Sunlight streamed into the bedroom and across Kito’s eyes so perfectly that as he opened them drowsily, he found himself blinded and groaning within a split second. A laugh sounded to his side and he turned over, finding nothing and falling from the bed with a yelp. “This is definitely gonna be your day.” Katy laughed, sitting in bed and sipping from a coffee. Kito scowled at her over the edge of the bed before getting to his feet and stretching slightly. It had been a very lovely sleep, so of course, the stupid sun had to go and ruin it… He gave Katy a peck on the cheek before slipping his housecoat on and dragging his feet out into the mansion. A wide yawn and a little stumbling down hallways brought him handily to the kitchen and to his breakfast. Morning… He still wasn’t used to such peaceful mornings, to say the least. Katy clearly wasn’t either, she must have gotten up pretty early and very quietly to have gotten that coffee and climbed back into bed. Kito finished eating and started back towards the room when Katy tossed him his jeans. Catching them, he raised an eyebrow at her, fully dressed as she was.

“Got a call from HQ,” She said, fastening her belt, “New job apparently.”

“They want both of us again?”

“You’ve been doing really well, babe.” Katy gave him a small smile, moving off to get her tall boots.

“I guess so,” Kito followed, shoving on his jeans, “They say anything about what the job is?”

“Recon, mostly.”

“How far?”

“About a hundred miles out,” Katy turned slightly, her voice taking on a different tone, “Apparently something happened in Iaetria.”

“That little town?” Kito frowned while pulling on a T-shirt Katy handed him, “The one that we basically destroyed what, thirty-seven years ago?”

“The same one.” Katy was straight-faced, looking directly ahead as she tied her boots tightly. Kito could understand. Iaetria was one of the first missions he led as leader of the Alliance’s ‘Red Mask’ task-force. Xan’s forces were going to be passing through the town due to its proximity to the coast. The only problem being that the Alliance forces were already spread thin by that point as it was, so Kito’s relatively small and new - albeit successful - task-force was the only one able to head them off at the town. They underestimated just how massive a force Xan could spare, however. The town had been swarmed by undead monsters in seconds, and the Red Mask had barely been able to hold them back. Kito looked down at his hands as he buckled his boots. He lost a member of his team that day. He looked back up at Katy, now striding toward the door. She lost more than just a teammate in that battle. Kito followed her out, steeling himself for their return to that quaint country town.

Katy was watching Kito fasten his katana to his belt as they waited in the largest part of the garden. When he was sure it was nice and secure, he pulled his padded gloves on and started to button his shirt. “When d’you think you’ll start using your combat gear again?” Katy asked idly, clearly trying to take her mind off of where they were going.

“I’ll need to fix it first,” Kito sighed, “Xan busted it up pretty good. The entire right side was ripped off.”

“It definitely won’t have the seamless look it used to have.”

“Aye, it also got ripped off of me. The hakama are a mess as well.”

“Good thing though,” Katy grinned slightly, “I doubt you’ll be going up against anyone with as much firepower as Xan anytime soon. So repairing it should be a good long-term idea.”

“I might start making small repairs here and there.” Kito shot her a smile back, folding his arms and looking at the sky. Apparently a small Alliance airship was coming to pick them up for this mission. ‘Disturbance’ is always a very vague descriptor for a mission category, so they had no idea what they could potentially be walking into. This also means the Rebellia doesn’t know exactly how severe the problem could be. Hence sending in a General, on an airship to get them there as fast as humanly possible.

“At least take one of the coats from the armoury this time,” Katy said, “Just in the meantime. You give me anxiety when you go into potentially lethal situations in a completely un-enchanted shirt and jeans.”

“Fine,” Kito chuckled, hands up, “I’ll gear up with you on the airship. It’s been a while since I’ve fought in protective gear, but I’m sure I can manage.”

“Deal. Then when you fix your combat gear you can use that instead.”

Kito laughed, catching a glimpse of the airship on the horizon. It was a small thing, able to probably house a dozen or so crew members. Meant for speed and transport rather than battle it looked like. It had the standard three masts with the central sail being wider than the hull of the ship itself, with blue sparkling light emanating from a cylinder on the stern prettily. The magic that kept it afloat. It came in fast, wind starting to pick up and flick Kito’s hair. The wind turned turbulent as the ship took place above them, then began a slow descent. The pilot was skilled for sure, but that didn’t stop landing an airship from being a very difficult affair. Nevertheless, their skill clearly won out. The ship landed a dozen or so metres from Kito and Katy, a wooden bridge falling from the deck and landing in the grass between them perfectly. A crewman saluted as Katy made the little leap from the plank to the deck and she gave him a polite nod in return. Kito followed suit and immediately took in all of the sights. He used to live on one of these, though he’d never seen one quite as small as this. It was probably a new design. The entire deck was only slightly bigger than the entrance hall of his mansion, with the mast taking up a large amount of that space. He could see the helmsman taking some orders from a navigator before pulling a large lever next to him and letting the ship ascend, much quicker than it had come down. Several crew members, men and women in white, were adjusting the sails and scrubbing down the wooden decking and other surfaces. Kito followed Katy, noting that the ship had only four cannons in total, with two on each side. He nodded to himself with a satisfied smile as he and Katy disappeared below deck into the cabins.

The ship’s armoury was a single room no larger than a bedroom. Weapons lined the walls, with gear ranging from armour to stylish jackets and coats hanging in pulleys neatly arranged in lines. Katy’s gear was specially arranged on the far wall on a mannequin, her arms at either side. An ornate gladius with intricate detailing along the blade, and a circular shield with a phoenix design on its front. She immediately moved off to get changed, as Kito perused the hanging gear. Obviously he didn’t give the armour a second glance, his fighting style relied much too heavily on speed and manoeuvrability for him to be weighed down with steel and heavy leathers. His eyes fell instead on the long-tailed coats. He slipped his gloves off and tried a few on. The coat of his own combat gear went almost down to his feet, tailing off into four, with a tall collar. He settled with a coat similar to Katy’s - a slim waist and short cuffed sleeves, opening out and tapering around the hips to allow free movement of the legs with slim tails at the back. Though while Katy’s was a dark green, the one he had picked out was a light grey. He also decided to make his wife happy, pulling on a helmet that fit him rather surprisingly well. After fastening his katana to the coat’s belt and slipping his gloves back on, he looked at Katy.

“You look like a Rebellia sergeant now.” She giggled.

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up.” He said with a smile she couldn’t see, though she probably heard it.

“Hey, it’s protection, I’m not about to make fun.”

“You never wear a helmet…”

“I’m too good to need armour.” Katy patted Kito’s helmet and her coattails whipped by him as she ran upstairs, Kito chasing her out onto the deck with a yell of exaggerated outrage.

The tension caught up with them once again when the airship started its descent to their mission location. It had been a long time but that didn’t erase the memories. Blood, rubble, dust and death filled Kito’s mind as the trees showed over the deck railing. He caught his wife’s eye and it was obvious she was thinking the same thing. Though somewhere, deep inside him, Kito felt that this was somehow necessary. That he needed to get through this to be able to move on fully.

The airship fell into silence. Katy was the first to move. Before a deckhand could even move to lower the plank, she had jumped over the railing. Kito followed, landing in a crouch with his helmet rattling on his head. Straightening up, he had a look around at their immediate surroundings. Apart from some ruined buildings and structures dotted around, the only thing that surrounded them were trees and fields. Katy started at a quick pace in a rough north-west trajectory. Kito usually trusted she knew where she was going.

“I wonder what it could be.” Kito said idly, falling into step with Katy.

“The disturbance?” Katy glanced Kito’s way briefly, “Could be anything. You know how it is.”

“What monsters usually roam around this area…” Kito trailed off, his space appearing in front of him as he walked.

“You’re gonna walk into a tree.” Katy grinned.

“No worries,” Kito smiled, looking ahead for any trees in his trajectory nonetheless, “No particularly powerful monsters are known to nest around here. There were some griffons a couple years ago but aside from that, nothing.”

“So we’re probably not looking at a monster attack.”

“Not a rogue mage either, there are none in a hundred-mile radius.”

“I’ve had a few rogues and outlaws travel some insane distances between sightings, but it’s rare. Best be ready for anything.” Katy unsheathed her sword, her pace unchanging. Kito waved his hand, letting his space vanish as they moved through the sparse trees and tall grass. Eventually they came upon a trail, tightly packed dirt made specifically for carriages in and out of town. Kito drew his own blade and held it down by his side, pointing towards the ground. The town was in view now over the trees. A few tall buildings in amongst a large number of cracked and partially destroyed smaller structures.

The first few buildings they passed looked like they were in quite good shape, but it only took a few minutes to start coming across the scarred streets, still ruined even after the decades. No sign of the disturbance yet, though as they walked on Kito kept on picturing the scenes from the hell they had lived through. Each strike that caused cracks in the buildings, every crater left from the deafening explosions. It was when they came upon a rather large crater on a street corner that Kito found himself drawn into his reminiscence, albeit somewhat unwillingly