The days after Veyrix's appearance passed like heavy breaths in Aoritsu.
Akuzai stood at the edge of the rice fields just beyond the village, his cloak fluttering in the breeze, golden threads of his energy pulsing faintly along his fingertips. Behind him, the village buzzed with quiet preparation—repairs, patrols, and anxious whispers.
But it wasn't war that filled his mind.
It was uncertainty.
Beside him, Tanishk knelt by the stream, letting water run through his fingers. His presence was calmer now. His posture straighter. Yet the fatigue never left his eyes.
"You don't talk much these days," Akuzai said softly.
Tanishk gave a small smile. "When you've lived without sound for so long, words lose their weight."
"But you're back. You're home."
"I don't know what that means anymore," Tanishk replied, looking up. "This place… It feels familiar, but I'm not the same person."
Akuzai looked away. "Neither am I."
A few paces behind, Anuj sat beneath a sakura tree, watching the breeze carry petals across the fields. Abhishek stood near the village gate, arms crossed, a quiet sentinel. Aditya was inside, helping Miyako tend to wounded villagers. They had all returned… but nothing felt restored.
Later that evening, Yukiko joined Akuzai atop the shrine hill.
"You're always staring at the stars," she said, her voice a quiet melody.
"They're the only thing that hasn't changed."
Yukiko sat beside him. "You're scared."
Akuzai exhaled. "Not of Veyrix. Not anymore."
"Then what?"
He hesitated. "Of losing all of you again. Of fighting for the world and forgetting who I am."
Yukiko reached for his hand. "You're Akuzai. You're allowed to hurt. But you're also allowed to heal."
He leaned his head against hers, eyes closing briefly.
But the peace was short-lived.
The next morning, a strange fog crept into Aoritsu. Not thick, but unnaturally quiet. Birds stopped singing. Footsteps echoed farther than they should.
Tanishk's senses flared. "Something's… watching."
Then came the twist—Kaien Arashi, Akuzai's father, collapsed in the garden. His body convulsed, eyes rolled back, and when he opened them again…
They glowed black.
"Veyrix," Miyako whispered.
Everyone froze.
Veyrix spoke through Kaien's lips, his voice layered and broken like a hundred echoes.
"I wanted to see… what love felt like.So I borrowed a father.It's warm. Unfamiliar. Almost… cruel."
Akuzai stepped forward, fire building in his chest. "Let him go."
Veyrix smirked. "He'll return. But I wanted you to feel it—the fear of loss before the battle begins."
And just like that, Kaien collapsed unconscious, the darkness fading.
Miyako ran to him, sobbing. Yukiko held her.
Akuzai knelt beside his father, hands trembling. "He's alive… but shaken."
Tanishk clenched his fists. "That wasn't war. That was warning."
Anuj stood still, staring into the fog. "He's toying with us. Like pieces on a board."
Akuzai looked at each of them—his friends, his family. And though the fear was real, something else stirred in his chest.
Resolve.
"He's trying to break us before the first blow," he said.
"But we won't break," Yukiko said, standing tall.
Akuzai's voice grew cold. "Let him come."