Truth

Bellastraza of the Libra District resembled a unique perspective on living conditions based on its emphasis on aquatic lifestyle across its acres of the bountiful land. Some would call it a bubble separate from its normal living conditions that most humans were used to on Earth, and for good reasons. The appearance and appreciation of aquatic life in Bellastraza was not merely a gift of admiration of its beautiful and diverse sea creatures across a plethora of alien planets, but rather a cultural norm that has been exercised through all of its facets of exploration.

The Libra District was created by avid supporters of an ancient marine biologist from another planet that housed aquatic life for generations. This creative biologist and oceanographer treasured all facets of life as his own, as he even experimented and created some for other's enjoyment. His popularity skyrocketed as a result of his creative generosity, and he instantly gained a cult following out of it. To treasure his passing, Bellastraza was created for all, where life was treasured throughout both the tourist and living experience.

Giant glass sphere domes housing sea creatures ablaze with tropical colors were placed across Bellastraza's landmarks for others to admire. Colorful ponds filled with neon fish, streams of water that housed planetary amphibians, and marine biology-influenced amusement parks were built as a result of the aquatic festivities. Aquariums were the prominent source of tourist attractions at Bellastraza, and the official name of Bellastraza is given to the largest aquarium of all time in Aries. The architects of the Libra District wanted to provide a distinct style that was separate from its other districts to hammer in the beauty of ocean life.

Yet with all communities, a distinct split had to be made between two mindsets about the preservation of aquatic life. One of the halves of Bellastraza is a fanatical realist when it comes to life in the Libra District. As a means to not disrespect the culture of the town, these people dubbed as fanatics would be perceived as careless with their constant rummaging of aquatic nature. These people were seen as hostile for eating seafood, littering in beaches and aquatic areas, and fighting against those who oppose them as scum to society.

This ongoing societal war has been occurring for quite some time-

"You don't have to give me a whole history lesson, Naoto," Sumire's voice was barely noticeable in the midst of a bustling crowd in the streets of Bellastraza. Dressed in sleek casual clothing, Sumire tried her best to blend into the ensuing crowd for stealth purposes. She spoke through an earpiece communicator that transmitted signals from their Sunlight headquarters for analysis. A miniature tracking device placed in her back jeans pocket allowed Naoto to pinpoint her exact location for maximum security and assistance. "Just tell me where the target is."

"Sorry, sorry," Naoto's voice rang clear as day to Sumire's earpiece. "Your target's a young woman, Amy Sadao, age 25. She's been working in Melody's headquarters for quite some time. The evidence on the nanosuit stated that she was one of the workers who assembled it, but I don't even know how it's possible to create such an advanced suit in such a short period."

"Location, Naoto." Sumire impatiently reminded her as multiple people in the crowd began shoving through others to get to their destinations.

"My bad," Naoto apologized again through the earpiece. "She's close by. She's at the seafood restaurant about a block away," Back at headquarters, Naoto utilized the meeting's gigantic map of Aries to pinpoint the location of Amy Sadao. He zoomed into the seafood restaurant and hacked into one of the infrared cameras used to keep surveillance. Amy Sadao, a woman casually dressed in a trench coat waiting for her order, nestled with her allies near the end of the restaurant's bathroom. "You better thank Chiaki for being able to hack these cameras for us. He stopped by earlier. Man, that guy knows his stuff better than I do."

"Chiaki? He helped you?" Sumire surprisingly expressed this after catching a glimpse of the seafood restaurant in the distance. She shuffled through more people before stopping at a mid-traffic crossing. As she patiently waited for the street to allow her to walk, Smite checked her equipment: a powering cell to enhance her mechsuit's capabilities, a pocket knife, a blowtorch, an extra tracking device that could be placed on any suspecting victim or criminal, and a grappling hook shot used to traverse above buildings to escape or gain distance. "Maybe he could have replaced you. At least he wouldn't give me a history lesson about this place."

"That's not nice," Naoto's morale was shot down. "All right, you're free to walk. You're almost there. Remember to try and get Sadao's keycard. It's located…" Naoto zoomed in on Sadao's figure, using biometric scanners to locate her items. "In her purse, specifically her wallet. Red-colored."

"Shit," Sumire cursed, crossing the street on time. "How am I supposed to get in her purse?"

"A diversion, maybe?" Naoto suggested. "You can probably use Bellastraza's history to your advantage. You're welcome."

"A history lesson…" Sumire said aloud as she scanned the area. The easiest type of diversion to create at a seafood restaurant in Bellastraza was to have a loyal aquatic protector and devoted fan to the ancient marine biologist enter the establishment. Doing so would create aggressive tensions between them and the seafood establishment. What she wished for was to cause a scene to distract the authorities to find the keycard. "You know what? You're a genius, Naoto."

"I try, I try," Naoto blushed as he accepted her compliment. "So, what are you going to do?"

"Improvising," Sumire stated as she located three individuals devoted to marine life outside of the restaurant striking in front of the moving crowd. She watched as their slender figures, no doubt from not eating seafood, Sumire thought, were striking with brightly colored signs reading "Down with oppressive do-gooders." They were chanting phrases through blaring megaphones indicating their disagreement with the individuals that indulged in seafood to taint the idea of the beauty of Bellastraza's history. Getting involved with them and having them enter the restaurant would be the best course of action to start a diversion, Sumire thought.

"Excuse me," Sumire asked, stepping up to the plate of the three individuals striking. "What you need is more motivation. You know, I used to work at a coffee store with people who thought harvesting coffee beans were bad for nature and all. And you know, I felt that same way and joined them. Left my job too. I went back inside with those people and I stuck it to my previous bosses." Sumire improvised her ruse to rile the morale of those people seeking change.

"Yeah," Another woman agreed. "Sounds like they had it coming though!"

Naoto's voice came through their conversation. "What are you doing?" He panicked.

Sumire disregarded his question and continued her trick. "No, what you three need to do is to do exactly what I did! I want you three to make it well known about what it means to stand up for your rights. If I can do it, then so can you! Go on! Go!" She pressured.

Seconds passed as the seafood establishment ran in peace. Waiters took orders promptly, and cooks proceeded with them. Live fish were killed in the kitchen through butcher knives right before they were served to ensure the maximum freshness of their premium cut. This was one of the major mottos of the seafood establishment to attract new customers, where every single fish caught was guaranteed fresh to abound code.

From Amy Sadao's point of view, one of her allies had just received her order of shark fin soup and cucumber mayonnaise sushi. As the waiter held the two dishes with his hand, the three rebellious strikers stormed the restaurant with their megaphones lit ablaze with confounding aggression to dismantle the establishment.

Customers leaped back in fear while the restaurant's workers were baffled on how to handle the rioters. Sumire snuck into the establishment from behind the three as they riled up the entire crowd. As they began chanting their rioting phrases through their megaphones, one of the rioters grabbed a fancy lantern candle resting in the center of one of the customer's tables and tossed it over to the kitchen. Flames poured and scattered across the wooden floors, and the customers cowered and were forced to crowd over the corners of the establishment until law enforcement arrived.

Luckily, Sumire arrived. She snuck behind the riot's crowd as the customers panicked and located Amy Sadao's purse. While everyone remained distracted, Sumire dove straight into it and located her wallet. The red-colored keycard was easily identifiable, leaving Sumire the perfect chance to snatch it.

"Well, whatever you did, it worked," Naoto's voice came through her mechanical earpiece. "Get out of there. Don't let Sadao see you."

"Already on it," Sumire said, stepping near the exit of the doorway. She turned her back to face those cowering in fear and those fighting for their rights to preserve aquatic life. "One of these days, I hope these people can figure out how to even out the score. These people fight as much as Ryo and I do…"

"Hey, don't say that," Naoto added to her comment as she escaped the restaurant. He watched as Sumire followed an alleyway between the restaurant where civilians were barely present. Using her grappling hook shot, she launched a tethering hook towards the rooftops of a four-story building to latch on. Naoto monitored her situation as she began climbing up with ease. "Anyways, Sadao most likely won't notice that her keycard's missing. They haven't been working at all recently, so only the higher-ups will know about the loss when the time comes."

Sumire reached the top of the four-story building and pressed on a locating gadget to find Natsu, her mechsuit. After doing so, Sumire stopped to admire Bellastraza's aquatic-themed scenery, where the azure skies melded with the reflection of the oceans spanning across the imperfect city. Even the skies had floating lifeforms swimming through the heavens as if the oceans were reversed in positions. Sumire could compare the location to almost anywhere, but it reminded her of Asahikawa, where the oppressive underground reduced her brother into a barely noticeable human being. She followed another path, and while both of them could be considered good and evil, she had good faith that one of these days, the city would change much like their relationship would.

"Call down Natsu for me, would you?" Sumire ordered Naoto through her earpiece. "I'm going to try and make it to where the signal was broadcasted. We're going to get Sadao's files on Melody's plans right now."

"Already done so," Naoto stated. "She's coming in hot now."

As several seconds passed, Sumire's massive mechsuit descended from the clouds above with its ignition boosters. Heatwaves and flames scorched the ignition site located behind the mechsuit, and puffs of smoke in the shapes of rings fired out into the air. Natsu rotated itself so that Sumire could leap inside with ease as soon as its piloting chassis opened up. When the timing was exactly right, Sumire jumped onto its soft cushioning pads within and linked into Natsu's neural interface to gain control of it. Using her brain, she propelled her mechsuit through the skies out of the civilian's sight.

With Sumire situated inside Natsu on all fours, she made way for Amy Sadao's secret Melody headquarters. It was disguised perfectly as a regular office building where most civilians wouldn't bother realizing an illegal setting existed underneath their noses. Located several miles away from her current position, Sumire traced the transmission signal using the evidence obtained from the nanosuit.

"Can't believe your brother had a run-in with Rose Accel yesterday. Akai took her to HQ." Naoto's voice rang clear as day inside Natsu's interior voice communication systems. "She pulled some stupid shit to Jinni… and your brother."

"What?" Sumire paused in her tracks. The news hit her like a moving truck. "What happened?"

"Jinni told me that Rose Accel wanted to talk to your brother," Naoto continued. "They ended up getting into a fight, and she attacked him with her spirit animal. It wasn't anything too serious, but Jinni ended up taking most of the damage in the end. She couldn't stop crying, and I couldn't do anything about it. I just sat beside her and listened to her. She kept on smiling too, even though she had been hurt."

"Son of a bitch," Sumire muttered while thinking of Akai. "What the hell was he thinking, bringing someone like Rose Accel out of nowhere? Not even a word of approval from us? And Ryo…"

"Yeah," Naoto continued. "It's okay though. Your brother and Natia's already at the factory site where the other transmitted signal was at. Jinni's doing fine, I hope. I wish I just could have-"

Signal jammers began intercepting Naoto's voice, bringing his communications offline. Sumire felt miniature tingles in her brain and at the side of her connected temples. Her neural interface began fogging up and glitching out of unnatural proportions. Naoto's voice drastically turned into static as his voice could barely be heard. Sumire's mind was uneasy the more Natsu accepted more of the signal jammers through its interface.

"Naoto?" Sumire called as she continued propelling Natsu forward. "Can you hear me? Are you there?" Sumire felt her control over Natsu slowly waning as the signal jammers began fatiguing her body. "Goddamn it, what's happening?"

"No. Go on. Please," A female's sly voice interrupted and took over Naoto's control over Natsu's communication systems. Distorted 8-bit pixelated graphics involving cute animals began clouding Sumire's vision over Natsu's interface as her garbled speech continued with a demanding tone."You were going on about a touching story regarding Rose Accel. I want to hear more about it."

Sumire instantly recognized the voice from the evidence's recording file. "It's you," She coldly said. "You're the leader of Melody. And what I have going on in my life is none of your business."

"It is my business now," The leader replied. "How could it not be? You just stole one of my associate's keycards and got away with it. And now you're heading to one of my hidden sites to learn more about the truth. Isn't that right?"

"What is the truth?" Sumire asked, wanting to play a detective role. "You should know that we're not trying to impose a threat on you. We all want to be on your side in this. I want to find out who stole the nanosuits from you too. But we can't find out who did it if we don't work together on this.

"I don't think that's a good idea," The leader declared. "I'm not going to follow orders from a low-life cop like you who knows little to nothing about Aries. You out of all people should know how this world functions, but you've barely scratched the surface. But to think you managed to track us down over a simple recorded file is still interesting. Perhaps we have something in common when it comes to gathering intel."

"So, why talk to me then?" Sumire asked. "If you don't want to help me find out who did this to you, then why bother telling me?"

"Because, I want you to know the truth of what happened to us," The leader's voice faltered as if something had drastically impacted her heart the more she spoke about the topic. "If you knew, then surely you would understand why we had to know who stole from us. The enemies we've had to face… the lies that we've been told… the people that died from this… it would all make sense to you."

Sumire paused. "Died…?" She asked, wondering about the extent of the entire situation. The leader of Melody made it seem like the situation was more than just simple theft from an unknown wanted organization. "Who died? How many of you? No more bullshit, I want answers. I want to help you."

"Be on your way then," The voice ordered. "Prove to me that you're more than just a low-life cop after understanding our lives. Then maybe we'll talk about it. For now, I implore you to find the truth using my associate's keycard."

Sumire believed this to be one of the more peculiar cases that she had ever dealt with in a while after being in Sunlight for almost nine years. She had never dealt with a case where the perpetrator willingly allowed the exchange of confidential and vital information to solve the issue. In most cases, Sumire was used to involve the perpetrator stating the usual "I didn't do it," or deflecting the blame on another individual irresponsible for their problems. This was a unique case where it involved a play around mind games; it was a test of trust for the suspected miscreant, for her intellect and hacking abilities played a vital role in exploiting one of Sumire's weaknesses when it came to collecting intel.

With Melody's leader still hacked into Natsu's communication, Sumire wanted to ensure what was spoken out of her mouth wouldn't jeopardize the case. Now that the leader knew Sumire's exact movements, she wanted to bear in mind the possibility of traps being set up for her. After soaring through the skies of Bellastraza, Sumire touched down on top of a ten-story office building that had no hints of suspicious activity from the outskirts. Using Natsu, she drilled a hole through the rooftops and ejected down within.

Sumire's earpiece still had static interference coming from Melody's leader, canceling all of Naoto's chances of speaking to her about the case. Although fatigued at first, after detaching from her neural interface, Sumire regained her strength after enumerating the case's severity to Aries as a whole. She launched down into the tenth floor of the building and withdrew her tracking device from her back pocket. She attached and scanned Amy Sadao's encrypted keycard and analyzed the traces of where it was last used to determine the evidence site.

"Much has been lost ever since those fools created Aries," The leader continued to speak through Sumire's earpiece as she determined Sadao's informational desk location. "If we are to take back what was lost, then Aries must be affected as a result. Once you find the information, you shall understand yourself."

"We'll see about that," Sumire replied, holding her scanning device and following the sonar-like recon. She scanned the area for traps, but nothing was seen throughout the ordinary office building filled with cubicles. "Even if you mean well for your people, this isn't the right way to handle this, I'm telling you."

"There is no 'right' way any longer," The voice coldly indicated. "Don't talk to me about what must be right when nothing has been in our favor. We must seek vengeance. Surely a cop like you knows how it feels to be shoved head-first into the dirt and stomped on by your superiors. Surely you'd want to fight back, knowing full well they'd want nothing but to destroy you for eternity."

Sumire failed to reply to her consensus about cold-blooded revenge, knowing full well the leader referenced her sexually abusive father. Even though the connections that Sumire made with her peers attempted to mitigate the damage of her past, she could not help but seethe at the fact that her father's existence has such damaging control over her heart from where she believed he was irrelevant. She was not even sure if the leader knew about her past with the amount of hacking and technological knowledge for her background. But she knew that even if she did know, Sumire had a heart full of courage and compassion and wanted to fix things without the hopes of revenge as a role model for her brother.

"You're closing in now," The leader indicated as soon as Sumire entered the ninth floor. "See the truth for yourself."

The tracking device placed the evidence at one of the open cubicles on the far side of the office room. However, the ninth floor had a major shift in fragility and formality in the office setting. The entire room had tropical neon spray-painted graffiti and more 8-bit pixelated imagery of animals and stars vandalized across the walls. Demolished concrete slabs and cubicle pieces littered the torn navy-blue colored carpets. Pebbles of debris made it difficult to walk across. With the amount of tampering on the ninth floor, it seemed nearly impossible to recognize that the building had been vandalized.

"What the hell did you do to this place?" Sumire, baffled by the vandalizing, expressed as she made her way across the room to Sadao's desk. "Why do you tear these places apart knowing full well they're not responsible?"

"Not responsible?" The leader's voice cried with a raised tone. "Everyone here is responsible! And you will see for yourself. We have, and we always will want to tear Aries to the ground for what they've done! You will see! You have to see what they've done to us!"

After shoveling through countless rubble, Sumire found herself at Sadao's desk. A large metallic automated box caught her attention as part of the red keycard to unlock its confidential files. Sumire slipped the keycard within to unlock the box. She pulled out its contents one by one, which were files regarding key points of a project's database. After skimming through the files one by one, Sumire placed her attention on one folder with the "Confidential" bold red text layered across its sealed edges.

Sumire tore off the seal and flipped to the first page. She studied the confidentiality agreement and the title of the project's name, including the key compromises and goals for its product. Several seconds passed, and Sumire's breath escaped her system in disbelief. Her unbridled and undivided attention was broken by the utter disgust of those responsible. Those that were titled Melody were at risk for complete demolition.

However, it was already too late.