MIRROR

Chinatsu wanted to look, but something in him knew that if he looked now, that would be the end of…whatever was happening behind him. He kept his eyes closed and listened, trying to tune out the sounds of running water to focus on Peony’s soft voice.

“Peony, you’re too naive,” the harshness of the other voice softened.

“Stop it. I’m doing my best…” Peony whined.

“Do better. I’m tired of seeing you hurting,” the harsh voice hissed.

“Is that the reason you decided to bother me now of all times, Lily?”

Chinatsu gasped.

“Wait…I think one of them might be listening,” the voice that was Lily whispered.

Chinatsu kept his eyes squeezed shut and slowed his breathing. He understood now that he was hearing something he shouldn’t have.

He heard Peony shuffle around for a moment before feeling their small hand brush the hair away from his face. Chinatsu could feel Peony looking at him.

When he thought that maybe the Elf was satisfied with his act, Chinatsu relaxed the tension that had built up in his body. Then he felt soft hair brush his cheek.

He could hear Peony’s slightly unsteady breathing as they leaned in. Puffs of air brushed against Chinatsu’s cheek as Peony breathed. It felt like their face was milimeters away from his own. Still, he kept his eyes closed and his breathing steady.

Chinatsu felt Peony pull away from him suddenly. His heart raced–had he been caught?

“See? Still asleep,” Peony said flatly. Would they scoot away now that they were satisfied he wasn’t eavesdropping?

Chinatsu felt Peony’s hand rest on his shoulder for a moment before softly petting him. Were they intentionally trying to wake him up now!?

“Do you trust them?” Lily asked.

“Yes. Are you done now?” Peony replied, still petting Chinatsu.

“Almost,” Lily said. “Do you think they’ll be disappointing?”

“They haven’t made a single disappointing decision yet,” Peony chuckled. “That’s what makes them so special.”

Peony stopped petting Chinatsu and began to shake his shoulder. He sat up and gasped for air, feeling like he’d been holding his breath through that last part. Peony flinched away.

Chinatsu noticed that their eyes were wide–somewhere between fear and surprise–a rare, genuine expression for Peony. Did Peony realize he was just pretending to be asleep?

“I…I had a nightmare,” Chinatsu said, clutching at his still racing heart. Peony tried to mask their feelings, but they couldn’t seem to erase the surprise from their face.

“Oh…sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s…I’m fine,” Chinatsu said, forcing a smile. He had to continue to act normal no matter what. “We should try to wake up Miyabi.”

After several attempts to wake Miyabi, she was finally up, and they were on their way. The trio climbed the stairs, ascending further up the terraces. From here, they could see the labyrinth stretched out to the horizon in all directions as it radiated outward. The shadow from the tower only seemed to cast as far as the orchard.

“What’s with that?” Chinatsu asked, pointing to a crowd of Dryad gathering under the largest yew tree amongst the terraces.

They seemed to hang around the base of the tree, encircling it. While the other Dryad seemed to have a relaxed atmosphere to them, lounging around the pools, these ones seemed to stand in place like they’d taken root.

Chinatsu looked over to Peony, waiting for their explanation, only to find the Elf staring at Chinatsu with a kind of intensity he’d never seen before. It felt like Peony’s eyes bore deep into him, like they were trying to ascertain a threat. Then, their mask went up.

“It’s nothing,” Peony replied, shrugging. They turned around and continued swiftly up the stairs.

“Really? It looks like they’re guarding something. Is it something important?” Miyabi said, observing the Dryad. Peony stopped in their tracks.

“It’s nothing!” Peony repeated without turning around. “Just something they do.”

“But…!”

“Just let it go…” Chinatsu mumbled, tugging on Miyabi’s shirt. As much as he was also curious about it, he realized from the way Peony had immediately tensed up at the question that it was something that shouldn’t have been brought up in the first place.

He and Miyabi followed Peony up the last set of stairs, which led them to a tunnel in the rockface. It was dark, cut off completely from the light in the center. The breeze made a whistling sound as it echoed through the tunnel. Chinatsu shuddered–they’d faced enough dangerous stuff already that he knew better than to blindly charge forward.

“Um…is this safe?” he asked Peony.

The Elf directed an ear toward the tunnel, listening for a moment. “I don’t hear anything…”

Miyabi picked up a rock and threw it down the tunnel. The sound of it bouncing off stone echoed throughout the tunnel. They all listened closely for the sounds of anything stirring within the darkness.

Nothing.

Chinatsu felt like he needed to hold his breath as he trudged through the tunnel. The stone made every little sound echo as they walked through–their footsteps, their breathing, the steady dripping of water seeping through the rock, the light jingling of the samurai armor Chinatsu wore.

As they passed through the darkest portion of the tunnel, the light at the other end came closer. Soon, they were finally stepping into daylight again and found themselves in a courtyard at the base of the tower.

The way it rose into the sky reminded Chinatsu of standing at the base of Tokyo Skytree for the first time. This tower, including the spire at the top, seemed way taller somehow. There was only one entrance going in and out. He reminded himself that all they had to do now was climb it, and they’d finally get to go home.

“This almost feels too easy,” Chinatsu said, scratching his head. “There aren’t any monsters here, are there?”

“Monsters? No,” Peony said, smirking before turning around to face the tunnel they just came through. “However, we do have an unwanted guest with us.”

Chinatsu and Miyabi turned to look as Joel strolled into the light from the tunnel.

“Can’t get anything past you, can I? Little freak…” Joel mumbled.

“Joel!?” He had ventured off before them, but Chinatsu wasn’t expecting to find him following them. “We thought you–”

“Thought I what? Died?” He spat on the ground.

“That’s not…” Chinatsu tried to deny it, but couldn’t find it in him.

“With the head-start you got, you could have easily reached the end and forced us to reset to the beginning,” Miyabi interjected. “So can you blame us for thinking that when nothing happened?”

“That’s true!” Joel laughed. He put his hands in his pockets and kicked the ground with his feet. “I could have done that if I’d wanted to.”

“So why didn’t you?” Peony demanded. They stepped closer to Joel.

“Because this way, I was guaranteed to find the exit,” he said. Joel looked over at Chinatsu and Miyabi, then back to Peony. “And well, not that it was my intent, but I was able to figure out some things that were bothering me.”

Just how closely was he following them? How much had he overheard? How much did he know?

“Honestly, you’ve been a thorn in my side since you arrived,” Peony sighed. Looking at Joel with disgust, they raised their right arm into the air–fingers pointed to the sky. “I should have dealt with you sooner.”

Peony had mentioned that they only possessed defensive-type magic, so what exactly were they going to do? Before the answer could be revealed, Joel moved first.

BANG–!

Peony dropped to the ground before Chinatsu could even register the pistol in Joel’s hand. They had been shot through their red eye.

Joel pointed the gun at Miyabi next. Before Chinatsu realized what he was doing, the katana was drawn.

BANG–!

Miyabi was bleeding from the hairline, but still standing. As Joel flinched away from the slash of the katana, his aim had changed. The bullet only grazed Miyabi’s forehead.

Miyabi grabbed Chinatsu by the wrist. The two of them ran full speed towards the door to the tower.

BANG BANG–!

Joel fired off two more shots as they ran. Two misses, but close ones. The sounds of the bullets ricocheting off the courtyard echoed. Reaching the door, Miyabi kicked it open as they ran into darkness.

As his eyes adjusted, Chinatsu realized what they had walked into.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he mumbled, looking at their reflections in the hall of mirrors. It was dimly lit with no discernible light source, almost like it was lit by moonlight from within.

Only pitch black darkness reflected around them in the mirrors as their forms duplicated to infinity. Chinatsu felt disoriented seeing Miyabi’s face and body in the mirror wherever he looked.

“We have to keep moving!” Miyabi urged as she grabbed Chinatsu’s hand and tugged him along further into the mirror maze.

BANG–!

BANG–!

Glass shattered behind them. It was stupid to think he wouldn’t follow them in here. All they could do was try to outrun him.

“Why are you doing this!?” Chinatsu shouted as he rushed away, around another corner. From behind him, he could hear the crunching of broken glass under Joel’s footsteps.

“Don’t you remember the rules? Only one of us gets to leave at a time,” he responded flatly.

“But I promised we’d all get out of here together!” Chinatsu called out as he slipped around another corner.

“I don’t think you understand, kid. This was my plan from the start–well, not this–but winning this little race to the exit.”

Chinatsu found himself at a divergence of paths and realized he’d lost Miyabi. As he looked around frantically for her reflection in the mirror, he saw Joel’s reflection begin to creep into view. Chinatsu put his hands out and ducked into the first open passage he felt.

“You know I can see your reflection in the mirrors, right?” Joel taunted. If it weren’t for these damn mirrors, he could just hide!

Chinatsu slammed his fist against a mirror beside him and looked ahead at the mirror in front of him. His armor wasn’t meant to stop a bullet. Against a gun, he might as well not have been wearing any at all. Chinatsu gripped the hilt of the sword. Just think! Think!

BANG–!

Chinatsu flinched. The gunshots were so much louder in here, and the shattering glass added to the cacophony.

“Oops! That was just your reflection, I guess.”

That’s it.

He pulled the sheathed katana from his waist and smashed the hilt against the mirror next to him. The glass cracked into fragments but didn’t completely shatter. That would still work.

Chinatsu could hear Joel approaching as his footsteps ground the broken glass down more. He took off running, smashing the hilt of the sword against every mirror he ran past.

“You know, running is only gonna wear you out and make you suffer longer. I can make this quick and painless!” Joel called out, mocking Chinatsu.

As Chinatsu turned another corner, he realized he’d finally hit a dead-end. He quickly took off the breastplate of the armor. Maybe he could use it as a decoy or even throw it at him, then rush him with the katana?

“I’m not really sure what you were thinking, breakin’ all these mirrors.” Joel’s voice was getting closer. “You’re just tellin’ me where you’re goin’.”

As Joel got closer, Chinatsu realized that smashing the mirrors paid off. The fragments reflected each other, creating distortions. Chinatsu could see himself reflected, but it was unclear where his positioning was.

At the bottom of the mirrors, Chinatsu could see Joel’s reflection approaching. He crouched at the opening of the corridor and waited.

The toes of Joel’s shoes just barely peeked around the corner when Chinatsu kicked the breastplate into Joel’s path, tripping him. As he lost balance, Chinatsu whacked at the back of Joel’s knees with the sheathed katana.

Joel fell forward, smashing his face against a mirror and dropping the gun. Chinatsu ran.

He was going to backtrack to where he lost Miyabi. As Chinatsu passed the point where he’d started smashing mirrors, he had to slow down so he wouldn’t slam into any of them.

“Miyabi! Miyabi!” Chinatsu frantically called out for her.

In a mirror, he saw movement behind him. But before Chinatsu could turn around and look, he felt himself pulled backwards into a secret passage.