As Kenji transcended into this new world, he couldn't help but feel as if he had been transported into an isekai, another realm that defied all logic and reason. The air was thick with a surreal haze, colors seemed more vivid, and every sound echoed as if bouncing off invisible walls. It was unsettling, yet strangely familiar.
Little did Kenji realize, this was not another world in the literal sense, but rather the awakening of something ancient and powerful within him. The warrior that had always slumbered deep in his blood was stirring at last, dragging long-buried memories to the surface, memories that were not his own.
"But if these memories aren't mine," Kenji thought, panic fluttering in his chest, "then whose are they?"
Before he could find an answer, he noticed her, the woman who had haunted his visions for days now. But there was something different about her this time. Her face, once shrouded in mystery, was clearer, sharper. She wasn't some ephemeral hallucination anymore; she was real. Real enough to reach out and touch.
But that wasn't the only strange thing. Kenji realized with a jolt that he was no longer himself. His consciousness was trapped inside another man's body, a strong, broad-shouldered figure he could not control. He could see through this man's eyes, feel his heartbeat, but not a single muscle would respond to Kenji's desperate attempts to move.
Panic clutched at him, but before he could make sense of anything, his attention snapped to the woman once more. She smiled warmly, lovingly, as three young children ran into the room, laughing and tumbling about without a care in the world.
Kenji blinked in confusion. Had they been there the whole time? It was as if the children had materialized from thin air, though part of him sensed they had always been there, he simply hadn't noticed them until they surrounded him.
The woman's voice, soft and melodious, called out.
"Kosei, take your siblings outside and play. Your father must be exhausted."
Kenji froze. Kosei?
The name slammed into him like a hammer to the chest.
That was his father's name.
But... how? Kenji had never known his parents' names. They were shadows in his mind, nothing more than vague impressions. How was it that now, so clearly, he knew?
"Wait... I never knew them. How do I know this now?" Kenji thought, his mind spinning wildly. "Is this real? Or some trick?"
The boy... Kosei... nodded respectfully and ushered his younger siblings toward the door, their laughter fading into the distance as they ran out to play.
Kenji, still trapped within the unfamiliar body, tried to speak, to move, but his will was powerless. Yet somehow, his body, or rather, the man's body he inhabited spoke on its own, with a voice that was warm and filled with a profound affection Kenji himself had never experienced.
"No, no," the voice said, laughing gently. "Let them be. They must have missed me."
Kenji felt the smile stretch across the man's face, even as fear twisted inside him. It was like riding in a carriage with no reins, watching helplessly as someone else steered.
Despite the man's words, the children obeyed their mother, giggling as they disappeared outside. The woman turned toward him then, her eyes shining with a love so deep that it ached to behold.
Slowly, she approached.
Kenji struggled to move, to back away, but his borrowed body remained still, rooted to the spot as she drew near.
When she finally reached him, she knelt down beside him and wrapped her arms around him in a warm, familiar embrace. Kenji braced himself, certain he would be overwhelmed, but instead, the moment felt tender, nostalgic... almost heartbreakingly pure.
And then, without warning, he heard himself whisper a single name, one that escaped his lips without his consent:
"Hinata..."
The sound of the name echoed in the room, reverberating through Kenji's very soul.
Hinata...
The name lingered in his mind like a half-forgotten melody.
Before Kenji could process the significance, before even a single coherent thought could form, the world around him crumbled like ash in the wind.
Everything went black.
Kenji was falling again, spinning through darkness, through layers of forgotten memories and hidden truths he could not yet grasp.
And somewhere, faintly, he heard a whisper, a whisper not from Ryuzaki, not from Yami, but from deep within himself:
"Find the truth... before the truth finds you."
Kenji's journey was far from over. In fact, it had only just begun.