Night fell deep and slow over Yukihama, the moon spilling silver across the narrow road that led beyond town. The three walked in silence—Renji ahead with a flashlight, Aoi trailing beside him with the mirror shard cupped carefully in her hands, and Kuro behind, keeping a wary eye on the shadows.
The air was thick with summer heat and the hum of crickets, but underneath it all was something else—a faint echo, like a heartbeat carried through the water.
The closer they got to the river, the stronger it became.
> "Feels… wrong," Kuro muttered. "Like the air's breathing."
Aoi nodded, her voice quiet. "It's remembering."
Renji didn't speak, but his grip on the flashlight tightened.
---
The Riverbank
They reached the edge of the Hoshigawa River, the place where everything had once started—the first Spiral mark, the first missing person, the first lie the town ever told itself.
It was calm now. The current slow and glassy, reflecting the moon perfectly. Too perfectly.
Aoi held up the shard. Its faint glow brightened in response.
> "She's here," Aoi whispered. "I can feel it."
Kuro knelt, running his hand through the water. It was warm—not with life, but with memory. He looked up sharply.
> "The river's flowing backward."
Renji aimed the flashlight downstream. The ripples… were moving toward them.
> "No way," he breathed. "It's reversing time again."
---
The Flow of Memory
As the current shifted, the water's surface began to shimmer—images forming and fading within it.
A classroom.
The shrine.
The mirror chamber.
And Shiori—kneeling at the river's edge, tears of glass dripping into the water.
Aoi stepped closer. "She's showing us what happened."
The scene flickered into focus.
Shiori was younger here, maybe fifteen, holding a small mirror. Her voice was soft but trembling.
> "If I disappear, promise me you'll remember."
> "Promise me I'll matter."
Then the reflection twisted violently. A shadow dragged her down into the water, and she screamed—silently—as the Spiral symbol flared beneath the surface.
Renji stumbled back.
> "That's… how it began. The Spiral was born here—when she drowned in her own reflection."
---
A Call from Below
Suddenly, the water rippled violently, sending waves lapping against their shoes. The shard in Aoi's hand vibrated, glowing white-hot.
> "She's not gone," Aoi gasped. "She's trapped underneath!"
Renji dropped the flashlight and knelt beside her. "How do we reach her?"
Kuro looked down into the shifting reflection. The water no longer showed their faces—it showed other versions of them: scared, crying, screaming.
> "She's caught between us and what could've been," he murmured.
"The river's holding all the loops she erased."
Aoi took a breath. "Then we dive."
> "What?!" Kuro snapped. "That's suicide!"
> "She saved us," Aoi said, voice trembling but resolute. "If she's trapped here, I won't leave her."
Renji met her gaze, then nodded. "We go together."
---
Descent into Memory
Without another word, they stepped into the river.
The water was warm—too warm. As it rose past their knees, the current began to drag, not forward or backward, but inward—toward the heart of the spiral forming below.
The moon's reflection stretched and twisted until it became an eye staring up from beneath the surface.
A voice whispered around them, layered and echoing.
> "You shouldn't have come back…"
The river swallowed them whole.
---
The Underflow
Darkness.
Weightlessness.
And then—a soft glow.
They were standing at the bottom of the river, breathing somehow, surrounded by floating shards of memory—each one showing pieces of the past. Aoi as a child with her sister Hinako. Kuro arguing with his father. Renji standing alone on the rooftop the first time he met Aoi.
Aoi reached for one shard. "It's us…"
> "No," Renji whispered. "It's what she remembered of us."
At the center of the undercurrent, a figure formed—Shiori, her glass hair drifting in slow motion, her face fractured but peaceful.
> "You came back," she said softly. "But there's nothing left of me to save."
Aoi shook her head, stepping forward.
> "You gave us a chance to live. Let us give you the same."
Shiori smiled, and for the first time, her reflection aligned perfectly with Aoi's.
> "Then you'll have to let me go."
---
The Water Begins to Rise
The river around them trembled. The shards began to melt into light. The spiral symbol beneath their feet started to fade, piece by piece.
Renji reached for Aoi's hand. "What's happening?"
> "She's unbinding herself," Kuro said softly. "The Spiral's last remnant."
Shiori looked up at them one last time.
> "Thank you… for remembering me."
Then she stepped backward—into the spiral—and dissolved into white light.
The water rushed upward, blinding them.
A final whisper echoed through the current.
> "Wake up…"
---
End of Chapter 76
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To Be Continue