Chapter 9: The Girl in the Ink Mirror
Reina Akasumi didn't cast a shadow.
That was the first thing I noticed.
The second—
Her reflection moved half a second late.
Like it wasn't really hers.
She stood by the cracked window, light hitting her long black hair.
Eyes like ink dripping across glass.
"You want tomorrow?" she said.
"Then enter the mirror, Hiragi."
Ishigami stepped forward.
"You're not human. What are you?"
Reina smiled faintly.
"A mistake Nolan left behind."
Airi's grip on my sleeve tightened.
She stared at Reina like seeing a ghost.
"You… You're her, aren't you?"
Reina nodded.
"The original Voidborn. The one who chose silence."
The glass around us rippled.
Then shattered inward—forming a black pool on the floor.
Reina stepped onto it and vanished.
A moment later, her voice echoed from the ink:
"If you want to know what's ahead…
You'll have to walk through who you could've been."
I stepped in.
Inside the Mirrorworld, everything felt reversed.
Colors inverted. Air heavy like underwater.
But the worst part?
I saw myself.
Not as I am—
but as I could have been.
Smiling.
Surrounded by my parents.
Holding Kaito's hand.
Alive.
Whole.
"Do you regret?" my mirror-self asked.
"We were the Hiragi who never touched the Void."
"You died," I replied coldly.
"You just don't remember."
Reina appeared beside me, floating above black glass.
"The Void doesn't just destroy futures."
"It offers alternatives. Lies dressed as what-ifs."
She placed her hand on my chest.
"And if you choose one... you'll forget this path entirely."
She showed me three doors.
One led to a normal life. One to power beyond comprehension. One to oblivion.
I chose none.
[Void Resistance: Will Surge]
My seal pulsed.
The false world cracked.
My mirror self screamed as he crumbled—
"We could've been happy!"
I stood firm.
"I'd rather be broken in truth... than whole in a lie."
The world shattered.
I collapsed on the classroom floor, gasping.
Airi caught me.
I looked around.
Everyone was back.
But Reina was gone.
Only her voice remained.
"You passed, Void Slayer."
"The future is unlocked—
But what comes next… is pain."
Ishigami walked in, holding a file he stole from the Mirrorworld.
"You need to see this," he said.
The folder was labeled:
Project: Void Slayer – Subject 001.
Name: Hiragi. Status: Incomplete Ascension.
And below it…
A second name.
Subject 002: Reina Akasumi
Codename: "Tomorrow's End."
To be continued…