The Mirror’s Pulse

Part 1

The sun was rising.

But Aoi's bed was empty.

Only his reflection remained—still, frozen inside the mirror.

Kureha and Rina stood quietly in his room.

His stethoscope hung from the nightstand, snapped in two.

Kureha touched the mirror with her fingertips.

—"His body's still here… but his pulse no longer echoes in this dimension."

Rina's voice trembled.

—"Then where is he?"

Kureha looked down.

—"Where reflections go when they stop pretending."

---

Part 2

A fractured mirror.

A passage carved by synchronized resonance.

They stepped through together—Kureha and Rina—into a place where time had given up.

Frozen clocks.

Birds suspended mid-flight.

A child with tears frozen on his face.

Aoi.

Still.

Silent.

Small.

—"This isn't the Threshold," Kureha whispered.

—"This is the Perfect Echo."

Rina swallowed.

—"What does that mean?"

Kureha closed her eyes.

—"It's not where someone hides what they fear…

…it's where they bury what's already been broken."

---

Part 3

A memory surfaced.

A younger Aoi wandering a house filled with silence.

Rain whispered on the windows.

No one called his name.

He found a letter—unsigned—on the table.

In the dining room mirror, his reflection smiled at him…

…while he cried.

—"If you stop walking," it whispered,

—"I'll walk for you."

The boy nodded.

The memory shattered into drifting shards.

---

Part 4

Deeper inside the echo—

They found him.

Aoi was trapped inside a dome of liquid crystal.

Unconscious. Curled inward.

Outside, his reflection waited.

Calm.

Watching.

—"Let them think they can save you," it whispered.

—"I'm the one who never left."

Kureha rushed forward, slamming her palm against the dome.

The reflection turned its face—

And wore the features of Yui.

Kureha froze.

—"No…" she breathed.

—"It's a Compound Echo."

---

Part 5

Rina held her broken stethoscope.

She placed the pieces to her chest—

A weak pulse answered.

And she stepped inside.

Aoi knelt in the center of a shattered memory.

Visions swirled around him—

Moments of pain.

Of failure.

Of giving up.

—"I don't want to go back…" he whispered.

—"If I return… I'll feel everything again."

Rina sobbed.

—"Then I'll feel it with you."

She reached him.

Held him.

The dome cracked.

Outside, the echo screamed with Yui's voice—

—"If you leave me… I disappear!"

---

Part 6

The world began to collapse.

Kureha's stethoscope flared.

She launched a mirrored fragment into the air—

A resonant pulse fired.

Aoi's heartbeat.

Rina's.

In perfect sync.

The Compound Echo began to fracture.

Yui's image split into thousands of fragments—

Some fell like black tears.

Others—floated like fireflies of light.

Aoi closed his eyes.

—"I'm not forgetting you, Yui…"

(He trembled.)

—"…I just don't need you anymore… to hate myself."

A pulse of white.

Everything shattered.

---

Part 7

He awoke.

In his room.

Breathing.

Alive.

His eyes were red.

But calm.

Rina was at his side, holding his hand.

Kureha stood at the door.

Aoi sat up.

—"I remembered everything."

He exhaled.

—"But it doesn't hurt the same."

Kureha nodded.

—"Because you're not alone anymore."

Aoi looked into the mirror.

For the first time…

His reflection simply mirrored him.

And nothing more.

Preview of Next Chapter:

Nagi reveals the true purpose of the Pulse: to erase all reflections and rebuild human identity from silence. Kureha faces an impossible choice. Can someone truly exist… without a single echo?