The train screeched to a halt at a station that didn't appear on any map.
A translucent bridge stretched out before them, suspended high above a valley of swirling clouds. White stone towers pierced the sky, their walls etched with wind-script glyphs that shimmered and shifted. The air here was different — thinner, charged, reverent. The breeze carried whispers.
Arashi stepped out first. The moment her foot touched the bridge, the winds shifted unnaturally, recognizing her. Gojo followed, eyes wide.
"Whoa," he muttered. "It's like someone turned the altitude slider to max."
Mizuki adjusted her glasses. "We're walking on wind-forged marble. Don't trip. You'll fall for three hours before you hit anything solid."
"Noted," Gojo squeaked.
As they reached the gate, a host of robed sentries with wind masks blocked their path. None raised a weapon, but all stood like stone.
The largest of them stepped forward and removed her mask.
She was beautiful in an unyielding way — her cheekbones sharp as cliff edges, her silver eyes cold as mountaintop ice. Her hair, longer than Arashi's, billowed though there was no wind.
"...You came," she said.
"Hello, Mother," Arashi replied quietly.
Lady Fūrin of the Wind Clan didn't smile.
"You return with outsiders. With your bloodline unstable. With the Nexus fracturing. And you bring a pervert in sandals?"
Gojo blinked. "Wow. First impression. Cool."
Arashi didn't respond. Her expression was flat, but her fingers were curled too tightly.
Lady Fūrin turned her gaze to the others. "You are not welcome here. But the spirits have tolerated worse."
With a gesture, she turned and walked back through the gate.
Gojo opened his mouth, but Suma grabbed his arm. "Not now," she whispered.
---
The group followed through the wind-slick streets of Stormvale. Towering shrines spun like turbines above rooftops, and spirit wisps floated near vents and rooftops. Yet the air felt... incomplete.
"The wind's off," Hikami murmured.
Mizuki frowned. "Unbalanced. It's not breathing properly."
They reached a platform of levitating slate that carried them up a spiral tower. At the top stood a shrine like no other — The Wind Nexus.
It floated between three jagged cliff pillars, suspended in a storm that moved in slow motion. Threads of wind spiraled inward like veins, feeding into a crystal monolith at the center, cracked and flickering with pulses of air-light.
The moment Arashi stepped onto the platform, the wind flared.
"Arashi-sama..." a voice called out.
A boy, maybe sixteen, approached — slender, sharp-eyed, with hair that danced without wind. He wore the robes of a High Wind Acolyte.
"Yurei," Arashi said. "You've grown."
"You haven't," he replied. "You still run away from what you are."
Gojo bristled. "Wow, we're just jumping to passive aggression today, huh?"
Yurei ignored him. "You left us. You turned your back on the Nexus. And now it's dying. Why did you even come back?"
Arashi's lips pressed into a line. "Because the spirits called me."
"Too late," he said coldly. "They're already mourning you."
--
Inside the temple, Lady Fūrin stood before the Nexus. The cracked crystal pulsed unevenly, like a failing heartbeat.
"You were to inherit this," she said, facing Arashi. "Born with more wind sense than any in a century. You could hear the gusts before you could speak."
Arashi stood still.
"You could have been Wind Empress. But you chose exile. Why?"
The room was silent. Even the breeze halted.
Gojo, watching from the archway with the others, looked at Arashi's clenched fists. He couldn't help himself.
"She didn't leave because she was weak," he said, stepping forward. "She left because she had no choice."
Fūrin turned, eyes narrowing. "You speak for her now?"
"I speak because she won't. But someone should. You blame her for running — maybe you should ask what chased her away."
The temperature dropped.
Arashi closed her eyes.
"There was a trial," she said softly. "I was sixteen. The Nexus wanted to test me. It let a storm spirit inside me."
Everyone stilled.
"I beat it. But I hurt someone. I lost control."
Yurei's voice cracked. "That's a lie."
"It's the truth," Arashi said. "I wasn't ready. I was terrified of becoming something the wind couldn't control. So I left. Before I broke the Nexus myself."
Lady Fūrin's face was unreadable. Then she turned away.
"The Nexus does not forgive weakness. Nor do I."
-
That night, the group stayed in a floating guest chamber shaped like a wind-chime bell. The floor hummed softly under their feet. No one said much. Arashi sat alone on the balcony.
Gojo walked out, holding two cups of tea.
"One's for you," he said. "The other's if I decide to jump off dramatically."
She took the tea. Didn't smile.
"They all hate me," she said after a while.
"Not all," Gojo said. "Yurei looks like he wants to punch you and cry at the same time. So I'd say complicated, not hate."
She shook her head.
"This place raised me. It sang to me. But I didn't choose it. I chose to be free."
He watched her carefully.
"And you'd do it again?"
She hesitated. "Yes."
"Then you already passed a bigger trial than this clan will ever understand."
She looked at him — really looked.
"I'm scared," she admitted. "What if the Nexus breaks because of me? What if I'm still that girl who can't hold the storm inside?"
He leaned on the balcony next to her, shoulder to shoulder.
"Then we'll hold it with you."
She turned away, blinking hard.
From behind the clouds, the wind stirred unnaturally. A distant howl echoed — more spirit than air.
Hikami stepped outside, looking upward.
"Something's coming."
--
The next morning, Lady Fūrin summoned Arashi to the inner shrine. A mural had cracked overnight — one showing the Wind Mother's Four Wings. At the base of the mural, ancient glyphs had surfaced, glowing faintly.
Yurei read them aloud, voice tight.
> "When the wind weeps and no song answers, the sky shall tear. The blood of the Empress unborn shall call the storm's reckoning. Only a wind without name may calm the screaming heavens."
Everyone was silent.
Arashi stared at the glyphs. Then at her mother.
"I'm the blood."
Fūrin nodded slowly. "But you never took the title. You were never crowned."
"I didn't need to be," Arashi whispered. "The Nexus marked me anyway."
Gojo, leaning in the doorway with a cup of borrowed Wind Clan coffee, blinked.
"Wait… are you the storm?"
Arashi looked shaken.
"I might be," she said. "Or the one who stops it."
---
As they walked away from the shrine, Suma looped an arm around Arashi's neck.
"Guess you're important or something."
"I always was," Arashi muttered.
Hiyori tossed her a dumpling. "Here. Eat something before you start glowing and floating again."
Arashi caught it, barely hiding her smile.
Gojo walked beside her, hands behind his head. "So... what's the next move?"
Arashi looked toward the Nexus, where wind now whispered her name.
"I stop a war. Or start one."
---
To be continued.