๐๐ข๐จ๐ฅ๐ง๐ ๐ฆ๐๐๐ก๐ - ๐๐๐๐จ๐-๐ก๐ข-๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ข
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Yurina, who had no idea how things had come to this, found herself suspended in the open sky.
Goodnessโฆ She blinked slowly, tilting her head as the wind roared past her ears. Did he throw me into the clouds? I really should stay out of reach whenever he tries to use his powers. Something like this could kill an ordinary human without a second thought.
She began to fall.
Her long black hair unraveled behind her like ribbons of spilled ink, weaving and rippling through the rushing air with a life of its own. She wasn't afraid of heights โ not even remotely โ so her situation didn't register as dangerous to her. If anything, she carried herself with the quiet composure of a deity who had simply lost her footing somewhere between heaven and earth. Her all-white eyes, pale and still as winter moonlight, swept across the sky and the rapidly approaching earth below, methodically mapping out the safest way to land.
If I fall from this height without doing somethingโฆ I would actually die.
She considered her options with calm precision.
Should I summon the spiritsโฆ? Maybeโฆ No. That won't do here. Her eyes narrowed slightly. There's only one real option.
She shifted her body mid-fall, rotating herself until she faced the earth head-on, like a diver committing to the water. With a steady, practiced hand, she drew out her scythe โ long and elegant, its tall black pole cutting cleanly through the wind. The blade at the top was large and dramatically curved, its body a deep, luminous red, almost crystalline in the way light fractured through it, with sharp silver edges that gleamed like frozen lightning. White ribbons spiraled freely around the head, dancing wildly against the rushing air, while white bands wrapped the middle of the pole in neat, deliberate coils. She released it deliberately โ letting it fall just ahead of her โ then reached up to push the hair that kept flinging itself across her face before removing her black ruffled gloves.
The buns holding her hair came undone in the process, releasing even more of it โ a dark, cascading flood that billowed around her like a storm cloud. She exhaled softly through her nose and chose to ignore it entirely.
Nowโฆ if I angle this correctly, I can land perfectly.
She tucked into a controlled dive, chasing after her falling scythe and reaching out for itโ
Two warm hands caught her.
Gently. Firmly. Just before her feet could meet the ground, they appeared from nowhere and pulled her in โ not roughly, not clumsily, but with a careful, almost deliberate tenderness that suggested whoever it was had been watching her fall for a while and had already decided exactly how he intended to catch her. For a brief moment she was held close, the wind suddenly gone, the chaos of the fall replaced by something unnervingly still.
Her scythe slipped from her fingers in surprise.
Purpleโฆ hair?
She registered it distantly, like a detail at the edge of a dream. The scythe dissolved quietly into nothing the moment it left her hand, as if it understood its purpose had passed and saw no reason to linger. The person holding her loosened his arms and pulled back โ and she got her first real look at him.
Her breath caught.
He was already bowing.
"My ladyโฆ" His voice was smooth, unhurried, carrying the ease of someone entirely comfortable with dramatic moments. He straightened and took her hand in both of his before she had any chance to respond โ lifting it to his lips and pressing a slow, deliberate kiss to the back of it.
"Please allow me."
He smiled at her with the warmth of someone who had practiced that expression until it became impossible to read.
"Did the heavens send you to meโฆ?" He tilted his head slightly, eyes bright with something between amusement and genuine awe. "You fell from the sky like an Annabelle doll that had lost its way."
She studied him for exactly one silent second.
"The nerve," she said evenly, "to kiss a lady's hand without her permission." Her tone wasn't outrage โ it was something quieter, and somehow more cutting. "Who in the world are you?"
Her curiosity, despite her composure, was written plainly on her pale face.
The young boy paused theatrically, as though the question genuinely required consideration.
"Who am Iโฆ?" He smiled. "Cortisโ?"
Her hand moved before he finished the word. She caught him by the collar โ not violently, but with a precise, unhurried grip that brought him just close enough to make her point โ and leaned in.
"You mean ...Cassian?"
She said it barely above a whisper.
Fuck. Cassian's smile didn't move a single millimeter, but behind it, his thoughts lurched. I forgot. I'm still wearing the school's student ID.
He kept the grin in place while his mind quietly caught up with the situation.
Who is she, thoughโฆ?
His gaze moved over her with the focused attention of someone cataloguing something rare and unexpected.
Her complexion โ I've never seen anything quite like it. And her faceโฆ her face, specifically, is something I might genuinely rearrange my entire life around. She is, without question, my absolute type when it comes to looks. I was furious earlier โ genuinely furious โ about my bird. I still don't know who killed it, and not knowing made it worse. But maybe this is the universe's way of offering me something in exchange. His eyes lingered a moment too long. That's assuming she's powerless โ which she very obviously is not. Just what is she?
"How interesting," he said aloud, his voice carrying that same easy warmth. "Were you eager to find out?"
He reached up and unclipped the ID from his noble's outfit without fanfare, then pressed two fingers together in a small precise gesture โ a magic circle appeared in the air beside him, no larger than a hand's width, quiet and dark like a gap cut into the world. He dropped the ID through it. The circle sealed itself and vanished instantly, as though it had never existed.
She watched this with mild, unimpressed attention.
"Eager?" she said flatly. "You make it sound as though I had some interest in you. Please feed your delusions something else. This one won't work."
"My lady." He spread his hands in a gesture of calm reasonableness. "It's only fair that I get to know your name as well, now that you've found out mine. Don't you think so?"
She didn't answer immediately.
He's a dark mage, she was thinking, her eyes steady on his face while her mind moved quickly beneath the surface. From Kurogane Institute โ the almighty one. But students of that school are not permitted to leave its grounds. There's far more to this than what's sitting on the surface. I need to be careful.
"My name," she said at last, "is not necessary.
She doesn't seem easy. Cassian's internal voice carried something that sounded almost like delight. A scythe. Dangerous presence. But there's this other quality underneath it โ graceful in a way that doesn't match the weapon at all, and yet somehow matches it perfectly. I can't sense her power, not even a thread of it. That's rare. That's genuinely rare.nHe felt something settle in his chest, quiet and certain. This is going to be fascinating to figure out.
He kept smiling.
"Cassian." Her voice came again, unprompted. Her hand rose and found his chin โ her fingers were elegant and unhurried, the grip light but deliberate โ and she turned his head to the side as though inspecting him the way one might examine an interesting piece of craftsmanship. "Who in the world are youโฆ?"
The way she says my name. The thought arrived before he could help it. I have never in my life considered my own name particularly interesting until this exact moment.
And those arms, he continued, watching her with quiet fascination. Delicate. And yet she was swinging that scythe like it weighed nothing. The more I find out about her, the less I want to leave.
Coming hereโฆ may not have been a bad idea after all.
"Maybe," he offered pleasantly, "your knight in disguise?"
"Cut the crap."
He laughed โ a full, unguarded sound, easy and warm.
No matter how I look at him, Yurina was thinking, glancing at him from the side, he doesn't read as dangerous. He reads more like a loyal dog being walked on a very long leash, perfectly content with the arrangement.
"Cassian."
He looked at her.
"Kneel."
I was wondering what was going through your head just now. He obeyed without argument, folding down to both knees with the same unhurried composure, looking up at her with the smile still easy and unbothered on his face.
"Do you know why you've been told to kneel?"
She leaned in, closing the distance between them, and took a handful of his purple hair โ slightly messy, soft in the way hair gets when someone has been out in open air โ and pulled his head back just enough to make a point. He raised both hands, palms outward, in easy, grinning surrender.
He was, visibly, enjoying this far too much.
"No, my lady." The grin held. "Care to tell me?"
"That," she said crisply, releasing him and clicking her tongue once, "is for kissing my hand without permission."
She turned and stepped away without ceremony, moving to a distance that gave her a clearer view of the surrounding area, her eyes quietly working to map their exact location.
We're not far from my aunt's residence, she realized, scanning the landmarks with practiced efficiency. So he didn't teleport me โ he genuinely just threw me into the sky. Unbelievable.
Behind her, Cassian remained kneeling and watched her walk.
One rare complexion, he thought, following the line of her silhouette with quiet, helpless attention. Eyes like nothing I've categorized before. The way she moves โ like the ground should consider itself fortunate. Perfect posture. A kind of grace that isn't performed. Cold. Dismissive. Sharper than most people I've met in formal settings. Quick to catch on โ she pulled my name from a card she barely glanced at. He exhaled slowly through his nose. If I can't make her mineโฆ then I'll simply have to make her claim me as hers. She's clearly not the submissive type.
He paused.
Wait โ two students. A boy and a girl, from Seiran Academy of Arts. She matches the girl's description perfectly. He turned this over carefully. I haven't even seen the other one yet, and I'm already completely gone on the girl. This is going to be entirely too interesting.
"How long have you been here?"
She turned back to face him.
"Not long," he said. "Shortly before you spawned out of the sky."
She crossed back toward him and crouched down to his level, bringing herself eye to eye with him. Something moved behind her pale eyes โ quiet, measuring.
"Call me master," she said.
Cassian's smile stopped.
Not dramatically โ it didn't fall or flinch. It simply went still, the warmth in it suspended, while behind his eyes something sharp and careful woke up.
Has she figured something outโฆ? His thoughts moved quickly and quietly. But she hasn't seen me before. She must be among the newer members of her team โ so why does it feel like she's pulling on a thread? Trying to confirm something? The weight of it settled on him. Every student of Kurogane knows the rule: address anyone as master outside of our one true lord, and the cost is immediate. She can't know that. She can't. So why does this feel like a test?
"Who's that?"
Shiharu's voice.
Cassian looked toward the sound. A young boy landed nearby with easy, controlled grace โ and behind him, slightly elevated, Hoshiyuki remained suspended in the air with his arms folded, calm and unhurried, as though standing on solid ground.
Cassian's eyes moved between them in one quiet sweep.
Black and gold? He took in the detail of a red thread looped around one of the floating one's fingers. That's him. The one with wish manifestation. One look and you'd assume he could have anything he wanted on appearance alone โ the kind of face that opens doors without asking. He completed the assessment with the practiced efficiency of someone who had been trained to read a room.
"I don't know him either," Yurina said simply.
She extended her hand toward Cassian. He slipped his into it and rose from his kneel without commentary, brushing nothing off his clothes with the composure of someone who knelt on cobblestones regularly and had made peace with this.
"He introduced himself as Cassian," she added, to the others, with the flat tone of someone delivering marginally useful information.
Before anything else could be said, Yurina turned and moved directly toward the black-haired boy โ placing both hands firmly on his shoulders the moment she reached him.
"Do you know what you ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฑ?" Her voice, normally so precisely controlled, climbed slightly at the edges. "You โ ๐๐ผ๐ should be more careful. You threw me into the ๐๐ธ๐ โ and ๐ต๐ฒ was the one who caught meโ"
She punctuated this by shaking him, not violently, but with the emphatic energy of someone who had been mentally rehearsing this confrontation since approximately few minutes into her freefall.
"Yurina โ I'm sorry. I'm โ I'm sorryโ"
๐ฌ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ.
The name landed quietly in Cassian's chest. He turned it over once.
What a beautiful name.
His smile returned, wider and more settled than before, with the look of a person who has just discovered something they intend to keep.
Hoshiyuki made a small sound โ something between a laugh and an exhale โ and lifted one hand, flicking his fingers toward her with the offhand ease of someone performing a minor miracle. Her wild, windblown hair gathered itself smoothly upward and arranged itself into a neat ponytail, as though it had simply decided, of its own accord, to cooperate.
"We came looking for you," Hoshiyuki said. "Forgive him."
"Woahโ" She blinked, reaching up briefly to touch the ponytail, then broke into a smile โ bright and unguarded and entirely different from every expression she'd worn in the last several minutes.
That smile, Cassian thought, watching it with the quiet attentiveness of someone noting a missed opportunity.
Would've been significantly better if it were directed at me.