Ren stayed silent, his body still tense, his muscles coiled like a spring ready to snap.

  The stranger took another slow step forward, his boots pressing lightly against the forest floor, and Ren finally got a good look at him under the pale moonlight.

  The man was tall, his frame lean but coiled with the kind of strength that didn’t need to be shown. His dark robes swayed as he moved, lined with faint silver embroidery—intricate, unreadable patterns that seemed to shift when Ren wasn’t looking directly at them. A hood partially obscured his face, but what little was visible showed sharp, angular features, dark eyes that gleamed with something dangerous.

  Yet, the man didn’t seem hostile.

  If anything, he looked… amused.

  "You're cautious. Good." The man's voice was smooth, steady, carrying a weight that made it impossible to ignore. "But if I meant you harm, you'd already be dead."

  Ren didn’t relax. "And if I meant you harm, you'd already be bleeding."

  A short pause. Then—

  The stranger laughed.

  A deep, genuine chuckle, like he’d just been told a joke he hadn’t expected. "I see. You’ve got some bite to you." He tilted his head, studying Ren for a moment before speaking again. "That was a rather unorthodox way to handle an Essence Beast. Most would have gone for a clean kill. Instead, you… devoured it."

  Ren frowned. "And? You got a problem with that?"

  "Not at all," the stranger said smoothly. "In fact, I’m quite impressed. It takes a certain kind of person to wield the Kami Mandate like that. A reckless fool would have lost control. A coward would have run. But you… you adapted."

  Ren’s eyes narrowed. "You know about the Mandate?"

  The stranger let out a soft hum. "More than you do, I’d wager."

  Ren’s fingers twitched. This guy knew something.

  He was already exhausted, his body barely holding itself together after feeding his Mandate, but he needed answers.

  "Who the hell are you?"

  The stranger gave a small, almost theatrical bow. "Shikari Isamu. And like you, I am bound by the Kami Mandate."

  Ren stiffened. Shikari?

  That word—he’d heard it before, buried in the pages of that ancient tome he found in the library.

  "Those chosen by the Mandate walk the path of the Shikari—Hunters of the Unknown, Guardians of Balance, Slayers of the Unseen."

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  Ren exhaled, rubbing his forehead. He wasn’t sure what was worse—that he was now apparently part of some ancient order, or that this guy had been watching him for who-knows-how-long.

  "Alright, Isamu," Ren muttered. "You’re impressed, I get it. But that still doesn’t explain why the hell you were with those Boku."

  Isamu stilled. The humor in his expression faded, replaced by something colder.

  "Ah," he murmured. "So that’s what’s bothering you."

  "Bothering me? Yeah, no shit." Ren crossed his arms. "You were there that night. You walked in with them, let them talk like they owned the place. So why the hell should I trust you?"

  For a long moment, Isamu said nothing.

  Then—he sighed, shaking his head.

  "I suppose I should've expected this." He met Ren’s gaze, his expression unreadable. "You assumed I was one of them. That I was working with the Boku."

  Ren didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.

  Isamu gave a small, almost tired smile. "I wasn’t. I was there to arrest them."

  Ren blinked. "What?"

  "The Boku have their hands in everything," Isamu continued. "Extortion, smuggling, ritualistic sacrifices… you name it. They don’t just traffic people—they sell things that should never be for sale. Artifacts. Cursed relics. Essence beasts." His voice darkened. "I was investigating. Tracking them. That night, I had planned to take them down quietly."

  Ren clenched his jaw. "Then I showed up."

  "And killed them first," Isamu confirmed. "Loudly."

  Silence stretched between them.

  "So… what?" Ren muttered. "You saying I ruined your plan?"

  Isamu chuckled. "On the contrary. You saved me a lot of trouble. Though I did have to clean up after you."

  Ren frowned.

  "Tell me," Isamu continued, "did you ever wonder why no one came after you? No guards. No retaliation. You murdered three men in the middle of a den of criminals, and yet… nothing. No questions. No bounty on your head. Doesn’t that seem a bit odd?"

  Ren’s stomach twisted.

  Now that he thought about it…

  That was odd.

  When he fled that night, he had fully expected to be hunted down. The Boku didn’t just let things go. But after he killed those men, there was no retaliation, no whispers of someone coming after him.

  Like it had been buried.

  "You covered for me," Ren realized.

  Isamu shrugged. "You did my job for me. I figured the least I could do was return the favor."

  Ren exhaled slowly, his mind racing.

  So this guy wasn’t with the Boku. He was investigating them. And after Ren killed those men, he erased any trace of it leading back to him.

  Which meant…

  Ren’s fists clenched.

  He’d been watched this whole time.

  Ren glared at Isamu. "And what? You just let me run around blind, not knowing what the hell was happening to me?"

  "Would you have listened if I tried to explain?"

  Ren opened his mouth—then stopped.

  He hated it. But the answer was no.

  If Isamu had walked up to him that night and said, “You’ve been chosen by the Mandate, let me teach you the way of the Shikari,” Ren would’ve told him to go shove it and walked the other way.

  Isamu knew that.

  Ren gritted his teeth. "So what now? You gonna tell me I have some grand destiny? That I'm meant to save the world or some shit?"

  Isamu smirked. "No. Nothing so dramatic."

  He stepped forward, stopping just a few feet away from Ren.

  "I only have one question for you." His voice was calm, steady, but there was weight behind it.

  "Now that you are a Shikari, what will you do?"

  Ren stared at him.

  For the first time since the Mandate chose him, since his world had flipped upside down, someone was giving him a choice.

  Not forcing him. Not pushing him toward some path.

  Just asking.

  Ren’s fingers curled.

  What did he want?

  For so long, he had been fighting, surviving, reacting to what was happening around him. But now…

  Now, he had power.

  Power he didn’t fully understand, but power nonetheless.

  And for the first time, he could decide what to do with it.

  Ren took a slow breath.

  Then—he answered.