Notes:

Chapter Title: Qualia (クオリア) - UVERworld

(Side note: I was surprised to find that "qualia" is actually a word, but its meaning is actually super fitting for this chapter; I think I listened to this song about 50 times in the past two days, lol)

"I believed that we could understand each other.

Was that too naïve of me to assume so? Even in a Tokyo that has been torn apart completely twice in less than ten years, I truly believed that somehow, we could still understand each other.

But when I looked at the images of the aftermath of the riot that had occurred just outside the doors of Tokyo's district building itself, for the first time, I wondered if I was wrong. Had the years of discrimination already created distance that could never be bridged and a gap too far for us to reach out across? Was it already too late for us to even remember that once, we had been born into the same city and shared our mutual hopes to the same skies?" —Toujou Nozomi

Eli stared at the frozen image on the computer screen in front of her, thoughts racing at a million miles per hour as the news stream continued to play, though she was barely paying attention to it anymore.

She heard a scuffle behind her as someone shifted their position. "Do you think someone killed him on purpose?" Umi's voice was quiet. "Or was this an accident?"

Maki snorted from her chair as she swivelled it around to face the blue-haired woman. "Are you kidding me?" she asked incredulously, before the tone in her voice intensified. "This was murder, and this is the result of someone's pathetic attempt to pass it off as an accidental death. In fact, I wouldn't put it past someone to stage this entire riot just so they could kill him." She arched an eyebrow in Eli's direction, obviously hoping for—or expecting—an agreement.

When she didn't immediately reply, Maki snorted again. "Eli, please don't tell me you're naïve enough to actually think this wasn't done on purpose. I thought you were the one who enlightened Umi that just because murder is illegal doesn't mean nobody does it?"

"That's not it," she replied slowly, biting her lip as she mulled over the limited facts they had at the moment. "I agree it was done on purpose. But… who actually gains an advantage from this?"

At that, Maki laughed, the sound derisive and sarcastic. "Are you serious? Who do you think stands to gain from this?"

Some aspect of her confusion must've shown on her face, because the redhead actually got up from her chair, crossing her arms over her chest as she closed the small distance between where she was standing and where Eli was sitting. "Wouldn't it be convenient for Toujou to get him out of her way?"

Eli stared up at the expression in her friend's amethyst gaze before she looked down, catching Umi's eye as she did so.

Do I really think Toujou would've done it?

Somehow, she didn't think so. If she had been asked that question before she'd met Tokyo's head of state in person, she would've agreed that the violet-haired woman might have ordered someone to do it, like all of Tokyo's businessmen and politicians before her. But if there was one thing that Eli could've taken away from her limited interactions with Toujou, it would've been the single line that she'd said to her in the car that had changed how she felt about the woman in question.

"Once upon a time, we were kin, staring up at the same sky we were born under."

The memory of the way she'd spoken that one sentence reverberated in Eli's mind as she thought back to it; it had been spoken with such understanding that it had been in that moment that she knew Toujou also knew—and recognized— the enormity of the task in front of her if she wanted her policy to be accepted. It was impossible to care so much about its acceptance and yet throw those sentiments away carelessly moments later. Unless Toujou was a far better liar than she thought she was, Eli couldn't imagine that the district ruler would've resorted to violence mere hours after Tokyo's first major demonstration against it.

"No," she said, without looking up, slightly wary of what she might find in Maki's angry glare because of her disagreement. "I don't think she does."

"Why not?" The bitter scorn in her voice didn't escape her notice.

She replied "She's not that kind of person" at the same time that Umi said, "It makes no sense."

Maki glared at each of them in turn as Eli looked up to meet Umi's amber gaze. She didn't miss the way her redheaded friend narrowed her eyes at her before turning to Umi, her stance all but demanding an explanation.

Umi took a few steps forward until she was next to the table where Maki's laptop was set up, and she watched the news stream for a few moments before replying. "Think about it," Umi started in a low voice, as though they could be overheard in the underground laboratory even though there was no chance of it actually happening. "If Toujou really wanted him dead, would she have made it so obvious? There are very few people who live in Tokyo that actually agree with her policy, because the thought of the possibility of a second Bloody Valentine is enough to make them protest against it. Not to mention that his death is only going to incense his followers, which would in turn increase the amount of dissent against her policy. She may be a politician, but I think she knows better than to assassinate someone like that publicly."

Silence greeted the end of Umi's words as Eli took the opportunity to rewind the news stream again. There was something she wanted to double check, and wryly, she noted that Maki hadn't bothered to address her statement, which suited her just fine, because she didn't feel like explaining her feelings right now—and especially not to a Maki who'd obviously had a bad night and was currently running on the last legs of a bad temper and an unhealthy dose of caffeine.

She rolled her chair back to her own personal computer, opening several files that she'd accumulated over the years. One of them was a three-dimensional map of downtown Tokyo. Eli had forgotten when and where she'd actually gotten the files for the map, but she was glad that she'd had the foresight to save it, because it had come in handy more than once.

She enlarged the area where the riot had taken place the previous night, highlighting the street where Samejima had been shot. Glancing back at the fuzzy image on Maki's laptop for reference, she marked the rough spot where the man had been standing before he'd been shot, turning the map around several times in comparison to make sure she had gotten the right spot. Flicking another gaze at the paused image of the protestor just seconds before he'd gotten shot, she tried to determine by eye the angle in which the bullet had come in from, looking back at the laptop a few times to ensure that her work was accurate.

When everything was laid out in a 3D form, she narrowed her eyes.

There was really only one building in the area where the bullet could've come from—it stood just about a kilometer away from the street where the rioters had been gathered, where it towered over the lower, residential apartments that lined the previous streets. It was the only building in the area that was high enough and had the correct line of sight for someone to line up a shot from.

From her previous research, Eli already knew that Samejima Sho had been at the forefront of the protests against Toujou's New Edenra Policy ever since she had proposed it a few months ago. Some digging had revealed that Samejima had worked in finance before Bloody Valentine, in which his wife had become an Edenra victim. He had promptly sold all his assets after February 2026, and had started an electoral platform in one of Tokyo's remaining wards, although his campaign had never been anything more than moderately successful until recently.

Eli had no doubt that the man had enemies, but she was also sure that they wouldn't be significant enough to warrant a very public, very obvious murder that would almost certainly be broadcast on news stations across the remnants of Japan; he was just another piece in a very large puzzle that had no intention of revealing itself anytime soon.

Cracking her knuckles, she decided to investigate the building that she thought the shot had been fired from.

"Are you sure it's that building?" Umi's voice came from directly behind her, and Eli almost started—she had been so absorbed in what she was doing that she hadn't realized that Umi and Maki had stopped their discussion; instead, both of them had been intently watching what she was doing over her shoulder for the last few minutes.

She contemplated Umi's question for a minute. "I think so. Nothing else in the area makes sense, especially when you consider how fast the bullet was travelling when it hit him."

Eli half-turned to see Umi purse her lips slightly at the suggestion. "To be honest," her blue-haired friend began, "it would be almost impossible to hit someone from that distance with a sniper bullet."

She was silent as she considered Umi's input. "Because of the distance, or because they wouldn't have a weapon powerful enough?" she finally asked.

Umi thought about the question for a brief heartbeat before answering. "Both, really. I mean, I suppose it would be possible for someone to own a sniper rifle or a machine gun that could make that shot, but it's mainly the distance. If you were on top of that building just to make that one shot count, you would have to be either ridiculously lucky, or…" Umi trailed off.

"Or what?" Impatience dogged the edges of Maki's tone.

"Or you had equipment set up on the rooftop to begin with," she said slowly.

Eli glanced up for a second at her blue-haired friend from underneath her messy blonde bangs. "Time to find out."

Loading up Tokyo City's database, she had the building's address within seconds. If you're going to kill someone on the roof of a building, you either have access to it—which means connections—or you work there. The first few floors were purely commercial: an assortment of coffee shops, small businesses, and a tourism agency. The fifth to twenty-seventh were offices, but none of their names stood out to her as she looked through the list of corporations. I would've recognized them if they had enough funds to sponsor something like this.

She paused when the last corporation's name popped up on her screen. The company owned the entirety of the twenty-eighth floor to the fortieth, and she leaned slightly closer to her computer screen to read the text that highlighted the company's name. Edo Manufacturing. The name struck her as slightly odd—usually, manufacturing companies didn't have their headquarters in downtown Tokyo because it was more convenient to situate them close to the factories that had sprung up near Tokyo Bay.

Edo Manufacturing was registered to a man named Edo Kouji, and Eli narrowed her eyes at the name. He had come across her desk more than once, as a standard profile picture of the man in question loaded on her screen. He was middle-aged, dressed in a business suit with long shoulder length silver hair tied behind him in a ponytail. She knew from past experience that he'd purchased the downtown corporate office within the last five years, a none-too-small feat for a company that had only sprung into success in the immediate aftermath of the first Ceresis attacks.

The fortieth floor in the building was also the only floor with direct access to the roof.

"Think he sponsored it?" Eli turned her chair around to see Maki twirling a lock of dark red hair in a finger as she looked at the photo of Edo Kouji.

"It doesn't have to be him," Umi interjected. "He could have been paid to turn a blind eye, or it could even be someone who works in that office. The point is, we don't know and we won't know unless we have more information." She turned, grabbing her bow and arrows off a hook in the wall. "I'm going to go talk to Rin."

The silhouette of the bounty hunter disappeared around the corner of the doorframe as she left, leaving Eli alone with Maki.

There was silence for a few minutes, until the redheaded surgeon broke it.

"I thought I told you to watch yourself out there," Maki growled at her, completely changing the topic now that Umi was out of the room.

Eli couldn't tell if her irritation was at least partially fueled by sleep deprivation or not, but regardless, if she was honest with herself, she had at least somewhat expected this particular conversation to happen the moment Maki had an opportunity to do so without Umi holding her back.

"I am," she replied, careful to keep her voice measured and calm.

"The hell you are!" her friend snapped back. "You used to question everything everyone did, wondering if you could trust anyone beyond the two of us. Then you go and meet Toujou in person, and it's like she turned you inside out. What happened to the cynical Eli I know and trust? Do I even know you anymore?"

Even though she had also barely slept the previous night, Eli stood up, clenching both her hands into fists at the accusation. She was a few centimetres taller than Maki, a fact that served her well at the moment. "I haven't changed," she countered, careful to keep her temper under control, because part of her knew and understood why Maki was lashing out. "You're right. In the grand scheme of things, I don't know Toujou well at all. But I've spent enough time around her to see that she's not like the rest of the politicians that piss me off so much, unless you're trying to say that I'm idiotic enough not to know when I'm being lied to."

Maki backed off a tiny bit before her shoulders rose, sharpening. "I'm saying that she's trying to get you, I don't know, on her side or something." She took a step closer to her until they were practically face to face, though to Eli, all it did was emphasize the height difference between them. "Damn it, Eli, I really thought you knew better than this!"

Eli tried to reign in her growing exasperation, knowing that if she started yelling too, all they would do was bash heads. Part of her wanted to, but the more reasonable half of her brain told her not to; if she did, the only thing that would end up happening would be the insecurities and her own doubts and fears tumbling out in a manner that she was wholly unprepared for at the moment.

She let out a long breath. "I get it," she said through a throat tighter than her clenched fists. "I know why you're concerned. But I thought you said you trusted me; because if you do, then you know I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize everything we've spent the last eight years building."

Maki finally deflated in front of her, her shoulders dropping a little as she took a step back. "Fine," the redhead finally acquiesced after several long minutes, her voice wavering just a little as she went on. "You're right. We… have to trust each other."

Eli allowed herself a small smile as the redhead snatched her mug off her table and proceeded to chug the rest of the drink in one swift motion, as though the cup in question was the source of all her frustration and she wanted nothing more than to be rid of it.

Climbing the small flight of stairs to let herself out of the laboratory after she'd turned off her computer, she looked back to see that Maki had retreated to the back of the laboratory, peering into her incubators with the empty coffee mug still in her hand. "You should really go get some sleep," she quipped as she made to open the door.

Maki shot her a look over the line of metal apparatuses. "Shut up."

Umi poked her head through the burlap flap entrance of Rin's shop, a heavy bounty bag hanging off her left shoulder. It had taken her longer than expected to travel to the city's outskirts in the heavy summer heat, but she was thankful of the quiet it provided the woods just beyond the fence. Most of the city's bounty hunters and private military corporations preferred to hunt at night during the summer, a prospect that suited her current agenda well, because Umi did not think her frayed nerves could handle someone like Satou Fubuki at the moment.

"Afternoon, Umi-chan!" Rin, however, was as bright and exuberant as ever as Umi let herself into the shade of the small shop, narrowly avoiding stepping on a cat as she made her way to the counter. She dropped her bounty bag on top of the glass surface, and Rin grinned at her with a very Cheshire-cat like smile as she opened the bag to peer inside.

"This is great, Umi-chan," she said as she pulled the bag closed and swept it off her counter surface. "I've got the arrows you wanted last time, too. Give me a sec to go get them…" She hopped off her stool and disappeared into the back of her shop.

Reappearing a few minutes later, Umi noticed that Rin was carrying more than just a sheath of arrows in her hands as she sat down on her stool again, shooing away a calico cat from off the countertop. The orange-haired young woman passed the sheath of arrows over to her first before shifting her sitting position slightly.

"Hey, Umi-chan… remember how nya owe me a favour?"

Umi half-smiled, half-frowned as she set the heavy bag on the ground. "Go on."

The smaller woman squared her shoulders. "You know how Samejima Sho was killed last night?" When Umi nodded, Rin took a breath before continuing. "He was a friend of my dad's. Kayo-chin told me that Toujou-sama wasn't even in the district building when he died. So… do you think Eli-chan can find out how he died for me?"

Umi bit her lip, not wanting to reveal anything that had been discussed in Maki's laboratory that morning just yet. "Who's… 'Kayo-chin'?" she asked, stalling for time.

"Oh." Rin dropped the volume of her voice. "My friend. She's Toujou-sama's secretary."

Surprised, Umi arched an eyebrow in Rin's direction. "Really?"

Rin nodded seriously. "Only, don't tell anyone I told nya that—she doesn't really want anyone else to know."

Umi's sense of caution warred with her sense of loyalty towards Rin. On one hand, she couldn't deny that Rin had been a good friend to her over the years, who also happened to be her source of income, but on the other, she knew that what the three of them had discussed that morning wasn't exactly the epitome of a conversation she could just repeat in public. The value of information—if information was something tangible—was almost worth its weight in gold, and based on Eli's previous dealings with various weapons dealers and business corporations alike, she knew that it was a matter not to be taken lightly at all.

She wasn't sure if she could give Rin a concrete answer just yet. "I'll see what I can do," Umi finally offered, hoping it would be enough at the moment until she had time to think things over and discuss the matter at hand with Eli.

Rin nodded seriously before a small grin quirked at the corner of her lips again. "Then we'd be even."

Umi allowed herself a soft, amused snort as she saw herself out, remembering to collect her new sheath of arrows from where she'd left them on the floor as Rin waved over a cat clamouring for her attention now that Umi had vacated the spot her cats usually occupied.

She winced at the temperature outside; heat shimmered off the dust gathered on the dirt roads of the outer districts and the sky above was blue and cloudless, with no breeze to speak of.

It was going to be a very sticky, very uncomfortable walk back into Tokyo.

Eli held her phone in one hand as she walked along the waterfront, stalling for time until her appointment with Toujou. Koizumi had called her sometime that afternoon after she'd woken up from her nap—although the demure young woman hadn't given her a reason for the meeting this time yet again, she presumed it was because Toujou wanted to discuss their trip to the Tokyo's outer district the previous night.

The stretch of walkway alongside Tokyo Bay was her preferred place to allow herself some breathing room before she had to be back in a building that would inevitably be stuffed full of restless, edgy politicians, especially given the events of the previous night.

The sun had almost completely set, lending milky pink fingers across the mauve gradient of the summer evening sky; the relative silence by the water, its dark currents churning despite the absence of a breeze gave her a few moments to gather and organize her thoughts.

She was staring out across the inky waves, playing idly with a loose strand of blonde hair before a new sound caught her attention.

Turning her head in its direction, she spotted a lone young girl standing by the steep drop-off of rocks that led down to the waterfront. She's… singing?

Curiosity got the better of her as she drew closer to the girl, who couldn't have been more than ten or eleven. Her long, platinum hair was unkempt and messy, and she was wearing a dirtied blue dress that had clearly seen better days. She was standing next to a small, empty bowl and there was a grey bandana over her eyes; it took some effort for Eli to read the characters written on the sign she had hanging around her neck: I am an orphan from the outer districts.

The girl paused in her song as she heard her footsteps of approach, before offering her a small, wan smile.

Eli stopped a few feet away from the girl. The question fell from her lips before she could stop them. "What… happened to your eyes?"

The girl looked up slightly—if she could see her, she would have been looking directly at her. "I lost my sight four years ago during Bloody Valentine," she said, but Eli could detect no hint of bitterness, grief, or even anger in the girl's voice as she spoke, as though it was a simple fact that she had come to accept. They might've been talking about the weather.

The girl took a few small steps towards her, and reached out a thin, calloused hand. The rough fingertips came into contact with Eli's cheek, and she had to force herself not to flinch at the unexpected touch—an ingrained reaction that her body had been trained to do ever since her disastrous last visit into Tokyo's outer districts.

But there was no malice in the young girl's gesture, and she lowered her hand a few moments later. "You're very pretty," she observed in a soft voice. She opened her mouth again as if to say more, before a babble of drunken laughter interrupted them.

Eli turned her head to see a group of bounty hunters who had obviously been drinking at a bar before they headed out beyond the fence that evening. One of them was holding a drink in his hand, and he sniggered as he passed them, flicking the aluminum tab of the can into the girl's bowl as he did so. "Take that and get out of here. You Edenra victims don't belong on Tokyo," he snarled.

The girl seemed unfazed by the scornful anger in the man's voice. "Thank you so much!" she called after him.

Eli struggled to contain her feelings as she watched the exchange. A tumour of fury and sorrow spawned at the back of her throat and remained there stubbornly as the group of men walked away.

She bent down until she was at the girl's eye level. "Listen, you shouldn't come back here for awhile," she told her, trying to control the tremor that she was sure her throat would insert into her words.

The girl shook her head. "But… I have a little sister…"

It was like someone had actually hit her in the chest, as Eli bit down on her lip to stop herself from crying out loud. She closed her eyes for a long moment, willing the storm of emotions in her chest to settle themselves. When they didn't, she reached into her pocket, finding the change she'd stowed there a few days ago before shoving into the girl's hand.

The small fingers rubbed across the surface of the money for a few heartbeats before she jerked her head up in surprise. "All of this? But why?"

Eli straightened, looking out across the water of Tokyo Bay, but seeing none of it. "Don't worry about it," she insisted. "Just promise me."

There was a moment of pause as a chilly evening breeze blew across the waterside, disturbing a flock of seagulls that had been nesting on a nearby rock, before the girl nodded hesitantly. "O-Okay."

Eli turned away, setting her sights on the district building in the distance. She was tempted to look back once or twice, just to see if the girl had really done what she had told her to do, but she forced herself not to—instead putting her efforts into shoving her emotions in a locked box and throwing away the key before she had to meet Toujou face to face again.

There were more security guards than Eli remembered there ever being in the lobby of the district building as Koizumi led her past anxious knots of politicians; all of them, as far as she could tell, were busy discussing the events of last night's riot, and she heard Toujou's whispered name more than once as she walked by.

The darkened hallways felt stuffy as she walked down the familiar landing that led towards Toujou's office. Halfway up the last flight of stairs, a buzzing interrupted their otherwise silent walk. Koizumi instantly blushed—visible even in the dim lighting—and she paused, fumbled slightly as she withdrew her phone from her pocket. "H-Hello?"

Eli stopped too, waiting as Koizumi listened intently to the person on the other end of the line. "Y-Yes! I'll be there!" She hung up and gave her an apologetic glance.

"I-I'm sorry, Ayase-san, but an important business owner is here to schedule a meeting with Toujou-sama for the next few days. Do you mind going up by yourself? S-She's with Fujiwara-san at the moment, but she'll see you afterward."

Eli shook her head, the nervousness of Toujou's secretary amusing her slightly as it always had. "I don't mind."

Koizumi bowed a little to her. "T-Thank you!" she stammered before dashing off, disappearing once she'd reached the bottom of the stairs.

Eli made the rest of the short way to Toujou's office alone. The upper hallways were deserted, minus the occasional security guard doing rounds, bright flashlights in hand, and its stillness was a welcome reprieve from the distressed, suspicious atmosphere in the foyer filled with uptight politicians.

She heard voices as she neared Toujou's door; stopping just outside, she realized that it had been left ajar, allowing a thin beam of moonlight to poke through the crack. Eli almost raised her hand to knock on the wood before an angry voice knifed through the silence like a blade.

"Are you sure you didn't order someone to kill him?"

She recognized Fujiwara's irate voice in a heartbeat as Eli paused outside the door, her pulse suddenly racing as she realized that this was not a conversation for her ears. The respectful thing to do would've been to back away, but she knew herself well enough that she knew she wouldn't be able to do so.

"And if I did?" Toujou's voice was as delicate as ever, as though she was discussing something trivial and mundane.

"How could you be so stupid?" came the angry splutter from the advisor. "Are you trying to commit political suicide?"

"No," Toujou replied, the sudden coldness in her voice as inexorable as an avalanche. "For the record, however… I did not."

There was silence for several long heartbeats.

"I see you haven't completely forgotten what your father taught you then," Fujiwara muttered at last. "Nonetheless, this is going to be a problem."

"I am aware," Toujou interrupted him midsentence.

Fujiwara ploughed on, undeterred. "Even if you didn't order him killed, you realize what the public will think, right? Toujou-sama, I urge you—drop your New Edenra Policy before it's too late. It's already unpopular enough as it is, and the fact that the leader of its opposition was killed during his own demonstration will just serve to diminish its reputation further."

There was the scuffle of cloth against cloth—Eli imagined Toujou getting up from her chair to look out her window as she so often did.

"Be as that may, I intend to continue." She heard the same quiet determination in Toujou's voice that had been present last night in the car, when the violet-haired young woman had spoken about her aspirations for the district that she had inherited.

"Don't you understand?" Fujiwara asked her, incredulous contempt dripping from his words. "There is no chance you'll be able pass it now."

Silence again.

"That remains to be seen, Advisor," Toujou remarked serenely, though Eli could tell from her tone that she was far from amused. "That will be all."

There was no sound of the man making a motion to leave, though, as long minutes ticked by. "One day," the man finally said, "you'll realize how incredibly naïve you're being, Toujou-sama. There's no way you can appease everyone in this district. It's better that you stop now before you get yourself killed trying to."

There was the sound of footsteps on carpet, and Eli realized too late that she was too close to the heavy oak doors for it to look like she hadn't been eavesdropping, as Fujiwara Hayato wrenched the door open.

They stared at each other for several moments. She could see the anger that was still etched on his face as his disgusted gaze bored into her, obviously as unhappy with her presence as she was with his. He looked as if he was ready to spit in her face, before he restrained himself with a visible, massive effort, and stalked away down the hallway, disappearing around a corner.

Eli stood by the doorway, suddenly unsure if she wanted to insert herself into the situation at all. She almost jumped when Toujou's voice broke the silence from where she was standing by the window. "Come in."

She took a tentative step forward, crossing the threshold into Toujou's office, moving forward past the single security guard standing by the door tonight.

"I… You heard all that?"

Eli looked down at her boots against the red plush of the carpet, wondering whether it was worth it to admit it or not. "Yes," she confessed finally, her conscience winning her over in the end.

"I trust that you will not repeat this conversation to anybody?" Toujou asked her after a few moments.

"No… of course not," she murmured.

Toujou still had her back to her; the moonlight coming in from the window made it hard for Eli to make out her features even as she half-turned. But as little as Eli realized she knew the woman in front of her, she knew enough to know that the expression in the district ruler's verdant eyes was sorrow. "Eli-san. Do you think I'm being naïve?"

The question was quiet, but the vulnerable emotion in it seemed almost disparate, as though Toujou wasn't really sure if she wanted to hear the answer from her or not. Eli tried to think about the broken body of the murdered man that had been frozen on her computer screen that morning, surrounded by blood and tainted by ash, but she found that all she could think of was the gentle, searching way the girl from the outer district had touched her face, and the quiet hopelessness in her voice when she'd spoken about the sister she still needed to care for.

"No," she said, her voice a little stronger than she would've thought it would be as the words made it past her throat. "I don't think so."