---
The air outside the ruins felt wrong.
Not heavy, not suffocating like inside the domain—just off. Like a faint hum under the skin, a vibration too quiet for the ear but impossible to ignore.
Sora pulled his jacket tighter around himself, trying to shake it. His legs still felt like they were carrying someone else's weight.
Gojo was walking a few steps ahead, hands in his pockets, posture loose as ever. But Sora knew him well enough to notice the faint tilt of his head—he was listening for something.
Rei stayed behind Sora, her gaze sweeping the darkness like she expected it to move.
---
They reached the clearing where they'd first entered the ruins. Their van was still there, parked beneath skeletal trees.
But the silence here was worse.
"Where's the driver?" Rei asked quietly.
The man who'd dropped them off was gone. His coat still hung over the driver's seat, the door slightly open. The keys dangled in the ignition, swaying like someone had just brushed past them.
Gojo didn't answer.
---
Sora stepped closer, scanning the treeline. Every shadow seemed to stretch a little too far.
Then—movement.
It was quick, just a flicker between two trees. But Sora knew that movement. Smooth. Controlled. The way ink might spill without touching the ground.
His chest tightened.
"Gojo—"
"I know," Gojo said. His voice was easy, but there was steel under it.
---
A low, echoing laugh drifted from the dark. Not loud, not manic—just soft enough to feel like it came from inside their heads.
Rei tensed, her shadows curling tighter. "It crossed over with him."
Sora's fists clenched. "No… he crossed over."
The laugh faded. But the trees didn't stop moving. Their trunks seemed to bend, just enough to suggest something slipping between them.
---
Gojo tilted his head toward the van. "We're leaving. Now."
They piled inside, and Gojo took the driver's seat without question. The engine roared to life, headlights cutting through the black.
Sora kept his eyes on the rearview mirror.
Nothing followed.
At least… nothing he could see.
---
They drove for hours, until the forest gave way to open road and scattered lights of the city.
By the time they reached the hotel, dawn was beginning to bleed into the horizon.
Inside, Gojo tossed Sora a room key. "Get some rest. You look like you fought a mirror and lost."
Sora caught the key but didn't answer. He was too busy scanning the corners of the lobby.
No faces. No shadows moving on their own. Nothing out of place.
Still, the humming in his skin didn't fade.
---
In his room, Sora locked the door, checked the bathroom, pulled back the curtains. All clear.
He sat on the edge of the bed, trying to focus on breathing. But every time he closed his eyes, he saw him. The way his double moved. The weight in his voice. The moment before Sora woke—when he wasn't sure if he'd left the domain, or the domain had left with him.
---
A knock.
Sharp. Too quick to be polite.
Sora froze.
Another knock—same rhythm. Three, pause, two.
His heart thudded. That was his knock. He'd used it since he was a kid, when he didn't want to scare his mother by banging too loud.
He stood slowly, stepping toward the door. "Gojo?"
Silence.
---
He leaned closer. "Rei?"
A whisper slid through the crack at the bottom of the door.
"Let me in."
The voice was his.
Sora stumbled back, cursed energy sparking at his fingertips before he even thought about it.
But when he blinked—
The sound was gone.
---
He waited. Five minutes. Ten.
Finally, he unlocked the door and yanked it open.
Empty hallway.
At the far end, a mirror hung between two wall lamps. His reflection stood in it, a little too still, a little too sharp.
It smiled.
And then it turned away, even though Sora hadn't moved.
---
The next morning, Gojo was already at the hotel café, sipping something that looked too sweet for breakfast.
"You saw him," Gojo said, not looking up.
Sora sat across from him. "In the hallway. In the mirror."
Gojo finally met his eyes. "Then he's playing with you. Not killing you means he's not done yet."
Rei joined them, a plate of toast in hand. "I checked the wards. Nothing broke. Which means…"
"He's not coming in," Sora finished. "He's already here."
---
Gojo leaned back, stretching lazily. "Good news? That means we can lure him out. Bad news? He's probably figuring out how to replace you."
Sora frowned. "Replace me?"
Rei set down her plate. "If he's inside the same reality as you, and you share the same cursed signature, he can start erasing you from people's minds. One by one. Until he's the only Sora left."
The toast went untouched.
---
That night, they set the trap.
Rei's shadows wove through the hotel walls, turning the hall outside Sora's room into a maze only she could navigate. Gojo layered the space with precision barriers—not to keep the double out, but to keep him in.
Sora sat in the center of the room, every light on, every mirror covered except one.
Because he knew that's where he would come from.
---
Hours passed.
The hum under Sora's skin grew sharper.
Then—movement in the mirror.
It wasn't sudden. No dramatic shatter. Just a faint ripple, like someone pressing a finger against the surface of still water.
The reflection tilted its head. "You're making this harder than it needs to be."
Sora stood slowly. "Good."
---
The double stepped forward, and this time, he did come through. His bare feet touched the carpet without sound, his black robes trailing like smoke.
Rei's shadows surged instantly, wrapping around him—
But they passed through as if wrapping smoke.
Gojo's barriers flared, locking the air around them into a heavy, shimmering cube.
Sora's cursed energy finally roared to life.
---
He didn't wait. He lunged, fist crackling with energy, aiming for the double's jaw.
The double caught it with one hand, grip like iron. "You're learning."
Sora grinned despite the strain. "So are you."
With his free hand, he yanked the last uncovered mirror from the wall and smashed it against the double's side.
The glass didn't cut—it swallowed. Shards clung to the double's robes, pulling like quicksand.
For the first time, the double's voice cracked. "Clever."
---
The mirror shards began to drag him backward, toward the wall where the reflection still shimmered.
But his grip on Sora didn't loosen.
"If I go back," he hissed, "I'm not going alone."
The pull was stronger now—Sora could feel it clawing at him, trying to drag him through the glass with the double.
Gojo's hand slammed onto Sora's shoulder, cursed energy flooding into him like sunlight. "Not today, kid."
The force broke the double's grip—
And in a single, soundless ripple, he was gone.
---
The room went still.
Sora stood, panting, staring at the empty space where the mirror had been. The hum in his skin faded.
For now.
Gojo clapped him on the back. "He'll be back. But next time? We'll be waiting."
Rei's shadows curled protectively around Sora's feet. "Next time, we end it."
Sora nodded, but inside, he wasn't so sure.
Because in the mirror shards scattered across the floor… his reflection was still smiling.