The air grew heavier, pressing down on the three of them.
Rei tightened her grip on her kunai, but her instincts told her not to strike. Daiki shifted uneasily, sweat trickling down his temple. Only Kiyoshi moved—drawn forward by the figure of himself, bathed in crimson light.
The mirror-Kiyoshi tilted his head, smiling faintly. "You've been fighting it, haven't you? The whispers. The hunger."
Kiyoshi's chest tightened. "You're not real."
"I'm more real than you'd like to admit," the reflection answered, stepping closer. Its eyes flared with the Ketsuryūgan, sharper, crueler. "I am the part you bury. The strength you're afraid to claim."
Rei glanced between them, her voice low. "Kiyoshi… don't listen."
But the chamber muted her words. To Kiyoshi, they were distant echoes drowned by the crimson pulse.
The reflection circled him, speaking with his own voice—yet twisted.
"You cling to control, to bonds, to that little team of yours. But you know what they'll see one day: a Chinoike. A curse. They'll look at you as they looked at your clan—monsters."
Kiyoshi's breath quickened. Memories flashed unbidden: whispers in the village, the cautious stares, the unspoken fear of his bloodline.
The double leaned close, whispering in his ear.
"Why fight to belong in a cage built for you? With the relic, you can break every chain. Crush anyone who would bind you."
The words pierced deeper than the guardian's blade ever could. His fist trembled. Is that… what I want?
Rei's voice cut through the haze, fierce and steady. "Kiyoshi! Look at me!"
His eyes flicked to her—real, grounding, unwavering. She wasn't afraid of him. She never had been.
The reflection snarled, shadows warping around it. "Weakness. She'll be the chain that drags you down."
Kiyoshi's heart pounded. He stood between two choices: surrender to the reflection's promise of unshackled power, or anchor himself in the fragile bonds he had forged.
He closed his eyes. The relic's pulse thundered inside him, tempting, demanding.
Then he spoke, voice raw but resolute.
"I've seen what power without control becomes. My clan lived it. I won't."
The reflection's smirk faltered, its form trembling like cracked glass.
"You'll regret this."
"Maybe," Kiyoshi said, eyes blazing crimson as he met his own gaze. "But that regret will still be mine—not yours."
The mirror shattered, crimson shards scattering into the air, dissolving into fading light.
Kiyoshi staggered, dropping to one knee. Rei caught his shoulder, steadying him.
Daiki exhaled loudly, relief flooding his voice. "So… I'm guessing that was a 'no thanks' to evil Kiyoshi?"
Kiyoshi managed a faint, weary smile. "…Something like that."
But deep inside, where the relic still pulsed, the whisper didn't vanish.
It only grew quieter.
Waiting.