The deathly silence of the Mind Theater was broken by Mortis's light footsteps.
She plotted how to "deal with" Fuuki, a mischievous smile playing on her lips.
However, just as she triumphantly prepared to leave the center of the stage, she stumbled and nearly fell.
She looked down in surprise, finding her right ankle tightly bound by a chain shimmering with an eerie blue electric light—the same light that bound Mutsumi in the cage.
She spun around abruptly.
Inside the iron cage, Wakaba Mutsumi was still bound hand and foot by electric chains, but she was pressed tightly against the cold iron bars, desperately reaching out her bound hands towards Mortis.
The segment of chain on her wrist, originally for limited movement within the cage, had now been melted and reshaped by a familiar force, extending into a new, slender electric chain that snaked through the gaps in the bars and wrapped around Mortis's ankle.
"Mutsumi-chan! What are you doing!"
Mortis shrieked in disbelief, her voice for the first time tinged with panic.
She had clearly explained the stakes (as she perceived them), and even if Mutsumi couldn't fully agree, at least a seed of doubt should have been planted in her heart.
Seizing this opportunity, Mortis could then personally intervene with her perfect acting to completely drive that dangerous man away from Mutsumi.
"Why?"
"Fuuki is… a friend."
The girl in the cage spoke softly, yet her words were like a nail hammered firmly into the stage.
She was pressed against the iron bars, her light green hair a little disheveled, her exact expression unclear, but in the depths of her clear eyes, the blue electric light reflected, flickering with determination and vitality.
"Oh no! If this continues, Mutsumi-chan will regain control of the Great Monster (Lightning Rider)!"
Alarm bells rang in Mortis's heart, and the undeniable resolve of the main personality filled her with a sense of betrayed anger.
"Why?!"
Mortis's voice abruptly rose, laced with accusation.
"Why do you value that guy so much?! If you had such persistence for Sakiko, I could still understand, after all, she's your long-time best friend, your precious other half."
"But why him?!" She pointed into the invisible void, as if to pierce the man's illusion.
"You've only known him for a little over a month, and you trust him like this?! Or is it because of this—!"
She suddenly waved her hand, and the space behind her twisted abruptly, a dazzling azure electric light erupting with a roar.
The tall, blurry humanoid form of Lightning Rider, temporarily usurped by her, made of pure electricity and crackling with oppressive power, descended behind her.
"If you think Togawa Fuuki gave you something 'unique,' giving you your own 'Stand,' then you are gravely mistaken!"
Mortis's voice carried the cruel pleasure of revealing the truth.
"You know his ability better than anyone! The Stand named White Snake—it can steal others' 'minds,' and steal others' 'Stands'!"
She approached the iron cage step by step, her gaze fixed intently on Mutsumi.
"This power, it never belonged to us, it's not something exclusively yours, Mutsumi!"
She understood the main personality's secret yearning—the desire to possess something truly her own, undefined and irreplaceable.
That hateful Fuuki must have precisely exploited this, weaving a trap with a false "gift" to win Mutsumi's trust and steal her heart!
This layer of false sugarcoating had to be brutally torn off by Mortis herself.
"Mutsumi-chan!"
Mortis pressed her index fingers hard against her temples, leaning forward, her expression an exaggerated "think about it carefully."
"You are not that man's only choice! You must have seen it, he is looking for other helpers, seeking more 'encounters'!"
She deliberately emphasized the last two words, with heavy sarcasm.
"That day! Wearing that fake face you meticulously designed for him, how many people did he rush to meet? And all of them were women!" Mortis's voice trembled slightly with agitation.
"What else is he but a scumbag?! He's deceiving your feelings! When he finds a more suitable, more useful 'tool,' Mutsumi-chan, you will surely be neglected and abandoned!"
She gasped for breath, a realistic hint of tears even welling in her eyes, her voice filled with heartbroken despair:
"If this continues… Mutsumi-chan, you will surely get hurt, and it will be all over!"
Under her hysteria and "sincere outpouring," Wakaba Mutsumi in the cage seemed to waver.
Her hands, gripping the iron bars, slowly, little by little, loosened their grip.
Her body slid down the cold iron bars, collapsing weakly at the edge of the cage, her light green head bowed deeply, her shoulders subtly shaking, her expression unreadable, as if completely crushed by this heartbreaking accusation, sinking into heavy sorrow and agreement.
"Ha… It worked! I finally convinced this stubborn little idiot!"
Mortis was ecstatic, almost laughing aloud in triumph.
"Togawa Fuuki! You big bad guy! Just wait, when I take over the body, I'll show you how I'll deal with you with my perfect acting!"
She eagerly focused her mind, preparing to fully take over the Mind Theater's authority and control the sleeping body.
However, an unprecedented sense of sluggishness suddenly gripped her, as if her limbs were submerged in viscous glue. Every thought, every movement became exceptionally heavy and difficult.
She looked down at her hands and feet in surprise—the eerie blue chain that had only been wrapped around her right ankle had now silently branched out and multiplied.
Countless chains, as fine as silk threads yet shimmering with the same deadly blue light, like living vines, rapidly spread upwards from her ankle, wrapping around her calves, knees, thighs… and even her waist and abdomen.
They tightened into the fabric of her indigo dress, like the strings of a marionette, binding her firmly in place.
"I said all that… Mutsumi-chan, why are you still doing this…"
Mortis struggled to lift her head, looking at the iron cage again. The confusion in her eyes, like ice cubes dropped into boiling water, instantly melted, replaced by a raging fire of exasperated anger, almost burning away her sanity.
The girl lying at the bottom of the cage slowly raised her head.
Her face was pale, her eyes slightly red, her demeanor fragile like a newly mended thin-walled porcelain, as if she had just experienced a silent wail, yet her tears had long since dried.
However, beneath this fragile facade, an expression Mortis had never seen on her face emerged.
"I know…"
Wakaba Mutsumi's voice was very soft, yet exceptionally clear, piercing Mortis's anger.
"This isn't something that belongs to me…"
"I also know that Fuuki is seeking help from more people…"
At this, the girl slightly lifted her chin, and a faint, yet incredibly real smile, spread across her lips.
"Fuuki is 'my' friend."
As her words fell, the giant television wall surrounding the circular stage, which had originally flickered with endless snowflakes, suddenly synchronized all its screens.
The harsh static instantly vanished, replaced by an incredibly clear memory image—
The scene was the study on the second floor of the Togawa Residence, Fuuki's bedroom.
The severely injured boy lay on the sickbed, just struggling awake from a long unconsciousness.
His eyes were tightly shut, his brows furrowed, his breathing rapid and erratic, his body uncontrollably twitching slightly. Sweat drenched his forehead.
He looked like a drowning person desperately floating in a boundless, icy abyss, each helpless struggle draining his remaining life force.
His uninjured hand, fingers spasming open and then futilely curling, again and again, weakly but stubbornly reaching upwards into nothingness, as if desperately craving a faint glimmer, a trace of response, in the boundless darkness.
Outside the frame, a slender hand reached in, hesitantly, gently and steadily grasping the trembling hand that was futilely grasping at the air.
The memory scene instantly shifted angles, focusing on the bedside—it was Wakaba Mutsumi.
She sat there quietly, her face still habitually calm, but in the depths of her light green eyes, Fuuki's struggling figure on the sickbed was clearly reflected, reflecting the intense aura emanating from him—
It was a deep-seated reliance on loneliness, an unease about forming genuine connections with others, almost forgotten by himself, buried beneath habitual indifference and control.
Compared to interactions full of variables and requiring genuine emotional investment, he trusted the power of White Snake more. To understand, to control through DISC, exchanging this cold certainty for a bit of pitiful security.
At that time, after losing all his family, and inheriting the heavy yet brilliant "ideal" of his alternate self, he had already deeply believed that he had nothing, except for this power to plunder minds.
And the moment that hand was grasped, Fuuki's violently trembling body on the sickbed strangely and slowly calmed down.
"Mutsumi, let's be friends?"
These were Fuuki's first words upon waking.
No rehearsal, no prelude, even sounding a bit abrupt.
Wakaba Mutsumi just looked at him quietly, with little discernible emotion in her eyes.
Then, she nodded very slightly.
"Okay, Fuuki."
Since then, under Fuuki's guidance, sometimes gentle, sometimes forceful, Wakaba Mutsumi had stepped into that dangerous and bizarre Stand world.
If asked what she had truly gained in this brief, perilous relationship, she might not be able to give a clear, grand answer.
But… "I held his hand."
Wakaba Mutsumi's gaze pierced through the iron bars, falling upon Mortis, who was layers deep in chains.
"And Fuuki also reached out his hand to me."
"That's enough."
As her words fell, the eerie blue chains wrapped around her wrists and ankles suddenly flared up, and powerful electrical pulses brutally surged through the chains into Mortis's body.
"Ugh ah—!"
Mortis let out a short scream, feeling her soul being tightly squeezed, a piercing pain!
"Damn it! Mutsumi-chan! You don't understand anything!"
Mortis cried out in unwilling defiance amidst the pain and choking sensation, her grievance gradually turning into anger.
Most of the control over Lightning Rider was still in her hands; if she drove it with all her might, she could definitely completely suppress this deluded main personality, making her unable to resist again for a long time!
"In that case! Don't blame me for being merciless!"
She gritted her teeth, forcibly gathered all her mental energy, torn by intense pain and anger, and abruptly issued the final command to the massive blue electrical humanoid behind her—release all power!
However, the moment her will was sent, a sudden change occurred.
The humanoid, accumulating energy behind her and about to burst forth, was suddenly gripped as if by an invisible giant hand.
Its massive electrical body emitted a harsh "zzzz" sound, instantly stretching and twisting like clay powerfully sucked by a vacuum cleaner.
It transformed into an absurdly ridiculous, slender blue electric ribbon, uncontrollably flying rapidly towards the ethereal sky of the Mind Theater.
The twisted blue figure comically circled a few times in the air, struggling in vain, and finally, with a soft "poof"—not an explosion, but like a delete button being pressed—it collapsed, condensed, and transformed into a bizarre disc with electric light flowing along its edges.
Immediately after, to Mortis's horrified and completely incomprehensible gaze, that disc, like a reflection dropped into water, rippled once and completely vanished from this Mind Theater. Along with its massive energy signature, it disappeared without a trace!
All the electric chains binding the two also disintegrated with the disappearance of the Stand.
Thud!
Mortis, losing the support of the chains and caught off guard, ungracefully plopped down onto the cold floor.
She looked up blankly, instinctively glancing towards the iron cage—
Then, her expression completely froze.
Inside the iron cage, Wakaba Mutsumi, whom she had "protected," had, at some point, sprouted a pair of… fluffy, long, drooping rabbit ears? Those ears even twitched slightly with her movements.
A more terrifying change then occurred: below the stage, the countless plush toys that had originally only "watched" with blood-red eyes now seemed to be infused with an evil life.
Their forms writhed, swelled, and twisted! Teddy bears grew fangs and claws, rabbits became muscular and fierce-eyed, penguins' beaks became like steel awls… They all transformed from toy forms into hideous plush beasts emanating a real wild aura, their throats emitting low, threatening growls.
Innumerable pairs of crimson eyes simultaneously, greedily fixed on Mortis, who sat slumped on the ground.
"Huh?!" Mortis fearfully touched the top of her head—her hand met a fluffy sensation.
A pair of pointed cat ears were uncontrollably emerging from her hair.
"Fuuki, dislikes cats…"
Inside the iron cage, Wakaba Mutsumi, with rabbit ears, calmly stated this fact.
She extended a slender finger, gently resting it on the iron bars, which had lost their electrical enhancement and become ordinary.
Then, under Mortis's terrified gaze, those seemingly powerless fingers, with just a casual, slight exertion—
Creak—!
Those thick iron bars, like fragile branches, were instantly bent and twisted, revealing a gap wide enough for one person to pass through.
Wakaba Mutsumi calmly stepped out of the gap and stood before Mortis, who was sprawled on the ground.
She tilted her head slightly, her long rabbit ears drooping with the movement, her face still bearing that expressionless look, but her light green eyes now held a chilling coldness that made Mortis's hair stand on end.
"Hiss—can we reconcile?"
Mortis looked at the approaching rabbit-eared Mutsumi, at the snarling, drooling plush beasts all around, and a chill shot from the soles of her feet straight to the top of her head!
Surrounded by enemies, she sat helplessly on the ground, like a pitiful fallen leaf in a storm.
"At this moment, you must be joking."
The next moment, the beast horde, which had long been unable to restrain itself below the stage, roared deafeningly like a breached black torrent.
They swarmed, instantly engulfing the screaming Mortis and her helplessly twitching cat ears in a terrifying vortex of rolling fur, claws, and fangs.
"Japari Park…" Wakaba Mutsumi murmured the name of this new power, a trace of a child's joy, receiving a new toy as compensation after being wronged, gracing her lips.
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