A Similar Face - Desecration Arc (FINAL CHAPTER)

Wisteria walked through the capital, her hands interlocking Hiroshi’s. He smiled at her, and she smiled back, her smile radiating off the sun. At that moment, a newspaper flew through the air, smacking into Wisteria’s face.

Hiroshi pointed at her and laughed, only to drop the smile immediately as he seen how upset she looked when she grabbed the crusty newspaper and pulled it away from her face.

“Urgh! What the heck!” Wisteria blurted out, looking down at the dirty paper. Hiroshi got beside her and snuggled into her arm.

They looked at the paper together. The headline read “Demon War on the Horizon?” with a picture of some short of demon. It had small horns on the top of its head, and emitted a black aura all around the body, just like Kuro-Yami did when he was a prisoner. Probably why the villagers thought Kuro-Yami was originally a demon.

“Huh, look who wrote this article…” Wisteria said, pointing her finger to the author’s name. Hiroshi’s eyes followed her finger to the name.

Alexander.

“Does this guy do everything here?” Hiroshi sighed, rolling his eyes. Now, it was Wisteria’s turn to laugh.

“Oh Oshi! Be nice!” she told him in a joking manner, slapping his wrist hard. “Do you think his information is true?”

Hiroshi just shrugged his shoulders. He had no idea, nor did he really care. It was his and his friend’s big day. He told Wisteria not to worry about it, and he took her arm. They went to the arena together, the same one in which Kuro-Yami had fought all eight Gods exactly one year ago. As Wisteria and Hiroshi walked down the hall to the V.I.P seating, a figure was hidden in darkness.

“Hey! Shinigami?! Can I please have an autograph?!” the fan begged, beckoning with his hand. Hiroshi chuckled.

“Go on ahead Wisteria, I’ll catch up. Make sure Tomo and Bibi are ready,” he said with a grin, reaching out his hand to the fan in the darkness. Wisteria blew a kiss at Hiroshi, before running down the corridor.

The fan handed Hiroshi a marker and a sheet of paper. He took it firmly, and began writing his name in kanji.

“How did you get down the V.I.P. tunnel? You must be important,” Hiroshi mentioned casually, trying to make light conversation. He finished writing his name, and the fan’s hand shot out, grabbing Hiroshi’s wrist. A wide, malicious grin appeared on the fan’s face.

“Hey! Stop that! Let go!” Hiroshi exclaimed in shock. He wasn’t being hurt, but he was just surprised. This was a very avid supporter! However, his face looked familiar. Hiroshi fell backwards, onto the hard, cracked concrete floor. Hiroshi looked up as the figure stepped forward, and he scanned his face.

“Hey…wait…you look like….”

Meanwhile, the crowd was going wild. The preliminaries had already ended, and the final eight was about to commence. Alexander was standing on his usual podium, his voice booming from the microphone. He had much preferred last year’s tournament. The fights were a lot more brutal, with close results. This year just wasn’t the same.

“Now, everyone! Just before the matches for the Quarter-Finals start, I would like to remind you that any person showing valuable skills in this Tournament will be going to Tsuyoshi Kage, our very own hero, to train for a while year!”

Kage stepped out, and a chorus of boos rang out all over the arena. He sighed in disappointment. He knew that revealing himself as a fake God of Light would not go down well. Changing the rules to not only have the winner have training, but other promising talents, made the prize less special.

Nevertheless, Kage smiled, his shiny, silver armor reflecting off the sun beautifully. He waved out to the crowd, and he even got a miniature round of applause from somewhere. He smirked. Chivalry and understanding weren’t dead after all.

“Just look at how well these four have gotten on in Kage’s care! Please welcome Hiroshi Akuma, Wisteria Itsumi, Bibi and Tomokazu Onuki to the stage with me please!” Alexander made his voice loud and clear in the microphone. One by one, the God killers stood up on stage, and smiled and waved to the crowd, making their presence known. Alexander grinned with them, only to realize that one person was missing.

Hiroshi.

Alexander began to panic. Where was he?! Out of all the people not to turn up, he expected that he wouldn’t, but he was still vastly disappointed.

Just then, a huge explosion came from the wall of the arena. Everyone in the crowd jumped in their seats and covered their heads with their hands as debris flew from the wall, exploding out onto the blank canvas on the arena. Alexander yelped in fright, and leapt off the decaying, wooden stage. Bibi, Wisteria and Tomokazu stood tall, making their presence aware.

Hiroshi flew out from the wall, tumbling over himself again and again. Wisteria lifted an eyebrow as he came to a stop, the dust beginning to kick up.

“Wait…Hiroshi wasn’t wearing those clothes when he left, was he?”

Bibi and Tomokazu looked at each other in concern. Another figure came out from the now destroyed wall, a black darkness surrounding him. He wore a black suit and dickie bow to match, now covered from head to toe in dust.

"W-Wait..." Bibi paused, taking a step back, her forehead beginning to sweat. "That's...also Hiroshi."

Hiroshi was almost too stunned to speak as a man, who looked identical to him, tried to twist his wrist off. The only way he could stop his doppleganger was to throw him through the wall.

The only difference between this Hiroshi and the real Hiroshi was the number one that was tattooed on the back of his right hand.

"Who the heck are you?!" Hiroshi yelled, getting even more confused. The fake Hiroshi had a shallow laugh to himself.

"I'm going to be the one to bring you down."