BOOM!
BOOM!
PANG!
The body of Grand Fisher flew once more, slamming against the trunk of a tree before crashing through shattered rocks and landing face-first in the dirt, groaning in unconsciousness. His hybrid Hollow body was completely battered, covered in bruises, scratches, and cracks from which corrupted spiritual energy seeped.
Ren stood over him, his breathing steady despite the rage in his eyes — as if the blows he delivered were not just to vent his anger, but for something deeper… something that could not be put into words.
Then…
{ Stop, Ren. He's already lost consciousness… If you keep going, he'll die. }
Mikazuki's voice rang in his head, soft but firm. Her words were like ice extinguishing the fire of his wrath.
Ren closed his eyes for a few seconds, took a deep breath, and then slowly opened them. The murderous look faded gradually, replaced by a sharp, quiet resolve.
"I know," he said in a low voice, barely audible.
Then, without hesitation, he reached to his waist and drew his Zanpakuto — a pitch-black blade gleaming like the night, pulsing with cold energy, as though the night itself had been forged into steel.
With a single step, he approached Grand Fisher, knelt halfway beside him, and drove the sword into his body with precision, deliberately avoiding the white mask with extreme care.
"You won't die today… but you will pay the price," he whispered as the blade sank in slowly.
Thin threads of spiritual energy seeped from the blade, branching throughout the Hollow's body, forming a web of patterns that flared for a moment before dimming.
In the next moment, a translucent figure appeared beside Ren — long black hair cascading down her back like the dark night, and a pair of crimson eyes reminiscent of a blood moon.
It was, of course, Mikazuki. Ever since Ren had achieved Bankai, she had been able to project her image into the real world. Though it was a limited ability, it was useful from time to time… and a way to amuse herself.
Mikazuki placed her hand on the Zanpakuto's hilt, causing it to glow faintly gold — Ren's reiatsu, which she was using to stir the remnants of Misaki's soul, rendering them unable to resist. The remnants had little strength left, and if they resisted, they would vanish without a trace.
Just as Mikazuki expected, Misaki's soul remnants did not resist upon feeling Ren's reiatsu. They tried to use what little power they had left to awaken and speak to their child one last time — but Mikazuki stopped the attempt, suppressing it with Ren's reiatsu, and instead nourished the soul so it would understand his intentions.
As expected, once the remnants felt Ren's power, they offered no resistance to Mikazuki's will and allowed themselves to drift to the other side. They understood what their child wanted to do, and though their emotions were complicated, they did not refuse. Even if she could not return to life, she would gain more time to speak to her child before fading away.
For six long years, the soul's remnants had waited on an uncertain hope of seeing one of her children or family again. Now, she had no objection to waiting longer, knowing she would be able to see them for a while more.
"…" Ren lifted his blindfold, focusing on what Mikazuki was doing. He could clearly see the remnants of his mother's soul — a faintly glowing yellow orb, looking as though it could vanish at any moment — and how Mikazuki drew it out from Grand Fisher's body, feeding it with his reiatsu, trying to heal it.
Ren stood in silence, unmoving, his exposed crystal-like eyes following every detail of the scene before him.
Mikazuki radiated a quiet aura as she held the small spiritual orb — Masaki's soul remnants — in her hands. It was tiny, barely the size of a palm, but the light it emitted carried not just faintness, but longing… and years of waiting.
She whispered words that could not be understood — spells that were not spoken but felt — while her fingertips gently traced the orb's surface, slowly feeding it Ren's reiatsu.
"She's so weak… barely holding together," Mikazuki murmured, eyes closed, focusing on channeling the energy smoothly.
Soft sounds echoed in the air — not real sounds, but spiritual vibrations, pulses of memory. Fragmented images began to form in Ren's mind: Masaki's face, her laughter, her hand brushing his hair… and her voice, whispering his name as she had in his childhood.
"Ren… my little boy…"
Ren's breath caught, though he did not speak. The voice was so fragile, yet it pierced every wall of his heart.
"…Did you hear her?" he asked hoarsely.
Mikazuki nodded faintly.
"She's trying to reach out, but she doesn't have the strength to appear. She can't manifest like this… not yet," she said softly.
"What can I do?!" Ren's voice broke with pain, his eyes narrowing as if fighting off an internal collapse.
"You're doing it now. Just… keep going," Mikazuki replied calmly, then added as she lifted the orb gently toward her chest, "I'll hold her inside me for now. If I put her in your body without stability, she might disappear forever."
Ren exhaled slowly, then nodded.
"Keep her safe… until I can make the body."
Mikazuki smiled faintly and stepped closer.
"When the time comes… I'll let her see you."
She pressed the orb lightly against her chest, letting it slowly merge into her projection until it vanished, as if melting into another world.
"You won't suffer again, Masaki," Mikazuki whispered, as if speaking on Ren's behalf.
…
Ren looked down at Grand Fisher's limp body, his spiritual presence so faint it was almost like a corpse.
"I'll make sure you can never reincarnate," Ren muttered, a cold light in his eyes. White fragments began forming over his face, shaping into a white mask adorned with strange black markings — the manifestation of the Hollow power within him.
The moment the mask appeared, Ren's reiatsu grew sharper, more feral — laced with a dark, terrifying force. If a Hollow was like a demon, then Ren was like a Demon Lord.
One of a Hollow's primary abilities was to devour souls to grow stronger, and in Ren's current form, he too possessed this power. His target, of course, was Grand Fisher — intending to consume him and annihilate his soul in the worst way possible.
Waves of dark reiatsu radiated from Ren, the ground cracking under his feet, the air growing so dense it choked the life from around him. Birds fell silent, trees trembled, and the sky above blackened briefly, as if nature itself rejected what he was about to do.
The mask was complete — a terrifying blend of dark beauty and suppressed madness. His black horns curved upward, and the black markings across its surface gleamed as though pulsing with ancient hatred.
"You were the beginning of it all…" Ren murmured, his voice unnatural, doubled — like a demon speaking through him.
"The first cry in my childhood… the first lesson in helplessness… the first taste of weakness."
He raised his hand, now sheathed in a dark layer of hybrid reiatsu — a mixture of Shinigami, Hollow, and something else indescribable.
"It's time for you to be your own end."
He extended a finger, and black spiritual threads slithered out, creeping toward Grand Fisher like hungry spiders. They wrapped around him, burrowing into the cracks of his soul, wrenching it out slowly, mercilessly.
Grand Fisher, despite his weakness, began to scream — not physically, but with the scream of a soul being torn apart, its essence dragged away. His eyes widened as memories flashed before him — his victims, his lies, his life — all unraveling.
"This is the true end… no rebirth, no reincarnation, no shadows to devour souls," Ren said, his voice now more demonic than ever.
BOOM.
Grand Fisher exploded from within — not in physical destruction, but in complete spiritual disintegration. His soul shattered into dust, ground into the bottomless abyss of black.
His presence… vanished. Completely.
…
Ren took a heavy breath and slowly reached up, removing the cracked mask from his face as though peeling away the skin of sin. White ash crumbled from its edges until it vanished into the air.
"It's done," Mikazuki's soft voice said as she appeared beside him again — this time wearing a black kimono adorned with twinkling stars, as if she were the night itself.
"He's gone… forever."
Ren didn't answer — only nodded in silence. His face was still, but his eyes told everything — relief, grief, and emptiness.
"It'll take me several days to stabilize the soul inside me," Mikazuki added quietly, touching her chest where Masaki's soul now rested. "But full recovery will take much longer. As for when she'll wake… no one can say. She's entered a deep slumber to focus on healing."
"No one will touch her," Ren said, then turned away, vanishing into Shunpo, heading toward where he had left his body in the forest.
"…" Mikazuki watched Ren's retreating form as crystal tears drifted behind him, dissolving into reiatsu and returning to his body. She knew… he needed some time alone.
...
To get more chapters please visit my p@treon :
p@treon.com/Akasaki_Ryujin
For support :
https://ko-fi.com/akasaki_ryujin