Chapter 56: The Curse Behind Her Smile

There was no storm.

No ruined fortress.

No blinding lightning.

Not even Zeref.

For Kōya, there was only light.

Brilliant, golden-white light stretched endlessly in every direction, without ground or sky, without measurable distance or physical shape.

His body no longer felt heavy.

His wounds were gone. His exhaustion had disappeared. He could not feel his heartbeat or the hilt of the Hero Sword in his hand. He could not feel the viscous Demonic Mana that had burned through his right side.

There was only perfect nothingness.

Then, he heard a voice.

Soft. Young. Heartbreakingly familiar.

"Kōya."

His eyes snapped open.

But the person standing before him in the light was not the fierce, capable Yuna he vividly remembered from the Academy.

She was a child.

The little girl stood alone in a vibrant, grassy field beneath a clear afternoon sky. Her dark hair moved in the summer wind. She held a battered wooden practice sword tightly in both small hands.

Her combat stance was objectively terrible.

Her feet were planted too close together. Her shoulders were tense. Her grip on the hilt turned her knuckles white.

Yet, she stared at the scarred wooden dummy with an expression Kōya recognized immediately.

Absolute, unyielding determination.

Kōya could only stand in the grass and stare.

"Yuna..."

She could not hear him.

The little girl lifted the heavy wooden sword.

She swung.

The blunt blade struck the dummy.

Thud.

Again.

Thud.

Her small arms began to tremble under the weight.

She gritted her teeth and swung again.

The wooden sword slipped from her exhausted hands and fell into the tall grass. Yuna stared down at it. She did not move for several seconds.

Then, she bent down and picked it back up.

Kōya watched silently, his chest tightening.

She swung again.

And again.

The scene seamlessly changed.

The memory moved forward in time. The little girl grew.

Her battered wooden sword became a real, weighted training blade. Her physical movements became faster. Her combat stance grew cleaner, more grounded. Her strikes against the dummy echoed across the field.

Years passed in fleeting moments.

Summer bled into winter. Winter thawed into spring. The trees surrounding the yard grew taller.

And the girl grew with them.

Through every season, under every sky, Yuna kept stubbornly training.

Kōya watched her fall into the mud. He watched her force herself to stand. He watched her fail spectacularly. He watched her wipe her face and try again. He watched her hands blister and bleed.

He watched her collapse heavily onto the grass long after training had ended, staring blankly up at the sky while trying to catch her breath.

Nobody ever forced her to stand again.

She simply did.

One warm afternoon, Yuna sat quietly beneath a massive tree, both hands wrapped tightly around her knees. Her breathing was ragged.

Her father sat down gently beside her.

"You’ve trained enough for today, Yuna."

Yuna shook her head. "I can still move."

"You can barely lift your arms."

"I can lift them."

Her father smiled warmly. "That isn’t exactly the same thing."

Yuna looked down at her bruised hands. "I want to become stronger."

"You already are."

"Not enough."

Her father studied her profile. "Strong enough for what?"

Yuna didn’t answer.

She truly didn’t know. Not yet.

She simply knew that buried beneath her ribs, there was a terrible, creeping feeling she could never logically explain.

Something was fundamentally wrong.

It wasn’t always present. Sometimes she could go weeks without noticing it. Sometimes it appeared after training. Sometimes it came when she pushed herself too hard and used too much Mana.

A suffocating pressure. A sudden, terrifying physical weakness. A jagged sensation deep beneath her chest that felt exactly as though something cold had tightened around her heart.

She had never found a name for the anomaly.

She didn’t know whether it was a natural sickness, chronic exhaustion, or a flaw inside her own power.

She only knew that it terrified her in the dark.

Her father placed a calloused hand gently on her head.

"You don’t have to become strong enough for everything."

Yuna looked up at him. "I know."

"Do you?"

She offered a small, defiant smile. "I’ll try."

Her father laughed softly, ruffling her hair. "That’s more like you."

The memory accelerated.

Years passed.

Yuna became undeniably stronger. Her holy Mana grew steadily.

Eventually, the legendary family heirloom, Stormfront, was placed into her hands.

The Lightning Sword carried an unnatural, crackling blue brilliance, and the ancient weapon seemed to respond to Yuna’s presence instantly.

Kōya watched her first attempt to wield it.

She nearly lost control of the volatile element. Blinding lightning exploded across the entire training ground. Yuna was thrown backward by the recoil.

She landed hard in the dirt.

She remained flat on the ground for several seconds. Then, she slowly sat up.

Her dark hair was smoking.

She stared down at Stormfront resting in the dirt.

Then, she grinned.

"I like it."

The memory continued its rapid flow.

Yuna trained exclusively with Stormfront. She meticulously learned its heavy weight. Its erratic rhythm. Its violent temper. Its devastating power.

She learned exactly how to call lightning through the blade without allowing the weapon to consume her concentration.

Eventually, something else became a permanent part of that legendary weapon.

A small, pristine blue crystal.

It was securely attached to Stormfront near the hilt.

At first, Kōya barely noticed it. But the memory drastically slowed down the first time Yuna intentionally touched it.

She closed her eyes, centering her breathing.

A carefully measured amount of pure Mana flowed from her body directly into the crystal.

The crystal glowed faintly.

Yuna opened her eyes. She looked closely at the stored energy.

Then, she smiled.

"Again."

She transferred slightly more. The glow became brighter.

Kōya understood the grand design.

She wasn’t merely using Stormfront as a weapon of destruction. She was actively storing a reserve. A contingency. A future weapon she intended to keep hidden until she absolutely needed it.

The years passed.

The crystal slowly, steadily filled.

Yuna would finish her brutal training sessions, sit quietly in the shade, and place her scarred hand gently against the crystal to transfer a calculated amount of Mana directly into it. Sometimes a tiny fraction. Sometimes more. Never enough to empty her own reserves.

She was building it patiently.

For years.

And nobody watching her from the outside would have understood what she was quietly doing. Not even Kōya.

The memory shifted again.

The Academy.

A much younger, significantly more stoic Kōya stood across the courtyard from Yuna.

The two prodigies stared at each other.

"You’re late," Yuna stated flatly.

"I am not late," Kōya replied.

"You are."

"I arrived here before you did."

"You arrived exactly five seconds after I did."

"That means nothing."

"It means I won."

"You didn’t win anything."

"I won the waiting contest."

Kōya frowned deeply. Yuna smiled, a victorious expression.

Their rivalry had officially begun.

At first, it was simple. Training. Fierce competition. Petty arguments.

Then, something changed.

Not in a single, dramatic moment. They simply began spending more time together.

Brutal training sessions slowly became quiet conversations. Petty arguments became inside jokes. Fierce competition became unwavering trust.

Kōya learned exactly how Yuna moved. Yuna learned exactly how Kōya thought.

One warm evening, Yuna rested heavily against the courtyard wall after training.

Kōya handed her a cold bottle of water.

"You look terrible," he noted casually.

She glared at him, taking the bottle. "That is your unique way of being kind?"

"I am simply saying you should rest."

"You sound worried."

"I’m not."

"You are."

"I am not."

Yuna smiled, taking a drink. "You are."

Kōya looked away, staring at the sky.

She laughed, a bright, ringing sound.

The memory moved forward.

There were mock battles. Endless training. Shared victories. Brutal failures.

Days when Kōya was deeply frustrated with his own darkness. Days when Yuna was physically exhausted beyond measure.

And buried deep beneath all of it, the strange, suffocating sensation inside Yuna remained.

Sometimes, she would suddenly stop in the middle of an intense training form. Her hand would fly toward her chest. Her expression would tighten in obvious agony.

Kōya noticed it once during a spar.

"Yuna?" he asked, lowering his practice sword.

She looked at him quickly. "I’m fine."

"You stopped entirely."

"I just lost my footing."

"You didn’t lose your balance."

She offered a tight smile. "Then I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"Nothing."

She walked away to the racks.

Kōya watched her go. He knew she was actively hiding something, but he didn’t know what it was. Neither did she.

Another memory surfaced.

Yuna was alone at night. The pale moon hung high above the empty training grounds.

Stormfront rested securely beside her on the bench. The crystal attached to its hilt glowed faintly in the dark.

Yuna placed her hand gently against it. Mana flowed from her. The crystal eagerly absorbed it.

She closed her eyes.

The strange, suffocating pressure suddenly returned with a vengeance.

Her breathing stopped. Her hand trembled against the hilt.

She yanked her hand away, gasping for air.

For a terrifying moment, genuine fear crossed her beautiful face.

"What is fundamentally wrong with me?" she whispered to the empty courtyard.

There was no answer.

She looked down at Stormfront. Then at the glowing crystal.

"I’ll figure it out."

She resolutely placed her hand directly against it again.

More Mana entered the vessel.