The baby's eyes dart toward the mother, puzzled and overwhelmed. They glimmer with confusion - eyes far too aware for a newborn.
It's as if he's trying to understand who she is..... or what she means to him.
His tiny fingers twitch, his gaze shaky. Uncertain.
The baby kept staring - still. His gaze didn't waver from the mother's face.
It wasn't the look of a newborn discovering the world for the first time.
It was the look of someone remembering they didn't belong to it.
His tiny brows twitched. Something inside him stirred - a question he couldn't escape.
" Where..... is this? Who are these. people.....?
His mind ached, trying to connect warmth with memory.... but the puzzle was incomplete.
The mother smiled softly, unaware of the storm quietly brewing behind those infant eyes.
The baby's gaze shifted slowly - from the mother's gentle face to the unfamiliar surroundings.
Velvet curtains. Polished floors. A golden cribs standing quietly nearby.
Everything was calm.... peaceful.....
But none of it felt real.
His wide eyes blinked once - slowly.
A quiet shiver ran through his tiny body.
His thoughts, though foggy, were sharp enough to form the terrifying question.
" Where...am I ?
How....why.....am I alive?"
He didn't know this room.
He didn't know these faces.
But he knew one thing for certain:
He had died.
The mother gently brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes, still gazing at the newborn cradled in her arms.
Despite his quiet, almost unnatural stillness, she smiled with warmth that only a mother could carry.
Leaning in close, she whispered softly, her lips trembling ever so slightly.
" My beloved son...from this day, you shall be known as-"
She paused, her voice trembling with emotion.
" Ryouma kiryuu."
The name fell like a blessing...or perhaps, a quiet curse.
The baby's eyes widened. Something stirred again deep within.
The name sounded unfamiliar - yet it echoed like something that had always existed inside him.
" Ryouma..... Kiryuu.....?"
" Is that.....me. ?"
His fingers curled slightly against the silk.
Ryouma's eyes widened slightly. The name still echoed in his mind. Clashing with memories he couldn't fully reach.
"Ryouma...? That's.... Me now?"
He didn't know how to feel. The sound of the name was unfamiliar....yet oddly soothing.
As if it was meant to be his whether he accepted it or not.
Then-
The time when his mother gently lifted him closer into her arms.
Her hands were soft, warm..... steady.
And for a moment, Ryouma stopped thinking.
That warmth -
It wasn't something he remembered.....but it reached into the hollow spaces of his soul, gently, quietly....and held him.
" What ...is this warmth?"
"Why...does it feel so safe...?"
He blinked again, eyes filled with silent conflict.
He was a soul reborn, burdened with fragments of a shattered past-
Yet in this moment, held against her chest, he felt something fragile and unfamiliar:
Peace.
Ryouma's face turned upward, fully visible now in the soft glow of the room.
His wide eyes, still shimmering with confusion, stared silently at the woman who held him.
Her warmth hadn't faded. Her embrace remained steady. Her heartbeat was real- too real to ignore.
Something inside him cracked - just slightly.
His lips didn't move, but the thought echoed sharply in his mind.
" This... isn't a dream.....is it ?"
There was no illusion.
No fading battlefield.
No blood or smoke clouding his vision.
Just soft arms.....and name he didn't choose
" I really.....born again?"
His breathing slowed. His mind, though clouded,was beginning to settle.
But deep beneath that stillness.....
A storm waited.
Ryouma quietly lay in his mother's arms, still soaking in the unfamiliar warmth she offered.
His tiny body relaxed, but his mind remained tangled in confusion.
" Why.....does this feel so unfamiliar?"
" What....is this warmth?"
He didn't understand. He couldn't until -
Something cracked.
A sudden flash-
Like shattered glass falling inside his mind.
A memory fragment.
So vivid.
So sharp.
A child...alone in the rain.
Cold hands.
Empty silence.
No voices, no comfort. No arms to hold him -
The warmth he now felt.....
It wasn't just comfort.
It was Parental love
" This. ..."
" This is the love...of a mother."
" The kind that even gods cannot offer."
His eyes slowly turned toward the woman holding him.
She wasn't just a stranger anymore.
She was his Mother.
And somehow, without ever having felt it in his past life-
He knew
" How do I recognize this?"
" How can I name something I never received?"
His vision blurred.
A single tear slipped down his cheek- then another.
Then they kept coming.
The emotions were too much.
And though his body was that of a newborn, his heart- heavy with lifetimes of silence-
Broke.
He cried.
Not the cry of a hungry baby.
But the cry of a soul that had waited an entire life...
Just to feel loved.
His mother, startled, held him closer and gently rocked him.
" shhhhh.....shhhh... it's okay,my sweet Ryouma..."
She whispered, confused by her son's sudden tears.
She brought him closer to her chest, offering milk with trembling hands, hoping to soothe him.
But Ryouma continued crying-
Tears of grief, gratitude and healing.
" So this is what love feels like...."
" Please... don't take this from me again."
In that moment, all his thoughts quieted.
For the first time across two lifetimes -
Ryouma was no longer alone.
Before the crying began- before Ryouma's name was ever spoken -
The hallway outside the birthing room remained heavy with silence.
Afternoon sunlight poured through the shoji- style windows, casting golden patterns across the polished wooden floor.
The wooden corridor, lined with soft shadows and the scent of sandalwood, stood almost still-
Except for the faintest sound from behind the closed sliding door.
"Aaaaaaah...!"
The cry of labor, muffled but undeniable.
A soft breeze drifted through the paper curtains at the end of the hall, swaying them ever so slightly.
A passing servant bowed respectfully, lowering their gaze as they walked by. But the man at the center of it all- stood frozen.
The lord kiryuu of kiryuu dynasty.
A man of power.control.status.
And yet- his hands were clenched tightly at his sides.
His robes, normally worn with dignity, were slightly wrinkled from pacing.
Despite the peace of the day, the fire inside his raged quietly.
Not from fear. But from anticipation.
Responsibility. Destiny.
His shadow fell short in the light - but his heart felt heavy, overflowing with silent emotion.
" So it begins...."
"The child...is finally arriving."
The wooden sliding door creaked gently open.
A faint breeze stirred the edge of a curtain, and golden sunlight spilled from the room behind - soft, warm, and full of new life.
A maid, clad in traditional formal robes, stepped forward with quiet grace. Her hands were folded. Her eyes respectfully lowered.
She bowed deeply toward the tall man who stood in silence at the corridor's end.
" Your highness....." she said softly.
" The child has been born. It's a boy."
For a moment, there was no response.
Lord kiryuu, ruler of the kiryuu dynasty,
Stood motionless -
His face carved in stone.
But something in his eyes shifted.
A slow breath escaped him-
Part relief, part awe....and something heavier.
A father's duty. A sovereign's weight. A warrior's fear.
And then his thoughts whispered like thunder beneath calm skies -
" My son's..."
" My bloodline continues. And so begins a new storm."