Ren woke to warmth—too much warmth. It clung to his skin like fever, like molten breath trapped beneath his ribs. For a long, disoriented moment, he lay still, unsure if he was awake or drifting in some fragmented dream. His eyelids felt glued shut, each attempt to open them tugging through a heavy haze. Voices murmured above him—urgent, muffled, distorted as if carried through thick water. He forced his eyes open, blinking through a pounding ache behind his temples, until the world slowly sharpened into view. A ceiling he didn't recognise hovered overhead, lined with old wooden beams. A dim lantern hung in the corner, throwing flickering amber light across the room. It smelled faintly of incense and something older—earth, smoke, and a metallic tang he couldn't place. Ren tried to sit up, but a sharp pain seared through his chest, and he sucked in a breath.
His mother appeared instantly, pressing a hand gently against his shoulder. "Easy," she murmured. Her face was drawn, pale with exhaustion, yet her eyes scanned him with razor-sharp alertness. "You're safe for the moment. Don't move too quickly."
Safe. The word felt foreign. Ren looked around the small room—a cramped traditional space with wooden floors, canvas walls, and a single open window revealing a night sky. The moonlight spilled across the floor like cold silver water. Sora stood in the corner, arms crossed, his expression hard but concerned. Yui and Kaito sat near the foot of the bedding, both shaken but relieved to see him conscious. Tatsuya stood near the door, keeping lookout, one hand resting on his blade. The atmosphere thrummed with tension, as if danger still pressed against the walls.
Ren swallowed, his throat dry. "Where… are we?"
Sora stepped forward. "A safehouse outside the city. One of the oldest ones built by your grandfather's organisation. Nobody outside our circle knows it exists." His voice was steady, but there was something else in it—something Ren wasn't used to hearing from him. Worry.
Ren's mother brushed his hair back gently, her touch trembling. "You were unconscious for nine hours. The energy from the Wraith… it left marks on you." Her eyes flicked to his chest with a mixture of fear and grief. "Not physical ones. Worse."
Ren pushed himself up despite the pain, anxiety tightening around him. "Marks? What does that mean? What did it do to me?"
For a moment, no one spoke. The silence stretched, suffocating, until Sora finally exhaled slowly, stepping closer to the light so Ren could see the seriousness in his expression.
"The Wraith tried to bind you," Sora said quietly. "Gate Wraiths can't exist in the human world unless the Gates are destabilizing. It wasn't supposed to be able to manifest yet—not unless the Second Gate is close to opening." He paused. "It tried to accelerate that process by imprinting its essence onto your Seal."
Ren's eyes widened. "It tried to open the Second Gate… through me."
Tatsuya turned from the door, his voice grim. "Not open—force open. If it succeeded, you wouldn't have survived the transition." His eyes met Ren's, hard and unwavering. "The only reason you're alive is because something inside you fought back."
Something inside him.
Ren felt the warmth again—the same heat that pulsed beneath his skin before the blackout. At first he thought it was leftover panic, but the sensation grew, rising like a slow, rhythmic heartbeat spreading through his body. He pressed a hand to his chest, feeling the subtle thrum of energy, as if a coil of fire lay curled inside his bones.
"I don't understand," Ren whispered. "What's happening to me?"
His mother inhaled shakily, sitting beside him on the bedding. "Ren… the Seal isn't just a symbol of inheritance. It's a living artifact. A spiritual conduit. It chooses its successor based on lineage, strength, potential—and compatibility with the ancient force it carries. Your grandfather passed it to you because your bloodline is tied to the Gates in ways most of the underworld never knew. The Seal is waking up inside you, responding to the threat from the Wraith."
Ren felt the room tilt slightly. "So the Seal is… alive?"
"In its own way," she murmured. "And it's tied to your soul."
Ren's pulse quickened. The warmth spread from his chest to his arms, a slow burn tinged with something deeper—an echo, like a distant roar trapped beneath layers of silence. He clenched his fists, trying to steady himself.
Yui leaned forward carefully. "Ren… did you see anything while you were unconscious? Like before? Any visions?"
Ren hesitated. His friends' faces were worried, scared. His chest tightened as he remembered the illusions—the burning temple, the man holding the dragon-shaped seal, the child with his eyes crying in a sea of fire. And the voice telling him to run. A voice that felt achingly familiar.
"I saw… memories, I think." Ren looked down at his trembling hands. "Not mine. Someone else's. Maybe from the Seal. Maybe from the past." He closed his eyes, voice trembling. "But one of the voices… I recognised it."
Kaito swallowed nervously. "Whose was it?"
Ren lifted his head slowly, meeting his mother's eyes.
"My father's."
She froze.
The entire room stilled, as if time itself stopped.
Ren's mother's expression flickered—shock, denial, fear, and something deeper, something almost like grief. Her breath caught in her chest. Tatsuya's eyes narrowed subtly, hiding something he almost let slip. Sora shot Ren's mother a questioning look, but she didn't answer.
Ren felt ice creep into his bloodstream. "He wasn't just a bystander in all this, was he?"
His mother looked away. Her silence was the answer.
Ren's breath hitched. "Mom… what aren't you telling me about Dad?"
Slowly, painfully, she turned back toward him. Her eyes glistened, but her voice came out steady—fragile, but honest.
"Your father wasn't just part of the underworld," she whispered. "He was part of the Gates themselves."
The lantern flickered, casting long shadows across the room as her words sank into Ren's skin like a brand.
And for the first time—
Ren realised the truth he had feared from the beginning:
His grandfather didn't choose him because he helped an old man.
He chose him because the Gates had been waiting for him from the moment he was born.