Hisa was staring at herself in the mirror.
Her right hand worked with a fast pace, yet showing no signs of hurry, drawing those beautiful letters into the mirror with immaculate handwriting.
The message flowed out in one flurry of movement, precision that allowed no failure, and mirth bubbling forth from within her that was not her own.
Indeed.
That was not Hisa's hand.
That was not her lipstick.
That was not her fingertips.
That was not her handwriting.
And...
--- That was not her face staring back at her from the mirror.
Silver hair, cut shorter than Hisa remembered.
Gentle blue eyes, more aloof and alien than Hisa remembered.
Pale skin, white as snow, now with a new scarring running across it.
So close and yet so far, nothing but a memory yet clearly piercing that veil of time to look at her sister straight in the eyes...
Angelica Outis.
The Girl Who Vanished had appeared before Hisa, just like that.
"Well..."
Her voice was like the ringing of windchimes, and shiver of remembrance ran through Hisa's spine. It was the exact same voice she had heard so many times in the past.
And yet... it wasn't.
There was something else to it.
"... Look at you, Hisa."
A smile widened those red lips as Angelica retracted her lipstick and set it on the shelf.
"Just a short while of separation, and you've already grown up so much. You're turning into a fine young woman now."
Those eyes, which had been sharp as knives and full of knowledge, grew more gentle - if just for a moment.
"Do you hate me now?"
She giggled.
"Do you fear me now?"
She smiled.
"Or are you disappointed in me?"
The questions kept coming.
"Am I not who you thought I was?"
And in this memory, Hisa could not answer them.
"It's alright. I already know what you're going to say. After all..."
There it was again.
That horrifying providence and truth that accentuated this claim of hers, one spoken without any doubt or delusions of grandeur. Angelica Outis spoke it as a truth, and only truth. And
that was what made it truly terrifying.
"--- I know
everything."
However, this time, something was different.
This time it was not just Pyry's recollection of events that brought a message from her sister to Hisa. This time Hisa got to look Angelica in the eyes and speak those terrifying words on her own, announce it like she had a complete control over the events of this story.
And it made a realization dawn in her mind.
True, the face and the mouth and the mind that spoke that line was her sister, Angelica.
But at the same time...
... She saw something
else hide within those eyes like a duality of an existence where Angelica was only one half of the pair.
And that thing, whatever it was, spoke those words just as much as Angelica did.
Like they had been two colours in the same pool, swirling around each other yet never blending.
But, just as that realization of something else hiding within those eyes came upon Hisa...