Chapter 60: Next Time
The corridor outside the arena smelled like lemon cleaner and breath that forgot it was holding. The door thunked shut behind them and the crowd noise shrank into a fussing memory. Raizen walked because his feet remembered how. His hands did not belong to him yet.
Kori stopped. The eight almost ran into her back.
She turned, and slapped him.
It was sharp enough to reset a heart.
"What were you thinking!?" she screamed. Her voice had the wobble of someone who spent all her anger keeping people alive and only found her fear once they were standing. "Why would you go all in on a body that still forgets to stop!? Do you know what happens if you miss that brake by a hand? Do you know what happens to your spine if your angle is wrong by a breath!??"
Raizen looked at the floor. The floor had scratches in it that looked like writing. He tried to read them and could not.
Kori went on, words tripping over each other like they wanted out before the tremor could claim them. "There were no rules. Osamu was there. We would have fixed what broke. But you are not a thing we can bolt back together if you decide to sell yourself to a moment! Do you hear me, Raizen?!"
He nodded because nodding was simple.
"You don’t get to spend your life like that." she said. "Not for a lesson. Not for a cheer. Not for my pride. Especially not for my pride."
He tried to say sorry and found the door inside him still shut. The Maw’s quiet pressed the hall in around his ears. He heard nothing except the slap. He saw only her hand against his cheek and thought, flat as a table: They hate me now. They are scared of me now.
Kori’s mouth opened again.
Hikari got there first.
She stepped into him like a decision. No words. She wrapped her arms around him and set her cheek against his chest and held.
Raizen froze on the outside. Something in him slammed into the hug like a runner into a wall and then slid down until it decided the floor was safe. His hands hovered stupidly, then found her shoulders. He did not squeeze. He did not deserve to. She did not let go.
Keahi came in next, ribs taped, smile crooked. She reached up and flicked Raizen’s ear with two fingers like she was scolding a cat. "You scared me," she said. "Do it smarter next time." She leaned against his arm anyway.
Ichiro set a steady palm between Raizen’s shoulder blades, not pushing.
Esen’s laugh came out wrong and right at once. "That punch will make me hear bells in my sleep" he said. "Thank you for the bells."
Feris planted her mace like a flag and squinted at his cheek. "You got slapped and didn’t even block it. Good. That means you’re all good."
Arashi kept his distance for a beat, hands up like he was approaching a feral animal he was fond of. Then he stepped in and hooked an arm around Raizen’s neck from the side, careful of Hikari. "For the record," he said, voice light but eyes not, "if anyone is allowed to terrify my enemies, it is you. But also, please continue to be available for lunch."
Kori’s shoulders dropped. Some small knot in her jaw unwound. She touched the red place on Raizen’s cheek with the backs of her fingers like a mother checking a fever. When she spoke again the wobble had turned into steel wrapped in cloth.
"I do not care what the stands think" she said. "I do not care what Osamu files. I care that you walk out of my halls with your head still yours. Yes?"
Raizen nodded. Low, small and true.
She nodded back, satisfied with the answer if not with the world. "Good. Then we move. Infirmary. Water. Food. We talk drills later. And Raizen," she added as he started to step away, "do not decide alone in the future"
Hikari squeezed him once more, hard enough to make the brace creak, then let go. The hallway widened. Breathing learned a new trick.
They walked towards the exit.
At the arena exit, sound hit them like a wave that had been waiting behind glass. Students packed the arch in an unruly cluster, uniforms crooked, faces bright. They held up hands, phones, slates, fists, notebooks, anything they could lift.
"You showed them!" a girl in the front said, almost a squeal.
"That was insane," someone shouted from the back.
"It’s called not dying. Wouldn’t recommend it..." Arashi said solemnly. "Step one, do not get hit. Step two, have a friend who can heal. Step three, don’t be Raizen."
Laughter popped like corn. Hands reached to clap shoulders and then pulled back with guilty respect. A small kid stuck out a hand to Raizen with the serious bravery of someone meeting a storm. Raizen took it, shook gently, and the kid’s grin exploded across his face like a sunrise that had been waiting for permission.
Keahi signed somebody’s chalk with a stripe of soot from her fingers and declared it a limited edition. Feris posed with two first years who kept trying to flex and giggling. Esen showed a pair of kids how to set their hips before clapping an invisible wave, then made them promise to practice on pillows. Hikari stood half a step apart with her brace and her stubborn calm, collecting thanks like pebbles. She reached back without looking and found Raizen’s wrist. He let her. The noise softened around the touch.
Kori watched from the edge with the expression of a woman counting both blessings and exits. Osamu passed through the periphery with Oren, Iris, Keita, and Ryuu in a slow line. The first years parted for them out of reflex and forced respect. Keita tipped a fan off his brow toward Raizen. Iris, now awake, raised two fingers in a small hello that belonged to professionals. Oren walked like a man who had already added a drill to tomorrow. Ryuu gave a chin lift and the faintest smile, like an engineer who had discovered the flaw and was pleased to fix it.
When the tide of students finally ebbed and the exit was theirs again, the eight stood a moment in the sudden quiet. The arena was behind them. Dinner was ahead. The day would end whether they wanted it to or not.
Raizen touched the place on his cheek where Kori’s hand had landed. The skin was warm. The room in his chest that had been locked took another slow breath and looked around at the people in it.
They were his. He was theirs. Scary was a shape. He could learn where to stand.
Then he looked at Hikari. She looked back with that steady in her eyes that turned frenzy into a line you could walk.
Next time, he thought.