Daphne dragged Cassandra away the moment they were dismissed.
She did not stop until they reached a quiet hallway far from the main hall, where sunlight fell through tall windows and the noise of the Familia became muffled behind several walls.
Only then did Daphne release her wrist.
"That bastard...!"
She bit off the rest of the sentence.
Cassandra looked at her anxiously.
"Daphne-san?"
Daphne turned around, saw Cassandra's face, and forced herself to calm down.
"Sorry. I scared you."
"No, you didn't."
"Liar."
Cassandra lowered her head.
Daphne sighed and leaned against the wall.
"I knew he'd get interested, but I didn't think he'd aim that interest at you this quickly."
"He said he won't force me yet."
"That 'yet' is exactly the problem!"
Daphne's voice rose before she could stop it.
Cassandra flinched.
Daphne immediately closed her eyes and took a breath.
"Sorry. I'm not angry at you."
"I know."
"No, you don't. You always think everything is your fault."
Cassandra's fingers tightened around her sleeve.
Daphne walked closer and placed both hands on her shoulders.
"Listen to me carefully. You don't have to touch that sword just because Apollo finds it interesting."
"But if the dream means I have to..."
"Then we think about it properly, not rush in because a god is bored!"
The tsukkomi slipped out so naturally that Cassandra blinked.
Daphne also froze for a moment.
Then Cassandra gave a tiny laugh.
Daphne looked embarrassed and turned her face away.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Nothing."
"You're definitely laughing."
"I'm not."
"You are!"
Cassandra's smile trembled, and for a moment, the fear inside her loosened.
Daphne saw that and quietly let out a breath.
After a while, Cassandra whispered, "Daphne-san."
"What now?"
"If I really do need to touch the sword, will you come with me?"
Daphne did not answer immediately.
She looked out the window, her expression troubled.
"I'll try to stop you first."
"I know."
"I'll probably complain the whole way."
"I know."
"And if that sword hurts you, I'll blame Rayleigh-san even if it's not completely his fault."
"That sounds unfair."
"It is unfair but i don't care!"
Cassandra looked at her.
Daphne crossed her arms and clicked her tongue.
"But yes. If you really decide to go, I'll come with you."
Cassandra lowered her head.
"Thank you."
Daphne looked away again.
"Don't thank me yet. We're not going anywhere."
But despite saying that, her hand stayed near Cassandra's shoulder, as if she was afraid the girl might vanish the moment she looked away.
...
At the same time, Rayleigh was back at Hephaestus Weapon Shop, looking at the sealed Zanpakutō while Hephaestus read the report from the Guild employee.
"So Apollo came, Hyakinthos challenged it, got rejected, and Cassandra warned them before it happened."
"That's the short version."
Hephaestus lowered the report.
"And the long version?"
"The sword disliked Hyakinthos because he wanted to offer it to Apollo. Cassandra likely saw part of that through a dream before arriving here. The sword reacted to her twice."
Hephaestus's expression became serious.
"Then she really is connected to it."
"Probably."
"Are you going to tell Apollo?"
"Nah." Rayleigh answered without hesitation.
Hephaestus stared at him.
Rayleigh looked back calmly.
"If Apollo realizes the sword is interested in Cassandra, he'll either treat her like the heroine of a beautiful tragedy or try to arrange the scene so she stands before it. Either way, he'll make it worse."
"That's harsh."
"Is it wrong tough?"
Hephaestus opened her mouth, paused, then closed it again.
After a moment, she rubbed her forehead.
"No, that's the annoying part."
Rayleigh looked at the sword.
"The choice has to be hers. If Cassandra only touches it because Apollo orders her to, the sword will reject her too."
"And if she never chooses?"
"Then it waits forever."
Hephaestus studied him.
"You sound patient."
"I'm not. I just know rushing this will break the wrong thing."
The goddess's expression softened slightly.
"Rayleigh."
"Hm?"
"Don't treat every broken child in Orario like a sword waiting to be reforged."
Rayleigh was quiet for a moment.
Then he smiled faintly.
"That sounds like something a goddess of smithing would say."
"It sounds like something your goddess is telling you seriously!"
Rayleigh's smile faded a little as he bowed his head.
"I'll remember it."
Hephaestus nodded, satisfied.
Then the sword inside the case trembled.
Both of them turned toward it.
The movement was faint, but it was different from before.
Rayleigh narrowed his eyes.
"What is it?"
The sword did not answer with words.
But for a brief moment, the Kidō seal around the case reflected an image that had not been there before: a girl standing in a dark room, clutching her sleeve while trying not to cry.
Hephaestus's eyes widened slightly.
"Was that .... Cassandra?"
"Yes."
Rayleigh placed one hand against the glass.
The image vanished and the sword became still again.
Hephaestus looked at him.
"It's calling her?"
"No."
Rayleigh's voice was quiet.
"It's showing me that she's already standing at the edge."
Hephaestus did not speak for a while.
Outside the shop, the crowd continued to grow, and somewhere in Orario, rumors about the second failed trial were already spreading through taverns, inns, and Familia homes.
Rayleigh looked at the black floral Zanpakutō.
"What a troublesome child."
The sword remained silent.
But this time, Rayleigh had the feeling it was laughing at him.
...
Cassandra dreamed again that night.
This time, she knew she was dreaming from the very beginning.
The world around her was quiet, colder than any room inside Apollo Familia's home should have been, and when she opened her eyes, she found herself standing barefoot at the edge of a dark lake.
The water was perfectly still, reflecting nothing of the sky above it, while a black scabbard decorated with golden flowers rested near the shore as if someone had placed it there for her alone.
She did not want to approach it.
Every instinct she had screamed at her to turn away, to close her eyes, to wake up before the dream showed her something she could never forget.
Yet her feet would not move backward, and the moment she lowered her gaze, she saw countless pale hands beneath the water, reaching toward the surface without breaking it.
Cassandra pressed both hands against her mouth.
She knew those hands.
Not their names, not their faces, but the feeling attached to them.
They were people who had not believed her, people who had walked toward danger while laughing, people she had failed to save because her warnings never reached them properly.
The lake rippled.
The young voice came again from beneath the water, soft and unsettling in a way that made her heart ache.
"Will you open your eyes?"
Cassandra shook her head.
"I can't."
The answer slipped out of her before she could stop it.
"I can't make anyone believe me. Even if I see it, even if I tell them, they won't listen. They never listen!"
The water slowly reflected her face.
The girl staring back at her looked pale, frightened, and exhausted.
Her silver hair clung to her cheeks, her eyes were red, and her lips trembled as if she had already spent years crying without anyone noticing.
Cassandra hated that reflection!
She hated how weak she looked, but more than that, she hated how familiar it was.
The voice beneath the lake asked, "Then will you close them?"
Cassandra froze.
The question was simple, but it struck her more deeply than all the frightening images before it.
She had always thought of herself as someone cursed to see terrible things, yet somewhere along the way, she had begun wishing she could stop seeing them entirely.
If no one believed her, then what was the point?
If the future would still arrive no matter how desperately she screamed, then why did she have to be the one who saw it first?
Her fingers tightened around the fabric of her nightclothes.
"I don't want to see people die."
The surface of the lake trembled, and the dream shifted.
Now she stood inside Hephaestus Weapon Shop.
The black floral Zanpakutō was inside its sealed case, surrounded by adventurers, gods, and curious onlookers.
Apollo stood among them with a beautiful smile, Daphne reached for Cassandra's wrist, and Rayleigh watched everything with those calm black eyes that seemed to notice more than he said.
Then the case opened.
Someone reached for the sword.
Cassandra could not see who it was at first, only that the person's hand was shaking badly.
The moment their fingers touched the scabbard, the shop filled with mist, and the people around them began speaking over one another.
Some laughed, some shouted, some denied what they were seeing, and some reached out too late.
The dream blurred before Cassandra could understand the rest.
She saw blood on white cloth, Daphne's frightened face, Apollo's smile cracking for the first time, and Rayleigh standing with one hand on the sword as if he had stopped something from becoming far worse.
Then, in the middle of that chaos, Cassandra saw herself.
She was standing close to the sword, trembling so badly she could barely breathe, but her eyes were open.
Cassandra woke with a gasp.