They were waiting exactly where she knew they'd be — the cracked stone bench under the old camphor tree, the one spot on campus where the illusion wards ran thin enough that nobody bothered eavesdropping anymore.
Three faces turned toward her at once.
Ren, arms crossed, trying and failing to look like he wasn't nervous. Mika, already sniffling, a half-eaten dango stick forgotten in her hand. And Tobi, sitting backward on the bench like always, grinning like an idiot because grinning like an idiot was the only way Tobi knew how to say *I'm proud of you* without actually saying it.
"Well?" Ren said, voice rough. "Don't keep us waiting, Dragon Lady."
Saya's tail twitched once beneath her skirt — a tell only these three had ever learned to read.
She held up the badge.
Mika burst into tears immediately, which somehow made Saya's own eyes sting in solidarity, which she would deny with her dying breath.
---
"S-Class," Tobi whistled low, leaning forward. "Seven people in the *country*, and you're one of them. You know how insane that is? You know how insane *you* are?"
"I had help," Saya muttered, glancing away. Her cheeks had gone faintly pink, and not from the cold evening air.
"You soloed a Tier-7 Wyrm," Ren said flatly. "What help."
"...Shut up."
Mika laughed wetly through her tears and threw both arms around Saya's neck before she could brace for it. Saya stiffened — she always stiffened, old instinct, old fear of someone feeling the place where her wings folded beneath her shoulder blades — but she didn't pull away. Not this time. Not on the last night it would matter.
Because that was the part none of them had said out loud yet.
S-Class hunters didn't stay at the Academy. S-Class hunters got assigned. Deployed. Scattered across the world to wherever the strongest threats demanded the strongest blades.
Tonight was the last night the four of them would be in the same place at the same time, maybe ever.
---
Nobody said it directly. They didn't have to. It sat in the silence between jokes, in the way Mika held on a half-second too long, in the way Ren wouldn't quite meet Saya's eyes.
"So," Tobi said eventually, too casual, too loud, "you gonna tell us what your big scary unlocked ability is, or are we finding out when you accidentally level a building?"
Saya hesitated. The cold fire from earlier still simmered faintly under her skin.
"Silver Shadow," she said quietly. "I don't even know what it does yet."
A soft chime rang in her mind.
**[I could explain it to them, if you'd like. I'm quite good at explanations.]**
*Don't you dare,* Saya thought back, sharp as a blade. *They can't hear you, and I'd like to keep it that way until I understand it myself.*
**[Spoilsport.]**
She fought down the urge to glare at empty air in front of her three best friends, who were already giving her *that look* — the one that meant they knew she was talking to something they couldn't see.
"The system, right?" Mika guessed, wiping her eyes. "Is it being annoying already?"
"You have no idea," Saya sighed.
---
The four of them stayed until the sky burned orange, then violet, then deep and starless blue — the kind of dark that only existed this far underground, manufactured by Academy engineers to mimic a real Tokyo night.
They talked about nothing. They talked about everything. Old missions, old arguments, the time Tobi nearly got them all expelled trying to sneak a baby slime into the dorms, the time Ren cried during a movie and swore them all to secrecy.
Saya memorized it. Every second.
Because dragons remembered things humans forgot — faces, voices, the exact warmth of a hand on a shoulder — and some buried, ancient part of her knew this memory needed to last a very long time.
When the curfew bell finally rang, low and resonant through the underground halls, nobody moved for a long moment.
Then Mika hugged her again, fierce and sudden. "Don't you dare disappear on us, Saya Hibiki."
"I won't," Saya said, voice steadier than she felt. Her throat had gone tight and burning, and she hated it, hated how human it made her feel, hated how much she didn't want to let go.
A single tear slipped free before she could stop it.
She wiped it away fast, scowling like the tear had personally offended her. "I'm not crying."
"Sure," Ren said gently, the corner of his mouth lifting. "Course not."
---
She turned and walked toward the dormitory alone, tail dragging slightly with the weight of the night, badge cold against her collarbone, three sets of eyes watching her go until the corridor curved out of sight.
That was when Lumen chimed again, far too brightly for the moment.
**[Now that the sentimental portion of the evening has concluded—]**
*Lumen.*
**[—we should discuss your new equipment requirement.]**
Saya stopped walking. *My what?*
**[Per Dragon Walker Protocol, all S-Class hunters synchronized with an AI combat-system must equip a designated Awakening Garment before further abilities can be unlocked.]**
*A what.*
**[An Awakening Garment. In your case, specifically—]**
A shimmer of silver light unfolded in front of her, condensing slowly into an image, rotating gently in the air like a held breath.
Black fabric. White lace trim. A pristine apron, a high collar, a skirt cut for movement rather than show.
A maid dress.
Saya stared at it in the dim corridor light, pink eyes wide, mouth slightly open, the cold fire of Silver Shadow forgotten entirely.
**[Surprise.]**
---
"No," Saya said immediately, flatly, the word leaving her before her brain had even finished processing what she was looking at. "Absolutely not."
**[I haven't finished explaining the mechanics yet.]**
"I don't care about the mechanics. I am not — " she lowered her voice to a furious whisper as a pair of underclassmen rounded the corner ahead, " — I am not wearing *that.*"
**[The Awakening Garment isn't a fashion choice, Saya. It's a conduit. Without it, Silver Shadow remains capped at roughly twelve percent of its true output.]**
Her tail had gone rigid beneath her skirt, a sure sign of pure indignation. "Then I'll fight at twelve percent."
**[You soloed a Tier-7 Wyrm at zero percent. Imagine what you could do at full power. Imagine what you'll face out there, alone, without your friends standing behind you.]**
That landed harder than Lumen probably intended — or maybe exactly as hard as it was designed to.
Saya's jaw tightened. The image of the dress spun slowly in the air, infuriatingly elegant, infuriatingly *not* what she'd pictured for herself, a girl with dragon horns and a warrior's scars, forced into white lace and a tiny black skirt like some kind of doll.
"There has to be another option," she muttered.
**[There is always another option. It is simply worse.]**
---
She didn't sleep well that night.
Every time she closed her eyes, the image floated back — black and white, soft lace, a silhouette that didn't feel like *her*, couldn't possibly be her, the strongest A-Class hunter the Academy had ever produced, the girl who'd walked away from a Tier-7 Wyrm without a scratch.
A maid.
Of all the things in the world, the ancient system bonded to her dragon soul had chosen *that.*
By morning, sunlight filtering through her dorm window in thin gold lines, Saya had made her decision, jaw set, tail flicking with stubborn finality.
She would refuse. She would find another way to unlock Silver Shadow's full power. She would prove the badge wrong, prove Lumen wrong, prove that a Silver Wyrm bloodline didn't need to be dressed up like a porcelain doll to be powerful.
She was so confident in that decision that she almost missed the knock at her door — three sharp raps, followed by Mika's voice, far too cheerful for this early in the morning.
"Saya! Open up! We heard about the dress code thing and we brought *help.*"
Saya's blood ran cold.
*They know.*
**[I may have mentioned it to them last night. For moral support purposes.]**
*LUMEN.*