Renji???

Long ago, before I was even born, my parents were in love. Or at least, that’s what my mother used to tell me in the rare moments she spoke of the past. She said my father had been different back then—kinder, more carefree. At the time, he was just a B-rank, and rank never mattered to him. Not yet.

But then he climbed to A-rank, and something inside him changed. Maybe it was the taste of power, or maybe it was the hunger for more. Either way, the madness took hold of him. It wasn’t enough. He wanted to reach the pinnacle—to become S-rank. He trained obsessively, pushing his body beyond its limits, but no matter what he did, he remained stuck. And that… that was when his love turned into something else.

Disappointment. Frustration. Rage.

He took it out on my mother first. At first, it was words—angry mutterings, cruel remarks. Then, it became something worse. A shove here, a slap there. Until one day, it became routine.

Then I was born.