9:52 AM | Reika's Room
The room remained immersed in a strange vacuum. The air was thick, stifling. None of them spoke. They were still trapped on that line between fear and denial, unsure if what they had experienced was real or just an overly convincing collective delusion.
Renjiro stared at his mask as if it were made of broken glass and he were about to cut it with his eyes. Takumi, quiet, shook his knee incessantly, his face pale and sweaty. Reika kept her eyes fixed on the mask in her hands.
"This can't just have happened..." Renjiro murmured. "This isn't real. It can't be."
No one answered.
Reika took a deep breath.
And without warning, she grabbed the mask with both hands.
Renjiro reacted immediately.
"What are you doing?!"
"If we don't try to understand this, who will? This is connected to us. It's not a coincidence." Reika replied, without looking at him as he looked away.
Takumi stood up slowly.
"Reika, wait. What if it hurts you? What if it's worse?"
She brought the mask to her face, trembling. The silence seemed to grow even heavier.
The two boys watched, motionless, breathing deeply as if they were watching someone disarm a bomb.
But before the mask touched her skin…
A voice was heard.
Clear. Very loud. And absurdly alive.
"WELL THEN GOOD MORNING! You missed me, didn't you? Because well, I was tired of being silent!"
Everyone froze.
The voice didn't come from outside.
Nor from Reika's head.
The voice filled the entire room.
Takumi immediately recoiled, tripping over one of the bed legs.
Renjiro's eyes widened.
"What the hell was that?!"
"Sorry for the theatrical entrance, but I'm made of drama, sweat, and rhythm, darlings. Now, who had the brilliant idea of grabbing me with those nervous little hands, hmm?"
The mask in Reika's hand… was motionless.
But the voice… clearly came from it.
Reika was paralyzed, her eyes wide.
Takumi pointed, incredulous.
"The mask… SPOKE. I HEARD IT!"
"It wasn't just you..." Renjiro said slowly. "It spoke. Loudly. And it was… mocking us?"
"Oh, how sensitive! Of course I spoke. I was just waiting for a grand entrance! But you've all been so dramatic here, it looked like an existential play from the 60s. Ugh."
Reika stared intently at the object she held.
"You… you're my… mask?"
"I am your entity, heart. Full name: Ame-no-Kagura[1]. Deity of art, dance, passion, and creative disorder. But you can call me Kagura. Or queen, if you prefer."
Renjiro frowned.
"This can't be normal."
Takumi crossed his arms, suspicious.
"Is it like… a spirit? A trapped voice? Or just a possessed artificial intelligence?"
"Ah, boys… you are so dear. So green. I am much more than that. I am the part of you that always danced alone in the dark. The melody you hide for fear of seeming crazy. I am the echo of your madness… and your truth."
Silence.
The mask… began to emit a very faint sound. Like distant bells.
Reika took a deep breath, swallowing hard.
"And why now? Why are you appearing now?"
"Because now the veil has been torn. Because now you have awakened. And because, honestly... I was already tired of being quiet. Let's dance, Reika. The stage is yours."
9:57 AM | Reika's Room
Renjiro took two steps forward, his face tense, his fists clenched.
"You talk. You are… a living thing. What a good thing. We're all going crazy, fine. But please explain to me, what the hell happened at school?!"
Takumi looked up, attentive. Reika also became more serious.
Renjiro continued, his voice becoming increasingly shaky.
"The room locked. The hallway empty. The world… stopped. And then that thing inside the room… I saw myself, disfigured… That wasn't just a cheap scare. It was personal. It was… it was torture."
He stared at the mask that now rested in Reika's lap, his eyes almost furious.
"Was it you? Was it YOU who made this happen?"
Silence.
And then, the voice.
"Goodness, darling, someone woke up with all their chakras misaligned. But come on, since you're yelling, let me clarify…"
The mask seemed to smile, even without a mouth.
"Yes. What you saw… what everyone saw, was real enough to leave a mark. But it was nothing more than an illusion. An… initiation ritual, so to speak. Orchestrated by me, and the other entities that haven't said hello yet."
Takumi took a step back.
"Illusion…? So there was really nothing?"
"Nothing but you. And your fears. And your limits bursting from within."
Reika remained silent. She was putting the pieces together in her head.
Renjiro clenched his jaw.
"But why?! Why would someone… or something… make us go through this?!"
"Because that's how it works, darling. For a mask to awaken… you have to break the wearer."
Silence fell like a stone.
"We, the entities, can't connect with those who are emotionally stable. What sense would that make? Masks thrive on imbalance, on the abyss between what you feel and what you repress. To touch it… you have to be on the verge of falling."
Takumi swallowed hard.
"So… you manipulated all of this? The distortion of the school, the environment, the psychological terror…?"
"We manipulated you. We just pulled the right strings. Each one saw what they needed to see to lose control. Enough to open the door between you… and us."
Reika sat down slowly, as if her legs couldn't hold her up any longer.
"That was the awakening..."
"Voilà. Emotional instability isn't a flaw, it's a key. Only when the inner walls crumble can we get in."
Renjiro ran his hands through his hair, taking a deep breath, still processing.
"So you're like… the result of our pain?"
"I'm its reflection. I'm the echo. The consequence. And, if you want to romanticize it… I'm the partner you never asked for, but will need."
Takumi sat on the floor, trembling slightly.
"This is really real…"
Reika looked at the two of them, at the mask in her hands, and whispered:
"And there's no going back."
9:59 AM | Reika's Room
The air seemed still. Every sound, every movement, seemed suspended in time, as if the world waited for something important to be said.
Kagura spoke in her usual theatrical tone, her (imaginary) arms almost gesturing with her words:
"The reason you three managed to awaken a mask so early, my loves, is because-"
A new voice cut her off.
It wasn't a shout. Nor thunder.
It was a low, quiet voice.
But firm. With presence.
Like someone asking permission... and being heard nonetheless.
"Forgive me, Kagura, for interrupting. But perhaps it would be better if I explained this."
Silence.
All three, Renjiro, Takumi, and Reika, froze.
Their heads turned at the same time… to the mask lying at Takumi's feet.
The mask moved. It didn't roll. It didn't jump.
It "stood" up.
Alone.
Takumi recoiled, his gaze fixed on that ethereal, almost heavy presence.
Reika stood, still processing everything.
Renjiro clenched his fists, as if that would make any difference against a floating mask.
And then…
Kagura exploded.
"OH NO NO NO NO NO! You did NOT just interrupt me in the middle of a dramatic revelation,Tenax[2]! I had the moment! THE MOMENT WAS MINE!"
"I'm truly sorry. I didn't mean to steal your… stage."
"STAGE?! This isn't a stage, it's real life, and I was shining, damn it! You don't interrupt a goddess at her peak!"
Takumi choked, half nervous laughter, half panic.
"Wait, wait… who's this now?"
The mask stopped floating and landed slowly on the ground, as if making an invisible bow.
"I am Tenax, and… the entity of your mask, Takumi."
Takumi froze.
"Ah. Okay. Cool. Great. Everything's fine, just… I'm talking to a mask now. Normal. Nothing new."
Renjiro swallowed hard.
"He said he was going to explain. Explain what, exactly?"
Enkidu spoke, this time in a deeper, denser tone.
"The reason you three awakened… is simple. It's because your inner imbalance was already impossible to hide. Because the wounds you carry were so open… that we can hear them."
Reika pressed the mask against herself, as if feeling the weight of those words.
Renjiro took a step forward.
"So what we went through… the visions… the fear… was it all planned?"
"Not 'planned.' It was provoked. So that you would break. Because only someone who is ruined can wear a mask like that."
Kagura snorted, still irritated.
"I was going to say that in much more detail, but hey, now the whole atmosphere is funereal. Congratulations, Tenax. You killed the mood."
"That wasn't my intention."
"Well, of course not. But your funereal tone doesn't help either!"
Renjiro rubbed his face with his hands.
"This is really happening, isn't it?"
Takumi, still somewhat in shock, murmured:
"We're arguing with voices inside masks… arguing amongst themselves…"
Reika exhaled sharply.
"We're officially screwed."
10:03 AM | Reika's Room
The room was shrouded in a heavy silence after Takumi and Reika's entities revealed themselves with all their pomp and chaos. But Renjiro… remained quiet. His mask remained mute. Immobile.
He looked at it with a mixture of distrust and frustration.
"Of course… only I get the mute mask. What a fucking joke."
He grabbed it with one hand and gave it three light taps with his knuckles.
"Is anyone there? Come on, speak. Make a noise, a whisper, anything!"
Silence.
Takumi and Reika watched silently, almost with pity.
"Seriously? Nothing? This must be some kind of fate, right? Fucking mask for the fucking guy. Great."
His breathing became heavier. The tension in his shoulders was visible. He gripped the mask tightly. He made a gesture to throw it against the wall. "Go to hell."
And it was at that moment that he heard the voice.
"Don't do it, Renjiro."
Immediately, his body froze. His heart nearly leaped out of his chest. The voice didn't come from outside. It didn't even seem to come from the mask. It seemed to come from within him.
But the others heard it too.
"What…?!" Renjiro took a step back, his arm trembling.
"I've been watching you this whole time. Silently. You're different. You're more… deep."
"Who are you?! Why are you only speaking now?!" he shouted, unable to hide the fear in his voice.
"I am Nyxalith[3]. Your entity. And I spoke now because now you were ready. Before that… you were nothing but layers of control, containment, false masks."
"You know nothing about me!"
"I know everything. I know what you're hiding. I know how you feel when you're alone. I saw your thoughts when the school disappeared. I saw you… your distorted form. That was you, Renjiro. Raw. Naked. Torn between fear and rage."
Renjiro clenched his jaw, but his breath trembled. His gaze was a fusion of hatred and panic.
"So it was you who showed me that… it was you who forced me to see that shit?!"
"No. I only showed you what was already inside you. I didn't create anything. I just removed the veil you put over it. You are made of suffocated pain, Renjiro. You are a suppressed scream that no one hears… But I heard you."
"Shut up…" he murmured, almost in a whisper. But his eyes were wet. "You don't know me. You have no right."
"But I do. Because now I'm connected to you. Because you called me, even if you didn't know it."
Renjiro fell to his knees. The mask slipped from his hands, landing softly on the carpet, as if it were alive.
"I'm not like everyone else. I'm not noisy like Kagura. Nor serene like Enkidu. I am the whisper in the middle of the night. The memory you try to forget. I am your shadow, Renjiro. And I am here. I have always been."
He stood there, motionless. His chest rising and falling forcefully. And, even without saying anything, everyone noticed... he had heard. Everything. And felt. Even if he tried to deny it.
Renjiro was still kneeling on the floor, Nyxalith's mask resting before him like a distorted mirror of what he felt inside. His eyes were red, his hands trembled. And there was something in his chest, anger, frustration, fear, all boiling uncontrollably.
He opened his mouth, his facial muscles tense.
"You… You think you understand me? You show up now and-"
But before he could finish the sentence, a new voice pierced the room. Firm. Deep. But calm as a stone in the wind.
"Renjiro."
The tone silenced everything. Even Reika's breath caught in her throat.
"I know you're about to explode. That all of this seems like something out of a nightmare or a badly written book. But now you need to listen. You need to understand, before ignorance destroys you."
The mask beside Takumi levitated slightly again, as if speaking through the weight of gravity.
"What's happening to you isn't magic. It's not a hallucination. It's real. It's ancient. The world you know isn't the only one. There's a veil, a thin boundary between this plane[4] and another... deeper, older one. They call it the Velum. And that's where we, the entities, come from."
Takumi sat back down in his chair, silent. Reika remained standing, motionless.
"Masks aren't objects. They're portals. Extensions of something greater. When a human soul breaks in the right way… when the imbalance becomes unbearable… our voice arrives. Because that's when you open the connection."
Kagura snorted, almost comically:
"Ugh, so poetic. Are you giving a lecture or trying to put them to sleep, Tenax?"
"I'm teaching. Something you rarely manage to do without sarcasm."
"Oh, darling, I teach with charm. They remember better that way."
Reika looked at her own mask with a heavy expression.
Takumi remained silent, but was as pale as a sheet.
Enkidu continued:
"Each Mask has an entity, a consciousness, linked to Æther, the energy that permeates everything. It is this energy that gives us form… and it is what connects you to us. Your body has three reservoirs: life, battle, and control. And when you invoke our power… you will expend it. Everything has a cost."
Renjiro ran his hands over his face, his gaze still burning with frustration, but he didn't answer. He was listening. For the first time, he was truly trying to understand.
Kagura interjected again:
"And don't think you're going to go around unleashing energy blasts like in anime, okay? It hurts. Wearing a mask hurts, it consumes you, it burns you from the inside if you abuse it. But it also gives you something no one else has... vision. Strength. Truth."
"The power of the masks isn't for those who want it. It's for those who need it. And you need it. Not because you're special. But because you're broken in the right way."
Takumi spoke for the first time in minutes:
"But why us…? Why now…?"
Enkidu answered without hesitation:
"Because the world is changing. And when Velum touches the human plane… things begin to emerge. Fractures. Corrupted entities. Echoes of what was lost. You were chosen because you were already collapsing. The difference… is that now you have weapons to fight."
Silence filled the room again, but this time it was different. Heavier. More real.
Reika looked at the two, her breath short.
"This is too much. Like… it's too much shit at once. Can't we just… go back?"
Nyxalith answered, her voice soft as velvet trailing in the dark:
"The veil has already opened. The world we came from has touched yours. And from the moment you heard us… nothing will be the same."
Renjiro lowered his gaze. The mask was there. Calm.
But now… it made sense. A sense that scared him more than anything.
The atmosphere in the room was heavy, saturated with overly grand words, concepts that seemed to have come straight out of a fiction book. Even so, everything around them, the smell in the air, the strange warmth of the masks, that lingering presence, made it clear that it was real.
Takumi, who until then had been absorbing everything in silence, finally spoke, his voice low and trembling.
"So… what now? What do we do? Do we stay here waiting for another bizarre scene to happen?"
There was a brief pause.
And then Kagura, as always, replied in her unsubtle style.
"No, baby. Now you're going to Yumehara."
"Yume… what?" asked Reika, frowning.
"Yumehara. An intermediate plane. An in-between world. One of those places where the air smells of broken dreams and cheap coffee. There, there are people… or rather, beings… who can guide you, help you understand what the hell is going on. If you want answers, that's where you'll find them."
Takumi exchanged glances with Reika and Renjiro.
Renjiro blinked several times, confused. Then he took two steps back, raising his hands as if he wanted to stop the world.
"No, no, no… wait. Wait a second. Living masks. Entities. Velum. Fractures. Three reservoirs in the body?! Now there's an in-between plane called Yumehara?! You'll see, tomorrow I'll wake up with wings and an eye on my forehead too?!"
Reika even tried to muster a nervous laugh, but no sound came out.
Renjiro continued, his voice now bitterly exasperated:
"This makes no sense at all! Yesterday I just wanted to go home, sleep, and ignore life like I always do! Now… now I have a mask that talks to me as if it were my sinister therapist?!"
His mask, which was lying on the floor, pulsed slightly. And Nyxalith's voice emerged with that disconcerting softness.
"Renjiro, breathe. The world around you has changed. And I know all of this seems like an avalanche of absurdity to you. But what you feel now… this chaos inside you… has always been there. You simply didn't have anything to name it with."
He squeezed his eyes shut, clenched his fists.
Nyxalith continued, in the same tone as someone who softens a violent thought with words.
"Accepting doesn't mean understanding everything immediately. It means stopping running away. We didn't appear out of nowhere. We were called. By your pain. By your failure. Yumehara is the next step. It's not a final destination. It's just the place where you'll begin to understand who you are… and what you are now."
Renjiro took a deep breath, once, twice… and let himself fall onto the bed, running his hands through his hair.
Takumi looked at him, then at his own mask.
"So that's it… we have to go. Even if we don't want to, right?"
Kagura replied immediately, excitedly:
"Of course! Or you stay here, watching reality tear itself apart around you. The choice is yours! But I advise the path with less… apocalypse."
Reika finally let out a sigh.
"This is all so fucked up…"
Tenax intervened, calm as always:
"It is. But chaos doesn't mean the end. It can be… a new beginning."
Renjiro looked at everyone, still in shock, but something in his eyes was beginning to change.
"Yumehara, then…"
His voice sounded distant.
"Let's go. Before something else goes wrong."
The silence that settled in the room after the name "Yumehara" seemed to push them to the next step… but it was suddenly broken.
"Wait."
Reika's voice sounded firm, but there was a tremor in her throat. Her eyes were on the floor, lost in an invisible point.
"And… what will happen after? If we go to that place, will we disappear? Like… our friends? Our classmates? Will people notice? Will they even remember us?"
Renjiro and Takumi remained silent.
It was one of those questions no one wants to ask, but it echoed in everyone's thoughts.
Renjiro ran a hand through his hair, still lying on the bed.
"She's right. It's easy to say 'let's go,' but… is that really it? We leave everything behind? Just like that?"
Takumi nodded slowly.
"I want to know too…"
Takumi's mask gleamed slightly. And Tenax's deep voice rose with the serenity of a monk:
"It's natural to wonder. You are young. You have ties to this world, even if you no longer feel part of it. The answer… is complicated. Yumehara doesn't erase your existence. But rather, it distances you. Communicating with the human world becomes… difficult, although you'll be able to do it later on. Your presence begins to be forgotten by those not connected to Æther. Not out of malice. But because your spirit enters a different frequency than theirs."
Reika frowned.
"So… are we really going to be forgotten?"
Enkidu hesitated before answering.
"Perhaps. With time. But not completely. There are those who remember. Who feel. And there are ways to maintain certain bonds, although this has risks. But the choice isn't about what you leave behind… it's about who you are now."
Renjiro let out a short, empty laugh.
"So, we're basically between dying and leaving the real world… or staying and being consumed by this invisible madness."
Kagura intervened in a lighter tone:
"You're not dying, okay? They're… as they say… leveling up. Only then, with trauma. Yumehara isn't a prison. It's a refuge. And it's also the first step to understanding how to live with what now inhabits you."
Reika looked at the two boys. They were silent. None of the three seemed ready, but… they all knew there was no alternative.
"I just wanted… I wanted this to have happened in another life. In another time. Where no one had to forget us."
Nyxalith then spoke, softly and close as always:
"Those who truly matter… never forget. Even when the world insists on erasing."
Renjiro stared at his mask for a long second.
"So… if we go… is it forever?"
Nyxalith answered almost in a whisper:
"Until there's no veil left between the worlds."
Silence hung in the room, almost like a pause before a storm.
Renjiro sat on the edge of the bed, his mask in his hands. His eyes lowered.
But suddenly… he looked up, frowning. There was something different in his expression, as if he had remembered a detail he had tried to ignore until then.
"And… and my sister?"
Takumi turned around immediately.
"What?"
Reika frowned in confusion.
"You have a sister…?!"
Renjiro hesitated. He felt naked. Exposing this was harder than admitting he heard voices coming from a mask. But he couldn't hide it anymore.
"Yes. I do. Ayaka. She's my older sister. She lives with me."
Reika's eyes widened.
"You're kidding me… How come you never talked about her until now?!"
"Because it wasn't your business!" he snapped, louder than he intended. Then he took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. His tone lowered, more tired. "I'm sorry… it's just that… all this is happening so fast. And now, to think that… that I could disappear and she'd be alone… fuck it…"
Takumi approached, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"But she's your older sister, right? She takes care of you?"
Renjiro nodded.
"More or less. She has her own problems. She works too much. And I… I never told her any of this. Not even about what's going on with me. She thinks I'm just closed off. A boy who doesn't talk. Who isolates himself. But she… she's all I have left."
Reika sat on the floor, crossing her arms.
"And you're going to leave her? You're going to disappear without saying anything to her?"
"Do you think she would believe me? 'Look, Ayaka, I'm hearing voices from a magic mask connected to a spiritual plane where the rules of reality bend.' She would send me to a psychiatrist. Or worse… she would try to solve everything herself. As she always does."
Nyxalith then spoke, in a sweeter tone than before:
"Ayaka will not be forgotten by you. And she won't forget you as easily as you imagine. Even if the world tries to erase you… the bond you have with her is deeper than that."
Renjiro pressed his mask against his chest.
"I just… I just wanted to be able to warn her. To say something. That I… didn't leave her. That I didn't run away."
Tenax replied, with his usual firmness:
"There are ways to leave traces. Small anchors. Words, symbols, dreams. Not so she understands with her mind… but with her heart. But it will be her choice. And you will have to accept that perhaps she will never know if she received it."
Renjiro nodded slowly, his jaw tense.
"If I go… she has to know it wasn't her fault."
[FLASHBACK]
The sound of the rain was weak, muffled, as if coming from inside a tunnel.
The floor was cold. Stained cement.
Renjiro was barefoot. His toes wet with something warm.
The corridor was narrow. The lamps flickered with a sharp, intermittent hum.
And in front of him… a door. White, but dirty. Covered in blood.
Dark, thick stains ran from the doorknob to the base. There were scratches on the wood. And a sound. A groan. A dragging of something… or someone.
Renjiro stood there. He was 10… maybe 11 years old.
He was wearing pajamas that were too big for his thin body.
Next to him, Ayaka, older, in a bloodstained sweater, trembled while holding a key in her hand.
"Renjiro…" she murmured, in a trembling but firm tone. "Stay behind me."
"What's there, sis…?"
She didn't answer.
Her hand trembled so much that the key fell to the floor with a faint clinking sound.
The door…
The door shook. Something on the other side banged hard.
And then… silence.
Ayaka slowly bent down to pick up the key, and it was at that moment that…
"Renjiro!"
The voice tore through her mind like a scream inside her head.
[END OF FLASHBACK]
Renjiro jumped back into place, his body cold with sweat. He was back in Reika's room. The dim light streamed in through the window. The scent of incense lingered.
But the blood, the door, Ayaka covered in horrors… had vanished.
"Renjiro! Are you alright?" Reika's voice sounded close, worried. She had gripped his arm. Her eyes trembled.
He blinked several times. He looked around, as if still trapped between planes of motion.
He took a deep breath. Then another.
"...Fuck it."
He ran his hands over his face, trying to erase the image that still clung to his vision.
"It was... a dream. No. It wasn't. It was a memory. One I tried to forget."
Takumi stood beside him, unsure if he should ask more.
The tension in the air was palpable.
Renjiro looked at his sweaty palms. Then he stared at the mask on the floor.
"Maybe… maybe all of this has always been here. Maybe… I've been broken for much longer than I thought."
Nyxalith whispered sweetly, but without pity:
"You weren't broken. You were trapped. And now… you're waking up."
He looked at Reika. Then at Takumi.
"No… it's not worth saying goodbye. The people who matter… either forget us, or can't go on with us. It's time to accept. To accept that… what we were, we are no longer."
Reika swallowed hard.
Takumi nodded slowly.
"Yumehara…"
Renjiro picked up the mask. He pressed it against his chest.
"Let's go."
Reika's room was enveloped in a heavy silence. The three stood up slowly, as if that simple gesture signified the beginning of something inevitable.
Renjiro held the mask close to his chest.
Takumi adjusted his shirt and put his hands in his pockets, his gaze fixed.
Reika took a deep breath and exhaled in tremors, trying to remain steady.
They took their first step towards the door.
It was then that Kagura's voice was heard, full of sarcasm and muffled laughter:
"Aw, how lovely. Super cinematic. But, hmmm… do you at least know how you're going to Yumehara?"
The three stopped, somewhat confused, turning to the mask resting on the shelf.
"…No?" — said Renjiro, a little disconcerted.
"Are we supposed to know?" — murmured Reika, frowning.
"Of course not, you perverts!" Kagura blurted out, laughing to herself. "You barely know what masks are, much less how to open interdimensional portals. That's why I exist. To add a little color to your ignorance!"
Takumi rolled his eyes.
"So? Are you going to teach us or just keep mocking us?"
"Ugh, yeah, yeah, hold on. Here goes: To open a passage to Yumehara, it's not enough to just want it. You have to align your three Æther cores. Vital. Combat. Control. How? Easy… let go. Surrender to the mask. Get in tune. Let your body synchronize with the entity."
Reika crossed her arms.
"Are you saying we have to… what, do trio meditation?"
"No, love. It's not yoga. It's more like a… trance. A leap into the depths of yourselves. When the three of you are aligned, like hearts beating in unison, the fracture opens on its own. The entrance to Yumehara appears. You don't need to find it. It finds you."
Renjiro looked at Takumi and then at Reika.
"So… we have to accept it completely. Trust the masks. Trust this… new self."
Tenax then spoke, with that firmness that was almost comforting:
"That's right. And I'm warning you now: if you resist, the transition will be painful. If they surrender, it will be… just uncomfortable."
Reika snorted.
"Just uncomfortable, huh? How lucky we are…"
Nyxalith whispered tenderly, as if speaking in his ear:
"Close your eyes, Renjiro. Breathe. And listen to the sound that comes from within your silence."
The three looked at each other again. There was nothing more to say.
The time had come.
The room seemed to breathe with them.
The lights flickered as if connected to the group's heart rate.
Takumi closed his eyes first. He sat on the floor, crossing his legs, placing the mask in front of him.
He inhaled slowly.
The air thickened around his body.
The Vital Æther glowed, a serene warmth coursed down his spine, as if his veins carried more than just blood.
Then, he clenched his fists. He felt his palms throb, the energy concentrating in his joints, in his muscles. The Combat Æther ignited, violent but contained, like a silent thunderclap.
Finally, he controlled his breathing, harmonizing everything, body, mind, spirit. The Control Æther manifested around him, like a fine, golden mist, enveloping him.
Reika stood, her mask pressed against her chest. Her eyes open, fixed.
She took a deep breath and let her body react on its own.
Vital responded with a slight warmth on her lips, on her cheeks, an energy that flowed subtly, like wind through leaves.
Combat manifested as a throbbing in her chest, as if her heart wanted to beat against the world.
Control appeared as a tension in her fingers, an invisible thread pulling each cell toward a point of equilibrium.
Finally, Renjiro knelt. Not for the beauty of the gesture, but because his body could no longer stand. The mask rested in his lap. He closed his eyes.
Vital was the hardest.
It came as a stomach ache, nausea, as if his body refused to be alive.
But he accepted it. He endured it.
Combat arrived suddenly, his fist clenched on its own, as if it wanted to destroy the world.
Control… took its time.
But when it came, it brought clarity.
As if a part of the brain, dormant forever, had been awakened with a snap.
The masks glowed.
At the exact moment the three reservoirs of the three bearers aligned, an intense vibration ran through the floor. Books fell. Reika's monitor flickered. The lamp's light crackled and went out.
And then, the door to the once ordinary room began to creak, to twist, as if it were being torn apart from the inside.
Veins of black and violet energy spread like roots, forming a luminous, pulsating fissure right in the center of the wood.
A low sound echoed behind the door, as if another world whispered through it.
The fissure… was open.
But Renjiro didn't move.
While Takumi and Reika watched, half-hypnotized, Renjiro took a step back. His hands trembled. His eyes fixed on the distortion in the wood.
"…Wait."
The others turned to him.
"Before we go… there's something I need to ask."
He looked at the mask in his hands, as if pleading for answers.
"Do you know… someone named Yumi?"
The room plunged into a deep silence.
The masks remained silent.
Neither Kagura, nor Tenax, nothing. Only Nyxalith, who spoke in an unexpectedly soft, almost curious tone. Almost… nostalgic.
"Yumi… that name… is a very ancient flame."
Renjiro swallowed hard.
"So… you know who she is?"
Nyxalith hesitated before answering.
"I don't know. But I feel it. And what I feel isn't light. There's something in you that vibrates with that name. Something that perhaps even you can't explain yet."
Renjiro lowered his head.
"…She… was important."
Nyxalith whispered maternally:
"Then the name will live within you. And perhaps… in Yumehara, that name will resonate. Names don't die, Renjiro. They just hide where the eyes can't reach."
Renjiro looked at the crack.
He took a deep breath.
And took the first step.
The crack pulsed in the wooden door, as if it had a life of its own.
A swirl of purple, gray, and gold hues slowly spun in the center, an eye staring back at anyone who dared to cross it.
Reika crossed her arms, huffing loudly.
"This is ridiculous… What have I gotten myself into? Seriously. I woke up thinking I had a History test… and now I'm crossing a dimensional portal?! What the hell is this…"
Takumi laughed nervously.
"I guess the test will have to wait…"
"I don't even know if I'll be alive to take it, honestly."
Renjiro stared intently at the center of the crack, his body tense.
"…Let's finish this."
And with that, the three took the final step.
[1] The prefix "Ame-no-" derives from "ama" (天), meaning "heaven" or "sky" with divine connotations, often used in mythology for celestial/heavenly elements. "Kagura" (神楽) translates to "god's music" or "entertainment of the gods" referring to ritual dances honoring "kami" (deities).
[2] Tenax is a Latin adjective meaning "tenacious", "persistent," or "holding fast," derived from tenēre ("to hold"). It evokes disciplined endurance, someone who clings steadfastly to purpose, principles, or duty with calm resolve, unyielding yet controlled, neither rash nor wavering.
[3] Nyx (Νύξ) comes directly from ancient Greek. Nyx is the primordial personification of night, something prior to the Olympian gods themselves. Nyx is linked to dreams, fear, silence, emptiness, and inevitability. Now, -lith / -lithos (λίθος) means stone, something solid, ancient, immutable. In modern names, “lith” also carries the idea of something crystallized, fossilized in time, or fundamental. Pretty cool.
[4] Throughout this novel, "plane" refers to a plane of existence. a dimension or level of reality, and not an airplane.