The tension that had been binding her body finally loosened, and Nova leaned back against the thick wooden pillar beneath the eaves of a courtyard roof.
Now that it was over, soreness bloomed through her shoulders in slow waves.
Her back felt damp beneath her gown, the fabric heavy with sweat that chilled as soon as the wind touched it.
She pressed herself more tightly against the pillar, feeling the cold of the wood seep through the thin layers of cloth.
Only then did Nova become aware of her body again in a way that felt unfamiliar and deeply unsettling.
The weight at her chest shifted as she moved, subtle yet undeniable.
Her breathing had not yet steadied, and with every rise and fall, that unfamiliar presence responded.
She lowered her gaze without meaning to, and her view was interrupted by soft curves outlined by the loose collar of her gown.
Her mind froze.
The realization came slowly, like a truth rising through deep water. The clothing was not made for support.
There was no binding, no tight fabric beneath to hold anything in place. The world she had fallen into followed different rules. Different customs. The thought sat strangely in her chest, awkward and unreal.
Heat rushed to her face.
She turned her head sharply away, as though the night itself might be watching.
Her thoughts scattered in sudden embarrassment, darting in directions she had no intention of following.
She lifted one hand halfway toward her collar before stopping herself, fingers suspended in the air.
A quiet, firm refusal echoed through her mind. She lowered her hand again.
This was not the moment for such thoughts. Whatever strange curiosity tried to surface, danger was still close enough to breathe down her neck.
The street had returned to silence, but it was not the kind that brought peace. It felt like the hush that followed a storm, heavy with the promise that thunder might return at any moment.
Then it did.
A faint clicking sound drifted down from above.
The roof creaked.
Shadow spilled over her head like a thrown net.
Her body reacted before her thoughts caught up. Nova twisted sharply, the world tilting as her feet left the ground.
For a single stretched moment, everything slowed. The moon slid sideways across her vision. The stone path rose to meet her. Her gown flared as gravity reached for her again.
She landed in a low roll and sprang upright in one smooth motion, breath caught somewhere between shock and disbelief.
Something stood where she had just been.
It wore the shape of a dog, but its face was human, twisted into an expression that made her skin crawl. Yellow eyes glimmered in the darkness, swollen with a hunger so thick she felt it press against her skin.
Its lips moved.
A human voice slid from its throat.
"Mirror…"
The sound of tiles shifting answered it. Two more shapes dropped down beside it, each bearing the same warped likeness, each staring at Nova with the same greedy fixation.
Their tongues slid slowly across their lips, saliva glistening between rows of teeth too sharp for any living thing.
The alley suddenly felt far too narrow.
They stepped closer in unison, repeating the same word again and again, their voices layered and distorted.
"Mirror…"
Only then did understanding strike her.
The copper mirror.
Her fingers tightened instinctively against her pouch.
For a breathless moment, fear nearly drove her to throw it. The impulse flared hot and wild, desperate for escape. But another instinct rose just as fast, dragging her back from that blind choice.
The memory of caution. The memory that careless sacrifices often lead to worse endings.
Instead of throwing the mirror, Nova raised the Umbrella.
The paper blossomed open above her head.
The world vanished.
To the monster hounds, the girl was gone.
The scent remained, thick and sweet in the air, but their prey had disappeared into nothing. They surged forward, colliding with empty space, their claws scraping blindly along stone and wood.
Confused growls echoed as they searched, tongues flicking through the air in frustration.
Nova stood within the shadow of the Umbrella, her heart battering her ribs as she slid backward step by careful step.
Each movement was measured, silent, guided by a strange instinct that did not belong to the life she remembered. Her feet found paths through the darkness that her eyes could not see.
The flow of her steps was light and soundless, like water winding through cracks in stone.
She slipped past them.
Not once did they sense her passing.
Only when she reached the main road again did Nova dare to breathe fully. She did not lower the Umbrella this time. The memory of vanished shapes made her hesitate.
Instead, she retreated beneath the shelter of another roof and pressed her back into the shadows.
Her hands were shaking.
It was then that the word returned to her.
Mirror.
She reached slowly into her pouch, hanging around her waist, and drew it out.
Moonlight filtered through the narrow spaces above her, falling onto the rusted surface in thin silver lines. The tarnish faded beneath that light as though washed clean by something unseen.
The copper brightened. The surface is smoothed.
A face appeared.
Her breath caught so sharply it fogged the mirror.
The girl staring back at her was unmistakable.
Shock crushed the air from her lungs.
The eyes were clear, familiar in a way that had nothing to do with this world. The lips were the same shape she had watched from across classrooms. The nose, the faint arch of the brows, the quiet dignity that had always felt unreachable.
"Senior…"
The sound slipped out of her without permission.
The reflection moved with her.
Understanding struck in waves, slow and overwhelming. This was not a resemblance. It was not an illusion. The face in the mirror did not belong to Nova at all.
It belonged to Alice.
The senior she had watched from afar when he was a boy. The girl she had admired in silence.
Her hands trembled as she wiped the mirror again, desperate for denial. The reflection remained unchanged.
Her senior's face looked back at her from this ancient world.
And Nova finally understood.
She had not merely become a girl.
She had become someone who looked exactly like the crush from his past life, in the other world.