(The Silent Garden of Truth
The rain had long ceased, yet the air of Zephira still carried the weight of mourning. The night wind swept through the city of steel and glass, whispering fragments of names long erased from history. Shinomiya Reiji walked alone across a deserted causeway, his black coat drenched in the faint glow of fractured lamplight. He had left behind the noise of Zephira's council halls, abandoning the chorus of false promises, only to confront the silence that weighed heavier than any voice.
At the heart of the floating metropolis lay a place few dared to tread—a forbidden garden suspended by chains beneath the city's lowest platform. It was called The Garden of Silent Truths. No maps marked its existence; only those who sought what should remain buried could find their way there. Legends whispered that within its withering trees and shattered monuments resided echoes of memories—truths unspoken, truths that devoured those unprepared to face them.
Reiji descended through a forgotten stairwell carved into rusted steel, each step echoing against the hollow core of Zephira. His hand brushed the old rail, flaking beneath his touch, as if resisting his intrusion. He felt a presence following him—not footsteps, but the heavy gaze of something ancient, like eyes staring through the walls.
At the garden's entrance, he found an archway of stone strangled by dead vines. Beyond it stretched a wasteland of broken statues and petrified roots. The air smelled of dust and rust, but beneath it lingered another scent: ash, as if something had burned here once and never truly faded. Reiji stepped inside, his boots crunching over fragments of shattered masks scattered across the soil.
The silence was suffocating. Even the wind seemed muted, as though the garden itself had been stripped of voice. Only one sound remained—the faint rhythm of his own breathing.
And then he heard it.
A whisper.
Not in the air, but inside his skull.
A voice without a mouth.
Soft. Familiar. Terrifying.
"Do you still remember their faces, Reiji?"
His chest tightened. The voice was neither ghost nor stranger. It was his own—yet fractured, as if spoken by a self that had long since died. Shadows coiled across the ground, twisting into the form of children laughing, hands reaching, before dissolving into dust. He clenched his fists, forcing his eyes forward.
"No," he muttered through gritted teeth. "Not now."
But the garden was merciless. Every step he took pulled another thread from his past, weaving it into the present. He saw flashes: blood on the steps of a shrine, hands trembling as he held a knife, eyes watching him with betrayal. A chorus of silent mouths screamed in unison, and yet no sound reached his ears.
He stumbled forward until he reached the center of the garden. There, a lone monument stood—an obsidian mirror cracked down the middle. Its surface reflected not the present, but fragments of what could have been. In the reflection, Reiji did not see himself as he was now, but as a boy, kneeling, chained, his face blank with despair.
He reached toward the mirror, his hand trembling.
And then, a voice cut through the suffocating silence.
This time, it was not his own.
"You've finally come, Shinomiya Reiji."
From the darkness beyond the monument emerged a figure cloaked in shadows. Their face was concealed by a mask, pale and cracked like porcelain. The air thickened, heavy with intent. Reiji felt his muscles tense, instinct screaming that this was no mere hallucination.
The masked figure tilted their head, as if studying him.
"The truth does not sleep. It waits. It festers. And when it awakens…" the figure's voice dripped like poison, echoing through the hollow garden, "it devours everything you cling to."
Reiji's eyes narrowed, his hand instinctively moving toward the blade at his side. The silence broke into a low hum, vibrating through the ground. The garden was no longer still—it was alive, its truths crawling to the surface.
The confrontation had begun.
⚔️ Chapter 21 ending hook:
Reiji has reached the Garden of Silent Truths, a forbidden place holding pieces of his past. But instead of answers, he encounters a masked figure whose existence threatens to unravel everything he thought he buried.