The Temple of the Moon and its Silver Tree, crowning the crystal tower that housed the grand library of the Silver World, shimmered with a quiet luminescence. Its polished floor reflected the soft light of an endless sky, and the air carried a hush, reverent and eternal.
Hinata stood beside Michel, robes gently rustling as a breeze passed through the open arches. Her silver eyes gazed at the horizon where colors of grey and silver pulsed faintly, threads of energy weaving reality.
"Grandfather," she asked softly, "could you tell me once more about how this place has evolved since my birth?"
Michel smiled, folding his arms with a soft sigh. "In the beginning, there was only the Grey World. I felt your consciousness tugging on a fragment—something displaced by Shikashi's parasitic influence. That fragment grew, pulling with it shards of awareness, memory, and soul. In that place of dreams, I constructed the old dojo from my past life. You would appear there when you slept... and that miracle was the anchor that kept me sane."
He paused, watching her. "Time there flowed at the same pace as the real world. To aid your recovery from your body's fragility—caused by the growing dissonance between your soul and flesh—I attempted to nourish you with natural energy, delivered to you thanks to the fragments of my soul that were absorbed by you."
Hinata nodded thoughtfully. "It's still incredible to me that no one in the shinobi world understood dissonance like this. The Kurama clan in Konoha had imbalances between yin and yang, but never this deep soul-body divergence."
"Few understand souls at all," Michel said quietly. "But from my concussion, from what was manifesting in you... I observed. I theorized. It's not an absolute truth, but it's the truth I found from my limited vantage point."
"When we reached the Silver Stage," he continued, "the Silver World was born within the Grey. Time no longer obeyed the same laws. I slowed it at first—made it flow at double speed compared to reality—so your two selves could synchronize. And then... something curious happened. Your Silver World self no longer vanished when your real body was awake. I still don't fully understand it."
Hinata smiled gently. "I think... I didn't want to forget anymore. I wanted to remember everything. I willed myself to exist in both places. Maybe that was when the Silver World became truly mine."
Michel chuckled. "That sounds like you. But I know that look—you're planning something. Are you going to tell me, or is it meant to be a surprise?"
Hinata's expression turned solemn. "I think we've made a mistake. The Silver World and the Grey World... they were never separated."
The space around her began to shimmer, segments of the temple floor and sky alternating in hues—some pale grey, others luminous silver. The separation was clear... yet unnatural.
"They've always been one. Intricately connected."
As she spoke, the colors began to swirl and fracture, forming a luminous ring around her. From the spaces between, a golden glow emerged—born from the harmony of contrast.
"Until now, I let both grow apart, unchecked. But ever since people started entering this world... I've sensed something. Like changes yearning to occur but unable to take shape. And now, I understand why."
The swirling ring accelerated, its light blending into a singular radiance. The floor trembled slightly, unnoticed by most—but Michel, bound deeply to the Silver World, felt it like a heartbeat.
"If I want this world to coexist with the real one, their rhythms must align. And those who come here to grow must be given the tools to do so. This world has relied too much on me. It was never meant to be mine alone."
Hinata's eyes ignited in silver fire. Above, the moon responded, and a radiant pillar of light cascaded down, enveloping her form. The swirling ring vanished, replaced by a radiant aura. The world shifted.
Michel gasped silently.
The Grey World and the Silver World began to merge. The impossible integration was becoming reality—fueled not only by the spirits of the dead but by the vitality offered freely by the living. The Grey became the foundational layer—stable, grounding. Within it, pockets of Silver shimmered, where time flows faster and energy pooled.
From these nodes, silver veins stretched like roots, pulsing softly, feeding the land. Life bloomed in their wake. Trees, flowers, birds, and animals manifested—some replicas of the real world, others entirely new, born from Hinata's will. The natural energy of the living world flowed inward, nurturing this dimension like a parent to a child.
Michel could only watch in reverent awe.
The Silver World was no longer just a sanctuary.
It was becoming a realm of its own.
And Hinata, its Priestess, no longer carried it alone.