The Mirror Theater / The Chance to Become an Actor

"Although the power of fate is somewhat limited in this world, it can still be used. I can feel a familiar aura here. Let's go."

Chapter 307: Mirror Theater

"A few days ago Shiina Mashiro gave me her phone. At that time, I explored the Impression Space by myself for a while, but after discovering that it suppressed the Destiny Power I controlled quite a bit, I haven't come in since."

"Compared to a few days ago, the current Impression Space is indeed somewhat different from before," Miyauchi Hiyage explained to Shinomiya Kaguya he led her forward quickly.

Shinomiya Kaguya asked curiously, "Has anything changed in the Impression Space compared to a few days ago?"

"It seems more lively now. If you could feel the lifelessness of the space when you entered Impression Space before, it feels more vibrant now. I think it's the appearance of you people who obtained that Otherworld Navigator App that caused this change."

These weren't his words, but rather something Tohru noticed.

After all, in terms of understanding the rules, Miyauchi Hiyage has only barely grasped the basics, unlike Tohru who has only entered the Impression Space a few times and has already seen through its essence.

Miyauchi Hiyage can't do that level yet, but it's fine to use Tohru senses to explain things.

"Perhaps the Temporary Palace appeared for this reason," Miyauchi Hiyage said, before taking Shinomiya Kaguya on several short teleportations.

The Impression Space is vast, but it is also a three-dimensional structure. Sometimes, you need to walk a long way along the tracks to reach certain places. However, Miyauchi Hiyage can save several hours of exploration time with a teleportation of less than a kilometer.

They used three short-distance teleports with Shinomiya Kaguya, and in less than two or three minutes, they arrived at the point where the change had occurred.

Just as Katsura Kotonoha said, the orbit around this place has become strangely distorted, spreading into a red mist from which nothing can be seen.

"It's really amazing that a new space has appeared in the cracks of reality," Miyauchi Hiyage said, trying to reach out and touch the mist, but he couldn't feel anything.

Instead, following his movements, a familiar figure from the Miyauchi Hiyage emerged from the mist.

"Hikage-kun?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha looked at Miyauchi Hiyage, who had been pulled over by Shinomiya Kaguya, with some surprise. She hadn't expected to meet Miyauchi Hiyage at this time.

After May, her relationship with Miyauchi Hiyage had actually become more harmonious than before.

However, she still had to consider Shiina Mashiro's existence, so she would only occasionally discuss the training methods of Ripple Chi Kung with Miyauchi Hiyage Himekage. Apart from that, the two of them didn't have much contact in private.

Even though Kasumigaoka Utaha received the Water Affinity reward a few days ago, which gave her the ability to summon water anywhere, she was only researching this new power on her own and had actually neglected Miyauchi Hiyage for the past few days.

I never expected them to bump into each other in the Impression Space.

However, when Katsura Kotonoha just said she wanted to go back and exchange for Shinomiya Kaguya, Kasumigaoka Utaha had the same idea, since Shinomiya Kaguya has always valued Miyauchi Hiyage's abilities.

Moreover, unlike her, who was mindful of Shiina Mashiro's presence and thus maintained a distance from Miyauchi Hiyage, Shinomiya Kaguya didn't have as many such concerns.

She took a liking to Miyauchi Hiyage, so she used many methods to get close to him and constantly made her presence known to him.

Moreover, to be honest, although they have recently gained quite good abilities and have a certain ability to protect themselves in the Reverse Side World and the Impression Space.

However, compared to the even more talented Miyauchi Hiyage, the rewards they received seemed incomparable to those of Miyauchi Hiyage.

As the strongest and most approachable person among the girls in the group, it is indeed quite appropriate for Miyauchi Hiyage to come and check on the current situation of the Impression Space.

However, Kasumigaoka Utaha was still somewhat dissatisfied with Shinomiya Kaguya's actions.

If she had known Miyauchi Hiyage was coming, she could have gone to the entrance to guide him, and Shinomiya Kaguya Miyauchi Hiyage n't have needed to come all this way herself.

"What a coincidence, Hyuga-kun. I didn't expect Kaguya to actually bring you into this." Kasumigaoka Utaha Miyauchi Hiyage.

The Miyauchi Hiyage nodded gently.

"Mashiro told me about this place. I've explored it alone before and I'm quite interested in the changes in this space. So after hearing about what happened to you, I decided to come in and see what this Temporary Palace is all about."

Miyauchi Hiyage continued his analysis, "This Temporary Palace feels to me from the outside like a special realm. It should Domain Expansion of Sorcerers, but its nature should still be worth considering."

Miyauchi Hiyage said this while observing the red mist in front of him with the Eyes of Destiny activated.

However, these girls haven't even figured out their own extraordinary abilities yet, so the concept of Domain Expansion, which is considered quite advanced even in the entire Reverse Side World, is completely baffling to them.

Even if the principles of how the Domain Expansion were fully laid out before them, they might still be completely unable to comprehend this power.

It felt like they were still studying middle school function problems, while Miyauchi Hiyage had already started self-studying advanced mathematics.

In fact, the existence of this Temporary Palace is far more complex than the Domain Expansion, and even closer to the level of Reality Marble.

After all, the Reality Marble itself is a product of the user's own Inner World being materialized.

However, the Temporary Palace exists only in relation to the Impression Space; it is at most a half-finished Inner World and does not reach the level of a complete Reality Marble.

With that, Miyauchi Hiyage walked into the mist.

The red mist itself was only a thin boundary. After passing through the red mist, the Miyauchi Hiyage arrived directly inside the Temporary Palace made up of countless mirrors, as mentioned by Katsura Kotonoha.

After entering the Temporary Palace, the feeling of Miyauchi Hiyage became even more pronounced.

If I am merely a small world of this magnitude, then he could probably erode this mirror world in an instant simply by activating Unlimited Blade Works.

This is nothing like Tohru using the power of the rules he controls to erode the world inside the Reality Marble.

Rather, the integrity of Unlimited Blade Works lies within this palace. By simply bringing this palace into Unlimited Blade Works, it is only natural that this fragile world can be crushed.

Perhaps a formal palace would be more solid, reaching the level of Reality Marble?

Miyauchi Hiyage thought to herself, then greeted the two girls who were studying the strange mirrors.

Chizuru Ichinose briefly greeted Miyauchi Hiyage, then refocused her attention on finding clues about the mirrored world.

Sudo Ayami's gaze, however, was fixed on Miyauchi Hiyage from afar.

Miyauchi Hiyage's fame was indeed considerable to them.

After all, not everyone can make the You Know Who suffer a setback.

However, as a character recruited by the You Know Who, Sudo Ayami thought about things more deeply.

Because the You Know Who did not leave Tokyo for another place because of the misfortune that Miyauchi Hiyage had inflicted on him, as he claimed.

The You Know Who was in Tokyo the whole time; the one who left Tokyo was just an avatar of his.

However, under such circumstances, it is somewhat intriguing that the You Know Who deliberately portrayed himself as having his hands stained by Miyauchi Hiyage in his diary.

In the past few years, Sudo Ayami has experienced the loss of her father, the abuse of her stepfather who enjoys domestic violence, and the battle of wits with her biological mother who only cares about love and family. She has quite a lot on her mind.

She subconsciously felt that there was probably some special connection between Miyauchi Hiyage and the You Know Who.

If, as she suspected, Shinomiya Kaguya was another informant of the You Know Who, then perhaps Miyauchi Hiyage was also a "genius" personally trained by the You Know Who, or even that Miyauchi Hiyage might be the You Know Who himself!

Therefore, when Sudo Ayami saw Miyauchi Hiyage at this time, he also paid more attention to him.

However, the You Know Who's style was completely different from that of the Miyauchi Hiyage in front of him.

Even with the most careful scrutiny, Sudo Ayami could not find any similarities between the two.

Height, build, voice, tone of voice, and even posture when moving—none of them matched.

This left Sudo Ayami feeling somewhat discouraged.

However, she also knew that the priority now was to figure out the situation of this Temporary Palace.

The You Know Who had actually told her some things about the palace's design, but she never expected that the first palace she would encounter would be her teammate's palace.

Therefore, she dared not summon her Persona to destroy the mirrors, lest it have any negative impact on Chizuru Ichinose herself.

Miyauchi Hiyage didn't care about Sudo Ayami's suspicions about him; it was impossible to recognize his identity from those external characteristics.

Even if she has doubts about his identity, let her have those doubts.

After greeting Sudo Ayami, he began to carefully examine the palace.

The screen full of mirrors does indeed look somewhat mentally polluting.

Even with his eyes fully focused on the image, he felt somewhat uncomfortable looking at it.

However, he still confirmed quite a few things.

There are many shadowy reactions in this palace, but ultimately they should all be considered part of the shadow of Chizuru Ichinose.

He turned to look at Chizuru Ichinose.

"I heard Kaguya-chan mention that your dream is to become an actress, right, Ms. Ichinose?"

Miyauchi Hiyage asked Chizuru Ichinose this question.

Chizuru Ichinose nodded without hesitation.

This is her only ideal and pursuit at present.

"So, is your desire to see your shadow a way of confirming your inner desires?"

Chizuru Ichinose moment, then nodded and shook her head. "I do have that idea, but more importantly, I want to have some communication with my true self. I think that might improve my acting skills a lot, but I didn't expect it to turn out like this."

Chizuru Ichinose turned to look at the Mirror Space in front of her, unable to understand why her shadow was having this problem.

Miyauchi Hiyage was observing Chizuru Ichinose's current attire.

It's not much different from the description in the original work.

This woman presents different faces to others in different situations.

In college, to avoid being bothered by others, I would wear unfashionable clothes, tie my hair in a ponytail, wear old-fashioned black-rimmed glasses, and keep a low profile in everything I did.

Outside of school, especially when interacting with other girls who also have Diary, she reverts to her original self, and even dresses up carefully to present her best self to the girls.

From this perspective alone, Chizuru Ichinose's personality does indeed have some issues.

The fact that she later chose to become a rented girlfriend because she was short of money, and even expressed her idea that she could hone her acting skills by becoming a rented girlfriend, all demonstrate the split in her personality.

Although the reason for the Temporary Palace's appearance is still unclear, Miyauchi Hiyage is not surprised that her palace would be Mirror Theater composed of countless mirrors.

"Mirror Theater?" Shinomiya Kaguya heard this from Miyauchi Hiyage, and then looked at the building that was made entirely of mirrors.

Previously, the mirrors obstructed my view, but now, observing it from a theatrical perspective, this space does indeed resemble a theater.

"The main entrance should be in that direction, but it's hard to find because of the reflections from so many mirrors."

Miyauchi Hiyage pointed to the location of the main entrance, which was indeed very well hidden. The girls had been searching for nearly half an hour without finding the entrance, and even Kasumigaoka Utaha was considering breaking some mirrors to look for clues.

It means that Miyauchi Hiyage had access to the full map and knew the internal structure of the entire theater; otherwise, these girls would probably have had to search for another hour or two to find the entrance.

Chizuru Ichinose instinctively wanted to walk towards the theater entrance, but Miyauchi Hiyage reminded her.

"If you go any further into this theater, you'll probably have to confront those shameful desires deep inside you. Are you sure you're mentally prepared?"

Hearing this, Chizuru Ichinose was actually a little nervous, but she quickly nodded.

"Yes, I am ready. No matter how bad my desires are, they are still a part of me, and I will try my best to accept myself."

"Then let's go up. I hope you'll remember what you're saying now."

Amidst Chizuru Ichinose's somewhat uneasy mood, Miyauchi Hiyage led several girls to a large door also made of mirrors and gently pushed it open.

After the door was pushed open, the first person to appear in front of them was Chizuru Ichinose, who was dressed in a somewhat revealing maid outfit and greeted them.

Chapter 308: The Opportunity to Become an Actor

"Welcome to Lady Chizuru's Mirror Theater! I'm Maid Chizuru, here to greet and welcome you all. Please feel free to tell me if you have any requests; I'll do my best to fulfill them!"

A normal maid outfit is probably the style that Tohru wore most often in the original story.

Then the maid outfits worn by the maids in those maid cafes were modified to better suit modern tastes, with the skirts raised to thigh level, and some even revealing some of their chest skin.

This is already considered a relatively revealing maid outfit.

Now, the shadows appearing at the theater entrance reveal Chizuru Ichinose's maid outfit even more.

It gives the impression of being a special costume that only appears in certain movies.

Combined with Chizuru Ichinose's slightly seductive voice and her makeup that could be described as bewitching, she was truly captivating.

Chizuru Ichinose, who had been saying she would remain calm no matter what happened in the theater, suddenly broke down.

"No, no, why am I dressed like this here?!" Chizuru Ichinose blushed and tried to block Miyauchi Hiyage's view.

Shinomiya Kaguya and Kasumigaoka Utaha immediately stepped in front of Miyauchi Hiyage, their expressions turning wary as they looked at the Maid Chizuru.

At that moment, the Maid Chizuru was giving Miyauchi Hiyage a flirtatious look, as if she was about to quote some classic maid lines from various movies and anime.

However, Miyauchi Hiyage had already seen it clearly beforehand; the Maid Chizuru's actions were meaningless.

"So it's clear that facing one's own desires is not an easy thing," Miyauchi Hiyage sighed.

Many people feel that since they haven't done anything bad or had any particularly malicious thoughts, they think that the "shadow" in their hearts probably isn't that bad either.

But in reality, everyone has a certain tendency toward self-destruction.