The room reeked of industrial grade disinfectants.
Kisara laid on the bed in her hospital gown. Her porcelain white arm could be seen, an IV drip was administered, giving her a weak and sickly look.
However, she's far from feeble.
Kisara isn't lethargic like the patients in the other rooms. Her face was flush with the red blush of a healthy person.
She's as healthy as a horse.
It's only been a day since she woke up from her kidney transplant.
However, the moment she woke up, a news broke headlines.
"Monolith 32 is going to crumble..."
Kisara bit her lips with a grave look on her face.
"I can't believe something like this happened."
"Kisara-san, what now?"
Rentaro frowned as he sighed.
"I received the Adjuvant invitation letter."
"They are drafting us for a cooperative offense, huh?"
Kisara sighed too.
"It's this serious, huh?"
Anyone who has a proper civil defense license heard about the Adjuvant system.
It's a measure used by government in times of crisis to draft the civil defense officers into their ranks.
The self-defense force will be deployed along with the drafted civil defense officers.
Civil defense agents can all make their own teams, they are given the same privileges of a military personnel and they were treated outside the chain of command. They can also appoint a leader to lead them like a general in war.
In simpler terms, this measure allowed civil defense officers to find teammates and form a quasi-militaric unit to combat more effectively alongside the military.
With Tokyo Area facing such a big crisis, the Tendo Civil Defense Corporation also got invited.
Rentaro must go find teammates and form his own unit.
"What a troubling development."
Kisara quipped. She felt puzzled when she saw Noah's taciturn behavior.
"Something wrong?"
Noah shook his head as he replied.
"I don't know why I have this bad feeling in my guts."
"It's just a bad feeling? I thought even you are terrified of something like this."
Rentaro bitterly laughed.
"It's normal to have butterflies in your stomach. It's an unprecedented crisis for Tokyo Area, after all."
No, it's not like that.
However, Noah kept mum.
If it's just Tokyo Area, his guts wouldn't act up like this.
Noah cared little about Tokyo Area.
The whole city can go up in flames for all he cares.
He just wants the people he cared to be safe, that's enough for him.
Noah knew his instincts are telling him that important people or objects are in imminent danger.
This is why Noah didn't say yes to Seitenshi's request, he gave her a curt reply despite her anxious look.
Noah trusts his insticts.
Noah was worrying about his gut feeling than the crisis facing Tokyo Area.
"Anyway, we need to establish our Adjuvant unit, we have to protect everyone or they will all die."
Kisara seems to be troubled by Noah's attitude. She decided it was best to let the guy keep whatever he's holding secret for now. She turned towards Rentaro.
"Rentaro-kun, do you have any candidates in mind?"
Rentaro started showing an awkward look.
He haven't thought about filling his unit yet.
Rentaro's Adjuvant establishment has been bumpy at best.
Rentaro is still young at only 16-years-old. He's only 2 years older than the minimum age for getting a license. For the hooligans who comprised the majority of the civil defense industry, who would take him seriously?
Also, Rentaro's IP ranking is rock bottom at 9900, it is high relative to the overall ranking, however, for the truly capable Promoters, this rank is terribly unsightly.
Rentaro had trouble finding reliable allies, if he must fill his team, the candidates he had in mind are also not that outstanding, it would be optimistic to hope for anything better than that.
Fizzle
An emergency news interrupted the channel displayed on the TV. Noah, Kisara, and Rentaro looked at the screen.
The footage appears to be live, it seems to be shot from a moving helicopter. The deafening sound of the helicopter's rotating blade could be heard from the unedited footage.
The anchor also sounded distant because of this noise disruption.
However, they can still make out what the anchor is saying.
Alas, Noah, Kisara, and Rentaro weren't occupied with the anchor's emotional outburst.
Their attention were caught by another thing. They were more concerned with the scenery displayed on screen.
The camera zoomed in on the black monolith.
Everyone can see it, the monolith, the symbol of humanity's last resistance.
However, aside from the familiar black sheen of Varanium, they could see moldy white growths on the metal.
Kisara, Noah, and Rentaro knew why the hospital suddenly got a lot noisier.
That is definitely a result of the Aldebaran's corroding fluid, Monolith 32's structural integrity is already heavily compromised.
Finally, the populace got first-hand look at the crumbling Monolith 32.
But, normal people aren't aware of the consequences should a monolith crumble.
The populace was making noises over the scenery beyond the monolith's effect.
A sea of monsters dying the land black with their nasty apperances.
There were Gastreas of all kinds of sizes. They were gathering beyond the Monolith, roaring at the sky and getting ready to pounce. It was a scary sight.
"How?"
Rentaro mumbled.
"The monolith's corruption got found out too soon. How and why?"
"I guess it's an accident."
Kisara said with frustration.
"Humans are very concerned with the monoliths. The monoliths protected them, someone must have spotted an irregularity in the monoliths and submitted a report. That would explain why there's a helicopter covering the monolith right now."
Noah nodded, her theory sounded very reasonable.
However, his expression changed when he saw the anchor saying something that confirmed his bad feeling from before.
"According to our latest intel, the Tokyo Area has underground bunkers that can cover 30% of the total population. The name list is randomly generated and will only be declared when the bunkers are open. Of the 30%, the name list will also include Cursed Children."
Noah's gut immediately churned and twisted, he finally knew why his instincts told him something bad's going to happen.
"Crap!"
Without saying another thing, Noah immediately jumped out the window of the patient room.