The graveyard of Renjis lay behind him—quiet now, though the weight of their unlived lives clung to Renji's chest like mist.
Ahead, the path bent sharply upward into the sky. A staircase of floating doors led to a crumbling mansion suspended midair, each door slowly turning as if searching for the right moment to open.
The Spiral Blade in Renji's hand buzzed faintly—three lines now glowing.
> "You're closer," whispered Kuro's voice from within.
"But you still haven't faced what you could've become."
---
The Mansion of Maybes
Renji stepped onto the staircase.
With each door he passed, visions flickered in the glass panes:
A version of him smiling beside Emiko, wedding rings on their fingers.
Another where he worked alone in a cold city, surrounded by spiraling art.
One where he stood at a grave marked Aoi Aoki, his sister.
Each vision cut deeper.
The mansion loomed ahead—a monolithic structure built of stone, memory, and spiraling clock gears.
It was called "The House of Forgotten Futures."
---
Inside: A Family He Never Had
He stepped into the foyer.
Waiting for him were his parents—but not the ones he remembered. These were calm, kind, whole.
"Welcome home, Renji," his mother said, smiling.
Renji froze. His parents in the real world had been cold, broken by grief, poisoned by the Spiral curse.
But here, they seemed... happy. Loving. As if they'd never fallen apart.
"You've been gone so long," his father said, pouring tea. "We missed you."
---
Temptation and Truth
This was a future that could have been—if none of the Spiral madness had ever happened.
A warm home. Laughter. Acceptance.
> "You can stay," his mother whispered.
"It doesn't have to hurt anymore."
Renji's hand trembled.
Was this the reward? The Spiral testing him with mercy?
But as he stood to embrace them, he caught a glimpse of the reflection in the window:
His mother's face... was spiraling.
Their bodies shimmered. Not real. Just another mirror.
"You're not them," he whispered. "You're my hope... and my lie."
---
The Breaking of the House
The mansion began to collapse.
The fake parents wailed and distorted into smoke, furniture unraveling into spirals. From the wreckage, another shard of memory floated toward him.
He accepted it—this one warm and bitter. A vision of what he longed for, and what would never be.
The Spiral Blade glowed again. Three lines now blazed bright.
Another truth faced.
---
A Message Hidden in the Smoke
As the house disintegrated, words formed in the dust:
> You are not just who you are.
You are who you refused to be.
And beneath that:
> The Mirror Spiral is waking.
Reach the core, before it reaches you.
Renji stepped onto the next path, the world around him trembling.
The Spiral was no longer just memory.
It was becoming a being.
---
End of Chapter 55
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To Be Continue