From the shards of broken glass,
from the shadows that bled from the wound of the monstrous eye…
something new began to form.
The darkness poured like poisoned smoke,
gathering around the injured eye, then slowly
swelled… stretched… took shape.
A massive black body, featureless.
Twisted, elongated arms.
A giant hand with fingers like whips—thrashing wildly, without direction,
as if the creature could feel nothing but pain.
---
The wounded eye still pulsed in the center of its chest,
weeping something black—like boiling ink.
And then, suddenly—
it screamed.
No pitch.
No sound.
Just a crushing pressure,
that rattled the bones from within.
---
The first strike came—
shattering the ground before it.
Then another—
a pillar of stone exploded.
The third—
headed straight for Yuka.
---
But Ren darted forward.
He ran to her, stood between her and the beast, and raised his arm.
— "Leave this to me—just for a minute!"
She turned to him, eyes completely calm, and said coolly:
— "Just keep it busy."
She reached into her bag quickly,
and pulled out a **small mirror, cracked down the center**.
She stared into it for a moment,
as though silently conferring with it.
Then she gripped her long iron axe tighter.
---
In that moment,
the monster struck.
Its giant hand lashed out toward Ren,
who leapt aside at the last second and yelled:
— "Heeey! That eye of yours is disgusting! Try washing it before charging, will ya?!"
The creature's attacks were wild—
but brutally fast.
Cracks tore through the ground,
dust rose in choking waves,
and the air filled with the scent of metal and ash.
Ren ran, weaving between rubble, making loud, deliberate steps to keep the creature's focus:
— "Hey, angry lady! Over here! Stop flailing and try hitting me for real!"
---
In the background,
Yuka moved.
Silent as a blade.
She leapt onto a chunk of fallen masonry,
then onto a slanted wall beam—half-collapsed—
then
onto the monster's outstretched arm itself.
She ran along it—like it was a bridge.
Then,
she jumped—
axe raised high.
While airborne, she muttered:
— "Third time now… I'm done looking at something as ugly as you."
---
A strike came down from above—
a horizontal sweep, sudden and sharp.
But she twisted in midair,
dodged it by a breath.
She landed on the creature's body.
And began to strike.
First — to the thigh.
Second — to the chest, where the eye pulsed.
Third — tearing through darkness itself.
---
The beast howled.
The mirror in Yuka's other hand began to tremble—
cracks deepening.
But she didn't stop.
With breath short,
and blood trailing down her left cheek,
she descended from her final leap, axe still in hand,
her foot planting itself against the beast's shadowed chest.
There,
she paused.
---
She extended her hand—
the cracked little mirror glinting in her palm.
She raised it toward the creature,
which roared again and tried to strike once more—
but time itself seemed to slow.
---
Yuka whispered words unknown—
a language soft and ancient,
as if it had risen from a deep, skinless well beneath the world:
"Shin ein ka… Moryo ka… Hazuru nari."
---
Suddenly—
the mirror lit up.
A harsh white light—cold, not warm.
The kind of light that only comes
at the end of a dream.
---
The monster screamed.
The massive eye in its chest widened—
then began to be **pulled toward the mirror.**
Shadows.
Arms.
Voices.
Everything began to wither, compress, collapse—
as if its very existence was being unraveled.
---
In a single breath—
the entire entity was swallowed into the mirror.
Then the light went out.
Yuka began to fall.
Her face pale—
as though all blood had left her.
Her head descending toward the ground—
But there.
---
Ren.
Standing at a distance,
his right eye shut tight,
his left eye glowing once again—
but this time… steadier. More focused.
He extended his hand—
"Stop."
---
Time listened.
Yuka's fall slowed—
not like a victim,
but like someone heavy with revelation.
When her feet touched the ground,
Ren hadn't moved.
He was still watching her—
trembling, just slightly.
---
She, despite her exhaustion, looked at him briefly…
Then at the mirror in her hand.
She placed it gently on the ground—
a final, reverent touch.
Then she raised her axe.
---
And in one decisive motion—
shattered the mirror.
---
The sound was not natural.
It was the groan of something torn from the inside out.
Then…
Silence.
---
Yuka remained sitting, breathing slowly,
her axe slipping from her grasp.
With a nearly closed eye,
she said softly:
— "It should've died this time."
The air was still.
The field beside the ruined library was thick with dust, glass fragments,
and a strange heat that didn't come from the sun.
Yuka was still sitting, breathing slowly,
her axe at her side,
the shards of the broken mirror fading gradually—
as if they had never existed.
---
Ren stood before her.
His silver hair was tousled,
his hands trembling slightly,
but in his calm eyes—
a faint light shimmered, like a quiet smile finally breaking through, oddly out of place in all this ruin.**
He spoke with his usual tone—half-serious, always with a shadow of a joke:
— "You've got an ability. Just like mine."
Yuka looked at him for a moment.
She didn't respond.
Then she said, in a voice flat as ice:
— "You told me earlier… you broke a plate."
He froze.
The smile vanished.
He opened his mouth. Closed it.
Then suddenly burst out, panicked:
— "Don't tell Grandma! Please! I—I was running! I didn't mean to!"
Yuka stepped toward him slowly,
her ash-colored eyes studying his face as though reading something hidden beneath the skin.
— "What did the plate look like?"
He swallowed.
Then answered softly:
— "White… with gold patterns. Grandma used to fill it with some weird water… She said it was sacred. To ward off spirits."
Yuka said nothing.
---
Then… she stepped closer.
Calmly reached toward his chest.
Ren flinched, confused:
— "W-wait! What are you doing?!"
She ignored him.
Opened the pocket of his small jacket.
Reached inside carefully.
And pulled out something tiny.
A shard.
A white sliver, smoothed along one edge.
The faint outline of a golden pattern still clinging to one corner.
Yuka examined it calmly.
Then whispered:
— "When you broke the plate… it didn't just shatter."
She lifted the shard into the gray light of evening.
Her voice grew softer:
— "It became something else. Something that draws in spirits that can't find a way out."
Ren stared at her slowly, his voice a whisper:
— "I thought spirits hated me because I was too handsome to handle but…"
She cut him off.
— "It's the opposite… They're drawn to you. Even without this shard."
She glanced at the fragment.
— "That's what brought the Eye to you. It wasn't just looking for prey…
It was looking for you."
And the shard.
He looked at his jacket, then the piece in her hand.
Then…
slumped suddenly onto the ground.
— "So… a plate haunted me."
He said it, then buried his face in his hands.
---
For the first time, something like a smile flickered at the edge of Yuka's mouth.
But it vanished quickly.
She asked:
— "Do you know where the rest of the plate is?"
Ren lifted his head slowly.
— "The pieces… are buried in our backyard. Grandma told me: (Someday, you'll understand what you did.)
…I thought she meant I'd never get married."
Yuka sighed.
Then stood up.
---
They walked together out of the ruined library.
Yuka in front, Ren behind—his steps heavier.
Their path led through the school yard…
which was no longer what it once had been.
Cracked walls.
Shattered windows.
The ground full of craters and footprints left by something not meant for this world.
---
Ren walked in silence,
watching Yuka's back as she moved ahead of him.
Her hair swayed gently in the breeze,
her axe strapped across her back like it was part of her body.
Then, suddenly—
She stopped.
And turned.
For the first time…
She smiled.
A small, precise, cold smile—
as if stolen from another world and handed to him as a gift.
---
She said calmly:
— "If you want us to be friends…"
She paused a beat, then added:
— "…bring me salt. Tomorrow."
---
Then she turned again and walked away.
Her footsteps on the fractured ground echoed softly.
Slow.
Deliberate.
---
Inside her, a thought stirred:
Can't leave the house exposed like this..."
---
Ren stood frozen in place.
— "…Salt?"
He raised his eyebrows, looked around.
The school yard was in ruins.
The building broken.
The walls breathing sorrow.
And yet… he smiled.
---
He slowly raised his hands.
Closed his right eye.
Opened the left—fully.
Inside it, the small mirror began to turn once more.
He whispered:
— "Let's leave something behind…
Even if it's just an illusion."
---
Slowly, the school began to change.
Stones shifted back into place.
Glass reformed.
Doors sealed shut.
Graffiti faded.
The courtyard cleared itself of the long night's scars.
---
When he opened both eyes again,
Yuka had vanished beyond the gate.
But still—he smiled.
---
He whispered:
— "Alright… I'll bring you the salt.
You girl who only smiles when she has to."