Yumiko didn't ask him to explain right away.
She walked beside Jash in silence, rain easing into a quiet mist as the city lights flickered on one by one. Every step felt heavier than the last, as if her body remembered a path her mind refused to acknowledge.
They stopped beneath an old bridge, the sound of water echoing softly around them.
"This is where it happened," Jash said.
Yumiko's chest tightened. "What happened?"
He took a slow breath, as if the air itself hurt to pull in. "Where you chose to forget me."
Her fingers curled into her sleeves. "Start from the beginning."
Jash looked at her then—really looked at her—and for the first time, the calm mask cracked. "There is no beginning without you," he said. "You existed before time learned how to repeat itself. You were the balance."
Yumiko shook her head. "That doesn't sound like me."
"That's because you're human now," he replied gently. "Before, you weren't meant to live a single lifetime."
The world seemed to tilt. "So what was I?"
Jash hesitated, then spoke the words like a confession. "You were the one who chose who lived, who ended, and who was reborn."
Her breath left her in a rush. "That's—no. I would remember something like that."
"You weren't allowed to," he said. "Because loving me broke the rules."
Silence pressed in, thick and unbearable.
"You fell in love with a guardian," Jash continued, voice low. "With me. And when the balance began to collapse, you made a choice."
Yumiko's vision blurred. "What choice?"
"You gave up eternity," he said. "So the world could keep turning. So I could keep existing."
Her wrist burned, the silver mark glowing faintly beneath her skin. Images flickered at the edge of her mind—hands stained with light, tears falling into water, Jash calling her name as if it were the last thing he had left.
"You promised you'd find me," she whispered, the words slipping out without permission.
Jash's breath hitched. "You remember."
"Not everything," she said, trembling. "But I remember the promise."
He stepped closer, rain dripping from his hair, eyes shining with something dangerously close to hope. "I kept it," he said. "In every lifetime, I found you. Even when you didn't know me."
Yumiko's heart ached, full and breaking all at once. "And this time?"
"This time," Jash said softly, "you're not supposed to fall in love with me again."
Her gaze lifted to his. "But I already am."
The air between them stilled, heavy with fate and fear.
And somewhere deep inside Yumiko, something ancient stirred—
Not awakening fully.
Not yet.
But remembering enough to know:
The past was catching up to them.