The situation is near perfect. Kazuki getting involved would ruin everything, even if he hadn’t built this situation, it felt directly in his avenue - and all he had to do was ensure Kazuki doesn’t blow things over like with Matt. Dominos fell right in their necessary places. Eliza’s outburst, met with the hail of steel by her dad, will sting the other members of the police council.

They wanted results, and many didn’t like the Commissioner. It’ll provide the base for a compromise, of course the AGENCY wouldn’t get full reign, but an advantageous compromise was well on the table. It was perfect, the fact that it would only damage Eliza was a necessary sacrifice, small in scope; but he knew that Kazuki would understand that. Though, he has been acting more erratic ever since the rebellion… Archius wondered if this correlation truly was causation.

He looked down at his coat, adorned with a single visitor holo-card, printed onto his chest. It had a fake name, of course, Kevin, consultant to the regional CRIS janitor-frigate manager. It was a joke title, of course.

Eliza quivered for a moment. “What does my sister have to do with any of these proceedings?”

“Everything. It’s why you’re with the Contract-Breaker, is it not?” asked Frederick. Interesting… out of the box and quite uncalled for - but unless Kazuki responds: everything should go as predictable as possible. However, it seems much harder done than said. Archius gave Kazuki another reassuring pat on the arm, their eyes skimming glances. He must understand, yet something was burning inside those bulbs of his.

Kazuki closed his eyes for a moment, ignoring Eliza’s glance towards him. And in a heated moment: she stood up.

She grimaced at Frederick. “He has been a greater ally to me than you ever have been, Dad. And my work with him is not a matter of family concern,” complained Eliza, trying to force the conversation back on track.

“It’s been so long since what happened, and you still can’t move on, can you? Actually, I’m not even surprised,” remarked Frederick, battering his daughter’s statements away uncaringly. “You’ll never find a satisfying answer.”

Kazuki’s eyes opened. Archius jotted that down, something in Frederick’s words warranted him to take note. It was quite obvious, but it was fun to meander in thoughts. Kazuki glanced over at Archius, an eye-to-eye warning not to pry further, it seemed that even without a word uttered, Kazuki could feel when his life was being pried into. Archius nodded, but as he mentally apologised, he couldn’t help but speculate.

“Once again…” Eliza slowly faltered. Quinn, Lilly and Claire were not too happy with what was going on. Fuck, wild-cards, wilder-wild cards at that… They might intervene before the climax of this. But it’s a risk he must take, but they should say nothing, or if they say anything, it will increase the tension… But that would be a double-edged sword. “Victoria has nothing to do with this. Are we not here to discuss the investigations—”

“—Don’t ignore the question,” demanded Frederick.

By now, most of the officers sitting down were questioning what Frederick, their Commissioner, was doing. Even Paulus seemed a bit worried, feeling a measure of Sympathy for Eliza. Paulus glanced towards Kazuki, with a worried look.

“Victoria was everything you should have been. Elegant. Intelligent. Outgoing. But what did you become? You became a damn mockery of her. Ulysses never even tried. I should have always known… that you two were my greatest mistake. And now I have to watch as you stride pridefully with that brooch whilst your brother mocks our family—”

Kazuki maintained his composure, but Archius could see his patience slowly fade. HOLD, dammit! Archius gently tugged at Kazuki’s sleeve. But Kazuki had fury in his eyes, aching to stand up. But instead, he relented, sighing and looking down to the floor. Just hold on longer, thought Archius.

“—And you, do you really think you’ve made me proud? Kallender group at eighteen? Your mother was in at sixteen, both you and your monster are simply mockeries of your progenitors.”

Bringing up the Kallender group was a huge blunder, and risky. Kazuki might respond, being a member of that socialite club himself, though only joining because Eliza convinced him… on behalf of Professor Kallender.

Archius nearly forgot that he was in there as well, along with the entire Student Exec that year. It was a clever ploy, Archius thought, to get Kazuki in, it seemed like there were also other sly dogs out there.

Eliza finally burst out, not to defend herself, but for her brother, “Ulysses is living what you always wanted for us, normal lives… is that not what you fought the war for? So that we could grow up peacefully?!”

Frederick paused. He looked disgusted at his own daughter. “The Celestes were a prestigious custodian of the Empire in Imperial Times. I wonder what our ancestors would think seeing you... How are you her twin? If you’re just such a fucking failure…”

“Disgraced nobility,” Kazuki muttered under his breath.

Archius whispered to Kazuki, leaning in slightly. “Worry not, he’s of no concern. They lost their favour with the Imperials and sided with the Republic - he’s a very small fish next to very big players.”

Kazuki gripped the sides of his seat, holding himself back from shooting Frederick right then and there - Archius could see it in his eyes. He, meanwhile, felt nothing. He never felt anything to begin with. It was simply a matter of achieving a goal. But glancing at Eliza, she looked like a kettle boiling over with emotions. The weight of her brooch pulled her down, the dual purple flower insignias at war. The shard essence of a dead star god stirred in her brooch’s jewel, visible even to Archius.

“Failure…” Eliza muttered to herself.

Everything was coming together… but as Eliza opened her mouth, drops of water flicked onto the table. What? Looking up at her once again, he saw something he’d never seen her do before. She was crying. Archius’ eyes skidded towards Kazuki, raising himself from the seat. Released from his chains, he looked towards Frederick. Even without a single threatening motion, the guards on the other side all readied themselves for combat. Their hands were twitchy, and sweat poured down every man’s temple. It would have been a defeat, if not for the perfect situation to push a compromise.

Martinez stood up as well, gently pushing Eliza back down in her seat, before patting her on the shoulder. Everyone on the police’s side of the table felt bad for Eliza, of course, they would. Being violently berated and insulted by your own dad, in such a place as well. If they were parents, they would have understood what they fought the war for. Sympathy would flood in. Most were looking down at the table, whilst Frederick was seemingly too inflamed to even notice their disapproval.

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The mercs were all ready for a rough fight. Even Lilly, Kazuki’s personal commissar, saw the commissioner’s act as an insult. ‘Alright, Quinn, you’re off the hook. You aim for the throat, I’ll go for the guts. We can hang him by his intestines later.’

Bloody consequences, but fair. What’s fair or not didn’t really matter to any of them now. Kazuki took one glance at Archius, disgusted at what he just allowed. However, Archius simply stayed motionless, the objective was achieved, and he simply returned a slight shrug. He saw nothing more than that.

Kazuki spoke to Frederick directly, gesturing towards him, “The AGENCY will not work alongside the Narisan police. Especially if they are less professional than… whatever you are.”

“Watch your tongue, boy.” threatened Frederick, only to further aggravate violence and conflict between Kazuki. Now, all he had to do was suggest a middle-ground, one favourable for the AGENCY. In such a situation, the officers on Frederick’s side would be far less willing to support his full demands, with each word Frederick uttered being even damning for himself. Amazing… such a blunder and such a victory!

Archius stood up, placing his hands on the table as Claire escorted Eliza out. A necessary sacrifice, he reminded himself. “Hey, hey. We all want the same thing. Whilst we won’t work with the Narisan department, I can safely say that we are willing to cooperate with the senior command in an oversight sort of way.”

Paulus stood up, standing beside his superior with dark blue patrol armour. “I support Kevin’s assessment…”

To the surprise of the commissioner, most of the people on his side supported the compromise. Even though a conclusion was made and a deal was reached, bad taste still lingered in the air. The contractors were close-knit, and an attack on Eliza felt like an attack on all of them. And the officers definitely felt their professionalism diminish as some spoke to one another. Kazuki remained characteristically quiet, letting his glare do the speaking.

Frederick relented, reluctantly. With no one left to support him, he saw that there was no reason to continue fighting, even if his argument had sound reasoning behind it. Simply put his beratement of Eliza solved everything - and played directly into what Archius hoped for.

“I acquiesce, you will have your Judicial Enforcement extended to the rest of the High Table Oversector. But… do not fail madame Justice,” said Frederick, a look of disgust in his eyes as he glanced between Kazuki and Archius… Archius let off a small smirk, only visible to him - for just a second.

Kazuki gave a simple nod. And the attendees trickled out of the conference room.

‘What the fuck was that?’ Kazuki silently asked Archius over uplink.

Archius rolled his eyes. ‘Eliza’s use to the AGENCY is limited. Worthless, even, I made use of her, problem?’ Walking past Kazuki, Archius slid his uplink off.

∗ ∗ ∗

Rain slowly drizzled down on the balcony terrace. The police HQ was a floating island; guarded by a dozen shuttles. He needed to think. Archius went too far there, even if it worked. He’ll have to reign him in afterwards. But it’s done, they have approval.

He leaned on the shielded railing on the large terrace, succumbing to a headache as he popped a pill of Halolazil. These criminals, they must be dealt with… The late wind was high, as Kazuki glanced out towards the endless city. A thousand lights, a billion lives, trillions of stories…

The thought of containing all that knowledge was scary… But he’ll have to use the Analyspec sooner or later. Eliza’s investigation needs extrapolation, quantum-computer levels of that. Kazuki understands that he’s a database, but the spec and Eliza were the analysts.

‘Claire,’ Kazuki started. ‘What’s Eliza’s status?’

‘She’s still in the toilets… I—uh, I’m not suited to handle this, sir.’ reported Claire, ‘I’m guessing that that’s her father, then?”

‘Sadly, yes.’ Kazuki replied, ‘But do not downplay yourself. Eliza sees you as a friend, and a surrogate sister…’

‘Sister… Oh.’ Claire caught on quickly.

‘Yeah. Let’s not delve deep there,’ Kazuki ordered her not to pry, as she changed the matter.

‘Alright, but still it’s damn atrocious, are all blue-vests like this?’ asked Claire. ‘He’s just a fucking deadbeat.’

‘He wasn’t always like that.’ Kazuki remembered back to a time before when Frederick was normal. But those days are gone. Long gone. Kazuki leaned further, closing his eyes with a sigh. The cracks on his face felt weird. ‘Keep me updated on her.’

He felt a small vibration as the phase door leading to the terrace slid open. Judging by the footsteps, he could tell who it was before even looking. The blaring neon skylights of Anagora still bleed down and up at him as he twisted around - Claire simply gave an audible nod, cutting the link.

“What do you want?”

Kazuki was met face to face with Quinn. He looked worried, but it wasn’t the first time he’d seen him like that. He slowly walked to his side, placing his hands on the railing as he looked down at the surface, down at the thousands of lights that bleached upwards endless adverts as billboards.

“Narisa… I believed I’ve already told you, Kazuki, but—”

Kazuki already knew the background information. Quinn, Riharia and Petra were all from Narisa, a frozen wasteland. It turned into an atomic waste during the war, after it resisted the Imperial occupation and invasion.

“—I think I should be put on another contract…”

Kazuki remained silent. He collected his thoughts, and then he spoke, “No. You’re a local of Narisa, one of the only ones I know of. I insist on your involvement.”

“But… I just can’t go back, alright?” asked Quinn, “It’s not my home anymore.”

“Good. Then you’ll have no trouble pulling the trigger against anyone down there?”

“No…” Quinn trailed off. Then, he smirked and shrugged. “But hey, you might take all the kills before me.”

Turning the question towards competence was the best thing Kazuki could do, though he hated it, it was much more of an ‘Archius thing’ to do… Even he knew how the word of a member of the Seven, crim or merc, can be interpreted very differently. And he’s never bothered to get close to any of his men…

“I know it's rough,” Kazuki said. “For your troubles… I’ll pay you triple your regular rates for this operation.”

Quinn’s head perked upwards. “Hmm?”

“Riharia. I’m sorry for putting this on you. But I need to rely on you. Can I trust you with that?”

He paused, Quinn wasn’t too fond of what was going on. Kazuki didn’t care though. He needed Quinn on board. “I failed…”

For once, Quinn dropped the facade, showing a broken, dishevelled man underneath all the jokes, prodding and bravado. Kazuki’s face didn’t change.

“Just because I’m your boss doesn’t mean I’m removed from what you all feel,” Kazuki stated. Quinn looked surprised… “Let me worry about the dead, understood?”

Quinn looked into Kazuki’s dead eyes. A swirl of emotions were within Quinn’s. Kazuki couldn’t discern them. He couldn't begin with. Quinn slowly nodded. “Yes, sir…” he said.

Kazuki doesn’t want to carry any more names, any more stories. He doesn’t want to keep anyone close, and it seemed to have paid off with Quinn. Cyrus or Martinez probably would have shrugged it off. But Quinn? He ate it up. Riharia’s dead, Kazuki thought. And just like many others: he’ll survive the burden of her memory.

He placed a hand on Quinn’s shoulder. “I need you to be the operative the AGENCY needs for this operation. A professional AGENT that will put the mission above his own grievances. Can you do that for me?”

“Yes… sir.”

Kazuki replied simply, “Good.”

Turning, he took out another pill of Halolazil, instinctively, and downed it. And then he walked away, the drizzle of rain turning into a heavy downpour as Kazuki headed back inside.