Her eyes were still on me.
Cold, Calm, Unblinking.
Like she wasn't just staring at me, but through me.
She'd picked up a divine fragment with her bare hands.
And it hadn't burned her.
Normal humans can't touch divine energy. Not unless they're dying, insane, or worse, already chosen.
Which meant…
She wasn't normal.
"Who are you?" I asked.
Not out of curiosity.
Out of calculation.
She tilted her head again, studying me like I was a math problem that had just spoken back.
"Me?" she said. "No one important."
She brushed dust off her skirt, casually avoiding the scorch mark I'd left on the track.
"Just a girl who noticed a FireGod trying very hard not to exist."
I didn't respond.
Words were dangerous now.
Every sentence I spoke might confirm her theory.
And I couldn't afford to be discovered.
She took a step forward, hands behind her back. "I'm from Class 3-C, Transfer student, Tsukihime Academy before this."
A lie. Or at least a cover.
No one transfers mid-semester without some shady paperwork.
I stayed silent.
"You're surprisingly composed," she added. "Even after fighting a demon-class entity in broad daylight."
I scratched my head and looked away. "You saw that?"
"Saw it? I measured it."
She reached into her pocket and pulled out something small, a smooth black stone etched with glowing white lines.
It pulsed faintly in her hand.
A divine frequency reader.
Not many mortals had those. Definitely not high school students.
"You should probably hand that over," I said.
She blinked. "Why?"
"Because carrying a demon-stained relic on school grounds is technically… uh, arson."
"…That's not how laws work."
We stood in silence.
Then she stepped closer. Her voice dropped.
"I know you're Rin Itsuhara. And I know that seal on your wrist isn't just some edgy tattoo."
She looked directly at the brand I'd tried to hide beneath my sleeve.
The Brand of Embers, an ancient glyph from the Forge of Worlds, burned into me when I was still Incendios.
She narrowed her eyes.
"Why hasn't the fire consumed you yet?"
"Or are you just delaying the inevitable?"
I took a slow breath.
The air smelled like wet grass and scorched ozone.
"Look," I said. "If you know who I am, then you know why I don't want to be found."
Her expression didn't change.
"I do," she replied. "But the world's already finding you anyway."
She glanced up at the sky, still slightly cracked from the demon's earlier arrival.
"The seal's leaking. The demons are reacting. And worse…"
She pulled out a second object from her blazer.
A silver badge, shaped like a broken sword over a black sun.
"The Agency wants a word."
🔎 SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION:
[Faction Detected – Order of the Scorched Halo]
Classification: Divine Authority Oversight
Status: Neutral Hostility
Notable Traits:
— Recruits fragment holders
— Executes gods-in-hiding
— Immune to civilian laws
I sighed.
Of course.
I should've known they'd find me eventually.
A few months ago, I could walk the city without notice. Now even rookie agents were showing up with polite smiles and execution tools in their backpacks.
"Let me guess," I muttered. "You're here to recruit me."
"No."
"...To kill me?"
"Also no."
She gave a small smirk.
"I'm here to warn you."
Something cold settled in my chest.
Not fear, Not confusion.
Just that old, familiar feeling.
A storm on the horizon.
She stepped back and looked toward the east, where the city skyline cut the sky into broken lines.
"They're coming, Rin," she said.
"Not demons, Not angels, Not humans."
Her voice dropped.
"Something older, Something worse, And they want your crown."
I blinked.
"My… crown?"
She looked at me like I was stupid.
"You really don't remember much, huh?"
She turned, walking toward the stairwell exit.
But just before she disappeared, she tossed one last sentence over her shoulder:
"Don't be late to your destiny. The others already woke up."
🌑 Meanwhile… In a Burning Dream
Somewhere far away 'within the fractured halls of an ancient, melted cathedral' a shadow stirred.
On a throne of bones sat a being wrapped in ash-colored robes, its face covered in cracked porcelain.
Before it lay a map of Earth, burning at the edges.
"He's awake," it whispered.
"And he still wears the Embers."
A dozen infernal cultists knelt.
The creature smiled, jagged, molten teeth flashing beneath the mask.
"Then let us begin the Second Scorching."
Back in reality
"The others already woke up."
Those words stayed with me.
Like ash caught in my throat.
I stared at the rooftop door for a while after the girl left. Wind tugged at my sleeves, cold and sharp, like the world itself wanted me to answer a question I hadn't asked.
The others?
How many more?
How many had been reborn like me?
Or worse… how many never forgot who they were?
🏫 Later That Evening – Itsuhara Residence
Dinner was curry rice, My sister's version, Spicy enough to make demons cry.
I poked at mine with a spoon, steam rising like smoke signals I didn't want to send.
Across the table, Aoi sipped her tea, watching me with her usual mix of suspicion and concern.
"You got quiet today," she said.
"Thinking."
"Dangerous."
She took another sip. "You do that, and things explode."
I gave her a weak smile. "Nothing's exploded this week."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, yet."
She studied me a little longer, then went back to her food.
She didn't know.
She thought I was just… Rin. Her slacker brother who burned pancakes and skipped cram school.
She didn't remember the flame wars, The shattered heavens, The time she stood at my side, wings of smoke flaring behind her
Stop. That was another life.
She wasn't her anymore. She didn't carry the spark, Just me.
Only me.
The last fire.
🌒 Midnight – Dream Realm
The nightmares returned.
Not blood, Not screams.
Just silence.
Endless fields of scorched glass. Temples half-melted. Statues of myself shattered and scattered like broken prayers.
And in the center of it all
A throne of fire, empty and flickering.
I stood at its base, hands clenched, staring up at it.
"I left you behind," I whispered.
"You were supposed to stay buried."
But something moved.
A shadow crawled across the back of the throne, rising like smoke given form.
Not a demon. Not a god.
Me.
Another version of me, older, crueler, crowned in flame, eyes hollow and white-hot.
"You cannot run," it said.
"You are the fire. You are the end."
And then I woke up.
🌤️ 7:00 AM – Shiroyama High
I didn't speak much during homeroom.
Mostly because I was too busy checking my wrist.
The seal had shifted.
It used to be one glyph, one lock.
Now there were two, One flickering.
One… cracked.
Did defeating that demon loosen it?
Or was it the fragment?
Fragments weren't supposed to reconnect. I'd scattered them across the planes myself, shattering my god-core into pieces.
For them to find each other again…
Something was pulling the strings.
I barely noticed when Toru dropped into the seat beside me.
"Yo," he said. "You spacing out again?"
I blinked. "Always."
He slid a flyer in front of me.
"SHIROYAMA CULTURE FESTIVAL, SIGN-UP WEEK!"
Great.
Noise, Crowds, Fire hazards, Exactly the kind of thing I didn't want to be around right now.
I stared at the paper like it might catch fire if I willed it hard enough.
Then a shadow fell over our desk.
I looked up.
And she was back.
The same girl from the rooftop.
Hair neat, Uniform perfect, Eyes colder than winter.
Only this time, she wasn't alone.
Behind her stood a teacher I didn't recognize, suit crisp, smile fake, glasses too reflective.
"Rin Itsuhara?" the man asked.
I slowly raised my hand. "Depends on who's asking."
"I'm Agent Yamada. Temp faculty advisor. We're… evaluating select students for a mentorship program."
He smiled too wide.
"I believe you've been… flagged as special."
Toru blinked. "Whoa, is this one of those elite scholarship scouts?"
I didn't answer.
My eyes were on the girl.
She gave me a nod, just barely.
Not a warning.
An invitation.
So it begins.
🕸️ SYSTEM NOTICE
[Divine Network Pulse Detected]
📡 Signal Sync: 3 of 108 Fragments Registered
⚠️ Status: Incomplete
☠️ Caution: Fragment Overlap may cause Divine Memory Bleed
💡 Tip: Emotional triggers may accelerate seal decay.
And there it was.
Confirmation.
The others really were waking up.
And if they remembered more than I did…
I wasn't just late to the game.
I was already losing.
📘 End of Chapter 2