Mutsukiko

Mutsukiko pressed a painted hand against the damp stone, steadying their breath as the silent, bandaged form of Kodai drifted past them into the chamber. Their archery instructors in Waterfall City preached discipline and form, but this was a different kind of training. Kodai never spoke, yet its guidance was absolute—a slow turn of the head, a finger pointing toward a near-invisible seam in the rock. Mutsukiko had been a mere trainee before the ancient one appeared to them by the lower docks, a forgotten spirit drawn to the antique sabre they carried. Now they live two lives: the archer in the green uniform, and the ruin-walker who learns a sword art that hasn’t been seen in a millennium. The city dwellers just see a determined student who sometimes talks to the air.