"The truth doesn't knock. It breaks in."
Scene 1 – School, Suspicion, and a Smile
May 15, 2011 – 9:07 AM – Classroom 2-B, Tokyo
The morning light streamed into Classroom 2-B, its warm glow catching swirling motes of dust and painting them in gold. Souta sat back in his chair, restless energy evident in the way his foot tapped a quiet rhythm. On his test paper, a hastily drawn smiley face spoke of a secret rebellion, underlined by the soft hum of a tune only he truly appreciated.
Beside him, Kei Inugami sat in a subdued silence, his mood far removed from the teasing levity that usually filled the air.
"Oi," Souta whispered with a familiar spark, "you ever sleep?"
Kei's response was as flat as his expression: "Not well."
Souta's voice danced between jest and challenge. "What, because your brain's full of evil mirror spirits or because you're always plotting humanity's downfall?"
Kei's eyes narrowed slightly, and he replied, "You joke as if you know the secrets of the world."
With a mischievous grin, Souta countered, "I joke because I know things."
The teacher's impatient tone sliced through the murmur of their exchange: "Inugami and Hoshino, meet me after class. Again." A ripple of chuckles ran through their peers, as even Ruby and Aqua exchanged knowing whispers—remarks that hinted at a story worthy of a shounen manga, yet beneath the surface, Souta's unusual smile promised that something deeper was stirring.
Scene 2 – After Class, After the Act
11:20 AM – School Rooftop
On the rooftop, with the city's distant hum as their backdrop, Souta and Kei lingered by a chain-link fence. In this ephemeral moment away from class, the banter gave way to an earnest search for understanding.
"What do you really want?" Souta asked, his laugh tempered by fatigue and an underlying seriousness.
Kei's reply was soft, yet resolute: "I want to understand you."
That answer felt too simple to Souta. "That's boring," he murmured, eyes searching Kei's face for deeper truth. "Then what is it that you want?"
Kei met his gaze steadily. "I want to stop things before they break," he said.
"Even if stopping them means breaking someone else?" Souta pressed, his voice faltering just a beat as hidden burdens surfaced.
After a laden pause, Souta admitted, "If it means keeping my family whole… I'll do worse." A stray hair was lifted by the gentle breeze, mirroring the quiet vulnerability concealed behind Kei's unblinking eyes.
"You're not as soft as you pretend to be," Kei observed, the crack in Souta's smile a silent reminder that some costs are too high to measure in jest.
Before either could follow, Souta slipped away—literally vanishing into the charged air, leaving behind a lingering question and the unexpected witness: Happy, the teddy bear, kept a silent vigil from beneath the shelter of a tree.
Scene 3 – That Night, That Mirror
1:03 AM – Inugami Residence
In the stillness of night, Kei lay awake, haunted by a presence that had seeped into his most private reflections. The mirror in his room was no longer a mere reflector of images—it held something alive, something unsettling. It moved subtly when he wasn't watching and wore a crooked smile when his own expression turned troubled.
Tonight, the mirror's voice slithered into his mind:
"You're close. Push him."
Kei's heart pounded in response as the mirror pressed on, "He's stronger than we thought."
In a trembling whisper, Kei asked, "What happens when he shatters?"
A hand—or something that seemed to be one—materialized on the other side, dark as oil yet shimmering with starlight. "Then," it intoned, weighty and ominous, "the world gets to bleed."
Scene 4 – The God and the Puppet
In Souta's Dreamscape, that same night
Souta drifted in a realm not of dreams, but of twisted memories and forgotten truths. He floated in a limitless, black ocean framed by a ruined, tormented world. The scenery was apocalyptic: mountains ablaze, oceans encased in ice, and suns flickering laboriously like exhausted bulbs.
At the center of this desolation stood a child—small, barefoot, tear-stained, and imbued with raw anger. "I didn't want this!" he cried, voice echoing across the shattered cosmos.
From the darkness arrived a figure both monstrous and divine, its countless wings and ever-shifting face defying simple description—the Supreme God. In a voice that resonated like ancient thunder, it chided, "You wished for power."
"But I wished for family!" Souta pleaded, the anguish in his cry mingling with despair.
The deity tilted its head slightly, the silence that followed cutting deeper than any blade. "Then why are you alone?"
Souta screamed. Stars twisted around him, and time itself seemed to dissolve into bleeding fragments. He awoke drenched in sweat, with Happy gently clutching his hand.
"Are you okay?" the bear murmured in that softly comforting way only a cherished friend could.
"Happy," Souta confided, voice raw with fear, "do you think I'm going to mess everything up?"
"Only if you forget what you love," came the tender, unwavering reply.
Scene 5 – The Choice to Tell
May 16, 2011 – 7:15 AM – Kitchen Table
Morning light filtered into the kitchen as Ai delicately poured tea, her hair bound loosely into a ponytail, while Aqua calmly scanned the day's news on a newspaper and Ruby scrolled through her phone with gentle curiosity. At the table, Souta sat silent, lost in thought as he pushed around a bowl of rice.
Then, in a moment heavy with unspoken truths, he said, "I think Kei might be connected to something bad."
A hush fell. Aqua looked up from his paper, Ruby straightened her posture, and Ai slowly turned to meet Souta's gaze.
"What kind of bad?" Aqua inquired, his tone laced with cautious concern.
Souta's voice wavered, "The mirror kind. Like... something inside it. Something that seems to want me."
Ruby's eyes dropped to the table as she laid her phone aside. "What do you want to do?" she asked gently.
Souta's gaze swept across each of them until it settled on his own inner resolve. "I... need to protect you all. Even if it forces me to become a monster. Even if, in a way, I already am one."
Ai reached across with tender authority and took his hand. "You're not a monster, Souta."
"But what if I have to fight one?" he murmured, swallowing hard.
"Then I'm going to master it," he declared, his determination mingling with the tender vulnerability shared around that familiar table.
Scene 6 – Mirror Shatters, Glass Screams
Same Day – 2:45 PM – Inugami's Room
In the solitude of his room, Kei stood before the mirror, hands trembling as if warning him of the irreversible steps ahead.
"I... I don't think I want this anymore," he confessed quietly.
A cruel, mocking laugh emerged from the mirror—cold and unyielding. "Too late," it said.
Before Kei's eyes, cracks began to spiderweb across the glass, like wounds etching out a painful truth. The mirror's surface bled ink, and the wall behind it started to dissolve into a liquid nightmare.
Amidst this crimson chaos, a face formed within the fractured glass—eyes that glimmered like ruby, pupils that sparkled like distant constellations, yet eerily not Souta's. In a hissing tone filled with disdain, it sneered, "You can't protect them, Third Child."
With that final, vehement burst, the glass exploded outward—an ending that promised the true beginning of a dreadful reckoning.