---- Nox ----
Nox sat under the flickering fluorescent lights of the breakroom. Looking down at his styrofoam cup of hot water flavored with a cheap packet of tea and wondered if it would be worth it to slip out to the cafe across the street before his next guiding session. As he considered this, a woman plopped down next to him. She brought with her a blanket of rose scented perfume.
He looked over at Airi, his closest friend at the office, and gave her a tired smile. Airi had a sunny disposition accented by the shades of pink constantly staining her hair. The dyed hair and assortment of bright lip glosses perfectly complimented her skin's pink undertones.
She grimaced at him and held out a to-go cup filled with Nox's regular order, a London fog. Her way of warning Nox that she needed to vent. Nox silently accepted the cup and turned his full focus to her. He took a sip of his drink. He let the sweetness of lavender syrup coat his tongue. The warmth of the drink spread out through his chest and he nodded to Airi, a cue for her to begin.
She hissed through clenched teeth and started shaking her head, "That last Esper asked for an exclusive contract again."
Nox blinked at her in surprise and leaned in. It almost felt like he was following blocking for a play, practiced motions, repeated again and again. It spoke more to the cyclical nature of their conversation than his level of interest. When you worked in the same profession for long enough you ended up running into the same issues again and again. Especially in a job like this.
Nox couldn't remember the name of the Esper Airi was talking about. They might have been the one who jumped from guide to guide professing their love for each one before moving on in a few months, or the one that was too rough on the guides no matter how low their corruption was, it was even possible this was a new Esper that Airi had forgotten to mention.
"He destroys my back then, while I'm still trying to recover, asks me to go exclusive again" Ahh, the overly violent one, "He just can't figure out why no one wants to guide him long term even though he's always recklessly using his abilities then taking it out on the guides."
Nox pursed his lips and shook his head as he took a sip of his drink. The warmth the tea created in Nox's chest reminded him of an interview he'd seen with a famous Esper. An interview with Esper Daedalus Kane on guiding and other Esper experiences fed into all of Nox's insecurities. But his curiosity got the best of him.
Nox wasn't conceited enough to assume that Kane would be complaining about their encounter. At the time it had been five years since their brief interaction at the center. Those five years had not dulled the pain of Nox's biggest failure as a guide. That guilt was what drove Nox to open the article.
Kane had been asked what guiding felt like. First he shared that it felt invasive to him. It stung a little to think of Kane describing Nox's guiding as such. The next question had asked about compatibility levels and Kane had given a very textbook response to it. But his dispassionate air fell away at the next question.
"We asked Esper Kane if it was difficult to find a compatible guide as an S-tier Esper and if he had ever found a match for himself. Esper Kane seemed to drift away from us. For the first time in the interview we could see tension leave his body. The ghost of a smile filled with longing graced his lips and he nodded.
"Yeah, yeah I have." Esper Kane said wistfully. We waited for him to elaborate and when he didn't we decided to dig a little deeper.
"What did that feel like?"
Esper Kane answered us instantly. He sounded like he had thought about this answer for years. Clearly a story he was more than happy to share.
"It felt like smoke. Gentle woodsmoke filling my lungs and pushing out everything else. It caressed and cradled me. I felt completely safe for the first time in my life."
We laughed at that.
"What is making an S-class Esper feel unsafe?"
Unfortunately this question seemed to make Esper Kane uncomfortable. Luckily for us he pushed through and answered candidly.
"My own abilities make me feel unsafe. Corruption is terrifying. You can always feel it building up and the more you worry about it the worse it gets. Being more powerful just means you can hurt more people if you get out of control."
Two things about that interview stuck with Nox. First it inspired curiosity over how a soft and kind man like Esper Kane would treat the guide he'd spoken of. The other was his comment about being scared of his own powers. It held echoes of another Esper. One with red eyes just like Nox.
The sense of duty Guides held to their Espers was a heavy burden. It made it impossible for Nox to fully heal the wound left by failing Dae. It made Nox sure Airi would accept the violent Esper's request the next time it came through.
"Do you still have those lidocaine patches?" Airi derailed her tirade against the Esper and winced.
"I have some at my desk? Menthol or unscented?" Airi's face flushed and she averted her gaze.
"Unscented please, my next appointment has a sensitive nose."
Nox smiled flatly at Airi, "All Esper's have sensitive noses."
Airi nodded prudently and sipped her drink, still refusing to make eye contact with Nox.
This was another conversation Nox was intimately familiar with. Though it was relatively new with Airi, it was a common ailment Guides suffered.
Subtle favoritism, clearly smitten, eager to nab a specific Esper's requests, all symptoms indicating a guide considering an exclusive contract. To outsiders it might feel like hypocrisy. Nox knew better.
While he had never experienced it himself it had been described to him often enough. The connection other guides talked about was foreign to Nox. Being universally compatible, Nox's sessions all looked the same. There was no special connection that stuck out above the rest.
Well, there might have been one…
At first, Nox hypothesized that high compatibility created an illusion of genuine connection. But when he made the mistake of voicing this opinion to one of his coworkers he had been subjected to a lecture on 'human nature' and 'chemistry.' The lecture only clicked when Nox saw another universal guide showing the tell-tale symptoms. So Nox was forced to admit the connection was more than compatibility.
The Esper Airi was smitten with seemed kind enough. She was a regeneration esper named Lily a year and a half younger than Airi. Lily was tall and wiry. Her hair was thick, dark, and always tied back out of her face. Airi had been on the night shift when Lily had been brought in in very unstable condition.
Airi was the most experienced on staff that night so she was set up stabilizing Lily while they ran compatibility with all the other guides on site. As luck would have it, Airi had actually been the best match for Lily. Nox remembered Lily coming in the next day with flowers, anxiously looking for Airi.
Lily had come back every day that week requesting more sessions with Airi. Nox had been put off by this at first. Until he asked Airi about Lily. The flush that crept up her neck reassured Nox more than words ever could.
Airi was the only other A-class guide at their center. So Nox had been pretending not to notice the growing affection between her and Lily. Airi, for her credit, was also tactfully avoiding mentioning it to Nox. Which explained her using her coffee as an excuse to stay completely silent despite the desire to continue visibly buzzing under her skin.
Nox graciously stepped away to his desk and grabbed a lidocaine patch from his desk drawer. With eight years of experience under his belt Nox was confident that Airi would be taking up an exclusive contract within the next month.
He would miss her. She was the only coworker who actively sought him out and made efforts to talk to him. She was also the only person who had ever bought him a drink without being asked to. It was a level of companionship Nox cherished.
I'll miss her. Nox thought to himself.
His resolve hardened. He decided not to waste whatever time they had left. When he returned to her side he motioned for her to stand up and turn around.
"Low back right?"
"Yeah, thank you Nox, you're the best! You always take such good care of me." Nox smiled to himself. A pang of sadness prevented it from reaching his eyes.
"You take good care of me, and you're one of the best guide's we have." Nox did a smoothing motion over the patch to ensure it was in place then stepped back and turned Airi to face him again, "We were really lucky to have you."
Airi looked down bashfully but Nox could see the warmth in her smile and the color in her cheeks, "You say that like I'm leaving."
Nox's shoulders dropped and he let out a wistful sigh.
"I know, you still have plenty of working years ahead of you. Any Esper you work with is lucky to have you."
It was the closest Nox had gotten to acknowledging Airi's imminent departure. Her eyes welled up with tears and she pulled Nox into a bone crushing hug. Her whispered thank you was shaky. Nox just nodded into her shoulder and held her as tightly as he could.
---- Dae ----
"Guess what I saw at the Esper Guide Center!" Tessa waltzed into the workshop and dropped spools of soldering leads into a bin on Dae's desk. Dae nodded in thanks without taking his eyes off his work. Tessa was Dae's closest friend. She had a chaotic air about her. Her hair created a halo of tight, obsidian curls around her head. She had owlish eyes made more prominent by the round glasses she wore. She had freckles all over her face and leading down her neck. A soft nerd, Dae's perfect platonic match.
"I'm sure it's something soap opera worthy," Dae sighed with fake annoyance. Tessa leaned against Dae's desk and glared at him.
"If I have to hear about your ten year long unrequited love to someone you don't know the name of, You have to listen to my gossip."
Dae gave one more theatrical sigh before setting his work down. He turned his focus to Tessa. She grinned eagerly.
"Thank you! Now, as I was saying, I was at the EGC and I was just finishing up with my guiding session. Side note!"
Tessa flicked Dae on the forehead. Dae's hand shot up to soothe the ache and gave Tessa a bewildered look, "It's so unfair that you get access to the guild's S-class guide and you don't even use them! I'm always stuck with whoever they have available at the center!"
Dae scratched at the back of his neck anxiously. Thankfully, Tessa decided to move on.
"So at the EGC, there was this Esper. They looked young, no more than twenty years old. He was getting into this fight with another Esper in the lobby."
"The older one had been waiting since before my appointment. I think she was higher class so I figured she had to wait for one of the higher class guides, ya know?"
"Well this young Esper got it into his head that the older Esper was trying to make a move on his guide." Tessa's voice dripped with contempt, "Yeah, he was acting like one of the center's guides was his personal property or something!"
Dae grimaced. No matter how common it was, Espers acting like they could possess guides put a bitter taste in Dae's mouth. It tasted like burnt food made by tiny hands on a stove too big to use without being burned. Of his mother coming back exhausted, smiling at him saying, "My Esper needed me."
Despite being a chronic gossip, Tessa wasn't quick to dislike someone. She told stories like a documentarian describing a zebra being eaten by a pack of lions. But Tessa, much like Dae, couldn't stand Espers mistreating guides.
"It was escalating pretty bad actually. I was a little worried 'cause I was the only other Esper in the lobby and as you know psychometry isn't exactly built for combat. So the younger Esper is going off and flames start forming in his hands and the older Esper is just standing there watching like she's not going to do anything."
"The guy at the front desk was just watching like he saw this kind of thing all the time. He held up the phone and called someone. I assumed he'd called security, so I was gonna leave. But then the doors open and these two guides come out. One of them was a young lady, probably a few years younger than us.
"Now, I say this with no malicious intent," Dae bit his lip in anticipation for what was sure to be an amusing, brutally honest assessment of the guide, "She looked like she couldn't win a fight against an earthworm."
"The other guide with her must have been in his fifties or something. I didn't see his face but his hair was white. The girl went and linked arms with the older Esper. I heard the older guide summarize the fight and both of the guides started laughing. The old guide said something to the young Esper and he got all red and embarrassed."
"From what I gather, the young Esper thought the older one was there to meet the white haired guide. It sounded like he came to that conclusion because the white haired guide was the only A-class at the EGC. But the A-class Esper was actually there with her exclusive guide, the younger girl. The young guide was visiting the white haired EGC guide because they were old co-workers or something."
"Couldn't you have picked up on their names or something? All these descriptors are confusing." Tessa shot Dae a withering glare and Dae shrugged unapologetically.
"I heard the older Esper call the young guide Amy, I think. I was a little far away, 'cause the pyro Esper scared me."
Dae laughed which earned him another flick.
"We can't all be like you Oh-mighty S-class, who basically isn't an S-class because he refuses to use any guides except his soulmate who he'll never find again!" When Dae deflated subtly under the weight of Tessa's last comment she started to back pedal. Softening as she realized she'd gone too far, "Sorry, There's still time for you to find your true love,"
Dae's face flushed and he righted himself. He looked away from Tessa's playful gaze.
"Guiding isn't romantic."
"And thank Beyond for that!" Tessa said with a full body shiver. For someone so interested in the love lives of others, Tessa despised the idea of romance for herself.
Dae ran his hand across his face, trying to regain his composure. Tessa may have been his closest friend at the Titan guild, but not a day went by where she didn't get on his nerves. Dae imagined it felt similar to having a sibling
They'd joined Titan around the same time. Both transfers from other guilds who wanted to focus on research and tech development over field work. This naturally led to them working together often. In the beginning Dae was convinced that Tessa genuinely disliked him, and he also felt that he shared that sentiment. It wasn't until they'd been given a month-long assignment together that he realized her jokes and pestering were a display of affection.
One late night, turned early morning, Tessa was sorting messages for the workshop when she suddenly shot up giggling and pointing at Dae wordlessly. When Dae asked her what was wrong her laughter intensified. It had taken at least three minutes to get her into a state where she could voice what she found so funny.
"Contract request from Sceptr Pharma for a Daedalus Kane- Your name is actually Deadulus? Like the wax wings guy?" The mirth in her smile and the way she spoke reminded him so much of guide 609. Which endeared her to him instantly. Since they worked in the same workshop it was easy to maintain a close relationship.
Tessa was a lower level Esper; she was never called into dungeons. So when Dae was called to the field, all of his work fell to her. Dae expected this to annoy Tessa but she had never complained. When he finally found the courage to ask her about it she just smiled and told him that his organizational style, along with his reliance on real tools made it easy to pick up where he left off.
Apparently other metal manipulators in the workshop left whole projects with no materials for her. Dae had gone out of his way to leave double of his anytime he went away, just in case.
Despite their closeness, Dae had yet to fully explain why he was so fixated on guide 609. She might have reported him for guide stalking, and he wouldn't have been able to defend himself. He had done his best to curb his obsession with 609. Told himself it was just a natural response to his first contact guiding session with an universally compatible guide.
He'd fled to a guild before he had the chance to bump into 609 'naturally' at the center. When he called them they refused to give him any information on 609 due to privacy.
It wasn't uncommon for Espers to become addicted to certain guide's energies. An issue that was probably more common for a universally compatible guide like 609. It almost made him regret turning down the offered session. But each time that regret tried to take hold of him he thought of Total Drain and white streaks in the hair of a nineteen year old.
Before Dae transferred from his old guild to Titan he returned to his hometown for a month. In one of his most shameful moments, he volunteered to help with a dungeon and intentionally overworked himself. When he awoke in the center he found a blond, female guide named Cherry in his lap. Her arms were around his shoulders and her face was buried in his neck. As soon as he gained consciousness he pushed her away.
"Is that enough?" she said, out of breath. Dae nodded and steadied her as she slid off of the bed. She looked completely exhausted. Dae didn't know how long it must have taken to guide him back to consciousness.
He apologized to Cherry but she waved him off with a gentle smile, and told him she was just doing, that she was just happy to see him conscious again.
"Actually we want to apologize to you! We just don't have anyone in the center who can manage an Esper of your rank. I've actually been taking shifts with two other B-classes for the past 48 hours."
Dae tried not to let his surprise and disappointment show, "There was this universal guide that managed my corruption levels really well when I took my tests here three years ago. Are they not available right now."
Cherry bit her lip in concentration. Then clapped her hands together and spoke eagerly, "The ambrosia blooded guide! He moved about a month before I joined. But people still talk about him all the time. A valuable asset, ya know. Guess it was only a matter of time before he got recruited by a private guild."
Dae's face fell, "Yeah," He looked back at Cherry and tentatively asked, "Why did you call him 'the ambrosia blooded' guide?"
Cherry flinched and looked away from Dae, "Umm it's kinda awkward but you're an Esper so like you know how guiding works," Dae nodded for her to continue, "So like someone found out that if you ingested his blood during a guiding session the transfer would be super effective and fast. That got a bunch of Espers biting him when they were in a bad state. Everyone said he didn't mind as long as it helped but I find that a little hard to believe. I mean who wants to get roughed up by a rabid wolf."
Cherry clamped a hand over her mouth, clearly anxious at using the guide slang term for Espers in front of Dae. Dae shrugged, he knew what Esper's were like, especially at high corruption levels. Rabid wolf was fitting.
"From what I remember about that guide he might have genuinely been fine with it." Dae let his regret and anxiety cloud his vision for a few moments until he realized how uncomfortable Cherry looked, "Speaking of that, did I do anything to you or the other guides? Any injuries? I'm more than willing to pay for any medical bills!"
Cherry shook her head and laughed, "Honestly we were expecting that but you were so docile. You just kinda laid there and whimpered."
Dae's face flushed.
"You talked a little too. We couldn't really tell what you were saying but it seemed like you were asking for someone. So we checked the logs to see who guided you at your test but saw you skipped guiding all together."
"Was it someone from your guild? Your level is still pretty high so I suggest you go find that person. Sorry we can't do more for you!"
That was the last Dae had heard of 609. He could have pulled rank to get records from the center. Or hired a PI to find guides known for being bitten/having their blood ingested. But all of that felt like overstepping. All he ended up doing in the end was instructing the guild and his secretary to send him any calls from people claiming to have guided him during his test.
Dae had a fairly large public presence. S-class Espers were treated with something akin to sainthood. Add to that his invention of the energy wells used to drain gates without entering them and Dae was left with a notable level of public intrigue. Each time he accepted an interview or public appearance he found himself hoping to see that guide. Hoping that their time together had impacted 609 as much as it had for him. Nothing ever came of it.
None of that stopped his resistance to guiding. He wasn't lying when he said it didn't feel the same. The other universally compatible guide employed by his guild left him with an itchy uncomfortable feeling. She was a B-class named Emma. She was kind and professional but in a way that made it seem like she saw all Esper's as inept toddlers. Not that Dae could argue with that assessment.
Emma had commented that Dae was easy to guide when it came to behavior but brutal when it came to sideffects. It didn't matter what guide helped Dae. No matter how low his corruption level was, he never matched the performance he managed at his ranking test.
Dae's watch lit up, breaking him from his daze.
Dungeon opening, all S-class in area requested
"Damn it!" Dae jumped to his feet and ran to the door, snatching his active duty coat. He apologized to Tessa but was gone before she could respond.
Dae began swearing aggressively in his head.
"Of course this happens right as I'm reaching my corruption limit."
"I should have gotten guiding sooner."
"I should have been prepared."
"I got too complacent since it's been so quiet lately."
He rounded the corner and swung open the transport room door. The door thudded and someone stumbled away from it. She turned to glare at Dae.
"You think just cause you're S-rank you don't have to pay attention to where you're going?" A woman with tawny tan skin, silver dusted black hair and storm-dark eyes snapped at Dae.
Dae rolled his eyes at her and walked forward to join her. He patted her back and looked her over to see if she was actually injured or just acting petty. As expected, she was fine.
"You're S-class too. I can't pull rank even if I wanted to."
The other Esper, Jin-Won Song, frowned and kicked him in the shin. As a physical enhancement Esper she should have held back. But, as always, she showed no restraint when it came to disciplining Dae. Dae cried out in pain, hopping on one foot while holding the injured leg.
"You're such a bitch!" Dae hissed.
"And you're a lazy bastard!" Jin-Won retorted, flipping Dae off like she was a high schooler not a grown woman in her fifties.
Dae frowned at Jin-Won, "I'm plenty busy in the workshop! I'm not an adrenaline junkie like you or Neil."
A large hand clamped down on Dae's shoulder, nearly throwing him off balance as he held onto his bruised leg. Dae turned to see Neil Rowan, the third and final S-class in Titan. Neil was a tall man with a large muscular frame, discerning olive eyes, and battle scarred sandy colored skin. Dae was by no means small but he felt like a child standing near Rowan. Dae couldn't understand how Song, a short and wispy woman, was able to manage being around him all the time. The two made an unstoppable team but looked ridiculous standing side by side.
With the two of them around it was rare that Dae got called into missions. But there were times his ability was called for. Ability enhancement and summoning were useful powers, but they didn't cover every scenario. When Dae's help was called for he tried to remind himself of 609's willingness to help others.
It was a pain but it was worth it to take care of people.
It would have been more worth it if he could come home to guide 609 offering out his hand again.
The three Espers stood in front of the teleportation platform and looked at their watches. Information on the dungeon flashed across their screens. The dungeon had opened in a playground. There were currently five children unaccounted for.
It made sense why three S-classes were being deployed. No matter how powerful they were, each of them only had two hands. This mission needed to be completed as quickly as possible. A secondary team would be deployed to close the dungeon after Song, Rowan, and Dae retrieved the children.
Dae hated missions like this. It was especially dangerous given the state he was in. Strong emotions tended to affect the rate at which corruption accumulated. Anxiety about a child's wellbeing was one of the fastest paths to overload. Song recognized how poorly Dae was doing as they stepped onto the teleportation platform.
"You can't go like this!" she bellowed. She grabbed Dae's arm, the one with his watch. They arrived in the triage next to the gate and Song yanked Dae towards her. She hissed her annoyance as she pulled up his corruption level, "You won't be any good to us like this, what were you thinking putting it off this long?"
Dae felt sick. She was right. He'd been neglecting his duty. Guide 609 would be disappointed in him. A guide willing to give up his own life as a 19 year old would have no sympathy for a full grown Esper refusing guiding because it was uncomfortable.
"Any guides here yet?" Song shouted out over the buzz of the crowd managing the scene. A woman rushing by stopped to respond.
"Guide's are coming with the secondary team. We didn't see any need to bring them before you three even started. It's hectic enough as it is."
Song grimaced and pinched the bridge of her nose. Once again she turned on her commander's voice and called out to the crowd gathering around the scene, "Are any of you guides? We have an Esper who needs emergency guiding before we can start retrieval."
Murmurs swept through the crowd and finally a thin man with fluffy white hair pushed to the front. He was wearing a facemask and a government guide's uniform. A fitted, black, sleeveless turtle neck along with a white and blue jacket and black jeans. The jacket had the emblem for the government Guide/Esper center and a name sewn on the front.
Guide Nox Levi
Song gestured for Nox to be let past the barrier and turned to Dae, "Get this sorted before you even think about joining us."
Dae withered under her stern gaze. The guide approached Dae and held out a hand.
"I'm sorry, this is really urgent." Dae said before pulling down the guide's mask for a moment and locking lips with him. The kiss was little more than pressing his lips against the guides but Dae felt a rush of familiar energy and excitement. Cleansing smoke filled his body and iron bloomed across his tongue. He almost fell to his knees at the euphoric sensation. He pulled away and took in the face he'd been looking for all these years.
609, or Nox, as Dae now knew him, looked mostly the same as he had before. Aside from the fact that his once black hair was now entirely white. Dae's entire face flushed but before he could say or do anything foolish he heard a crackling sound from the dungeon entrance behind him.
"I um… Sorry I have to go."
It took all the strength in his body to turn away from Nox towards the portal. If it had been anything but a rescue mission Dae was sure he would have caved. But things being as they were he tried his best to reassure himself that he would be able to find Nox once he got back. Now he knew where Nox worked, Nox had guided him. It wouldn't be hard to send a formal request to meet.
Those thoughts didn't stop the painful tugging in his chest pulling him back towards his guide.