The mine was a tomb of shadows. Ayaka swung her pickaxe into the jagged rock, her muscles trembling with exhaustion. The air reeked of damp stone and unwashed bodies, thick with the metallic tang of raw ore. Lanterns hung from rusted hooks along the tunnel walls, their feeble light barely piercing the gloom. Around her, dozens of slaves worked in hollow silence, their faces gaunt, their hands raw—some bleeding. Shogunate guards patrolled the lines, their lacquered armor clattering like beetle shells. One paused behind Ayaka, his shadow swallowing her.

"Faster," he barked, his whip snapping the air beside her ear. The tip grazed her shoulder, splitting the threadbare fabric of her tunic. She only winced.

It had been three years since the soldiers had come to her village. Three years since they'd dragged her family into the square. Her father, a blacksmith, had refused to forge swords for the Shogun's army. Her mother had shielded Ren with her body as the executioner raised his blade. Ayaka remembered the way her brother's sandal had slipped off his foot as they hauled him away—a tiny, frayed thing she'd snatched from the mud and hidden in her sleeve. She touched it now, its edges worn soft from her fidgeting.

A giggle echoed down the tunnel.

Ayaka froze. The sound was high and bright, utterly foreign in the mine's suffocating dark. The guard beside her stiffened.

"Who's there?" he demanded, gripping his whip.

The lantern flames shuddered.

From the wall of cobalt ore, a small, glowing creature tumbled into the tunnel. It had the shape of a fox, but its fur rippled like fire, nine tails whipping the air. Its eyes burned copper-bright, and its paws left smoldering prints on the stone. It tilted its head at Ayaka, ears twitching playfully.

"Oooh, you're angry!" it trilled, its voice like a child's. "I like it!"

The guard stumbled back, face pale. "Yokai!"

The kitsune leaped onto a wooden support beam, its tails scattering embers. "Yokai? Rude!" it huffed, puffing out its chest. "I'm Enko! Great Fire Kami of the Eastern Winds! Well, former Great Kami. The Shogun's priests trapped me in this stupid rock." It shot a resentful glare at the cobalt veins. "Boring! No fires to tend, no shrines to play in—just darkness."

Enko's gaze snapped back to Ayaka. "But you... You're full of sparks! Let's play a game!"

Ayaka stared. She'd heard tales of kami in her childhood—spirits of river and flame, capricious and wild—but those stories had died with her village.

"What... kind of game?" she whispered.

Enko somersaulted midair, flames spiraling around him. "Twenty days!" he sang. "I give you my fire, you give me your soul! Burn the Shogunate! Burn the boring guards! Burn, burn, burn!" He landed on her pickaxe handle. "And when the days are done, poof! You turn to ash, and I get a shiny new soul for my collection!"

The guard recovered, his fear twisting into rage. "Enough!" He raised his whip.

Enko's ears flattened. "Idiot," he muttered.

A flick of his tail.

Fire erupted from the guard's boots, racing up his legs. He screamed, batting at the flames, but they clung like living things. Within seconds, his armor glowed red-hot. The stench of burning flesh choked the tunnel. Ayaka gagged, covering her mouth, but Enko cheered.

Slaves scattered, their shouts echoing. Ayaka stood rooted, her heart pounding. This is madness. Death. A trick. But Enko flitted closer, his heat warm against her face, his eyes wide and eager.

"C'mon, spark-chan! Let's play! You want revenge, right? I heard you whispering to the rocks about it." He mimicked her voice, high and bitter: "'I'll kill them all. I'll make them scream.'"

Ayaka's fists clenched. She glanced at the fleeing slaves—men and women she'd shared gruel with, their faces hollow with despair. She thought of Ren's laughter, his small hands tugging hers as they chased frogs in the creek. The Shogunate had taken that. They had taken everything.

"Twenty days," she said slowly. "And I can... destroy them?"

Enko nodded wildly. "Yesyesyes! Burn their towers! Melt their swords! It'll be fun!"

Her chest ached. Fun. The word felt asinine. But she squeezed Ren's sandal, its frayed threads digging into her skin.

"Yes," she said. "I'll play."

Enko yipped with delight. "Game on!"

He dissolved into a whirlwind of embers and plunged into her chest.

Ayaka gasped. Fire flooded her veins, sweet and searing. Her vision sharpened—she could see the individual cracks in the tunnel walls, count the lice crawling on a guard's corpse. The heat in her hands pulsed like a second heartbeat.

"Try it!" Enko's voice buzzed in her skull, giddy. "Point at something!"

A Shogunate soldier charged her, sword raised. Ayaka lifted a trembling finger.

A thread of fire lashed from her fingertip. It struck the man's blade, and the steel melted, droplets hissing as they hit the ground. The soldier stared at the molten hilt in his hand, then at Ayaka.

"Demon," he breathed.

Enko cackled. "Again! Again!"

Ayaka turned her palm upward. Flames erupted, swirling around her like a cyclone. They didn't burn her—they hugged her, warm and eager. The remaining guards fled, their shouts echoing, but she barely heard them. The fire was singing, a wordless, joyous noise that matched Enko's laughter.

"Look out!" Enko chirped.

A crossbow bolt whistled toward her.

Ayaka flicked her wrist. The bolt disintegrated midair, its ashes scattering like black snow.

"Wheee!" Enko cheered. "Do the walls next! Let's make fireworks!"

She pressed her palms to the tunnel wall. The cobalt veins glowed white-hot, then exploded. Chunks of rock rained down, and the mine groaned like a wounded beast. Slaves screamed, scrambling for the exit, but Ayaka strode forward, flames parting around her. Enko's power thrummed in her bones, intoxicating, alive.

A boy tripped ahead of her—a child no older than Ren. A boulder teetered above him, dislodged by the quaking mine.

Ayaka lunged, seizing the boy's arm and yanking him aside just as the rock crashed down. He stared at her, eyes wide with terror, his face lit by her fiery gaze.

"Y-you're on fire," he stammered.

Ayaka released him. "Run. Now."

The boy scrambled away, vanishing into the smoke.

Enko huffed. "Boo! Saving's not as fun as burning!"

"He's a child," Ayaka snapped.

"So? The Shogun's soldiers weren't nice to you when you were little!"

No. They weren't. But she wasn't the Shogunate.

Ayaka emerged from the mine into the cold night air. Her body hummed with fury, adrenaline pulsing through her legs. She took one last deep breath before taking off in a sprint as fast as she could go. She was free.

The forest blurred around her, moonlight slicing through cedar boughs like shards of glass. Her lungs burned, her bare feet tearing against roots and rocks, but she didn't stop. Behind her, the mine smoldered—a jagged black scar in the mountainside, its ruins glowing faintly orange. Enko floated around her head, his nine tails flickering like candle flames.

"Faster, spark-chan!" he chirped. "The idiots are coming!"

She could hear them now—the snap of branches, the clank of armor, the guttural shouts of Shogunate scouts. Their lanterns bobbed in the dark like fireflies, closing in.

A crossbow bolt thudded into a tree trunk inches from her face. Ayaka swore, veering left. The forest sloped downward, the ground turning slick with pine needles. Her pulse roared in her ears, her borrowed fire simmering beneath her skin, restless and wild.

Another bolt grazed her thigh. Blood seeped into her torn pants, hot and sticky.

Twenty days? She might not last twenty hours.

"Why... aren't you... helping?" she gasped, stumbling over a moss-crusted log.

Enko yawned. "You didn't ask me to."

Ayaka's vision turned gold. Fire erupted from her hands, not in controlled threads but in a frenzied wave. It devoured the trees ahead, reducing pines to skeletal silhouettes. The ground trembled as roots combusted, earth cracking open like a rotten fruit. She tried to stop, but her legs kept moving—straight into the inferno.

"Enko!" she screamed.

The flames parted around her, recoiling as if offended. She fell to her knees in the scorched clearing, hands smoking, the air reeking of charred resin. Behind her, the scouts' shouts turned to panicked cries as the wildfire spread.

Enko materialized in front of her. "What?"

"You almost burned me alive!"

"Nuh-uh! My fire loves you!" He twirled, oblivious to the chaos.

Ayaka stared at her palms, blistered and raw. The pain was distant, muffled by the kami's power, but she knew it would return.

"You need to listen," Enko said, suddenly serious. He floated eye-level with her, his copper gaze piercing. "Fire's not a sword. It's a... a dance! You gotta let it move you!"

"I don't know how," she admitted.

"Ugh, humans!" He zipped around her head, trailing sparks. "You're all stomp, stomp, stomp. No grace!"

A shout cut through the night. "There! By the burned patch!"

Six scouts emerged from the smoke, their faces masked by cloth, arrows nocked. Their leader—a hulking man with a serrated naginata—stepped forward. "Surrender, witch. The Shogun's priests want you alive."

Ayaka rose, legs shaking. "The Shogunate will never have me while I live."

Enko cackled. "Oooh, spicy! Do the twirly thing!"

The naginata lunged.

Ayaka sidestepped, but the blade sliced her arm. Fire surged in response, a reflexive burst that engulfed the weapon. The scout dropped it, howling, his gloves melting into his skin. Enko cheered. "See? Dance!"

Another scout loosed an arrow. Ayaka swung her hand—too late. The arrowhead buried itself in her shoulder. She cried out, the pain sharp and sudden, and the fire in her veins snapped.

Uncontrolled flames geysered from her body.

Trees became torches. Rocks split with thunderous cracks. A scout stumbled into a stream, but the water boiled, his screams cut short as steam scoured his lungs. Enko whooped, twirling in the chaos, but Ayaka couldn't stop it. The fire raged, feeding on her anger, her fear, the memory of Ren's tears—

"Ayaka!"

The voice was hers, but distant, buried beneath the inferno.

"Stop!"

The flames died as suddenly as they'd begun.

The clearing was a wasteland. Smoldering carcasses of trees leaned like drunkards. The scouts were gone—reduced to ash-shapes on the ground, their outlines grotesquely peaceful. Ayaka gagged, clutching her wounded shoulder. The arrow had burned away, but the wound remained, oozing blood that sizzled where it touched her fiery skin.

Enko floated to her, tilting his head. "You stopped."

"They were... they were people," she whispered.

"Dumb people."

"They had families. Children."

"You had a family, too."

Enko hovered closer, his flames dimming. "You wanna play nice? Go back to the mine! But if you wanna win..." His tails flared, casting jagged shadows. "You gotta burn everything."

Ayaka turned away, her throat tight. In the silence, she heard the faint gurgle of the stream. She staggered toward it, Enko trailing her. The water was black with ash, but she scooped handfuls over her face, scrubbing away soot and sweat. It was hot, but it didn't burn.

Her reflection stared up at her—a gaunt stranger with firelit eyes, hair singed at the ends. Mother's eyes. Father's stubborn nose. All she had left of them lived in the curve of her own face.

Ayaka steadied her breath as she gripped Ren's sandal. "I need to be able to control the fire."

"Control's boring," Enko said, but there was no mockery in his tone. He floated down to the stream, poking at a charred fish floating belly-up. "You wanna tame it? You gotta be like the wind—push it here, pull it there." He demonstrated with his tails, weaving flames into a spiral. "But you're all stiff."

Ayaka watched the delicate dance. "Teach me."

The kitsune's ears twitched. "No one's ever asked that before. They just screamed and burned everything." He zoomed around her, considering. "Okay! Lesson one: Stop thinking so much."

"Huh?"

"Fire's alive. Listen to it!" He pressed a paw to her chest.

Heat flooded her ribs. The world sharpened again—the crackle of dying embers, the whisper of wind over scorched earth, the thrum of the fire inside her, eager and restless. Enko's voice echoed, softer now: "It wants to play. Let it."

Ayaka closed her eyes. The pain in her shoulder faded, replaced by the fire's rhythm. She raised her hand, palm up, and focused not on commanding the flames, but on... inviting them.

A single tongue of fire curled above her hand, gentle as a leaf on a pond.

"See?" Enko whispered. "Easy-peasy!"

A twig snapped.

Ayaka's fire winked out. Three new scouts emerged from the trees, their bows drawn. These wore no armor—their uniforms were dark, faces smeared with soot. Elite trackers.

"There's the demon," one hissed.

Enko sighed. "More? Ugh, how dumb can these guys be?"

Ayaka exhaled. This time, she didn't panic. She let the fire rise, flowing through her like the stream at her feet. When she flicked her wrist, the flames arced gracefully, encircling the scouts in a ring of fire. They shouted, loosing arrows blindly, but Ayaka twirled her fingers, and the flames deflected the shots into the dirt.

"Oooh, pretty!" Enko clapped. "Now squeeze!"

"No," Ayaka said.

She stepped forward, the fire parting for her. The scouts cowered, their leader dropping to his knees. "Mercy, spirit! We—we were ordered to—"

"Tell the Shogun," Ayaka said, her voice echoing, "I'm coming for him."

She snapped her fingers.

The flames surged upward, forming a column of light that lit the entire forest. When it faded, the scouts were gone—not ash, not corpses, just gone, whisked away by a gust of superheated wind.

Enko pouted. "Why'd you let them go?"

"They'll send a warning," Ayaka said, turning toward the kitsune. "My mother always told me that fear is sharper than any blade."

The kitsune giggled. "Oooh, sneaky! I like it!"

Ayaka's legs buckled. She caught herself against a tree, its bark blackening under her touch. The fire inside her sputtered, leaving a hollow, gnawing ache.

"What's... happening?" she panted.

"Tired already?" Enko poked her cheek with his nose. "Silly human! You're no kami! My fire's too big for your little body." He flopped onto her shoulder, tails drooping. "Gotta rest! Nap, eat, whatever you mortals do."

Ayaka slid to the ground, her back against the tree. The adrenaline faded, leaving her shivering. She uncurled her fist, revealing Ren's sandal. The fire hadn't touched it.

Enko peered at the tiny shoe. "What's that?"

"My brother's."

"He's dead?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Enko paused. "I had a brother once. A storm kami. The Shogun's priests trapped him too. In a big bell." He flopped into her lap, his flames dimming. "Boring."

Ayaka studied him. The kami's childlike glee had vanished, replaced by something quieter, older. "Why help me?" she asked. "If you hate the Shogunate, why not burn them yourself?"

"Can't," Enko mumbled. "They bound me to the cobalt. Stupid priests with their stupid chants. But you..." He perked up. "You're my fuse! I give you fire, you carry me where I wanna go! And when you burn out—" He made a popping sound. "—I'm free again!"

"Free, huh?" Ayaka paused. "And my soul?"

"Mine!" Enko said brightly. "But don't worry! I'll take good care! Souls are warm. I'll keep it in my den with the others!"

Others. Ayaka's stomach turned. "How many have you made this pact with?"

"Hmm." Enko counted on his paws. "Five? Six? The last one was a samurai. He was fun! Burned a whole temple!" His grin faded. "But he got all weepy after. Boring."

Ayaka closed her eyes. The fire in her chest pulsed weakly, a dying hearth. Twenty days. She could almost feel the seconds slipping away, each one a coal cooling.

"Sleep, spark-chan," Enko murmured. His flames dimmed to a soft glow, wrapping around her like a blanket. "Tomorrow we play kill the soldiers!"

"It's not a game," she whispered.

"Everything's a game!" Enko insisted. "You just never played before."

Ayaka couldn't stay awake any longer. She curled around Ren's sandal, her body aching. Somewhere in the valley, a wolf howled while Enko hummed a familiar song.

{word count: 2,727}