By animeninjaNIPPON
Suddenly it all became clear: Hao did hold a secret conference back at Upper Deck. He was giving orders to the execs. He probably planned to word his way into 4Kids headquarters and destroy them from the inside out. I must admit, I wasn't terribly devastated at the thought of seeing them go, but knew that anyone or anything that could take out an empire like 4Kids Entertainment was a threat to be feared.
I knew that there would be Hell to pay if I ran, so I tried to prolong the conversation. "Why?" I asked. "Why do you work for them?"
Hao began to get upset. "I don't work for them," he responded dryly. "They work for ME."
I turned to the imposter Faust. "Where is Faust VIII?"
Hao answered for him. "I already told you, he was killed by the 4Kids executives. He got violent with them about two months ago, and they 'replaced' him with this doppelganger." He motioned to the fake. "Don't think he was the only one to die," Hao continued. "Some of the X-Laws were killed, too. And some guy named Sanji..." He began counting off "deaths" on his fingers. "They were just too aggressive to adapt to the New World Order." Suddenly Hao's face was overcome with angst, but it lasted for barely a moment before he became lost in thought. I stepped back even further.
"You should go now, ice shaman," he said, turning to me with a malicious grin. "The others could be dying as we speak." With that, the Spirit of Fire emerged from the shadows, and it swiftly carried Hao off into the moonlight. With their departure, the Faust double cracked and disintegrated.
I sat in that dark room with Kororo and the pile of Faust dust for five minutes, trying to make sense of it all. Then, remembering what Hao said, I sprang to my feet and dashed out of the room.
The next thing I remember was emerging from my sleeping bag with my hand dipped in a cup of warm water. As I frantically checked myself to make sure everything was dry, I realized that it might have been a long, bad dream. But deep down inside, I knew that it wasn't.
End of part twelve
