Season 1 – Episode 2: "The Door to Nowhere"
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The rain hadn't stopped.
It never really did in Ayakashi City. It just changed shapes—soft mist in the morning, cold sheets by night. It clung to the buildings like ghosts, soaked into the concrete, whispered in forgotten alleys. It made everything feel heavy, timeless.
Ren Kazuki sat on the floor of his cramped bedroom, knees pulled tight to his chest, staring at Yuki Nara's notebook lying on the low table in front of him.
It hadn't moved since last night.
Neither had he.
His clothes were still damp, clinging to his skin with a faint chill that no amount of dry blankets could chase away. He hadn't slept. Not really. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her face—the way it twisted in pain, the way her final smile felt too forgiving for a world that had been so cruel to her.
He touched the notebook cautiously, as if it might burn him.
It didn't.
Instead, the second his fingers brushed the worn leather cover, a low hum vibrated through the floorboards. A sound too deep for ears, a frequency that rattled his teeth and bones.
Words, faint and flickering, reappeared on the page:
> "Awake. Chosen. Memory Unsealed."
Ren flinched back. His heart thudded against his ribs, loud enough that he thought the neighbors might hear it.
"This is crazy," he whispered.
He stood up, pacing.
"No. This is impossible. There's no such thing as reincarnation. Chosen warriors. Monsters made of smoke. This is...this is anime-level nonsense."
But the notebook still hummed. The symbols burned into his brain like scars.
And deep down, in a place he couldn't deny anymore...
He believed it.
He felt it.
He wasn't normal.
He never had been.
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Morning slid across the city like a bruised, grey hand. It was Saturday. No school. No crowds. The streets were empty except for a few umbrellas bobbing like tiny boats against the tide.
Ren pulled his hoodie tighter and left his apartment.
Every step away from home made his gut twist tighter. His instincts screamed at him to turn back. To lock the door. To pretend none of it ever happened.
But then he saw her notebook tucked under his arm and remembered Yuki's eyes.
You always find me...
This time... it's you.
He owed her this much.
He didn't know how he knew where to go—only that he did. A magnetic pull guided his steps through backstreets, under crumbling overpasses, through silent, moss-covered playgrounds forgotten by the world.
It led him to an abandoned district.
Old buildings loomed like tombstones. Shattered windows. Rusted fire escapes. Crumbling brick.
The perfect place for a secret.
A place out of time.
A place where the real world thinned—and something older, something deeper—could seep through.
Ren stopped in front of a door.
It shouldn't have been there.
Nestled between two collapsed walls, standing upright with no building attached to it. Just a freestanding door of rotting wood and iron hinges. Strange markings spiraled across its surface, almost like veins or roots.
The handle was shaped like an eye.
The Door to Nowhere.
He knew its name the second he saw it.
The notebook in his bag vibrated against his side.
A voice—faint, female—whispered in the back of his mind:
"Open it, Detective of the Past."
His hand hovered.
Sweat beaded down his spine.
The door pulsed—alive.
Ren gritted his teeth.
And he turned the handle.
---
Darkness swallowed him whole.
Not the kind you get when the lights go out. Not even the black of closed eyelids.
This was deeper. Primordial. Heavy. Alive.
He floated.
Memories trickled past him like rivers—faces, battles, laughter, grief—hundreds of lives, none of which he recognized, but all of which felt like his.
He reached out instinctively—and touched something solid.
The darkness peeled back.
Ren stood in a long, endless corridor lined with mirrors.
Each mirror showed a different version of himself.
A soldier in armor streaked with blood.
A scholar scribbling frantic equations.
A boy laughing on a swing set.
A man holding a girl with silver hair under a crimson sky.
He staggered forward.
The mirrors whispered as he passed.
> "Protector."
"Traitor."
"Savior."
"Murderer."
He wanted to run. He wanted to scream. But his legs carried him deeper into the corridor, past version after version of himself—some noble, some monstrous.
Until he reached a final mirror.
This one didn't show him.
It showed Kaori.
The girl from his visions. The girl Yuki had spoken of.
She stood on a cracked battlefield, her red cloak billowing, her hand stretched toward him.
Her mouth moved, forming words he couldn't hear.
The mirror began to glow.
It cracked down the center.
And then—
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Ren woke up gasping on cold stone.
He was no longer in Ayakashi City.
Not entirely, anyway.
He was in a twisted reflection of it—streets bent at impossible angles, buildings stacked on top of each other like haphazard toy blocks. The sky was a deep violet, swirling with slow, heavy clouds.
And standing ten feet away from him was a boy about his age.
Silver hair.
Amber eyes.
Wearing a black uniform stitched with strange symbols.
The boy smiled lazily, twirling a coin between his fingers.
"Yo. Took you long enough," he said. His voice was light, amused. "Thought you might chicken out."
Ren scrambled to his feet. His hands instinctively balled into fists. "Who the hell are you?"
The boy flipped the coin high into the air, caught it without looking. His smile widened, full of sharp teeth and secrets.
"Name's Arata."
He flicked the coin toward Ren.
Ren caught it reflexively.
On one side: the same symbol from the alley—the circle of seventeen eyes.
On the other: a stylized number, burning gold.
1.
"The first threat's already moving," Arata said, voice softening. "If you're not ready to fight, Detective…"
He tilted his head, regarding Ren like a curious cat.
"You're gonna die."
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Episode Cliffhanger:
Behind Arata, a rift tore open in the sky.
A massive creature—a writhing mass of tendrils and mouths—emerged, screaming in a thousand broken voices.
Its shadow fell over the city.
Ren took a step back, heart hammering.
Arata smirked.
"Welcome to the real world, newbie."
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Episode Summary:
After Yuki's death, Ren grapples with the weight of what he saw and the mysterious notebook she left behind. Drawn by an unseen force, he finds the Door to Nowhere, an ancient portal that pulls him into a strange realm outside time. Inside a corridor of mirrors, he sees countless versions of himself and glimpses Kaori, the mysterious girl tied to his past. Upon awakening, Ren meets Arata, a boy who seems to know everything about the threats to come. As they speak, a monstrous creature emerges from a rift, signaling that the first of the Eighteen Threats is already here—and Ren's fight is only beginning.