Wednesday morning finds me, surprisingly, not on my way to class. Akari had left for school an hour ago, seeming more confident than she’s been in a long time — her life force blazing brighter than I’ve ever seen it before. A large part of me wishes I’d gone with her, but it had been decided that I would spend today meeting with my grandfather.

  According to Dad, if he and Grandpa manage to get me out of the GDF here, I’ll be moving to America, where we’ll be staying with my grandfather for a while until we get our feet under us. As such, I’ll need some experience learning how to handle him. To accomplish this and to continue trying to convince me that leaving Shinara is for the best, Dad had organized a day for me to spend with my grandfather. Yay…

  To say I am less than enthused with both my father and my grandfather at the moment is an understatement. The more they try to force me away from Shinara, the more I want to stay out of simple stubbornness. It isn’t just that, though; America already has plenty of sentinels to help the people who live there, while Shinara is already tittering on the brink. In my eyes, the GDF should be sending reinforcements here instead of trying to force me to a branch that already has enough sentinels to ride out the storm.

  If my family succeeds in dragging me away from Shinara, then I’d be abandoning millions to death. Innocent people like Mr. Yamamoto, Benny, and little Nash would be doomed to be ripped apart by volcora, just like the men in the incursion zone.

  To display my displeasure at this treatment, I sulk on the couch as I wait for my grandfather to arrive. Is this position suited for a Sentinel Protector of Shinara? No, absolutely not. However, it is absolutely suited for an annoyed teenage girl, which, luckily, I also happen to be.

  My stomach churns, both with nerves and disgust, at having to spend the day with my slime of a grandfather. However, my fate had been sealed… specifically, sealed by my dad, who told me I had to when I whined about it earlier.

  On the bright side, the amulet I’d purchased from the Mercurials should also come today. So hey, at least I get to look forward to playing with that. I wonder what seeing through mist will be like. Will it be like it’s just not there? Will I see outlines through the mist? Testing is required!

  Hmm, I did just get another paycheck — although not for nearly as much as my bonus. Maybe I should just ditch this whole thing and go see if I can find any more goodies at the Mercurial shop. But wait, I’m not supposed to be shifting today…

  I glance at Celeste, who lies curled on my stomach from where I lie on the couch. “Should we go bug Crispin again? Ditch this whole thing?” I ask, blowing a tuft of blonde hair out of my face.

  [Won’t your dad get mad at you if you blow this off?] Celeste asks, poking up her head and cracking open an eye.

  “He went to work, so it’s not like he’s even here to check. Maybe I fell asleep and didn’t hear Grandpa knocking. Or maybe I got a super important GDF call and needed to run off to save the city!”

  Celeste rolls her eyes, then tucks her nose back under her wing. [You’ve been on and off about this whole America thing since you heard about it. What will it hurt to just talk to him?”

  I sigh; it hurts because my talking to him means that I’m entertaining this stupid idea in the first place — because, deep down, a part of me still wants to be swept away to safety, to be as relaxed as I was before becoming a sentinel. But I have a responsibility to keep my home safe, and I won’t abandon that. What I should be doing right now is learning about how my magic can help people, not considering abandoning those relying on my protection.

  A knock sounds at the door, loud and firm. I sit bolt upright, spilling Celeste into my lap, where she squirms to get her feet under her again.

  I stare at the door… Celeste stares at the door… Neither of us moves. What if I just don’t answer it? It would be so easy — just leave old grumpy pants out in the hall.

  The knock comes again, harder this time.

  I wriggle in place, resisting the urge to get up and answer it. Stars! This is what I’m like when salesmen or missionaries come. I just can’t help but answer the door.

  I continue staring at the door. What if it’s my package? I don’t want to miss my amulet coming…

  Stars damn it! I surge to my feet and stride to the door just as a third set of knocks start to sound. Standing before the door, I look up at the peephole that would allow me to see outside… a hole I’m too short to look through without a stool. With a final huff, I pull open the door.

  To absolutely no one’s surprise, the person standing outside isn’t a delivery man. Instead, it’s a man who’d stepped straight out of a memory.

  For a moment, I’m a little girl again, peeking out from around Dad’s leg as I look up at my regal grandfather. As in the past, I want to do nothing more than hide from this man’s stare.

  Henry Solace is a tall, stately figure with salt-and-pepper hair and a clean-shaven face. He wears a form-fitting business suit that looks like it costs more money than the amulet I’d recently purchased and has the athletic build of a man who still looks after his health, years after most men his age would have let themselves go.

  My grandfather’s life force is a deep maroon color, blazing brightly in his chest. While it doesn’t have the same taint I’d seen in the Reaver men with their strange tattoos, it certainly does seem to cast a sinister light. It’s ever so slightly off-putting, and part of me wonders if I’d sensed it even when I’d been a little girl.

  Henry smiles, showing straight white teeth. “Serena, it’s good to see you again after so long.”

  My throat works impotently as I try to come up with something to say. Something about this man just feels wrong to me… not extraordinarily so, but something within me screams danger.

  Taking in a shuddering breath, I force a smile of my own. “H-Hi… would you like to come in?”

  A few minutes later, I find myself seated across from my grandfather in the living room. Wary of giving the man the opportunity to sit right beside me on the couch, I’d decided to sit in Mom’s old armchair instead. The thing is a disaster, but my mother had sat in it to hold me as a baby, so Dad refuses to even consider getting rid of it.

  “So,” Henry starts, leaning forward and placing his elbows on his knees, “how is school going?”

  I start to answer, then pause. He’s trying to build rapport with me — an obvious way to start the conversation but not one that I want to follow along with. I’ll need to go against my nature if I actually want to get anything of use out of this meeting.

  “School?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. “You come here to tear me from my life, and you want to talk about school?”

  Grandpa sighs, his face giving way to weary exasperation. “My intention, and that of your father, is just to keep you safe, darling.”

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  I can’t help but squirm at his use of the word “darling.” Something about him calling me that makes me want to puke. Why did Dad leave me alone with this guy?! Just because I’m a sentinel doesn’t mean I’m immune to being creeped out!

  Stroking Celeste’s silken fur, I take a moment to calm myself. Getting angry won’t help anything. If I act like an insolent child, I’ll find myself getting dragged off to America without a say in the matter.

  “If you want to keep me safe, then why don’t you work to help this city instead of trying to drag me away from the people who need my protection?” I ask, keeping a tinge of anger in my tone.

  At this, Henry gives a pained look. “I’ve tried helping all that I reasonably can, but as a non-sentinel, there is only so much I can do. I’ve been donating to both the GDF and Sanctum Collective branches in Shinara for years, and honestly… I’m offended by how wastefully that money has been used. The leadership here is dragging this entire city down. They’ve had opportunity after opportunity to pull themselves back from the brink, but they never have. I just don’t want them dragging you down with them.”

  I blink, is… is that true? Has he really been donating to the local branches here?

  “You’ve been donating?” I ask, narrowing my eyes in suspicion. What good would that do? I’ve never known my grandfather to do anything for anyone but himself; why would he donate to the branches here?

  Grandpa nods sadly, “The donations are public record. Please, look it up.”

  I bite my lip. I have little doubt that he’s lying if he’s inviting me to check for myself, but still, I pull out my phone to confirm. True to his word, one search results in dozens of articles all gushing about the wealthy philanthropist from America helping out with donations worth hundreds of millions of yen. My eyes boggle at the amount of money.

  After looking back up from my phone and meeting his eyes, Grandpa spreads his hands, “What more can I do? I can’t go and fight the volcora myself as you can.”

  “So, what would you have me do?” I ask, “Run away? Abandon all my friends and everyone I’ve known for my entire life? Go to America and just hope that Shinara makes it through? I have the power to protect this place, and I’m going to.”

  “Do you, though? Have the power, I mean.” Grandpa asks. “Serena, you are a sentinel, but I fully believe that, at this point, it will take the intervention of multiple A Rank sentinels to stop what’s coming. It's time to accept reality. Even the best soldier can’t win a war by herself. Wars are fought by armies, not individuals. No matter how powerful you, or even your entire team, become, it won’t be enough to turn the tide.”

  “So, I shouldn’t try then?!” I ask, my eyes going wide.

  Henry’s fiery eyes lock on mine, and for a moment, I see behind his mask to the man underneath. “Of course, you should try!” he booms, voice suddenly heated. “But go and try where your contribution will truly matter! This isn’t a war for Shinara or even for Japan! This is for the entire world! Cities are falling every week, Serena! Go to one that isn’t already set to fall!”

  I startle, leaning back in my seat and away from the sudden passion. This is what I had sensed in him, what had turned my father away. My grandfather isn’t a man who will simply give up; he will try and try until the world gives way before his will.

  He takes a breath, seeming to calm himself, before he continues. “Japan, as it is now, is doomed. Most of the land is uninhabitable due to volcora presence. Even if you do somehow manage to defend Shinara and Tokyo, the majority of the farmland the cities rely on for food isn’t being worked. We’re already midway through spring, and nothing has been planted. The volcora are starting to control the oceans more and more, meaning that substantial food shipments will have a lower and lower chance of reaching shore safely as the year goes on. Even if the volcora take no more territory than they have now, this city will still be damned by its socioeconomic problems.”

  “These are the problems the city leadership doesn’t want you to focus on,” Grandpa continues. “The truth is that North America is slowly becoming the last bastion for humanity. You want to fight — to save lives? Let me take you somewhere your fighting will actually have substance. What does it matter if you save a life today, only for them to starve to death in a few months?”

  I close my eyes. This is why I hadn’t wanted to talk to my grandfather. I’d known his arguments would be good ones; he wouldn’t be here if they weren’t. In truth, it all just comes down to one fact. I’ve considered and reconsidered, and I just can’t stomach leaving Shinara to its fate without at least trying.

  “You want to help?” I ask, opening my eyes and leveling an azure stare on my grandfather. My assault state edges close to the surface, making my irises swirl with power.

  “Of course,” Henry says, proffering his hands once more. “But I’ve done all that I can.”

  “I’ll make you a deal then. Delay the lawsuit and genuinely try to help this city. Don’t just throw money at the problem; if you’re such a better leader than General Novak, then prove it. Find us a way out of this mess, and I’ll make sure your plan gets to the right ears. If you prove without a doubt that this city can’t be saved, then I’ll go with you to America,” I say, allowing just a hint of my power to lend weight to my voice.

  To his credit, Henry doesn’t look the least bit shaken — he’s likely dealt with sentinels stronger than me before. “Even if it were that simple, I can’t agree to such an open-ended deal. You would have me throw all of Solace Enterprises at trying to save this city, risking the livelihoods of thousands for a slim hope of maybe delaying the inevitable. I just can’t agree to that. However, how about this as a counteroffer.”

  “I will fund you and your team. You need equipment? Done. Trainers? Easy. Space to work or live? I can accommodate that as well, to a point. In return, all I ask is this. You will go along with the results of the lawsuit. Many of the same arguments you levied today will be used at the trial; hear them out. The GDF is a global organization and won’t stand for sending troops away from Shinara if doing so would compromise the city’s ability to hold; what will be proven is that this city cannot hold anyway.”

  I frown, considering for a time. Credits my team and I could earn by fighting in incursion zones, but mercurial equipment also requires hefty payments of yen. We could buy from Ratchet, but the extra quality and functionality of a Mercurial weapon could be the turning point in a fight. Not to mention offering to pay for our training spaces and even living spaces. It is a good offer, just one that feels like a trap.

  “Why my entire team?” I ask suddenly. “Why not just Akari and I? We’re the ones involved in the suit.”

  Henry shrugs, “There have been... let’s call them rumors, going around in the upper echelons of the GDF about your team. General Novak has invested in you quite heavily, and no one is quite sure why. There are whispers that your team is special somehow or that Karma is training you to be special forces, even among other sentinels. Other branches, particularly in America, are intrigued, and the higher-ups are remiss to break up such a promising team.”

  I swallow; I think I know where he’s going with this. “Stop beating around the bush. What are you saying?”

  Grandpa rolls his eyes. “I’m saying that the suit sets a precedent for your team. Nothing was done to you that wasn’t done to your entire team. If the suit goes in the way of sending you and Akari to America, your entire team might follow.”

  “And you’re preparing us to be your personal sentinel team,” I accuse, speaking as soon as I realize the truth.

  “I wouldn’t be so crass,” Henry says, waving a hand. “However, in America, it’s very common for sentinels to have corporate sponsorships. Sentinels get the money and training they need, and we get prestige for our company. It’s a win, win, really.”

  “So that’s what you’re offering us,” I ask, settling back in my seat. “A sponsorship?”

  “I wasn’t going to be so official yet, but if you’d like it in those terms, then yes. How about this for our budding deal. Go and talk with your team about a sponsorship deal with Solace Enterprises, and I’ll send over our standard dossier of all the benefits that would entail, plus some other goodies I’d be willing to throw in just for your team,” Grandpa starts.

  “In turn,” he continues, “we would get rights to use your likenesses in adverts as well as other promotional materials. Also, if — stars forbid — an incursion zone were to form near Solace Enterprises-owned lands, your team would be responsible for coming to deal with the issue. If you were nearby, of course.”

  Corporatized sentinels… that’s a horrifying thought. Still, Solace Enterprises doesn’t own any property in Japan that I’m aware of. So, this wouldn’t be too bad as long as we aren’t forced away from the country.

  I bite my lip; despite trying to lead the conversation, I feel like my grandfather had been in control the entire time. This sponsorship deal seems like exactly what he would want. However, I’m not completely opposed to it. If he would be willing to fund the team beyond even what the GDF pays us, then we could potentially use that funding to do a lot of good.

  As for his proposed state of Shinara, I’m honestly not too sure. Karma had sworn to me that Shinara was possible to save, but that could have just been manipulation. Maybe I can go press Audrey the next time I see her. She might be a bit crass, but at least she won’t lie to me.

  Finally, I meet my grandfather’s eyes once more. “I’ll bring it to the team. Then… we’ll see.”

  Henry grins, “Wonderful! Now, how about getting some lunch together, I’m starving!”

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