Chapter Three

Episodes 36-39

Ah. He's exceeded human limitations. All because I took you? Ha. Maybe there's something to this soulmate thing after all. In any case, I don't need you anymore.

The sky was pale blue, almost too light, like there was a haze in front of it. Actually, Ryuuga could smell smoke. And his head was killing him. Had he been caught in a fire or something?

He and Evolt had caused fires during their fight. But that had been at night. Something was wrong. Ryuuga pushed himself up on weak arms, grimacing in the sunlight, and looked around. Lying prone beside him on the ground was—

"Sento!"

Sento sat up. He was alive! But he spoke with Evolt's voice. Then Evolt reached inside Sento and pulled out his essence—a rabbit. Like the word that had appeared on Ryuuga's chest as a child. His rabbit! Evolt used Ryuuga's soulmate's essence to transform into a new armor.

"Give Sento back!" Ryuuga demanded before transforming…or…not transforming?

"Sucks to be you. You won't be able to transform anymore because I took all of my DNA from you," Evolt mocked. He gestured to his own armored chest. "You're entirely human now, just like you wanted. With a soul mark, even. Who would have thought it possible." He held his hands up as if to say, 'what can you do.' "Too bad."

In Ryuuga's place, Kazumin attacked. "If he can't do it, then I'll get Sento back for him!"

Except Evolt was stronger than ever, easily defeating both Kazumin and Ryuuga with barely a flick of his wrist. And then he was gone, taking Sento with him.

…

…

The only chance to save Sento was to get made into a Rider again, so they went to Himuro for help. Ryuuga even bowed before him and begged. But Himuro couldn't help. He couldn't make Ryuuga into a Rider and he refused to fight with them. Ryuuga was going to lose Sento, again, because of his own weakness.

Why the hell was Ryuuga always so damn powerless?!

Before all the nonsense with Nebula Gas and aliens and Riders, Ryuuga had thought of himself as strong. He'd won nearly every fight he was in. He could lift Kasumi and spin her around like she weighed nothing. No one would have ever claimed he was weak. So how was it that he kept failing to protect Sento? Sento was always there to help him, to lift him up, to save his butt when he got in over his head. And what did RYuuga do in return? What good was he, anyway?!

His phone rang with a call from Sento's phone and his heart leapt with anticipation. How—Evolt.

"What do you want?" Ryuuga asked gruffly.

"Pandora's Box, of course," Evolt's voice said nonchalantly, like they were discussing the weather.

Ryuuga scoffed. "That's not gonna happen."

"Really?" Evolt asked. "So you're fine with never seeing Sento again?" He let out a breath that was almost a laugh. "I can erase him at any time, you know. What would happen to your special little soul mark then, huh? Do you think it'll hurt like when humans lose their soulmates?"

Ryuuga's grip on the phone was so tight it was a miracle he didn't break something. That asshole! He talked about killing Sento without a care. And dammit, but his taunting would work, because Ryuuga didn't want to even imagine what would happen if Sento died—to his soul mark, to his heart, or to the world.

…

…

The bottle Ryuuga used for the Magma Knuckle was worthless in his hands. His punches did nothing to the armor of the Gear Bros except hurt his own hands. He was stuck watching as Kazumin and Himuro fought and Evolt treated them all like vaguely interesting bugs.

Then Evolt transformed into his Rider form, and Ryuuga saw his chance. On Evolt's hip was the bottle he'd made out of Ryuuga's essence. That wasn't a regular bottle. That was him. Hope speared through Ryuuga. If he had that bottle, he would be able to fight. He just knew it.

So he threw himself at Evolt and stole the bottle off his hip. And even as he punched, over and over, and got thrown back, and it wasn't working, Ryuuga didn't give up. Sento wouldn't give up. Sento had done everything, given everything, to save him from Evolt's possession. No way in hell was Ryuuga going to do any less!

The bottle shifted to gold in his hand, and then a familiar cry announced the arrival of the Cross-Z, the dragon Sento made for him when they first started their partnership. Back before Ryuuga's chest had Sento's name, when he was still learning to trust in Sento but Sento had long since trusted him.

"Will it work?" he wondered aloud, reaching out. The dragon transformed and fell into his palm and it, together with the golden dragon bottle, transformed Ryuuga into Great Cross-Z Dragon.

With the power of his new transformation, Ryuuga went up against Evolt with renewed vigor. He'd been too weak before, but not anymore. Now he was going to kick Evolt's ass and get Sento back!

"Sento," he said as he held up the Magma Knuckle. "I'm going to use the power you gave me to find a way to the future." He put his free hand over his heart. "Lend me your strength."

It was like Sento heard him. His soul mark grew warm, and Ryuuga swore he couldn't feel any of his bruises anymore. Maybe it was all in his head, but maybe, somehow, Sento really was helping him.

With a shout and a fiery punch, and help from Kazumin and Himuro, Ryuuga put everything he had into a final attack. They all landed their hits simultaneously, an amazing finisher—

—and then Evolt used their power to create a twister of wind and energy, throwing them all away, as he transformed into his final form. Ryuuga hardly noticed the transformation, however, because his attention was on something else. Someone else. A body in the wind.

"Sento!"

He caught Sento's body and they crashed to the ground together. Sento's hair was black, which meant Evolt was no longer in control of his body, which was good. Except he wasn't waking up.

"Sento," Ryuuga called as he shook Sento by the shoulders. "Sento!"

Ryuuga's soul mark gave a dull throb, cutting off his words, just as Sento's eyes slid open. Something was…Something was wrong? With Sento?

Shaking his head, Ryuuga placed a hand on Sento's knee. Sento looked at the hand, then up at Ryuuga's face, and his eyebrows knit together in confusion. The mark gave another throb.

"Are you alright, Sento?" Ryuuga asked, unable to keep the fear from his voice. Something was wrong.

"Sento? Who's that?" Sento asked. "My name is Katsuragi Takumi."

Ryuuga fell back onto his butt. No. No. It couldn't be true.

…

…

It was true.

Sento—Katsuragi introduced himself to Sawa as if they had never met. He didn't recognize Nascita or know how to get into the lab. He bemoaned his new face and talked all high and mighty about using Misora for 'scientific progress' and Ryuuga hated him.

"You asshole," Ryuuga growled, stalking toward Katsuragi.

Katsuragi reached out and poked Ryuuga in the chest, stopping his forward motion. What was Ryuuga gonna do, anyway? Punch Sento in the face?

"What I don't understand is your presence here, Banjou Ryuuga," Katsuragi said coldly. "You have Evolt's DNA, so why are you helping me? I was trying to destroy you and Evolt."

It was like getting sucker punched. That was right. Katsuragi Takumi had been behind Faust, and human experimentation, and the Smash, and Misora's suffering, Katsuragi Takumi had been actively trying to gain the power to kill Ryuuga. Ryuuga had forgotten all of that, because Sento wasn't Katsuragi and Sento would never try to kill him.

"I'm not Evolt," Ryuuga said. "I don't even have his memories."

Like Katsuragi didn't have Sento's memories. Like Sento hadn't had Katsuragi's. They were different people, and the person in the room with them wasn't Sento.

"You could be playing the fool," Katsuragi said dispassionately, clearly not trusting Ryuuga as far as he could throw him.

Before Ryuuga could come up with an appropriately angry comeback, Misora snapped, "He's your soulmate!" She held her hands tight at her sides, and her gaze was furious even while her eyes filled with tears. "How can you talk about destroying him? You're soulmates!"

Soulmates? Ryuuga's gaze dropped to the floor. Sento was his soulmate, that was true, but it was one-sided. They'd talked about it before. Sento had said—

"We're not soulmates," Katsuragi said with a bitter laugh, and Ryuuga's hands clenched into fists.

Screw this guy.

Misora took a step forward. "You have his name on your body."

Ryuuga's head snapped up, his eyes landing on Katsuragi. "You—"

Sento had said he didn't have a soul mark! Sento had said he didn't have a soulmate! Ryuuga had assumed Sento's mark said Misora, or someone from his past that he didn't remember, something he didn't want to talk about. Could it be—

"I assure you, I do not," Katsuragi denied with a shake of his head. "I haven't had a name on my body since the Sky Wall Disaster, but even before then, the name was not Banjou Ryuuga," and he said Ryuuga's name like it tasted sour.

"I've seen it," Misora insisted, taking another step. "After the poison. You showed me." She put a hand over her heart. "Right here. It was beautiful," she breathed out, even as a tear slipped down her cheek.

Right there, over his heart. An exact match to Ryuuga's. That couldn't be coincidence.

Ryuuga closed the space between himself and Katsuragi and ripped Katsuragi's shirt up, baring his chest to the world, desperate to see the proof that he and Sento were soulmates. Desperate for proof that Sento was still in there somewhere.

Katsuragi's chest was bare. Clear skin, with not so much as a bruise on it from their fights. Ryuuga's own chest felt caved in. He stumbled back, his vision going dark at the edges for several seconds.

"That's—" It came out garbled and he had to clear his throat. "That's fine," he said, though his voice still came out weaker than he would've liked. Lifting his eyes to Katsuragi's face, Ryuuga squared his shoulders and glared. "I wouldn't want Katsuragi Takumi as a soulmate anyway."

Before Katsuragi could respond, Gentoku walked into view and took all of the Devil Scientist's attention. It wasn't until they left the room together that Ryuuga turned and threw his fist at the punching bag so hard it's stand fell over. The metallic clattering sound was almost cathartic.

"Banjou," Sawa said, but didn't continue.

Shaking his head, Ryuuga said, "He's always been a narcissist and an asshole. It's—It's nothing new."

Except Katsuragi's words hurt. Ryuuga had never felt so attacked by Sento, even at his worst. He had always been able to tell that Sento cared, even when he put on a mean or self-centered front.

Frowning sympathetically at him, Sawa said, "Not like this, though."

Ryuuga shook his head again, slapped his cheeks, trying to knock the dejected feeling off somehow.

"I don't understand."

Kazumin, Sawa, and Ryuuga all turned to Misora, watching as she sank down to sit on the stairs to the purification chamber. She put her hand to her heart and stared at the floor with a lost expression.

"I saw it. How could it not be there?" She lifted her eyes to Kazumin. "You saw it too."

Kazumin nodded in agreement and Ryuuga's heart jumped in his chest. So they did share marks! But, Misora was right. How come it wasn't there? Ryuuga's mark kept giving little throbs of pain since the fight, but it hadn't faded in the slightest.

Kazumin crossed his arms and did his best to look wise. "I admit I've never looked too much into the hows and whys of soulmates. Maybe it has something to do with memory?"

Sento became Sento when Evolt erased his memories. He went back to being Katsuragi after Evolt possessed him. After Sento—sacrificed himself. Ryuuga narrowed his eyes. No. Sento wasn't dead. Of anyone, Ryuuga would know. But what if the mark wouldn't fade as long as Katsuragi was there, even if Sento never came back?

His chest said 'Kiryuu Sento,' not 'Katsuragi Takumi.' That had to mean something, didn't it?

…

…

All it took was Katsuragi returning to the café and holing up in the lab for everyone else to quickly vacate the lab and move upstairs. The very air around the man was stifling.

Kazumin opened the actual fridge, sighed at the lack of ingredients, and grabbed three canned coffees. For lack of anything better to do, and given the late hour, Ryuuga pulled a ramen from the cabinet and prepared it. However, once it was in front of him on the table…he had no appetite. He didn't even open the coffee Kazumin placed next to the ramen.

Into the quiet, Sawa gave voice to Ryuuga's—all of theirs—fear. "It's possible…he might not get his memories as Sento back."

The air rushed from Ryuuga's lungs. "If that's true…" His eyes stung and he swallowed thickly. "That'd mean he'd never remember the time we spent together." The stinging got worse. "He'd never remember…his mark—"

His voice wobbled and Ryuuga stopped, instead pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose as if that would keep the tears from falling. It didn't, but no one said anything about them anyway.

…

…

Living with Katsuragi was awful. He ignored Sawa, treated Misora like a maid or an object and wouldn't eat her food, and insulted Ryuuga every time they were in the same room. The worst part, though, was when it came time for bed—

And Ryuuga remembered that he and Sento had always shared.

"Where do I sleep?" Katsuragi asked, but hardly waited before moving over and claiming Misora's bed. He pat the mattress and felt the covers. "Hm. It'll do."

"Oi," Ryuuga snapped from where he was standing at the bottom of the staircase. "That's not your bed."

Katsuragi lifted a patronizing eyebrow. "It's the closest to the lab, so it's logical that this is my bed. Or is it yours and the fridge upstairs is locked during the night?"

Ryuuga dug his fingers into his palms so hard it was amazing he wasn't bleeding. "You—"

How were Katsuragi and Sento so different? How could one of them trust him so completely and the other see him as some rabid animal?

"Banjou," Misora called from her perch at the top of the stairs. When he looked up, she waved for him to come her way. "It's late."

Ryuuga sent one last look toward Katsuragi, who was clearing off the side table of Misora's things. It was Sento's body, and Sento's voice, but not Sento's body motions or Sento's heart.

With a sigh, Ryuuga climbed the stairs and both he and Misora went up to the room Ryuuga and Sento had shared. It was the same minimalist room with a bed barely big enough to fit two grown men. They'd fought over space constantly, but the sound of Sento's breathing, or even him muttering to himself in the dark, had lulled Ryuuga to sleep more than once, even before he realized his feelings for the other man.

If he tried to sleep there, Ryuuga knew he'd be up all night.

So he patted Misora on the shoulder and offered the room to her and Sawa instead, then set up a futon on the floor of the café next to where Kazumin had taken up residence on the couch. It wasn't the worst sleeping arrangement Ryuuga had ever had, but he tossed and turned a lot before sleep finally claimed him.

…

…

Ryuuga had just finished his bath the next day when his chest suddenly seized up. It felt like he'd been simultaneously electrocuted and shot, so painful that he couldn't even scream. If he'd still been in the water, he might have drowned. As it was, he ended up on the floor, his towel falling in a heap beside him, leaving a puddle beneath himself, and clutching desperately at the skin over his heart.

It felt like hours had passed by the time the pain lessened, but no one had come looking for him so it must not have been long at all. Still, Ryuuga panted and focused only on breathing for several minutes while his fingers traced the skin where his soul mark lay. A part of him wondered that he couldn't physically feel it, like it should be raised and angry like a fresh scar. The rest of him recoiled in horror.

He couldn't feel it. It wasn't numb, like after Sento first used the Hazard Trigger. He got no emotional response from touching it at all. Like it wasn't there at all.

Ryuuga shoved himself to his feet and looked in the mirror. His panic dimmed.

Kiryuu Sento, in black inlaid with silver and gold. The name was still there. But then he noticed how faint the colors were—not defined lines and glitter, but like a shirt that had been put through the wash too many times.

His soul mark. Sento. He was fading.

…

…

"It's fading."

He'd pulled Misora into the dark café while everyone else was either out or, in Katsuragi's case, downstairs and otherwise occupied. Because she'd seen Sento's mark. Because she had been trying to get Ryuuga to tell Sento the truth since before Sento had even had a name on his chest.

He lifted his shirt to show Misora the washed-out script and she gasped in horror.

"But that's—!" she managed, her voice wavering.

Banjou shook his head, dropping his shirt. "I don't want to lose it," he said, his voice rough like the words were being carved from him as surely as his soul mark felt like it was being cut forcibly from him. "I don't want to lose…him. But it's fading."

It got worse every few hours. A spike of pain, like a knife to his chest, and then the color of his mark grew fainter. Already, the black was almost as light as the silver and gold inlay.

He'd been holding onto some hope, some idea that Sento was still with them. That Sento would wake up inside Katsuragi's mind and come back to them—to him. But soul marks only faded when one half of the pair died, so if it was fading—If it hurt this much—!

"Banjou," Misora tried, but had to stop, whatever consoling words lost to her. Her eyes welled up with tears. "He was so happy," she breathed out, the tears dripping down her cheeks. "He didn't tell me, but he always hated himself for not having a mark. He thought there was something wrong with him."

A small, distressed sound escaped Ryuuga without conscious thought. There was nothing wrong with Sento!

"But then he had you," Misora continued, rubbing at her eyes. "He-He had your name. And he was—It was like a weight lifted. He loved you so much!" She was outright weeping now.

It was like Misora's tears gave Ryuuga permission. The pressure that had been building in him, all the hurt and loss, burst through his defenses at once. He clenched his shirt over his mark, hunching his shoulders and curling forward like he could somehow protect his connection to Sento, or Sento himself. His tears dripped down his cheeks in rivers, more freely than he had cried since Kasumi died.

"He told me—he didn't have a mark," Ryuuga managed, then shook his head. "I should've told him anyway. I should've—"

Misora stepped forward to hug Ryuuga as they both dissolved into tears. There were no words for this kind of pain. They had both lost someone they loved, and it was worse because someone was walking around with his face. Ryuuga probably squeezed Misora too tight, but she didn't tell him to stop.

…

…

They headed out to help the Nanba Industries guys the next day, with Katsuragi smugly claiming he could fight just as well as Sento had. And then being baffled that he could barely function in the suit. Even Evolt took time out of the fight to tell Katsuragi that he and Sento were not the same.

The battle ended in a horrific failure. Both of the Gear Bros died—one of them in Ryuuga's arms!

The Rider system reacted to a person's emotions, and Ryuuga's were all over the place. No doubt that had lessened the power of his attacks. If he could better control himself, or if Sento hadn't died, maybe Ryuuga could have saved the Gear Bros. Maybe he could've been useful.

As it was, the only reason the rest of them didn't die was because Kazumin showed up to transport them out of harm's way at the last second.

The combination of Katsuragi making him feel like an idiot and whatever weird Evolt visions kept randomly springing into Ryuuga's mind kept him out of the lab most of the time. It was like the more faded his soul mark became, the more the memories of Evolt encroached on his mind.

He'd said it before, and he would say it again: he and Evolt were not the same person. It didn't matter if they shared DNA. Just like it didn't matter that Sento and Katsuragi shared DNA. They weren't the same person. Except that Sento had eventually been swallowed by Katsuragi. Would Ryuuga eventually be lost to Evolt the same way? Were their strange soul marks because both of them were destined to disappear one day?

Even training with Kazumin didn't fully take his mind off things.

"Without him around, things are just too mopey," Ryuuga complained as he and Kazumin laid on the grass after beating the shit out of each other.

For a few moments, they simply sat in silence. And then Kazumin said, "Has your mark faded?"

Ryuuga jerked in place and looked at Kazumin with wide eyes. Kazumi let out a huff of humorless laughter. Then his expression fell into one of sad empathy.

"I'm sorry you had to feel that." He sighed and reached up to hold the side of his shoulder. With a bitter smile, he said, "It's the worst."

Ryuuga gasped and leaned closer to his friend. "You—You lost your soulmate?"

When had that happened? Was it before they met? Who had it been?

Kazumin's smile was still bitter, but there was a fondness to it now too. "He was a fool who always put others before himself," he said. "We grew up together, and we were friends even though his family worked for mine. Even when everything fell down around us after the Skywall, he never doubted me. And watching him die was…the worst moment of my life." He let out a shaky breath and rubbed his shoulder like an old wound. "Ooyama Masaru."

Ooyama? Masaru? Ryuuga frowned. Who was—

"Ah!" He clapped his hands and pointed at Kazumin. "Akaba!" When Kazumin nodded, Ryuuga tilted his head in curiosity. "Did you…love him?"

Kazumin huffed and gave Ryuuga an exasperated look. "Not like you love Sento." He sighed again, but it wasn't as depressed. "We were platonic. I'm still looking for my one true love."

He didn't sound as lovestruck as usual, and didn't bring up Misora. Had he realized she wasn't going to fall for him? Or was it simply that the world had gone down the toilet and finding love wasn't a priority at the moment?

Before Ryuuga could ask, their communicators went off. The government headquarters was under attack and needed help.

…

…

For one second, Ryuuga thought Katsuragi might actually be useful in a fight, and then his Genius Bottle didn't work and it was like all the fight went out of him. If they weren't in a dire situation, Ryuuga might have decked him.

"You're not feeling it enough!" Ryuuga chastised as he saved Katsuragi from Mad Rogue's attack.

Behind him, the Build transformation abandoned Katsuragi, further proving Ryuuga's point.

"Wanting to help and protect someone…that's what he fought for!" Ryuuga threw Mad Rogue away and turned to Katsuragi and glared. "But you don't have those feelings, do you?!"

The Build system relied on human emotions. It's why they could get stronger when they were protecting someone and weaker when they acted out of anger. Ryuuga was an idiot and even he understood that. How could Katsuragi, who designed the damn system, not get it? Why had a universe with soulmates decided that this man should live while Sento should die? It wasn't fair!

"Kiryuu Sento was a damn superhero, and the best person I've ever known," Ryuuga choked out, his voice thick with emotion, before rushing back into the fight with Mad Rogue.

Sorrow wasn't the emotion to use in battle. Regret and grief wouldn't cut it. Ryuuga just had to hope that his desire to continue Sento's dream, to create a world of love and peace, would be enough.

It wasn't. Of course it wasn't. Mad Rogue hit him with a blow so hard that his suit vanished, leaving him writhing on the ground.

"What is this babble about superheroes?" Mad Rogue sneered. "Look around! No one is coming to save you!"

Then he kicked Ryuuga hard enough that it felt like a rib broke. Great. Just what they needed: another one of them out of commission. But the fight wasn't over and Ryuuga couldn't stay down. If he stayed down, he was dead. Not only that, the planet was dead. He had to get back up! There was no other option!

His chest throbbed, and it had nothing to do with his ribs.

"What's wrong, Banjou?" a voice teased, and for a moment, Ryuuga thought he was hallucinating.

Then a pair of shoes stopped next to him, a familiar red and blue. When Ryuuga managed to lift his eyes to see Katsuragi standing above him, the man smirked. He smirked just like— "I suppose your rabbit hero has to save his dragon sidekick, huh?"

The lilt of his voice. The expression on his face. The warmth in his eyes. The way he teased and called Ryuuga his 'sidekick.'

"Sento?" Ryuuga breathed out, hoping against hope.

Beaming, Sento announced, "The egotistic superhero has returned!"

That was so like Sento. Sento, not Katsuragi. The person in front of him was his rabbit!

Ryuuga huffed out a wet laugh and covered his face to hide his damp eyes. "Took you long enough," he said, trying for his usual bluster, though it came out too emotional.

With a smile still in his voice, Sento said, "Now, shall we begin the experiment?"

Then he transformed into Genius Build, a triumphant rainbow-colored hero, and kicked Mad Rogue's butt. It was amazing!

…

…

It wasn't until much later, while Sento was re-organizing his lab from what Katsuragi had done to it, that everyone left him alone long enough for Ryuuga to have a talk with him. And he desperately needed to talk to Sento. He'd gone too long hiding things from Sento and all it had led to was regret and guilt and loss.

So he locked the fridge door to give them some privacy, then headed downstairs. Seeing Sento moving around in the lab brought Ryuuga to a standstill at the open archway, however. How strange, to be able to simply see Sento move and be able to recognize him.

Ryuuga didn't need any words or data or evidence to prove this was Sento and not Katsuragi. The pain in his chest had lessened since Sento's return. And the very way that Sento moved was different than how Katsuragi had. Here was a man completely at ease with his body, who knew the length of his arms and the ability of his own muscles. He was comfortable in the space around him, didn't hesitate or think before moving. Even the way he sighed in irritation at the mess was all Sento.

Ryuuga's heart clenched, but in a good way. This was Sento! It was his soulmate! It was the man he loved! Back from the dead!

"If you're there, just hurry up and come here already," Sento called back to him, making one last neat little stack of papers before turning around.

Having Sento's eyes on him and only him was almost too much. Ryuuga swallowed. Stay on task. Say what needed to be said.

"You—Misora said we're soulmates," he managed at length, taking a step into the lab.

Sento inhaled sharply but quietly. "And?"

And?!

"And I asked you, but you said you didn't have a mark!" The accusation burst out of Ryuuga like the magma that transformed him. The energy building in his chest at the knowledge that Sento was back gave his words force, made him sound angrier than he really was. "And we checked that asshole and he didn't either, but Misora said you showed her—"

Sento reached up and began to unbutton the shirt Katsuragi had put on that morning, effectively cutting off Ryuuga's rant. Ryuuga watched with bated breath while Sento undid one button, two, three, all the way down.

What if Sento's chest was blank? What if he didn't have a mark? No. Ryuuga had said 'screw soulmates' and chosen Kasumi. He'd do the same with Sento if he had to.

Even Sento paused to take a breath before finally sliding the shirt from his shoulders, leaving his chest bare. The fabric fell to the floor but neither man noticed. Because there, over Sento's heart, were the black characters sewn through with silver and gold.

Banjou Ryuuga.

Ryuuga couldn't tear his eyes away. That was—That was his name. In the same spot that Ryuuga had Sento's name! It had the same silver and gold! Something was welling up inside of Ryuuga and he wasn't sure if he would laugh, or cry, or punch something.

"At first, it only read 'Ryuu,'" Sento began to explain, his eyes intense as he watched Ryuuga. "It wasn't until later that the rest of your name came in."

Ryuuga took one stumbling step forward, then another, steadier step. And then he crossed the room in a heartbeat, his fingers shaking as he reached out to hover over his name on Sento's skin. His eyes kept jumping from Sento's chest to his face, over and over, unable to believe it. Misora had said it, and Kazumin had backed her up, and yet—He'd spent so long thinking his mark was an animal, to thinking his mark was one-sided, to thinking he'd lost Sento entirely, that seeing the truth of their connection had left Ryuuga speechless.

"I understand Kasumi was your soulmate," Sento continued, as if apologizing. What the hell? "I know this is likely one sided."

Like what Sento had done, Ryuuga pulled his shirt off, cutting Sento's speech short. He did it fast, unable to stand Sento misunderstanding for even a second longer. Then he balled his shirt up and tossed it aside, and gave Sento a stare that dared him to say another word.

Without looking, he knew his mark was crisp and bold once more. The black looked like freshly inked characters, the gold and silver shimmering noticeably in the light. A bright, healthy soul mark, unmarred by death.

While Sento gaped at him, Ryuuga snapped, "It faded. You fucking died on me!" Tears welled up in his eyes and his stomach clenched just remembering it. "With all the awful shit I've been through…That hurt the worst." He swallowed thickly. "So don't you dare say it's one-sided or I'll—I'll punch you with the dragon bottle again."

"But," Sento started haltingly. He waved his hand toward Ryuuga's left shoulder. "You have her name."

Was he kidding? Sento was supposed to be a genius!

There were still tears tracking down Ryuuga's cheeks, but his voice came out as rough as ever. "It's a tattoo, asshole." He shook his head. "Kasumi's soulmate was her sister. She knew I loved her, but she always worried, so I got it tattooed. Her name. Proof anyone could see while I fought my matches." He glared. "But you're my—"

His voice faltered. Suddenly, saying 'rabbit' sounded stupid. And he'd have to explain his original mark. And—

When he didn't continue, Sento finished for him. "Your rabbit." His face brightened with understanding. "My mark originally read only 'dragon.' Yours said 'rabbit,' didn't it? Before it said my name."

Ryuuga nodded.

A snort. "You thought your soulmate was going to be a pet rabbit or something, didn't you?"

Ryuuga's cheeks colored. "Shut up!"

Instead of teasing him more, Sento beamed and ruffled his hair in delight. "This is fantastic," he said, practically giggling. Then he hopped forward, like the bunny his name suggested, or the bunnies Ryuuga had seen growing up. In a flash, Sento grabbed Ryuuga by the cheeks, and planted a quick, chaste kiss on his lips. It felt like Ryuuga's soul mark danced.

Sento—!

Sento immediately released Ryuuga's face, but Ryuuga didn't let him get far. He caught Sento by the wrists, holding as tight as he dared without causing pain.

Ryuuga's eyebrows furrowed. "I was terrified my name would be on Katsuragi's chest," he admitted.

Sento blinked owlishly. "It would have made sense, though," he said. "We do share a body."

A body didn't make a person. And there were way too many differences between Sento and Katsuragi to come to any other conclusion than that they were entirely different people. Even the universe agreed!

Ryuuga shook his head. "My only soulmate is Kiryuu Sento." And he leaned in to kiss Sento again.

…

…

tbc