The neon sign outside the escape room flickered with a buzz that painted the sidewalk in shifting purple and blue light. Somewhere down the street, music drifted from an arcade while the scent of food lingered in the summer air.
The city felt lively tonight.
But somehow, despite all of that, Ren felt that the greatest threat to public safety currently existed directly beside him.
Specifically, Nora Valkyrie wearing tiger ears.
The little orange striped ears that stood atop her head twitched dramatically every time she got excited, which unfortunately for Ren was approximately every three seconds.
Ren had a feeling that she was purposely channeling her rune in subtle ways to give the impression that the ears were real.
Mocha was somehow worse.
The girl had committed fully to the aesthetic. Red panda ears sat atop her dark hair while fluffy striped sleeves covered her arms. She had even attached an annoyingly convincing tail to the back of her jeans.
Every few minutes she would swish it around with absolutely zero shame.
Oscar, meanwhile, looked like he regretted every life decision that had led him to this exact moment. His cat ears drooped slightly as he awkwardly stood beside Mocha while holding a tiny plastic flashlight the escape room staff had given them.
Then there was Ren.
Who was currently wearing a sloth mask.
Not sloth ears, but a full mask. Nora had somehow convinced him that it would be "hilarious for team balance."
Ren had not realized at the time that the mask also included dangling fake claws attached to the sleeves.
He looked like a traumatized zoo mascot.
The room they were currently trapped in was themed after a "haunted detective agency." Fake bookshelves lined the walls while old noir jazz played softly through hidden speakers. A blinking red timer on the wall displayed:
[52:18 REMAINING]
Nora stood in the middle of the room holding a paper clue upside down.
"Hmmm..." she muttered.
Mocha leaned over dramatically. "Maybe the clue is upside down because the killer was Australian."
Oscar blinked. "...What's an Australian?"
Mocha pointed confidently. "Think about it."
Oscar did not think about it. Mostly because he had no idea what that meant.
Nora suddenly gasped.
"OHHHHH!"
Ren perked up slightly. "Did you solve it?"
"No," Nora admitted. "But I found a hidden drawer!"
She yanked open the desk triumphantly. Inside was another piece of paper. Mocha leaned over her shoulder immediately.
The note read:
"The liar hides where knowledge sleeps. Count the raven's eyes and truth shall weep."
There was silence.
Oscar frowned. "...What does that even mean?"
Nora scratched her head aggressively.
"Ahhhh! I can't figure it out!" she declared before suddenly spinning toward Ren with a dangerous sparkle in her eye. "Renny, let's blow this place up instead!"
A faint electric tint flickered through her eyes.
Ren instantly straightened.
"Nora no," he said carefully. "That would be public property damage. Which I would highly like to advise is illegal."
Nora folded her arms and puffed out her cheeks.
"But Renny," she whined, "we're Rank 2's. If we wanted to escape, this room isn't small or strong enough to hold us."
Technically...
She was correct.
The reinforced walls around them were designed for enthusiastic civilians, not superhuman nightmare warriors capable of casually punching through buildings.
Ren smiled helplessly despite himself.
Nora looked entirely too adorable when she was being unreasonable.
Unfortunately, Nora seemed to realize this.
A dangerous glint entered her eye.
She bounded over to him and suddenly clasped her hands behind her back while giving him the most exaggerated puppy dog eyes Ren had ever seen in his life.
She even twirled one foot against the ground.
"Pleaaaaase Renny?" she asked sweetly. "Can we blow this place up?"
Nora used Charm!
It was Super Effective!
Ren physically coughed.
"Ahem."
He looked away immediately.
"Nora," he said weakly, "this... er... we can't. If you do it, we'll be on the run for a long time and LUCID will try to track us down."
Nora hummed thoughtfully.
"Yeah, you're right," she admitted casually. "Too much of a hassle."
Then she immediately wandered off to search for clues again as though she had not just nearly convinced Ren to commit terrorism.
Ren released a slow breath. Inwardly, however, he was in distress.
'Damn.Nora's been learning bad habits from Mocha. I might not survive at this rate.'
Across the room, Mocha had watched the entire interaction unfold with glowing interest. Then slowly, she turned toward Oscar.
Oscar instinctively stepped back.
That was usually a bad sign. Mocha pointed accusingly at Ren and Nora.
"Why can't we do that kind of stuff?"
Oscar blinked.
"What?"
Before he could react, Mocha grabbed his shoulders and started shaking him dramatically.
"I wanna be lovey dovey too!"
"H-huh?!"
Oscar nearly dropped the flashlight. Mocha continued shaking him. "Look at them! They're adorable! Why aren't we adorable?!"
"We are adorable!" Oscar protested instinctively before immediately realizing what he had just admitted.
Mocha and Oscar froze. Being a new couple, they were technically a little shy about some things that could be said outwardly.
Some things.
Ren quietly looked away to preserve the poor boy's dignity but Nora meanwhile gasped loudly.
"OHHHHH!"
Oscar panicked instantly.
"That's not what I meant!"
Mocha's eyes sparkled like she had just discovered buried treasure.
"You think I'm adorable?"
Oscar's face turned bright red. "I mean... I... you know... we're dating so obviously I..."
Mocha suddenly grabbed his face with both hands.
"Oscar Pine."
Oscar stiffened.
"You are now legally required to act cute with me."
"That's not... law!"
"It is in my heart."
"That's not how laws work!"
Mocha narrowed her eyes.
"Coward."
Oscar looked like he was fighting for his life. Nora meanwhile had entirely abandoned the escape room in favor of spectating.
"Do it Oscar!" she cheered. "Use the power of love!"
Ren pinched the bridge of his nose beneath the sloth mask. This had become chaos again. Oscar looked desperately toward Ren for support.
Ren immediately pretended to study a bookshelf.
Traitor.
Mocha crossed her arms.
"Well?" she demanded.
Oscar looked like he wanted the Nightmare Realm to swallow him whole. Finally, after several agonizing seconds, he awkwardly raised his hands and gave Mocha a tiny finger heart.
The three of them stared at him. Even the escape room employee watching through the hidden security camera probably stared.
Mocha then slowly covered her mouth.
Her face turned red.
"…Oh no," she whispered.
Oscar blinked nervously. "What?"
Mocha pointed at him shakily.
"That was actually really cringe."
Oscar's face turned red as a swell of embarrassment pumped into his face. He pointed at her angrily and exclaimed, "You made me do it!"
Mocha laughed evilly, before sneakily, biting on the finger he was pointing at her in a seductive fashion. She gave him a wink.
Oscar's brain visibly stopped functioning.
Nora screamed in delight. Ren quietly turned away to hide the fact that he was smiling slightly beneath the sloth mask.
The peace lasted approximately four seconds. Then Nora suddenly shouted, "WAIT! I SOLVED THE CLUE!"
Everyone turned to see Nora proudly pointing at a bookshelf.
"The liar hides where knowledge sleeps means bookshelves! And count the raven's eyes means..." she paused.
Silence.
Then she squinted harder. "…There's a bird somewhere probably?"
Mocha gasped dramatically.
"The taxidermy crow!"
Oscar couldn't help but ask, "There's a taxidermy crow?"
"There!"
Mocha sprinted across the room and climbed onto a chair before snatching a fake decorative crow off the top shelf. Underneath it was a tiny safe. The group collectively stared and Nora pointed triumphantly.
"I'm a genius!"
Ren chuckled softly.
"Yes," he admitted. "Perhaps you actually are."
Nora beamed brightly at him then immediately flexed. "See? We didn't even need to blow up the building!"
Ren silently thanked every god in existence for that small mercy.
Not the Sleeper though. She was evil.
The rest of the escape room went about as chaotically as expected. Which was to say that Nora somehow solved half the puzzles through instincts that bordered on supernatural while Mocha brute forced the other half through what she confidently called "vibes."
At one point Oscar accidentally discovered a hidden compartment by leaning against a bookshelf too hard and Ren was able to solve the final puzzle in under thirty seconds after enduring nearly forty minutes of utter nonsense from the others.
Naturally, Nora declared that this made the entire victory a team effort. The poor employee running the escape room looked spiritually exhausted by the time they emerged victorious.
Especially after Nora asked if there was a "hard mode" where they could use explosives.
Dinner afterward was thankfully calmer.
Relatively speaking.
The four of them sat around a booth in a casual grill restaurant while soft music played overhead. Outside the large windows, Vale glittered beneath the evening sky while streams of headlights passed through the roads below.
Mocha had ordered the largest burger on the menu entirely because it was called "The Beast."
Nora viewed this as a declaration of war. The result was an impromptu eating contest that Ren and Oscar wisely refused to involve themselves in.
Oscar quietly sipped his drink while watching Mocha stuff her face with enough food to feed three fat men.
"You know," he muttered, "I genuinely don't understand where all that food goes."
Mocha pointed at herself proudly.
"Inventory rune."
"It doesn't affect your biology..."
"Skill issue."
"...That makes no sense."
Meanwhile Nora slammed her hands onto the table triumphantly after finishing her third plate.
"I win!"
Mocha narrowed her eyes dangerously.
"You fool. This battle has only begun."
Ren sighed into his drink and Oscar stared at him.
Ren stared back.
There was a strange understanding in that moment between the two men. The understanding of survivors.
Eventually, after dinner had ended and the city had sunk deeper into night, they drove using Jaune's car that he had left behind—out toward one of the hill overlooks outside Vale.
Technically speaking, none of them actually needed the vehicle. Ren, Nora, and Oscar were Rank 2s now. Even Mocha, despite still technically being Rank 1, could move at speeds far beyond ordinary humans.
But driving together simply felt nice, and sometimes normalcy was valuable.
The road curved up through the hills while the city lights slowly spread out beneath them like glowing rivers of gold. By the time they arrived at the overlook, the sky above Vale had fully darkened into a sea of beautiful stars.
The air was cool up here and peaceful.
Mocha stretched dramatically before hopping out of the car.
"Alright nerds," she declared. "Campfire time."
She flicked her fingers.
Runic light shimmered briefly around her hand before a small campfire materialized on the ground with a burst of colorful pixelated squares. Tiny glowing cubes rose from the flames like drifting embers from an old retro game.
Nora gasped immediately.
"Ohoho, now that is awesome!"
"It's art, what do you expect from one such as I" Mocha declared smugly, posing with a hand covering her eye.
Oscar crouched beside the fire and poked one of the floating pixel embers carefully. The ember bounced off his finger with a soft chiming sound.
"…Huh. Since when could you do something like this?"
"Thank you thank you, and the answer was when I reached comprehension." Mocha said while bowing dramatically.
Technically speaking, they weren't supposed to be using their runes out here like this in the open, but since there was no one around, a bit of fun didn't hurt.
They settled around the fire afterward in comfortable silence. Soft music played quietly from a speaker while the city of Vale glittered beneath them.
From up here, world looked beautiful.
Safe.
The skyscrapers glimmered beneath the night sky while distant traffic lights crawled through the streets like flowing constellations.
People laughed down there.
Worked.
Fell in love.
Argued over stupid things.
Lived normal lives without ever realizing how close monsters always lurked beneath the surface of the world.
Ren leaned back against a rock quietly.
For a while, none of them spoke. The crackling pixelated fire cast soft shifting colors across their faces while the cool wind drifted through the hills.
It reminded Ren strangely of his early days at Beacon High school. Back before everything had become complicated and dangerous.
Before the Sleepless, before Jaune disappeared. Before they had all become strong enough to understand just how terrifying the world really was.
And yet...
Despite all of that...
Moments like this still existed. Maybe that alone was enough.
Nora eventually broke the silence first. "You know," she said softly while staring at the city lights, "it's kinda weird."
Oscar glanced toward her.
"What is?"
"We're almost all Rank 2's now."
There was a strange weight behind her words. Mocha stopped fiddling with the fire for a moment. Ren quietly understood what Nora meant.
The level where awakened were truly monsters in the eyes of ordinary people. At Rank 2, bullets became worthless against them.
Buildings stopped being obstacles and even entire Nightmare Zones could be erased by a single operative.
The four of them sitting around this tiny campfire possessed enough power to devastate a city if they truly lost control.
And yet right now they were just... teens hanging out on a hill. Ren looked toward the lights of Vale again.
It really did put things into perspective.
Oscar eventually smiled faintly.
"I think that's why this stuff matters."
Mocha looked toward him curiously.
"This stuff?"
Oscar gestured vaguely toward the city below.
"Yeah, the normal things, you know? Funny how I say it as it is..."
The fire crackled softly.
"People down there get to have regular lives because people like us fight for it," Oscar continued quietly. "LUCID, awakened... all of us."
He rested his chin against his palm while watching the city through the shifting pixel flames.
"They don't have to think about monsters from the Dream Realm showing up while they're eating dinner or walking home. All because of us."
Nora smiled a little.
"Yeah."
The group fell silent again after that.
Eventually Ren spoke.
"It seems the whole gang is back in Vale today."
Nora perked up immediately. "Right. I was thinking about that. We should go meet up with them later or tomorrow!"
Oscar stretched lazily before casually placing an arm around Mocha's shoulders while staring at the city through the flames of the pixelated campfire.
"Man," he sighed, "I haven't seen all of them in a while."
Mocha leaned comfortably against him without complaint.
"But..." he yawned, "I'm kinda tired today. Maybe tomorrow?"
"Sounds like a plan," Ren agreed.
Then, after a brief pause, he copied Oscar's movement and placed an arm around Nora. Nora immediately melted against him happily like this was the greatest achievement of her life.
Ren silently noted that Oscar didn't even seem embarrassed anymore.
Well...
There were only so many ways someone could be teased before it stopped affecting them. His skin had become awfully thick after dating Mocha.
Ren supposed that was simply survival adaptation. Mocha suddenly narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Ren.
"…You're thinking something rude about me internally right now, aren't you?"
Ren smiled peacefully.
"Not at all."
"Liar."
Oscar groaned softly.
"Please don't start another argument."
Too late.
Nora suddenly pointed dramatically at Mocha. "Your pixel fire smells fake!"
Mocha gasped in betrayal.
"It is REAL DIGITAL FIRE!"
"That sentence makes no sense!"
"It makes perfect sense if you believe hard enough!"
"Then make me some pancakes!"
"What does that even have to do with the fire?!"
Oscar dropped his face into his free hand. Ren quietly stared at the night sky.
Yes.
Everything truly was peaceful.