"Imito. Joka and I would prefer to keep the Caedis standing. Erik doesn't know what he is–" Kaan's attempt at a ceasefire wasn't even considered by Imito.
"But I wouldn't. I want to burn the Caedis myself, and I'd like to burn alongside them if possible. I'm no longer the manic man you did business with." Imito raised his hands once again as if they were claws. "Only one of us will leave here alive, Kaan."
At the sight of Imito assuming his stance, Kaan sighed in disappointment. "Very well." He rolled up his sleeve, the veins popping on his forearm. "Then I must show you…" Kaan disappeared before Imito's eyes and appeared right in front of him. "…why I am called The Flawless Body."
"I can't read any magical signature from him. Was that just pure strength?" Imito swung his hands in an attempt to slice Kaan's throat.
Kaan blocked it with his wrists, then used Imito's own momentum against him to spin midair and deliver a kick to his face. "Agh!" Imito yelled out. The hit sent a wave of pain through his entire body, dazing him.
As Kaan landed, Imito grabbed onto Kaan's shoulder to avoid being knocked back and attempted to strike his stomach with his knee by pulling him in.
"What… is this?" Imito muttered in pure disbelief. It didn't feel like he hit someone. It felt like he hit an unbreakable wall. Kaan didn't even budge. "Ouch." Kaan grinned. Then the pain of countless punches hit Imito out of nowhere.
"Shit! When did he punch me?! I couldn't see it!"
Enduring the pain, Imito stepped back to create some distance. "I shouldn't use all of my copies yet. Saving mana is the best choice. The core weakness of my sorcery is that it's so fucking taxing. Just trying to mimic Uso's Aura Technique depleted almost half of it." After he reevaluated his approach, Imito closed the distance again. "At the end of the day, he is a Dawnthinker! I need to go for a critical spot that his durability can't protect." He swung his hand towards Kaan's neck again. "Like his artery!"
Kaan ducked under the attack and threw a jab at Imito's chest. "Hitting his head doesn't matter. The usable mana of a Magiborn is in their chest."
Imito deflected Kaan's strike, then delivered a kick to his exposed liver. "My attacks aren't doing anything to him!" Despite the hit landing, Imito felt like it hurt him more than it hurt Kaan. "Then–" Without touching the floor after his kick, he ejected mana from his feet for an air jump, created a blade on his forearm and swung it in hopes of cutting Kaan's jugular.
Kaan grabbed Imito's arm with all his might and used his other arm to press weight onto it, dropping him to the floor. "Aikido!" Imito knew what the technique was, but he didn't expect a commander to be that highly trained instead of just relying on magic like the others.
In a desperate attempt to break free, Imito dismembered his own arm. "Oh?" Kaan grinned in excitement.
The severed arm glowed and exploded in Kaan's hands, actually leaving burn marks on his palms. "Hm." He looked at the burns without any indication of pain on his face.
Imito grew a new arm and exhaled in exhaustion. "He hasn't even used his Treasure yet, and I failed to land any significant hits on him."
"Imito The Mimicry Genius. I've noticed that you and I may be exact opposites, yet fight in remarkable ways." He stared him down, watching for any move or opening Imito might leave.
"Like what?" Imito did the same.
"We both inflict despair on our enemies. The true strength of copying, aside from having countless abilities in your hand, is despair. Watching your enemy not only do the same tricks as you do but also improve them damages their morale, which many underestimate. Morale is as important as your magic." Kaan took a step forward, making Imito take a step backwards. "I inflict despair by revealing the unbelievable truth about myself. Something that makes even the greatest freeze in fear."
"And that is?" Imito thought he was just talking shit.
"The truth is…" Kaan raised one knee and both of his hands. "All this time, you have been fighting a man without a Treasure."
Imito's face crumpled, his shoulders sank, his blood ran cold and… the fire in his eyes dimmed just slightly. "He did all of that without magic?"
But just as Imito assumed Kaan had gone into a defensive stance, Kaan leaped from just one foot and delivered a flying knee strike. "You cast despair by revealing you have many. I do it by revealing I have none. Poetic, isn't it?"
Imito, however, stepped to the side and dodged the hit. "It did scare me, yes. But Kaan, if you truly think that was enough to break the spirit of a man willing to do anything to atone for his sins… then you have no idea what resolve even is."
Imito clenched his teeth. "You just made it easier for me. Now I don't have to sit and worry about what your Treasure is." As Kaan flew past him, Imito grabbed Kaan from behind and suplexed him onto the dirt.
Or at least, that was what he thought it had done.
"Wait–" Imito's eyes widened. "He didn't even move?" He realized Kaan's feet were still on the floor, not even moving an inch.
"I guess you're right. I did underestimate the fire you carry within your eyes." Kaan flexed the muscles on his back, the sheer force enough to crush Imito's arm if he hadn't let go at the last possible moment. "But do you think that fire will be enough to light the abyss within mine?"
Otoru regained consciousness but was still too damaged to get up. "Uncle…" He raised his hands and attempted to crawl forward. He didn't know this man. He had never met him. Or maybe he had. He just couldn't remember.
His first introduction to the man was Imito trying to kill his crewmate.
And yet, he felt like he had known him all his life. He had called him Uncle without a second of hesitation or unfamiliarity. If he could get up, he would. And if he couldn't, he'd try to.
"Otoru." Imito stood tall, ready to unleash his full power. "The moment you can get up, run away."
"I can't do that!" Otoru groaned in pain and grabbed Imito by the leg. "If I go, what will–"
Imito smiled softly, facing down the beast in front of him that was just getting started. "Otoru." He turned to face him. "Uncle is sorry."
Otoru gasped, losing his grip on Imito's leg.
"When you leave here alive, tell Pablo that he too has the same talent I have, if not greater. This generation– your generation is the last hope to take down the United Government." He faced Kaan once more, his eyes glowing with sheer mana pouring out. "Uncle is sorry," he repeated.
"Imito, know this. I hold you in the highest regard." Kaan began sprinting at Imito once more.
"I don't care!" His eyes glowed even more. "I'll show you, True Sorcery!"
Those words, normally unfamiliar to the current generation, were something Kaan knew very well. A level only a few sorcerers could achieve.
Imito's decades of experience, incredible talent and immense skill had allowed him to achieve his own True Sorcery as well. "I'm glad I saved it for this moment and didn't use it against Kai, or I'd have to fight both of you myself." He dashed forward. "The Copy Frenzy!"
Kaan immediately dropped all offensive intentions and poured all of his focus into defense. He knew how serious True Sorcery really was. Imito released soot into the area to blind Kaan.
He then poured all his strength into his feet and dashed forward at the peak of his speed, something even Kaan couldn't react to. "Remember… remember it all!" During the dash, he combined, repeated and synergized everything he could.
He used Pablo's sorcery to spurt countless blades from his body, opening wounds and letting out blood, while also channeling electricity onto the blades.
He used his rotational sorcery to spin, allowing the blades to slice with ferocious speed.
The blood coming out of him exploded, and the electric shock disoriented Kaan so his murderous intent couldn't see or counterattack. And even when he tried to, his attacks just phased through Imito's shadow body.
"This is a blast from the past!" And last but not least, Imito raised his hand to the sky. His hand glowed with the power of a thousand suns. With his guard already broken, Kaan couldn't defend against this attack.
The moment the punch hit his back, Kaan yelled out in agony. The heat burned him with a pain he had never encountered before, and the Copy Frenzy from before just amplified it.
All of that left him with a burned back, countless slices on his body and deep wounds that almost reached his organs. The shock weakened his murderous intent and the soot filled his lungs to the point that breathing was dangerous. "Agh…" Kaan fell onto one knee. "…you missed my artery." He grinned. "I poured all my leftover focus into defending my vital spots."
Imito started breathing heavily. The attack took whatever was left in him to even accomplish, and it failed to take Kaan down. He was so exhausted that he couldn't take advantage of Kaan's situation.
"I worried for nothing, it seems." Kaan got up slowly and groaned. "That wasn't True Sorcery."
Imito took a deep breath and regained his footing once more, the truth in Kaan's words hitting him like a truck. "You're telling me that even you failed to achieve the height of Sorcery?" Kaan scoffed.
"I guess that's the core weakness of copying. You can't create anything original." Kaan raised his hands like a blade, ready to pierce Imito's chest.
"…" As his mind raced to remember anything from his past for a copy that might help him… Imito came across a memory he had forgotten to cherish. But something he should've.
479 AS.
"Nasaki Ryuko," Imito said to the man sitting on the ship's floor, enjoying his food. Shame, desire and ambition were in his voice.
"Huh?" He looked up. This was the man before he was ruined.
Back then, Nasaki was even shorter. He was just 160 cm. His hair, however, was something to admire. The colors were the same, but his hair was well groomed, and he had freeform dreads. He didn't smell horrible, and the brown on his robe wasn't from shit but from its actual color.
"What?" Nasaki tilted his head with a grin, excited to see Imito.
"I heard you too walked the pinnacle of Sorcery," Imito said, then sat down in front of him and looked at the floor.
"Yeah, what about it?" He talked as if it wasn't a big deal.
"I… I too want to achieve something like that." Imito's voice shook with the embarrassment of asking a kid about something like this.
Nasaki sighed and scratched the back of his neck. "Dude, I only got mine one week ago. I don't know anything about it." He cackled.
"Come on, you have to tell me something… anything," Imito pleaded.
"Hm." Nasaki placed a hand on his chin and looked at the sky. "It's different from cultivating your Sorcery. It's complicated, man! I don't know what to tell you."
Imito exhaled sharply in disappointment and looked at the ground again. "I see."
"Although–" As Nasaki said those words, Imito's eyes lit up in hope. "I think I can say this for sure: You don't find your True Sorcery. It finds you."
That last sentence was the thing Imito had struggled to remember for decades.
"So keep your chin up. Someone as great as you will be recognized by it eventually."
Present day.
"I'll do it. I have to do it. Someone as great as me… would be recognized by it, right?!" As soon as he roared those words, a light beam from the sky struck him down.
With sheer instinct, Imito grabbed Kaan's arm before it pierced his hand. The sheer force of it couldn't be stopped, but something felt wrong. Kaan's hand was decaying like dust.
Before he lost his hand for good, Kaan pulled back. He looked at it in shock, realizing his skin was shredding as if it were being burned by acid. "Another copy?"
Imito stood up, the darkness around him lit up by the aura his mana let out. It didn't feel like his normal mana…
"No." Imito opened his eyes, the fire in them now blue, just like his mana. "This one is an Imito original." Imito raised his hands, which glowed once more like when he used the sunlight Sorcery a moment ago. But this time it felt cold. The light on them was blue. With it, Imito threw a jab. Kaan attempted to block it, since Imito moved so fast he didn't have time to dodge. "This…" As the jab landed on his forearm, he noticed that he didn't feel anything.
It felt numb.
"He froze my cells. Two new copies? No, he said it was an Imito original." Kaan dashed back to observe, but Imito didn't give him any room to breathe. A large cloud of soot came out of Imito's hands. "My intent is back up. This smoke can't blind me!" Kaan said to himself.
But then, each fine particle of soot blew up.
The explosion from all directions wasn't powerful enough to deal significant damage to Kaan, but everything counted. "The blood explosion and the soot… did he– I see!" Kaan's eyes widened. "Imito, I didn't know you were this gifted!" He laughed in excitement, staring at Imito, who was just preparing for another attack. "You achieved True Sorcery by just fighting me!"