Inside a rented apartment.
Liquor bottles and cigarette butts littered the floor. A black-haired girl sat on the ground, covered in bruises, her eyes as lifeless as stagnant water.
A man was smashing things around the room while cursing at her.
"You're just like that bitch, an ungrateful little traitor! I raised you, fed you, and now that I want you to make money and pay me back, what's wrong with that?!"
"You actually called the cops to arrest me—your own father! What a filial daughter you are!"
As he spoke, the man pulled off his belt. "If I'd known, I never should've kept you!"
Smack!
The belt lashed across the girl, but she remained neither servile nor defiant, without making a sound.
This only made the man angrier, and he put even more force into his hand!
"Cat got your tongue?!"
"Didn't you have plenty to say in front of the cops before? Say something!"
Smack!
"I told you to talk!"
The man raised his belt again, but just then, a large bird suddenly crashed through the window and flew into the room!
Crash!
"Fuck... where did this stupid bird come from?!"
The man swung his belt at the bird, only for it to suddenly speak in a woman's voice. "You're still such a failure, Du Chun."
"You live like a dog, groveling outside and only daring to vent your anger at home."
Hearing the bird's words, the man froze.
The bird had a woman's voice, one he knew all too well—it was the voice of his ex-wife!
And it wasn't merely the voice. Even its tone and words were exactly like his ex-wife's!
"Bitch, is that... you again?!"
"You won't even rest after you're dead!"
Watching the man's furious expression, the bird twisted and abruptly transformed into a middle-aged woman.
However, the woman's eyes were extremely strange. She had no whites in them; both eyes were pitch-black.
"You kept saying that as long as I died, you'd live better. That everything was my fault."
"Well, I did as you wished. Why have you ended up like this instead?"
"Why?"
"Because you're just raging in helplessness. You're making excuses for your cowardice, taking all your anger out on me, blaming me for everything, and saying all the things you don't dare say to those people to me."
"Heh, how pitiful."
"You..."
The man staggered backward repeatedly. Looking at the eerie woman before him, his heart pounded wildly. "Y-you... who are you? A ghost?"
The woman gave the retreating man a chilling smile.
She turned to look at the black-haired girl. "You must be in a lot of pain, right?"
The girl slowly raised her head. "Are you... here to take me away, Mother?"
The woman smiled and stroked her head. "Yes. That man is so annoying. How about we kill him?"
"Kill... him?"
The girl murmured.
"Yes, kill him."
As she spoke, the woman suddenly vanished before the girl and turned into a sharp knife that fell to the ground.
The girl blankly picked up the knife and looked at the man before her.
The man took a step back and suddenly fell to the ground. "W-wait... Du Ying, no, Ying'er, I'm your father!"
"You can't, you can't... can't!"
The girl trembled as she walked up to the man. Gripping the knife with both hands, she plunged it down hard!
Squelch!
"Aaaah—!!"
Night fell. Dark clouds covered the moon, and rain pattered down.
The girl wandered blankly through the streets like one of the Walking Corpses.
Her hands and clothes were covered in blood, while the rain soaked her clothes and hair.
A Raven followed behind her, watching the girl's eyes, which held no emotional fluctuation whatsoever.
"Where are you going?"
Hearing the Raven's voice, the girl slowly turned around.
"You are... Mother."
Mother?
The Raven spread her wings. Of course she was not the girl's mother.
The form she had taken before, along with the voice she had made, had all come from reading that man's memories.
This was a secret buried deep within that man's heart.
This was the Raven's newly acquired ability. She could steal the secrets hidden in people's hearts and imitate the things within their memories.
Whether it was a person or an object, she could imitate it perfectly.
In addition, she could hear faint whispers originating from the shadows.
And the thing this girl feared most was the man from before, while the thing she loved most was the woman the Raven had previously become.
The girl slowly dropped to her knees. "Could you... eat me?"
The Raven blinked, her pure-black eyes seeming to understand something. "Is living painful for you?"
"All right. Then give me your body."
As she spoke, the Raven suddenly lowered her head and bit the girl's shadow.
Immediately afterward, the girl's shadow was sucked into the Raven's stomach, and the girl lost consciousness.
In the blink of an eye, the girl's body vanished.
The Raven, meanwhile, obtained all of the girl's memories.
As well as a permanent body.
The Raven's form began to twist, and in an instant, she became the girl.
This transformation had no time limit. She could remain in this form forever.
After becoming the girl, the Raven suddenly tilted her head to one side.
"Humans... really are complicated creatures."
This girl's name was Du Ying. She was a high school student, and her mother had died of illness when she was eleven.
Her father had always been abusive, and after her mother died, she became the target of his violence.
Her father smoked and drank all day. In the past two years, he had also developed a gambling habit. Because he owed money, he had no choice but to make the girl sell her body for cash.
The girl resisted, but to no avail. In the end, she chose to call the police.
However, because the matter involved someone in power, it was quietly dropped.
After becoming the girl, the strongest emotion the Raven received was hatred.
"Want revenge?"
"All right, I'll help you."
As she spoke, dark-green scales suddenly grew over the Raven Girl's hands.
Her ten fingers became sharp hooked claws. She lightly scratched the wall, and the stone was sliced apart as easily as tofu.
Just how powerful was the Mimic's ability?
She could imitate any known lifeform.
Whether it was a Fishman or anything else, as long as she understood the lifeform she was imitating well enough, she could perfectly replicate its abilities.
The abilities of the Fishman, Invisible Man, Queen Bee, Wall Breaker, and others could all be replicated by her.
Following the directions in her memories, the Raven found a secluded alley.
Several burly men stood inside the alley. They looked at the girl. "Oh, you're actually being so proactive this time."
"Everything takes time. You'll get used to it sooner or later."
"Go in. The client is already waiting inside."
The girl silently walked past the men. She raised her claws, and a flash of blood bloomed as bloody lines appeared across all of their necks.
Splurt! Splurt! Splurt!
Several heads fell to the ground.
Even as they died, those men had not realized that their heads had already been separated from their bodies.