Chapter 28: Ashes and Air

"Some truths are buried in silence—not because they are forgotten, but because the world is too loud to hear them."

The world above was on fire.

As Rentarō emerged from the shattered stairwell, carrying Renge on his back, a wave of heat washed over them. The sky was a bloom of flame—plumes of smoke spiraling from Council drones as they strafed the old facility with cluster ordnance. Behind him, Enju and Hotaru darted forward, clearing the path with the precision of ghosts. Kisara followed, pistol drawn, eyes scanning for threats that hadn't yet revealed themselves.

Shōma moved last, covering their flank. The blast had singed his coat and cut deep along his ribs, but he hadn't slowed. His blade was still in his hand. And he hadn't blinked once.

Rentarō ducked behind the remnants of a transport hull as a railgun pulse vaporized the ground three meters from his feet.

"Karasuma!" he barked into the comms. "We're under open sky—where's the damn evac?!"

Static. Then:

"Rerouting! Too much interference from drone jammers—I'm bringing in the crawler from the south loop. Two minutes."

"We don't have two minutes!"

Kisara skidded into cover beside him. "Then we buy one."

A second squadron of drones swooped low, their targeting arrays pulsing with cold red intent. Enju blurred into their path, flipping mid-air, using the wreckage of a broken crane to catapult herself upward.

Two drones down in six seconds.

A third caught her shoulder with a scorched beam of heat. She hissed but kept moving, crashing down on its sensor pod with both feet.

The machine spiraled into the dirt.

Hotaru followed, fast and surgical. She leapt off rubble, slicing through fuselages with quiet precision. Her face was unreadable. Every move a calculation.

But they were outnumbered.

And outgunned.

"Move!" Rentarō growled, repositioning Renge. The girl's body was cooling rapidly—her systems overloaded by the field collapse. But she was still conscious. Still aware.

"They're afraid of me," she whispered.

"Good," Rentarō muttered. "Let's make sure they stay that way."

More drones circled.

And then—like thunder on rails—the crawler arrived.

A reinforced urban transport vehicle, jury-rigged by Karasuma's resistance engineers. It crashed through the southern fence, smoke streaming from its wheels, top hatch open. Karasuma waved from the gun mount.

"GO!"

Rentarō didn't hesitate.

He sprinted for the open ramp, Enju and Hotaru flanking him, Shōma slashing down the last machine that dared get too close.

They leapt into the hold.

The ramp sealed behind them.

And the crawler roared into retreat.

Inside the vehicle, Renge stirred weakly.

"Why save me?"

Rentarō sat beside her, breathing hard. "Because you were never the enemy."

"I was designed to be."

"I know," he said softly. "But you looked at me like a person. That was enough."

Renge blinked slowly.

And then, for the first time—

She smiled.

Hours passed.

The crawler reached a safehouse deep in the underground sprawl of Old District 2—one of the only places still shielded from Council surveillance grids.

Tina Sprout was already waiting there, rifle resting against her shoulder, eyes scanning the shadows.

Kisara approached first. "You sure they didn't track you?"

Tina nodded. "Triple-scrambled relays. I left a fake heat signature heading toward the coast. They won't look here."

"Good," Kisara said. Then she glanced at Renge. "Because we've got something they can't have back."

Rentarō helped Renge lie down on the medical cot. Her systems were still stabilizing.

Tina stepped closer. "So she's the one?"

"Yeah," Rentarō said. "The core of Project Chrysalis."

"She doesn't look dangerous."

"She doesn't want to be," Enju muttered.

They all turned to her.

"She's like me," Enju said quietly. "Like us."

That night, no one really slept.

Kisara spent the hours poring over data pulled from the vault—encrypted files showing chain-of-command authorizations, facility transfers, budgets routed through shell networks.

Shōma stood watch outside. Still and silent as ever.

Karasuma patched the crawler, chain-smoking.

Tina cleaned her rifle, humming an old tune.

Hotaru sat at the cot's edge, reading Renge's bio-signals and adjusting drip feeds, wordless.

And Rentarō watched the skyline.

Waiting.

Because it wasn't over.

Not yet.

The next morning, Renge sat up.

"I remember the voice," she said.

Rentarō turned.

"What voice?"

"The one that gave me orders after they shut down Site-9. It was filtered. Masked. But… I knew it. I felt it."

"Can you trace it?"

She nodded once.

"I can lead you there."

Everyone in the room froze.

Kisara narrowed her eyes. "To what?"

Renge's voice was quiet.

"To the one who thinks they can still finish this project. Even after the Council died screaming."

Rentarō stood slowly.

"Then we end it."

Shōma cracked his neck.

"I was waiting for you to say that."

Tina smiled.

Enju pulled her gloves tight.

And Renge… stood.

On her own.