The First Truth

 The flames had gone out, but their shadows still danced on the walls of the shrine.

Kaito sat in silence, his hands stained with ash. He hadn’t spoken since the others left him behind—blades drawn, eyes filled with doubt, voices sharp with fear.

They hadn’t remembered everything yet.

But it was enough.

Enough for them to start looking at him like a stranger.

Like a monster.

His fingers tightened around the cursed stone in his pocket—the one with the red vein that pulsed when no one was watching. He could still feel Sakio’s voice echoing in the wind, not speaking words but stirring guilt deep in his bones.

That guilt wasn’t real. He reminded himself of that.

Sakio had been necessary.

A part of the plan.

A crack in the heart he chose to live with.

Still… sometimes he saw his friend’s face in the flames. Still smiling. Still trusting.

Still dead.

The others gathered on the edge of the northern cliffs again, the salty air clinging to their skin.

“I don’t care if it sounds crazy,” Renji said, pacing. “He’s hiding something. Something big.”

Yita nodded slowly. “I’ve been drawing things I don’t remember seeing. Symbols. Faces. The flower—over and over again. It’s like it’s bleeding into me.”

“We need answers,” Haru said, voice firmer than usual. “Real ones.”

“I had another dream,” Sora whispered, arms wrapped around his knees. “This time, I was drowning. And Kaito was just standing there. Watching. Smiling.”

They all fell silent.

They wanted to deny it. They wanted to believe Kaito was still their friend. That the quiet boy who always took the rear on hikes, who shared rations and fixed their boots by the fire, was just… haunted.

Not cruel.

Not evil.

But the silence between them said what they couldn’t.

Something was wrong.

That night, the wind changed.

The stars didn’t come out.

And the trees began to whisper again.

Kaito walked alone through the forest, following a narrow path only he could see—lit faintly by petals glowing in the dark, Auroria blooms bending toward him like they remembered his footsteps.

He reached the shrine at the island’s heart. The place the map didn’t mark. The place none of them had dared go before.

The Soul Garden.

There were no walls—only wild trees tangled into arches, their bark cracked with veins of glowing red. The grass beneath his feet shimmered like glass, and in the center of it all was a pond. Still. Reflective.

And there she was.

The woman from his dreams.

Long robes, black eyes, smile sharp as broken glass.

“You’re almost ready,” she said.

“I need more time.”

“There’s no more time, Kaito.”

She stepped closer, and her voice turned to silk.

“You chose this. You brought them here. You fed the curse with lies and love and loyalty. Now it’s hungry.”

He hesitated.

She touched his chest—right over the cursed mark. It burned under her fingers.

“You’ve already killed one,” she whispered. “The first trust. The first bond. Sakio opened the door.”

Kaito closed his eyes. “she was my friend.”

“That’s why it worked.”

At the inn, Haru sat awake, staring at the ceiling. The dreams had come again—too vivid to ignore. Too cruel to forget.

She remembered a shrine burning.

She remembered a boy crying in the ashes.

And she remembered a promise.

A curse can only be broken by the hearts you break.

Suddenly, she stood. Walked straight to Yita’s room. Knocked once.

“We have to follow him.”

Yita blinked, sleep still in her eyes. “What?”

“Kaito. He’s gone again. I saw it in my dream. He’s going somewhere.”

Yita didn’t question it. She just nodded and grabbed her boots.

They found Sora and Renji already waiting by the edge of the woods.

“Let me guess,” Renji muttered. “You had the dream too.”

They didn’t answer. They didn’t have to.

Four shadows slipped into the forest without speaking, moving through the dark like ghosts chasing one of their own.

Kaito knelt by the pond, holding the cursed stone in both hands.

The woman was gone. The Soul Garden was quiet.

And for a moment, he was just a boy again.

Just Kaito.

The one who used to run through the streets with Akura. The one who dreamed of oceans and freedom. The one who believed in second chances.

But that boy was dead.

He had to be.

Because if he wasn’t… then all of this was unforgivable.

He stared at his reflection in the water.

It blinked before he did.

Then the whispers came louder—real now. Not just in his head.

Sora.

Renji.

Yita.

Haru.

They stepped into the Soul Garden, eyes wide with horror, hands twitching near weapons.

“What is this place?” Sora breathed.

Haru paused in the trees, her breath caught.

 “This place... it’s not new. We’ve been here before. I know we have.”

Yita turned. “You remember too?”

Haru nodded slowly.

 “I think he made us forget. All of it. The flames. The blood. Everything.”

Kaito stood slowly.

“You weren’t supposed to come here yet.”

Yita looked past him, eyes fixed on the glowing pond. “This is the heart of it, isn’t it? The island. The curse. Everything.”

Renji drew his blade. “Tell us the truth, Kaito.”

Kaito didn’t move.

“I can’t.”

“You will,” Haru snapped.

Silence fell again.

Then Kaito spoke—calm, steady, and heartbreakingly quiet.

“Sakio was the first. She trusted me the most. That’s why it had to be her.”

Sora flinched.

Yita covered her mouth.

Haru’s blade dropped to her side.

Renji stepped forward. “Why?”

Kaito looked up at them—all of them. The people he’d laughed with. Fought beside. Shared firelight with.

“To be free,” he said. “To break the curse.”

“And we’re next?” Renji asked, voice trembling.

Kaito didn’t answer.

That was answer enough.

Yita shook her head. “But we’re your friends.”

“You were,” Kaito whispered. “But that’s why it works.”

Haru stepped forward, eyes glassy. “You’re still lying.”

“No,” Kaito said. “For the first time… I’m telling the truth.”

The Soul Garden pulsed.

The pond rippled.

And in that moment, everyone remembered.

The fire.

The blood.

Akura’s scream.

Kaito’s blade.

 “You think this is the first time?” Kaito said quietly. “You’ve already stood here before. You just didn’t remember it.”

The truth hit like a wave, knocking the wind from their lungs.

Renji raised his sword again. “Then this ends here.”

“No,” Kaito said softly. “It ends when the curse is gone. One more offering.”

He took a step forward.

Renji moved to block him.

But Yita grabbed his arm. “Wait.”

“What?”

“Look at his face.”

They did.

And what they saw wasn’t evil.

It wasn’t madness.

It was grief.

Pure, burning, endless grief.

Kaito stood in front of them, broken open. No more masks. No more lies.

Just a boy carrying the weight of too many ghosts.

“I didn’t want this,” he said. “But I have nothing left.”

“Then let us help you,” Sora said quietly.

Kaito smiled.

And it broke them.

Because it wasn’t cruel.

It was tired.

Too tired.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Then he ran.

Into the trees.

Into the dark.

Toward the final altar.

Toward the end.

They chased him without speaking.

They didn’t know if they were going to save him or stop him.

They only knew one thing.

The next time they saw Kaito…

It would be for the last time.