Chapter 164: A Walk
Morning came.
Mina had asked Kai to pick up groceries on his way back from wherever he was going. Bread. Vegetables. Rice. The list was short and entirely unremarkable, the kind of errand that had nothing to do with gates or candidates or anything that had happened in the last week.
He was halfway to the market when he felt it.
Someone behind him.
He turned.
Raze was standing in the mouth of an alley with his hands in his pockets and the grin that meant he had been waiting for the right moment to be noticed.
"Let’s go for a walk," Raze said.
Kai looked at him for a second. This was not about walking.
"Alright," he said.
They walked.
No tension. No weapons drawn. Just two people moving through the street at an ordinary pace. The city noticed anyway. A few people slowed down. Someone got their phone out. Two Authority Candidates walking together side by side was not something anyone had expected to see, and the people who recognized them did not bother hiding their reaction.
The morning crowd was thick near the market entrance. Vendors were setting up stalls, calling out prices, arranging produce into neat piles that would not stay neat for long. The smell of fresh bread came from a corner shop. A group of kids ran past chasing something, laughing too loud for the hour.
Raze stopped at a stall selling skewered meat. He bought four. Handed two to Kai without asking if he wanted them.
"Eat," Raze said.
"I’m getting groceries."
"That’s later. This is now."
Kai took the skewer.
They kept walking, eating as they went, the city moving around them in its ordinary rhythm. A street performer was tuning an instrument near the plaza. Two old men argued cheerfully over a board game at a folding table.
Raze ducked into a convenience store without explanation and came back out a minute later. He threw something at Kai without warning.
Kai caught it. A cold drink.
"Thanks," he said.
"Don’t mention it," Raze said.
They walked past the training district. The sound of impacts carried faintly from inside the walls. Raze glanced toward it.
"You hear the B-rank gates are getting denser," Raze said.
"Lily mentioned something."
"More of them. Closer together. The eastern cluster is supposed to activate within the month." Raze took a bite from his skewer. "City’s not ready for that pace."
"No," Kai said. "It isn’t."
"That’s part of why I’m doing this," Raze said, gesturing vaguely between them. "If B-rank keeps coming this fast, somebody needs to be making the call on how the city responds. Not reacting after people already died finding out the hard way."
Kai thought about the survivor report. The eleven days. The two hunters who hadn’t come back.
"Agreed," he said.
They reached a small park near the center of the district. A few benches, a fountain that had been repaired after some gate-related incident months ago, kids playing on equipment nearby. Raze sat down on one of the benches without asking and Kai joined him.
"How’s your friends? The one known as Kei." Raze said.
Kai looked at him. He hadn’t expected that question.
"Good," he said. "Still causing trouble."
Raze smiled. "Still talking too much?"
Kai blinked. "You remember that?"
Raze shrugged. "Hard not to."
He looked ahead.
"After the Territory, everyone was exhausted." A small grin appeared. "Then Kei started arguing with a vending machine because it wouldn’t give him another drink."
Kai laughed. "...I forgot about that."
"I didn’t."
They sat for a while, watching the kids on the playground equipment. One of them fell off something and immediately got back up, unbothered, and kept going.
"I’ve been thinking," Raze said eventually.
No grin this time. Just the words.
Kai waited.
"About Authority," Raze said.
He laughed once, short. "Funny thing." He looked at the kids. "A few months ago I would’ve wanted it because it sounded fun. Fighting stronger things. Meeting stronger people. That was enough for me back then."
He paused.
"Not anymore."
"What changed," Kai said.
Raze looked around at the park. At the kids. At a hunter walking past in worn gear, clearly coming off a long shift.
"The Mythical gates," Raze said. "Watching weaker hunters keep trying anyway. Watching some of them not come back. Watching families wait outside gates for news that didn’t come."
Kai was quiet.
"I’ve been watching small streams," Raze said.
Kai looked at him. "What."
Raze shrugged. "Hunters nobody pays attention to."
"It can’t be that bad, right?"
"They usually only get thirty viewers every stream."
"That hasn’t changed at all?"
"No, it’s been like that for the two months I checked." Raze sighed. "But it should be expected right? How can it compete with big streamers who talk about people like us. The best one I see is forty on a good day."
He smiled slightly. "Some of them spend thirty minutes clearing an E-rank gate. Then celebrate like they just defeated a B-Rank boss."
"Ahh, I can figure out why."
"Oh?"
"Because I’m sure many of them thought they couldn’t do it... And when they did it, that feeling of satisfaction became too much."
Raze stared at Kai before chuckling. "You already realized that huh? While it took me a long time to see that to them. Those E-rank gates were just as important."
Kai said nothing.
"I visited some families," Raze said.
Kai stopped.
They had started walking again at some point without Kai fully noticing, leaving the park behind. Raze kept going for a few steps before he noticed Kai had stopped and slowed himself.
Kai looked at him. "...You did?"
"The families of hunters who didn’t come back," Raze said.
Silence.
"They deserved better," he said.
Kai started walking again, catching up.
Raze clenched one fist. "Hunters die. That’s not something anyone can stop completely." He looked at Kai. "But useless deaths. The ones that happen because nobody had a plan, because the emergency response was too slow, because there wasn’t enough support after." He shook his head. "Those can disappear."
"Better emergency teams," he said. "Better preparation before deployment. More support for families. More compensation when something goes wrong." He looked at the street. "People shouldn’t lose everything because someone died protecting the city."
Kai thought about this.
"That means more rules," he said.
"Yep," Raze said immediately.
"Less freedom for hunters operating independently."
"Yep."
Raze looked at him. "So what’s more important. Freedom. Or making sure more hunters come home."
Kai did not answer right away.
He thought about the question honestly. He thought about every gate run he had done before any of this started, the freedom of choosing his own approach, the specific independence that came with being strong enough to make his own decisions without anyone checking them.
"Security," he said.
Raze looked over at him. Genuinely interested.
"If it was only me," Kai said, "I’d take freedom. I’d take the risk myself without thinking twice."
He paused.
"But it isn’t only me," he said. "Leo. Mina. My friends. And Mythal... I’d rather lose some freedom than gamble with them."
Raze’s grin came back. Smaller than usual.
"Huh," he said. "I figured you’d pick freedom."
"I would have," Kai said. "Before."
"I would’ve," Kai said.
Before the Archive.
Before meeting the Candidate.
Before learning what Authority was really meant to protect. He did not explain further and Raze did not ask him to.
They kept walking, the conversation settling into something quieter. Raze bought another round of skewers from a different stall without asking if Kai wanted one. Kai ate it anyway.
"You think the eastern cluster is going to be worse than the first B-rank," Kai said.
"Worse, or just different," Raze said. "Lily’s been running models. The Commander we fought might not even be the strongest thing the next territory produces."
"Cheerful thought."
"I try."
They passed the guild district, the buildings tall and busy with the morning’s activity. Raze nodded toward a group of hunters heading out for the day.
"Think we’ll agree on everything," Raze said.
Kai laughed. "Definitely not."
"Good." Raze laughed. "I’d hate to beat someone who agreed with me."
Kai looked at him. "Confident."
Raze grinned. "Always."
They reached the E-rank gate at the edge of the district. Small. Blue. Quiet, the way E-rank gates were quiet, nothing about the exterior suggesting any particular danger.
Raze looked at it. Cracked his neck. The grin came back fully now, the battle-hungry version Kai recognized from every dungeon they had run together.
"I can’t wait anymore," Raze said.
Kai laughed. "I figured."
Raze rested his hand on his weapon. "Let’s see whose future is stronger."
Kai smiled. "Let’s."
They walked toward the gate together.
The surface rippled.
Both of them disappeared inside.
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