Rangers Endgame

Chapter 125: The Raid’s Wake

In the following weeks, volunteering rangers helped tirelessly to rebuild Sotiri Village from the ashes left in the raid's wake, while Sentinel Sokuba oversaw the reconstruction. The locals weren't too thrilled to have the very people who'd destroyed their home return to their decimated village.

In those same weeks, the guild's lobby was often flooded with those who participated in the raid to be handsomely rewarded. Unfortunately, some had come out of the ordeal with grievous injuries, so their pay went into retirement.

Heavy grey clouds cast a gloomy shadow over the Capital as Yakeru walked alongside Kenji and Fuyumi through the crowded square. Despite the sea of people, a sense of quietude enveloped the area. A cube-shaped structure stood somberly at the square’s center, an impossible number of names etched into its surface.

Yakeru glanced around at the elderly couples silently weeping to his right and the children to his left, mimicking their guardians as they paid respects. The depressing atmosphere felt heavy on his shoulders as he tried to get a read on the customs of this event. He caught glimpses of Kenji fidgeting with the ends of his cheap suit, figuring he was in the same predicament, but Fuyumi strode through with quiet confidence, undeterred.

They approached the stone of remembrance, and she naturally stepped past the two and placed her white flower at its edge with gentle grace, as if she’d done this before. Smoothing her muted blouse as she stood, she walked back while giving the boys a subtle look of assurance. Readying his flower, Yakeru walked up to the memorial and imitated her. He remained there for a few moments, not wanting to stand too quickly, before making his way back to his friends. Kenji went next, doing the same as he’d seen them do.

As he did, Yakeru noticed familiar figures to his left. On the far end of the memorial was Aoi, wearing a solemn dress, crouched at a name he didn’t recognize. Kazeki and Kateshi stood on either side of her, giving unspoken support to their mourning party member. Yakeru didn’t know anyone on the obsidian stone, but seeing her like that pricked at his heart, even if it didn’t show on his features.

Other people he remembered from the Fiend Clan were there as well, their sorrow seeming to infuse with the damp air.

As Kenji made his way back, someone Yakeru recognized appeared to his right. Someone who'd come to his home to interview him on the Hope Elixir—what he'd heard some people call it. Although she wasn't in uniform, instead clothed in modest attire, her presence parted the crowd as she approached the memorial.

Trailing behind her was the brolic man—Dai, he remembered—he'd seen weeks prior when Yakeru visited Aoi in the infirmary. Sentinel Sokuba and someone younger, perhaps in his late teens, walked at his side. Lastly, a little girl moved into view. He didn't know her name either, but he remembered her standing alongside the Sentinels when they first appeared on stage at this very square.

He didn't see Sentinel Kiyoshi.

They all paid respects to the same name, which had an abundance of flowers and condolence gifts under it, and he put the two together. He'd heard the battle with the Savior was more rigorous than anticipated, but he wasn’t expecting this outcome.

After a moment of quiet, the three of them followed the dispersing crowd. Walking past the guild, its dark, barren lobby looking back at Yakeru through the windows, he wondered how things would change moving forward with a Sentinel gone and mass losses of rangers.

TWO DAYS LATER:

DAI:

He made his way down the narrow corridor, doors on either side of him, his boots echoing through the white hall. Reaching the double steel door at the end, he placed his communication artifact against the metallic box embedded in the wall. He waited as it emitted a soft green glow before it released a mechanical lock with a hiss.

Pulling the doors open, he stepped into the unusually tidy space. He unconsciously braced his nose, but the relatively sterile air greeted him instead of the must he was accustomed to. Elixirs were roughly organized along the shelves on either side of him. The innards of various gadgets spilled onto the tables they lay on, and unfinished projects were lined along countertops in the far corner of the room.

On the opposite side was an open ceiling that looked out into the cloudy sky, the bustle of life seeping into the workspace. A spire-like device glistening with fresh alloy poked out of the opening, the tip of it fanning out into three panels that hummed with unknown intent. At its base was the unruly woman he sought, her greasy fingers flying across a touch panel.

"Your space is much more sanitary than I remember," Dai announced himself as he approached.

As he expected, she remained so engrossed in her work that she didn’t bother looking at him. "He used to nag me about it. And I figured he’d have no choice but to praise me after wasting my time on such a trivial thing, but now…" Aki’s fingers paused, and her head drooped ever so slightly. She then turned with a sigh, her tangled hair bobbing, as she addressed him. "What brings you to my humble abode?"

Dai reached into his inside chest pocket and materialized the cracked vial of Hope Elixir. "He thought you’d want this."

"I no longer have any interest in it." She said flatly.

He set it on a nearby countertop next to what he assumed was a prototype of the detector artifact she’d given them before the raid. Something within its exposed components flickered red as he set it down. "He told me the Savior made this as a sort of contingency."

She cocked a brow. "For?"

Dai leaned against the table, arms crossed. "The brat, Kakkona, filled me in on their conversation. Apparently, the Savior was also a foreseer and rambled about some entity coming to destroy the world or some crap." He raised his head to her and found her leaning in with mild interest. "A ridiculous claim that I personally find to be baseless."

Her eyes turned down, and she cupped her chin in careful consideration. She stayed that way for a minute or two, and he was going to snap her out of it when she suddenly spun around.

Her fingers hammered away at the panel attached to the spire-like device as she glanced between it and scattered parchment to her side. He moved to her other side, looking at the panel.

It had a two-dimensional grid with waves of amber moving sporadically across it, and alerts flickered over it. His eyes trailed up to the top of the device.

"Another one of your projects?" he assumed.

"ARD." She said matter-of-factly.

"ARD?"

"Atmospheric—nevermind that. Just take a look at this." She directed his attention to the parchment.

He looked them over, trying to make sense of the seemingly random red strokes across the pages. A rough map of the Outer Rim showed mad scribbles and notes around a particular area past the Rangers' Graveyard.

"Did he share any specifics about this...'entity' fellow?" She confirmed, sliding the map closer to herself.

He explained in more detail what was relayed to him. She listened intently, and by the end of it, let out an amused chuckle fused with something resembling a grim breath.

She returned her attention to her extensive research. "I don't know about some deity or whatever, but my observations do align with the Savior's 'observations,' I'm afraid."

"Elaborate."

She showed him two graphs. The first one looked to be a flowing wave of amber displaying a couple of spikes and dips, but overall, nothing about it struck him as peculiar. The second graph, however, was a bit more wild. The spikes were more severe, and the wave seemed to occasionally peel into threads before crashing back into one.

"The first graph is from the Inner Rim; nothing too magnificent, but still a bit concerning that the atmosphere is being tugged here and there. The second, however..."

His eyes traced the context clues scattered on the table. "The Outer Rim." He finished. "So what does this tell us?"

"Dai." Her voice grew more serious as she leaned in, her baggy eyes looking directly into his. "Something in the Outer Rim is sucking the radiance out of the atmosphere."