XX4: Late night surprise!

Walking through the streets of downtown District 50, Kazuki was reminded of how bright the cityscape was, endless adverts, neon lights and a sparkling facade that he always wanted to forget, not like he could though. Eliza was simply looking through her notes as she walked, ignoring the sounds of a metro train that whizzed by over some small buildings.

Snow continued to fall down from the late January weather rhythm. It created a wonderful display, Kazuki thought. Arriving at the restaurants, they quickly took up their reservation. Though it was at one of the outside tables, Eliza confessed to the two of them that the inside reservations were too expensive. Even as a member of the 'aristocracy', her family was far from all riches.

But he didn't care about that. Nor did he care about the food. To him, a dead mor-rat would taste the same as a five-star Kasté restaurant's forte meal. Archius commented, acting as if he hadn't been off-world for the past year, "Finally, I get to splurge out on my friend's money!"

"Hey!" Eliza interjected, then paused, "You know what? Fine!"

The open street view was nice, the cool night breeze ran up the roads, and the atmosphere was… decent, he guessed. The dozens of cultures present on every street were such a banal thing that intrigued him. The mixture of colours, tradition and cultures made the planet into a melting pot of ideas; from honourable Anagoran, savvy Lautrasian, modest Corthorn and the colourful chaos of Jinirab.

Approaching the table, a waitress dressed in the most professional of clothes asked, "May I have the honour of taking your orders?"

Archius skimmed through the menu for a second. Kazuki glanced at the window of the store, seeing two Kasté stars on it. He silently snickered at the thought of Archius not being able to understand the menu because of how posh it was. He was correct for the most part.

"Uh…" Archius squinted at the menu. Kaz took a glance at his own menu, seeing many dishes that even he didn't know existed… or maybe that was just because he was never into food. "I'll have whatever the dish of the day is."

The waitress paused for a moment. "Sir, we don't have a dish of the day. But if you are having trouble, I cannot help but recommend the Laéfea steak loins with Cárakas sauce."

She leaned over the table, pointing at the item on the menu whilst slipping Archius a holo note. Kazuki took note of it. It had a hiccup-code on it… He hasn't touched the app in years, and the logo seemed to have changed.

"I'd love that, thank you, madame" said Archius, acting nonchalant as if he didn't embarrassingly mess up his order in front of his friend. Said friend will remember this incident for the rest of time and will bring it up in front of everyone.

He gave the waitress a smirking grin. Eliza didn't notice it. Probably for the best. Archius always was the sly one. Objectively looking at it, as much as Kazuki would hate to verbally admit it, he was handsome.

"I'll have the same," stated Kazuki, learning from Archius' failure.

The waitress nodded at the two of them, before turning to Eliza. "How about you, madame?"

"The Persuarí, please," said Eliza, looking up from the menu to the waitress. Of course, she chose something more splendid.

"Ah, wonderful choice." She nodded and turned to walk away as Kazuki placed his menu down, deactivating the holographic projection as he slid the slab into a small tray in the centre of the table.

"Archius, what've you been doing, then?" asked Kazuki. After what Archius did, he had no choice but to keep up the lie.

But before he could respond with another lie of his own, the waitress turned back to them. Eliza was the first to take note as she glanced up at her from a massive compilation of notes.

Archius' dull emerald green eyes slid to look at the waitress, forming a strained personality. She cleared her throat, "Ah, sorry monsieurs, it's just that I thought I recognised that name from Holovision…"

Kazuki shot a look at Archius. Maybe she was just one of Archius' associates he knew back in university… or maybe she was just one of his many unknowing informants, he doubted that anyone would've remembered him, Archius was old news. Eliza shot a look at Archius as he scratched the back of his head.

"Uh… you probably just misheard…" Archius trailed off. Kazuki's eyes glanced over at him, noting down a sense of genuine discomfort.

"Well, I apologise." She nodded before walking away. But before the whole situation could be resolved, Eliza's curiosity got the better of her.

"Now that I think about it, didn't you used to be in the entertainment industry?" asked Eliza.

Kazuki remembered Archius' time in that hell all too well back during their high school years. Luckily, it seems like Eliza was too busy with studying and getting lines on her CV than paying close attention to him. However, it was probably just to get close to a few targets.

But to his surprise, Archius nodded. He placed his hands together as he leaned forward towards Eliza. "Yeah, I don't want to talk about it…"

The 'normally' bright Archius faltered as Kazuki patted him on the back for a second as Eliza withdrew her curiosity. It wasn't his true face, but it was far from friendly, with hints of regret in it. The perfect concoction for sympathies. Maybe Jasmine's memory was still fresh in Archius, Kazuki thought.

"Ah, sorry if I—"

"No, no, it's only natural for you to be curious," interjected Archius, putting on a fake smile that fooled Eliza. Kazuki remained still as he looked over towards Eliza's hologram notepad. It was first-year material.

She slowly nodded, "Well, I won't pry any further, if you so desire."

"I appreciate that." stated Archius, his voice slowly decaying away into his normal, blank, hollow husk of a being.

He solemnly closed his eyes for a moment. After all they went through, nothing they do will ever wipe away the past. He tried to throw the conversation in a different direction.

"Eliza, I thought you were in your second year," said Kazuki.

Eliza's face lit up as he took interest. "Well, I took a break from uni after what happened. But I've been trying to catch up."

She showed Kazuki a section of her notes, flipping through the mass of pages and documents quickly. He read it all in the blink of a moment. She knew he'd remember it.

"You're losing a lot of time by being here," said Kazuki.

She shook her head and said, "I can put time aside for studying later."

"Then why are you looking over your notes?" asked Kazuki.

She scratched her head, then looked down at the extensive amount of study material she had lying on her docu-pad. She quickly slid it into her pocket as its projection came off. "Ah, force of habit. My apologies, Kaz."

"There's nothing to be sorry for," said Kazuki.

He felt a prick come to his back as his head started to roll. He squinted slightly as he rummaged through his left pocket, taking out a pill and swallowing it full. The Halolazil felt smooth.

Whilst it stopped the pain in his exospine, his headache only grew in intensity. He always had headaches, ever since the Ptolemy Incident. His father told him that erratic headaches run in the family, but he always warned him to pay attention when it does.

Apparently, his uncle and aunt had headaches shortly before their deaths. His aunt was killed by the Imperials and his uncle was during the Incident. But as he tried to ignore the pain, it grew even harder to the point that Archius and Eliza glanced over, wondering what was going on.

"Kaz?" asked Archius, preparing for the worst.

"Is something wrong?" Eliza tilted her head to the side. "I can get you some water if you'd like."

Something snapped. As he looked up, his right skidded to look beyond the fenced area of the restaurant's outside seating area next to Archius. He could feel the vibrations of a stress-filled heart beating, the aching of sweat in the air. His senses all crashed. His experimental exospine flooded adrenaline into his system. A figure turned towards him - his aug-glasses lit up with threat warnings. A hooded figure within the crowd was all it showed.