The World Is Mine For The Taking-Chapter 1087: Epilogue 20 - The Heroes From Another World (6)
A doppelganger.No... worse than that. Way worse.
She didn’t just resemble someone I knew—she looked like the real person but twisted, distorted, like someone had taken the original and pulled it through a nightmare filter. Every detail was familiar but wrong at the same time. My brain kept flickering between recognition and denial, like it couldn’t fully process what I was staring at.
It was—
"Chihara... Akane?"
The words slipped out of one of my classmates, barely above a whisper, but it cut through the training field like a blade. His voice trembled, shaking with a mixture of disbelief and fear. And the moment he said it, everything stopped. Every step, every swing, every breath—frozen. The entire class turned in unison to stare at her as if some unseen command had swept through the air.
A beat of silence. Then the murmurs erupted.
"What? Isn’t she supposed to be here? How did she even get here?"
"Wait—why the hell is her hair purple now?"
"Is she really Chihara?"
"I mean, look at her. She seriously looks like her."
"No, no—now that I’m actually staring, she’s kinda different."
"But if you look at her from that angle? Dude. She’s literally Chihara!"
Their voices overlapped, rising and falling, blending into this weird, static-like noise that made my head pound. It honestly felt like the world itself couldn’t decide on what the hell it wanted her to be. It was like reality had split in half, showing two versions of the same person and then shrugging, unsure which one to keep.
And the creepy part? Everyone knew—deep down—that the person standing in front of us, Shredica, looked way too much like Chihara Akane to call it a coincidence. It wasn’t even a slight resemblance. It was uncanny. Eerie. Like staring at a mirrored version of someone who wasn’t supposed to be here. Someone who had no business being in this place at all.
Our classmate.The girl who should’ve been nowhere near this world.
But Shredica... she didn’t seem aware of the chaos she was causing. Her expression wasn’t threatening or smug or anything like that—it was confused. Really confused. But beneath that confusion, there was something else. Something subtle. A faint spark of recognition, like she thought she knew me but wasn’t quite sure from where. She looked like someone who recognized the shape of a memory but couldn’t recall the actual moment.
At the same time, she also looked like someone who had absolutely no idea who I was.
"This is the person that I’m going to instruct?" she asked, voice steady but tinted with uncertainty.
"Well, yes," my instructor—who was basically about to be my former instructor—replied. "He’s Sir Kashiwagi."
"Kashiwagi..." she repeated, mouthing the name slowly. It rolled out of her mouth like she was tasting something familiar, something she couldn’t fully grasp but somehow felt attached to.
Then her eyes locked onto mine.
"I am Shredica, and I’ll be your instructor from now on," she said. "With that, let’s begin my lesson."
The way she said it—sharp and confidently—made it sound like she was ready to put me through hell and then some. She didn’t smile. She didn’t soften her expression. She just stared at me with this scowl that could send a grown man straight into therapy. Honestly, she looked like she was about to square up and throw hands before the lesson even started.
"I’ve been told that you’re the one who’s been improving the most out of everyone here," she continued. "So I was specifically assigned to teach you. Apparently, I am the only one capable of handling you at the moment. Moving forward, you will address me as Instructor. If you ever feel like you can’t improve... then they’ll have to evaluate your worth."
...Wow.Okay. So she already decided I might be a disappointment. Great. Fantastic. Perfect way to motivate someone—start by assuming they’re useless. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. It annoyed me, sure, but I also weirdly understood it. If she didn’t expect anything from me, then she wouldn’t get emotionally invested. Kind of like preinstalling disappointment so she wouldn’t have to suffer later.
Real comforting.
But while she kept talking, something kept poking at my brain. The way her voice sounded... it was too familiar. She didn’t just look like Chihara-san. She talked like her. The cadence, the tone, the subtle disinterest layered under her words—it was the same. It felt like hearing a voice I’d known for years but slightly distorted.
Sure, it could’ve been coincidence... but it wasn’t. It was too damn precise. Too close to be random.
Then—
"Now then, Kashiwagi."
Even the way she said my name was identical to how Chihara-san used to say it. Flat. Dull. Like she was already bored of me before I even opened my mouth.
"Come at me," she said.
She didn’t draw a weapon. She didn’t raise her guard. She just stood there, staring at me, clearly expecting me to swing my sword at her like this was just another exercise.
"Oh, it seems Shredica isn’t going to beat around the bush today," my instructor called out with a slightly worried laugh. "Be careful around her, Sir Kashiwagi. She’s a little too rough for her own good."
Yeah, no kidding. Even from here, her aura felt brutal. Not dangerous—brutal. Sharply intense. Rough around the edges in a way that Chihara-san never was. That fierce, almost abrasive presence was probably the one thing separating her from the real Chihara-san. Without that, the resemblance would’ve been terrifyingly one-to-one.
I tightened my grip on the sword, feeling the weight settle into my hands. Then I dashed forward.
The speed I moved at now... it wasn’t human. Not by Earth’s standards. I could feel the wind slicing behind me, my feet hitting the ground faster and lighter than they ever could back then. Even the sword—this heavy, metal object—felt weirdly light, like a wooden stick. A heavy wooden stick, sure, but still nothing compared to what it should’ve been.
I lifted the sword.Closed in on her.Brought it down—
And for a moment, I actually thought I won.
Because she didn’t move.Not even a twitch.She stood there, completely calm, as if I wasn’t even worth reacting to.
I stopped the blade right before it reached her.
She stared into my eyes. And then—slowly—she sighed.
A heartbeat later, I felt something slam into me.
A punch.A brutal punch.
Right into my solar plexus.
"Guaaahhh!"
My entire body folded almost instantly. No warning. No chance to brace. It felt like she punched straight through my soul, grabbed it, and yanked it out. Air refused to enter my lungs as I gasped and wheezed, my vision flickering at the edges.
She punched me.Right in the gut.When I thought I won.
"As I thought, I’m disappointed," she said, exhaling sharply as if I had let her down on a deeply personal level. She emphasized the disappointment, dragging it out like she wanted to make sure I never forgot it.
"W-Why...?" I managed to choke out. Each breath felt like broken glass sliding through my chest.
"If you come at me without the intent to kill," she said casually, as if explaining something obvious, "then I won’t move at all. Because I already know you won’t kill me."
