---
Nobody names a planet Sin by accident.
Think about that.
Someone chose that word.
---
The sky here never changed. Always that deep, bleeding red — like something got wounded a long time ago and just... stopped trying to heal.
The air was heavy.
Not from heat. Not from fire.
From history.
The Inferno Clan lived here. Modern dragons. Tall. Sharp. Built like weapons that learned to speak. The most feared clan across twelve worlds.
Not because of their fire.
Because of what sat on their throne.
---
His name was Sin.
And right now — he was very, very quiet.
That was always worse.
---
The grand hall was dark the way things are dark when the dark is intentional. Black stone columns. Torches burning deep red that didn't flicker — they just stared.
At the far end, on three wide stairs —
The throne.
And on it, him.
One leg crossed. Hand resting against his jaw. Crimson eyes burning through the dark like two coals that forgot how to go out.
He wasn't moving.
He didn't need to.
The entire room was already afraid.
Three dragons knelt on the cold stone floor. Heads down. Hands flat. Breathing carefully — the way you breathe when you know one wrong sound ends everything.
The two outside were male. Armored. Hadn't looked up once.
The one in the middle was a woman.
Her fingers were pressed so hard against the floor her knuckles had gone white.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody wanted to go first.
Sin exhaled through his nose.
Sin : "So you failed."
Not a question. Quieter than that.
Somehow that made it worse.
They : "My king — we tried, we truly—"
Sin : "Tried."
Wrong shape in his mouth.
Sin : "Tried."
Slower.
Sin : "TRIED?!"
He stood.
Just stood — and the sound of his armor shifting hit the room like a physical blow. One soldier along the wall stepped back without realizing it. The light seemed to flinch.
Sin : "One task. I gave you one task — and you come back here and say tried to my face?!"
The woman broke.
Her : "I'm so sorry — please — please forgive us, we'll never—"
She felt it.
Pressure at the base of her horn.
Sharp. Focused. Hot.
Then —
Crack.
Her horn fell.
Hit the stone floor with a sound too small for what it was.
Sin had already lowered his hand. Already moved past it.
Sin : "Silence."
He pressed two fingers to his forehead. Closed his eyes.
Three seconds.
Just three.
While she bled on his floor.
Then he walked down the stairs.
Slowly.
The kind of slow that means he's decided something.
His hand came up.
Placed itself on her head.
Every soldier in that room tensed all at once.
They knew this.
Sin's aura ignited.
Not like a flame — like something older. Darker. That deep crimson energy peeled off his skin in waves, crawled across the floor, climbed the columns. The walls groaned. Cracks split through the stone beneath his boots.
The planet shook.
Miles away, a flock of birds launched off a cliff and never looked back.
Her hair shifted red. Her scalp started bleeding. She pressed her lips together until they went white.
Her : "I — I can't breathe — please—"
One of the others : "Spare her — this is too far—"
Sin : "Shut. Up."
The ceiling cracked.
Stone fell.
Then his hand moved from her head to her throat.
Precise. Unhurried. Like someone reaching for something familiar.
She clawed at his wrist.
Her : "—no — please—"
Sin : "You little brat."
He threw her.
The wall said the rest.
Blood. Crack. Silence.
Absolute silence.
The others : "Lord Sin — you're wrong—"*
Sin raised one hand.
He didn't turn around.
His voice dropped to something almost gentle.
*That was the most terrifying thing he'd done all day.*
Sin : "Don't. Unless you want to find out what comes after wrong."
They vanished. Two flashes of light.
Gone.
Sin stood alone with the bloodstain on his wall and the woman on his floor, breathing in small careful pieces like even that hurt.
He stared at her.
The soldiers held completely still.
Then Sin walked back down.
Second time toward her.
*Nobody knew what this meant.*
He stopped. Crouched. Put himself level with her eyes.
She looked at him the way people look at things they've accepted they can't survive.
**Sin :** "Well. Feel better?"
She stopped breathing entirely.
He reached out —
And *patted her head.*
She flinched so hard she nearly fell sideways. Every muscle locked at once. Like gentleness was something his hands had no right to know.
He grabbed her hair.
**Her :** "Please — *please—"*
**Sin :** "Or you'll see something worse. Clear?"
She nodded until her whole body moved with it.
**Her :** "I swear — I'll follow every order — please — *I have a child—"*
He let go.
Sat down.
Right there on the floor.
*The King of Planet Sin.*
*In full armor.*
*Sitting on cracked, bloodied stone.*
*Like a man who finally put something heavy down.*
He patted her head again.
This time — different.
No rage. No teeth hiding in it.
Just quiet.
**Sin :** "You'll understand one day. Why I am the way I am."
She reached up her trembling hand.
Placed it on his knee.
---
From the far end of the hallway —
Someone had watched every second of it.
**Monika** stood behind a column, one hand over her mouth, the other resting on the swell of her womb.
White hair. Pink-purple eyes. A face built for expressions that actually *meant* something.
Right now that face was just —
*Sad.*
Not angry. Not horrified.
The deep kind of sad. The kind that knows someone *completely* and keeps hoping they'll choose different.
She watched Sin's hand rest gently on that woman's head.
She watched his shoulders drop — barely, almost invisible — in the quiet after all the cruelty finished.
**Monika** *(whisper)* : "You're not like that."
She rubbed her womb slowly.
**Monika :** "So why do you keep showing them *this* face."
She turned and walked away.
*She didn't have an answer.*
*She never did.*
---
The bedroom was warm. The rest of the palace never managed that.
Monika had done it slowly — a warmer lamp, a softer curtain, a rug that didn't look built to intimidate. Sin had never commented on any of it.
*He also never removed any of it.*
*For him, that was the same as yes.*
A maid stood near the window and straightened when Monika entered.
**Maid :** "My queen. Anything you need?"
Monika sat on the bed. Hands finding her womb — they always found their way back.
**Monika :** "I keep hearing it's supposed to hurt. Giving birth to a dragon child."
She looked down at herself.
**Monika :** "But I feel nothing. Like he already knows. Like he doesn't want mama to hurt before he's even arrived."
She laughed. Soft and wondering.
**Monika :** "He feels *divine.* Is that strange? Like something ancient that's just choosing to sleep a little longer."
The maid ran the scan.
Brought the plate over.
Stopped.
**Maid :** "...My queen."
**Monika :** "Hm?"
**Maid :** "There's no movement. No stress. Nothing at all. He's just —"
She looked up. Eyes wide.
**Maid :** "Sleeping. Peacefully. I've never seen anything like this."
Monika smiled like she already knew.
**Monika :** "Has the gender shown?"
**Maid :** "Not yet."
**Monika :** "Then it's a surprise. A gift."
She looked at the red sky beyond the window.
She didn't know.
*She couldn't have.*
That the warmth she felt — that ancient, undisturbed calm — wasn't just a child.
*It was a return.*
Something that had existed long before Monika. Long before Sin. Long before this palace, this planet, this name.
*Something that had decided it was time to come back.*
*And had chosen them.*
---
The door opened.
Sin walked in. Hands behind his back. Armor on. Always armor on.
He sat beside her.
**Sin :** "Are you okay. Minuko."
*That name.*
The one he'd given her. The one that sounded different from everything else he said.
She smiled.
**Monika :** "Strong and happy."
**Sin :** "That's not what I asked."
**Monika :** "It's my only answer."
She held his hand. Pressed her head to his shoulder.
He went still for a moment —
*He always did. Like affection was something he hadn't fully decided what to do with.*
Then he stayed.
He looked at the maid.
**Sin :** "You. Starting now — full time. Every hour. Assigned to her."
**Maid :** "All day, my lord? I have a child at home who—"
**Monika :** "I'm truly fine—"
*He didn't hear them.*
*Or maybe he did.*
*And chose anyway.*
The aura came back — not slowly, just *there* — flooding the room like a door kicked open onto something enormous.
**Monika :** "Sin — *please—"*
The slap landed.
Sharp. Clean. Horrible.
The maid stumbled. Her cheek bloomed red. Her eyes filled instantly.
**Sin :** "You *dared.* You talked about your *schedule* while standing in front of me—"
**Monika :** *"SIN!"*
Both hands around his arm. Eyes fully, honestly wet.
*Not the crying that changes people's minds.*
*The kind that means something is actually hurting you.*
**Monika :** "Please. I'm asking you. *Please.*"
Her tears fell on his hand.
One. Then another.
He looked down at them.
Something in his face moved — something he didn't fully control.
**Monika :** "She's a mother. Just like I'm about to be. You don't have to go this far for me. I'm happy. I have *you.* That's always been enough."
Her voice cracked on the last word.
*Just true. Only true.*
The knights quietly took the maid out.
The door closed.
Sin stood still. Let her pull him to the bed. Let her sit him down.
He exhaled.
**Sin :** "I needed you protected. You and the child."
**Monika :** "I know."
Long silence.
His eyes moved to her womb.
*Deep water shifting when something moves beneath it.*
**Sin :** "I won't protect him."
The room stopped.
**Monika :** "...What?"
**Sin :** "Our son. When he comes. I won't shield him. I won't soften anything. I won't give him comfort."
Plain. Decided. Long ago.
*That was worse than shouting.*
**Monika :** "Sin — he'll be a *baby—"*
**Sin :** "I know."
**Monika :** "He'll be *ours—"*
**Sin :** "I know what he'll be."
He looked at her.
**Sin :** "In the future... I may even try to kill him."
*The air left the room.*
Monika stared at him.
Lips parted.
Nothing came out.
First — she didn't understand how he already knew the gender.
*But that wasn't what stole her voice.*
It was the *certainty* in his eyes.
Not cruelty. Not emptiness.
*Certainty.*
Like a man who'd looked far ahead into something she couldn't see — and come back with a plan.
**Monika :** "Why would anyone—"
He raised one finger.
Pressed it gently to her lips.
She stopped.
She looked at his face — really looked, past all the armor of it — and saw something underneath.
*Old. Tired. Carrying something he hadn't chosen to carry.*
**Sin :** "You won't understand. Not yet."
Her eyes filled.
**Sin :** "A father can be cruel for his son's growth. Can be everything the child *hates* — if it makes him hard enough to stand alone."
He looked at her. All the way at her.
**Sin :** "A mother cannot quit her son. Not ever. Not even if she becomes the worst thing alive. *That's* what you are to him. So be that. Be everything I won't let myself be."
Silence.
**Sin :** "I want him to rise alone. Not repeat the mistake I made."
*Quietly.*
*Almost to himself.*
*Like a confession.*
---
*The mistake.*
*Let's go back.*
---
*Flashback.*
---
Before the throne. Before the armor. Before any of this.
A crowd roared.
The old king stood on the balcony — chest full of pride, arms raised, a newborn in both hands lifted toward that bleeding sky.
**The King :** "I name him after our world! He carries its fire, its name — he is *SIN!*"
Thousands of voices. All at once. All for one small child.
*The baby's eyes were already crimson.*
---
Years passed.
*The way bad years do — quietly, while you're not looking.*
The king who'd held that baby like treasure started turning away.
An empty chair at dinner.
A name not said anymore.
A mother's face, quiet and careful, holding things she'd stopped sharing.
The baby became a boy.
*The boy noticed.*
*The boy stopped asking.*
---
Sin — age ten — sat alone on a playground at the edge of the settlement.
Blue sand. Nobody around.
He stared at the ground.
A tear fell.
Landed on the sand. Darkened it.
**Sin** *(barely a sound)* : "Father. Why won't you come near me anymore."
The wind answered.
*The wind always answered when nobody else did.*
He pressed his hands against his eyes.
*If he was strong enough, maybe it wouldn't count as crying.*
He didn't hear her arrive.
*He never heard her arrive.*
**Her :** "Why are you crying?"
He spun.
A girl. Sitting beside him. No warning. No sound. Just — *there.*
Small face. Short horns. Eyes too honest for a world this sharp.
Looking at him with zero agenda behind it.
**Sin :** "Who are you."
He stepped back. Walls up instantly.
**Sin :** "Don't *touch* me. I'm royalty—"
She tilted her head.
Like a small animal watching something confusing.
Then she *laughed.*
Such a small sound.
*It landed somewhere in his chest and stayed.*
He raised his hand —
She looked at him again.
*That look.*
Open. Harmless. Nothing hiding behind it.
His hand came down on its own.
*He hadn't decided that.*
**Sin :** "...What's your name."
**Her :** "Monika."
He sat back down. Arms folded. Staring at anything that wasn't her.
She sat beside him immediately. Close.
*Like distance was a concept she'd never learned.*
**Monika :** "You look broken."
**Sin :** "I'm not."
**Monika :** "I don't mind broken things."
She reached over and pointed at his cheek — at the dried track a tear left.
**Sin :** "Don't—"
He grabbed her wrist reflexively. She yelped and fell sideways into the sand anyway.
**Monika :** "*UWAAAAAH!! You're MEAN!!*"
**Sin :** "I barely—"
**Monika :** "I just wanted to make you happy and you *pushed me!!*"
She sat in the sand. Arms crossed. Genuinely upset.
Sin stared at her.
*Felt something warm and inconvenient shift in his chest.*
He reached over and helped her up without thinking.
**Sin** *(looking away, red)* : "...Do you have a father? A mother?"
**Monika :** "Father works far away. Never met him."
**Sin :** "Mother?"
**Monika :** "She left."
*No armor on it. No bitterness.*
*Just the bare fact, sitting in the open air.*
**Monika :** "I wander mostly. But I think he'll come someday. I believe that."
Sin looked at her.
He thought about the balcony. About being held above a crowd.
He thought about the empty chair.
*Her situation is worse than mine.*
He stared at the horizon.
Stretched his arm out sideways. Awkward. Not looking at her. Face already going red.
**Sin :** "...If you wanted. We could do adventures. Together. Probably."
*He sounded like every word had tried to escape before it came out.*
She looked at his hand.
Then she *launched herself* at him.
**Monika :** *"YAAAAYYY!!"*
**Sin :** "AHHH — GET OFF — *BAKA BAKA—"*
She clung to his entire arm, laughing into his sleeve.
He went completely red.
*And he did not pull away.*
---
*Years. Folded into moments.*
A hood and a mask so the knights wouldn't recognize him. Monika walking beside him like it was the most natural thing alive.
Meals on cliff edges. Feet dangling over the drop.
Him teaching her sword forms. Her being absolutely terrible at it and finding it funnier than he did.
A draconic serpent three times his height, coming out of a canyon ravine.
He fought it. Got bitten. Went to one knee.
She came from behind and swung with everything she had.
*The serpent didn't notice.*
He killed it anyway. Bleeding. Breathless.
She kissed his cheek.
He turned red enough to rival the sky.
*He did not throw her away.*
---
It rained once. Sudden and warm.
She turned her face up and spread her arms like that was the only correct response.
He stood there getting soaked. Arms crossed. Watching her.
She grabbed his hand.
*He was moving before he decided to.*
They danced on the shore with no music except rain and waves and her laughing. His head back. The real laugh — from somewhere low in his chest, no performance in it.
*He hadn't known he still knew how.*
Later, sky gone amber, shore gone quiet —
He looked at her sideways.
**Sin :** "...Minuko."
**Monika :** "What?"
**Sin :** "That's your name. The one I'm giving you."
She went pink up to her ears.
Pressed her finger against his nose.
*He went redder than she did.*
---
The night he killed his father —
He didn't celebrate.
He just stood in the dark room for a while. Waiting to feel what he'd expected to feel.
*It didn't come.*
He walked away.
The clan accepted him. He became king.
---
Festival day. Wedding colors. The crowd a roar outside.
Sin stared ahead. Hands on his knees.
**Sin :** "...So you'll accept me."
*Two seconds of silence.*
*He started sweating.*
She turned.
Those pink-purple eyes. The same ones from the blue sand playground.
**Monika :** "I'll accept you forever."
She kissed him.
He was shocked for one full second.
*Then he wasn't.*
---
*Here is the thing nobody says out loud :*
*Every person who becomes something terrible was once just a child sitting somewhere alone.*
*Waiting for someone to come back.*
*Sin had been that child.*
*He'd been lucky enough — barely — to have someone sit down beside him.*
*He never forgot that.*
*He just didn't know what to do with it.*
---
Back to now.
The bedroom. The warm lamp.
Sin sat beside her. Staring at nothing.
**Monika :** "Sin? Are you..."
He rubbed his face. By the time his hand dropped — everything back in place. The iron. The walls. The king.
**Sin :** "Fine. Everything's fine."
She looked at him.
*She'd been listening to this voice longer than anyone.*
*She heard it.*
*The fraction of a second between his words — where he sounded exactly like a ten year old boy in blue sand.*
She held his hand under hers.
Said nothing. Didn't push.
*Just held it.*
And Sin — king of a planet named after everything heavy, the man who shook the walls, the boy who once waited for someone who never came —
Let her.
His eyes drifted to her womb.
Something cracked.
Small. Quiet. In the very back of those burning eyes.
*Like standing at a door you've kept locked your whole life.*
*Finally feeling the weight of the key.*
He didn't cry.
*But he was close.*
*Maybe that's the truest thing about him.*
*The door that never quite opened.*
*Not yet.*
---