Mirror, Mirror

Reflection 1: A Mirror's World

Kagami Carter is for once, at a loss for words.

She had landed on the side of a road, dressed in black slacks, a light blue long sleeved button up shirt and a vest. The road itself is dusty and bare, surrounded by a forest. The tall trees that reached for the sky held within their branches emerald green leaves. A quick look above shows the sky that has never been bluer than it is here. In the distance, she can see a large wooden gate with a large sign with the kanji for 'Korimura' and three people.

Two of them are guards dressed like samurai. The last person dressed like something you would expect from a historical film, a dark brown kimono and a straw hat to block out the sun. If she placed her bets right, he must be a traveler.

So how did a recent college graduate ended up in a place like this?

Well, for starters, she fell down her mirror.

See, she was preparing for a job interview as a Japanese teacher in some school when she dropped her pocket mirror. The mirror is a small, round and black save for the light purple chrysanthemum design on the back. The crack happened to be small, barely even visible unless you were looking for it. Still, Kagami had clicked her tongue and traced a finger over this crack. 

That's when it happened.

The crack glowed bright yellow before dragging her to where ever this is. As one would expect, she screamed in surprise before landing on her back, knocking the air from her lungs.

So here she is, dusting her clothes and looking for that thrice-damned mirror! Hopefully she isn't late. She has an interview to get to!

Sharp black eyes found the mirror hidden in some grass, face up and reflecting the light of the sun. Quickly, she picked it up and cleaned it. If it can bring her here then it can surely take her back! With a deep breath, she brushed a finger over the crack, the crack glowing once more and pulling her back.

The moment she came back, she found herself back where she had dropped the mirror. The familiar tiles and the sink of the bathroom being the first things she sees. Checking the time, it was as if she wasn't gone for a few minutes but a few seconds!

As her phone buzzed a reminder, she shook her head and decided to put it off for now.

Later that day, she dressed in a simple traditional Kimono, which is a plain black that didn't even try to catch the eye. She recognized the clothing to be something from the Edo period and so dressed as if she was. Kagami made the safe decision to go there as male, better to be safe than sorry right? She took one of her flutes, a bamboo flute that her brother had gotten for her for Christmas, and a large blue pouch to carry things while still blending in.

She has a male name prepared for this (and no it is not because of that one time at three am where she wondered what she would look like as a guy before it turned to what she would act like as a guy), having chosen the name Kazuki. The name happened to mean 'peace' and 'hope', Kazu meant the former with Ki being the latter...

She shook her head. She should focus on what she's about to do, not on name meanings!

Kagami stared at the mirror in front of her. Can she really do this? Can she go back, not knowing anything about the dangers of the world, not knowing anything about the world period?

She thought back to how curious she is of this world, how much she thirsted for adventure that she couldn't sate as a child and came to the answer: yes. She can do this. It's an adventure that she's always wanted to have, there's no way she can pass it off. The curiosity is practically eating away at her and she knows she can't go back to ignorance, not when there's an entire world at her finger tips! Not only that but she's always been interesting in other cultures, history and languages so it's pretty obvious that she'll definitely go and learn.