Riko didn't have any concept of what a nightmare looked like until he caught a glimpse of his own facial features appearing on something that absolutely couldn't be human.
It stood just a few feet away, its body still mottled and developing, flickering like an ill-assembled hologram. But its face, oh, its face. That was something altogether terrifying. Smooth skin, same jawline, same messy black hair, replicated strand-by-strand as it grew. The only difference lay in its movement. Too still. Too perfect. Too. wrong.
Even Luna, who had more or less lived through two monster attacks and a falling school without flinching, froze as soon as her eyes settled on it.
"What—what the hell is—" she began, then cut off as she realized that words were no good here.
Riko knew what she meant anyway.
The creature's features settled, as if a camera had finally refocused. Its eyes shimmered with a soft blue light, the same color as on his level screen. Then it spoke, its words heavy with static before smoothing out into something all too recognizable.
"Level up?" it asked.
Riko felt like he just fell through the glitch floor.
It wasn't taunting him.
It was not asking a question.
It was imitating him and mimicking the voice he had used before when he tried joking with Luna.
"Yeah, that's freaky," Luna whispered, backing away slowly without taking her eyes off it. "Haunted printer" freaky.
Riko swallowed hard. "It shouldn't be able to talk. It shouldn't—"
"It learned from you," hissed the System from his arm, with words bumping together as if with bad audio. "It's using your code. Your voice. Your memories."
"My memories?" Riko snapped before he could control his reactions. "What do you mean my memories?"
But the screen didn't respond.
It flickered hard - as if it didn't want to explain.
The Fake Riko turned its head at an angle just as Riko had whenever he was frustrated. Seeing it imitate a movement that he never even knew he made made it seem as though he were shrinking within his own skin.
Then its smile changed.
Not childlike.
Not confused.
Something stranger.
It was exactly the same smile he had at school when he told Luna he would protect the school.
A promise that it should not know.
She pointed at it with one hand and Riko's arm with the other, her voice a stage whisper. "Hey. Hey. Why does it look like that. Why does it look like you. Why does it look like it's about to—"
The monster finalized her statement for her, still talking with Riko's voice:
"—
Riko flin
The Fake Riko took a step forward, its actions perfectly timing with Riko's heartbeats—as if it too could sense Riko. It arched its shoulders. It changed stance. It raised its arms, mimicking exactly what Riko might have done before throwing a punch.
Except it wasn't guessing.
It was remembering.
"So, let me get this straight," I repeated. 'I'm a temporal agent. I have a daughter. I'm engaged. And I have a twin brother I never
"I don't," Riko replied sharply.
"Good. Because this one definitely wants to kill you."
"Not helping, Luna!"
The Fake Riko blinked—too slowly. Its eyes didn't blink normally, instead locking into position frame-by-frame. And then its head jerked spasmodically to the side as if some process inside it stuttered mid-completion.
Its mouth curled.
"User… found
Riko's heart pounded hard against his chest. The manner it said it—to be a finishing line and not a greeting—made it hard for Riko to breathe.
Luna pulled Riko back with her, which made absolutely no sense tactically but made it very clear that she was game. "Alright, buddy," she said to the copy, "I've already punched one monster today. Don't make it two."
The creature blinked again.
A new level of its facial features refined.
Its jaw hardened.
Its cheekbones were in alignment
Its expression settled into something unmistakable.
Riko's own "don't want
But he loathed seeing it on someone else.
He liked it even less on something else.
Riko attempted to walk around her, but Luna raised a hand to intercept him. "No. It's trying to provoke you," she whispered. "Monsters have that habit."
"This one isn't a monster," Riko murmured.
Luna turned her head towards him. "I'm sorry, WHAT?"
"It's copying me," he said, his voice dropping. "It's not acting like a monster. It's acting like… me. My patterns. My reactions. It's trying to predict what I'll do before I do it."
„Good, okay," Luna said tightly, "but it still wants to smash your face in. The original face. Not your discount face."
Rigorous: The Fake Riko's head snapped sharply sideways once more, as if an invisible person pulled it with a string. Its body wavered for an instant as if it were two-dimensional.
It spoke with exactly Riko's tone and rhythm, even with pauses between words.
"Level… user… detected
Riko clenched his fists. "I'm right here. You don't have to remind me like some freaky navigator voice."
"Stop talking to it like it understands sarcasm," Luna shot at him.
"Oh it does," Riko muttered. "That's the problem."
The monster's eyes jerked sharply upwards, fixing on him with a speed that made Luna jump. Its cloned beat seemed to resume synchronization with Riko's, thrumming through the glitch space like a heavy bass.
Then—
Its arm spasmed.
Its shoulder shifted.
Its chest expanded with an silent inhalation.
It matched Riko's brawler character perfectly, as if it had stepped out of its own frame.
The System crackled sharply on Riko's arm, its words distorting:
"RIKO. BACK AWAY. IT IS PREDICTING
Riko didn't back down.
But he took just one step forward instead.
"ARE YOU—THIS IS—YOU'RE DOING THE OPPOSITE OF BACKING AWAY—and then—and then—I don't know,
But Riko couldn't move. Riko's eyes were
"I couldn't explain it," he
Perhaps it was because it had been employing its face.
Perhaps because he realized that seeing himself stand against him had been the greatest challenge he ever experienced.
Perhaps it was because running would merely demonstrate how much stronger it was.
The imposter Riko's smile spasmodically widened, his skin smoothing and steadying
"Riko… it's still changing. It's not done," whispered Luna.
"I know."
That scared me the most.
It raised a foot—just as Riko had done at the start of a sprint—
Stopping there would not have satisfied even
"Riko—MOVE—
Riko didn't
he knew this movement.
He knew this position.
He knew exactly what lay ahead.
Its knees were bent, and it began to tense its muscles in rhythm with Riko's own.
Then—
Without warning—
""
No sound—
No breath—
No wind-up—
It lunged.
A perfect copy of Riko's fastest dash.
Its freshly formed facial structure set into a fierce smile that matched Riko's fighting grin beat for beat, pixel for pixel.
A perfect mimcry.
A dreadful mirror.
A nightmare with eyes of his own.
Luna managed to utter a single word—
"RI
But it was not targeting her.
It wasn't hesitating. It wasn't testing. It wasn't learning anymore. It had already learned enough. It was an attack. Along with Riko's movement. Riko's own stance. Riko's own technique. The fists were drawn back--Riko's own punch stance--and its feet skidded across the glitch platform with a sonic crack. Next— It charges direct at actual Riko.