Chapter 68: Don’t Run!
Kori knocked on the doorframe with the back of her knuckles. No clipboard. No training jacket. A soft gray sweater, hair in a loose tie, a hint of color on her lips like she had remembered that human beings sometimes dress to be seen.
"You four" she said. "Shoes. We’re going out."
Raizen blinked like he had woken into the wrong world. Hikari’s face went bright in a way that made the room brighter. Arashi stared, suspicious. Keahi’s mouth did that not-smile that always meant she liked something and refused to admit it.
"No drills?" Arashi asked.
"No drills" Kori agreed. "Consider it a field lesson. You cannot fight for a city you never bother to look at."
They obeyed faster than any morning stretch.
They cut through the quiet streets of The Hive, the inner ring that held most of Neoshima’s heart and citizens. Elevated balconies had laundry out in disciplined lines. Children drew chalk flowers and games on the pavement. Couriers rushed by on humming motorcycles, crates stacked like precise towers. Between the tall buildings, with bridges patching the emptiness between, dim sunlight passed through the clouds into slim alleys and turned floating dust into gold. They met with the other four a short time after.
"Feels almost normal" Keahi said, and then ruined the softness by clearing her throat. "For a city with a monster watchtower. Not that I can say better about my city..."
Hikari walked beside her, fingers skimming the low garden fences. "I like the flowers" she said, like it was a secret.
"You can like flowers" Arashi muttered. "Nobody is going to arrest you."
Raizen kept his hands in his pockets, tracking the edges, counting exits by habit. He had lived too long in places where the wrong turn was not a mistake but a debt. Today, the streets smiled back, crisp and clean, and he kept telling his shoulders to drop. They only listened a little.
They reached the plaza where the Council Spire took the sky and strengthened it. From this close, the building was not just tall. It was deliberate. Rings of white stone and glass rose like the inside of a lotus, each higher circle more slender than the last. The surface caught the sun and threw it back in quiet sheets.
At the very top stood the black tower the city simply called the Lighthouse. With a white shiny base and a black top, the contrast was almost blinding. It was a stack of function. A crown of rotating lenses. Antennas that could blink messages around Neoshima faster than breath. Somewhere inside, bell chimes could signal the Vanguards to move. Somewhere inside, maps stayed awake while the city slept.
Hikari leaned into Raizen without meaning to, eyes lifted. "It looks like it is watching us watching it."
"It is" Ese said, interrupting her.
Kori rested her hands at the small of her back and let them have their look. She didn’t speak right away. "Two things, essentially" she said at last. "The Ruler sits here and signs the city’s name. The Council basically writes it. You will hear people argue which matters more. If you ask me, I’d say that it depends on the day."
"And the Lighthouse?" Lynea asked.
Kori glanced up. "When the signals erupt from that tower, pilots take off, messengers drive, Vanguards align and dispatch. If something stirs beyond our walls, the first cry comes from there. Be grateful if you never hear it."
The four of them went quiet in a way laughter couldn’t really reach. Raizen stared up long enough for his eyes to feel the burn, then tore them down again. At the edge of his thoughts, a black forest leaned and whispered from a memory that still smelled like smoke. He closed that door the way he knew how.
Kori clapped once. "Enough monuments. Y’all are about to meet Neoshima when it forgets to be serious."
They took the northward road. The air changed before the signs did. Somewhere ahead, a drum line tested its sticks. A street cook cracked oil to life and the smell of frying batter ran under their noses. A string of paper lanterns made a simple arch over the avenue. People walked faster, talked louder. Music leaked from doorways and tripped over other music.
The Glowline did not arrive so much as bloom. Banners hung from balcony to balcony. A dozen food carts dueled for the honor of louder sizzle. A queue had already formed outside a bathhouse with a mural of a laughing dolphin. A trio of dancers practiced on a corner in outfits that made no practical sense and looked perfect anyway. Someone had painted the streetlights with colors that could only be called joyful.
"This is a lot" Raizen said, amazed. He had never seen anything like this his whole life. His only joy was fishing – well, trying to fish - and small games he invented.
Esen eyed a machine with twinned metal arms and a prize window full of plushies shaped like animals or fantastical beasts. "A bustling monument to impulse regret."
Hikari had stopped dead at a stall selling sugar-glass flowers on sticks. She didn’t ask. She stared like not asking was a ritual. Kori followed her gaze and nodded to the vendor. Four bright candy blossoms changed hands. Hikari took hers like it might break if someone breathed wrong.
They drifted deeper without a map. The Glowline was a map you wore on your face. Sound there. Light there. Steam there. It pulled you.
Which is exactly when they saw Kenzo.
He was halfway out of a shop doorway, talking to an elderly owner who kept insisting on something by nodding aggressively. Kenzo’s hammer didn’t hang at his back, like usual. His shirt was unbuttoned one wrong button, which for Kenzo counted as chaos.
Kori" he said, surprised into a real smile.
"Kenzo" she stuttered, and the way she said it would have fueled three hours of gossip in the Academy grounds. She quickly arranged her clothes like her life truly depended on it.
"What are you doing here?" Hikari asked, too earnest to pretend otherwise.
Kenzo glanced down at the ledger in his hand. "Someone has to check the shops. Latches on back doors. Counterfeit seals. People get sloppy on weekends..."
Esen folded his arms. "So you’re out on a date with paperwork."
Feris elbowed him. "Rude."
Kenzo looked like he would rather face a training dummy. Kori rescued him with a tone that already knew the punchline. "We were taking a walk. Seeing the city. The free day kind of walk – you know..."
"Good" Kenzo continued, with a quick look at Ichiro like he would always check on him even if he had sworn not to. "You all forget to be kids."
Silence flickered. The eight of them exchanged glances that needed no words. Esen didn’t need to say anything for everyone to know that he did not know how to be that at all.
Arashi coughed into his fist. "Kenzo, it would be a shame if civic duty lacked supervision."
"Right" Raizen said, dead serious. "Someone should go with you. For efficiency."
Kori’s eyes narrowed. "No."
"Yes" Hikari backed them up, almost whispering, which somehow carried more force.
Lynea understood half a second later than the rest what they were doing, and by then the gears were already turning. He lifted her candy flower to her mouth to hide the smile she didn’t want to show.
"We will be fine" Keahi said. "We have a map. Actually, we have three maps. Plus the slates." She did not have any maps. And her slate... The tablet was forgotten somewhere on the couch. Arashi gestured at the street. "This is the safest place in the entirety of Neoshima right now. All crimes have to get in line behind these fried dumplings."
Kori opened her mouth. The eight were already backing away. It looked like coincidence if you ignored the identical small grins.
"Wai- No- Uhh..." Kori stuttered again. Then, she quickly returned to her composed look. "Behave. I don’t want to pick you up from the Warden Station"
"Always" Arashi lied.
"Don’t run!" she added.
They ran.