"You..."
The words carried a strong pull as they brushed past his ear, and the stunned Hizashi Hyuga jerked in shock. He stepped back by instinct, stumbled, and nearly lost his footing.
"What are you exactly?" Hizashi asked, his scalp prickling as he looked at the black robed figure beside him. His voice shook despite himself. "Why are you telling me all this?"
"I am just trimming pests while waiting to see what kind of flower will bloom."
When Ryuji said this, Hizashi could not see his face within the shadows. Yet he felt as if he saw a pair of eyes, eyes that held a deep and deliberate malice.
It was like a fire burning there, not fierce and not grand, only quietly swaying. The other man did not care what his fire might ignite or destroy. Hizashi, this head of the Branch Family Family, was nothing more than kindling.
Hizashi Hyuga fell silent.
"The Main Family Family of the Hyuga are the true Root of the Hyuga Clan. As long as the Root exists, it does not matter whether the branches wither or flourish."
This was what his father, as clan head, had drilled into him since childhood. It had been taught as an unquestionable truth.
But when he thought again of Hinata Hyuga during training, full of openings and weak resolve, dark thoughts began to surface and would not stop.
"With Neji Hyuga's talent, he could clearly become a strong pillar of the Hyuga Clan. Yet because of his Branch Family status, he is branded with the Caged Bird, stripped of freedom, and forced to live his entire life under the shadow of the Main Family..."
"And the timid daughter of the Main Family can take everything for granted. She enjoys Neji Hyuga's protection as her right, even expecting him to offer his life..."
As a father, to personally take away a child's freedom was nothing but failure. He himself could choose to die humbly for a moment of freedom.
But he wanted Neji Hyuga to live freely, to live as a real person of flesh and blood. Not as anyone's attachment, and not burdened by something called fate.
"Believe me, selling your soul to a devil is not shameful."
Ryuji spoke softly. "What is shameful is failing to sell it for a good price."
"...What can you do?"
After a long silence, Hizashi Hyuga finally spoke. "What do I have to give?"
"I can grant you the power to break free from the cage," Ryuji said calmly. "You must give everything you have. Your name, your future, your life, your soul..."
"You..." Hizashi Hyuga froze for a moment and could not help asking, "This deal is unfair from the start, is it not?"
"That is what devils are," Ryuji replied without hesitation. "So what is your answer?"
Hizashi Hyuga's breathing grew faster. Even knowing the other man's malice, he found he could not speak in refusal.
It felt as if he had been stripped bare, examined like a devil who understood human desire. His wants were laid out piece by piece, cut and weighed without mercy.
After a moment, he clenched his teeth and shook his head. "I do not believe you can free me or Neji Hyuga. I do not believe anyone can."
As long as Caged Bird Seal existed, Neji Hyuga could never truly escape the cage. Even the Main Family elders only knew how to activate the Curse Seal, not how to remove it.
"Very well." Ryuji did not mind the doubt and simply nodded. He extended an arm from within the shadow of his robe. "Then experience it once."
At the same time, he murmured in his mind, "Manifest item. Caged Bird SealRemove ten seconds."
[Cost 300 Reality Points. Confirm manifestation.]
"As expected, not a removal method, just ten seconds. That does not cost much," Ryuji thought, his eyes flickering. "Confirm."
Hearing this, Hizashi Hyuga froze as he saw two fingers pressed together and reaching toward his forehead. His blood seemed to stop for an instant, and he instinctively tried to step back.
In the next moment, those two fingers stopped at his brow. A sharp sensation surged through him, striking straight at his heart.
It felt as if a seam had opened in his forehead, cool water pouring in and splitting into fine streams. They washed through every blocked place in his mind.
Hizashi Hyuga even heard the sound of invisible restraints breaking, and felt the veil before his eyes slowly lift. The world had never been so clear.
His pupils trembled, and when he came back to himself, veins bulged around his eyes. "Byakugan! Activate!"
It was gone. It was truly gone.
The blind spot in his vision had vanished. How was this possible?
He could not believe what he was sensing, yet a wild smile slowly spread across his face. "Hahaha!"
So this was what freedom felt like. Light, clear, and alive.
Every sensation filled his limbs, as if hidden restraints had been removed. The world before him seemed brighter than ever.
Hizashi Hyuga forgot all restraint he once kept. His laughter rang out, unrestrained and frantic, tears even gathering at the corners of his eyes.
No one else could truly understand this feeling. To have something once, lose it cruelly, live with one's life held in another's hands, and then suddenly have it returned.
But soon, the Caged Bird mark on his forehead, which had faded, returned to its former clarity. The perfect vision of the Byakugan gained its familiar blind spot again, spreading out from behind the first thoracic vertebra, and the world dimmed once more.
"What happened?"
The joy on Hizashi Hyuga's face froze at once, confusion and pain flashing in his eyes. Then he remembered that this had only been an experience.
"You!" Hizashi Hyuga suddenly grabbed the arm of the person beside him and asked urgently, "What do you want me to do?"
Ryuji was neither surprised nor hurried. He asked instead, "You and Hiashi Hyuga are identical twins, correct?"
"...Yes."
As Hizashi nodded with a dark expression, Ryuji continued in the same calm tone. "I need you to become Hiashi Hyuga. Hizashi Hyuga will die here."
"What?" Hizashi Hyuga's pupils shrank as he blurted out. "Impossible!"
Was this man planning for him to fake his death and replace his brother? How could that be done?
"You said you could," Ryuji replied. He glanced at the hand gripping his arm and raised his own, prying it away with slight force. "You only need to follow orders."
Moonlight cast their shadows onto the ground, swaying faintly among the outlines of the trees.
"..."
Remembering what he had just felt, the desire within him surged until it nearly crushed him. Hizashi Hyuga clenched his teeth hard. "Fine. I will do it."
Seeing his loss of control, Ryuji laughed softly to himself. A bird that had lost its freedom, regained it briefly, and soared once more under the open sky.
How could it willingly return to a narrow cage?
But Hizashi Hyuga was only a supporting piece he had chosen. The truly important piece...
Ryuji shifted his gaze slightly toward a distant, silent residence.