Summary
While standing before a large, old mirror within one of the corridors, Kumi begins to tell her friend Miyuki about the mirror. It's said that the person looking back may not be the one looking in it- but a person from the land of mirrors. At night, the mirror people are said to escape from their world and come out, and bad things will happen to people who damage the mirror.
She continues to frighten Miyuki, who bumps into a stoic male that warns them not to take the mirror rumors lightly. He walks off and seeing her confusion, Kumi explains that although Araya is very handsome, he believes the mirror rumors and has spent a lot of time researching the subject. Suddenly confident, Miyuki taps the mirror with her fist while claiming that she isn't frightened by it; until its pointed out to her that it now has a crack on it, right where Kumi's face was. She attempts to calm down her panicking friend and leads her away.
The following day Miyuki approaches Kumi to see that her face has bandaging on it. She fears the worst until Kumi claims it isn't anything to worry about. However, she is unable to resist teasing her noticing how worried she has become over it, wondering if perhaps Miyuki was the cause of it for hitting the mirror. Miyuki remains shaken by the idea, and she takes a moment to wonder why Kumi looks different. She isn't able to determine what it could be though, and heads to class.
Once class ends, she overhears Kumi make conversation with Nako and follows them back to the corridor where the mirror is located. Hearing Nako scream, Miyuki calls out to her friends to find them facing away from her. As they turn around, she quickly realizes that Nako's hair is worn on the opposite side of her head, then it dons on her what she saw that was off about Kumi: her beauty mark.
Miyuki is quick to assume this to be the fault of the mirror and how these two can't possibly be her friends. They point out that class will be starting soon but she excuses herself to the restroom, lingering there to observe the mirror. Was it really her doing that caused this change?
Suddenly, Araya shows up again to see how uneasy she is before reminding her of his earlier words. She asks what he knows about the Land of Mirrors, and he recalls what led to him becoming suspicious of it. The prior year he saw a schoolmate goofing around in front of it, and behind him was his reflection, which began to move away from the mirror. Naturally the male's body moved with it and it caused him to fall down the nearby stairwell and he suffered horrible injury. But nobody believed him as the only witness.
Miyuki claims that she believes him though, and she decides to confide in him before returning to class. Once it comes to an end, she tries to figure out how she could possibly save them until she happens to notice other strange oddities with other classmates; such as swapped around accessories and injuries. She is shocked when they suddenly flash her the same vacant expressions she witnessed on Kumi and Nako's faces earlier.
In a panic, Miyuki runs from the room and collides with Araya, who leads her into the nearby Resource Room. She proceeds to have a meltdown until he calms her, saying that if they really are from the Land of Mirrors, they might just need to break them. He hands her a bat for protection when a group of their classmates appear.
As a fight breaks out, Miyuki runs from them back to the corridor and is about to smash it when suddenly, Kumi and Nako hurriedly yell for her to stop!
Stunned, Miyuki pulls back and Kumi profusely apologizes for what happened. The girls begin to explain how this was only a prank being pulled at her expense, and how they planned on confessing earlier but she ran away from the room before she could.
As this is going on Araya is shown to be holding a classmate he had began to beat up after he convinces him to stop. He reveals what happened and brings Araya back to the girls, with Miyuki angered but ultimately relieved. She brings up the suspicious things; such as Kumi's moved beauty mark and her injury, and Nako's hair. Kumi is quick to defuse this by explaining that she used makeup, and it's not hard to change ones hair. Although the injury was simply coincidence.
While calming down, the group fail to notice the mirror is beginning to crack apart to match those forming on their bodies. It's then Miyuki sees they are beginning to form on her and everything else in the room, just as everyone begins to burst apart into shards of glass -one at a time- as she recalls the strange injury on Kumi and how it resembled a crack. As her body slowly begins to break apart, Miyuki sheds a tear.
From the opposite side, Miyuki looks at the remnants of the broken mirror while wielding a bat. She is shocked when Kumi suddenly shifts blame on her and they turn to walk away. Miyuki claims she isn't entirely to blame though- because Kumi told her to pretend she was playing baseball in front of it. She remarks on how angry the mirror looked as their friends join them, and Kumi begins to recall the Land of Mirror story.
As they walk away, one of the larger broken shards reveals an eye with tears flowing from it...
Tropes:
- Break the Cutie: Figuratively and literally!
- Deadly Prank: Adverted in that the prank was revealed before Miyuki could hurt anybody she thought to be after her. Then played straight after the prank resulted in their mirror world shattering.
- Loners Are Freaks: A mild case, with Kumi explaining that while Araya is good-looking, he's considered weird due to his heavy interest in the mirror rumors and doesn't appear to socialize with anyone.
- Nightmare Face: A few of them spread through the chapter.
