The streets of Hoshimura were quieter than ever.
Even the wind refused to speak.
Renji stood outside his small apartment, the wrapped book still heavy in his hands. He hadn't slept — how could he? The image of Tsuki-no-Miko, the cursebook, the whispering girl in the alley — all of it spun like a storm in his head.
His phone buzzed. One message.
From: Unknown Number.
"The bells toll only for those who've forgotten their own name."
He stared at the message.
"What the hell does that mean?"
He went inside and placed the book on the floor. He unwrapped it again. The silver runes on the cover still glowed faintly, as though pulsing with a slow, measured heartbeat.
Renji flipped it open to the map of names.
One was still glowing — Senzaki.
He followed the lines around it.
Two more names pulsed now, newly awakened:
Kagura Mori
Yurei Genzaki
Renji didn't know either of them. But his instincts told him they weren't strangers. Not to his curse… and not to each other.
Just then, a knock.
Not at the door — on the window.
Renji spun around.
There was no one outside.
But tied to the iron grill of the window was a white paper bell charm.
He opened the window, took it down carefully. A note was written on the back, in that same looping hand from the vision:
"If you hear the bells, run. If you see them, kneel. But if you feel them—pray."
---
That night, as Renji lay half-awake on the floor, he heard it.
The faint jingle of bells.
But no wind.
He rose slowly and looked outside.
There, standing at the edge of the apartment building's shadow, was Kagura Mori.
She wasn't moving. Just watching. The chain of bells around her wrist didn't sway — but the sound… it rang.
Renji stepped out cautiously.
"Who are you?" he asked.
She didn't reply.
He walked closer. "You sent the message?"
Still no reply.
But as he reached within ten feet of her, Kagura finally spoke.
"I didn't send the message. I only answered it."
Renji's brow furrowed. "Answered… whose message?"
She raised her hand, bells glinting in the streetlight.
And for a brief moment, Renji saw flames reflected in her blind eyes.
"The Shrine of Echoes is waking. You've already heard it, haven't you? The name that repeats in your sleep."
Renji's throat dried.
"Asami…"
Kagura nodded slowly. "Then you're cursed, properly now. Your name's been written."
"By who?"
She stepped forward, and whispered into his ear:
"By yourself."
---
Kagura vanished before he could ask more.
The silence that followed wasn't natural. It pressed in on him like drowning.
Back inside, Renji stared at the cursebook again. Now the page with the names was bleeding ink — dark, like veins.
And then… a new name etched itself at the center.
Renji Kurobane.
He blinked.
The ink shimmered. The lines changed — and became a sigil. One Renji had never seen before, but somehow recognized.
It burned into his memory like a brand.
And deep in his mind, the same phrase echoed again and again:
"The bells toll only for those who've forgotten their own name."
But he hadn't forgotten his name…
Had he?