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The warm evening wind shook the light from the clouds. The sky, once covered in pearly reflections, now melted into a deep blue, like a sea swallowing the day. In the midst of that silence, Saru stood still, listening to the almost imperceptible noise of the world—his heartbeat and the approaching footsteps.
Familiar footsteps. Too familiar.
"Tenma..."
The name escaped his lips like a forgotten prayer. When Tenma appeared in the twilight light, he wore the same expression—innocent, confused, but incredibly alive. And for a moment, Saru felt as if time had lost its meaning. The future and the past were mixing in the same breath.
"Saru..."
Tenma's voice was the same. Warm. Naive. Painful.
The silence between them was thick. The air vibrated with everything that had never been said before.
“The test results… how were they?” Tenma asked, trying to break the silence.
“Good. Very good, indeed.” Saru smiled wearily. “Our power is waning. Finally, it is waning. We can no longer destroy or rebuild worlds… and maybe it’s better that way.”
eyes.
"And you? Where will you go?"
"Where time tells me to go. But..."
He smiled at her. "If you ever feel a warm wind, reminding you of something... know that I'm here. Still there."
Tenma took a step forward. "Saru—"
But he was already disappearing into the blue light. His molecules were dissolving in the air, like a trail of stardust.
And before he was completely lost, his voice rang out, clear, sincere, impossible to forget:
"Tenma. The two of us... have always been connected through time."
When the wind died down, Tenma was left alone.
But in his chest, his heart was beating faster than ever.
Because somewhere between the past and the future, between pain and hope—he knew that Saru was still watching him.
And that, perhaps, in another world, at another moment in history,
they will find each other again.
Like two children of the same sky.
Tenma looked at him.
“But… isn’t it hard for you? Losing everything that made you… you?”
Saru shook his head.
“I’m not losing anything, Tenma. Maybe just an illusion.”
Then Meia, with her smile too bright for this world, had appeared—and invited Saru to lunch with her and Giris. He had politely declined, saying he had a date with Fei.
But the truth was different. He couldn’t help but feel a strange desire to remain in that silence with Tenma, between two worlds that should never have touched.
“Saru… what is love?” Tenma had asked him then, simply, directly, without fear.
Saru froze. The question hit him like an old memory.
Tenma was smiling, but in his eyes there was something… something Saru recognized all too well. A search. An unanswered question.
He wanted to tell her the truth: that love is the pain of knowing that you can’t stay with the one who understands you the best. But he couldn’t.
So instead he just asked, in a voice that betrayed him:
“Tenma… do you have someone you like?”
Tenma didn’t answer right away. But in that silence, Saru already knew.
He knew that the answer was him.
And that was precisely what was tearing him apart.
Night fell.
The stars were fading one by one in the reflections in their eyes.
“Saru, why… why weren’t we born at the same time?”
The question rang out like a broken echo. Tenma wasn't crying, but behind every word there was an emptiness.
Saru smiled bitterly.
"Maybe it's because the world couldn't bear for us to be together at the same time. Two stars too close burn each other."
Tenma didn't fully understand. He just moved closer. He hugged him.
Tight. Too tight.
And Saru felt himself suffocating.
Every second in Tenma's arms made him remember what he could never have—a life together, a future where she could watch him laugh in the morning light. It was all an illusion thrown by fate, a cosmic joke.
"Tenma..." he whispered, barely audible. "Don't think you're special."
Tenma flinched. "What do you mean?"
"You have special genes… like mine. You are one of the origins of the Second Stage Children. They may not have fully activated in you, because your generation is still immature. But they are there. In you."
"In me…?"
"Yes. You have a greater resistance, an energy that others will never understand. But don't tell anyone, Tenma. Not even those closest to you. For your own good."
Tenma looked at him with wide, distrustful, but also a little scared eyes.
"Saru… I… if I have the same genes as you… then can I become like you?"
"No." Saru smiled, gentle but bitter. "You are you. I am me. Genes do not define you. But they do give you a burden. You are lucky, Tenma… your generation will live long and well. Your genes will not destroy you."
The silence that followed was heavy.
Tenma lowered his gaze.
“But… if I do… lose control?”
“Then you will call me.” Saru replied simply. “I will come too. No matter the era, the distance, the time.”
“Even if you are no longer here?”
“Even then.”
And in that moment, Saru realized that he was half-lying to him. Because he knew: one day, he would disappear completely. His genes, his body, everything that had been Saru would dissolve into history. But the connection with Tenma—that would remain.
In his blood. In his memory. In the future that would come in two hundred years.
The wind stopped.
Tenma looked up at the starry sky.
“You know, Saru… ever since I was little, I dreamed that I could fly. That I could reach the sky. But now… I think that sky is you.”
Saru fell silent.
He didn’t know what to say. She wanted to scold him for such naive words. But her voice trembled.
"Tenma..."
"Yes?"
"If you ever wonder who you really are... don't look to the past. Look within yourself. I am just the shadow of your future."
"And if the shadow disappears?"
"Then you will shine alone."
Tenma smiled.
A warm smile, like a ray of sunshine on ashes.
Saru looked at him one last time. He reached out slightly, touching his temple with his fingers.
"You are not special because you have the same genes as me, Tenma. You are special because you chose to remain good. Even after everything you have seen."
Tenma blinked, tears stinging the corners of his eyes.