World's First Demon Lord 74 Disguises and Distractions

May 4, 4:59 pm, Tokyo, Japan

"We caught the...troublemaker...a little earlier," Jason went on. "I could hardly believe it when I saw the camera feed myself. I hadn't expected them to take such obvious bait."

Ah. Cameras. Sakura almost smacked herself on the forehead for forgetting something so simple. No wonder they had been able to see through her illusions.

That wasn't important right now though. The important thing was the fact that Jason was definitely kissing up to this Miss Kang. Sakura was surprised; she would never have expected him to hold a woman in high regard, even if she was his boss.

But that didn't really matter now, did it? As interested as she was in who this Miss Kang was, she needed to find Michi.

For a moment, Sakura was torn. Should she follow the group, or look for Michi?

"And where are they now?" asked Miss Kang.

"We'll be dealing with the troublemaker soon, once the demonstration is over," said Jason. "As for her accomplice, I figured he would make a nice subject to study."

"Oh, that is a good idea," Miss Kang mused. "Very well. I see that your phone has been going off this entire time; let me not keep you for any longer."

"Thank you, Miss Kang," said Jason, bowing. Sakura closed the door just as he turned around. She had a feeling she knew what the calls were about, so she quickly looked for somewhere to hide.

But there wasn't anywhere. There was no space under the stairs, and behind the door was not an option.

No, wait, she could just illusion herself a new face. Sighing, Sakura focused on creating a new face.

Only to be blinded by a sudden headache.

Sakura gasped as fresh blood leaked from her nose, she staggered to the wall, barely keeping herself upright. Okay. Looks like that illusion from before had affected her a lot more than she had initially thought.

Gasping, Sakura watched as the door to the stairwell open up. Her head was pounding, she couldn't think. But she needed to hide, somehow, some way…

Immediately, Sakura held up her hand to her ear, and turned around.

"No, I don't think that's a good idea Makunouichi," she snapped into the imaginary phone. "I think you should come clean to your mistress that you already have a wife!"

Sakura paused, pretending to listen to her phone, while monitoring Jason. He had opened the door, and seemed to be awkwardly stuck.

"I'm the mistress? Ex- what?" Sakura shrieked, turning and walking towards a wall, away from Jason and the stairs.

"How long has this been going on?"

She channelled her headache into annoyance, then funnelled that into an anger that clearly showed that she was not paying attention to her surroundings. Sakura hoped that Jason would take this as a cue to simply sneak up the stairs while she was occupied, not paying too much attention to her or her problems.

After all, no one wanted to be caught up in other people's relationship drama.

As Sakura pretended to pace and listen, sure enough, Jason slowly started to move up the stairs. Sakura yelled a couple more things, and a few moments later, she heard the door upstairs open and close.

Oh, thank god that was over. Sakura wanted nothing more than to curl into a ball for the next hour and nurse her headache, but she knew that her time was limited.

With Jason upstairs, it was only a matter of time until she was found. She needed to find Michi, fast.

From what she overheard, it looked like he was going to be killed and experimented on. Sakura was certain that Michi was still alive, because there was no way that they were prepared to slice him up already.

Not to mention, she had a theory that the appearance of Miss Kang had been a surprise, and so they had to rush the containment of her and Michi. Why else was she simply locked in a room, instead of in a proper jail or something?

Of course, this line of thinking was heavily biased. But Sakura held onto it anyway. It was a lifeline, keeping her focused on the job.

It was easier to think that Michi was still alive. Even if she was lying to herself.

Sakura walked out of the stairwell, and towards the room of monsters she had been to the last time. She still remembered the layout of the basement level quite well; it was hard to forget the details of such a...memorable experience.

She turned the corner, only to find the group of scientists and Miss Kang entering the monster room. For a moment, she froze, heart in her throat. They were entering the monster room. Why? What were they doing there?

Would Michi really be in there? Sakura was only checking there because it was the only storage room she knew of.

She didn't have time to think. She needed to make a decision now.

With a heart beating its way out of her chest, Sakura followed in right after them.

As she joined the group, it felt like she was hiding in the same room as the seeker in hide-and-seek. In theory, as long as no one knew her face, she should be able to blend in, even if she wasn't wearing a lab coat. Unfortunately, Sakura couldn't use her power to illusion a face that she was certain none of these people knew.

Fortunately, no one seemed to notice the presence of another person behind them. They all seemed a little too busy trying to pay attention to Miss Kang and the foreign scientist Sakura had seen last time. As long as no one was paying attention to her, she should be fine.

They walked through the corridor of vats, monsters still floating in the sickly green liquid inside. Sakura frowned as she walked by. It seemed there were a lot more...human-animal hybrids since the last time she was here. Seems like the lab had further advanced their research.

"Miss Kang is asking about our progress since the success of the Ai project," said one of the labcoats. Sakura blinked as she realized he was translating the conversation.

"Dr. Larsson is explaining how the breakthrough is helping us with our understanding of chimera biology, and his theory of a 'soul mediator.'"

It was all Sakura could do from raise her eyebrows in shock. She gripped her fist. If only she had her phone here. The evidence would have been-

No. Focus. She wasn't here to collect evidence. She was here to get Michi, and get out.

Jason should have found out that she was missing by now. She had no time.

But where was Michi?

"We'll be getting more souls to work with soon," said Miss Kang suddenly in Japanese.

The entire group stopped walking suddenly, as Miss Kang addressed them all. Sakura's heart felt like it was about to leap out of her mouth.

"For that, we will need you all to work your hardest," she said, looking at each of the labcoats in the eye. "Of course, I will be rewarding you all for your work so far. I'll be speaking with HR about a bonus for each and every one of you."

A small part of Sakura's mind noted how well this lady was at inspiring confidence in her employees. She didn't look down on them either, all while maintaining the appropriate social distance. No wonder Jason had some respect for her.

All of that was overshadowed by sheer panic once Ms. Kang locked eyes with her.

Logically, Sakura knew that Ms. Kang probably didn't know who she was. Even if Jason had sent her a report or something, it was highly unlikely that Ms. Kang would have gotten everything. Even if she had seen her picture or something before, it was highly unlikely that she would even associate "the troublemaker" – as they had been calling her – with this person with them at the lab.

And yet.

For a moment, Sakura thought she saw Ms. Kang's eyes widen, ever-so-slightly, causing Sakura's heart to miss a couple beats from the samba it was beating out.

And then her gaze went over to the next person. Sakura let out a small breath she hadn't known she had been holding. It couldn't have been for more than a second that their eyes had met, but it had felt like an eternity.

"Ah, right I had a question," said Ms. Kang suddenly. "Which one of you is in charge of our security protocols?"

The labcoats all looked at each other confused.

"That...would be Mr. Tachikawa," one of them replied hesitantly.

"Is that so?" said Ms. Kang. "I needed to speak with him about some changes. We need more room for the new subjects, after all. We're keeping everyone in the freezer room right now, aren't we?"

Sakura nodded just a beat slower than everyone else.

"It's fine for now. But for the future...well," Miss Kang turned around, "you'll all find out soon enough."

They continued on for a while, Sakura following the group for a bit. The more she stayed, the less things seemed to make sense. It looked like Miss Kang was here only for some sort of inspection, and to speak with Dr. Larsson about his research.

But if that was the case, why had she come in person? From the way people addressed her, it was clear that she was no mere inspector. She was clearly someone with standing in the company, someone with enough power to speak with HR about bonuses.

Was it just her way of leading? Sakura supposed that made sense; the people here seemed to really respect her.

In any case, the fact that she was here was an advantage Sakura was going to use as much as she possibly could. She followed the group around for a little longer, searching for the freezer room. It didn't look like it was a place on the tour. Fortunately, Miss Kang accidentally walked into that room, thinking it was the next room for the tour.

"Oh, my apologies," said Miss Kang, turning back and walking away.

Sakura quickly and quietly slipped into the freezer room while the door was open, letting it close naturally behind her. She had been keeping her head down the entire time; no one noticed her suddenly disappear.

Immediately, she noticed the cold. True to its name, the room was freezing. She fumbled around in the dark a little, and turned on the lights. The room lit up to reveal shelves upon shelves of foodstuffs. The biggest thing in the room, however, was the large metal box on the far side of the wall.

Sakura recognized the industrial freezer as soon as she saw it. It was like the one her uncle had at his beach-side restaurant. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized the implications of this being the place where Michi was being held.

If he was here...if they put him here…

She quickly rushed over to the freezer, and grabbed the handle. The cold bit into her skin, but she ignored it as she heaved.

After what seemed like an eternity of effort later, the door creaked open.

"Michi!" she yelled. "Michi, are you there?!"

Nothing. Sakura finished opening the door, heart pounding, and looked inside.

"T-t-t-took you l-l-long enough," Michi stuttered, shivering.

Sakura didn't even give him a chance to say more. She immediately tackled him into a bear hug and did not let go.

"Y-yeah, keep th-that up," said Michi, hugging her back. "S-s-so c-c-cold."

"I thought you were dead," Sakura whispered. "I thought...I thought..."

"Y-y-you g-gotta be wr-rong s-s-sometimes," said Michi, teeth still chattering. "Otherwise...it'd b-b-be unf-f-fair for the r-r-rest of us."

Still hugging, they slowly backed out of the industrial freezer, and into the less cold freezer room.

"We gotta go," said Sakura. "Jason-"

Suddenly, an alarm rang.

"Yeah, they know I'm gone," said Sakura. They headed for the door.

"Do you have a plan to get out?" Michi asked as they opened the door and peeked out. Coast was clear.

"Run, mostly," said Sakura, leading the way.

"I guess that works," Michi muttered.

They quietly headed towards the stairwell. Just before they reached the corridor towards it, a couple of guards turned the corner.

"In here!"

They ducked into the closest room they had. As the door closed behind them, the two of them realized that they were in the monster room.

A sudden idea blossomed in Sakura's mind.

"Hey," she said. "Do you trust me?"

Michi looked at her funnily.

"You want to do something crazy, don't you?"

"What makes you-"

"Why else would you ask me that in a situation like this?" he interrupted. "Will it get us out of here?"

Sakura hesitated.

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "But it will definitely make Neurix mad."

Michi thought about that for a while.

"I can live with that," he said, grinning at her. "What's the plan?"

Sakura grinned back, emotions mixed. She was glad he trusted her but...she was the one who got him in this mess in the first place. Was it really okay for him to trust her as much as he did?

She sighed. She was having way too many useless thoughts right now. Probably because of the headache.

Sakura walked over to the computer in the room, and logged into it. The password was still on the back of the computer. Once inside, she started searching.

This computer had a log of all the research and lab data. She remembered a lot of it from the copies she had made. From those copies, she also remembered that it had some information on the programs they used for their experiments.

"What are you looking for?" Michi asked as Sakura worked. He eyed the door nervously, expecting guards to come in at any time.

"Neurix uses a program called LifeLine to keep these vats operational," said Sakura. "It's an in-house program used to make things easier for the scientists when doing research."

"So?"

"I'm just checking something," said Sakura. "If my hunch turns out to be wrong..."

When scientists logged in a new subject into a vat, they needed to add in the information into LifeLine. One of those little bits of information included something called "Status." In all the reports she had read, the monster's status' had been "Suspended."

If her hunch was right…

Sakura found a subject's file in LifeLine, then checked the "Status". Sure enough, "Suspended."

What if she just…

"Sakura!"

BANG.

The door to the room burst open, revealing three men in SWAT uniforms.

"Freeze!" They yelled, pointing their guns at Sakura and Michi.

But it was too late.

Sakura had already done it.

ZZZZZZZZZ.

The guards turned to see the liquid in one of the vats draining away. The monster inside – a half human, half lion – opened its eyes.

For a moment, everyone stood there in shock. Then-

"RRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR!!"

Before the liquid could even finish draining, the monster attacked the glass walls.

C-CRACK!

A spiderweb of cracks splintered across the glass. The guards stood there, frozen in shock as the monster hit the glass again.

CRASH!

The glass shattered, and the monster leaped at the guards.

"Sakura!"

"In a moment!" Sakura clicked and typed furiously as the monster attacked the guards.

"Sakura, we have to leave now!"

"I've only released three of them!" she yelled at Michi. "That won't be eno-"

"The monster is coming!" Michi grabbed Sakura's arm and ran.

"RRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR!"

Behind them, the monster roared as the two ran for their lives.

Chapter end