Prom night: Remy picks me up in the Black Suburban. Remy in a black suit, me in a crimson dress with slits for mobility.We arrive at Prom Seras and Lucian start dancing.
We ditch after twenty minutes, end up on the Gym rooftop watching meteor showers.
I draw the symbol for **constellation** across his heart with a fingertip dipped in my own blood.
It fades before sunrise, but he says he can still feel it.
**High School Graduation Day**
**Saturday, May 25, 2029 – 6:58 p.m.**
The football field is packed.
Parents, siblings, ghosts (Al brought the entire 1920s mob), every hot spring in the valley steaming in perfect unison like the earth itself showed up to cheer.
We're lined up in alphabetical order, caps crooked, gowns too hot, hearts too full.
I'm between Remy Tsatoke-Calder and Seras Himuari Nakamura (fate or Kayo's bribery, I'm not asking).
Remy's hand finds mine under the sleeves.
**Remy (whisper):**
"Still think we're dreaming?"
**Celeste (squeezing back):**
"If we are, nobody wake us up."
The principal starts the names.
Every time someone from our crew crosses the stage, something ridiculous and perfect happens:
- Kayo's diploma shoots golden fox-fireworks that spell 卒業おめでとう in the sky for exactly three seconds.
- Aki and Riku's names are called together; the scoreboard flashes twin oni masks and the crowd roars like it's a rock concert.
- Seras walks, and the stadium lights flare sun-bright; Lucian stands in the bleachers with literal thunder clapping over his head in applause.
- Rowan (listed as "faculty guest") gets an honorary diploma none of us knew about; he flips it open and it just says "Finally" in flaming letters.
Then:
**Principal:**
"Celeste Valentina Morua-Tsatoke"
I walk.
The second my foot hits the fifty-yard line, every hot spring in the valley erupts at once (perfect geysers of steam and starlight that arc over the field and spell my name in Caddo, Romanian, and Atlantean).
The crown above my heart blazes once (visible to everyone this time, a ring of white fire and ocean that doesn't scare a single person).
Because The Mist hides the the truth behind white lies for mortals and those who know they know the whole story now because they were there with me the whole way.
Hot Springs always did.
I reach the podium.
Take my diploma.
And instead of shaking the principal's hand, I turn to the microphone.
**Celeste (voice steady, seventeen, queen, girl, home):**
"We were told senior year would be the end of something.
Turns out it was just the beginning dressed up in purple gowns.
Thank you for letting us be weird,
for cheering when we broke the rules to save the world,
and for pretending you didn't see the dragon in the back row." I call Brittany to The Stage. Valedictorian speech? Nope.
I let Brittany take it.
I'm too busy holding Remy's hand while Seras cries into Malik's shoulder and Vera pretends she's not tearing up behind sunglasses.
That night Dacia shows me the final tablet (the one that was shattered before Rome existed).
I copy it perfectly.
Every stroke.
Every lost meaning.
When I finish, the mist-space goes quiet.
**Dacia (voice soft, ancient, proud):**
*You know them all now, little queen.
Every symbol that ever was.
Every meaning the clay forgot.
The ink will never stay on your flesh…
because it no longer needs to.
It lives in you deeper than skin. In your soul.*
And that's okay.
I close my fist and feel every single symbol humming behind my ribs, permanent as heartbeat.
I'm seventeen years old.
I never needed the marks to stay.
I only needed to become the page.
Completed Crown
Forty-seven thousand nights of writing behind me.
An entire Bronze Age language reborn in the marrow of a girl from Hot Springs, Arkansas.
The storm no longer needs ink.
She is the ink.
And the world has no idea what's coming.
Laughter and wild applause.
I look straight at my family (blood, chosen, dead, alive, scaled, furred, flaming).
**Celeste:**
"This one's for the mountains that knelt,
the oceans that learned mercy,
and the ridiculous, perfect people who taught a storm how to come home."
I throw my cap.
Every cap in the senior class follows at once (a purple storm of tassels).
The sky answers with real lightning in the shape of a blackbird.
We did it.
We graduated.
We survived high school, hidden cities, gods, and growing up.
And we did it together.
The field erupts into chaos (hugs, screaming, fireworks, ghost champagne).
Remy finds me in the madness, picks me up, and spins me until we're both dizzy.
**Remy (laughing, crying, mine):**
"Celeste Valentina Morua-Tsatoke,
you just graduated the hell out of high school."
**Celeste (kissing him under a sky full of blackbirds and stars):**
"We all did."
The class of 2029 runs onto the field.
The valley steams proud.
And somewhere, eight thousand years away, an ancient queen and a drowned empire smile.
Because the storm queen kept her promise.
She grew up.
She stayed kind.
And she never, ever walked alone.
(But only the beginning for us.)
** The Invitation from the Fire God**
**June 14, 2029 – three weeks after graduation**
The letter arrives in flame.
Literally.
A single sheet of living fire lands on the kitchen table during breakfast, hovers, and unfolds itself into perfect kanji that translate in my head the second I look at them.
> To Seras Himuari Nakamura and her chosen court
> Kōjin, God of Flame, Hearth, and Kitchen Disasters, requests the honor of your presence
> Purpose: overdue family reunion + one legendary relic
> Bring: the sun-girl, the storm queen, the dragon, and whoever keeps stealing my sake
> Dress code: fireproof
> P.S. The Shogun Armor of Inferno has chosen its next bearer. It's time.
The paper burns away into cherry-blossom embers.
Seras drops her papanasi.
**Seras (eyes huge, glowing):**
"My dad wants to meet me.
And apparently give me magic armor." It's Complicated see Seras has a mom and Dad The Nakamura's. Kojin is more or less Her God Father
Lucian's wings flicker half-visible, thunder rumbling in his chest with excitement.
**Lucian:**
"The Armor of Inferno hasn't been worn since the Sengoku period.
Legends say it only answers to fire that can burn the gods themselves."
Remy looks at me.
**Remy:**
"Road trip to Japan?"
**Celeste (already pulling out my phone):**
"Private portal leaves tomorrow.
Rowan's paying. He lost a bet."
Rowan appears in the doorway holding a credit card and resignation.
**Rowan:**
"I hate all of you.
Pack light. Kōjin sulks when people are late."
**24 hours later – Mount Atago, Kyoto Prefecture**
The mountain is on fire in the best way (eternal flames that don't consume, just dance).
Kōjin is waiting at the top.
He looks exactly like Seras if she were eight feet tall, made of magma, and wearing a chef's apron that says "Kiss the Cook or Get Charred."
He takes one look at Seras and his flaming beard flares brighter.
**Kōjin (voice like a bonfire laughing):**
"There's my girl.
Took you long enough to come claim your inheritance."
Seras (tears evaporating before they fall):
"Hi… Dad."
He pulls her into a hug that somehow doesn't incinerate her.
Then he turns to the rest of us.
**Kōjin (grinning at me):**
"Storm queen. Still making oceans apologize?"
**Celeste (bowing slightly):**
"Only on weekends."
He claps Lucian on the shoulder hard enough to make thunder echo.
**Kōjin:**
"Good choice, kid.
Dragon and phoenix fire.
My grandchildren are going to be insufferable."
Lucian goes scarlet.
Seras goes supernova.
Kōjin snaps his fingers.
The mountain splits open, revealing a forge built inside a volcano.
In the center: the Shogun Armor of Inferno (crimson plates that move like liquid flame, edged in gold, radiating heat that feels like coming home).
It rises on its own and bows to Seras.
**Kōjin (soft, proud):**
"It's waited five hundred years for fire that burns with love instead of conquest.
Put it on, daughter."
Seras steps forward.
The armor flows over her like it was always hers.
When it settles, she's ten feet tall, crowned in solar flares, eyes pure blazing gold.
The mountain roars in approval.
**Seras (voice layered with god-fire):**
"Holy shit.
I have a dad.
And armor.
And you're all crying."
We are.
Even Rowan.
Kōjin wipes a tear that turns into a ruby.
**Kōjin:**
"Stay a week.
Eat my cooking.
Burn things responsibly.
Then go change the world again."
He looks at all of us (storm, fire, dragon, fox, coyote, monk).
**Kōjin:**
"You kept my daughter alive long enough to come home.
The flames remember."
He bows (full ninety degrees).
We bow back.
The summer after graduation just caught fire in the best possible way.
Seras Himuari Nakamura has a God father, a god-tier armor set, and a dragon boyfriend who's currently speechless with awe.
And the rest of us?
We're just along for the blaze.
Japan's never been ready for this crew.
But the fire god is.
And that's more than enough.
**The Armor Chooses**
June 15, 2029 – Mount Atago, dawn**
The forge chamber is open to the sky, cherry blossoms drifting through flames that never burn the petals.
Seras stands in the center, space buns perfect, that one loose crimson streak in her black hair catching the sunrise like it was born for this moment.
Kōjin gestures, and the Shogun Armor of Inferno rises from the lava pool (crimson plates edged in living gold, moving like liquid sunlight).
It doesn't make her giant.
It makes her inevitable.
The armor flows over her like it's been waiting five centuries just to hug her.
Breastplate settles over her heart with a soft chime.
Pauldrons unfold like phoenix wings.
The helmet forms last (sleek, open-faced, crowned with a crest of golden fire that looks exactly like her usual messy buns, but forged from solar plasma).
When it locks into place, the mountain holds its breath.
Seras is still 5'6".
Still seventeen-almost-eighteen.
Still Seras.
But the sunrise reflects in every plate, and the loose crimson streak glows like a comet tail.
She looks down at her gauntleted hands, flexes her fingers, and the air around them ignites into perfect rings of fire that spell ありがとう in the sky before fading.
**Seras (voice cracking, layered with harmonics):**
"It fits."
Kōjin (flaming beard trembling with pride):
"It was forged for the daughter I knew would burn bright enough to outshine every warlord who ever tried to wear it.
You're not conquest, kid.
You're hearth-fire that learned how to roar."
Seras turns to us.
The armor catches the dawn and throws it back a thousand times brighter.
**Seras (tears evaporating into tiny suns):**
"I look like a shogun magical girl and I'm not even mad."
Lucian drops to one knee (not forced, just overwhelmed).
**Lucian (soft thunder):**
"My sun… you were always armor.
Now the world just matches the truth."
Remy whistles low.
**Remy:**
"Remind me never to piss you off again."
Kayo is openly crying sparkles.
Rowan's coffee mug is cracked again.
I step forward and flick the loose crimson streak that's now glowing like molten ruby.
**Celeste (grinning through tears):**
"Space buns and shogun armor.
Peak Seras aesthetic achieved."
Kōjin claps once.
The mountain answers with a heartbeat of flame.
**Kōjin:**
"Breakfast is served.
Then we teach my daughter how to burn the sky without burning the world."
Seras laughs (bright, unstoppable, home).
The armor hums in perfect harmony.
Sunrise over Kyoto just got a new permanent fixture:
One fire sorceress in legendary shogun armor, space buns shining, crimson streak blazing, finally, finally whole.
And the rest of us?
We're just lucky enough to stand in her light.
Summer just became legendary.