The command center of Kokuryūkai was drowned in silence. Screens replayed the fight in grainy detail—Renji's movements weaving between shadow and steel, his demon eye glowing like an ember in a sea of black. Every officer at the base watched, slack-jawed. Even the three base masters—Hikari, Kazuki, and Takashi—sat unmoving.
Hikari's silver hair shimmered under the cold fluorescent light as she leaned forward, elbows on the table, eyes locked on the replay. Every strike Renji had landed defied the logic of training, of human limitations. Who fights like this? she wondered.
In every guild there was a rank of one's understanding and harness of the seven currents, the ranks; E, D, C, B, A and SS.
Within Kokuryūkai, ranks were divided:
E-Rank: The expendable Gammas.
D-Rank: The Betas, competent but replaceable.
C-Rank: The Alphas, elite shadow manipulators.
And above them, the rare B-Rank Young Masters, prodigies like Hikari herself—whose early start at eight and relentless training had carried her to that title at nineteen. Then, A-Rank, the near-mythical tier occupied only by Master Kazuki. And beyond even that—SS-Rank, the divine plateau, once reached only by Kokuryūkai's founder, Grandmaster Kenshi.
But with what she'd just seen unleashed by a mortal, it wouldn't take much to put him in the rank B a young master in his own right.
To see a nameless outsider casually display the power of a B-Rank… with no training, no history, no guild allegiance—it was an insult to everything Kokuryūkai believed in.
"Who is this guy?" Hikari asked aloud, though her voice lacked its usual authority; it was more like a breath stolen from her lips.
Takashi snorted softly, leaning back in his chair. "Good question. I was about to ask the same."
But Master Kazuki, stoic as a stone statue, didn't respond. His dark eyes remained locked on the flickering image of Renji's demon eye.
His mind raced with probabilities when he clearly spotted Renji's demon eye. His back, but how? And why now? The veil between hell and earth must be more unstable than we thought or there must be an ongoing catastrophic plan that we aren't aware of right now.
" Master Kazuki" Master Takashi said gently and laid a hand on his shoulder to nudge him back into reality.
" What is it?" Master Kazuki inquired. " Well I and Hikari are in a bit if a debate right now on our next course of action. I suggested that we neutralize this outsider with immediate effect while Hikari here suggests that we try to sway him to our side so we need your final decision"
" I see, well I want you to capture him alive that guy is special. He bears the mark of the abyss and if half of what I'm thinking is true then this guy might be our only salvation." Master Kazuki said.
" But sir this guy might be very dangerous, to bring anywhere near this place he has a demon eye, for all we know he might be a demon possessed human" Master Takashi said.
" Sometimes darkness might be the only road to light, you know that better than anyone Takashi. Get this guy at all costs and ensure you do it before any guild lays their hands on him understand?" Master Kazuki said, his voice carried a certain steel that prompted both Hikari and Takashi replying.
" Yes sir!"
"But just playing devil's advocate here, what happens if another guild gets to him first?" Hikari wondered.
" They will kill him on the spot, so all Kokuryūkai members hands on deck find him out since a member of the Ikazuchi-dan guild saw him we can choose that to mean that the whole guild is already aware of his existence"
Meanwhile while the Kokuryūkai thought to make a move of strategy, Renji was somewhere else making moves of hygiene.
Meanwhile, the man they hunted pushed a mop across a dull, scuffed floor.
Renji had traded katanas and shadows for a janitor's uniform and the scent of industrial cleaner. His new job—cleanup crew for Kokuryūkai's operations—was unglamorous but perfect. He fought wars in secret, then he got enlisted into an army that fights the war after the war and that is total disposal of any demon killed by their guild, thereby erasing the evidence in public with no one to cheer them for it. Irony at its finest.
The base above was alive with activity. Hunters prepped for missions, squads boasted about kills, Alpha operatives strode with arrogance. None of them looked twice at the kid sweeping in the corner. Good, Renji thought. The best place to hide is in plain sight.
One would never think that he'd ever get back to the same base that would be looking for him.
That was why he joined them, it would be the last place to look. " Hurry newbie get that place cleaned up before the alphas begin their march" a colleague called.
Renji hastened his sweeping just as the sound of the alphas hit them. At the head of the long line was Jade immediately behind her was Akihiro.
Renji recognized them immediately and bowed his head to conceal his face.keep walking, don't look.
But Jade's gaze lingered a moment too long. Her eyes narrowed slightly. Do I know him?
The rest however marched impassively past. He rose his head slowly after the last man had marched past him, his hair perfectly concealing the right side of his face.
That could have ended pretty bad. Renji thought while he watched them march off, still it proved to show that nobody remembered him or any member of his team.
A single tear rolled down his left cheek when he remembered how Hanzo was torn open then he turned sharply and collided with Hikari.
Her sudden presence was like a blade pressed to his throat.
"I—sorry, Master," Renji muttered quickly, already moving to sidestep.
"Hey."
Her voice was calm but carried command. He froze. "Master?"
"You dropped something." She nodded at the broom on the ground.
Renji glanced down, forced a sheepish smile, picked it up. "Thanks, Master." He left without looking back, his heart pounding harder than it had in any battle.