"We're evaluating select students for a mentorship program."
That was a lie.
Anyone who's dealt with divine factions knows that "mentorship" is code for surveillance.
And "select students" means "fragment holders."
The fake teacher, Agent Yamada, smiled like we were old friends. He adjusted his glasses, though the lenses didn't reflect anything. Not the lights. Not my face.
Illusionary tech.
Government grade.
Definitely not Ministry of Education.
I could see the sigils etched beneath his collar now. Hidden runes, stitched in divine thread.
He wasn't here for a resume check.
He was here for me.
"Mr. Itsuhara," he said gently, "would you come with us? Just a short evaluation."
"Can I say no?"
He smiled wider. "Technically."
"But?"
"But then the Agency might assume you're… unstable."
He said the word like it meant radioactive.
Which, to be fair, wasn't entirely wrong.
I looked past him.
The black-haired girl was still there, watching. Silent.
No threats, No weapons, Just quiet expectation.
A walking puzzle with blue eyes and a ticking clock in her pocket.
"I have math next," I said.
She raised a brow.
"You hate math," she replied.
I sighed.
She was right.
"Fine," I muttered, standing up. "But if this turns into a cult recruitment speech, I'm leaving."
### 🚪 Location: Temporary Agency Outpost – Basement Level, Shiroyama Community Library
They walked me past four locked doors, a fingerprint scanner, and a vending machine that scanned my retina before offering drinks.
I took a lemon tea.
It melted.
Yamada didn't comment. Just kept walking.
We entered a white room, No windows, No chairs, Just a floating circular table with a single item on it:
A glowing crystal, humming with heat.
A Divine Signature Extractor.
I frowned. "Seriously?"
"We just want a reading," he said.
"That thing causes recoil."
"Not with you. You're stable."
I rolled my eyes and touched the crystal.
🔥 SYSTEM RESPONSE
[Core Fragment Match: 22.7%]
[Flame Signature: CLASS A – CONTROLLED]
[Seal Integrity: 86% - Degrading]
[Emotion Link: Guilt / Fatigue / Grief]
[Hellfire Pressure: Dormant]
Yamada let out a low whistle.
"You're holding it back even now. You've sealed more power than three fragment hosts combined."
I pulled my hand away. "Your toy's cracked now."
And it was.
The crystal was hissing, forming spiderweb lines of heat fractures.
Yamada's smile dimmed for the first time.
"You're wasting it, you know."
"Wasting what?"
He leaned forward.
"Your throne."
That word again.
The girl had said it yesterday, Now him too.
Crown, Throne, Fire God.
I pressed a knuckle to my temple.
"No. I gave that up."
"I buried it. Scattered it."
"I chose peace."
"Rin," said the girl suddenly, speaking for the first time since we entered.
"I need to show you something."
She placed a black disk on the table and tapped it.
A projection flickered into life. Dozens of grainy images floated in the air, battles, craters, collapsed buildings.
One photo caught my breath.
A teenager.
Dead.
Burned alive… from the inside out.
"This was last week," she said.
"He held a fire fragment, Couldn't control it, It fed on his anger and turned him into a living bomb."
I stared at the scorched outline left on the ground.
His face had melted before he died.
"This will keep happening," she continued, "until someone collects the fragments."
Yamada folded his arms.
"You may hate who you were, Rin. You may hate the fire. But it's part of you. And it's waking up everywhere."
He nodded at the girl.
"She volunteered to track them down. She's immune to fire. Your opposite."
"Your counterweight."
I narrowed my eyes.
"Do I at least get her name now?"
The girl blinked once, then finally answered.
"Kagari."
A pause.
"I remember you. From Before."
The table cracked.
Literally cracked, right beneath my hand.
Heat rippled from my wrist.
Not flame, Just pressure.
Just memory.
She remembers?
From the divine era?
But she's human.
That shouldn't be possible.
Unless
Unless she never reincarnated.
Unless she never died.
Yamada placed a hand on my shoulder.
Soft.
Final.
"Help us, Rin," he said.
"Not as a god, Not as a killer, Just as… someone who understands the fire."
🧭 SYSTEM UPDATE
📍 Faction: [Scorched Halo - Observer Class]
🜂 Status: Watchlisted
🜂 Rank: Passive Host - Core Holder
🜂 Assigned Task: Recover Fragment 4 - "Wrath of the Crownless Flame"
⚠️ Sync Limit: 5%
I looked down at my palm.
The seal flickered again.
This was how it began.
Not with a warcry.
But with a choice.
And like a fool…
I said yes.
Another location
"We've got a heat spike in Sector 3."
Those were Kagari's first words as we stepped into the alley behind an old ramen shop.
Gray sky above. Rain-slick concrete below. The city moved around us, unaware.
Unaware that another divine fragment was about to go critical.
"Sector 3?" I muttered. "You mean the shopping district?"
"Yep, Mall's on lockdown, Civilians evacuated."
She tapped the side of her glasses. Holographic runes flickered in her lenses.
"Thermal output's unstable. Already rising past human thresholds."
I scratched the back of my neck.
"So… what? We knock? Say hello?"
"We neutralize. Fast."
The target was a teenage boy, Kaito Tendo, 16, Regular student, Worked part-time at the arcade.
Last night, he touched a glowing red crystal embedded in the wall of a condemned subway tunnel.
This morning?
He walked into a mall and started meltingit from the inside.
⚠️ SYSTEM PING
[Fragment Host Detected]
🜂 Heat Signature: 740°C (and rising)
🜂 Core Sync: 14%
🜂 Mental Stability: ✘ Unstable
🜂 Emotional Catalyst: Abandonment + Envy
🜂 Recommended Protocol: Subdue or Purge
We stood at the entrance of the shopping complex, Glass had warped into puddles, Metal signs sagged like rubber.
Inside, I could feel it.
The flame.
Not mine.
Wilder. Hungrier.
Untrained fragments don't bond to people, They hijack them, Twist emotions, Amplify trauma until the host becomes nothing but a furnace of pain.
"Ready?" Kagari asked, drawing a short, silver staff from her coat.
It clicked once, then snapped into a full spear with a black core.
Not a divine weapon, A suppressor tool.
"Let me talk to him," I said.
She hesitated.
"I've burned people before," I added. "Let me try saving one."
🏬 Inside – 4th Floor, FoodCourt
The air shimmered with heat. Tiles cracked under our feet.
I spotted him near the fountain.
Kaito Tendo.
Skin glowing, Veins pulsing red, His breath came in sharp, raspy huffs. A floating halo of fire orbited his head, jagged, unstable.
He didn't see us at first, He was staring at a toy vending machine, Crying.
"Why…" he whispered. "Why doesn't anyone… look at me…?"
The fire pulsed with each word.
His emotions were feeding it.
I stepped forward slowly.
"Kaito."
His head snapped toward me. His eyes were two flickering coals.
"Who, are you?"
"Someone who understands," I said.
"Understands what?!" he shouted.
The floor beneath him burst into flame.
Kagari raised her spear. I stopped her with one look.
"I know what it's like," I said. "To hold something too big, Too hot, To carry fire inside you that no one else can see."
He blinked, The flames dipped for half a second.
Then rose again, twice as strong.
"LIAR!" he screamed. "You don't know what it's like! You don't know what it's like to be INVISIBLE!"
He held out his hand
A jagged blast of fire shot toward me.
I didn't move.
I didn't dodge.
I opened my hand.
And caught it.
🔥 SYSTEM RESPONSE
🜂 Hellfire Sync: 3%
🜂 Divine Pressure Output: Minimal
🜂 Emotional Match: Resonant
🜂 Suppression: Active
The flame danced around my palm like it recognized me.
Like it remembered the true source.
Kaito stared.
"You… You're like me?"
"No," I said quietly.
"I'm worse."
The flames around us dropped.
Kagari rushed in, fast, clean, efficient. Her spear pierced the air and struck the fragment embedded in Kaito's chest.
With a hiss, the fire vanished.
Kaito collapsed, unconscious.
Breathing.
Alive.
We stood in silence for a while.
"First save," Kagari said.
"Won't be the last," I muttered.
As we left the mall, I turned back one last time.
The melted food court, The bubbling tiles, The scorched memory of a boy who just wanted to be seen.
This was my legacy.
Not peace.
Not war.
Just the fire… left behind.
📜 SYSTEM UPDATE
📍[Fragment 4: Recovered – Host Alive]
🜂 Core Integrity: 62%
🜂 Emotional Scar: Latent
⚠️ Memory Bleed: Imminent
🧠 Divine Identity Drift: Accelerating...
And somewhere deep in the core of my soul, a voice whispered:
"You should've let him burn."
I clenched my jaw.
"Shut up."
I'm still me. I'm still Rin.
I haven't gone back to being him.
Not yet.
📘 End of Chapter 6