The storm had not ended for three days.
Thunder rolled like the wrath of heaven, and the mountain that once shimmered with divine light now groaned under the weight of dark energy.
Tenkei stood at the cliff, his robes torn, his breathing shallow. "Kage… this has to end."
Across from him, Kage no Michi smirked — half his face shadowed, his body pulsing with corrupted Eien Ryoku. "End? There is no end, only rebirth."
"Then we'll seal you," Reishin said, stepping forward, her Spirit Core glowing with pure light. "For the sake of the world."
The four ancestors gathered, their Eien Ryoku merging one last time.
The mountain cracked, light bursting skyward as their power formed a seal — ancient, divine, irreversible. The ground swallowed Kage's scream, and the black mist dissolved into the wind.
For a moment, silence. Then, the world exhaled.
The war of light and shadow was over.
But Tenkei whispered, almost to himself, "Even sealed… darkness never dies. It waits."
Reiwa Era — Tokyo, 2025
The sound of chatter and school bells filled the air.
A bright morning sun spilled over Shinsei Academy, where laughter echoed in the courtyard. The world had long forgotten the name Eien Ryoku — or so it seemed.
Inside a classroom, a boy with white hair leaned against the window, his eyes reflecting the sunlight. His name was Tenkei Kaito, though his friends just called him Kai. Calm, easygoing… yet something in his gaze felt ancient, distant — like someone remembering a dream he'd never lived.
"Oi, Kaito!" a cheerful voice called.
He turned to see Miwahara Akihiro, his childhood friend, waving a stack of papers. "You're spacing out again. Thinking about your next basketball game or something?"
Kaito smiled. "Something like that."
Before Akihiro could reply, the door slid open. A girl entered — Reishin Sayaka, a transfer student. Her presence felt… serene. Like a familiar melody. Kaito's heart skipped — not in attraction, but in recognition.
The teacher introduced her, and as she bowed, a strange pulse ran through the room. For an instant, the air shimmered — a faint light only Kaito seemed to notice.
"Eien Ryoku…" he whispered under his breath.
That night, as Kaito walked home under the city lights, he stopped by the shrine near his neighborhood. The wind stirred. The moon hung low.
And then — a shadow moved behind the torii gate.
A whisper echoed in his mind.
You sealed me once… but I have returned.
Kaito's eyes widened as he turned. A faint silhouette stood beyond the shrine, its shape flickering like smoke.
The voice came again, cold and familiar —
Light and shadow are bound, Tenkei. You cannot exist without me.
A sudden flash of memory struck Kaito — the mountain, the ritual, the scream of a man named Kage. His head throbbed, and light burst from his hand.
The Eien Ryoku had awakened again.
And the shadow of Kage no Michi, reborn in a new body, smiled somewhere in the city — now a quiet high school student whose eyes glowed faintly with darkness.