CHAPTER 22
The night was wrong.
That was the only way to describe it.
The city outside Takeda's apartment hummed faintly, as it always did cars whispering across wet asphalt, distant sirens rising and fading like mournful wails, neon reflections trembling in rainwater pooling along sidewalks. Life continued as if nothing had changed.
But something had changed.
Something had shifted beneath the skin of the world.
Clouds strangled the moon in a thick, suffocating blanket, casting everything into a dim, depthless twilight. The air felt too heavy, like invisible hands were pressing down on the sky.
Inside the small apartment, the silence was even heavier.
Takeda laid Renji down on the worn gray couch with a gentleness that did not match his strength. The young man's head fell against a folded blanket, his breathing soft and steady ordinary, almost peaceful.
As if the world hadn't just watched him become something else.
Choji stood near the doorway, shoulders tight, eyes locked on Renji as though if he blinked, the boy might disappear. His knuckles shook. The dried blood on his shirt felt cold. He didn't wipe it away.
Lily knelt beside the couch, small hands trembling as she held Renji's fingers between her own. Her eyes were wet, rimmed red. But her tears didn't fall. They only gathered, suspended, trapped by a grief she did not yet understand.
Takeda SSS-Rank, commander, one of the world's strongest men sat heavily into the wooden chair across from them. His posture was still and composed, but internally his thoughts were frantic, sharp, spiraling.
His heart had not yet recovered from what he had seen.
Not the power. Not the violence. Not the mana-shredding pressure that had nearly crushed him to his knees.
But the eyes.
Golden. Ancient. Cold.
Eyes that had looked at the world not as a place, not as history, not as reality
but as something beneath him.
As something he had already conquered once before.
Takeda exhaled slowly.
No mana radiated from Renji now. Not even the smallest ripple of aura. Nothing to indicate that moments ago, he had overwhelmed monsters and men alike with a presence that bent the world to its knees.
Like a storm that vanished without a trace.
Choji swallowed hard, his voice cracking as he finally spoke.
"…Takeda-san."
Takeda didn't respond.
"…you said… a name. Earlier." Choji's voice was quieter now, a whisper trembling at the edge of fear. "You said… Januza."
The room stilled.
Takeda blinked once. He had not meant to say that aloud. His lips had spoken it instinctively—like the memory had been forced out of him.
Lily's voice was even softer. "Januza… Oni-chan… is he…?"
Takeda looked at Renji.
At the young man who smiled easily, who always carried grocery bags for Lily without being asked, who scolded Choji for skipping meals, who laughed at the dumbest jokes, who never asked for praise or attention, who lived quietly—
who had looked at a god-killing monster and made him kneel.
"…Januza," Takeda said at last, his voice low, steady, grave, "is not a person. He is a myth. A ghost. A story from an age before human history began. A name that was erased from every archive, every library, every spoken tongue."
He leaned back. The chair creaked under the weight of his exhaustion.
"But myths don't bleed into the present. And yet…"
He looked at the unconscious boy on the couch.
"…he is here."
Choji's voice cracked. "What… does that mean? Who is Januza?"
Takeda's eyes drifted to the ceiling as if seeing not plaster, not paint, but centuries.
"Before mana gates. Before Hunters. Before our world was what it is now… the world was ruled by the Six Divine Thrones. Six beings of absolute authority creators, destroyers, gods not by worship but by existence."
Lily's breath hitched.
Takeda spoke their names like they were blades drawn slowly from ancient sheaths.
"Vrahl, The Abyssal Sovereign Primordial Chaos."
Darkness that existed before creation. The void that swallowed light, swallowed stars, swallowed reality.
"Kaelrus, Warden of Storms."
Master of oceans, winds, tides, hurricanes. A god of impossible scale, crowned in thunder.
"Seraphae, Mother of Graves."
Ruler of death. Keeper of souls. The boundary between life and the void.
"Ignivar, The Thunder-Fist Herald."
Lightning incarnate. His roar could shatter continents; his heartbeat was storm.
"Zephrael, Architect of Winds."
The breath of life itself. His exhale birthed worlds. His inhale collapsed them.
And finally..
Takeda's voice softened. Not with reverence, but with fear.
"Solaria, The Eternal Dawn."
The sun that burned across all creation.
The flame that gave life and ended it.
Lily squeezed Renji's hand tighter, knuckles white.
Choji stepped closer, face pale. "And… Januza fought them?"
Takeda's eyes hardened.
"He didn't fight them."
He looked Choji dead in the eyes.
"He killed them."
The silence struck like a physical blow.
Choji's knees nearly gave out. Lily's tears finally spilled, silent and shaking down her cheeks.
Takeda continued, voice low, slow each word weighed:
"Januza was born human. No blessing. No divine blood. No destiny. But his will… was something the world had never seen. Something that defied every law written into reality."
"He walked into the domains of gods alone and killed six of them."
He looked at Renji.
"That level of power does not disappear. It does not die. It only sleeps."
Choji whispered, voice faint:
"…So Renji is… that?"
Takeda shook his head slightly.
"No. Renji is Renji. Januza is Januza. Two souls, one vessel. Bound. Layered. Intertwined."
His voice darkened.
"If Renji loses himself… even once… even for a breath…"
A memory flashed
Golden eyes looking through him as if he were dust.
A voice that did not belong to any mortal tongue.
"…the world will have no defense."
Choji staggered back, breath shaking. "But Renji… he's not like that. He's he's kind. He helps people. He jokes. He..."
"That is why it is terrifying," Takeda murmured.
"Because if someone good breaks… they do not become empty."
"They become ruin."
Lily leaned forward, pressing her forehead to Renji's chest, her voice cracked and raw.
"Oni-chan… please don't leave us… please…"
Takeda turned away.
Because he could not bear to see her cry
over something the world would soon fear.
The mana detectors in his headquarters had already overloaded.
The Hunter's Bureau would notice soon.
Report.
Investigate.
Hunt.
If they discovered what Renji was ..
Humanity would tear itself apart in fear.
Takeda clenched his fist.
He would not allow that to happen.
Even if he had to stand alone.
Against the government.
Against the guilds.
Against the world.
He would protect this secret.
He would protect Renji.
He would protect the fragile thread of peace hanging between those two souls.
Even if it meant war.