---

Chapter 11: “Her Voice in the Silence”

Rikuya and Serika

---

Rikuya didn’t notice when it began.

Perhaps it was the way Serika never asked for thanks.

Or how she fought beside him, not behind.

Or how she only spoke when silence began to suffocate him.

She was not like Yume.

Yume had been warmth, laughter, the spring breeze.

Serika was iron. Wind on the mountain edge.

But still—he noticed.

---

One night, during a rare pause in the war, the soldiers lit a quiet fire under the shattered ruins of a northern shrine.

Rikuya sat alone again, as he always did.

Until Serika appeared, two bowls of hot broth in her hands.

“You eat like a corpse,” she muttered, dropping a bowl in front of him. “Try being human for a night.”

He stared at the steam. “Why do you keep doing this?”

Serika raised an eyebrow. “Doing what?”

> “Treating me like I’m still whole.”

---

She didn’t smile. Just sat beside him, knees close but never touching.

“Because even broken swords still cut,” she replied.

“Even if they don't remember what they were forged for.”

Rikuya looked at her—for the first time, really looked.

Her hands were calloused like his.

Her cheek bore an old scar.

And in her eyes… was something terrifying.

> Understanding.

---

Later that night, Kael entered his tent with fresh reports and paused when he saw something unexpected:

Rikuya asleep.

Head slumped slightly… and Serika beside him, eyes half-closed, hand resting lightly near his.

Not touching.

But near enough to say:

> “If you fall, I’ll catch you.”

Kael said nothing. Just quietly left.

---

In the days that followed, the men noticed it too.

The way Rikuya only ever let Serika speak freely.

The way she could approach him even when he was furious and wounded and drowning in ghosts.

He never smiled.

But when she was near—he seemed less hollow.

---

One dusk, after training, Serika found him sharpening his blade.

She sat beside him, wiping her spear clean.

He didn’t look up as he said:

> “When this war ends… what will you do?”

Serika paused.

Then said:

> “Follow you. If you’ll let me.”

Rikuya’s grip on his blade slowed… then stilled.

He didn’t reply.

But that night, he didn’t burn her words either.

---