After the Watchman disappeared, the room felt colder.
Sera locked the door. She didn't speak much. Just paced back and forth like something big was coming.
Haruto sat near the window. His chest still hurt. The ticking inside him had slowed… but it never stopped.
He couldn't stop thinking about what the Watchman said.
> "Something in you remembers how he ended."
Ended how?
And why did it feel like he wasn't just in Kazen's body—
But also Kazen's story?
Just then, there was a knock at the floor.
Yes—the floor.
Sera and Haruto looked down at the old wooden boards.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"Don't move," Sera said. She grabbed a short knife from under her coat.
Then the boards shifted. Slowly, like something underneath was moving them from below.
A square piece of the floor popped up—revealing stairs going down.
And a smell.
Old. Dusty. Burned.
"What is this?" Haruto asked.
Sera stared at the hole.
"That shouldn't be there."
Haruto looked at her. "You live here."
"I didn't build the place."
Haruto grabbed the small lamp on the table and started down the stairs.
Sera followed.
Step by step, the light showed an old hallway. Metal walls. Cracked pipes. Strange writing on the sides—written in reverse.
At the end was a door.
It was locked.
But as Haruto touched the handle, the badge on his coat glowed faintly.
The door clicked.
It opened.
Inside… was a room full of clocks.
Hundreds of them.
All frozen.
Some were broken. Some were clean. But not one of them ticked.
And at the center of the room was a desk.
On it… was a file.
A file with Haruto's face on it.
But the name on the file wasn't Kazen.
It wasn't Haruto either.
It was:
"Project Mirror-37: The False Keeper."
Sera backed away. "This… this isn't right."
Haruto opened the file.
Inside were pages. Drawings. Machine plans. Notes written in red ink.
> "If Kazen fails, the body will reset."
"If the reset works, place the new soul into the mold."
"If the city asks—deny everything."
Haruto couldn't breathe.
He was part of something.
Not fate.
Not chance.
A plan.
And maybe… not the first version.