The city didn't sleep.
It pretended to.
By daylight, the streets looked normal—students in uniforms, shopkeepers sweeping dust, buses coughing smoke down cracked roads.
But beneath it…
The city remembered.
It always remembered.
Because at dawn, in the abandoned market district, ten bodies hit the ground—and none of them remembered how.
Only one thing remained.
A rumour.
A whisper passed from alley to alley.
From gang to gang.
From fear to fear.
> "The Ghost is back."
---
1
In a dim backroom lit by a single hanging bulb, a man slammed his fist onto a table.
The table shook. Glasses rattled.
Cigarette ash fell like snow.
The room belonged to Kurogane Syndicate—but the energy inside didn't feel like power anymore.
It felt like panic.
The leader, Kuwabara Gento, sat at the head of the table with veins bulging on his temple.
His eyes were wide.
Not angry.
Afraid.
"You're telling me," he said slowly, "ten men got crushed… and you don't know by who?"
A boy with a stitched cheek flinched. "Boss… the witnesses said—"
Gento stood up so violently the chair fell backward.
"WITNESSES?" he roared. "In my district? You let witnesses live?"
The room froze.
Nobody breathed.
Then the stitched boy swallowed and whispered:
"They… they said it was just one person."
Gento's jaw tightened.
"One."
The stitched boy nodded quickly. "He walked in through smoke… like the street belonged to him."
Another member added, voice trembling:
"He didn't run. Didn't shout. Didn't even sweat."
Gento's fist clenched so hard his knuckles cracked.
"…Describe him."
The stitched boy hesitated.
Then spoke.
"Black coat. Hands in pockets. A smile like he didn't care…"
Every word landed heavier.
Then he said the name.
"…Kurozaki Renji."
The bulb flickered.
A gang member in the corner dropped his cigarette.
It burned into the floor, untouched.
Gento's face went pale.
Not the pale of fear…
The pale of someone who'd seen a ghost before.
"No…" he muttered.
"No no no…"
The room stared at him like he'd lost his mind.
One of them whispered, "Boss, you know him?"
Gento swallowed like something sharp was stuck in his throat.
"That brat should be dead."
Silence.
He stared at the table, eyes unfocused.
"…That brat disappeared after the Sunfall Incident."
Everyone froze at that name.
The Sunfall Incident wasn't just a rumour.
It was the one story even gangs didn't tell loudly.
Because it wasn't street violence.
It was something else.
Something higher.
Something… controlled.
Gento leaned forward, voice quieter now.
"He came back…"
Then his expression twisted.
"…so the Council knows."
---
2
Far away, in the central district, the richest part of the city, where buildings scraped the sky like knives—
A glass tower glowed.
Inside, on the highest floor, there was no gang emblem.
No weapons.
No graffiti.
Only silence.
A table long enough to look like judgment.
And at that table sat people who weren't criminals.
They were worse.
They were untouchable.
A screen at the end of the room played a recording:
A shaky phone video.
Smoke. Embers. Dawn light.
A group of boys rushing forward.
Then—
A blur.
One by one they collapsed like their bodies forgot how to stand.
No overkill. No brutality.
Just… erased.
At the end of the clip, the camera caught a single frame clearly:
A boy with dark hair.
Hands in pockets.
And a faint smile.
The screen froze.
A voice spoke from the shadows.
Calm. Educated.
No emotion.
"So he's alive."
A woman, elegant in a white suit, crossed her legs.
"Kurozaki Renji," she said like tasting poison. "I thought we cut that thread years ago."
A man beside her tapped his finger once on the table.
Not impatient.
More like a judge deciding a sentence.
"Is it confirmed?"
Another figure answered.
"Yes."
Their voice was quiet.
But it carried weight.
"Renji was present in the market district. Ten Kurogane men neutralized."
The man in the shadows tilted his head slightly.
"Neutralized…" he echoed. "Interesting choice of word."
The room fell silent.
Then he continued.
"He hasn't killed."
One person laughed softly, amused.
"So the ghost learned mercy?"
The man in the shadows replied:
"No."
A pause.
"He learned control."
The woman's eyes narrowed. "Then he's more dangerous than before."
The man in the shadows leaned back.
And for the first time, his voice carried something close to interest.
"Send Seijuro."
Instant stillness.
Even the elegant woman's posture stiffened.
"…Now?" she asked carefully.
The man answered without hesitation.
"Yes."
A pause.
"If Renji has returned…"
His voice lowered slightly—almost pleased.
"…then the board is moving again."
---
3
That night, rain fell.
Soft.
Cold.
The kind that washed blood without asking questions.
In the outer district, streetlights flickered.
In an alley behind a closed convenience store, a boy leaned against the wall.
His face was bruised.
His ribs hurt.
But he was alive.
He held his phone with shaking hands, rewatching the dawn recording again and again.
He whispered like prayer:
"That wasn't a human…"
He looked up at the empty street.
Then down at the screen.
Then back into the darkness.
And he said the only thing he could think of:
"…Thank you."
A voice answered behind him.
"You shouldn't be here."
The boy jolted.
Spun around.
No one.
Only darkness.
His breathing spiked.
Then—
A figure stepped from the shadow like it had been hiding him.
No dramatic entrance.
No sound.
Just presence.
Black coat.
Hands in pockets.
Hair damp from rain.
That same expression.
Bored… but sharp.
The boy's heart almost stopped.
"K-Kurozaki… Renji…"
Renji's gaze flicked to the phone.
Then back to the boy.
"You recorded that," Renji said.
The boy trembled. "I—I didn't—"
Renji took one step closer.
The boy froze like prey.
Renji's voice stayed calm.
"No one can see that video."
The boy swallowed hard. "I won't post it. I swear. I just… I needed to know it was real."
Renji stared at him.
Then his eyes shifted slightly… to the boy's bruises.
"…Kurogane did this to you."
The boy nodded fast.
Renji looked away like it didn't matter.
Then spoke:
"Stop being weak."
The words were cold.
But not cruel.
The boy flinched.
Renji continued:
"They hurt you because you made it easy."
He stepped past the boy.
Then paused.
Over his shoulder, he said something quieter.
Almost… advice.
"If you want to live in this city…"
A pause.
"…don't rely on luck."
Renji walked away.
The boy watched him disappear into rain.
But right before Renji vanished—
A tiny sound came from above.
A soft click.
Like a camera lens.
Renji's eyes lifted for a fraction of a second.
Toward a rooftop.
Then he smiled.
Barely.
Like he already knew.
And then—
He disappeared.