The path stretched in front of him like a scar through the world. It wound between trees that leaned too close and whispered things he couldn't quite hear. The air had changed again. It was heavier. Sadder. As if the very oxygen was grieving.
Shigure's body moved on instinct. His mind was tangled, still echoing with the fragmented memories that slithered up from inside the mirror. He didn't understand all of them. But he felt them.
A fire. A scream. A hand reaching for his as the flames swallowed everything. Someone had said his name. Not Shigure. Something else. A name he didn't recognize, but that felt like it had been carved into his bones long ago.
He stumbled. His legs shook. His chest felt like it was being compressed from the inside. But he didn't stop walking.
Because ahead of him, deeper into the forest, he could still feel her.
The girl with silver hair.
The one the mirror showed him.
Whoever she was, she mattered.
He felt it more than he understood it.
Eventually the forest opened into a wide valley, where twisted red flowers bloomed across the dead earth. The sky was darker here. Not night. But close. Like time didn't want to exist in this place anymore.
In the center of the valley stood a tree.
Massive.
Blackened.
Its branches spiraled upward like reaching arms, and from each branch hung something.
Shigure took a step forward.
And then another.
When he got close enough, he saw what hung from the tree.
Bodies.
Not corpses.
Not people.
But versions of him.
Each one frozen in some moment of agony.
One was chained to a burning wall, screaming for help with scorched hands. Another was curled into a fetal position, sobbing in a pool of black water. A third hung by the neck, staring blankly with eyes full of betrayal.
He couldn't breathe.
This wasn't just horror. It was personal.
These weren't dreams.
They were possible futures.
Or maybe pasts.
And above them all, carved into the bark of the tree, was a word in an ancient script. But he could read it perfectly.
"Judgment."
"You should not be here."
The voice was soft, but it cracked through the air like thunder in a vacuum.
Shigure turned.
She stood behind him.
The girl from the mirror.
Her silver hair fell around her like moonlight, and her eyes shimmered with something ancient and tired. She didn't look angry. Just sad. Like she had been waiting for him for a long, long time.
"You brought them here," she said.
He shook his head. "I don't know who they are."
"Yes you do. They're all you. The versions of yourself you rejected. The ones you tried to bury."
"I never-"
"You did. Over and over. Every time you made a choice that betrayed your soul. Every time you looked away instead of fighting back. You created these."
Shigure's mouth went dry. His legs trembled. "I didn't ask to come here."
"No one ever does."
Her gaze softened. "But it's too late to run now. You touched the mirror