FIRE, LETTERS, AND A LIE ONLY HE REMEMBERS
By the time the mountain mist began to burn off, Rafael had already made a decision.
The glowing Summon Circle had faded into an ordinary ward sigil on the ground. The System's light had vanished. But Maki Oze was still there—solid, breathing, alive—standing in the gravel path just below the torii gate, staring around like someone who had stepped from a battlefield into a dream.
She'd calmed down fast.
That told him a lot.
"So," she said at last, arms folded under her chest, flames flickering faintly around her wrists. "Name. Status. Situation."
Rafael almost smiled.
"Rafael Yosuke Raijinko-Redmane," he said. "Second year at Mahoutokorou. Magitech and advanced combat track. You're standing at the outer gate of the Raijinko estate, which also serves as one of the school's training access points."
She watched him, weighing every word.
That was good too.
"And you?" he asked. "You're Maki Oze. Fire soldier. Martial combat type. Very strong. Heart like a furnace."
She blinked. "You… know me?"
"Let's just say," he said lightly, "I know talent when I see it."
In the corner of his vision, only he could see:
> [OMNIVERSAL SYSTEM NOTICE]
SUMMON COMPLETE: MAKI OZE
ROLE: COMPANION / SUN-ASPECT GUARDIAN CANDIDATE
REALITY: UPDATED
COVER IDENTITY: NIECE OF HEADMASTER SHIROGANE.
MEMORIES, RECORDS, AND DOCUMENTS ALTERED.
Rafael exhaled slowly.
"Right," he murmured under his breath. "So that's how you're going to play it."
He looked back at Maki.
"Here's what's going to happen," he said. "From this point on, no one can know how you really arrived. As far as the world is concerned, you're the Headmaster's niece. You were transferred here from a different branch of the academy."
Maki pointed at him. "You expect me to just go along with that?"
He met her eyes evenly. "Do you want to stay?"
She hesitated.
Then nodded.
"I don't know why I'm here," she admitted, gaze turning toward the distant school buildings shining like white stone under the sun. "But… I can feel it. This place needs protecting. You need backup. And there's someone you're worried about who isn't even here."
Rafael's chest tightened.
Hermione.
He reached into his pocket and brushed his thumb over the edge of his device. It warmed faintly.
"Maybe," he said quietly. "So. Can you pretend I found you wandering near the gate, recognized you from old school photos, and brought you to your uncle?"
Maki snorted. "You're a terrible liar."
"Yes," he said dryly. "But I am very good at telling the truth from a slightly different angle."
She looked at him again—properly this time.
Saw the weight in his eyes.
The discipline.
The exhaustion of someone who'd been preparing for a war no one else could see.
She exhaled.
"Fine," she said. "I'm your Headmaster's niece. You found me outside the gate. Lead the way, Raijinko."
"Rafael," he corrected. "If you're going to punch people for me, you might as well use my first name."
Her mouth twitched.
"Deal."
Frostfang trotted ahead of them, practically vibrating with pride as he led the way down the stone path.
As they stepped through the torii gate, reality shivered.
To everyone they passed, she was already familiar.
A groundskeeper bowed. "Oh, young Lady Oze—back from the Tokyo branch already?"
Maki didn't miss a beat. "Yeah. Got bored there."
Two second-year students whispered as they walked by:
"That's the Headmaster's niece, isn't it?"
"I heard she's insane up close."
"Insane powerful, idiot."
Maki's eyes widened for a heartbeat, then narrowed thoughtfully.
"Reality rewrite," she muttered under her breath. "Not bad, kid."
Rafael didn't answer.
Couldn't.
He felt it too—the way the world had wrapped new threads around her existence, weaving her into class lists, photos on the Headmaster's desk, a framed picture in the staff lounge showing a younger Maki standing next to the Headmaster at some festival.
The System did not just lie.
It rewrote.
He shoved down the chill that thought brought.
No one could ever know.
Not about the System.
Not about the Summoning.
Not about the other worlds.
That secret would live and die with him and the people he chose.
No one else.
Not even the Headmaster.
Not Hermione.
Especially not Hermione.
Not yet.
—
The Headmaster's office existed halfway between a shrine and a war room.
Scrolls lined the walls, each inscribed with a different magical theory mandala. Ancient katanas hung in displays beside wands that looked like relics from forgotten eras. A single, sleek CAD tablet lay on the desk amid a stack of parchment—like the future had quietly intruded upon the past and refused to leave.
Headmaster Takeda Junpei looked up as they entered.
He appeared young—silver hair, sharp eyes, lean frame—but Rafael knew better. The man was older than Dumbledore, older than most modern nations, and twice as stubborn.
"Ah," Shirogane said mildly, "you found her."
Maki didn't even flinch.
"Sorry, Uncle," she said with an easy bow. "Got a bit turned around on my way up the mountain. I ran into Rafael at the gate."
Takeda studied her.
Then studied Rafael.
There was a glint in the Headmaster's gaze that suggested he saw more than he pretended to.
"Hmm," he said at last. "You always did have terrible directional sense."
Maki relaxed a fraction.
Rafael's shoulders loosened.
The Headmaster gestured. "Come. Sit."
Maki moved first, dropping into the chair with military precision. Rafael took the other seat, Frostfang curling up under his feet like a snow-shadow.
"You've grown," Takeda said to Maki. "In more ways than one."
"Training will do that," she replied. "Fire company work, too."
Takeda's eyes flicked to the faint sparks dancing around her clenched fist.
Appraisal. Approval.
"To be clear," he said calmly, folding his hands, "the Tokyo branch recommended you for provisional placement here. Your… particular talents… suit this campus better. We are closer to the leyline nexus. Closer to the seismic Veil shifts. Closer to students who attract trouble."
His gaze flicked, just once, to Rafael.
Rafael pretended not to notice.
Maki followed his look.
"Huh," she muttered. "Yeah, I can feel it. He's a trouble magnet."
"Accurate," Takeda said.
Rafael sighed quietly.
"Lady Oze will be joining your year," the Headmaster added. "Combat and magitech tracks both. I expect the two of you to work together. You," he told Maki, "know the unspoken rules here. I trust you to enforce them with… force… if necessary."
Maki's slow smile was all teeth.
Rafael pitied their enemies in advance.
Takeda leaned back. "You may go. Rafael, take her to the CAD labs. She'll need to synchronize to our systems."
"Yes, Headmaster," Rafael said, rising smoothly.
Maki bowed again. "Thank you, Uncle."
As they stepped into the hallway, Rafael let out the breath he'd been holding.
"You handled that well," he said.
Maki rolled her shoulders. "Reality already did most of the heavy lifting. I just followed the script in my head that wasn't there five minutes ago." She glanced sideways at him. "You know this is insane, right?"
"Constantly."
"Good." She cracked her knuckles. "Means we're starting from the same baseline."
—
The CAD labs glowed with the quiet hum of restrained miracles.
Crystal pillars. Floating arrays. Holographic schematics hovering over worktables where third-years and advanced track students etched rune lines into blank CAD housings.
Maki stopped dead just inside the doorway.
"Okay," she said. "Now this? This I like."
Rafael couldn't help being amused.
"Welcome to my second home," he said. "CAD Fabrication Lab One. Magitech core integration, spell route encoding, firmware design, and occasionally things that explode."
Maki gave him a look. "Define 'occasionally.'"
He considered. "Statistically non-zero?"
She snorted.
He led her to his workbench near the lab's back wall. It was neatly organized—tools hanging precisely, CAD shells stacked, rune templates pinned up like art.
One project, however, sat in the center, separate from the others.
A simple ring model.
Unassuming.
Silver.
Plain.
Except for the dense weave of sub-engraved runic lines carved into its inner surface.
Maki picked it up before he could warn her.
Energy snapped against her fingers. She hissed softly and put it back.
"That's… not a normal CAD focus," she murmured.
"It's not for me," Rafael said quietly. "It's for someone else. A friend."
Maki tilted her head. "The one you're worried about. The girl."
He stiffened.
Said nothing.
She leaned her hip against the table. "I'm not blind, Rafael. You talk to someone when you think I'm not looking. You keep checking your device like you're waiting for a heartbeat. And there was this… pull when I manifested. Something on the other side of whatever link you've got. Someone who matters."
He closed his eyes for half a second.
"Hermione," he said finally. "Her name is Hermione."
Maki smiled softly. "Good name."
He touched the ring with two fingers. The System interface flickered over it in his vision.
> [DOWNLOADER RING PROJECT]
PRIMARY TARGET: HERMIONE JEAN GRANGER
FUNCTION: SAFE REMOTE TEMPLATE ACQUISITION
INITIAL TEMPLATE LOAD:
– LUCIA (DEVIL HUNTER; AGILITY / BLADE / TRANSFORMATION)
– SERAH (SEER / SUPPORT / LIGHT MAGIC)
To anyone else, it was just a finely crafted enchantment ring.
To the System, it was a silent bridge.
A way to feed Hermione strength without ever shoving her into his insane orbit unprepared.
"I'll tell her it's a custom interface ring," Rafael said. "Something I designed for her. It'll enhance her casting channels, let her store specialized spells, regulate her mana."
"All true," Maki noted.
"Yes," he agreed. "But it will also download abilities into her—slowly, while she sleeps—safely—as if she were learning them through dreams, instinct, and practice."
Maki whistled. "You're giving your girl a DLC pack."
He stared at her.
She grinned. "What? I'm not wrong."
He sighed. "I'm going to regret letting you stay, aren't I?"
"You'd be dead in a month without me," she said cheerfully. "So: probably not."
He didn't disagree.
A shadow fell across the table.
"So this is where the prodigy hides," a smooth voice drawled.
Rafael turned.
Three students in immaculate uniforms stood just inside the lab.
Two boys, one girl.
The boys wore the insignia of minor Yakuza-aligned families. The girl—sharp eyes, immaculate braid—wore the crest of a merchant clan that did far too much business with them.
Rafael's shoulders tightened.
He knew them.
Kuroda Jin.
Matsuda Ryo.
Tanaka Mei.
Trouble.
"Redmane," Jin said, sauntering closer. "I heard a rumor."
Rafael said nothing.
"That you've been hoarding tech." Jin's eyes slid over the ring, then past it to the small carved wooden box near the edge of the table. "Devices not sanctioned by the CAD committees. International projects. Private work for some foreign Muggle-born witch."
Rafael's fingers twitched.
Maki's aura, behind him, flared like a tiny sun.
"And I heard," Ryo added, "that you've been… neglecting your alliances. Ignoring invitations. Turning down partnerships."
"I've been busy," Rafael said evenly. "Studying. Training."
Mei's gaze flicked to Maki.
"And picking up strays, apparently," she said. "We didn't know the Headmaster's niece was back."
Maki smiled.
It was very polite.
Very sharp.
"And I didn't know the pests had multiplied," she said pleasantly. "But here we are. Discoveries all around."
Jin's jaw clenched.
He reached down, almost casually, fingers hovering near the small wooden box on the table.
"Interesting craftsmanship," he said. "This box. May I see—"
Rafael's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist.
The air crackled.
"Don't," Rafael said quietly.
Jin's eyes narrowed.
"Letters?" he asked softly. "From your precious little foreign girl? I heard about her from Hogwarts, you know. So did others. Be a shame if… something happened to them."
Maki's fist caught fire.
She took a step forward.
"Pick your next words very carefully," she said.
He didn't.
"Britain will fall eventually," Jin sneered. "Why tie yourself to some Muggle-born mud—"
He never finished the word.
Rafael moved first.
He didn't remember consciously deciding to.
One moment he was holding Jin's wrist; the next, Jin was on the floor, gasping, arm twisted at an impossible angle, a crack in the stone where Rafael had slammed him down.
Lightning hissed along Rafael's forearms.
Ryo reached for his wand.
Maki blurred.
One kick sent his wand spinning. A second blow dropped him to his knees. She caught Mei's punch effortlessly and used the girl's own momentum to flip her into a lab table, sending rune stencils flying.
The room froze.
Students stared.
Someone whispered, "That's the Headmaster's niece—"
"No," someone else breathed. "That's a monster in human form."
Maki planted her foot on Ryo's chest and pushed him flat.
"You don't touch his work," she said calmly. "You don't touch his letters. And you do not speak about his girl."
Rafael knelt beside Jin, eyes cold.
"This box," he said softly, "contains more of my heart than you're worth. If you ever reach for it again, I will break more than your arm. Are we clear?"
Jin, sweating, nodded.
"Say it," Rafael said.
"C-clear," Jin stammered.
Rafael released him.
Maki lifted her foot from Ryo's chest.
"Good talk," she said brightly.
Headmaster Takeda appeared in the doorway, eyes half-lidded.
He took in the scene—cracked stone, disarmed students, scattered papers, Maki standing like a victorious war god in training.
"I see you've… reacclimated, Maki," he said.
She bowed. "They tried to steal Rafael's property and insult his friend, Headmaster. I dissuaded them."
"Vigorously, I imagine."
"Yes."
Takeda's gaze swept over Rafael. "Detentions?"
Rafael shook his head. "Self-defense. They touched my work without permission."
Three other students nodded vigorously, backing him up.
Takeda hummed.
"Then no detentions," he said. "Mr. Kuroda, Mr. Matsuda, Miss Tanaka—if I hear of you interfering with Lord Redmane's work again, you will find yourselves reassigned to the basic theory track. With wands only. No CAD access. Ever."
That hit harder than any kick.
They blanched.
"Dismissed," Takeda said.
They fled.
He turned back to Maki and Rafael.
"You two," he said gravely, "come see me this evening. There are… positions… I wish to discuss with you." His gaze flicked to Maki. "And your potential role as a Sun Pillar."
Maki blinked. "Sun what now?"
"Nothing you need to worry about yet," Rafael said quickly.
Takeda's smile said: You think you can hide things from me? Cute.
He left.
Silence settled.
Maki exhaled. "Well. That was fun."
Rafael rubbed his face. "That was a headache."
"You're welcome," she said.
He glanced at the wooden box.
Hermione's letters were safe.
For now.
His device buzzed.
Speak of the witch.
He took it out.
A new message.
"Rafael… I had the strangest feeling earlier. Like… lightning in my chest. It sounds silly. I just—needed to check if you were okay."
He smiled faintly.
"Yeah," he whispered. "I'm okay."
Aloud, he said, "I need a minute."
Maki nodded and turned away, giving him space.
He typed:
I'm fine. Things at school got… interesting.
But I'm working on something for you.
A gift.
One I hope will make your path at Hogwarts a little safer.
And a lot more powerful.
There was a pause.
Then:
"You don't have to—"
He interrupted.
I want to.
Besides, it's selfish.
The stronger you get, the less I have to worry.
On the other side of the world, a girl in a too-small room with secondhand books blushed down to her toes.
In the CAD lab, Rafael picked up the ring.
Maki watched quietly from the next bench, pretending not to eavesdrop.
"Lucia," Rafael murmured. "Serah. Be gentle with her."
The System responded.
> [DOWNLOADER RING: READY FOR SEALING.]
DELIVERY WINDOW: WINTER BREAK (BRITAIN TRIP).
He slipped the ring into its case.
One step at a time.
Strength for Hermione.
Support from Maki.
Secrets only he remembered.
As he closed the case, a strange calm settled over him.
For the first time, he could see the shape of it.
Hermione, with moonlight in her veins.
Maki, with sunfire in her fists.
Him, at the center, Sky Flame boiling quietly beneath his skin.
The first triad.
Not yet named.
Not yet official.
But real.
"Hey," Maki said, coming to stand beside him, hands on her hips. "When we're done with all this ring stuff… you and I are sparring."
He glanced at her. "Trying to measure my strength?"
"Trying to see how much work I've got ahead of me," she replied. "Sun guardians don't slack."
He froze.
"…Who told you that phrase?"
She frowned. "No one. It just… popped into my head."
The System, very helpfully, remained silent.
Rafael swallowed.
"All right," he said. "Training yard after dinner."
She grinned.
"Good," she said. "And Rafael?"
"Yes?"
Her eyes softened.
"If that girl of yours ever cries because of something that happens here… I'll break the world for her. You won't have to ask."
He stared at her.
Then smiled—small, real, careful.
"I know," he said.
And for the first time since the Summon, he truly believed it.