Esteban_Duque_

Aoi Tsukishiro, a teenager scarred by the disappearance of his younger sister, faces a dark reflection that no longer follows him.
In a world where pain manifests as echoes within mirrors, Aoi must become a Resonant to confront the wounds he’s buried deep inside.
Will he be able to face his own reflection… and survive the Threshold?

The Mirror’s Pulse

Shards of broken mirror floated above him.

The world around him pulsed with shifting lights: grays, blues, and whites.

Or maybe… from deep within himself.

He pushed himself up slowly, standing on a platform made entirely of shattered reflections.

—"This isn't a dream. It's too real,"— he told himself.

Just ahead, a glowing figure watched him in silence.

—"Here, every wound becomes a reflection," she said —"And every reflection… can kill you."

Aoi looked around, his heart pounding too fast.

—"Where is my reflection? What does it want from me?"

—"It doesn't want anything. It only exists… because of you."

Aoi froze. And in that moment, something deep inside him cracked.

They were inside a dome. Suspended. Weightless. Mirrors curved along the inner walls, like the ribs of a breathing beast.

Thoughts his own and others echoed faintly in the air.

Aoi wore a black jacket. It pulsed softly, in rhythm with his heartbeat.

—"In here, your heart is everything."

She placed a crystalline stethoscope against his chest, and images came rushing in...

His reflection grinning with malice.

—"Listen to the resonance," said Kureha.

Before him, a shape emerged. His own reflection, cracked and flickering.

—"Prepare yourself for what's coming. Don't think about what hurts, or it will make him stronger!"—shouted Kureha.

The battle didn't begin with fists.

Each strike from the Echo hurled sharp, painful, real memories through him.

He tried to hold on, but doubt was louder than his breath.

—"Do you remember," the Echo said, taunting,

—"You can't win…" she whispered.

The Echo attacked in a BLINDING FLASH—

—"I DON'T WANT TO SEE THIS!" he screamed.

The mirrored realm trembled, and the Echo with it, as if something deep was awakening.

Aoi slowly stood, tears running down his face.

A white light burst from his chest. His jacket shimmered, crystals spreading along his arms like armor.

He stepped forward, not with fists,

but with a resonant wave born from his heartbeat.

The Echo began to crack, trying to reach Aoi, trying to consume him but Aoi was growing stronger.

One final strike from Aoi broke the Echo from within, shattering it slowly into nothing.

The mirror world reformed in slow motion, fractures sealing themselves with faint whispers.

Aoi stood there, wounded but alive.

—"You survived your first Echo," she said.

—"But your true reflection… will be much worse."

—"Why are you helping me?"—Aoi's voice trembled.

She removed a glove. Dark scars, twisted like branches, covered her hand.

—"Because I lost someone too," she replied.

Aoi stared at the marks etched deep, like roots of pain and said nothing.

He collapsed to the ground, drained.

Kureha approached him as he lay there.

—"You intrigue me. Maybe… you do have what it takes," she said.

Aoi jolted awake back in his bed, in the real world.

His heart was pounding like a drum. The mirror in his room stood still.

There, in the reflection something shimmered. A frozen shard. Yui, trapped in a crystalline prison behind the glass.

—"Maybe…" he thought —"she's still in there."

Preview of Next Chapter:

Aoi begins to feel the resonance in the real world.

His first encounter with an Echo that isn't his own.

What if the reflections of others can cross over too?

Chapter 2 – The Threshold