The mechanism of plasma heating through magnetic reconnection with a guide magnetic field is investigated by means of two-dimensional electromagnetic particle simulations. These simulations mimic the dynamics of two torus plasmas merging through magnetic reconnection in a spherical tokamak (ST) device. It is found that a large part of protons, which behave as nonadiabatic, are effectively heated in the downstream because a ring-like structure of proton velocity distribution is observed at a local point in the downstream. The characteristic features of the velocity distribution can be explained as the following proton motion. Upon entering the downstream across the separatrix, nonadiabatic protons suddenly feel the strong electromagnetic field in the downstream and move in the outflow direction while rotating mainly around the guide magnetic field. The protons gain kinetic energy not only on the separatrix but also in the downstream. This effective heating process can be interpreted as the “pickup,” which,...