Tsukia's POV
My knuckles were white against the hilt of my sword. A huge part of me—the part that had spent seven years rotting in the freezing silence of Jamana Mountain—was screaming at me to bolt. But the other part, the one that felt the heavy, rhythmic thrum of this "disaster" in my veins, wouldn't let my feet move. Running is for the weak. And God, I was tired of being weak.
The nine guys in tactical gear didn't even glance at me. Their eyes were glued to the idiot in the bucket hat.
"Is the girl with him?" one of them barked. He leveled a glowing blue spear at my chest.
A sharp, cold spark of irritation hit my throat. I didn't even know this stranger's name, and here I was getting lumped into his bullshit. I started to draw my blade, feeling the black veins on my wrist begin to itch for a fight.
"I've got this," the boy said, stepping casually in front of me. He cracked his knuckles without even looking back. "Sorry for dragging you into the mess, Miss."
I stepped back. Fine. It wasn't my problem. If he wanted to play the hero and get himself killed, I'd let him. I sheathed my sword and turned to leave. I needed to find a meal, and I didn't care if his blood ended up staining the grass.
"Watch out for his fire!" one of the soldiers yelled, his voice cracking in genuine terror.
Fire?
I stopped. My curiosity has always been my biggest flaw. I looked back and my breath hitched.
Wild, brilliant crimson flames were pouring out of the boy's hands, swirling like something alive. I'd thought he was just some fast kid, a leaf in the wind. I was wrong. He was a furnace.
"ATTACK!" the leader roared.
The boy didn't flinch. He lunged, his fist trailing a comet-tail of heat. "Ignis Burst!"
The clearing turned into a hellscape in a second. The roar of the fire drowned out everything. Trees turned into orange torches and the air became a shimmering wall of heat. It was the first time I'd ever seen people really fight, and it was horrifying. I couldn't look away as the soldiers fell like ash onto the scorched dirt.
"I didn't want to do that," the boy shouted at a man hitting the ground. He actually sounded like he was in pain. "But you wouldn't leave me alone!"
He turned and saw me standing there. The fire in his hands died down to a little flicker. "D-did I scare you?" he asked, suddenly looking like a kicked puppy.
"Why would I be scared of you?" I snapped. My heart was hammering against my ribs, and I rolled my eyes at the burning forest just to hide the fact that my hands were shaking.
"You look terrified," he chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "And you're probably wondering about the fire." He held out his palms. The flames were mesmerizing—warm and vibrant, nothing like the cold, suffocating pressure of my own power.
"I was born with this. It's my Soul Possession," he explained. "A rare type. Basically, I'm a freak."
"Nobody asked," I said. But inside, that word freak stung. I knew that word better than my own name.
"You're so cold," he smirked, his eyes dancing. "Want me to heat you up?"
I went to retort, but he snatched off his hat and gave a mock bow. "Lori Shinji. They call me 'Fire Destructive'—which is a bit dramatic, if you ask me."
For the first time, I saw his face without the shadow of the hat. He had a brightness to him that actually hurt to look at. He was... cute.
CRACK.
A massive, burning cedar branch snapped right above me. I was so dazed from the fight that my reflexes lagged. I looked up and saw the wall of fire coming down. I braced myself, expecting my "curse" to just shatter the wood and leave me standing in the middle of a blaze.
But I didn't feel the impact. I felt warmth.
Lori hadn't just pulled me away; he'd jumped in front of me. He caught the flaming wood with his bare hands, his own fire shielding my hair from the singe. He tossed the branch aside and looked at me, his face inches from mine, covered in soot but wearing a massive grin.
"Told you," he whispered. "I'll prove you can trust me."
Something in my chest tightened. For the first time in years, someone had actually stepped between me and the world.
"U-uh... Aile Tsukia!" I shouted as we started running to escape the spreading forest fire.
Lori's smile broke into a full-blown grin. He grabbed my wrist—not like a captor, but with a steady, firm heat—and pulled me through the smoke.
Eventually, the mountain road opened up into the outskirts of a sleepy little town. The flickering neon sign of a 24-hour convenience store looked like an alien beacon to me. I slowed down, my eyes wide at the paved asphalt and the hum of the power lines.
"Wait," I whispered, pulling back. My anxiety was a screaming siren now. "There are... people in there."
Lori stopped and looked back, his face softening. "It's just a shop, Tsukia. They have snacks and bandages for that scrape on your knee."
"I don't need help from humans," I snapped, though my stomach let out a loud, embarrassing growl.
"Technically, the food is the help. The humans are just the middlemen," Lori joked, nudging me toward the sliding doors.
As the doors hissed open, I nearly drew my sword on the glass. The air inside smelled like fried chicken and floor wax. I walked the aisles like a hunted animal. I saw a group of teenagers by the soda machine; they looked at my soot-stained cloak and whispered.
The voice in my head started hissed,They're judging you. They think you're a monster. Kill them before they laugh.
I gripped my wrist, the veins starting to itch. My breathing got shallow.
Suddenly, something warm landed on my head. Lori had put his bucket hat on me, pulling it down so it covered my eyes.
"Ignore them," he said. His voice was serious and protective. "You're with me. If they have a problem, they can talk to the guy who breathes fire."
I looked up at him from under the brim. The teenagers looked away immediately. For the first time in my life, the "voice" went quiet. Not because I beat it, but because someone else was loud enough to drown it out.
He bought two strawberry popsicles and we stepped back out into the humid night. He handed me one.
"A peace offering from the human race," he said with a wink.
The cold sweetness was an explosion of flavor. I looked at the melting red ice, then at the boy walking beside me, swinging his arms like he didn't have a care in the world.
"Lori?"
"Yeah?"
"Why? You don't even know if I'm... safe."
He stopped under a streetlamp. "I spent my whole life being told I was a walking disaster, Tsukia. I know what it looks like when someone is just trying to survive their own skin. Besides," he added, that goofy grin coming back, "I think we'd make a good team. Fire and... whatever it is you do."
I looked down, hiding under the hat. "I guess."
"Do you have a plan? A home to go back to?"
I looked at the horizon. "I don't even know where my hometown is," I murmured. "I don't remember anything before I was nine. I just woke up one day... and I was just there."
Lori looked stunned. "What? Like amnesia?"
"Maybe. All I remember is a village where they treated me like a bad omen. Doctors and scientists studied me like an animal. I think the government is still watching. There's a voice in my head, Lori... it tells me to hate everyone."
Lori's expression shifted to something that looked like pity, but without the looking down on me part. He looked at me like he was seeing himself.
The Ruins
Later that day, Lori led me to a rusted, skeletal gate. Behind it sat a house that had been completely gutted by fire. The smell of old smoke still hung in the air.
"This was my home," Lori whispered. We stepped inside, our boots crunching on charred wood. "You told me about your childhood... so I'll show you mine."
He looked at his hands. "I killed them, Tsukia. My parents. I couldn't control the heat one night. I ran to my mother for help, but she backed away in horror. She called me a monster before the smoke took her. The neighbors still think I did it on purpose."
He was shaking by the time he finished, a single tear cutting through the soot on his cheek.
I didn't know how to comfort a person. Usually, I wanted to hurt them. But my hand moved on its own, tentatively patting his messy hair. "U-uh... are you okay?"
"I'm seventeen," he muttered, wiping his eyes. "And I'm still just a kid who's afraid of matches."
"I'm seventeen too," I said softly. "In a way, you're lucky. You have memories, even if they hurt. I'm just a ghost in a girl's body."
"I'll help you find out who you are," Lori said, reaching out to pat my head in return. The warmth of his hand made my chest feel tight. "I'm here for you, Tsukia. Even if we just met."
The Base
As the sun went down, we reached a small house by a river. A campfire was crackling in the yard.
"Hey, jerk! Get over here!" Lori yelled.
A girl with short, sharp hair spun around from the fire with a marshmallow stick. Her face lit up when she saw Lori, then immediately soured when she saw me.
"LORI! EXPLAIN THIS!" she barked, pointing the sticky stick at me. "WHO IS THIS?"
"Relax, Jasmia! She's a friend," Lori laughed, dodging her.
"Hmp!" The girl made a face. They looked like siblings—loud and always bickering. It was actually kind of nice to watch.
"Introduce yourselves!" Lori said, pushing us toward each other.
My heart was racing. A real conversation.
"H-hello. I'm Aile Tsukia."
"Hi! I'm Jasmia Valley. The person who has to keep this fire-breathing idiot from blowing himself up," she smiled, holding out her hand.
I looked at her hand, then at her. A handshake. For the first time, the voice in my head was totally silent. I wasn't just a disaster on a mountain anymore.
I had actually made a friend.