The Stranger didn't need formalities to allow himself the reprieve that came with the new supplies delivered to him. Bullet casings, gunpowder, the likes of which Kaiser had always had.

It was a matter of making sure they were put to good use.

His office suddenly went felt chilly, in spite of the air conditioning already making the room sterile as it was already. He rolled his eyes, and Beatrice's shadow stretched over his back once more, pulsing, as if she was breathing through his walls. It split into tendrils, each one ending in a tiny, screaming mouth.

"How're those bullets I supplied you?" He scoffed out, not even giving her the dignity of looking behind his back.

"The prototype bullets? They seem to work. Seem to. The girl is still alive, after all." Her voice echoed lifelessly into the room, the smell of burnt sugar invading his scent glands.

"And you didn't have the gall to double tap?" He exhaled obnoxiously. "For a woman who proclaims her hatred of Arius so openly, you're surely quite merciful to your defectors."

"Alive... but did you see her eyes? Like broken glass." A tendril flicked his earlobe. "And merciful?" The word dripped like syrup in Beatrice's tongue. "I wanted them to see their hope shatter."

"Yeah, you've done stupendous there, that's for sure."

He felt cold hands wrapped around his neck. A single glance, and it was confirmation that it was indeed Beatrice's hand, her long nails digging into the skin of his neck like knives.

"You mock me one more time, and I will ensure your death is unpleasant."

For a moment, he stiffened, and then a scoff left his lips.

"Don't threaten me with a good time, Beatrice."

Silence rang between the two, before a sneer was heard from behind, while her fingers unlatched itself, finger by finger, away from him. A drop of blood latched onto her fingernail, one that caused the stranger to click his tongue in frustration, before his attention went back down to the tablet. The image of him eating karaage with Shun in Plum Blossom Garden's kitchen stuck in the screen and his mind.

Beatrice naturally noticed it, her eyes all looking directly to it.

"Still sore your 'masterpiece' prefers a thermos to your bullets?"

"Hmph."

Despite his dismissal, the grip on his tablet was ever tighter.

"He is still rising, alongside Arius. Patience, Beatrice. We've only shown one card from our hand each. Now, all we need to do is to make them unbearably comfortable."

"And then, we strike."

"Exactly where their weak spots will lay, especially his corpse."

A cackle roared in the room, just as Beatrice spoke again.

"Then I will train my loyalists. Refine your bullets."

And then, the shadow cast over him shrunk into nothingness, dripping into the vents like black syrup. He waited, until the cold of the room returned to how it once was, before he huffed a sigh a swiped the screen. A bold text emerged on his screen soon after:

Operation: Halo Breaker.

"Just you wait, Kize Seikato. I will dismantle you bit by bit. But for now, enjoy your own little chaos."

—

Mornings were usually greeted with breakfast. That was a staple for the Tea Party, especially after a night's brief respite from the nightmares they witnessed. The scent of bergamot and gun oil clung to their uniforms, but no amount of soap could scrub the depot's rust from their dreams.

Arius's Ghost still didn't sit with them, standing there near the table with his thermos on said table. Steam curled like the ghosts he claimed not to be; there, then gone. Untouched, but present, like a ghost at a feast.

Shun had long left to return to Shanhaijing, lest Kokona would reprimand her for disappearing for too long. She also refilled her thermos before she left, with a whispering promise that Kize should take care of himself.

He didn't respond.

However, Saori did. Her grip on the teacup was unladylike, but that was to be expected.

"So..." Mika began. Silence rang between them.

"An alliance." Saori began, taking a sip of the offered tea. Earl Grey. Slightly sweet. Almost foreign.

"Indeed. That is what we both desire out of this. However, as per your secretary's inquiry, let us be honest with each other," Nagisa replied, a sip to her tea. Darjeeling. A clink, as she slowly set her teacup to the saucer before setting it down.

"Just because of your tragic history does not absolve you of your current sins."

"And I'm not going to pretend that I didn't do it," Saori replied. Nagisa stared at Saori, as if gauging her legitimacy, before nodding. A small, rare, yet genuine smile appeared on her face.

"Good. Accountability is acknowledged. You would like the Remedial Knights to train Arius in the medical field, correct?"

"Right. And in turn, Arius will bring Solemn Squad to train the Justice Task Force in guerilla warfare. Unfortunately, we will not know how long Nocturne Squad would recover from their... Ambush."

Mika gulped her tea like it was stolen, her pinky finger, usually curled for tea, now hooked around the saucer like a trigger guard. As if she had discarded her attempt at formality and started being honest herself. An Earl Grey with honey.

"Sounds good enough, honestly. You need medical training just so that the girl that got shot can fully recover. And we get some really good knowledge on how to clear house. What do you say, Nagisa?" Mika chirped. Nagisa merely sighed.

"Yes. I see its benefits. And it is only the beginning of our alliance. Shall we then pro--"

A creak of an opening door came about, and all eyes were turned towards it. Standing there was a small girl with long yellow hair that dragged itself on the ground and fox ears, the separated poet sleeves too long for her arms. Said sleeves brushed the doorframe, ink stains blooming like bruises. A small, rotund bird flew in from the courtyard, a Long-tailed Tit, before gently landing on what should be her hand.

"Yurizono Seia." Saori spoke.

"Joumae Saori." A soft voice reached their ears, but her smile never seem to extend any further than it had now, as she took small steps towards the sole empty seat. "A rare pleasure to have seen you in the flesh in our court."

"We are here not as a peace offering for Arius, but an alliance, Seia." Nagisa concealed her flustered state quite well.

"Yep! It's been fun so far, and we only need to just do a little more lip service and then we're good to go!" Mika's cheery jest was met with a side eye from Nagisa, but otherwise nothing else.

"Your arrival is... Less than expected, Seia." Nagisa's concern would soon find itself unwarranted.

"I have made better progress in my recovery compared to Trinity's grudges, Nagisa. But it is miraculous that Trinity and Arius had decided to come as one, for now," Seia spoke, hopping to her seat. The tit flew off soon after, standing at the balcony observing the world outside, before it fluttered its wings and landed around Kize's feet. Seia's eyes landed on the ghost that refused to sit.

"And you are the renowned Ghost of Arius."

The tit pecked at crumbs near his boot. He didn't shoo it, just as he didn't answer Seia.

"Tell me, Ghost. You've rebuilt the foundations that allowed Arius to stand on one leg and rely on you in the other. Is this how you are allowing them to stand by themselves?"

"They will."

"Sensei had always fostered independence for us." Saori voiced out. "He taught us what we need to know. And sometimes, that's enough."

Seia looked at Saori, her expression a sort of neutrality that belies more than mere curiosity.

"How... Unique." Seia's eyes turned half lidded. "A Sensei that actually teaches. Not even our currently recovering Sensei could achieve such a feat. Unless, the Ghost himself was one all this time?"

"It doesn't matter if he was or not," Saori cut through her question. "He did what he did. And we learn from it."

"......" Kize's neutral expression, for a micro-second, faltered. As if what Saori had said left something in him aching and pulsing, in all but a second.

He concluded that it was merely his heart beat, but even he knew the real answer to that.

And that did not bode well for him, in his personal thoughts.

"... So you did." Seia nodded. "Now. The agreement to the alliance. All in favor?"

———

"How do you keep doing this, Sensei?"

Rin's question rang through the office, as Kize put down the debrief report by noon. Her pen hovered over the report's margin, where the ink bled into a small pool, unfinished. The man, who was taking a sip from his thermos, then met her gaze for exactly 2.3 seconds before focusing on the report again. The tea was cold for hours. He didn't care.

"You ask. I deliver."

"I get that. But you're delivering so much in such a short time that... Frankly. I am more worried about your health than anything."

Kize stared, a slight head tilt getting in the way of things.

"I am fine, Rin."

"You are not." She heaved a sigh, rubbing her temples while the grip on her pen began to tremble, tightening. She sees him adjusting those bandages when he spoke his lie. They were fresh, fortunately, compared to the other instance.

Yet, it was one thing for the original Sensei's ludicrous spending for his own personal hobbies, but it's another issue for this other ghostly Sensei, constantly working himself to death.

Or as close to death as he ever could.

"I've given you several days of rest, and you used it to reinstate SRT in all but name. And paperwork. If that is your version of relaxation, it is painful to see you in such a state, Sensei."

Kize didn't reply. All he did was merely observe her next set of actions. And then, she sighed, taking hold of another dossier.

"Fine. If you want another work, here is one for you. It's from Hyakkiyako. Just... Go back to your office and start looking through it."

Kize silently left, passing by Momoka stuffing her face with her bag of chips. The Chief of GSC's transport bobbed her head at the doorway.

"Hey, Prez. Fake Sensei giving you a hard time?"

"He is... Complicated." As she said this, she leaned back against her chair. It creaked against her weight.

"He had done so much in the span of three weeks. Three. All in a magnitude that I cannot fathom."

"Yeah. He's something. The transports requested from the GSC been booming because of him though." Another crunch. Salt clung to her fingers like the unresolved tension in the room. "And RABBIT Platoon's peacekeeping on D.U's been majorly successful too. Even Valkyrie cadets asked them for training. Funny how that worked out without Fake Sensei's help."

"At this point, I'm not even sure how to address him as. He's... Too unattached to be Sensei. And yet, he's..." She trailed off, her gloved hands on her face while a frustrated sigh left her lips.

"On the bright side, you gave him the dossier for Hyakkiyako. The one with the derelict teahouse?" Momoka pointed out. Rin glanced to the side, where the dossier once laid upon.

"....." She blinked only once, before she heaved out a relieved sigh. And then, a rare smile. "For once... Maybe we won't hear from him for a week."

Momoka stifled a laugh, as she took a seat at the chair in front of her desk.

"I can't believe you sent him to the one district where he can't bureaucracy his way out."

Rin said nothing, allowing Momoka to keep speaking her mind.

"With how tourist focused Hyakkiyako is, there is no way he could not resolve that teahouse without being distracted."

And both knew what exactly that meant.

He may be a ghost.

But a ghost cannot hide in a crowd that knows and acknowledges that he exists.