Tokyo's subway system was supposed to be one of the most organized in the world—clean, efficient, and always bustling with life. But not here. Not at Line 13 - Sector D, where no train had run for 15 years. The rails rusted, the lights flickered dimly as if they were gasping for air, and yet... something moved in the shadows.
Nami Torii stood at the edge of the platform, the toes of her sneakers dangerously close to the dark pit below. She clutched a hand-sized recording device in her palm, trying to steady her breath.
"Okay... note to self," she whispered into the mic, "Never follow a TikTok ghost trend without adult supervision. Or at least a holy talisman."
Behind her, Raiko Kazehaya appeared, munching loudly on a conbini rice ball. "You say that like your grandma wouldn't fling that talisman at a ghost just to piss it off."
Nami flinched. "Raiko! Don't sneak up like that, idiot!"
"You literally invited me here. I brought snacks."
He held out another rice ball.
She took it without thanks and stared down the tracks again. The air was too still. Too heavy.
A soft click from her recorder.
Static. Then a whisper.
"...Nami..."
She froze. "Did you—did you hear that?"
Raiko tilted his head. "Hear what?"
Another whisper. Louder. Guttural. "Na...miiii..."
Her eyes widened. "Nope. Nope nope nope. Not today, Satan."
She turned to run—but her foot slid forward. The world tilted. She stumbled and—
Fell.
Off the platform.
Down into the black.
[Flashback: Earlier That Morning]
Grandma Aya sat cross-legged in the middle of their tiny tatami room, slapping homemade seals onto a scroll like she was making bento.
"You're going to the Echo Zone, aren't you?"
Nami froze mid-step, her bag half-packed. "Wha—no! Of course not! Who even calls it that?"
Grandma looked up, her eyes sharp and amused. "Only people who survive it."
Nami groaned. "You told me not to go ghost-hunting anymore."
"I did. But I also told you not to microwave metal. You almost blew up the kitchen."
Nami pouted. "That was once. And it was a spoon."
Grandma smirked and tossed a paper charm at her. "If something whispers your name three times, run. If it answers your thoughts—run faster."
"Thanks for the trauma. I love you."
Back to Present
Nami hit the concrete floor hard. Pain shot up her back. The recorder skittered across the floor and sparked.
"うそ... (Uso...)" she gasped. "That hurt!"
She pushed herself up, head spinning. The subway tunnel was gone. Instead, she was in a wide hallway of mirrors, endless reflections staring back.
"Okay. I'm either dead... or in a ghost's bathroom."
The reflections rippled.
All of them blinked—except hers.
"What the—"
One mirror cracked.
A pale hand slid out. Then another.
A figure climbed out of the mirror like water dripping in reverse. Its face was a twisted, feminine version of Nami's own—with soulless white eyes and a jagged smile.
"You broke the rule, Nami-chan..."
Nami screamed and threw the nearest thing she could find—a rock, maybe? A bone? It hit the reflection with a splat, but the creature just laughed.
"Stay back! I have... I have grandma's talisman!" she lied.
The spirit hissed. "Your grandma is the one who sealed me here!"
Suddenly, a loud thwack! echoed.
A slipper flew through the air and smacked the spirit right in the face.
"Baka yurei. That's my granddaughter. Find your own meal."
Nami turned. Grandma Aya stood at the end of the hall, looking radiant and thirty-five.
"Grandma?!" Nami gawked.
Aya cracked her neck. "Let's finish what I started."
She flicked her wrist. Dozens of glowing sutras flew from her sleeves, sticking to every mirror. The corridor exploded in light.
Raiko appeared beside Nami, coughing and wide-eyed. "Dude. I just fell through a wall. Did I miss the fight?"
Nami grabbed him. "You brought the rice ball, but not the talisman?!"
He grinned. "I thought food would help."
Aya stomped forward, still glowing. "Kids these days."
The spirit screeched and lunged at her. Aya raised her slipper.
"南無阿弥陀仏 (Namu Amida Butsu)... bitch."
Whack!
The spirit vanished in a burst of light and salt.
Silence.
Nami fell to her knees. "This is not how I pictured my weekend."
Raiko sat beside her. "At least we didn't die."
Aya looked at them both with a grin. "Yet."
The moment Raiko's fingertips brushed the mirror's jagged edge, a soundless crack echoed through the air—not from the glass, but from reality itself.
The station lights flickered violently, plunging them into an unnatural red hue. The air became thick, like syrup. Even sound moved differently. Nami's breath came out in foggy bursts, despite the summer heat.
She tried to pull Raiko away.
"Stop touching creepy mirrors, you absolute moron!"
But Raiko wasn't moving. His eyes were wide, pupils dilated, like something had hijacked his vision.
"俺の中に...何かが目覚めている." (Ore no naka ni... nanika ga mezamete iru.)
—"Something inside me... is waking up."
Suddenly, from the mirror's surface, a charred hand burst out and grabbed Raiko's wrist.
"KYAAAA!" Nami screamed and stumbled backward, knocking over her spirit cam.
The mirror rippled like water, and from it crawled out a disfigured spirit, half-human, half-ash, its face a mass of blinking red eyes.
It let out a low, static-like screech, and leapt toward Nami.
Raiko blinked.
The world turned black and violet.
A massive, smoky arm—not his own—burst from his shoulder, formed entirely of shadow and teeth. It caught the spirit mid-air and slammed it into the station floor.
BOOM.
Nami froze.
"What... the ACTUAL HELL... is that?!"
Raiko turned to look at her, his eyes now glowing indigo. The shadow arm twitched like a living thing, snaking toward the mirror, hungry.
"I don't know... I just felt it move. Like it's... part of me."
Then he smirked slightly.
"Kinda cool, right?"
"NOT COOL, YOU DUMB CURSED GLOVE MONSTER!"
The mirror shattered completely, and with it, the surrounding air imploded—dragging the trio into a vacuum of cursed wind.
They were being sucked in.
Nami's hand flailed, grabbing onto Raiko's shirt. He yelled something incoherent as his shadow arm tried to anchor them both, but it wasn't strong enough.
The cursed vortex howled louder.
And then—
> SLAP.
Everything froze.
Literally.
The air stopped spinning. The vortex collapsed like a folded napkin. The red light faded to yellow. Even the debris hanging mid-air—froze.
Standing there, on top of a subway bench, in a floral grandma dress, was AYA TORII—looking absolutely furious.
In her right hand was a chancla (slipper).
In her left, a glowing talisman.
"Didn't I tell you two little gremlins to NEVER poke cursed mirrors without me?!" she barked.
Raiko looked like he'd just been hit with a truck. "Wait—how did you even—?"
SLAP. She smacked him with the slipper without moving from her spot.
"神様さえも君を助けることができない." (Kamisama sae mo kimi wo tasukeru koto ga dekinai.)
—"Not even the gods can help your dumbass."
She dropped the talisman into the broken mirror. A faint blue flame sizzled, sealing it shut.
Nami blinked rapidly. "You—you just WALKED into a dimensional fracture?!"
Aya cracked her neck. "Please. I fought cursed dragons before you were out of diapers."
Then she looked at Raiko and squinted.
"Wait... where'd you get that arm?"
"I don't know! It just... happened!"
Aya's eyes widened—just for a moment. Then narrowed.
"Get your ass back to my shrine. Now."
Scene Cut: Torii Shrine, Night
The trio sat in the main room of the old shrine. Incense burned in the corner. The air was tense. Outside, cicadas screamed into the night.
Aya paced back and forth in her younger form now—her body glowing faintly from talisman energy.
"You said a mirror opened a cursed Echo Zone?"
Nami nodded. "It was like... another world, but layered on top of this one."
Aya muttered under her breath.
"That means... the Echo Gates are waking up again."
"Echo... what now?" Raiko raised an eyebrow.
Aya turned to face them.
"Echo Zones."
"They're fractures between our world and the Paraverse—a realm of cursed memories, echoes of dead gods, and things humanity was never meant to touch."
Nami gulped.
"Dead gods?"
Aya nodded solemnly.
"Long ago, there was a deity who could control emotions, time, and death itself. The Echo God. When he was sealed, his screams fractured reality. The places his screams touched... became Echo Zones."
Raiko's shadow arm twitched again. It responded to the name.
Aya stared at it, frowning.
"And that thing attached to you... is Abyssborn."
"Meaning?"
"You're no longer entirely human, Raiko."
Silence.
He stared at his hand, now back to normal, but trembling. Nami looked at him—something changed behind her gaze. Worry. Concern.
Raiko forced a laugh. "Well... I always thought I was a little special."
Nami smacked him with a pillow. "Not the time, idiot!"
Aya exhaled.
"From now on, both of you stay in the shrine at night. We'll train. We'll research. Because if the Echo God is starting to stir again..."
She walked toward the shrine window and looked out at the moonlit city.
"Tokyo won't survive the second coming."
Post-Credit Scene
Location: Unknown Cursed Dimension
Inside a mirror-filled hallway, hundreds of eyes blinked from the walls. Standing in the center was VELA—tall, elegant, and barefoot, wearing a blood-stained kimono.
She smiled softly as the mirror shimmered.
"So... the Abyss has chosen a new heir."
Her eyes glowed red.
"どうかその心を壊さないでね." (Douka sono kokoro wo kowasanaide ne.)
—"Please try not to break his heart."
She vanished.
The mirror cracked.