"I..." Ren wanted to rebuke, but found himself with no basis to refute his superior's words.
Watching Ren lash out, Haze couldn't help but look back to the first time he met Ren. When the grieving boy, confused and distressed, ran after him, desperately begging him to join the evacuation efforts. clueless even to himself as to why he did it.
Haze has been watching over the siblings ever since the Erasure of Pertice, feeling responsible for them, secretly hoping to repent for his inaction, especially after the miracle Ren had performed.
"They're sending me with you too. They don't even need me here, so don't worry, they're more capable than you think." Haze comforted Ren.
Ren's eyes began to soften, his emotions finally simmering down after realizing how out of line his previous statements were.
Noticing this change in Ren, Haze smiled and began to instinctively look around at nothing in particular, a habit of his when he is thinking. Finally his thoughts gathered, forming into one coherent idea to cheer up his subordinate.
"C'mon, let's go and eat at as many restaurants as we can! It'll be hard to get good food at the edge of the world, so let's stock up on a couple of months worth of satisfaction."
At that moment, it was like Ren was back to his old self again. Well, it wasn't like it was gone in the first place, since all he did was hide his emotions under a thin blanket that gradually gets bigger as time passes.
"Okayy....." Ren said amidst a sigh as he accepted his loss.
With that said, Haze smiled, rose again, and in the next moment, he gently patted Ren's arm before going ahead outside the room they were having their conversation in and toward a door at the further end of the left corridor.
On their way there, they passed by dozens of rooms, their emptiness clearly displayed through the dozen windows lining the corridor door.
"I need to get something from the warehouse" Haze said, leaving out the reason why he wanted Ren to go with him.
Opening the door, the first thing they were greeted with was dozens of industrial shelves that made them look tiny in comparison.
The whole warehouse was practically filled with these shelves. The ceiling was extremely high, while the diameter remained fairly small, leaving just enough space for about two and a half people to walk through.
"We get to test these out, right?" Ren asked in a neutral tone, pointing at one of the objects on the shelf near him.
The object Ren pointed to was a crate wrapped with transparent film, filled and compounded with thousands of what appeared to be blank neon boxes that were so brightly colored it was possible to see them in the dark, labeled with the word 'Departure' as a homage to Ren's Origin Phrase, which saved hundreds of thousands of lives that day.
Next to that and so on were also dozens of boxes of different sizes and colors in crates with their own newly invented gadgets and devices, with corresponding names to the events that saved millions of people from each evacuation zone.
"You've finally taken to the idea now, good, good..." Haze responded, petting Ren on the back, silently confirming Ren's question.
"Let's get out of here; today is supposed to be our day off... I would've been relaxing on my bed by now if they hadn't sprung this on me so suddenly," Haze complained, in a bad mood, his body beginning to slack around upon the realization most of his day off had already been spent.
Feeling like he is getting swindled, Ren made a conflicted face; however, whether it's part of the swindling or not, Ren has already accepted the fact that he's going on an expedition to the edge of the world.
"I need to get Rekka first... and maybe Shry later," Ren said neutrally.
After announcing his departure, Ren turned around, about to enter through the door they exited from, but halfway through, he stopped mid-step and hesitated, rethinking his pathway. A thought entered his mind.
(Going in through the main entrance should be faster, right?)
Turning around, Ren glanced toward the exit to the warehouse, through the layers of shelving, familiar with the building's layout.
"Call me when you're done. I'm going to make up for my day off as much as I can," Haze spoke out, watching as Ren left, departing toward his own path.
Walking straight out of the warehouse's gates, Ren flinched from the bright sunlight, shimmering and lighting up the building Ren came out from, revealing an incredibly grand structure, colossal in size.
White columns line the walls of the building in a symmetrical pattern, following the building's uniquely shaped structure, which is not dissimilar to a raindrop, a non-perfect and almost wobbly droplet, colored slate gray, maintaining its original concept of a raindrop.
At its main entrance, Ren stood in front of an automatic door made from a mixture of a dozen highly durable, man-made Node metals.
To its side was a small sign, obscure compared to the size of the building, with seven letters spelling out the name of the group occupying the building... VANISH in bold letters.
...
Walking into the front entrance of what was presumably the headquarters of VANISH, Ren looked around, glancing past a luxurious lobby with a light gray aesthetic, specifically trying to spot someone specific.
(There she is.) Ren thought, finding the person he was looking for.
Behind the reception sat a girl younger than Ren, his younger sister, and if not for the age gap, the two would've been mistaken for twins.
The desk for the reception was fairly high, so, due to Rekka's stature, she didn't notice her brother come in until he got near the reception desk.
"Hey, Ren! Shry just came by and dropped off some things," Rekka said as soon as she saw her brother come near.
...
About 2 hours ago...
"Hey, let's drop by the VANISH headquarters; I need to deliver something." Shry said as he cycled beside Tiy, his light blue hair drifting in the wind, trying to keep up with his friend's speed.
Tiy and Shry rode their bicycles on a singular narrow earth pathway specifically structured to allow bicycles to safely traverse above the road, functioning like an overpass.
A hook locked their bicycles to the pathway, like a pulley on a string, acting as a second pair of wheels that clung tightly to the bottom of the earth pathway.
"Why are we going there... You aren't trying to bring me to that mystical dumpster, are you!?" Tiy questioned, narrowing his eyes at Shry with suspicion.
"My cousins work there! I'm going to give them some presents so they don't forget I exist." Shry said it with as much sincerity as he could but ended up sounding strange instead as he made his final comment.
Without saying anything, Tiy looked at Shry with suspicion one last time before he looked away without saying anything as they neared the end of the earth pathway.
"Hehe, pay for me," Shry asked his friend smugly as he got off after him.
As soon as the two friends got off the earth pathway, it immediately dissipated, not even leaving a hint of dust as it vanished, leaving Shry and Tiy with a tax to pay. Every citizen of this continent, and even though they're kids, Shry and Tiy are required to pay a Node tax as well as the Node it cost to create that pathway.
"Ckeh," Tiy snickered.
Giving Shry the stink eye, Tiy regretfully walked to a contraption on the ground, flipping open the transparent cover, granting him access to a sunken blue button.
*Shhhhuuuuckkk*
Immediately after pressing the button, a rectangular beam jolted up steadily, not slowly but also not fast enough to hurt someone.
Attached to its side was a device with a glowing handprint, as well as a gauge beside that displayed the amount of Node owed by the user.
As the beam was ascending, Tiy casually placed his right hand above the contraption, and as soon as it touched his hand, the contraption immediately stopped ascending and locked it in place.
(Please don't detach, Shry, like last time; I don't want to stay here for 4 minutes straight), Tiy thought to himself secretly.
Immediately, Tiy glanced at the meter to check how much Node they owed, and unfortunately, against his hopes, it registered two people, as it should.
"Unlucky! I'll pay for the laser tag later, so pay for me," Shry encouraged, reiterating what he just said while giving a friend an incentive even though he had no choice but to pay for them both in the first place.
"Don't do that... I can pay for myself!" Tiy verbally displayed his displeasure.
After saying that, Tiy flared up his Node, making his right hand glow warm red with a hint of orange, and in the next moment he placed his hand on the indicated spot, releasing his Node as he leaned on the beam.
"Anyways, I assume you don't have a plan for that party, do you?" Tiy switched the topic.
"I was actually thinking about holding it at the Resonance Hall so I can drag Mr. Luftra into helping me," Shry answered with conviction.
For a moment, Tiy turned confused, wracking his brain, trying to remember who Shry was talking about before finally remembering the proctor they had met on their Resonance day.
"Isn't he your mentor?" Tiy questioned while making an uncomfortable face.
"He wouldn't mind, I'm sure of it... Probably," Shry answered suspiciously, avoiding eye contact.
Even though Tiy didn't hear the probably at the end of Shry's sentence, he sensed Shry's hesitance, causing him to glare at Shry, silently pressuring him to make sure his mentor didn't mind.
"Fine, I'll ask him about it tomorrow." Shry gave in to the pressure.
"Alright then, make sure you don't CONVENIENTLY forget and bring us to some weird place instead for the party." Tiy said, looking away from Shry, cancelling his glare but still emitting an aura of danger as he turned to look at the gauge.
Looking at the gauge, Tiy noticed that it was green now, an indication that they had finished paying back what they owed, so he stopped and took back his hand, and incidentally, the beam began to retract into the ground, disappearing like it was never there.
*Pak*
Tiy flipped the transparent cover back into its place with a light kick so rainwater or any liquid wouldn't seep its way into the sunken button on the ground.
"Let's go, but I'm leading because I don't trust you." Tiy said bluntly, getting back on his bike.
With that done, Tiy and Shry managed to get to VANISH headquarters quickly, as it was just around the corner, a small detour from their original path to the laser tag building.
As he went through the main entrance, Shry immediately spotted a tuft of red-orange hair peeking out from behind the reception desk, which henceforth prompted him to yell,
"Hey, Rekka! I bought you guys more presents!"
Unbothered by Shry's unnecessary yell, Tiy allowed Shry to take the lead.
Oddly, the employees working there weren't bothered by Shry's yell either, almost like they were used to Shry's antics and treated it more like a routine than an anomaly.
Before Rekka even got a chance to speak up, Shry flipped his blue-striped backpack and laid it sideways on the counter, distracting Rekka, as he went to get his reserved box for him to stand on, since he's not tall enough to peek over the counter.
"I found these little guys yesterday, and since they were cheap, I brought thousands of them and tied them into a monster... I call him Stein." Shry spoke as he jostled the inside of his bag, struggling to pull out the abomination he created.
Seeing that Shry needed assistance, Tiy went to the other side of the backpack without saying anything, and like they understood each other, Tiy and Shry both pulled their separate items in tandem, finally managing to release Shry's abomination from his backpack.
"Where are your books!" Tiy questioned as he took a peek into Shry's backpack.
"Instead of asking that, wouldn't it be better to ask what this is?" Shry avoided Tiy's question, swinging around the stuffed animal thing he named Stein to attract Tiy's attention.
"It is indeed quite odd..." Rekka finally got a word in.
"I think it's actually pretty cool. Good job with body." Tiy continuously nodded, complimenting Shry on his work.
"I'm pretty sure that's how they wanted us to use it; it was far too easy to assemble it." Shry thought out loud as he scratched his upper lip.
As both Shry and Tiy admired the plush abomination, Rekka still couldn't find a way to like it. However, as she looked at it longer and longer, it was like its attraction somehow began to grow stronger until eventually, she was just as captivated by the abomination as Tiy and Shry.
"Snap out of it, Rekka, you're still on the clock," one of the other receptionists shook Rekka, more in worry for Rekka than the actual point she made.
Finally snapping out of her hypnosis, Rekka moved the plush abomination, in turn snapping Shry and Tiy out of their hypnosis as well.
"This one is the king," Rekka stated.
"This one is the king," Shry continued.
"This one is the king," Tiy ended.
"I also got Ren something as well!" Without even waiting for the weirdness to die down, Shry reached into his backpack again.
While Shry was doing that, Rekka removed the plush abomination from the desk and turned over to the lady that sat beside her, who is also a receptionist but noticeably older than Rekka.
"Ms. Hersda, do you want to hug the new plushie?" Rekka generously offered, just like every other time Shry brings her a new plushie, which is about 2 to 5 times a week.
"Sure..." Ms. Hersda answered with some hesitation after the scene she saw.
With that dealt with, Shry finally found what he was searching for.
"I got him a bottle of premium soda that can temporarily increase the user's Node, apparently... I'm sure it's a scam, though." Shry casually admitted as he pulled out a medium-sized bottle with some swirly designs.
"A..." Rekka was about to say something, but as she realized what Shry was saying, she found herself speechless.
"How do you even get that..." Tiy questioned with astonishment in Rekka's stead, curious as to how Shry procured such an item but subconsciously avoiding asking where he got it from.
"It was from some guy in a van near the mystical dumpster I mentioned," Shry answered, distracted, trying to get the bottle to stand upright.
The bottle is still cylinder-shaped, but the swirls that make up its designs made it so that some parts of its bottom jolted out, causing it to constantly tilt, and coupled with the weight of the liquid, it made it impossible for it to balance on itself.
"What!... You shouldn't be talking to strangers, let alone buying something from them." Rekka reprimanded, slightly aggressive with her words to get her point across.
"But they always have the coolest stuff for sale..." Shry rebuked hanging over words as he rummaged through his pockets.
"Plus I have these," Shry continued, his voice turning smug as he held up 2 different colored disks.
A blue and a red disk, just like the one he threw earlier in the day. However, the two disks he held this time were far more polished, almost like they were crafted by professionals at the highest level, making the one he threw out earlier look like a prototype in comparison.
"Anyways, we have to get going now, so I'll see you guys at the party."
Without letting Rekka get a single word in, Shry patted Tiy on his arm and gestured for him to leave with him without explaining anything.
"Hold on, you haven't explained anything about the party to her yet!" Tiy yelled aggressively as he looked back at Rekka, only to find her expression unchanged.
"It's fine, I'm used to it by now... and you probably are too." Rekka sighed in resignation.