An eerie glow came from a glass tank full of goldfishes.

The Amanto held their banquets until midnight before they headed home in drunken merriness. In the early hours of morning, the restaurant turned off its lights to sleep, the sound of snoring coming from upstairs. The chairs stacked on the tables casted twisted shadows on the floor. A young man stood silhouetted in front of the aquarium, the green glow reflecting off his skin. He dressed in a light blue kimono with patterns of goldfishes.

Ichiro sprinkled some breadcrumbs into the tank and peered through the glass at the goldfishes swimming up for their food. The shimmering orange scales covered their round bellies and their tails fluttered like silk. He wondered who would take care of them when he was gone. His sister Masa would never remember to feed them. But the aquarium was the only world these fishes knew. He wondered who would change their water before it turned green.

An antique katana was missing from the display rack on the wall. Ichiro slung his long cloth-wrapped baggage across his back before turning for the door. He walked across the dining hall. Day after day, he had seen the Amanto in their lavish squalor and listened to their obnoxious laughter— the Amanto who treated humans like shit, yet everyone here seemed to just sit back and let them. He had enough of this filthy place.

"Where are you going?" A voice came from behind— his old man, Oyaji.

Ichiro stopped at the gold-gilded doors of the restaurant. "Doesn't matter. You'll never see me again."

"Ichiro..."

"How can you stand it, Oyaji?" Ichiro glared back at his father with dark eyes. "How can you let the Amanto step all over you like that?"

Oyaji stood among the tables and chairs dressed in an expensive but simple gray kimono— a small lonely man in this palace he'd built. The wrinkles dug into his forehead and his gray hair had become thin.

"Sometimes you have to swallow your pride to get ahead in this world, son. We're not samurai. Look where their honor got them."

"It is worth it? All this glittering crap?" Ichiro wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Is it more important than us, than your own daughter?! How much money was in that envelope? Is that all we're worth?!"

Oyaji's brows twitched. His voice held an edge of anger. "You think everything here is worthless? You never had to live without it. You never had to know what it's like to have nothing and you never will, because all of this... it's all for you and your sister!"

Ichiro looked down at Oyaji, not with the eyes of a child looking to his parent, but one who had grown cold and distant. "I'm not gonna lick their feet like you do." He clenched his hands into fists. "Oyaji... how do you even stand it? Because I can't!!!"

With a kick, he sent the table and chairs crashing to the ground.

"Stop right there, you brat! You will stop right there right now!!"

Oyaji pushed through the pile of chairs as Ichiro slammed the door.

***

The mirror on the vanity table reflected Masa's room— a large tidy room. A few Elizabeth plushies sat on the far shelf, a poster of Elizabeth hanged on the wall. The room was dark for the curtains were closed tight.

Masa sat before the mirror, staring at the white strip of cloth wrapped over her face. She unwrapped her bandages, never taking her eyes off the girl in the mirror, her puffy eyes unblinking.

A red glaring gash cut across her smooth skin, her face disfigured by the scar it would leave. She knew her days as a waitress were over. She couldn't show her face to anyone anymore. She didn't want to. They'd all just stare at her scar and think about how ugly it made her look and she didn't think she had the strength to shoulder the weight of their gazes. How she envied those who didn't care about appearances.

In the mirror, the door opened behind her just a crack. Oyaji peeked in, a tired old man. The wrinkles on his face seemed deeper, the bags under his eyes heavier. He just stood at the doorway, looking at the girl in the mirror.

Masa didn't turn around, just sat there.

Oyaji lowered his head and spoke after a long silence. "I'm—"

"That's okay, Oyaji," said Masa without looking him in the eye. "Dealing with rude customers is all part of the job."

Oyaji glanced to the closed curtains with concern. "Masa-chan, why don't you go out for some fresh air?"

She didn't want to. Just wanted to stay somewhere no one could see her. Forever.

"Maybe tomorrow," she told him.

Oyaji gave a soft smile and gently closed the door to leave her alone.

The hours passed and Masa remained sitting in front of the mirror, completely still; the room completely still. She wasn't sure how much of the day had gone by. The room was too dark. She stared with large empty eyes until the wound became imprinted in her vision and burned a jagged scar into her mind.

Slowly, her gaze drifted to the side. A giant Elizabeth-shaped piggy bank sat by the table, half as tall as she was, filled to the top with coins. She would now have almost a million yen, almost enough to buy what she'd been saving her allowance for all year.

Masa stood up. A few coins jingled in her sleeve pocket, so she added a little more to her savings. The coins slipped into the slot, clinking into Elizabeth's belly.

End of flashback

***

Masa knelt by Aniki's grave under the overcast sky with Zura and Elizabeth beside her. Zura listened to her flashback with brows furrowed in concentration. Elizabeth stared ahead with his round empty eyes.

"So yeah, the Shinsengumi did this to me," Masa finished.

After a moment of thinking, Zura turned to her. His olive brown eyes drifted to the side to meet her gaze, cool and clear like a mountain spring. His long black hair danced in the autumn breeze and a violet gleam appeared in his left eye.

Zura spoke in a commanding voice as he activated his Geass. "You will stop having a scar."

Masa froze, her eyes locked in his. The Geass in Zura's iris swirled and casted its spell on her.

"I will stop having a scar..." She repeated in a trance.

The scar across her face didn't change.

She curled up into a ball with a muffled cry. "I— I wanna stop having a scar! I want to so bad, but how? Tell me how!!!"

"You just made it worse." Elizabeth held up his sign at Zura.

Masa took a deep breath in, lips pressed tight as her nails dug into her skin. "It's— It's okay. Really, it's okay. Completely okay." She raised her head and beamed with a bright smile. "Really~!"

Zura crossed his arms and grinned with satisfaction. "Ha! You're wrong, Elizabeth. It's not worse. She's better now! See, she's smiling, so why should we pity her and remind her about what makes her sad?"

Elizabeth remained silent. He stared at the grave with his round eyes. The headstone was the size of a fist, carved on it, the name: Aniki. The entire grave would have only fitted a coffin the size of a Kleenex box.

Elizabeth wrote on his sign and turned to Masa. "Isn't your brother's grave... a bit small for a person?"

"Oh, Aniki's not my brother." Masa shrugged. "He's my goldfish."

"A-A-A GOLDFISH?!!!" Zura yelled at her with bulging eyes. "I risked my life breaking into the Shinsengumi to get revenge for a dead goldfish?! And who even names their goldfish Aniki?"

Masa stared at him unaffected and blinked. "But he's not just any goldfish. He's a blue goldfish. They're really expensive." Her expression darkened. "But they killed him... Just when I bought him, the explosions started. The Shinsengumi made some warehouses blow up over at Port Kurihamu. I was already on the taxi on my way home, but they closed the roads and there was this huge traffic jam where none of the cars would move for hours! I— I saw him die... He spent too long in that plastic bag. The water got too warm or something and he suffocated! He died right there in the car, right in my hands, floating belly-up in the water! The Shinsengumi... They killed Aniki... I want payback! I want a refund for all the money I wasted!"

Zura knew why the Kiheitai ignored her plea now.

He stood up without a word, turned his back to her and walked off. "Come Elizabeth. A samurai shouldn't concern himself with petty matters like this. We're not some Odd Jobs."

Masa remained kneeling at the grave. She stared at the tiny gravestone and buried beneath it, the goal she'd been working towards for a whole year. "I thought... if I saved a little every day, I could finally buy it."

Elizabeth turned back to her with a sign. "You like goldfishes?"

"My brother does. We'd go shopping and Ichiro-nii would always stop at that pet store to stare at it. Every time." Masa smiled at that memory. "I don't know where he's run off to, but he'll be so happy when he comes home."

"Was he really important to you?" Elizabeth stared at her with his unblinking gaze.

Masa nodded with resolve.

"Don't worry. I'll get payback for him."

***

"You agreed to it?!!" Hijikata burst into Kondo's room that morning flapping some documents at Kondo's face. "Kondo-san, how can you agree to something so stupid?!"

The Anti-Foreigner Faction had filed a lawsuit against the Shinsengumi, demanding a million yen to compensate for the damage they caused during the Kurihamu Arc.

Kondo looked to him, brows furrowed in confusion. "Toshi?"

"You know the Anti-Foreigner Faction's behind this, so how could you sign that agreement?" Hijikata yelled at him with throbbing veins. "We're supposed to send them to jail, not give into their requests! And who even spends a million yen on a goldfish? That rich girl doesn't know that money comes from hard work!"

"Toshi..." Kondo's expression became serious. The shadows on his face became darker. "What agreement?"

That knocked Hijikata over. "You didn't even read what you signed?!! The Shinsengumi just lost a million yen!"

Kondo gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Now now, Toshi. It's the tax-payer's money. It didn't belong to us anyways."

"We have a budget to follow, dammit! That money was supposed to go somewhere else! How are we gonna get a new police car now, or that ultra-high-tech mayo dispenser that was supposed to go in the cafeteria?!"

Hijikata clutched his head and screamed in anguish over his loss.

***

Masa sat at the edge of a gazebo, watching the rain shower down and make tiny splashes on the stone-paved path. A thin veil of rainwater came cascading down from the roof, decorated with strings of raindrops.

She dressed in an orange kimono. A plastic bag full of groceries sat beside her. She had gotten caught in this downpour as she made her way home through the park, but she didn't mind. The air smelled fresher in the rain.

The Shinsengumi gave her the one million yen refund and that was all she wanted from them. Maybe she should have asked for more, but it was just a goldfish. She rubbed the scar over the bridged of her nose, tracing the line of raised skin. It was becoming a habit. She told herself to stop doing that.

A pair of yellow flippers stopped behind her. Masa looked back and smiled when she saw the penguin/duck thing.

Elizabeth sat down beside her and scribbled onto his sign. "You're not wearing your Elizabeth costume?"

"That's okay." Masa looked at the swirling clouds. "I'll be just like those samurai you always hang out with. They look so badass with their scars."

"Why are you so positive now? Did that idiot use the Geass on you again?"

Masa flashed a cheerful grin at him. "Nope~!"

She peered over the edge of the gazebo at the puddle gathered on the ground. The girl in the water smiled at her, so she smiled back.

"We all have scars of our own. I'll wear mine proudly."

She looked ahead through the rain and fog with eyes that gleamed clear and determined.

***

Hammy.

Alpacasio sat in bed, curled up in his blankets. His tears had dried. His face felt numb and puffy. He didn't know his way without him, so he just stayed there clutching tight to the warmth.

The rain had ended outside. The droplets of water streamed down the window and the endless rain fell on his heart.

Two months had passed since Hambertio died. It didn't feel like two months. It felt longer and it felt shorter. Every day felt the same, every day the same routine in a silent world washed in gray— wake up, eat meals, go to bed. The more he wanted the day to end, the slower time seemed to pass. Before he knew it, two months had passed, already two months since his brother's death.

When Alpacasio woke up that day, he noticed the rays of golden sunlight shining through a crack in the curtains. He stared at it, at the dust shimmering in the light, swirling like weightless ashes, and thought he saw Hammy's face. He reached for him, but the light only slipped through his fingers.

But it was warm. And how beautiful it looked, the stripes of black and gold and his shadow on the far wall. It had to be a beautiful day.

He leapt out of bed and for the first time in weeks, knew exactly what he wanted to do.

He ran down the hallways of the Melissan Embassy Building, barefoot and still dressed in his yellow pajamas. His feet pitter-pattered across the marble floor, past the heavy oak doors of the offices and the rows of pointed stained-glass windows. A few black-balled Melissans in uniform rushed out of his way and in their panic almost toppled the stacks of paper in their arms.

Without slowing down, Alpacasio pushed through the doors and into the sunlight. He ran under the cloudless sky across the lawn, the grass still wet from the rain and the mud splattered on his ankles.

A birch tree stood by the outer wall with leaves turned yellow.

Let me forget... all of the hate... all of the sadness...

Alpacasio stood under its golden canopy staring at the white bark. He picked his nose before rubbing his finger on the treetrunk.

"I wish tomorrow will be sunny too, and the day after that!"

He stared at the lone booger smeared on the bark and for the first time in weeks, couldn't help but smile at his handiwork.

"And the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and..."

He raised his head to the sky and smiled as his tears mixed with his snot and it all streamed down his face.

***

Next time: Time for a tea party! Sougo is Soyo's bodyguard now?!! Could this be the start of a love triangle?