The Bone Pines weren't dead trees.
They were actual bones—white spires stretching to the sky like the ribs of a colossal, buried god. Wind howled between them, carrying whispers that weren't just in your ears, but in your mind. Regret. Grief. Longing. All of it soaked into the soil like blood.
We stood at the edge of the Rift.
It shimmered like a tear in space—vertical, wide, trembling like it was hurting. The air warped around it, as if reality itself was bracing against what tried to come through.
Elira glanced at me. "Still sure about this?"
I nodded.
But the truth was—no. I wasn't sure about anything.
My hand trembled at my side. I wasn't scared of monsters anymore. I was scared of what I might remember.
Scared of what I'd been before.
Rhys handed me a small crystal, glowing with a soft blue pulse. "Anchor this inside if you make it through. It'll keep the Rift from expanding… or swallowing you whole."
I took it without a word.
And then I stepped through.
The feeling was like falling—but slower. Like your soul was being peeled back layer by layer and whispered to.
When I landed, it wasn't hard.
It was quiet.
Too quiet.
I stood in a field of mirrors. Each one reflected a version of me. One younger. One older. One with eyes that glowed like stars. One with no mouth, just a broken circle etched across his face.
They all stared.
None of them blinked.
I walked forward—and the field changed.
The sky was cracked glass. The stars were watching me. The world here didn't want me.
It remembered me.
And hated that I had returned.
A girl stood at the center of it all.
Same one from my memory.
Her triangular halo spun slowly behind her, now cracked.
She turned—and smiled.
"Kaito."
My chest caved inward.
"I… know you," I whispered.
"You were me," she said softly. "Before you made your choice."
I stepped forward, everything trembling inside me. "What… choice?"
She looked up at the sky, then at the Rift swirling behind her like a wound.
"You wanted to stay. But the world wanted to forget you. So you were rewritten. Stripped. And flung into a version of reality that couldn't hold your shape."
Tears hit my cheeks. I didn't even realize I was crying.
"Why?"
Her eyes shimmered. "Because you asked too many questions."
The mirrors around me began to shatter, one by one, until I stood surrounded by fragments of myself.
"Go back," she said. "Before this place remembers how to break you."
I held out the crystal—barely able to breathe—and dropped it.
Light exploded outward, stabilizing the space around me.
But just before I stepped back through the Rift, the girl whispered:
"You were never a mistake, Kaito. You were a correction. That's why they're afraid."
I returned.
Elira caught me as I fell forward, knees buckling.
"You, okay?"
"No," I choked. "But I think I remember what I used to be."
And for the first time…
…I wasn't sure if I wanted to.