Seed of Ruin
The walk back to the shrine was heavy with silence.
Tsukihana's hands trembled. Her heart beat like a war drum, but not from fear. From guilt.
She had seen Akarui.
He was alive.
But he wasn't the same.
His voice.
His eyes.
The way he screamed at her to run…
Something inside him was breaking—and she couldn't stop it.
The Hermit's Warning
Master Senzoku sat cross-legged, his eyes closed as if he already knew what had happened.
"You saw him," he said calmly.
"The one you once called brother."
Tsukihana nodded. "He's not himself. He's… twisted. Controlled."
"Not controlled," the old man corrected. "Hollowed."
"A soul too broken to hold itself together becomes a vessel. Empty. Waiting to be filled."
"And what the Hollow King pours in… is darkness."
She dropped to her knees.
"Then how do I save him?"
Master Senzoku opened his eyes.
"You can't. Unless…"
He stood slowly, lifting an ancient scroll from the altar.
The ink glowed with Vein energy.
"Unless you're ready to become what you were born to be."
"The Seed of Ruin."
Renjiro's Doubt
Renjiro stood on the shrine's outer balcony, arms crossed, eyes lost in the sky.
He'd barely survived his battle with Suri.
His sister—someone he believed had died—was now one of the Hollow King's Harbingers. And she said things that clung to his mind like blood:
"The girl will destroy everything."
"She is the fire the Hollow King fears."
He remembered Tsukihana's smile. Her stubbornness. Her strength.
But also her rage.
Her raw, untrained power.
He whispered to himself, "What if it's true?"
The Forgotten Scroll
Inside the shrine, Master Senzoku unrolled the scroll and began to read.
"When the Veins were first drawn from the sky, the world was fire and bone."
"But in the last age, one child was born who could not hold balance. Her flame consumed everything."
"The Infernal Vein is no blessing. It is the mark of a World-Ender."
Tsukihana's voice cracked.
"But that's not who I am."
"I want to save people. I didn't ask for this power."
The Hermit nodded.
"Yet power does not ask. It chooses."
"And it has chosen you."
He placed a hand over her heart.
"The Hollow King wants to twist your fire into a sword to break the world. But you… you can turn it into a key."
"The question is—can you hold the flame… without letting it consume you?"
Chains of Memory
Far away, in the Hollow King's obsidian citadel, Akarui knelt before a black mirror. He was alone—except for the whispers in the walls.
Chains wrapped around his wrists and ankles.
Each link was a memory.
One of Tsukihana laughing in the rain.
One of the night they took an oath to protect each other.
One of her saying goodbye… thinking he was dead.
He gritted his teeth.
"I remember… everything."
A voice echoed in the chamber.
"Then why do you resist?"
The Hollow King stepped from the shadows, his face covered in a veil of smoke.
"Let go, boy."
"Let go of who you were."
Akarui's eyes burned red.
"No."
But the mirror began to change.
And within it—he saw Tsukihana standing over his body, flames pouring from her hands.
He screamed.
The Fire Within
Back at the shrine, Tsukihana entered the Vein Pool, a sacred place where the energy of the world flowed freely.
Master Senzoku's voice echoed behind her:
"You must face your deepest self. If there is even a spark of doubt in your soul… the flame will kill you."
She closed her eyes and sank beneath the glowing water.
And the world went silent.
Inside the Flame
She opened her eyes to find herself standing in a world of ash and fire.
Mountains burned.
The sky cracked.
And in the center of it all—stood her.
Another Tsukihana.
Eyes black.
Flames dancing around her like demons.
"You're me," Tsukihana whispered.
The other her smiled.
"I'm what you become when you stop pretending to care."
"I'm what happens when the world pushes you too far."
"I am the fire that never asks. The flame that takes."
Tsukihana clenched her fists.
"Then I'll extinguish you."
The other Tsukihana laughed.
And the two charged at each other
Fire meeting fire.
Cliffhanger: The Fire That Screams
In the real world, the Vein Pool exploded upward in a pillar of gold and crimson.
Renjiro rushed in, heart pounding. "Tsukihana!"
But what rose from the pool wasn't the girl he knew.
Her hair floated like burning smoke. Her eyes glowed with searing gold. And her voice… was not hers.
It was deeper. Older.
And it spoke a single word:
"Ashborn."
The mountain trembled.
And a distant voice—twisted and furious—screamed from the Hollow King's domain:
"She's awakening too fast! STOP HER!"