Two nights had bled into the city since Renji's blood stained the pavement. The training hall beneath the Hono no Sheshi reeked faintly of ash and old sweat, where fire met discipline and both left a residue, the steady sound of strikes stitched the air.
Out of earshot, Master Arashi watched like a man reading tides. Renji moved at the center—clumsy, then steadier—purple flame licking his knuckles, coiling up his forearm without singeing the stone. He'd noticed that Ayaka had been paying more attention to Renji recently, it wouldn't take much to believe that Renji's devilish looks and badboy aura had taken his daughter.
Still he didn't know what to do with that revelation. His thoughts went down a mental sewage pipe when Hikari came up to him.
" You asked for me sir?" Hikari prompted. " How well do you trust Renji?" Arashi asked her without turning.
The question landed like a verdict. Hikari's jaw worked. "Pardon?" she said, then steadied. "You mean Renji?"
"You heard me," Arashi said flatly.
"He's saved us more than once. Master Kazuki trusted him with his life—before." Hikari's hand flew to her throat. For a breath the old wound opened: Kazuki's laugh, the way he'd taught her to split a shadow.
" Before?" Arashi prompted cocking an eyebrow, then reading the pain in her eyes surmised. " Master Kazuki's dead isn't he?"
" Yes sir" Hikari said, her voice cracked with the threat of emotion she kept bottled in bursting.
" My condolences, the Hono no Sheshi will be next, I will help Kurogane only if you trust him to stay in check" Arashi said.
Hikari squared her shoulders. "He will stay in check," she promised. The line held steel. "If he loses himself, I'll cut him down myself. I give you my word. Any guild that stands with us can take that to the bank."
It started with the klaxons.
Not from the hidden guild base this time, but from the city itself—civil defense alarms wailing through the streets, bouncing between towers of steel and glass. People spilled from nightclubs, diners, and train stations, faces pale under the blood-red flash of emergency lights.
And then the earth shook.
Windows shattered as the Gashadokuro pulled itself into the world. Nine feets of bone and shadow, it rose at the heart of Akakaze neon sprawl, Billboards fizzled out as its aura scrambled circuits. Streetlights bent and fell. Its hollow skull turned, jaws opening wide enough to swallow a bus whole.
"Humans… your bones… will sing for me," it snarled, voice grinding like tectonic plates.
Panic erupted. Cars jammed intersections. Crowds screamed and scattered, trampling each other in desperate flight. Helicopters circled overhead, their searchlights cutting across the monster's ribcage, but none dared get close.
Around it packs of werewolves appeared in a burst of smoke.
Far away, in the hidden valley of the guild's training grounds, klaxons blared as well—the encrypted alarm signal they'd all been dreading.
"It's him again," Captain Kalfka said, sprinting into the command hall, his communicator pressed to his ear. "Reports from the city—Gashadokuro is loose and he brought with him a pack of Yurekibas, level-six threat classification."
Arashi stood already armored, blade sheathed across his back. His eyes burned with grim recognition. "So the beast crawls back for a second round…"
Across the room, Renji was already on his feet, fire flaring faintly in his eyes. His body still bore the bruises from their last encounter, but the rage in his chest was hotter than any wound.
"He's not coming for the city," Renji said, his voice low, dangerous. "He's coming for me."
Ayaka grabbed her weapons, determination cutting across her features. "Then we meet him there."
Arashi's jaw clenched. Sending their strike team into the middle of the busy hour meant exposing themselves, risking the guild's secrecy. But letting the Gashadokuro run wild meant thousands of innocents would die before midnight.
The sirens kept wailing. In the neon-lit chaos of the city, the bone titan roared again, daring them to face him.
" Sir we'll have to head in meanwhile help us get the president on the line to let the cops evacuate as many people from the area as possible." Renji said.
" I I'll try to get him on the line. Go!" Arashi said. " Someone should find me Daichi". " I'll go with him" Hikari said immediately.
" Me too" Ayaka said. " This is not something you can handle Ayaka" Arashi started.
" Father I can take care of myself allow to save the civilians we swore to save" Ayaka protested. " I'll go in to keep her safe" Kalfka offered.
" Go and you all should keep her safe during the battle" Arashi reluctantly agreed. "Yes sir"
Four bikes tore out of the abandoned nuclear site, engines howling like wolves finally loosed from chains. Black helmets gleamed under the stuttering streetlights, shadows streaming behind them as Renji and Hikari led, Ayaka and Kalfka close in pursuit.
Renji's pulse matched the growl of his engine. The city ahead was no longer Akakaze—it was a warzone painted in klaxon red. Skyscrapers blinked with emergency strobes, roads littered with abandoned cars, neon signs sputtering as if the monster's aura had already poisoned the circuits.
"Target's fifty meters out," Tetsuya's voice crackled through comms, calm and precise from the guild's hidden control hub. "Visual confirmation—Gashadokuro is stationary at Neon Blossom Street."
Stationary. Renji almost laughed. The bone giant wasn't waiting; it was taunting.
"Cut through the Yurekibas," he ordered, his voice sharpened by the comm filters. "Leave the big one to me."
"Renji, you're still injured—" Hikari began.
"I'm fine," he snapped, then throttled forward, leaving no room for argument.
The first wave of Yurekibas came into view—a tide of wolf-like shadows bursting through the neon haze, eyes glowing like dying coals. Their claws sparked against the asphalt as they bounded toward the riders.
Renji's demon eye flared crimson. His katana bled into existence in his hand, black steel catching a lick of purple fire. One clean slash—he carved the nearest Yurekiba in two without even leaving his saddle, the corpse dissolving into smoke before it hit the ground.
"Keep them busy," Renji barked, then did something none of them had seen before.
He channeled shadow directly into the frame of his bike. The engine screamed—not mechanical, but alive, as black tendrils curled from the wheels. The machine surged forward, faster than the laws of physics should allow, a comet of darkness cleaving through the snarling pack.
The Yurekibas leapt. They were already too late.
Renji blurred past them, his trail littered with shredded demons collapsing into pools of ink. The shockwave of his passage rippled out, scattering the survivors into the side streets.
Behind him, Hikari's twin blades flashed as she carved down stragglers with surgical precision. Ayaka and Kalfka split wide, red bikes howling as they drew half the pack off into an alley, cutting through the swarm with gunfire and steel.
But Renji didn't look back. His eyes were locked forward, burning with a single purpose.
And then he saw it.
The Gashadokuro loomed in the center of Neon Blossom Street, it dwarfed the tallest lamp posts. Shadows crawled in and out of its sockets, its jaw hanging open in a grin that promised death.
"RENJI KUROGANE!" it roared, voice cracking glass across the block. "YOUR BONES… WILL SING FOR ME!"
Renji didn't slow. His grip tightened, shadow flames bleeding from the seams of his gloves, and for a heartbeat he felt the fire of Haruto burning inside him again.
He opened comms wide. "Hold the line. The rest of this is mine."
Then he
gunned the throttle, his bike a streak of black fire tearing straight into the monster's shadow.