Riley Ross

"What… the fuck do you want from me?"

Replica Ricky had thought of so many ways Darkday would kill him, but none of those were even at the table for him in the first place. Literally.

He thought Darkday would kill him and that the last two days were his last… but now he was being served food by the very person that abducted him—no.

It started this morning, when the Darkdays opened his crystal cage. Of course, he ran toward the exit as soon as he saw the chance.

He summoned as many replicas as he could, each sacrificing themselves for the original so that they he would survive and they would all live. They used themselves as shields. No, not even. They became walls for him, pinning themselves down and wrapping their arms around like ropes to one another. Their limbs were dislocated and their bones were fractured, but they didn't care at all as long as the original was safe.

They succeeded, too. They were able to pass through the large stone door, managing to push it to the side with dozens of his clones.

All of them were happy… only to find out there was absolutely nothing other than a continuation of the wall beyond this large stone door.

He felt his nose squished and squashed when he rammed through it. He thought it was just dark because these creepy evil creatures still hadn't fully completed this fucked-up little slave dungeon of theirs, but no.

It turned out there was a way out of there at all. Which was weird, as he clearly saw the original Darkday leaving through there. Was there a secret code, or something?

No. None of those matters right now. What mattered was what was being served to him, literally.

He was now inside some sort of dining area. He thought he was going to get murdered here and chopped into parts from all the plastic, but it turned out that it was still just under construction.

"Taste it."

He turned to look at the person standing slightly behind him, the dark-clad man waving his hand and urging him to eat the food on the table.

"Boss had been experimenting with a lot of seasonings lately, so this one should taste better than the last time. I deeply apologize for that, by the way. Salt and sugar still look a little too similar for me."

Replica Ricky's eyes twitched, glaring at Darkday One's helmet before turning his focus back to the plate in front of him. One thing was for sure—it looked incredibly nice. He had worked as a cook for several years, so he knew exactly that Darkday was clearly being trained how to plate.

The only problem was that the taste was barely edible, and the texture was horrendous.

But still, right now, Replica Ricky had no choice but to eat if he wanted to survive another day.

He was sure of it; he was so close to finding out the secret to this place. Judging from the other crystal cages, Darkday planned to bring in more guests.

That was a mistake. The more people here, the more chances of them helping each other to escape. What he needed to do now was bide his time and cooperate with whatever whims and wishes this fucked up evil maniac had for him.

And if none of those worked… then he had a secret up his sleeve that would definitely cause him to react. But of course, he was saving that for the future, in case he needed leverage.

And besides, his goal wasn't to escape at all; it was only the start of it—his goal was still to kill Riley Ross.

Yes. He was still convinced that Darkday is Riley Ross—and that was why his leverage would work on him, surely. But of course, that was for another time.

Right now, he has to put trash in his mouth.

He hesitantly picked up the fork, twirling the exquisite-looking plate of pasta in front of him. Truffle Mushroom Pasta, if he wasn't mistaken—with large chunks of buttery lobster on it.

These fine and obviously expensive ingredients, wasted. Why couldn't he train cooking with simpler and cheaper ones instead?

Replica Ricky sighed, shaking his head as he opened his mouth for the inevitable.

His eyes, however, instantly widened as soon as the first strand of noodle touched his tongue. It was… creamy, and the earthy taste of the truffle was incredibly mild, working along with the rest of the dish instead of overpowering it.

The main character of this carbonara wasn't the truffle; it wasn't even the buttery lobster that melted inside his mouth.

No.

It was the bits of guanciale sticking to the incredibly creamy sauce. If he was right, there were hints of salted egg there too.

This… he knew exactly whose recipe this was.

"Jordan Ramsay?!"

That confirmed everything. If he was still lacking proof that Darkday was Riley, then this was what cemented it.

He had heard it before, that the famous chef with a dozen Michelin stars was advising in USAMA.

"You… are learning personally from Chef Jordan?!"

"Oh?" Darkday One tilted his head.

"I'm assuming that it was delicious?" He muttered. "That's good. I'll serve this for her this weekend, then. Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Richard. I'll leave you now to enjoy your meal in peace. To not make it seem so lonely, I prepared some entertainment."

Replica Ricky didn't even have time to process what he meant by that, when several other Darkdays started coming in droves—all carrying different percussion, with one of them even carrying a keyboard. But instead of a dark, vanta-black suit, all of them were wearing a fine set of tuxedos.

"Well…" Darkday One placed his hands on Replica Ricky's shoulder, leaning close to his ear as he whispered, "I hope you like classical music…

…you'll be hearing it until you die of old age, after all."

***

Back in Mega Academy, after them being asked to leave the activity, all the freshmen were now idling around everywhere on the campus. Most of them were at the mall, talking about the trial of the candidates. But they weren't specifically talking about the candidates, no.

They were talking about their fellow batchmates.

The Monsters of the USAMA.

Some of them were already aware that they were in the presence of monsters. They even had a thread about it in the online school forum. But now, they were slapped and smacked by the reality that they truly were built differently from the rest of them.

They were… apex predators.

No one was really calling them that, of course—except Gracey.

"Did you see what I did?! Bell, you ain't no match for me! Is me! Is me! I is the goat!" She thumped her chest several times, standing in front of Bella while being so close to her face.

Bella pushed her away, shaking her head before glancing at the other members of the Baby Crew. As always, they were lounging on the very first dessert shop they'd ever landed on—the Korean shaved ice store.

"You all seeing this shit? I ain't speak like that. You make me sound unintelligent," Bella slurred.

"B…" Hannah narrowed her eyes at her. "You don't sound unintelligent, but you do speak like that."

"Ain't no way. For reals?" Bella raised an eyebrow, then turned to look at Pauline, who awkwardly looked away. She didn't even need to say anything at all to know that she agreed with the rest of them.

V awkwardly chuckled, while Tomoe didn't seem to care at all as she remained quiet, as she always had.

"Anyway, where you guys at while we up in all them action?"

"I… was one of the civilians," Pauline answered. "V was with me."

"Hmn." V nodded. "We were actually far away from the bridge. I… don't even know why we were there in the first place? I guess they only wanted to have everyone do something. What about… you, Tomoe-san?"

Tomoe blinked, slowly turning her head to V and staring at her for a few seconds before saying,

"Just Tomoe is fine. And I was in the police force, I didn't want to exert too much effort, so I decided to stay back."

"R-right…" V glanced at her several more times before turning to Riley, who was busy eating his dessert.

"Are you… okay now, Riley?" she asked, and Riley slowly lowered his spoon to the table, placing it on the napkin.

"W—" He was about to answer, but his eyes suddenly strayed toward the entrance of the store as the bell rang.

"What the…" Gracey raised an eyebrow as she saw the people who entered.

"...It's those detectives again. Wait a minute, that man with them looks kinda familiar."

"He should be," Hannah whispered, a hint of a smile slowly creeping onto her face as she saw the man Gracey mentioned.

"He's the director of the FBI's Superhuman Affairs, after all."

"Whoa…

…but what's he doing here?"