Eliza didn't look at Kazuki, her head was planted forward. "Oh, did I come at a bad time?" Her voice was different.

It was colder, more reminiscent of her old self, back in High School.

"No! Never an inconvenient time to have some ramen!" he replied.

After that, the two sat in silence. The chef then approached them, placing two identical bowls of ramen in front of them, with additional Spritu Turnip cake. "I'll go clean up shop for the night, you two take your time... with... yeah."

Kazuki nodded and began to eat. Eliza did the same... The chef left, returning back into the kitchen. A few private drones hovered around, though were clearly rigged to shut off on timers. They also had chains on them, directly linked to their power charges.

"So..." Kazuki started. "You're going to tell me that Vitellus didn't deserve that, right?" Best get this out of the way. "Look. People. Die. People suffer. That's just the way it is. Blood churn this wheel, I learnt that you can't change that."

That's right, Kaz thought. No justice. No Justice at all.

Eliza said nothing in return. Kazuki rolled his eyes, slurping up ramen. He didn't have time for games. Kazuki was busy... at least he convinced himself that he was. But a ramen break was in order.

"Not that?" he asked. Kazuki looked behind him, seeing Cyrus standing outside the bar. "Alright..."

She's rarely quiet, this quiet at least. Never backing down from a determined response, Kazuki found Eliza's behaviour an anomaly. Eliza ate quick, faster than him. Soon, she was finished, placing the bowl back on the counter of the bar. A drone came around and took it, beeping and bopping in a 'thank you' gesture to her.

It also gave her a slight bow, before disappearing behind the counter.

"What is it?" Kazuki asked. "Or are you just brooding because you can?"

"What did you mean when you said I was… 'everything'?" She turned towards him. Finally, something he can respond to.

"Everything," Kazuki replied. "All of this… Everything has been an effort to protect you."

Eliza didn't seem to like the answer. She furrowed her brow. "So what's what you meant?"

Her blood-red eyes rose to meet his. "Do you promise to tell me the truth?"

Did something happen whilst he was away? Kazuki froze. He contacted Cyrus silently. 'What happened? Did anything happen?'

Cyrus responded to him directly. 'Blue-haired boy. I believe you are familiar with him.'

Shit... Shit. What did Noah say? At times like these, Kazuki's mind locked in. She kept looking at him, waiting for his response. If he says no, then what Noah told her will be nothing but true. It didn't matter if it was or not. Eliza's clever, she's a genius; but Archius and Delia have both proved she's not suited to this game…

At least Archius had the decency of showing it to her.

"Yes."

Eliza's reply was immediate, "Have you been keeping something from me this whole time?"

Kazuki's face maintained neutrality, not giving off any signs of weakness, stress or troubles within. "No," he replied.

She stopped entirely, looking at him with bloodied eyes. They grew, contrasting her pale, freckled face. Eliza grumbled. "Don't think I can't see your eyes droop slightly. You're lying… aren't you?"

"What?" Kazuki only then realised that what she said was true. His golden eyes were looking ajar, avoiding Eliza's face.

"How long have you been keeping things from me?" Eliza asked. "I... didn't ask much because of how touchy the subject was, but some things rub me the wrong way, and my instincts rarely lie…"

Kazuki was prepared for Eliza to say the words 'You killed my sister'. It had to come out of her. It... just had to. It must come from her.

If she said that, it would be the only thing to keep him sane. He kept up his dead face. Within, he was on fire. Should he shoot himself?

Vindicate himself in ritualistic suicide?

That would easily end it all. Objectively, that was easy! He has a gun on him, two... And numerous knives and tools. If he just pulled it and shot himself, she wouldn't get the satisfaction of confronting him! Yes... it was... No.

He had a duty to uphold. One that Victoria died for him to complete. A promise that the Contract-Breaker must uphold.

"I..."

"My father and Noah dragged you to safety," Eliza said. She raised her head high, looking down at him. "What else have you been keeping from me? Next... I'm going to learn that you... dragged Victoria—"

Kazuki's calm snapped completely.

He never wanted to do it. What kid would ever want to kill their best friend? But that was Kazuki... Kazuki's long gone, gone to the winds. Everyone knows that.

Kazuki returned with a lethal, golden glare.

"—you think I murdered your sister?" the Contract-Breaker sneered. Kazuki kept his glare up. "What do you know, Eliza?"

To hell with calming her down. Kazuki elected in a split-second moment to embrace who he is.

Eliza frowned. "Irya and Kantos are dead, Kazuki! So many have died! And you… why are you unwilling to just bend before you break?! You've been acting strange, and far more troublesome than usual. And then I learn that you're hiding things from me?! Is that what 'everything' means to you?!"

Kazuki paused. He found it hard to choke the words out of his mouth. He had to say this but found it impossible. He clenched a quivering hand, enduring it without Halolazil.

"A loss. But we make do with bad hands," Kazuki said. "If I withdrew information, it was for your own safety." A slip, a singular slip but Kazuki had been able to mask it with a glare.

At that, Eliza's face turned slowly to disgust. Disgusted at him… for using the twins' deaths in such a manner. But it was all Kazuki could do. They were smart businessmen and had a vendetta against Obadiah.

Kazuki knew to some extent that they'd feel like this was right. They'd feel this justice.

But they are dead. They will not feel it. Nothing can vindicate him. Fuck it.

Fuck it all.

A strange feeling about the twins emerged. Disappointment… Guilt… Regret… He didn't push himself hard enough, and this was the outcome! Dammit… Kazuki has rested on his laurels for too long.

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The Contract-Breaker must reestablish order.

First in line: this charade.

So many have fallen to him; too many wounded. Why not add another? Let's hurt Eliza.

"Fired charred my skin. Cooked me alive. Explosions and rubble broke my spine. I couldn't move. I felt people trample over me," he remarked, staring at Eliza. "You have not the slightest clue... and here you judge me."

"Judging you!?" Eliza shouted; she stood up. "You have been keeping secrets from me! Things that I should have known?! I think I should have been privy to the fact that Noah was there with you. Why can't you see that someone like him can help us… We might have gotten our information if he was on board, especially if Archius was helping!"

"He was there," Kazuki said.

She continued, "Then if what he said was true: you're keeping more things from me! Kazuki! Shouldn't I have known that Noah was there!? He could have helped us!"

Kazuki glanced to the side, seeing his reflection in a series of cutlery within a small cup. "Noah... Yeah… I withheld that information from you."

"Why?!" she shouted, placing a hand on her forehead and rubbing it thoroughly. "I've been stuck with your antics for so long, you threatened Obadiah! That's the reason we're in this mess in the first place! You're rude, mean, cruel! Václavos! I don't care if whatever your industry or whatever, Václavos is one of your subordinates! Who's next? Claire? Quinn? Lilly...? Me?"

Standing up, Kazuki nodded. "Maybe," he said. "And my antics as reasonable... Look around you, Eliza. This station is filled with scum, scum I was contracted to protect. But that has changed… I now protect you and your interests."

Kazuki downed his ramen instantly, shoving the bowl onto the counter. Of course, he made a loud slurp of the ramen as he did so. "Thank you," he said quietly, before standing up.

He left the shop, with Eliza angrily chasing after him. "So You judge every book to be guilty all the same? The same as they judge you guilty?!"

"Because they are," Kazuki snorted. "I did what I had to do. They do it for themselves."

"And what is that?" asked Eliza, staring through him.

Kazuki answered, "To further our interests, everyone's interests."

Eliza shook her head. "What?! You… What makes you think that lying… threatening… beating up your own men is forwarding our interests? Noah was willing to help… Not only did you withdraw that help, but you actively stymied it."

"I…" Kazuki faltered. His lips would not move. Why… could he not speak? Václavos… He deserved his small punishment, Kazuki thought. Steeling himself, he answered Eliza, "Everything I did was to help you. No matter what. Do you understand?"

"Bloody… You're… I thought we were equals in this, but… you say you're protecting me, yet you withheld information from me, critical information! You're STILL withholding something from me, aren't you?"

Kazuki didn't respond.

It was probably all Eliza needed to hear.

She narrowed her stare. "Who are you to protect me?" she snorted.

Golden eyes immediately rushed up to face Eliza, staring down at her, before relenting. He found himself unable to respond.

"Wait…" Eliza was dumbfounded by Kazuki's… lost look, then backtracked. "I… uh…"

"I…" The veil that the Contract-Breaker had put up faded, for a mere moment. All Eliza saw was just… Kazuki. Then, the glare snapped back into place.

He looked out onto the plaza floor, below and above. Not even hours after and everything was running like clockwork. An announcement came on, from Fer-Charelota...

'Good evening, everyone. As you all may be aware,' he said through the intercom. 'There has been an incident revolving around the drones and security robots. An investigation by the Knights and law enforcement is underway, and we encourage all attendants and staff to report any suspicious activity. Moreover, all drone usage will be limited to the bare minimum, and all security robots and drones are to be sealed within their crates for the foreseeable future.'

Down below, there were dozens of people, brooch-wielders. He noted a few of them: the head of the Republic's Ministry for Energy... Several senators... All intermingling with business magnates and more. Eliza stood behind him, some distance away.

Time to meet the spotlight.

"Through blood and steel alone," Kazuki stated, covered in plasters and bandages. "Threats exist in every corner."

"You judge them the same way they judge you... your answer does not change that," Eliza said. "You only care whether you get what you want, right?"

So naive. "Look around you, Eliza. What do you think the centre of power in the Republic is?"

"The senate…" she said. Oh... The naivety has poisoned her to the point of no return. He convinced himself that she was just another pawn in someone else's game. "The will of the people... I know the Republic isn't the best, but the Republic is stronger than any one generation of sycophants or... corrupt politicians."

As such, his perception locked into place.

It didn't matter if she was Victoria's sister. A pawn is a pawn, to be sacrificed no matter what. "And yet it begets and begets. Neverending cycle. It cannot break."

Maybe if this pawn lives long enough, she'll become something worthwhile.

Eliza's eyes scowled. "You don't think this way, really, right?" she asked. It was an inquiry bordering on near farse… An insult to the truth.

"What? The fact that we live in an illusion?" Kazuki jeered. "Let the mindless folk meander in their sandboxes of ballots. This place is where things are truly done. This is the centre of power. A single press of my exospine and half will die by the hour's end."

"You're insane..." she spat out.

Was he? Yeah… Yeah! Fuck yeah! He's insane! She's right, no doubt about it! To be a member of the Seven, on either side of the coin, one must lose himself only to grasp themselves together.

If that was what she thought, time to prove it. Kazuki gestured out to the wide shopping centre around, the lobbies and arrays of floors. He pointed past a large tubular aquarium in the centre of the lobby, past the small leviathans swimming around.

Aristocrats, families, corporate businessmen and women… So many people… So many targets. "Half are here because of inheritance. The other are here because they played the game correctly. Nothing more…"

"What game!? You're treating all of this as if it's just a simple… board game!" Eliza frowned and paced around him.

Kazuki shook his head. "Not a board game. The Board Game. Look around you… The letter of the law is just that. Letters. No weight… Not to these people."

Eliza remained silent.

"If I decided on a whim that they deserved to die, do you know what will happen?" Kazuki asked. Eliza's face grew pale with fear. That's right, he thought, this was what he was. The Contract-Breaker. How come she didn't know that? "Nothing. They simply die. And nothing changes."

Eliza furrowed her brow in anger, slapping Kazuki across the face with her glove. "You call yourself the Arbiter, don't you? Didn't you take the role to do better?! Do more than those who came before you?!"

"Those before me and I are the same. We serve the Republic... What a joke," Kazuki snorted. "All sheep, traded by wolves masked as shepherds. This Republic was founded on the illusion of justice, peace and love!" Kazuki snorted again. "There are no shepherds, the wolves have seen to it – and we all pay."

To thrive in the shadow, one must lose their mind. It is the only choice.

"I can see your face, Eliza." Kazuki glared off into the distance. "It's the same as all of them. I know it is. Their judging eyes. Their judging faces..." He clenched his fist. "I'll turn their hate and disgust into fear. The question is: are you one of them?"

This was who he was, Kazuki thought. He can never forget this. After all, he's just an insane… drugged-up psychopathic mercenary. Let's hurt Eliza, he repeated.

Kazuki turned back to Eliza. His jet-black hair and burnt figure extended upwards. His exospine clocked in with energy, gold glaring down at her.

"So much for being an Arbiter…"

An Arbiter? Kazuki scoffed. A name, a title, a mockery given to him by those who he buried. "What do you think I am, a judge? An Arbiter? No… I'm a living weapon, like that Shard Lady Antiar has… Nothing more and nothing less than a tool."

"A tool for what?!" Eliza's exasperated expression turned to meek frustration.

"Justice. Not whatever justice this unjust galaxy has in store. Justice. To hurt those who hurt others. To right wrongs in blood. That's how things are done, Elizabeth." Kazuki stood firm, before gesturing to the space around them. "I've bled. I've fought. I've seen just people die. Unjust people thrive. When push comes to shove, blood pays for blood, nothing else."

Out of all the people in the galaxy, Kazuki never expected Eliza to wear those eyes.

"We're done," Eliza said. "Pack up your things."

She turned and walked away. Cyrus paused for a moment, wondering if he should follow Eliza or not. Kazuki nodded at him. The half-giant nodded back and ran after Eliza. Kazuki was now left all alone... A moment passed as the Contract-Breaker waved away his thoughts.

All that was left to him now was a mission that didn't wish for him. It somewhat hurt, but Kazuki had no reason to hold onto his feelings.

All must wither. All must die, all must burn for his justice, because only in the death of his enemies, will he know that Victoria's… all those Victim's deaths will be vindicated.

However, as Eliza left, a single thought remained: why did he do that?

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