Ren woke to the smell of burnt instant ramen and the rhythmic clack of Li Feng's mechanical keyboard.
Sunlight – weak, gray, polluted – leaked through the tiny barred window. His phone read 3:47 p.m. He'd slept almost fifteen hours straight. Body felt heavier, but not in a bad way. Like steel had replaced some of the water in his blood.
He sat up. The black veins were completely gone now. Only a faint, cool sensation remained under his skin whenever he flexed his fingers.
Level 3 suits you, Kurogami remarked. You're no longer leaking essence like a cracked battery. Small mercies.
"Any news?" Ren croaked, voice rough from disuse.
Li Feng didn't look away from his triple-monitor setup. "Kabukicho's buzzing. There's an unscheduled essence auction tonight. Black Lotus Syndicate is hosting. Word is they've got a mid-grade relic – something called 'Nine-Shadows Pearl'. Supposedly belonged to an ancient onmyōji who bound shadow spirits. Starting bid's rumored at thirty million yen in essence crystals."
Ren rubbed sleep from his eyes. "And?"
"And half the underground Pagan scene is going to show up trying to eat each other for it. Including some heavy hitters. Blood Lotus Mei is confirmed attending. She's already grade 7. If she wants it, most people just hand over their wallets and their throats."
Ren stood, stretched. Every joint popped with satisfying cracks. "I need money. Or crystals. Or both."
Li Feng finally spun his chair. "You planning to crash an invite-only Pagan black market on your second day as a vessel? That's not bold, that's assisted suicide."
"I've got twenty-four hours before sunrise-eyes tries to turn me into holy ash. Might as well go shopping first."
Li Feng stared at him for a long beat, then sighed and tossed him a burner phone and a black face mask with red circuitry patterns.
"Floor -3 under Club Velvet Rose. Password changes every hour – current one is 'yoru-no-koe'. Wear the mask the second you step inside. No real names. No eye contact with anyone wearing a silver fox pin. And Ren?"
"Yeah?"
"If you die, I'm telling everyone you owed me 50,000 yen."
Ren smirked. "Noted."
Kabukicho at dusk was a fever dream of pink neon, host-club touts shouting, and salarymen already half-drunk. Ren slipped down a side street, past love hotels with hourly rates displayed in dripping LED, until he found the unmarked metal door beside a shuttered pawn shop.
He knocked twice. A slit opened.
"Yoru-no-koe."
The door clicked. Stairs descended into red-tinted darkness.
At the bottom: a long corridor lined with masked figures in tailored coats and hoodies. No phones allowed – they'd been collected at the entrance. Security was three towering men whose shadows didn't quite match their bodies.
Ren kept his head down, Shadow Veil humming just under his skin. Not fully invisible, but enough to blur his edges in the dim light.
The auction hall was a converted old theater. Velvet seats ripped, stage lit only by floating orbs of captured essence that drifted like fireflies. Maybe eighty people total. Most radiated low-grade corruption – faint glows of red, violet, indigo around their hands or throats.
Ren found a seat in the back row.
The auctioneer – a thin man in a white fox mask – stepped onto the stage.
"Lot 7. The Nine-Shadows Pearl. Starting bid: thirty mid-grade essence crystals."
Murmurs rippled.
Then a new voice – female, amused, carrying effortlessly across the room.
"Fifty."
Heads turned.
A woman in a blood-red cheongsam stood in the third row. Long black hair tied with crimson ribbons. Silver fox pin gleaming on her collar. Eyes like polished obsidian.
Blood Lotus Mei.
Ren felt Kurogami stir.
Interesting. She carries the scent of an ancient kitsune lineage mixed with something… hungrier. Grade 7 at minimum. Possibly 8 by now.
Bids climbed fast. Sixty. Eighty. One hundred ten.
Ren stayed silent. He had zero crystals and no way to pay even if he won. He was here to watch. To learn. Maybe to steal if the opportunity presented itself.
Then the lights flickered.
A golden glow bloomed near the side exit.
The crowd hissed.
Aoi Mizuki stepped into the hall wearing a plain black hoodie, hood up, face partially covered by a medical mask. But the golden runes embroidered faintly along her sleeves gave her away to anyone who knew what to look for.
She wasn't hiding. She was daring them.
Mei turned slowly, smile sharpening.
"Well well. A little Miracle playing in the mud. How delightful."
Aoi's voice was calm. "The Pearl is a class-3 forbidden relic under Purification Treaty clause 14. Its possession by any Pagan vessel is grounds for immediate cleansing."
Mei laughed – soft, musical, deadly. "And yet here you are. Alone. No squad. No saint backing you up. Curious."
Aoi's eyes swept the room. Passed over Ren without stopping.
But he felt it – the brief hitch in her breathing. She'd seen him.
Ren's pulse kicked up.
The auctioneer cleared his throat. "Bids continue at one hundred twenty—"
Mei raised a hand. "I'll take it off the table. One-fifty. Cash equivalent in raw essence, delivered now."
Silence.
No one countered.
The fox-masked auctioneer bowed. "Sold to the Blood Lotus."
Mei stepped forward. Two of her people moved to flank her, carrying a lacquered box.
Aoi moved at the same time.
Golden light flared along her arms. A spear materialized in her grip – shorter than the one she'd held last night, but no less lethal.
"I can't let you leave with it."
Mei tilted her head. "Then try to stop me, little seraph."
The room exploded into motion.
Half the crowd bolted for the exits. The other half drew weapons – cursed blades, essence-charged guns, spectral claws.
Ren stayed low.
Opportunity, Kurogami whispered. Chaos is an excellent teacher.
Aoi lunged. Mei met her with a whip of crimson foxfire that scorched the velvet seats black.
Ren slipped between rows, Shadow Step carrying him closer to the stage. The Pearl sat unattended on its velvet pedestal while the two women tore into each other.
He reached for it.
Fingers brushed cool pearl surface.
Power screamed up his arm – ancient, cold, bottomless.
Warning: Foreign essence detected. Absorption risk – 87%. Proceed?
Ren hesitated.
Aoi's spear clashed against Mei's claws ten meters away. Golden sparks rained.
Mei laughed. "You're holding back, Miracle. Afraid you'll hurt the boy in the back row?"
Aoi's head snapped toward Ren.
Their eyes met.
For one stupid second the entire room seemed to pause.
Then Mei struck – foxfire lancing straight at Ren's chest.
He dove. Shadow Veil snapped up instinctively. The flames passed through empty air where he'd been standing.
He reappeared behind a pillar, Pearl clutched to his chest.
Aoi shouted, "Ren—drop it! It'll corrupt you faster than you can—"
Too late.
The Pearl cracked open in his grip.
Black smoke poured out, spiraling into his body like it recognized its own kind.
Essence surge detected. Foreign relic compatibility: 94%. Forced integration commencing.
Pain – white-hot, blinding.
Ren dropped to one knee.
Level 3 → Level 5
New ability unlocked: Shadow Clone (create one temporary duplicate)
New passive: Void Resistance +30%
Mei's eyes widened. "Impossible. That should have shredded a fresh vessel."
Aoi appeared beside him in a flash of gold – not attacking, shielding.
"Get up," she hissed. "We're leaving. Now."
Ren looked at her – really looked.
She was breathing hard. A thin cut across her cheek from Mei's claws. But her spear was pointed outward, toward the room, not at him.
Ren stood on shaky legs.
The Pearl was gone – fully absorbed.
Mei clapped slowly. "Adorable. The Pagan puppy already has his guardian angel on a leash."
Aoi's knuckles whitened on the spear.
Ren stepped forward, shadows curling around his boots.
"Tell you what," he said to Mei, voice steadier than he felt. "I'll give you one free shot. Come take it back."
Mei smiled wider.
"Then let's dance, Kurogami's boy."
The entire hall trembled as three more silver-fox-pinned enforcers stepped out of the shadows.
Aoi glanced at Ren.
He met her gaze.
"Together?" she asked quietly.
Ren grinned despite everything.
"Together."
Shadows and light flared at the same moment.
The fight for Kabukicho's underbelly had just begun.
End of Chapter 3