crystal princess, 𝐒𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐎𝐑 𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐍

vi. You think he's a hero? Or just another thief?

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CHAPTER SIX
You think he's a hero? Or just another thief?
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JAPAN, TOKYO
CHIBA MAMORU

𝓣he moment Mamoru's eyes closed, he was no longer in his room.

He stood in a world wrapped in twilight, where the sky shimmered with impossible stars—closer than they should be, humming with ancient, silent music. The air smelled of silver rain and something older than time. He couldn't tell if it was night or day. The sky was both glowing and dim. Nothing made sense, and yet it all felt... familiar.

Under his feet stretched marble—white, veined with soft gold, cracked as if time itself had walked across it. A long staircase curved upward, leading to a high platform wrapped in mist. The light grew brighter there, pulsing gently with a rhythm that matched his heartbeat.

And then she appeared.

She stood at the top of the staircase, shrouded in veils that moved like smoke and moonlight. Her long hair fluttered behind her as if underwater, silver-white and endless. She didn't descend—she glided, as if the very air carried her weight, as though the world wanted her to stay untouched.

Her eyes found him.

Mamoru didn't know why his chest tightened when they met her gaze. Her expression was unreadable at first—like a painting half-finished—but her eyes... they knew him. Not like a stranger, or even an old friend. They knew him like a lost promise. Like the shape of a dream you've been trying to remember your entire life.

"Endymion," she whispered.

It was the first word of the dream, and it cracked the stillness like thunder.

Mamoru's breath caught in his throat. That name... he had heard it before, hadn't he? Somewhere?

He tried to speak, but no sound came. He took a step forward, but the marble beneath his feet fractured, echoing through the silence. A wind stirred. Her veil lifted gently, and he caught a glimpse of her face—so young, so achingly sad.

And then, softly, with the sorrow of a thousand years resting on her lips, she spoke again.

"Find the Silver Crystal..."

The words floated toward him like ash in the wind. As they touched his skin, they ignited something—memories that didn't belong to him, feelings that had no source. A throne room of light. A battlefield of fire. A promise made beneath a tree crowned with stars. And her. Always her.

He fell to his knees. He didn't know why.

The silence stretched. She stood before him, so close now that he could see the tear balanced on her lower lashes, refusing to fall. He wanted to ask her name, to ask who he was to her, why she was calling to him through the veil of dreams. But his mouth was frozen, heavy with forgotten truths.

Her last words were barely more than breath:

"Find me."

And then the light around her fractured—shards of memory, of starlight, of ancient grief. The wind howled. The sky cracked open, and darkness poured in like smoke. Her form began to disintegrate into motes of light.

Mamoru surged forward, arm outstretched. "Wait—!"

But it was too late.

She vanished with the wind.