Izumi had no idea what Fushigi was getting at. He seemed to have noticed and said, “In other words, Little Nanoka only exists in the reflected world—in mirrors, pictures, videos, and windows that can reproduce a person’s image.”
“Huh…?”
That was why she could appear in photos even when they couldn’t see her anywhere around.
“If none of you are reflected anywhere in the next seven days, then she’ll leave you alone,” Fushigi said as he stared at them firmly.
Izumi and the others shared a look.
“So we just need to make sure we don’t have a reflection anywhere for seven days, and we’ll be fine?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“In that case, we need to start right now!” Izumi said, and Sayuri and Rio both nodded firmly.
Then they immediately headed home.
It was Wednesday.
Ever since meeting with Fushigi, Izumi had stayed cooped up in her room. Her parents had been worried about her, but Kenji somehow explained things, and they seemed to have come to an understanding. They didn’t believe in urban legends, of course, but it was a different matter when she was in danger of being attacked by a sinister-sounding thing of nightmares.
Other than when she went to the bathroom, Izumi stayed in her room.
She removed all the mirrors and even closed the curtains over her windows so that the glass couldn’t reflect her. Since even her phone screen could have a reflection, she handed it over to Kenji for safekeeping. Since Sayuri and Rio were doing the same thing in their own homes, Kenji talked with their parents over the phone and relayed messages when they needed to communicate.
After all the girls had gone home the night before, Kenji had gotten more information about Little Nanoka from Fushigi, who told him that exactly seven days after Little Nanoka first appeared in a photo, she would give up and disappear.
Izumi had taken the picture at 1:10 PM on Sunday.
In other words, as long as they weren’t reflected anywhere, at exactly the same time the next Sunday afternoon, Izumi and her friends would be fine.
Izumi cowered in bed and prepared to wait it out.
However, things could never be that easy…
It was evening. Kenji carried Izumi’s dinner to her room.
“Looks like today went fine,” he said.
Kenji had been worried about his sister the entire time.
“Yeah.” Izumi was relieved she had such a nice older brother. “Thanks, Kenji.”
But when she looked at him, she was shocked as she realized something terrible.
“No!”
The next moment, she leaped back into bed and hid her head under the covers.
“What’s wrong, Izumi?!”
Kenji had no idea why she was acting that way.
“You need to go, Kenji!”
“But why?”
Izumi was shivering as she hid.
“Was something reflecting you?!”
Kenji looked himself over, but he wasn’t wearing anything reflective at all.
“I don’t see anything,” he said, but Izumi’s arm reached out of the covers and pointed at his face.
“Your eyes! Your eyes have my reflection!”
“Huh?!”
He realized looking at Izumi also created a reflection. And she must have been afraid Little Nanoka was there because of it.
“You need to go, now!”
“Uh, right…”
Even without any mirrors around and with the curtains drawn over the windows, as long as anyone else was in the room with her, Izumi could be reflected in their eyes.
“I’m scared. I’m so scared…”
From that day on, no one went into Izumi’s room.
On Thursday and Friday, Izumi continued to stay in her room all alone.
“Izumi, I’m setting your food down.”
“Okay…”
After leaving her food on the floor in the hallway, her family would leave, and Izumi would open the door to retrieve it. To stop anyone from coming into her room, she kept her door locked from the inside.
She took her meals all alone and prayed 1:10 PM on Sunday would come as soon as possible. She couldn’t talk to anyone, and being alone in her room was nerve-racking.
According to Kenji, Sayuri and Rio were feeling the same. Once they all realized they could be reflected in other people’s eyes, they’d also ended up having to stay in their rooms alone.
Please… The seventh day can’t come soon enough…, Izumi thought as she ate stew for dinner.
At that moment, her eyes went wide.
“Aah!” Suddenly, Izumi’s scream rang throughout the whole entire house.
“What’s wrong?!”
Kenji and his parents rushed over to Izumi’s room and stopped in front of the door, which opened only for a spoon to come flying out into the hallway in front of their eyes. From the slight gap in the door, they saw Izumi shivering and wrapped in her blanket.
“It’s that! It’s reflecting me!”
“What?!”
They looked at it—the spoon Izumi had thrown was made of metal. She was afraid it would reflect her, too.
“Hurry and take it away! And close the door, too!” Izumi yelled as she hid her face under the blanket.
Even though her family was still worried about her, they could only say, “All right,” and close the door.
It was Saturday.
Izumi became frightened of even taking her meals.
She was so scared of opening the door or talking to her family that she spent the entire time in bed with her head under the covers.
She was even scared to open her own eyes.
Please, please, please, please, please, please, please…
Izumi squeezed her eyes shut under the blanket and prayed for Sunday afternoon to come.
It was Sunday.
It had been raining since morning.
Izumi listened to the pitter-patter of the raindrops as she stared at the ticking hand of the clock. The wooden needle showed her that it was past eleven AM.
“Just two more hours… Just two more hours and I’ll be fine…”
Her eyes followed the second hand as she waited for the time to go by.
Her face was haggard. She hadn’t had a decent meal since the day before, and she hadn’t slept much, either. She hadn’t even talked to her family, and her door had been locked the entire time.
The only thing on Izumi’s mind was 1:10 PM.
Time continued to flow, and the afternoon drew nearer.
It was noon, then half past twelve, then 12:55…
“Almost…almost…almost…”
As Izumi watched the second hand, she started smiling without even realizing it.
But right at that moment, she felt something.
Her body couldn’t move.
Wh-what’s going on?
Izumi tried to lift her hands, but they were like stone, and she couldn’t even get her muscles to twitch.
In fact, it wasn’t just her hands—her feet and her face were also frozen in place.
Uh, uhhh, uh…