The Mirror’s Pulse

Part 1

Morning.

At first glance, everything looked normal.

But then you noticed the mirrors.

Each one taped over with thick black lines.

The teachers walked the halls like nothing had changed.

But the students—

They felt it.

Rina's voice trembled as she looked around.

—"Why can they feel it now…?"

Kureha didn't look away.

—"Because the Pulse has started."

—"The Threshold doesn't need cracks anymore… it's already inside us. Through shared resonance."

Aoi pressed his hand to his chest.

His stethoscope began to vibrate.

But it wasn't his own heartbeat.

He heard whispers.

Low.

Disembodied.

—"What if you're the one… on the other side?"

---

Part 2

Afternoon.

The school infirmary.

A student lay unconscious.

But his reflection—

in the glass cabinet beside him—was awake.

Moving.

Smiling.

The nurse ran out in panic as Aoi and Kureha entered.

Kureha leaned over, activating her stethoscope.

Two brainwaves appeared on the screen—mirrored, inverted, yet synchronized.

—"…He's living through the reflection," Aoi muttered.

Kureha's voice was quiet. Unforgiving.

—"And the reflection… is doing better without him."

---

Part 3

A flicker from the past.

Aoi, much younger.

Sick. Weak.

Lying on a cot in the same infirmary.

Outside the glass, his mother stood. Watching. Distant.

But on the inside—

his reflection reached out.

And stroked his hair.

—"If you let me out," it whispered,

—"I could take better care of you… than she ever did."

The boy reached out, hand against the glass.

The reflection smiled.

Proud.

---

Part 4

Inside the Threshold.

A twisted zone—

The Inversion Room.

Kureha and Aoi walked through a realm turned upside down.

Gravity reversed.

Time folded back in on itself.

In the center—

A mirror.

Dark.

Dripping.

Memories leaked from its surface like liquid silver, forming bubbles that floated around them.

Nagi's voice slithered through the air.

—"What if your memories… remembered you?"

One bubble shimmered.

Inside it—

Aoi was running.

Panicked.

But it wasn't him.

It was his reflection.

Running away from him.

---

Part 5

Night.

Aoi's room.

But the mirror wasn't showing his bed anymore.

It showed an entire city.

On the other side of the glass.

People moved—faceless, voiceless.

Aoi whispered to himself.

—"Was it always like this… or am I just seeing it now?"

A heartbeat.

The reflection in the glass smiled.

—"Soon…" it said,

—"we'll be the same."

---

Part 6

Final scene.

Rooftop. Wind.

Aoi stood before a mirror—

And shattered it with his bare hands.

Blood spilled.

Glass fell.

But in one of the broken shards—

His reflection still stared back.

Unhurt.

Smiling.

Aoi screamed.

—"You're not me!"

The reflection laughed.

And then—

Their voices synchronized.

For the first time.

Together:

—"Or maybe… I'm just what you left behind."

Above them—

The sky cracked like glass.

And the world—

began to fold into itself.

A mirrored copy of everything.

---

Preview of Next Chapter:

Aoi disappears from the real world. Kureha and Rina must enter an incomplete reflection to find him. But inside the Perfect Echo… there are parts of Aoi that never wanted to be saved.