Translucent with shells embedded within, the mirror lies about his nightmares. They are not real, even if the scars remain. It's just a religion, no more than a hidden desire to suffer. He cannot sense what you do, but regardless that burn is still there. The emotions aren't real, but the ache still resounds without fading. How do you feel if you are someone else?
"Hello Kanbara-san, this is Wolf speaking. I was just calling to let you know that your clone is complete." The voice was deep and gruff, but behind it there was a calm gentleness. Silence. Crackling of the line, parted lips had no response. He didn't understand. "Perhaps you didn't hear me... Kanbara-san, this is Wolf speaking. The clone you ordered a while back is completed, I would appreciate if you came by some time later today to pick him up." Slightly impatient, but still understanding as though yet again this stranger knew something he didn't. Takuya narrowed his eyes, gritting his teeth in annoyance at this mysterious caller.
"I'm sorry, but I think you have the wrong house... I never ordered a 'clone.' Sorry." It was a sick joke, the brunette thought before roughly tearing the phone from his ears and glaring at the device. It was someone's idea of some twisted joke.
"Wait Kanbara-san - don't hang up. Even if you hold no recollection of ordering it, all the forms here say Kanbara Takuya. Age sixteen, member of the soccer team-"
"Ex-member..."
"...I'm sorry. You must have left the team after ordering then, for this states you were apart of it." Wolf apologized, and through the crackling quiet of the phone a shuffling of papers could be heard as well as the scratching of a pen against them. Curiosity getting the better of him, the brunette put the phone back on his ear and leaned against the white wall of the kitchen. His eyes looked down, thoughts rustling through his mind as his eyes traveled through the familiar room where his father cooked. Often his mother was too busy with work to make them anything to eat, so their dad took over in that area. On the right side of the wall sat the stove and refrigerator, simply there as the items relaxed for they lacked any use for the time being. Hanging over the stove was a lamp, glass curling around it as a gilded gold chain held it up securely. The wall across from him had two large portraits, one of his family after his younger brother Shinya had been born and the second of Kouichi's own decision to paint his favorite family. A bitter smile came, brows furrowing at the memory. How long had his friend forced them to stand in place? How many times was he scolded by everyone for sticking his tongue out...? Sighing, he looked away to the doorway opposite to him as he stood leaning on one side.
"For what purpose do you need information about me and some soccer team?" Takuya sighed. If Kouichi ever heard him say that, he'd go on for hours how the end of the world was coming. He grimaced, and then began shaking his head to clear away the haunting memories that kept coming back. They wouldn't stay away, not even when some perverted joke was being played on him. Yet with how this 'Wolf' spoke, he sounded completely serious. Either he wasn't kidding, or this was an amazing actor.
"I don't. You just included it in an e-mail you sent me. You filled it with all kinds of useless information regarding yourself, I couldn't tell you why. I was hoping you'd explain it." Wolf told him, voice somewhat confused as well now. This was getting interesting. 'Useless, hmm?' The brunette thought with a raised brow. Repositioning himself against the door way, he crossed his arms after situating the phone between his head and shoulders to stay there of it's own accord.
"Such as...?" Takuya asked, his interest caught. This should be intriguing, he figured.
"Your favorite colour is red, when you were seven you stole your best friend's bouncy ball-"
"I DID NO SUCH THING!"
"-you have the highest success rate at your school for shooting goals in soccer, you have a fear of mutant animals taking over the world, even though you say otherwise you're convinced aliens abducted your real mother when you were six and replaced her with a work zombie-"
"WHO TOLD YOU THAT?!"
"You did, Kanbara-san." Wolf answered simply, not missing a beat and holding no intention whatsoever to insult. A moment, and then...
"Oh, err... continue." Takuya sighed, massaging his head while mumbling how this didn't make any sense at all.
"You hate hospitals, the idea of ever losing usage of your limbs frightens you and there was a year where all you did was suffer nightmares from it to the point you needed to see a therapist, your favorite show is Serial Experiments Lain, there was a time you were so afraid of spiders one chased you around your room, and the only time you are incapable of being brave is when there is nothing for you to protect." Wolf finally finished and more ruffling of papers could be heard through the phone.
"...but... I never sent any of that." Takuya murmured, not even denying what the other had just said. Pulling one hand up he massaged the side of his head mildly confused again, eyes glancing up as though the other side of the doorframe provided an appropriate answer for him. Nothing.
"Well, if that's what you truly believe then I'll look into who may have sent it. Is all this information personal, or is it very general?" Wolf inquired, more papers heard in the background.
"Some is general, but others are a bit more... personal." Takuya ended, chewing on his lower lip. What did this mean? He took in a shaky breath, and began to twirl his fingers around in the phone's cord. He didn't understand any of this. Who could have sent it? He didn't even think human cloning was possible yet, let alone available for purchasing. That aside, what psycho would order a human being? It was... well, simply put against his morals.
"I see. Anyone who would know all this?" The papers ceased their movements, placed wherever it was their handler wanted them to go.
"...no." No one alive, he added in his thoughts as the sinking feeling within his stomach returned thinking back.
"Strange. Regardless, I will see what I can do. At any rate, I do need you to pick up your clone today even if you didn't order him. At least let him stay with you until we find the person who asked for him, it'd be a great favor for all of us."
"All of us?" Takuya asked, unknowingly cutting in before Wolf could go on to say something else.
"Yes -- my co-workers and I. We live here, and there's no room for an extra person so it's a bit cramped currently." The deep voice on the other line explained.
"Okay... what do I tell my parents though when I come home with a replica of myself?" Takuya inquired, moving his hand back down for his arms to be crossed once more as his brows furrowed. He could just see it - two of him come home and both his parents suffer a fatal heart attack. There were several occasions they stated one of him was more than enough, what would they do if there really were two of him?
"Yourself? So you really didn't order this one then..." Wolf murmured, his voice trailing off.
"What's that mean?" Takuya demanded, his insides clenching.
"This will be incredibly awkward for you both then... please, just let me give you the directions here. No staring at him, no rude behavior, and act as though you two honestly just met. All right? Do you understand me?" A calm voice, it almost reminded Takuya of how the police spoke to him. Matter-of-factly, and full of assurance to keep the citizen calm at all costs. Panicking wouldn't do any good. Taking a deep breath to force down that lump of dread welling inside the brunette nodded. He yelped however when the unnecessary movement was given, the phone falling out of the crevice between his face and shoulder and his arms flew out to catch it. Fumbling with it around for a second, he quickly pressed it to his ear with one finger from earlier coiling still wrapped up in the cord.
"S-sorry. Okay, I understand. What are the directions?" This day was way to stressful for a Saturday.
Wearing a red short-sleeve shirt displaying yellow streaks in the circular formation of the sun and umber brown capris he searched through the gray streets trying to locate the address. Skies were overcast, the threat of rain hovering above but never fulfilling itself. He had on his goggles and hat, though it was pulled forward where it was intended to cover his eyes. The area was worn-down and old, almost foreboding with the wire fences rising high between building to prevent alleyway access. A clanking of garbage cans falling over made the brunette jump with paranoia, prickling hairs rising up on his neck with goosebumps following. That was twice now an animal had knocked those down, but not once had he seen a sign of life leaving the scene. Not even a sound made. It was eerie and the sky wasn't helping; parts of him felt that by accident he walked onto the set of a horror film touched with some reality television. Teeth chattering despite how warm the air was, he hugged himself as the search continued.
Stopping he tilted his head at a stone building, the right side slowly crumbling but the rest remained fairly intact with the multitudes of holes set aside. He couldn't help but wonder if this side of the city was assaulted with acid rain, that was the only explanation for the rapidly eroding site. Creeping up to the rotting wood door he peered through one of the crevices, curiosity getting the better of him. Seeing nothing but a black interior with dusty furniture he took a step back and looked to the address. 8876. This was it.
Biting his lower lip he pushed the door open, the touch itself making it creak as it left the frame and with him entered the house. Unlike him though, it was hinged and could go no further. Putting down one red sneakered foot onto the cool cemented floor, mahogany eyes blinked rapidly in the weakly lit room. Open door aside, there were no lights and the teenager was the only sign of life. Frowning his heart began to beat faster, starting to be afraid this was all seriously a cruel joke. But then, how did that Wolf man know about his arachnophobia? The limb thing? ...the bouncy ball joke? A sensation that something sinister was happening resulted in his mind flying back to that horrific day. Was it those three? Did they trick him into coming here to finish what they started? A small squeak of fear came, his eyes darted around in desperation to find something - anything. Steps, loud and with a destination in mind. Whoever was walking was coming from beneath him. Eyes widening as he felt a slab of cement shift beneath him Takuya quickly darted out of the way. His weight no longer inhibiting whomever it was trying to get up and out, it was lifted and pushed aside. A bob of dirty blonde hair came up, the fear returning. They were back to get him.
"Ah, there we are." A female voice sighed. Wait, female? Blinking, Takuya peeked closer. The owner turned around before she jumped, staring at him with a startled expression. "Oh... hello there. You must be Takuya." She greeted as she gave him a warm smile, soft brown eyes twinkling at him. Hands on both sides of the hole the woman hoisted herself up with a strained face as she exerted effort to get up out of it. Setting her bottom on the floor she lifted up her legs next and then twirled around in a circle to face the brunette and be out of the hole. Standing up now she dusted the grime gathered on her from moving from beneath the floor to on it off her white lab coat. Large silver buttons were clasped from her high neck collar that covered the bottom portion of her chin down to her knees, long sleeves reaching to her wrists where they were cuffed. She looked to be somewhere in her early-to-mid twenties, hair curled slightly above her shoulders.
"Y-yes." Takuya stammered, finding himself gawking at this woman. She must have been one of the co-workers that Wolf had spoken about.
"Right. I'm Onodera Tally, but just call me Tally-chan." She chirped giving him a thumbs up, which then extended to an offered handshake. "Come on, can't keep everyone waiting for too long, now can we?" She inquired. He stared at her, but then took the hand. "Right, follow me." She nodded as they shook hands, and then just as much caution she took to come out she worked with equally to get back down. Once she was down she assisted the brunette to get down. After each reached the lower level, Tally reached up to pull the slab back into it's place, securing it before nodding and turning back to the brunette with a smile. He stared at her. "What?" She asked with a tilt of her head. Now both standing side by side she was slightly taller than the brunette which made him then quirk a brow. "W-what?" She again inquired, becoming somewhat self-conscious at his gaze. Shifting from foot to foot she looked about, trying to find some just cause as to why he was just looking at her.
"It's nothing..." Takuya sighed as he turned around. A narrow hallway with torches lighting the way, the stone walls were blue and the ground beneath their feet was dirt-covered, not paved. At the end of the hall was a gray metal door with no handle. That really made him raise a brow.
"Well then, if it's nothing... on we go!" Tally chirped, leading the way once more. The two went in silence, the brunette looking around at the strange design of this building. For such a sophisticated science why did they live in such a dreary place? Was cloning against everyone's morals, just as it went against his? No other explanation offered... "Uhm, if you don't mind my asking..." The woman began when they reached the door, trailing as she waited for the go ahead or denial of her question.
"Yeah? Ask whatever you want." Takuya shrugged.
"How did you... find this place? I mean as in, find it... I know you didn't order it - the clone. Oh, this isn't making sense..." Tally mumbled to herself, and then reached up to knock on the door.
"I followed the directions here, how else?" Takuya laughed as he gave the simple answer, but Tally didn't look as amused. More so, she appeared confused. There it was again, he didn't know something everyone else around him did...
"Whose there?" The gruff voice of Wolf asked on the other side, crackling still accompanying his words. An intercom.
"Tally-chan and Kanbara-san." The dirty-blonde woman smiled to the voice, but as the brunette inspected the door he saw no traces of an intercom. But Wolf's voice couldn't be heard through a steel door like that... unless it was rally thin. But it looked thick! And why was Tally suddenly switching to speaking formally of him?
"Oh. Hold on a moment, let me get these two to settle it down..." Wolf laughed, and clanging was heard as well as clinks as though a clock was fast-forwarding.
"Are those two arguing again? Really Wolf, I told you it was a bad idea to send me out instead of Sorcerer to get Kanbara-san. He just won't stop arguing with him!" Tally scowled, throwing her arms up in the air as the door began to rise slowly.
"It's merely their opposing views." Wolf laughed, the crackling now gone as he could be heard without the invisible intercom.
"I know, but still. They could at least take a break for our sakes." Tally shook her head, all during this conversation Takuya just became progressively more lost. What? Did these people, excusing the only woman, all use codenames? Perhaps he got caught up in an illegal operation...?
"He started it." A new voice shouted, older than the other two with a slight rasp. This new person was also male, but he sounded rather irritated with something. Quite obviously the other consistently referred to was the cause of this all...
"Now now, save the bickering. I'm sure we'll have more of that in a moment." Tally scolded the new voice, waving her finger to and fro.
"What do you mean?" Takuya asked curiously.
"Oh you'll see, the second he woke up he's done nothing but make trouble." She snorted, and then ducked under the door now three-fourths open. Confused, the brunette walked in with that sense of dread once more. Entering the room his eyes widened in shock. Computers were splayed all over the floor, one wall covered entirely in a monitor screen with unusual letters on it. Arabic? He didn't know. Cords were strung all over the place, blue lights flickering through unseen wires running around wildly on the corners that wall and ceiling met. Fluorescent lights filtered down, unlike the rest of the building perfectly well lit to the point the brunette had to keep blinking his eyes to get adjusted to it. On another wall were large tubes filled with green liquids, swirling around in a lava lamp fashion. Still amazed he gazed around silently, Tally softly chuckling under her breath at his wonder. She walked over to where a swivel chair was, a man sitting in it with a laptop in his lap that he typed furiously away on. He had bushy blonde hair to his shoulders, bright and almost like the lights above in its intensity. He wore a steel blue shirt that mildly reminded Takuya of a long-sleeved nurses shirt, a queasy feeling following the thought of a hospital. He had on a pair of loose white pants, showing these people had some sort of white fetish that was starting to really annoy him. Couldn't they use a little more colour, and a bit less shade? Tally whispered something in his ear and he blinked, turning around to look at Takuya with bright red eyes. He stared back. The man appeared around twenty-three, and gave him a wolfish grin. He had a feeling who this was already.
"Welcome, Kanbara-san. I'm Wolf." He introduced himself, standing up and giving a gentle courteous bow. "It's nice to meet you in person. I'm sorry, but there's still no information regarding who started all of this." He apologized, giving a somber look. The brunette sighed but merely waved it off, his eyes now moving away to continue his inspection of the place. "However, I'm very glad to see you found your way here safely."
"Uhm, thanks..." Takuya mumbled, walking through the room while keeping an eye on the cords threatening to trip him as he walked. Walking out of a room he had not noticed before (it melded with the shadows to the point the brunette was slightly freaked out that this man came from nowhere seemingly) was the third voice. He was a squat man, shorter than Wolf even as he sat down in his chair. He had long straw yellow hair down to his knees, the lower hair tied together. Ice blue eyes looked around, pale skin almost a pasty blue appearance was mostly hidden beneath a mask over his mouth and chin with a large white hat atop his head... almost like a wizard of some sort. He had on a white nurses outfit, an unsettling feeling overcoming the brunette. He didn't like how most of these people dressed.
"I'm sorry I give 'normal' people the benefit of the doubt..." The man with the raspy voice mocked, rolling his eyes in the direction of the room.
"Still giving you a hard time Sorcerer?" Tally asked, walking over to place a friendly hand on the shorter man's shoulder.
"You wouldn't believe." Sorcerer snorted, moving over to pick up a clipboard. He had on a pair of brown gloves, a few fingers wearing rings. How odd...
"Uhm, who is?" Takuya asked finally, tiring of being left out of the loop. Even if these were all co-workers, he didn't appreciate being told to come by and pick someone up only to be ignored due to idle chatter.
"Oh, sorry." Tally laughed nervously realizing how rude they had been. She reached back, giving a lopsided smile as though that would excuse her behavior.
"His name is Kouji." Wolf sighed, closing his laptop realizing he couldn't count on the other two. Standing up he placed it down and mahogany eyes widened at him. Wolf was taller than any of them, at least by a foot. And that name...
"Kouji?" Takuya blinked.
"Yes. Whoever it was claiming to be you requested for a clone of Kouichi." Wolf was quiet as he spoke, obviously half expecting a moral outrage from the brunette. All he got though, was a horrified silence. "..." The man wasn't sure what to say or do now, at least if he got some sort of angry response he'd know what to do.
"Uhm... yes, he prefers to be called Kouji because... he doesn't want to be... compared to his predecessor. Please don't compare the two, it's rather cruel." Tally explained, trying to give her best smile to the mortified Takuya who merely stared between her and Wolf.
"Y-you cloned Kouichi?" Takuya whispered hoarsely, eyes as wide as they could possibly get.
"Obviously if they called you and said, 'We have your clone ready.'" Came a new and sarcastic voice, slightly familiar but deeper. Takuya was frozen; he didn't want to see.
"Kouji! Stop being so insensitive." Tally hissed. "He doesn't have to take home what he didn't ask for you know!" She added before sticking out her tongue.
"Who said I wanted to?" The clone, or Kouji, retorted. "Besides, whose to say he isn't lying to you about that?" He scoffed as an after-thought.
"And now he argues with you." Sorcerer chuckled beneath his breath, writing away on the clipboard. Reaching over he grabbed a cordless phone on a desk, papers covering it and some even poking out of the drawers. Picking it up, he began to dial numbers as he called someone. That explained all those papers... even so, he'd look anywhere but in the direction of that one voice.
"Besides, why are you going around and telling people not to compare a clone to the original DNA they came from, eh? Isn't that the point of making one?" Came Kouji's rather begrudging input.
"Please hold your tongue for a moment, Kouji." Wolf sighed rubbing his temples. All this was just falling apart. 'At this rate Kanbara-san certainly won't take him in,' The tall man thought with a shake of his head. Their reasons for wanting to get rid of their… extra person seemingly went beyond not having the space.
"Why? Need it for a DNA sample so you can have a clone of a clone?" Kouji asked in a mocking tone. Thankfully though, he was quiet for the moment.
"Not even if you paid us to." Sorcerer snapped, leaving his phone conversation long enough to glare at the clone.
"I promise you Kanbara-san, we'll figure out who did this. Until then, I cannot beg you enough to take him back with you. Before now it really was because we have no room, but he's a bit... difficult to work with." Wolf explained, hesitating near the end as he searched for the right word to describe the clone. He got a snort in the background. "I'm sorry to ask all of this of you, but please. Will it be too much trouble?" He inquired, face softening at the brunette. Takuya looked up at Wolf, still refusing to look at this 'Kouji.' How would he explain to his mother a clone of his dead best friend whom he was the reason he died in the first place? It was all so wrong, so horrifically wrong... taking a deep shaky breath he sighed.
"Fine. He can stay at my place..." Takuya murmured. Sure, he'd have to deal with a guy who was a clone of his dead best friend with a major attitude problem and thus the exact opposite of Kouichi… but he just could not say no. Brilliant.
"Thank you!" Tally squealed, literally glomping the surprised brunette.
"My point proven." Kouji murmured.
"Be nice to him. Whether you can see it or not, but that boy is no happier about this than you are. Why I couldn't tell you, but don't push your luck with him... unless you'd rather us ask Kouichi's mother to take you in." Wolf spoke civilly enough, but his threat was enough to get an audible shudder from Kouji. "I'm sure she'll have no qualms treating you as the replacement of her son that you so fervently hate."
"Don't expect anything a saint would do." Kouji grouched, but still giving his agreement.
"From you the thought wouldn't even cross my mind." Sorcerer snorted.
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, nor any characters affiliated with it. However, the plot and my own characters are mine.
A/N: Stretches. Another day, another twist... all right. Raise of hands - how many of you saw this coming after chapter two?
