The night air was thick with an eerie stillness. The shrine, long forgotten by time, seemed to hum with something unseen—something waiting to be remembered.
Renjiro’s chest tightened as Akane’s words echoed in his mind.
“It has everything to do with us.”
She wasn’t just a ghost.
She was a piece of his past.
And the memories he had seen—they weren’t visions.
They were real.
The Forgotten Name
Renjiro ran a hand through his hair, his body still tense from what he had just experienced. He needed answers.
He leveled a stare at Akane. “You said this shrine has everything to do with us.”
She nodded.
“Then tell me.”
For a long moment, she simply watched him.
Then, she whispered a name.
A name that sent a sharp pulse through Renjiro’s entire being.
“Haruto.”
His breath hitched.
Akane’s gaze remained steady. “That was your name. Before you became Renjiro. Before this life.”
Renjiro’s hands curled into fists. His mind screamed denial, but deep in his chest, something stirred.
A name he had never heard—yet somehow knew.
A Love That Transcended Time
“You’re lying,” he muttered, but his voice lacked conviction.
Akane smiled softly.
“You already know I’m not.”
The wind rustled the leaves, carrying whispers of something ancient.
“You and I,” Akane continued, “were bound long before this life.”
Renjiro swallowed. “Bound?”
Akane’s expression darkened.
“By love. By betrayal. By death.”
Renjiro’s pulse pounded in his ears.
Somewhere deep inside, he knew she was right.
He didn’t just meet Akane.
He had found her again.
And he had lost her before.
A Past That Refuses to Die
Renjiro exhaled sharply. “If I was Haruto… then who was I?”
Akane’s gaze flickered with something unreadable.
“You were a man of power. Feared. Respected. A leader of warriors.”
Renjiro’s stomach twisted.
A leader of warriors.
A Yakuza.
Even in another life, had he still been tangled in bloodshed?
But before he could speak, Akane continued.
“You weren’t just any leader. You were the one who ended it all.”
Renjiro’s breath stilled.
“What?”
Akane’s fingers traced the old wood of the shrine’s altar. “Over a hundred years ago, the clans ruled these lands in blood. But then, a man rose among them. A man who changed everything.”
Renjiro’s heart pounded.
She looked at him.
“You, Renjiro. Or should I say… Haruto.”
The ground beneath him might as well have disappeared.
He had ended the Yakuza once before.
And now—
He was doing it again.
The Curse That Follows
A shiver ran down his spine.
Was it fate? A cycle? Or something far worse?
He stared at Akane, feeling something deeper than fear.
Something closer to destiny.
“Why does this keep happening?” he asked.
Akane’s expression softened. “Because unfinished stories don’t stay buried.”
Renjiro clenched his fists.
Had his entire life been leading to this moment?
Had he been walking toward this truth without even knowing it?
And if so—
Was there any way to escape it?
The Ghost and the Billionaire
A cold realization settled over him.
His life—the power, the wealth, the bloody path he had walked—had all been leading back to her.
And now, standing in this shrine, facing a woman who was both a ghost and his past, he finally understood.
This wasn’t just about him.
It never had been.
Akane had been waiting.
And now—
The past was ready to be rewritten.
But would it end in love—
Or in tragedy once more?
End of Episode 9
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