Shattered Bonds

The world broke into pieces.
Akarui barely had time to shield Yûna as the ground beneath them dissolved into fragments of glass. Mira vanished into a vortex of distorted reflections, her voice lost in the echo of collapsing dimensions.
The Inverso wasn’t a place anymore. It was an idea unraveling.
And at the heart of that storm stood Yami.
Or what was left of him.
— Yami! It’s me! Mira! — her voice cut through the chaos, but the creature’s head tilted as if her words were meaningless noise.
The cracked mask covering his face pulsed with a dark light. His hands twitched, unstable, like a puppet on strings.
Akarui’s fist clenched.
— He’s trapped… inside himself.
Yûna grabbed his arm, fear in her eyes.
— If we fight him now… we’ll lose him.
But Mira didn’t move back. She stepped forward.
— Then we don’t fight.
She deactivated her stabilizer. The ground beneath her feet gave way, but she remained standing, her body dissolving into flickers of light.
— Yami. You once told me… if I got lost in the storm, you’d find me. Now it’s my turn.
The creature roared. The sound was not human. Not even alive.
Akarui drew his blade, but Mira raised a hand to stop him.
— Trust me.
She reached out.
The moment her hand touched Yami’s mask, a shockwave burst from their contact. The Inverso responded. The sky inverted once more. Shadows screamed.
Then, it was silent.



When the light faded, they were somewhere else.
A white room. Endless. Floating fragments of memories circled them like planets.
Yami was there.
But his form was split — one side human, the other fractured, glitching like broken data.
Mira stood in front of him.
— You’re still here, aren’t you?
The human side of Yami twitched. His mouth opened slightly, as if words were trying to escape.
But the Inverso’s corruption was strong.
Akarui, watching from the edge, realized the truth.
— This isn’t a battle of strength… It’s a battle of will.
Mira closed her eyes. She let go of the pain, the memories, the guilt. She offered Yami a single thought.
“Come back.”
One by one, the memory fragments started to shatter.
The glitching side of Yami flickered, destabilizing, as if struggling against invisible chains. The human side grew stronger.
He raised his hand, reaching for hers.
But then… the ground cracked.
Elloran’s voice resonated.
— Enough games. You want him? Take him. But pay the price.
The space convulsed.
A choice emerged.
Mira could pull Yami free, but doing so would trigger a collapse of this Inverso zone, trapping her inside forever.
Akarui understood.
— Mira. Don’t.
But Mira smiled softly.
— I promised.
She took Yami’s hand.
And everything shattered.

When Akarui and Yûna woke up, they were back in the Lightrover. The Inverso rift had closed.
But Mira… and Yami… were gone.
All that remained was a single crystal fragment, pulsing faintly.
A message embedded within:
“We’ll find the way back. — Mira”
Akarui crushed the fragment in his hand.
And the fight wasn’t over.