The mask stares back.
Its surface isn't smooth, but splintered—each fragment reflecting a different version of Sora's face.
Some older.
Some younger.
Some hollow.
All of them silent.
She hesitates.
Not because she fears the truth—
But because she knows the system lies in half-truths, emulated feelings, and false certainties.
But still…
She needs to know.
To survive the Game of Glass Names, she needs to remember what was taken.
Sora lifts the mask and places it on her face.
[MIND OVERLAY – FUSED SEQUENCES // NONLINEAR MEMORY THREADING]
ERROR: IDENTITY THREAD INCONSISTENT
STABILIZING…
The world vanishes.
She's in a hospital hallway, running.
A name echoing in her mouth, but when she tries to say it, the memory glitches.
It rewinds.
Replays.
She's in a library, hands stained with ink, whispering something across a desk to a boy she barely knows—but in another version, they're holding hands.
In another, he's crying and she's walking away.
In another… she's watching him disappear in the Death Land.
She sees Rin.
Matthew.
Zehra.
Ilari.
Versions of them she never knew she knew.
She sees herself
—arguing with a white-coated woman who says:
"You were never meant to loop this many times."
"You were supposed to break clean."
Then—
A screen.
Her name.
SORA NAKAGAWA
And a red stamp beside it:
"NULL DESIGNATION — UNFORGETTABLE."
A voice crawls in beside her.
Not hers. Not the system.
"You were the variant," it says.
"You were the name the Shepherd tried to unmake."
"That's why your memory won't stay dead."
Back to the Cathedral
Sora rips the mask off, falling backward.
The chamber dims.
The mask crumbles in her hands.
But something in her chest feels anchored for the first time.
She knows.
She's the reason the system can't stabilize.
She wasn't just a player.
She was the first forgotten node that refused to be overwritten.
Now she has a choice to make:
Speak the name of the erased player—
Or speak her own, knowing the system will bend to avoid deleting her.
She turns toward the mirrored cathedral.
Her voice steady:
"I know who the broken one is."
And all the mirrors stop.