The night air outside the ruins was cold, but not colder than the silence pressing into Reiji's chest. He had left the Blackened Altar behind, yet its whispers lingered like scars etched into the marrow of his bones. The Codex hung heavy against his arm, its chains no longer biting but pulsing faintly, as if alive.
The shard he had taken lay in his palm. It bled with a faint crimson glow, humming in resonance with the Codex. When he closed his hand around it, warmth seeped into his veins—not comfort, but memory.
And then he saw it.
---
The world around him dissolved, replaced by a field washed in twilight. It wasn't a vision of stone or shadow, but of memory given form. Grass rippled in wind that did not exist. Far away, a river glistened like silver, untouched by blood or ash.
At the center of this dreamscape stood a figure. A young boy, no older than twelve, training with a wooden blade. His strikes were clumsy, his stance uneven, but his eyes burned with a familiar stubbornness.
Reiji's breath caught.
It was him.
The boy turned, and for a fleeting moment, their gazes met—past and present colliding in silence. But before Reiji could speak, the image shifted.
The boy was older now, standing in rain as he clutched a blade dripping with red. Around him lay bodies of nameless targets, each face blurred as though forgotten on purpose. His hands trembled, but his eyes—his eyes were empty.
Reiji fell to his knees, clutching his head. "Stop it… I don't need to see this again."
But the shard refused his plea.
---
The memory twisted again, and this time, it was Renji.
His brother stood at the edge of the field, eyes unscarred by shadow, laughter unbroken by silence. He called out, his voice echoing through the dreamscape with unbearable clarity.
"Reiji, you're too slow! If you can't keep up, you'll never surpass me!"
The sound tore through Reiji's chest like a blade. He staggered forward, desperate to answer, but his voice cracked. "Renji… wait!"
The younger Renji grinned, turning his back, running toward a light at the horizon. But with every step, his body fragmented, dissolving into motes of shadow until there was nothing left but silence.
Reiji screamed into the void, the sound devoured by the memory until only his ragged breaths remained.
---
The Codex's voice returned, colder than before.
These are the echoes you carry. Not visions of the Court, but fragments of yourself. You cannot run from them. They are what made you blade and shadow.
Reiji slammed his fist into the ground. "I am not defined by the blood you made me spill. I will not be."
But even as he spoke, another echo emerged.
This time, it was not Renji, nor himself. It was a woman—masked, her figure cloaked in the same raven-black as the Keeper of Ashes. She stood at the riverbank, silent, watching him.
Reiji recognized her instantly. Not from memory, but from instinct. She was one of the nameless he had slain years ago. Her mask had shattered then, her eyes wide not with fear, but with pity. A face he had buried deep within his silence.
And yet, here she was, alive in memory, watching him without malice.
Reiji's grip faltered. "Why… Why do you look at me like that?"
She did not answer. She only lifted her hand and pressed it to his chest, where his heart should beat. And then, softly, a voice—not hers, but his own guilt given sound—whispered:
Because even in death, we are part of you.
---
Reiji fell back, gasping as the memory shattered into a thousand shards of light. The dreamscape collapsed, dragging him back into the night.
He was lying on the cold ground, his hand clenched around the crimson shard. His chest burned with an ache deeper than any wound.
The Keeper of Ashes' voice drifted from the shadows, though her form did not appear. "You touched the memory, didn't you? The shard does not simply restore the Codex. It restores you."
Reiji's voice was hoarse. "Restore? No… it tears me apart."
"That is the price," she replied, her tone heavy with something between sorrow and warning. "Every shard will show you what you wish to forget. Only by enduring will the Codex be whole again."
Reiji forced himself to his feet, gripping his blade. "Then I'll endure. I'll see it all. No matter how much it breaks me."
The night wind carried no answer. Only silence.
---
Far away, beyond the hills, faint lights flickered—torches moving like serpents in the dark. The Court's hunters. They were drawing near, their net tightening.
Reiji sheathed his blade and tightened the Codex's chains around his arm. His path forward was clear. Every shard would bring another memory, another echo of the past he could never escape. But if enduring them meant unraveling the Court, then he would walk through every shadow until none remained.
The shard pulsed once more, and in its glow, he whispered:
"Renji… if these memories are all I have left of you, then I'll carry them. Until the end."
And with that, he vanished into the darkness, the echoes of living memory still burning in his veins.