"Huh?" Kazuki looked at Svenn, confused at the blaring alarms. Despite that, everyone seemed orderly, almost as if a switch turned on in their heads.

Svenn grabbed a thick winter coat from a coat hanger. He threw it at Kazuki, who caught it and put it on. "Roll call, dammit... I thought this would be later. Just put that one and follow me, alright?"

Kazuki nervously nodded, feeling the waterproof fabric tighten around his bloodied exospine. Then, Svenn led the group of pre-teens away. Kazuki followed suit, trailing at the back. He didn't know what was going to happen, but no one was speaking.

In fact, everyone seemed to have their eyes on the floor.

A head peered back to Kazuki, Václavos. Whistling whilst shifting backwards, Václavos walked side by side with Kazuki. "Hey, K... Kazumi?"

"Kazuki."

Václavos clicked his fingers and nodded before he quietly commented, "Uh, yeah, Kazukimi, we'll be fine, don't worry."

"Huh?"

Václavos shrugged, then walked forward again into the crowd. Walking through the grated halls and maintenance shafts, Svenn eventually led them all into a large hangar bay. It was freezing, chilly…

Svenn remarked, "Your two other mentors are here… The She-Wolf and the Reaper."

Instantly, Kazuki's soul dropped. The Archreaper?! Hartius Juun himself? Kazuki nearly froze in fear. And the She-Wolf? That brutal woman of war?

Kazuki had heard of stories about them all the way back from the war and before that… These were beasts, he thought. Less human than any of them. Though as Kazuki breathed hot steam out, he realised that he was no different.

The group was assembled in the centre of the hangar, full view of... no one? Kazuki looked around, noticing that Svenn was standing off in the back. He gave Kazuki a thumbs-up and a smile.

A sense of familiarity was not present. Kazuki's eyes couldn't see the hallucination. Did she… leave him again?

Shit, he can't focus on that. Something bad was going to happen! Even Václavos knows. Kazuki turned his head back and forth as the hangar doors opened ajar. Steam puffed out of the door's hydraulic mechanisms.

The smog rose, revealing two silhouettes entering the hangar.

One looked like a behemoth of a person, whilst the other was slender, shorter and smaller. Then, Kazuki saw their faces.

In a brief moment of exposure, Kazuki's mind glimpsed the Death Shard, the shard said to be used by the Harbingers of old… It clung to the neck of this beast… This behemoth.

And Kazuki's artificial heart stopped. Its cogs clicked in fear. Adrenaline pumped up across his systems.

They walked and stared down the formation.

Kazuki cowered in fear at the back. He took a sneaking glance at the two at the front... The First and Third of the Seven Mercenaries were in Kazuki's presence.

Dread and amazement engulfed Kazuki's veins and nerves.

Hartius Juun's large and imposing presence was only highlighted by his glare, reinforcing the mere notion that all here have come to die.

The Archreaper had both an arm and a leg visibly replaced with augmetics. It was… unnatural. Was he an Artigonal, Kazuki asked himself. If he was, he thought, then he was worse than dead.

He had heard rumours.

Artigonals tortured their victims.

Modified them.

'Upgraded' them.

Turned them into creatures… Yet the Archreaper did not dare move, and Kazuki tried to find some solace in the fact that this lord of war was not an Artigonal Supremacist.

Though his eyes were not visible, the glare was ever-present. Frejya Beamont, the She-Wolf, had a calm smile dug into her face, with her dark purple hair and deathly black eyes.

Then, her eyes clashed against Kazuki's quivering blue and dead gold. His face faltered, and he turned to the ground. Footsteps! Shit... She saw him! Slowly, a hand dragged Kazuki forward.

Kazuki pushed against it, but found his grasp locked under an ironclad grip.

"Please..." Kazuki choked out. Then, Kazuki… calmed down. If this were to be his grave, then Kazuki wasn't too saddened.

The She-Wolf dragged Kazuki forward. Then, she threw him on the ground. He was humiliated in front of everyone. Even the Archreaper dismissively glanced at him.

His exospine clicked to life. Kazuki scrambled backwards, staring up at the She-Wolf Beamont. Her own exoskeletal system was buffering to life – revving like a Belsaran chainlance.

"Don't try playing tricks with me, because my eye catches a little Prince!" Freyja jeered, gesturing to his exospine.

Slowly, Kazuki looked upwards. Hartius Juun, arms crossed, grumbled.

Slowly turning back to Freyja, Kazuki saw her exospine light up red. Her body relocated itself beside him in under a flash, before she grabbed him by the collar, lifting the pathetic kid.

"Oh, worried? That was just to let you know that resistance is futile. Isn't that right, Har-tiu-us?" She had a wide grin, eyes brimming with malice as her head twirled to Hartius.

"Unhand him, She-Wolf. He is just a boy." Strange words left the behemoth's mouth. "I need initiates, and I will not allow you to harm this one…"

With that, Freyja released Kazuki, his body falling onto the moist concrete below.

For a split moment, the notion of the Archreaper faded, and Kazuki saw the concerns of an old man… angrily glaring at those preying on the children he had set to train.

The She-Wolf groaned and rolled her eyes, playfully stepping away before turning back to the rest of the group.

"But he is no initiate! Look at him. He reeks of riches! Svenn! What rat have you brought to us?!" she shouted with a hint of amusement in her voice, eyes sparkling before she licked her lips.

Without Kazuki noticing, Svenn was standing behind him, dragging Kazuki to his feet.

"That's none of your fucking business, She-Wolf! Director James has him in. He's in, you don't get a say in this!"

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"Aye, but he can't kill, can he?" Frejya mocked Kazuki. "Everyone here has sinned; you are no different, Svenn. We're stolen, we've killed… All to survive this galaxy. But this boy? No. Look at his eyes, see how they lie, behold what arrogant flag he flies!"

Kill... No. Kazuki can't kill, right? What the fuck was he even thinking? Kazuki shook his head, seeing the figure of the hallucination by the hangar doors.

His blue eye and gold steadied at Freyja. "Oh? Finally getting a killing urge after having your ego crushed, hmm?" she asked.

Out of nowhere, Freyja's exospine lit up. The silence turned to a chaotic murmur reeking with anxiety. A flash of light careened forward and back. The She-Wolf revealed another initiate on the floor.

"An eye for an eye, I suppose?" Freyja suggested, before cackling with a wide smile. "Do you have what it takes, little Prince?"

Hartius cut in, "That is enough, Freyja." He stepped in between Kazuki and Freyja as the initiate was muttering to herself.

"Don't try anything stupid, understood?" Svenn whispered to Kazuki. "Promise me that, m'kay? Be a good kid."

Kazuki anxiously nodded.

"I'm roughing him up for the slaughter, Hartius! He won't survive unless he learns our way!" Freyja raised her voice. "None of them will."

The rest of the initiates were frozen in fear, no one looking at the pinned initiate as they whimpered.

Kazuki stared down at her, her pale, freckled face and—

He felt a gunshot rack through his mind.

The initiate was whimpering, staring lifelessly at Kazuki. Their brown eyes were turned red, and suddenly, Kazuki found himself back there. Everything was burning. Back burnt. Fire. Blood. Glass. Shards. Everything Kazuki believed was a blaze.

Rubble... Kazuki's lungs were filled with dust and screams. Yet something shook him to reality, to the fractured shards of this memory.

Something was placed in his hands, clenched tightly around the grip.

It was a gun.

A revolver, with a green and white ended bolt in its chamber.

Now, it seemed that Hartius was fine with allowing this charade to go on. Kazuki, of course, knew not that it was a blank. Even though it was obvious, the real bolt had red tips.

"We have one too many initiates... Too many broken guns, not enough gun oil to go around." Then, she stepped to one side, gesturing to the initiate on the floor, refusing to move. "Go on. Kill her."

"Blegh?!?!" Kazuki took a step back, nearly dropping the pistol as it fell onto Svenn's coat. Kazuki's head shot up, staring at a regretful face.

"Do it..." Svenn murmured, gently reassuring Kazuki. "Be strong for her. Be strong for everyone."

What?! No. No! Kazuki looked back at the initiate. Her face was bloodied, and the floor beneath her had cracks. Hartius was... staring emotionlessly. The only man here who could stop her seemed to have given up on the notion.

"Do not fail me," Hartius sneered to Kazuki, before turning to Freyja. "Get on with it."

"Wait!" Kazuki shouted, voice cracking as he turned back to Freyja. He lowered his voice as he approached. "Kill me instead… You want to prove a point, right? Well… Here I am."

A pitiful reflection of his face shone in the She-Wolf's dead eyes.

The glare turned into a mocking frown as the She-Wolf was displeased by Kazuki's answer. "No one escapes the toll."

If someone here has to die, Kazuki thought, it'd be him. He had to die; he's already dead, after all. A shadow fell on Kazuki's face as he stared lifelessly into the She-Wolf's eyes. Kazuki raised the revolver, placing it to his chin.

With a sigh, Freyja snatched the revolver away. Then, she aimed and fired the gun into Kazuki's chest…

Kazuki expected the embrace of death to be… warmer. Instead, Kazuki had his eyes closed. Slowly opening them, he realised his mistake.

The blank bolt had embedded in the coat Svenn gave him… Then, it gently clanked onto the floor.

The weight was lifted, and Kazuki's artificial lungs finally took in heaps of oxygen. Kazuki turned back to the rest of the initiates. Kazuki expected something positive, yet they kept their eyes off of them, almost as if expecting something.

Then, Kazuki felt a splatter on his face... An oozing hot sensation rippled down his face.

Iron. It smelt of iron.

Familiar.

It was: blood!

Kazuki's eyes flickered back to Victoria's corpse, dead and still on the concrete as blood spread from her corpse, spreading its wings around him and constricting the life out of his very soul - eyes staring back at him.

Kazuki then realised: it wasn't Victoria. It wasn't her. It can't be her – because Kazuki already killed her.

Blinking, Kaz placed his fingers to his cheek.

The shards of the past faded to show a dead initiate, one Kazuki had no idea who they were. Freyja was calmly walking away, towards the doors of the hangar. Blood trickled from her footsteps, from the crushing force the She-Wolf had wrought.

In the reflection of the blood, Kazuki could see Victoria.

Kazuki's golden eyes faltered for a moment as he remembered the gush of blood from Victoria's neck. Then, Kazuki froze.

Hartius was standing right before him, silent as if he were a statue.

"Sir… I'm…" Kazuki trailed off.

"Blanks, little Prince," Hartius gently spoke, the voice betraying the notion of what he was. "Blanks. I would never have let her harm you or her – if you had succeeded in her test. Adapt, little Prince, because this galaxy will not adapt for you."

The Reaper knelt. Slowly, he placed his augmetic hand on Kazuki's shoulder, tightening his grip to get the little Prince's attention.

"Adapt, boy."

"I... can't..." Kazuki tried to look away, but his memory denied him respite. It always denied it. Kazuki's mind was assaulted with the sight until all his mind could see was blood and gore, guilt and rage.

This wasn't right. He shouldn't be here. But then again, Kazuki thought, if this were a just galaxy, then many things wouldn't have happened.

"Do." It was the one word that Hartius left him with before standing up and walking away.

Yet Kazuki remained planted, staring at the headless corpse. Svenn placed an arm on Kazuki's shoulder, trying to reassure him. Kazuki wiped the blood away, his blue eye still shaking.

"You were strong, but not strong enough," Svenn commented, before walking away. "I'll talk to you later."

"I killed her…" Kazuki murmured.

A hand patted him on the back before wrapping around his shoulder; Václavos shook his head.

"There were a lot more filled beds at the start… I should have told you, this isn't easy… We've been whittled down so much," he said, biting his tongue. "Caya was nice, she was good, and now she's gone… Don't beat yourself over it, got it, lil' Princy guy?"

A pensive eyebrow rose on Václavos' face.

"I could have saved her."

"We wish many things, but that bitch... that She-Wolf? No, you don't get your way with her. In the end, she wins... It's just how things go around here. Me, then her, the reaper, try to focus on what you can change."

It didn't change the fact that he could have acted. He could have pulled the trigger, shot the blank and saved her. Instead, Kazuki was a coward; the little Prince wanted to bite his own arm off, as if it would vindicate him of his sins.

However, the boy knew it would not. Such an act would never vindicate the crimes that he had allowed.

He was a child, but he was supposed to do better.

Be better.

Do the best that he can.

Just as his mother taught him.

Now, Kazuki was here, sulking in front of a carcass yet again.

Kiera walked up as well. She wrapped an arm around Kazuki's other shoulder. "Don't worry about it, alright? We're… used to it. We're not special, but… I guess that just means we care more 'bout the time we have left, or… something."

Glancing up, a look of sympathy glared across to him from the other initiates present… They didn't blame him?

A weight was instantly lifted from his shoulders. "Thank you…" Kazuki quietly murmured to himself. For once, he didn't feel like complete shit.

The notion of the She-Wolf came to Kazuki as a force of nature. In that very moment, Kazuki knew: he could NOT beat her.

"Hey, let's go get something to eat!" Kiera said, dragging Kazuki's head away from the cleaning drones. "You're rich, right? Let's eat at Caya's… life, or something."

Such disregard for death was strange to Kazuki, but he accepted it at face value. These were people born into misfortune circumstances. They grew up around death – but Kazuki knew death too.

"HEY, WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE DISCREET ABOUT THIS!" Václavos jeered.

The boy let off a small chortle, smiling.

It was never to last, Kazuki thought.

However, as Kazuki was finally getting used to all of this, a thought prevailed. Hesitation killed. Panic not and act… But how could Kazuki act? He stared at the strutting, dancing She-Wolf, twirling away in glee.

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