Yona clutched the edge of the wall, eyes wide. His voice trembled.
"Where the hell are we?"
The silence that followed was thick, suffocating.
Ayumi didn't answer at first. Her breathing slowed, sharp and measured. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. The notebook page...It was blank now.
She stared at it, frowning. Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"It's not just copying us. It's studying us. Trying to learn how we think, how we feel. Maybe even how to replace us."
Her fingers tightened around the paper.
"Like it's building a story, and we're not the ones writing it anymore."
From the classroom, laughter spilled out. But it was wrong. Too crisp. Too clean. The kind of laughter that sounded like it had been stitched together by something that didn't understand what joy was.
Yona turned to her. "We need to find the real Lena. That version in the forest....."
yumi cut him off. "Wasn't her. Or maybe it was, but it isn't anymore."
She hesitated. Then: "Mia might be compromised."
Yona's jaw clenched. "You don't know that."
"I do." Ayumi's voice cracked slightly. "You didn't see her face when Lena whispered to her. It wasn't fear. It was recognition."
The wall beside them pulsed. Not visibly, but they felt it. A low hum of energy like a heartbeat beneath their feet. Then a sound thud. From above..Both looked up....Footsteps...From the roof of the school.
Ayumi nodded toward the emergency stairwell. "Come on. If this place is showing us copies… I want to see who's controlling the puppets."
They crept up the narrow stairwell, steps creaking with the weight of silence. As they reached the top, Yona paused.
"Ayumi," he said, softly.
She turned.
"I keep hearing her voice," he admitted. "Not Lena's. My mother's ."
Ayumi's breath caught.
"She's been dead for years," he continued. "But in this place, she's alive again. I can hear her calling my name sometimes when we're walking."
Ayumi's expression softened, but only slightly. "This place knows what to use. That's why it's dangerous."
They pushed the door open.
On the Rooftop
The wind was sharp. The sky above was cracked literally. Like broken glass suspended in the air. Between the shards: glimpses of other scenes, other versions of their world. One showed the classroom empty. Another showed the forest. Another just blackness.
At the far end of the rooftop stood a figure.
Not Mia. Not Lena...Not anyone they recognized.
It had no face...just a blank surface, smooth and reflective like glass. But as they approached, it shimmere، and began to change .
Yona stumbled back.It wore his face.Then Ayumi's.Then Lena's.Then Noir's.Then Aria.
Then daiki.
And then—
it shifted again. Into a face neither of them recognized. But somehow… they both knew it.
A boy. Pale eyes. A faint scar beneath his lip. Young, but tired. And watching them.
Ayumi took a step forward. "Who are you?"
The boy tilted his head, blinking slowly. His voice was quiet but cut through the wind like a blade.
"You shouldn't have come here."
Yona frowned. "Where is here?"
The boy smiled. Sadly.
"This is where stories end. Or start again."
Ayumi narrowed her eyes. "And what story are we in?"
The boy didn't answer. Instead, he raised one hand, and the rooftop split down the middle. Not physically, but conceptually. Yona felt it. A choice.
Left side: warmth. Light. A version of the world that felt familiar. Right side: cold. Dark. The forest again. But deeper.
"You can leave," the boy said. "But only if you choose which version of yourselves you want to be."
Yona looked at Ayumi.
"Which one is real?"
The boy didn't reply.
Ayumi's fingers tightened into fists. "You said this is where stories start again. Then we write our own ending."
She stepped forward toward the dark path.
Yona hesitated..then followed her.The boy nodded once, as if he'd been waiting for that.
And behind them, the classroom below vanished . Like it had never been there.
Into the Hollow Forest
Ayumi and Yona stepped into the darkness. Not the pitch-black void from before, but something more alive . The path beneath their feet was soft, like moss, but it pulsed faintly with warmth. Roots slithered under the surface, shifting as if tracking their movement.
Above them, the sky had no stars..just streaks of crimson light, like veins glowing behind paper-thin skin. No words passed between them for a long while. Only breath. Only steps. Only the whisper of something following.
Then Ayumi stopped.
"Do you hear it?"
Yona paused, listening.
Far behind them... faint footsteps. Slow. Measured.
Then—
"Ayumi…"..
A voice.
"Ayumi, wait for me…"
Yona's eyes widened. "That's..."
Ayumi turned slowly. "No. It's not Noir."
The voice came again, closer now. Too close.
"Ayumi… please. Don't leave me."
From the shadows, a shape emerged. Noir's face, pale and bruised. Limping slightly. Holding his side as if injured. But his eyes were wrong.
They didn't blink.
Ayumi stepped in front of Yona. "Stop."
The figure paused, just outside the light.
"I'm hurt," it said, softer now. "Help me."
Yona almost moved.
Ayumi caught his arm. "No you're not. Noir got stabbed on the left . That wound's on the right."
The figure didn't react to the correction. It just… glitched. Shuddered.
Then it smiled .
"You'll never find her in time," it hissed. "She's already becoming part of it."
And then the ground opened.
Not cracked...opened...like a mouth yawning beneath them. Yona and Ayumi fell.
They landed hard, dust and breath knocked out of them. But when Yona blinked again… he wasn't in the forest.
He was in a hallway.Their school again, but abandoned. Lights flickered weakly. Lockers lined the walls, but they were melted, warped. As if burned by something hot enough to bend metal.
Ayumi sat up beside him, bleeding from her shoulder. Her eyes narrowed, flicking across the walls. And then...a scream...A real one. From the end of the hallway.
"Mia!" Yona's voice cracked.
Ayumi grabbed his arm. "Wait. Look."
Through the shattered glass window of a nearby classroom, they saw her.
Standing alone...Her back to them. She was facing something inside the room..something we couldn't see. Her hands were trembling.
Yona called out, "Mia!"
She didn't turn.
Ayumi pushed the door open slowly, careful not to make noise. Inside the classroom, the light was dim. And now they saw it ..what Mia was staring at.
A mirror.
But not an ordinary one. It showed a version of her...same posture, same clothes, but younger. Eight years old. Crying. Bleeding. Screaming into the void.
"Stop it," the young Mia sobbed in the reflection.
"Stop lying to them. Stop pretending you're not the reason Lena is gone."
Mia's lips moved, but no sound came out.
Ayumi watched in silence.
Then the reflection spoke again :
"If they knew what you did, none of them would follow you."
Mia's hands clenched into fists...The mirror shattered.Yona took a step forward. But before he moved, his voice dropped to a whisper, barely audible:
"She's not our Mia."
Ayumi's eyes flicked toward him. She'd heard it. She said nothing..only nodded once, almost imperceptibly.
Then Yona stepped fully into the room. His voice wavered "Mia..what was that?"
Mia turned, slowly. Her face was pale. Her eyes wet.
"I didn't break it," she whispered. "It broke itself."
Ayumi frowned. "What did it show you?"
Mia shook her head. "Memories. But… not mine. Or not only mine."
Ayumi stared at her.
"Are you still you?"
That question hung in the air like a knife...Mia didn't answer. Ayumi stepped forward, just slightly, her eyes never leaving Mia's. Her voice was calm, but razor-sharp underneath.
"What did Lena whisper in your ear… when we were in the forest?"
At first, Mia didn't move. Then her eyes… widened..In fear . Her gaze snapped toward Ayumi. Then shifted quickly to Yona, standing just behind her. She stared at them both.
Frozen...Mouth slightly open.Breath caught.
Like something inside her had just been unlocked. Ayumi didn't blink. Yona's hand instinctively moved closer to his side toward the blade they'd taken from the shrine.
And Mia just stood there. Staring at them with those wide, wet eyes. As if she'd suddenly remembered something she was never meant to know.
---------------------------------
Somewhere Else
Lena stood before the black tower.
Its surface was smooth..impossibly so like it had never been built, only grown. And above it, circling like vultures, were things without names. Wings like torn pages. Eyes like clocks with no hands. She reached into her pocket.
The key was gone. Instead, something had been placed in her hand. A note. Burned at the edges.
It read:
"When the door opens,one must stay behind.
Or all are lost."
She looked back toward the woods.Toward where she knew the others were coming.
Her lips parted. And she whispered:
"I'm sorry."
Ayumi turned slowly. Her pulse pounded, her breath shallow. Something was pulling at her not forward, but sideways Into another room.
She stepped in. And there it was...A mirror.
Tall, fractured through the center, but whole enough to see.
It showed her. But not as she was now. It showed her in a hallway, long ago. The day she'd tried to tell Noir how she felt. The day she'd reached out… and he turned away.
But the mirror didn't show that. Instead, the roles were reversed. In the reflection, Noir stood there, voice soft.
"Why the tears?" he asked.
Ayumi blinked, confused.
"You keep rejecting me," he continued, stepping closer. "But… I love you. I always have. And I want you."
Ayumi froze. Her breath caught.
"…Me?" she whispered. "Rejecting you?"
Noir nodded gently. That same distant, aching smile on his face. She took a shaky step forward, her voice low and breaking.
"No… I never did." Her fingers curled. Her eyes burned. "You were the one who always rejected me ."
Her words echoed. Noir didn't answer. He just looked at her, like he didn't understand.
And that's when she saw it ...the mirror was lying. No. Not lying.Reversing.
It was flipping truth with guilt. Pain with blame.
Ayumi's face twisted in realization.
"This isn't what happened,"she whispered. "I told you how I felt. I chased you. And you… you smiled and disappeared like it didn't mean anything."
Her voice cracked.
"You always left me standing there."
Noir's eyes in the mirror shimmered. He stepped forward again. But this time, his voice was different. Lower. Truer.
"You shouldn't have fallen in love with me."
Ayumi's hand trembled as she reached for the glass, voice shaking.
"I did. And I still do."
He smiled...soft, broken, beautiful.
"I never loved anyone the way I love you," he said. "And I never will."
Then—
The image fractured...Noir faded. The mirror turned black. Ayumi stumbled back, like the air had been yanked from her lungs. Her shoulders shook as silent tears fell.
And for just a moment...in the reflection a new shape appeared. Alive.Standing at the foot of a towering black spire. Her eyes were wide, mouth moving as if she were calling a name.
Then....gone.
Ayumi wiped her face, but the tears wouldn't stop. The mirror hadn't just shown a memory. It had shown a wound still open. Ayumi stared into the dead glass, breath shallow. The echo of Noir's voice still lingered in her chest like smoke refusing to clear. Her fingers slowly pulled back from the mirror, leaving behind smudged fingerprints and a faint streak of moisture from where her tears had touched.
She whispered, almost to herself:
"It wasn't just a memory…"
Then she turned fast eyes darting.
"Yona!"
He looked up from the classroom doorway, still watching Mia from a distance. "What is it?"
Ayumi stepped back into the hallway, her voice low, urgent.
"I saw Lena. She's… alive. I don't know how, but I saw her. She was at the tower."
Yona's face paled. "The black tower?"
Ayumi nodded.
"That's where we're being pulled, isn't it?" he said. "All of this..Mia, the mirrors, the forest… it's trying to stop us from reaching her."
Ayumi's fists clenched.
"We're running out of time."
Suddenly...behind them...a creaking noise echoed down the corridor. Not a natural one. Like wood bending under something immense. The lights overhead flickered.
Then—
The floor shifted.
Yona staggered sideways. Ayumi reached for the wall. The ground vibrated with something ancient, moving beneath them.
And from the cracked ceiling, a whisper:
"One must stay behind…"
Ayumi's eyes widened. "It's the same voice… from the note. From the tower."
Yona gritted his teeth. "Whatever's waiting there...whatever Lena is near...it knows we're coming."
They turned back toward the door.
But ....Mia was gone.
Just the shattered mirror. Just the echo of a girl who might never have been fully her again. Ayumi's face darkened.
"We need to go. Now."
-------------------
Deep Below the Forest
Meanwhile, the ground above trembled with every step Lena took. Inside the black tower, there was no sound . No wind. No air. Just a crushing stillness. The floor was glass, but beneath it: swirling ink. Faces in it. Shifting. Smiling. Drowning.
She stepped forward. Her fingers brushed a stone pedestal. Another note was waiting.
You opened the door. You broke the rule.
Now one of them will never leave.
Lena closed her eyes. Then whispered:
"Let it be me."
But something behind her..laughed. A low, wet sound, not made by a human throat.
She turned...And saw..Nothing.
To be continue ...