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The throne room felt different when you were the one being praised. Or, when the person next to you was being praised, anyway. Weeks after going battlefield to battlefield across colonies, hunting down deserters and making examples out of people who thought running away was a good idea, Ryo stood three steps behind Azula. Close…

His chest was still hot, raw where that last guy’s fire blast had hit him straight-on. Even with the blisters on the rest of his skin, the black tattoos somehow didn’t seem to have a single scratch on them. At all. Weird. But not the most important thing right now. His eyes trailed all the…

Actually finding the deserters took less time than he expected. Unfortunately, way more than he hoped for. It took the whole rest of the day; all eight of them weaving around through the wild, going slow and quiet so they wouldn’t tip off anybody who happened to be on the lookout. Ryo was almost beginning…

“Man, I hate the ocean.” The ship cut through water, all black metal and red sails snapping loud in the wind. Ryo leaned forward on the railing, elbows digging into cool iron as salt spray hit his face. Felt good to be moving again, good to be anywhere that wasn’t those four walls back at…

A month and two weeks.  Not that counting mattered, of course. Not that she would ever admit such a thing if her father deigned to ask her. Not that she hadn’t counted every single day, each rising number in her skull like a splinter she could not reach yet one she could not entirely ignore…

The next lesson was just pain. That’s it.  The whole-ass lesson. Like a tutorial level from some video game designed in hell, where the final boss was also your teacher and every wrong button press got you a game over screen written in your own blood. He’d barely gotten his breath back, lungs and throat…

Sukuna stood above him like he owned the whole damn universe, and knew it.  Those four crimson eyes shone with the ancient light that made Ryo’s skin crawl, and the blood-red fire was still burning in his palm. “Others are born gods.“ The words echoed. Bouncing off the bone walls in the vast dead space…

The first week was almost enjoyable, he had to admit. But the almost part was the thing. Ryo blinked himself awake that first day, sun already high in the sky and blasting him through a window that was too damn big honestly, bigger than the whole wall of his old bedroom. At least, he was…