Chapter 405 Another... You

'W-what's happening?' Eleven croaked. 'What's happening?!?' Eleven could feel an overwhelming power take over him. It clawed at him and pulled him down. 'This… Kid… He's—'

Ritsuka watched as Lee Seng/Eleven began to collapse onto the ground. The deep and angry voice quickly faded. Lee Seng went quiet. Ritsuka scooted backwards, sword appearing in his hand.

'W-what was that?' Ritsuka was frantically trying to understand the situation. He had finally regained his memories, only to be given huge bomb. Lee Seng let out a huge gasp as his body twitched. Ritsuka scooted into the wall as he watched Lee Seng let out coughs.

"God I don't remember that being so hard to do…!" Lee Seng coughed. He slowly lifted himself up with his arms, slouching over to the side as he covered his coughs. His eyes locked onto Ritsuka. Ritsuka was scared. "Ritsuka… Are you… okay?"

"H-h-h-h-hold on! I-I don't… I… What just happened?!?" Ritsuka shouted. Lee Seng let out one last cough and wiped the snot and tears off his face. "Why'd you do that? Y-you really aren't fine. W-w-we sh-should…"

"I'll be fine." Lee Seng quickly replied. "Look, I've been wanting to tell you about the other part of the other secret for a while now. I guess showing you him was… One way of doing it."

"H-him?!?" Ritsuka gulped. The two guys were clearly in distress. Lee Seng was trying to figure out a coherent and "sane" way of explaining the Protocol, but everything he was thinking and had already said sounded crazy. Ritsuka was trying to wrap his mind over the last ten minutes.

He had remembered all of the things he had seemingly forgotten. Someone had wiped his memories away and Lee Seng knew exactly who did it. On top of all of this, Lee Seng's "other secret" had just… "Come out"?

'How is any of this possible?' Ritsuka wondered. 'What do I do? He reinforced the room so neither of us could get out or be heard… Who am I stuck with then?'

"Are you sure you're Lee Seng?" Ritsuka asked.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Lee Seng asked. Ritsuka pointed Obsidian Glass at Lee Seng. He needed to be sure which one he was with.

"Answer the question! Who are you?"

"Lee Seng. How's my name gonna prove anything?"

"Use your Fox Spirit power. If you're Lee Seng, you should be able to use it." Ritsuka quickly thought on his feet. "Do it."

'I'm not sure how I should feel about that…' Lee Seng thought as he raised hand to his hair. He ran his fingers through his hair as golden wisps washed over him.

"Is this enough proof?" Lee Seng asked.

"You did it before I knew you were a Fox too. What if the other one can do that?" Ritsuka asked. Lee Seng turned the wisps off not even spending a glance to watch them flutter away like they usually did. He muttered under his breath as he looked around.

Lee Seng's eyes eventually glued onto Ritsuka. A light bulb went off in his head and Ritsuka could tell he was up to something.

"You actually haven't seen me do this but you know I can do this." Lee Seng told him. His hair began to turn black. His eyes turned dark brown and his skin color and facial features shifted. In a matter of seconds, Lee Seng had shifted himself into an exact replica of Ritsuka (as best as he could replicate it).

Ritsuka's shock made him release the sword. It fell, turning to smoke as Ritsuka pointed at Lee Seng.

"Holy hell." Ritsuka could only muster up those words through his shock. Lee Seng grinned at him and Ritsuka shook his head. "Stop that. This feels too uncanny valley for me."

"Stop what?" Lee Seng mimicked Ritsuka's voice.

"That's creepier now!" Ritsuka shouted. "Stop it!"

"I'm Ritsuka and I like to wear baggy clothes because I don't like to show off all this muscle I have." Lee Seng mocked as he glanced down.

"Okay, dickhead you're you!" Ritsuka leapt onto himself as Lee Seng let out a laugh. It felt eerie and weird to see and hear himself act that way. Lee Seng had, oddly enough, gotten Ritsuka's mannerisms down enough that, if someone wasn't paying too much attention to him, Lee Seng could easily pass as Ritsuka..

"Fine, I'm done. You believe me now?" Lee Seng's voice returned as he shifted back into himself. He was still shirtless and Ritsuka was pulling himself away from the humanoid Fox.

"Explain yourself! Why did that happen? Who was that?" Ritsuka asked, crossing his legs together as he leaned onto the wall behind him.

"A very on point timing for something that wants me dead." Lee Seng replied, lifting himself up into a sitting position. "So technically I'm a Number. Number 11. I tried to show you the tattoo but I guess it's not showable to you…

"But that other person you met. He's… Well, I'm not sure what he is exactly but he's new. He isn't the Protocol I knew originally but he's definitely something now."

"He called himself Eleven. A demon. A deimon?" Ritsuka repeated the information, questioning if he had heard everything correctly.

"A deimon." Lee Seng sighed. "Something happened to me after I got pulled out of that cave."

"You don't know what happened? I thought you did know."

"I know what you all know. I was in the care of the Creator and his people but I'm not sure what happened exactly. It's on the tip of my tongue. Like I almost know what happened…" Lee Seng tapped his foot as he began to recall his memories. "I definitely remember falling from those twin Shifters… I fought a small horde of goblins, too… There was an ogre and then two shadow goblins… Almost like the ones we saw and fought in the forest with Akali.' Lee Seng pointed at Ritsuka.

"And after that?" Ritsuka asked. Lee Seng thought for a while. There was an eerie silence like the two of them were anticipating something to suddenly happen, but it never came.

"Who found me?" Lee Seng asked.

"Number 10's secretary, Chan-Yeol." Ritsuka answered.

"Hyung found me? Why don't I remember that…?" Lee Seng whispered. Ritsuka's phone went off, alerting the both of them. Rituska fumbled for his phone and pulled it out. It was Liz calling him.

"Y-yea?" Rituska answered the phone. He was quiet for a moment and then started to nod. "Kay, we'll come up now… Yes, sorry about that. I just wanted to talk to him about practice… Mmmhm. Kay, we'll be up." Rituska hung up the call and slipped his phone in his pocket.

"Who's that?" Lee Seng asked.

"Liz. She wants us to come upstairs. I was supposed to get you earlier but… Everything happened." Ritsuka motioned. The two boys got up and Lee Seng listened to the small sound of popping. The room wasn't protected by gravity and didn't suppress the sound in the room anymore..

"What for?" Lee Seng started toward the door when he realized he was still shirtless. He spun around and went into the closet and grabbed one of the first shirts he saw on the floor and wore it.

"Not sure. Let's go." Ritsuka opened the door and started his way to the upstairs living room.

The rest of the group was sitting in the living room. Plates of cooked burger patties sat in a tray on the coffee table with buns, assortment of condiments and toppings along with fries. The group was finishing up when Rituska and Lee Seng joined them.

"What's all this?" Ritsuka asked, sitting down next to Liz. Lee Seng's stomach growled as he grabbed a plate and started to build three burgers.

"Lunch." Manny answered.

"That's why you called us up here?" Lee Seng asked.

"The reason we called you two up here is for business."

"Business already? It's only been like a day since we moved in." Ritsuka retorted. He joined Lee Seng in building his own burgers and stacking fries on his plate. The two finished and Lee Seng sat next to Ritsuka at the end of the couch.

"Well, did you see the email?" Evan asked.

"What email? I barely had my phone setup." Lee Seng asked.

"The school wants us to apply for Guilds and start monthly team jobs." Olivia informed him. She let out a sigh and grabbed a fry and bit it. "We barely moved in and haven't even dealt with the problems between us as a team."

"Ritsuka and Manny need time to figure that out." Lee Seng casually added, mouth half full. He happily munched away, forgetting all that had just transpired as Ritsuka gave a worrying glance at Lee Seng.

'He really acts like nothing happened. This dude. I wonder how much he's played off in front of all of us then…' Ritsuka thought.

"Manny, Ritsuka? What're y'all gonna do about that?" Liz asked.

"You can't just tell two people who had a problem to fix it just like that." Manny replied. "Even if I wanted to, it feels like Ritsuka doesn't want to do anything right now. It's better to just sweep it under the rug and act like nothing happened."

"Me ignoring it is my way of being civil." Ritsuka answered. "Unlike someone who just sleeps with whoever to deal with it."

"Hey, that's uncalled for." Manny stood up. Ritsuka looked over and scoffed.

"And ignoring it isn't? Y'know all you have to do is admit you were the one who fucked it up and we can be done with this."

"I'm pretty sure I've already said I fucked up. Maybe you should listen some more."

"Maybe you should shut up before I send you packing." Ritsuka slid his plate on the table and stood up. Lee Seng sighed as he set his plate on his spot and squeezed himself in between the two.

"Alright, I think that's–"