At first, she felt nothing.
Only the howling of the wind and the clamor of the city filled her ears.
But under the influence of Cloud's presence—steady as an anchor—her chaotic heart gradually calmed.
She began to truly "hear."
She heard the wind singing a song of freedom.
She heard the light painting a canvas of warmth.
She heard the pounding heartbeat of the steel forest beneath her feet, full of life's vigor.
"Can you feel it?" Cloud's voice sounded beside her ear.
"Mm..." Wanda nodded gently.
"Now tell me, what do you feel?"
"I feel very warm." Wanda's voice carried a note of uncertainty. "I feel... like I'm connected to this world."
"Exactly." Cloud smiled.
"Wanda, let me ask you—in the KOF world, what do you think the flames those fighters use, like Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami, actually are?"
"Are they... a superpower?"
"No." Cloud shook his head, giving an answer that overturned everything she knew.
"Those aren't superpowers. They're qi. They're extensions of willpower, emotion, and conviction. Kyo Kusanagi's flames are the crimson fire of protection; Iori Yagami's flames are the violet fire of destruction. Their power is their heart."
"Your chaos magic is the same."
Cloud looked at Wanda, his expression utterly serious.
"It's not some curse inflicted from outside, nor is it a byproduct of some scientific experiment. It's you—the power from the deepest part of your soul, the most direct expression of your emotions."
"The reason you lose control isn't because it's too powerful. It's because... you've always feared it, rejected it, treated it like a terrifying monster that has nothing to do with you."
"If a child is hated, feared, and imprisoned by its parents from birth, what do you think it becomes when it grows up?"
Wanda's body shuddered violently.
It was as if she saw herself—the tiny girl in that HYDRA base, treated as a test subject, living every day in fear and pain.
"Try to understand it," Cloud's voice grew even gentler. "Try to accept it. Try to love it."
"Treat it as your friend, your partner, a part of your body."
"Tell it you're not afraid of it anymore. Tell it you're willing to see this beautiful world together."
Cloud's words were like a key, unlocking the heaviest lock in Wanda's heart.
She slowly raised her hands.
Wisps of scarlet, smoke-like chaos energy began to seep uncontrollably from her palms.
Before, this would have immediately triggered her fear, and she would have tried to suppress it.
But this time, she didn't.
She looked at the dancing energy in her palms—full of destructive power—and Cloud's words echoed in her mind.
"Love it..."
"Embrace it..."
She took a deep breath. No longer afraid, no longer resisting.
Instead, with all her heart and soul, she felt it, understood it.
She sensed that within that wild energy lay her sorrow, her anger, her longing—and her hope for the future.
"Don't be afraid..." she whispered, speaking to herself and to the energy in her hands. "I'm... here."
A miracle happened.
That wild, unstable chaos energy, sensing her heartfelt acceptance, gradually began to calm.
It no longer thrashed like an untamed beast, but like a child reunited with its mother—wronged but now soothed—nuzzling affectionately against her palm.
"Just like that," Cloud encouraged from beside her with a smile. "Now try giving it a shape you like."
"A shape... I like?"
In Wanda's mind, an image surfaced unbidden—the beautiful butterfly she'd seen fluttering among the flowers in the courtyard earlier.
She gently transmitted this "thought" to the energy in her hands.
The next second, before her eyes, that wisp of scarlet energy began to slowly, elegantly transform, condense...
Until it became a lifelike scarlet butterfly.
The butterfly gently beat its wings, then rose from her palm and fluttered happily around her.
"I... I did it?"
Wanda stared at the beautiful creature she had created with her own hands, her eyes filled with disbelief, surprise, and excitement.
Tears slid down her cheeks.
But this time, they weren't tears of sorrow.
They were tears of joy.
She had succeeded.
For the first time, she wasn't "losing control"—she was truly creating.
Just as she was immersed in this joy, the man who had created this miracle had somehow moved to stand behind her.
He reached out—not to touch the butterfly, but to gently wipe away the tears on her cheeks.
His fingertips carried a hint of hot-spring warmth.
Wanda's body stiffened slightly.
A strange sensation she'd never felt before, like an electric current, instantly spread through her entire being.
Her face turned redder than the evening clouds on the horizon.
"Why are you crying?" Cloud's voice, carrying a hint of indulgent laughter, sounded by her ear. "This is only the first lesson."
"In the future, you won't just be able to create butterflies—you'll be able to create stars, moons, even a perfect world that belongs only to you."
He looked at the girl before him—head bowed in shyness, ears flushed crimson—and his heart stirred. He couldn't help adding one more thing.
"Of course, if you'd like, that world could have me in it too."
BOOM—!
Wanda felt her brain completely crash.
The scarlet butterfly, as if sensing its master's racing heartbeat, trembled its wings and poof—dissolved into the air.
The entire terrace was left with only the evening breeze, a flustered young woman, and a "shameless mentor" wearing a victorious smirk.
The Chaos Witch's "first magic lesson" thus concluded amid this atmosphere of racing hearts and tender ambiguity.
And a seed called "love" had quietly taken root in this confused young woman's heart.
...
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