It was a rough ride, at the very least. With Kazuki resting, Archius had to… do his own things, do things Kazuki might not approve of, for now at least. Archius will have to remember not to accept any challenges from Yuki, EVER. Still… he did love some thrills here and there.

"Ugh...." Nathan looked as if he was going puke, with Noah and Archius acting as older brothers, holding him together from both sides. Noah held his face low, in a similar position to Nathan... "Did... we have to do that?"

"Of course!" Yuki shouted back at them. Archius' face remained sealed, a mask of fake agony.

Sadly... the opportunity for greater investments has not arisen, Archius concluded. He glanced over at Noah. In his current state, he'll be less useful than ever.

The trio kept following Yuki across the amusement parkThe fact that there hasn't been a single incident here is surprising, he thought. "What are we... can we just go have a sit down somewhere? Where's Chloé?" Archius asked.

"Oh?" a voice called out to them. Archius' head snapped to the side, seeing Chloé, dressed in everyday clothes. Nathan was coughing up, as Noah and Archius stared at her. "What? No official events are happening for the rest of the week, might as well get into something comfortable!"

She held onto half a dozen sticks of candy floss, a vibrant collection of colours that Archius couldn't make out - with the various colours interchanging.

Yuki was the first one to snatch one from her. "Don't mind if I do!" she shouted. Chloé snapped her head towards Yuki, trying to grab it back, only to realise that she was holding onto way too many to engage in any form of melee combat. "Come on, Chloé! Share the load!"

"Ugh... fine, take it, something to ease you guys," Chloé said, extending both her hands. Noah and Archius twisted their formation to awkwardly face her. "You aren't gonna do that for the rest of the day, right?"

Her voice was snappy and frustrated, angry perhaps? Archius found this opportunity to be quite a good chance... "We never abandon our brothers," Archius said, in an incredibly melodramatic tone.

Noah chuckled slightly, whilst Nathan gave a slow nod, a small thanks for Archius.

Archius could feel a grip tighten on his clothes, Noah's hand that was helping Nathaniel... Archius maintained his fake face, stepping up and taking one of the candy flosses.

"Make it quick!" Chloé said. Noah reached out and picked up another one. "Just shove it in his mouth, alright?"

Noah dithered, his hand went to grab another stick, but he stopped himself. Worried about Nathan? Eh, probably, Archius thought. "Are you sure it won't make him throw up?"

"Does it matter?" Chloé snapped back, still sour about losing most of her candy floss.

Yuki grabbed all of the remaining sticks, except for one. "I'll hold them for him," she said. Now was a bit too late for being considerate, but better late than never.

"Are... we finished?" Nathan asked. Yuki gave a clear nod.

She walked over, patting Nathan on the shoulder. "I uh... I think you've had enough for today." She was kind of red on the face, somewhat embarrassed.

Archius rolled his eyes. "You better repay us for our time! I think an uh... all-paid dinner at your expense would be adequate compensation, right Chloé?"

"Huh?" Chloé's head twisted around at everyone, startled. Nathan and Noah nodded, with Archius giving her a wink. "Sure. Who'd say no to free food?"

Yuki placed a hand to her face, thinking. She pondered around, walking in a circle for a second.

"Alright, y'all getting food?" Noah asked. "My parents are out so... I could have you guys over at my place?"

"No!" Yuki shouted. "You shall have the honour of eating beneath my roof!" She grinned widly.

Archius sighed. He placed one hand in his pocket and triggered a device he kept hidden. His uplink burst into sound and light, as a call signalled towards him. Noah turned to look at him, as Archius let go of Nathan.

Grumbling, Archius acted surprised at being called.

Archius answered the fake call. "Hmm?" he asked himself. He allowed himself to slither into a moment of silence, walking around. He'll need to make this opportunity well. Noah's parents are out, and that was the perfect opportunity. Something lies beneath Noah's face, he broods but cares, and Archius needs to find out why.

Maybe he can find that out, perhaps it’s linked to Kazuki. Who knows? He will. He will know, he turned around and closed his call. "Shit... sorry guys, go ahead without me, something just came up."

Noah raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what? Come on, I'm sure it's not that important." Yuki nodded in turn.

Archius sighed. "It's Eliza..." he said. He had no idea if her investigation was public knowledge, but Archius wouldn't be the one to make that decision. "Some drama between those two..."

He rolled his eyes, pretending to be frustrated. Yuki chuckled. "Kazu? Pfft, he's easy to deal with, you know that, right? Right?!"

Archius nodded. “It’s gonna hurt my head, but… yeah…”

Noah's face was colder than usual. He opened his mouth to say something, but the words did not come out. Chloé merely shrugged. “Just make sure they get along, I guess? Kaz ain’t the type to mend shit on his own,” she said.

Then, Noah sang a song. “What’s it about? He asked.

Interesting, Archius thought. Though it could just be the typical interest that someone has, Archius senses otherwise. "Pfft, I don't know?" Archius shrugged, before turning and joking with a large smile, "Lover's quarrel?"

Both Chloé and Yuki snickered, hiding laughter underneath their hands. Those two knew Kaz back at uni and home, so of course they found the idea of it to be laughable.

Noah wrapped an arm around Nathan, as he swayed left and right. Noah glanced at the two women, before turning back to Archius.

"KAZU? REALLY?!" Yuki chortled in all regards, bursting out laughing. "NO. NO, I... YOU CANNOT SPRING THAT ON ME!"

"What's... the joke?" Noah asked. His face was still, hiding away anything that Archus could muster or extrapolate from. But the slight change in his facial expression, along with the venom in his eyes, was enough for Archius to stir some extrapolations.

Archius merely shrugged and started walking away.

Leaving the amusement park, Archius needed to dress to impress. Going to a relatively isolated part of the station, Archius sought out a place to change. In the toilets, he grabbed his waistcoat and flicked it on and off, changing the outward view of his clothes into a security disguise, a black suit. It was boring, typical, and incredibly bland - perfect!

"Better this than being on a frozen shithole..."

He shuddered, closing his eyes as he thought back to the wasteland of Narisa. That was a month ago... He could still feel the stinging cold down his neck...

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He put the suit on, along with black sunglasses and a fake ID card. Exiting out, he turned on his ICAPAD. He tapped on the Krystalink icon, waiting as it loaded up... slowly.

"Ugh..." Archius rolled his eyes. So sloppy, Sato, he thought. "Come on, work you piece of shit..."

Archius smacked it across the screen, as the interlay activated. Connecting to Archius' ear and brain, he injected the system into the local servers. He pulled a massive dossier of the people present at the station. He filtered the participants to just brooch-wielders... and after scrolling for a dozen minutes, he found Noah. Noah Slyra-Montageu.

Sliding and searching through the information, he found extraordinarily little useful... Suite Block 9A. "Hmm... should be a big place, then..." Archius had sights on his target - and left. Time was of the essence, and he needed to find out as much as possible before Noah or his parents got back.

Hiding around a bend in the hallway, Archius was close. The suites were organised like hotel rooms, and though the ultra-wealthy had entire sections of residential blocks dedicated to them, they were definitely compensating for something. "Hmm," Archius muttered to himself as he peered around the corner.

There was a guard outside his objective, a door leading to the Sltra-Montageu’s place. The guard yawned, wearing similar attire to him. Archius also noticed a camera down the hall... He can't kill this person, sadly. He'll have to use deception.

Prodding at his ICAPAD, he readied it for code execution, before pricking a face-scrambler onto the collar of his shirt. Activating it, he hid his identity - approaching from around the corner. The guard slowly turned towards him, yawning. Archius did not return the yawn, instead looking up and down. ID Card... Sigismund...

"Sigismund, it's time," Archius said.

Sigismund glanced around. "Time for what?"

"Swap, you're tired, aren't you? Come on, get some rest," Archius continued with the lie, walking up to the guy. Archius patted him on the shoulder, slowly shifting him out of the way.

"Huh? Sure, still got some hours on mine but if you’re willing to take ‘em, sure.” Sigismund relented, anxiously walking away. "This is logged, right?"

"Of course it is!" shouted Archius, shaking his head. Archius had no idea what his face was at that time but hoped that it was somewhat convincing to Sigismund... Confidence was half of Archius’ disguise.

He said, "Whatever, I'll go get some sleep. Boss has us working double shifts." The guard yawned. “You one of those new transfers?”

Archius nodded. “Yep.”

Alright... step one is completed. Archius glanced over at the camera. He can't enter, not without raising suspicions. If everything goes well, they’ll chalk it up to simply corporate espionage. He stood by the door, placing his hands behind his back.

"Come on..." Archius used his free hand to tap on his ICAPAD, sliding up an activation button, which he pressed. The camera near him blanked off for a moment, before coming back online... The black dead hue of its gaze had changed to a lighter grey.

It wasn’t disabled, that would raise suspicion. But the footage was not looped.

He did a little twist around to the door, eyeing it up. It was a simple security door, tough to brute force in, but a little finesse was needed.

The ICAPAD attached to Archius’ arm ignited into colours, as he placed it to the door’s controls. The Scanner connected to it and Krystalink did its work. The door opened, with Archius free to enter. The door closed behind him, revealing a large living room - even larger than Liz and Kaz's suite. It was filled with artefacts of luxury, the stench of opulence from every corner filled his nose.

"Blegh..." The smell was almost intoxicating. He continued through the suite, up the stairs and checking the rooms.

One of them has to be Noah's. He's a single child, so it shouldn't be too confusing. He opened the first one, seeing a large bedroom, with a king-sized bed. He moved to the next room... a smaller room. It had stuff sprawled out on it, with a few laptops and books strewn across the desk and floor. Noah's? Archius entered.

"Let's see what we have here," Archius said to himself. He approached the laptop on the desk, putting gloves on. He does not want his fingerprints being here... Archius opened up the laptop, to see that it wasn’t even locked!

Archius felt second-hand embarrassment, even if it did help.

Nonetheless, he started to search around... he must have something incriminating, or something interesting, right? A man's search history is the true door to his soul or something... he can't remember which dead CRIS instructor told him that.

Scrambling through, Archius could barely find anything. The air was too suffocating here, he thought. He took the laptop and brought it outside, placing it on the kitchen counter. The air was fresher. “You must have something, Noah!” Archius remarked.

Archius tried once again, looking through the folders and files. It was like a maze... Clicking through a few folders, Archius finally found something interesting…

He let a dead smile grow on his face, reaching a folder named audio-logs.

He double-clicked on it, finding even more folders... Ugh, did he fuck up?! Wait, no... these folders were divided into years, one for each year since the P-1 Incident.

Venturing through the folders, most of them were just audio files, seemingly a digital 'diary'. Archius wondered... what was the first one? He clicked on the folder named '4915’ and clicked the first one that popped up.

An audio player popped into view, linking itself to Archius' uplink. "Let's see if this has anything interesting..."

He crossed his arms, listening carefully.

'I... Hello. My name is Noah—"

Yeah, Archius knows that! Getting to the point, he started a solo commentary on Noah's own diary.

'—and my parents told me to... get my thoughts down like this... I don't know if I'll continue this—"

Yeah, he'll definitely continue this, Archius sarcastically thought, leaning against the counter behind him. He skipped through the first few seconds, impatient with a young Noah’s inability to get to the fucking point.

"—I think... Kazuki will get away with it. HE HAS TO! I told my parents... even Victoria's dad. But... they won't even respond to me... Just... just... How?!'

The voice was meek, timid and young. Archius stepped forward, hearing a beep on his uplink. The micro camera hooked up, showing Noah at the door. Archius' heart burst into energy and adrenaline, slamming the laptop closed before ducking behind the counter.

The door phased open, letting the light and Noah into the room. "Tch... lazy guards..." Noah said, frustratingly.

Archius held his breath. He has to get the fuck out. He slammed a microscopic listening device beneath the table, setting the self-destruct to an hour. That should be enough time... if Noah bites the bait.

Archius peeked up, watching Noah ascend the stairs, oblivious to his presence. The moment that he notices the missing laptop, he'll start searching. He heard the phasing of another door, and its closing, before standing up.

He placed his hands on his waist, stretching for a moment. Archius stepped out from behind the counter, sneaking towards the door. Opening it, he exited back out into the hallway...

The camera was still looped.

Perfect. He walked down the hallway, slowly taking the side corridors towards the various plazas and meeting halls.

"Excellent," he said to himself, taking the face-scrambler off. He flicked his suit off and on, changing outfits. Even in the worst-case scenario, the ‘mystery guard’ simply ceased to exist.

He had a self-satisfied grin on his face, letting a fragment of his dead self pry up into the open, escaping.

He could hear the mutters and murmurs from his uplink. Noah was angrily searching the place, before approaching and slamming open the laptop. "Mom never fucking listens…” Noah brooded and must be thinking that his mother was to blame for his laptop’s misplacement.

Archius went to the shopping centre, buying a sandwich from one of the shops. A billboard up above him had the timetable for the next events. Next week was the Grandé Ball, the most important event for those seeking power and connections. Sadly... Archius' status forbids his proper involvement, but he was fine just tagging along. After the ball was a bunch of social networking events, mainly feasts or buffets or similar.

He really doesn't want to dance, if he does go to them. He closed his eyes, letting his mind be consumed with memories of the past... In a vivid memory, Archius could feel and see himself, with someone else... He was smaller. Then, he was even shorter, with half a dozen people, all scratched out. And then... nothing.

"Ugh..." Opening his eyes, Archius noticed that he had fallen asleep... He looked around, seeing that things were still the same. Luckily, nothing had been stolen from him, though stealing in such a public place with the Knights around was as much foolhardy as it was a guarantee of being arrested.

FUCK, the recorder! He pricked his uplink online, trying to see if anything was caught by his micro-recorder. Luckily, it did.

He immediately played it. Noah’s voice came over his uplink from the recording device. 'Fuck... Archius said something about Eliza and Kazuki today.'

Noah's voice was much firmer than his younger self and definitely sounded more brooding and lonelier.

'Fuck! Fuck!'

He seems to have been recording a new diary log. If he was asked if the old and the new were the same person, even Archius would find some difficulty in drawing the lines... But that was definitely him, no doubt about that.

'Fuck... he's gonna get her killed, isn't he?' The last part intrigued Archius. It wasn't necessarily shock of awe... but the question itself made Archius' mind revel.

It was all coming together... and sooner or later, that little secret that Kazuki kept to himself would be his to know.

Archius glanced down at the sandwich, half-eaten in one of his hands... It's time to get to know Kazuki a bit more, Archius thought. They're brothers, and Kazuki will know that whatever Archius does... it's for the greater good. Always the greater good. And the ability to control Kazuki's 'emotions'? Well, that will be a great boon to getting him to focus.