DOUBLE LIFE (Vol.5)
Trigger warning:
The story of this volume contains scenes of bullying, assault, emotional, physical and sexual abuse, and homophobia.
……
"Koko. Koko can you hear me?"
"Crystal clear, Kiki."
"Okay yay! I'm here."
"Okay. You ready?"
"EVEREADY!" Biceps flexed to an invisible audience.
"Okay." A short pause, filled with the clicking sounds of a keyboard. "Tapping into the security feed, and… shutting down the electricity in the fence."
"Oh! Oh wait, but I already cleared the fence."
"Eh?"
"Yeah I just kinda jumped over? It was so low, they might as well have prepared a fucking welcome party.” An eye-roll. “I'm in front of the main doors now. Open them for me, pleeeeease?"
“You can still have your welcome party. Shall I set off the alarms so they’ll be waiting for you?”
“Hoho yeah, good thinking Koko! Let’s have a part-ay!”
“Okay.” A beat later, a jarring blare sounded through the thick walls of the facility. After a few seconds: “Okay, they’re lining up for you. Not too many, but all of them are armed. Please be careful Kiki.”
A giggle as the parts of her weapon clicked into place. “You should warn them. I’m invincible!”
“... Yes you are. Okay. Opening the main doors in—”
"Waitwaitwaitwaitwait! My song! I want my song! Switch off the alarm and play my song!"
"Kiki, wh—"
"Pleeeeeeeeeease? I want to feel like Darth Vader when I enter the building."
"This song isn't— Did you even watch the—” A sigh. “Never mind." A few taps and clicks, and the alarm went silent. "I'll press play when the doors open."
A very satisfied giggle, followed by a lilting singsong: "Thankie Koko~ You're the best!"
"Doors opening in three… two… one."
From inside, the guards assembled in the brightly-lit vestibule swiftly turned to train their attention and weapons on the entrance doors as they began to slide open. They had gathered here when the alarm had gone off, only to find no intruder, no breach… absolutely nothing of concern. A false alarm?
"If this is just a surprise drill, I'm gonna be pissed," one of the guards had muttered to another. "Graveyard shifts are tough enough as it is without them pulling this kind of shit on us."
Then the alarm had stopped, and now the doors parted to reveal a lone, slight figure right outside, standing tiny all in black except for her shocking electric blue hair. As she came into view, all the guards hitched up their weapons, ready to fire.
But the figure did not budge. After a long moment of stupid stillness, one of the guards called out, "Hey girlie! What’re you doing here? Didn’t you see this place is off-lim—"
"WHERE'S MY SONGGGGGG!!!!" Mikka wailed, startling the group. "KOKO, I WANT MY SO—"
A haunting call sounded over the speakers, followed by the beat of the drums. Under her mask, Mikka broke into a grin as she bobbed her head to the music.
“Yay, that’s more like it!” she said to herself, before finally making her entrance into the building.
The guards were far from prepared for how fast this intruder moved. A mere slip of a thing, she darted straight into their midst, so quick that the first three guards were out cold before they even registered her approach. Unable to use their firearms at such close range for fear of shooting their own colleagues, they set upon the girl brandishing the swiftly spinning staff, but she easily deflected their attacks and proceeded to take them down one by one, humming along with the song under her breath as she did so.
Honestly speaking, there was zero need for Mikka to be here in person inside the facility. She had merely been tasked to retrieve some information, some very very absolutely extremely Supremely Fucking Confidential TOP-SECRET information, as usual—all these self-important scientistical pricks—and her home set-up was more than enough for her to do so with just a few clicks and commands. But what would be the fun in that? This way, at least she could get in a bit of a workout, like how she was hopping circles around this chump right now before scooting in to thunk him on the head. This was so much more fun than just sitting in her chair all day, swivelling herself silly as she stared at the ceiling fan spinning in the opposite direction. How could someone like her keep still? She used to be a national track athlete, for goodness’ sakes! Prancing around at top speed was simply in her glorious DNA. Keary should know better than to assign her all these fucking low-level jobs, although it seemed those were all that had been coming in lately. She was usually able to complete them in a matter of minutes, but sometimes she held onto them for a few hours before reporting back to Keary, just because she could afford to do so. And sometimes she just plain forgot, oops. Especially if she stepped out to play with the stray cats that often assembled in a fluffy scruffy little squishable mutiny at the corner of her street, or do some cartwheels on the road, just because she could.
Mikka’s thoughts took a pause as she focused on whirling her staff to deflect a gunshot. The bullet flew wide, hitting another oncoming guard right in the chest.
“Tsk tsk tsk; friendly fire is not a good look." She shook her head disapprovingly at the shooter before sweeping his legs out from under him.
Swear to god she had seriously been THIS CLOSE to actually plucking her own teeth out of her head by hand today, she had been so goddamn fucking bored, and so for the sake of WORLD PEACE she had decided to ramp up the mission on her own instead, just because she could, especially when she discovered that the facility was actually just on the outskirts: super accessible! She knew, she knew; Keary would get mad when he found out. IF he ever found out. But if she didn’t tell him, and if Kumiko kept the pinky promise of secrecy that Mikka had made her swear before asking her to take over Mikka’s default post in front of the computer, Steel a.k.a. Keary would never have to know that Mikka had manually cranked up the mission’s difficulty from 1 to 6 all on her own. Plus she had chosen the time carefully—or rather, Kumiko had forced her to go at the time with the fewest security personnel, otherwise she wouldn’t help out—and as they had predicted, there weren’t too many guards here at all, which was…… kind of sad, actually. She would have LOVED to go in on an 8 or 9 level of difficulty, but Kumiko was far more conservative, and Mikka needed her at the computers because she was the only one Mikka kinda sorta trusted not to tell on her, whether intentionally or by accident.
Besides, she thought as she jabbed her staff into someone's face, Keary was probably far too busy these days rolling around with Cardin. Mikka couldn’t say that she blamed him; that boy was absolutely. Fucking. DROP-DEAD. GOR. GEOUS. All that silky blonde advertisement-worthy curls falling golden down just past his shoulders, unlike her own—which probably made her look like Rick from Rick and Morty right now, which was not a bad character to be if she could have all his smarts and powers—and those huuuuuge blue eyes that reminded her of the sky, or maybe the sea, or maybe that marble-eyed kitten that Shun had embalmed and given to her for her birthday last year that she actually, come to think of it, hadn’t seen in awhile. She would search for it later. It was probably sitting somewhere in her house among her mess—ahem, her ORGANISED mess, she knew where everything was, cross her heart—of a room. Hot DAMN this song was SO good! She hadn’t been able to stop dancing to it since she’d first heard it in a store, whichever store it had been, although it probably hadn’t been Don Quijote because that store only incessantly played their own jingle over and over and over and over and over and over and OUCH! FUCK YOU HOWDAREYOUSNEAKUPONMEFOR FUCK’S SAKE AAAAAARRRGGGGHHHHHH FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU AGAIN!! HAH!!!
Okay. Where was she? How many had she taken down so far? One two four six eight ten thirteen fourteen fifteen eighteen, no wait, that’s seventeen, la la laa……… YEAH it was a good thing Keary wouldn’t be hearing about this little riot she was stirring up on this originally teeny-tiny job. Kumiko had surmised that since this company was trying to keep this research project so closely under wraps—Mikka couldn’t help giggling as she wondered what exactly Keary got up to with Cardin when they were “under the wraps”, hehe—they probably wouldn’t let her infiltration leak onto the news anyway, so she was safe. Besides, Keary would probably be too busy UNDER THE WRAPS HEHEHE with Cardin to punish her anything serious even if he did find out. It had only been a couple of weeks since Cardin’s initiation ritual, where those two had been K-I-S-S-I-N-G! in front of all of them as if they hadn’t all been standing right there. RIGHT THERE. She couldn’t deny that they looked fucking cute together though, one dark one bright, totally yin and yang, angel devil blablabla. And Keary was so obviously mellowing under Cardin’s influence, they totally HAD to be banging it out every single night, or at least she hoped to GOD they were, because otherwise no way in HELL would Keary not flay her alive and hang her over a piranha-infested lake for her insubordination tonight, although she much preferred the word “INITIATIVE”.
That said, she had an inkling deep down in her awesome lil bones that this “new” Keary would probably be a gazillion times scarier if Cardin’s well-being was threatened. Despite how cold and distant Keary acted, Mikka knew firsthand how protective he really was of all of them, his Daggers. Case in point, that knife he’d literally taken in the back to shield her from MISTER MORNERFUCKERSTAR ASSHOLE the other week, and a couple other times, like back when they were both still in school. The hairs on Mikka’s arms stood on end as she briefly imagined how terrifying Keary would be if any fool were to try to lay hands on somebody whom Keary actually really cared for. If that stupid didn’t already have porridge for brains, Keary would without a doubt be sure to turn it into such before he was done. Yeesh; love really was scary.
Mikka herself had been in love once. She had given her heart to someone she had admired, someone who’d seemed to love her back, and she almost hadn’t survived it.
WELP, glad THAT was over! Now she reserved her affections exclusively for the awesomest person on the fucking planet: HERSELF! Oh and her parents, of course; she was a good girl. And kittens, homigosh!! Okay and the Daggers, sure. Especially darling little Kumikokoko—
“Koko! I’m done!”
ovinea
Sorry for the long hiatus everyone! I lost momentum and had to chase it back again. Also, Supreme Leader Mikka demands our overwhelming gratitude for allowing us to have this sneak peek into her brain. It's a hell of a wild ride in there. Special thanks to Liv, who encourages me to keep writing.
DOUBLE LIFE (Vol.5)
Trigger warning:
The story of this volume contains scenes of bullying, assault, emotional, physical and sexual abuse, and homophobia.
……
"Koko. Koko can you hear me?"
"Crystal clear, Kiki."
"Okay yay! I'm here."
"Okay. You ready?"
"EVEREADY!" Biceps flexed to an invisible audience.
"Okay." A short pause, filled with the clicking sounds of a keyboard. "Tapping into the security feed, and… shutting down the electricity in the fence."
"Oh! Oh wait, but I already cleared the fence."
"Eh?"
"Yeah I just kinda jumped over? It was so low, they might as well have prepared a fucking welcome party.” An eye-roll. “I'm in front of the main doors now. Open them for me, pleeeeease?"
“You can still have your welcome party. Shall I set off the alarms so they’ll be waiting for you?”
“Hoho yeah, good thinking Koko! Let’s have a part-ay!”
“Okay.” A beat later, a jarring blare sounded through the thick walls of the facility. After a few seconds: “Okay, they’re lining up for you. Not too many, but all of them are armed. Please be careful Kiki.”
A giggle as the parts of her weapon clicked into place. “You should warn them. I’m invincible!”
“... Yes you are. Okay. Opening the main doors in—”
"Waitwaitwaitwaitwait! My song! I want my song! Switch off the alarm and play my song!"
"Kiki, wh—"
"Pleeeeeeeeeease? I want to feel like Darth Vader when I enter the building."
"This song isn't— Did you even watch the—” A sigh. “Never mind." A few taps and clicks, and the alarm went silent. "I'll press play when the doors open."
A very satisfied giggle, followed by a lilting singsong: "Thankie Koko~ You're the best!"
"Doors opening in three… two… one."
From inside, the guards assembled in the brightly-lit vestibule swiftly turned to train their attention and weapons on the entrance doors as they began to slide open. They had gathered here when the alarm had gone off, only to find no intruder, no breach… absolutely nothing of concern. A false alarm?
"If this is just a surprise drill, I'm gonna be pissed," one of the guards had muttered to another. "Graveyard shifts are tough enough as it is without them pulling this kind of shit on us."
Then the alarm had stopped, and now the doors parted to reveal a lone, slight figure right outside, standing tiny all in black except for her shocking electric blue hair. As she came into view, all the guards hitched up their weapons, ready to fire.
But the figure did not budge. After a long moment of stupid stillness, one of the guards called out, "Hey girlie! What’re you doing here? Didn’t you see this place is off-lim—"
"WHERE'S MY SONGGGGGG!!!!" Mikka wailed, startling the group. "KOKO, I WANT MY SO—"
A haunting call sounded over the speakers, followed by the beat of the drums. Under her mask, Mikka broke into a grin as she bobbed her head to the music.
“Yay, that’s more like it!” she said to herself, before finally making her entrance into the building.
The guards were far from prepared for how fast this intruder moved. A mere slip of a thing, she darted straight into their midst, so quick that the first three guards were out cold before they even registered her approach. Unable to use their firearms at such close range for fear of shooting their own colleagues, they set upon the girl brandishing the swiftly spinning staff, but she easily deflected their attacks and proceeded to take them down one by one, humming along with the song under her breath as she did so.
Honestly speaking, there was zero need for Mikka to be here in person inside the facility. She had merely been tasked to retrieve some information, some very very absolutely extremely Supremely Fucking Confidential TOP-SECRET information, as usual—all these self-important scientistical pricks—and her home set-up was more than enough for her to do so with just a few clicks and commands. But what would be the fun in that? This way, at least she could get in a bit of a workout, like how she was hopping circles around this chump right now before scooting in to thunk him on the head. This was so much more fun than just sitting in her chair all day, swivelling herself silly as she stared at the ceiling fan spinning in the opposite direction. How could someone like her keep still? She used to be a national track athlete, for goodness’ sakes! Prancing around at top speed was simply in her glorious DNA. Keary should know better than to assign her all these fucking low-level jobs, although it seemed those were all that had been coming in lately. She was usually able to complete them in a matter of minutes, but sometimes she held onto them for a few hours before reporting back to Keary, just because she could afford to do so. And sometimes she just plain forgot, oops. Especially if she stepped out to play with the stray cats that often assembled in a fluffy scruffy little squishable mutiny at the corner of her street, or do some cartwheels on the road, just because she could.
Mikka’s thoughts took a pause as she focused on whirling her staff to deflect a gunshot. The bullet flew wide, hitting another oncoming guard right in the chest.
“Tsk tsk tsk; friendly fire is not a good look." She shook her head disapprovingly at the shooter before sweeping his legs out from under him.
Swear to god she had seriously been THIS CLOSE to actually plucking her own teeth out of her head by hand today, she had been so goddamn fucking bored, and so for the sake of WORLD PEACE she had decided to ramp up the mission on her own instead, just because she could, especially when she discovered that the facility was actually just on the outskirts: super accessible! She knew, she knew; Keary would get mad when he found out. IF he ever found out. But if she didn’t tell him, and if Kumiko kept the pinky promise of secrecy that Mikka had made her swear before asking her to take over Mikka’s default post in front of the computer, Steel a.k.a. Keary would never have to know that Mikka had manually cranked up the mission’s difficulty from 1 to 6 all on her own. Plus she had chosen the time carefully—or rather, Kumiko had forced her to go at the time with the fewest security personnel, otherwise she wouldn’t help out—and as they had predicted, there weren’t too many guards here at all, which was…… kind of sad, actually. She would have LOVED to go in on an 8 or 9 level of difficulty, but Kumiko was far more conservative, and Mikka needed her at the computers because she was the only one Mikka kinda sorta trusted not to tell on her, whether intentionally or by accident.
Besides, she thought as she jabbed her staff into someone's face, Keary was probably far too busy these days rolling around with Cardin. Mikka couldn’t say that she blamed him; that boy was absolutely. Fucking. DROP-DEAD. GOR. GEOUS. All that silky blonde advertisement-worthy curls falling golden down just past his shoulders, unlike her own—which probably made her look like Rick from Rick and Morty right now, which was not a bad character to be if she could have all his smarts and powers—and those huuuuuge blue eyes that reminded her of the sky, or maybe the sea, or maybe that marble-eyed kitten that Shun had embalmed and given to her for her birthday last year that she actually, come to think of it, hadn’t seen in awhile. She would search for it later. It was probably sitting somewhere in her house among her mess—ahem, her ORGANISED mess, she knew where everything was, cross her heart—of a room. Hot DAMN this song was SO good! She hadn’t been able to stop dancing to it since she’d first heard it in a store, whichever store it had been, although it probably hadn’t been Don Quijote because that store only incessantly played their own jingle over and over and over and over and over and over and OUCH! FUCK YOU HOWDAREYOUSNEAKUPONMEFOR FUCK’S SAKE AAAAAARRRGGGGHHHHHH FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU AGAIN!! HAH!!!
Okay. Where was she? How many had she taken down so far? One two four six eight ten thirteen fourteen fifteen eighteen, no wait, that’s seventeen, la la laa……… YEAH it was a good thing Keary wouldn’t be hearing about this little riot she was stirring up on this originally teeny-tiny job. Kumiko had surmised that since this company was trying to keep this research project so closely under wraps—Mikka couldn’t help giggling as she wondered what exactly Keary got up to with Cardin when they were “under the wraps”, hehe—they probably wouldn’t let her infiltration leak onto the news anyway, so she was safe. Besides, Keary would probably be too busy UNDER THE WRAPS HEHEHE with Cardin to punish her anything serious even if he did find out. It had only been a couple of weeks since Cardin’s initiation ritual, where those two had been K-I-S-S-I-N-G! in front of all of them as if they hadn’t all been standing right there. RIGHT THERE. She couldn’t deny that they looked fucking cute together though, one dark one bright, totally yin and yang, angel devil blablabla. And Keary was so obviously mellowing under Cardin’s influence, they totally HAD to be banging it out every single night, or at least she hoped to GOD they were, because otherwise no way in HELL would Keary not flay her alive and hang her over a piranha-infested lake for her insubordination tonight, although she much preferred the word “INITIATIVE”.
That said, she had an inkling deep down in her awesome lil bones that this “new” Keary would probably be a gazillion times scarier if Cardin’s well-being was threatened. Despite how cold and distant Keary acted, Mikka knew firsthand how protective he really was of all of them, his Daggers. Case in point, that knife he’d literally taken in the back to shield her from MISTER MORNERFUCKERSTAR ASSHOLE the other week, and a couple other times, like back when they were both still in school. The hairs on Mikka’s arms stood on end as she briefly imagined how terrifying Keary would be if any fool were to try to lay hands on somebody whom Keary actually really cared for. If that stupid didn’t already have porridge for brains, Keary would without a doubt be sure to turn it into such before he was done. Yeesh; love really was scary.
Mikka herself had been in love once. She had given her heart to someone she had admired, someone who’d seemed to love her back, and she almost hadn’t survived it.
WELP, glad THAT was over! Now she reserved her affections exclusively for the awesomest person on the fucking planet: HERSELF! Oh and her parents, of course; she was a good girl. And kittens, homigosh!! Okay and the Daggers, sure. Especially darling little Kumikokoko—
“Koko! I’m done!”
ovinea
Sorry for the long hiatus everyone! I lost momentum and had to chase it back again. Also, Supreme Leader Mikka demands our overwhelming gratitude for allowing us to have this sneak peek into her brain. It's a hell of a wild ride in there. Special thanks to Liv, who encourages me to keep writing.
