Chapter 133 — The One the Space Welcomed
Sakumo sat alone in the house they had built years ago with the fairies.
A cup of tea rested in his hand, its warmth fading slowly as the silence of the dimension wrapped around him. This place had become more than a shelter over the last four years; it had become a living thing. He had learned its rhythms. Its silence. Its breath.
And because he knew its heartbeat, he noticed the shift immediately.
Sakumo's hand paused mid-air.
"…Something changed."
He set the tea cup down with a soft clack. Suddenly, a wave of energy rippled across the entire dimension. It wasn't a violent tremor or an overwhelming blast of power. Yet, it was undeniably absolute.
Sakumo's eyes narrowed. "This presence…"
It didn't feel hostile. There was no suffocating killing intent. Instead, it felt gentle. Warm. Soft. It was as if the space itself were leaning in to embrace a long-lost child.
Sakumo's grip tightened. "…Strange."
Even so, his instincts refused to relax. Years of dancing on the edge of a blade had carved caution into his very bones. No matter how "welcoming" the energy felt, he would not be caught off guard. He stood up quietly, retrieving the short sword he had found in this dimension long ago, and moved toward the source.
As Sakumo approached, the energy grew clearer. It was calm, yet its sheer scale was breathtaking. Then, he saw them.
Kakashi was lying unconscious on the ground. Akira stood beside him. And then, there was the third figure—a young boy with snow-white hair and piercing red eyes.
He was the source. The aura radiating from him was the very same one the dimension was currently celebrating.
Sakumo stopped, his gaze sharpening. At that moment, the white-haired boy looked toward him. Their eyes met. The boy murmured something softly to Akira, and Akira immediately stepped forward.
Before Sakumo could say a word, Akira reached out and gently covered the boy's eyes. Only then did Sakumo feel it was safe to step closer.
On Akira and Merin's Side
Akira looked at Merin, still trying to process the revelation. "…Is Kakashi really your brother?"
There was a heavy note of disbelief in his voice. It wasn't that he doubted Merin's word, but it simply didn't make sense. Usually, basis on his memory that return at the grave stone had this information that soul-siblings shared a certain resonance—a flicker of a similar personality. But Kakashi and Merin? They were polar opposites.
Merin sighed, a small, knowing sound. "That rule only applies to souls born or the soul from cycle of reincarnation without their memories. In our case… that don't apply to us."
Akira opened his mouth to ask more, but Merin suddenly paused.
"…Oh."
He sensed the approach. Merin lifted his gaze to the horizon where a man with silver hair and a steady presence was walking toward them.
"…Sakumo," Merin whispered. He observed the man for a few seconds, tilting his head with a critical, squinted gaze. "The anime shown him as handsome…"
Merin's eyes narrowed further, his voice turning unimpressed. "…But honestly, he looks rather ordinary."
Sakumo, who had unknowingly just been failed by a divine beauty critic, continued his approach.
Akira didn't hesitate. He reached out and clamped his hand over Merin's eyes.
"Don't use your eyes like that," Akira said, his voice a mix of warning and exhaustion.
Merin blinked against Akira's palm. "…What?"
Akira sighed heavily. "I think you should stop judging people's by their faces, especially since your standards for 'good-looking' are fundamentally broken."
Merin fell silent. Akira's tone was firm, and for good reason. He remembered a specific incident from their past life.
There had been a man of otherworldly, staggering beauty—a man whose arrogance was as vast as his looks. He had used his face to belittle everyone around him. And Merin?
«Merin had dismantled that man entirely.
It wasn't with magic or a curse. Merin had simply looked at him and spoken. He had used words so sharp and observations so devastatingly precise that he stripped away the man's confidence layer by layer.
By the time Merin was done, that "god-like" beauty felt common. Ugly, even. It was a psychological execution. That man—and many like him—had eventually fled the city, unable to bear the sight of their own reflections after Merin had pointed out the "flaws" in their souls.»
Akira looked at Merin with dead seriousness. "…Do not start that again."
Merin blinked once, then a slow, wicked smile spread across his face. "…You still remember that?"
Akira didn't bother to answer.
Finally, Sakumo reached them. His gaze flicked between his unconscious son, the calm Akira, and the white-haired boy whose very existence seemed to be vibrating in sync with the world around them.
Sakumo's grip tightened on his sword. "…Who are you?"
The air grew still. The dimension itself seemed to hold its breath, waiting for the answer.
Merin slowly moved Akira's hand away from his face. He looked at Sakumo again, this time with a faint, regal smile.
"Ah," he said casually. "So you're Kakashi's father." He tilted his head. "…Sakumo Hatake."
As he spoke the name, the dimension trembled—not in fear, but in acknowledgment. Sakumo felt a chill run down his spine. This boy wasn't just a powerful ninja or a strange visitor.
He was something ancient. Something that the world itself bowed to.
He was a god in the body of a child, and he had just arrived home.
End of Chapter 133