Rei didn't sleep that night.
His body rested on the cold stone floor of the abandoned shrine, but his mind kept replaying one moment her tears. The way Aika looked at him before she walked away, the quiet tremble in her voice when she said:
"Rei… I can't follow you into this darkness."
Darkness.
The word clung to him harder than any wound.
He stared at the cracked ceiling, the moonlight slicing through the gaps, illuminating the marks on his hands marks left from the awakening that nearly destroyed him in the battle before.
He wasn't the same boy anymore.
Something inside him had broken, but the dangerous part was… something new had awakened too.
A quiet whisper.
A low hum.
A power he didn't fully understand.
A power that wanted more.
---
The Night of the Red Moon
Hours passed in silence, until the air suddenly shifted. A drop in temperature. A faint crackle. His instincts sharpened instantly.
Rei pushed himself up, every nerve in his body alert.
A sound echoed through the forest.
Not the wind. Not an animal.
Footsteps slow, deliberate, confident.
He stepped outside, hand instinctively reaching for the old katana he had found earlier. It didn't matter that the blade was chipped and dull; his grip was steady, cold, ready.
The forest was quiet. Too quiet.
Then he saw him.
A silhouette standing on a broken torii gate, long coat swaying like it had a life of its own. The moon behind him turned his form into a shadow carved in steel.
Rei's breath hitched.
The man looked barely older than twenty-four, hair silver-white, eyes glowing a faint crimson calm, bored, almost disappointed by the world.
Not just a villain.
A prime monster.
"Rei," the man said, voice smooth but carrying weight like thunder. "I finally get to meet you."
Rei's grip tightened. "Who the hell are you?"
The man smiled lightly, stepping down from the torii as if gravity bowed for him.
"I am Kurosaki Ren," he said. "Though people like to call me something else."
His eyes lifted, crimson like blood lit by fire.
"The Prime Calamity."
Rei felt his pulse spike.
He'd heard that name before. Rumors whispered by dying men. Legends told in terror.
A man who fought armies alone.
A man whose power peaked not once, but constantly.
A man who never aged, never weakened, never lost.
Prime form always.
Rei swallowed. "Why are you here?"
Ren's stare hardened, interested yet unbothered.
"To see if the rumors were true," he said. "To see whether the boy who survived the Rift can actually become a threat."
He paused, his smile widening.
"Or entertainment."
Rei felt anger push through his fear.
Even with heartbreak tearing him apart, even with confusion choking him his pride wouldn't let him bow.
"What if I become neither?" Rei growled. "What if I become your nightmare instead?"
Ren blinked slowly, amused.
"Oh? Still got fire after being abandoned?"
He tilted his head. "Your girl left you. Your powers are unstable. And you're standing here with a broken sword. Yet you dare speak of nightmares?"
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"I like that."
---
The First Clash
Ren didn't move.
Yet Rei felt a sudden force crush through the air, a pressure so strong the trees bent around them.
Prime Aura.
Rei's knees nearly buckled.
He bit his tongue to stay conscious.
Ren raised a finger. Just one finger.
And flicked the air.
The shockwave hit Rei like a hammer.
Rei flew back, crashing through two stone walls of the shrine, dust exploding around him.
He couldn't breathe.
Pain ripped through his ribs, but he forced himself to stand.
Not because he could win.
But because he refused to kneel.
He wiped the blood from his mouth. "That all you got?"
Ren's eyes sharpened pleased.
"Oh yes," he said softly. "Fight me. Break. Rise. Entertain me."
He disappeared.
Rei barely saw the blur before Ren appeared behind him, kicking him into the air.
Rei's vision blurred white.
But something inside him… shifted.
Something responded to the overwhelming pressure.
A familiar hum.
A whisper.
The power.
"Let me out."
Rei clenched his teeth. "Not now"
The whisper grew louder.
"LET. ME. OUT."
Rei felt his vision darken.
His heartbeat slowed.
Energy spiraled violently from his chest, cracking the ground under him.
Ren's eyes widened slightly. "Interesting."
Rei didn't scream.
He didn't even feel the pain.
He simply let the power surge.
His aura burst open black and violet flames licking the air. The ground shook. The wind howled.
He wasn't human in that moment.
He wasn't even himself.
He was something else
Something awakened by heartbreak, loss, rage, and the hunger to never be weak again.
Ren smiled.
"Now that," he whispered, "is beautiful."
---
Unstable Power The Birth of a New Arc
Rei roared and charged forward.
Ren blocked the strike with a single palm but this time, he skidded back.
Not far.
But enough.
Rei didn't even realize he had broken the sound barrier.
He swung again faster, harder, the air burning with each slash. The dull katana now carried cracks of violet lightning around it.
Ren dodged with ease, but he looked genuinely entertained.
"You're not controlling this," Ren said. "But the raw potential… astonishing."
Rei didn't hear him.
Or maybe he did.
But the power roaring inside his veins was louder than any voice.
He dashed forward again too fast even for his eyes instinct taking over.
Ren blocked. Countered. Dodged.
But Rei kept pushing.
The forest around them turned to dust.
Even the moonlight flickered, distorted by the pressure waves.
Finally, Ren stepped back, lowered his hand, and said:
"That's enough."
He raised two fingers.
A crimson ripple exploded outward.
Rei's aura shattered.
His body slammed into the ground so hard the earth cracked beneath him.
He couldn't move.
Ren walked toward him, stopping right above his broken form.
"You will not die," Ren said. "Not yet."
Rei tried to lift his head, but everything was fading.
Ren crouched, voice low.
"You are standing on the edge of something extraordinary. But you are incomplete."
His finger tapped Rei's chest, right where the energy had burst earlier.
"This power… it's dangerous. It will either kill you or crown you."
Rei's breathing slowed.
Ren leaned in.
"And when you finally master it, come find me. Then… I will show you what a real Prime looks like."
He stood up, coat fluttering in the night wind.
"But for now…"
He snapped his fingers.
The world went dark.
---
Rei Wakes to a New Reality
Morning sunlight warmed Rei's face as he blinked awake.
His body felt like it had been crushed by a mountain.
He coughed blood, clutching the grass under him. His wounds were half-healed another side effect of the strange power inside him.
Memories flooded back.
The fight.
The overwhelming loss.
Ren's words.
And Aika.
A stab of pain hit him harder than any punch from Ren.
Rei stared at his trembling hands.
"I couldn't protect her… I couldn't even protect myself…"
Tears gathered in his eyes—not weak tears, but the quiet grief of someone who had already lost too much.
He wiped them away with shaking fingers.
"No," he whispered. "This ends now."
He stood slowly, body injured but mind sharper than ever.
He needed strength.
Not just for survival.
But to face Ren again.
To uncover the truth of his powers.
To understand the whispers inside him.
To stop running from destiny.
And maybe… to win Aika back.
But not as the weak version of himself she walked away from.
As someone stronger.
Someone unbreakable.
Someone who wasn't afraid of monsters because he was ready to become one if needed.
He inhaled deeply, feeling the faint flicker of violet energy respond in his chest.
A new path stretched before him.
Not a hero's path.
Not a villain's either.
Something in between.
Something darker.
Something meant for someone who'd been shattered… and was choosing to rebuild in his own way.
---