The abandoned dock warehouse was quiet now—too quiet. The roar of collapsing concrete from the ruined building behind them had faded, replaced only by the sound of distant waves hitting the docks and the hum of flickering, dying lights above them.
Ren sat against a crate, trying to steady his breathing.
Tatsuya—his father—stood a few feet away, arms crossed, leaning against a rusted beam as if he had never left, as if he hadn't faked his death and disappeared for over a decade.
For minutes, no one spoke.
Finally, Ren broke the silence.
"You said… Mom knew."
Tatsuya looked down, eyes shadowed. "She did. She was one of the only reasons the Seal never found you sooner."
Ren's jaw clenched. "She lied to me for years."
Kaito exhaled. "Well… technically your whole family lied."
Yui elbowed him hard. "Not helping."
Tatsuya pushed off the beam with a sigh. "I swear to you, Ren—we did everything to keep you out of this world. But the Seal doesn't choose based on desire. It chooses based on blood."
Ren shook his head. "But why? Why is this thing so obsessed with our bloodline?"
Tatsuya hesitated—just a second, but Ren caught it.
"There are things about our family," he said carefully, "that even I don't fully understand. Things my father hid. Things the Council hunted us for."
"And my mom?" Ren pushed harder. "Was she part of this too?"
This time, Tatsuya didn't answer.
Not because he didn't want to.
Because a sound cut him off.
A soft click.
A faint shift of air.
The almost-silent rustle of fabric against metal.
Sora reacted instantly.
He grabbed Ren by the shoulder and shoved him behind a pillar, baton raised in a single, fluid motion.
"WE'RE NOT ALONE."
Kaito and Yui scrambled behind crates, adrenaline flaring again as their eyes searched the shadows. The warehouse lights flickered once… twice…
Then stabilised.
Tatsuya exhaled through his nose.
Not surprised.
Not afraid.
Just… resigned.
"We were bound to be found," he murmured.
Sora tightened his stance, scanning every corner. "Who?"
Tatsuya didn't answer.
Instead, he looked directly at a stack of shipping containers.
"Come out."
The shadows shifted.
Footsteps—graceful, silent, intentional—echoed through the warehouse.
And then she stepped into the dim light.
Ren's breath caught in his throat.
"…Mom?"
The Woman From the Shadows
She looked impossibly alive.
No bandages.
No limp.
No sign of the car accident Ren had been told killed her.
Instead, she looked like a ghost reborn.
Long black hair tied back in a low braid.
A dark coat flowing behind her like ink.
Eyes sharp, intelligent, and burning with restrained fury.
Her posture—too steady, too trained—was not that of a civilian.
Yui whispered, "That's Ren's mom?"
Kaito gulped. "She looks like she could kill us with a spoon."
Sora didn't lower his weapon.
The woman stopped mere feet from them.
Her eyes—stern, piercing—landed on Ren.
He felt his heartbeat stutter painfully.
The mother he mourned.
The mother he grieved.
The mother he thought about every night, imagining her voice, her warmth, her smile—
"The accident…" Ren's voice cracked. "It wasn't real."
A small, sad smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
"No, sweetheart. It wasn't."
Ren's throat tightened. "But why? Why did you leave me?"
Tatsuya stepped beside her, expression unreadable.
"She didn't leave you," he said quietly. "She saved you."
His mother nodded, stepping closer, tears welling despite her poised expression.
"Ren… if I stayed alive, the Serpent clans would've found you before you even learned to read."
Her gaze flicked briefly to Tatsuya.
"And the Council would've killed you."
Ren stumbled back, heart in free fall.
"So both of you decided to disappear? To let me grow up thinking I was alone?"
Her face twisted with grief.
"Ren, we watched you. We never left you unprotected."
"You left me without you," Ren whispered.
His voice was breaking.
He couldn't stop it.
His mother flinched—not physically, but in her eyes.
"Ren… I'm so sorry."
She reached toward him.
Ren pulled back.
Tears stung her eyes.
"You don't have to forgive us now," she whispered. "But you need to understand why we did this."
Ren shook his head. "Then explain it. All of it."
She inhaled deeply.
"When Wu Long died… the Seal went dormant. But we knew it would awaken again in the next of the bloodline."
She touched her chest.
"And I was pregnant with you."
Ren froze.
"We didn't know if the Seal would attach itself to you or die with Tatsuya. But every faction was watching. Waiting."
Tatsuya's voice hardened.
"The day Ren was born, three assassination attempts were made."
Yui covered her mouth in shock.
Kaito nearly dropped the pipe he was holding.
Sora's eyes narrowed. "Which factions?"
His mother's eyes grew cold.
"The Council."
"The Red Serpent Brotherhood."
"And the Ghost Tong."
Even Sora stiffened.
"The Ghost Tong? They went extinct."
"No," she corrected softly. "They went underground."
Ren felt a cold tremor run through his bones.
He had awakened the First Gate.
The world was already after him.
But there were worse things—factions operating in shadows even Sora feared.
His mother continued:
"We had one choice: disappear, or let our son die."
Tatsuya stepped closer, placing a hand on Ren's shoulder—gentle, fatherly, real.
"I'm sorry you grew up without us. But I'd rather you hate us alive than love us dead."
Ren's eyes blurred with tears.
He wasn't ready to accept this.
Wasn't ready to forgive.
Wasn't ready to understand everything.
But he wasn't ready to lose them again, either.
Before he could speak, Sora suddenly stiffened.
A small earpiece in his collar crackled.
His face drained of color.
"Ren," he whispered, "we need to move. Now."
Tatsuya's head snapped up.
His mother reached for her concealed weapon.
Ren's heart hammered.
"What is it?"
Sora looked at all of them, expression deadly serious.
"…The Second Gate has begun reacting."
Ren's blood ran cold.
"What does that mean?"
Sora swallowed.
"It means… you're running out of time."
The warehouse lights flickered violently—once, twice—
Then everything went black.
A presence entered the building.
Silent.
Cold.
Watching.
And not human.