The first thing Ezrah noticed when he entered Unit 9 was how young they all looked.
No one here was older than 18.
They sat on crates, held makeshift weapons, and had more bandages than clean clothes.
But their eyes — they weren't soft.
They had the kind of eyes that had seen homes burn.
"Name?" a girl asked sharply.
She had short, silver hair tied with a red ribbon and a scar under her left eye. She didn't smile.
She didn't blink.
"Ezrah," he said quietly. "Ezrah Vaine."
She wrote it down. "I'm Shino. Squad 9's tactician. Don't ask how I got the role — everyone else either died or ran."
Ezrah said nothing. He understood.
This wasn't a place for questions.
This was a place for staying alive.
From behind her, a sleepy voice yawned
A boy with messy lavender hair and a sleepy gaze waved lazily. "Yo. I'm Kaien. I nap better after battle, so don't wake me unless something's on fire… or about to eat us."
In the far corner, someone was fixing a blade.
A tall, quiet boy with dark brown skin and braided hair. His hands moved like he'd done this forever.
That was Renzo — the silent protector.
People said he once held back an entire Hollowborn wave alone… just to save a single child.
Ezrah stood still, not sure what to say or do.
Then Shino tossed him a thin blade. "You kill with that. You die without it. We train at dawn."
Kaien grinned. "Or before dawn. Depends on whether Renzo lets me sleep."
Ezrah caught the blade.
It was light.
Too light to carry the weight of his grief — but it was something.
He didn't know who he'd become in this place.
A soldier? A killer? A memory?
But when he looked at the others — Shino's unblinking eyes, Kaien's tired smile, Renzo's quiet strength — he felt something he hadn't felt in weeks.
A flicker of hope.
Even if the walls had fallen…
Maybe family could still be built from ashes