The air twisted with heat as the second Yuki landed on the rooftop. Her presence warped the world time felt slower, sound fell muted, and every step she took vibrated through the metal like thunder wrapped in silk.
The real Yuki stood at the edge of the tower, Aito and Kazu beside her, frozen not in fear, but in disbelief.
"She's you," Aito whispered, not asking.
"No," Yuki said. "She's who I'd become if I let go of everything human."
The other Yuki tilted her head, the same soft face staring down at them, but her eyes were wrong. Too quiet. Too calm. They weren't eyes that searched for truth they were eyes that had stopped caring.
A sharp hum buzzed across the city. Drones powered up from unseen corners, scanning rooftops. But the sensors didn't lock onto the stranger.
They couldn't see her.
She didn't exist in their system.
She was above it.
The real Yuki stepped forward.
Her voice didn't tremble. "Why now?"
The reflection spoke without moving her lips. Her voice came directly into their heads.
"Because this world chose you. And you rejected it."
Yuki clenched her fists. "I didn't reject it. I'm trying to save it."
The copy smiled faintly. "From what? From me? Or from yourself?"
Without warning, the sky flickered just for a second like a glitch in a game. A crack in reality. The air shimmered, and then hundreds of tiny fractures spiderwebbed across the clouds.
Something was coming through.
And Yuki's double had brought it.
"Fall back!" Kazu barked.
"No," Yuki said, stepping forward again. "This is between me and her."
Aito tried to grab her, but she was already walking into the space between them a moment so still, it hurt.
The two Yukis faced each other.
Only one breathed.
"Why are you doing this?" the real Yuki asked.
The copy looked over her shoulder at the growing tear in the sky. "To finish what you were too afraid to begin."
Before Yuki could respond, the ground beneath them burst open.
Creatures poured out they weren't animals, not machines either. They were memories twisted, tangible, filled with faces from Yuki's past. People she'd failed. People she'd left behind. Every regret she carried had taken shape.
Kazu fired his blaster, hitting nothing. The creatures moved through bullets like fog. Aito screamed for backup, but no signal went out. The sky was eating frequencies.
Yuki didn't move. She stared at one memory walking toward her a girl, about twelve, hair tied in twin tails, holding a burnt book.
Her sister.
"No," Yuki whispered. "You're not real."
But the pain in her chest said otherwise.
"Remember me?" the girl asked. "You promised you'd protect me. You lied."
Yuki dropped to one knee, tears burning her eyes. Her glasses slipped, cracking against the rooftop.
And then a sound split the air.
A sharp, clear voice.
"Get up."
The real Yuki looked up.
It wasn't her copy speaking.
It was another version of her.
But this one was human. Sweating. Bleeding. Real.
From the shadow of the rooftop hatch, another Yuki stepped forward but unlike the queen in the sky, she had scars. Bandages. Mud on her knees. But her eyes…
They were alive.
"I didn't come to fight you," she said to the godlike copy. "I came to remind her that pain isn't weakness."
Yuki blinked. "Who… who are you?"
"I'm the one who survived," she said with a grin. "The version of you who kept going, even after the story ended."
The queen scowled. The fracture in the sky started to seal, hissing like boiling metal. The shadow-memories screamed in agony, flickering.
"I don't need reminders," the copy snapped.
"No," the survivor said, reaching into her jacket. "But maybe you need one."
She pulled out a device. A small sphere, glowing faintly blue.
"Wait," the real Yuki said, recognising it. "That's the reset trigger. It can collapse the whole zone."
The survivor nodded. "Only if you're ready."
The real Yuki looked around at Aito bleeding from a gash on his temple, Kazu reloading blindly, the rooftop warping under the pressure of guilt, grief, fear. Her copy hovered like a god, untouchable, cold, eternal.
Yuki stepped forward.
She took the trigger.
And she made her choice.
"I'm not the girl you remember," she said, raising the device. "I'm not broken. I'm not your failure."
The sky screamed.
The queen lunged.
Yuki slammed the trigger.
White exploded through the rooftop, bursting like a supernova. The sound was a thousand violins breaking. The fractures sealed, the memories vanished, and the rooftop stood still once more.
No wind.
No sky-tears.
Just silence.
Yuki opened her eyes.
She stood alone.
Her copy the queen was gone.
The survivor Yuki too.
Only Aito and Kazu remained, unconscious but alive.
And something was different.
Yuki felt it in her bones not fear. Not guilt.
Freedom.