The floor vanished beneath Reiji, but he did not fall.
Instead, the darkness thickened around him, until there was no sense of up or down. His breathing was the only sound — even the beating of his heart seemed swallowed by the void.
Then, a voice whispered behind him.
> "To fight the shadow… you must become it."
Reiji spun, but nothing was there. The voice came again, now in front, then beside, then inside his skull.
The blackness parted just enough to reveal a dimly lit path.
The ground was made of shifting fragments — shards of memories, pieces of places he had seen, faces he had forgotten. Each step crunched with the sound of breaking glass.
From the dark edges of the path, shapes began to crawl forth.
They had his height, his stance, even his way of moving… but their eyes were empty, and their mouths hung open in silent screams. Shadows of himself.
They attacked in unison.
Reiji moved without hesitation — blades in hand, movements precise and lethal. But each time he cut one down, another took its place, stronger, faster. He realized with grim clarity: they weren't just copies. They were every version of him that could have existed if he had chosen differently.
The more he fought, the more they adapted.
A particularly fast one slipped past his guard, landing a deep cut across his side. Pain bloomed, sharp and hot, but Reiji didn't falter. He changed tactics — no longer fighting to destroy them, but to control them. Each parry and strike became deliberate, as if testing a theory.
Then, he stopped entirely.
The shadows circled him, confused.
Reiji lowered his weapon, extended his free hand, and whispered, "Come."
One stepped forward… and merged into him.
Then another. And another. Each time, a surge of strength, memory, and cold clarity flowed through him. He was not rejecting his other selves — he was claiming them.
The trial's darkness shuddered, then shattered like glass.
Reiji stood again in the Hall, blood still dripping from his wound. The six masked figures were silent, but the faintest nod from the crow mask told him he had passed.
The fox mask finally spoke.
> "You took the harder path. Most try to destroy their shadows. Few understand the truth."
The blank mask tilted, as if assessing him anew.
> "You may yet be more dangerous than we thought."
Reiji wiped the blood from his blade, sheathed it, and turned toward the exit that now appeared in the silk-draped wall.
> "Danger," he said quietly, "is just another language."
Without another word, he stepped out — into a night colder and darker than when he had entered.