Two hours have passed since. I found myself northeast of the ward amidst a forest of Pine trees.

“Dinner in fifteen minutes, everyone gather at the dining hall.” A loud yet muffled voice echoed through the ward’s awful-sounding intercom.

Getting up from the mini forest enclosed within these walls, I patted the dirt off the clothing. And treaded north towards the dining hall.

Finding myself outside the marble building that was the dining hall, I couldn’t even make it within five feet of the entrance as a sea of people crowded around trying to get their meals. However, I couldn’t blame them since the food here was of the highest quality.

Nudging myself through the mosh pit of people, I slowly made it inside and grabbed a silver plate on the table right of the entrance. However, I would not be waiting in line until it thinned out by at least forty people. Instead, I wandered a little further inside and looked for a place to sit.

“Oi Kanade, over here!” A familiar pink-haired man called out from behind me.

Turning around, Eiji, his friend Kunimi, and Sakura sat at one long rectangular-shaped table.

Taking a seat next to Eiji, Sakura sat parallel to me. Looking around, I noticed the two younger boys both were delighting themselves in tonight’s dinner.

“How did you get food already?”

“Ah Shoukode, we came here about thirty minutes early!” Eiji exclaimed as he stuffed his face.

“Mmm, you really wanted that meal, huh?” I sighed. “Huh? W-wait, what’d you call me?”

“Shoukode. Combining your first name, Kanade, and your last name, Shoukohara.” He smiled.

“Ha, I told him to give yea a nickname. But Shoukode’s sounds like a high school girl’s nickname.” Sakura laughed hysterically.

“Oh, shut up. And what’s yours? Cherry?”

“It actually is, sir,” Kunimi spoke timidly.

“Tsk, whatever.”

Sakura continued to cackle uncontrollably.

“We were just talking about the Underworld guys before you came, Shoukode.”

“Enough with that name. And what were you guys talking about?”

“About how creepy those freaking people are!”

Sakura had a point. Although I was grateful for them, not everyone has the strength to clean up a city scattered with carcasses and rubble. But they were just utterly disturbing. They wore strange attire. Most wearing a silky black cape that just barely draped below their waist, a baggy hazmat suit, with pockets cluttering the torso area, along with a world-war-I-inspired gas mask that covered their head from front to back. Some even wore seventeenth-century plague doctor masks.

“Have yea seen the one who always wears a fedora with his uniform?” Sakura questioned.

“Where is this going?” I pondered.

“It’s just I always see ‘em doing strange things. One time I saw ‘em caressing a dead body! It made me sick to my stomach.”

I squinted my eyes in disgust at that thought.

“I’ve seen him a few times before. And he’s always speaking gibberish to himself.”

“Eiji, don’t you guys feel like you're exaggerating?” Kunimi whispered.

“Definitely not! Have you even seen him Kunimi?”

“I haven’t--”

“Don’t go saying things yea don’t know, kid. He’s more than just an ‘oddball.’”

“He’s not the only instance of Underworld employees acting strange. But it’s not like we can go to Atake or Kiriya ask them to be removed because they’re acting ‘strange.’”

“Tsk.”

“It’s stupid to discuss this. It’s not like they’re interfering with work--” Stopping myself. My eyes drew towards two familiar faces walking past our table. Fumia and Yuna.

As they walked past, Fumia's dark maroon ponytail, along with Yuna's bright pink pigtails, swayed slightly.

“Staring is wrong, Shoukode.” Eiji teased me.

“I’m not staring!”

“Since when does Fumia hang out with Yuna? Is probably what you’re wondering.”

I nodded.

Knowing Fumia, she likes to keep to herself. About a month ago, before Sakura and I were sent off on our mission. All of our Recruit Regiment acquaintances in the Front Lines always sat together during our meals whenever we could. Even then, Fumia kept to herself.

So now, to see her sitting by herself with someone so outgoing as Yuna is definitely a welcome change, in my opinion.

As the two sat down, I stood up. Beginning to walk towards them. Not for the reason of asking them why they were together, but because I hadn’t seen Yuna in almost two months.

Reaching their table, I awkwardly stood in front of them, as they hadn’t noticed me yet. But before I could bring the words out of my mouth, Yuna spoke up.

“Oh, hey! Kanade, it’s been a while!” She patted the seat to her left. “Come on, have a seat.”

“You’ve been gone for some time. When’d you get back?”

“Mmm, two nights ago, I think. I was just so exhausted. I’ve been practically only sleeping for the past few days.”

“Unfortunately, today was not one of those days.”

“Ah, yea! I ran into Fumi earlier at the training area. She didn’t want to chitchat, so now I’m forcing her to be by my side.”

“I’m her hostage,” Fumia said monotony.

“That’s right!” Yuna played along.

“Have you eaten yet?”

“Not yet Fumia, the line’s still really long.”

“Do you want my leftovers then? I’m not that hungry.”

“You call those leftovers? The plates practically untouched.”

“I said I wasn’t hungry.” She pulled her scarf above her mouth, concealing herself.

“Okay, I’ll eat them, thank you.”

She slid her silver plate across the plastic tables towards me.

“Have you guys gotten--”

“Listen up!” Cutting Yuna off. A soothing yet intimidating monotone voice spoke. Silencing the entire dining hall.

“Auawh,” Yuna gasped as the voice startled her.

The man in the black suit who spoke was pale and slender. Having long red, almost purple, hair. This was Kiriya, captain of the Front Lines. The tall broad-shouldered woman beside him with sleek black bangs was Atake. Captain of the Safeguard.

“This is an important announcement.” He began, “Over the past two weeks, wards have been targeted and attacked by MechaBeasts. Many people are already dead or fatally injured. We don’t know what their motives are. But from the looks of it, they only seem to be targeting the wards and not even bothering to attack the cities. So always be ready for combat. These walls around us could collapse at any second.”

Kiriya moved back as Atake took a step forward. “Based on the data that I, along with others, have collected. We can tell that the attacks mostly happen when the night sky is at its darkest. Meaning we’re most likely dealing with nocturnal MechaBeasts. More specifically, we’re most likely dealing with Blizwolves.”

“Therefore, throughout the night, we’ll need the cooperation of both the Front Lines and the Safeguard to keep watch over the ward.”

***

“Looks like we all had the same idea.”

The four of us stood atop the fifty-yard inner wall.

“This place is practically our home. I’m not leaving its safety in the hands of some Yud ranked pipsqueak.”

“Geez, Sakura! You could be a little nicer! At least these kids are giving it their all.” Yuna groaned.

“Giving it their all will cost them their lives. Just leave it to Aleph through Gimmel ranked officials.”

Seeing Kiriya walk in our direction, the four of us bent a knee and placed our arms over our chest.

“At ease.”

Getting back to our feet, the four of us sighed in relief.

“There’s usually five of you. But it was voluntary. I don’t expect everyone to want to stay up throughout the night.”

“What are your thoughts, sir? On the reason they’re attacking the wards.”

“I’d say it’s most likely because of you and Sakura.”

“H-huh?”

“The only Original to fall within the last ten years was by you and Sakura’s hands. If anything, all this needless bloodshed is on you guys.

“Hey!” Fumia stepped forward.

Raising his hand, Kiriya stopped Fumia in her tracks. “But I’m not going to blame you. It’s not every day you get a call saying an Original has fallen. I congratulate you, really. But the fact still stands that you two aggravated someone or something in your actions.”

The ground began to shake subtly below our feet. 

Blocking out the voices of my peers, I began breathing slowly and heavily. Using my sense of hearing to only listen to my surroundings. Along with using my sense of touch to pinpoint the origin of the vibrations.

If I could do so, we could stop them before they reach the ward.

“Oi Kanade, yea alright? What’s he doing?”

“Concentrated Breathing. Shutting down your body and only using specific senses to enhance their range.” Kiriya remarked.

After several minutes, I managed to pinpoint the epicenter of the ground quakes.

“Northeast of the ward, where the wall intersects a forest. They’re coming from that direction. They haven’t gotten inside the ward yet. We still have some time.”

“How’d yea do that?”

I began breathing heavily, this time in pain. Unable to breathe properly.

“Are you okay, Kanade?” 

“I’m not sure, Yuna.”

My vision went hazy, and I found myself closing my eyes and unable to keep my balance.

“Kanade--down--get hurt.” 

Unable to fully hear Fumia’s words, I closed my eyes. Opening them, I found myself free-falling down the fifty-yard wall.