Chapter 313

Only Haruto, Kagura, and Kanna remained inside the castle, leaving the vast hall unusually quiet.

Kagura stood beside Kanna, watching her with undisguised concern.

Kanna merely held her mirror against her chest without moving.

Haruto glanced at the two of them and continued searching for a solution.

His gaze wandered aimlessly across the hall until it eventually settled on the mirror in Kanna’s arms.

The mirror...

Haruto’s eyes suddenly lit up as a bold idea took shape in his mind.

He quickly walked over to Kanna and carefully examined it.

Kanna’s mirror, the Mirror of Death, could essentially be considered the source of her power.

Not only could it absorb human souls and control those whose souls it had taken, but it could also reflect almost every attack aside from a Sacred Arrow. It could even manifest as a powerful Mirror Demon capable of stealing an opponent’s yōki.

Naraku, meanwhile, controlled his incarnations primarily by keeping possession of their hearts.

That control was physical in nature. It did not extend to their souls.

That was precisely why Kagura had been able to escape him by abandoning the body Naraku controlled and creating an entirely new one from the wind.

In that case...

What if they extracted Kanna’s soul from her current body and transferred it into a completely new body that had never been under Naraku’s control?

The Mirror of Death could handle the soul-transfer portion.

As for replacing someone’s body—or possession, depending on how one looked at it—Haruto naturally had no idea how to accomplish something like that.

But what if the replacement body was, in essence, still Kanna’s own body?

A smile slowly appeared on Haruto’s face.

He extended one hand, and Myriad Worlds appeared in his grasp.

Because the Spiegel had been incorporated into the knife, Myriad Worlds could create a perfect duplicate of a target.

Such duplicates possessed the same appearance and physical structure as the original.

The main difference was that they had no souls, causing their bodies to appear in a dull gray-black shade.

Aside from that, there was little difference.

Which meant a duplicate body should be perfectly usable for Kanna.

She could extract her soul from her original body and transfer it into the duplicate created by Myriad Worlds.

Then, using the Mirror of Death, she could strip all the yōki from her original body and transfer that power into the new one as well.

If everything worked, Kanna would not only break free from Naraku’s control but potentially become stronger in the process.

And before attempting any of that, Haruto could awaken her Nen, further enhancing her abilities and improving their odds of success.

The idea immediately lifted some of the weight from his mind.

But only for a moment.

His brow soon furrowed again.

The plan had one serious flaw.

Kanna’s new body would be a duplicate created and sustained by Myriad Worlds.

That meant, in a very real sense, Haruto would hold Kanna’s life in his hands.

If he chose to dismiss the duplicate, her soul would instantly lose the body supporting it.

That was not the outcome Haruto wanted.

Unfortunately, it was also the only viable solution he could think of.

Naraku could destroy Kanna’s heart at any moment and kill her instantly.

They simply did not have time to search indefinitely for something more perfect.

Haruto weighed the problem for a long while before ultimately deciding to explain everything to Kagura.

He walked over and laid out the entire plan, including its benefits and its risks, without hiding anything.

"...And that’s the situation."

"This method should allow Kanna to escape Naraku’s control, but the price is that her new body would be sustained by Myriad Worlds."

"Until I find a better solution, her life would effectively be in my hands."

"Kagura, whether Kanna should go through with this is something the two of you need to decide."

Kagura fell silent.

Her fingers tightened around her fan until her knuckles turned white.

Haruto did not rush her.

He simply waited.

He understood that this was not an easy decision.

After an unknown amount of time, Kagura finally raised her head.

She looked at Kanna, then nodded to Haruto before taking Kanna by the hand and leading her toward a quiet corner of the hall.

Haruto tactfully moved farther away, giving them privacy.

The minutes passed slowly.

Eventually, soft footsteps approached.

Haruto turned and saw Kagura returning with Kanna.

There was a faint, relieved smile on Kagura’s face.

Kanna remained as expressionless as ever.

But Haruto noticed that her fingers had tightened ever so slightly around the Mirror of Death.

"She agreed."

Kagura looked at him seriously.

Haruto nodded without asking anything further.

"All right."

He took a deep breath, his expression becoming completely serious.

"Since you’ve decided, we’ll start now."

"First, I’m going to awaken Kanna’s Nen."

Thanks to his experience awakening Kagura, the process went smoothly.

Kanna’s development of Nen proved unusually straightforward as well.

Rather than creating an entirely new ability from nothing, her Nen simply enhanced and extended the powers she already possessed.

After awakening Nen, the Mirror of Death could do more than absorb the souls and yōki of living beings.

It could now precisely separate the connection between soul and body, while temporarily stabilizing a disembodied soul and preventing it from dispersing.

That perfectly solved the most dangerous step in Haruto’s plan.

Kanna spent a short while familiarizing herself with the strengthened ability.

Then she raised her eyes toward Haruto and gave a small nod.

She said nothing.

She did not need to.

She was ready.

Haruto took another deep breath and wrapped his hand around Myriad Worlds.

The cool blade settled naturally into his grip, while the Spiegel crystal embedded in the handle began to grow faintly warm.

"Kanna, I’m starting."

Kanna stood silently with the Mirror of Death in her arms, the hem of her white kimono falling around her like pale lotus petals.

She looked at Myriad Worlds and nodded once more.

Her expression remained perfectly calm.

Kagura, on the other hand, was anything but calm.

Standing a short distance away, she gripped her fan so tightly that her fingers had gone white. Her palms were damp with nervous sweat, and she stared at Kanna without blinking, even unconsciously softening her breathing as though the slightest disturbance might ruin everything.

Haruto glanced at her but said nothing.

He slowly began channeling Nen into Myriad Worlds.

Hummm—

A clear metallic note rang through the hall.

Soft light spread across the blade.

Then the Spiegel crystal embedded in the handle suddenly flared, releasing a beam of deep blue light that landed on the floor in front of Kanna.

Countless tiny motes gathered inside the glow.

They condensed little by little, gradually forming the outline of a human figure.

Haruto’s previously calm expression changed the moment he saw what was taking shape.

When the light finally faded, another Kanna stood silently before them.

The same silver-white hair.

The same two simple white flowers decorating it.

The same white kimono, even the folds of the fabric falling in precisely the same way.

The same expressionless face.

And in her arms rested a mirror identical to the Mirror of Death.

Even the yōki radiating from the duplicate matched Kanna’s original aura perfectly.

If Haruto had not personally watched the replica form, even he would have struggled to distinguish which one was real.

"This is..."

Haruto raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Normally, replicas created through the Spiegel’s power possessed the same physical structure and fundamental abilities as the original, but because they lacked souls, their entire bodies appeared in a dull gray-black hue, like unpainted dolls.

Yet Kanna’s duplicate was pure white from head to toe.

There was no visible difference whatsoever between it and the original.

They looked like identical twins.

This was clearly not the normal result.

Haruto’s gaze shifted to the Mirror of Death in the duplicate’s arms.

Then to the one held by the original Kanna.

Finally, he looked at the Spiegel crystal embedded in Myriad Worlds, which was still vibrating faintly.

He quickly understood.

Resonance.

Kanna’s innate weapon was the Mirror of Death, and the very essence of her soul was closely tied to the nature of a mirror—reflecting and reproducing all things before it.

The Spiegel within Myriad Worlds, meanwhile, possessed the fundamental ability of mirror replication.

Two powers born in completely different worlds, yet rooted in the same fundamental concept, had resonated with one another.

Their abilities had complemented each other.

That resonance had caused Kanna’s duplicate to inherit the exact same coloration as the original.

In practical terms, the change did not make the duplicate any stronger.

Even so, Haruto could not help smiling.

It was an unexpected bonus.

He had been slightly worried that waking up inside a gray-black copy of herself might make Kanna uncomfortable.

After all, she had always been pure white, like untouched snow.

This was far better.