"What are you?"" Kazuki asked himself. "Contract-Breaker... that's what you are, corpse... Not even a name, that died ten years ago, didn't it?"

The reflection didn't respond. A thousand images flashed through his mind. He remembered it all. Everything was so clear. He didn't need to ask the question. The guilt alone was worth it... It felt like a seismic weight upon him, the brooches in his hands. He dropped them into the sink, feeling the burden lift up from his shoulders.

The mirror reflected bright blue eyes. A legion of faces appeared alongside his face, all dead or dying, fading in visibility. The mirror seemed to be a pathway to the other side. Everyone glared.

They were everyone that died for him. Died because of him. Civilians. Operatives. AGENTs. Mercenaries.

None were exempt in his mind, for all died because of his actions. No matter how big or small, Kazuki knew he was guilty. Golden, uncaring eyes reflected the guilt upon the bloodied hands, shaking.

Now: Kantos and Irya have joined them, and the surrounding mass of bodies stared at Kazuki. He took note of one, Ipalia, one of his mercs. "You wanted to run away with Zym, didn't you?" Kazuki asked the hallucination.

It spoke nothing.

"Instead, you took a tank shell for him."

Then, he looked to another: a member of the Eden Initiative. Kieran. "All those laughs. All those spars. In the end, it didn't matter. Did it?" The faces faded, and Kazuki needed to stabilise whatever fragments of his mind he could muster.

Nameless corpses... who could ever understand the cost?

Placing his hand on the sink, Kazuki turned it on, letting the rushing waves wash out his blood. It was all that could still be washed away. His name was gone. The boy had died. All that he could do to change anything was through sacrifice and action. Be it iron or blood, Kazuki did not care.

Staring into the mesmerising whirl of the brooch jewels, Kazuki's mind started to drift... The clutches of his memories strangled around his throat and shoulders.

The dead were listening, awaiting his move, including himself – innocent blue eyes staring back in the mirror. The reflection moved… Kazuki was truly losing his mind, as he scoffed at his own weakness.

"You wanted this," said the reflection, mimicking Kazuki's voice. "You always wanted to control your own life… You're a slave. Contract-Breaker."

Clenching his fist, Kazuki slammed it into the mirror, shattering it into a dozen or more pieces. Despite that, the reflection stared back. Despite everything he has done and thought, a shard of that scared boy remained.

Kazuki could see a thousand versions of him in the different shards. Everyone was him, but none of them were whole. The Contract-Breaker; The Boy; and The Prince - all shattered.

Who was he? Why... does he feel so strange? The twins were just tools. End of it, Kazuki fought against his meandering thoughts - as the memories started to cascade down into their chunks. His mind, on its own, clicked into place: playing back his memories.

Clutches of shadows muddied the murky waters around him. A single droplet unleashed the wave of death, clutching at his soul. The dead will answer, and the echoes of pasts covered and unravelled for him to see:

Muzzles were pointed at him. It was the pirates... A figure stood taller than all of them, with a face Kazuki couldn't recall. His brain simply ignored that error. His perfect memory was forgotten. "Hand the device over..." the man said.

The man had one hand placed around Victoria's neck, with a muzzle placed directly against her head. Kazuki's body couldn't move. What... what does he do? Kazuki already knew.

The questions on his lips were never to be uttered, information and truths that he must never state or think. The dam had broken. The engine room of the P-1 Station was cold... A few guards and employees were dead by the walls...

Kazuki's physical, bright blue eyes scanned over to them.

"They're dead! Focus on me, you stupid fucking child," the man shouted. Kazuki's gaze snapped back to him. He was holding Victoria hostage. He nodded to the particular device in his hands. "Let's trade, something for something, how about it?"

It was a deactivated deadman's switch. Uplink solder marks littered its makeshift design. Kazuki's peripheral vision took in all the muzzles, as well as the emergency lockdown button beside the door, just an arms' reach away. Could he... make it?

Kazuki's memory was now fully submerged in the pain and agony of his past. There was nothing to change the course of it. Why bother... Why bring him here? He asked.

"Don't try it, I'll gun you down before turning her head into a melt of tissue across the floor," the man said. "Don't test me, really, I love games, and I'm sure you love games as well, so let's play…"

The pirates in the room were armed to the fucking teeth. They wore the stolen uniforms of the staff, along with light vest-plates to cover their torsos. All of them were trained on this small child.

Kazuki's suit felt uncomfortable. He felt something choke up in his throat. He was shaking... Not a word was uttered as he stared directly into Victoria's eyes.

"Don't... Run… Kaz..." she choked out before the butt of the pistol came crashing down on her head.

It... shut her up. Kazuki held tightly onto the switch. What… did she mean? Whatever she meant, Kazuki had a decade to dread over it.

The puppet master pointed the muzzle at Kazuki. He must be a conspirator, Kazuki mumbled to himself in thought, was that... why he's here? Was one part of his brain trying to tell the other something? It must be. That must be it.

Kazuki analysed his memories. His source of suffering was no more than evidence to be sorted through. And his analysis will be silent.

Victoria was crying. The man signalled for Kazuki to throw the device over. "We won't kill her if you do exactly what we say, got it, kid?"

A moment of deliberation was all Kazuki could offer for the moment. Of course that was all he could muster. Because when compared to everything else... Just what could he do? There he stood, unarmed, unarmoured, surrounded by freemuzzles and criminals.

Nothing could be done. Still... Kazuki found himself guilty. He was guilty. He should have followed his brain... He should have run, but he cared…

His mercy was what killed Victoria. It was what killed them all. Either way, Kazuki had blood on his hands…

He turned back to the dead guards and staff… They were so fucking close… But Victoria and Kazuki got in the way…

Their final moments flickered in his eyes, gunfire rippling across the steam pipes. Bodies falling, one for one. Then… Another joined the fray. And all guards were silenced. All survivors were executed.

No one remained… Not a single person survived that encounter. He remembered the head guard… Felpt… First to die. Then the rest. Then Victoria… Throat slit by her best friend, a mere moments away from rescue…

Noah and Frederick's eyes judged him guilty. Then, Kazuki, the boy, bled out. But this memory was not for him to pity himself.

Kazuki knew what he was to do next. He lobbed the detonator across the room. Victoria was shoved forward as a loud screech echoed through the room. Victoria stumbled into Kazuki...

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Ears still ringing, Kazuki glanced down at Victoria... She was... bleeding from her leg. Kazuki's blue eyes started to shake violently. Kazuki's head tilted up...

"What?" The man smiled through a shadowed and misted face - redacted for his mind to understand. "She's alive, let me tell you that."

Kazuki had nothing to say to the snide remark. The detonator was in their hands... Victoria muffled her own cries.

"I'm sorry..." Kazuki muttered to himself.

Everything else was vivid, as Kazuki was losing blood. His body was burnt… A dark browned haired man with blue eyes was carrying both him and… Noah. The station was tearing itself apart.

The man wore a police uniform over a suit, shouting. Kazuki couldn't hear a damn thing.

People were on the floor, screaming, trapped under rubble. Kazuki could remember each cry for help, left abandoned by security… said security was gunning down anyone that wasn't on the 'list' for the escape pods…

So much blood was spilt. It didn't even matter, the escape pods were released early.

It was… horrendous. Kazuki stomached it. The cries, the dead, the explosions… And all those newsreels… He could remember, year after year, all of those fucking reels.

All spouting their prayers and nothing more for the dead, all on his birthday. To them, that incident was no more than a statistic, but to Kazuki… Those faces… All those reports… He cannot forget. Flashing lights of memories and guilt - all coming back at him. They slammed into his mind the moment, again and again and again. No rest for the wicked. Only the dead have seen the end of war, but the corpse still lives, where the child died so long ago.

And once more, seventeen billion, three hundred and fifteen million, twenty-nine thousand and eighty-eight lives were silenced. Kazuki could see all their faces, their screaming, malformed faces, burnt and scarred.

The remains and wreckage on Anagora's surface were shown to him… By none other than Frederick. Mangled limbs protruded from rubble. The cries of children silenced come night.

Kazuki caused all of this… He was thankful that Eliza did not know… Because there was more to him than she could ever understand. And how could he ever explain this to her?

All screamed. None of them was heard. Only he was made to witness their suffering… Even as he suffered through more, he could only ever see the statistic.

The layers of pathetic irony that crushed Kazuki made itself clear to him. He remembers all. But when it comes down to it, he remembers nothing.

He is just a pathetic welp.

Kazuki then stood alone in his room, webs formed in the corners. His bed was unmade. Bloodstained it ever so slightly.

One golden eye remembered him of his dual existence. He walked out and looked down at the large penthouse. Yuki was watching television with her parents.

The prodigal child was forgotten. Kazuki chuckled to himself, remembering how he once thought of throwing himself from the balcony, just to get their attention for once.

Maybe… Misty and Yamagata would care if he was maimed again?

But he was a coward. Despite everything, Kazuki lived.

Years passed. Training… Fighting… Kazuki held himself against what Hartius and Freyja taught… Kazuki tried to play his own game.

Kazuki's mind exploded with thoughts of creating new rules… How naïve he was. How idealistic. How… stupid…

He remembered touching the grip of that pistol… The first time he truly fired to kill… That day Freyja burnt them all to the ground. It was do or die. And Kazuki failed.

The severed heads of a hundred fellow recruits scanned through his mind like a film. Kazuki's one remaining blue eye ceased to exist.

Nothing of his comrades remained.

All burned and charred to ashes.

Kazuki stared at himself, gold eyes… Only gold. Blue glints lined his eyes, a dead reminder of what he once was.

The rebellion merely killed more of his men… How many of his operatives does he even know?

It must be only a few hundred by now. Fewer? Faces are replaced, but the hopes and dreams they held for him must not be forgotten. Kazuki's golden eyes crackled in laughter at his suffering.

They mocked the boy who died. They mock him. But it was these golden eyes that watched… heard… listened to them.

He was alone in this, like always. He killed them all… And now Kazuki reigns supreme. The Contract-Breaker. All Hail the Contract-Breaker. The High Director is dead, Felix and his men cried…

The study formations and rigid memories burnt to liquids. Vivid thoughts replaced what should have been clear moments.

He cannot remember. He must not remember, he must suffer, for it is his duty to bear the pain of others…

Another thousand vivid images flashed into his mind. He ate alone, slept alone, and worked alone. Even now, at the height of his power, Kazuki was alone. He worked from his office from dawn till the next week's dust.

This… was a moderate price.

The thoughts of all his men flashed before him, all with their nuances and hobbies… So many dead. A little over half of his original rebellion remained. So many smiles had turned to ash.

All the same, here he remained. Remembering.

"I'm sorry," Kazuki told himself. "All you had to do… was wait… Push yourself harder, Kazuki… Victoria… You killed her… Just a moment away from help…"

Kazuki kept monologing to himself. The mess of thoughts was not enough to hammer Kazuki's thoughts down into stone and slab.

"They could have saved her… You were weak…" Kazuki was weak. Kazuki is weak. Kazuki will be weak. And Kazuki died.

Nothing happened. Nothing changed, did it? He was guilty of actions under duress, yes... Still, that was no excuse, Kazuki thought. He had a chance to stop the Incident in its entirety... Sacrifice Victoria, for all of them. Yet... He chose her.

He grabbed the sides of the sink harder, cracks forming along the smooth and sturdy marble. The water was running, drowning the brooch. Its blood was cleared, leaving nothing left for Kazuki to think of.

It doesn't matter either way.

Victoria died anyway.

"You know what you are."

His delirious mind nodded. The shadows in his mind told him many things. Kazuki's hand started to shake. He was... losing it. He gripped harder, and the cracks in the marble started to widen.

No Halolazil was needed. He'll bear this pain head first, even as the shaking unsteadied his bloody grip. Taking out the warm stone he took from Yuki, Kazuki felt like crushing it.

It'll summon Pi. His most loyal phoenix. Pi will comfort him, he knows. However, comfort was not what he wanted. Kazuki slid the stone back into his pocket. Kazuki forced his breathing to calm down.

Then, his peripheral vision caught a figure in the mirror.

Kazuki's senses alerted him to behind. A swift motion from his blade slashed at the figure behind him… Only to find nothing. Huh? Kazuki's dagger missed? But… there was nothing there to begin with.

Turning his eyes to the mirror once more, all that was left was the corpse of the blue-eyed boy.

The skin on his hands was ripping, slowly bleeding.

"Contract-Breaker." The word was all he could mutter. The pain stopped. Who was he? He's the Contract-Breaker... They all call him that. Best of all... They're right. Kazuki's dead, the Contract-Breaker thought. The boy died that day.

And he will not return. No matter what.

All that is left for the walking corpse is to burn it all to the ground. His final judgemental crescendo. Alone, here, in the depths of his own self-hatred, Kazuki remained adamant: "You died... ten years ago, Kazuki. Why am I the one left?"

The corpse could see the memory's judging glare in the reflection. Blue eyes met gold. Judgement was passed down onto him. Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Kazuki rammed the words through his heart and soul.

"Just... why did I do that?" Kazuki asked himself. He looked at his scarred hand, his burnt body, placing his head in his hands.

What's in the past is in the past, Kazuki thought. He'll make justice happen one way or the other. He'll make things right... Whether she likes it or not. And Noah? Maybe it's time to revisit that contract his family made with him.

Everyone is here, Kazuki thought. All it takes is a little push, and they all die. The only problem would be Lady Antiar and Sir Icarus. The Knight's top dogs, but he doubted they'd last if he decided to overclock his exospine. He half-assed it with Svenn, giving him only moments of energy. Doing it fully, though? It'll give him an hour of pure death.

You are the Contract-Breaker, Kazuki affirmed to himself, biting his own tongue. You are a tool. Discarded. Abandoned. You don't need to feel a thing.

But like any good tool, keep at it. Keep at it until you bleed to death. That is who you are. Never forget that…

That was enough, he concluded. Whatever it takes, he'll see his mission through. Whether he walks through the hail of bullets alone or not is of no concern. Many behind him have fallen. Too many.

Too much guilt on the hands of this one singular person. All he must do is march on forever forward, alone or not. At that moment, something snapped in Kazuki. He extended a hand out to the cabinet above the mirror, taking a jar of Halolazil amongst the entire stack.

"Fuck…" Kazuki cracked open the jar, his hands still shaking as he swallowed a dozen in one go. At that, Kazuki felt much better… A temporary solution to his permanent problem.

Do justice… Whatever that meant, alone or not.

Bring justice to Victoria's memory… Bring peace and justice to the conspirators and all the victims of their greed… Alone or not.

Then, when all is said and done, die. Alone or not.

Kazuki stared at himself in the reflection. His younger, unmarked self stared back. The glint and haze of blue was all that was left of Kazuki, burned and drowned in gold.

The last part of Kazuki was gone. The Contract is discharged, and the last thing holding onto Victoria's memory ceases.

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