[Chapter II: Mirror Mirror, Don't look back.]
[Status]
Name: Akagi Izanagi
Age: 17
Title: Occult-kun "Click for Details"
Lifespan Left: 29 days 15 hours
Condition: Cursed "WARNING: Supernatural entities will easily notice host"
Aura: 5
Constitution: 0.5 [DECLINING]
Sanity: 87% [SURPRISINGLY STABLE]
Inventory: Memory Pill, Goodbye Gift
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The text pulsed a bloody red, like a digital heartbeat counting down his remaining time. He squinted at the screen, each detail making his stomach sink further.
"Akagi Izanagi..." The name felt right on his tongue, but everything else? Pure cosmic comedy. "Fifteen years old and already cursed. Fantastic."
He rubbed his temples feeling stressed and chewed his lips, which was a habit of his whenever he felt stressed and as if on cue, the room's temperature suddenly dropped several degrees, his breath forming tiny clouds in the air. He cast a glance around. Great. Either the AC was haunted, or something was already responding to his new title.
"You know," he addressed the empty room, "when I wished for an interesting life, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind."
He also didn't know why but the mirror by his closet gave him an uncanny feeling, as if reflecting a face that wasn't quite his, sending a chill through his spine. He quietly and deliberately avoided looking directly at it. Some instinct, probably courtesy of his new "Occult-kun" title (and seriously, who came up with these names?), warned him that making eye contact with your own reflection when it's smiling and you're not is generally a bad idea.
And you don't ever forget the rule number one of horror survival: don't acknowledge the creepy stuff until you have a plan.
His gaze returned to the status panel, focusing on the most pressing issue. "One month to live? That's barely enough time to binge-watch one piece!" He paced the room, careful to stay away from the increasingly creepy mirror. "And what's with this constitution? 0.5? That's not even high enough to climb stairs without wheezing like a half fossil grandma!"
"Inventory," Clicking his tongue, he commanded, grateful when a familiar connection formed in his mind. The Memory Pill materialized in his palm, small and innocuous-looking despite its impossible coldness. The Goodbye Gift remained firmly in inventory, radiating what he could only describe as murderous intent.
"Well, bottom's up." He popped the pill into his mouth. It dissolved instantly, flooding his mind with fifteen years of memories that weren't his but now were.
Several Images flashed through his consciousness:
- A massive mansion that seems to come from Victorian Era in the outskirts where no one lives, except for shadows that definitely moved when no one was looking.
- Parents who spent more time dealing with their "totally normal foreign secret business" than raising their child
- Maya – his perfect innocent and cute maid cum secretary, who appeared one day with credentials that seemed too perfect, too precise.
- Years of isolation, bullying, and an increasing sense that something was watching, waiting.
He gasped as the memories settled, each one clicking into place like pieces of a cursed puzzle. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me."
The room had grown considerably darker during his memory download, as if the shadows themselves were deepening. The mirror seemed to be watching him, its surface growing more uncanny.
It made his heart palpitate.
A knock at the door made him jump. When he looked back, everything was suddenly normal, the room didn't feel that cold, the shadows didn't feel creepy even the reflection in the mirror was suddenly clear.
"Young Master?" Maya's loud voice carried through the room, her voice sounded very sweet in his ears. "It's been over an hour. You'll be late for school."
He glanced at his status panel again, noting with growing unease that his Constitution had dropped to 0.4 while he was distracted.
"Can you come in, Maya," he called, trying to keep his voice steady. Since the shadows vanished with her return, he wanted to stay as close as he could to her.
The door slid open, revealing his maid. She looked beautiful. Her uniform was perfectly pressed, her smile innocent and carefree. At least that's how it looked to him.
She didn't directly look at him but first stared at the room, her eyes scanning the above as if searching for something. He made sure to note where her eyelids moved– the shadows, the mirror, and atlast to his pale face—but her innocent expression never changed.
"They've been at it again, haven't they?" she hissed, her fingers digging into the doorframe, wood straining beneath her grip. Akagi's heart skipped a beat at the display.
Akagi forced himself to stay calm, despite the unsettling vibe. "What are you talking about, Maya?" He kept his tone light, hoping to steer the conversation into more familiar territory. And while it looked like she was referring to the reflections or the shadows from earlier, but he didn't want to jump to conclusions without hearing it straight from her.
He was still suspicious whether she knew about the supernatural or not.
"The bullies, of course, Young Master," she said, blinking innocently. "You must've been worried about them, right? If only you hadn't stopped me that day, they wouldn't be bothering you anymore." Her sweet tone and wide, blinking eyes clashed with the threat laced in her words.
Akagi stared at her, unsure whether to trust the innocence she displayed . He felt a bead of sweat trickle down his temple despite the coldness in the room.
"Young Master, you're sweating," She quickly wiped his sweat with her handkerchief.
"N-nothing, everything's fine. Just... uh, the cooler's acting up," he stammered, trying to wave it off. The words tumbled out too fast, some panic slipping. "Actually, you know what? Let's talk about this on the way to school. I really, really don't want to be late."
Maya immediately agreed. "Of course, Young Master. Your breakfast is ready, and I've already packed your lunch. The usuals are in your bento box."
He nodded mechanically watching as she turned to leave. His eyes tracked her movements, noting, with growing dread, that there were no sounds to her footsteps. It was absolutely silent.
And in a house this old, where every board creaked like a haunted orchestra at the slightest pressure, her silent footsteps screamed louder than any noise could.
'I have a maid who doesn't make noise. Because that's not creepy at all'. He sighed, a headache building behind his eyes as reality tried to make sense of itself.
Without wasting another moment, he scrambled to follow her as he had no intention of staying here, but his eyes kept drifting back to the mirror. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching him, waiting for him to make a wrong move.
But curiosity – that eternal killer of cats and teenagers – made him pause at the doorway. He wanted to check one last time that his eyes weren't playing games with him so he glanced back, just for a moment, at the mirror.
And that was the thing he regretted very much.
Because…
He watched his reflection blink, before he did.
Its eyes stared back with an expression carved from marble – completely devoid of emotion, utterly wrong on what should have been his face. A chill crawled up his spine as he tried to turn away, to run after Maya's silent footsteps. But suddenly he felt his muscles locked up, every fiber of his being frozen like a butterfly pinned to glass.
The paralysis crept through him, leaving only his eyes free to witness what came next.
The reflection's lips curled upward, stretching far beyond what any human mouth should allow. The smile kept growing, splitting the face like a wound, until it nearly touched where ears should be. Teeth gleamed in that impossible grin – too many teeth, arranged in patterns that hurt to look at.
'Maya!' His mind screamed, but his lips remained sealed, throat muscles refusing to vibrate. 'MAYA!'
The reflection tilted its head, the movement jerky and wrong, like a puppet with half its strings cut. Its eyes began to leak darkness, black tears running upward against gravity. The room's temperature plummeted until his breath would have fogged – if he could breathe.
"WARNING"
"Condition: Paralysis+ Body Control (Supernatural)"
"Constitution dropped to 0.3(Temporary)"
His system's notifications flickered frantically in his peripheral vision, but he couldn't tear his gaze away from the mirror. The reflection pressed its hands against the glass from the other side, fingers elongating into shadowy needles that seemed to reach through the barrier separating their worlds.
Slowly his legs started to walk towards the mirror, his body not listening to him, until he was right in front of the mirror.
His hands moved, and placed right on the reflections hand as if it was a piece in a puzzle.
'Someone... anyone...' His thoughts grew fuzzy as the cold intensified. The edges of his vision darkened, reality blurring except for that terrible smile getting closer and closer...
'I would die... if I didn't do anything.' The realization hit him like ice water. In manga, this would be where the protagonist unlocks some hidden power, but reality – even this twisted version of it – wasn't so convenient.
Just as his consciousness began to fade, notifications flashed frantically before his eyes:
"Lethal Danger to Host Detected"
"Applying Survival Protocols 009: Error- Zero Authority Allowance Detected"
"Searching System Database: Error Detected: Disconnected from Main Interference"
"Last Resort: Searching Host Inventory"
"Item Found: "Goodbye Gift" - Forced Unboxing & Activation"
Something materialized in his paralyzed hand – a small charm bracelet made of what looked like tarnished copper, etched with symbols that hurt to look at directly. As soon as it touched his skin, warmth spread through his frozen limbs.
"Item Analysis: Goodbye Gift" "Function: Reality Anchor - Creates a localized field of "normal" physics, suppressing the supernatural." "Warning: Temporary effect. Excessive use may cause the Spirit World to interfere."
The mirror's surface rippled like mercury, Akagi's reflection reaching out further—until an invisible barrier pushed back. Where the charm's influence spread, reality seemed to reassert itself. The paralysis that had gripped his body weakened enough for him to move.
'So that's how it works,' Akagi thought, even as cold sweat trickled down his neck. 'It doesn't fight the supernatural directly. It just creates a bubble of normalcy around me. Like running anti-virus software for reality.'
The reflection's smile twisted into a grimace, its fingers striking the barrier repeatedly. Each impact sent sharp vibrations through Akagi's arm. The charm heated up, clearly straining under the entity's power.
"Warning: Reality Anchor at 47% capacity" "Estimated time until failure: 20 seconds"
Without hesitation, Akagi leaped for his bed, snatching the blanket and throwing it over the mirror. Instantly, the oppressive weight of the reflection's presence vanished.
"Constitution returned to 0.4(Still declining)"
He collapsed to the floor with a heavy thud, legs weak, his whole body drenched in cold sweat. "Oh God, that was way too close… I almost got murked on the first day."
"Young Master?"
Maya's voice sliced through the silence like a knife again, snapping him out of his daze. Akagi glanced up to see her standing at the door, head tilted innocently. His heart nearly stopped.
"Did you forget something?" she asked, blinking curiously and innocently.
'Did she not see the mirror monster? Or is she pretending?' Akagi's mind raced, trying to make sense of the situation. He(his old self) had trusted her for as long as he could remember, but now… now it felt too coincidental. She appeared right after he'd dealt with the thing in the mirror, almost like she'd been watching. Waiting.
"N-no," he rasped, his voice hoarse. "Just... thought I saw something."
"Then we should hurry, Young Master. Breakfast is getting cold." She placed a hand on his shoulder, her touch unnervingly gentle. "And we wouldn't want you to be late for school."
Akagi forced a nod, letting her guide him away. But just before they left, he heard a faint crack from the mirror. He didn't dare look back. One mistake was enough for today.
"Achievement Unlocked: First Encounter Survived!" "Reward: +0.3 Constitution, Luck Boost Charm (+10 Luck for 10 seconds)" "Note: Having a maid always has its perks"
The system's attempt at humor did little to calm his nerves. As they descended the stairs—Maya moving in eerie silence while his own steps creaked like an old symphony—one thought circled relentlessly in his mind:
If this was just the start of his day, what fresh horrors waited for him at school?
"Status Update"
Name: Akagi Izanagi
Aura: 07
Constitution: 0.7 [STABILIZED]
Sanity: 85% [MANAGING]
Time Remaining: 29 days, 14 hours
"Note: Breakfast is important for ghost hunting!"
Inventory: [Luck Boost Charm x1], [Original Script].
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