Still Falling FIRST D
Morning in the twins' school-town house had none of last week's sleepover chaos—just four teenagers on a gate Saturday, moving through a routine that had grown familiar over the months. Val came in already thinking about steel and straps. Dawn's blonde hair caught the window in a bright tangle; Mei's black cut sat sharp against her smaller frame, and Xian stood a hand taller beside her with hair spilling past her shoulders. Tea steam and leftover rice hung in the air. Boots and wrapped blades waited by the door like they always did on a run day. Same pattern as the last few weekends: meet, arm, leave.
Before they stepped out, a Gu Guard took position with them—one of the clan escorts Feng's argument had finally made mandatory. Val got no introduction and no lecture, only an armored shape at the group's edge, still enough to watch the twins and the road ahead. After the unguarded run in February, the extra body felt like clan paperwork walking beside them, not distrust aimed at him.
They left the house for the Gu clan's assigned gates. Town noise thinned as assignment markers appeared and the wrong shimmer of rifts pulled at the air ahead—cold pockets where mortal streets should have stayed ordinary. Val kept pace with Dawn, Mei, and Xian while the guard trailed without pressing in. Same four as always, but today's list ran longer than a single E-rank morning.
The first threshold swallowed them into that tight quiet gates always brought—world sealed, breath loud. Monsters came in ranks the party had learned to read. Mei took the front with planted steps and heavy arcs, steel flashing through each guard. Xian worked behind her, Mana gathering in short pulls until every release hit like a single hard strike. Dawn stayed off the line with careful footing, hands ready to knit flesh when a blow got through. Val cut angles the others opened, threading blind spots and withdrawing before anything could grab him, Aura hard along his blade until the metal felt wrong-heavy in his hand. The guard held a fixed vantage and did not move unless the clan's line broke.
Mei locked the boss on her guard. Xian cracked the opening from range. Val slipped inside the wind-up and steel finished it. The seal folded shut behind them. Walking out, yield sat heavy and private in Val's ribs—the kind of gain you felt in your footing, not your mouth.
The second gate opened on a thinner spread—fewer bodies, faster feet, none of them able to knot into the crush the first run had thrown. Mei's first exchange barely bent her guard. Xian's follow-up cast scattered the cluster before it closed. Dawn patched a scrape on Val's forearm and called it precaution, not rescue. They were back in open air before noon, sun still high.
The third gate was D-rank, and the difference hit the moment the threshold took them.
The space inside weighed more. Mob pressure arrived sooner and in thicker groups than their E-only weekends had trained them for. Shoulders tightened all around. Mei had to choose every step. Xian's channels needed longer to open a lane. Dawn's hands barely rested.
Val quit playing at the edges. When the line buckled he drove in, Aura along his blades thick enough that weak cuts skidded wrong against packed steel and dense cloak. Somewhere behind them the escort held his line and did not interfere.
They cleared anyway—lungs working harder on the walk out than they had all morning, kit salt-stiff, nobody limping. First D-rank for the four of them on Present, and the afternoon still had hours left.
When the third rift closed, Saturday's work was done: two E-rank runs and one D-rank run, escort still in tow.
Late light found them back at the school-town house, peeling off gear in the order they always used. Fried oil from the kitchen corridor mixed with sweat and cold rift air. Mei and Xian shuffled with the slow sureness of a pair who had spent hours doing real work. Dawn dropped onto a chair long enough to roll her shoulders. At the door line the guard's job ended without a word—gone before anyone thought to thank him.
They stayed at the house until the ordinary quiet won. Mei stretched out on the rug. Dawn hunted food. Xian took a cushion by the window. Val counted breath with them until everyone's shoulders dropped, then left it there.