Chapter 10: Beacon

Night fell, and rain began to pour from the sky.

Seikyo City, which had been in an uproar all day, slowly quieted down under the cover of darkness.

The special disaster response department cordoned off a large area, including the “Order” headquarters building.

The flashing lights of fire trucks filled the night.

Helicopters roared overhead.

Under the glare of searchlights, countless rescue and medical personnel threw themselves into post-disaster work.

At this time, inside a temporary medical tent—

The lights were bright and glaring.

The air was a mixture of the unpleasant, pungent smell of medicine and the faint scent of blood.

The curtain fluttered as a nurse hurried away with a blood-stained piece of gauze.

Ephnel sat outside the operating room, her lips pressed together.

Thick gauze was wrapped around her waist.

She sat in silence outside the intensive care unit, her head bowed.

The air was humid and hot, filled with a maddening noise.

Before long, the curtain was drawn aside, and a figure in a white coat emerged.

She was a young woman with beautiful blue eyes, a doctor dispatched from the higher-up organization abroad specifically to handle the Agents.

Her name was Nishizaki Yuki.

Long before joining the organization, she had already earned numerous honors in the medical field.

She was a good friend of Ephnel’s.

Nishizaki Yuki looked a little weary.

She didn’t notice Ephnel’s figure sitting in the corner.

While talking to the nurse behind her, she took off her gloves and mask, pulled a thin cigarette from her pocket, lit it, and placed it between her lips.

She loved to smoke, but she always chose this particular brand of cheap, thin cigarettes with a unique vanilla flavor.

“Yuki!”

Seeing her, Ephnel immediately stood up and approached.

“Ephnel…?”

Nishizaki Yuki was a little surprised to see Ephnel.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you here too…”

“Don’t worry about it… It’s not like I came here to be noticed by anyone…”

Ephnel forced a smile, but the exhaustion in her eyes was hard to hide.

Nishizaki Yuki’s gaze flickered as she looked at Ephnel, whose waist and skirt were stained with blood.

She sighed softly, exhaling a faint puff of smoke, and looked away.

“Today’s Erosion disaster is the first of its kind I’ve seen since coming to this city. If it weren’t for your efforts, there probably would have been very serious casualties. You’ve all worked hard. On behalf of the survivors, I thank you… By the way, are your injuries any better?”

“Thank you for asking. I’m fine…”

Ephnel pressed her lips together, her gaze passing over Nishizaki Yuki to look behind her.

“More importantly, Fifina is in there, right? How… how is she now…?”

“Fifina… You came for her.”

Nishizaki Yuki gently murmured the name of the girl Ephnel was concerned about.

She bit down on her cigarette hesitantly and took a deep drag.

“She’s your junior… I suppose it’s no wonder. Well… among the Agents admitted this time, her injuries are the most severe. We’ve performed emergency treatment and have people monitoring her constantly. In short, she has managed to hold on to her life, for now.”

“So she’s okay?”

Ephnel stubbornly clung to the last shred of hope, but it was immediately shattered.

“I can’t exactly say that…”

Nishizaki Yuki shook her head and sighed softly, her expression carefully measured as she looked at Ephnel’s haggard and pale face.

She held the cigarette between her teeth and pulled a report from her pocket.

“You know how serious Fifina’s injuries are… Although it looks like she did her best to apply emergency hemostasis, she only had one hand left, and the wound was far too severe. By the time you brought her in, she had already suffered brain cell damage from excessive blood loss. She’s still in a coma, and at this stage, we can’t accurately predict the extent of the brain damage or its consequences…”

“Brain cell damage…? If it’s serious… what will happen…?”

“A deep coma… which is to say, she could end up in a vegetative state. Besides that, memory loss or cognitive impairment… things like that…”

Nishizaki Yuki picked at her nails.

“In short… she needs to rest quietly until her condition has completely stabilized. We’re not out of the woods yet… The facilities in this temporary medical ward are incomplete, and it’s too noisy. I’m planning to request a transfer for Fifina out of here.”

“What if… what if it comes to that? Can she not be saved…?”

“It would be very difficult for her to recover.”

“I see…”

Ephnel was in a daze.

Nishizaki Yuki glanced at Ephnel.

In her memory, Ephnel had never looked so devastated.

Perhaps Fifina was an important person to her.

Yet, it was precisely such a person that she had to send into battle with her own hands.

But “Accommodators” were extremely rare.

It couldn’t be helped.

Even a girl with a low aptitude like Fifina had to fight for the future of humanity.

What could one say… was it ironic?

Sighing, Nishizaki Yuki took a deep drag from her cigarette and turned to look into the distance.

Under the curtain of rain, the figures of rescue personnel and Agents bustled about.

Ephnel stood there in silence.

A strange quiet suddenly fell between them, until Nishizaki Yuki tossed away the nearly burnt-out cigarette butt.

Ephnel broke the silence.

“Can I see her?”

“You can, but… well, never mind, it’s nothing… She’s in there. Go ahead.”

“Thank you.”

Ephnel shuffled her way inside.

Nishizaki Yuki watched Ephnel’s back, fumbled in her pocket for a cigarette, but her fingers touched a cold, hard object instead.

She suddenly remembered something and quickly called out to Ephnel.

“Ephnel! Sorry, wait a moment…”

Ephnel stopped and looked back.

Nishizaki Yuki fumbled in her pocket and took out two plastic-sealed bags, holding them out to Ephnel.

“I have these to give to you. I almost forgot…”

Inside the bags were two small items: a black communicator and a blood-stained, bow-shaped hair clip.

Ephnel froze for a moment, then took the bags.

“This is Fifina’s…”

This hair clip was Fifina’s “Beacon.”

Of course, Ephnel recognized it.

The so-called “Beacon” was the “medium” through which an “Agent” resonated with the “Power of Order.”

It was a product born from the research of “White Holes” and ancient ruins—a special crystal that straddled the boundary between matter and energy.

A “Beacon” was essential for an “Agent” to resonate with “Order.”

Without a “Beacon,” one could not resonate with “Order” and thus could not enter “Exile Form.”

In short, the “Beacon” was the most fundamental anchor for an “Agent.”

And because different “Beacons” had different “aptitudes” for different wavelengths, each Agent had their own unique “Beacon.”

For example, unlike Fifina, Ephnel’s “Beacon” was a star-shaped stud earring, worn on her left ear.

“This is Fifina’s. I thought I should give it to you.”

Nishizaki Yuki said, pulling another cigarette from her pocket.

Ephnel didn’t speak.

She stood stunned for a long time before taking out the hair clip.

She carefully wiped the blood off with a corner of her clothes and clutched it in her palm.

It was cold.

Ephnel’s lips were pressed tightly together.

After a pause, she picked up the black communicator from the bag.

“This too?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Nishizaki Yuki took out her lighter.

It was her treasured kerosene lighter.

Ephnel had heard her go on and on about its origins, but no matter how impressive or bizarre the story, Ephnel, who didn’t smoke, would always forget it immediately.

Yuki cupped the cigarette and tried to light it.

Sparks flew, but it just wouldn’t catch.

“Tsk…”

Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Nishizaki Yuki simply took the cigarette from her lips and held it between her fingers.

“Well, there are some recordings on here… I think you should listen to them.”