They were still fifteen, but the world already felt like it had its claws around their throats.
They'd only had one match.
But that match had shaken something.
Not just inside them… but in the world.
They didn't know yet that their fight had been watched. That Zero's Eye, a long-dormant divine artifact, had flickered for the first time in decades.
They didn't know yet that three Sovereigns were already reviewing footage of Ki's lightning, frame by frame, looking for patterns that shouldn't exist.
They didn't know that a clone was being prepared to mirror Ki's soul, and replace it.
They were just kids.
Bored. Hungry. Restless.
But destined.
"Hey," Ki asked, lying upside down now, his hair touching the floor.
"What."
"If the world got reset… do you think we lost something?"
Andreo didn't answer at first. He picked up his sword again, but didn't resume polishing. Instead, he stared at his reflection in the blade.
Then, "Yeah. Probably."
"Like what?"
"…Ourselves."
Ki blinked.
"…Whoa, that's deep. Are you dying?"
"No."
"Good. I still need to beat you in round two."
But as Ki said it, something strange happened. For just a moment, the air between them shifted. The casual banter felt heavier, weighted with meaning neither of them understood.
Ki sat up, suddenly serious. "Actually, about that..."
"What?"
"I've been thinking about our fight. About what you said afterward."
Andreo's grip tightened on his sword. "What did I say?"
"You said we were connected. That fighting me felt like fighting myself."
"And?"
Ki hopped off the bed, standing directly in front of Andreo. His electric-blue eyes were intense, more focused than Andreo had ever seen them.
"I want you to join me."
"Join you in what?"
"I don't know yet. But whatever's coming, whatever this whole unwritten thing means, I want you there."
Andreo stared at him. "You don't understand---"
"I understand enough." Ki's voice was firm, but not aggressive. "I understand that you're the only person who's ever matched me blow for blow. I understand that when we fought, it felt like the world made sense for the first time in my life."
Lightning began to crackle around Ki's fingers, but it was gentle, like static electricity on a summer day.
"I understand that you're hiding something. And I understand that whatever it is, it's eating you alive."
Andreo's breath caught. The Bakunawa's voice whispered at the edge of his consciousness,
"Refuse him. Walk away. Save yourself."
But Ki continued, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper.
"I also understand that I trust you more than anyone else in this crazy world. And if you're planning to betray me or whatever dramatic thing you're thinking about---" Ki grinned, and for a moment he looked exactly like the carefree kid who'd walked into the tournament. "I'd rather have you close enough to punch."
It was such a perfectly Ki thing to say, so direct, so honest, so completely lacking in subtlety, that Andreo almost smiled despite himself.
"You're insane."
"Yeah, probably. So what do you say? Partners?"
Ki held out his hand. Electricity danced between his fingers, but it was warm rather than threatening.
Andreo stared at that outstretched hand for a long moment. He thought about the Bakunawa's warnings, about the visions of destruction, about the weight of prophecy pressing down on his shoulders.
Then he thought about Ki's laugh. About the way Ki had looked at him after their fight, not with suspicion or fear, but with genuine respect and something that might have been friendship.
"He must not reach the center."
But maybe, Andreo thought, the center would come to them regardless.
Maybe the only choice was whether to face it alone or together.
Slowly, Andreo reached out and clasped Ki's hand.
The moment their skin touched, something electric passed between them, not Ki's lightning, but something deeper. A recognition. A bond that felt older than their fifteen-year-old bodies, older than the reset, older than the legends themselves.
"Partners," Andreo said quietly.
Ki's grin could have powered a small city. "Awesome! This is going to be fun."
"Fun," Andreo repeated, like he was testing the word. "Right."
"Don't worry," Ki said, pulling him to his feet. "What's the worst that could happen?"
As if in answer, the watermelon walls of their room began to glow with an eerie light. Both boys froze, hands still clasped, as reality seemed to bend around them.
The glow faded as quickly as it had come, but something had changed. The air felt different.
"Okay," Ki said conversationally. "That was probably fine too."
Somewhere far away, an old immortal woman laughed while stirring soup.
In her pocket was a faded drawing of a boy with electric-blue eyes. And under it, a note written in golden ink,
"Soul 001: Ki. Do not awaken prematurely."
She stirred faster.
"Too late," she whispered.
The soup began to bubble, and in its depths, images swirled, two boys shaking hands, a serpent coiled around the moon, lightning that burned without light.
She pulled out another note, this one newer,
"Soul 002: Andreo. The chain that binds the storm."
"And so it begins," she murmured, "again."
The soup boiled over, hissing as it hit the flame.
But she kept stirring.
Because some recipes, once started, had to be finished.
Even if they burned the world down in the process.
Back in the watermelon inn, Ki and Andreo sat planning their next move, unaware that their handshake had just rewritten the fate of three worlds.
They were still just kids.
Still bored, hungry, and restless.
But now they were bored, hungry, and restless together.
And that, perhaps, made all the difference.
"So," Ki said, already bouncing with excitement, "where do we go first?"
Andreo considered this, feeling the weight of prophecy and the lightness of choice warring in his chest.
"Wherever the road takes us," he said finally.
"Perfect. I love a good adventure."
"Ki?"
"Yeah?"
"Try not to accidentally destroy any cities."
"No promises."
And despite everything, despite the warnings, the visions, the weight of destiny pressing down on them, Andreo found himself smiling.
Maybe the world was doomed.
But at least they'd go down fighting.
Together.