Pupils Not Mine

Kurose fell dead, limbless and full of shards.

The beautiful man stared at the corpse in disappointment before turning his gaze to the scorpion. A grin of mockery and malice carved itself into his face.

Still motionless due to the wounds his vessel had undergone, the Scorpion stared sharply at the beautiful man and spoke, “It has been a while. Mirror.”

“I would love to not see you for another millennium. Scorpion.” responded the beautiful man, or rather Mirror.

“I’ve been awaiting your reincarnation for decades. And here you are, turning the perfect world I built upside down in less than a month.”

“I wouldn’t call it livable, let alone perfect.” The Scorpion chuckled arrogantly. “A twisted whore like you is never meant to rule. The clown told me what you did,”

“you sealed Angel and killed Orion.”

“And they were the only ones who arrived with you out of the nine deities.” He laughed. “Quite disgusting even for you. Stubborn, little Mirror.”

Mirror clenched his fists tightly and looked at the ground with his eyes closed.

“Hahaha! What happened to your ‘We will delete ourselves from existence for the sake of humanity’ goal?” The Scorpion smirked. “You just murdered a human. See?”

In a disgraceful loss of control, “Shut the hell up!” Mirror yelled. And without warning, thousands of sharp mirror shards materialized across the atmosphere, all pointed at the Scorpion, who for some reason didn’t quiver regardless of his hopeless state.

“Humanity needs me. They need balance.” Mirror mumbled. “Without a God like me who is willing to make the necessary sacrifices, they will crumble.”

“Oh, surely. A God who killed his fellows so that he could rule alone is quite the fair one.” The Scorpion mocked.

With a calm expression, Mirror spoke, “You were the cause behind all of this. You, Clown, and Eclipse chose to reincarnate in the future.”

He clicked his tongue. “If not for your ability to see through the darkness of the future, we would have let you three rot in the dust of time. But we sought to stop the threat you posed.”

The hundreds of mirror shards multiplied into thousands, casting a sacred ambiance through the atmosphere as the two deities spoke to each other.

“You sacrificed everything for this. You even deleted the concept you embody from existence as a sacrifice to take Clown and Eclipse with you to this age. Even I barely remember what a scorpion is.” Mirror said quietly.

“And remember, a deity who dares to manipulate its believers’ faith, always forgets something.”

“Basically, what I mean is quite simply,” His shoulders shrugged. “Your dream of becoming human is foolish.”

“You will never become human. Scorpion.” Mirror opened his palm toward his archenemy.

“That’s why you should die already—

From within The Scorpion’s faint shadow, an ethereally beautiful girl emerged into the night.

She was barefoot and dressed in a short red dress. Her eyes were as dark as an abyssal eclipse.

“Eclipse…” Upon seeing her, Mirror’s purple eyes closed immediately as he screamed, “Damn it!”

Immediately, he shattered his body into glass shards and vanished out of sight.

Eclipse knelt before the Scorpion and kissed his cheek. “Let’s meet with Clown, darling~”

…

Chūō Ward—A couple of hours later.

After hearing Kurose’s accusation against him for being the murderer of the orphanage kids at the cave, Sarai had undergone a long nightmare—or session of relived memories—where he single-handedly murdered all of his friends.

He sliced their throats, one after another. It felt as if it was something natural to be done, and what supported that feeling was the fact that they froze in their places across the cave, as if awaiting murder.

As if having chosen to be a sacrifice.

…

“AH!” Sarai’s eyes snapped open.

He rose abruptly, looking around him.

Lying on an expensive couch, he found himself inside a CEO's office. At the desk steps away from him sat Scarnetti, wearing his gold-rimmed glasses as he examined documents.

He looked at Sarai with the same blank expression as always. “She’s coming.”

“Huh?” Sarai felt a sudden wave of dread.

Thud. Thud. Echoing through the corridor outside the office were steps he had heard so many times.

Mitsu’s footsteps.

This has to be Mitsu-san… Sarai stood and stepped toward the door.

Knock. Knock.

Knocks Echoed from the door.

“Enter,” replied Scarnetti to the knocking noise.

Creak.

“M-Mitsu-san…” Sarai was almost in tears, and so was Mitsu. She hurriedly approached him.

“Sarai… I looked all over Osaka for you. For some reason, I couldn’t see anything through your eye.” Mitsu held him by the shoulder. “Let’s leave now, I won’t ask you what happened or who you were with now.”

“Osaka is in grave danger. We should evacuate.” She withdrew and waved with her hand, gesturing for him to follow her.

Sarai looked at Scarnetti curiously; he sought answers, but the warmth of home won his heart.

And so, he followed in Mitsu’s footsteps.

My head hurts…

Suddenly, his vision blurred, and he felt an unforeign will gradually take over him as he fell to his knees and groaned in pain.

The Scorpion again… Not near Mitsu-san…

Mitsu turned abruptly and crouched beside Sarai, checking on him.

In a blur of colors, a scorpion tail erupted from his back and yanked Mitsu off her feet, crushing her neck tightly.

The all-seeing witch had gone out of her way to protect the fragmented family semblance Sarai had given her in the past three weeks.

Little did she know, it wasn’t Sarai that she had spent the most time with. But rather, it was the same entity crushing her neck at the moment.

At this point, Sarai had lost control of his body to the Scorpion. Yet, as if punishing him, the Scorpion allowed him to watch everything.

He allowed him to watch Mitsu cough blood as he crushed her neck slowly.

STOOOP!

He allowed him to watch her limbs get torn off like a mannequin’s.

STOOOOOOP!

He allowed him to watch the stinger gouge her eyes slowly and agonizingly.

STOP!

…

Stop…

…

Slumber devoured him once again.

…

Stop… Stop…

“AH!” As he knelt at the same spot, his eyes snapped open, met with nothing but the room’s dim lighting, caused by the sheer glass wall at the end of the office.

The instant he felt relief from the thought that Mitsu’s arrival was nothing but a nightmare, he felt two soft marbles that offered a gelatinous texture held tightly inside his closed palms.

He wanted to open his hands but simply couldn’t do so with ease.

It was as if his hands refused to let him glimpse what was inside.

But with great determination, he managed to do so.

Yes, he totally managed to do it.

He managed to witness the final punishment left by the Scorpion.

Which was to allow Sarai a hold of Mitsu’s eyes.

The same ones that stayed open overnight to protect him.