Haruto Kuzaka heaved another sigh, replaying the footage. That shot of Katashi gripping Rio's handgun, and missing shots, before finally, finally having a bullet find its target.

It was surprising he could even fire on a static target. With one more repeat of the recording, he soon moved to another matter.

The bullets.

Beatrice had picked up much of the crates with her loyalists, so by all means, he was free to pursue who he wants. However, he wasn't even sure where he was.

He searched through Millennium personally. His drones flew overhead. But nothing could be seen.

Not even information that he got back to SCHALE.

Typical. Always trying to be a ghost.

Tryhard.

He slammed his hand against his desk. A dent formed upon the oakwood. A click of the tongue, a mental reminder to find a better carpenter.

Or a better desk.

In the sole confines of his office, where the afternoon sun, for once, graced the room, Haruto stood carefully, never once stepping onto the glistening light.

Blinding.

The vague reflection he could even see in the mirror of his window screamed of something. Someone. A man with tan skin, staring into the jet black things of what should've been irises. His hair, a dark blue hue that was neatly trimmed to present himself as a kind of civilized man. In an uncivilized world. His suit, always tailored to make him appear more than he should be, ironically made him blend in better to his surroundings, as such a world like this was always filled with enough audacity.

Where could he be?

Beatrice informed him that he was never sighted in Arius. His drones told nothing of Millennium.

He knew other schools were involved in taking down Decagrammaton, due to his drones, but him not even being in a part of any of them is a singe of suspicion.

"........."

There was no way he was in Red Winter nor Gehenna.

Both districts are too emotionally driven for the ghost's bureaucracy. If he needed to do something, he needed to appeal to emotion. Something he's too constipated with.

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

No, he can't think like that. A failsafe. Yes, that is necessary. What if he was there? What if he actually did exactly what he thinks he shouldn't?

What if... He became ever more so emotional?

He almost scoffed at that. But he shouldn't underestimate him.

He couldn't find Kize himself for the past 4 years, he's not wasting this opportunity just to let him be vulnerable without another pair of eyes, HIS eyes, watching his movements.

Because every moment is a weakness. And if Kivotos thinks they can exploit his...

He'll just have to burn Kize with the rest of Kivotos with it.

A single tap on his tablet, and the shipment of bullets to Gehenna would be a success.

And if the Ghost actually made his appearance there? Well, he'd just be the perfect victim to fall with his students.

And yet, before he could even press a button, an exclamation point emerged from the corner of his screen. His eyebrows furrowed, trying to assess who it could be...

A train headed for Shanhaijing?

How peculiar.

... Wait.

He saw a lab coat.

What was a Millennium student doing in--

She had no halo.

His eyes widened, a realization that shifted everything he ever planned.

Miharu Yoshikawa.

What the hell was she doing here?! Why was she here?!

She shouldn't have any way to access into Kivotos, nor should she had any way to actually know Kivotos in the first place. So what the hell does that mean--

They're onto him.

This is bait. It has to be. If Kivotos knew his weakness, then they knew Kize.

And that meant he opened up to them about his past.

He gripped his tablet. His plan needs to get into motion. Quick. His fingers threw away that video footage, before focusing once more on the button.

He pressed it. And the shipments were confirmed.

——

Just like the days before the court case, there were no news of the ghost.

And just like those days, no one knew where the ghost was. Not even Shanhaijing could hide their questions any longer, with even Kokona finding Shun staring silently out in the evening sky, her thermos, undented, beautifully painted, standing still beside her. Kokona slowly pouted.

"Sister, do you truly miss him?" Kokona began. Shun's initial response was a sigh. One that was followed up by a knowing glance towards her younger sister.

"What do you think?"

"I think you have an unhealthy obsession with him."

A sigh left Shun. And yet, even she smiled longingly.

"We're just colleagues. Don't worry."

"That's not what I'm worried about..."

"Then are you worried about Kize?"

"... I didn't say that..."

Shun smiled.

"I know you look forward to show him the drawing, Kokona. But he is a busy man."

"Still... You two are basically married at this point, right?"

"... Really, now?"

"... Are... Are you really not?"

A moment passed. She didn't answer immediately. She had no reason to, perhaps. Or she was thinking of a way to respond to Kokona without sounding like she was denying her feelings.

She wasn't. She just felt that many were mistaking her feelings for something else.

Shun sighed, before she gently pet her younger sister's head.

"Love takes many different forms, my dear sister. What is my love for you?"

"Uhm... Siblings?"

"Yes. What do you define my relationship with Kize-Sensei?"

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

Kokona never thought that hard before, before she fiddled with her fingers before.

"That's so hard to answer, though. You're both clearly close, but you're not dating. And I don't think it's even marriage or something. It's not even friends, with how you two seem to know nothing about each other but..."

Shun smiled.

"Everyone sees a male and female together, and they can't help but think that they are dating. Ufufu. It's impossible for me to say that it wasn't inevitable, but it truly doesn't help that he's... Closed off. Do you know what many tend to do in that situation?"

"Uhhh... They see themselves in him?"

She didn't answer, her eyes slowly gazing back to the sky. A waft of the wind, the scent of xiaolongbao of the Black Tortoise Promenade, and one more stare to the gate. That gate where she pulled him into Plum Blossom Garden's grounds.

"They see him as a reflection. A motivation to make themselves something better. Just like him."

"... Uhm... I guess you're right. I don't know, I just... Thought you two would be..."

"Good together?"

Silence. Shun soon giggled.

"I like to believe so, too. But until he heals, I'll give him all the time he needs."

Kokona said nothing, but soon, she walked away, before returning with a drawing. One in which Kize had her on his shoulders, a rare smile in the faintest hopes that he someday, somehow, could heal.

Shun in the meantime, noticed an anomaly.

A woman with no halo, walking through the streets of Shanhaijing. She had glasses, a sharp eye and wore a lab coat. A rare sighting for a place like Shanhaijing.

And the lanyard around her neck, carrying what seemed to be SCHALE's insignia. Was she a new employee?

Then, she turned.

Their eyes met.

Shun waved.

The woman blinked, adjusting her glasses, its glint reflected against the orange sunlight.

Shun's smile tightened slightly, uncertainty washing over her slightly.

The woman breathed in deeply, and then sighed just as deeply, as if what she would plan to do here was something she could regret. A step of hesitation. Uncertainty. And then, she stepped forward her way.

It would be a conversation Kize wouldn't be there to hear about.

——

Night washed over Kivotos.

Trucks carrying tied up cross laminated timber were driven up, and stayed to where it was, while the rest of the Labor Party had left them with an unfinished refurbish.

They were only going to work until night time, anyway. The contract said so itself. That, and it would've been a labor violation somewhere.

227 wasn't going to take the winter laying down beside a fire only, however.

Under Kize's eyes, he watched carefully as they began to take down their once wooden walls, molded and left in disrepair by years of neglect. One of the students fell, and Shigure was always there to support her and stand her back up.

A familiar sight to Arius's Ghost.

"You're looking serious there, Sensei," Tomoe noted, as she clung to her small red notebook. Her sniper rifle hung behind her back, a small assurance, but also a reminder that she was still a student of Kivotos.

Kize didn't answer her. He didn't need to. Instead he watched. He stood against the biting wind, his hand firmly in the pockets of his thick coat while 227 continued, persisted, against any odds that people think they shouldn't go through.

All without Kize's orders.

For the better, he thought. After all, unlike Arius, they were self-sufficient.

Tomoe herself couldn't help but be impressed, considering every word he spoke about them were true. Moose meat were plentiful, stored in an ice house underground where it would be preserved for many weeks, perhaps years even. Enough to sustain them.

Enough for trade. Enough to allow stability in Red Winter, even if pudding was still a continued raging requirement.

How interesting.

"Sensei, are you sure you didn't teach Arius how to--"

"No."

He knew the question before it would even arrive. He never did try to teach Arius anything, and yet, they keep mimicking him. They keep emulating him, and he will never try...

No. That was just his denial. They follow his example because he set it for them. That was the truth. And that was one he had to swallow.

Even when the thermos was empty, it was still heavy in his pocket.

Tomoe smiled wider.

"You didn't guide them?"

"The Engineering Department did."

"Then what about the rumored gardens?"

"Shanhaijing."

"Saori being the President?"

"Their choice."

"And their agency?"

"......."

Kize hissed in a cold breath.

"They learned from others."

Tomoe went silent, observing Kize quietly. She had been well read. She watched Kize's actions throughout Kivotos. She listened to the rumors.

How he was now Arius's Ghost and they'd arrive at his beck and call like a personal army of his. A terrifying thought, truthfully, with how Arius was known as a district trained for war, rivalling Abydos in its prime.

Not in weaponry. Abydos has that in spades. But in their experience in battles. Then again, lost children being given a purpose would singlehandedly cause them to push on with said purpose.

Tomoe knew that intimately. How else could she even get to the point she was without making an objective for herself?

And so, she asked one more question.

"Then why do they all call you Sensei?"

She watched as his hands, even if hidden in the pockets, balled into a fist. He looked down, eyes staring to the snow piling around and on his feet.

"They shouldn't."

"But they will. You gave them that agency. Now you'll have to carry it."

"......"

Phrenapates's words echoed in his head.

"Cherish them."

He wasn't sure what to say. What to even proclaim. He kept regressing every time he moved forward. Every step brings him back to where he was.

But maybe... Just maybe...

He promised Arona. He promised Plana.

He doesn't make promises he can't keep.

"Perhaps."

And then, Kize walked forward, towards Shigure and the rest of 227 attempting poorly to raise a proper wall for the insulation of what was once the dormitory's foyer.

Tomoe kept on watching, as Kize reluctantly raised the timber and seem to lecture a student on something. Something she couldn't hear but certainly know what it was about.

Of all the things she didn't expect, it was his reluctant acceptance to something as flimsy as bonds. But...

As she watched, with 227 staring, but intently listening, Tomoe couldn't help but wonder if, for once...

The ghost is finally letting himself be seen. And for once, he wasn't afraid of it.

She'd want to see that.