Chapter Text
The forest was quiet. Too quiet.
Yuu adjusted her grip on the hilt of her sword as she stepped through a thicket of ivy, her armored boots crunching softly against the fallen leaves. Her long cloak was dusty from the road, and the faint scent of damp earth clung to her skin. She paused for a moment, closing her eyes. She could feel the hum of magic in the air—faint, barely there—but it wasn't enough. Her kingdom had always lived on the edge of magic, where spells were rare, and mages were rarer.
She wasn't one for magic, not like the few mages she'd seen in her travels. She was a warrior. A knight commander. A protector.
But the world had changed.
Her people had been attacked, not by men, not by beasts, but by something else. A shadow that had slipped through the cracks in reality. The King had sent her on this mission to find the source, to stop the spread of the corruption that had been creeping into the land.
Yuu had no family. No home. Just her armor, her sword, and the oath she'd made as a child, before the king had given her a name and a duty.
And now, she was here in this forest. The woods had always been forbidden, even in her world. Legend said it was cursed, that the trees whispered to the mad, that the shadows moved on their own.
She didn't believe in legends. But she did believe in duty.
A low hum echoed in her head. It wasn't a sound from outside. It was from within. She paused, then began to hum a low, steady tune. Her fingers traced the hilt of her sword, and the air around her shimmered slightly. Her strength surged, as it always did when she hummed. It wasn't magic in the way others knew it. It was something else. Something deeper.
She took a step forward, and the forest seemed to shift around her. The trees twisted slightly, their branches reaching out like fingers. The air grew cold, and the silence thickened.
Then she saw it.
A mirror.
It stood in the clearing, framed by gnarled roots and overgrown vines. The glass was old, its surface cracked and pitted, but it reflected something impossible.
Not her.
Instead of her own reflection, the mirror showed a world of bright colors, of towering spires, of a sky that pulsed with energy. She blinked, but the image remained. A world that didn't exist.
"What is this?" she muttered, her voice low.
She stepped closer, the mirror humming faintly in response. The image shifted again, and she saw a figure. A boy, dressed in a strange, colorful uniform, is standing in front of a school gate. The name above it read "Twisted Wonderland."
Her heart pounded.
She reached out, her hand hovering over the mirror.
"You're not real," she whispered, but the words didn't feel right.
The mirror responded.
The air around it crackled, and the reflection shifted again. The boy turned, looking directly at her, his eyes bright with curiosity and confusion.
Yuu stepped back, her hand tightening on her sword. "Who are you?"
The mirror didn't answer. Instead, it pulsed, and the world around her began to blur. The forest faded, replaced by a swirl of light and sound.
She felt herself falling, or maybe she was flying. She couldn't tell. The mirror was pulling her in.
And then, she was gone.