The sun hung low, casting a heavy golden haze across the distant city. Its light didn't feel warm.
Sora moved through the town with brisk, measured steps, her eyes constantly shifting—corners of alleys, rooftops, bus stations, empty parks. She'd already been at it since morning. Half a day of searching. Half a day of hoping.
No sign of him.
She stopped beside a vending machine outside a rundown train platform and checked the nearby benches. Empty. Just a sleeping old man and a barking dog tied to a railing.
She sighed.
The wind picked up a little dust from the road swept across her shoes. She moved again.
Ketsu walked alone through a narrow mountain road, where civilization felt like an afterthought. His jacket was torn at the sleeve, a patch of dried blood visible beneath. He passed an overgrown signpost that pointed toward a village—but he didn't even glance at it.
A stray cat crossed his path.
He paused and looked down at it.
It meowed.
He muttered and walked on.
Ketsu walked around in a town, he turned at a corner.
Sora crossed a busy intersection in the next town over, heart pounding for no reason she could name. A figure turned a corner at the end of the street—black clothes, dark hair, bloodstained.
Her breath caught.
Could it—
Ketsu turned around, as he saw white hair blow through the wind.
Sora ran towards him
A stranger blinked at her with confusion, muttering something under his breath before walking past.
Ketsu turned towards the cat with white fur, but the cat ran away.
Sora stood still, the noise of the street fading behind her ears. She didn't chase. Didn't move.
Her heart had already slowed down.
An hour later, she sat on a wooden bench near a closed flower shop, staring at nothing. Her arms were wrapped around her legs, chin resting on her knees.
She didn't feel tired. Just… misplaced.
"I'm not strong enough to do this alone."
She looked up toward the horizon. The mountains, gray and looming in the distance, felt like they were waiting for her.
The large gates creaked open slowly, and the guards stepped aside the moment they saw her.
"The bearer of the present has returned," one murmured.
She said nothing.
Inside, the walkways were clean, the walls bright white, and every face she passed bore her same stark hair color—but not her expression.
She didn't waste time.
"I need help."
The council gathered in the upper chamber—five elders sitting in their traditional garments, their expressions unreadable.
"I'm looking for someone," she continued. "He's… important. I think he's in danger. And you're the only ones with the means to find him."
Silence.
Then one of them spoke, his voice cold:
"You left the bloodline behind. Now you return only when it serves you?"
Another added:
"You ask for our network. Our eyes. Our resources. But you offer nothing."
Her fingers curled into fists.
"I'm not asking to come back. Just for help."
They looked at her for a moment longer. And then one said:
"Then we have no obligation."
Sora sat on the steps outside the ancestral shrine, watching the orange reflections dance across the pond. The wind rippled the surface in soft, trembling circles.
"You'd tell me I'm being stupid, wouldn't you?" she whispered to the empty air. "You'd call this some poetic tragedy. Then you'd act like you didn't care."
Her voice was barely audible.
"Ketsu…"
Footsteps echoed behind her, soft and old.
An elder she didn't recognize sat beside her. He said nothing at first. Just gazed out at the pond with tired eyes.
"You remind me of her," he finally said. "The first one. The one who bore the blessing."
Sora looked at him, startled.
He smiled faintly. "You've heard the stories, haven't you? The Time Devil… the one who tried to fight the Grand Devil."
"…He lost."
"Badly," the elder nodded. "So the Grand Devil punished him. Tore his essence into three."
He held up three fingers.
"One became the Devil of the Past."
Another.
"One, the Present Blessing."
And the last.
"And one, the Future Sigh. A curse no one understands."
He looked at her white hair. "When our ancestor received the blessing of Present, her hair turned white overnight. She passed it on, generation after generation."
Sora's eyes narrowed. "Why would you pass on a blessing that takes some of your sight after every use?"
The elder's face didn't change. "It's the irony of the Blessing"
"You can rewrite the present you see, but every use takes away a bit of your present"
"Until you are unable to see it anymore"
A pause.
Then, softer:
"You are afraid. Not of blindness. But of what you might become, once you can no longer see the world clearly."
She looked away.
"I don't know if I'm meant to carry this. Or if anyone is."
"Then ask yourself," he said, "if the life you're chasing… is worth the cost of seeing it."
Later, Sora stood before the council again. Her voice was clear.
"If you help me find him—if you use your network, your aura sensors, whatever it takes—I will return. I'll accept your rules."
She paused.
"But only once I find him."
A long silence.
Then the same elder from before gave a slow nod.
"We accept."
Ketsu walked down a countryside road, wind tugging lightly at his coat. His steps were slower now. Heavy.
He didn't know where he was going.
He just knew there was nowhere left to return to.