Ren woke with a trembling gasp.
The morning light had just slipped through the thin shōji screens, soft and golden, but his chest felt tight, as if he had run for miles in a storm. Beside him, Kai sat up slowly, rubbing his forehead, eyes unfocused. Between them, the warm dent where Kiyomono had slept was empty.
"Ren…" Kai's voice was low, unsure. "That dream… you saw it too, right?"
Ren swallowed. His throat felt raw.
"I saw everything. The boy… Auren. The dragon in chains. The dust. The silence." His fingers trembled. "And that… that child dragon. Why did it feel like—"
His voice cracked before he could finish.
Kai didn't answer. His own eyes were damp, and for a moment, he looked like he didn't know whether to breathe or break apart.
They had written Auren and Zephyxion—the frail prince and the ancient dragon—for their manga. Yet the faces in their dream were not drawings. They were too vivid. Too familiar. Too painfully alive.
"Why?" Kai whispered. "Why do I feel like I've lost someone? Someone I never met."
Ren pressed a hand to his chest.
"It hurts, Kai. It hurts like I abandoned him myself."
Their breaths grew shallow, mingled with fear. Because this wasn't just a dream.
It felt like memory.
And Kiyomono…
He was nowhere in the room.
Ren tried calling him. No reply. Not even the swish of a tail.
They exchanged a look.
A cold dread tightened around them.
Something was wrong.
---
"KIYOMONO—!!"
Mika's voice rang through the courtyard like a fire alarm.
Within minutes, the entire family was in uproar.
Haruto searched the hallway with a bamboo broom, as if the fox spirit might be hiding on top of the cupboards. Grandma Shun accused Uncle Shin of scaring the fox away because he yelled at the TV last night. Aunt Kiro was preparing sweet rice balls "for coaxing," saying fox spirits preferred treats to apologies.
Ren could barely focus.
He helped them search, but his mind kept replaying Auren's face—frail, starving, eyes too old for a child. The silent dragon bound by rusted chains. Two years of unspoken company.
"Ren," Kai murmured, lightly touching his wrist, "are you alright…?"
"No," he whispered. "Kai, it felt like my soul was breaking."
Kai's hand tightened. "Mine too."
They kept searching. The atmosphere was chaotic but oddly heartwarming—everyone truly treated Kiyomono like a missing family member.
Still, the unease in Ren's chest kept growing.
Where did he go?
Why did that dream feel like a warning?
And worst—
Why did he sense that the fox spirit was crying somewhere?
---
It was Kai who found him.
As the sun sank, the sky painted itself in deep apricot and violet. The river near the shrine glimmered like a slowly moving mirror. And on a moss-covered rock stood a slender figure—white hair brushing his waist, fox ears twitching weakly, tail tips dragging.
Kiyomono.
In his human form, but not fully human. His ears shivered with emotion; his eyes glowed faintly red and gold, wet with tears.
Kai froze.
"Kiyomono…"
The fox spirit turned slightly—enough for Kai to see the trembling of his lips, the sorrow carved deep into his face.
"I didn't want you to find me today," Kiyomono whispered. "I didn't want you to see me like this."
Kai stepped forward anyway.
Slow, cautious, as if approaching a wounded deity.
When he reached him, he gently wrapped his arms around the fox's shaking body.
And Kiyomono…
broke.
A soft, muffled sob escaped him, and he buried his face against Kai's shoulder like a child who had lost his entire sky.
"I miss them…" His voice shattered. "Harutsuki… Seiryūen… my brothers…"
Kai stiffened.
Harutsuki—Spring God.
Seiryūen—Dragon of Spring.
Names from their dream.
Names from their manga.
Names they had invented.
And yet—
Kiyomono cried as if those people were living, breathing pieces of his heart.
"I… I never told you," Kiyomono whispered, voice trembling with centuries of grief. "After you both went to the mortal realm for tribulation… my brothers… they tried to defy fate. To protect the bond between spring and dragon. And the heavens scattered them across realms."
His nine tails slowly drooped like wilting petals.
"I've searched for them for lifetimes," he whispered. "But I could never find them. And now that I finally have happiness here—now that I see Harutsuki and Seiryūen again through you two—"
His voice choked.
"I'm scared that I'll lose you too."
Kai tightened his embrace.
"Kiyomono… you're not alone anymore."
The fox spirit shook his head.
"You don't understand." He wiped his face but tears kept falling. "You two love each other. So after this life, after death, you will return to the divine realm. But I—"
His voice trembled.
"I need to find my brothers first. Before that day comes."
A warm evening wind lifted his silver hair.
His ears drooped. His expression softened into something unbearably tender.
"Kai…"
He placed a small hand against Kai's cheek.
"My beloved God of Spring."
Kai's breath caught.
The title pierced him with a strange ache—like remembering something sacred.
Kiyomono smiled weakly.
"You don't remember. But in our first life, I was your child nurtured by divine light. You were everything warm in my world."
Kai's throat tightened.
"And Seiryūen…" Kiyomono whispered, "he was your other half. The one you chose. The one you loved. And I… I accepted that. I understood it over thousands of years."
His tears glimmered like small pearls.
"But I still loved you both like family. Now that I found you again… I don't want to lose you."
Kai hugged him tighter.
"Kiyomono… don't leave."
The fox spirit gently pried himself away.
"I have to."
His voice steadied, but his eyes were drowning.
"Because if I stay here… I will become selfish. I will cling to you. And that is not what family does."
---
He slowly extended his hand.
Within it rested a small pearl—pale gold, glowing softly like moonlight caught under water.
"What is this…?" Kai murmured.
Kiyomono smiled faintly.
"When you and Seiryūen died in your second life," he whispered, "your souls had one final wish."
Ren and Kai's hearts stilled.
"That your memories would not disappear."
His voice trembled.
"So you gave them to me. And I sealed them inside this pearl."
Kai stared at it, breath shaking.
"If you want answers… if you want to know why your hearts ache when you see Auren and the dragon child—open this pearl. Your second life will be shown to you."
Kiyomono stepped back.
"Kai."
His voice softened.
"This life—you and Ren are not gods. You are human. So don't be cowards like before. Don't hide your feelings. Don't run away. You have the chance to love freely."
Then, with a tiny, bittersweet smile, he added:
"And defy the heavens. I will support you."
"Kiyomono…" Kai's voice trembled. "When will we meet again?"
The fox spirit turned his back to hide the crack in his expression.
"When fate allows it."
His tails glowed faintly at the tips.
"But not soon."
"Kiyomono—!"
Kai grabbed his wrist.
For one moment, the fox spirit looked back—eyes shimmering, vulnerable, filled with devotion that spanned lifetimes.
Kai pulled him into one last hug.
"Thank you… for loving us."
The fox spirit's tears soaked into Kai's shoulder.
His voice was barely a breath.
"I will always love you both."
---
When he finally stepped away, he looked small and lonely—a sacred creature carrying centuries of grief and hope.
"Goodbye, my beloved God."
And before Kai could reach for him again—
—Kiyomono vanished in a swirl of glowing foxfire.
The river went silent.
The wind died.
Kai stood alone, clutching the pearl in his trembling hands, tears spilling silently onto the earth.