Chapter Twenty-Three: The Face She Wore

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Face She Wore

Rin floated through darkness.

Not falling.

Not flying.

Just… suspended—inside a net of glowing threads that pulsed with the memories of others. Each thread brushed her skin like static. Each one stung.

She tried to close her eyes, but they were already shut.

And she still saw.

The mask hovered before her now. Porcelain smooth, no cracks, no markings—until she looked closer and realized it was her face. Perfect. Cold. Confident.

The mask smiled.

"You're not me," Rin whispered.

"I'm who you were becoming," it replied, its voice velvet over broken glass.

"Before you hesitated."

Memories flared behind her eyes—her betrayal, her guilt, the moment Matthew and Sora still chose not to kill her.

"That moment," said the mask, "was weakness."

"I chose them," Rin snapped. "Even after everything. I stayed."

The mask pulsed red.

"And now they doubt you. One more lie, one more mistake, and they'll leave you behind. Again."

Rin's hands balled into fists.

"I earned their trust back."

"No," the mask whispered.

"You stole it. Just like you stole your place in this game."

The glowing threads tightened around her, wrapping like vines.

"Put me on," said the mask.

"Let me do what you can't."

Rin screamed and reached out—not for the mask, but for a nearby thread. It burned as she touched it.

A memory surged into her skull.

Sora, the first time they met. Before the games. A coffee shop. A dare. A smile.

A moment that wasn't recorded in any game log.

Her own real memory.

"I'm not broken," Rin said, shaking. "I'm still me."

The threads flared.

The mask shrieked—cracking down the center.

"You don't get to rewrite me," she hissed, and hurled the memory-thread into the mask.

It exploded.

Not with fire—but with clarity.

Rin dropped.

Falling through shattered illusion—

And landed, coughing, on a cracked stone bridge.

There—just across the ruin of the gap—stood Matthew.

And Sora, her back turned, whispering something into a void.

The players were almost together again.

But the King was now fully aware of them.

And the Fallen Bridge wasn't finished testing their faith.