**Chapter 2: When Shadows Breathe**
The city of **Tensei** never slept anymore.
Since the first Ash Rift opened, even the wind felt wrong — heavy, alive, and full of whispers that didn't belong to this world.
**Aiki** stood on the edge of a crumbling rooftop, his coat stained with soot, his fingers tight around the **Spirit Edge**. The blade pulsed faintly, veins of light crawling up its surface like molten gold.
Inside it, a voice breathed against his mind.
*"You're wasting time, Aiki. Let me out… or you'll lose them again."*
He exhaled slowly. "Not this time."
Boots clattered behind him.
"Talking to your sword again?" **Enji** asked, climbing up with two cans of coffee, half his face bandaged. He handed one over. "You're gonna start arguing with it next."
"I already do," Aiki said.
"Yeah," Enji sighed. "That's the problem."
Below, **Sen** was sharpening his chain blades against a broken railing, each scrape echoing across the rooftop. "If we don't find Seno soon, I'm going down there myself. I owe him for what he did to my arm."
"You mean the arm you still have?" Enji shot back.
Sen grinned, eyes flashing. "Barely."
**Sakura** arrived then — calm as ever, coat fluttering, her hands glowing faintly as she carried a cracked crystal. "Seno's corruption is spreading faster than I can purify it," she said quietly. "If it keeps going, the city's spiritual veins will collapse."
"So basically," Sen said, stretching, "boom."
No one laughed this time.
Aiki turned his gaze to the horizon — and saw it: a distortion in the air, like heat ripples bending light. His pulse quickened.
"The rift's opening again."
They reached the site minutes later — an old subway tunnel split open, the air shimmering blue. Civilians walked past above, unaware of the screams echoing just beneath their feet.
Aiki could see them — shapes of spirits clawing against the walls of reality, leaving trails of ash in their wake.
Enji muttered a spell and slammed his staff into the ground. "Barrier's up. If something comes through—"
The tunnel *convulsed.*
A crack split the concrete. Black veins spread like lightning.
And from the heart of the light, a hand reached out — skeletal, steaming, and human only in shape.
Then **Seno** stepped through. His body was covered in swirling markings, eyes burning like coals. When he smiled, ash fell from his lips.
"You still think you're fighting for the living?" he asked, voice soft and venomous. "You don't get it, Aiki. The Ash Realm isn't invading your world… it's reclaiming it."
He raised his hand — and the ground screamed.
A thousand shadowed hands burst from the walls, grabbing at everything alive.
**Sen** moved first — spinning his blades in a blur of silver. The air hissed as he tore through the arms, each slice spraying black smoke instead of blood. One hand still caught his leg, burning through his boot like acid.
"Son of a—!" Sen kicked it off, the skin beneath already blistering.
Enji hurled a rune-bolt that exploded in light, blasting several shadows back — but his own arm cracked under the spell's recoil. He cursed, blood dripping down his sleeve.
**Sakura** knelt, etching sigils into the ground so fast her fingers bled. "Aiki! The barrier won't hold! If you're going to do something—do it *now!*"
Aiki's heartbeat roared in his ears. The Spirit Edge trembled in his hand, hungry.
*"Let me out,"* the voice whispered again.
He saw his friends struggling — Sen half-crippled, Enji shaking, Sakura's hands shaking from pain — and for the first time, he didn't hesitate.
"Fine," he whispered. "But we do this *my* way."
He slammed the Spirit Edge into the ground.
The world went white.
A surge of energy erupted outward, burning the shadows to cinders. Golden light carved through the tunnel like a storm of blades. When it faded, the ground was scorched — and Seno stood on the far end, his cloak half-destroyed, blood running down his cheek.
For the first time, he wasn't smiling.
Aiki lifted the sword. Its aura burned brighter, almost alive. "You wanted me to use it," he said quietly. "Now deal with it."
Seno's expression twisted — part rage, part excitement. "Good," he whispered. "Because now… you're finally worth killing."
The tunnel shattered again as they charged.
Light and shadow collided — and somewhere in the chaos, the Spirit Edge laughed.