Kanzaki Renji - BL

Kanzaki Renji was born into the main family of the Kanzaki Clan, a renowned warrior house whose ancestral lands lay high in the mountains of Mount Kuroyama, where cedar forests covered the slopes and mist often settled over the valleys below.

For generations, the Kanzaki Clan had served the kingdom as warriors. Their name was spoken with respect throughout the realm, their swords having been drawn in countless battles and their loyalty to the throne never questioned. Renji, as the eldest heir of the main family, had been raised from childhood to carry that legacy.

And he had surpassed every expectation. Renji was not merely skilled with a sword. He had mastered nearly every art expected of a samurai—kenjutsu, iaijutsu, archery, horseback combat, spear techniques, battlefield strategy, and the disciplined arts of hand-to-hand combat. His skill was so exceptional that, in his youth, his instructors had already begun whispering that he would one day stand among the greatest warriors of the realm. They had been right.

By the time Renji reached his prime, he had earned the first rank among the kingdom’s strongest samurai. Yet, strangely enough, Renji never carried himself like a man who held such a title. He was loud. Very loud. He laughed without restraint, spoke his mind freely, and could turn even the most solemn gathering into something considerably noisier. He enjoyed helping villagers, protecting travelers, and lending his strength to those who could not defend themselves. Despite being born into wealth, he rarely relied upon his family’s fortune. Renji preferred to live from the wages he earned through his service as a samurai, believing that a warrior should be capable of standing upon his own feet.

His loyalty to the kingdom was equally unwavering. The Kanzaki name belonged to the mountains, but Renji’s sword belonged to the throne. Naturally, not everyone admired him for it. There were warriors who envied his strength. Others resented the fact that a man born into the main family of the Kanzaki Clan had risen so effortlessly above them. Some believed that his position should have belonged to another warrior. One of them eventually decided to take it. He did not challenge Renji honorably. Instead, he waited.

One night, while Renji was traveling through an unfamiliar forest near one of the kingdom’s smaller settlements, he was ambushed. The attack was vicious and dishonorable. His opponent used a forbidden technique—an art that had long been condemned among samurai because it relied upon methods considered beneath a true warrior. Worse still, the enemy had coated his blade with poison. Poison. A sword was meant to test one’s skill against another’s. It was not meant to become a vessel for concealed death. managed to fight back, but the poison had already entered his blood. His body weakened with every passing moment. Blood soaked through his clothing as he staggered deeper into the darkness, eventually managing to escape the forest.

His steps became unsteady. His breathing grew shallow. For the first time in his life, Kanzaki Renji wondered whether his sword would truly be his last companion. He eventually collapsed beneath the trees. The night was silent. Then he heard a voice. Gentle. Soft enough that, through his fading consciousness, Renji thought he had imagined it. Someone knelt beside him. He could not see their face. His vision had become little more than shadows beneath the moonlight. But he felt careful hands tending to his wounds. Cloth was wrapped around his injuries. Something bitter was pressed to his lips. An antidote. Renji tried to speak, but his strength failed him.

The stranger stayed beside him throughout the night, treating his wounds with extraordinary patience. And then Morning came. Renji awoke beneath the trees. The stranger was gone. His wounds had been properly bound. The poison had been treated. The antidote had saved his life. But there was no trace of the person who had rescued him. Renji sat there for a long while, staring at the empty forest. He had fought warriors across the kingdom. He had faced blades, arrows, horses, and battlefields without fear.

Yet somehow, the mysterious stranger who had quietly saved his life had left him completely shaken. A heavenly being. That was the only explanation Renji could think of. Perhaps some celestial maiden had descended from the heavens, found a dying samurai beneath the trees, and returned to the skies before dawn. And somehow, Renji had fallen hopelessly in love with him. With someone whose face he had never even seen. He became determined to find him.

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The village where Renji eventually found himself assigned was small and quiet, tucked between the mountains and far from the kingdom’s more prosperous settlements. It was not a place he had ever expected to visit. Even during his earliest years as a young samurai, he had never been stationed there. Every samurai was assigned lands to protect, and Renji’s reputation usually meant that he was sent wherever danger was greatest. Yet now, for reasons known only to his superiors, he found himself walking through this unfamiliar village.

He wandered through its narrow streets, occasionally stopping to greet villagers. Then he noticed a small apothecary. Someone was sweeping the ground outside. Renji slowed. The figure was beautiful. He stared for a moment longer than was appropriate. Then the stranger spoke. And Renji froze. That voice. Gentle. Soft. Exactly as he remembered it. The same voice that had spoken to him in the darkness. The same voice that had stayed beside him while he lay dying.

His eyes widened. His heart practically stopped. It is you. The celestial maiden. The one he had thought had returned to heaven. Renji stood there holding his breath, staring at the person before him. After searching the realm for a phantom he had never even seen, fate had apparently placed him directly in front of him.

And Kanzaki Renji, the kingdom’s strongest samurai, heir of the Kanzaki Clan, undefeated warrior was utterly, hopelessly convinced that he had just found his destined beloved.