Chapter 22: I Skipped to the Final Chapter and Saw My Own Death
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📚 1 — The Book With No Author
It was just sitting there.
A book with no title.
No dust. No barcode.
Just a smooth white cover and a single black ribbon.
Ren found it in the school's archive wing, inside a drawer that didn't exist yesterday.
He opened it.
It had no chapters.
Only a single line on the first page:
> "This is the last story that will ever be written about you."
He flipped to the end.
And saw three horrifying words:
> "Aika doesn't survive."
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⌛ 2 — The Page That Cannot Be Unread
Ren tried to close the book.
Tried to forget.
But the words were carved into his mind now.
Everything after this point—every conversation, every moment—felt like borrowed time.
At lunch, Aika was laughing over curry bread.
He stared at her, silent.
Her smile.
Her voice.
All of it felt… scripted. Doomed.
> "You okay?" she asked.
He lied. "Yeah."
She reached out and held his hand across the table.
> "Promise me we'll always have right now."
He almost cried.
Because he had read the future.
And it said he doesn't get to keep her.
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🖋️ 3 — Shiori's Theory: The Book of Inevitable Ends
Shiori didn't look surprised when he told her.
She just sighed.
"That book? It's the Editor's final failsafe."
"It shows the real ending?"
"No. It shows the most likely one."
Ren blinked.
"So we can change it?"
Shiori hesitated.
"You can try. But the more you fight it, the more the story resists. It's called Narrative Friction."
He stood. "Then I'll burn the damn book."
She looked sad.
"You can't. Because you already read it.
Which means the ending started the moment you turned the page."
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🌘 4 — The Foreshadowed Version of Aika
That night, Aika found a version of herself sitting at her desk.
Same face.
Same clothes.
But this one was crying.
When Aika asked who she was, the girl answered:
> "I'm the Aika that didn't survive the end.
I'm the shadow left behind by every failed goodbye."
Aika stared.
"I don't want to be you."
The other Aika smiled through tears.
"Then you'll have to hurt someone you love before this story finishes."
Then she dissolved into ink.
And her last words echoed on Aika's windowpane:
> "It always ends with a choice."
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🔎 5 — The Identity of the "Final Editor"
The next day, Ren and Aika found a transfer student waiting at their homeroom door.
Black uniform. No bag. Gold eyes.
He introduced himself simply:
> "My name is Eloin.
I'm the last Editor. The one who finishes stories when they go off-script."
Everyone clapped politely.
Except Aika.
She backed up instantly.
"I remember that name. I read it in one of my other selves' notebooks."
Ren frowned. "What does he want?"
Eloin smiled calmly.
> "I'm not here to fight.
I'm here to close your story cleanly.
Before you damage the entire narrative system."
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💣 6 — The Countdown Appears
That night, glowing red numbers appeared above the school.
Visible to only three people.
> [ CHAPTERS REMAINING: 3 ]
[ STABILITY: 37% ]
[ LAST SCENE LOCKED ]
Shiori screamed when she saw it.
"We're not just in a book. We're in the final act."
Ren asked the obvious question:
"How do we change the ending?"
Aika held up her pen.
"By rewriting what we're willing to lose.
Even if that means breaking the fourth wall entirely."
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📄 7 — The Scene That Writes Itself
In the hallway after school, Ren's hand moved on its own.
He was writing.
Not on paper.
On the wall.
He didn't know why.
But his handwriting was clear:
> "I kissed her goodbye in the rain.
She said it was enough.
Then she turned and faced the Editor with a smile."
He dropped the pen.
Looked at Aika.
She was crying.
Not because it was sad.
But because she saw the same scene in her dreams last night.
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🕯️ End of Chapter 22
Next: Chapter 23 — "I Refused to Let Her Die, So the Story Started Killing Everything Else"