Standing behind them was Kazuki Izumi Geminorum-Ryzaku, a bit taller than Chloé - but half a centimetre shorter than Eliza.

“Uh…” Chloé looked towards Eliza, before wrapping an arm around her neck. She lowered her voice, “Did you just summon him or something? Like with some Dullie Calling card?”

“What? No!” Eliza raised her voice to just beneath a quiet shout. “Kaz… he doesn’t.”

“Doesn’t what?” Kazuki asked. Both of them had completely aired him. He didn’t seem mad, or angry at all, just slightly disappointed. He grumbled and sighed. “But if you do wish to challenge me, at least be a competent enemy. Easy players are no fun.”

“Ugh,” Chloé approached Kazuki, pressing a finger against his coat. She lingered for a moment as she felt something underneath it. “Uh… I had my suspicions but…”

“Ignore it. Emergencies only,” he said. Chloé nodded, a small drop of sweat falling from her head.

“Sure…” she said, “Anyways, you’re still so arrogant!”

Kazuki snapped back, “Arrogance did not get me to where I am.”

Chloé looked towards Eliza, expecting her to help Chloé in defeating Kazuki in a battle of words. Eliza simply placed her hands up, not wanting to get involved in whatever argument they have right now. “I’ve only played a few games of Dullie, and those opponents said that Kaz was a whole ‘nother level compared to them.”

Kazuki nodded, crossing his arms with a nonchalant attitude. “See, being good isn’t being arrogant.”

“Yeah, and what are you?” asked Chloé, as Kazuki turned and started walking away. The two followed after him. “HEY! Don’t just walk away from me, you know I’m in the top two hundred on this planet for ranked matches.”

“And I am ex-top fifty galaxy wide,” said Kazuki. That put a stop to Chloé’s rant, as Kazuki pulled out his holophone, igniting it up as he showed his badge: Kazuki Geminorum-Ryzaku, ranked #39 in the galaxy. “Video games get boring since there’s no challenge to it.”

“No… that’s just you, Kazuki,” Chloé remarked.

Kazuki shrugged. “Anyways, I’m busy. I need Eliza, you fine with that?”

“Hmm?” Eliza’s mind snapped awake from being called out.

Chloé grumbled, before saying, “I—”

“I wasn’t asking, by the way.” He looked over his shoulder glaring at Chloé.

“You never change, do you?” The question stunned both Eliza and Kazuki for a moment. Chloé nearly walked directly into Kaz. A moment of restart passed, as the two continued walking…

Eliza said, “Well, I guess I’m free?”

His reply was instantaneous, “Good. We’re leaving.”

Now? What does she do now? Given the fact that this was probably the first time Kaz’s been here for over a year, she might as well make the best of it. She spoke up,, “Hey, Kazuki. I know you said you’re busy, but… you don’t mind staying for a little bit longer, do you?”

Kazuki paused. He turned around. “Why? I told you: I’m busy.”

Chloé gave Eliza a questioning look. Eliza continued, “Well, Chloé’s been chasing me about your locker and—”

“—There’s nothing in there,” Kazuki cut her off. “Well… maybe I left a bomb in there”

Eliza immediately cut in, “KAZ!”

“I’m joking.” Kazuki gave off a cold smirk. “I would have remembered if I left one there.”

Chloé sighed. “You still have the key, don’t you?”

“Oh…” Kazuki trailed off. “I think I lost it.”

She immediately threw her hands up in anger. “What?!” she shouted at Kazuki.

He stayed steadfast, standing still as he responded. “No. I don’t think I lost it. I simply lost it. Over Old Terra. I was a bit too preoccupied fighting for my life, but I understand that the key is greater in worth than that.”

His sarcastic remark didn’t go too well over the two, as even Eliza had a hard time deciphering whether he was actually telling the truth or not.

“Well, you’re here! You can put some time for a reunion with the exec, right?” asked Eliza. “Rodrick and Hania are in the office right now.”

“Barclay’s not here…” Chloé trailed off. Kazuki’s eyes skidded away at the mention of Barclay’s name, only for it to skid right back…

“Whether he’s here or not doesn’t matter,” Kazuki said. He muttered to himself. "No means no."

Chloé grumbled, snapping at Kazuki, "Seems like your laziness is still in there. I guess we can go to the Victory Day festival next year?"

Eliza nodded. “You down for that, Kazuki?”

“Sure...” Victory Day. What a joke. “Victory over what... No one won anything. Everyone but the players in the war lost.”

Chloé and Eliza both peered at him awkwardly. “Yeah... I guess you could say that,” Chloé remarked, trying to shove the topic under a rug.

“Food’s good, though, right?” Eliza asked.

“Good enough to ignore our problems for a while,” Kazuki answered.

That’s right, Kazuki, he didn't belong here – he was a player himself, a lethal one at that. This was not where he was meant to be. He's a Contract-Breaker, the 'death of honour'. Kazuki remembers who he is... This is who he is.

∗ ∗ ∗

By the time that the shuttles got clearance to break the horizon, Liz was already dozing off… Kazuki looked at her as she sat beside him.

“Sorry, we could have gotten something to eat if you were tired,” said Kazuki. Karl was driving the shuttle as he glanced back. One hand on the controls, he extended his other hand, holding onto a bag of sweets.

“Y’all hungry?” he asked. “I always keep one for the hyperlanes.”

Eliza shook her head slowly, still somewhat dozing off. The Anagoran skyline quickly turned dark as they approached space. A shuttle transporter locked onto the convoy, with the three shuttles latching onto it. “No thank you, just a bit sleepy, don’t mind me.”

Karl shrugged with one arm, shoving the bag of sweets back into the glovebox. Inertial compensators activated. Oxygen systems locked online.

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“So… where are we going?” asked Eliza. Oh yeah, he didn’t tell her.

Karl snickered. “So you just hopped on a random shuttle with a friend but you didn’t even know where we’re going?”

It was a valid question, Kazuki thought. The grizzled pilot twisted his seat around in the cockpit. With the convoy of shuttles attached to the transporter, he’s free from his normal duties. For now.

“Well… I just thought it was something quite important, given how many shuttles there were…”

“It is. I’m not taking any chances with transportation. We have three armed and armoured shuttles and a modified shuttle transport,” said Kazuki.

Eliza’s face contorted into surprise and shock. “Wait! What!?”

“I said I’m not taking any—”

“—No, no no,” Eliza cut him off. “Why do we need armoured transport? If you wanted to go somewhere, could we have just taken the shuttle bus?”

Kazuki paused. He looked forward, then answered, “Given what has happened between the Loyalists and the Gunrunners. I’m not risking your life to a surprise ambush. The Loyalists got too close. Got it?” he asked her.

She took a few moments to respond. “Well, surprisingly that does make sense. But I still don’t know where we’re going.”

“Preparations. The Dassant is coming up. Both of us need to be prepared…” said Kazuki. “There’s only one location that I can trust with that.”

Eliza sighed at the first part, before her interest was piqued with the latter part. “Oh? Well, this is you… So are you going to train me in martial arts? Self defence? That’d be cool, right!?”

She started to go on a massive tangent on how Kazuki will train her.

He cut her thoughts off. “No.” Simply put, training Eliza would only embolden her to make stupid decisions. He doesn’t want Eliza to think she’s hot shit because she was trained for a week under him.

“Then what are we doing?” Eliza kicked up her legs, crossing them as she leant back and down into the shuttle seat. It wasn’t as comfortable as the shuttle seats his family’s personal shuttles have. But it wasn’t made for comfort to begin with. “Ooh, am I going to get a hidden weapon? Maybe a dress with thirty knives hidden in them?”

“We can talk more about this later,” said Kazuki. He looked down at her, she looked tired. “For now, just get some shut eye. It’ll be very busy once we arrive.”

Eliza nodded. “Ugh, fine! I’ll hold you to that, then.”

And slowly, her eyes sunk - and then closed. She must be exhausted, Kazuki thought.

A few mutters and murmurs were heard across the uplink, but nothing too special. ‘This is traffic control to JUDICIARY-1010, permission received and granted for course to Lautrasia. May Iris guide us,’ said a voice over the uplink.

Karl was getting some rest, his pilot’s cap covering his face. The operatives piloting the transporter responded in equal turn. ‘Copy that.’

It was complete darkness outside, with only a few splutters of lights from stars and space stations for illumination. Whilst everything inside was still. Kazuki turned the main lights off within the shuttle… Looking down at Eliza, she already seemed fast asleep. He wished he could do that, but he knows the consequences of relaxation, especially for someone like him.

Here he was… alone. With his thoughts… Soon, the uplink chatter turned to silence - and all noises turned muffled.

Kazuki maintained his wake, his eyes capturing the grand visage as the transporter ignited its drive, and sent itself bursting into the voidway.

∗ ∗ ∗

Words seemed to stick longer than any physical ailment, at least that’s what Eliza thought. Her memory of it is so vivid, yet still sticks in the back of her mind.

She could remember the faint visages of the past, and the sunrays that blared down upon her on that rooftop.

Kazuki was standing just a bit away from her, staring out into the metropolis of Anagora. He remained motionless.

She had summoned him here for an answer. She needed one. That was all she wanted. Her mind snapped to her old, cold persona - the shell and husk of what she used to be.

Stepping forward, she confronted him. “Kazuki.”

He remained silent. The air blew throughout the rooftop garden on Sarimba High. He has to answer her, she’s skived a lesson just for this! She needs confirmation… Just something only he may know. That was all she asked for.

“Kazuki,” she repeated herself. “Don’t make me report you for skipping lessons.”

“What differences does it make?” Kazuki snarled. “I get in trouble. I still breath, I still bleed. Nothing changes. For all I care, do it.”

“No, that is not what will happen,” explained Eliza. She placed her hands in front of her, the blowing wind bearing down on the two of them. The sun kept its rays locked onto them. “You were with my sister during the incident, correct?”

He slowly nodded.

Eliza asked a simple question. “Who do you think killed her?”

His body jolted around. For a moment, she swore she saw a flash of steel within his golden eyes. The two stared at each other. The sight... had unveiled a freak... Scars and burns littered his face, with two dead golden bulbs illuminating from his eye sockets... So this was Kazuki?

Eliza expected worse.

She wanted an answer from him, no matter how harsh it may seem to ask of him.

Her face had none of the calmness, nor the empathetic spark… That was just how Eliza remembered it. How awkward it was to dream of this…

“What kind of joke is this?”

The same response as everyone else. Was he no different? Was he just another fool that can’t answer her burning question?

No. That was not the case. It cannot be the case, she thought and deliberated to herself for a moment - he must think something deep down. “It is not.”

“I…”

Eliza stepped forward, standing beside him. Both wore the uniform of Sarimba High, black shirt with the blazer, but Eliza had not brought her ceremonial cloak. She shuddered slightly as she stared off the distance. She waited several years, she can wait a few minutes more for his response, her cold mind thought.

Somewhere deep down, Eliza felt a sense of embarrassment that she had to act so uncharacteristically close to him.

“I know who killed her,” said Kazuki.

Eliza’s dead-red eyes slowly burned to life, she looked over at him. The two were the same height. She shuddered again at the wind. He was wearing a black shirt with a jacket beneath his blazer and uniform cloak. She wore the same, though with the regulation-standard white shirt - and her brooch.

The artificial autumn winds were harsh, cold, and freezing to Eliza. Even beneath her tights, her legs shudder for a moment. She steeled her arms, however, she won’t let this mere freeze get in the way of it all.

He spat out words, “I know who did it. Of course I know… I just can’t prove otherwise.”

She relaxed her face. It was the exact same mindset that she had, that feeling of truth that she cannot prove, no matter what. “Thank you,” she said. Kazuki cannot prove the existing truth! Finally, someone that she can speak to about this. She glanced away, back out into the depths of Anagora.

His eyebrows raised at her statement. She shuddered slightly again. He then paused, sighing, Eliza’s mind unravelled in its stresses, as she has finally found someone that she can trust - someone that knows the truth of it all.

“Kazuki…”

She felt something land on her shoulders, Eliza turned towards him, seeing Kazuki place his blazer back on, undisturbed by the winds or the cold. She looked down at herself, feeling the lukewarm heat of his jacket permeate around her Blazer, it was one of those heated jackets.

Kazuki just dropped his entire blazer, jacket and cloak on top of her. Her mind slowed down in all capacities, as she was finally met with something other than snarls about this, for so long has she waited. It’s him, it has to be him! He’s the key to it all!

“Thank you.” Eliza tugged the jacket tighter around her.

“You’re clever,” Kazuki stated. “That’ll cover some distance you need.”

Whilst she normally ignored such statements, she understood what Kazuki meant. He wasn’t talking about her academics, or anything to do with intelligence, she had none of that. She had brutal determination, a will that sees it to the end.

She made the right choice to skive a lesson, she thought. She opened her mouth, as a door behind them crashed open.

Her head snapped, though Kazuki’s merely turned slowly. A green haired Máwti guy walked out onto the rooftop garden, panting, he wore the uniform incorrectly, with the cloak wrapped around his waist. He pointed at both her and Kazuki.

“I’VE BEEN SEARCHING ALL OVER FOR YOU!” he shouted.

“You’re late!”

Eliza’s mind snapped at Kazuki’s remark.

“Nah, it’s still lunch.”

She snickered beneath her breath at his very obviously incorrect assumption. Slowly, the first layers of snow and ice melted away, but Eliza still felt cold. But deep within the ice, a beating warmth ignited into a fire. “You’re both skipping lessons, it seems,” Eliza remarked.

It seems Kazuki has a friend, Eliza thought. Well, the more the better, she thought…

Maybe if she asked a different question, the bolts and indifferent galaxy would have churned out another conclusion…