The Mirror’s Pulse

Part 1

Aoi sat beneath a tree in the school courtyard.

Sunlight filtered softly through the leaves, casting moving shadows on the ground.

Around his neck hung the crystalline stethoscope.

He brushed his fingers across it, gently.

A faint echo pulsed in his ear.

"If echoes appear in others too…"

"How many hearts out there are broken?" —he thought.

—"You're quieter than usual," Rina said, approaching him.

Aoi quickly hid the stethoscope.

—"Just… thinking," he replied without looking at her.

There was a pause. The wind stirred around them.

—"Have you… dreamed of Yui again?" she asked, her voice trembling.

Aoi stiffened.

Rina looked at him—compassion in her eyes, but fear too.

—"I've… started seeing things as well," she admitted.

For just a second, her reflection in the nearby window flickered—

her eyes completely black.

Then, it vanished.

---

Part 2

Later, in class, the teacher entered with a new student.

—"Everyone, please welcome our new classmate, Kureha Shiramine."

Aoi looked up, startled.

Kureha stood at the front, dressed in a school uniform, calm and unreadable.

She gave Aoi a look—cold… yet protective.

During the lesson, Aoi noticed her sketching in her notebook.

A drawing of an eye, cracked through the middle.

He swallowed hard.

---

Part 3

After class, Aoi caught up to her in the hallway.

—"Why are you here?"

—"Echoes are leaking through," she said.

—"One of them is very close. Too close."

They both turned toward the classroom.

A piercing sound echoed in their stethoscopes.

Kureha tensed.

—"…No," she whispered.

---

Part 4

Rina sat alone, staring at her reflection in the window.

Tears slid down her face.

—"Why can't I stop remembering…?" she murmured.

Her reflection began to distort,

mimicking her movements—

but it was weeping blood.

Cracks spread across the glass.

Then… it emerged:

A figure wrapped in bandages made of whispering words.

It repeated only one thing:

"Guilty."

"Guilty."

"Guilty."

---

Part 5

The school hallway twisted unnaturally.

The walls turned to liquid mirrors.

Aoi and Kureha rushed into the Threshold—

through the tear forming in reality itself.

—"Rina's trapped!" Aoi shouted.

—"Her Echo isn't attacking…" Kureha said, listening.

—"It's pleading."

They reached the core of the distortion.

A memory played:

Rina, frozen at a crosswalk.

People screamed.

Someone died.

She didn't move.

She only watched…

Then ran.

The Echo wept uncontrollably.

---

Part 6

Kureha raised her weapon.

But Aoi stepped in front of her.

—"Let me do it."

He closed his eyes and raised the stethoscope.

He felt the broken rhythm…

the tremor of a child's fear.

A voice echoed from the memory:

"I couldn't move… I couldn't do anything…"

—"You weren't guilty," Aoi said firmly.

—"You were just a child.

You don't have to carry that weight."

The Echo stilled.

The bandages unraveled.

Its body shattered into crystal shards.

And dissolved.

The Threshold began to close.

---

Part 7

Rina now slept peacefully on a bed in the nurse's office.

Aoi sat beside her, quiet.

Kureha entered the room.

—"Most people don't survive an Echo without help," she said.

—"But she had something holding her together."

Aoi turned to her.

—"What was it?"

Kureha looked at him gently.

—"You."

He said nothing.

He turned toward the window.

This time…

the reflection didn't distort.

---

Part 8

Far away…

A hooded figure walked through a vast realm of floating mirrors.

Each one showed a different face—

some screamed,

some laughed,

some whispered.

—"The Threshold is opening too fast…" the figure muttered.

Its golden eyes glowed.

And its reflection…

…was no longer human.

---

Preview of Next Chapter:

A heartbeat signal is triggered in another city.

Kureha reveals the origins of the Resonants.

The figure of the Perfect Reflection appears…

Who is the one that remembers everything others wish to forget?