He never thought the day would come, but when his friends from the kendo club pulled Koji aside at the school gate Friday morning, Koichi was glad to be rid of him. Or, to be more precise, he was glad to be rid of the constant strain of keeping himself entirely out of Koji's mind. It had been challenging before this all had started; keeping to himself, that is. Usually his readings remained purely empathic in nature, a simple extension of their natural connection, and they were just that: readings. Koji could technically feel the presence of his twin, but it was subtle at best, the way one "feels" a limb or hair. The tension arose because Koji knew he was there.

When his control did slip, which inevitably resulted in the full extent of Koichi's abilities exercising themselves, it made a bad day worse. At best, he got a face-full of whatever happened to be on Koji's mind, smells, sounds, thoughts, the whole nine yards. At worst the distinction between the twins disappeared as the very experience of being passed from one to the other and back again. That was more closeness than either brother ever wanted. Was it handy sometimes? Yes. Yes it had been handy when he'd called for help in the alley and yes, it would probably be handy when he had to do so again. That didn't make the experience any less terrifying or the possibility of repeats any more foreboding. Nor did it alter the fact that such an experience left a lasting mark.

Things were different now… tighter. That night in the alley, when he'd come into contact with Tache's power once again then plunged himself completely into Koji's mind in a desperate act of self-preservation, something had changed. He could feel everyone, every mind like a little bead pressing against his skin, harmless but noticeable. There was more with people he was close to, emotions, stray phrases or words… Koji, like always, was special. The two had been engaging in what could only be described as empathic communications since that night, almost to the same extent as when they'd first gotten back from the Digital World, whispering into each other's thoughts. It was a little ironic to have Koji checking in on him again, feeding back on their bond to intentionally access his state of mind. But Koichi couldn't have that now, not with everyone else doing the same thing… not with Tache hiding in the corner.

He didn't know if it was just Koji's activity or his brush with Tache's technology, but something had heightened his abilities. Not only that, but they were growing, expanding, sensing electricity surging through the walls as easily as that flowing through a brain. It was frightening and exhilarating at the same time, and it was taking everything he had to keep it not just controlled, but contained. The intensity decreased with distance like any other wave, so when he'd left his brother and family behind and was among peers whom he liked but didn't feel especially close to, it was a relief. A headache bloomed behind his eyes at the sudden uplifting of pressure, taking advantage of his lax concentration to express its displeasure. Koichi welcomed it, pausing for a moment as he exchanged his shoes for slippers to close his eyes and rub his brow. Then he yawned, cracked his neck, and began his march to class.

At first the day seemed to progress normally, something for which Koichi was infinitely grateful. Only a few things were out of place, his own hypersensitivity being of foremost concern. There was also the matter of Himura Shizuka, a girl from his class who had been absent the last couple of days. She was still gone. In and of itself this was not uncommon; Himura was known to be rather frail. Prone to illness and injury, she would routinely be out of school for days on end with this or that condition. Koichi'd always thought that was part of her charm and was continuously impressed by her ability to maintain a relatively high class ranking despite missing so much school. A quiet girl by nature, Himura didn't have too many friends. Actually he could only think of one off hand, another girl named Sato Aoi.

This name came to him instantly because it was actually Sato who was causing the disturbance. She was fretting, asking anyone who paused in the halls if they'd spoken to Himura. Apparently Sato hadn't seen or heard from her since Monday, and even then Himura had been unusually distant. Kept checking her phone and sending text messages to someone she'd refused to name. Sato was terrified that the stress of always being sick was finally getting to her and was calling the school counselor if she didn't hear back from Himura by tomorrow. That concerned Koichi, and not just because he was rather fond of Himura and didn't want to see her try anything she'd regret. He was worried that some other forces active in the Tokyo area might've had a hand in Himura's disappearance. A cold knot twisted in his stomach every time he thought about it. So he narrowed his focus to the task at hand and did his best not to think. Thankfully, Koji was, as usual, oblivious to the chatter around him, thus freeing Koichi of any additional 'meaningful' glances and allowed him to be relatively successful in his endeavor to ignore his problems.

He was in the last class of the day before those problems caught up with him. World-History: not his worst subject but certainly not his favorite. The whole thing seemed more depressing than anything, memorizing names and dates to spew at one exam or the other as if that all somehow got to the real question of "why." As if they in their little classroom could even begin to understand the "whys" of the world... as if "why" could be quantified and studied at all…

Koji's desk was in the next row and three seats back from his own, offering an ideal surveillance location for twin watching. For the first half of the day and all through lunch the younger twin had taken advantage of it, staring down his brother as if to read his moods and intentions in the wrinkles of his shirt-back. Now his gaze drifted out the window, face set in annoyance as his hand mindlessly transcribed the teacher's lecture. History was certainly not his best subject and his recent poor grade had not endeared it to him any further. For his part, he was ready for the day to be over and done with. Koichi was trying to be more mindful in his note taking, and had succeeded for the first thirty minutes. Then everything came apart.

It started small, sudden fatigue and a slight lightheaded feeling. He closed his eyes and gave his head a soft jerk to clear away the fog in his brain. Instead he sent the world spinning. Koichi set his pencil down quietly on the desk, wiping sweaty palms on his pants. His lips parted as he struggled to stay balanced on his seat and breathe at the same time, the teacher's voice fading into the surging of his own blood. His own breath rasping in his throat… resonating inside his clogging ears. As if the world was peeling away round him, leaving his body the only entity in existence.

His first disjointed thought was the simple and innocent question: what's happening? Then the buzzing started, high and ringing in his skull, his stomach tightening in a way he'd only experienced once before, and he knew. He knew exactly what was happening. For a moment he just sat there, stunned, watching the floor and walls shimmer as if made of water as his mind was violated in a room full of people. What was this? What did it want from him this time? Before, on the streets of Tokyo, it had been insidiously obvious. It had wanted him away from the group and down the dark alley. And he had performed beautifully. But now…

His eyes were drawn upwards, away from his notes and past the teacher. Over to the window above the door… The silhouette in that window. The glass was fogged and opaque, so he couldn't make out any more than that. No gender, no name, nothing beyond the shadow he perceived. Just a body. Just a messenger. It pressed a black hand to the window, fingers splayed, and from that hand oil began to drip down the door- No, not oil. Oil would've been shiny, gleaming in the too-white fluorescent lighting. This was pure darkness, a blackness that encompassed all the emptiness of space. It was the void into which Tache placed the souls of those he corrupted, and it was making its slow, oozing way towards Koichi.

"It's not real," he breathed, his voice barely audible yet infinitely deafening, echoing in the stillness of the room. The blackness paid him no mind, slithering purposefully through the legs of desks and people on its quest to find him. Koichi stared at it, willing it to disappear, trying to believe it out of existence, but it kept coming. Fear began to climb his throat as it reached his desk legs and, in a secret part of his heart, he hoped that it would just keep going. Move past him as it had his classmates and find some other target. But it didn't. It paused, as if it could smell him, then began to spread itself thinner. Climbing the front end of his desk while still sliding seamlessly across the floor towards him. He started when it touched his foot, shallow breath catching in his throat as cold ran through his nerves.

"This isn't real," he told himself again, more firmly this time. But his body refused to believe him, shuddering as the thing that wasn't there began to climb his pant leg. He couldn't stop watching it, could barely hold himself in his chair, and no matter how many panicked pleas he sent to Koji, something was blocking them. Something was making his twin deaf to his distress, keeping him completely, helplessly alone in a room brimming with classmates. The darkness climbed across his desktop, flowing over his notes and pencil in a slow, viscous march that made his tingling stomach turn. Then it began to drip into his lap and he just couldn't take it anymore.

He stood up abruptly, sending his chair back with a loud scraping noise right in the middle of the lecture. Koichi didn't care though; he couldn't be there anymore. His head was spinning and his vision was spotty, but none of that mattered. The teacher soundlessly mouthed 'you look a little pale' as every blind eye in the class turned away from him. For a moment he just stared, uncomprehending, at the teacher face, his breath feeling hot and heavy in his mouth. He could sense Koji behind him and, for just a moment, feel his concern. His own terror mingled with his brother's, but when he tried to reach out further, to communicate what was happening, the nausea hit. He strode quickly and stiffly out of the classroom, sliding the door closed without making eye contact with anyone.

The effect was instantaneous. His stomach settled and his mind cleared, like walking out of the hot, sticky summer air into an air-conditioned building. A long sigh slid through his dry lips as he ran his hands over his face, as if he'd woken up from a terrible nightmare to find himself safe and sound in bed. For a moment he relished that feeling, allowing relief to cool his insides and make him believe the worst of it was over. As if to counter this assumption, his legs weakened beneath his weight and he moved to the window across the hall, leaning on the sill and staring out into the courtyard. Summer was imminent and anything that could grow was well past the flowering stage. The paths were clear of debris and framed by vibrant patches of pure green. Class would remain in session for another 20 minutes at least, then the students would clean their classrooms and proceed to club activities, so the courtyard would continue to remain clear for at least a little longer. Peacefully empty.

Only it wasn't empty… Koichi leaned closer to the glass, squinting downward. There, standing on the cement, was the single, solitary figure of Himura Shizuka. Her black hair was, as usual, bound in a simple braid and pulled over her right shoulder, her school-uniform skirt hanging limply past her knees. Unlike many of her classmates, she never rolled it up to show more leg. She looked a little paler than usual, and cold, like the heat of the summer sun was only barely touching her from far away. And she looked weak, swaying as if she might topple off her feet at any moment. Concern bloomed in his chest, displacing any lingering sickness and compelling him to act. Himura kept looking around as if unsure of where she was or how she'd gotten there. Heavy eyes looked up towards his window, maybe registering the onlooker, maybe not, and then she started off towards one of the narrow alleys between buildings.

Worry churned in his gut; if Himura was sick and disoriented, then she couldn't be allowed to continue wondering like that. She would walk into the street or otherwise hurt herself. If he acted now he could prevent it. He could save her. Koichi didn't think beyond that. He hurried down the hall to his locker as quietly as he could, exchanged inside-slippers for sneakers, and went out into the courtyard. Himura was just in the shadows of the alley, leaning heavily against the brick with her eyes closed. Her skin shone with cold perspiration and she really did look horribly sick. Like she shouldn't have been out of bed, let alone out in the world. The closer he got, the more intense the tingling in his stomach became, but he was too preoccupied to notice.

"Are you alright," he asked softly as he approached her, entering the alley and stepping close. She gave a faint smile, but made no other indication that she'd heard him. He licked his lips uncertainly, trying again. "Himura?"

"Shizuka," she said in a raw voice, lifting heavy lids to reveal dull, black eyes. His chest tightened, quickening his pulse even as he clung to denial. "My name is Shizuka."

"What are you doing out here? Your friend Sato was worried," Koichi redirected, unable to separate the potential threat from the sick girl. He'd never really looked Shizuka in the eye before, so it was possible that they always looked like that… She stared at him vaguely, still supporting herself on the wall. "She said you've been sick."

"I was sick," she answered. "But not in the way Aoi or anyone else ever believed. I was alone, Koichi. Alone and afraid and weak. The most disgusting kind of sickness there is."

"What are you saying," Koichi asked, though he knew full well the answer. She ignored him, continuing to speak as if she hadn't even heard him.

"I couldn't go two weeks without some medical crisis or another and falling behind in school. It was horrible- pathetic. Everyone just assumed I could handle it. No one ever noticed I was drowning in it all, and that was the worst part. I thought nobody understood- could even begin to understand. But I was wrong… They showed me I was wrong."

"I- I don't understand." It was a lie, one he wanted desperately to believe. He wanted to blame his headache on the fact that it was too bright and he'd left his sunglasses in his bag, wanted to pass all this off as the feverish ramblings of a flu-stricken girl. But that wasn't the case and somewhere in the back of his mind he knew it. Koichi took a half-conscious step backwards, pulling away from her in fear and disbelief.

"Yes you do," Shizuka said, her voice lowering dangerously. "You understand exactly what it's like. More than that, you know how intolerable the weakness is. The helplessness… How it just eats you alive. And you're not the only one; there are dozens of us. Hundreds even, all with that same darkness inside them. But you were the first to turn that darkness into power. You were the first to choose freedom."

"Stop it. Himura, you really don't look well. Please, let's go to the infirmary." He was begging now, pleading with Shizuka and the universe alike, hoping his intuition was wrong. Praying the electricity in his gut was just nerves… but knowing that, too, was a lie.

"They can't help me in the infirmary," she snorted. The action seemed to take a great deal of effort; she shivered despite the summer heat, sighing deeply. "I don't need any help. Not anymore. Never again."

"Shizuka…" Oh god she was right. Horribly, painfully right. He did understand, even more than he would ever fully admit. It was as if she was reciting words from his own mind a lifetime ago, reading from the diary of the bleakest arc in his existence. His heart sank and his shoulders visibly dropped in despair. "What have you done?"

"Only what you did; what everyone like us is fated to do," she said cryptically. "I embraced the darkness, turned my pain into power. Already I can feel it inside me, and the change isn't even complete. Soon the Master's essence will be fully integrated into my body, and I will be whole."

"Listen to me, Shizuka," Koichi said urgently, giving her an intense look. A part of him wanted to reach out and grab her, shake her by the shoulders until sense returned to her thought process, though he knew that would never work. Even this was a long shot; still, he had to try. For the sake of the spirit wandering into Tache's waiting arms, he had to try. "I turned away from that darkness for a reason. None of this is what you think; you have no idea what it'll cost you! Please, I know how crushing the loneliness is, but this will not make it better. Giving into jealousy will only cause you more pain. Don't make the same mistakes I did. Don't let them turn you into a monster-"

"A monster? They've made me strong." She pushed herself off the wall and advanced on him, her black eyes hardening. "They've made me a part of something bigger, given my life purpose the likes of which I'd never even dreamed!"

"And just what 'purpose' is that," Koichi snapped back, unable to keep the disgust out of his voice. Shizuka gave him a smile that turned his blood to ice, reaching into her skirt pocket to retrieve a small, black, disposable cell phone.

"Well, to begin with, I've been charged with helping you remember who you are." For a long, suspended moment they both just stared at the box in her hand, Shizuka with a sort of sick affection and Koichi with abject horror. Then she turned it on and the energy in Koichi's stomach shot through his entire body. His back went rigid and he fell stiffly to the ground as his legs gave way beneath him. His mind rang with lightning.

"What are you-" he tried, but his voice was stuck, like every muscle fiber in his being.

"You can feel it, can't you," Shizuka sighed, her head rolling back as if in ecstasy. "The awakening. It's your destiny Koichi. It's who you were meant to be."

"No," he breathed, the word like ash in his mouth. His hands fell limply to the ground at his sides, fingers flexed, his chest heaving. She kneeled before him, all traces of fatigue or illness gone. As if the little black box had contained all her vitality, and flipping the switch had released it to hum through the air. Koichi felt her in his mind too, like some relentless pressure, intense and purposeful. He knew what she wanted him to do, why she'd come before she was fully ready. More than that, he could feel the unleashed darkness flowing through her like a memory, her yearning to sink into it. But the feeling was not his and he refused to allow it to swallow him. Shizuka sensed this and her smile widened.

"Shh," she soothed, tracing his cheekbone with the tips of her long, pale fingers, calloused from playing a stringed instrument. "Stop fighting it, Koichi, you know you can't. Embrace it. Become the Master of Darkness once more."

"Get- Get away from me!" He choked on his own words, feeling acid burn in his throat. Her fingers were like ice, cold and moist as she began to play with his hair, ignoring his demands. If anything, she seemed amused by them, giggling softly as her black gaze poured into his mind.

"We need a sample of you're cerebrospinal fluid, Koichi. That's all we want… for now. Do you want to continue playing games, or would you rather just give it to us? I could call the others and we could go someplace more sanitary than a back alley. Take our time and do it properly."

"No," he hissed, wanting desperately to pull away from her touch. But his neck was frozen, restrained by whatever force that phone was broadcasting. "No, I'm not going anywhere with you or your cult. You can't force me-"

"Force you," she laughed. "Don't be ridiculous; we're not going to force you to do anything, Koichi. When you give us what we want," she slid her fingers from his scalp down the side of his face and along his jaw line in a cold caress. "And you will give us what we want." He shuddered under her touch as she gripped his chin firmly, jerking his head up so he found himself looking straight into her eyes. "It'll be of your own free will"

She looked like she was going to say more, but stopped suddenly. Her jaw tightened as she set the cell on the ground and stood up. Her smile dropped for a moment as her head jerked towards the courtyard, dark eyes probing. She made an exasperated sound, looking at Koichi, then back again, to the door to the main building. Someone was there, looking for him; Koichi could read it in her thoughts. He tried to call out, but still his voice was caught, locked in the little black phone along with his ability to move and think clearly. Shizuka pursed her lips, clearly weighing her options.

"Accept that now," she repeated without looking at him. "Give into your fate. Or you will have forced us into more drastic action. Think carefully, Koichi. I'm only your classmate," her black eyes slid to him meaningfully, "There are others who may prove more… persuasive. You will come to us, it's only a matter of time. One way or another, you will come back."