Chapter 191: Crisis Adverted. Ritsu Goes Undercover

"She’s good. Her demon arts would have picked it up. It seems that Agent Z fellow has extraordinary power and there’s probably several people working for him. His boss or he must have taken a liking to Zinnia. It’s up to her, she could probably stay the night if she wanted." Ritsu said with a large smile.

"So we can go with the undercover plan? I could promote Dak to the other slum and have two light purples I trust and secretly know are on our side..." Zinnia said confidently.

"On our side?" Kass asked with a raised eyebrow. "I thought you worked for them..."

"Kass, her and I did a trust building exercise. I let her charm me and I charmed her. We both answered one question. Her intention was to protect me and not hand me over. I know the charm worked because of our systems and Vivian always knows." Tyler answered immediately. "She can access memories and asked me to show all my happiest ones."

"Well we knew she had the memory wipe ability, but to be able to access and manipulate memories is interesting," Sophie smiled. "Just what really happened that day in your village?"

"Don’t pressure her like that," Kass said something before Tyler could. "This isn’t let’s build an immediate relationship and reveal everything right away. Let’s not rush this. I pretended to sleep with someone for how long? I didn’t tell you all I was a virgin until after I slept with Tyler. If I’m fine waiting, you all should be too."

"Fair enough," Nyxara smiled. "Kass is right. She shouldn’t just reveal everything about herself right away. She has to remain under the mindset she is a cruel, evil bitch who is going to hand Tyler over to the enemy. We can’t risk softening her up."

’They are legitimately smart, badass and beautiful women. No wonder Tyler married them and loves them so much. He’s on a different level though. I wonder if it was always like that.’ Zinnia thought while appreciating their sentiment.

"I’m going to stay the night and set an alarm early and sneak out," she said while snuggling up to Tyler.

She noticed Sophie was spooning her, which was a weird, welcomed comfort. Tyler was already emitting warm, relaxing power uncontrollably with his passive abilities and Kass was on the other side of him, with Nyx laying behind her. Amanda snuggled up on Tyler’s stomach from below them.

"Well, love you ladies and good night Zinnia. I’m glad you’re here and tomorrow we have to go through with this plan."

"I understand, goodnight!"

Everyone fell asleep peacefully, including Zinnia. She woke up in the middle of the night to her phone buzzing.

"Need you at our base. Drama. Sorry boss." - 67.

’Damnit.’ Zinnia thought before teleporting away.

Kass woke up. "I wonder where she went."

Ritsu appeared. "I’m on it, don’t worry. Don’t think of it as spying, think of it as recon."

Ritsu was holding a black and purple mask she obviously stole from Zinnia’s hideout.

"Genius." Kass smirked.

She yawned and fell back asleep.

"Sorry Tyler," Ritsu whispered before following Zinnia with a mask in a male appearance no one would recognize.

As soon as she got into the base, she noticed most of the people were sleeping, aside from a few of the recruits who were bickering outside. She took the opportunity to grab one of the sleeping black and purple masks and teleported the person out back. Luckily, she grabbed 55, who was someone there alone. She woke him up and demanded to know his masked identity.

"55, why don’t you know this, what’s your number?" He asked before Ritsu knocked him unconscious with an elbow to the head.

"Forgive me mother and father. I am just protecting Tyler." Ritsu whispered before going through 55’s pockets. She found the magical orb.

’What’s this? The key to the door that makes the wall disappear?’

"Ritsu, what are you doing?" Tyler asked calmly.

"Some recon. Don’t worry about it and go back to bed. I want to see why Zinnia had to leave. It sounds like arguing and things are going on out front. I knocked out one of the prisoners named 55 and copied him. I know everything about him now."

"How the heck were you able to do that?"

"By taking off his mask when I asked him who he was. He looked like a random, common ability user. No one would miss him in this world because he’s single but he needs to remain alive. Zinnia is going to have to wipe his memory of me taking him out. Go back to sleep, I got this."

"Ok...just be careful." Tyler said politely. "I trust you Ritsu."

Ritsu made her way back into the room and pretended to be laying in bed. She could hear the commotion outside and pretended to wake up.

She walked through the door with the magical orb and noticed a light purple mask, two black and purple masks, a black mask and Zinnia in her dark purple mask were discussing something.

"67, 76 clearly tried to kill me in my sleep, they’re a spy, I know it!" 27 accused.

"How do we know you aren’t the one who tried to kill me and are just framing me?!" 76 asked.

"Shut the fuck up," Zinnia snarled.

She used her demon art and Ritsu noticed that both of them went completely limp, like they were under a trance.

"What are you doing to them?!" the light purple mask asked.

’That must be Zed," Ritsu thought.

"Shut the fuck up 67 before you’re next," Zinnia snapped back.

"Sorry Zinnia, I meant no disrespect. I’ll stop asking so many questions." Zed quickly answered.

’Why is the other one so quiet?’ Ritsu was paying close attention and noticed the black mask, which she pieced together as Dak wasn’t saying anything.

"27 is telling the truth, so which one of you is going to kill him?" Zinnia asked.

"I will." the black mask answered quickly.

"I should do it 69, I’m the one in charge here."

"55 what the fuck are you doing out here?" Zinnia snapped.

"I heard commotion and got too interested, I didn’t see anything, I swear!"

Ritsu let her guard down and didn’t resist Zinnia’s demon art.

’What is Ritsu doing here and where is 55?!’ Zinnia thought while remaining perfectly calm. She didn’t have time to access all of Ritsu’s memories but got the hint.

"Get the fuck back inside and wake everyone up. Get them out here to witness what happens to traitors." Zinnia snarled.

Ritsu knew what she had to do. She quickly went inside, only to teleport outside and wake up 55.

"You’re going to forget this ever happened or I’ll reveal to your boss I stole your mask and know your secrets. Round the others up and get them out front, there’s a traitor amongst us."

"I’ll fucking kill—"

"Shut your mouth and do exactly as I saw," Ritsu said while wrapping her hand firmly around his throat.

"Ok, ok," 55 coughed. "I will do it, give me my mask back."

Ritsu took off her mask and 55’s jaw dropped. "How...how are you... me?"

"Shhhhh," Ritsu said while teleporting him back inside before disappearing back to Tyler.

"Everyone, wake up!" 55 screamed. "Orders from boss, out front, now!"

’What the fuck just happened? Who? How?’ 55’s mind raced with paranoia. ’I’m safe if I do as that person said, but how the fuck was that person me?’

Everyone woke up and despite their confusion, walked outside to the slums and noticed 76 was completely non-responsive.

Zinnia immediately noticed 55’s body language was all wrong.

’When Dak goes to kill the prisoner, that’s when I’ll memory wipe him of the exchange with Ritsu. It had to have been her if she could clone anyone.’ Zinnia put everything together.

"Ladies and gentlemen, 76 tried to kill 27 in his sleep. This is a crime punishable by death. 69 has volunteered to do the honors despite 67 suggesting he should. I’ve made the decision to allow 69 to prove his loyalty."

"It would be my honor. Let it be known, if you betray 67 or myself, you die." Dak said while ruthlessly using his acidic blood art to burn 76’s face, who was no longer under Zinnia’s control.

"FUCK!!!!!" 76 yelled. "It burns, fuck you! I was going to kill all of you, you stupid fucks!"

76’s mask burned off his face, revealing a younger man no one noticed or knew.

"Stop toying with him 69, kill him, we don’t make them suffer," 67 commanded.

Zinnia took the distraction to land her memory demon art on 55. She saw everything Ritsu did and was thankful no one could see under her mask.

’Wow, such a kind thing to do. They protected me while gaining information about what’s going on. They actually do care about me...I need to be this cold ruthless bitch, I got this!’ she reminded herself.

She wiped the memory of him being knocked out. He remembered falling asleep and waking up to commotion, going outside to see something was going on and Zinnia telling him to wake everyone up. Everyone’s secret was safe.

Dak finally killed 76 and blood spilled all over the alleyway.

"Clean this up. I don’t want to hear a word from anyone about this ever again, understood?" Zinnia said in a nasty tone.

"Clear as day boss." 67 said while making sure the others got to work.

"69, help them clean this up and incinerate the body. Someone here has a fire ability, correct?"

"I do!" 49 said enthusiastically.

She ignited the dead body until it was burned completely away.

"I can wash away the evidence," 47 said with a smile.

She used water magic to clean up the blood. The slums appeared like nothing happened and no one was out and about to witness it.

"Elemental using trio? Good to know," Zinnia said before pulling Zed into his office.

"So, what the fuck happened. Why didn’t you have this under control?" Zinnia asked angrily while staring deep into Zed’s eyes.