The Metzlian Remnant

The air atop Jamana Mountain didn't just feel cold-it felt heavy, as if the atmosphere itself was trying to press Aile Tsukia into the dirt.

Tsukia crouched in the undergrowth, her long dark hair spilling over the shoulders of her black cloak. Her target, a mountain buck, stood thirty paces away.

She reached for the hilt of the black sword strapped to her waist. As her fingers brushed the cold metal, a familiar sting pricked her skin.

"Not now," she hissed inwardly.

Beneath the sleeve of her white shirt, black, obsidian-like veins began to pulse. It was a volatile, hungry power-a "gift" that felt more like a parasite.

She lunged forward, a blur of shadow against the green woods. Her blade swung in a silent arc, but as she moved, a sudden, sharp spike of pain exploded in her chest.

Her foot caught on a root.

She tumbled, her shoulder slamming into a jagged rock with a force that should have shattered bone.

CRACK.

Tsukia gasped, clutching her shoulder.

But she wasn't checking for a wound.

She looked down and saw that the solid stone beneath her had splintered into dust. Her skin remained unblemished-not a scratch, not even a bruise.

"Even the mountain was too weak to break me," she whispered, her voice raspy from years of silence.

At seventeen, Tsukia was a living anomaly. Since the age of ten, she had been nothing more than a bad luck charm-an abominable thing that never fit in and, more frustratingly, couldn't even remember who she was.

She began to retreat into the shadows of the trees when a sound suddenly stopped her in place.

Whistling.

A cheerful, rhythmic tune that had no business echoing through these desolate woods.

Tsukia's survival instincts screamed.

Human.

And in her experience, humans had always been the cruelest predators of all.

She masked her aura and slipped behind the trunk of an ancient cedar.

A man wandered into the clearing.

He looked absurdly out of place, wearing a crisp white shirt, cargo pants, and a bucket hat that shaded his eyes. He hummed to himself as he kicked at loose stones.

"Human," Tsukia muttered under her breath.

Her throat tightened, constricted by years of resentment and social anxiety. Her thoughts spiraled.

Did they find me? Did the villagers send a mercenary?

She didn't wait for him to notice her.

Gripping her sword, she launched a surprise strike from his blind spot.

The man didn't even look back.

He simply shifted his weight, his body moving like a falling leaf caught in the breeze.

Her black blade hissed through empty air.

Tsukia's eyes widened.

She swung again-a rapid flurry of strikes-but he danced out of reach with uncanny, weightless grace.

"Who the hell are you?" she demanded, skidding to a halt as she leveled her blade at his throat.

The man stopped and tilted his head.

His gaze lingered on her tattered cloak and the dark intensity in her eyes.

"How about you?" he asked. "What's a girl like you doing on a dangerous peak like Jamana?"

"I asked first," she snapped, her hand trembling.

"Fair point," he said with a small laugh, crossing his arms.

"Some people were chasing me, so I figured this mountain was a good place to lose them," he added, chuckling as he laced his fingers behind his head.

"Don't worry, Miss. I've got no interest in fighting a beautiful woman."

Tsukia's lip curled in disgust.

Flattery was just another lie.

She turned to leave, her cloak billowing behind her.

"Wait! You didn't even answer me!"

The shout echoed through the trees as the man's hand shot out, his fingers clamping firmly around her shoulder.

For him, it might have been a casual gesture.

For Tsukia, it was something else entirely.

No one had dared stand within her reach for years, let alone touch her without permission.

The warmth of his palm through her clothes felt foreign.

Too close. Too human.

The sudden contact struck her like a blow to the chest.

It was new, it was wrong and it was far too much.

In an instant, the volatile energy buried deep within her surged in violent protest.

The man seemed to sense the shift and tried to pull back.

But Tsukia had already spun on her heel, the temperature in the forest dropped sharply and moisture on the ground crystallized into frost.

Her left eye was no longer human.

The iris darkened into a deep, abyssal black that seemed to swallow the light around it.

On her wrist, the dark veins beneath her skin flared into a terrifying necro-violet glow.

She raised her palm toward him.

The space between them screamed.

A sphere of raw telekinetic energy twisted into existence in the center of her hand-hungry and unstable.

The man's laughter vanished.

His face turned pale as his eyes fixed on the thick drop of blood that trickled from Tsukia's nose-the price her body paid for the power she was about to unleash.

"Hey! Easy! You're hurting yourself-"

"Quiet!" Tsukia screamed.

With a sharp flick of her wrist, she released the wave.

The force struck him like a wall, launching him backward.

He slammed into a tree trunk with a bone-rattling thud before collapsing to the forest floor.

Tsukia doubled over, gasping for air as she wiped the blood from her lip.

The power always demanded something in return.

He slowly sat up.

His eyes were a vivid, glowing orange, framed by heavy lashes that cast soft shadows across his skin. Strange, delicate markings traced the curve of his cheekbones.

There was a raw, effortless beauty to him, though he seemed entirely unaware of it.

He looked at her, and the playful smirk from earlier was gone.

In its place was something colder.

Sharper.

He wasn't merely looking at her anymore.

He was captivated.

"I've seen a lot of magic," he said, his voice low and rough.

"I've seen the flashy stuff. The dangerous stuff. But that..."

He paused.

"That felt new to me."

"I don't even know what it is," Tsukia admitted, her voice trembling with exhaustion and vulnerability.

"I just woke up one day with no memory, and this... this disaster inside me."

"So you really do live here," he murmured.

"Alone."

"I don't trust humans," she said, her eyes flashing.

"Leave this mountain and forget you ever saw me."

"I see," he said with a faint smirk as he brushed the dirt from his white shirt.

"So you hold a grudge. I wonder what made you hate us so much."

Tsukia ignored him and began to walk away.

But his voice followed her, warm and persistent.

"I won't tell anyone. You have my word. I'm not like the others."

She glanced back over her shoulder.

For a split second, she caught his smile as It wasn't mocking or cruel.

It was... strangely cute.

The thought made her immediately snap out of it.

A dangerous spark of curiosity stirred within her.

"Why should I believe you?"

"I won't prove it with words," he said cheerfully.

"I'll let my actions prove it."

Then he tilted his head.

"But tell me, Miss... what is your goal? Why stay up here?"

Tsukia hesitated.

"I just... want to be strong."

Her voice softened.

"Strong enough that I'm not afraid anymore."

"I can help with that!"

"I told you, I don't trust-"

She turned to leave, but he followed after her like a stray dog, pestering her with questions.

"Shut up already," she groaned.

"No! Hehe."

Suddenly, the forest fell silent.

The whistling stopped and the birds fled.

THUD. THUD. THUD.

The rhythmic sound of heavy marching boots echoed through the trees.

Nine men in tactical gear emerged from the shadows, their weapons glinting in the dappled sunlight.

Tsukia's heart sank.

Her grip tightened around her sword as she glared at the man in the white shirt.

"You... you brought them here."

But the man didn't look at her.

Instead, he sighed and scratched the back of his head as the armed men leveled their weapons at him.

"There he is!" one of the soldiers shouted.

"Don't let him slip away again!"

Tsukia blinked, as they weren't there for her. They were there for the man in the bucket hat.

"Man, they're persistent," he sighed.

His playful aura vanished as he stepped in front of Tsukia.

"Sorry about the noise, Miss."

"It seems my past finally caught up to me."

He looked back at her and winked.

"Want to see how a human fights?"

Was it truly fate that had brought them together on this mountain-or was he simply another disaster waiting to happen in Tsukia's life?

Tsukia's POV

I gripped the hilt of my black sword, my knuckles white. Part of me-the part that had survived for years in the freezing silence of Jamana Mountain-screamed at me to run.

But the other part, the part that felt the heavy thrum of the "disaster" in my veins, stayed rooted to the spot.

Running is for the weak. I want to be strong.

The nine men in tactical gear ignored me, their eyes locked on the idiot in the bucket hat.

"Is the girl with him?" one of the men barked, leveling a glowing blue spear at my chest.

A surge of irritation, cold and sharp, rose in my throat. I didn't even know this stranger's name, yet I was being lumped into his mess.

I began to unsheathe my blade, the black veins on my wrist pulsing in anticipation of slaughter.

"I've got this, hehe," the man said, stepping casually in front of me. He cracked his knuckles, his back still turned to me.

"Sorry for dragging you into the crossfire, miss."

I stepped back, eyes narrowing. It wasn't my business. If he wanted to die playing hero, I'd let him. I sheathed my blade and turned to walk away. I needed to find food-I didn't care if his blood stained the grass.

"Watch out for his fire!" one of the soldiers screamed, his voice cracking with pure terror.

"Fire?" I whispered.

I froze. My curiosity is always my greatest enemy as it forced me to look back and my breath hitched.

Brilliant, wild crimson flames erupted from the man's palms, swirling like twin dragons. I had thought he was just a fast human, a leaf in the wind. I was wrong. He was a furnace.

"ATTACK!" the leader roared.

They charged, but the boy didn't flinch. He lunged forward, his fist trailing a comet-tail of destructive heat.

"Ignis Burst!" he shouted.

The scene turned into a hellscape instantly. The roar of flames drowned out the forest's silence. Trees ignited in flashes of orange, and the air turned into a shimmering wall of heat.

It was my first time seeing humans truly fight, and it was horrifyingly beautiful. I couldn't look away from the charred earth and the way bodies fell like ash.

"I didn't want to do that," the man shouted at a falling soldier, his voice genuinely pained. "But you just wouldn't stop following me!"

He turned, noticing me standing there. The fire in his hands died down into a gentle flicker.

"D-did I scare you?" he asked softly, looking like a kicked puppy.

"Why would I be scared of you?" I replied coldly, though my heart was hammering against my ribs.

I rolled my eyes at the burning forest, trying to hide the fact that my hands were shaking.

"You look terrified," he chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "And you're probably wondering about the fire." He held out his palms.

The dancing flames were mesmerizing, vibrant and warm, unlike the cold, suffocating pressure of my own power.

"I was born with this. It's my Soul Possession," he explained.

"I'm what they call a rare type... and a bit of a freak, I guess," he added.

"Nobody asked," I snapped, though something inside me tightened at the word.

A freak. I knew that word well.

"You're so cold," he smirked, his eyes dancing. "Want me to heat you up?"

I rolled my eyes again, but before I could retort, he snatched his hat off and gave a mock bow.

"Lori Shinji. Also known as the 'Fire Destructive'-though I think that name is a bit much." He chuckled.

For the first time, I saw his face clearly without the shadow of the brim. There was a brightness to him that almost hurt my eyes. He was... cute.

CRACK.

A massive burning branch from a cedar tree snapped above me. My senses, still dull from the shock of the fight, didn't react in time.

I looked up, seeing the wall of fire and wood descending. I braced for impact, expecting my "bad luck" to shatter the branch and leave me standing in the middle of a forest fire.

But instead of impact, I felt warmth. Sudden, overwhelming warmth.

Lori had leapt into the path of the branch. He caught the flaming wood with his bare hands, his own fire neutralizing the heat before it could burn me.

He threw the branch aside and looked at me, his face inches from mine, covered in soot but smiling wide.

"Told you," he whispered. "I'll let my actions prove you can trust me."

My eyes widened.

For the first time in seven years, someone had stepped between me and the world.

"U-uhm... Aile Tsukia," I didn't even realize I said it as we started running from the spreading forest fire.

Lori's smile broke into a grin that could've lit up the mountain. He grabbed my wrist-not like a captor, but firm, steady-and pulled me through the smoke.

As we left, the mountain road eventually bled into the outskirts of a small, sleepy town. To me, the flickering neon sign of a 24-hour convenience store looked like a beacon from another world.

I slowed down, eyes wide at the paved asphalt and humming electricity.

"Wait," I whispered, pulling back. My anxiety, usually a dull hum, was now a screaming siren. "There are... people in there."

Lori stopped and looked back, his expression softening as he realized I was staring at the store like it was a monster's lair.

"It's just a shop, Tsukia. They have snacks, drinks, and most importantly-bandages for that scrape on your knee."

"I don't need help from humans," I snapped, though my stomach betrayed me with an embarrassing growl.

"Well, the food is the help. Your stomach says so," Lori joked, gently nudging me toward the automatic doors.

As they hissed open, I jumped, nearly drawing my sword at the glass. The air inside was artificially cool and smelled of fried chicken and floor wax.

I walked through the aisles like a hunted animal, flinching every time the bell rang. A group of teenagers near the soda machine glanced at my soot-stained cloak and whispered.

"They're judging you. They think you're a freak. Strike them before they laugh."

My inner voice hissed.

I gripped my wrist. The black veins beneath my skin started to itch. My breathing hitched.

Then a warm weight landed on my head.

Lori had placed his bucket hat on me, pulling it low over my eyes.

"Ignore them," he said, his voice suddenly serious, protective. "You're with me. If they have something to say, they can say it to the guy who breathes fire."

I looked up at him from under the brim. The teenagers quickly looked away, intimidated by his stance.

For the first time in my life, the voice went quiet.

Not because I controlled it.

But because someone else was louder.

He bought two strawberry popsicles from the counter. Outside, under the humid night air, he handed me one.

"Here. Peace offering from the human race," he said with a wink.

I took a bite. Cold sweetness exploded across my tongue. I stared at the melting red ice, then at the boy walking beside me like he had nowhere to be in the world.

"Lori?" I asked softly.

"Yeah?"

"Why are you doing this? You don't even know if I'm... safe."

He stopped walking. The streetlight reflected in his eyes.

"I spent my whole life being told I was a walking disaster, Tsukia. I know what it looks like when someone's just trying to survive their own power. Besides..." he grinned.

"I think we'd make a pretty good team. Fire and... whatever it is you do."

I looked down, hiding my face under his hat. "I guess."

"Anyway... do you have a plan? A hometown to go back to?"

I looked at the road stretching ahead. "I don't even know where my hometown is," I murmured, a small brittle smile forming.

"I don't remember anything before I was nine. I just woke up one day... and I was alive."

Lori blinked. "What? Like amnesia?"

"Maybe. All I remember is a village that treated me like an abominable charm. They called doctors and scientists to study me like an animal because my power was wrong. I think the government is still watching me. There's a voice in my head, Lori... it tells me to hate everyone. To hate humans."

Lori's expression softened into something I hadn't seen before-pity, but not condescending. Like he was seeing a reflection of himself.

We walked in silence after that. The popsicle dulled the sting in my throat. But as the town lights faded and the forest thickened again, the air changed.

It smelled like charcoal and old grief.

Lori slowed.

He pointed toward a rusted, skeletal gate half-hidden by weeds.

"Actually," he said, his voice quieter now. "There's a reason I'm good at surviving disasters."

"I want to show you something," Lori said later.

We arrived at the gate. Beyond it stood a house eaten by fire. The smell of old smoke still clung to the charred wood.

"This was my home," Lori whispered.

We stepped inside the ruins, boots crunching on blackened floorboards.

"You shared your past with me... so I'll share mine."

He looked at his hands. "I killed them, Tsukia. My parents. I couldn't control the heat one night. I ran to my mother for help, but she backed away in horror. She called me a monster before the smoke took her. The neighbors think I did it on purpose."

By the end, his voice broke. A single tear cut through the soot on his face.

I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to comfort someone-I usually wanted to hurt them.

But my hand moved anyway, patting his messy hair.

"U-uhm... are you okay?"

"I'm seventeen," he muttered, wiping his eyes.

"And I'm still just a kid who's afraid of matches."

"I'm seventeen too," I said softly, staring at the burned floor.

"In a way, you're lucky. You have memories, even if they hurt. I'm just a ghost in a girl's body."

"I'll help you find out who you are," Lori said, reaching out to pat my head.

The warmth of his hand made my chest tighten.

"I'm always here for you, Tsukia. Even if we just met."

As the sun dipped below the trees, painting the sky in bruised purples, we left the old house.

I followed Lori toward his next destination-some basement he apparently lived in.

I suddenly realized I still had trust issues... and yet, deep in my bones, I felt Lori Shinji wasn't a threat.

We reached a hidden house by a rushing river. A campfire crackled in the yard.

"Hey, jerk! Get over here!" Lori shouted.

A girl with short, choppy blonde hair spun around the fire. She was about my height, with almond-shaped hazel eyes and a marshmallow stick in her hand.

For a split second, her face lit up at the sight of Lori-but it vanished the moment she saw me.

Her expression didn't just drop. It soured.

"LORI! EXPLAIN THIS!" she barked, pointing the sticky stick at me.

"WHO IS THIS GIRL?"

"Relax, Jasmia! She's a friend," Lori laughed, dodging her swing.

"Hmp!" the girl-Jasmia-pouted.

They looked like siblings bickering loudly. It was... cute.

"Introduce yourselves!" Lori said, pushing us toward each other.

I looked at her. My heart was racing. This was it. A real social interaction.

"H-hello. I'm Aile Tsukia."

"Hi! I'm Jasmia Valley. The person who has to keep this fire-breathing idiot alive," she said with a smile, offering her hand.

I stared at it.

A bond.

For the first time, the voice in my head went quiet.

My life was finally felt like it was starting.

Tsukia's POV

The campfire hissed and spat, sending long flickering silhouettes crawling up the trunks around us. For the first time in years, the mountain's usual cold didn't seem to reach me.

It stopped at my skin instead of burrowing into my bones.

I perched on a split log, a stick balanced in my hand, a white sugar cube or what they called a "marshmallow" speared at the end.

Watching it blister and turn golden in the heat held me in a quiet trance.

"Don't let it catch, Kia! Rotate it," Jasmia teased, her laughter bright and curious.

The nickname felt strange in my mouth. Kia.

I nudged the marshmallow into my mouth. It was overwhelmingly sweet and cloying enough to make my teeth ache but somehow, it tasted like calm.

Maybe Lori had been right. Maybe not every human deserved the monsters I had imagined in my dreams.

"So..." Jasmia leaned forward, chin resting on her hand.

"Lori says you're gifted, but your magic seems... different. What is it? Some kind of alien thing?"

My throat tightened. The sweetness in my mouth curdled into something heavier. I stared at my hands tucked inside my sleeves, as if I could hide them.

"I... I don't really know," I admitted.

"She's right to be careful," Lori said, his voice steady and low.

He prodded the embers with a stick. "I've felt it, Jasmia. It isn't like our kind of potential. Ours feels like stepping into a river you can ride. Hers... it's like staring into an abyss. Even the smallest move seems to bruise her body under the strain."

Jasmia's grin faltered. "Is it that dangerous?"

"I'm an abominable bad-luck charm," I whispered before I could stop myself, the cruel words from my old village slipping out.

"When I use it... my surroundings get hurt. Or I do."

The wood popped. For a moment, that sound was the only thing between us and a silence that could have swallowed the night.

Lori stood, breaking the tension.

"Enough gloom. Watch this."

He stepped into the firelight with his palms open.

The flames didn't simply die down-they bent and slithered like water responding to a hand.

The fire drew itself into thin red ribbons, arcing toward him and curling across his skin as if it belonged there. His eyes flared, twin rubies igniting in the dark.

"He can eat it, breathe it, wear it," Jasmia murmured, pride in her voice as she briefly rested a hand on my shoulder. "He's a real fire-type. Pure control."

A hot twist of envy knifed through me.

Lori moved with his power like a practiced dancer. I moved with mine like I was chained to something starving and clawing from the inside.

"Let's go inside," Lori said, the glow in his eyes fading back into ordinary brown.

He led the way, pushing open a door that revealed a house mostly sunk into the earth-more like a hidden dugout than a home.

"Welcome to your new home, Tsukia!" he announced as we stepped inside.

"Home?"

The word landed softly, like something I hadn't realized I was missing. My chest tightened, and my eyes burned unexpectedly.

The place was larger than I expected-spacious but warm, the kind of shelter carved carefully beneath the hillside.

A small part of me-old, paranoid, trained to distrust safety-whispered trap.

But when I sank into the softness of real blankets, that voice quieted.

I must have been more exhausted than I realized. I closed my eyes and drifted off before I even finished thinking about it.

Morning arrived in a single disorienting blink.

I jolted awake, disoriented. For a second, I couldn't place where I was-the dream of a man named Lori and a girl named Jasmia still clinging to the edges of my mind.

Then my fingers brushed unfamiliar sheets.

The realization hit me: I wasn't on the mountain.

My stomach flipped.

"A new day, I guess..." I muttered, as the certainty settled in that this wasn't a dream. I... trusted humans. For the first time.

Sunlight spilled through the window like a spotlight.

I stood awkwardly, hair tangled into a mess as I shuffled to the mirror.

Puffy eyes. A deep scowl. Skin even paler than I felt inside.

"Ugly..." I grumbled, splashing cold water over my face to shake off the heaviness.

Downstairs, the kitchen smelled like coffee. Jasmia was already there, cradling a steaming mug.

"Morning, sunshine! Want some coffee, Kia?" she asked.

"Sure."

The nickname made heat rise to my cheeks.

She handed me a cup. For a moment, we just sat in quiet morning stillness, letting the silence settle gently between us.

Lori burst in next, holding an iced coffee and that usual breathless energy that always felt like the start of chaos.

"What's up, girls! We're going to the supermarket later. We need supplies-and Tsukia definitely needs clothes that don't scream 'girl from a mountain,'" he said with a grin.

"Do we even have money?" Jasmia asked, skeptical.

Lori gave a sideways smile. "I borrowed it from people who didn't deserve it."

"YOU STOLE IT AGAIN!" Jasmia snapped, equal parts exasperated sister and mock outrage.

I watched them like someone looking into a sunlit room through frosted glass.

Lori only laughed, then winked at me.

"Don't mind her. She's cranky because I friend-zoned her for ten years."

"LORI, SHUT UP!" she shouted, her face turning the same shade as his flames as she stormed out in mock anger.

Lori chuckled. "Be ready by 1:00 pm, Tsukia. We're hitting the market."

I nodded and retreated to my room.

The hours passed in an uncomfortable stillness. The kindness from the morning lingered-and it made me feel exposed.

Vulnerability was dangerous.

I needed to get stronger.

I sat on the floor, breathing slowly, focusing on the scarred skin of my right wrist.

Just one hand. Keep the leak under control.

My breathing slowed until it was almost nonexistent.

Dark veins crept across my skin like ink bleeding through paper. A black haze gathered at my fingertips. The pressure inside me felt heavier than lead.

My ears rang. A thin line of blood slipped from my earlobe. I ignored it.

A small ceramic vase sat on the nightstand, bright flowers still inside.

Lift.

A low scrape echoed in the quiet room as the vase shifted. Then, the atmosphere thickened, turning dense and cold around the ceramic. It didn't just lift-it hung there, defying gravity by a mere three inches.

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding, a small, smile breaking across my face.

It worked.

Then everything tilted.

Pressure spiked inside my chest-hot, sharp, unbearable. I tried to release it, but the force didn't stop.

It fed.

The petals dulled. Color drained from the flowers in seconds, turning gray and brittle before collapsing into dust. The vase cracked-fine, spidering fractures spreading across its surface.

Then the world broke, a white flash exploded through my vision.

For a moment, I wasn't in my room.

I saw a woman-impossibly tall, radiant, with obsidian wings stretching across the sky like thunder given form. She felt like a goddess... or a memory I had lost.

"Find the source..."

The voice wasn't heard-it was felt. Pressed into my bones.

Pain tore through my skull as I screamed in agony.

My hands flew to my head as the vase shattered into a thousand pieces across the floor.

I collapsed, gasping, the room spinning in jagged fragments of light and shadow.

Silence returned like a curtain dropping.

Only my ragged breathing remained... and the faint tink of porcelain settling on wood.

"What... was that?" I whispered into the empty room.