Chapter 1
The night it all began still haunted Renji's dreams.
The world outside had descended into chaos when a massive gate opened in their district. Hunters poured in to suppress the horde of beasts spilling into the city, but the clash of steel and claws turned their neighborhood into a battlefield. Fire raged, smoke suffocated the streets, and the screams of neighbors filled the night sky.
Renji had been only ten. Lily, barely four, clung to their mother's waist as they fled through the burning corridors of their apartment. But the flames moved faster than they did.
It was Renji's father, Daichi, who carried them forward. A man without power, without mana, but with a heart too large for his frail body. His arms shielded them, his voice urging them to keep running even as the ceiling threatened to collapse.
"Don't stop! Keep going!" he shouted through the smoke, coughing violently.
Then, as they reached the exit, the fire roared like a living thing. A burning beam cracked loose, crashing down toward Renji's mother. Daichi shoved her out of the way, his body taking the brunt of the collapse.
Renji never forgot the sound. The sickening crunch of wood. The sudden blaze engulfing his father's frame. The agonizing scream as fire swallowed him whole.
His mother's voice tore through the night, raw and broken.
"DAICHI!!!"
But there was no saving him. The flames devoured him faster than anyone could act. All Renji saw in those last moments was his father's silhouette in the fire—standing tall even as death claimed him, his final act to protect them.
That night scarred Renji's mother deeper than any wound. She had lost her husband before her eyes, her children saved at the cost of her soul.
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The years that followed were not kind.
Renji's mother, once a kind and loving woman, became a shell of herself. Grief hollowed her out, and sickness soon crept in. She drank—not out of indulgence, but desperation. The alcohol dulled her pain, blurred the memory of flames and the sound of her husband's screams. But each sip also stole pieces of her, until only fragments of the woman she had been remained.
Renji grew up faster than he should have. At twelve, he was working odd jobs. At fifteen, he was lying about his age to guild clerks, begging for low-rank gate cleanup work just to put food on the table. Every coin went to medicine for his mother and school supplies for Lily. He skipped meals so Lily could eat, smiled even when his body shook from exhaustion.
But inside, he hated himself.
Hated his weakness.
Hated the memory of his father burning, while he—just a child—stood frozen, powerless.
The small apartment was silent now, save for the faint sound of rain outside. His mother lay on her futon, her breath shallow, her eyes glassy. The sickness had claimed almost everything from her. The sake cup beside her was nearly empty, her last attempt to ease the pain.
Renji sat by her side, his hands trembling as he clutched her cold fingers.
"Mom… please," he whispered, his voice cracking. "Stop drinking. You're only making it worse. You… you can't leave us too."
She turned her head slowly, her lips curling into a weak, broken smile. Her eyes were filled with sorrow, but also love.
"Renji… I see him, you know. Your father… every time I close my eyes. The fire… the way he screamed…" Tears slid from the corners of her eyes. "I can't forget it. The bottle… it helps me forget for a little while. Just for a little while."
Renji bit down on his lip until it bled. He wanted to scream, to beg, to force her to stop. But she was already slipping away, her illness eating her from the inside.
She coughed violently, blood speckling her lips, then forced herself to look at him with clarity one last time. "Renji… listen to me."
Her hand trembled as she cupped his cheek, cold and fragile. "Your father gave his life to protect us. Now… you must protect Lily. No matter what happens. No matter how hard it gets. You must keep her safe."
Renji's vision blurred with tears. His throat burned as he forced out the words.
"I… I promise, Mom. I'll protect her with everything I have. I won't let anything happen to her."
Her lips curved into the faintest smile, even as her chest rose and fell for the last time. "Good boy… my precious boy… I'm proud of you."
Her hand slipped from his cheek. The room went still.
Renji stared, frozen, his body trembling as the reality sank in. His mother—the only tie to the warmth of the past—was gone.
A choked sound escaped his throat as he lowered his head onto her futon, his tears soaking the blanket.
In the next room, Lily stirred softly in her sleep, clutching her small stuffed rabbit. She didn't know. Not yet.
Renji clenched his fists, his voice a broken whisper in the silence.
"I'll protect her, Mom. I swear it. Even if I burn the way Dad did… even if it kills me."
The rain outside pattered harder, as though the world itself mourned with him. And in the suffocating dark of that tiny room, a boy's promise was forged in grief and fire