After night fell, darkness spread like ink, and the hidden world woke. In unseen alleys, battles sparked like flint. Blood crashed into shellfire, writing a fierce story for every soul.
The Underworld was exactly that place, a city under the lake, ripples swallowing light.
Witches readied in silence, shadows fanning out like ravens. Each darted to her mark, blades set to bloom like cold moonlight.
Within the darkest seat beneath the Clan Head, the Flamebu Family’s fighters stood like iron pines. They raised gusts that shaved the air, wind split like glass, ready to cut the Witches down.
Yanbu Junichi alone could tilt the river of war like a boulder. It wasn’t exaggeration, though he wore indifference like rain on stone.
Tonight’s clash was between the Witches and the Flamebu Family, a storm in one valley. It didn’t touch the Four Pupils Clan, so Shitou Yuya stayed out, watching like a wolf from a ridge.
“Fighting already...?”
At night in her room, Yun Shi stood in thin sleepwear, a moth by the window. Her small hand pressed to the glass, cold as frost, and she gazed at a battlefield that existed only as smoke.
She felt a thread pulling tight, her future tangled in that shadowed place like roots under rock.
Unawares, her thoughts drifted with memory, migrating like birds toward a distant country.
“Going online today?”
“Nah, I’m writing a report. You guys go.”
“Heh, you’re awfully motivated!”
“No choice, today’s bad. Boss, you and the crew go.”
“Cut the talk. Since our brother ain’t going, we ain’t either. We’ll stay and back you.”
...
“Son, come see your dad if you have time. He says he misses you.”
“Okay, Mom. I’ll come this week. Tell him not to worry.”
“Good. And you, watch your health out there.”
...
“I’m signing up for the speech contest. Thoughts?”
“Your fight is ours. We’ll cheer you on!”
...
“For this big speech event, first place goes to...!”
“Thanks, you guys. Without your shouting, I’d have frozen. Brothers, thank you!”
...
Countless memories poured in like a flood. Dust-sealed boxes popped open, and old light spilled into the room.
She had planned to forget everything, to grow like a transplanted tree in this world. Yet tonight, she missed the old sun.
Why did the storm choose her? Why force her into a woman’s body, while others crossed worlds with golden cheats and she crossed with nothing but sorrow?
“Maybe... it’s all a dream.”
Yun Shi lowered her hand, and her gaze dimmed like embers in rain.
Being mocked in training wasn’t much. But she didn’t even have the courage to talk back, and her brother said, with a steady warmth, that he could protect her.
For Yun Shi, that line hit like a hammer on thin glass.
She didn’t need protection, because if she leaned into that shelter, she might forget she used to be a man.
She didn’t want to forget, didn’t want to abandon the bright garden of her past.
She had been ordinary—a warm kitchen, parents like morning tea, friends like summer wind—and happier than many.
One rebirth stripped her clean, leaving her standing like a bare tree in winter.
Now she wore silk like a parade banner, but inside, the fibers were torn, nothing like before.
Old scenes erupted like a spring thaw, and sealed feelings burst like ice under sun.
Crystalline drops fell, one by one, tapping a foreign floor like rain on stone.
Her face held no expression, a doll carved from wood. Only the water flowing from her eyes showed her true tide.
“Dad, Mom... and my brothers...”
“I miss you so much...”
“You and I aren’t in one world anymore...”
“To you, I’m just a memory. In your hearts, I’m already a ghost.”
Raised in a place derailed from light, a tunnel curled away from dawn, how could she find it again?
She had almost nothing left, only a few names that still warmed like campfires.
Mia. Eil. And her brother.
That was all her sky.
Pitifully few, and yet undeniably bright.
“I’m in pain. I want...”
“To leave here, to go back to my world.”
Only in this hush could she voice her wish whole, like a lantern unshaded. She wasn’t being dramatic. She just couldn’t forget. She simply didn’t want to crouch in this dark corner.
She wanted to catch light, even if it was only a dream, a moth chasing a paper moon.
When the dream shattered, the pond would still be black.
“No moon tonight...”
“No moon tonight.”
Shitou Yuya watched smoke rise beyond his window, grey snakes climbing the sky. He felt tomorrow’s burdens swell like storm clouds, and the stinging reek of powder crept into every seam.
He sighed and sat by the bed, thoughts circling like crows.
His sister’s day still weighed on him, a stone in his coat. He didn’t know where to place it.
“Little Yun...”
To Yuuya, his sister was a special ember—blood bound them like roots, and years braided their warmth like straw.
He hadn’t forgotten their childhood, sunlight through paper, laughter like bells. Back then, their pattern was almost the same as Yun Shi’s distance from their parents now.
He really didn’t want to slip back into that cold choreography.
“Um, Little Yun...”
“Deeply sorry, Honored Brother. I must study etiquette with Honored Mother, so I have no time.”
...
“Sister, let’s train together today!”
“Apologies, Honored Brother. Please train with your scheduled partners. I prefer to train alone.”
“But I want to be with you.”
“My sincerest regret. I’m used to solitude.”
...
“Honored Brother, Honored Father calls for you.”
“We’re siblings, right? Can’t we talk like normal...”
“Absolutely not. Etiquette mustn’t break. It’s the rule, and Honored Mother’s teaching.”
No matter how he stepped closer, the ice didn’t crack. No matter how he opened his chest, the door stayed latched.
Family rules had forged a perfect sister, a jade statue, but robbed him of the warmth he craved.
“Honored Brother, your schedule is arranged.”
Toward his parents, Yuuya’s heart felt like a dried riverbed. Little flowed there.
“Please mind yourself. I don’t have that much time for you.”
Because they had taken his living sister and replaced her with ritual.
“Honored Brother...”
“Brother...”
In truth, he only wanted her to call him “big brother” once, plain as bread. He didn’t need a sister polished like porcelain.
Then that day came, a crack in winter.
“Strange, why didn’t Little Yun come to the training hall?”
“Answering, young master: the young lady has a blazing 42°C fever and is bedridden.”
“What! Where are Honored Father and Honored Mother?”
“The master is away on business. The lady has gone to visit the Divine Ling Family’s main house, so...”
“I’m not training today!”
His heart panicked like drums in a storm for the first time.
“Sister, I’m here. It’s okay. I’m here. I’ll take care of you...”
He couldn’t forget that almost cold little hand, pale as snow. He feared losing that kin like losing breath, and his babbling exposed the soft middle of his heart.
Their bond wasn’t romance, only a tight weave of siblings, but worry and fear are human weather.
He remembered staying by her side, step by step, like a guard dog by a lantern. Her face was full of bewilderment, eyes like lakes, surprised by his fuss.
It didn’t matter. He only had to do what felt right, a steady flame under clay.
After she recovered, Yuuya saw the sister who had always been polite and distant open her lips like a bud and say her first line to him—
“Dummy brother.”
From that moment, the frost began to melt. Their bond found a warmer path.
Thinking of that slow road, Yuuya felt a hundred tides at once. He couldn’t protect her forever. One day, she would find the other half who shared her sky.
But until he handed her to someone worthy of guard, he would fulfill his duty as her brother, firm as a mountain.
Yuuya stood and looked through the window. His eyes grew steady, a blade under water.
It was his decision, and his burden he couldn’t put down.
...
By morning, last night’s fight between the Flamebu Family and the Witches had left nearby parts shredded like torn banners. To the Outer World, the story was that government forces fought terrorists and won. Only the Underworld knew whose blades sang.
Truth always nests in corners no one sweeps.
Watching the busy family members move like ants, Yun Shi wondered if she should skip training today, a leaf hesitating in wind.
“Hmm?”
Just then, she spotted familiar faces. Without thinking, she walked forward, feet light as sparrows.
“Mia. Eil.”
“Good morning, miss.”
“Morning, miss.”
She felt the air’s teeth, a sense that today wouldn’t be quiet, thunder low behind the hills.
She didn’t know the shape of it, only the weight.
She would never have imagined it. Today would decide her whole life like a seal on paper.
Her story would be rewritten, ink running across a new page.
