Gilded Ashes-Chapter 281: Wooden Cocoon

Kenzo didn’t look amused. At all.

Raizen lifted his hands slightly, a silent plea for everyone to not explode at once. "Well, that’s exactly what I said before getting punched by her"

"Long story" he added, after seeing the doubtful look Saffi was throwing him.

Eiden’s eyebrow rose. "It always is when you or Kenzo are involved, and the strangest things are happening."

Saffi pushed herself up on her elbows, peeking around Eiden’s shoulder. She looked between Kenzo’s tired face and the armored figure. Then she puffed out a satisfied breath like she had just finished a calculation, rolled onto her back, and stared at the ceiling. "I knew you two would find something real fun" she said, voice bright.

Raizen’s smile got bigger against his will.

Then Saffi finally lifted her head properly and looked at Kenzo’s shoulder.

And when she saw the helmet again, her lips twitched. "So..." she said slowly, eyes glittering, "she wasn’t as tough as she pretended to be, huh?"

Raizen and Kenzo exchanged a look.

It was a really long look. They both knew how wrong that sentence was.

Raizen cleared his throat. "Uhh... No" he said, forcing his voice into something normal, "She’s just sleeping."

As if answering him, Enya snored once. Loud. Confident. Like she wanted everyone in the room to know she didn’t give a seed about what they thought.

Saffi stared. Eiden stared too, but his stare wasn’t confused. It was... Asessing, almost slightly amused.

Kenzo didn’t waste time. He walked to his own mattress, turned carefully, and lowered Enya off his shoulder with more care than Raizen ever saw him use with anything that wasn’t a person.

He didn’t remove the helmet. He didn’t touch the armor straps. He just placed her down gently on her side, like you did with someone you weren’t sure should be on their back.

Enya’s snoring softened. Almost polite now.

Kenzo straightened slowly. Water dripped off his hair onto the floor. He looked exhausted in a way that didn’t match his strength. Like his body could handle anything, but his mind still had to carry the weight of it.

Raizen stepped closer. "We’ll check her in the morning" he said quietly, mostly to remind himself. "We didn’t find anything wrong, pulse is steady and breathing is fine."

Saffi sat up fully now, the science storm forgotten for the first time since they walked in. Her gaze flicked to Raizen’s face. Then to Kenzo’s. Then back to Enya.

"Where did you even-" she started.

Kenzo’s hand lifted slightly, stopping her without a word. Not rude, just firm. Like he didn’t want to relive it right now.

Eiden finally moved. He slid off Saffi’s bed in one smooth motion and stepped closer to Kenzo’s mattress, careful not to get too close. His eyes scanned Enya’s armor, then her chest, then the way her body sat unnaturally still under all that weight.

He murmured, "That’s not standard Ukai gear."

Raizen opened his mouth, then shut it again. Yeah. No kidding.

Saffi leaned forward, curiosity burning through her. "Is she... Is she a Vanguard trainee? Or one of the Academy’s-"

"Nah" Raizen said quickly. "She’s just... Enya."

That somehow made it worse.

Saffi’s brows knit. "That tells me nothing."

Raizen didn’t answer, because he didn’t have an answer that wouldn’t cause a bigger chain reaction than the one already waiting in the room.

Kenzo took a slow breath. "Let’s let her sleep" he said, voice low. "We can deal with it tomorrow."

Eiden nodded once, surprisingly agreeing. Saffi still looked like she wanted to argue, but she swallowed it. Her eyes slid to Raizen, then away, like she trusted his judgment even if she didn’t understand it.

That small loyalty hit Raizen harder than it should’ve. He exhaled and tried to relax. For the first time since the Nyx fight, since the dome, since the knife started acting like it had a heartbeat, the room felt safe again. Warm light. Familiar mattresses. People who didn’t feel like strangers anymore.

Rain kept tapping on the roof outside, steady and consistent, like the world didn’t care about their problems.

Raizen took one step back.

And that’s when it happened.

The air snapped.

A blur of green-brown shot out from beneath Enya’s armor.

Vines lashed around Enya’s body. Brutally fast. It happened in less than a second.

They wrapped and interrwined above her arms, her legs, her torso, crossing over each other in tight spirals like restraints. The strands thickened as they moved, darkening instantly, and Raizen’s stomach dropped because he recognized this style.

Kenzo jumped back on pure reflex, hammer snapping toward his hand like it moved on its own. His shoulders tensed, ready to hit whatever dared move in his home.

Saffi made a sharp sound, half gasp, half unpolite, surprised curse. Eiden’s eyes widened for the first time all night.

But the vines didn’t attack anyone. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

They attacked the space around Enya, forming a thick shell.

They hardened as they wove, turning from wet vine to dark brown wood so quickly it looked like time skipped. The wood sealed around her in layered plates, overlapping like bark, like a tree desperately trying to protect its core.

A cocoon. A safe. A locked box.

It finished closing with a final twist, and then it stopped. No more movement. No more growth, just a dark wooden cocoon piercing from beneath Kenzo’s mattress where Enya was laying a heartbeat ago.

Silence fell so hard Raizen thought heard the rain louder.

Kenzo stared at the... Thing that completely stabbed his matress, breathing slowly, eyes narrowed like he tried to decide whether to smash it or run.

Saffi stood frozen, hands half lifted like she didn’t know if she should touch it or never go near it again. Eiden didn’t move at all. Raizen couldn’t either.

Because the cocoon didn’t feel like Enya being dramatic, like she loved to be. It felt like a reflex.

Like something in her body felt danger and locked itself away before anyone could decide what to do with her.

Then, from somewhere inside the wooden cocoon - muffled, distant, absurdly calm - Enya snored again.