Kuro: A Land in Eternal Night

Chapter 1.2: Taiyou-Shi, City of the Sun

Fala was anxious to begin this recon. She, along with her partner, had been searching city records for anything that might lead to a clue: import documents, data on the northern expedition, troop movements, and trade agreements. There had been a recent increase in Taiyou-Shi's importation of goods from Yin, and Yin had been benefiting greatly. Still, it was hardly proof of wrongdoing on the part of Diskarma Corp.

Something moved behind Fala. She whirled around in surprise. She found her partner Gustav, standing behind her, a wide grin on his face. She scowled. "You're late."

Gustav shrugged. "By a few minutes."

Tall with an athletic build, Gustav had a youthful look to him with a narrow face, and strong, suave features. He sported a crew cut. Gustav was the kind of guy that didn't like going for haircuts, so the crew cut was a nice easy one he could do in minutes at home. He was dressed in a jacket, with a short black shirt and pants.

Fala smiled. "Gustav, I can't believe you and I are part of the same organization. I thought the Sun Watchers valued time."

"Maybe so, but our organization's been around a long time. We can afford to be late every now and then."

Gustav smiled at Fala. "Strike a pose," he said, quickly taking a picture of her with his communicator as a flash went off. Gustav turned on the communicator to show Fala. A three-dimensional image of Fala popped up, depicting her striking features, and her raven-black hair – common to all people in Kuro – cut short like a boy's, framing a small face with gray eyes and a fair complexion.

Fala frowned. "Hey, cut that out."

"Look what I got for you by way of apology." He brought out a bouquet of flowers with a flourish.

"Ugh..." Fala rolled her eyes.

"Fala, you don't understand. These are chrysanthemums – chrysanthemums, Fala! They're full-sun perennials. I went through my entire quota of F-points for the year to get these for you!"

"That's exactly why they disgust me, Gustav. You're such an elitist. Can you imagine how many GEUs it would take to buy that much in F-points? That would feed four families for a month in the Utter Darkness, or buy much-needed supplies of Vitamin-D for the sun-deprived. Even maintaining those flowers requires a private greenhouse, or rented space in a public one. Sometimes I wish I wasn't born an Upper Plater."

Gustav looked downcast. "Don't say that, Fala... I was merely trying to impress you."

Fala smiled good-naturedly at Gustav. "I know, Gustav. But the next time you want to impress me, send a donation to Sector 6. Those living on the bottom plates need it so much more than I do." Fala laid a hand on Gustav's shoulder. "Now, let's begin this, shall we?"

Gustav sighed. "It's not like we're going to find anything this time around. Come on, Fala, we've spent months trying to track this. I think this theory is quickly disintegrating. It's got no legs."

"Gustav, what is the Sun Watcher's Mission Statement?"

It was Gustav's turn to roll his eyes. "Truth in everything. Tireless dedication to the truth behind the Goddess' disappearance."

She smiled coyly at Gustav. "Just because you haven't found anything doesn't mean I haven't!" She slowly produced a set of paper documents and waved them at him.

"Fala, what the heck are these?"

"Documents detailing a trade agreement between Taiyou-Shi and Yin. According to this, Taiyou-Shi contracted with Diskarma to transfer 35 billion GEUs to Yin in the last 3 months." She smiled even more. "How do you think Diskarma came up with that many GEUs in such a short amount of time?"

Gustav thought about it carefully. GEUs took time to accumulate. Despite the Kurokyuu Orbs greatly shortening the time and lessening the effort required for acquisition, the time it took to mine a single Goddess Essence Unit was sixty seconds. That meant it required massive amounts of Kurokyuu orbs to mine the amount of energy required in a day.

"They're lying about the shortage." He responded back to Fala.

"Bingo. You're smarter than you look."

Gustav looked hurt. "Fala..." he began.

"Gustav, you know I'm kidding."

Gustav smiled again. "Fala, you know how much you mean to me. Stop hurting me with words."

Fala knew that she was on a roll. "There is only one way to find out for sure."

She ran from the hill, down toward the east side of it. Gustav ran after her in earnest.

"Fala, quit the games will you? It's hard for me to try and follow your train of thought here..." Gustav stopped abruptly.