61: Rena’s Gambit

“So, girl… how was your little journey?
Reunited with your little stray boy and wrapped it all up with a happy ending, did you?”

Dan’s voice oozed with biting sarcasm as he bent to retrieve the glowing object he had let float on the water’s surface.
His gaze, cold and direct, pierced through Rena.

She said nothing—just watched him in silence, then cast a quick glance behind her.
Little Tom and little Rena were crouched down low, faces peeking out from beneath the red cloth.

“Ah yes… the leading lady, Rena Tenor, and her enigmatic companion, Tom Hawthorne.
I’ve read through your past memories.
As I thought… your extraordinary potential came from the power of the mirror world.”

He began to walk forward across the water, slow and deliberate, never once breaking eye contact.

A surge of nausea hit Rena.
The thought of someone having rifled through her memories—violating her mind—was sickening.

Dan seemed to relish her discomfort.

“I intended to strip all your memories clean…
But that boy’s little communication device—‘Mill,’ was it?—interfered.
Left the job frustratingly incomplete.
No matter. All I truly needed was the location of this.”

The object in his hand began to glow darkly.
Its warmth vanished, and its shape morphed into something far more sinister—a transformation that mirrored Dan’s own cruel nature.
Gone was the golden shimmer Rena once remembered.
Now, the blade gleamed with an eerie blue-white light.
It pulsed with dreadful energy, radiating a fear that gnawed at the heart.

And yet, Rena didn’t flinch.
She stood firm and spoke—her words deliberate, challenging.

“That axe… you’re using it wrong.
It looks like it’s crying out… like it’s trapped in despair.”

“Heh… quite the line.
So calm. I suppose you’ve fully linked with the mirror world by now?”

“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t play dumb.
You may have tried to seal your memories away,
but the data from that mirror—the Eternal Mirror, or should I say… the Ei-Rei-Kyou—has already been detected.
You’re hiding it, aren’t you?
You’ve been chasing me ever since.”

“Eireikyou…? What are you even saying?”

She didn’t understand a word of it.
But Rena had already shifted her mindset.
Rather than push back, she would draw him out.
The more he talked, the more she could learn—and maybe, just maybe, find a way forward.

Dan eyed her warily, picking up on the subtle change in her posture.

“Still pretending?
Let’s talk about your precious ‘Eternal Mirror’ then.
How is she?
‘Emma Tenner.’ Still doing well?”

Dan’s feet, still walking calmly atop the pond, reached the edge of the shore.
Rena instinctively took a step back.

Mill – Emma Tenner – Mirror…

The name triggered something deep in her mind.
Her face twisted slightly, but she nodded and responded with feigned composure.

“Y-yes… she’s doing just fine.”

“Hmph… ‘Tenor,’ was it? Rena Tenor…
Close enough to ‘Tenner,’ I suppose.
How poetic.
She even gave you a name to taunt me with.
Sent you out as a challenge.”

“That’s right. I knew you’d come after us again.
And as for that axe in your hand…
There are secrets you don’t know.”

“…What?”

Dan’s confidence wavered.

His expression—so steady until now—cracked.
He stopped walking.
His eyes narrowed into a sharp glare, trying to read her intentions.

⸻Spell match confirmed.

Initiating link to: Emma Tenner.⸻

It had worked.
Rena’s bluff had drawn the key terms she needed—
and the black-cloaked Rena seized the moment, gaining access through her body.

A sudden, blinding light erupted around her.

“Ggh…!?
This light—what is this!?”

Dan staggered back in alarm.
His expression twisted in disbelief.

“My scar…
The one you gave me with that axe… it’s burning!
That light—don’t tell me you’re… Emma!?”

The radiance wrapped around Rena, cloaking her in a shimmering robe of light.
She raised a hand toward him, and his scar split open, leaking a swirling cloud of venomous miasma.

“Dan…
Give back the memories you stole—from the both of us.”

Dan fell to one knee, clutching his face in agony.
His glare burned into her with a hatred that could melt iron.

But Rena stood undeterred.
Their history, whatever it was—
that twisted connection between them—was far from over.

Unseen, Tom watched everything unfold.
His breath held.
His heart steady.
This was the story they’d inherited.

But if he could help it…
It wouldn’t be the story they kept.