Not every Espers activity demanded a Guiding.

To Sara, she always tries to notice the signs and offers as needed. The signs vary from Espers, but some of them are noticeable, like the darkening color of one’s eyes, or the gleam of it, or shaky hands, janky movements; some of Espers may exhibit a pattern of hysteria or a sudden state of ‘calmness’.

Then again, Sara doesn’t want to be pushy. Not to mention, some of Espers who find her unpleasant may already walk away anyway if not with Sara being the only Guide available.

The following night from their first camping, Sara doesn’t do any Guiding as they are not actively engaged in prolonged battles to clear the areas. One of the patrol sites is spotless, leaving only traces of battle where they scour the area again for any remnants of monsters or signs of Sentinels that may be of use. So far, only regular monsters sighted around the designated areas and no Sentinel or any past Sentinel activities can be traced.

They’re lucky enough to arrive at one of the safehouses before sundown. It is a small brick house equipped with sensors to detect the rise of Aether level nearby, and quite cozy with a small kitchen, a shower, and separate rooms for Espers and Guides.

And despite not being Guided, Amara still offers to cook, turning the ration they have to something strangely extravagant. Sara never knows that cold jerky can be so tender and flavorful, combined with potatoes and light spices.

“Do you think I’m really a disaster in the kitchen so you avoided me using it?”

“No, no,” Amara shakes her head. Sara volunteers to clean up as they share a table in that small brick house. She joins her as soon as she takes care of the burnable trash. “I don’t doubt your skill.”

“But you don’t want to see me in the kitchen.”

Amara coughs to her fist, “Well, thinking back of the state of your house’s kitchen, I’m quite … concerned.”

Sara makes a face, then Amara adds quickly. She must’ve noticed how vacant and lifeless her kitchen was, for sure. “I mean! Surely everyone has one or two things they’re not good at, and not everyone is good at cooking!”

“You don’t need to comfort me.” Sara sighs, picking the ends of her brown hair.

“Would you like to shower first, Miss Khalida?” She quickly changes the topic.

“You first,” Sara gestures to her communication tablet. “I want to compile the information we got from earlier.”

Amara straightens on her seat. “We can do it together.”

“It’s Guide’s job,” Sara glares as she pushes Amara’s tablet back. “You can follow up later.”

They hold a staring contest, something that Sara is getting used to in the course of teaming up with the redhead Esper, then Amara slouches her shoulders in defeat as she yields.

As Amara retreats to the shower, Sara opens her tablet and begins working. She zooms on the patrol map, comparing the first day report to the second day. The Aether level chart, the analysis log on monsters, the activity on Netzach’s outpost and Monolith 6226’s status … Everything seems normal, compared to trials and tribulations they had during operations in Malkuth.

Currently, both Malkuth and Netzach Remote Town don’t show any raise of monster activities after the B-rank Sentinel is defeated. Amara brought a report with her from the upper echelons, the ones indicating that the situation is under control albeit there’s a footnote about ‘the monsters are growing restless’.

Sara tries to look back on the battles they had in these past two days. Some of the monsters have a peculiar scent of blood and oil on them, it’s something she and Amara realized as they’re having Scent affinity. Other teams don’t report anything similar to them, and the operation mostly went smoothly on other ends. The monsters they faced are mostly a construct, rather than an organic being. They’re bloodless when defeated, only dissolving into unstable Aether as they perished. 

Are they missing something, or is there really nothing noteworthy from the data they’ve collated?

Sara proceeds to send off the report as-is. Amara emerges from the shower, back to her white shirt and black pants minus the Esper’s identifying blue tie. The soap somehow smells so sweet to her liking that Sara can’t help but wince. It’s rather muted, though, mixed with Amara’s … ‘scent’ so to speak. But the artificial floral notes make her feel itchy.

“Miss Angkara, is the soap that smelly?”

Amara is drying her hair as she sits back on her chair. Droplets of water run on her damp fiery hair, making it glisten under the light. “Oh, uh, yeah, it’s what’s available.”

“ Ugh. Okay.” Sara stands up from her seat while Amara only grins. She places her tablet in front of Amara. “Here, you can see the report. I’ve sent it over to the Squad Leader.”

“Already?” Amara blinks as she taps the two devices together, sending the report to her. “Is there anything to note?”

“From the data, not really.” Sara takes off her glasses and unties her hair, she disappears to the shower area, not entirely listening to Amara’s mumbling.

She closes the door behind her, looking up at the mirror there as she unbuttons her black shirt.

Sometimes, Sara is glad that Guides have black shirts as their default uniform, as it was easier to conceal anything under the color. Her fingers momentarily stop when the fabric slowly unravels around her shoulder, as she is struck on the spot, watching her own glimmering blue eyes, tousled brown hair past her shoulders, and especially what’s waiting for her as she peels the shirt away.

A scar underneath the fabric, a straight line stitched on her chest. A ‘mark’ etched by the Capital breach, is visible  as she undresses. As usual, Sara stares at her reflection, touching the surgical mark there, then she sighs as she pulls herself to the shower before the memory of those days dares to surface.

Thankfully, the sickeningly sweet smell of the safehouses’ soap is enough to annoy her to the point she forgets to be wistful.

She later returns back to the center room, finding Amara tapping her chin as she pore over the data that floats from the tablet. Sara wipes her glasses twice before settling it back on the bridge of her nose, cheek on her knuckle, as she waits for Amara to speak.

“Strange,” it’s the same conclusion that she drew. “With Malkuth having two instances of Sentinels recently, it is baffling to think that Netzach doesn’t have any.”

“Or they’re targeting Malkuth’s side? But what for?” Sara supplies. “As far as we know, Sentinels—” or to be exact, all those monsters. “—are mostly mindless. Every pattern shows that they act on instinct.”

“Unless there’s a force that ‘leads’ them, just like how it was in Operation Athena .”

Sara is aware of that big mission two years ago, though not to its gritty details. She recalled that Fiona Hamelin, the S-Class Defensive Esper, was able to hold the line as an onslaught of two A-rank Sentinels pushed the team back around Monolith 7889, nearly destroying it in process. It’s also the mission that ties Amara with her moniker, the ‘Tempest’. It is even said that if not from Amara’s planning, they will likely lose Monolith 7889, but Sara didn’t know whether it was the truth or not.

“... But I may have thought too far without evidence.” Amara concludes with a heavy sigh. “It might also only be a localized incident, and Netzach’s condition is different than Malkuth’s.”

“We can only hazard a guess.” Sara says.

Even a Clairvoyant won’t be able to predict the far future or do an Oversight.

“You’re right,” Amara hangs her head in resignation. “We should retire for the night. Tomorrow will decide whether we’ll have to go a full five days or not.”

Sara nods in agreement. Early nights won’t hurt, especially when they need to wake up and hit the road again by the next day.

✥ ✥ ✥

Though their progress is quite satisfactory—at least in Sara’s opinion—the outpost told them to keep with the mission until the fifth day. 

After the mission details are updated, Amara suggests for them to conserve their strength as much as possible and avoid battles as long as they’re able to collect the information they need.

Data collection went smoothly as they’re in the third day, albeit the extermination of monsters still feel tiring. Sara makes a mental note to visit the Guide’s training room more frequently after this, as she feels that she can use more time to hone her skills, be it for fighting, or for staying alive. She has, after all, said to Amara that she could help the Esper in case of future missions like this. She didn’t want to be an achilles heel.

After going half a day around the designated area, Amara points out that they can take a bit of detour to resupply before going back to the south. Sara agrees with the idea, as it is always better to be prepared than sorry.

Resupply point for their mission is located not too far from Netzach’s monolith, Monolith 6226. A small barrack tent is there in the area, marked with an orange flag with a white banner in bold red letters of SUPPLY POINT on its entranceway. A military utility vehicle is stationed nearby in case of emergency transport, parked near a man-made communication beacon.

Amara and Sara line up like any other groups who are about to resupply, taking turns to register their data and list everything they want to take.

“Is our water enough, Miss Khalida?” Amara shows her tablet interface, where she opens up the interactive menu of the resupply point. Sara stands beside her, her hand fiddling with registration entry pages in her tablet.

“We can take another bottle batch in case we have to camp tonight,” Sara says. “Can you count the remaining pain relief shots we’re having, Miss Angkara?”

“Sure.” Amara quickly paces back to where they place their equipment to count.

“O-Oh, Miss Khalida, nice t-to see you!”

Sara perks up to hear a familiar voice, and her smile grows as she sees familiar faces. Penelope and Shura, both with their equipment bags and ready to go, greets Sara. Sara spots a bandage wrap around Shura’s lower right arm, though Sara says nothing—thinking that perhaps they’re having it rough.

“Are you two working as a pair that surveys the area as well?” Sara asks, finalizing the registration. She waits for Amara to wrap up with the resupplying data.

“Ah, no. Pene is like a legend here, she’s—”

Penelope pinches Shura on her left arm, then she corrects as the younger woman groans in pain, “We’re moving f-from one post to another a-as a mobile patrol.”

Sara surmises that Shura is right about Penelope being a ‘legend’, as in she’s often stationed in Netzach and being one of the patrol teams, the one who keeps on making the route safe and responding to distress signals around the area. Sara changes the topic, so that at least Penelope doesn’t pick on the poor Shura, until Amara approaches them.

“It’s Miss Angkara again!” Shura seems so elated as though finding her idol. Amara smiles and nods to address Shura, as well as Penelope.

“I-Is the scouting duty progressing n-nicely?” Penelope asks both of them.

Amara glances at Sara briefly, and Sara tilts her head in wonder, though Amara says nothing to her, “It’s my first time working closely with a Guide, but must I say that it’s quite efficient.”

Sara can say the same —it is the first time where she works with an Esper who doesn’t demand more of her or suddenly lash out that she doesn’t ‘Guide’ them ‘enough’.

Penelope returns to Amara with a knowing look, “Glad to h-hear that.” 

As Shura enthusiastically asks Amara about their findings, Sara simply listens and lets Amara do all the talking. Mostly it’s about their fights and their data, minus the hypothesis from last night.

“By the way, can we tag along with you as you pass the southwest checkpoint?” Shura asks.

“Sure.” Sara nods. Amara agrees as well.

They re-check their supply load before departing together, a pair of Espers and Guides, to the southwest area.