[Scene opens – Two days after the fall of the General of Thorns]
Jin Kuroya sat by a dying campfire in a half-collapsed tower, surrounded by nothing but broken stone and sky. Tenrou rested at his side, buried slightly in the dirt, humming with low heat—its dual flames calm for the first time in days.
His body was cut, his cloak torn again, his heartbeat slower.
But he wasn't broken.
Not anymore.
---
[Internal thoughts – Jin reflecting quietly]
> First the Choir. Then the General.
They're not just testing me anymore.
They're thinning the path.
They want to tire me before the real fight begins.
He looked down at the half-burnt black crown fragment from Raikou.
"Then I hope they're ready to chase me the whole way."
---
[Scene shift – Rekikan: Secret Council Chamber]
Captain Genroku faced three cloaked Soulkillers—the Council's elite silent assassins, known only as The Pale Veil.
"You are not to engage in open conflict," Genroku warned.
"You are to erase him without a trace. Before the prophecy completes. Before the Rekikan crumbles."
Captain Kurohana stood in the shadows, smiling faintly.
"He's already defied fate once. Let's see what happens when fate cuts first."
---
[Scene shift – Jin, moving through the Deadwind Forest]
He passed through crooked trees, their bark etched with old soulseal markings—remnants of the first war.
He paused at a small stream, sensing something.
No wind. No birds.
And then—no reflection.
He turned.
"I know you're here."
The air behind him rippled.
And a blade shimmered into view—held just inches from his neck.
---
[New Character Appears – Inei Kazura]
A woman stepped forward from the fog. Short white hair. Red eyes. One arm mechanical, shaped from fallen spiritsteel. Her cloak bore no emblem.
"You've got a gift for attracting execution orders," she said casually.
Jin didn't flinch.
"Let me guess. Pale Veil?"
She didn't answer.
"If I was," she said, "you'd already be dead. I'm here for something more interesting."
She pulled out a sigil-stamped envelope.
"Raikou's journal. Or at least, a piece of it."
---
[Reveal – Raikou's Betrayal Was Planned]
Jin opened the parchment.
Inside were fragmented entries:
> "The Council offered me power if I killed Aria."
"Said I'd be rewarded. Said I'd 'make room' for someone better."
"But I refused."
"So they made me the villain."
Jin's fingers trembled.
"They exiled him… to silence him."
Inei nodded.
"He didn't betray the Rekikan. The Rekikan betrayed both of you."
---
[Jin's Internal Conflict Builds]
> Everything they told me was a lie.
They raised me to be their weapon.
Just like they did him.
He clenched the paper until it burned to ash.
Renzai pulsed once.
And Jin looked up, eyes now colder than ever.
"Then I'm done being their fire."
"It's time to become their reckoning."
---
[Final Scene – The Pale Veil watches from a distance]
The assassins crouched in silence on a cliffside, blades glowing with kill-seals.
"He's changing," one whispered.
"Faster than the Council predicted."
Another nodded.
"Then we kill him before the next full moon."
The third added softly—
"Or we kneel to him when the Rekikan falls."