The Mirror’s Pulse

Part 1

The house felt like his.

But wrong.

Aoi stepped carefully down the hallway, the walls decayed and flickering.

Family photos hung upside down, their faces smudged like fading memories.

At the end of the hall stood a child.

Small.

Still.

Yui.

Back turned.

—"Yui…?" he whispered.

She turned.

But her face—

was covered by a polished mirror.

From inside it…

A child's voice sobbed.

His own.

—"It was my fault…"

The figure dissolved into dust.

Aoi woke up gasping in bed.

---

Part 2

The rooftop felt colder than usual.

—"It wasn't just a dream," Aoi said.

Kureha listened quietly.

Still. Tense.

—"It felt like someone else was there with me."

She finally answered.

—"That wasn't a normal Echo," she said.

—"It was a Deep Resonance. A fragment… that doesn't belong only to you."

Aoi's eyes narrowed.

—"Is that even possible?"

Kureha nodded slowly.

—"Only with the Perfect Echo.

The one that needs no body…

because it lives in every reflection."

---

Part 3

They descended into the hidden chamber beneath the school.

The Mirror Library.

Shelves floated between suspended shards of glass.

Books hovered in silence.

Words written with light.

Kureha walked ahead, stopping in front of a black mirror veiled in ancient symbols.

—"Every Resonant leaves a trace," she said.

—"Except one."

She pointed to the mirror.

—"His name… was Nagi."

Aoi touched the glass.

A flash.

His own reflection—

smiling while he cried.

---

Part 4

(Stylized flashback in black ink and bleeding shadows)

A child awoke in a world without mirrors.

No past.

No name.

No identity.

So he stole them.

He reached into others,

took their memories,

stitched them into himself.

But pain came with every fragment.

And from that pain…

the Perfect Echo was born.

A being made of everything forgotten.

Everything unwanted.

---

Part 5

Night had fallen.

Rina wandered the school hallway alone.

She stared into a window.

Her reflection blinked…

And glared back.

—"You're just a shadow behind Aoi," it hissed.

She froze.

The mirror vibrated.

Her stethoscope trembled on her chest.

A hand—liquid, dark—slid from the glass.

Aoi appeared just in time.

—"It's not your voice!" he shouted.

—"It's Nagi… testing your cracks."

---

Part 6

Back in the Threshold's training chamber.

Mirrors pulsed softly around them.

Kureha trained them both.

Rina struggled, holding her stethoscope.

The energy pushed her away.

—"I can't resonate like you two…" she muttered.

Kureha stepped forward.

—"Because your wound is still open."

Aoi approached.

He gently placed the stethoscope on her chest.

Listened.

—"Don't compare pain," he said.

—"Your rhythm… has value too."

For the first time, Rina smiled.

Just a little.

The stethoscope glowed faintly.

---

Part 7

A realm of shadows stretched endlessly.

At its center—

Nagi.

Now fully revealed.

His body was built from stolen reflections.

His face constantly shifting—

child, elder, stranger, friend.

He looked through a dark mirror.

And Aoi stared back.

—"How many fragments of you have I collected, Aoi?" Nagi whispered.

One of his faces twisted—

Yui. Frozen. Afraid.

—"We will become one," he smiled.

—"Because you… are already my reflection."

The mirror shattered—

Sending a black pulse rippling across every crystal in the Threshold.

Hundreds of Echoes

woke up.

---

Preview of Next Chapter:

The Threshold begins to bleed into the real world.

Echoes reflected in others start to manifest.

Aoi must decide whether to break his own heart… in order to save someone else's.