When Arius Satellite School heard of the court case, they knew they had to prepare themselves for a spectacle.

Why shouldn't they? It was Arius's Ghost against their biggest op.

With the Remedial Knights as fellow spectators, much to their own confusion, they managed a projector and a movie screen at the courtyard set up. All this, live from Kronos School of Journalism's livestream.

'So that's Arius's Ghost.' Thought Serina. Already, she began to assess his physical status. Slightly hunched, eyes half lidded with bags under his eyes. Yet he seemed... Tense. And for that split second, his eyes seemed lost.

"He looks inadequate to be there," Mine assessed. "We're going to have to patch him up before we go back."

"No." Atsuko's chime followed stares by the Remedial Knights. No?

"You can't force a broken man to heal by your own hand."

"And besides," Saori followed up. "He's been through worse and lived through it. He won't give up."

"... What do you mean?" A Remedial Knight member questioned.

"Give him a purpose, and he'll make sure he delivers. Not because he could," Misaki stated. "Because he should."

A matter of fact, really. His role as a stopgap was ever present during his tenure to provide Arius with their own means of independence.

That day, the Remedial Knights understood where their loyalty lied. And while terrifying, it was the most fascinating thing they learned that day.

—

While a group of students watched through a projector, one man watched through a tablet.

The sun kissed Sensei's skin through the window, as he observed the strike of the gavel to commence the court. It was an interesting sight.

He never had been in court before. SCHALE's authority superceded everyone else's. But it was strange to observe someone who should, even if temporarily, be a part of SCHALE include themselves into a court.

Sensei concluded that either Kaiser has the means to leverage the GSC, Abydos and Kize himself in one fell swoop, or Kize has a strategy that shatters Kaiser's foundation.

His eyes and ears were glued.

—

With the strike of the gavel, the court began to rumble its course. Flips of paper were searched thoroughly, the Shittim Chest worked itself to skim through every single report they've acquired, and Kize flipped through the dossier given to him by Rin. With a sigh, he raised a hand.

"Judge Hanayo. May I present evidence against Kaiser Corporation?"

"Sustained. Wait, is it sustained or granted?"

Another flip into the book. Followed by a groan.

"It's granted. Anyway, granted. Evidence?"

Kize snapped a finger, and the court room dimmed immediately. In the centre, a hologram emerged, full transparency and everything. On it, a report.

Truthfully, Kize would have submitted the paper, but with Rin telling him that this was the way, he complied.

If they wanted spectacle, this was the bare minimum he gave.

"This is the evidence I would like to submit."

"... Erm. Is that the... Debt report for Abydos?"

Kize glanced at the CEO. No emotion yet. He's hiding it surprisingly well, considering how he had fumes just minutes ago.

With a sharp inhale, he continued.

"Indeed. Your honour,--" he ignored the fact that Hanayo was now flustered at such a calling. "--and to all students, you already know Abydos' history and their insurmountable debt, selling off their land in a bid to try and pay it off."

He had a hand in his pocket, thermos gripped in a kind of assurance.

Shun always watched over him.

"This, however, is new. Abydos never made a debt this insurmountable. Moreover, the report is clearly doctored."

The hologram zoomed in, both to the signature and to that small written statement in the report; a besmirch of formality and into ruin.

'Extra interest rate of +16%.'

"A redundancy and a violation, all in one, your honor. And look closely to the signature."

Another set of documents, all similar, but ones that Shiroko silently passed to Kize when he stepped back to them.

"This is Abydos's supposed debt report that was sent to them last month."

A quick scan, and the report then emerged onto the hologram side by side. Both bore the same format. Different numbers. But the focus remained the same.

The lack of handwriting on the report.

And the discrepancy of the handwriting on the reports. Both are different. Crucially so.

"Heh. So what you're saying is that we doctored the debt report to inflate it," the CEO scoffed. "They deserved it for their struggles."

"Do you admit your crime?" Kize questioned.

"It's not Kaiser's hand." The CEO eyed Kize. "Or maybe it could be yours, Replacement."

A collective gasp, as the CEO clasped his fingers together, leaning close.

Kize thought that the CEO needed a defendant, not the CEO being the defendant.

"You probably doctored the debt report so that you have an incentive to go after Kaiser Corporation. Especially after that rogue drone attack on Arius Satellite School."

"Oh boy, a good defense is a strong offense, interesting strategy here..."

The judge was clearly more invested in potential drama than she was at actually being a judge.

"...." Kize slowly blinked. His eyes still half lidded, before he picked up his dossier.

"For that, you have to ask Arius Satellite School themselves." And then a single side glance. "Or are you too much of a coward that you dared target a school that had Plum Blossom Garden involved in the crossfire?"

"How are we to know that Plum Blossom Garden was even involved? Were you even there? Aren't you just a ghost?" The CEO fired back. Kize scoffed, before he picked up the Shittim Chest and clicked on a document. The Shittim Chest then whirred, before a piece of paper spewed out.

He grabbed it effortlessly, scanned it to the projector, and allowed it to appear in display.

Plum Blossom Garden Cultural Exchange Program (Renewal Application).

School: Arius Satellite School.

Stamped. Signed.

Indefinite.

Signed merely a month ago with his signature. One that never matched the handwriting on the debt report.

Another collective gasp. Somewhere, Kize could sense Shun smiling, and Arius probably laughing.

—

And indeed, they were. Amaya wheezed at the sheer thought and audacity of Kize pulling that move.

"Damn! Memory's still fresh for our ghost, after all!" She proclaimed. Saori smirked at the sight. The same time Shun, Kokona, and Plum Blossom Garden as a whole made their arrival for their weekly collaboration.

"Oh? Hey, what's sister Saori watching?" A child asked. Arius noticed quickly, and gestured them to watch with them.

"It's Sensei." Hiyori's words were enough to let them all immediately take a seat surrounding them, eyes glued to the projector screen to watch Kize.

Shun only smiled. The form now used as evidence of his own validation that he denied himself constantly.

—

An old reminder brought back as a payoff. Even then, he had his own way of reminding, putting the dossier back down to slowly brush against his forearm. The same forearms that were once bandaged, yet still bore the scars of that drone attack.

The CEO scoffed. Even as people began to notice he had a hint of a sweat drop.

"So what? Just because you approved it doesn't mean you were there. Where's your eyewitness account?"

"......" Kize quickly realized where this was heading. They were staying away from the main objective, and was personally targeting everything Kize had been associated with.

Fortunately, Rin spoke up. Kize noticed how her eyes glinted, as if someone whispered into her ear with the earpiece.

"Objection, your honor! Irrelevant!"

Hanayo snapped.

"Oh. Uh. Sustained? W-what does that do?" Another flip to the book. She scanned through the lines and blinked. A slam of the gavel.

"Sustained! Moving on to the main topic."

At least something remained consistent with actual laws. A glance to the CEO showed a hint of unnerve. Nothing dramatic yet.

"So the main question, back to the forgeries. Did you, or did you not forge these documents?" Hanayo inquired, back on track.

"Did I? As far as I know, I'm not the one that touched Abydos's reports. That goes to my employees."

"So we're calling Kaiser Loan employees for this then?" Rin inquired.

"Sure we could. But after a recent bank robbery, I don't think we have the means to actually access that information. Our poor employees are suitably recovering. Hence, I cannot submit evidence, because I couldn't."

Capitalizing on the fact that the collaboration between Foreclosure Task Force, PS68 and Helmet Gang went on a heist so that they could obtain the documents to incriminate Kaiser, now used against them.

What an incompetent CEO. Such were the thoughts of Foreclosure Task Force.

"So you admit that it's doctored evidence," Kize pointed out. A slight glint of Rin's glasses, and the faintest whisper, not knowing what 'doctored' means in this context.

"It's evidence that it's not ours. You know how standardized our reports are," the CEO deflected immediately. Kize noticed the hand twitch before that statement. They were running out of options.

No time to waste.

"So what makes that report different? What makes the handwritten report a stark contrast, when it could have been one of your employees?" Kize questioned.

"Then let me ask you another question then--"

"Objection, leading the defense!" Rin exclaimed. Hanayo seemed taken aback by that sudden declaration, flipping back to reference in the book of law, only to slowly grow a squint.

"I... Don't know if that's a thing, so overruled." Rin let out a frustrated sigh, before eyeing back on more reports. Kize gripped his thermos carefully this time. Rin's defense failed. For now.

"Then let me ask you a question. How did you even have that report in the first place?"

Kize raised an eyebrow.

"It was found within my paperwork."

"Then wouldn't that mean the GSC could have forged it? So that you had more incentive to try against us?"

"...." Kize squinted, while the court made a noise at the implied accusation made by Kaiser's own CEO. Clearly, they didn't like it. In the moment, the students had the same thoughts as the prosecutors.

"Do they have any reason to lie?" Kize questioned, glancing at Rin. Rin gripped the edge of the table, glaring at the CEO for the sheer audacity he had to try and implicate the GSC for such a crime.

"I can list plenty," the CEO replied. Kize glanced back to the CEO, watching as he seem to stare at a histogram on his tablet. The bars gradually went down the more it went to the right.

Desperation seeped into him, it seemed.

One second passed.

Turned five.

Turned ten.

A tension pulled by a string, perhaps intentionally so. Kize could feel the whole courtroom holding their breaths, preparing for the metaphorical bomb that would be thrown their way.

"..... Uhm... Are you going to say anything?" Hanayo questioned, looking at the CEO while her gavel floated in her hand, ready for her to slam it down in case he didn't have much.

"Let me put it this way. Mister... Seikato, correct?" The CEO questioned. However, the question was clearly meant with malicious intent.

Kize didn't reply. He didn't have to. He chose not to.

"You're just a replacement, aren't you? Wouldn't that make you a scapegoat?" The CEO prodded. Rin's mouth was slightly agape and would have stood up in defiance, if not for Kize subtly moving his hand, palm face down to the floor.

"It would. And what incentive do they have to do that?" Kize questioned.

"Oh, I don't know." A slimy, almost smug tone dripped from his voice box, before he leaned in. Kize could almost see a smile appearing despite him not having a mouth. He slowly stood up, letting the tension stretch further and further as he stepped right to the middle of the courtroom.

And with a tap of his tablet, and a non-existent smirk, he dropped a statement that shook the courtroom to its core.

"Maybe if Sensei was already waking up?"

".........."

The thermos Kize held was released from his grip. A loud, invasive clang hit the ground. Then, there was silence. Deafening silence. Not a muscle moved. Not a sound made. Perhaps no one was even breathing.

Kize's breath was held in his throat, his eyes wider than they ever were. Color drained away from his face, as his grip on the thermos tightened. The very same hand that scarred pulsed, a painful reminder of his role.

'Stop using stopgaps, Katashi. They're bad for you.'

Miharu's voice teared through his mind. She continued, ignoring his own mental state.

'Why not? Because leave it there for too long, and then you'll fester. And then, nothing else could fix it.'

Her answer to a question only he knew was asked told him who he was. Who he always thought he was.

A stopgap. Someone who exists only to be replaced.

The very thing he always saw himself as.

He slowly, mechanically glanced at Rin. He watched as the color drained from her face. Her eyes as wide as dinner plates while her breathing had been reduced to short gasps. Her hands... Her hands gripped the corners of her file cover, breaking the cardboard and bending them in the wrong ways, molding into her hand.

Did she know that Sensei woke up already?

Did the CEO?

Did anyone?

A nuclear option that should never have been thrown so carelessly.

But time it right, and even a ghost could be struck dead.