The scream tore through the clearing like a shockwave.
Crimson chakra burst outward, ripping through the grass in a widening circle. Rei and Daiki were thrown back, skidding across the dirt before regaining their footing.
Daiki coughed. "Okay—Kiyoshi, no offense, but this is officially the worst midnight meetup I've ever had!"
Rei ignored him. Her eyes were fixed on the center of the clearing.
Where Kiyoshi hovered.
Suspended.
Consumed.
The apparition clung to him like a second body made of smoke and bloodlight. Its shape shifted with every pulse of his chakra—forming, dissolving, reforming again. A creature half-born.
"Kiyoshi!" Rei yelled. "You have to push it out!"
"I'm—trying—!" he choked. His voice sounded distorted, doubled, as if the creature echoed him half a second behind.
Daiki stared wide-eyed at the crimson mass. "We need to separate them! Rei—ideas! Smart ones!"
Rei's eyes narrowed. "His chakra is feeding it. If we break the connection—"
A thunderous pulse erupted.
Everything froze for a heartbeat.
Then—
It spoke again.
A wordless pressure.
A demand.
A command.
Kiyoshi felt it pulling on him—not just on his chakra, but on something deeper. The part of him forged in fear, sharpened by survival, shaped by a clan that had been hunted, imprisoned, erased.
It wanted that part.
"Let go," the presence whispered inside his mind.
"I can be what you need."
"I can be the strength you fear to use."
Kiyoshi shook, teeth clenched. "Get out of my head—!"
The apparition's form snapped into clarity for a moment—tall, humanoid, all edges and void—and its faceless head turned toward Daiki and Rei.
Rei stiffened. "It's aware of us."
Daiki groaned. "Great. Love that for us."
Suddenly—
The apparition's arm lashed out.
Not physically.
Chakra.
A crimson whip of energy cracked across the clearing, heading straight for Rei.
But Daiki moved first.
He shoved Rei aside as the lash sliced past him, ripping a burning cut across his shoulder and sending him tumbling.
"Daiki!" Rei cried.
He hissed, gripping his arm. "Okay—that thing hates me specifically. Awesome."
The apparition's head twisted toward Daiki again.
Kiyoshi's heart clenched. "NO!"
He fought—desperately—to reclaim his chakra, but it wasn't just leaking out.
It was being stolen.
Rei rushed forward, weaving signs. "Kiyoshi! I'm sealing its connection! Hold on!"
She pressed her palms together.
A surge of violet chakra burst around her—
—and wrapped around Kiyoshi like a barrier tightening.
The apparition shuddered.
The connection flickered.
For a moment—just one—Kiyoshi felt his body again.
His breath.
His heartbeat.
His will.
Rei shouted, "Daiki! Get ready!"
"For what?!" Daiki yelled back.
"Impact!"
The apparition roared—not with sound, but with pressure—and slammed itself deeper into Kiyoshi's chakra system.
Kiyoshi screamed again as his body arched, crimson chakra exploding outward in a shockwave that shattered the seal and hurled Rei backward.
But this time—
Daiki caught her mid-air, grunting as the force pushed them both into a tree.
"Kiyoshi—" Rei gasped, struggling to stand.
Kiyoshi wasn't floating anymore.
He was falling.
He collapsed to his knees, hands digging into the dirt, crimson chakra spiraling violently around him. The apparition hovered behind him, half-bound, half-free—its shape clearer than ever.
And then—
Kiyoshi spoke.
But it wasn't his voice.
"We are not separate."
Rei froze.
Daiki's eyes widened. "Oh no. Nope. Absolutely not."
Kiyoshi raised his head—
—and his eyes were no longer just crimson.
They were split.
Half Kiyoshi.
Half something deeper, darker, older.
Rei felt her stomach drop. "It's merging with him."
"No," came the echoing voice from Kiyoshi's lips.
"He is becoming what he always feared."
Kiyoshi's true voice fought its way through. "Shut—up—!"
The apparition tightened its grip around his back, tendrils spreading like shadowed veins.
Daiki stepped forward. "We're pulling you out, man. Even if we have to beat the crimson out of you!"
Rei grabbed his arm. "Daiki—wait."
His eyes snapped to hers. "What do you mean WAIT?!"
Rei's voice went cold.
"If we attack recklessly and push that thing fully inside him… we lose Kiyoshi."
Daiki's jaw locked. "Then what do we do?!"
Rei looked at Kiyoshi—
kneeling
trembling
caught between two selves
as the apparition whispered into him like a second soul.
Her voice softened to a whisper.
"We make him choose."
Daiki frowned. "Choose what?"
Rei stared at Kiyoshi, at the way his hands trembled, at the terror and fury flickering beneath the crimson glow.
"Who he wants to be."
The apparition's tendrils tightened.
Kiyoshi gasped, eyes widening.
Rei stepped forward.
"Kiyoshi!" she shouted. "Look at me!"
The world shook around him.
But he lifted his head.
"Kiyoshi!" Rei's voice cracked now, desperate. "Don't let it decide for you! Don't let it choose your path!"
Daiki added, louder, fiercer, "We're right here! You don't turn into some crimson nightmare without us punching sense back into you!"
The apparition hissed, its form flickering with agitation.
Rei shouted one final time—
"Choose US—!"
Kiyoshi's eyes blazed—