49: Loosened Knot

“Alright then, I’ll start checking.
Keep watch with me, and if you notice anything strange, let me know, okay?”

Rena once again stood at the entrance of the endless corridor of mirrors, guided there by the child version of Tom.
In her hand was the red cloth he had given her—its vivid color seemed to pulse with a mysterious energy.

“That red cloth is my good-luck charm,” Tom said. “But still, just in case, keep your eyes shut, okay?”

Told not to look directly at the mirrors, Rena took a deep breath and murmured to herself, steadying her heart.

“Let’s go. I’ll touch each mirror, one by one… and find the world we’re meant to return to.”

She pressed the cloth to her eyes again, tying it securely behind her head.
Drawing on the intuitive sense she had honed in the Picture Book World, she hoped that by physically touching the mirrors, she could pick up on the “images” within them.

“If I believe, it will surely come true—nothing happens unless I try.”

Stepping cautiously into the corridor, heavy with cold and still air, Rena stretched out both arms, trying to feel for anything the mirror surfaces might convey.
As she moved slowly forward, alternating between the mirrors on her left and right, she recalled her earlier failure to summon light in that pitch-dark space.
But she didn’t give up—instead, she focused her thoughts and let her hands trace each mirror with quiet determination.

Watching her serious expression, Tom said proudly,

“Everyone who walks this hallway never listens to me.
They always stop and look into the mirrors.
Then they scream, like they saw something terrifying.
And right after that, the mirror pulls them in.”

“But Tom… you’re able to look at the mirrors without being affected, aren’t you?”

Tom gazed at his open palm, watching the gentle shimmer of light radiating from his body, and replied in a calm voice.

“Yeah. I think this light coming from me acts like a kind of barrier that protects me.”

—The golden light… saved Tom that day—

“Huh!? That was… my voice just now!”

“What’s wrong, big sis!?”

The moment Rena’s right hand brushed against one of the mirrors, she was shaken to the core—she had just heard her own voice.
Though her eyes were covered and tightly shut, the white screen within her mind began responding just as she’d hoped, recreating the sensory link she had developed in the Picture Book World.
Slowly, an image began to form.

It was Tom—crying loudly, clutching something in his small hands.

“I see him… Tom, it’s you!
I can see an image of you crying!
And you’re holding something… it’s red… A cloth? No way…!”

Rena’s hand shifted slightly, brushing over the cloth that covered her eyes.
And at that moment, a voice mixed with static whispered in her ears.

—That’s right, Rena. That’s your favorite red hero’s cape.
The one that got blown into the pond. You tried to get it back—

A strange and overwhelming sense of wrongness crashed over her.
And then, in the mind-screen of her thoughts, the suited version of Tom appeared—stepping closer and slowly reaching out to untie the cloth behind her head.

“Big sis! Your blindfold’s coming loose!
Quick, cover your eyes!”

Seeing the blindfold start to unravel on its own, Tom, who had been watching Rena the whole time, cried out in alarm.
Then, in the very next instant, a cold, cutting voice sliced through the air.

“Did you find the little brat you were searching for?”

The pure white screen behind Rena’s closed eyelids was instantly painted over in pitch black.
There, the image of that accursed giant mirror emerged—its surface reflecting a shadowy, ominous figure.
The suited Tom who had reached for her blindfold had vanished.

In his place stood Dan—
and the fingers now brushing her skin were cold, bony, and strangely familiar…
not because she remembered them, but because every part of her recoiled in recognition.