Raiden, with his smoldering wounds and cryptic mumblings, had been whisked away by Shiro and Armin, their combined efforts momentarily halting the chaos he'd unleashed upon Yui's precious garden. The Matriarch herself followed, her expression promising she'd file this under I hate everyone but especially humans. This brief reprieve gave Jia some much-needed time to sit in the now-ruined garden, lost in her thoughts. The charred remains of Raiden's kimono still lingered in her mind, but it wasn't the fabric—or his nearly cremated state—that haunted her. It was that damned name he'd uttered.
Her name.
"Jia Hoshino," he'd said, loud and clear as if trying to break her mental defenses. Now, she was left staring at the ground, replaying the moment, while Kai, her dear dumb dragon of a boyfriend, sat down beside her in silence. For once, he wasn't rambling about Yui's disapproval or how cool his dragon scales were. No, Kai sat there quietly, which somehow made things worse.
"I don't know whatever the hell is happening, Kai," she snapped, not even looking at him, already anticipating the awkward question she knew he'd eventually ask.
Kai shifted uncomfortably. "Jia… do you even like me?"
She froze. Oh, great. Here it was—the existential crisis of the insecure dragon boyfriend. The one question she'd dreaded since she agreed to hold his hand while he bumbled his way through life. She glanced at him, and he was staring at her with the saddest eyes a dragon beast could muster. And to top it off, he continued, "I mean, I know I'm not… smart like you. Or clever, or—well, anything, really. All I have is—" he gestured vaguely to his torso, "—this. And my dragon-ness."
Jia felt her chest tighten. She hated when Kai got like this, not because she didn't care, but because he always knew how to stab her heart with his self-pity. She wanted to tell him he was more than muscles and scales, but nothing she could say would make him believe it. She opened her mouth, then closed it. Words failed her. All she could do was stare into his big, watery eyes like some helpless idiot.
As if ease the brewing tension, Armin suddenly appeared from the haze of smoke and chaos, his usual stoic demeanor slightly cracked. "Jia," he began, his voice low and steady, "do you know Raiden? The guy you just saw coughing up blood that I took inside?"
Jia blinked, her thoughts interrupted. "No," she replied curtly, still reeling from everything that had happened.
Armin nodded but didn't seem convinced. "That guy… he's something else," he said, his gaze drifting off as if recalling a distant memory of his best friend. "I found him once, back on Mount Qi. He was frozen solid. I thought he was dead for sure, but—well, you saw him today. He's clearly not." Armin let out a rare chuckle, his voice tinged with something close to admiration. "The first thing he did after defrosting was breathe out this cold fog like some ancient monk who forgot how to reincarnate properly."
Jia stared at Armin, unsure of where this was going, but he continued regardless. "I thought he was a sign or something, you know? A symbol of resilience. Hell, I even started building a shrine for him, thinking he was some divine being." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Turns out, he's just… well, Raiden. A drunkard with a weird affinity for attracting chaos."
Kai, momentarily forgetting about his relationship crisis, chose this moment to chime in. "Wait, so he's not a monk? He sure looked like one a while ago."
Armin ignored him. "Look," he said, turning back to Jia, "Raiden may seem like a wreck, but there's more to him than meets the eye. He's survived things that would've killed anyone else. And for some reason…" He trailed off, his eyes narrowing slightly. "For some reason, he said your name. Twice."
Jia swallowed hard. She wanted to say something—anything—but the words caught in her throat. Armin didn't press her further. Instead, he sighed and added, almost as an afterthought, "Oh, and for what it's worth, my ex-girlfriend cheated on me with a horse I was taming to become a centaur. So, you know, life's weird."
With that, he turned and walked off, leaving Jia and Kai alone once more.
Kai, proving yet again why he was not the brains of the operation, tilted his head. "A centaur? How does that even work?"
Jia ignored him. Her mind was still spinning, her thoughts an incoherent mess. She barely noticed when Kai suddenly turned to her with a serious expression—well, as serious as Kai could manage.
"Jia," he said, his tone unusually somber, "I think you might have some kind of… connection to Raiden. Like, maybe you knew him in a past life or something. Or maybe he's your long-lost uncle?"
Jia raised an eyebrow. "My uncle? Really?"
Kai shrugged. "I don't know! I'm just saying, maybe you should stick with better people than me. You're smart and pretty and—"
"Oh, stop it," Jia cut him off, her voice sharp. "I don't know why I'm with you either, Kai. But I do know one thing." She hesitated, the words tasting bitter as she forced them out. "I don't want to… depart from you."
The moment the words left her mouth, she cringed so hard she wanted to crawl into a hole and die. She didn't even dare look at Kai, who, judging by the stupid grin on his face, was probably about to cry from happiness.
Before the awkwardness could fully settle, a sudden shrieking sound pierced through the air. Jia's head snapped up, her instincts kicking in. The sound was coming from outside the palace grounds—a woman's voice, high and desperate, calling out something unintelligible.
Kai jumped to his feet. "What was that?"
Jia didn't respond. Her eyes were already fixed on the palace gates, her heart pounding as the eerie voice echoed again, louder this time. Whatever it was, it wasn't good.