NOVEL WEB Chapter 24: EPISODE 24: “Mimic Bloom”
🌀 "In a city where memories fade… who can you really trust?"
🌆 [Scene 1 – Break Academy, Dusk]
Tension lingers like mist. Scarlet Onna walks the halls of Break Academy alone, placing reinforced thread barriers on doors. She pauses, sensing something off.
A faint hum. A ripple in the spell threads.
SCARLET ONNA (low whisper):
"…Someone's watching."
She turns.
No one's there.
Her thread reacts — one strand is gone.
🎤 [Scene 2 – Starwave's Dorm Room]
Starwave watches archived concert footage to anchor her fading memories.
But something's wrong.
On the screen, the Starwave performing… isn't her.
Her choreography is slightly off.
The earrings are wrong.
The smile feels fake.
STARWAVE (alarmed):
"Wait—this isn't one of my shows…"
She fast-rewinds — her face glitches briefly into someone else's.
She grabs her mic-amp weapon.
STARWAVE:
"Nope. No one steals my spotlight."
🧙 [Scene 3 – Onmyo Flare's Elemental Chamber]
Renji sits among a circle of flame glyphs, meditating, reinforcing the team's memory anchors. One by one, the kanji symbols glow: 光 (light), 絆 (bond), 忘 (forget).
Suddenly… a fourth glyph appears. One he never drew.
The symbol reads: 偽 — false.
ONMYO FLARE (startled):
"That's not mine…"
The fire reacts violently. He quickly snuffs the chamber with a counter-charm.
ONMYO FLARE (under breath):
"We've been infiltrated."
🌒 [Scene 4 – Kuro Ōkami's Moonwatch Spot]
Kuro sits on the roof again, sharpening his claws, half in beast form.
KURO ŌKAMI:
"Smells wrong tonight."
The moonlight dims slightly.
Behind him — a silhouette lands. Another Kuro.
??? (mimicking his voice):
"Good instincts."
Kuro slashes behind without hesitation — but the copy dodges. Flashes blue skin — then vanishes into the shadows.
⚠️ [Scene 5 – Emergency Meeting, Break Academy Hall]
All four regroup, visibly shaken.
SCARLET ONNA:
"Someone's inside. Masking their aura. Bypassing barriers."
ONMYO FLARE:
"A shape-stealer. Not magic. Something else… biological."
STARWAVE:
"She used my face, my moves. Even got my pitch right. That's not memory-warping. That's talent."
KURO ŌKAMI (growling):
"Or mutation."
They all fall silent.
🔍 [Scene 6 – Null's Pulse Intercepted]
Onmyo Flare reroutes one of Null's memory waves — and it backfires, revealing a different signature hidden beneath Null's data.
A short 2-second video file flickers onto the screen:
🎥 A blue-skinned figure, in shadow, transforming into Scarlet Onna's form — then Starwave's — then laughing.
The clip ends.
SCARLET ONNA (narrowed eyes):
"That's not digital code. That's organic mimicry."
ONMYO FLARE:
"Then Null's not working alone anymore."
🎭 [Scene 7 – The False Shrine: Roppongi District]
Late that night, a false shrine appears atop a roof in Roppongi — shimmering between real and not, guarded by corrupted civilians with blank faces.
The Tokyo Avengers storm it.
Inside: mirrors. Dozens of them. Each one shows a twisted version of the Avengers — some younger, some older, some corrupted.
From the largest mirror steps a cloaked figure.
Blue-skinned.
Yellow eyes.
Calm smile.
MYSTIQUE (posing as Starwave):
"Which version of me did you like best?"
The mirrors all shatter, revealing dozens of half-formed clone bodies, incomplete identities, and stolen features.
💥 [Scene 8 – Battle: Mimic Blitz]
The team fights mirror-warped versions of themselves, created by Mystique's manipulation of memory residue left by Null.
Starwave fights a version of herself with corrupted dance-step bombs.
Kuro Ōkami clashes with a distorted werewolf with glowing red veins.
Scarlet Onna's threads are tangled by her own younger self — naive and trusting.
Onmyo Flare's spells are blocked by stolen versions of his original scrolls.
MYSTIQUE (to all):
"You don't even remember how you started. Why you fight. So I'll remind the world for you. By becoming you."
She vanishes again.
🌀 [Final Scene – Break Academy, Quiet]
The team seals off Break Academy's entire west wing. No entrances. No mirrors.
SCARLET ONNA:
"She's inside the city now. Replacing people one by one. No code. No spell. Just… perfection."
KURO ŌKAMI:
"A ghost wearing skin."
STARWAVE:
"Then next time… she better pick someone stronger."
🎴 [END CARD – TOKYO AVENGERS]
EPISODE 24: "Mimic Bloom" — END
🎭 Next: Episode 25 — "The One Who Was Me"
As the team's memories continue to erode, Mystique begins stealing their identities one by one — until the Tokyo Avengers may no longer be the ones wearing the masks.