"If only I never misconstrued my Principles... "She" could've lived and none of this would've ever happened. My heart is filled with regret, but now, even I can no longer embody my Principles for my will is no longer mine."
- Spirit Freedom
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Which is why as I have said before, this is your last chance, Ephraim... Leave this world to my hands."
These were the words that Himari spoke towards me after she trapped me within this Subspace.
"You and your family never belonged to this world anyway. I can make the exemption for those people who chose to escape with you. But for everyone else, they will stay here and achieve the desires that they all have waited and sacrificed for."
"..."
"Do the right thing, Ephraim. You no longer have any reason to do this. The Spirits have lost, Babel is going to become a god, and nothing can ever stop this from happening anymore... As I told you, I have my own plans after that but you are no longer in the picture within that... Which is why I am asking you, for the sake of what little time and genuine exchange that we had from before... Please, just leave."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
A few minutes before this exchange, Himari and I crossed each other's paths while I was running towards the forming tower in the middle of the city.
"
I knew she was coming and that she is prepared to keep me in a Subspace as soon as I was in range for it, but I let her do it since I too, have something to ask her.
"...Long time no see, Ephraim."
"...Hasn't been that long at all, to be honest. It was just a few days ago when you were still living under Masami-san's house."
"Right... Are they all alright and alive?"
"They are, yes. They even had a concert on a rooftop while your younger brother was attacking us. I wish you got to listen to it, it was the best performance they had so far."
"Heh... Sounds awesome. I guess my feedback and comments paid off after all. I just wish they'd lay back on the chilled beer after band practice."
"Come on, they're "responsible adults" as far as you can stretch that description... Don't worry so much about them."
After this light exchange of words, Himari looked at me straight and began to speak of her reason to be here.
"I know you're here to kill my father and Babel, but I'm telling you right here and now that I would be saving you from the trouble."
"...How so?"
Without missing a beat or batting an eye for what she spoke next, she openly told me of her plan.
"I plan to kill my father and Babel before they ascend, and I will take their place. I already set things up for it behind their backs. Thanks to how your side set up your crack team of Spirit Vessels to confront William and Akira, I can take action anytime I want to and with little to no resistance."
After saying that, Himari materialized a weapon in the shape of an armillary sphere that Ephraim immediately recognized. "Is this familiar to your Spirit and Ancestor, Ephraim?"
"The Divine Weapon of Love, Boundless Warmth... or after her death, Ashes of Devotion... Why do you have that, Himari?"
"Because Love gave it to "her" after she died. It was... something of a memento, as we humans would call it. Something to remind her of her surrogate mother and teacher."
"You're not answering my question, Himari... Why is it in your possession? Law already knows that Love lost her Divine Weapon after her battle against Freedom, and that it is likely in Freedom's possession... which is why I am asking now, why is it with you?"
"...She gave it to me for the purpose of increasing the chance of my plan's success. If I kill my father and Babel, that would also fulfill her wish of being freed from Babel's grasp."
Within my head, I heard both Law and lady Cecilia snicker. I asked them why they are laughing and they both answered with the same words.
["Freedom has given herself up to Babel when she obeyed him. If Babel dies, so will she."]
I told Himari about their answer, and she just nodded and said that it was the plan all along.
"Freedom may not have regretted going against Love's wishes in order to fulfill her Principles, but she deeply regretted having to kill her teacher and surrogate mother not as Spirit Freedom but as her own self. She only intended to give mankind an alternative to the plans set up by the other Celestial Spirits, but she was misled by the temptations of Babel and it all ended up like this."
"So she's ready to die just to atone for it?"
"No. She's ready to die if it means proving her point that mankind has the right to decide everything about their lives. Babel's version of this means that even in the state of godhood, Babel would still be at the apex of everything... something like a "king of the gods", as one may call it. What Freedom truly pursues instead is for every single human being to be at the same state and standing. True equality within true freedom, so to speak."
Throughout this speech of hers, Ephraim remained silent. Himari continued to talk about how she plans to achieve her goal, how she set up things to further increase the likelihood that she will succeed in this, and what she plans to do once mankind assumes a status of godhood.
"Which is why as I have said before, this is your last chance, Ephraim... Leave this world to my hands."
"..."
"You and your family never belonged to this world anyway. I can make the exemption for those people who chose to escape with you. But for everyone else, they will stay here and achieve the desires that they all have waited and sacrificed for."
"..."
"Do the right thing, Ephraim. You no longer have any reason to do this. The Spirits have lost, Babel is going to become a god, and nothing can ever stop this from happening anymore... As I told you, I have my own plans after all of this, but you are no longer in the picture within that... Which is why I am asking you, for the sake of what little time and genuine exchange that we had from before... Please, just leave."
Himari spoke and lowered her head to a bow, as if wanting to further prove that she really wants me to not be involved in this entire thing. However, her request did not receive a satisfying answer.
"I have reasons to not heed your request, Himari."
"...And what are those reasons you speak of?"
I stared straight at her and began to talk about the motivation that I initially had when I became a Psychic and joined the battle against the Miyazonos.
"Miyazaki Hiro... I believe I already told you many times about that name. Do you still remember who that name belonged to?"
"I do. He's the son that Professor Miyazaki Akihiro had with his second wife and the friend you had when you first came here and was forced to become a highschool student because of the new labor laws prioritizing local workers."
"Right... he's my friend who risked his life trying to save the girl that he loves that was kidnapped by one of your Gardeners to become a "toy" in his party... After saving her, your people hunted the two of them down until they eventually found them. They tortured Hiro and hanged him until he died, while the girl disappeared mysteriously... It was only after I joined the S.S.S that I learned that she was handed over to your genetics technology division to use her unique genetic code to further the perfection of your production of Replicants."
"Is that really reason enough to go against us?"
"For you it may not be, but Hiro and Chikako-san were my dear friends. In the first place, I don't expect someone like you who is ready to sacrifice everyone to achieve her goals to understand my reasons. After all, you are prepared to kill your father while the death of my father is one of the reasons why I can't accept your request."
"Oh? You're saying that we killed your father?"
"Aokigahara Mifune sure did. He was so crushed that my father outdid him in everything that he killed him in cold blood right before I came here to replace him in his work... there are many more reasons of course. From the fact that my mother was killed by your brother, your side killed so many people within the S.S.S and Sumeragi group, and you basically destroyed any hope for this world to be renewed into a better future... and because of that..."
I raised my hand and pointed at Himari with my pointer finger, surprising her.
"Those reasons are enough for me to go after you, but you did something that really makes this an unforgivable thing, you see."
"...and that is?"
This is when I told her something that I saw within the vision that I shared with Sayaka.
"In all of the iterations of this world where "I" failed, you are the lone constant variable within it."
"...What?"
"In every single version of reality where I tried to save this world, you were there to stop me until it was too late for anything to be left. In every single time that I decided to abandon this fight, you always failed to fulfill your promise. In every single time that I joined forces with you to try to resolve this issue, you still failed to do anything... I've seen within trillions upon trillions upon trillions of my own lives where I did all of that, only for you to fail time and time again..."
"H-H-Hold on...! Are you saying that you can see the future? Are you saying that I would fail in every version of it?!"
"You will! You will fail exactly because none of you, not Keiji, not Freedom— not even your father can resist the depth of corruption that Babel has already subjected you to!"
I shouted at her, wanting her to understand that her and Freedom's "rebellion" will never have any chance of succeeding in the first place.
"Know this Himari. I will stop you not because I hate you nor is it solely because of what you believe in... but because you stand as a liability after you accepted Babel's power."
Knowing that this is the penultimate battle that I would fight, I raised my Divine Weapon and finally donned one other equipment from Law that I have never needed to summon and wear.
"Bequeath me in your impenetrable plates, wrap me from head to toe in your unassailable cover! I am the Vessel of your master, the icon of Order! Come forth, Divine Raiment of Law!"
"What is—!!!"
"Hearken my call, Form of Finality!"
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
In the center of the World Tree, the piece of wood that Kai was lodged in to become its nourishment has grown to eat away at his limbs.
His arms and legs has been integrated into the trunk of the tree, and slowly, his skin is taking on the color and texture of the wood.
"Power extraction through Astra energy polarity reversal is steadily eating up his remaining life power. Keep the pace steady and ensure that the World Tree will successfully mature."
"Yes, sir!"
Around the World Tree fragment, there are a handful of Replicant scientists handling the extraction of power from Kai and supplying it into the World Tree in the form of nourishment for its growth.
As soulless beings controlled solely by instructions they were given after being created, they were exempted from hearing the call of Babel to gather and worship in its name, and help create the tower it would use to topple Caelestia. These beings are nothing more than beings that exist as a means to an end... with that end being the deification of Miyazono Ryuuichi and Babel.
In the trunk of the World Tree, Kai barely held onto his consciousness. He can feel the pain of his body being eaten away by the things being done to him but it is nearly being numbed out by the drugs injected directly into his brain.
"Mo... Mother..."
Even in such a precarious and painful situation, Kai's fleeting consciousness called out to his mother who looked at him as if she's her very own child and cannot even face him when the time that he must be "disposed" came.
"P...Please... get away... as far as... possible..."
Kai already knew that this would happen. Back when he was supposed to be "disposed of" to give way to the real Imamura Kai, Ephraim told him that he still has a purpose to fulfill and that is how his life would end.
Normally, a good friend who knows how you would die would do all that they can to make you avoid it. Yet in the case of Ephraim and Kai, it was the complete opposite. Ephraim told him how his life would end and that he would be most useful for the rest of the world and the people they wish to protect if he died in a certain way and in a certain place.
Any sane person would deny that request. So long as they have a sense of self-preservation, they would prioritize living even a single second longer and refuse to die for the sake of other's safety and life...
Which is why it's a good thing that Kai the Replicant, this person who has lived his entire life knowing that he's nothing but an imitation of the real Kai and he will one day disappear to give way to the real Kai, is no usual person.
"Is it... that time already...? Please Ephraim... Mother... everyone...!"
For the sake of everyone he loves, he accepted this fate and his place in the grand plan of saving everyone and everything that they wished to protect.
"Win... Please win! For all of our sakes!"
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
In the battle between Renjiro and Akira, their surroundings took forms that are so bizarre that one would think that it didn't came from a human mind... and that's because there are two within it trying to shape it according to their own will and mind.
"
"Nuh-uh-uh! You're not getting any breather, partner!"
As both of them fell down a chasm, behind flying pieces of wood planks, Renjiro appeared and fired his gun towards Akira who barely managed to block it by materializing a wall between the two of them.
"Khh—! F*ckin piece of—!"
"Oho! You kiss your mother with that filthy mouth?!"
Once again, Renjiro fanned the firing hammer of his gun and used his ferrokinetic powers to enhance the speed and adjust the trajectories of his bullets, making him fire from seemingly impossible angles and postures and still almost hit Akira if not for him dodging or blocking them at the nick of time.
"Come on, partner! Dance! Dance just like how you were boasting it earlier!"
"SHUT UP!!!"
The reason why Akira is now struggling despite his prideful words earlier was simple. He was prepared to face Renjiro according to the data that he was given about how he fights and his abilities, not in this fighting style and skills that he is now displaying with wanton behavior.
But that is not all. Unlike how he would usually approach a fight like this where he would be cautious, calculated and planning ahead of his enemy, Renjiro is now being reckless and lacking any plan... and that is because of a rule that he placed right after be donned his sun-bleached hat and cape.
"C'mon, partner! You wanna win, right?! Come right up and take it, if yer' not some chicken hidin' behind mommy's skirt!"
"You lunatic! Who the hell places their life on a ridiculous game like this! This is adsurd! This is irrational!"
The rule was simple. Since their powers are adjacent but Renjiro is the Vessel of Knowledge, he made the duel into one that would require Akira to outwit him in his own game. If any of them gets hit or trapped by the other in a reshaped reality, the fight is over and the victor gets away with the win.
For Akira, this should be easy as he only has to reshape the concepts of the things around him. He can turn one object from one form to another with little to no effort, which should mean that he has to win this easily... but the thing that makes that impossible is the fact that in terms of actual imagination, he is sorely lacking any of it.
"Ghh!
As both of them continued to fall down this seemingly bottomless chasm, Akira kept on changing the form of the debris around him into objects he can use to correct his posture to face Renjiro, as well as block the bullets being fired towards him which would end their fight if even one gets to him.
"Oh come on, partner! You've been defending all this time! Don't you wanna fire off some haymakers of your own?!"
"You bastard! If this was a normal fight, I would've ended it much sooner!"
"Ahaha! Then why haven't you done so yet, buddy? Anything holding you up over there?"
"Grrrrrr—!!!"
This was a sore misstep of Akira's. Seeing himself as above human mannerisms and thinking, he never tried to study how a human thinks and does things. In a battle of wits, he can easily trump Renjiro and end this fight in a flick of a finger, but with this battle being turned into one where one's best weapon is their imagination, someone like him who viewed such things as below himself is atrociously in a disadvantage.
"Since this is becoming a bit boring, let me give you some help. Stop thinking about how things are supposed to happen or look, just imagine them! Feel how they would look like and manifest them!"
"I don't need your help, you bastard!"
"Oh yeah?!" Renjiro shouted back and thought up something before shouting once again "...How about now?!"
"What the—?!!!"
Below them, the end of the chasm finally appeared and it was something completely out of Akira's expectations. Right after they passed through the hole leading to this space, Akira can barely understand what is happening.
The space is an inverted space that looks like a desert with a hot sun burning on a wide, cloudless sky and a wide expanse of windswept land of dust and sand. To him, this is just a random place where his opponent brought him, but to anyone who knows about classic cinema, this is a place they cannot mistake for another.
"Hold onto your bottoms now! Because what is up! Will now be down!"
"What?! Oh, shit!!!"
Right after Renjiro said those words, their point of view and the attraction of gravity was flipped, and the two of them fell down to the dried-up ground where right after he landed on both of his feet, Renjiro shot his gun towards Akira who barely managed to dash away behind a rock to seek cover.
"C'mon, partner! I know ya have that cowboy spirit in ya too! Materialize something useful and gimme a good fight!"
"I won't play into your shit!
Using his psychic ability, Akira changed the form of a gust of wind about to hit Renjiro into an explosive blast. It would have struck him if not for Renjiro transforming it into a pile of wheat stalks that harmlessly passed by him. He took one wheat stalk and placed its tip on his lips to chew on.
"Oh-ho? So kind of you to give me something to chew on while we fight."
"You damned—!"
"Don't slow down now! If you keep this up, your ass is grass, partner!"
Right after shouting those words, Renjiro fanned the hammer of his gun and shot all six shots towards Akira whose rock cover crumbled from the explosions caused by the bullets that struck as hard as tank shells.
"Damn it! Just how am I going to beat this guy!?"
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
The conventional rules of combat between Psychics states that if one falls into a Subspace that is being controlled by your enemy, you have to focus on denying their control in all possible ways. Save for dodging or blocking attacks that can surely kill you, you have to go against what their "idea" of your common battlefield should be.
As a Subspace is nothing more than the manifestation of what both sides think they're fighting in, both has an equal opportunity to change it according to how they view things... which is why during their fight, Akira avoided playing into Renjiro's idea of turning this into a battle between gunslinger cowboys.
"He isn't supposed to have this much control over the Subspace! Hell, no one should have so much control that they can overwrite someone else's abilities!" Akira thought in his head as Renjiro's gunshot firther whittled down the rock that he's hiding behind.
"C'mon, partner! If ya hang back any longer, ya' won't be gettin' any chance to win anymore!"
"He has to have a weakness! He can't possibly be this overpowered! I don't care if he's the Vessel of Knowledge! This is irrational! This goes against every rule of what powers are supposed to be able to do!"
In Akira's mind, rules has always been the strongest key to victory. As someone who believes that he is above humanity, the thought of diverging from the rules means compromising not only what has brought him countless victories before, but also his personal mantra of being "beyond human"... something that he is being proven wrong right now.
Because no matter how much he tries to logically explain how Renjiro is so effectively and efficiently manipulate their surroundings and even transform his attacks into something that is further increasing his influence in their battlefield, he cannot understand it.
"Khh—! You damn irrational deviant!"
He cannot understand how someone who is supposed to be the embodiment of logical thought and knowledge, can make use of irrational imagination as a viable weapon against him.
"Hahaha! I got ya' actin' out all grumpy, buddy! Why the long face?!"
"I'm getting tired of your childish charades!"
"Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it then?"
"Ghh—!!!"
Even if he spat back to Renjiro with his words, it was clear that he doesn't have an edge to fight against him properly.
"Haaah... Seems like in the end, I do have to admit some shortcomings of mine..." Speaking to himself, Akira understood that he cannot fight using his past tactics. If he is to fight against Renjiro, he has to match his style... or perhaps, how he does things at least.
"...Alright, cowboy! I get your jazz! If'n I get out for this rock's back, your gonna give me a fair fight?!"
Speaking in the same stereotypical cowboy vocabulary and accent as Renjiro is doing, Akira stood up from behind the rock and faced Renjiro who had a satisfied smirk on his lips that spat away the stalk of wheat that he was chewing on.
"Been waitin' for that partner! Now then... Since you at least know who I'm playin' as, I trust ya' have an inkling of what yer' part of it is supposed to be?"
"...I do. I may not know everything about it since I just read about it from somewhere in the internet, but I do know the movies about the Immortal Ranger..."
"Heh... A Synopsis Sucker. What else can I expect from someone who views himself above humans? You didn't even bother to watch it, just read a bastardized form of it and called it a day."
"Unlike a failure like you, I have better things to do than watch some shallow movie about a guy who's supposed to be a role model for pathetic losers who want an escape from their wage-slave lives. In the end, that's what the Immortal Ranger's movies were all about... giving some ego bump to people who has nothing valuable to live for."
After he spat out those words, the look on Renjiro's face mellowed out and became quite sullen. He held the hat on his head and for a moment, looked back on a memory that he has long thought back again and again.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Twenty years ago, the failed Replicant named Renjiro was born in a laboratory vat and immediately dragged to a preparation room where the remaining amniotic fluid on his body was wiped and he was dressed to appear in front of some people who was responsible for his creation.
Between a man in dandy clothing and a woman wearing a white lab-coat with the Miyazono corporation's logo on her left breast, was a man who looked exactly like the faint reflection of himself on the glass that separates the two of them. As the dandy man and the woman argued between themselves, he and the man who looks like him stared at each other, with him showing great interest and the man showing a complicated expression.
The man cut their staring with each other and said something that he cannot hear from behind the glass. After a few moments, the scientists who cleaned and dressed him earlier took him to another room where he got to meet with the man who looks exactly like him. Naturally curious about why someone who looks exactly like how he looks, Renjiro approached the man with the intention of touching his face, but was repelled by one of the scientists who shocked him on the side with a taser.
"Stop that! You're hurting him!" shouted the man to the scientist.
"He's a Replicant, Mr. Izumo. A newly hatched one to be precise. He is still incapable of acting appropriately."
"Exactly, he's a Replicant. "MY" Replicant! Is this laboratory going to damage my property? I wonder what Miss Miyazono Himari would say about this. Wanna try your luck, punk?" with their height difference, the man named Izumo towered over the scientist and intimidated him.
"S-Sir... You don't have to—"
"Then let him sit down and leave us alone. And I mean that, ALONE! Even you, Stanley!" The man shouted and drove off everyone out of the room, even the dandy-looking man who seemed to be his manager.
With the two of them left behind, the man named Izumo approached his Replicant and helped him up to his feet, bringing him to a chair in front of a table where he sat across him. After a few moment, the man spoke up with a gentle tone.
"I know you've been wondering for a while what on earth is happening here... and trust me, I'll do my best to help you figure that out."
"Y-You are..." Renjiro, who had this moment as the first time he spoke, trailed off to silence until the man chuckled lightly and answered his incomplete question.
"I am Izumo Renjiro. An action actor and your original self. You are a clone of me... A Replicant, as they call it."
"Repli...cant? Clone?"
"I know things seem cloudy in your head right now, buddy. But now that you're moving about, it would clear up and my memories that was implanted into you would appear in your head soon."
Izumo Renjiro seemed kind and warm for a moment, until a random thought came up his Replicant's mind.
"Why... was I made?"
"That..."
"Why am I here? A Replicant... why was I made if... I'm not meant to replace you?"
This was a question which showed that there was a flaw in how he was made and meant that he was a defective Replicant. Normally, this can be corrected if detected early, but either because he doesn't know about it or actually knew it, Izumo Renjiro gave him the truth about why his Replicant was made despite him still being alive.
"I'm dying... Either because of how much I've pushed my body in pursuit of making better and better movies... or because I was born during the war when radioactive fallout filled much of the world, that is the truth. You are supposed to be my assurance that my dream would be fulfilled even if I die." Izumo spoke and gave his Replicant a smile.
"Your... dream?"
"Yes... My dream is to give hope to humanity and help them head towards a better future."
As someone who was born and grew up at the aftermath of World War 3, Izumo Renjiro knew about the crushing and depressing reality that was shared by the survivors. He saw the hopelessness on everyone's lives and once he had a way to achieve it, aimed to give hope to them the best way that he can.
"For now, I'm still holding strong... Normally, as you have asked earlier, we're not supposed to meet like this as the Original and the Replicant. I was warned that it can give your some mental dissonance since no one is really supposed to meet someone who looks like them, much more someone who is literally them... But I still wanted to do this regardless."
"Then... why? Why did you want to do this?"
Izumo paused for a moment, before giving his answer.
"Because somehow, it feels wrong to hand over my identity and aspirations to you without you knowing what they are for... which is why while I'm still alive and kicking, I want you to have this and study them as much as you can." Izumo spoke and gave his Replicant a flash drive.
"What does this contain?"
"My movies... all 117 of them that I made during the past 20 years of my career. Most are action flicks, so I know you won't be bored with them for a while."
During his time in the laboratory, the Replicant Renjiro watched those movies as ordered by his Original, studying their stories, characters and messages with the goal of learning as much as he can from them. The most important thing that Renjiro learned however, was the man behind all of these movies.
"In case I don't make it for as long as I can, I want you to continue my dream and give hope for the people of this world."
These words which the Replicant repeated in his mind again and again was something that he didn't fully understand, not because of his ignorance, but because it conflicted with the memories that he received from Izumo.
"He said those words... but why does his memories and thoughts seem to be filled with indignation against the world?"
For a few years, Izumo would visit his Replicant and ask about his progress. Each visit, he would hand out a few more movies that was made recently and they even made a game to further enhance the synchronization of their shared memories and thoughts.
In one of these visits, the Replicant finally asked Izumo why he dreams of "giving hope" when his memories and thoughts shows that he hates his fellow man. At first, Izumo seemed disturbed about being asked such a question... until he understood that the question came with genuine concern instead of judging him.
"I... hate humans for doing all of this. Because of the war, the economic failure and many other things that could've been avoided, we have to live in a world so devastated that we're cursed with illnesses that has no cure nor remedy... If none of this ever happened, everyone could've had a normal childhood and they wouldn't have these things growing inside them like parasites."
Izumo spoke and lifted his shirt to show severe bruising on torso, where blotches of scarlet to purple bruises filled his body. After saying this, his Replicant realized why all this time, Izumo has worn clothes up to this wrists, and why he seems to throw caution to the wind when performing stunts for this movies.
"As I said before, I am dying... I am a dead man condemned to the Reaper's scythe who is yet to realize that he's already been cut down and still keeps on walking. When my manager pitched the idea of creating a Replicant to me, you were supposed to not receive my memories since your sole purpose was to be a perfect donor of bone marrow to keep me going healthy for years to come... That was until the laboratory staff told us that our idea of turning you into a donor is useless since it is in my irradiated DNA to have this illness... and you will have it too."
From what Izumo said, his Replicant feared that he is carrying the same debilitating illness, until he realized that unlike Izumo, he didn't have any of those bruises.
"That... Wait, b-but—"
"Right... that is where things diverged. For some reason that even they cannot explain, you didn't have that illness. Their best explanation is that somehow, your DNA malformed just enough to negate the cancer and make your healthy. However, that also meant that you cannot be a donor for me..."
"W-Why...?"
"My body is already weakened beyond recovery. If you donated your bone marrow to me, my body would reject it and I will die. You can say that I can just take drugs to suppress my immune system, but that's a death sentence as well..."
The hopelessness of the situation Izumo was in was clear to his Replicant.
As he said earlier, he is already a dead man whose time is numbered with no way to escape his situation... and it is something that he already accepted and planned for ahead.
"Which is the reason why I wanted you to outlive me and take on the mantle of Izumo Renjiro... I ask this of you, my Replicant... before everything ends for me, I want to be sure that you will carry on my dream and fulfill it for me."
Izumo said those words to his Replicant before heading to America to perform the penultimate film of his Immortal Ranger movies. With his "Wild West Revival" movies having its perception changed from being "cheesy B-list movie" to "culturally defining feature films", Izumo was invited to the celebrity world of the west, something that everyone in the industry dreams of belonging to during their career.
However, at the day that he returned to Japan, Izumo carried an expression that his Replicant will never forget.
"Izumo..."
"Hey there, buddy..."
Gone was the hopeful glow on his eyes and his words that showed his fervor for his craft is replaced by endless sighs and grunts of pain.
"How... what happened to—"
"It's "them"... It's always "them", my friend..."
"Who—"
"When I got there, they showed me with praise and recognition. It was more than I've received throughout my entire career here in Japan as an actor... I should've realized that it all came with a great price."
In these moments that the Replicant didn't realized to be Izumo's last, he told him something that he can never forget.
"In exchange for fame, fortune and stardom... they wanted me to commit immoralities... you should've seen their faces...! Those children—!"
"Enough!"
As they share the same memories, they also shared the same tolerance for things. The moment the traumatized Izumo mentioned what he went through, imagining it alone was enough for Renjiro to not want to hear the rest of it.
"Look at me, Renjiro..."
"...What the—"
Izumo lifted his shirt and showed his torso to his Replicant. The previously bruised flesh is now marked with a brand burned into his skin. A mark that healed so badly because of his weakened body that it began to fester and rot. While it was cleaned enough for nothing to be growing on it, it still bled and stank as rotting flesh should."
"This is what they did to me, Renjiro... For wanting to be like them, but not being ready to pay the price of performing their immoralities in front of a camera and having it held against me for the rest of my life!"
"Izumo..."
"I will never forgive them, Renjiro! WE will never forgive them!"
At those final moments where his eyes became bloodshot and his heartbeat deafened his ears until his heart imploded within his chest, Izumo Renjiro said the following words.
"Don't let the memory of me be forgotten for this injustice! You know me as my Replicant! Avenge me for this!"
After Izumo Renjiro's death, the contract between him and the Miyazono corporation was rendered null-and-void. With the Replicant Renjiro being unclaimed and Izumo's death being publicized, he became property of the corporation. He became the indentured servant of Aokigahara Yoshino and Mifune in their laboratories, performing experiments and furthering the advancements of the Miyazono corporation's cloning and Replicant technologies.
Once he was saved by the Sumeragi syndicate and given a new identity, he looked into Izumo's legacy after his death, and learned that he was publicly condemned after several so-called "victims" came out and accused him of sexual and professional misconduct. With him no longer being alive to clear his name, and those who once worked with him no longer being paid or holding any particular loyalty to him, the name "Izumo Renjiro" became mired in slander and only a few years later, all knowledge of him became forgotten to the unforgiving passage of time.
However, through his research into Izumo's final days which became wider and better after he joined the Sumeragi group, Renjiro found out about a safety deposit box that Izumo bought on a small, countryside bank and went to claim its contents. With their similar appearance and biometrics, Renjiro opened the box and took from it a letter and a flash drive.
The letter was something that Izumo left for him before he went to the west in case he died there. It still carried his hopeful tone and words unlike the time before his death, which made Renjiro reminisce and wonder what could've happened if Izumo simply stayed here.
What was important though, was the contents of the flash drive...
"Heh..."The Immortal Ranger: End of the Trail". Izumo... Even to the very end..."
It was the script of what Izumo's dreamed to be his last movie for his favorite character. One that he wanted to film in the real Wild West and become the ending that this character deserves.
"I will do it... I know that one day, there will come a day when I can fulfill this dream of yours."
And that moment is now.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"You're right about the Immortal Ranger being a role model to be looked up to by those who are down-trodden in life... after all, that was the intention of the man who wrote and acted this role all those years ago..."
Renjiro spoke as he spread out his arms and from it came an enormous wave of Astra energy that began to manipulate their surroundings. Akira, upon seeing this, had a worried expression on his face. He knew that Renjiro controlled much of what's happening in the Subspace they are in, but not to this extent.
"And because we're followin' his wishes, I'm gonna give ya' the fair-fight you've been asking for... However! Hear this clearly, Banker!"
"W-what the—!?"
Right after Renjiro said the word "Banker", Akira became dressed in a long, black coat and wore a large top hat on his head.
"This script we are following has a story that spans huge distances and was written to have enough scenes to make it a movie that lasts an entire day to play in its entirety!" Renjiro shouted as their surroundings kept changing forms and locations to the point that both he and Akira stumbled around. "The one who wrote this was told to split it up into a season-long series, but the madman said that it has to be a movie and he never budged about that! No wonder no one wanted to fund its filming!"
"Can you just get to the point already?!"
"I can! The point is this, Banker! As long as it is, this script has no true ending! He told me why on his final letter to me!"
Right before he can end his words, Renjiro dropped from the sky and fell safe and sound onto the back of a horse chasing a train where Akira fell into... A scene straight out of a usual cowboy movie.
"Since I cannot do this movie, it is yours to act and end! It's an open-ended story, Banker! But it's clear how he wants to end this! Either I will kill you, or I will die trying!"
"Both of you are lunatics!"
"HAHAHA!!! That's exactly what I was thinking!"