"Look at that line! Are they all Awakened?!"
Coco murmured in shock, glancing at the queue of hundreds of people stretching into the distance.
After the incident, Coco back to Adrian and Alex's side as their emergency contact. They had entered the city together, and she had brought him a spare blade and a cup of coffee.
Under the flickering lights, the man silently accepted this, his demeanor noticeably more quiet than before.
Zed's gaze traveled down the cold, sterile corridor of the hospital, which had been commandeered by the Newford authorities and turned into a 'Victim's Temporary Registration Center.'
In other directions, there were even longer lines of people enlisting as reservist soldiers, including elderly folks and children.
Relatively speaking, the line they were in was the shortest. However, considering these people were victims, it was still an alarming sight.
As each person reached the front of the line, they were handed a form to fill out, their faces creased with worry and frustration.
A young man, who appeared to be no older than twenty, was led out of the line. His face was contorted with anger as he shouted loud:
"You've got the wrong person! I need to get back to my family! I'm not one of these Awakened!"
The female officer who escorted him was an attractive woman.
She handed him several forms and said:
"Kid, just fill these out, and you can go. You really are an Awakened. Otherwise, your shadow wouldn't have been stolen."
"Your lousy lights here can't prove anything! I still have my shadow at home..."
"Enough. Fill out the forms. It's important for the city."
After she spoke, it was Adrian and Zed's turn.
The woman handed them forms as well. Zed glanced at Adrian, who seemed to have aged ten years in an instant. Unable to bear it any longer, he called out to the woman.
"Excuse me, how much longer until we can leave?"
The woman looked at her watch and nodded: "As soon as you finish filling out the forms, you can go. Is there a problem?"
Zed pointed at his own feet and asked:
"We just arrived in the city, and our abilities were stolen. Can you explain what's going on?"
The woman looked Zed up and down before glancing at the empty seats behind him. She approached them and said:
"Yes, please don't worry. We'll help you get your abilities back. All you need to do is complete the form."
"He's asking what happened."
Coco interjected, clearly annoyed. She had just received her new academy uniform when she heard about the trouble her friends got. The evasive attitude of the enforcers only served to fuel her anger.
Perhaps unlike Adrian and Zed, she would live in this city for a much longer time.
"I'm sorry, but we must maintain confidentiality... oh, you're from the Awakened Academy. My apologies, this useless lamp can't even cast a single shadow. Since they are your friends, I can tell you now."
The officer visibly relaxed, patting her chest as she lowered her voice:
"The situation might be a bit complicated. Starting from last week, there has been a sudden increase in incidents involving the deaths of the awakened in the city. At first, people didn't pay much attention, you know... because the awakened often lose control of their powers and accidentally kill themselves."
She paused for a moment, a glint of fear flashing in her eyes amidst the darkness.
"But later, some terrifying things happened... In the newly established Hall of the Awakened, a large number of the awakened lost their shadows, and with them, their powers."
"Shadows..."
Zed repeated the word, glancing at his own feet. He too had no shadow. He didn't know if Adrian had lost his powers, but as far as Zed could sense, his own abilities were still intact. The best proof was Lucy, who was leaning against the cold wall, grinning .
Vampires had no shadows to begin with.
"Those awakened who lost their powers, their lives are not affected, right?" Coco glanced worriedly at the two troubled figures sitting on the bench.
The officer seemed to have heard this question many times before, shaking her head and answering without hesitation:
"As far as we can tell, there aren't any issues other than losing their shadows. We are working hard to find the culprit."
"Thank you, but we will find the guy ourselves."
Zed suddenly stood up, nodded at Adrian, and said with determination:
"I will help you find your blade."
The officer remained silent, but from her face, it was clear that she thought the handsome young man in front of her had gone mad.
******
Zed was not mad, his mind was clearer than ever. After entrusting Coco to take care of Adrian, he was about to embark on his 'real job.'
Following the directions in the letter, he took left and right turns and asked for directions five times before finally finding the so-called Dark Market.
As the name suggested, the place was dark and indeed a market.
He haggled at a nearby shop to purchase a mask, and then he knocked a specific rhythm on the iron door that seemed like something out of a movie.
Shortly, a small window slid open.
"Letter."
Zed handed over the letter as heard the voice, glancing around.
The dilapidated bricks and tiles, the filthy alleyways filled with sewage, and the girls flirting under the neon signs…
It was a typical impoverished area, much like the environment Zed had stayed before.
*clang*
The window slid open again, and the letter was thrown out, landing in the mud.
Zed frowned, bent down, and picked it up.
"You shouldn't have come today. Come back tomorrow."
The voice held an undoubted power, and as it finished, it began to close the window.
Zed, however, took a quick step forward, gripping the window frame tightly.
No matter how hard the person on the other side tried, they couldn't shut it. Blood seeped down the iron door and into the room, silencing those inside.
Zed's eyes were equally heavy and terrifying.
"I from dawnrain, not here to hold an event, but with a quest."