Tamura didn't like crowds.
The kingdom's free-roam allowance had opened every alley and festival square to the guild, and Squad 2 scattered quickly to explore their first day off in what felt like years. Kael toward weapons, Aylin toward fish skewers, Mugen melting into shadows like it was instinctual to explore the kingdom for trouble.
Tamura wandered through the market slower than usual. His mark had been quiet lately, flickering only when he passed certain glyphs etched in walls too old to touch.
And then, a voice.
"You move like someone trying not to be noticed by many."
He stopped.
The voice came from behind a stack of glass lanterns—soft, teasing, threaded with something almost familiar.
"Excuse me?" Tamura said, turning.
She was younger than he expected. Maybe a year older, maybe not. Her crimson eyes shimmered like flame given structure. Her hair was dark, braided casually, but her aura had a weight to it that almost felt like... Royalty.
She didn't wait.
"Nekeya," she said, extending her hand with fingers still smudged from smoke and ink.
"I move with caution when it comes to mortals but I'm open to giving you a shot if you play nice. Same as you if I'm not mistaken. You're Tamura, right?"
Tamura didn't take the hand immediately.
"Who told you that?"
"Nobody." She smiled.
"Your marks did."
His gaze narrowed.
"You can read them?"
"More like… they sang to me."
---
They talked beside the lantern stall under dusk's wash. She leaned against wood slats like she belonged in the setting—cluttered, clever, heat-glowed.
Tamura stayed half a step away the entire time.
"I've been wandering for so long hoping to find someone like you," Nekeya admitted easily.
"Why the serious look?"
Tamura's stance shifted slightly. She noticed.
"You don't believe me?"
"I believe you're dangerous."
"I'm dangerous when I'm bored, I'll give you that much" Her gaze sharpened.
"Not when curious though. Right now… I'm curious about you."
Tamura's marks flared once, his arms, his collarbone, his wrist. Not violently. Just… awake.
"What do they mean to you?"
She touched her shoulder, lifting her sleeve to show the phoenix-shaped insignia, glowing faintly even in shade.
"Your body burns passionately but only heals after pain. You suffer to gain power."
"Mine heals as it burns."
"That symbol..."
"It doesn't come from kings or some grand wizard. It's older than books and more honest than a pact with the gods."
Tamura tilted his head.
"Why tell me?"
Nekeya stepped closer, too close, and stopped with a smirk.
"Because you give me the feeling of familiarity with someone I haven't met yet."
---
Later, by the edge of the canal in the 9th district where lanterns drift during twilight rites, Tamura found her again. This time without fanfare. She was tossing coins into the water, watching ripples as if they whispered back.
"You follow me now?" he asked.
"You're not subtle. Your aura leaves footprints."
She gestured to the space beside her.
Tamura sat, reluctantly.
"You don't want anything from me?"
"Correction." She leaned slightly toward him.
"I want you to know what you are. That mark… it's not chaos if you know how to use it properly. And you're mishandling it like it owes you something. Plus I think it'll be exciting to see someone like me in a fight. Up close."
Tamura looked at his own arm as it flickered softly.
"I don't know how to hold it."
"Then I'll teach you. If you'll let me."
They sat quietly for a moment, her heat pulsing in a rhythm that Tamura's body didn't reject. It welcomed her.
Then---
"You touch fire and brace to burn. You see it as a necessary pain, don't you?"
"You should learn to touch fire and feel whole."
Tamura didn't respond.
But he didn't leave, either.
---
Nekeya invited him to a glyph ring two days later. Not a date, not training. Just a silent challenge.
They sparred with flame. Her aura danced around his, never striking fully, always guiding.
Tamura's feet staggered. She caught him, hand flat against his chest.
"Easy," she whispered.
"It listens to me. Let me show you how."
Their eyes met. Close. Heat dripped between them. It wasn't like combat.
It was more like a quiet understanding dressed in something warmer.
Tamura stepped back.
Nekeya smiled.
"You're learning."
Tamura didn't argue.
---
The sky turned orange over the southern watchtower.
Tamura leaned against the balcony wall, watching guards swap shifts in rhythmic boredom. The kingdom was peaceful, unnervingly so. It felt like the kind of quiet where something was waiting underneath.
Then she arrived. Again, uninvited, exactly on time.
"You stand like someone who's afraid of stillness," Nekeya said, her dress dancing around her ankles.
"But you brood pretty well, I'll give you that. Mind if I ask you to stop standing like there's a fight waiting at every corner?"
Tamura didn't respond right away.
"Do you always have to sneak up on me?"
"Stop being so easy to find. Your heat pulses when you think too loud."
She leaned beside him, her shoulder barely touching his.
"Tell me what you're so afraid of," she whispered.
Tamura said nothing.
But his mark flickered faintly, soft, crimson edges biting into his arm like truth.
---
They walked side by side through the twilight garden behind the eastern wall. No one else was there. Just lunethara flowers glowing faint blue, and silence hanging like mist between trees.
Nekeya paused beneath a vine-laced archway.
"Tamura," she said softly.
"Do you think demons feel?"
He blinked.
"That's a strange question. Why ask me?"
"Because I happen to be one."
Tamura didn't react. He just stared at her as if he already knew something was off about her.
"You don't react to things the way others do. That gives you perspective."
She turned to face him.
"I don't have a soul. But every time you speak, my heart stirs like it remembers something sweet."
Tamura's throat tightened.
"I don't know what you are."
"Neither do I," she murmured.
"But I like what I'm becoming when I'm near you."
She reached out gently, brushing a strand of hair back from his face.
His mark glowed not violently, but warmly.
---
Training again. This time, no combat.
Nekeya asked Tamura to stand still as she extended her aura toward him. Her flames were slow, deliberate, pulsing in soft bursts.
"Don't resist," she said.
"Just let it touch you. Let it flow."
He flinched as her flames pressed against his. Their sparks, crackling where they met. His body reacted defensively, flame surging up his spine.
Nekeya stepped closer.
"Your fire bites because you don't trust it."
She touched his wrist.
"Let it recognize mine."
His aura stilled, just enough for the flames to wrap around each other without burning.
They stayed like that, eyes locked, heat woven softly between them.
"That's better," she whispered.
Tamura exhaled.
"I didn't think it could feel like that."
"We've only scratched the surface."
---
They sat atop a stone terrace under the stars, legs stretched out, shoulders touching.
Nekeya traced her phoenix brand slowly.
"This was burned into me the day of my birth. It was meant to give me a purpose."
Tamura nodded.
"Did it?"
"No. Somehow...you're doing that."
He looked at her.
"I don't even know what I'm doing."
She smiled faintly.
"You're being near. That's more than most would do for my kind."
Then, softer:
"If I ever forget who I am, promise you'll still say my name."
Tamura hesitated.
Then:
"Nekeya."
She didn't look at him.
But her flame shimmered.
---