharp, ragged sound.
"I angered the higherups. They said I was disrupting vital experimentsthat I was uncontrollable.
They threw me in solitary confinement for a whole month!
"When I finally got out DollyDolly was gone!
They told me the test subject was used up and had already been disposed of!"
Shokuh's eyes closed; her long lashes trembled. The memory wounded her as well.
"I hate them!"
Mitori's head snapped up, eyes blazing with vengeance as she glared at Mikoto and Shokuh.
"I hate those researchers!
I hate the haughty Board of Directors!
I hate this hell dressed up as scienceAcademy Citythat devoured Dolly and countless innocents like her!"
Her voice roared like a wounded beast.
"I'll have revenge! I'll burn it all downevery executioner among them!"
She tried to rise, but Shokuh's psychic pressure glued her to the sofa.
"That's why I planned everythingto use my power to tear down every symbol of their authority, including this place!"
Her violet pupils dilated with pure hatred; bloodshot eyes locked on the two girls.
"So what if you've caught me?!
Won't kill me? Fine! As long as I draw breath, I swear I'll destroy youdestroy this damned cityfor Dolly!"
Her words were poisoned blades. In her mind, these two were already Academy City elites.
The office fell into deathly silence, broken only by Mitori's ragged breathing.
Mikoto studied the searing hatred and endless grief in those eyeshatred that mirrored her own when she first learned of the Level6 Shift Project. She rose slowly, gaze complicated.
Shokuh at last opened her eyes; the elegant mask on her face was gone, replaced by fatigue and pity. She stepped before Mitori, looking down, her voice strangely penetrating:
"KozakuMitori have you finished venting?"
"Hmph"
Mitori only glared, eyes redrimmed.
Shokuh sighed, golden light swirling in her pupils, her tone coaxing:
"Look at MisakaMikotolook at her face. Don't you find it familiar? Is it really just that she resembles Dolly?"
Instinctively, Mitori looked again: the teabrown short hair, the similar features
Shokuh's words dropped like a stone into stagnant water, sending the faintest ripple through a mind choked with grief and hate.
Familiar?
Not merely similar?
Could it be
A terrifying notion struck like lightning. Mitori's eyes flew wide, body trembling with the shockand a dreadful suspicion.
"You you"
Her voice twisted, shrill with disbelief, terrorand a deeper fury.
"Are you are you Dolly's prototype?! That socalled big sister?! The original body that doomed her to a lifetime of pain?!"
She all but screamed. The hatred that had briefly subsided flared back, wilder and more contorted.
In that moment of obsession, MisakaMikoto became the very source of Dolly's suffering
The one whose genes had made Dolly's creationand her agony at the defects of a clonepossible.
~~~
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Chapter 811: Dolly is Here! KouzakuMitori Disbelief!
"You! This is all your fault!!"
KzakuMitori sprang up from the sofa like an enraged lioness.
With a doordie resolve, she lunged, both hands clawing for MisakaMikoto's face and throat.
Her movements had no technique at allonly the raw, blazing fury of revenge.
"Stop!"
ShokuhMisaki barked.
But MisakaMikoto was faster.
She neither dodged nor struck back; she simply seized Mitori's wildly flailing wrists in an iron grip.
Her strength was overwhelmingMitori could not budge.
"Calm down. Listen to me!"
Mikoto locked eyes with Mitorieyes clouded by hatred and tearsand spoke in a clear, commanding voice.
"Dollyshe isn't dead!"
"WWhat?!"
Mitori's struggles stopped cold; her whole body froze as if a binding spell had been cast.
She stared at Mikoto, her face a swirl of shock, absurdity, and a glimmer of hope she dared not admit.
"WWhat kind of stupid joke is that?!"
"I saw the official report with my own eyesDolly was pronounced dead!"
She screamed, though a faint quiver had slipped into her voice.
"That report was genuine," Mikoto said, her tone sinking with pain.
"At that time, Dolly really did pass away."
The light drained from Mitori's eyes and despair flooded back.
"But"
Mikoto's gaze turned brilliantly firm.
"She's come back to life."
"Come back to life?"
Mitori was utterly stunned; her mind went blank.
Those words were beyond anything she could processpure fantasy.
"Impossible! The dead don't revive. Do you take me for a child?!"
She denied it reflexivelyyet, deep inside, a tiny spark she had long suppressed began to flicker.
ShokuhMisaki read the chaos, skepticism, and faint hope on Mitori's face and drew a quiet breath.
She walked to her desk, tapped swiftly on a hidden touchscreensending a messageand turned back.
A complicated, faintly relieved smile crossed her lips.
"Explaining would be messy, and I doubt you'd believe us on our sayso."
Her voice regained its usual sugary lilt, but powerful emotion churned in her eyes.
"So it's best if the person herself tells you about this miracle~"
Almost as her words faded, the office's heavy door emitted a soft beepthe lock disengaging.
"Pardon the intrusion, Misakichan, Oneesama."
A clear, lively voicetinged with girlish excitementfloated in from the hall.
"You called me here so late; is something special happening? Is Rei Aonii already here?"
The door swung open.
A young girl stepped in.
Her chestnutbrown bob was nearly identical to MisakaMikoto's, the tips curling gently beside her cheeks.
Her features were just as fine, yet her aura was entirely different.
Her skin was almost translucent from long absence of sunlight; her figure even slimmer than Mikoto's.
She wore a perfectly fitted, sweet white dress whose hem swayed with each step.
Curiosityand a faint bashful blushbrightened her face, as though she expected something wonderful.
Her chestnut eyesexactly Mikoto's shadesparkled as she looked into the room.
But the instant she took in the scene, her smile and anticipation froze.
Her gaze fell first on Shokuh, then slid past the grimfaced Mikoto, and finally
it locked onto the purplehaired girl slowly turning on the sofa.
Time itself seemed to stop.
That voice
A voice KzakuMitori could never forget.
Her body creaked around like rusty machinery.
Every joint felt ready to scream.
Mikoto's and Misaki's unbelievable words still rang in her reeling mind:
Revived?
The person herself?
Impossiblesurely impossible.
But what if?
Heart hammering, she finished turning.
The moment her eyes met the girl at the door
"Eh ah."
Mitori felt as though the shell around her heart shattered.
That face
The face haunting her worst nightmares and sweetest memories!
Pale, fragile, yet always wearing a gentle smile.
Those clear chestnut eyes that seemed to mirror the sky!
Not a resemblance.
Not an illusion.
Her.
Truly her!
"MiMitori?"
The girl in the doorway went equally rigid; the blush vanished, leaving pure shock.
Dollyinstinctively recognizing a now older, changed Mitorilet the longsuppressed name slip out.
That single call was a spark to a fuse.
"Do Dolly?!!"
Mitori's voice cracked into a higher pitch, bursting with overwhelming shock and indescribable joy.
She lurched to her feet, trembling so hard she nearly collapsed.
Yet her eyes stayed riveted on the girl at the doorterrified that if she so much as blinked, Dolly would disappear.
~~~
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Chapter 812: Hugs and Misses, I Like Watching Girls Hugs Each Other And Cries...
"Mitori-chan! Is that really you?!"
At the doorway Dolly finally snapped out of her shock.
Tears welled up at once in those eyesso like MisakaMikoto's, yet softer and purer.
Without another thought, like a bird homing to its nest, she threw herself at KzakuMitori!
"Dolly!!!"
Mitori spread her arms and sprinted forward as well.
The two crashed together in the middle of the office, clutching each other so hard they nearly lost their balance but never loosened their hold.
"M-Mitori-chan sob I thought I'd never see you again"
Dolly buried her face in the hollow of Mitori's neck and wailed.
Her scalding tears soaked straight through Mitori's grimy coat.
Mitori's body shook violently.
She hugged the friend she had regained from the abyss, feeling the solid warmth, the heartbeat, the familiar scentsalted with tears and dust yet painfully real.
An almost unreal happiness flooded her, sweeping away every defence, every hatred, every shred of despair.
Her mouth opened, and no sound came out; only boiling tears, like pearls from a snapped string, raced down her dirtstreaked cheeks.
She could do nothing but hold Dolly ever tighter, as though to knead her into her very bonesterrified this was merely a beautiful dream.
"Dolly it really is you? You're alivealive"
At last Mitori found her voice, choking out the words again and again, the huge joy of recovery written all over her.
She drank in every real sensation: the living warmth, the faint tremble of shoulders, the tears dampening her neck everything shouting that this was not a dream.
Her dear friend Dolly had truly come back!
MisakaMikoto stood aside, silently watching two girls weep in each other's arms.
She saw the hatred that had once blazed in Mitori's eyes wash away, leaving nothing but the joy of reunion. The unease Mikoto had nursed from the start bent, at last, into a relieved little smile.
At the same time, a gentle resonance rippled through the MisakaNetworkcountless tiny voices sharing the happiness of this moment.
Shokuh Misaki turned her back and walked to the floortoceiling window.
Golden hair hid her profile; her slim shoulders quivered almost imperceptibly.
No one saw her face, but Mikoto could sense the swirl of comfort, release, nostalgia for lost timeperhaps even a trace of indescribable envyunder that elegant silhouette.
Shokuh saw in Mitori a reflection of her own past: it was through impersonating Dolly once that she met the girl and became her friend. Raising a hand, she seemed to brush the corner of her eye.
A long while later the loud sobs dwindled to muffled sniffles. Dolly and Mitori were still locked together, unwilling to part.
"Ahem."
Mikoto cleared her throat, breaking the heavy but tender atmosphere. With a touch of teasing she asked, "So you two really do know each other?"
Dolly, cheeks blotchy and eyes swollen like little peaches, lifted her head at last. Nodding hard, voice still thick with tears, she said:
"Mmhm! Oneesama, MisakichanMitori-chan was one of my very best friends back in the Artificial Talent Workshop!"
Her tearsparkling smile shone with pure regained happiness.
Mitori, too, looked up; the look she gave Mikoto and Shokuh had changed completely. The towering hatred was gone, replaced by confusion, incredulous gratitude, and the dazed relief of a survivor.
She opened her mouth, seemed about to speak, but only hugged Dolly tighter, still afraid the miracle might vanish.
Shokuh finally turned, composure restoredthough her eyes were faintly red. Approaching with unhurried grace, she met Mitori's gaze, starry eyes gentle and tinged with apology.
"Do you believe it now, Kzakusan?
The miracle was late, but it happened in the end."
Flooded with information and emotion, Mitori could only nod hard. Tears slid silently downno longer tears of despair, but fresh springs of hope washing every shadow away.
"Sigh. Looks like the whole thing was one huge misunderstanding," Mikoto muttered, half exasperated.
Was her prototype clone Dolly secretly too charming? First Shokuh, now Kzaku: one after another ready to defy Academy City's brass for Dolly's sake. How was she supposed to react to that?
Well, they clearly couldn't tackle Mitori's case right now. Better to let the two girls have a proper cry first.
"Talk to each other as long as you need," she said, then dragged Shokuh toward the door.
"???"
Out in the corridor Shokuh shook off her hand. "Why are we leaving?"
Mikoto rolled her eyes. "What, you want to stay and eavesdrop?"
"I'm Dolly's bestie too!" Shokuh pouted.
"Quit it. We still have to discuss Mitori and the 'Tool' project with Rei Ao."
"Fine," Shokuh concededthen muttered, "If it's Rei Aokun, he'll probably want everything."
"???"
Mikoto was baffled. What sort of line was that?! Yet, thinking about it it was probably true, which meant they were basically helping that lecher build a harem.
"So annoying" she grumbled.
~~~
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Chapter 813: Hero's Blissful Life and Demons King's Poor Life
"Riiing!!"
The shrill alarm shattered the morning calm.
"Mm"
Emilia let out a drowsy mumble.
Her long lashes quivered a few times before she slowly opened eyes as clear as amethyst crystal.
Out of habit she nuzzled toward the warm embrace beside her
but found the spot empty.
Only the faint hollow in the pillow and the lingering warmth in the quilt proved her lover had lain there last night.
She sat up, rubbed her eyes, and her silky silver hair spilled like a waterfall over her smooth shoulders and the thin camisole nightgown on her back.
She glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand6:30a.m.
The holiday was over.
Today she was on the early shift.
A faintly "livedin" scent still hung in the air.
Seeing that Tohru and the others were still asleep, Emilia slipped out of bed as quietly as a cat, bare feet meeting the cool floor.
"Smells so good"
Her nose twitched; something fragrant was drifting through the air.
She followed the aroma to the kitchen.
Beneath the warm lights of the open kitchen, a tall, wellbuilt figure in simple loungewear was busy at the stove.
