Arc 5: The Ninefold Spiral
The door behind him closed with a whisper, soft as a breath caught between worlds.
Hiragi stood in the center of a vast, circular chamber. There were no walls—only darkness curved into infinity. The floor beneath him rippled like liquid stone, reflecting fragments of memory: a girl crying under a red sky, a sword drenched in violet blood, Nolan's hand reaching through the void.
Then—
Clack.
Nine doors appeared, equally spaced in a spiral around him. Each door bore a different sigil, flickering like candlelight: a spiral eye, a bleeding clock, a mouth with too many teeth, a mirror cracked down the center…
A voice echoed, not from the air, but inside his bones.
"The Ninefold Spiral begins. Each turn is truth. Each turn is a lie. You may only ascend if you survive what you are."
Hiragi's eyes narrowed. "I've faced gods. I've faced myself. What's another spiral?"
Turn One: The Room of Questions.
One door clicked open. The sigil on it was a question mark made of thorns.
Without hesitation, he stepped through.
He emerged into a white classroom. A place eerily familiar. Desks, a blackboard, the faint smell of chalk. The windows looked out into nothingness—just static, like a broken screen.
A single desk in front of him. His name carved into the wood: HIRAGI.
Sitting at it… was himself.
But not the Void Slayer. Not the version forged through battles and blood.
This Hiragi wore a school uniform, eyes dim, slouched posture. A version of himself that never fought back. Never awakened. Just… gave up.
"Why did you keep going?" the other Hiragi asked, not looking up. "Why didn't you just disappear like we were supposed to?"
Hiragi approached slowly. "Because I remembered her voice."
"Akane?"
He nodded.
The classroom trembled.
The other Hiragi stood, face twisting. "She was never real. You created her to survive. Just like you created the strength. The mentors. Even Nolan."
Hiragi's hand tightened around the void-threaded blade at his side.
"She was real to me," he said coldly. "And that's all that mattered."
The other Hiragi smiled. Then melted—his face sliding off, skin turning to ink, becoming a mass of thoughts screaming in distorted voices.
"YOU ARE A LIE PRETENDING TO BE STRONG—"
Slash.
Void met illusion.
And the Room of Questions collapsed into black feathers, vanishing into the Spiral's wind.
He reappeared at the spiral chamber's center.
The door he passed through closed, the sigil now cracked.
A voice whispered again, colder now.
"Truth faced. One down. Eight remain."
Hiragi took a breath.
His fingers trembled, just slightly.
Then clenched.
"Bring it on."
He turned toward the next door. The second sigil began to glow—
A clock dripping blood, ticking backwards.