Ares instantly felt like his skull was about to split open. The pain was so violent it forced a deep, hoarse roar out of his throat.
"No. You're not me. I'm Ares. I'm Tengetsu Ares!"
"I… I'm Tengetsu Ares!!"
"Why are you in my mind? I don't care who you are or where you're from. Get out of my head!"
That low, ragged voice made it painfully clear how far Ares had fallen into torment, as if something were tearing his brain apart from the inside. His thoughts were murky, sluggish, barely holding together.
Then, inside that chaos, another voice rang out. Hollow. Ethereal. Like it carried an echo.
"I know your name is Tengetsu Ares…"
"No. I'm Tengetsu Ares!"
"That name was chosen by Father. He named you after the god of war from myth, because he hoped that one day you… or I… would protect Wano and become its war god."
"Isn't that right?"
Isn't that right?
…Right.
Ares's instincts screamed yes, because that was exactly why his father had named him Ares. It was expectation. A heavy, burning hope placed on his shoulders.
It was true.
But the voice answering him had said something else too.
That he was also him.
Ares jolted, snapping awake inside his own mind, and roared back, "No! You're you! You just said your name was Riku Yo! You're Riku Yo! I'm Tengetsu Ares!"
"Heh…"
"I was just messing with you." The voice sounded almost… relieved, as if it were smiling through exhaustion. "Hey "
"Tengetsu Ares… I'm actually already dead."
"A soul that never should've existed in this world."
"My name really is Riku Yo."
Ares stared at the man before him, stunned. He couldn't understand why that strange smile sat on his face, or why he spoke as if he didn't belong here.
Why he kept talking about not being meant for this world.
Ares could only stand there, blankly watching him.
Riku Yo's expression dimmed, lonely and far away.
"I'm curious about this world, sure… but I like my home more."
"Do you know what home is?"
"Home…?"
Images surfaced in Ares's mind, fragments from when he was little.
In those memories, his father sometimes stood alone, gazing out toward the sea, his face filled with longing.
Back then, Ares had asked him why.
His father had always said…
That was the direction of home.
Also the place his roots were.
And… it was Ares's home too.
Only, because of certain reasons, they had been forced to leave it behind.
In this moment, Ares realized he still didn't truly understand what "home" meant.
Maybe for him…
He had never had a complete one.
Seeing Ares's dazed confusion, Riku Yo didn't try to explain the concept.
Instead, he said softly, "Then I'll show you mine."
He lifted a hand and tapped a finger against the forehead of Ares's consciousness.
In an instant, images flooded in.
A house made of packed earth and crude brick.
An old man sitting on the doorstep, smoking a hand-rolled pipe, the smoke curling into the air.
Stacks of dead branches and bundled corn stalks piled on both sides of the home like firewood.
A child playing in the courtyard.
A child asleep on a straw mat laid out in the open.
A child sneaking sips of sweet rice wine.
A child shelling corn…
But then
The scene snapped.
The countryside shattered into a city.
Buildings unlike anything in this world. Cars. Computers. Phones. Books. Classrooms.
And in that moment, Ares finally understood what Riku Yo had meant.
Why he said he didn't belong here.
Ares asked, "Riku Yo… is that another world?"
"Yes."
"A world incredibly, unimaginably far away."
"But that's my home."
Riku Yo spoke calmly, but his voice carried a quiet ache.
"I drifted in a haze for a long time. It was only just now that I finally recovered my awareness…"
"Maybe because it's been too long since I talked to anyone… I just want to pull you into a conversation."
"Call it selfish."
Ares felt something strange from him, an emotion that reminded him uncannily of how his father had been near the end.
Always wanting to speak.
Always wanting to say more.
Ares's heart tightened as he asked, "You…"
"Are you leaving?"
"But… you're only a soul."
"Where can you even go?"
Riku Yo gave a lonely smile.
"To somewhere my soul can finally rest."
"I miss home."
He looked at Ares, then suddenly laughed, like he was trying to lighten something heavy.
"Hey big guy. These years of memories… they were truly something."
"I know I can't go back to the place I want to return to."
"And I don't want to паразitize your body either, so…"
"So what?" Ares demanded, confused.
But suddenly
Riku Yo surged forward.
Ares instinctively raised his arms to block
And realized, too late, there was nothing to block.
Riku Yo passed straight through his defense and overlapped with his consciousness, merging, fusing, sinking into him like a tide swallowing the shore.
Ares panicked. "Hey what are you doing?!"
"Remember this."
"I am you."
"And you are me."
Riku Yo's voice sounded farther and farther away, fading into distance.
And inside Ares, memory after memory began erupting.
Like a projector clicking through slides.
Scene after scene. Life after life.
Ares roared, "Riku Yo get out here!!"
"Hey !"
"Can you hear me?!"
"I'm telling you to come out!!!"
But…
There was no answer.
The more the memories surfaced, the more unbearable the pain became.
In the shape of his consciousness, Ares clutched his head with both hands, curling into himself as if he could physically hold his mind together.
He endured it, shaking, gasping, trembling.
And he kept repeating, over and over
"Riku Yo… Riku Yo… come out. Come out!!"
He didn't know how long it lasted.
But eventually, the pain began to fade.
The clarity returned to his eyes.
Yet something else was there too now.
Something complicated.
Something heavy.
Ares murmured to himself, voice low and unsteady:
"I am Riku Yo… and Riku Yo is me."
"I am Ares… and Ares is me."
"Riku Yo is Ares."
"And Ares… is also Riku Yo."
"And I…"
"I am myself."
In the next instant, Ares snapped his eyes open.
A beast's gaze, burning red, shot out like a flare in the dark.
The beast had awakened.
The sleeping dragon…
opened its eyes at last.
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