SAI SHINU
Yuri didn't move away. She stayed against me, her hand still brushing the mark, her eyes searching mine with a quiet intensity.
Her voice was soft but steady.
"Sai… the scars. All over you. And this mark on your chest. What happened to you that night? You came back different. You're hiding something."
I felt her words sink into me. She deserved to know — after three years apart, after everything I had dragged myself through, she deserved the truth.
I leaned back slightly on the bed, staring at the ceiling for a moment. My body was still sore, still carrying the weight of every strike, every wound from inside that gate.
"It wasn't just a stone we found," I said at last. My voice was low, rough. "That godglyph—it wasn't sitting there, waiting to be claimed. It was guarded. Tested. That mark, these scars… they're the price of what we faced inside."
Her fingers traced one of the jagged lines across my ribs, and I flinched at the memory it carried.
"The first place we entered was a graveyard of memories," I continued. "Not just stones or bones, but illusions… the past, twisted and alive. I watched my father die again there. Yosuke faced his own brother's betrayal. Taro… Jiro… we were all broken down by what we'd already lost."
Yuri's breath caught, but she said nothing, letting me speak.
"The second zone was worse. A room painted red, with that old man—like he'd been waiting for us. He forced us to tell the truth, every answer pulled out of us whether we wanted to share or not. And in the end, he revealed something—about the glyphs, about powers beyond them. Truths I didn't want to hear."
I paused, remembering the third stage. My hand instinctively went to one of the deeper scars near my shoulder, where the false god's illusion had struck me down.
"And then… the throne," I said, my voice tightening. "The false god who ruled over illusions. Every cut you see on me, every scar—it's from that fight. From his power twisting reality, forcing us to fight ourselves, our fears. We barely survived, Yuri. Barely."
Her hand had stilled against my chest, but her eyes shone with unshed tears.
"When it was over, the room disappeared," I whispered. "And all that remained was the godglyph. Another stone, another curse, waiting to be claimed. We argued over it… whether I should take it, since I already carry two. But I couldn't. I couldn't mess with the balance of the world any more than I already have. So we left it."
The silence in the room was heavy. I turned to look at Yuri fully, and for the first time, I let her see the exhaustion in my face.
"These scars… they're not just wounds. They're reminders of what waits beyond those stones. Every power comes with a cost. And I don't know how many more I can pay."
Yuri leaned closer, her lips brushing softly against one of the scars on my shoulder, and then my chest. Her arms wrapped around me tightly, as if she could shield me from the weight I carried.
A knock broke the silence.
I let out a low sigh, slipped off the bed, and pulled a shirt over my shoulders to cover the scars. Yuri sat up, brushing her hair back, watching me with quiet eyes as I went to the door.
When I opened it, Namae was standing there with the child tucked beside her, his small hand gripping the edge of her dress. Her face was calm, but I could see curiosity flickering behind her eyes as they shifted past me and caught sight of Yuri.
"Good morning," I said, stepping aside. "Come in."
Namae nodded politely and guided the boy inside. The room suddenly felt smaller, warmer, as the four of us gathered near the small table by the window. I motioned for them to sit, and we settled into place—me at the side, Yuri just across from me, Namae with the boy at her side.
"This is Yuri," I said simply, though the word carried more weight in my chest than it could ever sound. I looked at Yuri, then back to Namae. "She's… someone important to me."
Yuri gave a gentle smile, composed yet a little shy, and inclined her head toward Namae. "It's good to meet you," she said softly.
Namae studied her for a moment, then returned the smile. "And you. I've heard… some things about you." Her eyes flicked toward me before resting again on Yuri. "But I see now why Sai speaks the way he does."
The boy, restless and curious, tugged on Namae's sleeve before peeking over the table at Yuri. She reached across, offering him a gentle pat on the head, her warmth drawing a small laugh from him. For a moment, the heaviness of the past days seemed lighter.
I leaned back slightly, watching them. The people I had carried in my heart for years were finally sitting at the same table, face-to-face. The weight of the scars, the memories, the godglyphs—all of it felt distant for just a heartbeat.
"Strange, isn't it?" I murmured with a faint smile. "After everything that's happened, after all those years apart… here we are. Sharing a table."
Yuri looked at me with that quiet fire in her eyes. "It feels right," she said.
Namae folded her hands together, her tone steady but warm. "Perhaps this is what you've been fighting for all along."
I glanced at her, then at the boy leaning against her shoulder, then finally back to Yuri. My chest tightened—not with pain, but with something dangerously close to hope.
For the first time in years, I allowed myself to believe that maybe… this moment was real.