The first strike broke the stillness.

Moo’s punch collided with Kota’s reflection — and the impact was deafening.
The sound rang like struck crystal, sending a shockwave that rippled across the mirrored floor. Cracks flared beneath their feet, glowing red-gold, as if the world itself bled light.

The fox-shaped shadow slid back, its nine tails snapping outward like whips of water and flame. Where they struck, shards of glass and droplets of liquid shadow rained outward in graceful arcs.
And through the ripples came a mocking laugh.

[color=#3A8DFF]"Still swinging at everything you don’t understand, are you?"[/color]
[color=#3A8DFF]"Show me, fighter — what happens when the thing you punch won’t fall down?"[/color]

The shadow blurred forward, tails spinning together in a helix — not to crush, but to mirror her attack, meeting force with force.
The two impacts met midair — and the mirror under them cracked again.

Across the field, the shadow of Yume lifted its head from Yume’s earlier blow. The silver curl of her hair gleamed faintly as she smiled — too calm, too composed.
Her eyes locked onto Kota again, narrowing in delight.

[color=#C8A200]"Oh, you laugh to hide the cracks. How noble. How exhausting."[/color]
[color=#C8A200]"Let’s see how long you can keep pretending you’re fine."[/color]

With a flick of her hand, thin golden threads snapped outward from her fingertips — not ropes, but lines of shimmering illusion. They streaked across the air toward Kota and Yume alike, the reflections within the threads showing flashes of other faces — friends, rivals, family — each one saying nothing, just watching.

The shadow of Lenara moved next.
Slowly. Purposefully. Her bare feet left ripples of green light as she approached Yume. The air around her shimmered like a mirage, her expression unreadable — sadness or scorn, it was impossible to tell.

She raised a hand, and the mirrored floor beneath Yume’s feet began to fracture inward.
Glass folded like water, the reflections below twisting into countless eyes — all staring upward.

[color=#58A96B]"You hide behind jokes. Behind noise. Behind all those bright words."[/color]
[color=#58A96B]"But silence remembers you better than anyone ever did."[/color]

The next heartbeat brought motion — her hand sweeping downward, shards rising like blades to intercept whatever came next.

And then came Moo’s shadow.

The hulking shadow figure crouched low, antlers glinting, eyes glimmering faintly red. For a moment, she didn’t attack. She just watched Lenara — as if studying every heartbeat, every flicker of hesitation.

Then, in a blur of motion, she charged — not headfirst this time, but vanishing mid-step, bursting from a reflection on the floor behind Lenara instead.
When she spoke, her voice was lower, clearer, the childishness stripped away.

[color=#A64B2A]"Yew cahn'e ven pr'teck yersulf! Wha' gud is yew?"[/color]
Her strike came down like thunder — not out of hate, but inevitability.

The mirrored world roared.

Each collision echoed endlessly, glass and shadow and light tearing across infinity. For every blow they landed, the shadows shifted — growing sharper, faster, as if learning from each exchange.

Above, the golden eyes blinked once — slow, deliberate — and the pulse beneath the world grew louder, faster.
Thoom… thoom… thoom…
Like a heartbeat counting down to something inevitable.

And as the light flared again, the laughter returned — distant but closer now, a whisper curling through their minds:

“You can’t destroy a reflection…”
“…without breaking the mirror.”