It's dark. The kind of dark that doesn't just obscure sight—it swallows the concept of light entirely.
And it's loud. Too loud.
The rhythm of his heart... It's a drum that never stops beating. A constant, violent, irritating reminder that I am a guest in a house that I have contributed to.
Kenzo, I'll be here in the silence, waiting for our first encounter.
***
Location: City of Alinar, District 4.
Population: 12,000
Threat: Grade-C Remnant (Weaver)
The high-speed transport hummed, a vibration that rattled the seats of the empty carriage. Outside the window, Laniakea blurred into a streak of deep blues and charcoal greys. To the east, the vast expanse of the ocean shimmered under a bruised sky, and in the far distance, the glowing, spires of District 1 stood like silent sentinels of the High Command.
Kenzo sat with his chin resting on his folded arms, slightly hunched as he stared at the horizon. The oceanic view was peaceful, but his eyes weren't focused on the water. They were tracking the faint, jagged purple static that occasionally flickered in the reflection of the glass.
Across from him, Sarina shifted in her seat. She had been watching him for the last twenty minutes—noting the tension in his shoulders, the way his fingers occasionally twitched against his sleeves.
"Kenzo," she said, her voice barely rising above the hum of the rails. "Do you feel... nervous?"
Kenzo didn't look away from the window immediately. He watched a distant cargo ship disappear into the mist before finally sitting up. "Yeah," he admitted. "I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't. But knowing that thing is sitting in the center of the city... defeating it feels like a greater cause than my own nerves. If we don't do this, nothing else matters."
Sarina offered a soft, fragile smile. She looked down at her tablet, but her mind was elsewhere. "It's been around four months since I've been on a combat mission," she whispered.
Suddenly, a jagged flash of memory pierced her focus: The smell of iron. The wet, sticky sensation of blood pooling in her palms. The sound of reality "snapping" like a dry branch.
"Kenzo," she said, her voice dropping to a soft, urgent tone. She looked him directly in the eye. "Can I count on you? Truly? When we encounter that Remnant... will you be there to support me? Will you stay?"
As she spoke, the flashback intensified. A boy, lying lifeless on a pavement of shattered glass. His eyes had been wide, frozen in a final moment of absolute confusion.
"We're on this mission to support each other, Sarina," Kenzo said, his voice grounded and firm. "We know what the Commanders' plan is. They want me to hunt this thing down, and they want you to collect the data on how I do it. But those are their objectives. Ours is just getting back in one piece."
Sarina didn't hear him. The noise in the carriage had faded, replaced by the ringing silence of that day. She was back in the dark. A single, silent tear escaped the corner of her eye, tracing a slow path down her cheek.
Kenzo's expression shifted from focus to genuine concern. He leaned forward. "Sarina? What's wrong? You're crying."
Startled, Sarina pulled back, her hand flying to her face to wipe the moisture away. She stared at her knees, her face flushing with a mixture of grief and sudden embarrassment. "I'm sorry," she choked out. "I... I shouldn't have..."
"No, no, don't apologize," Kenzo replied, his voice softening. He reached out a hand, then hesitated, pulling it back. "Something is clearly wrong. You don't just start crying because of a mission brief. Talk to me."
Sarina kept her head bowed, her hair shadowing her eyes. The silence stretched between them for a heartbeat, heavy and suffocating, before she finally broke it with the truth.
"My brother," she whispered, the words sounding like they were being torn from her throat. "He was killed here. In Alinar."
***
The transport's airlocks opened, and the heavy, humid air of the city flooded the cabin. As Kenzo stepped out onto the platform, he froze.
It wasn't the monster he saw first. It was the people.
Thousands of them. The station was a sea of movement—commuters in sharp suits rushing to the mag-rails, students laughing over their phones, and families navigating the crowded terminals. The sheer noise of the city—the chatter, the footsteps, the distant hum of drones—was overwhelming.
Kenzo's eyes widened as he looked at the sheer volume of life surrounding them. How are we supposed to fight a Grade-C in the middle of a crowd like this? One stray spark and…
He looked back at Sarina. She was still pale, her eyes red-rimmed but dry now. The weight of her confession hung between them like a physical barrier. On the train, she had revealed the jagged truth: her brother hadn't died at the hands of a monster. He had been murdered by people—ordinary humans who had grown terrified of the "energy" he carried.
Kenzo looked at a nearby ice cream stand where a small child was arguing with their father about flavors. He needed to break the tension. He needed to remind her—and himself—that there was still something here worth protecting.
"Hey, Sarina," Kenzo said, nodding toward the stand. "How about we grab some ice cream first? My treat."
Sarina looked at the brightly colored stand, then back at Kenzo. For a second, her expression softened, a flicker of the girl she might have been if the world hadn't broken her. But then, she checked her tablet, and the professional mask slid back into place.
"After," she said quietly, her voice steadying. "We'll get some after the mission is complete. We're on a clock, Kenzo. Every minute we wait is another minute the Weaver has to root itself deeper into the district."
Kenzo gave her a small, supportive smile, though it faded as he turned back toward the station exit. The warmth of the crowd felt fragile now.
"Alright," Kenzo said, his voice dropping into a lower, focused register. "Then let's not keep it waiting. Lead the way."
They stepped out of the station and into the heart of Alinar, leaving the safety of the crowds behind as they moved toward the sector where the reality-readings were starting to scream.
***
4 Years Ago
Location: City of Alinar, District 4.
Population: 10,050
The world was a suffocating shroud of grey.
There was dust—thick, chalky, and tasting of pulverized concrete. It filled Sarina's lungs, making every breath a battle. She couldn't see more than three feet in front of her. The explosion had been sudden, a violent eruption of hate in the middle of a peaceful afternoon.
"Aris!" Sarina screamed, her voice cracking against the silence of the debris. "Aris! Where are you? Please, answer me!"
She stumbled blindly through the haze. Her boots crunched on what she thought was gravel until she realized it was the shattered remnants of the shop windows. Her legs gave out, her knees striking the ground hard, but she didn't feel the pain. She had stumbled over something.
A body.
The dust began to settle, but the background of screams—distant, horrified, and chaotic—did not. Sarina lifted herself up, her hands pressed into a bed of shattered glass that sliced into her palms. She didn't blink. Her eyes were fixed on the figure beneath her.
It was a boy.
"Aris... no..."
He was lying perfectly still, his limbs at unnatural angles. His eyes were still open—the same soft, deep lavender as hers—but the light in them had gone out, replaced by the dull reflection of the smoke-filled sky.
Sarina began to sob uncontrollably, a raw sound that tore through her chest. She pulled his limp body into her lap, her tears carving tracks on his face.
"Aris, no... why does it have to be you? Who will I go home to now? Aris, wake up!"
In a desperate, frantic attempt, she forced her energy to manifest. Her hands, already slick with his blood, began to glow with a translucent, shivering light. This was her Soul Energy—the essence of life itself.
"Please..." she begged, pouring every ounce of her spirit into his chest, trying to jumpstart a heart that had been stilled by a human-made blade. "Don't leave me, brother. I promise I'll save you. Just come back... please... just breathe once. Just once."