Cassandra next found herself in a theater.
Rows of empty seats stretched into darkness, and she stood alone on the stage beneath a single light.
There was no audience, but she still felt watched, as if the shadows themselves were leaning forward with interest.
A child sat at the edge of the stage.
He looked around ten or eleven years old, with dark hair, pale skin, and golden flower patterns embroidered along the sleeves of his black kimono.
His feet swung lazily above the floor, and the look he gave her carried far too much awareness for such a young face.
Cassandra knew he was the sword, or at least the spirit inside it.
He rested his chin on one hand.
"You're noisy when you finally get angry."
Cassandra stared at him.
"Was that... you?"
"The annoying questions? Obviously."
"That was frightening."
"It was supposed to be."
"Why?"
"Because people don't listen to gentle warnings."
Cassandra wanted to argue, but considering her entire life, the words died before leaving her mouth.
The boy hopped down from the stage and circled her with open curiosity, each step making the shadows beneath the stage lights ripple faintly.
"You see things before they happen. People don't believe you. After enough of that, part of you started wishing you could stop seeing anything at all."
Cassandra's fingers curled.
"Yes."
The boy tilted his head.
"That's stupid."
Cassandra looked up, startled.
"Eh?"
"It's stupid," he repeated, entirely merciless. "If you close your eyes because other people are idiots, then the idiots win."
Cassandra opened her mouth, then closed it again.
What was she even supposed to say to that?
He was not wrong, but did he have to say it like that?!
The boy's smile sharpened slightly, as if he had heard the complaint she had not voiced.
"I'm not a comforting sword."
"I noticed..."
"Good. I'd hate to be misunderstood!"
Cassandra took a shaky breath.
"Are you going to reject me?"
"I haven't decided it yet hahahaha."
The blunt answer nearly made her stumble.
The boy laughed, sounding far too pleased with himself.
"You're honest when you're scared. That's good. Most people lie to me immediately. The last one wanted to hand me to his god like I was some shiny toy. How annoying."
"That was Hyakinthos-san."
"I don't care what his name was. If he wanted to be remembered, he should have been less boring."
Cassandra blinked.
For a moment, the absurdity of hearing a sword spirit complain about Hyakinthos was enough to loosen the fear gripping her chest.
The boy stopped in front of her.
"Tell me, Cassandra. If no one believes you, will you still speak?"
Her smile faded.
That question hurt because the answer was not simple. She wanted to say yes, but she knew how many times fear had made her fall silent.
She wanted to say she always tried, but the trial had already shown her the moments when exhaustion made her give up before her warning could even become a proper sentence.
"I don't know," she admitted.
The boy watched her carefully.
"I want to. I really do. But sometimes I'm tired, and sometimes I'm scared, and sometimes it hurts so much when people laugh that I can't make myself keep talking."
The theater remained quiet.
Cassandra forced herself to continue.
"But I don't want to close my eyes anymore. If I see something terrible, I'll still be afraid. I'll probably cry, and I'll probably apologize too much, and Daphne-san will get angry because I'm being pathetic again."
"Very pathetic," the boy agreed.
"That was not the part you were supposed to agree with..."
"You said it first."
Cassandra nearly choked on her own breath.
Was the sword bullying her?
The sword was definitely bullying her!
He looked extremely satisfied with himself, which somehow made him feel less like a nightmare and more like a very rude child who had been waiting too long for someone to talk to.
Cassandra rubbed at her eyes with one sleeve.
"Even if I'm scared, I want to try. I don't know if I can make everyone believe me, but if I can show them even a little proof, if I can make one person stop before walking into danger, then maybe seeing these dreams won't only be a curse."
The boy studied her for a long moment, his expression losing some of its earlier mockery as he looked at her more seriously.
"Then ask."
Cassandra's breath caught.
"Ask?"
"You know what I mean."
She did.
Somehow, she did.
Cassandra held both hands in front of her chest and bowed her head slightly.
No one had taught her the proper way to speak to a Zanpakutō, but anything less felt too casual after everything the trial had shown her.
"Please tell me your name."
The theater dimmed, and the shadows gathered around the boy until his figure blurred at the edges, as if he were standing halfway inside a dream and halfway in reality.
"My name is Yumeutsutsu."
The name settled into Cassandra's heart like a bell ringing through a quiet room.
Between dream and waking.
A place where nightmares could leave proof behind.
Cassandra repeated it softly.
"Yumeutsutsu."
The boy smiled again, this time with enough personality that Cassandra could already imagine him causing her no end of trouble.
"Don't make me regret this."
"I'll try not to."
"Also, stop apologizing so much!"
"I'm sorry."
He stared at her.
Cassandra realized what she had said and covered her mouth.
Yumeutsutsu sighed with the weary air of someone who had already accepted a difficult future.
"Wonderful. My wielder is hopeless."
...
In the testing room, the Zanpakutō's pressure changed.
The strange chill softened into something closer to night air after rain, cool but no longer hostile, and Rayleigh felt the moment Cassandra's Reiryoku connected properly with the blade.
He let out a slow breath and Daphne noticed immediately.
"What happened?"
"She heard its name."
Daphne stared at Cassandra, then at the sword, then back at Rayleigh.
"And that means?"
"It means the sword acknowledged her. It also means I now have to deal with the fact that one of my Zanpakutō has apparently chosen an Apollo Familia member in the middle of an illegal midnight trial under Hephaestus-sama's shop, which is going to make tomorrow's paperwork absolutely disgusting."
Daphne blinked, clearly not expecting that answer.
"You're worried about paperwork?"
"I'm worried about many things! Paperwork is simply the one least likely to stab me."
"That is not the priority here!"
"It will be when Hephaestus wakes up."
Daphne looked as if she wanted to argue, but Cassandra's eyes opened before she could.
They were wet with tears, but clearer than before.
For several seconds, Cassandra only looked down at the sword in her hands.
Then she whispered the name.
"Yumeutsutsu."
The sealed blade answered.
A faint ripple of Reiryoku spread across the room, touching the floor, the walls, and the Kidō seals around them.
Daphne shivered as something brushed past her skin, not hostile, but strange enough to make her instincts scream that this was not ordinary magic.
Cassandra slowly lifted her head.
"Rayleigh-san... I think he chose me."
Daphne, who had been tense enough to bite through iron a moment ago, paused.
"He?"
Cassandra's face warmed despite the tears still clinging to her lashes.
"His voice sounded like a little boy's. A rude little boy, actually. He called me pathetic too."
Daphne slowly turned toward Rayleigh.
Rayleigh looked at the ceiling with the quiet dignity of a man regretting several life choices at once.
"Before you say anything, I would like to clarify that I forge the sword. I do not personally assign the personality."
"Your sword is a brat."
"A spiritually gifted child with communication issues."
"That means brat."
"Most Zanpakutō are difficult in some way. If they were obedient, polite, and emotionally stable, they probably wouldn't be a unique weapons."
Daphne stared at him as if he had just made the problem worse, which, in fairness, he probably had.
Cassandra let out a small, shaky laugh.
It still sounded half full of tears, but for the first time since this began, fear was no longer the only thing in her voice.
Daphne's expression softened before she could hide it.
Rayleigh took one step closer.
"Can you release him, Cassandra-san?"
Cassandra looked down at the sword.
The name was still inside her, warm and frightening at the same time.
"I think so."
Daphne snapped back to attention at once.
"Wait, wait, wait. We just survived the talking-brat-sword part, and now you want her to release it?"
Rayleigh rubbed his chin.
"Ideally, yes."
"Ideally? Why does that word make me want to leave?"
"Because you have good survival instincts."
"Then maybe listen to them!"
Rayleigh gave Cassandra a more serious look.
"If you feel resistance from him, stop. A Shikai release should feel like answering someone calling from inside you, not like prying open a locked door. If it feels wrong, let go. I'll handle the rest."
Cassandra swallowed and nodded.
"Okay."
Daphne still looked unhappy, but she did not stop her.
Cassandra held the sword with both hands and felt the name settle more firmly inside her soul.
She was still afraid, and that had not changed, but fear no longer felt like a wall she could only cower behind.
Her voice trembled when she spoke, yet the words came out clearly.
"Open your eyes within the dream, Yumeutsutsu."
The Zanpakutō released a soft chime.
Its black scabbard dissolved into a ribbon of pale mist, and the blade changed shape in Cassandra's hands.
The metal became thinner and almost translucent, like moonlight reflected across glass, while small golden flower marks spread along the flat of the blade like delicate cracks filled with light.
Rayleigh's interest sharpened immediately.
The air around Cassandra shimmered, and a faint red mark shaped like a flower petal appeared on the floor near Daphne's feet.
Daphne looked down.
"What is that?"
Cassandra's eyes widened.
"Daphne-san, move!"
Daphne reacted instantly, jumping back just as a ceiling tile cracked loose and fell exactly where the red mark had appeared.
The tile hit the floor and shattered, leaving everyone staring at the broken pieces for a moment.
Daphne slowly looked from the tile to Cassandra.
Cassandra stared back, equally stunned.
Rayleigh crouched beside the fading mark, his expression turning thoughtful in the way it always did when a weapon showed him something interesting enough to make every future headache worth it.
"Huh. That is much more useful than I expected for a first release."
Daphne turned toward him.
"Explain! With actual words this time, not sword-parent nonsense."
"That mark was a warning," Rayleigh said, still studying the trace left on the floor. "Yumeutsutsu pulled a fragment of Cassandra-san's prophetic sense into the real world and turned it into something visible before the danger happened."
Cassandra gripped the sword tighter as the meaning settled over her.
For the first time, her warning had taken shape clearly enough for someone else to see before disaster arrived, and the realization hit her with enough force that her throat tightened.
Daphne understood a heartbeat later.
"Cassandra..."
Cassandra lowered her head, tears slipping down her cheeks before she could stop them.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, then immediately remembered Yumeutsutsu's complaint and gave a small, helpless laugh through the tears.
"No, I mean... I'm glad. I'm really glad."
Daphne walked over and pulled her into a hug without saying anything.
Cassandra froze at first, then clutched Daphne's sleeve with one hand while still holding Yumeutsutsu with the other.
Rayleigh watched them quietly.
The sword had chosen well.
Cassandra was fragile in ways that would make future training a nightmare, and the sword spirit was clearly going to bully her with the confidence of a small tyrant, but the compatibility was there.
More importantly, Yumeutsutsu gave Cassandra something she had desperately needed long before she ever touched a blade.
Proof.
Then the testing room door opened.
Hephaestus stood at the entrance in a robe thrown hastily over her clothes, her red hair slightly messy and her single visible eye narrowed.
Behind her, the shop manager looked like a man praying for the world to become reasonable again.
Hephaestus took in Cassandra crying in Daphne's arms, the released Zanpakutō, the shattered ceiling tile, the disturbed Kidō seals, and Rayleigh standing in the middle of the illegal midnight trial with the expression of someone who had known this would be annoying but had done it anyway.
Her gaze slowly settled on him.
"Rayleigh."
Rayleigh straightened.
"Hephaestus-sama."
Her smile was gentle enough to make the shop manager take a step back.
"Would you like to explain why I woke up feeling your seals tremble under my shop?"
Rayleigh was quiet for a moment, weighing several possible answers and discarding all of them because lying to Hephaestus is useless.
"Good news. The sword found its wielder."
Hephaestus's smile did not change.
"And the bad news?"
Rayleigh glanced at the broken ceiling tile.
"Minor property damage?"
The shop manager made a strangled sound that might have been the death of his soul.
Daphne stared at Rayleigh as if he were unbelievable.
Cassandra, still crying into Daphne's shoulder, almost laughed again.
Hephaestus closed her eye and took a slow breath.
"Come upstairs. All of you."
Rayleigh nodded obediently.
"Yes, Hephaestus-sama."
Yumeutsutsu gave a faint chime in Cassandra's hand.
Somehow, Cassandra had the distinct feeling the sword was laughing too.
'What a terrible sword.'
For the first time in a very long while, though, Cassandra did not feel alone while thinking that.
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