Chapter 128: Nobody’s Fault

  Yukari was falling.

  She was drowning in pitch-black darkness, a heavy, viscous void that pressed against her skin and filled her lungs. There was no up, no down, only an endless descent into nothingness. Time seemed to stretch and warp, minutes bleeding into hours.

  When was the first time I got scared?

  The thought floated up like a bubble in the dark water.

  I got scared of him...

  Memory fragments flickered in the gloom, distorted and jagged like broken glass.

  The ship...

  She saw the flash of steel, the spray of saltwater. The fight against the pirate captain. That was the first instance. The first eruption of the Black Flame. The first taste of a brutality that didn't belong to the boy she knew.

  That was when I first saw Raito... but not Raito.

  The darkness swirled, bringing more memories to the surface, relentless and unforgiving.

  From then on...

  Small moments. A sudden sharpness in his tone. A cold glint in his eye. Random bursts of aggression that he laughed off as jokes, but which left a chill in the air. The threats whispered to enemies and friends that sounded too real, too practiced. The murderous intent that leaked out like poison.

  The brutal display she saw that night... in that alley...

  The image of Kaden, broken and bloody, flashed before her mind's eye. The way Raito had looked at his handiwork—not with horror, but with a terrifying, cold indifference.

  Culminating to...

  The desert sun. The mechanical titans. The boy who walked into fire and ice and laughed. The boy who tore metal apart with shadows.

  I am scared.

  The thought echoed in the abyss, loud and accusing.

  I thought... Raito is gone….. Raito is no longer Raito….. No longer Kun….

  She sank deeper. The cold was numbing, seeping into her bones.

  But, despite all that... am I not being honest to myself?

  A warmth bloomed in her chest, small but persistent against the cold. She remembered the fear in his eyes when he held her broken body. The way his hands trembled. The roar of sadness that had shattered the monster's mask.

  I know... all that... was... He…. was….

  She closed her mental eyes, letting the truth wash over her.

  It's... it's not your fault…..

  "It's not your fault," she murmured finally, the words bubbling out of her lips into the silence.

  Scrape.

  The sharp, jarring sound of a chair being pulled back violently cut through the dream.

  "Lin! Lin!"

  A voice was calling out to her. Frantic. Desperate. Familiar.

  Yukari’s eyelids felt heavy, glued shut by exhaustion, but she slowly let them open.

  Light flooded her vision—harsh, artificial whiteness that made her wince. She blinked rapidly, waiting for the blur to resolve into shapes.

  An unfamiliar white ceiling stared back at her. It wasn't the rough stone of the palace, nor the canvas of a tent. It was smooth, sterile, and blindingly clean.

  The air smelled sharp—a pungent mix of strong antiseptics and bitter medicinal herbs that stung her nose and coated her tongue.

  "Where... am I?" she murmured weakly, her throat feeling like it was lined with sandpaper.

  She looked around, her eyesight still adjusting to the sterile brightness. She was lying in a narrow bed with stiff sheets.

  To her left was a small wood desk cluttered with bottles of medicine, rolls of fresh bandages, and bowls of crushed herbs.

  And to her right...

  Her eyes widened. Her heart skipped a beat, then hammered against her broken ribs.

  Three objects sat on a small wooden stool. Three objects that were far too familiar to her.

  The first was a crimson sword in its scabbard, resting against the wall. Koenka. Its hilt looked cold and abandoned.

  Next to it lay a silver necklace, the chain pooled around a sturdy, round locket.

  And lastly... a simple silver ring. The exact twin of the one she wore on her own finger.

  "Raito!"

  She screamed his name, the sound raw and terrified.

  She lashed out, thrashing against the sheets, trying to throw them off. The pain in her body was forgotten, eclipsed by a far greater agony.

  "Raito!" she screamed once more, her voice cracking. "Raito!"

  Hands grabbed her shoulders, firm and unyielding.

  "Calm down! Calm down, Lin!"

  A voice cut through her panic, familiar and commanding, yet hoarse. The hands gripped her tightly, pinning her to the mattress not with violence, but with a desperate need to keep her from hurting herself.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  It was her stepmother, Zhu. Her face was drawn, her eyes shadowed with exhaustion, but her grip was steady.

  "Let me go! Let me go!"

  Yukari continued to thrash around, her body a live wire of desperation. She ignored the screaming protests of her own flesh, even as blood began to pool underneath the fresh bandages on her torso, staining the white sheets crimson.

  "Where is he?! Where is Raito?!" she screamed, tears streaming down her face.

  "Raito... he..." Zhu tried to speak, but her voice faltered, her gaze flickering away.

  "He is gone."

  A deep, booming voice filled the small room, heavy with sorrow.

  Bob stood in the doorway, a basket of fruits in his hands. He looked older, his shoulders slumped under an invisible weight.

  "He is gone, Yukari. I'm sorry," he said, his eyes filled with a profound sadness.

  "No... no, no, no, no! That is a lie!" Yukari cried, her struggles finally ceasing as the energy left her body. "Where is he? I want to see him! I want him!"

  "He…. Left," Bob repeated gently, walking over and placing the basket on the table with a soft thud.

  "All we found next to you..." Zhu whispered, releasing her grip on Yukari's shoulders but keeping a comforting hand on her arm. "...were the necklace and the ring."

  Yukari stared at the objects on the stool. The silver band. The locket. The pieces of him he had discarded.

  "Raito..." she sobbed, a broken, keening sound.

  She tried to reach out. She tried to grab the ring, to clutch it to her chest and feel even a ghost of his warmth.

  She strained. She focused.

  Nothing happened.

  Another reality hit her like a physical blow.

  Her arms... they wouldn't move.

  "Urgh..."

  She grunted, sweat beading on her forehead as she tried again. Move. Just reach out. Grab it.

  They hung limp at her sides, heavy and unresponsive as dead wood.

  Panic, colder than the ice she wielded, flooded her veins. She looked down at her arms. They were heavily bandaged from shoulder to fingertips. But beneath the white gauze, she could see dark, jagged shapes. Black marks, like veins of ink.

  She looked up. She looked at Bob. She looked at Zhu.

  Neither of them would meet her gaze. Bob stared at the floor. Zhu stared at the wall.

  The memory crashed into her mind. The desert. The roar. Her hands on his face. The black flame tendrils wrapping around her arms, eating away at her flesh, consuming muscle and nerve.

  "What happened?" she asked quietly, the fight draining out of her completely.

  Tears began to fall onto her sheets, dark spots blooming on the fabric.

  "My arms..." she whispered. "Why can't I feel them?"

  "Please, calm down. For now," Zhu pleaded, her voice trembling slightly. "I'll tell you everything."

  "Calm down?" Yukari spat the words, taking the suggestion as a personal insult. "Raito is gone! I can't feel my arms! I need to go!"

  She tried to stand up, lurching forward, but her body betrayed her.

  Bob wouldn't let her fall, nor would he let her leave. Not this time. He put a massive hand on her shoulder, not pinning her, but grounding her. He was forcing her to stop before she tore her stitches or made her condition worse.

  "Please," Bob said, looking at Zhu, gesturing to her to start.

  Zhu nodded, taking a deep breath to steady herself.

  "After everything..." she began, her gaze distant. "The Black Flame... it disappeared without a trace. Just poof. No residue, no lingering heat. Just the aftermath of the destruction."

  She looked at Yukari, her eyes wet. "We... we ran towards you. But just like I said... Raito... he was already gone. All that was left were... those." She gestured to the items on the stool.

  "You... you were in a critical state," Zhu continued, her voice hoarse, fighting back a wave of grief. "Your breathing was shallow. Your bones were broken. Your flesh was damaged beyond what first aid could do. We... I... I had no choice."

  "We had to bring you back to Kah-Kamun first," Bob interjected softly. "Your life was at stake, Yukari. You... you were this close." He held up his thumb and forefinger, barely a millimeter apart.

  "I had Tama run non-stop," Bob said, wiping his eyes. "We pushed her to the limit to bring you here, to the royal infirmary. The healers... they worked non-stop for three days to stabilize you."

  "They managed to patch you up," Zhu said. "The worst is behind us. telling us that what was left was... to wait for you to wake up."

  She paused. The silence in the room grew heavy, suffocating.

  "However," Zhu whispered. "The only thing they couldn't heal..."

  "Was my arms," Yukari finished the sentence, her voice flat.

  Zhu nodded slowly. "That kind of injury... none of the healers had ever seen it. It’s not just a burn or a severed nerve. It’s like the very existence of your arms has been ripped apart from you."

  "It may heal naturally. Or..." Zhu tried to speak, but the words stuck in her throat.

  "Or what?" Yukari asked, her eyes sharp.

  "Say it," she demanded.

  Zhu gulped. "Or you may be a cripple. Those arms may never move again."

  The truth hung in the air, heavy and irrevocable.

  "Is that so?" Yukari said.

  She scoffed. A bitter, broken sound. "Just that?"

  "Yukari?" Bob asked, concerned by her reaction.

  "All I'm hearing," Yukari said, staring at the ceiling to stop the tears, "is that nobody even tried to pursue Raito."

  She looked at them, her eyes burning with accusation. "He is left out there. In the desert. Alone."

  She struggled again, ignoring Bob's hand. She leaned over the side of the bed, her face hovering inches from the stool.

  "If my arms won't work..." she gritted her teeth.

  She opened her mouth, straining her neck, trying to pick up Raito's silver ring using her teeth.

  "Stop!"

  Zhu ordered, moving faster than she had in the desert. She grabbed Yukari by the shoulders and pulled her back onto the pillows, away from the stool.

  "He did this to you," Zhu said, her voice shaking with a mix of anger and grief.

  "Yeah, and?" Yukari asked, her eyes wild.

  "He is gone, Lin. He is a monster now. He is corrupted," Zhu insisted, trying to make her see reason. "That thing out there is not the boy you married."

  "He is not!" Yukari rejected the notion violently. "He is scared! He is desperate! He is just looking for a way out! I see it! I was there! He was screaming for someone to bring him back!"

  She struggled against Zhu’s grip. "This is nonsense! I need to go!"

  Yukari tried to use her core to force her body to move, to stand back up.

  "This is my fault. I need to find him," Yukari said once more, her voice trembling.

  "No, this is my fault," Bob interrupted, stepping forward. His voice was filled with a heavy, crushing guilt. "I took him there. Instead of grounding him like I was supposed to, I drove him there myself."

  "And none of this would have happened if I never met him," Yukari said, staring at nothing. "Raito was living a peaceful life. But all he ever does after he met me... is fight. And get hurt."

  Tears streamed down her face, hot and stinging. "If only I never met him, he would have never picked up a sword. He would have never been tortured, beaten. I was the source of his misfortune. It always was. All because I decided to be selfish that day... because I decided to love him."

  She looked at Zhu, her eyes empty. "All he ever wanted was to live a steady, honest life. Where no one would bother him. And I ruined it for him. I need to apologize to him. I... I... I should have died. Then he would be happy."

  SLAP.

  The sound was sharp and shocking in the small room. Yukari’s head snapped to the side. The sting on her cheek was the only thing she could feel above the neck.

  "Fool! Never utter those words again. I almost lost you!"

  Zhu shouted, and finally, the General broke. Her composure shattered. Tears, hot and fast, streamed down her face.

  "I am your stepmother," Zhu sobbed, her voice cracking. "I made a promise to your mother and father... to raise you, to protect you. And I almost failed. I almost lost you. Don’t you dare wish that you die. Lei, Your mother would be hurt by those words."

  She leaned forward, collapsing onto the side of the bed. She reached out and grabbed Yukari’s limp fingers, cupping them in her own trembling hands.

  "Please stay for now," Zhu pleaded, her forehead resting against Yukari’s hand. "Heal. That is all I ask for."

  "For me too, please," Bob said from the doorway. The giant man bowed his head deeply, pleading as someone who had already experienced too much loss to bear another.

  Yukari lay there, stunned. She saw her stepmother’s hands cupping hers. She saw the tightness of the grip, the way Zhu’s knuckles were white.

  Yet, she couldn't feel anything.

  Not warmth. Not pressure. Not even the prickle of numbness. It was as if her hands belonged to a statue.

  She understood they cared about her. She knew they loved her. But her internal emotions were at war. A storm brewed deep within her chest, a hurricane of grief, loyalty, and frustration that showed no sign of clearing.

  She cried.

  She cried so hard her chest heaved and her throat burned. She cried for minutes that stretched into hours, mourning her mobility, her husband, and the unfairness of it all.

  Eventually, exhaustion claimed her. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she fell asleep once more, the tears drying on her cheeks.

  The room fell silent. no rustle of fabric. Only the steady rhythm of her breathing remained.

  Only one thing moved in the darkness.

  On her limp left hand, the Sakura-shaped ring—her Core—began to pulse.

  Blink. Blink. Blink.