"Cold teaches what warmth never could.
 And still, we seek the flame."

— Old Iron Country proverb

炎

を

求

め

て

31 — TO SEEK THE FLAME

THE FOREST EMBRACED THEM with cold, quiet arms. Otsuru set a brisk pace, navigating the winding mountain trails with the confidence of one who had walked them a hundred times. The path narrowed in places, forcing them to walk single file, widening again where sunlight broke through the canopy to dapple the forest floor.

Naruto followed, his eyes constantly flitting across their surroundings. Old habits died hard, he'd been told — but this one felt freshly born, raw, and twitching. The sensation of being watched prickled constantly at the back of his neck. But each time he checked, stretching out his senses, testing the air, he found nothing but the usual forest denizens. Critters, she had called them, although most of them, Naruto had never seen in his life.

"You're jumpy," Otsuru observed, glancing back at him. "This is still clan territory. We're safe for at least another day's travel."

"I see," he said, but really didn't. Not really. "And what happens after? Is Iron really that dangerous?"

She slowed to match his pace as the path widened, and for the first time, he noticed how quiet her boots went against the frost-hardened soil. "Depends. We're not stepping into the worst of it."

"Such as?" Naruto pressed, curious despite himself.

She held up a gloved hand, ticking names off with astounding evenness. "Let's start with Rust Hollow. The wind there carries iron dust sharp enough to flay skin — so if the haze doesn't get you, the armored beasts there might."

"Armored—"

"Second's Grinding Teeth, a jagged pass in the mountains, it's dangerous even with the ability to use chakra. Two samurai were lost there last winter. Found one come spring thaw. We sold his armor—" she paused "—I probably shouldn't be telling you this part."

Naruto opened his mouth, but she continued over him.

"Blackforge Deep's tunnels stretch far beneath Iron Country — there are many mines here, so many that the nation itself was named after the iron pulled from some of those depths." She waved her hand absently toward the southern mountains. "Old mines have a way of falling apart. It's only natural."

Is it?

"Then there's the Shiversting Wastes. There are dust storms, too. But it's so fine it gets under your lungs. And there are the roamers, of course. Although they are well equipped for the environment."

"Roamers?" Naruto asked. "Beasts again?"

"Exiles. Outcasts." She thought about it for one more moment. "Some rumors were floating around cannibals, too. I think."

He blinked, somewhat owlishly.

"And," she continued, "Ironblood Marsh. It does look like something out of a painting, I suppose. But the ground might also swallow you whole, so... Ah. The animals there don't flinch at steel anymore."

He was quiet a moment. Then: "So… we're not going to any of those?"

Otsuru shook her head. "Not unless we take a very wrong turn." A hint of a smile ghosted across her lips. "We'll see the smoke from Blackforge from a distance, perhaps. That's all."

Because of his luck by then, Naruto was half-convinced they would manage to find their way into every single one of them.

"What's that look for?" Otsuru asked, catching his expression.

"Just… taking it in," he said.

She studied him for a moment, then shrugged. "Fair enough."

The trail began to slope upward, and patches of snow appeared — first in small clumps nestled between rocks, then in wider swathes blanketing the ground. The temperature dropped noticeably as they climbed higher, their breath forming small clouds in the air.

Otsuru moved ahead effortlessly, her feet barely leaving impressions in the snow. Naruto followed, sinking to his ankles with each step, the cold quickly seeping through even his boots.

After watching him struggle for a little while, Otsuru stopped and turned.

"You don't know the snow step, do you?" she asked, not unkindly.

Naruto frowned, pulling his foot from another deep impression. "The what?"

"Snow step. Technique for walking over snow instead of through it." She gestured at her own tracks — or rather, the near absence of them. "Common knowledge in Iron Country. Thought you shinobi would know it too."

"We don't get much snow in Uzushio," he admitted, a touch defensively.

Otsuru nodded. "Alright. Here, watch carefully."

She demonstrated, moving across the snow without leaving impressions, but her movements were too fluid and quick for Naruto to discern the technique.

"The trick is distribution," she explained. "Too much pressure in one spot, you sink. Spread it out..." She took several steps, gliding over the snow's surface. "See? Not hard."

Naruto squinted. "Could you... maybe slow that down?"

She repeated the demonstration, only marginally slower. "It's chakra distribution. Like..." She frowned, searching for words. "Like not sinking. You spread it out."

"Spread it how?" Naruto asked.

"Just — I don't know." She made a flat motion with her hand. "Evenly."

"Like water-walking?"

She scrunched her face at him. "You can walk on water?"

There was a pause.

"…Different, then?" Naruto asked. It seemed to be, at least — he could walk on water as easily as she moved across snow, and that didn't seem to be the trick. He stared at her feet, trying to understand. "But different how?"

"Are you mumbling at me?" she asked.

"Talking to myself."

"I can't hear you from here."

He placed his foot on the snow, adjusting his chakra flow based on what little he understood. His foot plunged through immediately.

"More... spread out. Flatter." She seemed frustrated by her own inability to explain. "Just try it."

He tried again.

"No, not like that," Otsuru said, but offered no correction. "You're pushing too much. Or not enough. Try again."

The third attempt wasn't any better.

"Like this," she demonstrated again, trying to do it slower, but still too quickly. "See? Like a snow-leaf. Wait, no. Like walking on..." She trailed off. "Just feel it out."

Naruto tried several more times, sinking each time. Through trial and error — mostly error — he began to sense the pattern needed. By his fifteenth attempt, he managed a single step before breaking through.

"That's... closer," Otsuru said uncertainly. "I think."

By the twentieth try, more through his own experimentation than her guidance, he could take four steps without sinking.

"You're getting it," she said, visibly relieved. "It's going to take less and less chakra to use as you get better, you'll see. That was rather fast — it took me days."

Naruto wiped light sweat from his brow despite the cold. "I wouldn't call this getting it."

"Well, the rest's just more practice," she said with a shrug. Then, tilting her head: "What made it click?"

He thought about it. "I think it's about creating a temporary surface tension with evenly distributed chakra."

Otsuru blinked. "Yes. Yeah... Probably." She nodded slowly. "Yeah, actually, that might be it."

It didn't seem like something she did entirely consciously by then. They resumed walking, now at a brisker pace.

"You might need it where we're headed," she said. "The paths get worse from here. High enough, the snow can hide crevasses deep enough to swallow a man whole."

"Thought you said we were avoiding the dangerous areas," Naruto said, carefully maintaining the chakra distribution as he followed.

Otsuru's laugh was sharp and brief. "I said we're avoiding the worst of them."

As if to emphasize her point, the wind picked up, carrying the distant howl they'd heard earlier — closer now, and joined by others.

"What was that?" Naruto asked, his hand instinctively moving toward his weapons pouch.

Otsuru glanced at him, brow furrowed. "Huh?"

"You didn't hear that?" His voice was quieter now, ears straining.

She shrugged. "Must've been the wind. It can get pretty strange sometimes."

Naruto didn't answer immediately. His heartbeat felt heavy in his chest, every muscle in his body waiting.

"Or mountain wolves, maybe," Otsuru said, stretching out her legs, unconcerned. "You must have really sensitive hearing—"

"It could be something that wants us to think they're wolves," Naruto muttered, scanning the dark.

Otsuru gave him a long look before exhaling through her nose. "What the hell is Uzushio like?"

Either way, she quickened her pace, and Naruto matched it, grateful now for the snow step technique as they moved silently across the pristine white landscape. Above them, dark clouds gathered, promising more snow before nightfall.

"We'll need to reach the shelter before dark," Otsuru said, her eyes on the horizon. Naruto, who knew how early night fell, only nodded. "Practice your snow step as we go. And let us pick up the pace a bit..."

The howls came again, and to Naruto, they sounded like bad news on their way.

"Quietly," he added softly.

Wind and ice, their breath mingling in the crisp air.

The crunch of their steps, the distant groan of shifting frost, the sharp bite of air against his cheeks — everything felt thin and brittle here. Gloves or not, Naruto thought his hands were bound to freeze sooner than later. The sunlight struck the landscape with a metallic brilliance, hard and bright as freshly mined ore, making it difficult to shape his thoughts into words.

Or perhaps it was his stiff jaw.

Otsuru, though relatively unbothered by the cold, at least seemingly, sensed his discomfort. Perhaps that was why she kept prodding him, drawing conversation from him with an ease he'd thought the airship might have stolen away.

Simple but persistent, she was the first person from Iron he truly met, and perhaps she was as good a representation as any.

"—Don't you think it strange that they just sent you with me?" he asked, words slipping free before he thought better of them. He half-expected her to laugh, to toss something glib back — I'm the only escort one needs — so maybe that was why he hesitated. He cleared his throat. "I mean, no offense or anything."

Otsuru's eyes flicked toward him, then back to the path ahead. "Why would that be strange?"

"The Fujiki always move in groups, I know that much now," Naruto said. "Safety and all that. But suddenly they're fine with just us heading out alone?" He flexed his fingers inside his gloves, trying to coax warmth back into them. "And why you? Other experienced people know the way to Fire, don't they?"

She answered without breaking stride. "Two children attract less attention than a caravan changing its route. Even a small one."

Naruto frowned. "So you did think about it."

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Otsuru tucked a strand of hair beneath her hood. "If we encounter Fire shinobi or those men searching for you, the clan can claim you ran off, and I foolishly followed. One runaway child is easier to explain than half the entire Fujiki clan deliberately escorting someone against national orders."

Naruto stopped walking, snowflakes settling on his shoulders.

Something settled uneasily in his chest, the pieces clicking into place too cleanly. "So if we get caught—"

"If. They can say I ran off on my own." Otsuru didn't sound bitter. If anything, she seemed faintly amused. "Maybe I got swept up in something. Maybe I got reckless. Either way, they're not responsible."

"So they're using you as cover? A tool?"

"And giving you a guide," she added, slightly coolly. Her voice carried no resentment, only the detachment he would learn was characteristic of the people of Iron. "Two purposes served at once. That's how we Fujiki think."

"And that doesn't bother you?" he asked, hurrying to catch up as she continued forward without him.

Otsuru shrugged, a slight movement beneath her layers. "Why would it? It's sensible. The clan protects itself while still helping you. Holding our part of the bargain." She glanced back, her expression as clear as the winter sky. "Besides, I volunteered. And I'll get you to Fire."

"Why would you do that?"

"I wanted to see something beyond our usual routes," she said vaguely. "It sounded interesting."

Naruto trudged alongside her, digesting everything she'd told him.

"Are things that different where you're from?" Otsuru asked.

"...No," he admitted, thinking of his own place, the role assigned to him long before he had a say in it. Of Gojō's burden, of Shinpachi's quiet duty. Of Shiori. "Not that much."

She nodded as if she had expected as much.

The Fujiki were hedging their bets, then. Helping him but keeping their own interests at heart. It was harsh, but he supposed that was the way of things. No use brooding over it. And as for Otsuru…

"You said two purposes at once," Naruto said. "What's your second?"

"Nice catch," she said, grinning. "I want to pass through Kiyoteru."

The name hit him like a jolt, carrying with it the ghost of a smile — Aiko's easy grin, vivid as if she stood before him.

"Yeah?" he asked slowly. "What's there to see?"

"For one, lights," she said. "And some of Iron's best markets." She noted his lack of enthusiasm and huffed. "Oh, come on. My sister gave me more money than we needed. Come with me, and I'll buy you some sealing supplies, or something."

"I do have other interests than sealing," he said, deadpan.

"Yeah? Like what?"

He considered. "...You know what? Sealing supplies sound good enough to me."

"Perfect," she said with a grin. "It's a deal, then. Hold your hand out."

He did, and she smacked it hard enough to sting.

"What was that for?" Naruto scowled, flexing his hand.

"Sealing the deal," she said, eyes twinkling. "Iron Country tradition."

"Hitting people is a tradition?"

"No, but the look on your face was worth it." Her smirk softened into something genuine, the crinkle at the corners of her eyes betraying amusement.

The path narrowed ahead, forcing them to walk single file once more. Otsuru took the lead, her movements confident as she navigated the increasingly difficult terrain. The snow was deeper here, and Naruto found himself grateful for what little he could manage of the snow step technique.

As they climbed higher, the wind grew sharper, carrying with it the metallic scent that gave Iron Country its name. The trees thinned, replaced by jagged outcroppings of rock that jutted from the snow like bony trees.

"So what else's in Kiyoteru?" Naruto asked, half out of curiosity, half to distract himself from the bitter cold. "Besides lights and markets?"

Otsuru glanced back over her shoulder. "People," she said simply. "Different kinds of people. Samurai and merchants and farmers. Artists. Craftsmen."

"Aside from the samurai, it sounds like many other towns," Naruto observed. Or Uzushio, at least.

"Maybe," she conceded. "But not to me."

Never one to explain what didn't need explaining, to Otsuru, this sort of answer usually was all that needed to be said.

The trail narrowed to almost nothing.

"One misstep," Otsuru said, "and it's a long way down."

And so Naruto followed her lead, focusing on the treacherous path. They proceeded in silence, and the sun continued its journey, providing little warmth against the biting cold of the mountains.

After what felt like hours, they reached a small plateau that offered a momentary respite from the ascent. Otsuru paused, reaching for her double-layered waterskin.

"We'll rest here briefly," she announced, taking a small sip before offering it to Naruto. "The worst of today's climb is behind us."

Naruto accepted the water gratefully, even though its temperature made him wince. "How much farther to the next city?"

The name of which, for the life of him, he couldn't remember right now.

"If we keep this pace, we should reach it by tomorrow night," she replied, gazing out at the vista spread before them. "See there?" She pointed to a distant smudge on the horizon where the white landscape met the steel-gray sky. "That's a third of the way."

Naruto followed her gaze, trying to imagine how long of a trip that meant. "And after? How long to the Fire border?"

"Depends on the route we take." Otsuru pulled a strip of dried meat from her pack and tore it in half, offering a portion to Naruto. "There's the main road, which is faster but patrolled by samurai. We'll continue to take the mountain paths — slower, but less chance of being seen."

"How bad would it be?" seeing her expression, he added, "Assuming they don't recognize me as being from Uzushio, or my intentions."

"Outside of the cities...?" She considered for a moment, chewing thoughtfully. "Bad, for someone like you."

"Someone like me?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"A shinobi," she clarified. "The samurai don't take kindly to your kind crossing their territory. Especially now. And I think they can tell shinobi apart somehow."

Naruto frowned.

"Yeah," she agreed, "better to skip all the official papers and permissions whenever possible."

She was right, of course. Iron Country's neutrality was maintained through strict border control and an unwavering stance against shinobi interference. Unidentified shinobi traveling alone would raise questions — questions Naruto wasn't prepared to answer.

"The mountain route it is, then," he conceded.

Otsuru nodded, apparently satisfied. She rose to her feet, brushing snow from her clothes. "We should keep moving. There's a storm brewing. Smaller than yesterday night's, if it helps any."

Naruto glanced up at the clear sky. "How can you tell?"

"The wind," she replied, already starting down the path. "The scent of snow that it carries is different. Let's go. Trust me, you don't want to be caught out in the open when it hits."

He followed, wondering, not for the first time, what he'd gotten himself into.

But somewhere in this frozen wilderness lay the route to Fire, and for that, he would follow this strange, occasionally pragmatic girl through whatever Iron Country had to throw at them.

As they descended from the plateau, the wind picked up, carrying with it the first flakes of the promised storm, and the light slowly waned. Otsuru increased her pace without comment, and Naruto matched it, focusing on the snow step technique to keep from falling behind.

The landscape changed gradually as they moved forward — more rock, less snow, the already sparse vegetation growing even rarer and twisted by the constant wind. In the distance, dark clouds gathered, Otsuru's promised storm.

"There," she said suddenly, pointing to what appeared to be a natural formation of rock. As they drew closer, Naruto realized it was actually the entrance to a cave, partially obscured by an overhanging ledge.

"Shelter?" he asked hopefully.

Otsuru nodded. "There are several of these. To prevent travelers from getting caught in storms. That's a lesser-known one, too. If we're lucky, it will be empty."

They approached cautiously, Otsuru leading the way. She paused at the entrance, listening, then gestured for Naruto to wait while she investigated. After a few moments, she emerged with a satisfied nod.

"It's clear," she announced. "And there's already a fire pit. We can wait out the worst of the storm here. Perhaps the entire night, even."

Naruto followed her inside, relieved to be out of the wind. The cave was surprisingly spacious, with a high ceiling and dry floor. At its center was a circle of stones where countless previous travelers had built fires.

"I'll gather some wood," Otsuru said, shrugging off her pack. "There's a cache. You clear the fire pit in the meantime."

"Wait," he said, glancing toward the cave mouth. "What about the smoke?"

She paused, halfway turned. "What about it?"

"Won't it give away our position?"

Otsuru shrugged. "It's either that or freezing to death."

Naruto hesitated a moment, then stepped forward. "Let me try something. I think I can draw up a seal to handle the smoke."

She blinked at him. "You can? That'd be useful." A short pause, then a nod. "Alright — as you say, then."

As she disappeared back outside, Naruto set to work, removing old ashes and arranging the stones in a proper circle. It was work he had done in Uzushio, familiar enough to be almost comforting.

By the time Otsuru returned with an armful of relatively dry deadwood, the snow had begun to fall in earnest, driven by winds strong enough to howl at the cave entrance. She dumped the wood beside the fire pit and immediately set about arranging kindling.

"We timed that well," she commented, striking flint against steel to create sparks. "Another hour and we'd have been caught in the thick of it."

The kindling caught, and she carefully added larger pieces until a proper fire blazed. Warmth began to fill the cave, and Naruto moved closer, holding his hands toward the flames.

"How long do the storms usually last?" he asked.

Otsuru shrugged, settling back against the cave wall. "Could be hours. Could be days." She pulled a small package from her pack and unwrapped it to reveal more dried food. "Either way, we're stuck here until it passes."

"Days?" Naruto couldn't hide his dismay. "We can't afford that kind of delay."

"Your choice," she replied mildly. "Cave. Storm and samurai. Two of them, at least, don't care about your schedule."

Naruto sighed, accepting a portion of the food she offered — dried meat, tough as leather but rich with salt and smoke. "Always a compromise, isn't it?"

"That's life in Iron Country," she said with a faint smile.

He set to work then, drawing a transformation array and slowly learning the shape of smoke. Otsuru eventually lost interest.

Outside, the wind shifted, carrying something beneath it. A sound.

Low. Drawn-out.

Naruto froze. It was buried within the storm at first, threading through the howl of the wind so naturally that he almost missed it. But the longer he listened, the more distinct it became.

A howl. Smooth — measured. Almost too perfect.

Then, a second. An answer? No. Not a call either, but an echo. Naruto's fingers twitched. He set his brush aside.

A third howl followed, rising slowly before falling away in a whisper. Something shifted in his chest.

"Wolves?" he murmured, keeping his tone light.

Otsuru didn't even glance up from her food. "Sometimes, yeah." She didn't tense. Didn't listen for a second time. To her, there seemed to be nothing unusual going on.

The wind howled again, rattling snow against the rock. But beneath it, Naruto tried to hear something else: the crunch of footsteps. He didn't manage.

His pulse quickened. He turned his head slightly, eyes drawn toward the cave mouth. And then, beyond the reach of the firelight — he saw them.

Three silhouettes, thin and slender, stood motionless in the blinding white. Their dark forms wavered like heat mirages, but there was no mistaking their unnatural stillness. Snow passed through them rather than around them.

Naruto's hand instinctively moved to his weapons pouch.

"Something wrong?" Otsuru asked, finally looking up.

Naruto glanced at her, then back at the cave entrance. The figures remained, eyes glowing faintly blue like distant stars, and fixed on him.

Or rather, not him — he realized suddenly. Their gaze was angled slightly downward. Toward the fire. Or toward the seal he'd drawn to transfigure the smoke.

Otsuru glanced toward the cave's entrance, then at him, slowly.

"You — You don't hear anything?" he asked carefully, nodding toward the entrance. Or see them?

Though the thought flickered through his mind, some quiet instinct of self-preservation held his tongue — perhaps he didn't want her to think he'd lost his mind if his dark suspicion was right, perhaps he was afraid that he might have.

Otsuru squinted into the storm. "I don't hear anything, no. Why?"

The middle figure took a slight step to the side. The snow swirled around its form, passing through without resistance. Naruto finally realized what he was seeing. What he now knew he had been the only one to hear, and see.

Yōkai.

Otsuru shrugged and returned to her meal. "Probably just the storm playing tricks. It happens out here."

She couldn't see them. How had he not noticed earlier? It had been the same for the people aboard the airship, he thought. Aside from these attacking shinobi, and…

And Naruto's clan.

He nodded slowly, for her sake, but kept his eyes on the near-unmoving figures. They made no move to fully enter the cave, but their presence felt like a weight on his chest. The tallest one raised a long, skeletal finger to where its lips would be beneath its featureless face.

Silence? Secret? Warning?

Naruto didn't know, and practicality took over. If these creatures meant immediate harm, they would have attacked already — maybe. Instead, they were observing. Waiting. Testing him, perhaps. Waiting until he fell asleep, perhaps?

Naruto settled back against the cave wall, trying to appear casual while his senses remained heightened. He took another bite of the dried meat, chewing mechanically while his eyes darted between Otsuru and the yōkai standing just beyond the firelight's reach.

"So," he said, his voice unnaturally loud in his own ears, "you've traveled this route before?"

Otsuru looked up, momentarily surprised by the sudden attempt at conversation. "Many times. It's one of the safer paths, if you know what to watch for."

Naruto nodded, daring another glance at the yōkai. They hadn't moved — their ghostlike forms shimmered now and then, like banners stirred by a breeze that blew out of time. Their eyes, twin pinpricks of cold blue light, stayed locked on the seal.

"And what... exactly should I be watching for?" he managed, the question directed as much at the silent observers as at Otsuru.

"Bandits, mainly. Samurai, now. Some wildlife. The usual hazards," Otsuru replied, oblivious to the other audience.

The minutes stretched into an hour. Naruto maintained the charade of normal conversation, palming a weapon, asking questions about Iron Country, about Otsuru's travels, about anything that might seem natural for two travelers sharing shelter. All the while, the yōkai remained, silent witnesses to his performance.

Occasionally, they would shift positions, gliding rather than stepping, their movements both too smooth and too stiff at once. Once, the smallest of the three tilted its head at an impossible angle, as if puzzled by Naruto's behavior.

When Otsuru laid out her bedroll and turned her back to the fire, Naruto remained sitting upright, his posture relaxed but his muscles tense.

"Not sleeping yet?" Otsuru mumbled, already half-consumed by exhaustion.

"Soon," Naruto promised. "I'll just take the first watch."

Once her breathing had deepened into the rhythm of sleep, Naruto finally allowed himself to acknowledge his observers directly, meeting their gaze head-on.

The tallest yōkai — the one who had signaled for silence — inclined its head slightly. Its long, spindly fingers traced patterns in the air, leaving faint trails of ghostly blue light that dissipated almost immediately.

Naruto couldn't decipher the meaning, if there had been any.

After what seemed like an eternity, the yōkai stepped backward. The other two followed suit, their movements synchronized. The tallest one repeated the gesture that might have meant silence, pressing its skeletal finger to where a mouth should be. Then, it bowed — a formal, deliberate motion that seemed almost ceremonial.

The yōkai retreated slowly, backing into the storm until their darkly lit eyes were the last to disappear.

Naruto released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

His hands, he noticed, were trembling again. Whether from fear or something else, he couldn't say. What could he do, anyway? He needed to get to Fire, and these spectral things didn't seem to pose an immediate physical threat — aside from their lack of intent, he had noticed how they passed through the swirling snow, how the storm raged unhindered through their ethereal forms.

These didn't seem as though they could truly touch the material world, or perhaps not in the conventional sense. Witnesses, messengers, harbingers — whatever they were, they had recognized something in him, and that recognition somehow felt more unsettling physical danger.

"…You sure you're okay?" Otsuru asked suddenly, rolling over to face him. Her eyes were heavy with sleep, but concern creased her brow.

He wondered how long she had been awake, how much she had noticed of his silent communion with the yōkai. Had she seen him staring into the empty storm, watching things invisible to her eyes?

"Yeah," he lied, forcing himself to pick up his forgotten food. "Just tired."

She seemed mostly satisfied with this and closed her eyes again. But sleep, he knew, would not come easily tonight. Not with what waited outside — and what had found him already.

His fingers absently traced a path similar to the strange symbols the yōkai had drawn in the air. The storm howled outside, but beneath it, Naruto thought he could still hear them — those perfect, measured howls. Calling. Waiting. For him.

He huddled closer to the dying fire, seeking a warmth that felt distant again, a traveler caught between worlds, one visible and one hidden, both equally real and equally dangerous.

And in the deep, uncertain hours of that night, Naruto learned the elusive shape of smoke well enough to learn how to seal it away.

i/o4eciP : Spirits

i/o4ne1v : Extra — "The joys of adventure."

AN: Enter hallucinations?

Next chapter: Under the Moon's Glare