Yuuta woke to a world that felt wrong.
His eyes opened slowly, painfully, each blink a struggle against gravity. The ceiling above him swam in and out of focus. His breath came in heavy, ragged gasps that didn't seem to give his lungs enough air no matter how deeply he inhaled.
He tried to sit up.
Failed.
His body simply refused to cooperate, as if someone had drained every ounce of strength while he slept. His muscles screamed. His head pounded. His skin burned with a heat that had nothing to do with the room temperature.
Fever, he thought groggily. Great. Just great.
He reached for his phone on the nightstand. The cheap device felt heavy in his hand, heavier than it should. He fumbled with the screen, opened the camera, and looked at his reflection.
Red eyes stared back at him.
Not his natural crimson, that was normal, hidden beneath contacts. These were different. Bloodshot. Inflamed. The eyes of someone whose body was fighting a war it couldn't win.
He coughed.
The sound rattled in his chest.
I can't go to college like this. I'll infect half the class.
He scrolled through his contacts and pressed call.
The phone rang once. Twice. Three times.
"John Bosco Culinary College, Valencia speaking. How may I help you?"
Yuuta cleared his throat, trying to make his voice sound less like death warmed over.
"Hello, Ma'am. This is Yuuta Konuari from third year Culinary, Class D."
"Yes, Yuuta. What can I do for you?"
"I... I can't make it to class today. I've caught a viral fever. Really bad."
He coughed again, unable to stop it.
There was a pause on the other end. When Valencia spoke again, her voice had softened.
"I understand, Yuuta. I'll pass the message to your class incharge. Take rest and recover. And call me if you need any help, medical assistance, anything."
"Thank you, Ma'am. I appreciate that. I'll take care of myself."
"Goodbye, Yuuta. Feel better soon."
"Bye."
He ended the call and let the phone fall onto the bed.
For a long moment, he just lay there, staring at the ceiling, feeling his body burn and ache and fail. It would be so easy to close his eyes. So easy to sleep. So easy to just... stop.
But Elena's face flashed through his mind.
And Erza's.
They'll be hungry when they wake up. I have to make breakfast.
He couldn't let them down.
Couldn't let them starve because he was weak.
With a groan that came from somewhere deep, Yuuta pushed himself up. His vision swam. His legs wobbled. But he stood. He stood.
He walked to his desk on legs that felt like jelly and opened the drawer. Medical mask, he put it on. Disposable gloves, he pulled them over his shaking hands.
"Perfect," he whispered, his voice muffled by the mask. "Now let's make them breakfast."
He shuffled toward the bedroom door.
Opened it.
And stopped.
The living room was peaceful. Golden morning light streamed through the windows, painting everything in warm tones. Erza lay on the sofa, her romance novel still open on her chest, her silver hair spilling over the edge like liquid moonlight. Elena was on the floor, surrounded by dinosaur books, her tiny body curled into a ball, stickers still plastered across her cheeks.
They were beautiful.
They were his.
Yuuta smiled behind his mask.
"They'll be hungry when they wake up," he murmured. "I'll make them something good. Something healthy. Something that won't make them sick."
He turned toward the kitchen.
Took one step.
Then another.
The world tilted.
His knees buckled.
He reached for the counter, missed, and felt the floor rush up to meet him. The impact was distant, muffled, like it was happening to someone else. The tiles were cold against his cheek. The ceiling spun above him.
Just... rest, he thought. Just for a moment. Then I'll get up and cook.
His eyes closed.
And the kitchen fell silent.
Half an hour passed.
The sun climbed higher.
Birds sang outside the window.
And in the living room, Erza stirred.
Her eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the morning light. The romance novel had slipped from her chest and now lay on the floor, pages open to a chapter about confessions and first kisses. She blinked at it, then away, unwilling to examine why she'd been reading it in the first place.
She stretched.
Her gaze fell on Elena.
Still on the floor. Still surrounded by dinosaurs. Still fast asleep.
Erza rose silently, crossed to her daughter, and lifted her with the effortless grace of someone who had carried far heavier burdens. Elena murmured something about T-Rex but didn't wake. Erza placed her gently on the sofa, arranging a blanket over her small form.
Then she walked to the bathroom.
The morning routine had become familiar now, a ritual she'd learned from the children's habit books Yuuta used to teach Elena. Wash face. Brush teeth. Prepare for the day.
She created her ice brush with a thought, added toothpaste, and began to brush. The cold was pleasant against her teeth, the minty freshness a small luxury in this world of strange human customs.
Where is he?
The thought came unbidden.
Yuuta usually woke Elena. Usually dressed her. Usually had breakfast started by now.
But the apartment was quiet.
Too quiet.
She finished her brushing, dismissed the ice, and walked toward the bedroom.
The door was open.
The bed was empty.
But his bag was still there. His phone on the nightstand. His shoes by the door.
He hasn't left.
Erza's eyes narrowed.
Then where is this idiot mortal?
Erza turned away from the bedroom, her mind already cataloging the possibilities. Yuuta's belongings were still here. His bag. His phone. His shoes, the worn sneakers he'd kicked off last night, still lying in a heap by the door. He hadn't left for college. He hadn't gone anywhere voluntarily.
Then where is he?
The thought coiled through her chest like smoke. Uncomfortable. Unwelcome. She had no reason to care where that disgusting mortal wandered off to. He was a nuisance. An embarrassment. A weak, pathetic human who happened to share blood with her daughter. She didn't care. She wouldn't care.
And yet.
Her feet carried her toward the living room, toward the window, toward the morning light spilling through the cheap curtains. She told herself she was looking for clues. For evidence. For anything that might explain his disappearance.
She was lying.
She didn't know it yet. But the universe had a way of exposing lies.
Prickle.
Erza froze.
The sensation hit her like ice water, not her own magic, but something else. Something older. The prickling of eyes on her back. The weight of a gaze that did not belong to this world. Her senses expanded instantly. Centuries of survival instinct roared to life before conscious thought could catch up. Her body shifted. Her shoulders squared. Her eyes, violet and terrible, snapped toward the window.
Toward the tower in the distance.
Too far for human eyes to see anything clearly. A speck against the morning sky, indistinguishable from a hundred other buildings in this sprawling, noisy city. But something was there. Someone.
Watching.
"Annoying," she murmured.
The word escaped her lips like frost from a glacier. Quiet. Cold. The voice of something that had ended countless lives and felt nothing about any of them. Her hand rose. Magic gathered in her palm, not the gentle healing she'd used on Yuuta's wounds last night, not the careful restraint she'd shown when she wrapped that ice chain around his throat. This was different. This was lethal.
The air around her hand grew cold. Then colder. Then absolute. Frost formed on the windowpane, spreading outward in crystalline fractals. Ice crystals danced in the air, spinning, sharpening, waiting.
"Frozen Death Bite."
She flicked her wrist.
And destruction flew.
The spell took shape as it traveled. What left her hand was formless, a burst of magic, a surge of will. But distance gave it shape. Intent gave it form. By the time it crossed half the city, it had become something terrible.
A dragon of ice. Massive. Unstoppable. Beautiful.
Its wings spanned the gap between buildings. Its jaws opened wide enough to swallow a car. Its claws extended, each one the length of a sword, each one carrying the force of a falling star. It crossed the distance between Erza's apartment and that distant tower in less than a heartbeat, a blur of white death against the morning sky.
Impact.
BOOM.
The sound reached her apartment a full second later, a thunderous crack that shook her windows, rattled the dishes in the kitchen, sent birds scattering from nearby rooftops in panicked clouds. The rooftop exploded. Ice spread across every surface in an instant. Water tanks froze solid, then burst from the expansion. Ventilation systems shattered. Concrete cracked. The dragon tore through metal and stone like they were made of paper, leaving nothing but frost and ruin in its wake.
Then the dragon shattered. Not died. Shattered.
Millions of pieces of ice exploded outward, each one a tiny blade, each one carrying enough force to kill. They rained down across the rooftop, across the surrounding streets, across the city below. The water tank, what remained of it, burst completely. Gallons of water flooded the rooftop, mixing with ice and blood and things that would never be identified.
Erza watched for a moment longer. Her eyes narrowed. She saw nothing. Just destruction. Just the aftermath of her own power.
"Probably nothing," she said aloud, her voice flat. "Just some human with binoculars. Or a pervert. This world is full of them."
She turned away. Continued her search for Yuuta.
On that distant rooftop, chaos reigned.
Or rather, chaos had reigned. Now there was only silence.
The sniper's body lay scattered across the rooftop in pieces too small to recognize. The ice dragon had torn through him like paper, freezing and shattering simultaneously, not as separate actions but as one seamless process. One moment he was whole. The next, he was nothing.
His eyes, golden, inhuman, the eyes of something that had never been fully human, had widened in the instant before death. He'd seen the dragon coming. Felt the cold. Known, with absolute certainty, that he was about to die. He hadn't had time to scream.
Now his body was indistinguishable from the debris. Frozen blood. Shattered bone. Tissue scattered across concrete like red snow.
The water tank's collapse had done the rest. Gallons of water flooded the rooftop, washing away what remained, carrying pieces of him down drainpipes and gutters and into the city's hidden veins.
By the time the sun finished rising, there would be no evidence. No body. No blood. No proof that anyone had ever been there at all. No trace of the lower-half demon who had been watching that apartment for hours, his orders simple: observe, report, and if the opportunity arose, eliminate.
He'd been so focused on his target. Never saw the spell coming. Never felt the ice. Never knew what killed him.
But someone else had been watching.
From further away. From somewhere safe.
Allen Vaelorith stood in the shadows of another building, his golden eyes fixed on the frozen rooftop, his expression unreadable.
Not golden like Erza's violet, he thought. Not golden like human warmth. Golden like a predator's. Golden like something that had never known mercy.
He'd watched the entire exchange through a high-powered scope, not technological, but magical. A lens that bent light across impossible distances, that pierced walls and illusions and everything else mortals used to hide. He'd seen the sniper take position. Seen him wait. Seen him die.
"Subharshi," Allen murmured. "Subharshi."
The name rolled off his tongue like a prayer. Like a curse. Like something he'd been waiting to say for a very long time.
He had hoped. Planned. Calculated.
The sniper had been expensive. Not in money, money meant nothing to someone like Allen. He had forged it using his own blood, half human and half demon. It was powerful enough to withstand human technology… yet in the end, it was still defeated by a spell.
"Just as I thought," he continued, more to himself than to any audience. "Getting the Children of Chaos blood is impossible with that Nova Being involved."
He should have been frustrated. Should have been angry. Should have thrown something, broken something, killed something in his rage.
Instead, he smiled.
"But how long can you protect him, High Elf?"
His smile widened. Sharp. Predatory. Hungry.
"How long before your attention slips? Before you're distracted? Before he's alone?"
He turned. Prepared to leave. The shadows gathered around him like old friends, like lovers, like something that had been waiting for him to return.
"I shall taste his blood," Allen whispered, his voice deeper now older, as if something beneath him was speaking through him. His golden eyes burned in the dark. "By this vow, I will become a Follower of Zani… and when that ascension is complete, not even the heavens will stand in my path."
The shadows swallowed him.
He was gone.
Leaving only the frozen, shattered, empty rooftop behind.
In her apartment, Erza continued her search.
She checked the bathroom. The hall. The closet. Nothing.
Yuuta had vanished.
He wouldn't just leave, she thought. Not without his shoes. Not without his phone. Not without.
She stopped.
Her hand touched her chest. Her heart was beating faster than it should.
Why do I care?
She didn't have an answer. But as she stood in the middle of that cramped apartment, surrounded by the evidence of a mortal's life, the crooked posters, the untouched cup noodles, the secondhand furniture, she felt something she hadn't felt in centuries.
Fear.
Not for herself.
For him.
"Where are you, you disgusting mortal?" she whispered.
____________________
Erza finally reached the kitchen.
She'd checked everywhere else, the hall, the balcony, the bedroom, even the bathroom twice. The only place left was the small kitchen where Yuuta spent so much of his time creating meals that made her heart do strange things.
She pushed open the door.
And froze.
Yuuta lay on the floor.
Curled on his side, his body limp, his face slack. He wasn't moving. Wasn't responding. Was just... lying there on the cold tiles like a discarded ragdoll.
For a moment, just a moment, Erza's heart stopped.
Then her brain caught up.
He's sleeping. The idiot is SLEEPING on the kitchen floor like some kind of animal.
Relief flooded through her, followed immediately by irritation.
She walked over.
Kicked him.
Not hard, by her standards, anyway.
"Wake up, you dumbass idiot mortal! This is not a place to sleep!"
He didn't move.
She kicked again.
Gently.
(Her gentle kick was still enough to send a soccer ball flying into the goal from midfield, but she was trying.)
"You lazy monkey! Wake up already!"
Yuuta stirred.
His eyes fluttered.
He tried to sit up, and immediately began coughing.
Not a normal cough. Not the kind that clears the throat and fades. A deep, wracking, wrong cough that seemed to come from somewhere deep in his chest.
Erza blinked.
What is this? Did he eat something that got stuck?
She didn't understand.
In all her centuries of existence, in all her battles and travels and experiences, she had never encountered anything like this. Dragons didn't get sick. Their bodies were too strong, too resilient, too perfect to be affected by such things. Even if a dragon somehow contracted an illness, they had secret techniques, elder knowledge passed down through generations, to cure themselves instantly.
Fever was foreign to her.
Sickness was incomprehensible.
This weak, coughing, struggling human made no sense.
Yuuta sat up fully.
His eyes were distant, unfocused. His face was pale beneath the flush of fever. Sweat beaded on his forehead. He looked at Erza, or tried to, but his gaze kept slipping away, unable to hold.
"I'm sorry, Erza." His voice was hoarse, barely audible. "I think I"
He coughed again.
Hacked.
Wheezed.
Erza's eyes narrowed.
Something is stuck. He ate something bad. That's the only explanation.
She reached out.
Slapped his back.
Hard.
Trying to dislodge whatever was blocking his throat.
The coughing got worse.
His eyes, those strange, crimson eyes that he always hid behind contacts, began to glow. Faintly at first, then brighter. A soft, pulsing light that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside him.
Erza stopped.
What is this?
She didn't understand.
Couldn't understand.
This wasn't choking. This was something else.
"PAPA!"
Elena's voice cut through the confusion.
She ran into the kitchen, her dinosaur book forgotten, her small face twisted with worry. She'd heard the coughing. Heard her mother's voice. Heard something wrong.
She threw her arms around Yuuta.
Hugged him tight.
And immediately recoiled.
"Mama!" She looked up at Erza, confusion in her violet eyes. "Papa is like hot fire!"
Erza stared at her daughter.
Hot fire?
What does that mean?
Finally, finally, she reached out and touched Yuuta's neck.
His skin burned against her fingers.
Not warm. Not feverish by human standards. Hot. Unnaturally, impossibly hot. Like he'd been standing in a furnace. Like his body was trying to cook itself from the inside.
Erza's eyes widened.
What is this?
Is this... is this normal for humans?
Do they just... heat up and stop working?
She didn't know.
Had never known.
In her world, beings didn't get sick. They fought. They healed. They died in battle or lived forever. There was no in-between. No slow decline. No mysterious internal fires.
Yuuta looked up at her.
His eyes, glowing, strange, beautiful, met hers.
"I'm sorry," he whispered again. "I'll be fine. Just... give me a minute."
Then his eyes closed.
And he slumped against her.
Erza's mind raced.
She didn't understand what was happening to Yuuta. In all her centuries, she had never encountered anything like this, a being whose body simply... stopped working. Whose skin burned with an internal fire she couldn't extinguish. Whose breath came in ragged gasps that seemed to cost him more strength than he had.
But she was a Dragon Queen.
She was not helpless.
If he was burning, she would cool him.
If he was weak, she would support him.
If he was dying
She refused to finish that thought.
With strength that made his human body feel like nothing, she lifted Yuuta by the shoulder and carried him to the hall. He hung limply in her grip, his eyes half-closed, his breath coming in shallow gasps that didn't seem to give him enough air.
She laid him on the floor.
Raised her hand.
And created.
Ice formed beneath him, not a thin layer, but a proper bed. Six feet long, wide enough for his entire body, cold enough to combat whatever fire burned inside him. It rose from nothing, shaped by her will, solid and smooth and absolutely freezing.
She laid him on it gently.
The effect was immediate.
Yuuta's eyes flew open.
His body jerked.
He sat up, or tried to, sputtering and gasping and flailing like a fish out of water.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" His voice cracked. "Why am I on ICE?! This is, this is, I can't breathe, it's so COLD"
Erza grabbed his shoulders.
Pushed him back down.
"Lie still, idiot." Her voice was sharp with something that might have been fear. "Your body is burning. You need to cool down."
"Cool down?! I'll DIE at this rate! Let me GO!"
He struggled against her grip.
Weakly.
Pathetically.
But he struggled.
Erza's eyes narrowed.
"Elena." She didn't look away from Yuuta. "Bring me rope."
Elena's eyes went wide.
"Rope, Mama?"
"Rope. Now."
The little girl ran.
Bare feet pattering against the floor. Tiny hands grabbing the first rope she could find, leftover from something Yuuta had bought months ago, coiled in a corner, waiting for a purpose it had never found.
She ran back.
Held it up.
"Here, Mama!"
Yuuta saw the rope.
Saw Erza's expression.
Saw his death approaching.
"Oh God," he whispered, his feverish eyes fixed on the ceiling. "Please don't forsake me. Please don't let me die tied to an ice bed by a dragon queen who doesn't understand human illness."
Erza ignored his prayer.
She grabbed the rope.
And got to work.
The chaos in the apartment reached a fever pitch.
Yuuta's muffled cries echoed off the walls, desperate and wordless, as he struggled against the ropes that held him to the ice bed. Erza stood over him, arms crossed, her expression a mixture of frustration and determination. Elena darted back and forth, holding a fan she'd found somewhere, waving it desperately at her father's burning face.
"Stay still, idiot mortal!" Erza commanded as Yuuta thrashed. "Your fire will not defeat my ice!"
"Mmph! MMMMMPH!"
"Papa, please be cool!" Elena wailed, fanning with all her tiny might. "Please be cool for Elena!"
The door stood open.
Forgotten.
Unlocked.
Because in Erza's mind, no creature in this world could possibly make her bleed, so why would she need to lock anything?
Miss Kano had been enjoying her morning tea when the sounds began.
At first, she thought nothing of it. The Konuari apartment was always a source of strange noises, thumps and crashes and the occasional scream. But this was different. This was desperate. And beneath the muffled cries, she could hear a child weeping.
She set down her cup.
Walked to their door.
Knocked.
Nothing.
Knocked again.
Still nothing.
She tried the handle.
It turned.
The door swung open.
"Hello?!" she called, stepping inside. "Is everything"
She stopped.
Her eyes took in the scene before her, and for a long moment, her brain refused to process what she was seeing.
Yuuta lay on a massive bed of ice, actual ice, six feet long and gleaming cold, tied down with ropes at his wrists and ankles. A cloth was gagged around his mouth, muffling his desperate cries. His face was flushed crimson, his eyes wild with fever and fear and the absolute agony of a man whose body was burning while lying on frozen death.
Erza stood over him, rope in hand, her silver hair wild, her expression the cold focus of a warrior in battle.
Elena ran back and forth with a fan, her tiny face streaked with tears, her voice rising in desperate pleas.
"Papa, please be cool! Please, Papa!"
Miss Kano blinked.
Then blinked again.
"What," she said loudly, "is going on here?!"
Erza and Elena froze.
Three sets of eyes turned toward her.
Yuuta's were the most desperate, red-rimmed, fever-bright, begging for rescue with every fiber of his being.
Erza's narrowed with instant hostility.
"You pathetic human." Her voice was ice. "How dare you enter my territory without permission?"
Miss Kano ignored her.
She walked forward, her eyes fixed on Yuuta's flushed face, on the sweat pouring down his temples, on the way his entire body trembled against the ice.
"What is happening?" she demanded. "Why is he tied up? Why is he on ICE?"
Elena ran to her.
The little girl's face was a masterpiece of tragic cuteness, tears streaming, nose running, lower lip trembling with enough force to break any heart.
"Human Auntie!" she wailed. "Papa is burning hot! Mama is trying to help, but Papa won't be cool! See, Human Auntie? Papa is still hot!"
She pointed at Yuuta.
Her expression was so pure, so desperate, so utterly convinced that her mother was doing the right thing
It broke every scale of cuteness ever invented.
Miss Kano's heart clenched.
She stepped forward.
Pressed her hand to Yuuta's forehead.
And her face went pale.
The heat radiating from him was incredible. This wasn't just a fever. This was a full-blown, dangerous, potentially life-threatening temperature. And Erza's solution had been to put him on ICE.
"You're killing him," Miss Kano breathed.
Erza's eyes widened.
"What?"
"You're KILLING him!" Miss Kano grabbed the cloth gag and yanked it free. Yuuta gasped, sucking in air like a drowning man finally breaking the surface. "This is a fever! A HIGH fever! And you put him on ICE?!"
Erza stared at her.
Confusion flickered across her cold features.
"His body burns," she said slowly, as if explaining basic logic to a child. "Ice cools burning. That is... that is reasonable."
"Reasonable?!" Miss Kano's voice shot up, sharp and incredulous, the calm she usually carried slipping completely. Her hands were already at work, untying the ropes with quick, practiced movements born from urgency rather than patience. "He has an infection a serious one! His body is fighting something, and this fever is a symptom of that struggle. And you're covering him in ice?"
Her fingers tightened briefly as she pulled the last knot free, her frustration spilling into every word. "That's not helping him it's making it worse."
Erza's hand tightened around the rope, her brows drawing together in clear confusion.
"Infection?" she repeated, the word unfamiliar, almost foreign. "What are you talking about?"
"Are you serious right now?!" Miss Kano snapped, not even looking at her as she worked the knots loose from Yuuta's wrists, her fingers moving faster with each second. "He's burning up, his body's fighting something! Has he been coughing? Sneezing? Complaining about pain? Looking like he's about to pass out?"
Erza blinked.
"He... coughed. But I thought he was choking on food."
"He has a COLD and your solution was ICE?!"
"Fire needs ICE. That is basic"
"That is NOT how THINGS WORK!"
Miss Kano freed the last rope and helped Yuuta sit up. He slumped against her immediately, barely conscious, his body trembling with cold and heat and exhaustion all at once. His breath came in ragged gasps that didn't seem to give him enough air.
"When we get sick," Miss Kano continued, her voice softening slightly now that Yuuta was free, though the urgency still lingered beneath it, "we need warmth… proper rest… something to help the body recover. Not this."
She gestured sharply toward the ice beneath him, frustration slipping back into her tone. "Definitely not an ice bed."
Erza stood frozen.
The rope dangled from her hand.
Her face, her cold, controlled, centuries-perfected face, was blank with something she hadn't felt in a long time.
Confusion.
Guilt.
Fear.
"Fever," she repeated slowly. "Cold. These are... different? what are these things"
Miss Kano stared at her.
Longer than was comfortable.
Longer than was safe.
"You," she said finally, "are an idiot. A complete, absolute, dangerous idiot. If I'd come five minutes later, he might have died from hypothermia while you tried to cure him."
Erza's hand tightened on the rope.
"I was helping this mortal"
"You were KILLING him."
Silence fell.
Heavy.
Absolute.
Broken only by Yuuta's ragged breathing.
Elena tugged at Miss Kano's sleeve.
Her tiny face was still wet with tears, her lower lip still trembling, her RED eyes, so like her Father's, but so much softer, looking up with desperate hope.
"Human Auntie," she said, her voice wobbling, "is Papa going to be okay? Mama was trying to help. Please don't be angry at Mama."
Miss Kano looked down at her.
At this impossibly cute, impossibly earnest, impossibly perfect little girl.
Her heart melted.
"It's okay, sweetheart," she said softly. "I'm not angry. But we need to help your papa the right way."
She looked at Erza.
At the Dragon Queen who stood frozen, rope in hand, her expression a battlefield of emotions she didn't understand.
"You," Miss Kano said, "need to learn about How to be wife Properly. About how your husband bodies work. About sickness and health and what he actually need, when he was sick."
Erza said nothing.
But she didn't argue.
And somewhere, deep in her ancient heart, something shifted.
Erza stood frozen in the corner of the room, watching Miss Kano work.
A strange feeling crawled through her chest.
She didn't recognize it at first, hadn't felt it in centuries, if ever. But as she watched the older woman gently remove Yuuta's gag and carefully assess his condition, the feeling grew stronger.
He almost died.
The thought echoed in her mind.
Because of me.
I almost killed him.
Trying to help.
Trying to save him.
I almost ended him.
Why did that thought hurt so much? Why did her chest ache at the idea of his life slipping away? She had planned to kill him herself. Had threatened it dozens of times. Had imagined the satisfaction of ending his pathetic existence.
But now
Now the thought of him dying made her want to destroy something.
What is this feeling?
Why do I care?
Why does guilt exist inside me?
She didn't understand.
Couldn't understand.
Had never needed to understand.
But it was there.
Growing.
Unbearable.
Miss Kano worked quickly, efficiently, her hands moving with the practiced ease of someone who had dealt with sick children before.
"Where the hell did you find this ice bed?" she demanded, glancing at Erza. "This thing is huge! How did you even get it in here?"
Erza crossed her arms.
Looked away.
Said nothing.
Miss Kano sighed.
"Fine. Keep your secrets." She grabbed a towel and began gently rubbing Yuuta's head, drying the moisture that had accumulated from the melting ice. "But next time, ask for help before you try to freeze your husband to death."
Yuuta's eyes fluttered open.
His voice was weak, barely above a whisper.
"Thank you... Miss Kano... for saving me..."
"Don't speak, Yuuta." Miss Kano's voice softened. "You'll lose strength. Just rest."
Erza watched.
Her arms tightened across her chest.
Her jaw clenched.
Why is she touching him so gently?
Why is he looking at her with gratitude?
Why does this make me want to
She didn't finish the thought.
Didn't want to.
Miss Kano examined Yuuta's wet clothes.
"We need to get these off you." She spoke matter-of-factly, like she was discussing the weather. "You're soaked from the ice melt. If we don't dry you properly, you'll get even sicker."
She reached for his shirt.
"Remove your shirt and pants. I'll wipe you down and find dry clothes."
Yuuta's fever-flushed face somehow managed to turn even redder.
"I, what, Miss Kano"
"Don't be shy, boy. I changed your diapers when you were a baby at the orphanage with Sister Mary. This is nothing new."
"But"
"Shirt. Pants. Now."
Erza's eyes went wide.
"WHAT?!"
The word exploded from her.
Her face, her cold, controlled, queenly face, turned crimson. Her voice trembled with something that sounded almost like panic.
"What is this shameless thing you're suggesting?!" She pointed at Miss Kano, her hand shaking. "Remove his shirt and pants?! In front of YOU?!"
Miss Kano blinked, clearly taken aback.
"He's soaked. He needs to be dried, this is basic care."
"Basic care?!" Erza's voice rose sharply, her eyes narrowing with sudden intensity. "You expect to handle him so freely? To touch him, to..."
She couldn't finish.
Couldn't form the words.
Couldn't process the storm of emotions raging inside her.
Miss Kano stared at her for a long moment.
Then, slowly, a smile spread across her face.
"Oh," she said. "I see."
"See WHAT?!"
"You're jealous."
Erza's mouth opened.
Closed.
Opened again.
Nothing came out.
Miss Kano's smile widened.
"You're jealous at the thought of another woman seeing your husband without clothes."
"I am NOT, he is NOT my, we are NOT"
"You're bright red, dear."
Erza's hand flew to her cheek.
It was burning.
Traitor.
Miss Kano laughed softly.
"Don't worry," Miss Kano said, her tone flattening with mild annoyance. "I have no interest in seeing this idiot naked. I raised him...he's like a son to me."
She tossed the towel toward Erza without another glance.
"You do it," she added, already stepping back. "Dry him, get him into something warm, and put him to bed properly."
Her eyes flicked once toward the ice beneath him, her expression tightening.
"And no ice this time."
Erza caught the towel.
Stared at it.
Stared at Yuuta.
Stared at the towel again.
"I... I have to...?"
"He's your husband," Miss Kano said, her tone steady but firm. "That makes him your responsibility."
She moved toward the door at a measured pace, not rushing this time, as if choosing her words carefully instead of letting them spill out.
"I'll make something warm for him," she continued, her voice calmer now, though the concern remained. "Soup, something light. I'll bring it back in an hour."
Her hand rested on the door for a moment before she looked back at Erza, her gaze serious, almost warning.
"Keep him warm. Keep him dry."
Her hand paused on the handle, her voice sharpening one last time.
"And for the love of everything....no more ice."
The door closed behind her.
Erza stood alone with Yuuta and Elena.
The towel hung limply in her hand.
Yuuta looked up at her, shivering, exhausted, waiting.
Elena tugged her sleeve.
"Mama? Are you going to help Papa now?"
Erza's face burned.
Her heart raced.
Her hands trembled.
And somewhere, deep in the place she'd locked away centuries ago, something new was born.
Jealousy.
Guilt.
Fear.
Care.
She didn't understand any of it.
To be continued...
(End Credit )
Erza: "If this is the 'calm before the storm,' the storm better arrive soon."
Yuuta: "It is arriving… slowly."
Erza: "Even storms move faster than this pacing."
Yuuta: "This one is emotionally calibrated."
Erza: "That's not a thing."
Yuuta: "It is in this novel."
Erza: "I want a refund."
Yuuta: "Denied. You're a main character."
Elena:raising hand "Can I be side character then? They seem happier."
Erza: "Don't you dare downgrade yourself."
Elena: "But side characters laugh more!"
Yuuta: "She's not wrong…"
Erza: "…I hate both of you."