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The abandoned commercial district of Kathuz was home to a desolate wasteland of a safe space where shopping and merriment mattered. With the shops littered and absconded beyond repair, the people of Kathuz who worked in the district eventually lost their faith in their society, leading to the abandonment of one of the most entertaining aspects of the underground.

Corroded metals and burnt wood lined up the outskirts of the shops. Dead plants lined up where the broken benches were positioned, and cracked streetlights flickered and failed to function properly. Torn basketballs, piles of opened cans, and cigarette butts riddled the street floors. Caution signs were placed to warn the citizens of the drastic change, but even those were torn into shreds.

Ryo, Natia, and Jinrai followed Claire as she escorted them through the abandoned commercial district. Jinrai walked with Claire to protect her while Ryo and Natia stayed behind. Whenever a sudden noise erupted from the wind blowing the numerous amounts of objects on the ground, Natia would freeze and reobtain composure to keep moving. Ryo watched as she struggled with this, and waited for her each time this happened.

Jinrai stared back at them, smirking at their behavior.

"These people used to live in the light of the sun every morning," Claire mentioned as she walked down the streets with the other three. She stared at the ground pondering this fact. "Now they only dream about the light as they wake up in darkness."

"Why can't they just go above to the surface?" Natia asked. "If living down here is like hell, can't they just find a place above?"

"You can trust me that these people would love to do such a thing," Claire continued. "But these people can't afford the pleasure of living above. The difference in their economy is just too high. Even if a regular Kathuz civilian were to venture above, they would only find themselves coming back down to a place. At least, to a place where they would belong."

"But they're safe from the plague up there!" Natia said. "Why the fuck are the people of Aries not doing shit to support them?"

"The same reason that we shun the lower class," Claire said. "We just simply don't have the time nor the resources to do so. They would rather spend their time on something else worth their while. While they live in paradise, there have to be the people who pick up their scraps. This is where we are, and that is how it has been for years."

"This is bullshit!" Natia shouted, slamming the side of her fist against a corroded metal wall.

"Hey, take it easy," Ryo warned, hoping to calm her down.

"I refuse to call myself one of those above," Natia explained. "I'm not one of them who dedicate their lives to spitting on the lower class in disgust. As someone who's dealt with living in a condition like this place, I support everything you're doing, Claire."

"I appreciate that," Claire said, smiling at Natia. "I wanted to show you what the plague and the people of Aries above were doing to Kathuz. I subsequently came here because this was the best place to conduct our private conversation. There's not a person in sight."

"And for good reason," Jinrai said, kneeling and scanning the floors. "I've frequented myself in Kathuz quite a bit. They do make some very delicious drinks. The licorice-infused flavor is perhaps, one of the better delicacies that I've tried before in recent years."

"The truth is, Kathuz makes their money from trading their alcohol," Claire stated. "It becomes one of their main sources of income. But even so, there have been frequent thieves who steal from these alcohol factories to make a quick buck. It just shows how people are desperate to make money and survive in this plague-ridden city."

Ryo could not participate in their conversation without looking at how bothered Natia was by Kathuz territory. Whenever he glanced at her, Natia would always be sulking after attempting to make sense of their pain-staking conversation. He kept his eyes on her as Jinrai did most of the speaking.

The four of them made their way through an abandoned basketball court. Massive cracks on the ground surfaced up in the form of small dangerous slopes, and they were home to rodents who frequented the streets searching for food. Claire led the way in the center and turned around to face the three, placing her palms below her waist together.

"I have told you three this information because I trust you all enough for this," Claire began. "The Albastor Courthouse will never listen to me because I am still considered a Seraphian. The only way to stop Kathuz from the plague is to discover what's truly behind it and to put an end to all of it."

"The ones that attacked us earlier were using chemical weapons," Ryo mentioned. "Could that be a sign that they're involved in the plague?"

"It could be," Claire replied.

"Here," Natia said, approaching Claire with several items that she took from the decapitated corpse of the Seething Vipers. She handed Claire the golden plague doctor helmet and carefully took out the vial of poisonous liquid from her pouch. "Can you make sense of any of this shit?"

Claire gave the mask a close concentrated examination. "It's strange," She said. "I've seen this mask before in Kathuz before we were attacked. And that vial of liquid..."

"Do you know something?" Jinrai asked.

"Only based on rumors," Claire continued. "The Jester's presence in Kathuz makes work spread much quicker than other places because of how infamous she is," She pressed against the golden vipers on the mossy design of the mask. "Take a look at this. You can see these etched snakes on the mask. The rumors led me to believe that these are the masks of the Seething Vipers."

"Seething... Vipers?" Natia voiced out.

"I researched about these individuals years ago, which is why my memory is a little faint," Claire continued. "But these people are criminals from Earth. And now that they're here, we may have a lead as to what's causing the plague."

"What do you know about them?" Jinrai asked.

"It is difficult to know about the Seething Vipers and live to tell their story," Claire said. "Their chemical weapons and armor make them the deadliest of all gangs in the universe. These helmets that they wear are symbols of fear incarnate. People fear them because they know that their means of torture are cruel. Not only that, but their eyes are almost everywhere."

"What if they were the causes of the plague?" Ryo asked.

"Then it would start to make a little more sense. It would not be common to see them planning something beneath Kathuz. Whatever it is, we need to find out what it is." Claire declared.

"How would we do that?" Natia asked.

"Oh, don't be silly, girl!" Jinrai lightened up the mood of their conversation, patting Natia's back. "Isn't it obvious? We need to travel to the source of wherever they've stationed as members of the Seething Vipers ourselves. Eh? Get it?"

Natia blankly stared at Jinrai before hatching a plan of her own. "That sounds like one of the only ways to get access to their stronghold. Wearing one of those ridiculous costumes... then we have to get back to where we stopped some of them to steal their equipment." She said.

Ryo's eyes widened. "You're actually going with this?" He asked in awe, believing that Natia would have completely rejected the idea of wearing someone else's uniform.

"Do you see any other option?" Natia asked.

"No, it's just that you would normally say something like, 'Disgusting, I'm not gonna do that,' or 'I'd rather die than do that.' I just didn't think it was possible for-"

"So you're not taking me seriously, are you?" Natia pressured, snatching the plague doctor mask from Claire's hands. "You have no idea how much this matters to me, do you?"

"I... I didn't know." Ryo stuttered.

"Easy there," Jinrai added. "Go take a breather somewhere else. Claire and I have much more to discuss this plan."

Natia lightly pouted before turning around and leaping into the air with her nanosuit. She soared on top of a building and vanished from sight. Jinrai and Claire continued speaking to each other while Ryo was thinking about the words that he spoke. He looked at Jinrai, who stared at him back. Jinrai perked up his eyebrows rapidly as he spoke to Claire to hint for Ryo to go check on Natia. Claire looked into Ryo's eyes with a concerned expression as well, believing that something was wrong.

Ryo nodded, equipped his nanosuit, and flew to the top of the building. He deactivated his nanosuit as soon as he saw Natia sitting on the edge of the building with one of her knees propped up to her chin. They could see the entirety of the desolate commercial district from the view above, and it was not a pleasant sight to behold. The darkness that shrouded the overview was not plainly from the lack of sun, but from the destruction that it dealt with itself over time.

Metaphorically speaking, Ryo believed that Kathuz had lost its soul along with the light that used to shine above it. To not have a sun shining down on them had implications beyond his wildest dreams.

He approached Natia from behind. Natia turned her head to face Ryo with her swollen eyeballs once more before turning back around. Ryo sat beside her on the edge of the building.

"You're never going to take me seriously, are you?" Natia asked, saliva making her mumble her words as she spoke incoherently.

"I do take you seriously," Ryo said. "I just didn't know how much Kathuz meant to you. We just got here, after all."

Natia sniffled. "It's because this place reminds me of home," She continued. "To bear the cross and responsibility of saving these people makes me just..." She stuttered and paused. "It just makes me..."

"It makes you think about what you could have done to save your family." Ryo finished her sentence.

Natia gasped and lost control. She stared blankly into Ryo's eyes as tears leaked down her cheeks. "How did you-"

"I know," Ryo interrupted. "But it's different this time. These people aren't your family. They're entirely different."

"It doesn't matter if they're any different," Natia admitted. "They're still people. And when I see them hurting and living in this fucking hellhole of a place, the only thing I can do is blame those actually responsible."

Ryo nodded. He sensed a light that shone on Natia unlike any that he had ever seen before.

"That's why I'm willing to do anything to save these people," Natia continued. "Because I would have done the same for my family."

"I'm sure they would be proud of what you're doing here," Ryo mentioned. "Even your stepfather, Dr. Zanner. Don't you think he'd look at you and share how happy he is that you're doing something like this?"

"He's not my father!" Natia cried, burying her mouth deep within her knee. "Just because he took me in after my parents died doesn't mean that he's my father. He's... I... I don't even know what he is to me."

"But he treats you like a daughter," Ryo said. "Isn't that enough?"

"I have a father," Natia said. "And he was killed by those Iranian factions before he could have lived a full life with my mother and my sisters. No one can ever bring back that feeling of having a complete family. Not even him."

"But even then-"

"Just forget it!" Natia shouted. "You wouldn't understand anyway!"

Ryo paused as Natia sunk both of her eyes toward both of her knees. She was now crying uncontrollably without restraint. Before Ryo could speak, Natia uttered words that only made Ryo's heart clench in agony. It was also one of the rare occurrences where she addressed him by his first name.

"Look at me, Ryo," Natia sobbed. "No family. No home. No money. I have nothing left in this world that makes me happy anymore. All of it was taken from me, and I've been surviving on nothing but a thread. Please... tell me. Please tell me why I shouldn't just join my family in heaven."

Those words shattered Ryo's heart. "Don't say that," He abruptly stated without hesitation. "Don't ever say that again."

"Why the hell not?!" Natia cried.

"Because you're wrong!" Ryo shouted back. "You do have a family, and it's with Sunlight. You do have a home, and it's with us. You do have money. You have people in this world who try to make you happy the best way they can, and it's all of us," He explained. "Just because you don't have a biological family doesn't mean that you never will have people who look at you like family."

Natia's eyes lowered themselves as she turned away.

"I might not understand how it feels to lose a family," Ryo continued. "But I know how it feels to lose yourself. You feel like you don't deserve anything in the world anymore because of your failures. You feel like trash, and you'd rather die than face those challenges and consequences yourself. But that's beyond my point. I willingly ran away because I was ashamed of myself. But even so, I know there are people out there who look at me like family. Like Sumire. Like the others."

Natia sniffled once before turning around to face Ryo. She wiped her tears with her arms.

"So don't ever say that you want to disappear again like that," Ryo mentioned. "Because if you do, it'll hurt a lot more than you think it would. If your family were here and they heard you talking like that, how do you think they would feel?"

"Like they failed," Natia said.

"Do you think they'd want that? Do you think I'd want that?" Ryo asked.

"No."

Ryo nodded and stared off into the distance. "When my aunt died, I talked to my father about it," He reminisced aloud. "I asked him the same question too. What do you do when the world isn't on your side? What do you do when you feel like the world is ending? When someone you love dies, what do you do when you feel like you've lost everything?"

"And what did he say?" Natia asked.

"He said to always be hopeful," Ryo quoted. "Because nothing's ever over as long as we're alive. As long as we're here to make decisions to change our lives and other people's lives, then we can be happy."

Natia's frown vanished. She stared off in the distance with Ryo with a neutral expression before it peaked into a small smile. "Your dad sounds like a pretty chill guy." She mentioned.

Ryo scoffed jokingly. He soon realized that what he was doing was beyond his comfort zone, yet it enticed him to want to do more. He turned his head to face Natia and realized just how little she had experienced beyond the scope of her world. Rather than explore it beyond her imagination, Ryo believed that she could find happiness by experiencing the positive fun rather than the negative.

Natia swallowed a load of mucus-combined saliva before she affectionately rested her head on Ryo's shoulder as the cold air of Kathuz began circulating to the top of the building. Ryo's eyes widened as he noticed her behavior drastically changing. His eyes turned to the side where he saw Natia's short brown and black hair and how her bangs covered her forehead. Natia did not question her behavior or his silence.

She sighed.

"I can prove to you that dying isn't worth it," Ryo impulsively stated.

"Maybe when after this is all done?" Natia's low-volume yet high-pitched tone caught Ryo off-guard.

There was something about their interaction at this moment that Ryo could hardly believe. They had become friends after all, for she trusted his word and everything that came after that.

Ryo nodded. "Okay." He said.

Ryo touched down on the basketball court with his nanosuit. He approached Claire, who was by herself studying the remnants of the commercial district. She greeted him with a small, friendly wave before tracing her eyes to the building he descended from.

"Hi," Claire greeted. She cocked her head to the side, lost in thought. "Is everything okay between you two? Your friend didn't seem too happy earlier."

"Yeah, everything's fine," Ryo replied, deactivating his suit. "We have a complicated relationship together. But everything is okay now."

"You know, relationships between friends fascinate me so much," Claire mentioned. "You and the other person start off as complete strangers, and there's this interwoven system of interactions that draws two together like an inseparable magnet. It just occurs to me that these interactions are purely invisible until... someone allows the other in."

"Yeah..." Ryo was impressed how critical Claire was over how relationships functioned. "Where's Jinrai?" He asked after not sensing his presence around.

"It always surprised me how they work," Claire continued, ignoring Ryo's question. "And, when there's tension, that tether between the two turns red and gradually gets hotter and hotter before it may or may not snap in the end!"

"Claire?" Ryo called.

"Hmm?" Claire caught herself monologuing. "Oh, sorry about that. I tend to zone out sometimes when something interests me. As for your question... he's gone off to retrieve the Seething Viper suits from earlier," She explained, pressing her finger against her cheek to continue pondering once more. "It's strange. Whenever he looks at me, I sense a feeling that I've never experienced before."

"That's just him trying to get into your head. I would ignore him," Ryo said. "Unless it's for our mission, that is."

"You have to tell me what he is like!" Claire asked, approaching Ryo and holding both of his hands together. "Interactions appeal to me so much! This complicated nature only makes me much more curious."

Ryo stopped to think. "I... can't say for sure?" He said, thinking about their interactions together. "We've only met recently, but on bad terms. He did something to my friend that I couldn't forgive at the time. Actually, I'm not even sure if I still forgive him for what he did, now that I think about it. Even after his explanation, I don't know. But I know that he's the only lead I have with the Jester, along with you."

"What mark has he left on this world? Oh, tell me! I really want to-" Claire stopped, releasing her grip on Ryo's hands before shoveling back. Her head bobbed down as her bangs shrouded her eyes from sight. She slipped her left hand on her left sleeve and pulled it back. "What mark have I left in this world, I wonder." She whispered.

"Claire? What is that...?" Ryo asked, staring at her left arm.

Claire's arm was replaced with a robotic duplicate. It was an entire intricate system of rotating gears, pieced together servos, and welded metal fused together through another smaller system of attached wires. She expressed guiltiness by keeping her vacant gaze locked on her left arm, signalling that something was deeply wrong. She clenched her robotic fist and turned away from Ryo.

"I'm sorry if I scared you," Claire admitted. "Throughout my entire life, I've been turned away as well at the sight of others. They've all judged me from this arm, and my arm alone. Even the Seraphians saw this as a sign of weakness. They believed that I needed to be whole again, and that this arm served as evidence of me dragging a piece of my past with me."

"That's ridiculous," Ryo expressed. "This arm doesn't define you. You define yourself."

"How do I define myself, that is the question," Claire said, pulling down her sleeve. "You and your friend have a complicated, yet steady relationship from what I've heard. I put myself forward as an asset and Jinrai determines that I'm loyal and trustworthy. But the question is... when do I leave my mark on the world? Have I always been so cowardly... to answer that question?"

"I don't understand where you're coming from," Ryo said, unable to determine Claire's train of thought. "Did you-"

"No," Claire laughed, scratching the back of her head. "I'm just speaking my mind, that's all.