Kize immediately sensed something was off when Hiyori and Hasumi noted the JTF members making their way out through their scopes. It only amplified even further when they were relayed information about the nature of the depot.

"Gas canisters? So it's a chemical depot." Saori was quick to catch up.

"That's iffy. Could be poison gas, too. In which case, they're willingly staying in a trap." Mika observed. "But why?"

"So we won't fall for it." The JTF Member who went in proclaimed. Her gloves were still damp from clawing at her mask straps when they exited the depot.

"But why didn't they leave with you?" Kize brought up the bigger, perhaps more important question of all that left them in a sudden silence. Only then, did Misaki understood it best.

"You're an example, Sensei. They follow the ghost, just like we did." She nudged his ribs immediately after, a flinching sensation that did allow them a collective realization.

All this time, Arius relied on Kize. And for what it was going to be, he was beginning to become a mirror of what Beatrice was to them.

A savior. An influence.

For the first time, Kize looked like what he was: a man, not a ghost.

And it terrified him.

His arms trembled. Not from exhaustion. Never had. But from the weight of a role he never chose to be. His hands curled into a fist, the fingernails biting deep into his palm.The shadows of his hair concealed his squinting eyes as he stared at the desecrated ground, wondering how it all became like this. Why it became this way.

And then he spoke.

"We need to extract them."

The Shittim Chest hummed in his coat pocket. Arona's voice muffled, as if she took feared to speak.

——

He stood there, watching as the JTF struggle to drag their chairwoman, a very feral Tsurugi, away from the descending stairwell, screaming from her vocal cords while uttering some of the most animalistic sounds he thought no human could ever produce. A lot of them say that she naturally was like this to intimidate her enemies, while otherwise is perfectly calm, understanding and reasonable.

A single bullet was found slammed onto her forehead, a dent that quickly healed by the virtue of the student's halos. A whiff of the faint nitrous oxide and she quickly seemed rather relaxed.

He questioned back to his arrival. Of how it was met by an explosion close by, and the subsequent 'rescue' by Millennium's Seminar.

How normal was this... Children treating immortality like a given, while he bled through gauze they'd never need.

"Sensei."

Shun's voice cut through his thoughts. Glancing at the instructor of the Plum Blossom Garden, of whom began to carry a couple of the Nocturne Squad members, Kize only closed his eyes and looked away.

"Something tells me that there's some left behind down there," Mika stated, just in time for Arius Squad to come running in while the JTF was clearing the depot. All except the staircase.

"The loyalists? Most definitely," Nagisa quipped. Checking her handgun, the Walther PPK, she then glanced at Mika, who loaded her Lanchester Mk.I in preparation.

"We'll handle this, Sensei. Both Arius Squad and Tea Party. You head back," Saori told him. All that earned her was a side eye.

Silence, and no one moved, before Mika just... Laughed.

"Aww, come on. Let Sensei join along. He's like a walking warning signal. No one messes with a ghost, don't they?"

"Don't call him that." Atsuko spoke up, before glancing at Kize. "Don't stay behind, Sensei."

Kize said nothing, but the grip on the Shittim Chest was enough to let the AIs know of his status.

"Update: Heart rate elevated slightly. 82 BPM. Suggestion: Deep breaths."

Plana's voice went unheard, as they began their descent into madness.

A click, and Saori's flashlight illuminated the darkness.

"Only one light source. We can't risk them knowing where we are," Saori stated. A scoff left Mika.

"As if anyone wouldn't know. If anything, they're probably expecting us."

"They are." Misaki interjected, adjusting her rocket launcher so it didn't fall off her shoulder. Its weight meant nothing to her, but the explosives it carries do. "They're just making sure we're falling for it."

"Well, let's give them a proper greeting, shall we?" Nagisa calmly replied. A soft coo that had an undeniably underlying menace behind it. All the while, Kize slipped the Shittim Chest into his hand. Pulling out a pair of wireless earphones, he plugged into his ears.

'Connection complete,' he heard a robotic voice declare from it. The robotic voice in his ear was colder than the depot's whispers.

"Any history on this depot?" He questioned. He felt a couple of eyes on him, but seeing where he was talking to, they continued their advance, careful not to step into any traps.

Arona and Plana emerged from the side of the screen, with Arona dragging and Plana pushing a heap of information to him.

"Here. Used to be Arius's own depot to store anaesthesia. Then left to disuse after the Arius civil war. Think Beatrice is planning to reuse this depot for the nitrous oxide?" Arona stated.

"Nitrous oxide is used not just as a weak anaesthetic, but also as fuel for burning fires, helping to intensify and make it stronger in the presence of fire," Plana observed.

The fact that they used C4 to breach into the depot in the first place had to have been a saving grace. As they traveled through the dark, straight path, the walls beneath told a different story.

Cuffs. Chains. The ever so faint screams of something that was once there, now no longer. The sight of red smearing the walls told of a history Arius would have preferred left untold.

Even the Tea Party seem affected by the sight, with Mika's nose scrunching, and Nagisa's grip on her handgun faltering for a single moment.

"We've only heard rumours of what happened to Arius since the schism. But this..."

Nagisa's comment was left unanswered.

It was better that way.

"T-this is what we fight for," Hiyori managed out, clutching her assembled rifle like a lifeline.

"To reclaim the past?" Mika questioned, her right hand instinctively reaching down towards her side. Her fingers brushed the scar through her uniform, a habit when facing Arius' ghosts.

"No." Atsuko's blunt answer warranted attention. She followed this up. "To live a better future."

Not scavenge. Not even survive.

Live.

Something that was taken for granted by Trinity, by Gehenna, by Millennium. By majority of the districts that had developed themselves and never understood the struggles Arius faced.

And in Kize's mind, from what little he had read, of what Abydos faced.

A single gunshot pinged out, followed by a soft thud.

All guns were aimed at the source, with Saori's light illuminating to the very end of the tunnel. Nothing was there but a pair of steel doors that seemed too convenient.

With Atsuko and Mika covering the rear guard, the joint operative team made their approach, while Kize focused on the Shittim Chest. They could question what exactly he was planning on doing, but from everything they had seen of him, they could trust it. A close arrival to the door, and then...

They smelled copper. The light shone down to the door, where the cracks began to bleed red.

Kize was the first to act, slipping the Shittim Chest into his pocket and pushing open one door.

"Sensei, wait--"

They tried to follow him in, but was brought to silence.

The room reeked of rust. The sole lightbulb flickered, a dying source from an abandoned time. Old instruments of war, of what was once medicine and torture laid bare on tables and walls with chains hung from the ceiling. Syringes, clearly used, littered the floor in a heap.

In the centre of it all were shoes. Black, bloodied. All in a circle of a pair of 32, with its centre being the rose with a bulging eye; Beatrice's emblem.

Arius Squad couldn't make heads or tails on all this. Was Arius's past truly this dark? Was Beatrice just the fuel to the abyssal darkness? Saori's grip on her assault rifle tightened. Atsuko felt nauseous at the mere sight of it. Hiyori cried. Even Misaki, the cynic, merely frowned.

The Tea Party didn't fare much better with Nagisa's pupils constricting and immediately looking away in disgust. Mika's hands trembled. Nothing she could ever let out would recompense the sheer sight of violence Arius had inflicted upon itself many years ago.

A hand limped out from the other door, gripping Kize's trousers weakly.

A tattered uniform. A cuff.

But then, a sight of a pained girl who looked barely older than 18, clutching her stomach where blood seeped out. Her halo seemed fractured, fading, while her breathing was bated.

The same girl in the dossier.

Her pupils dilated unevenly, one iris swallowed by black; Beatrice's grip fraying like her halo.

"It's... You..."

Kize should realistically hesitate. It was a brainwashed student. A loyalist. But something bubbled within him that shouldn't surface. He won't.

"Please. Help me..."

Atsuko was the first to respond to the call for help. Disengaging her weapon, she kneeled beside the girl.

"What happened here?"

"They..." The girl's breathing softened, her teeth gritting to fight the pain lodged into her stomach. "Got me. Escaped through corridor. Behind the wall... Left for a while ago."

Her bloodied hand pointed out towards a wall. A wall utterly painted in the blood of victims, before her hands fail to lift right.

"We have to bring her back," Atsuko stated, before looking at Hiyori, who was already crying from the sight of it all.

"She's bleeding for a while there, do you think she'd even make it?" Misaki questioned. Atsuko responded by carrying the girl in her arms.

"I'll make sure she does, then. Step aside."

They gave her space, while Kize ensured that every single detail in the room did not go amiss.

He heard the girl's whisper, briefly before Atsuko left the room with her in her arms, her halo flickering.

"Vanitas..."

He spoke before everyone else did.

"Go back."

"Sensei?" Saori questioned.

"Go back." A repetition.

"No, Sensei. We're here together. We're not going." Saori resolved.

"It's for your sake."

"It's for Arius's sake. With all due respect, Sensei... This is the crimes of our past. And I'm making sure we're held accountable for it."

"No, you do not." Kize statement cut the tension immediately. A realization by all three parties, one that Kize knew the most of, before glancing at them.

"Go." His voice slightly raised, yet dripped enough authority so as to slowly let them leave the torture chamber, their steps a reluctant fade through the darkness, leaving Kize in the mercy of the flickering light above.

A chuckle echoed in the room.

"I see you sensed me before anyone else did, Arius's Ghost."

Kize's grip on the thermos, ever so heavy from the tea and guilt, felt burning in his palm.

"Do you taste it? The iron in the air? That's the flavor of your legacy now."

"........"

"Danger: Heart beat 110 BPM. Recommend: Escape." Plana's mechanical observation was ignored again.

"Face it. You and I are quite alike. We saved Arius from its own destruction, only to bring about another reckoning that annihilates them anyway. You would know that better than anyone, don't you, Sensei?"

Laughter echoed again.

"You were once someone that inspired the young. And then you let it get to you. Your misconduct is unbecoming of you, isn't it? How many students have you really saved, I wonder? Or did you just trade their chains for yours?"

Kize's bandages frayed against the intense grip on the Shittim Chest.

"Sensei! Please, stay calm!" Arona reasoned through the earbuds. It didn't work.

"So why don't you just let it all go? Leave Kivotos and just let Arius implode? They deserve nothing but suffering. Their lives mean nothing, after all."

The repressed sensation bubbled itself out.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!!"

Silence, as Kize's breathing was deep, but sharp. As if he was trying to rein himself back in, but couldn't let that unrelenting rage within him held back any longer.

"ALL YOU'VE EVER DONE IS SUFFERING. YOU. ARE. INSUFFERABLE, BEATRICE. YOU AND I ARE ADULTS, AND HERE YOU ARE PLAYING PETTY REVENGE ON CHILDREN! ARIUS GREW WITHOUT YOU. AND THEY WILL OUTLIVE YOU, NO MATTER WHAT!!"

A gulp, as if the jagged edges of his mad status was pulled back, his trembles calmed into the same, stoic ghost that gave itself a human form to speak of its feelings.

"And they'll live without me."

A snicker.

"Well said, 'Sensei'. Truly, you have shown how much you are willing to die. I will be seeing you soon."

And as if the last harbinger of despair had left the room, the light fizzled out, dying alongside Kize's repressed anger. His legs wobbled before it gave out, landing on his backside as the weight of his words came crashing down upon him.

The door clicked open.

"Kize?"

Shun.

"You're real persistent on that savior complex, Sensei."

Misaki.

A light flashed onto his face, with him flinching from the suddenness. Shun stepped inside, her expression concealed under darkness. Yet, she kneeled beside him, taking hold of his hand and checking his pulse from his wrist.

Kize didn't resist.

"You're an idiot, Sensei," Misaki stated, lingering at the door as if awaiting for the next course of action.

Or was just not letting him leave like the ghost he was supposed to be.

Shun lifted his arm, looking at the fraying bandages. It was soaked. Not by blood, it would have a darker texture.

Sweat.

Shun's expression softened ever so slightly, before she sighed.

"Was it worth it? Screaming at ghosts?" She asked.

"They heard me." His voice audibly cracked, and his expression frayed, like the bandages.

"And now the whole JTF and Tea Party knows you're human. Real tactical genius of our ghost right here, ladies." Her snark was not lost, while Kize stared at the shadow that formed from his outstretched arm. A single bandage hung limply, resembling a noose with no weight, with a gentle caress of the wind providing the slightest movement.

"You told Beatrice they'd live without you. Do you believe that?" Shun asked.

"......." His silence spoke nothing, but in the darkness, he shook his head.

"Then why say it?"

"Because they should."

Silence. The two understood that best. His fear wasn't the fact that he'd be forgotten.

His fear was of the fact that he'd leave a legacy that they'd follow feverishly.

"It's going to be hard, trying not to be like you. You're a role model for a lot of the students in Arius, Sensei," Misaki simply stated. A matter of fact that was undeniable in this tortured space.

Kize had no response to that. Kize heard something pouring beside him, the waft of oolong piercing through the room.

"Here. Drink this." Shun's voice was slightly stern, yet ultimately well-meaning, as Kize reached up... But hesitated. Enough hesitation to the point that footsteps from the doorway followed, taking hold of the thermos cup and shoving it into Kize's hand.

"Quit wasting her time. Come on. They're waiting for you." Misaki sounded annoyed. But that slight hint of snark told him and Shun otherwise.

Kize gripped the mug... And drank it.

Hot. Sweet. Utterly repulsive.

And yet he accepted it.

—

His exit was met with a collective salute from the JTF. Tsurugi of all students, gave a sheepish one, any remnant of of injury long gone.

"Heard... You. You're... Fine. Not, Sensei but close enough."

Kize didn't salute back, his hands in his pocket, his expression an attempt to return to neutrality.

An attempt that frayed when Misaki smacked his back as she walked past him.

"Damn, Sensei. Even Tsurugi likes you. Should I get a muzzle?"

His squinting eyes were a response in itself, before the JTF dropped the salute. Hasumi walked forward, her rather large, dark angel wings flapping in motion, casting a shadow that briefly embraced them all.

"We've extracted all the nitrous oxide canisters in the depot. It'll be ensured to be used medically only. As we are speaking, the Tea Party and Arius Squad are discussing a possible alliance between the two former enemy districts."

Kize didn't say a single word, just a nod.

"Personally, I hope it works out," said one JTF cadet.

"Yeah. Nocturne Squad was really cool. We should be like them," another spoke.

"Yeah, we could get training from them. Who knows, they're pretty good in stuff like this."

The discussion of amicability from the JTF for Arius felt like a dream. Not just for Kize, but for Misaki. A rarity that was unlike any other occasion, impossible under Sensei.

Made possible by Kize.

"You keep denying yourself, Sensei," Shun voiced out behind him. "But you always left something for someone to be inspired by."

Their fingers brushed. Kize didn't move away.

It was over, for now.