Chapter 52: 43 - Reflection
Everything went dark for a moment.
As if all hope had been extinguished. As if there was nothing left to be done.
And yet—suddenly—a faint glimmer of light began to spill through a narrow gap, little by little. And I witnessed she was speaking.
But I could barely hear it.
Her voice was muffled, her words lost behind glass, as if I was watching her from inside a coffin. My eyes burned with tears I couldn’t shed. My mind clawed against the weight of nothingness.
You left her alone, a voice inside me whispered.
You were supposed to protect her. Not the other way around.
I wanted to answer. I tried to move. But the world refused to shift. My body remained immobile, paralyzed under a metaphysical weight I couldn’t describe.
Like gravity born from guilt.
Then something warm pressed against me—faint but unmistakable.
A kiss.
Not romantic. Not tender. Something sharper, messier.
Like a spark jolting across frozen wire. Like two things fusing when they should’ve never met. It burned and soothed at the same time, like iron sealed into a wound.
That was the moment I broke my shell.
I wept in the dream—not gentle sobs, but raw, unformed gasps. The kind of crying that made no sound but choked the soul dry. Because I felt it, then: I wasn’t waking up.
I wasn’t returning.
I had failed.
Failed Kairi.
Failed myself.
And then—just when I was about to give up—the world cracked.
It wasn’t a flash, nor a bang. Just a seam of light appearing in the distance. Thin, precise. A surgical line in the dark.
And from that light, a pull. Gentle. Insistent.
Not a summoning. A reunion.
The void peeled away. The dream dissolved in threads. I heard her breath. I
felt fabric. The weight of gravity returned to my bones.
The taste of life—bitter and tangy metallic—settled on my tongue.
I was breathing once again.
Soon after, I opened my eyes.
There was light in the room—not sunlight, but a muted amber from a wall lantern. My vision adjusted slowly. My body ached with a rawness I couldn’t describe.
It felt like I had been stitched together by something not entirely human. But I could still move—well, barely. My fingers trembled, but they obeyed.
And I wasn’t alone.
She sat across from me, head bowed, posture fragile in a way that was unrecognizable. Kairi. Her usually combed hair had come undone, her robes wrinkled, her face pale in the golden light. Her eyes were closed, but not from rest—from exhaustion so deep it bordered on spiritual collapse.
I stared at her, not daring to believe it.
Her hand had been resting over mine. And her lips—still faintly parted—trembled.
"Kairi..."
* * *
"Ah, so that’s how the story goes."
I muttered, half-lost in thought.
"Yeah, Kairi. More or less it was like that."
"Oh right... where’s Helena?" She asked, trying to get up from the floor.
She seemed fine now.
Casually, I pointed toward Helena’s limp body, still unconscious.
"Huh? What? Did you kill her or something? Since when did you become a murderer?"
What the hell—are you just accusing me like that?
Sure, I’m really good with knives, but that doesn’t mean I’m heartless enough to actually do something like that.
"And you yourself said you are good with knives. That alone increases suspicion."
"No, trust me. It’s nothing like that. By the way—"
"Uh, what is it? Hey, Kairi!"
I walked closer to her. My small frame pressed against her body and then—
BAM!
Yup. A full-on kabedon. Perfect timing.
I still hadn’t let go of the emotions I bottled up after Helena’s love confession.
Maybe I was jealous. No, I indeed was jealous. I really wanted to kiss those lips—those lying lips she used to deceive me using Return-by-Memory over and over again.
"Wait... lying? And what exactly are you jealous of?"
God, that face—so damn innocent. I can’t take it anymore...
This girl’s been pushing my buttons forever, hasn’t she? Has there ever been a single moment where Selene told me the whole truth?
Never, not even once.
"Okay, no more games. Helena’s still asleep. All I did was transcribe her thoughts. That’s all."
"Transcribed her thoughts..." She echoed, like something had just clicked.
"Mhm. Which means it’s just the two of us here, Selene my darling..."
I looked her in the eyes, lips dangerously close to hers.
Yeah. This time... I’m being possessive. I won’t let anyone else take her from me.
"Kairi, wait..." she tried to resist. "This really isn’t the time for... that."
Oh? So she’s not saying no? That was fast.
"Hold up. Did you just call me ’easy to be laid?’"
"Yeah. So what? You and Helena definitely did something, didn’t you?"
"Something? Oh—you mean academically—"
"No. I mean like kissing, or even..." I trailed off shyly.
"Sleeping together."
Selene flinched at first, but then her expression shifted. Her half-curled fist lightly touched her lips, and she let out a soft laugh.
"You’re seriously cute... believing in something like that."
Wait, what’s that supposed to mean?
So... they didn’t?
But Helena clearly—
"It’s a long story. But let’s just say, something like that could happen. Throughout Mytheia, that is."
"Don’t tell me... you rewrote her memories using Mytheia, didn’t you?"
So it was just Helena’s delusion?
My face flushed red with embarrassment. This was mortifying.
"Honestly, if something like that did happen... it would’ve happened to a different version of me, under totally different circumstances. But when you try to apply those things—"
Oh no. Here she goes again... Scientist Mode activated.
I could already guess what theory she was about to explain. And yeah, it was going to be dense as hell. Modern quantum physics might not even be enough to cover it.
"Right, remember what you said about superposition? That’s just a myth, really. Nothing in this world is truly ideal."
If that’s true then why the hell did you agree with my whole plan?! Goddammit!
Here we go again. Selene pulling the exact same stunt. I knew her too well—her damn poker face, her habit of hiding stuff.
Wait a minute...
"Of course. I went along with your plan so you could see for yourself what would happen."
F*ck you, Selene.
Still... as much as I hated her sometimes, this version of Selene—the honest, infuriating, brilliant one—might just be the one I love most in this whole damn world.
"Fine. You were right, and I was wrong."
My ego shattered. Crumbled to nothing.
But it didn’t matter. As long as it was true, I couldn’t care less.
"I’ve been wrong too, Kairi. You’re not the only one who messes up. Just remember that, my sweet little sister... and my dearly beloved Maleficent mom."
Both her hands rested on my shoulders, like she was trying to soothe my guilt, lift it right off me.
"You’re such a weirdo, Selene. You know I hate being blamed, and now you’re the one apologizing?"
I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a tight hug.
"By the way... mind explaining your little ’superposition myth’ claim from earlier?"
"Of course, Kairi my dear. Let me break it down for you." I leaned in, genuinely curious.
"What’s actually happening isn’t superposition—it’s reflection. Light bouncing from one object to another, creating an illusion that multiple objects exist at the same time. But that’s not how it works."
"Wait—so you mean..."
"Exactly. Light travels extremely quick, and the objects you perceive seem to exist simultaneously. But in reality, they’re just reflections bouncing off one another. In your case, Kairi, you thought Selene wasn’t there and that you were. But what if it’s the opposite? What if you lost the reflection of Selene and assumed she was gone, when in another world, she’s still fighting to stay alive?"
"Another example is how you navigate Mytheia. You think you reached an ideal state, right? Wrong. What actually happened is, you swapped places with a different Kairi—one that made it look like you reached an ideal state, while the other didn’t. But that’s false. It’s just that the light adjusted to reflect you as Kairi, reaching the point where you could resolve everything here."
Nope. This is way too confusing. My brain’s fried.
"Oh, still not getting it? The reason you can’t measure yourself—even though it looks like you and the other Kairis exist—is because those other Kairis were illusions. Just reflections. And the real object being reflected... is you, Kairi."
THUD THUD...
Goddamn. That realization hit deep.
Once again—like she always does—Selene shattered quantum theory.
This time, it was superposition’s turn to become the victim.
"Seriously... once you get back, screw being a doctor like me. Just become a scientist already. I’d approve."
Those words just slipped out. No filter. No explanation.
"Oh, I see... you want me to study human science and develop it too?"
"Yeah, exactly. Wait—speaking of which... how exactly are we supposed to reach the moment of the explosion?"
That’s right. This isn’t over.
The ending hasn’t even started yet.
So, Selene...
Do you know the exact time and momentum needed to save Helena in that room?
Upon hearing the question, Selene simply smiled. This time, she didn’t answer.
Strangely enough, I felt... that was her answer.
"Time and momentum aren’t things you can seek simultaneously."
