Renji's new house felt like a cage.
The Monarch had given it to him directly — a home with more space than Renji had ever needed — but its silence was unbearable.
The weight of the day, of Monarch's true power and Kestrel's suffocating aura, pressed against his chest.
Sleep wouldn't come.
So, as he always did in his old world, he climbed to the roof. Midnight was his time — the hour when streets emptied, when the noise of life fell silent, when he could breathe.
Renji exhaled and leaned back against the roof tiles, letting the air cool his thoughts.
Then he saw her.
Across the narrow street, perched on the opposite roof, sat a shadow. Still. Silent. Watching.
His heart froze.
Her.
The lethal kisser.
The image of her returned in a rush — The moment he thought his life was ending. Every instinct told him to run.
But instead, a strange warmth bloomed in his chest.
He was… happy. Happy she was here.
He stared without blinking. She noticed far too quickly.
For long minutes, she made no response, her gaze fixed on him with that unreadable coldness.
Then her voice cut through the night like frost:
"Don't you fear me?"
Renji's throat went dry. His body screamed at him to say yes and shut up. But his mouth betrayed him.
"Why… why should I?"
Her eyes narrowed faintly, like she'd heard a joke no one else would dare tell.
"I know you saw me. In the ruins of Khan's."
Renji's pulse spiked. So she knew. She had known he was there all along.
"I… I don't know what you were doing. Or what you'll do. And… yes, I'm afraid. But…" When I saw you just now, some part of me was happy."
Silence.
Ashamed of what he'd just confessed,
Renji stood abruptly and retreated into his room.
Across the street, she remained seated.
And then—
A sound she had not made in years escaped her lips.
A quiet, genuine laugh.
From that night onward, it became a ritual neither admitted aloud.
Renji would climb to his roof.
She would be there, or arrive soon after.
They sat across from each other, roof to roof, the night between them.
At first, Renji did all the talking. Nervous, awkward, tripping over his own words.
He asked clumsy questions, filled silences with half-thoughts, and sometimes rambled nonsense.
She gave little back — a short answer, a glance, or nothing at all.
But he kept going.
One night, he asked her name.
"Do you… have one? Or should I just call you 'lethal lips'?"
She blinked once, expression unreadable.
"…Yara."
Renji grinned despite himself.
"Yara. That… fits."
Another night, he asked:
"Why do you kill men?" Yara!
Her shoulders stiffened. She drew in a slow breath, gaze tilting toward the stars. No answer came.
Renji only smiled faintly.
"It's okay. Maybe later."
His persistence should have been pathetic. Instead, it was maddening.
Day after day, roof after roof, he kept showing up. Imperfect. Trembling. Human.
Without realizing it, she began to think of him even when he wasn't there.
Without realizing it, she sometimes came to the roof before him.
Without realizing it, she started the conversations herself
And slowly, cracks formed.....