The void behind Shiori churned like a black whirlpool—made not of water, but of glass and echoes. Each swirling pane reflected lives unlived, choices never made, faces that shouldn't exist.
Kuro's grip tightened on Emiko's last talisman.
> "If she's the wound," he said, "then this is the infection."
Shiori watched them with unreadable eyes.
She didn't move to attack. She didn't need to.
> "You misunderstand," she said. "I don't want to destroy you."
> "I want you to remember."
---
False Memories, Real Pain
Without warning, the void flared—each character surrounded by fractured versions of themselves.
Renji saw himself older, broken, walking alone through Yukihama. A version of him that had let Emiko die. Another that had never fought the Spiral at all.
Aoi saw a world where she never searched for Hinako. Another where she was Hinako.
Kuro saw himself back in his father's house, kneeling on glass, whispering apologies that were never heard.
The images pulsed pain. So vivid, so possible.
> "These are the lives you could have lived," Shiori said.
"I offer them to you. Choose one. Escape this."
---
The Choice to Forget
Renji trembled. His knees buckled.
One version of himself was standing with Emiko—alive, untouched by the Spiral, smiling. They were in college. Normal. Happy.
The urge to step forward was almost unbearable.
But Aoi's voice cut through it.
> "That's not you. That's not her. That's not us."
She turned to Shiori.
> "You're not offering peace. You're offering amnesia. And we've fought too hard to forget who we are."
Kuro hurled the talisman to the ground, drawing a quick circle with chalk and silver powder.
> "You wanted us to choose.
We choose to end this."
---
The Spiral Turns Inward
The talisman glowed violently—too bright to look at.
Symbols flared. The air cracked.
Shiori stepped back, her form flickering.
> "You would destroy me? After all I've carried? All I've kept safe?"
Renji stood tall.
> "You didn't carry our memories. You trapped them.
And now they're coming back."
Kuro activated the seal.
From the glowing circle, threads of light lashed outward—connecting to each reflection caught in Shiori's spiral. The threads pulled taut.
Shiori screamed.
Her glass body fractured.
The Spiral turned—inward—consuming her, piece by piece.
---
The Queen's Final Cry
> "No! You need me! You are me!"
But it was too late.
The seal triggered. The Spiral, starved for energy, began to consume its queen—folding her memories, her fragments, her lies back into itself.
Shiori's face melted away into glass dust, her final words echoing like a broken wind chime:
> "I just… didn't want to be forgotten…"
Then she was gone.
The void collapsed.
And the chamber stilled.
---
The Mirrors Shatter
The Mirror World began to break.
The glass that made up the walls, floor, and air shattered silently, folding in on itself like paper. One by one, each reflection dissolved—no longer trapped, no longer fractured.
Aoi fell to her knees, tears streaming freely—not of grief, but of release.
> "It's done," Kuro whispered.
Renji closed his eyes.
> "We finally broke the Spiral."
---
A Single Mirror Remains
In the aftermath, as the Mirror World disintegrated, one object remained suspended in the air:
The rooftop mirror. The one they brought here.
It drifted toward them—unbroken, untouched—and within it, the three of them stood side by side.
Not twisted. Not mirrored.
Just… whole.
---
End of Chapter 72
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To Be Continue