PROLOGUE – "When a Flame is Born"
PAIN!
PAIN!
PAIN!
...
There is a kind of pain that leaves no wound behind.
No blood. No scars. Nothing the world can see.
Yet it lingers.
It settles quietly in the hollow places of the heart
In the silence that follows a voice you will never hear again.
In the chair that remains empty.
In the warmth that has already faded from your hands.
This pain does not weep.
It does not scream.
It endures.
It waits.
Like embers buried beneath ashes, it rests in the dark
unnoticed,
unspoken,
unwelcome.
Pain… is patient.
And war?
War does not begin with armies. Not with steel, nor banners, nor the clash of nations.
War begins the moment something irreplaceable is stolen from you.
A smile.
A promise.
A person.
The moment your world is pushed off balance,
when the universe takes without warning,
and leaves you with nothing but the echo of what used to be.
That is where war is born.
My name is Renji Kurogane.
I was not born a hero. I did not seek glory. I did not dream of destiny, power, or vengeance.
I only knew what it meant to lose.
And in the quiet that followed,
in the suffocating stillness of grief,
something within me stirred.
A spark.
Small.
Weak.
Almost nothing.
But even the smallest flame, when denied the right to fade
When cornered…
When forced to survive…
Can rise into a wildfire great enough to burn the heavens themselves.
And this
This is the story of the fire I became.
CHAPTER 1 THE BEGINNING BEFORE THE END
SLASH!!
SLASH!!!
"AHHHH!!"
A blinding arc tore through the heavens.
A figure wrapped in gold ripped across the clouds, halting midair like a divine comet frozen in time.
His blade crackled with light, sparks raining down like shooting stars as the storm trembled around him.
"RENJI! Are you okay!?"
The voice didn't come from the battlefield.
It came from within echoing across the hollow edges of his soul, deep and resonant.
Renji's chest heaved. Every breath burned, molten air clawing through his lungs. His eyes, electric blue, blazed like storms trapped in flesh.
Gasp.
Gasp.
"Yeah… I'm not done yet!" he roared, voice shaking the sky itself.
"Are you stupid! He's going for the kill you can't hold back," the voice whispered calm, ancient, omnipresent. "Stop this renji"!
"The friend you knew… is gone."
Renji's eyes widened. "No…! I can still reach him I have to!"
"Don't be stupid we need to end this," the voice murmured. "Once and for all."
Renji's lips curled into a grin that didn't reach his eyes. Lightning cracked around him.
Then
A figure appeared through the storm, descending like a fallen god.
He hovered there silver hair wild, red aura blazing, a smirk twisting his face.
"What do you think you are doing, Do you want to die, Renji?" He growled,His voice was ice wrapped in fire. If you don't take this seriously, his gazed changed with a cold stare gazing at renji You'll die."Fight like you mean it!"
"Stop this, Choji!" Renji shouted. "Look at what you've done! The world's burning! Our world! I don't want to kill you!"
Choji's laugh split the thunder. "Kill... Kill me? Don't make laugh,You talk as if you could!"
He flung his arms wide. "Then watch, Renji! Watch as everything dies by my hand!"
"I can't let you do this!" Renji's voice cracked, fury and sorrow twisting together. "This isn't you!"
You are my precious friend let's not do this...
"Friend? ..... Isn't me?" Choji sneered, his red eyes gleaming. "No… this is who I've always been!"
Then he screamed, voice echoing through heaven and hell alike
THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN ME!!!!!!!!
Renji's breath hitched...
For a heartbeat silence.
Then his scared right eyes snapped open, glowing a radiant, blinding blue with six patterns
He whispered through clenched teeth
"…Fine."
And then thunder split the clouds apart. Golden light erupted through his veins, pouring from his body like sunlight through cracks in glass.
The air convulsed.
Reality bent.
Sooo you are getting serious now Renji
"LET'S GO!!!" Choji screamed saying..
Renji screamed, his voice merging with the god inside him.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Lightning crashed down like divine judgment, devouring the battlefield in endless light.
Then he moved.
A blur of gold.
A clash that shattered the sky.
And within that chaos, a thought rose a whisper that as Renji's voice through the chaos:
"They say power corrupts.
But they never tell you what happens
when the powerless are the ones who suffer most."
Renji vanished reappearing behind his enemy, a streak of flame and fury.
His strike split the clouds open. The world itself reeled.
"Reality hits harder than any god," he said, voice calm amidst the thunder.
"When you've lost everything… when the world turns its back on you… what's left?"
He raised his blade high.
" except to rise?"
The sky bled crimson.
The earth screamed beneath him. Oceans of fire swallowed mountains whole.
And then they appeared.
Not men. Not gods. Entities.
They are here! the voice in Renji's soul said ..
Three vast silhouettes loomed across the horizon, their size warping light and sound.
Behind them surged legions beasts uncountable, roaring in a single, endless scream that shattered air itself.
They were neither shadow nor light, but the space between.
Renji stood alone.
His white hair whipped in the storm.
Circles of fire spun around him like burning halos.
The scar over his right eye pulsed faint blue light flickering beneath, as though it were alive.
He spun his staff once, locking it behind his back.
The air grew heavy.
Even the storm held its breath.
Renji exhaled.
"COME AT ME!!!"
The first entity lunged, leading the monstrous tide.
Renji moved.
A single flash of gold and the world detonated.
The sky shattered into fragments of light.
Sound died.
And then silence.
Until the shockwave came, splitting mountains and tearing continents apart in molten streaks of destruction.
Renji stood in the center of it all.
Alone.
Burning.
"I never wanted this," he muttered, voice breaking through fire and void alike.
"But destiny doesn't ask for permission."
Another entity struck. He met it head-on, every movement divine, each swing rewriting the battlefield.
Wings of light erupted behind him flame and fury intertwined.
Every blow carved history into the bones of the earth.
And as the storm reached its crescendo, his voice dropped to a whisper:
"This is the story of how I lost almost everything…
and why I swore to never bow again."
One final strike.
A blinding flash.
And then… nothing.
The light died.
Reality cracked like glass.
Renji stood in the dark, faintly smiling as the scar over his eye pulsed with soft, golden light.
"Remember this moment," he whispered.
"Because this… is where everything began."
And in that blinding light everything fell away Until there was only chaos
Seventeen years earlier !!!!
Screams!!! Screams!!
Body dropping like files!!!!
The world was ending.
Not metaphorically literally.
A massive gate a Threshold split the sky open like a wound. From it poured creatures of nightmare: beasts of bone and shadow, claws rending steel, screams echoing through burning streets.
My son where's my son!!!!? And unknown citizen lamented
Children crying! The streets were on fire
This was the great catalysm
Chaos was everywhere
Hunters of different caliber fought and fell beneath the crimson sky. Magic flared, blades clashed, blood painted the city.
But the monsters were endless.
The world was collapsing.
Renji was ten.
Lily four.
Too small to understand. Too terrified to cry.
Their mother, Rachel, clutched them tight as they ran through the burning apartment halls.
Flames licked the walls. Smoke filled their lungs.
Death waited behind every corner.
Their father, Daichi, led the way a man with no magic, no gift, no weapon.
Only courage.
Stomp stomp stomp!!
Run! C'mon hurry!!!!
"Keep going!" he coughed, voice raw. "Don't stop! No matter what happens, don't stop!"
The floor cracked. The ceiling screamed.
Then
A steel beam, glowing red, broke loose above them.
"Rachel!!!"
Daichi turned and shoved her away.
The beam fell.
CRASH!
The sound was final.
A snap.
A roar of fire.
And then… silence.
"DAICHI!!!" Rachel screamed, voice breaking into the inferno.
But it was too late.
The flames swallowed him whole.
Through the fire, Renji saw his father's shadow still standing tall, defiant even as the fire consumed him.
That image never left him.
The years after were merciless.. it was every day that was filled with agony ..
Rachel never recovered. Her laughter once the light of their home faded into the bottle.
Every sip numbed the pain, and every dawn stole a piece of her away.
Renji grew up fast.
By twelve, he was working.. sometimes stealing foods just for his mother and sister to eat..
By sixteen, he was lying to guild clerks, begging for cleanup jobs near low-rank gates.
Every coin he earned kept them alive. Rent. Food. Lily's school. Medicine for their mother.
He smiled when hungry. Worked through fever. Endured when no one else would.
But the guilt the fire never left him.
Rain tapped softly on the cracked window.
Rachel lay pale and trembling on her futon. The bottle beside her was nearly empty.
Renji knelt beside her, gripping her hand cold, fragile, fading.
"Mom… please," he whispered. "Stop drinking. You're killing yourself."
Rachel's tired eyes opened still carrying that faint, flickering warmth.
"Renji… I see him," she murmured. "Your father… every night. The fire… his screams…"
She tried to lift the cup with trembling fingers. "The bottle helps me forget. Just… for a little while…"
Renji's voice broke. "And what about me? About Lily? You'll forget us too?"
Rachel smiled faintly, tears glistening.
"My sweet boy… your father gave his life for you both. Now… it's your turn. Protect her, Renji. No matter the cost."
His throat tightened. "I… I promise, Mom. I'll protect her. With everything I have."
Her breathing slowed.
Her lips moved one last time.
"…Good boy."
And then stillness.
Renji froze. His mind refused to move, his heart refused to beat.
The world quiet. Too quiet.
In the next room, a small voice whispered.
"Renji…? Where's Mom?"
He turned slowly. Lily stood there, tiny, trembling, clutching a stuffed toy.
He knelt, wrapping her in his arms as the storm outside broke.
She trembled.
He held her tighter.
"Shhh… it's okay," he whispered, tears falling freely. "I'm here. I'll take care of you. Always."
Thunder rumbled overhead. The world wept with them.
And in that moment between rain and grief Renji made a vow.
A vow born in pain, forged in love.
"I'll protect her," he whispered to the storm.
"Even if it burns me alive… just like it did Dad."