Raizen choked.

He took a sip of tea at the exact wrong moment, and the moment Atman's sentence fully made sense in his mind, and his body betrayed him like it had been waiting for an excuse.

He sputtered hard, eyes widening, tea going the wrong airway, and he leaned forward with a strangled cough that sounded like a dying engine.

Kenzo almost spit his tea out too.

He jerked the cup away from his mouth at the last second, cheeks puffed, eyes bulging like he was fighting for his life, then swallowed with visible effort and slammed the cup down on the table like it personally offended him.

"MARRY KORI!?" Kenzo shouted. He was a bit more than slightly annoyed.

The moss roof above them didn't even tremble, but Raizen swore the entire terrace flinched.

"What are you even talking about!?"

Atman blinked.

He didn't look amused. He didn't look like he was teasing, either. He looked genuinely disoriented, like his sleep-deprived brain had just woken up inside the wrong conversation.

"Whaat?" Atman said slowly. "I thought -"

Kenzo moved in an instant.

One second Atman's mouth was open, about to say something.

The next, Kenzo's hand covered it.

Completely.

Palm pressed firmly over his jaw, fingers open like he was physically stopping a disaster from escaping.

Kenzo turned his head toward Raizen and Saffi with a polite smile that looked painfully forced.

"I'm terribly sorry" Kenzo said, voice smooth and respectful, like he was hosting a fancy, formal dinner and one of the guests just started screaming nonsense. "He doesn't know what he's really talking about."

Saffi's cheeks puffed out. Her eyes went wide. She stared at Kenzo's hand over Atman's mouth like she wanted to laugh so badly it hurt her stomach.

Raizen coughed one last time, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and stared at them both in exhausted disbelief.

Kenzo kept smiling at Raizen and Saffi for one more second.

Then he turned back to Atman.

The smile vanished.

Kenzo leaned in slightly and spoke in a voice so low and cold it didn't match the morning at all.

"Let's talk sometime else, then" Kenzo whispered, pure menace wrapped in calm. "Shall we?"

Atman's eyes widened above Kenzo's hand, and he nodded quickly, muffled agreement spoken into Kenzo's palm.

Kenzo removed his hand like nothing happened.

Atman sat there with his mouth still red, blinking a few times, face still tired, still bruised by sleeplessness. But now carrying the exact look of someone who realized he almost started a personal war with one sentence. Normally, he would have been unserious, and probably joke. But it was either his exhaustion, or Kenzo that kept him from doing so.

Raizen stared into his tea cup like the tea might explain what just happened.

Saffi's shoulders shook. She made a small sound that could've been a laugh, but she strangled it, turning it into a cough.

Atman cleared his throat.

Kenzo sipped tea like his life depended on acting normal.

Raizen tried to drink again, but he was too distracted. Not even because of the Kori line anymore. Mostly because his brain didn't have the energy to hold that thought properly.

Not now. He didn't even want to overthink anymore.

Yesterday, he stood in front of a dying ruler and watched an Anathema obey a whisper inside his mind.

Today, he choked on tea because someone asked about marriage.

Raizen sat back, exhaled slowly, and let the silence do its work.

They drank in complete quiet.

No explanations. No questions. No "what did you mean by that?" No "why do you think Kenzo would marry anyone?"

Just four cups, a moss roof, and the distant hum of the Academy beyond the terrace.

Saffi kept puffing quietly every now and then, like she was trying to keep laughter inside of her lungs without letting it escape her mouth.

Raizen caught her doing it once and gave her a tired look.

Saffi covered her smile with her cup and pretended she was coughing again.

Kenzo stared straight ahead with a weird kind of focus.

When the cups finally emptied, Atman stood and collected everything with the politeness of someone trying to regain dignity. He stacked the porcelain carefully on the tray, lifted it, and gave them a nod.

"I'll be back shortly, let me get these back inside" he said.

Then he disappeared inside.

He returned in less than ten seconds.

Kenzo's eyes narrowed immediately.

"You didn't wash them" Kenzo said flatly.

Atman's tired expression cracked into a grin.

He laughed out loud, head tipping back slightly like Kenzo just told the best joke in the world.

"Kenzo" Atman said, still laughing, "but you know how much I hate washing the dishes!"

Kenzo exhaled through his nose, something between a laugh and a sigh.

"Still haven't changed, huh?"

Atman shrugged proudly. "Why would I?"

Raizen stared at them both.

Childhood friends. It just made sense.

Only childhood friends spoke like this after years apart, like time didn't matter as long as you could pick up the exact same stupid fight again.

Raizen pulled out the small map from his pocket again, just to have something to do with his hands.

Then something cold touched the back of his neck.

He flinched.

It wasn't a hand or something else.

It was wet.

A single drop rolled down under his collar.

Raizen blinked and looked up.

Another drop hit his cheek.

Then another.

Then, all at once, the sky decided to stop pretending.

Rain started pouring down.

Not slow. Not gentle. Not as we know it.

A few drops hit, and then within seconds it turned into a full downpour, hammering the moss roof above them, splashing over the terrace's edges, filling the air with that refreshing smell of wet leaves and fresh wood.

Raizen stared, stunned by how fast it changed.

Kenzo looked up too, brows lifting. "That's -"

"That's the first rain!" Atman said immediately, and the casual tone was gone. His eyes widened slightly like he'd just remembered something important.

He snapped into motion, gesturing chaotically.

"Inside, let's go!" Atman ordered. "Now, please. We wouldn't want to make our guests wet!"

Saffi jumped up instantly, like rain was the last thing she wanted.

Kenzo stood more slowly, watching the rain like it was a pleasant thing.

Raizen stood last, caught between awe and confusion.

There was rain in Neoshima, but it didn't feel like this. The world's weather is usually trapped under clouds, the light always muted, the air often heavy but not… Alive, like this.

This rain felt like the sky finally decided to cry its heart out.

Atman hurried them inside, and the sound of the rain became louder as they stepped under the Academy's roof. It drummed against the building, a steady roar that made the world outside blur.

They moved through the corridor, and Raizen caught a glimpse of the terrace shelf.

The black porcelain tray sat there.

Abandoned.

Teapot, cups, and all.

Saffi noticed too.

She glanced at Raizen and gave him an amused look that said everything without words.

Raizen's mouth twitched faintly.

Of course. Atman hated washing dishes so much he'd rather leave an expensive tea set wherever he could.

They stopped near a window, watching sheets of water pour down through the branches beyond the glass. Lanterns outside looked dimmer in the rain, their light smeared.

Raizen leaned in slightly toward Saffi, keeping his voice low.

"What does "first rain" mean?" he asked.

Saffi's eyes lit up again, because that was another subject she was weirdly educated in. The moment he asked a question, she became a walking lecture.

"Ukai's climate is different" she said quietly, still watching the beautiful rain pour down. "They have two rain seasons each year. Each lasts around a month and a half."

Raizen blinked. "Two?"

Saffi nodded. "West winds carry wet clouds from the sea."

Raizen's mind flicked back to old lessons, dusty books, maps Kori made him study when he was at the Academy. The sea? Which one? Only one was big enough to have such an impact, though. He could remember a massive stretch of water separating continents, so that must have been it.

He remembered one detail more clearly than the rest.

The storm in the center of that sea.

"The one that never stops" Raizen murmured.

Saffi nodded again. "Yeah. Mina mentioned it too. There's always a storm in the center. Nobody tried to cross straight through it again. Past attempts ended with almost no survivors."

Raizen's gaze stayed on the rain outside.

"That's why routes stay close to the shores" he said, more to himself than to her.

Saffi smiled faintly. "Exactly."

It all made sense.

The whole world had clouds covering the sky, but Ukai got these rain seasons because it lived under wind paths that carried wet clouds.

Raizen watched water slide down the glass in thin threads.

Atman stood beside them, arms crossed, looking out like he was judging the sky personally.

Then he turned around, and his expression sharpened slightly.

"Perfect timing" Atman exclaimed.

Kenzo's brows rose. "Perfect?"

Atman nodded once, like the rain was part of a schedule.

"The coordination practice is about to start."

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