**Chapter 51– The Oni Want Their Princess Back**
** July 4, 2029 – Lake Ouachita, midnight**
The sky is bleeding fireworks.
Red, gold, violet bursts over the water while half of Hot Springs parties on houseboats and the other half tries to pretend they don't see the nine-tailed fox doing backflips off the dock.
We rented the entire cove (Rowan's black card is still crying).
Seras is in the armor, helmet off, space buns glowing like twin lanterns while she teaches a bunch of drunk college kids how to light sparklers with their minds.
Lucian is shirtless, wings half-out, letting little cousins climb him like a thundercloud jungle gym.
Kayo has declared herself "Fireworks General" and is directing the show with all nine tails flaring.
Remy and I are on the end of the dock, legs dangling in the warm black water, sharing a single bottle of contraband ghost-pepper mead Al Capone swore would "put hair on your soul."
Everything is perfect.
Then the lake erupts.
Not steam (actual eruption).
A pillar of crimson water shoots fifty feet high, and riding it like a surfboard is a twelve-foot-tall oni princess in full kabuto armor, horns polished to mirrors, carrying a kanabo the size of a redwood.
The fireworks stop mid-bloom.
Every mortal on the lake suddenly remembers they left the stove on at home.
The oni princess plants her club in the lakebed and the water parts around her like it's scared.
**Princess Akane (voice like a war drum):**
"HIMUUUUARI NAKAMURA.
You have something that belongs to my father's house."
Seras floats up from the dock, armor igniting, crimson streak blazing.
**Seras (dry):**
"Technically the armor chose me, but sure, let's do family drama at midnight on Independence Day."
Akane points the kanabo at Seras.
**Akane:**
"The Shogun Armor of Inferno was promised to the blood of Ryōgen the Oni King five centuries ago.
You wear it.
You are small.
Return it or I take it off your corpse."
Lucian's wings snap full thunder-dragon size, lightning crawling over his scales.
Remy stands, already half-shifted, eyes gold, claws out.
Kayo's tails bristle into nine flaming spears.
I feel the crown above my heart spin once, slow and warning.
**Celeste (quiet, to the lake):**
"Not tonight."
The water answers, rising in black-glass blades around the dock.
Seras steps forward, armor flaring so bright the moon looks embarrassed.
**Seras:**
"Tell you what, princess.
One duel.
You win → I give the armor back.
I win → you go home and tell your dad the sun chose a new heir and he can cry about it."
Akane grins, tusks glinting.
**Akane:**
"Accepted.
Terms: first blood or surrender.
No gods interfering."
She glances at Kōjin, who's currently lounging on a nearby houseboat in a Hawaiian shirt, sipping a margarita the size of a kiddie pool.
**Kōjin (raising his glass):**
"Don't look at me.
My kid's got this."
Akane charges.
Seras meets her in mid-air.
The clash is blinding (solar fire against oni iron, lake water flash-boiling into steam, shockwave knocking every boat sideways).
Ten seconds later Akane is on her knees in the water, kanabo snapped in half, armor cracked, staring up at Seras like she's seeing the sun for the first time.
**Akane (hoarse):**
"…You fight like the end of the world wearing a smile."
**Seras (offering a hand):**
"Only on weekends.
Go home, princess.
Tell your dad the armor found its real princess.
And maybe send her some dango next Obon."
Akane takes the hand, stands, bows (deep, respectful).
**Akane:**
"The debt is paid.
The sun has spoken."
She vanishes in a swirl of crimson mist.
The lake settles.
The mortals come back out like nothing happened (Hot Springs privilege).
Seras lands beside me, armor dimming to soft gold, breathing hard but grinning.
**Seras:**
"So.
Anyone still want to light the finale?"
Kayo whoops and the sky explodes into a phoenix made of pure fireworks that screams across the stars.
Remy pulls me against his side, braids tickling my shoulder.
**Remy (quiet):**
"Never a dull summer with you weirdos."
I kiss the coyote fang at his throat.
**Celeste:**
"Happy Fourth of July,
the sun princess just defended her title,
the storm queen's drunk on mead,
and the lake is terrified of us."
Above us, the phoenix dissolves into a million tiny suns that spell, in perfect English and Japanese:
WE'RE JUST GETTING STARTED.
Best summer ever.
**The Quiet One**
** July 17, 2029 – 3:17 a.m., the roof of the old bathhouse ruins**
The sky is the color of bruised thunderclouds even though there isn't a storm for a thousand miles.
I'm in human skin tonight because wings make the shingles nervous.
Seras is beside me, armor dismissed for once, just wearing one of my hoodies (it swallows her whole, sleeves past her fingertips, hood up so only the crimson streak and the tip of her nose show).
She's been quiet for forty-three minutes.
That's a new record.
Below us, the others are asleep in the cabins: Celeste and Remy tangled together like they were born that way, Kayo snoring with all nine tails wrapped around Rowan like a sparkly weighted blanket.
Seras finally speaks, voice small.
**Seras:**
"I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop."
I don't ask which one.
We both know.
**Lucian:**
"You mean the part where you finally got everything you ever wanted and now you're terrified it's going to burn?"
She huffs a laugh that sounds more like a sob.
**Seras:**
"I have a dad who loves me.
Armor that literally sings when I'm happy.
You."
She turns, amber eyes glowing soft in the dark.
"I'm waiting for the universe to remember I don't get to keep nice things."
I reach over and tug the hood down so I can see all of her face.
**Lucian:**
"The universe tried that already.
You set it on fire and wore the ashes as a crown."
She snorts, but it's wet.
**Seras:**
"Different thing."
**Lucian:**
"No. Same girl. Same fire.
You just finally stopped aiming it at yourself."
She goes still.
I pull her into my lap (easy, like she weighs nothing, because to me she never has).
She buries her face in my neck, and for once the hoodie doesn't spontaneously combust.
**Seras (muffled):**
"I'm scared I'll wake up and the armor will be gone.
Or Dad.
Or you'll realize I'm still the same disaster who accidentally torched the prefectural gym in Sinor Year."
I press my lips to the top of her head, right between the space buns.
**Lucian:**
"I watched you punch an oni princess into next week while smiling like it was Tuesday.
You're allowed to be a little bit of a disaster.
I'm kind of counting on it."
She laughs for real this time, shaky but honest.
**Seras:**
"Dragon promise?"
**Lucian:**
"Dragon promise.
And thunder doesn't leave the sun just because it learns how to shine."
She pulls back far enough to look at me, eyes shimmering (actual tears this time, not evaporating).
**Seras:**
"You're getting really good at the poetic shit, Blackwing."
**Lucian (smirking):**
"I've been practicing.
You're a terrible influence."
She kisses me then (soft, slow, tasting like salt and leftover strawberry Pocky).
When she pulls away, the crimson streak in her hair is glowing gently, like a night-light.
**Seras (whisper):**
"Okay.
I'll try keeping the nice things.
But if the universe tries to take them, I'm burning it twice."
**Lucian:**
"That's my girl."
We stay on the roof until the sky starts to pale at the edges.
She falls asleep against my chest, small and warm and finally, finally believing she's allowed to be both.
I hold the sun in my arms and count heartbeats like thunder.
The other shoe isn't dropping tonight.
Some things,
some people,
are fireproof.