Chapter 53
The sun shone brightly that morning, warm light spilling through Renji's window.
Renji sat on the edge of his bed, tying his shoes, his mind calm but focused.
Today was the day.
The day he would finally step into the light, no longer just a bystander in the hunter world.
"Ready?" Choji asked, leaning against the doorframe with his usual lazy grin.
Renji stood, cracking his knuckles.
"Yeah. Let's go."
The Hunter Evaluation Center was buzzing with noise.
Dozens of aspiring hunters crowded the lobby, filling it with chatter and nervous excitement.
Renji and Choji stepped inside, the cool air from the building's enchantments brushing over their faces.
Renji glanced around ...so many people, all here to prove themselves.
His expression stayed calm, but Choji noticed the tightness in his shoulders.
"What's with that look, Renji?" Choji teased, elbowing him lightly.
"ehhh renji-san scared??
Ehh shut up I'm not I'm just.....
Before Renji could respond fully, the room seemed to shift.
A presence so calm and commanding passed through the crowd, drawing every eye.
Arisa.
Her long hair swayed as she walked, her sharp gaze scanning the room.
For a moment, Renji froze, and when their eyes met — everything around them seemed to quiet.
"Renji?"
Her voice was softer than he remembered, but it made his heart skip all the same.
"You… what are you doing here?" she asked, taking a step closer.
Her face flushed red almost immediately.
"It's been a year no, not almost a year. It has been a year since I last saw you. Where have you been?"
Renji smiled faintly, slipping his hands behind his back.
"I went overseas."
"Overseas?" Arisa tilted her head.
Her expression softened but there was something searching in her eyes.
"So why are you here?"
Renji's smile widened just slightly.
"I'm here for the hunter evaluation."
Arisa blinked .. stunned — then glanced at him again, searching for even the faintest trace of mana.
Nothing.
She forced a small smile.
"Well… good luck."
Renji nodded politely and walked past her, Choji following behind him with a grin like he knew a secret.
Arisa stayed behind, staring at Renji's back.
He still feels like a normal human… she thought, biting her lip.
So how—??
She shook her head.
No, I'm overthinking again. He's probably just been busy overseas… maybe he even met someone…
Her face turned bright red as she covered her face with her hands, screaming internally.
What am I even thinking right now?!
Renji, meanwhile, was calm as he approached the testing area.
This past year had been relentless.
Day after day of Takeda's brutal training.
Fist after fist, strike after strike.
He had grown stronger than he ever thought possible.
So strong that he could completely erase his mana presence ..making himself appear almost entirely human.
So strong that, deep down, he knew if he went all out… he was probably the second-strongest hunter in Japan.
Today, the world would finally see that.
"Renji," one of the proctors called.
"You're up."
Renji stepped forward, pulling off his jacket and revealing the tightly coiled muscles he'd worked so hard for.
Choji whistled low from the sidelines.
"Show them what you've got, big guy."
Renji cracked his neck, stepped into the mana measuring circle, and exhaled slowly.
The room fell silent.
Then — BOOM.
A wave of golden mana erupted from his body, so dense it cracked the reinforced floor beneath him.
The monitors began to spike, alarms blaring as the readings shot through the roof.
Everyone in the hall gasped.
"What the hell—"
"Is that—"
"No way! He had no presence at all before this!"
Arisa, watching from a distance, felt her breath catch.
This mana… she thought, stunned.
It's not just powerful it's overwhelming.
Renji slowly opened his eyes, golden light shimmering faintly in them.
"This is my full power," he said quietly.
The proctors scrambled to stabilize the instruments, but the mana readings refused to settle Renji's power was far beyond anything they'd measured for a newcomer.
Even the scouts watching from the observation deck leaned forward, whispering to each other with barely contained excitement.
The evaluation chamber was vast .. a hall of stone and enchanted steel, reinforced by countless layers of magical barriers. It had been built for one purpose: to measure and contain the mana of the strongest beings humanity had to offer.
Renji stood at the center of the glowing circle, his expression calm but focused.
He could feel it — the pulse of mana beneath the floor, the slight resistance of the barrier that was supposed to measure him, the eyes of dozens of people watching him from every angle.
Choji stood off to the side with a mischievous grin.
"Don't blow up the building, Renji. They'll charge us for repairs."
Renji exhaled slowly, letting his nerves fade away. This was no different from training. No different from the nights he had stood opposite Takeda, fists raised, body bruised and screaming for rest but refusing to give up.
He had worked for this.
He had bled for this.
He had earned this.
The evaluator adjusted his glasses and gestured.
"You may begin whenever you are ready."
Renji nodded.
And then — he let go.
The first thing everyone felt was pressure.
Not heat, not wind — pressure. As though the air in the room had suddenly turned heavy, compressing down on their lungs and making their knees weak.
Then came the light.
Golden mana burst from Renji's body in a shockwave, blindingly bright, its color so pure it seemed almost divine. The ground beneath his feet cracked like glass as the power surged outward, colliding with the barrier — and for a terrifying second, the barrier buckled.
The instruments lining the walls began to shriek.
"Mana output rising — 50,000!"
"No, wait — 75,000!"
"Systems are spiking! We can't cap the readings!"
A deafening alarm rang out through the facility as the evaluators scrambled.
"Reinforce the barrier! Hurry!"
But even as they did, Renji's power kept rising — higher and higher, until the glow of his mana consumed the entire chamber.
The other hunters in the waiting hall pressed against the glass windows, their faces pale. Some stumbled back, clutching their chests from the sheer pressure in the air.
"This— this is insane."
"He feels like… like a top-tier SS-Rank."
"No… stronger. It's closer to—"
One of the veteran evaluators, a man with silver hair and a scar over his right eye, stepped forward and stared at the readings. His mouth went dry.
"This level of output…" he muttered.
"It's comparable to Hiroto, the 10th SS-Ranker — five years ago."
Those words sent a ripple through the room.
The scouts on the upper balcony stood abruptly, some whispering urgently into their comms. It wasn't every day that someone a complete unknown .. displayed power on that level.
And in the center of it all, Renji stood perfectly still, golden light swirling around him like a living storm, his hair whipping wildly in the surge of mana.
Slowly, he opened his eyes.
Golden.
Brilliant and sharp, like molten metal.
"This is my full power," he said quietly, voice steady despite the roar of energy around him.
The evaluators could only stare..
The mana surge slowly receded as Renji deactivated his aura, allowing the instruments to stabilize.
When the last echo of his power faded, the room fell into a stunned silence.
Then the chief evaluator cleared his throat and glanced at the readings again.
"There's… there's no doubt," he said slowly, as though he could barely believe his own words.
"Renji kurogane— is to be officially registered as the 11th SS-Rank Hunter in Japan."
Gasps filled the observation hall.
Choji let out a loud whistle and slapped the glass in front of him.
"You hear that, Renji?! 11th SS-Rank, baby!"
Renji stepped out of the circle, sweat glistening on his skin but his expression calm.
It felt strange — a year ago, he was just another boy terrified of the world, clinging to his sister and crying over the loss of his parents.
And now, he stood among the strongest hunters in Japan.
Before he could think too long about it, the doors to the chamber opened.
"Wow, wow, wow."
That voice Renji knew it immediately.
Hiroto stepped inside, his usual confident grin plastered on his face. His silver hair caught the light, and the other hunters in the room visibly straightened — this was one of Japan's strongest, a living legend.
"Well, well," Hiroto said, striding toward Renji, hands in his pockets.
"Didn't I say you'd get strong enough to stand next to me one day? Looks like I was right."
Renji gave him a faint smile.
"You sound like you were waiting for this."
"Of course I was." Hiroto clapped him on the shoulder, grinning wide.
"Now I have a rival. This is gonna make my days so much more fun."
Hiroto looked Renji up and down, his expression softening just a bit.
"You know, kid… you've really changed. A year ago, you wouldn't even meet my eyes. Now look at you — standing here like you own the place."
Renji's faint smile turned into a quiet laugh.
"Guess I had a good teacher."
Somewhere outside the chamber, Arisa stood in the hall, frozen.
She had watched the entire thing from the observation deck — had felt that surge of golden mana that shook the entire building.
But her mind couldn't reconcile what she saw with what she remembered.
Hiroto ?? What's is going on ?
Renji, a boy she had once pitied for being so weak, so ordinary — standing at the center of the room as a newly crowned SS-Rank.
How? she thought, clutching the railing tightly.
I still can't sense a trace of mana from him… until he releases it. How is he hiding something so enormous so perfectly?
Her heart pounded in her chest, not just with confusion, but with something else.
Pride.
And something dangerously close to fear.
The evaluators completed their paperwork in a rush, clearly eager to process Renji's results while the excitement still lingered.
"Renji kurogane," the chief evaluator said, handing him his new hunter license a sleek black card embossed with a gold SS at the top.
"Your official registration is complete. Congratulations — you are now recognized as the 11th SS-Rank Hunter in Japan."
Renji took the card quietly, staring at it for a moment before slipping it into his pocket.
He wasn't one for loud celebrations, but inside, something warm bloomed in his chest.
Not just pride — but relief.
This was proof that everything he had worked for… meant something.
Outside the center, reporters had already gathered, word of a new SS-Rank spreading like wildfire.
Renji stepped out into the sun, Choji whistling behind him.
"You know your quiet little life is over now, right?" Choji said, elbowing him.
"You're gonna be on the news, on billboards, on every hunter forum tonight."
Renji sighed, but there was a faint smile on his face.
"Guess so."
Hiroto, who had followed them out, clapped him on the back again.
"Get used to it, kid. You're one of us now. And trust me — you're not allowed to slack off anymore. Next time we fight, I'm not holding back."
Renji turned to look at him, and for the first time, his smile was not shy or hesitant.
"Good," he said simply.
"Neither am I."
Hiroto laughed loud and long, throwing his head back.
"Oh, this is going to be fun."
And as the golden light of the afternoon washed over them, Renji felt something settle deep inside him.
For the first time since he lost his parents — since that lonely boy had sat crying in the dark — he felt like he had found his place in the world.
No longer just surviving.
But standing.
Not just for himself, but for Lily. For Takeda. For Choji.
For the family he had chosen.
And though Arisa still stood at a distance, watching with wide, conflicted eyes Renji didn't turn back.