Chapter 19: Cloud Clearing After Deception
“Zi… to. You….”
The person before me was no longer Lanhua, but another existence. She had used some kind of ability to rewind time back to the morning.
“I am Lanhua. In the not-too-distant future, I met my death, losing my body and soul, and only relying on my lingering obsession to prevent my spirit from scattering. I used an ability called ‘Water Reversal Samsara,’ which can ‘return to the point of fate’s divergence,’ to come back to the present.”
She spoke words that were difficult to comprehend.
Without any pretense, she revealed her origins in front of everyone. But because the content was too shocking, I was unable to process it all at once.
Yet, I had a feeling of sudden realization.
I blurted it out involuntarily, then realized why I had said that sentence.
I should have been meeting this person called ‘Zihua’ for the first time.
“You don’t need to ask. My purpose for returning to the present from the future… is entirely to stop you, Zi’ai An.”
Stop me…?
She is saying… why am I completely not…
Lanhua… no, Zihua suddenly started laughing. Her lips curled slightly, her cold eyes chilling. Her smile held a sickly beauty, inspiring admiration, but the moment her eyes met mine, I involuntarily recoiled.
Her eyes, filled with malice and madness, completely retracted in the next instant.
“Hoo hoo… you actually dare to righteously grab my neck and demand that I hand over the Yata no Kagami. Clearly, the biggest mastermind this time isn’t me, but you, Zi’ai An.”
“I am the mastermind?”
What was she talking about? Even if she suddenly accused me now, it would be useless. Yama King had already told me that Lanhua was the sole witness of Juncheng’s death. Only she knew the whereabouts of the Yata no Kagami, so…
…Wait, hold on. Only ‘she’ knew the whereabouts of the Yata no Kagami?
Just knowing its whereabouts didn’t mean Lanhua had taken the Yata no Kagami.
Why did I subjectively assume that the Yata no Kagami was in Lanhua’s hands?
“That’s not right either. After all, the current you is completely unaware, just a puppet being controlled.”
Zihua shrugged, spreading her hands in a helpless smile.
“However, ‘unconscious lies’ are even more malicious. Do you think you’ll be forgiven just because you don’t know anything? You utter lines like ‘I don’t want to’ and ‘I didn’t do it on purpose’ to try and gain the forgiveness of others?”
Her smile disappeared, and Zihua looked up at me with disdain, saying with hateful eyes,
“Don’t joke! You thorough liar, a ‘fake’ constructed entirely of lies from beginning to end. How dare you say it was all to save Juncheng? You’re making me laugh!”
I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t utter a single word.
I wanted to retort, but I couldn’t find any reason.
My position had completely reversed. Even though I didn’t understand the reason for all this, I still felt it…
Everything I had done until now…
It was all in vain.
It was fake, illusory, used to stall for time.
I didn’t want to listen anymore and turned to run, running aimlessly into the distance.
Zihua didn’t follow…
But I knew it wasn’t because she looked down on me, nor because she was letting me go.
It was simply because she ‘didn’t need’ to chase after me.
I didn’t know how far I ran, or how much time passed, before time rewound once again.
She stood in the same spot, waiting for me to return. N△.
“You sealed Juncheng’s soul inside the ‘Mirror World’ of the Yata no Kagami, and prevented anyone from realizing you were the mastermind… wasn’t that you? Zi’ai An, why are you running?”
I turned and ran away again. My instincts urged me to distance myself from her immediately.
“Ah, my apologies, hoo hoo~ I misspoke. You were unaware. You were merely a ‘fuse,’ not knowing the full extent of the situation. It’s true… you might have guessed, but you were unwilling to believe it, right? After all, for you, that would be equivalent to denying your own existence.”
If I listened any longer, I would… I would…
However, Zihua didn’t want me to remain an outsider anymore. She wanted to tell me the truth.
“You are not someone from a parallel world at all. You are merely a ‘spiritual reflection’ copied from the internal space of the divine artifact Yata no Kagami, the ‘Mirror World.’ You have no soul, no body, just a false existence like a fleeting illusion.”
“Hoo hoo… why aren’t you running anymore? Don’t you believe me? Then I’ll tell you another truth. You thought you were Juncheng’s spiritual reflection? Wrong, you aren’t even Juncheng’s reflection. You are merely a reflection copied from a blank soul.”
…
“Since you didn’t experience anything, everything had to be reset. Your life, your experiences, your memories, your personality, your appearance… everything! Is! Fake! That blank soul integrated Juncheng’s spiritual reflection into its own spiritual reflection (you), which is why you replaced Juncheng’s position in the ‘Mirror World’.”
“A complete faker, you deceived everyone, and yet you speak of saving Juncheng. Don’t you find it ridiculous?”
I deceived… everyone.
It was all a lie…
“The true name of the Yata no Kagami cannot be seen through glass or mirrors, so Juncheng couldn’t see his own title then. Then why couldn’t Juncheng see your title… Because a mirror naturally cannot reflect what is ‘inside’ the mirror.”
…I see.
The sense of incongruity I had felt from the very beginning.
Juncheng and I were similar, yet different.
And this difference wasn’t because of our different genders. It was simply because I was not Juncheng’s other half at all.
I raised my head. The confusion that had been accumulating in my eyes had vanished.
It was a case of, “what’s done is done.” Since it was right before my eyes, I had no reason to keep running away.
“Then, why… why did I do this? Why would that blank soul you mentioned do all of this?”
Zihua reached out, coming in front of me, and forcefully pinched my chin, lifting it up as she said,
“You’ve already guessed it, haven’t you? Zi’ai An… what else could be her purpose for doing all this? It’s to ‘monopolize Juncheng’.”
I pushed Zihua’s hand away. The corner of her mouth lifted, her eyes crinkling slightly, a smile that was neither a smile nor not a smile.
“Although the Mirror World is a false spiritual world, through the power of the Yata no Kagami, the spiritual reflections inside are lifelike. For Juncheng, who has died and lost his body, it’s the best environment. And that blank soul, within the Mirror World, could be with Juncheng forever, even without a body.”
“Possessiveness…”
No, that’s not right.
I wouldn’t do anything to trap Juncheng somewhere, so my main body wouldn’t do that either.
She wasn’t doing it to exclusively possess Juncheng… then what was it for?
“-To fulfill your wish.”
Memories that originally didn’t exist surfaced in my mind.
Those were things ‘I’ had said before.
I had an impression, even with a blank soul, Juncheng used to be everything to me…
This was the only meaning of ‘my’ existence, ‘I’ who had no value of existence (reason to live).
Then, what was Juncheng’s wish?
Juncheng, who had always strived to save everyone around him, what was his own wish?
After joining the organization, Akiko had once asked Jun… At that time, his answer was…
“-What I want to reclaim is my own daily life, and what I want to seek is…”
“-What I seek…”
Only ‘I’ had heard it.
That answer that was never spoken out loud.
Because ‘I’ was inside him, I heard his truest thoughts.
What he wanted was…
A moment of peace.
“Come on! Zi’ai An! Since you already know the truth, what are you waiting for? To resurrect Juncheng, the Yata no Kagami is indispensable. I have already prepared a method to resurrect Juncheng. You just need to tell me where the Yata no Kagami is.”
“Even if you say so, I don’t know where the Yata no Kagami is.”
“That cunning soul took the Yata no Kagami at that time. As her spiritual reflection, you should be able to retrieve her memories.”
What Zihua was saying was probably true.
Just now, I had thought of memories that didn’t originally exist.
book.SFA
CR Xiao Hua
Those were the memories of the ‘blank soul’ Zihua mentioned, which was my main body’s memories. If she had taken the Yata no Kagami, then I should also be able to ‘remember’ where it was…
But…
For Juncheng, would resurrection and returning to this world full of anomalies truly be a good thing?
“Why are you still hesitating? Wasn’t your original intention to resurrect Juncheng? As long as you hand over the Yata no Kagami, even if you have deceived others up to this point, you will be forgiven.”
Zihua reached out her hand to me, the corners of her mouth curled upwards, forming a neurotic arc. Her narrowed eyes resembled a lazy fox, casual yet dangerous, as if she was hatching a wicked plan.
I raised my head, looking directly into her eyes, and said righteously,
“You are lying.”
“…What?”
“Most of what you’ve said is probably true, but you are lying about one thing. You say you want to resurrect Juncheng, but in reality, you have no such intention, do you?”
“The Mirror World is the most suitable environment for you, a ‘spiritual entity’. This means that after handing over the Yata no Kagami, you might also hide it and have Juncheng all to yourself. In that case, why should I believe you?”
Zihua’s smile froze.
Then her true colors were revealed.
“…Hoo hoo hoo, oh dear~ you found me out~ I thought by telling you the truth in advance, you would fall into despair of self-negation and obediently hand over the Yata no Kagami… but it seems I underestimated you. Even a fake has its own principles.”
“Please correct yourself. My feelings for Juncheng are not fake. Even if everything else is borrowed and fake, only this feeling…”
“Hoo… so what! You have no chance of winning! Zi’ai An! You locked Juncheng in the internal space of the Yata no Kagami, and I’ve locked you in this period of time! It will repeat infinitely. No matter where you run, it’s useless. You have no possibility of escaping from here!”
Zihua desperately reached out to grab my hand.
“Hand over the Yata no Kagami! Zi’ai An!”
I slapped her hand away with a forceful reply.
“I refuse!”
