The night over Asakusa was finally beginning to quiet.
The corpse-made Infernals were gone. The Giant Infernal had been reduced to ash. The Demon Infernal had been cut down by Shinmon Hibachi himself. Fires still burned across the district in scattered pockets, and smoke still crawled over the rooftops, but the White-Clad's attack had lost its momentum.
And high above the district—
Haumea clicked her tongue.
Her eyes narrowed as she looked over the ruined streets below, the embers drifting through the night, the broken rooftops, the flames, the stubborn refusal of Asakusa to simply lie down and die.
'How irritating.'
What had been meant to be a clean extraction had become a mess.
A loud, destructive, very public mess.
She glanced down toward the spot where the rift had swallowed Kidan.
Benimaru had collapsed there.
Charon stood near him.
Hibachi was coming.
Konro, though spent, was still somewhere below.
And Ritsu had already withdrawn into the shadows.
Haumea rolled one shoulder and sighed.
"The mission here is over."
Charon looked up from below.
Haumea's voice sharpened.
"Pull back."
He did not question it.
That was simply how Charon was.
If Haumea said move, he moved.
If she said stay, he stayed.
If she said kill, he killed.
He gave one final glance toward the broken Benimaru below, then bent his knees.
At that exact moment—
A blast of flame tore upward toward the rooftop.
Hibachi.
He came in like a launched shell, Nichirin's heat still lingering around him, his face dark and furious now that the battle high above had ended and his attention had dropped back down to the district.
He had seen the rift.
Seen the White-Clad.
Seen the aftermath.
And he had understood enough.
"You bastards!"
His hand-sword came down in a blazing arc meant to intercept their retreat—
But Haumea smiled faintly and stepped back into the distortion already beginning to fold around them.
Charon moved in front of her at once.
Hibachi's strike slammed into Charon's guard.
The impact split the rooftop and sent a ring of flame bursting out over the district.
Charon slid backward half a step.
Hibachi snarled.
Charon, calm as ever, said only, "Too slow."
Then the distortion behind them widened.
Haumea tilted her head at Hibachi, her smile smug and poisonous.
"Bye."
The next second—
They were gone.
The rooftop was empty.
Only broken tile and drifting heat remained.
Hibachi stood there breathing hard, his eyes wide with rage.
Then he clicked his tongue so violently it almost sounded like a curse.
"...Damn it."
Below, Konro could only watch from one knee.
Crimson Moon had wrung almost everything from him. He was still conscious, still trying to rise, but his limbs felt like lead and his breathing burned his chest. He looked up toward the rooftop where Hibachi had tried to intercept.
And failed.
Konro shut his eyes for a brief second.
'We were a step too late.'
In the ruined street below, Benimaru was still on his knees.
He had not moved from the place where Kidan disappeared.
The empty air in front of him looked wrong.
Like the world had been cut open for a moment, stolen something precious, and sealed itself back together before anyone could stop it.
Benimaru's hands trembled.
His face was streaked with tears and soot.
He could still feel it.
The brush of Kidan's fingers against his own.
Close.
So close.
Not enough.
"Kidan..." he whispered.
Then louder—
"Kidan!"
No answer.
His breathing turned ragged.
He pushed himself up violently, nearly stumbling, then broke into a run.
No direction.
No plan.
Just movement.
If he moved fast enough, far enough, maybe he could still catch him. Maybe the rift had left some trail. Maybe Kidan had fallen nearby. Maybe—
"BENIMARU!"
Hibachi landed in front of him.
Benimaru skidded to a stop, wild-eyed, fire flaring around his hands in unstable bursts.
"Move!" he shouted, voice breaking. "I have to go find him!"
Hibachi did not move.
For once, there was no grin on his face.
"And where are you going to run to?" Hibachi demanded.
Benimaru clenched his fists.
"I don't know!"
The answer ripped out of him like a wound.
"I don't know where he is! I don't know where they took him! I don't know anything!"
His shoulders shook.
"But I have to go!"
Hibachi stepped forward.
"No."
Benimaru stared at him with raw hatred for that one word.
Hibachi's voice dropped lower.
"We will look for him."
Benimaru's jaw trembled.
"We'll find him."
Hibachi locked eyes with him, and there was something in his tone now that Benimaru had never heard before.
A promise.
"But right now," Hibachi said, "you're not thinking."
Benimaru looked away, tears spilling again.
"You think running blind into the night helps your brother?" Hibachi asked. "You think getting yourself killed helps him?"
Benimaru said nothing.
Because he knew.
Some part of him knew.
Hibachi was right.
And that only made it hurt more.
Hibachi's expression tightened.
"For now, we regroup."
Benimaru's shoulders slumped.
His fire flickered.
Then dimmed.
He stood there shaking, trying and failing to stop crying, until Hibachi placed one large hand on his shoulder.
"We're bringing him back," Hibachi said.
Benimaru squeezed his eyes shut.
And nodded.
Once.
Barely.
---
Far away from Asakusa, beyond the district's burning skyline and the frantic efforts to put out the remaining fires, the White-Clad regrouped in the dark.
A ruined temple structure stood half-buried in shadow, its collapsed walls lit only by the faint red glow of drifting embers and the warped light of the rift they had used to withdraw.
Haumea stood at the center of the broken stone floor, arms folded, expression returned to its usual lazy superiority.
Charon stood nearby, silent and enormous as ever.
Ritsu waited a few steps back, her pale face unreadable.
For several moments, no one spoke.
Then Charon broke the silence.
"What now?"
His voice was as flat as always.
"The plan failed."
Haumea looked at him.
Then smiled.
"No."
Charon waited.
Haumea tapped a finger lightly against her own cheek.
"The plan in Asakusa failed."
Her smile widened.
"But the real plan?"
She tilted her head.
"That worked perfectly."
Charon's brow shifted slightly.
Haumea looked pleased with herself.
"I know exactly where the Pillar is going to appear."
Ritsu's eyes lifted.
Charon remained silent.
Haumea continued, voice almost playful now.
"The rift didn't just take him away from his brother."
Her smile sharpened.
"It dropped him exactly where I wanted him to go."
Ritsu stepped forward slightly.
Haumea turned to her.
"Ritsu."
"Yes."
Haumea's gaze fixed on her servant.
"You're going to be the guardian of the Pillar."
Ritsu's expression finally changed, if only a little.
A tiny, eerie smile.
Haumea pointed into the dark beyond the temple, toward a place unseen.
"He'll emerge there."
She gave the location.
A dead place.
A place far from help.
Far from Asakusa.
Far from Benimaru.
Ritsu's smile widened a fraction more.
"As you wish."
Haumea let out a pleased little hum.
"When he arrives, be there for him."
Charon glanced at her.
"You're certain?"
Haumea's eyes gleamed.
"Completely."
Then she looked off into the distance, toward a place ordinary sight could not reach.
"He's waking up now."
---
Darkness.
No.
Not darkness.
Something worse.
A place beyond place.
A space without ground, without sky, without shape, yet somehow all of those things at once. Red-black emptiness stretched in every direction, and within it floated the faint suggestion of heat, grief, old pain, and the sound of something vast breathing from very far away.
Kidan opened his eyes.
He was lying on nothing.
Or something.
He couldn't tell.
He sat up slowly.
His head hurt.
His chest hurt.
Everything felt wrong.
He looked at his hands first.
Small.
Shaking.
Then he looked around.
The strange red-black world went on forever.
No streets.
No Asakusa.
No brother.
No voices he knew.
And when he tried to think—
There was nothing.
He blinked.
'Who...'
He frowned.
'Who am I?'
His breath quickened.
He reached for a memory.
Any memory.
A face.
A name.
A voice.
Anything.
But every time his thoughts moved, they slid into blankness.
He touched his chest.
Nothing there answered him.
Not even his own name.
Fear rose in him.
Pure and childlike.
"Hello?" he called out.
His own voice sounded tiny in that impossible place.
No answer came.
Then—
Light.
Far ahead, in the distance that had not seemed to exist until that moment, a towering radiance appeared.
Kidan froze.
The shape before him was more presence than body, more certainty than form.
And it looked at him.
He felt it.
Even without eyes he could understand.
It was looking directly at him.
The pressure of that gaze made his thoughts go quiet.
A voice came.
Not spoken.
It sank directly into him.
A holy, terrible certainty.
"You are chosen."
Kidan's lips parted.
He didn't know why, but the words made his knees weaken.
"You were taken from a false world."
The voice filled the space around him.
Filled him.
"The world of man is broken."
"Impure."
"It must burn."
Kidan's head throbbed.
He tried to remember something.
Someone.
A face in front of him.
A hand reaching for his.
But the memory slipped like ash through his fingers.
The voice continued.
"There is salvation in flame."
"There is truth in the Great Cataclysm."
"You were born for it."
Something warm touched the emptiness where his memories should have been.
And in that absence, the words found room to root.
Kidan stared upward.
His breathing steadied.
The fear ebbed.
Replaced by something else.
Purpose.
A terrible calm.
"...I was?" he whispered.
"Yes."
The answer was instant.
"You are mine."
The red-black space pulsed around him.
And Kidan lowered his head.
In acceptance.
When the rift opened again, it did so in silence.
The dark-red tear split the air above a dead forest clearing under a moonless sky.
Ritsu was already there, waiting exactly where Haumea had told her to stand.
Her pale robes hung motionless in the still air.
The world around her smelled of damp earth, old ash, and loneliness.
Then the rift widened.
And Kidan fell out.
He hit the ground on one knee, one hand catching him, breathing hard as the strange energy around him slowly faded.
The rift sealed behind him at once.
For a few seconds, he stayed there, looking down at the dirt.
Then he lifted his head.
Ritsu stood before him.
She smiled.
Not warmly.
But not cruelly either.
Something closer to reverence.
She stepped forward and gave a small bow.
"My name is Ritsu."
Kidan stared at her.
His eyes were distant.
Ritsu straightened.
"I am going to look after you."
Kidan said nothing.
The night wind stirred softly around them.
Then Ritsu's smile deepened ever so slightly as she addressed him properly.
"Kidan-sama."