The ruins of Ikaido Shrine loomed before them, fragments of broken pillars casting jagged shadows under a sickly twilight sky. Mai, Duncan, and Tiffany stood in silence, each weighed down by the confessions of the night before.
Mai's body moved forward first. The others followed.
The wind howled as if echoing ghosts. Ash covered the stone path like snow. At the center of the ruins stood a strange pedestal inscribed with the symbol of a flower wrapped in flame.
"This is it," Duncan muttered. "The origin point."
Tiffany knelt, brushing away the ash. "Something's beneath."
Mai joined her, her fingers trembling. As she wiped the pedestal clean, the stone suddenly pulsed, and a bright orange glow seeped from the cracks.
A memory flashed.
Flashback – The Fall of the Shrine (23 years ago)
Flames devoured the sky. The shrine, once sacred, became a battlefield.
A woman with a flaming iris tattoo on her back stood defiantly before a man cloaked in blue smoke — Gigel.
"You betrayed the cycle," she spat.
Gigel stepped forward, his voice like ice. "I freed it."
They clashed — petals and fire, wrath and balance. The woman screamed as Gigel's energy shattered her shield, and the shrine collapsed with her final cry.
Back in the present, Mai fell to her knees.
"I saw her," she whispered. "She fought Gigel here."
Tiffany's eyes narrowed. "Another flower carrier. One erased."
A pulse of energy shook the air. From the far end of the shrine, a shadow appeared — vague, flickering like memory.
Mai stood slowly, her aura beginning to flicker — but not red.
Orange.
Tiffany stepped back. "Wait... that aura."
Mai's voice trembled with something darker. "I can still feel him. What I did."
The shadow wavered again — not truly Ran Fuji, but his image. Her mind, echoing the weight of her kill.
She clenched her fists. "He hurt people. And I became worse."
Tiffany's hand touched her shoulder gently. "You're not him. You're still fighting."
Mai's voice twisted. "What if that's just what I tell myself to feel better?"
Her aura pulsed — orange embers dancing around her fingers.
Duncan moved toward her. "Mai... you're not alone."
She turned, her expression torn between horror and serenity. "Then hold me back if I fall."
To be continued...
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