The fire in the middle of the cave had died down a little, and everything around them had quieted down, until the world seemed to have fallen into a momentary slumber, the only sound being heavy breathing and the slow heartbeats of the anxious.
And suddenly...
Kaito's hand trembled.
Tsuki's eyes widened, and she cried out softly as she leaned toward him, "Kaito!"
He opened his eyes slowly, as if the light was bothering him, and then studied the faces surrounding him.
Tsuki's face was wet with tears, but she was smiling.
Hana squeezed Saya's hand in delight.
Hairu Shin waved his arms excitedly.
"Huh! I knew you wouldn't die so easily, you bastard!"
His father stood up calmly, stretched, and said with a broad smile, "Oh? Is your royal slumber finally over? I almost suspected you were playing dead to be pampered!"
But in the midst of this, Minamoto remained sitting on a rock near the cave wall, his eyes never leaving Kaito's from the moment he moved his eyelids... He didn't smile, didn't speak.
Kaito raised his hand to his forehead, then slowly sat up, studying all their faces.
He smiled slightly and said in a low voice, "I'm fine... I just seem to have tired myself out a little."
A lie.
But he said it skillfully, as if it were the truth.
Everyone was silent for a moment, then Tsuki began bombarding him with worried questions:
"Are you feeling dizzy? Are you hurt? Do you remember what happened?"
But he just nodded short answers, avoiding details.
Then he said,
"It was... blurry. I only remember darkness, and some strange images."
A second lie.
Inside Kaito's Mind
"I pretend to be calm,
but the truth is... I'm still drowning in that river."
He remembered everything:
The blood, the corpses, the voice that had ripped through his soul… and its terrifying reflection.
"That wasn't a dream.
It was a message… a message from something that dwells within me."
The Tense Moment
Minamoto finally stood up and walked calmly toward Kaito.
He stopped in front of him, looked at him with eyes that pierced every mask, then said:
"What I saw there… will come back."
Kaito looked at him steadily, but didn't deny it, wasn't surprised.
Instead, he said calmly:
"I know… and I won't tell you."
There wasn't a challenge in his voice, but a terrifying conviction… as if his decision wasn't one of rejection, but of protection.
The two exchanged glances for a few moments…
Then Minamoto turned, without adding a word, and returned to his seat.
The others looked at each other, confused.
They didn't understand anything, but they sensed that something had changed.
At the end of the cave, where no light reached,
there were two small eyes... watching silently.
They left the cave silently, as if something inside forced them to remain calm.
Kaito stepped first, followed by Tsuki, who held his arm lightly, as if something in his shadow still worried her.
Hairu Shin stretched wearily and said in a low voice,
"We're finally out of this stone tomb... I was going to turn into a statue."
But no one laughed.
The air changed.
Ahead of them stretched a pale landscape, covered in a thin layer of ash, as if the ash of centuries past had accumulated without being blown away by the wind.
The sky was invisible, as if a stifling gray ceiling covered the entire place. It was unknown whether this was underground or within a timeless, dead world.
In the distance, massive leaning stone pillars, ruins of ruined buildings, and statues with broken faces lay like corpses.
Hana whispered, "It's as if we've entered a dream that melted away a thousand years ago."
Echoes of Ashes
They walked slowly... their footsteps echoing, but no one spoke.
Then, without warning, a fine mist began to thicken in the distance, revealing translucent beings.
They were ghosts. They didn't speak, they didn't scream, they didn't attack.
They walked in a straight line, their eyes glassy, their bodies fading at the edges.
Some bore human features, others resembled dignified insects, with many eyes and long wings.
They all stood, staring in silence.
Saya said, confused,
"Do they... see us?"
But none of the ghosts turned around.
Kaito's father, uncharacteristically frowning, said,
"These aren't living... but they aren't dead yet."
Noxar's Memory
Among the crumbling buildings, they found a leaning stone monument, its inscriptions written in the language of insects.
When Kaito touched it, it glowed a pale purple… and the wall beside it began to emit faint whispers.
Whispers that no one else heard.
He read the inscription in a low voice, and its words echoed in their hearts like the echo of a dream:
"We who were stripped of our names…
We didn't cry when the roof was finished…
We waited for the returnee."
Tsuki asked him, "What does that mean? Who is the returnee?"
He didn't answer.
But their gazes all rested on him.
They sat by a half-crumbling stone wall, watching the ghosts pass by, unconcerned.
Minamoto remained standing, watching Kaito, as if trying to discern what was growing inside him.
Kaito wasn't comfortable... he didn't feel fear, but rather nostalgia.
He said to himself, "This place... I know it, even if I haven't lived there."
Then he turned to the horizon, where the fog still concealed more lives... and more questions.
Fin chapter