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

The sun was rising, Aoi's bed was empty. Only his reflection remained—still, frozen inside the mirror. Kureha and Rina stood silently in his room. His stethoscope hung from the edge of the bed, snapped in two.

Kureha touched the mirror with her fingertips.

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

—"Where reflections go when they no longer have someone to imitate."

Kureha and Rina stepped together into a place where time had surrendered. Frozen clocks, birds suspended mid-flight, a child with tears held motionless on his face.

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

—"It's not where someone hides what they fear… it's where they bury what's already broken."

A younger Aoi wandered through a house full of silence. The rain whispered against the windows. No one called his name.

He found an unsigned letter on the table. In the dining room mirror, his reflection smiled… while he cried.

—"If you stop walking," it whispered,

The memory shattered, floating in fragments.

Deeper in the Perfect Echo, they found him.

Aoi was unconscious, trapped inside a dome of liquid glass. Outside, his reflection waited, watching him.

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

Kureha ran to him, hitting the dome with her palm.

The reflection turned its face—and it had Yui's features.

Rina held the broken stethoscope. She placed the pieces against her chest, and a faint pulse responded.

Aoi was kneeling at the center of a shattered memory. Visions swirled around him—moments of pain and failure.

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

—"If I return… I'll feel it all again."

She hugged him as tightly as she could, so he'd know she wouldn't let him go.

Outside, the echo screamed in Yui's voice.

—"If you leave me… I'll disappear!"

Kureha's stethoscope glowed. She threw a mirrored shard into the air and a resonant pulse burst out.

Aoi's heartbeat and Rina's synced in perfect harmony.

The Composite Echo began to fracture.

Yui's image shattered into thousands of fragments. Some fell like black tears, others floated like fireflies of light.

—"I'm not forgetting you, Yui…"

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

He woke up in his room, his eyes red but calm. Rina was by his side, holding his hand. Kureha stood at the door.

—"But it doesn't hurt the same anymore."

—"Because you're not alone now."

Aoi looked at the mirror. For the first time… his reflection only reflected him.

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?

Chapter 9: The Reflection That Didn’t Want to Be Saved