The sun rose weakly over what was once Durama Station.
Smoke still curled from the shattered ramparts, twisting skyward like prayers that had forgotten their gods. The square fortress - Tilbara's proud heart - now lay broken, its blackstone walls split open to the sea breeze.
Ken moved through the ruins in silence ash clinging to his skin. Every step sounded like memory - shards of helmets, fragments of banners, the echo of voices that would never answer again.
Behind him, Esya walked carefully, her red umbrella - once a gift fro Harama - stained dark with soot. She paused to heal a wounded soldier, the blue charm bells at her waist trembling with faint sound.
Farther down the slope, Kabe and Hanazel tended to the survivors. Hanazel's hands glowed with the light, weaving through blood and dust with a grace that didn't belong in war. "Don't move," she whispered to a dying shinobi., "I still have you."
But even her voice trembled as another wall collapsed in the distance.
Above the ruins , the remnants of the council stood gathered around a single man - Qinglua. His cloak was burned at the hem, his face pale with grief. Between his hands lay his father's crown, its gold dulled by ash.
Reka-sensei knelt beside him, his expression grim. "The people need a name to follow," he said quietly." a voice that does not break.
For a long time, Qinglua said nothing. The wind tugged at his hair, carrying the scent of iron and fire.
Then he rose, holding the crown - not above his head, but to his chest. "If I am to wear this," he said, his voice hoarse but steady, "then let it not be as ruler of peace… but as guardian of what peace costs."
Then soldier bowed.
The shinobi lowered their heads. Even the silence seemed to bend.
Ken looked up from where he stood among the fallen. Kabe turned beside him, both brothers seeing in Qinglua's eyes not triumph, but burden. Rudhana's distant growl flickered faintly in Ken's chest - a warning, or perhaps respect.
Hanazel exhaled. "Then may the next dawn not burn us the same way?"
The sun finally broke the smoke. And for the first time since the battle, the light reached Durama's shattered walls.
Not to bless them.
But to promise that even ruins could cast a shadow.