Chapter 76: The Awakening of Darkness

The corridor felt narrower than it was—oppressive, stifling. The overhead neon lights sputtered in places, throwing unstable shadows that seemed to dance to the rhythm of the tense silence. Mayu walked slowly, her heart hammering like a war drum in her chest. She knew that behind the next door lay far more than just another enemy.

She drew a deep breath. The air smelled of metal, of disinfectant… and of something familiar: the coppery tang of blood and the acrid bite of brimstone.

Her fingers trembled, but she forced them to close around the hilt of her knife. She was no longer the broken girl from the first laboratory. She had survived hell itself, had fought her sisters, faced down her memories… and today, she would end this cycle.

She pushed the door open.

The chamber beyond was vast. Monitors lined the walls, flickering with garbled images of the old cells. At the center sat an empty lab chair, stained with dark, congealed blood. And further back, shrouded in shadow… stood a figure.

> "You came," rasped a hoarse, weary voice.

Mayu recognized it immediately.

The Professor.

But this was not the man she had known. His body was etched with the marks of time and self-inflicted experiments. Tubes snaked from his arms, trailing to machines he seemed to command with mere glances.

> "You haven't changed," she said, her tone cold.

> "Oh, but you have, Mayu. Look at yourself… a masterpiece. My greatest work."

She advanced, each step on the metal floor ringing out like a funeral bell.

> "You no longer control me. And today, I will make you pay for every life you shattered."

The Professor's smile twisted—an almost mournful grimace.

> "Do you think you're different from the others? You were born to kill. I merely revealed what was already sleeping inside you."

A frisson raced down her spine, but she pushed it aside. She had one mission. No doubt. No hesitation.

Suddenly, an alarm blared.

The ceiling parted, and a cage descended slowly, releasing… a female form.

Mayu felt her breath catch. Another her. A modified version. Taller. Stronger. A more stable copy, perhaps. Her eyes glowed electric blue—unnaturally so.

> "Number Nine," Mayu whispered. "I thought I destroyed you."

> "You wounded me, Mayu," came the calm reply. "But you only strengthened my hatred."

Without warning, Number Nine sprang forward.

Mayu rolled aside, narrowly avoiding a clawed strike that scored grooves in the floor like paper. She countered, knife leading, but her opponent slipped away with disturbing grace.

The battle erupted.

Blow after blow, their bodies spun through the room like colliding storms. Metal screeched under their feet; the walls cracked under the force of their impact. Mayu felt her muscles burn, yet she held her ground.

With each impact, fragments of memory surged forth: the screams, the sterile rooms, the muffled sobs of her sisters. The Professor's cold laugh. The gutting pain that came when her humanity was first ripped away.

Number Nine seized Mayu by the shoulders and hurled her against a console—sparks flew. The metallic tang of blood flooded her mouth.

> "You are a sentimental failure," spat her double. "I am pure."

But Mayu managed a smile despite the agony.

> "You have it all wrong… It's not your strength that makes you human."

She staggered to her feet, eyes fixed on the Professor, still framed by his machines.

> "It's our capacity to choose. And I choose not to be your weapon."

With a cry, she surged back at Number Nine. This time, she did not seek to kill—she sought to strike where it hurt most, leaving her victim alive.

A flawless sequence: a feint, a twisting wrist, a snapping knee. Number Nine reeled, unbalanced.

Then, with sudden precision, Mayu thrust her knife into a valve on the Professor's life-support rig.

A howl.

Lights cut out; alarms shrieked louder.

Number Nine shrieked too, as if an invisible agony racked her body, and collapsed.

The Professor, half-shredded from his connections, dropped to his knees.

> "You… you're condemning everything," he whispered.

> "No," Mayu replied softly. "I'm setting us free."

Silence fell.

Mayu stood in the center of the ruined lab, gasping. Blood streamed from a cut on her temple; her hand still shook… but she felt lighter.

At last.

She turned on her heel and left the machines to their deathly chorus.

A new dawn awaited.