---
Ejin couldn't believe his eyes.
He stood frozen as the debris crumbled and the water rushed into the inner void. Tanzegtsu's body fell alongside the fragments—limp, pale, lifeless. No movement. Just the endless fall.
They all vanished into the dark below… swallowed by the void.
***
Above, Haru and Henji swam upward slowly, but the pressure changed—it wasn't just water anymore. The ocean had turned into a waterfall, dragging them down.
Haru pulled harder, fighting the current. Henji clung to his leg, half-conscious. But it was no use. The current won. Both were pulled into the same abyss.
***
Back at the dorm, Akiro, Shino, Matsamaru, and Hiro felt the shift immediately. The pull intensified. Akiro felt it worst—his body weakening fast. He channeled all his Honeki into his palms, refusing to let the dorm collapse.
Water seeped through. The floor was molding, softening beneath them.
Akiro screamed from the strain, "Not yet! Don't fall—!"
Suddenly—clank!
A kunai embedded itself into the side of the dorm.
No one flinched—except Matsamaru. He touched the metal, his voice trembling.
"...H-Haru-san?"
Shino's eyes widened. "Wait—Haru? Henji?! They climbed out of the void?! They're holding us up?! Tch—"
Hiro, his robe torn, wrapped his hand tight and stepped forward beside Akiro.
"What I'm about to do is reckless," he said, calm but determined. "If I channel my Honeki into the dorm—while Akiro-san keeps it anchored—we might survive. With Haru's help from below."
Matsamaru blinked. "So… what's the catch?"
Hiro gave a crooked smile. "If I do this... we'll all take the hit."
"…Eh?"
Shino's face dropped as he realized.
"EHHHHH?! DON'T DO IT, YOU FOOL!"
Even Matsamaru looked betrayed. "So you're a sadist after all..."
His eyes narrowed, mouth twitching with an amused, disappointed smile.
The dorm groaned.
Water seeped in through the base, slow at first, then faster—trickling into cracks that hadn't been there minutes ago. The pressure from beneath was rising. The walls, once firm, now moaned against the weight.
Akiro knelt at the center, both palms outstretched, fingers twitching. His Honeki surged in waves, forming a fragile barrier that barely held. His breath was ragged. His arms shook, but he didn't flinch.
No one spoke.
Silence. Thick. Every second dragged like an hour.
Then—
"I don't think… Haru's holding us up," Akiro muttered.
Heads turned. The weight of his words landed.
Hiro exhaled, eyes closed like he was explaining something far too big for the room they were in.
"Makes sense. He has no Honeki. There's no way he's withstanding this pull." He paused, then opened his eyes. "So that means…"
"They're holding on," Matsamaru whispered, eyes narrowing.
"No," Henji said from the side, voice half-choked from exhaustion. "They're pulling us back."
Shino didn't speak. His head was down. Hair wet. Jaw clenched.
Then he raised his eyes, and something in them had changed.
[
: "Darkness," he said. "Hollow. Death."
The others froze.
"They're in danger," Shino continued. His voice was low, steady. "More than we are."
He extended two fingers toward the floor. A faint shimmer of Honeki rippled out, invisible to all but those who knew what to look for.
"I tapped into the Kurugisama," he said. "Sent a pulse through it."
No one interrupted.
"What came back wasn't strength… it was drowning. Fear. They're slipping. Fast."
No one moved. Even Akiro's grip faltered for a heartbeat.
Hiro's voice came again, this time softer.
"So… Haru really sank first."
Matsamaru looked down at the rippling water gathering at their feet.
"To pull us back," he said.
Akiro didn't look at anyone. He closed his eyes, pushed harder, his Honeki cracking in the air around his arms.
The dorm shook again.
Far below them, Haru was still fighting. And they could all feel it.
The silence returned—but this time, it meant something else entirely.
---
Then, the water began to lower—slowly at first, then steadily, like the tides obeying a silent command. One by one, they all felt it. The pressure easing. The currents weakening. The drowning force that once threatened to pull them into the abyss… was retreating.
Akiro, eyes wide with realization, pushed upward with every ounce of strength left in him. "It's... it's going down!" he screamed, the tremble in his voice echoing both disbelief and hope.
Bit by bit, the roaring chaos of water fell silent. The dorm shook, cracked, and then—BOOM!—Akiro's last scream burst the structure open like a shell. The flood was gone.
For the first time in what felt like eternity, they inhaled.
The air—fresh. Cold. Real.
Akiro lay sprawled on the muddy ground, eyes staring up at the sky above. Blue, bright, peaceful—like the world was apologizing.
The sun bathed them in gold.
Around them, nothing but ruin: the village now a graveyard of broken wood and shallow, scattered pools.
But in that moment… they closed their eyes.
And smiled.
They survived.
But then—Matsamaru's eyes widened.
Something struck him.
He bolted—feet pounding the soaked earth, splashing through puddles of what remained. His heart raced faster than his steps as he rushed toward the massive entrance... the same one Haru and Henji had vanished into.
It was a crater now.
A void no longer... just a colossal, gaping pit. Wide enough for a million people to walk into. Silent. Empty. Terrifying.
The others followed behind, slowly—drawn not just by curiosity, but by dread. They reached the edge, standing like ants before the mouth of a god.
Matsamaru didn't hesitate. He reached for the Kurugisama's rope, still tied... still leading into the darkness. He gripped it, expecting resistance.
But it lifted—light as thread.
No weight.
His eyes froze. Then he pulled harder.
Still... nothing.
The rope came up completely—slack, clean, and alone.
The others stared in silence, breath gone.
Matsamaru's hands trembled. His eyes filled with tears.
"O... ooi," he called softly. A whisper into a pit that would never answer back.
They were gone.
"OOOOOIII!!" Matsamaru screamed, his voice breaking across the ruins, echoing into the emptiness of the pit.
It was the cry of someone who still hoped they'd hear a reply.
But nothing came.
Shino crouched down beside him, silent. He gently placed a hand on Matsamaru's back, rubbing slowly. Comforting him not with words, but presence.
The rest stood still. No one dared to speak. The silence said enough.
That night…
They gathered in what remained of a crumbled building. The roof had long collapsed, the walls broken—but it was shelter. A shell of what the village used to be.
A fire crackled between them, casting shadows on their tired faces.
Hiro stepped out from the back, now dressed in only his white inner robe, his outer cloak spread out on the broken wall to dry. He walked slowly toward the others, and without a word, they shifted to make space for him.
He sat down, palms hovering over the fire—first facing it, then turning them over, absorbing the warmth like it might drive away the chill in his heart.
No one spoke.
But in that silence, they all knew one thing:
Two were missing.
And nothing would ever be the same.
Matsamaru stared into the fire, its flickering glow dancing across his tired face.
"He told me not to go into that void," he said quietly. "I was the last one to see him… before everything."
The silence stretched until Akiro finally asked, "Why did you care so much? He never talked to you. Didn't even try to be your friend."
Matsamaru smiled faintly, eyes still locked on the fire.
"He was always the target. A ninja with a permanently sealed Honeki... hunted by monsters that move like gods. Death should've been a mercy for someone like that."
His voice wavered slightly. "But I cry for him because… despite everything, he tried. He tried to belong. Trained harder than anyone. Even without Honeki, he was stronger than all of us. I know that because I saw it—with Odhemi. We were the only ones who ever watched him train. If he's really gone... then all that effort... all that pain... it was for nothing."
Silence fell again. The fire cracked, wind brushing through the ruined building.
Then Hiro, still warming his hands by the flame, gave a crooked smile.
"I don't think Haru-san died."
Everyone looked up, eyes locked on him.
Hiro's smile grew. "You're all forgetting something… or someone. Giyu. Giyu Osai."
They froze.
"As if he never existed, right? But that trick—his power—it doesn't work on me anymore."
Their eyes widened. The name hit them like a forgotten curse.
Giyu Osai
The ghost among ghosts.
The strongest ninja in the entire mission.
The master of deception, whose power could erase memory itself.
---
Hiro's voice cut through the heavy silence, each word weighed with the gravity of truth.
"Akira."
Akira's mind staggered, like a stone thrown into frozen water.
"Wait... I'm Akira? What is this... how... how come?"
The entire group froze, stunned. Eyes widened. Breaths held. The weight of realization suffocated the air.
Hiro turned to them, a knowing smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "He did it... He really did it this time. Giyu Osai. The true manipulator. The one behind everything. The real antagonist."
He paused.
"The moment we thought Haru was gone... that's when he struck, and that was when I realized...."
Hiro stood and walked toward the broken wall, his silhouette outlined by the moonlight bleeding through.
He exhaled slowly, eyes fixed on the sky.
"…There was never a Haru."
CLARITY!! CLARITY!!