“Woah?!” Archius shouted, placing his hands up to Kazuki. His eyes shook as he looked down the barrel.

Eliza scooted her chair backwards, making distance between herself, Kazuki and Archius. “Kaz, it’s just Archius.”

Cyrus looked into the room. “Sorry, boss. He wouldn’t listen.”

Kazuki nodded, he couldn’t blame him. He placed his pistol back in its holster as Archius calmed down, placing his hands back to his side. “Kazuki, I have a lead: Loyalist blacksite, coaxed it out of a Loyalist deserter on S13. Too well defended for a frontal assault but if you let me take—”

“You’re not doing field work,” Kazuki cut in. “With Svenn as our opposition, I cannot risk assets.” Archius was too valuable to risk in this operation. He can’t let him off the leash, especially now.

“But—”

“No buts.” interjected Kazuki, “Of course, I wouldn’t care if you died or anything. It’s not like losing you will lose me my most experienced spymaster, would it?”

Eliza stayed put, silent. She took a look at her notes as Kazuki glanced towards her for a moment.

“Look, Kaz, this mission is critical!”

“So send one of your operatives to deal with it,” said Kazuki.

Archius shook his head thoroughly. “No! It’s so critical that I need to go in there and deal with things myself!”

Cyrus tapped Archius on the shoulder. “Tch. Fine,” said Archius, dropping the facade. His face and eyes were grim, shooting a look at Eliza. “Try not to damage him, I’d prefer if Kazuki could walk.”

With that, he closed the door, leaving. The repairs were already finished, so he was confused about what he was referring to. Kazuki’s mind was consumed by that last statement. He didn’t understand it. But looking over to Eliza, he saw that she was completely red. He tilted his head in confusion.

“Anyways… what were you saying?” asked Kazuki.

She frantically composed herself as she cleared her throat. “I feel like you’re keeping something from me.”

Kazuki froze. His mind exploded with thoughts. Who told her? His eyes widened as his golden glare shot through her. “What…”

“I mean… your cybernetics, you’ve had them for nearly a decade, judging by what I’ve seen, it doesn’t seem like you’ve really put much effort into looking after them,” said Eliza, sliding the chair over to the docu-pads, picking one up.

Kazuki thought about his Exospine. It was the cream of the crop of exospines. It’s what got him through to here, after all, but it was still a mystery to him. Maybe Dr. Garreau will know something about it? Or perhaps his parents?

But mother and father won’t tell him. Obviously. He hasn’t spoken to them in so long… His sister, Yuki, has kept in contact. Mainly her begging him to play videogames with her. As always. Such a happy family… Kazuki sighed and grumbled.

“My exospine does its job, you’ll do your job as well, right?”

Eliza pointed at herself. “Logistics, handling and… repairing you?”

Kazuki nodded.

“Well, I’m already doing that, so…” Eliza tilted her head in confusion.

Kazuki crossed his arms. “Eliza, you’re one of probably three people I’d trust near my exospine… Ones my mother, the other is my doctor… or surgeon. Depends.”

Liz’s eyes grew wider for a moment, a sparkling hint shone within her blood-red eyes. “What you’re telling me is that… you need me?” she asked in a teasingly mischievous tone.

Oh… “Did Archius teach you how to tease me?” One of Kazuki’s eyes squinted at her remark. Eliza shivered at the sight of it, before Kazuki relaxed. “Fair enough… though. I need you to fix them, consistently. You can do that, right?”

Eliza smiled and said, “Of course!” She placed a hand on Kazuki’s shoulder. “We’re both in this together, after all, and I really do owe you for saving me like… so many times… Like that… time in High School?”

It was time for Kazuki’s head to tilt. He had to sift through memories. There wasn’t anything exactly noteworthy in high school. Wait… No! There was the Student Council Election. “The election?” Kazuki asked.

Eliza clicked her fingers. “Yeah, you saved me in those speeches!”

Kazuki shook his head, confused. “You carried yourself there.”

It was a messy election, but Eliza won handily. It was only messy because Eliza’s opposition ran off a platform solely to oppose her. Chloé and Archius dealt with the maliciousness of the elections…

Kazuki? Kazuki simply watched and dealt the killing blow. He remembered being suited up in his uniform, walking out and picking up where Eliza left off.

“I only dealt the killing blow,” Kazuki said.

Eliza chuckled, embarrassed slightly. She scratched her pink hair. “Hey, you’re giving me too much credit, Kaz.”

She was being annoyingly humble. Kazuki didn’t know that was a thing that could exist. He was used to people being annoyingly arrogant. This permutation was… unaccounted for.

Then, she piqued up in a curious mood. “I was quite worried when you were out there in the sewers, Kaz, must have smelt quite bad, right?”

“No shit. Well…. Actually…”

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She chuckled at his remark. “I guess a long shower can get rid of the smell, but what about the Loyalists? Someone was… able to beat you?”

“Hmm. Yes…”

“Who was it?” Eliza asked, lowering her voice.

“An old mentor.” Kazuki heaved a sigh of relief. “Svenn Janstein, brother of Director James Janstein… James died for me. He was one of five instructors for the Eden Initiative… He should be dead. I saw him get crushed.”

“But… he’s alive, is he not?” asked Eliza.

Kazuki closed his eyes, rubbing his fingers along his nose and eyelids. “Yes. It should be impossible.”

“But you can take him… right?!” Eliza had a hint of worry in her voice.

“Maybe,” said Kazuki. He didn’t know if he could. Svenn’s not physically as strong as him, but he’s sly and resourceful. If Svenn can’t win: he’ll create a scenario that he will win. And like always, Kazuki falls right into his traps. He… He can’t out plan him. But he has to kill him.

“Why is he… fighting us?” asked Eliza.

“I don’t know. But… I did kill his brother… On paper.”

“What?” Eliza furrowed her brow in confusion.

Kazuki didn’t have much to say. He can’t tell Eliza everything, and to him: such huge amounts of info was banal. But to her? It’ll take some time to comprehend it all. He simplified everything down. “During the rebellion: Svenn’s brother, James, saved me. He’s been at my back the whole time… And then James died to protect me.”

Eliza started, “Well, you’re the Fourth of the Seven Mercs, surely you must be able to fight him!”

“Fight. Yes. Beat him? I don’t know… My cybernetics are getting old.” said Kazuki. “At the end of the day, it’s just a title. If I had to fight Felix, Fifth of the Seven… I’d be dead.”

Most cybernetics have their own heat ventilators and radiators. But him? He had to physically exhale excess heat. The steel latched onto him was an enigma even to him, and all those that knew of its true origins are dead or silenced. Eliza’s head shot up towards him. She looked at his blank-expression face. Kazuki realised that she probably thought that he didn’t understand. She was absolutely right.

“Seems like you have a lot on your plate, Kaz,” said Eliza. “But… if I have anything to do around these parts, I think I can get involved…”

“Ah… that’d be convenient?” Kazuki said, scratching his head slightly.

“But… it wouldn’t excuse me from staying silent either!” Eliza said abruptly.

Taking a glance at her, she looked far more relaxed than normal. But even with the bags under her eyes, he was reminded of who Eliza is. Behind all the chaos, she’s the same optimistic girl he was obliged to protect.

“Go on.”

“The investigation… we’re still going after it, right?” asked Eliza.

Kazuki paused, then nodded. “Yes. But we first have to settle this issue,” he said.

She seemed quite obsessed about the investigation… Eliza’s face tried to hide her disappointment. “I—I see.” Her voice stuttered. “You… think I’m stupid, right?”

She stood up, and started to pace around the room. Kazuki twirled his chair around towards her. The room was barebones, as he likes it. “No? You were able to match someone with perfect memory in standardised tests.”

“No. No… not that… Back then, when I told you to help me, you must have thought I was daft, right?” she asked. “Spouting on about how there was someone else behind the incident… that it wasn’t just the pirates, I must have seemed mad, right?”

Kazuki waited a moment. From a normal perspective, she was definitely mad in that regard. But Kazuki knows… so much more than she ever will. “No. All evidence lines up to a third party behind the incident. Republic Intelligence blackout. Naval maintenance. It’s too convenient.”

Strangely enough, Eliza smiled. He didn’t get it. But maybe she thought that the two of them could be mad together. “Thanks…”

“You’ve been at this since high school,” said Kazuki. “Don’t worry, we can take our time this time…”

“But… yeah… I’ll just try to relax,” said Eliza, pushing her cheeks up.

“But you already… look relaxed.” stated Kazuki, Emotions were not his forte. But he could make precise, albeit bland, observations.

“Ah! Well you see, Riharia told me to relax a bit, so I’m trying my hand at it. Casual studying instead of competitive, quite relaxing now that I’m doing it.” said Eliza, with a bright face.

Leave it to her to find a way to casually study graduate level information. Maybe he’ll relax for a bit. He let himself sink into his seat, allowing his back to fall into an explosive slumber.

“Hmm. Sure,” said Kazuki, feeling not a single spark of life within his heart or mind. “But do be aware you still have to do work. I might as well help.”

Eliza’s eyes lit up even more as she placed the datapads down, twisting to look at him. Fuck. Kazuki realised he just messed up. “Oh, great! You, me, paperwork. Who can do the most in one hour? Winner takes all?”

Yeah… he’s not going to do that. Discreetly, Kazuki activated a caller to Rivera, the quartermaster… And as Eliza was about to continue, a light of polygons sprouted out from the table projector. Someone yawned, a hazel-skinned woman looked at the two of them, with pale white paint in lines beneath her left eye, four in total: at least 36 years old. Beneath her other eye had a similar tattoo, though much more intricate. Its meaning had no bearing on him.

‘Yeah? You need any repairs, boss?’ asked Rivera.

‘No,’ said Kazuki.

‘Well good! ‘cause you haven’t gotten me any materials yet.’ Sighed Rivera, turning to Eliza. ‘Let me guess, you’re the new girl?’

Eliza quickly nodded. But Kazuki wanted to pressure the situation further, Eliza was in charge of logistics… Or at least was supposed to help the situation. He may have to reconsider her affiliation status, though the question of her safety is always present. Difficult…

‘Eliza, can you tell me why Quartermaster Rivera hasn’t received her shipments?’ asked Kazuki, glancing over at Eliza.

She furrowed her brow, scratching her head as Rivera fixated on her. Her blue eyes stared directly at Eliza, upon seeing the supposed source of the problems. But Eliza simply replied, “But, I did? Rivera, have you tried looking at the delivery conveyor?”

Rivera grumbled for a moment, before turning towards something. She looked at it. Then, she turned back. ‘Fuck no? That shit doesn’t even work.’

‘How about now?’ asked Eliza, feeling slightly prideful and smug. Kazuki observed that. She was confident in all this.

Standing up, Rivera rolled her eyes, walking over towards the conveyor as the holoprojection moved with her, capturing the armoury in full detail, barebones at best. But as they reached the conveyor, it had a grate sealed shut. ‘Sure, fuck it, why not check the very much broken conveyor?’

Opening up the latch with a single thought, the conveyor system immediately whirred to life. She took one look back at Eliza, then pointed at the system. “When the fuck did you fix that?!”

‘Well, I didn’t? I just asked a few of the drones to check the movement system and apparently, there were a few old crates jammed in there… Tirax-Genesis or something?’ Eliza trailed off. Tirax-Genesis? Kazuki glared at Rivera.

‘Rivera. Did you order fucking Tirax-Genesis?’ Kazuki asked, calmly

And as Rivera glanced back at Kazuki, she immediately exploded into panic. She placed her hands out and shrugged. Then, she chuckled, and then shrugged again. She slowly turned to Eliza, trying to ignore the question. ‘Aye, Eliza, right? I just wanna say that uh, if you ever need any shit from our armoury, free of charge for you! On the house!’ said Rivera, giving her a thumbs up.

‘Why thank you!’ replied Eliza, nodding as Kazuki saw a level of pride in those red eyes. He extrapolated nothing out of them, simply observing them.

Then, Kazuki turned back to Rivera. ‘You know that ‘on the house’ means it's expenses, AKA: I pay for it.'

Rivera chuckled it off, ‘Nope!’