Prodigy

Jarathia | Jarathia City | Ceral District | Hot Spring House

District Cereal hugs the ocean—scattered homes and a grand house crowned with golden ornaments, steam trailing from its hot spring.

Chisa stands inside. Bodies in black uniforms sprawl along the entryway, slick with fresh blood.

She moves through gilded halls toward the hot spring. And there he is: a man with golden teeth, naked in the water. He snaps his fingers and the pool surges—water hardening into spikes that lance toward her.

“In ate — Ru u!” Chisa murmurs.

The water collapses, rippling harmlessly back into the basin.

Fear flashes in the man’s eyes.

Chisa circles the pool, leaving a trace of red with every measured step.

Splish.

Splash.

Splish.

Splash.

Her orange eye glows. Her other—pale red—stares, unreadable.

She shrugs off her shirt, leaving her in only a bra and pants—then she lowers herself into the spring. Blood ribbons out into the water, tinting the current pink.

Her hand closes around the axe. A pulse of purple lightning jumps from the haft—it crawls into the man's limbs. He tries to rise and finds he cannot.

“Jule.” Chisa says, voice flat. “It’s been a long time.”

He bares the golden teeth he bought. “Are you going to kill me now?”

She nods. “It’s nothing personal. All you nobles have to go. And let’s be honest, you have long forgotten your origins.”

“I made it OUT!” Jule snarls. “I survived. I’m not poor anymore. I reclaimed the strength my parents lost.”

She studies him—and sees the boy he was. Her jaw tightens.

“Sunthia.” She says. “You knew the nobles’ plan. That poor girl… And manipulating Nine like that—you both played with our lives and breached the contract!”

“And?” Jule spits with venom. “Things are better when we join Alpas!”

“Alpas is WHY things went bad!” Chisa snaps. “They tried to annex us. Torvea stopped them. I should have left with Nine. I regret so much… But right now, I just wish I’d killed you sooner. You betrayed everyone—first your parents, then Jerome, now me. Even Sunthia. Now you’ll die, old friend.”

Jule struggles, the steam thickens around them. Voices swim up to Chisa through the mist, tainted old memories…

A child, sobbing. “My TEETH—argh—”
Jerome in a panic. “No! Jule! You fell down the stairs, oh no… Chisa—get the doc! Now! Jule, I’m here, ok? It’ll be ok…”

A younger Chisa, teasing and gentle: “The doctor replicated them really well—snow white! I like your smile. It’s pretty, don’t you think?”

Another ripple—sharper cries, known only by one of them.

A father: “Jule, why—”
Metal through flesh. A wet sound.

A mother: “Jule, I’m preg—”
Another cut.

“I will reclaim our strength! YOU BETRAYED OUR ISLAND, MOM AND DAD! I WILL BE A REAL NOBLE!“ –

A last wrathful cut across both.

Chisa gets closer.

Sunthia’s voice threads through the fog: “Jule, I understand. You had no choice then. But now—please, be better? Do something good. I believe in you. You’re a noble now—you promised, you would care for us—”

A punch lands in memory.

Sunthia, breathless: “I… deserved that. Don’t worry, I won’t tell Nine. I just don’t know why you are so angry at… everything.”

The mist thins. Jule is crying. “Please… don’t.”

Chisa watches the tears fall. She draws him into a cold embrace. “You were only a child. But now… I can’t forgive you. We’re all dirty. We’re all lost.”

“Please, Chisa—”

She rests the axe on his neck and draws it across, slow and steady.

Cold.
Pale…blue.

“I’m sorry, Chisa.” Jule whispers. “It… hurts. It’s so cold.”

She holds him until it’s over. “Rest, old friend.”

Chisa rises from the spring, water and blood dripping off her skin.

A tremor rumbles through the floor.

“You’re fighting now…” she murmurs, eyes lifting toward the volcano. “Nine. Hanla.”

Guilt stirs in her gut like a bad meal. “Is that… what I feel? Even if it is… this island needs a new start.”

Her breath hitches—she almost retches. She swallows it down.

“Only three remaining.” Chisa reassures herself.

The mist thickens.

Jarathia | Jarathia City | Akarea District, The Noble Quarter

Akarea gleams in the lantern’s light, marble mansions stacked upon mansions, white facades and fox statues flanking a grand central estate. Chisa walks through the outer gate trailed by silence and rows of corpses at her back—over a hundred, dyeing the cobblestone red. The line of guards at the mansion’s door raises their rifles, then follows her thumb to gaze down at the street behind her, littered with corpses. They understand. They save themselves.

Inside, the last few guards scatter in fear. Chisa climbs the main stairs to a locked metal door. She channels power into her axe, one crushing sweep cleaves the door in two—and cracks the weapon in two halves. She catches a shard of the axe and steps through.

Jinnra and Jonath are huddled together beyond, fur collar and pimpled cheeks, pinned in place by terror.

“I thought you didn’t feel love.” Chisa says.

“Are you going to kill us?” Jinnra whispers.

“We did nothing to you!” Jonath barks. “We told Rizario that attacking you was dumb—”

Her kick caves in his gut and slams him against the wall. He spits out blood.

Chisa turns to Jinnra next. “You’re a woman too. Yet, you paid my men to do those cruel things."

“Chisa—it was all Rizario!”

“Lies upon lies.” She mutters, staring out the window. “You had direct lines to his office. You saw the papers about Sunthia. You knew. Did you also know that she’s why you didn’t need to fear the wyverns here? She was the only reason Nine cooperated with you and I!”

Her palm presses to her sternum.

“What do you mean?” Jinnra asks, voice thin.

“We’re losing sixty-five to ninety people a day because of the syndrome. Do the math.”

Jonath wipes his mouth. “What does—” He coughs. “—what does red dust syndrome have to do with those wyverns?”

“I killed three guards with red dust syndrome in this district.” Chisa says, empty and flat.

Outside, fire rises in the plaza, as if it heard her. A swirling shade builds within the blaze, materializing into a wyvern. Another follows. Then a third.

“You want us to believe—no way!” Jonath gasps.

“Red dust syndrome strips away healing.” Chisa states. “The mana decays. Everyone knows the symptoms. That girl—the ONE REASON he hasn’t broken yet—motivated him to kill these beasts day after day and carry the miasma’s cost for all of us. That girl you damaged was the only shield we had.”

Disbelief cracks across Jinnra’s face. Jonath turns feral.

“You come in here, butchering everyone and expect PITY? Kill us already, prove what a monster you are too!!”

“Why tell us now?” Jinnra asks in confusion.

Chisa’s mouth twists—her red eye gleams. “Nine gave you all the clues. You didn’t want to listen.”

She takes a pained breath. “I have to act before I end up like these two… I want to keep my humanity.”

Her hand strays to her belly, the ache that’s gotten worse.

“THEN KILL US!” Jonath roars. “DON’T JUST—”

The axe-shard spins out. Quiet. Jonath folds where he was.

A knife flashes toward Jinnra, hilt-first. “You showed real regret.” Chisa says. “Choose how you want to die.”

“The damage I did won’t heal. You killed Mercury, right? He was a good friend… In the end, I don’t know why I did it. And the worst thing is, I would do it again.” Jinnra whispers in realisation. “Sunthia will suffer… become another of those beasts. Every time we pushed the workers harder, more beasts arose. Why didn’t anyone stop it? I thought it was just a lie!”

“We tried.” Chisa says. “All the time. Did whatever damage control we could.”

Jinnra only stares.

“If you promise other countries higher mine rates and don’t deliver,” Chisa asks, stepping close, “what happens?”

“They send in troops.” Jinnra answers.

Chisa undresses her shirt. Scars crosshatch her torso—old burns climb up her back.

Jinnra flinches.

“My body was something I liked, you know?” Chisa admits.

A memory floats up, gentle as an old breeze…

“Chisa, you’re a true beauty. I think I like your hair the most. Is the white strand natural?”

Nine’s voice.

She feels heat on her cheeks, even now.

“I defended Jarathia,” she says, “I lost my innocence again and again, killing informants and foreign troops. I thought keeping you alive would buy us time. Mercury was happy with you too—you saved him from the mines and his horrific ability and he fought for YOU. I thought you would show compassion, not bribe the bandits to hurt Sunthia. Not breach the contract. You showed no heart.”

A tear slips free.

“I won’t die by your hand. Not like my friend.” Jinnra says, gaze hollowing out. “I regret some things, but I’d do the same again. And we need to break the cycle. Annexation might be best.”

“That’s selling our souls.” Chisa replies. “We become slaves. It ends just like now—only bigger. Maybe they learn about the syndrome and use it as a weapon, as warfare. It’s naive to think otherwise.”

“Chisa! Don’t—”

“I know.”

Chisa lifts the axe-shard to Jinnra’s throat. Blood beads.

“Give Sunthia,” Jinnra breathes, fingers closing around her knife, “my apologies. Mercury, here I come…”

One swift motion and it’s over.

Chisa pulls her shirt back on with slow hands and staggers toward the balcony. “It’s heavy burden, right, Jerome?”

A laugh catches in her chest reminded of a scene from the past. “Yeah, you’re right. We are the best adventurer trio…” Chisa says, nostalgic.

She jumps down into the courtyard, axe-shard humming, and carves down the three wyverns in clean arcs. Her orange eye narrows—a red pupil blooms at its center.

Outside the gate, she buckles. “It HURTS—” The cry tears out of her, raw. She covers her face with both hands. “Every step, all the pain—it never fades. It never HEALS! I can’t— I don’t WANT this anymore—”

Her fist slams into the stone. Again. Again.

“I want to live! I want to breathe sea air on the ocean! I want to set sail with you… Nine Crystal. I wanted to set sail with you, Jerome… Why am I bound to this place? Why can’t I just leave?”

She rests her forehead on the cold steps. “I’m too far gone. Why can I never be honest with you? Why can I never tell you the truth… why?”

She bites her lip, breaths rattling out, but she forces them to steady.

“One last step. One last power left.”

A fallen guard rests near her. She takes his greatsword and tests its weight.

“Master Torvea’s favorite weapon type…” She says softly, eyes feverish. “I hope the outsider is strong enough. She beat me, even though I was a prodigy, right? You will sail with her, Nine, right? After you both save us! RIGHT?”

At the district’s end, she looks back one last time. “She forced me to surrender for the first time ever—but she spared my life… Hanla.”

Chisa smiles.

“She’s like Raven. It’s worth a try. We wasted everything you built for us, Torvea. But… I was a kid back then.”

She scratches her scalp, exhales a humorless chuckle. “You’re right, Master.” she tells the quiet street. “I’ll push on.”