May 11, 3:42 pm, Tokyo, j.a.pan

They moved Sakura into a small interrogation room. Sakura was surprised; it looked like this was actually an interrogation room. There was the large, two way mirror on the wall, a desk with a hook for handcuffs to be attached to it in front of the accused's seat. The man in black had some trouble is cuffing Sakura to the table, but he thought he managed it in the end.

They had taken her phone and had her searched her person for anything else. Sakura had nearly kicked the man who had been searching her, but managed to get through it without many troubles.

Above the mirror/window was an a.n.a.logue clock, ticking. The room itself seemed old and run down, despite the fact that the building seemed pretty new. The walls were metallic, silver and s.h.i.+ning, just like the table Sakura was cuffed to. The seat was also appropriately hard and uncomfortable, but Sakura couldn't think about that now.

She gripped her hands together, leaning forward. Her entire body was s.h.i.+vering, despite the fact that she was no longer in the freezer.

She looked up, and caught her reflection in the mirror. She gasped.

She hadn't seen herself in the mirror since waking up. Sure, there had been a large mirror in Ayai's room, but Sakura had been a bit too busy with other things to care much about her appearance.

Her face was covered in scars.

Tiny little scratches, like the ones on her arms, all over her face. Most of them had healed, but had left ugly, white marks all over her face.

Ayai had mentioned being scarred for life, but Sakura hadn't really internalized what that meant. She had worked hard for the body she had, and getting a bunch of marks on it had never been in her plans.

Slowly, she touched her face, over one of the scars on her cheek. Her skin was smooth, right up until the b.u.mp. It stung a little, but she kept her finger on it, rubbing it gently.

This was how people were going to see her? As some kind of ugly freak?

Sakura immediately scoffed at the thought. No, they saw her like that anyway. Despite how well she pa.s.sed, as soon as people found out she was trans, there were always people who would see her as some degenerate. Of course, there were people that didn't, and Sakura was grateful to them, but she was also used to people thinking she was some kind of freak.

No. That wasn't the thing that was bothering her.

As she looked at her face, Sakura wondered if this was really who she was now. As mentioned, she had spent a lot of time and money on creating a body that felt authentically her. Would this...scarring also be something she could live with? Was this now who she was now?

Was she okay with being ugly?

She felt disgusted with herself for even thinking such a thing.

BANG.

The door suddenly slammed open, making Sakura jump. Jason strolled into the room, grinning, along with two men in black. He had a manila folder, which he tossed carelessly onto the table in front of him.

"Looks like you've been busy," said Jason, taking a seat from across her. The men walked around and stood behind Sakura. She could see them in the mirror, standing to her left and right.

"Had a little tussle with our chimera?" he said, opening the folder and looking through it. Sakura grit her teeth. It took all the willpower she had not to leap from her seat and strangle him.

Instead, she asked:

"Where's Bunta?"

Jason took the files into his hands, and leaned back in his seat, crossing his legs. He flipped through the pages carelessly, skimming through the doc.u.ments.

"I don't think you're in a position to be bargaining," he said casually. "After all, what exactly do you have to offer us?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"I just did your job for you," she said drly, also leaning back in her seat. It was a little difficult, as she was cuffed to the table, so she ended up just leaning forward instead.

"I found your chimera and hid it away. You need me to tell you where it is."

"Do I?" said Jason, snapping the file close. Sakura fought the urge to roll her eyes. Despite acting like an overconfident frat boy, she knew that Jason didn't say things he didn't mean. If she didn't take him seriously, he would find a way to screw her over.

"Then why am I here?" said Sakura. "If you don't need me, why don't you just kill me and get it over with?"

Jason seemed to think it over, stroking his chin.

"I suppose you have a point," he sighed, leaning forward. "There are a couple of things that I wanted to know."

Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"What exactly do you think it is we do here?" Jason asked.

For a moment, Sakura was confused. Of all the questions she expected him to ask, this was not one of them.

Still, she made a point of not saying anything. Jason sighed and rolled his eyes. He clapped his hands twice.

Instantly, the mirror behind him became transparent, showing a room of men in black, all standing around a person tied up in ropes. Sakura didn't immediately recognize Bunta, with his face so swollen and bruised. But when she did, she was instantly on her feet.

"Bunta!"

CLICK! CLICK!

Before she could do more than say his name, everyone in the other room pointed guns at Bunta, making him flinch. At the same time, she noticed the two men behind her moving. She moved her head slightly, noting that they were holding guns up to her head.

"Now, now," said Jason, smiling widely. "There's no need to get emotional like a woman, is there? I just want to have a little chat."

Sakura glared at him, but slowly sat down. She knew that he was threatening to kill Bunta if she didn't comply.

But if she did comply...that wasn't a guarantee of safety either.

How could she get Bunta out of here safely?

"Well, Watanabe?" said Jason, drumming his fingers on the table and snapping Sakura out of her thoughts. "I'm waiting."

Sakura tutted, and bit her lip.

"You're making chimeras," she said. "Your end goal seems to be...to create suitable bodies for extraterrestrial souls."

For a moment, Jason was silent. Then, he scoffed.

But he didn't say anything.

Sakura narrowed her eyes.

"Are you telling me that you're really trying to build bodies for aliens?" she asked, incredulous.

"Aliens, isekai'd souls, whats the difference?" said Jason casually. "The point is we're creating a new world."

"A new world?"

Sakura wasn't sure if Jason was messing with her, or if he was being serious. He was talking with an air of casual delight that could have been fake...but her instincts were telling her that he was telling the truth.

But that couldn't be.

Could it?

"I don't know all the details," Jason admitted, going on as if he hadn't just redefined Sakura's world, "I'm just head of security. I don't know anything about these chimeras and h.o.m.oculi."

h.o.m.onculi?

What was this, F*llmetal Alchemist?

"So the plan is world domination?" asked Sakura casually. She glanced back over to the window, at Bunta. She narrowed her eyes slightly as Jason started speaking.

"Domination? What are we, middle school students?" Jason scoffed. "No, the plan is destruction."

It took a moment for Sakura to realize what he was telling her. She blinked, confused.

"Destruction?"

"The world we live in is terrible," said Jason. "Why not raze it to the ground?"

It was at that moment that Sakura realized that she was dealing with a psychopath. She looked into his eyes, and saw that he was enjoying this.

And that he was being completely serious.

"You're crazy," said Sakura. "You can't seriously want to destroy the world?"

"What's wrong with destroying the things you don't like?" said Jason. "It's only natural."

"Cruelty and destruction is not natural," said Sakura, gritting her teeth.

"Oh please, tell me more about what's natural and what isn't," said Jason, voice dripping with sarcasm. "You should know all about that."

Sakura shook her head.

"You're just justifying your cruelty by calling it human nature," Sakura retorted, disgusted. "You're just trying to find a moral reason to hurt the people you hate."

"And you're not?" asked Jason. "You're not trying to change all normal people into becoming perverted degenerates like yourself?"

"No," said Sakura. "But you won't believe me whatever I say, will you?"

Jason smirked, and leaned back in his seat.

"I think, for the first time, I actually agree with you," he said. He sounded weirdly impressed. "I'm not going to believe you. Are you're not going to believe me."

"No, I believe everything you say," said Sakura. "I just don't agree with it."

"Semantics," said Jason, waving the complaint away. "But we're getting off topic. There's one thing I really want to know."

Sakura raised an eyebrow, and Jason asked his question:

"What are you planning to do with all this information?"

For a moment, Sakura contemplated lying. Instead:

"If you answer my question, will you let us go?"

Jason looked surprised by the question. Then he burst into laughter.

"Let you go? When I have you both where I want you?" he chuckled, shaking his head. "Do you think I'm an idiot?"

"I won't give you the location of the chimera," Sakura threatened. "No matter what you do otherwise."

"Oh, that? We know where the chimera is," said Jason. Instantly, Sakura's blood went cold.

No. He must be bluffing.

"See for yourself," said Jason, smirking as he took out Sakura's phone and flipped it open. He shower her a text exchange between herself and Michi that she had never had, revealing the street name of where Michi and Ayai were hiding.

Jason must have unlocked her phone, pretended to be Sakura, and gotten that street name and building number from Michi.

"So really, I'm only doing this because I'm curious," said Jason, pulling out his gun. "If you don't answer, that's fine. But that just means you'll die all the sooner."

Sakura went very still. Her mind was racing at a hundred miles an hour, thinking, scrambling for a way out. Her body started to s.h.i.+ver as she slowly realized that she had no options.

"If I answer, can you answer one of my questions?" she said.

Jason shook his head, chuckling.

"You don't give up, do you?" he said, sighing. He leaned back, and seemed to mull it over.

"Alright then," he said. "I'll answer one question. Any you have. It's not like you'll have any use for it anyway."

Sakura paused for a moment. She needed to draw this out as long as she could, to get as much time as she could. She looked over at the people holding Bunta captive.

"I'm gonna tell the world what you and your people are doing," she said, looking Jason in the eye. "And I'm gonna rally them together, to expose you all, and destroy your operation."

Jason snorted.

"How is that not just destroying what you hate?" he said. "After all you said about being morally superior...in the end, you're just like me."

"If you can't see the difference between you and me, then you're blind," said Sakura. "For one, I take no pleasure in ruining the lives of people. Even if they're monsters like you."

"How n.o.ble of you," said Jason sarcastically. "I think I might just puke from how moral you are."

"So my question?"

Jason rolled his eyes, and waved for Sakura to continue.

"Why did you have me look for the monster?"

Silence.

"What do you mean?" Jason asked after a while. Sakura was surprised to find that Jason seemed genuinely confused by the question.

So she explained.

The more Sakura thought about it, the less sense it made. From what he said at the cemetery, he already knew about Bunta. If that was the case, then he probably also knew about their location back then too.

But if that was the case, that meant that Jason could have simply raided the internet cafe earlier, and caught them all in one fell swoop.

Instead, he had her find the monster for him, while capturing Bunta. If his goal was to catch the monster and Bunta at the same time, then wouldn't it have just made sense to raid the internet cafe, then find the monster himself? Wasn't he the dedicated monster hunter?

For a moment, Jason simply looked at Sakura like she had grown two heads.

"You asked that at the cemetery too," he said, puzzled. "How on earth did you come to the conclusion that I hunted monsters?"

...

Sakura was genuinely put off guard by the question. And the apparent fact that Jason was being sincere.

"You don't hunt monsters?" asked Sakura. "Then why were you always at the scene of dead bodies?"

"Scene of the dead...ooooooooooh."

Jason seemed to have understood where Sakura's misunderstanding had come from. He started laughing, once again annoying Sakura.

"What?" she said. "What are you laughing about?"

"It's actually quite...ah...would it be better to tell you...or no..."

Sakura watched, annoyance mounting, as Jason laughed, debating with himself on whether it would be more amusing to tell, or not to tell.

"Ah, you're not telling anyone anyway," said Jason. "And I'm curious to what kind of face you'd make..."

Sakura steeled herself to keep her face stony throughout this exchange.

"I'm not a monster hunter," said Jason. "I hunt escaped subjects."

Sakura said nothing.

"Ah, no, let me rephrase," said Jason, grinning. "I hunt live, escaped, human subjects."

...

Silence.

Sakura could hear the electricity running through the light as she digested this information. Then, her eyes widened.

It all fit. The amount of food in storage. The packed meat. The way that there was no broken capsules or anything in the monster storage room.

"The humans escape from the lab," said Sakura, her voice unsteady, "and you bring back the bodies."

A smile spread across Jason's face as he watched Sakura's expression morph into horror. She remembered the body she had found, how it's face had been ripped off clean. His hands had been b.l.o.o.d.y. There was no way a human's own hands could rip off their face like that.

"Until now, no chimera has ever escaped," he went on smugly. "I'm very good at that part of my job. Which is why I needed you to track down the chimera for me. And if you died along the way, well, that's not a loss for us."

This lab did live human experiments. They experimented on human people to create these monsters.

It all fit. It all fit in a horrifying, gruesome picture of human cruelty.

And for what?

More destruction?

Sakura glared up at Jason. He was standing up, pointing his gun at her.

"So," he said. "Any other, last questions?"

"I'm going to stop you," she spat. "You monster."

"No, you won't," said Jason, and pulled the trigger.

BANG!

For a moment, nothing seemed to have changed. Then, Jason noticed that a hole appeared between Sakura's eyes as she sat there, watching the smoke waft off the barrel of the gun.

Then her body slumped over, falling to the table with a thump.

Jason holstered his gun, then motioned for one of his men to check on the Sakura. His man checked her pulse.

He nodded, and Jason smirked in accomplishment.

"Welp, I'll leave it to you to take care of the body," he said. "I've got a f** to catch."

He left the room, whistling as his men fussed over the body in the room.

Sakura Watanabe was dead.

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