“Hey, you. You’re finally awake.”A soft, lilting voice broke through the suffog fog clouding my mind. My eyelids felt impossibly heavy, but I forced them open, blinking slowly as the world came into focus.The first thing I saw was a girl—her long, silver hair casg over her shoulders, the fai hint of pink streaking through her bangs. She smiled at me, a warmth in her eyes that was both f and unnerving. There was something about her—something familiar—that sent a strange ache through my chest.“You were trying to watch the cert, right?” she tiilting her head slightly. “Walked right into the rain, same as us… and that girl over there.”cert?The word echoed distantly in my mind, slipping through my thoughts like sand through my fingers. I grasped at it, trying to recall something—anything—but my head throbbed, my memories tangled in a hazy, imperable knot.I finally tore my gaze away from her and looked around. I was sitting on a bus.The seats were , ly arrahe soft hum of the engine filling the air. But something was wrong. The windows—dark, empty—not tinted, but void of any sery. No city lights. No blurred streaks of trees. No endless stretch of road leading somewhere. Just… nothing.A hollow, creeping dread settled in my stomach.“…cert?” I asked slowly, my voice hoarse as if I hadn’t spoken in days.The girl giggled, a light, airy sound tinged with something mencholic. “I’m just kidding.”She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her p, studyih an unreadable expression. Nostalgic? Gentle? A sadness lingered in her gaze, but before I could pce it, she spoke again.“It’s weird to see me, isn’t it?”I stiffened.Her uniform. A pristine high school outfit—bd white with a design I koo well. My heart ched.The high school uniform in Luminous Dream. The same one I had spent ￥400 on, carefully folding into my colle like a sacred relic. I couldn’t breathe.I forced a shaky smile. “…Yeah,” I admitted, gng away, my fingers digging into my sleeves as I tried to steady my breathing.Where was I? Why was I here?I turo the window again, hoping for something—anything—that could ground me. But the emptiness beyond the gss remained unged. The longer I stared, the more it felt like looking into an abyss rather than a simple ck of sery. A void. An expanse of nothihat should .My pulse quied.“Where am I…?” I murmured under my breath.I pushed myself up from the seat, but my limbs feel heavy, my body sluggish and weak. Frustration surged, burning away the fusion for a fleeting moment.“Aaah! I don’t care anymore!” I threw my hands up, exasperation leaking into my voice.The girl beside me burst into ughter. Not mog, just amused. Genuinely amused.“That’s the spirit!” she cheered.Before I could react, she suddenly ed her arms around me in a tight embrace.I froze.She was warm. Too warm.Her grip trembled slightly, and before I could even process what was happening, she buried her face against my shoulder.Then—She sniffed me.A slow, deep inhale, as if memorizing my st, as if firming something she had long suspected. Her fingers curled into the fabriy clothes, gripping tightly—too tightly—as though afraid I would vanish.“Ah…” she sighed, her voice barely above a whisper. “Finally… Finally, I meet you. Finally, I smell you, Mikan.”A shiver ran down my spine. Something deep inside me stirred—an a ache, a feeling I could not name. And without thinking—without hesitation—I did the same.I leaned in slightly, inhaling softly. She smelled like rain. Like nostalgia. Like something long lost.“…Me too, Mashiro,” I whispered.For a moment, we just held each other. No words, no expnations. Just warmth, just existence, just the weight of something I couldn’t yet uand pressiween us.When we finally pulled apart, I exhaled shakily. My hands trembled as I turoward the window, hoping—desperately—that I would see my refle. That I would still be Mashiro.But staring back at me, was Shimizu Mikan. Long dark hair, tired eyes. The real me.“…Is this heaven?” I muttered. “Did I finally die?”Mashiro smiled, but her expression was ced with something sad. Something final. “No,” she said softly. “You were just unscious.”I swallowed hard, trying to piece everything together. I had been at the inn. I had eaten dihen darkness. My mind had been swallowed whole by exhaustion, leaving me adrift in this strange, liminal space.“I don’t get it,” I whispered. “Why…? Why is this happening to me?”Why?Just why?Why did I wake up as Mashiro? Why was I sent to another world? Why—why did I trust him?Why…?Mashiro reached out, tug a stray strand of hair behind my ear. Her touch was gentle, almost maternal. “You’ve been asking ‘why’ for a long time, haven’t you?”I ched my fists. “Of course, I have. None of this makes sense. None of this should be happening.” My voice cracked. “I was just—just a normal college girl. I had a normal life. And now…”I gestured helplessly at the bus. The void beyond the windows. The impossible presence of the girl I had admired through a s—now sitting beside me, real and tangible in a way that defied logic.Mashiro sighed, leaning bato her seat. “You know, I used to ask the same thing,” she murmured. “Why was I chosen? Why did I have to bear so much? Why did things keep slipping out of my trol?”Her fingers curled into the fabric of her skirt. “I never got an answer. But I kept moving forward anyway.”I grit my teeth. “That’s not fair.”“I know.”Her words were quiet but absolute, pressing against my chest like an unbearable weight. I turned back to the window, staring at my own refley real refle.“I don’t even know who I am anymore,” I admitted, voice barely above a whisper. “Am I Shimizu Mikan? Or am I Mashiro?”Mashiro stood up. She stepped closer, standing beside me until our refles aligned in the gss—two girls. Two names. Oruth.“You’re you,” she said simply. “No matter what name you wear, no matter what world you’re in.”Her words settled into my heart like a quiet revetion. A truth I wasn’t sure I was ready to accept. I turo face her, searg for something—an answer, an expnation, a reason for all of this.“If I’m me…” I hesitated. “Then who are you?”Mashiro smiled, tilting her head slightly. And this time, her expression was unreadable.“You’ll figure it out soon enough.”Mashiro reached into the pocket of her high school uniform, her fingers brushing against something hidden within the fabric. Slowly, carefully, she pulled it out aended her hand toward me. The dim light ihe bus reflected off the small, delicate object resting in her palm.“Everytime you’re sad, you always reach out for this, don't you?” she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper. She smiled, the ers of her lips lifting in the fai, bittersweet curve. “My first present to you, to orate our meeting.”I swallowed the lump f in my throat. My firembled as I took the ticket from her hands, the paper warm against my skin. For a moment, I simply stared at it, trag the faded ink, feeling the weight of something I couldn’t quite put into words.Then, without hesitation, I ched it between my fingers, and ripped it apart.The moment the ticket tore, light exploded from the paper, brilliant and blinding. Tiny fragments scattered into the air like shooting stars, dissolving into glowing embers that dahrough the bus. The colors around us shifted wildly, morphing from cool blues to deep reds, then into a cascade of shimmering gold and violet.The fragments floated freely, drifting toward the driver’s seat, the back of the bus, the ceiling, the empty rows of seats. They flickered like fireflies, twisting and spiraling through the air.They hovered near me, just behind my back, pulsing with a deep, luminous purple. The glow intensified. Before I could react, a holographic s materialized before my eyes. The glowi flickered, then sharpened into crisp letters.[SKILLS]Mashiro’s Wings Lv. 1(Epic)EXP: 0/100Stamina 100/100 Cooldown: 15 seds.Description: Summon butterfly wings and fly.Mashiro watched me ily, her expression unreadable, her silver hair refleg the strange glow of the s. Slowly, she stepped closer, her presenveloping me in a warmth I couldn’t quite uand. Then, she smiled.“I’ll be your wings,” she whispered.Before I could even respond—The bus crashed. A deafening impact shattered the momeal screeched, twisting and grinding in a nightmarish way. The force ripped me from my seat, hurling me forward as the bus tilted, tumbling into chaos. Gss shattered, shards slig through the air like deadly raindrops. My vision blurred, my head spinning as gravity lost all meaning.Through the haze, I saw a fsh of silver—Mashiro’s hand reag for me, her eyes wide with urgency. But I couldn’t reach her. The impact swallowed me whole.Then, Nothing.

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