Chapter 141: “The Mirror Without Eyes”
The mask sat in Souta's lap.Heavy.Alive.
He didn't touch it.
Didn't need to.
Every second it was near, his skin itched like memory trying to escape.
Ryuki stood across the room.
Eyes closed.
Listening.
Not to the Temple—but to the space outside it.
The folds between thought.
Where the Hunter walked.
"You hear him too," Souta said.
Ryuki didn't open his eyes.
"He's walking backward.Toward us.Through memories that don't exist yet."
Souta swallowed.
"The mask... it's his?"
"No," Ryuki said.
"It's yours."
A beat passed.
Then the stone floor cracked.
Not from pressure.
From presence.
Something stood just outside the Temple.
Something uninvited.
Ryuki drew his blade.
Spirals flickered.
But dim.
Weak.
"This place eats chakra," he muttered. "Fast."
Souta stood.
"No."
Ryuki looked at him. "No?"
"I'll face it."
Ryuki's eyes sharpened.
"That's exactly what he wants."
Souta placed the mask on the ground.
Then stepped past it.
"I'm tired of hiding."
Outside the Temple—
The sky was gone.
Just ink.And a mirror floating in the void.
No reflection.
Just glass.
Waiting.
The Spiral Hunter stood behind it.
Mask cracked.
Clothes wrapped in symbols from forgotten jutsu.
And where his eyes should've been—
Shadows moved.
Souta walked up to the mirror.
Didn't speak.
The Hunter raised his hand.
"Look."
The mirror rippled.
Souta saw himself.
Older.Taller.Eyes swirling with madness.
Burning villages.Killing without pause.
And laughing.Always laughing.
"This is what your spiral grows into," the Hunter said.
"This is your harvest."
Souta stared.
Quiet.
Then said:
"That's not a mirror."
The Hunter tilted his head.
"What?"
Souta's spiral pulsed once.
"A mirror reflects what is."
"This shows what you want."
He raised his hand.
And the mirror shattered.
Not with chakra.Not with jutsu.
With choice.
The Hunter staggered.A step back.
The shadows in his eye sockets shrieked.
He wasn't expecting resistance.
Not this soon.
Not this strong.
Souta stepped forward.
Face calm.Breathing steady.
"You don't know what I am."
"Because neither do I."
He raised a single finger.
Pointed it at the Hunter's mask.
And whispered:
"Break."
The spiral on Souta's chest spun.Once.
The mask cracked.
Then peeled away—like a second skin unzipping.
The Hunter screamed.
The sound wasn't human.
It wasn't anything.
Reality twitched.
Then—
Silence.
Just wind.
And a boy, standing alone in the inkspace.
The Hunter was gone.
For now.
Back in the Temple, Ryuki smiled faintly.
He whispered to himself:
"He made a choice."
"That's all the Spiral needed."
Far beyond.
In a sealed cavern where no chakra flowed—
A woman with white hair sat up in her tomb.
Eyes still closed.
But smiling.
"He broke the mirror," she murmured.
"Good."
"Now he can see."
End of Chapter 141.