The Burden of the Past

The cold night pressed in around them, yet Renjiro could feel something burning beneath his skin.

A name. A past. A truth buried beneath layers of time.

Haruto.

Akane had spoken it as if it had always belonged to him, as if he had only borrowed the name Renjiro for this life.

His head ached with the weight of it all.

A leader. A warrior. The one who had ended it all.

And yet, here he was—doing it all over again.

The Curse That Never Left

Renjiro exhaled sharply. “If I ended the Yakuza back then, why does it still exist?”

Akane’s gaze darkened. “Because the past doesn’t die so easily.”

She stepped closer, her ethereal presence pulling at something deep inside him.

“You severed the head of the serpent, but the body refused to rot. The Yakuza may have faded from power, but the greed, the violence, the cycle—it never truly ended.”

Renjiro clenched his jaw. A never-ending war.

One he had unknowingly been fighting twice.

Akane’s voice was softer now. “And you, Renjiro… you were born to finish what you started.”

A Destiny Unfolding

He took a step back, shaking his head.

“No.”

His voice was hoarse.

“I made my own choices. My rise, my power—none of this was because of some past life.”

Akane’s expression didn’t change. “Are you sure?”

Renjiro opened his mouth, but—

Silence.

Because deep down, he wasn’t sure at all.

Had he ever really been in control?

Or had something—fate, karma, the ghosts of his past—been leading him to this very moment?

His fingers curled into fists.

“Why are you telling me this now?”

Akane’s eyes glowed faintly beneath the moonlight.

“Because this time, you have a choice.”

A Choice That Was Never Given Before

Renjiro’s chest felt too tight.

A choice.

That word felt too distant, too foreign.

His whole life had been a series of unavoidable events.

Born into blood. Forced into power. Trapped in a cycle.

But now, Akane was offering him something different.

Something he had never had before.

“…What if I don’t want to finish what I started?”

Akane smiled, but there was something sad in her eyes.

“Then the past will repeat. Again and again.”

Renjiro’s heartbeat was thunder in his ears.

The Unfinished Promise

A gust of wind tore through the shrine, rattling the old wooden beams.

Renjiro swallowed. “If I was Haruto… then what were you?”

For the first time, Akane hesitated.

Then, in a voice barely above a whisper—

“I was your reason.”

Renjiro felt the world tilt.

His reason.

His reason for what?

For fighting? For leaving?

For dying?

The questions clawed at his mind.

But before he could speak—

A sound broke through the night.

A distant scream.

The War Begins Again

Renjiro spun, his instincts sharper than thought.

That scream—it was coming from the city.

Akane’s gaze didn’t waver. “They’re coming.”

Renjiro’s blood ran cold.

The Yakuza.

The remnants of the empire he had unknowingly been dismantling piece by piece.

And now, they were ready to fight back.

Akane stepped closer. “This is your moment, Renjiro. Your choice.”

Renjiro’s pulse pounded.

A past that refused to die.

A cycle that refused to break.

And a war that had already begun.

He clenched his fists.

For the first time, he would choose.

End of Episode 10

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