The night in Tokyo was heavier than usual—thick, brooding, as if the city itself had chosen to hold its breath. In a distant district, far from public sight, Kaido walked alone under the rain. His footsteps broke the silence rhythmically. His face hidden beneath the shadow of his hood, and the scar beneath the faint streetlight looked like an old trail carved by pain.
The mark on his wrist had not stopped its dim pulsing since he returned from the last gate. It didn't hurt, but it felt... alive. As if something was breathing through his skin.
He turned into a narrow alley between crumbling buildings and stopped before a rusted iron door. He knocked three times, following a strange rhythm. The door opened with a metallic gasp, like a dying machine. A short woman with curly pink hair and sleepless eyes greeted him silently and gestured for him to enter.
Inside was an old shelter repurposed into a crude lab. Test tubes, maps of known gates, glowing crystal shards, and notes scribbled in haste were scattered across the tables.
The woman spoke first.
"I thought you wouldn't come."
Kaido replied calmly, "You said you knew something about the mark."
She nodded, approached him, and raised his wrist. She examined the mark closely, then whispered,
"This isn't just energy… It's a living contract. You've tethered yourself to something ancient."
Kaido's gaze darkened.
She continued,
"Have you ever heard of the Pillar Pacts?"
The air froze. The name alone sent a jolt down his spine.
"There are seven Pillars," she said. "Seven ancient forces. Those who touch them are never the same. One of them—the Bloodbound Pact—is tied to markings like yours."
Kaido turned his face away. The memory of the white void… that voice, that temptation… still burned in his mind.
The woman's voice grew more serious.
"If that mark is real… you are no longer just human. You're something new."
---
At the same time, within the upper floor of the Hunter Association headquarters, the Council gathered in a round chamber. Screens displayed data from the last gate incident: energy surges, gate anomalies, and footage of Kaido's outburst.
Emi Fujimoto, head of Twilight Edge, spoke sternly,
"What he used isn't a registered technique. This isn't E-rank power. Not even B-rank."
Takashi Inoue of Ghost Pavilion replied,
"He's not a threat yet… but I can smell something ancient within him."
Ryu Hayashi, leader of Black Thorn Order, remained silent. Instead, he scribbled something on a small slip of paper and murmured to himself:
"The Bloodbound… has begun to bloom."
---
The next evening, Kaido received a strange invitation. No sender's name, only a faded symbol: a flower blooming from ash. The address led him to a forgotten temple on the edge of the city. Candles lit the hall, despite no one being visibly present.
Inside waited a small girl, barely sixteen. She wore a gray kimono, her hair as white as snow—but her eyes... pitch black, with no whites.
She said,
"Kaido Shin… bearer of the pact. You've been watched."
He responded coldly, "Who are you?"
"Just a messenger. But the one who sent me knows what you've become… and wants to speak."
"And who is that?"
She stepped closer and placed a small ashen flower in his hand. Then she whispered:
"He will come to you… when this flower blooms again."
---
The next day, a Gate of Rank C burst open in the heart of a busy district. But something was wrong. Its color fluctuated between yellow and orange—an unstable transition suggesting chaotic forces inside.
Emergency response teams were sent in—but communication cut off within minutes.
The Council was forced to dispatch a solo hunter—one capable of surviving... or being sacrificed.
They chose Kaido.
Though Murazaki opposed it, the Council saw this as both a test—and perhaps a trap.
---
Inside the Gate… was a slaughterhouse.
Kaido entered alone, greeted by the charred remains of other hunters. Symbols drawn in blood covered the walls, spiraling and pulsing with dark energy. But it wasn't the bodies that caught his attention.
It was the feeling—like something was watching. Breathing.
Then a calm, venom-laced male voice echoed through the chamber:
"So, the Bloodbound has arrived at last."
A tall man emerged from the shadows, clad in a black cloak, his face hidden behind a cold metallic mask. But he wasn't just a man. Kaido knew that instinctively.
Kaido demanded, "Who are you?"
The man replied,
"One who touched the Pillars before you. But unlike you—I did not kneel. I took control."
He raised a hand, and the world around Kaido began to fracture. Gravity twisted. The floor and ceiling bled into one another. The laws of reality began to dissolve.
Kaido's body screamed in pain. His bones felt as if they were liquifying.
But then—his mark flared.
And a voice, deep and ancient, whispered into his mind:
"Endure. You are of unbreakable blood."
Power erupted from within.
---
When he awoke, Kaido found himself floating in a gray void. The entity was gone—but its presence lingered, etched into the shattered walls and bleeding sky.
From within the collapsing Gate, a figure stepped forward—a man in long white robes, standing atop the air itself.
He spoke softly, but his voice weighed like stone.
"It has begun."
Kaido looked at him and asked,
"What has?"
The man replied:
"The Age of Awakening. And blood... is the key."
Then, like mist, he vanished.
---
Kaido returned to the city, burned from the inside, and haunted by questions.
In his apartment, the gray flower…
Had bloomed.