The moon hung low over the city of Hoshimura, its pale light casting silver shadows across the crumbling ruins of what was once a bustling district. Renji Kurobane stood alone at the edge of a rooftop, his dark cloak fluttering gently in the wind. His eyes — once bright with naive hope — now carried the burden of everything he had witnessed.
Below him, the whispers of the night rose like fog — the lingering voices of the cursed.
He could hear them again.
"Monster..."
"Why did you survive?"
"You should've died with us..."
Renji clenched his fists, his nails digging into the skin of his palms. His breathing was shallow, his heartbeat louder than the wind. These weren't illusions. They were memories — fragments of the pain he had buried deep within him.
Ever since awakening the curse inside him, these voices had followed him. They twisted his mind when he was alone, clawed at his sanity when he tried to sleep. But tonight felt different.
Tonight, they weren't just whispers.
They were... calling.
---
Down in the alleyway, a figure moved silently, dressed in an old black school uniform, its sleeves tattered and blood-soaked. His hair was silver-white, his eyes sharp — a gaze that pierced through the fabric of lies. He watched Renji from below.
His name was Akuma Senzaki, and he had been watching Renji for days. Waiting. Measuring. Judging.
"You're not ready yet... but you will be," he whispered to himself, before vanishing into the shadows like a ghost fading with the wind.
---
Inside an abandoned shrine on the outskirts of town, Renji lit a single candle and sat cross-legged. He had come here as a child with his sister. The place once brought peace.
Now, it was haunted by the weight of truth.
He pulled out the worn piece of paper he had found earlier — the one hidden in the lining of his mother's old satchel. The faded kanji scribbled on it seemed like a spell. But not of power — of sealing.
It read:
"The day the moon bleeds red, the curse shall no longer sleep."
"What does it mean?" Renji muttered under his breath.
And then it happened.
A sudden chill swept through the shrine, extinguishing the candlelight. The shadows in the room thickened, swirling toward the center like smoke being pulled into a vacuum.
A voice rang out. Clear. Familiar.
"You finally came."
Renji's eyes widened. That voice...
It was his sister's.
Asami.
He turned around — and there she was.
But she wasn't the same.
Her body hovered a few inches above the ground, her eyes dull, her mouth smiling — too wide to be real. Strings of curse marks ran down her neck, glowing faintly in the dark.
"Asami?" Renji took a step forward.
She didn't respond. Her head tilted sideways, jerking unnaturally.
"You left me behind," she whispered. "Why did you run, Renji?"
"I... I didn't know! I tried to save you!"
"Did you?"
Her voice echoed, splitting into two tones — hers and something else.
Suddenly, the curse mark on Renji's chest began to burn. He fell to his knees, clutching his ribs as a black mist began to rise from his body.
It was reacting.
The seal was weakening.
"Asami, please! Tell me what happened to you!" he cried.
Her face twisted, and for a brief moment, something inhuman stared back at him.
"You will remember... everything."
She vanished — like dust in the wind.
Renji collapsed, breathing heavily. But his eyes had changed.
They had seen the truth.
---
Far away, on a mountain peak where the sky met the void, Akuma Senzaki opened his eyes.
"So... the first memory has awakened," he whispered. "Let's see if you survive the second."
And in his hand, he held a blade — not of steel, but of memory.
It was called "Tsukikage no Shi" — The Death of Moonlight.
And it had been waiting for Renji.
If you're feeling the storm in Renji's heart…
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