Chapter 296: Okinawa.

"Cat got your tongue? What's got you looking so pale?" The replica of Haru spoke in the same whispering voice as he asked why Haru had yet to talk to him.

"Sorry, I'm just a bit confused. Who are you, and why do you look like me?" Haru asked, Although he knew that within the floating mansion, he could be killed at any moment. Losing everyone he loved had made him worry less about whether he lived or died.

He was now just concerned as to why someone was imitating his appearance. It was strange, but even though the man's look was exactly the same as Haru, he felt like some underlying differences weren't visible to the naked eye. It seemed like his perception had grown a little stronger since Ralph had revived him.

"Me? I'm just a lone doppelganger. Well, at least the remnants of one. And as for why I look like you. Well, I was afraid that my true form would frighten you. But looking at you closer, it seems like you are a little tougher than I expected." The man who had taken Haru's form said with a smile as he looked at the aura of Qi surrounding Haru's body?

"Your true form? What's that like?" Haru asked, not knowing what doppelganger meant but wasn't interested enough to ask him about that.

Suddenly the skin on his face began to bubble and stretch before revealing a dark and slimy looking material beneath as the eye sockets widened to the size of a dinner plate and the mouth stretched open to show sharp yellow stained teeth. Haru looked up at it in disgust but surprisingly didn't fear whatever it was.

"Okay, that's disgusting. Please retake my form." Haru sighed before turning his back to look at the pond once again. It looked more like a lake, and as he stood still and stared at it, he remembered that in his soul ocean, he could control the size of his body at will.

He then immediately scaled his body to the size that it was the last time that he visited with Li Jun and the pond looked like a pond again. Haru turned to see the doppelganger had remained the same size but had gone back to looking like him.

"Where did you say Ralph was?" Haru asked, knowing that if he was going to be able to talk to anyone, then it would be likely that Ralph could talk about more things. The doppelganger looked up at Haru with a look of confusion before speaking.

"He is praying for safe passage, so that means he is in the shrine. You, humans, aren't very smart, are you?" The doppelganger said bluntly, trying to get back at Haru for saying his true appearance was disgusting, but he knew that he couldn't do anything else but verbally abuse him.

"Well, thanks. That explains everything, doesn't it? It's my second time here. Of course, I know where the shrine is." Haru said sarcastically and expected a further explanation of where the shrine was located, but the doppelganger simply shook his head before walking away.

"Such a great help." Haru sighed. He didn't mean to be rude or insulting, but when the man had said that humans were stupid, he took offence to it. He was now back at square one in his quest of looking for Ralph, but at least now he knew to keep a lookout for a shrine.

Haru walked around the grounds of the mansion before stumbling across the backyard. It was large and stretched out for what seemed like many miles, but the most peculiar thing was the colossal maze made out of large green bushes.

"There is a maze? I'm not stupid enough to enter that. Last time I entered a dark room and almost died. Who knows what will happen if I enter a maze. Maybe I will actually die?" Haru said to himself as he looked at the bushes and felt an ominous pit in his stomach.

As he looked around, he saw what looked to be a peaked roof at the centre of the maze, which was followed by what looked like a shrine gate.

"You have got to be kidding me. I think I will just come back another time. I am not doing that." Haru thought to himself. It seemed that his last brush with death had made him a little wiser to things that could cost him his life. And now that Li Jun and Lao were no longer around to protect him, he felt defenceless.

Haru opened his eyes to see the inside of the hotel room once again. But this time, the lighting had changed. The sun had turned orange and was shining through the window on his side of the building, telling him that he had remained in bed for the whole day. But that didn't matter much since he didn't need to sleep in the first place.

But he found it difficult to function at night since most of the stores were closed, and he would have to wait until they opened again before buying anything, but he remembered what General Ainsworth had said to him when he woke up.

He immediately checked his phone to see that he had a missed call from the same number that had called him in the morning and sighed. He had only missed it by a few minutes, so he decided to call back.

The phone rang out twice before General Ainsworth answered.

"I thought you had forgotten that I said I would call you back. But it's good that you called. I have some news for you." General Ainsworth spoke, sounding as though he was smiling before he even gave Haru the news.

"What is it?" Haru asked, confused as to what he could have been talking about. It usually took them weeks, if not months, to accept recruits into the army, so he didn't think that they had done that, but as General Ainsworth spoke, Haru soon changed his mind.

"Well, Since you were a student of the royal institute for military arts, you are already technically a soldier. All you need to do now is go to the head office to sign the final paperwork and get your uniform fitted." General Ainsworth explained as Haru sat up from the bed.

"What? Do they want to push my paperwork through this fast? For what reason?" Haru asked, confused about the reason they were trying to rush the paperwork. They knew from the start that he had gone to a military school since General Ainsworth was the principal there. But they didn't want to do anything before. It seemed strange.

"Well, As I said. You technically became a soldier the day that you enrolled in the school. But my guess is that it's because they think that Kazuo is supporting you. They will do anything to get on that guy's good side." General Ainsworth said he rustled with what sounded like paper.

"Really? They are only trying to push it through because they think that Kazuo is supporting me or something? Well, they don't need to because he isn't supporting me. We just talked, that's it." Haru said with a sigh. He didn't like to bask in other peoples' glory, which is what it felt like he was doing by pushing his papers through because of someone else.

"Well, even if you told them that. They wouldn't believe you. It's best that you just let them get on with it, and you will be a soldier by the end of the day. They will probably walk you through a few things and make sure that you know everything you need to know before sending you to one of the bases. Oh, by the way. Do you have a preference on which base you want to be stationed at?" General Ainsworth asked before pulling out a pen and pressing it against the sheet of paper.

"I get to chose where I go?" Haru became confused once again. Usually, they would pick for you, and you would have no choice but to nod your head and follow their orders, but he figured that it was to try to make sure that he put in a good word with Kazuo.

"Well, it's probably because of Kazuo Satou again. I doubt that they actually care about where you want to go. It's just to please him if that makes sense." General Ainsworth sighed, which was then followed by Haru also sighing.

"Well, In that case, can you put me in Okinawa?" Haru asked.

"Okinawa? That's a strange request. If a war does break out, the Okinawa base will be the first to send people to the front lines. It would help if you reconsidered it. Why not think about somewhere in the north? It will be safer up there." General Ainsworth spoke as though he was concerned.

"Yeah, but that is where Jake is, and I told him that I would come and see him sometime soon. I figured I would kill two birds with one stone." Haru laughed as he remembered that he still hadn't checked upon him for a while, but he knew that they would be reunited soon enough.

"Well, if that's the case, I will let the officers know what you said and suggest that they send you to Okinawa." General Ainsworth spoke in a calm tone after a deep sigh before hanging up.