Paris, February 10, 2027 — 12:02 PM
The grey daylight seeped weakly through the curtains, as if the world were struggling to stay awake amid a collective desire to forget.
Raien sat before the mirror.
He wasn't looking at his face, but at something behind the glass—something unseen, yet undeniably present.
A voice inside whispered:
"You are not you."
He turned his face slowly toward the mirror.
His reflection didn't quite match.
His lips moved half a second late, and in his eyes… something dead lingered.
He pressed his hands against the sink's edge.
There was weight—a strange gravity pulling on him, as though another force had begun asserting itself.
From behind the door came Lima's voice:
"Raien? Are you going to eat with us?"
He hesitated.
Then answered in a voice that barely felt like his own:
"In a moment..."
Her footsteps retreated, but he felt she hadn't truly left.
In the kitchen, Lima sat at the table, staring at her plate.
Nouel was giggling at something invisible—someone whispering in her ear, perhaps.
Dani was drawing on a sheet of paper… split hearts, faceless figures.
Then he said, suddenly:
"Mama… Papa's different now."
Lima looked at him.
"Why would you say that?"
He didn't look up from his drawing.
"He looks like Papa… but he's not him."
Outside, Niko stood at the entrance of an abandoned building, holding an old pocket watch that no longer ticked.
He flipped it open. Time inside had stopped—
12:02.
He whispered:
"The second hour has begun… from the inside."
He stepped into the building, cautious.
Upstairs, the walls were etched with writings—carved by something like scorched fingernails:
"We watch through you. We test the copies… and reject the failures."
"Copy 7/96: Status unstable."
In a corner, a rusted nail held a photograph of Raien—smiling.
But on his left eye… a scar.
Back in the apartment, Raien stood by the bedroom door, hands trembling.
He pulled open an old drawer… and found a gun.
But it hadn't been there yesterday.
And he had no memory of ever owning one.
His finger brushed the trigger slowly.
Then… he closed the drawer.
Took nothing.
That night, he crept into Nouel and Dani's room.
He stood over their beds, watching them sleep.
He whispered:
"If you're real… forgive me."
Suddenly, he heard a sound behind him.
He turned.
Dani was standing. Not asleep… and not smiling.
"The copy is nearing collapse."
He said it in a voice that wasn't a child's.
Then he climbed back into bed and shut his eyes—
as if nothing had happened.
Elsewhere, inside the same dark lab, the entity stood before a bank of screens.
He replayed Raien's moment in front of the mirror.
Then Niko… staring at the frozen timepiece.
From the intercom, a voice echoed:
"Cross-copy interference has reached Phase Two. Surveillance unit ready for merge."
The entity raised a hand…
and pressed a blue button.
In that instant, time froze in the apartment.
Even the air stopped moving.
And Raien saw—
himself, standing before him.
Same face, but devoid of mercy…
and with a clear scar above the left eye.
The other said:
"I'm the mistake you never corrected.
And you… are an experiment on repeat."
He smiled.
The hour ended.