Gilded Ashes-Chapter 59: Next Time
--- An hour later ---
The corridor outside the arena smelled like lemon cleaner. The door shut behind Raizen and the crowd noise shrank to a murmur through stone. He kept walking, mind elsewhere. His hands felt numb, and his throat felt dry.
Kori stopped right in front of Raizen.
The seven other Royal Scholars almost walked into her back. Keahi was still holding her abdomen, even after ten whole minutes of Osamu healing her with Eon. Ichiro looking at the floor, Hikari still unstable on her feet.
Suddenly, Kori turned and slapped Raizen.
Hard. Open palm.
The sound cracked off the walls and the echo came back twice.
"What were you thinking!?" Kori shouted, and the word thinking made her voice crack. "Why would you go all in with a body that still doesn’t know when to stop!? Do you know what happens if you miss that brake by an inch!? Do you know what your spine does if the angle is wrong by a breath!? Answer me, Raizen!!"
Raizen looked at the floor. There were scratches in the stone. He tried to read them and couldn’t.
His mind was blank. He couldn’t think about anything. Kori’s voice kept coming, words running ahead of each other, but for him, they were just blurred words.
"Osamu was there, yes. We could have fixed what broke slightly, that was the point. But healing has limits, too! You’re not something we can put back together if you decide to throw yourself away for a moment. Do you hear me!?"
Raizen nodded, eyes empty. Nodding was simple.
"You don’t get to spend your life like that" Kori continued to shout. Her voice cracked again, and this time she didn’t try to hide it. "Not for a lesson. Not for a crowd. Not for my pride." She swallowed. "Especially not for my pride."
Raizen tried to say sorry. The word didn’t come. The Maw’s quiet – the same quiet that came when he saw the gun on Hikari’s head - pressed against the walls of his skull and muffled everything except the sting on his cheek and the flat, and the thought that arrived without permission:
I see... They’re scared of me now.
Kori opened her mouth again.
But Hikari got there first.
She stepped into him without a word, almost stumbling. Arms around his chest. Cheek against his collarbone. She held on, she didn’t explain it, and she didn’t let go.
Raizen froze. His hands hovered, useless for a few seconds, then found her shoulders. He didn’t feel like he’d earned it.
She held on anyway.
Keahi came next. Ribs taped, smile crooked. She reached up and flicked Raizen’s ear with two fingers. "You scared me, man" she said. "Do it... Easier next time." Then she rested her elbow on his shoulter like that settled it.
Ichiro set a steady palm on Raizen’s other shoulder. He didn’t speak, but that was just how he was. Just put his hand there and left it.
Esen’s laugh came out half-loud. "That punch you did – the one paired with the dash - is going to make me hear bells in my sleep"
Feris squinted at his cheek, then whispered "You got slapped and didn’t even block it. Wow, are you still in there?"
Arashi held back for a second - hands slightly raised, careful, the way you approach something wild. Then he stepped in and hooked an arm around Raizen’s neck from the side, careful not to touch Hikari or Ichiro. "For the record" he said, voice light but eyes dead serious, "if anyone is allowed to terrify people on my behalf, it’s you. But also - please continue to be available for lunch."
Something in Kori’s jaw loosened. Her shoulders dropped a tiny bit. She reached out and touched the red mark on Raizen’s cheek with the backs of her fingers.
"I don’t care what the stands think" she said. Her voice had steadied now. "I don’t care what Osamu says. I care that you don’t destroy yourself." She held his eyes. "Choose the battles you need to take. Yes?"
Raizen nodded. A small gesture, but now he meant it.
"Good" she said. "Then let’s go. Infirmary. Water. Food." She turned, then stopped. "And Raizen – despite everything... Great job."
Hikari squeezed him once more - hard enough to make the bandages on her arm creak - then let go.
Breathing came a little easier after that. Breathing came a little easier.
They walked toward the exit.
The noise reached them before the daylight did. Students packed the archway in a messy crowd - uniforms crooked, faces flushed, hands raised holding random slates, notebooks and fists. They’d seen the first-years beat second-years. That was enough. That was everything.
"You showed them!" a girl in the front shouted.
"That was insane!" someone yelled from the back.
A few hands reached to clap shoulders, then pulled back with a kind of nervous respect - like they wanted to touch something they weren’t quite sure was still safe.
A small kid pushed through to the front and stuck out his hand toward Raizen with the serious courage of someone who decided this mattered. Raizen took it, shook gently. The kid’s whole face lit up and he turned back into the crowd like he’d just been handed something precious.
Slowly but surely, the crowd shifted, everyone going in their own ways.
Osamu came through with Oren, Iris, Keita, and Ryuu walking behind him in a slow line. The students made room – not out of respect, but out of old instinct.
Keita caught Raizen’s eye as he passed. He tipped his head – a small gesture, not quite a respectful salute, but close enough. His whole torso was wrapped, a bit of blood still leaving fresh marks. His grin was gone.
Iris, awake now, raised her hand in a brief acknowledgment.
Oren walked past with his shoulders tense, dragging his shield.
Ryuu, now with two new steel legs and still no arms, gave a chin lift and the smallest smile.
When the students finally disappeared, the eight first-years stood together in the sudden silence. The arena behind them. Dinner, probably ahead. The day was starting to settle into the kind of peace that comes after everything bad has already happened.
Raizen touched the place on his cheek where Kori’s hand had slapped him. It was still a bit warm, but it didn’t bother him.
"Next time..." he thought. "I will hold back."
