Highway, Present
The limousine glides smoothly down the highway. Niche sits in the passenger seat next to the driver – a middle-aged man in a black suit who hasn't said a word since picking them up. Shima and Arius sit in the back on the leather seats. They've been driving for about an hour now, heading to Shima's cousin's place.
"Pretty nice of your cousin to send a whole limo for us," Niche says, looking back at Shima through the gap between the seats. "Must be doing well for herself."
Shima doesn't respond immediately, just looks out the tinted window.
The silence stretches. The driver's eyes stay fixed on the road, completely ignoring them. Professional. Detached.
Niche tries again.
"So, what do you
think her place looks like? Could be a mansion, or maybe it’s secretly under a café." He emphasizes “guys” just slightly.
"You watch too many movies. Probably a normal villa," Shima says, but there's tension in her voice.
"How long do you think the drive will be?" Niche replies with the same emphasis.
"Why do you keep saying it like that?" Shima asks.
"Like what? I just asked
a simple question."
"There. You did it again. Emphasizing 'guys.'"
"I didn't notice. Sorry, I’m just tired from that whole encounter. You guys must be exhausted too. How long until we get to her house?"
Arius is staring at Niche from the backseat, realizing he might actually know. The casual use of masculine terms while looking at Shima through the mirror...
"Just a few minutes, probably," Shima says carefully.
"Cool. Hey, remember when we all had to change clothes after the cave?” Niche asks. “That was crazy. Good thing we found stuff that fit everyone."
"Yeah," she says quietly.
"Must be hard sometimes. Finding clothes that fit right, I mean."
Arius interrupts. "Niche, what are you doing?"
"Just making conversation. Long drive, you know?"
Yuna’s Estate, Present
At that moment, the car slows down, pulling up to massive iron gates. Security cameras track their movement.
"State your name and business," comes through the intercom.
Shima rolls down her window, sticking her head out to talk to the machine. "Shima here to see my cousin. She's expecting us."
A pause. The cameras adjust, zooming in on each of their faces through the tinted windows. Then the gates swing open silently, smooth and mechanical.
The driver pulls forward without a word.
They drive through grounds that feel more like a private park than someone's property. Manicured gardens stretch on both sides, fountains catching the last light of day.
"Modest," Arius mutters from the back, looking out the window.
Niche doesn't say anything. Just watches the scenery pass by, trying not to think about how much money this must take to maintain.
The main house comes into view slowly as they round a curve. Modern architecture mixed with traditional elements. All glass and wood and flowing water. It looks less like a home and more like something from a magazine.
The car pulls to a stop at the front steps. The driver gets out first, moving around to open the door for them.
Niche steps out, his shoes hitting smooth stone. The air here smells different. Cleaner. Like everything's been carefully controlled.
Shima and Arius follow, both of them looking up at the grand estate.
A woman waits on the front steps. She looks to be in her late twenties, wearing an elegant but simple dress. She doesn't look like someone who runs a "private enhancement lab;" she looks like someone who could be teaching at a university or working in an art gallery.
"Shima,” she says to the approaching guest. Her smile is warm, genuine. "It's been too long."
They embrace briefly, the kind of hug that's polite but still holds real affection.
"Thank you for seeing us, Yuna," Shima says, stepping back.
"Of course." Yuna's eyes move to Niche, studying him with an intensity that makes him want to look away. "
She turns around after a moment, gesturing toward the entrance. "Come. We'll talk in my office. I'm sure you have questions."
They follow her inside. The entry hall is just as impressive as the exterior, high ceilings and art on the walls that looks expensive. Their footsteps echo slightly on the polished floors.
Yuna leads them through a series of hallways, walking with confidence, not looking back to see if they're following.
Eventually, she stops at a door and pushes it open.
Yuna’s Office, Present
The room looks more like a living room than an office. Comfortable furniture, art on the walls that seems to shift when you're not looking directly at it. A desk near the window with a few monitors.
The overhead lights are on, casting everything in a bright, clear glow. It's professional like this, but you can tell if the lights were dimmed, the same room would feel warm and inviting. The kind of place where the mood shifts depending on what's needed.
"Tea?" Yuna pours without waiting for answers. "Shima tells me you have three days left."
"Two and a half," Niche corrects.
"And you refuse to merge with the sun."
"Yes."
"Good." She hands him tea. "The merging process is barbaric. There are better solutions."
"You know about the cycles?"
"I know about many things your government pretends don't exist." She sits across from them. "The question is what kind of help you need."
"I need to break the cycle without dying."
"Ambitious. But perhaps not impossible." She presses an intercom button. "Ryuga, please join us in the office."
"Ryuga?" Niche asks.
"My personal bodyguard. Former patient. One of my best success stories." She smiles. "I think you'll find him... interesting."
Footsteps in the hall. Precise. Measured.
The door opens.
A young man enters. Expensive suit. Perfect posture. Cold eyes that scan the room for threats before settling on Niche.
Niche's teacup slips from his hand.
"Ryota?" Niche asks with a quivering voice.
The man tilts his head slightly. "I don't know that name. I'm Ryuga."
But it's him. Same face. Same voice. Just... empty.
"You know each other?" Yuna asks, though something in her tone suggests she already knew.
"He was—" Niche stops. Niche finally says, "We went to school together."
"Interesting." Ryuga's voice is flat. "I have no memory of that."
Shima and Arius tense. This wasn't what they expected.
"Ryuga came to me several months ago," Yuna explains calmly. "Badly injured. Mind fragmented. We rebuilt him."
"You brainwashed him."
"I saved him." No defensiveness is present in her voice, just fact. "The boy who arrived here was dying inside and out. Ryuga chose to become something new."
Ryuga stands perfectly still, watching Niche with those empty eyes. No recognition. No warmth.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Just professional assessment.
"Should I remove him?" Ryuga asks Yuna.
"No. Mr. Sutori is our guest." She sips her tea. "Though this does complicate things. You came seeking help,” she says, looking towards Niche, “but it seems you've found a ghost instead."
Niche stares at Ryuga, trying to find any trace of his friend in those cold eyes.
"Now then," Yuna sets down her teacup. "About the help you need."
"Right." Niche forces himself to focus. "The cycle—"
"Ryuga will assist you."
Everyone turns to stare at her.
"What?" Arius speaks first. "You're just... lending him out?"
"Not lending. Assigning." Yuna's tone remains casual. "Ryuga, you'll accompany Mr. Sutori and provide whatever support necessary for his mission."
Ryuga doesn't even blink. "Understood."
"Wait," Shima leans forward. "Yuna, he's your personal bodyguard. Your best fighter. You're just giving him up?"
"We made a deal." Yuna glances at Ryuga briefly. "Didn't we?"
Something passes between them. Not quite emotion on Ryuga's face, but acknowledgment.
"Yes, sister,” he replies to her, his voice softer for the first time.
Sister? Niche files that away.
"You can't be serious," Arius says. "The sun bearer situation is a death sentence. You're sending your best asset into—"
"Ryuga is more capable than you know." Yuna cuts him off smoothly. "And he has a vested interest in keeping Mr. Sutori alive."
"Because you ordered him to?"
"Because—" She pauses, choosing words carefully. "Let's say their fates are already intertwined. The plus mark ensured that."
Yuna's hand stops halfway to her teacup.
"Wait." Niche leans forward. "What did you just say?"
"Yes, the X mark had the power to do that -”
"No. You can see it?" Niche’s voice rises. "You can actually see the mark above his head?"
The room goes silent. Shima and Arius exchange confused glances.
"See what?" Shima asks. "What mark?"
Yuna doesn't answer. Just holds Niche's stare.
"That's..." Niche stands abruptly, chair scraping. "That's impossible. Only sun bearers can see them. Only us."
"Niche, what are you talking about?" Arius demands.
But Niche isn't listening. His mind races. "Unless... no. There's no way you could..."
"Could what?" Yuna's voice remains perfectly calm.
"Be a bearer. But you're not. I'd know. I'd feel it." Niche starts tapping his foot. "So how?
can you see them?"
Ryuga shifts slightly, hand moving closer to his weapon.
"The marks are invisible to everyone else," Niche continues, almost to himself. "Even Raizen can only barely sense them because he's been with me so long. But you...you said it so casually. Like it was obvious."
"Perhaps," Yuna says carefully, "your assumption about who can see them is incomplete."
"What does that mean?"
She stands slowly, walking to the window. The lights outside cast shadows across her face.
"Tell me, Niche. In all your research about sun bearers, did you ever wonder what happens to their families?"
"Their families?" Niche asks.
"When a bearer dies. Or merges. Or simply...disappears." She turns back. "Do you think their bloodlines just end?"
Niche's breath catches. "You're saying..."
"I'm saying," she walks to a portrait on the wall, "that some gifts echo through generations."
She touches the frame. An older man stares out. Kind eyes. Worn face. Something familiar about the expression.
"My father painted this self-portrait two years before his cycle ended. He was quite talented." Her fingers trace the nameplate below.
Niche moves closer, reads the inscription:
Kajiwara Takeshi "For my daughter – may you see what others cannot"
Niche feels the room spin slightly.
"Takeshi," Niche breathes. "You're..."
"His daughter. Yes." Yuna turns from the portrait. "He survived longer than most bearers. Long enough to have a family. Long enough to notice his daughter could see things she shouldn't."
"But the records said he died alone—"
"The records say what the government wanted them to say." Her smile is sad. "A bearer with descendants? With inherited abilities? That would complicate their narrative."
"So you can see the marks because..."
"Because whatever changed in him passed down. Diluted, perhaps. We can't wield sun energy, but we can see its signatures." She gestures at Ryuga. "The X burns quite brightly above him, doesn't it? Like a crimson star."
Niche sinks back into his chair. Everything he thought he knew about the bearer legacy just shattered.
"So yes,” Yuna continues, acting oblivious to Niche’s shattered sense of reality. “I know he can't die while you live. Useful insurance for a bodyguard, wouldn't you say?"
"Wait,” Niche starts with suspicion. “That's not how it works. The X means he dies me, not—"
Niche stares at Ryuga, really looking now. The mark hovers above his head, clear as day to those who can see it.
But something's wrong.
"Wait." Niche stands again, moving closer. "That's not...that's not an X."
Yuna watches carefully. "No?"
"It's a plus. But he had an X before. I saw it. Day three, when he..." Niche trails off, remembering Ryota bleeding out on the concrete. "When he died."
"Died?" Shima asks. "But he's right here."
"The reality shifter killed him. I saw it happen. The X mark was fulfilled." Niche circles Ryuga, who stands perfectly still. "So why does he have a plus now?"
"When did you see him again," Yuna asks, "after his death?"
"I didn't. He was gone. The shifters took his body, or I thought—" Niche stops cold. "No. Wait. A new mark appeared." His voice is hollow. "But I was too far gone to notice. Too caught up in my despair to see the plus sign forming."
"The plus mark is rarer," Yuna explains. "Father’s notes mentioned it only once. Where X means death before the bearer, plus means..."
"They can't die at all. Not while I live." Niche laughs bitterly. "I made him immortal. My best friend died for me, and I cursed him with immortality."
Ryuga speaks for the first time in minutes. "Is that what happened?"
Everyone turns to him.
"You remember?" Niche asks desperately.
"No. But it explains the...durability." He looks at his hand. "Training accidents that should have killed me. Missions where survival was statistically impossible. I always assumed it was the enhancement process."
"It was me," Niche says. "The mark. You can't die because I won't let you."
"Useful," Ryuga says simply.
"Useful? That's all you have to say?" Niche’s voice falls into despair.
"What else should I say? I don't remember being this Ryota person. The mark is simply another asset."
Ryuga tries to maintain neutrality with his comments, but something flickers in his eyes. Just for a second. Maybe confusion. Maybe something deeper.
"This should change your approach," Yuna says. "A plus-marked bodyguard who literally cannot die while you live? That's unprecedented protection. Use him accordingly."
"It's a curse," Niche says.
"It's a tool," she counters. "One that might keep you alive long enough to break your cycle."
Niche looks at Ryuga – at Ryota – standing there like a stranger. His best friend is right there, and infinitely far away. Alive forever because Niche was too broken to notice a mark appearing.
"I'm sorry," Niche says quietly.
"For what?" Ryuga tilts his head. "You've given me an advantage. Why apologize?"
The room falls into uncomfortable silence. Even Arius shifts awkwardly.
Yuna lets the moment breathe before speaking. "Well then. Now that we understand the full situation..." She stands, smoothing her dress. "Ryuga, please review your operational parameters."
"Protect Nishihara Sutori. Assist in breaking the sun cycle. Maintain operational efficiency." His voice is mechanical. "No restrictions on methodology unless specified by Mr. Sutori."
"Good,” Yuna congratulates.
Niche watches this exchange, still processing. "Just like that? You're assigning your best fighter to what's basically a suicide mission?"
"Suicide implies the possibility of death." Yuna's smile doesn't reach her eyes. "As we've established, that's not a concern for Ryuga anymore."
"Yuna." Shima moves closer to her cousin, voice low but urgent. "This isn't like you. What's really going on here?"
Yuna glances at Takeshi's portrait. "Father left very specific instructions. About debts to be paid. Mistakes to be corrected."
"What mistakes?"
"The kind that echo through generations." She touches Shima's shoulder gently. "Trust me. This needs to happen."
Arius cuts in, practical as always. "So we're just supposed to work with someone who doesn't remember us? Who might've been programmed to kill us?"
"I wasn't programmed to kill you," Ryuga says flatly. "If I was, you'd already be dead."
"Comforting,” Arius responds, rolling his eyes.
"It should be. I'm efficient,” Ryuga rebuts.
Niche runs a hand through the side of his head, twirling around a bundle of hair. "This is insane. Ryota – Ryuga – whoever you are now. Do you even want to do this?"
Ryuga considers the question like it's a math problem. "Want is irrelevant. This is my assignment."
"But if you had a choice—"
"I made my choice when I accepted sister's offer." He adjusts his cuffs precisely. "This is simply the conclusion of that agreement."
Another silence. Heavier this time.
"Two days left," Yuna says finally. "I suggest you don't waste them on regret."
“I’ll go start the car,” Shima says. “Arius, come with me. Let them alone for a bit.”
“Yeah, I’ll go with her…” Arius says, overwhelmed by the heavy energy in the room, walking away.
Once the two are gone, Yuna directs her full attention to Ryuga, talking like one does when they say their goodbyes at a get-together, “Thank you, Ryuga, for all your help. Complete this mission and…I’ll uphold my end of our deal.”
“Yeah,” Ryuga responds, his humanity showing when he softens his soft voice completely for the first time.
After a moment of silence, Yuna leaves the room gracefully, leaving the two strangers alone.
Niche stares at Ryuga across the room. The others have given them space; even they can feel the weight of this moment.
Niche starts talking. “Ryota, I know you're in there. The way you moved during that fight, your instincts—"
“Stop." His voice is flat, clinical. "You're addressing someone who doesn't exist."
"You're right there. I can see you—"
"You see a body. Ryota's body, yes. But Ryota is dead." He says it like stating the weather. "His consciousness left this body when he was torn apart. What you're talking to now is something else."
"That's impossible. You have his face, his voice—"
"I inhabit his corpse. When Yuna's team retrieved this body, it was clinically dead. Brain death had occurred. Then I... arrived. Emerged. Formed. The terminology is imprecise."
Niche's fists clench. "You're lying. You remember things. You know about the project—"
"Some memory fragments are all that remains. It’s like reading someone else's diary with pages missing. I can access certain memories: how to walk, speak, basic motor functions. Sometimes I get flashes of events. A classroom. Your face. But there's no emotional connection to any of it."
"Then what are you?" Niche asks desperately.
"If I tell you, will you let this whole thing go and accept your friend is dead?!” Ryuga says firmly, raising his voice, making Niche realize the person that stands before him really isn’t his friend.
After a moment, Niche responds, “Yes, I’ll let it go after. So, what really are you?”
“It’s unknown. Yuna has theories. The plus mark may have created a vacuum when Ryota died; nature abhors a void, so something filled it. Or the body's residual connection to you manifested a new consciousness. Or I'm an echo, a shadow of what was. We don't know."
"But the plus mark—"
"It appeared when I inhabited the body. The correlation is clear but causation isn't. Did the mark create me? Did I create the mark? Did we both emerge from the same phenomenon?" He meets Niche's eyes directly. "Even Yuna, with all her research, can only guess."
“So you're just... wearing him?"
"If it helps you process, yes. I wear this body like you wear clothes. It functions. It serves its purpose. But asking me to be Ryota is like asking your shirt to remember being cotton."
Long silence. Niche searches that familiar face for any sign of his friend.
"Does it hurt? Not being him?"
"That question assumes I have a reference point for comparison. I don't. I simply am." He pauses, considering. "Though Yuna mentioned you might ask that. She said Ryota would have hated this arrangement. Would have fought against being replaced."
"He would have."
"Then perhaps his absence is merciful. He doesn't have to experience what he's become."
The words are meant to be comforting, but were delivered without warmth.
"I'm going to keep calling you Ryota."
"That's incorrect and inefficient."
"I don't care."
"Noted. It won't change how I respond."
They stand there, two people who should know each other but don't. Can't. The body is familiar but the soul inside it is alien.
"For operational purposes, you should know - I'll protect you. Not from loyalty or friendship, but because it's my assignment. Don't mistake my compliance for affection."
"I know."
Ryuga watches Niche process this, his head tilted slightly.
"You're hoping I'm wrong. That some part of him survived."
"Maybe."
"Hope is inefficient." He turns to leave, then stops. "But Yuna says it's human. So perhaps it serves a purpose I don't comprehend."
Yuna's Estate, Night, Present
After the group thank Yuna and say their goodbyes, they leave the estate, heading back to Niche’s house.
