Riley Ross

Chapter 194 194: Da

"We're really going through with this?""Of course, Miss Thursday."

Somewhere, Darkday One and Ms. Thursday were inside a cafe with a few patrons. And while Ms. Thursday was wearing casual clothing, and only a pair of sunglasses to try and hide her face, Darkday One wore shades, a cap, and a fake mustache.

"I don't think you and the Boss are treating this seriously," Ms. Thursday said, pretending to sip her coffee whenever she spoke. "You could have just made yourself smaller instead of borrowing my foundation and completely changing the shade of your face… or putting on that fake mustache, for that matter."

"Oh, you don't like my mustache?" Darkday One caressed his fake mustache. "And I can't actually shrink."

"What do you mean?" She squinted her eyes, lowering her face to look at Darkday One. "All the Boss's clones can do it."

"Well, because they're new." Darkday One shrugged, resting his elbow on the table, and looked out the window. "They were created after the Boss gained the ability to change size."

"Why not just ask to be remade?"

"You mean die?" Darkday One looked her in the eye. "Sure, Boss can remake me, and I'll have all of my memories—since we all share our memories, after all. But that wouldn't really be me, right? It would just be someone who has my memories and pretending and acting like me."

"Hmm." Ms. Thursday blinked. "I suppose you're right. For a clone, you seem to be showing much more compassion and reason than our boss."

"Don't get used to it," Darkday One shrugged again. "I'm just pretending. I need to be different from the Boss, after all. I could say the same thing to you."

"Hm?"

"You're also special, right? You don't act like it."

"I'm older, more developed—and we're not on the same levels of the spectrum, I actually have emotions."

"But you're part of the Dark Millennium. That's a terrorist group."

"I said I have emotions, I didn't say I have empathy."

"Oh, good one. I'll use that line, too." Darkday One nodded several times. "And anyway, I assure you. The Boss and I are taking this seriously. He wouldn't be here if we weren't."

"Here?" Ms. Thursday lowered her cup. "You mean he is personally doing the mission?"

"Of course. He's hands-on like that."

"...Interesting. And what are we doing here?"

"We're here to sightsee. It's Moscow."

Darkday One looked outside again, letting his sunglasses reflect the colorful buildings of Moscow, Russia.

And of course, they arrived there illegally. And somewhere in one of those houses lived one of the children of the country's minister of defence.

"I still think we shouldn't have proceeded with this mission." Ms. Thursday looked at the houses too, but she quickly looked away and focused on her coffee instead. "Someone from Russia attacked the Boss, and now he is attacking an important figure in Russia as Darkday—Prophet is already suspecting him, this would put him in his brain map again."

"Eh, we'll see, won't we?"

"Can I ask something?"

"Sure."

"Why am I under the impression that the Boss wants to get caught?"

"Oh? Does…

…it really seems that way?"

***

At the same time, in one of the apartments, Sofiya's only son was talking to someone on the phone.

"What do you mean? Why can't I fucking transfer to America's Mega Academy?! Megawoman's there! Didn't you see the news?!"

And from the way he was talking in English, it was clear that whoever was on the other end of the phone might be from another country. He was pacing around his room,

"What? My mother? What does my mother have to do with this? W-what…? My mother knows who you are?! Shit!"

The young man almost threw the phone away, but instead settled on hanging it up before dialing another number.

"Nu vozmi trubku! Vozmi, mat' tvoyu!" He started to sound agitated. "Pick up, Mother! Pick up! You—"

His voice of urgency, however, instantly disappeared as someone suddenly grabbed his phone from behind. He screamed, turning around in shock.

"Who's there?!" he shouted, his eyes scanning the kitchen, but no one was there at all. He gazed down to see if he had truly just dropped his phone, but it was also nowhere to be found. He was sure of it; someone was there.

"Who's there?!" He repeated. But this time, he stretched his arms to the side, and the air around his hands started to crack and distort—and then, with a breath, he grabbed one of the cracks, and it turned into a pair of some sort of blades.

"Kto tam, a?! Reveal yourself! Don't you know who I am?!"

"Nikola Sholova."

"?!" Nikola turned around, only to see someone wearing a helmet casually sitting on his sofa. "Who—" He was about to speak, but the stranger cut him off.

"5th Year Student in the Mega Academy of Russia, and your mother is Sofiya Sholova, the current Minister of Defence of the country. Greetings, I am Darkday."

Nikola watched as Darkday calmly placed something at the center table—his phone.

"Please." Darkday gestured to him. "Join me."

"Darkday?" Nikola, of course, didn't join Darkday at all. "Who sent you? Are you an assassin? I'll have you know I've killed all the assassins sent for me."

"An assassin?" Darkday laughed in amusement. "I suppose you could call me that right now. But you're not my target, your mother is. But we seem to have a problem, your mother's not answering the phone."

Darkday pointed at the phone on the table, and it was still dialing Sofiya's number.

"Your mother mustn't love you very much." Darkday sighed. "I think I chose the wrong child to visit. Wh—"

"Die!" Nikola no longer waited for Darkday and ran around him while throwing the air blades at the same time. These almost invisible airblades, however, only bounced off Darkday. But Nikola didn't seem to care; he only grabbed more blades from the air to throw at him.

As for Darkday, he just casually followed Nikola with his eyes, turning his head toward him.

"Interesting ability," he muttered. "But my ability truly is unfair—because I can do the same thing, watch."

Nikola quickly put up his guard; this time, an entire section of the air around him distorted. He pulled it with both hands, and the air turned into a shield.

He then watched as Darkday extended his hand above him, imitating the way he pulled out the blades in the air.

"Psh…" Nikola scoffed, however, when Darkday pulled nothing at all. But still, Riley rotated his hand as if he plucked something from the air. "What are you—"

And before Nikola could say anything, Darkday swung his hand toward him… and completely sliced his shield, as well as the floor, the ceiling, and the wall behind him.

And yes, his left arm and a part of his left leg were sliced right off, too.

"Grah!" Nikola instantly dropped to the ground, wailing in pain and not knowing where to grab at all since both of his left limbs were sliced. He did shut his mouth, however, as Darkday approached him.

He tried to back away, gritting through the pain as he screamed for help… and Darkday allowed his voice to seep out from the apartment.

And then, he crouched down right in front of him and handed him something—his phone.

"Call your mother again, Mr. Nikola," he calmly said while jabbing the phone right into Nikola's cheek.

"Each time she doesn't answer…

…I am going to rip off something from your body. Ty ved' menya ponyal… da?