Chapter 20: My Other Selves Want Me Dead
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🩸 1 — The First Intrusion
It started with a scream outside class.
Ren looked out the window.
A girl was floating ten feet in the air.
Not flying.
Held—by invisible hands.
Her mouth moved, but no sound came out.
Then she was yanked into the sky and unraveled like paper.
A single word remained in red where she stood:
> "REJECTED."
Everyone else went back to chatting, like nothing happened.
Ren turned to Aika.
She was staring at her desk.
And it was covered in sketches—that she didn't draw.
Each one was of her.
But in different styles.
Different hair.
Different scars.
> "They're coming," she whispered.
"All the versions I never became."
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🌙 2 — The Ones Who Remember
That night, Aika had a dream.
She was in a circular room filled with mirrors.
Each mirror had a version of her.
One wore knight's armor, blade dripping with memory ink.
One had no eyes and bled song lyrics from her mouth.
One was older, regal, wrapped in a cloak of erased names.
They all turned to her.
> "You survived.
That makes you the anomaly.
But we remember.
And we were left behind."
Aika stepped back.
The regal one pointed a silver pen.
> "If one of us lives...
The rest must die."
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🖋️ 3 — Revia's Deal
Aika confronted Revia on the rooftop.
"You knew they'd follow me."
Revia only smiled.
"You invited them, remember? When you rejected the Editor's scroll."
She held up a black notebook.
> "Write your final version into this.
Combine all the others into you.
Become the Apex Aika."
Aika hesitated.
"What happens to the others?"
"They vanish."
Ren arrived just in time to hear it.
He grabbed Aika's hand.
"You're not a product. You're not a combination. You're you."
Revia tilted her head.
"Then you'll have to fight every self that disagrees."
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💀 4 — The Attack Begins
That night, the school was placed on lockdown.
All exits vanished.
Phones turned to static.
Time looped back from 2:00 AM to 1:59 AM over and over.
And down the halls… they came.
Aika Versions:
Wraith-Aika: Covered in red ink, whispering her own backstory
Silent-Aika: Mouthed the words "he always chooses me" before unleashing memory bombs
Ash-Aika: Made of dust and forgotten thoughts, collapsing reality wherever she walked
They weren't metaphorical.
They were real.
And they all wanted one thing:
> "We want to be the only one remembered."
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📓 5 — Ren's Secret Memory Weapon
Shiori gave Ren a final tool:
A white page.
"Write one memory that can't be overwritten," she said.
"It'll shield one person—temporarily—from being rewritten."
Ren didn't hesitate.
He wrote a scene.
Aika. Laughing in the rain.
Hand in his.
Saying the one thing she never said in any version:
> "I choose this life. I choose you."
The page glowed.
And for a moment, Aika's presence surged—stronger than all the others.
But then… the Apex Version arrived.
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👑 6 — The Apex Aika Confrontation
She descended like a glitching goddess.
Hair woven from broken memories.
Eyes filled with all the lives Aika could have lived.
Clad in armor made from shredded diary pages.
She smiled.
> "I'm you perfected.
Everything you lost.
Everything you feared.
Everything they loved more."
Ren stepped forward, but the Apex Aika froze him in place with a single gesture.
"Shh. This is between versions."
She raised a blade of pure red ink.
"You either become me… or die fragmented."
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🔥 7 — Aika's Answer: The Bonfire of Versions
Aika stepped forward.
Looked her Apex self in the eyes.
Then… pulled out the memory Ren wrote.
Held it high.
> "I don't need to be all of you.
I don't need to be perfect.
I only need to be enough. For me. For him. For this life."
She touched the blade to the memory.
It ignited.
The fire spread—consuming every version watching.
One by one, they dissolved.
Screaming. Laughing. Crying.
The Apex Aika was the last to burn.
And she whispered:
> "Good choice… Aika."
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🧩 8 — What Remains
The lockdown ended.
Students returned to normal—unaware of the war just fought inside one girl's soul.
Aika sat beside Ren on the stairs.
He took her hand.
"You okay?"
She smiled.
"Not all of me. But the one that matters is."
They looked up at the sky.
And in the clouds, for just a moment…
They saw all the other Aikas.
Smiling.
Fading.
Free.
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🕯️ End of Chapter 20
Next: Chapter 21 — "The Editor's Daughter Is Writing My Future in Reverse"