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Both of them nodded in agreement, though silently dreaded the idea of being caught. With Prompto tucked away in an isolation facility after his mental state deteriorated with Twelve’s death she doubted she would be able to face her father like that.

Digging around in his bag for a moment Cain tossed Arata an encrypted flash drive, trusting him that he could decode it on his own just fine.

“You already know about the old Sphinx, but the documents on there are why Nine and Twelve became terrorists in the first place. Our main goal is to take Sybil down yes, but these buried documents about the Athena plan need to be known to the world as well for their sakes.”

Knowing it would take him a while to get through it all Cain packed up and quietly left with Oriana, asking Arata to meet them after school so they could both show him the hide out they had recently secured. 

Arata grabbed the the pen drive and nodded gravely, understanding how deep this went for both Oriana and Cain, who carried their fathers’ legacy. Even in his cold rage, Arata understood that the reasons his fiends had for fighting Sibyl went a lot further back in time than his did, and he respected that.

“We will make Sibyl pay for all its crimes, including what they did to Nine and Twelve. I will take a look, then we will need a safe place to discuss details. I want to know how far you’ve gone in your planning.”

In the following hours, Arata did just as he had said. He trusted Cain with coming up with a good plan, and figured out that this brought them a lot farther ahead than he had imagined they would have been, had Cain and Oriana not been working on the project already.

Conrad took to remembering that name, considering he was going to be in the company of Lord Ginoza for a while apparently until his name was cleared.

“Indeed, sir, he is a human who happened to have ran an apothecary at one point before passing it on to his children. Can’t say that I met very many humans that still have magic heritage, though, which is why he seemed to know what I am back when we first met.”

Really since that meeting was done with, it wasn’t like there was any other pressing business. “Though in all of my times visiting this country, I never traveled to this section of it. He told me that it was worth it to see due to the scenery most of all during this season.”

“Mh, I can’t help but agree with you on that. The Kosagagawa lands are truly a splendor in autumn, and we would hate to see them ruined by a war. Not to mention, it would be the humans who inhabit it that are going to suffer most from a conflict. We do take pride in being elightened rulers for this land, and would hate to see it destroyed by a war... Although we would not restrain ourselves if need be. The Kosagawa Lands are my family’s pride, and we will not see them fall in anyone else’s hands.” Ginoza stated truthfully, certain that he was not giving away any information the Tougane family did not already have.

                                        H O U N D : 4 

For a few moments there was only silence as both Cain and Oriana just blinked at the blunt statement, though then Oriana couldn’t help but to let out a few chuckles at the irony that easily broke all the tension. 

“You really think we haven’t already started? I’ve been making and preparing bombs for months while Cain here has been hacking into all sorts of things in his free time.”

“I’ve got no objection to any of this really, long as you agree that we spare all the innocent civilians as Nine and Twelve did.”

With his homework now safely tucked away he gently nudged Oriana off him knowing this was going to be a much longer conversation then he had originally thought.

Arata was actually taken aback by Oriana’s quick response. He hadn’t expected it, but now that he thought of it, he really should have. He should have been able to see the signs. Was he really so focused on commiserating himself to notice the hints, or were Oriana and Cain just too good at hiding them?

It didn’t matter one way or the other.

“Heh. Alright, you win this time.” he smirked sadly. 

 “You can lie to yourself about believing in Sibyl. But dont say it around me” Serene’s face turned from full of fear to full of the deepest anger a person could have. She hated the Sibyl system more then anything else and didnt really fight for it she fought for those she cared about. “Then you should settle with how your life is going. Right now you’re heading down the same path as your father and Kougami.’ Her voice was sharp and bitter as she spoke to the other, she let the years of resentment she had for Sybil show as she spoke to the man. 

Ginoza was the only person from Serene’s old life that still existed in the real world and she wanted to see him keep that life more then he could ever know. But she wouldn’t listen to him lie about the control a person could have over their psycho pass. “They can fill you with all the meds and therapists they want. But they cant take away the fact that the darkness we work with clouds our lives. Dont lie to me and tell me that you dont lay in bed at night and think about the things we see.” Serene looked at the man as she spoke her eyes starting to fill with genuine concern rather then anger. She had to accept that she couldnt help Ginoza just like how she couldn’t help Kougami. “Well then I wont spare any pity when this happens to you. Tell me how much control you had in six months when we’re equal. “ 

“You don’t know shit about me! You don’t know shit about staying sane, so don’t try to tell me how I should live my life!” Ginoza burst out, now at the end of his rope. This conversation was definitely going in a direction he didn’t like, and yet he couldn’t control himself.

If the overall situation, with one Enforcer down and a mysterious criminal against whom Dominators were useless, wasn’t going to make his Hue take a turn for the worse, surely his confrontation with Serene was, he thought as he slowly forced himself to bring his control back.

“Facing the darkest side of the human nature while keeping your own humanity is precisely an Inspector’s job. So no, I try not to think about that when going to bed.”

But they still plague me at night. All the horrors we face every day.