Inside the space.
The intoxicating colors of dusk shone upon two figures with long silver hair.
Their strikingly beautiful silhouettes were etched against a sea of spider lilies in full bloom.
Faced with Madara Uchiha's question, Yanbai continued to smile without answering.
They had endured those words of love Madara Uchiha had forced himself to say for so long.
It had been painful not only for Yanbai, but for Madara Uchiha himself.
"There's nowhere left to run..."
Madara Uchiha surveyed the dazzling spider lilies around them and spoke in a subdued tone utterly unlike his earlier one. "I thought I'd be angry when I learned the truth. So why do I feel strangely relieved?"
Yanbai said nothing, as though he had long been prepared for Madara Uchiha's change.
That morning.
When he heard Madara Uchiha say those things yet again, Yanbai could no longer bear it.
With a single meeting of their eyes, Yanbai had revealed his secrets to Madara Uchiha within the Dōjutsu Space, where a second lasted a year.
The circumstances of Yanbai's birth;
The things Yanbai had seen and experienced growing up under Yan Ruoyue's care;
And... the fact that Yanbai had been born with the memories of Madara Uchiha, the ruthless conqueror.
Yanbai had shared a portion of his memories with Madara Uchiha.
Those long years, that vast world.
Too many strange things had flooded Madara Uchiha's mind.
Unable to withstand them all at once, Madara Uchiha had fallen unconscious.
Perhaps they were the same person, or perhaps they were not.
Because both Yanbai and the current Madara Uchiha were "virtual programs" written by Yanbai's family.
Their different upbringings had made them fundamentally different.
And Yanbai had endured hardships and worked tirelessly to shed his role as a pawn and become the player moving the pieces.