Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

-From Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas

Once Arisa was satisfied that the newcomers were all settled in for the night, she made her way back outside. The nigh breeze was sharp as she stepped out of the room, but as she wrapped her arms around herself and looked up at the sky, she saw that it was entirely clear, the full moon a bright eye in the center of it. She sighed, thinking of sleep for herself, and then startled as she sensed someone come to stand next to her.

"They're re-charging?" Mono asked.

Arisa gave them a questioning look, and they chuckled:

"They do not sleep in the usual sense. Typically speaking, they connect themselves to a unit and recharge, much like a battery-powered device. But the builds that these deity-androids are made from, they're solar powered. So they gain their power from the sun and then use that to help them recharge. This sleep is something more akin to…a shut-down, I guess. Technically, that's the case for all kinds, I guess, but even so. Most sleep while recharging, these ones do not."

"You certainly know a lot about it."

"Well, of course I do. It's been quite interesting, seeing the rise of the androids, especially now. But I'll be honest with you, I didn't know that deity-androids-and I've just made that term up, by the way, isn't it terribly smart of me?-were something that existed though. Not until now."

Arisa raised an eyebrow at the boast, but Mono simply grinned back. She sighed and shook her head.

"Then, I trust you will be staying for a while."

"Well of course, dear Arisa," Mono proclaimed. "This is the most interesting thing that's happened since I've met you! That, and I really want to see if that charming young one will win over your heart."

Arisa sighed heavily.

"Mono, we've been through this-and shhh, you'll wake them up!"

However, Mono could not stop laughing, practically bending over double as they exclaimed:

"Oh, but it was so funny. And I really only nudged him to give it a try, he was clearly very smitten with you and who can blame him? You are rather lovely, really. It surely cannot be the first time that you've had such an admirer, no? Besides, we didn't really mean any harm…."

At this, Mono's laughter started to subside and they straightened. Their nine tails, which had been swishing merrily, stilled for a moment and their expression became unreadable. Arisa shook her head, closed her eyes for a moment:

"No, I know."

Mono grinned again, tails resuming their swishing.

"Oh, good. Anyway, I'm a bit peeved I've never come across anything like them before, they are all so terribly interesting. And Orpheus seems like such a fun young man, I'm going to have a lot of fun trifling with him. However, do you know what I found the most interesting about their arrival? "

"Apart from Orpheus-san trying to court me?"

"Apart from that. I meant your little shadow."

"Nora?"

"Yes, Nora. She still hides behind your skirts when we do something even mildly baffling to her, but with this lot, she didn't do that. Well, at the beginning, sure. But she was a lot more forward with them than I would have expected."

Arisa just nodded at that. It was true that after an initial anxious reaction, Nora had been more curious than anything. She had eagerly explained to both Arisa and Wei how she had read about them back in her old life as a human girl, back when they had actually been the gods and heroes in their old lives and then directly approached them all asking if this or that was true. In particular she had gone to two of the newcomers, males who had not let go of each other's hands in that entire exchange and had talked of a book which had apparently been popular amongst humans of Nora's age group, a book that re-told the story of those two men. Indeed, Nora had talked with them almost all evening, eyes bright and gestures animated, and the newcomers had mostly reacted well to it, not quite befriending her yet, but certainly willing to entertain her enthusiasm.

"They seem to like her too," Mono said after a few moments. "Which I suppose is a good thing in your books."

"Certainly, it bodes well that Nora is comfortable around them, but I would have offered them shelter regardless."

"I would not expect anything less from you. It is how you have always been."

"Mhm."

Always, always, it was how she had been. Even when offering safety had also bought danger to the shrine's boundaries, such as in times of war and strife, or that one time long ago when a young man called Kazuya had come in search of a missing child. Even now, thinking of all that had trailed in the wake of both that child and the man, supernatural or otherwise, send shivers down her back. Yet, given the chance to do it again, she would still have offered her sanctuary to all of those people. It was what she did, In tragic times, in the restless ones, it was all that she could do. For all her power, she could sometimes be so very powerless.

"Well then, Mono," she said. "What do you make of them?"

"Genuine, even if their existence is a puzzle to me. The circumstances of their feeling tracks with what I've been seeing. But the average android isn't going to find their way here."

"There must be some way for them to, if they are truly lost."

"Perhaps so, but we should talk on that tomorrow."

"Oh, I do apologise, you must be tired."

"Me, tired?" Mono grinned. "Never. However, your Wei-chan is troubled. I had a nice chat with her about some of the latest developments android-wise, including our newcomers. Usually she is most interested in current events, but this time her mind seemed adrift. You might want to have a chat with her."

Arisa looked over to where Mono was pointing. Sure enough, sitting atop the torii gate that marked the entrance to her shrine's lands, a familiar winged figure was sitting, her white gowns glowing under the moonlight. Arisa turned to thank Mono, but they had already disappeared. Presumably to sleep, she hoped. It would be nice if Mono-san were to stay for a little while. Even if straightforwardly admitting it would only inflate their ego to insufferable levels, Arisa did enjoy their company. In some ways, having Mono around making things joyful was what her life was about. That, and having had young Nora by her side all of this time.

And now, of course, there was Wei. Wei, who was apparently in need of guidance.

Arisa walked over to the torii gate, and called up:

"Wei-san?"

"Arisa-shi?"

"Hold on a moment, I'm coming up."

Arisa began the climb. While she did not typically have cause to climb up the gate, she had done so plenty of times before. Mostly it was to fight off a yokai who had posed a threat but most recently it had been to rescue one of the younger wolves of Kazuhiro's pack who'd managed to climb up and then forget how to get down again. However, despite that familiarity, the task was made harder by the breeze deciding to whip her long hair around her face. Nonetheless, she managed it and shuffled until she was sitting next to Wei, though not too close.

Wei frowned at her, face shadowed in pain. Arisa smiled gently.

"What is wrong, Wei-san?"

"I…."

Wei looked down at her hands. Arisa frowned at the object they were holding on to, something that looked like a metal tube of some sort.

"What is that?"

"Oh, Mono-shi gave it to me, something they picked up on their travels. It is a type of scroll, except of the type that they use."

"They?"

"The androids. Not…not the ones that came today, talking of music and humanity and danger. But other ones. Who also, apparently, talk of music and humanity and danger."

Wei pressed the top of the tube, and something seemed to slide out from it, rolling out as if it were a piece of paper. But it was shiny and slightly see-through, crackling with the distinctive feel of electricity. Even if Arisa had not remembered what electricity was like after seeing the last of the humans with their own electrical devices, she would have recognised the sensation from the arrival of the newcomers. Nonetheless, she hesitated slightly when Wei handed her this odd version of a scroll, and even once she grasped it she did so cautiously, peering at the image displayed on it. Musical notes, the word 'RAKJEL' along the top of it. The rest of the words were in a tight font, in a bright colour that even Arisa's eyes couldn't decipher.

"They're another organisation that believes in the music, calling it the 'Core Heart' of humanity. It is said that they're working with AVALON."

"The archivists." Arisa remembered.

"Yes, them. They're trying to rally together a resistance, to revive humanity and halt what is happening out there in the world. Mono-shi bartered this from someone affiliated with this RAKJEL, so they could show me. It seems that they are at least open to accepting Mono's existence if not yokai in general. However, I may go to them soon, offer my own assistance and let them know of this place if I deem it safe enough."

This made sense to Arisa. For the most part, androids claimed to be 'logical' which meant not believing in things such as the beings Arisa and Wei and all the others were. In this way, the androids had been similar to some of the last humans. However, unlike them, for whatever reason the rise of the androids had made no particular difference to the yokai's relatively-newfound ability to exist within the physical realm. Either way, until now, androids had never particularly had any cause to be anywhere near where a yokai dwelled and likewise the yokai had no need to go near the androids. Until now, that was. The whys and the hows of that had been the subject of many an interesting discussion between her and Mono (and occasionally Nora), but it was not what mattered at the moment.

"You do not seem happy about this, Wei-san. I would have thought this was promising."

Wei bit her lip. She took the scroll from Arisa and pressed a button to retract the shimmering page, before then tucking the tube into one of her many pockets. Then, she sighed.

"Two more disappeared."

Wei did not need to elaborate. Arisa's heart squeezed, but she ignored it.

"You knew them well?"

"Yes."

Despite the abrupt finality of the response, Arisa knew that Wei wasn't finished. And sure enough, after a moment:

"It does not feel like progress when something like this happens. Kuroo-shi is always berating me about the balance of things, and how it is already changing. Shouldn't that change be enough to at least slow things? Yet, my two are just two more of many. It's so unfair! It's…I have to do something!"

"You are doing something."

"Yes, but it's not enough, is it? I don't know what more there can be. I suppose these new people are a start. Nora was telling me that one of them, the one who was trying it on with you, used to be a musician?"

"That's right," Arisa said, remembering. "That was Orpheus-san."

"Yes, him. They're assisting in exchange for their sanctuary-don't look at me like that, I know you'd be sheltering them anyway, but they don't need to hear that from me. And perhaps soon I can attempt to reach out to these people too. Joined forces are better, right?"

Arisa made a non-committal noise. Joined forces could mean armies and riots, or it could mean weddings, parties, teams of rescuers. She had seen all those things, of course. Occasionally even overlapping with each other.

Wei sighed, apparently not noticing the lack of response.

"Even so, knowing that more of us are disappearing, it makes me wonder if we'll succeed. I couldn't bear to fail after all of this, I just couldn't."

"Perhaps though, we will."

Wei had been looking out to the moon all this time, but now she turned to Arisa.

"What?"

"Everything has its time, and perhaps this is it. Perhaps we've reached it, that point where whatever happens will happen. It is certainly possible that, however hopeful this all looks that there will be no difference."

Wei's eyes flashed.

"So, that's it? You're giving up now? You're saying that that's enough and that you're not going to help anymore?"

Arisa was taken aback by how angry Wei had suddenly become, voice rising and hand gestures wild. But she could not get through as Wei went on:

"I don't know how you could say that! I know you're meant to be a pillar of calm, but how can you not be scared about possibly disappearing? What if you were to disappear, and if it happened before Nora did? What would happen then? I thought that you were about protection, too! You can't let this happen, you just can't, not when there's a chance! Because there has to be, even though I'm struggling to see it. There has to be!"

The despair was apparent in every fibre of Wei's being, and Arisa tried and failed a few times until finally:

"That is not what I said."

The stern words cut across Wei's protests, smooth as the finest blade, making them fall away abruptly. Wei's hands stilled as she pursed her lips tightly and looked away, chin raised slightly. Arisa exhaled very slightly, not quite a sigh and said.

"Wei-san."

When Wei did not look at her, she sighed properly this time, rubbing her eyes. Then, she said:

"First, I should say what I should have said first-that I am sorry for this latest loss of yours."

"I, um, thanks."

"But now, I should clear up the misunderstanding. I am not withdrawing my help. That is not something I would ever do to you, or to anybody who comes here seeking sanctuary and guidance. Besides, I made a promise, and those are not things I take lightly."

Wei turned very slightly, but still did not look at her.

"Nonetheless, you think that it is pointless. You think I am just uselessly flailing." She murmured, words still simmering.

"No, not useless. Not useless at all." Arisa soothed. "That is not something that I think."

"But you think I should give up at this point, don't you? Just give up, step back, forget. Let everyone fade away until the end but I can't! I can't, Arisa-shi!"

Wei's voice rose again and wobbled, her shoulders hunching. Arisa reached out and covered Wei's hand where it gripped the edge of the gate.

"I am not asking you to. All this…I do not know if there will be an ultimate meaning in all of this, the meaning you search for. In the end I know it will end up not mattering, but that is not the point either. We're not at the end, yet, are we?"

Now, Wei faced her, tears welling up thick and fast, not a single one spilling.

"Now you sound like you agree with me. When we first met you said our ideals aligned and I assumed it was that simple. But I don't understand what you're thinking anymore, Arisa-shi."

"I'll be honest, neither do I."

Arisa paused, let the admission sink in. When surprise began to battle past the sorrow on Wei's face, she continued:

"Just as I do not know what meaning there is to anything, I cannot really say what I think. There is value in acceptance, I think. In not denying the inevitable. I worry for you, Wei-san, when it comes that. It is why I feel the need to remind you, sometimes, of that. I don't want you forget it and for your heart to shatter more when that truth hits you.

But that does not mean I want your anger to diminish. Your determination to protect us, the way you have made us all your own. The rage that fires those actions is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. If and when the end comes, I would hope that I meet it with at least a fraction of your courage. And…"

Another pause, but this time to lift her hand from Wei's hand, and instead move it to her face. She cupped Wei's face in both her hands, shuffled forward.

"A-Arisa-shi?" Wei stammered.

"You are mine now. For as long as I can help you, for as long as I can keep this place sanctuary for you and everyone else, you are mine. Just as you have made me one of your own, so I have done that for you. Thus, you are mine now. That should tell you everything you need to know, really."

Wei thought about this, and then cleared her throat.

"I do not wish to be improper, but I am not sure that I will be able to hold onto my composure for much longer, after all."

Arisa smiled gently, but held back a chuckle since sure enough, Wei's face did crumple and the tears finally started to spill. Silently so, the sobs shaking her body rather than spiralling out into the sky, but nonetheless she cried. Arisa put her arms around her, pulled her close and said nothing. She had been alive for so long, she did not always feel the pull of those millennia. But it was in moments like this that she felt so very, very old. When her age seemed to seep right through into her bones, chilling her to the core. It was in moments like this that the exhaustion of all that had been seen and loved and lost was too much to bear. It was not even her own rage.

Yet, it seemed as if that feeling called to something in herself, something beyond the exhaustion. After all, it was not as if she could deny her own sadness over the way so many things had ended. Acceptance did not mean not caring, after all, as she had tried to explain to Wei so clumsily. She cared, always would, and not just because it was the duty that made her who and what she was. So she sat there, keeping Wei anchored as her feelings unravelled, paying attention to the feelings that swirled inside of her in response and tucking them away.

Once Wei had calmed, they climbed down from the torii gate. She asked once if Wei was alright, and knew by the stiff answer and the chin held high that Wei did not want to erode her dignity further, and so Arisa did not probe. Instead she ensured that Wei was settled, but once she had done so, she did not go to get some rest herself. Instead, she returned outside and walked back up to the torii gate. She did not climb up it. Instead, she stood right beneath it, looking up at clear sky and the moon right there in the middle, a bright staring eye. The breeze remained sharp, but she did not wrap her arms against it. Rather, she returned to those feelings that Wei's outpourings had stirred in her. She took them, held them tight. What a beautiful thing it was, Wei's rage. It was a sadness that needed healing, but it was also a spark that lit everything up, made it brighter. No matter that she did not feel it for herself, it was still something to treasure, to protect alongside Wei herself.

And, for now, it would be what would warm Arisa through this cold night.