"The next one won't go quietly."
That's what Kagari said as we stood over the hospital bed.
Kaito Tendo was still unconscious, Monitors beeped softly, A golden rune pulsed beneath his skin, suppressing the remaining fragment energy.
He'd live.
But something inside him had changed.
"The fragment's not completely purged," Kagari muttered, scanning her tablet. "It's adapting, Faster than expected."
I looked away.
I could still feel the fire he'd thrown at me. It wasn't rage, It was despair.
It remembered me, Respected me.
Feared me.
Yamada entered the room, uninvited, as usual, Black suit, Eternal smirk.
He tossed a file onto the bed.
"New target," he said.
"She's not hiding."
📁 SUBJECT FILE: Fragment Host – Case #022
Name: Tsukiko Araya
Age: 17
Status: Active Fragment Host – Voluntary Sync
Sync Level: 27% (Abnormally stable)
Known Alias: The Arson Saint
Behavior: Cooperative, Preaches divine fire as salvation.
Last seen: Rooftop of the Tenkai Industrial Ruins, District 9.
"She believes the flame is a gift from God," Yamada said. "Wants to share it."
"That's... new," I muttered.
"She's not violent, Yet, But she's gathering people, Followers."
Kagari frowned. "You think she's starting a cult?"
"I think she's starting a war."
🏙️ Tenkai Industrial Ruins – That Night
We arrived by train, then foot. Rain fell in slow, heavy drops, smoke-slick water that steamed on the ruined concrete.
The entire sector had been abandoned after a divine energy leak ten years ago, Now it looked like a graveyard of steel and regret.
And at the very center
A bonfire.
Roaring on a rooftop.
Surrounded by people in red cloaks.
"She's broadcasting divine frequency," Kagari whispered. "They're exposed to it directly."
"Voluntarily?" I asked.
"Yes."
We moved closer.
I could see her now.
Seventeen, Barefoot, Standing in the middle of the fire.
Tsukiko Araya.
The girl who set herself on fire… and smiled through it.
"Brothers and sisters," she called out, voice sweet and calm. "The world is frozen in fear, But fire… fire frees us."
Her followers murmured prayers.
"Fire burns away lies, Fire reveals truth, We were chosen, not cursed."
I stepped into the circle.
Her eyes snapped to mine instantly.
Golden-orange, Glowing, Alive.
"Ah," she whispered.
"The exiled flame has returned."
"What did you call me?" I asked.
She smiled.
"Incendios."
My breath hitched.
Kagari stiffened beside me.
"How do you know that name?" I asked.
"I see it," she whispered. "Every time I close my eyes, Your flame… your legacy… is tattooed across the soul of every fragment."
The bonfire blazed brighter.
"I don't want to fight," I said, stepping forward.
"I don't want to burn anyone else."
She looked heartbroken.
"But that's the tragedy, isn't it?" she replied. "You were born to burn, And so was I."
She held out her hand.
"Join me, Rebuild the throne."
I stared at her palm.
Felt the heat wafting off her body, not just power, but belief.
Pure, terrifying belief.
She wasn't corrupted.
She wasn't insane.
She chose the fire.
And that was more dangerous than any unstable fragment.
Kagari raised her spear.
"Tsukiko Araya. By authority of the Scorched Halo Division"
"I refuse," she said calmly.
The bonfire exploded.
⚠️ SYSTEM RESPONSE
🜂 Sync Spike Detected: 41%
🜂 Divine Sigil Manifesting: "Tongue of Embers"
🜂 Threat Level: High – Stable Host
🜂 Recommended Action: Contain or Disengage Immediately
Flame wings spread from her back.
Not Hellfire.
Not mine.
Something… new.
The flames spiraled around her and her followers began to burn alive, but they didn't scream.
They laughed.
They praised her.
"She's ascending!" Kagari shouted.
"We can't stop that," I said. "Not yet."
We pulled back 'barely' before the rooftop collapsed in a cyclone of heat.
From the air, I saw her.
Standing atop the wreckage.
Still smiling.
📜 SYSTEM UPDATE
📍 [Fragment 7: Uncontained – Host Syncing Willingly]
🜂 New Title Registered: "Saint of the Sacred Burn"
🜂 Divine Thread Detected – Category: Proto-Domain
⚠️ Ascension Progress: 21%
🧠 Emotional Stability: Unshakable
"She knows who I am."
"She remembers the old world."
"And she wants to bring it back."
"Who is she to you?"
Kagari asked that question as the train rumbled back toward Sector 4.
I didn't answer right away.
Outside the window, the city blurred past like smoke trailing from a dying fire.
"She's a believer," I said quietly.
"And you were her god."
The word left a bitter taste in my mouth.
God.
It used to mean something.
Power, Fear, Flame that devoured the sky.
But that was before I gave it all up. Before I chose this mortal shell. Before I called myself Rin Itsuhara and enrolled in a high school with vending machines and morning announcements.
Now?
Now I was just someone trying not to set the world on fire.
Back at the Division HQ, Kagari led me to the Archive.
A windowless floor beneath the main building. Cold, Dusty, Locked behind three arcane seals and a voice recognition rune.
"If what she said is true," Kagari muttered, "there should be records, Ancient ones, From before your exile."
We passed walls lined with tomes and broken divine relics, fragments of a history no one dared speak out loud.
History that I lived through.
She pulled a scroll from the shelf. One wrapped in dragonhide and sealed in golden wax.
"Divine Fragment Theory – Record No. 03A: 'The Seven Sparks of Incendios.'"
I froze.
"They kept that?" I whispered.
She unrolled it.
The parchment shimmered with old flame. As if it still remembered who I was.
THE SEVEN SPARKS
Once, the Fire God split his essence into seven immortal flames.
Each carried a portion of his memory, will, or rage.
He did this not to share power
But to lock away the parts of himself he could no longer bear.
"She's a Spark," I said.
Kagari blinked. "What?"
"Tsukiko. She's not just a host. She's one of the seven."
That meant
She didn't find the fire by accident.
She was the fire.
I stepped back from the scroll, heart pounding.
I'd spent centuries burning the divine hierarchy to ash. And when it was over, I tried to bury it all.
But the sparks… they weren't gone.
They were waiting.
Scattered across the mortal world like landmines made of memory.
And Tsukiko was only the first to wake up.
"There's more," Kagari said, pointing.
Beneath the Spark listing, a warning was written in divine script.
Should the Sparks reassemble…
The Core will remember its throne.
"Incendios," she whispered.
"You might not stay Rin forever."
I tried to laugh it off.
But I couldn't stop shaking.
Because deep inside me, the divine core that once ruled the skies like a tyrant…
It had stirred.
Just a little.
But it had.
🜂 SYSTEM NOTICE
[Core Response Triggered]
🜂 Memory Thread Accessed: Name Fragment – "Calderon the Ember-Wolf"
🜂 Matching Divine Signature Found
📍 New Spark Detected – Sector 12: The Silver Forge District
"Another one," I said grimly.
Kagari leaned in. "Where?"
"Sector 12."
She checked her holo.
"That place's been sealed since the Civil Collapse. It's under martial law. No civilians allowed in, or out."
I closed my eyes.
I didn't want to keep going.
But if Tsukiko was a believer…
Calderon was a loyalist.
A soldier of fire.
And he'd never accept a god who ran from war.
"He won't talk," I muttered.
"Then we'll make him listen," Kagari replied.
Outside, the wind picked up.
The city lights flickered.
And somewhere deep in the ruins of Sector 12, a furnace woke up for the first time in centuries.
📘 End of Chapter 4