The pack is not chosen. It is forged, in fire and blood, in the shared howl against the darkness. To find one's pack is to find oneself.
They traveled together down the mountain, three swordsmen bound by a shared battle and an unspoken agreement.
Tetsuya Kiba was a creature of the wild, more comfortable among the trees and streams than in any human settlement. He walked with a predatory grace, his senses always alert, his serrated blades never far from his hands. He spoke little, and when he did, his words were blunt, often brutal, but never without purpose.
He had been raised by wolves, he told them on the second night, as they sat around a small fire in a mountain cave. Not metaphorically. Literally. As a child, he had been found in the ruins of a burned village, the only survivor of a Hollowed attack. A she-wolf, her own pups lost to the same creature, had taken him in, raised him as her own.
"I was more wolf than human for most of my life," he said, his amber eyes reflecting the firelight. "I didn't know words. I didn't know names. I only knew the hunt, the pack, the howl."
A wandering swordsman had found him years later, had seen the ferocity in him and taught him to wield a blade. He had given him the name Tetsuya—iron arrow—for the way he struck, swift and unerring. And he had given him the wolf pelt, the mask that Tetsuya had worn ever since.
"He died three years ago," Tetsuya said, his voice flat. "A High Hollow. He told me to run. I ran. I've been hunting that Hollowed ever since."
"The one we killed," Ren said quietly. "Was it…?"
Tetsuya shook his head. "No. That one was weak. A stray. The one who killed my master… it was something else. Something older. Stronger." He looked at Kaito, his gaze sharp. "You're hunting the First Hollow."
It was not a question. Kaito nodded slowly. "He killed my family. Turned my sister."
Tetsuya's gaze moved to the box on Kaito's back. He had said nothing about it until now, had simply accepted its presence with the same pragmatic acceptance he gave to the weather or the terrain. Now, he studied it with a new intensity.
"She's in there," he said. "The Hollowed. Your sister."
"She's not a Hollowed," Kaito said, his voice firm. "Not fully. She retains her humanity. She resists the hunger."
"For now," Tetsuya said.
"For always," Kaito replied. "I'll find a way."
Tetsuya stared at him for a long moment. Then, unexpectedly, he laughed. It was a rough, barking sound, but there was warmth in it. "Stupid," he said. "Both of you. Stupid and stubborn."
He reached into the furs at his waist and pulled out a strip of dried meat, tearing off a piece with his teeth. "Fine. I'll help. The First Hollow is the source of all of them. If I help you kill him, I kill the one who killed my master too."
"That's… not exactly how it works," Ren said hesitantly. "The High Hollows are separate from Umbriel. They're his direct servants, but they're not—"
"I know what I know," Tetsuya interrupted. "The First Hollow is the root. Cut the root, the branches die. That's how it works in the forest. That's how it will work here."
He looked at Kaito. "I'll fight with you. I'll protect your sister if I must. But I won't call her pack. Not yet. She has to earn that."
Kaito met his gaze. "She will."
They reached the Vanguard safe house in the foothills three days later. The commander there, a wiry woman with a sharp face and sharper eyes, looked at the three of them—the charcoal-burner's son with the box on his back, the trembling boy with the scarred ear, the feral warrior in the wolf pelt—and sighed.
"You've been causing quite a stir," she said, sliding a paper across the table. "A new assignment. Direct from Elder Tetsuro himself."
Kaito picked up the paper. The script was elegant, old-fashioned, the hand of someone who had written a thousand such orders.
The Mugen Transport. High priority. A High Hollow—perhaps two—has been reported in the region. You are to rendezvous with Paragon Kenji Akatsuki at the terminal and provide support. This is a direct order from the Elder. Do not fail.
Kaito's blood ran cold. A High Hollow. The creatures that served Umbriel directly, the ones with power beyond ordinary Hollowed. And they were being assigned to support a Paragon—one of the nine strongest swordsmen in the Vanguard.
"A Paragon," Ren breathed, his face pale. "We're going to work with a Paragon."
"Not just any Paragon," the commander said, and for the first time, something like respect entered her voice. "Kenji Akatsuki. The Paragon of Blazing Pyre. He is… formidable."
Tetsuya's amber eyes gleamed. "A strong swordsman. Good. I want to see how strong."
Kaito folded the paper and tucked it into his jacket. He thought of Yuki, asleep in her box, unaware of the danger they were about to walk into. He thought of the High Hollow that had killed Tetsuya's master. He thought of the creature that had killed his family.
"When does the transport leave?" he asked.
"Tomorrow night," the commander said. "You leave at dusk."