Where Shadows Claim Their Hosts

Ren walked home with his hood pulled low, rain pattering softly against the pavement. His mind drifted again and again to Aihana, circling back to her smile, her voice, the way she hesitated earlier at the cinema.

He exhaled sharply and shoved his hands into his pockets.

Then the air changed.

A cold ripple brushed the inside of his thoughts, as if someone had slipped into a locked room in his mind and closed the door behind them.

Do you want her?

Ren froze mid-step. The voice wasn’t his. It wasn’t even human. It slithered through him like smoke, curling around the parts of him he tried to ignore.

Take her, the voice whispered. Nothing will stand in your way.

A pulse of dread shot through him. Ren shook his head violently, backing against a brick wall. His breath steamed in the cold air.

“What… what are you?” he muttered.

The presence chuckled softly, a low, twisting sound lodged just behind his heart.

I am what you let in.

Ren’s vision blurred at the edges. Emotion surged upward: jealousy, frustration, that aching pull toward Aihana. Not all of it was his. Something dark and ancient pushed deeper, testing, tempting.

He clenched his fists. “Get out of my head.”

Every wish you buried… every fear you refused to face… I am simply answering.

Ren squeezed his eyes shut. “I don’t want power. I don’t want to—”

Lie to yourself then, Ravukaru hissed. But you cannot lie to me.

His heartbeat thundered in his ears. For a moment, Ren felt something tugging at him like an undertow, pulling, dragging—

He pushed back with everything he had.

“Leave me alone,” he forced out.

Silence stretched, thin and trembling.

Then Ravukaru laughed.

Futile.

Ren stumbled forward, gasping, blinking rain from his eyes. The presence slipped back into the shadows of his mind but didn’t fade. It settled deeper instead, coiling like a serpent getting comfortable.

His next breath wasn’t entirely his.

Something inside him shifted. A spark. A hook. A claim.

Ren’s fingers twitched once, sharply, as if obeying a command he hadn’t heard.

His voice came out in a whisper he didn’t mean to speak.

“…what do you want me to do?”

Ravukaru’s answer curled through him, triumphant.

Everything.

Ren didn’t flinch.

Because the door inside him wasn’t closed anymore.

It was gone.

Far above the streets, Akihiro soared through the thinning rain, wings cutting silently through the air. He should have felt calmer knowing Aihana was home and safe. But the anxiety simmering in his chest refused to settle.

Her face in the cinema.

The hesitation.

The confusion in her eyes.

His own helplessness gnawed at him.

If I want to protect her, the world… I need the others to remember who they are.

The Academy’s silhouette rose through the mist ahead.

He landed at the courtyard, folding his wings. The air around him shimmered faintly as he let a fragment of his true form bleed through.

The angels inside the Academy were shadows of themselves, their memories torn away when Queen Hinako reset time. Even she wasn’t whole anymore. Once powerful, now she drifted through her kingdom drained, her magic flickering like a candle fighting wind.

Akihiro inhaled deeply.

Then he stepped into the Academy.

In the Control Hall, Rei, Ayame, Daichi and Kaito talked quietly, unaware of what was coming.

Akihiro raised his hand.

Energy, pale and warm and ancient, rippled outward in soft concentric waves. It brushed their minds gently, tugging, unlocking, guiding.

Ayame gasped, clutching her chest as memories flooded in.

“Wha… what is this?” she whispered.

Rei staggered, gripping the railing. “Memories,” he breathed. “They’re… coming back. Mizuki… the Guardians… the battles…”

Daichi’s eyes flashed gold. “This… this is who we are.”

Akihiro kept his focus tight. Light streamed from him like threads weaving the four angels back into themselves.

It was delicate work. Too much and their minds would tear. Too little and the memories would slip away again.

When the last thread settled, Akihiro exhaled, trembling from the strain.

Rei stepped forward. “You did this. Hinako erased our memories.”

Akihiro met his gaze, steady.

“Yes. And she mustn’t know,” he said quietly. “She’s the one who separated me from Aihana. She reset time because Aihana broke.”

Silence choked the room.

Ayame swallowed. “So if she learns we’ve regained our memories—”

“She can do it again,” Akihiro said. “We can’t risk it.”

Daichi nodded. “We keep this between us.”

Akihiro’s expression darkened. “All of you. No one tells Hinako.”

They agreed without hesitation.

Akihiro sent the Captains to bring back the Guardians: Mizuki, Sora, Kaori and Hikari.

Hours passed as one by one the Guardians awoke. Soft waves of light. Careful guidance. Tears and gasps and recognition returning like dawn breaking over fog.

By sunrise, four Guardians stood whole again, and the Academy breathed with its true power once more.

Akihiro returned to the Control Hall.

Rei approached quietly. “We brought everyone back except Aihana. Why?”

Akihiro stiffened.

Rei continued, “Why not her?”

Akihiro closed his eyes briefly.

“Because I don’t know what her heart wants,” he admitted. “I don’t know if I’m still the one she chooses.”

Rei studied him. “She forgot you. That’s all. Her heart hasn’t.”

Akihiro let a small smile form, faint and hopeful. “I hope so.”

Rei didn’t push further.

Alone in the quiet hall, Akihiro whispered:

“I don't want to loose you.”