Aiko’s fists clenched. The maggots on her skin broke into ash. I didn’t kill them. I was just a kid. I didn’t… I couldn’t.

  The void rippled. A door formed, carved with the same symbols she’d seen in her mom’s notes. The handle glowed. Her chest tightened, but warmth ran through her veins when her fingers touched it.

  This isn’t just punishment. It’s letting me choose. Me… not him.

  Malcolm’s snarl cracked through the dark. “You don’t understand the weight—”

  She yanked the door open and found herself in a restaurant.

  It must be Sumoto’s place.

  She remembered her Uncle’s expression as Malcolm tore through the restaurant. Now she was reliving it when it exploded into chaos. Yuxi’s fists glowed gold, knocking men down like dominoes. Smoke filled the air. Aiko’s heart pounded—this was real, happening now. Malcolm’s body flickered as Yuxi hurled a sphere of light at him, slamming him against the wall.

  Then she heard it. Her own voice.

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  “Uncle Hiroto—please… don’t let go.”

  Aiko gasped, stumbling back.

  She blinked. She was back at the door. Her reflection stared at her from the blackness—not broken, not Malcolm’s shadow. Herself. Fierce.

  The Lex Aeterna’s voice shook her bones:

  “Balance must be restored.”

  She thought of Yuxi. The golden light in her hands. The way she’d looked at Sumoto, terrified, and whispered, “They were inside me. My parents. All this time.”

  Aiko’s throat tightened. The memory of her own vision clawed up—Mom’s smile, Dad’s steady hand—and then their faces, twisted and pale, reaching for her.

  Her fingers dug into the doorframe. Is that what this is? They’re not gone? They’re in me, too?

  The thought made her stomach twist, but there was a flicker of something else—strength.

  “They’re part of me,” she whispered, voice breaking. “Not chains. Not punishment. They’re… me.”

  The golden warmth lit up her veins again, faint but real. For the first time, the weight of her parents’ deaths didn’t crush her flat—it held her up.

  She pushed the door open.

  Aiko dropped to her knees beside Hiroto. The blight crawled across his chest like ink, but she didn’t flinch this time.

  “Uncle…” Her voice wavered. “Mom and Dad are still with me. I feel them. I can use it.”

  Her hands glowed gold, just like Yuxi’s. She pressed them to his chest. The blight hissed, shriveling away. Hiroto gasped, eyes snapping open.

  Aiko sagged with relief, her tears falling onto his shirt.

  “I won’t drown in them. I won’t.”