Typhoon Lokko strikes Janloon just before the Autumn Festival, forcing the city indoors and tearing through holiday decorations. At Kaul Dushuron Academy, classes are canceled, but students prepare No Peak-funded relief supplies because Green Bones are expected to protect and aid ordinary people after disasters.

While packing food, water, tents, and batteries, Anden listens as classmates argue about the growing conflict between No Peak and the Mountain. Lott bitterly questions whether Green Bones are trained only to fight and die, while Pau defends the honor and opportunity of Academy training, and Dudo supports Kaul Lan’s harder stance after the attempt on Hilo’s life. Anden remains silent despite wanting to defend Lan and Hilo, because his outsider status, his feelings for Lott, and his habit of keeping himself unobtrusive stop him from speaking.

Anden recalls first hearing rumors of Hilo’s assassination attempt at the Academy and frantically phoning the Kaul house. Hilo reassured Anden, told Anden to focus on passing the Trials, and implied Lan could handle the Mountain. The conversation left Anden feeling helpless: treated as a Kaul when others wanted leverage over the clan, but still too young and ungraduated to defend the family he loves.

After the storm, the clans temporarily set aside open hostility to tend their own territories and help with cleanup. On Autumn Festival afternoon, Anden works with Lott in the Temple District, where the two share an uneasy private moment. Lott reveals that his father, a No Peak Fist, knew about Anden’s Boat Day abduction and had hoped the Mountain would keep him because Hilo might have gone to war over Anden, exposing Lott’s cynical view of clan ambition and making Anden uncertain whether Lott is drawn to him or contemptuous of him.

The cleanup is interrupted when Gont Asch arrives in a black ZT Valor with Mountain Green Bones handing out yellow cakes to the public. Gont summons the Academy students, gives each a cake, then privately puts an arm around Anden and says he is disappointed Anden refused the Mountain’s offer. Anden answers defiantly that his Espenian appearance does not mean he can be bribed, and Gont warns him not to become an enemy; afterward, Anden tells Lott that Gont made clear the Mountain will target Anden if he becomes a No Peak Fist.