After reaching the second floor and passing through the inactive scanner, the three of them entered the side staircase, which started the endless, identical looking sets of stairs toward the top of the building. YF took point, heading up first while Ryoji supported Uraga behind him. The rush from the lobby fire fight was wearing off; each flight of stairs he ascended made him more calm, but also more aware of their precarious situation. If only Ryoji wasn’t so proud and went first to confirm Hiroyuki was there. What if he wasn’t? And for something as severe as they had done, even if Hiroyuki was found guilty of all the things they suspected him for, all three of them would have to face severe consequences. The worst off among them was YF, who did not have the political leverage that Uraga and Higashi had. A few floors up, YF could hear the sound of rain coming from outside, followed by the distant rumbling of thunder.

“What if he goes down the stairs on the south wing?” asked Uraga.

YF stopped and turned around, lowering his gun. Uraga looked like he was in terrible shape, sweat pouring down his face.

“My brother isn’t the type to take the stairs,” said YF. He then pointed his gun upward once more and continued to ascend.

Around ten floors up, the door to the staircase suddenly burst open. YF pointed his gun toward the door but resisted the urge to shoot, guilt from the incident in the basement overwhelming him. A man and a woman donning lab coats with employee badge clips froze upon seeing the three armed men.

“We won’t…say anything…” said the man slowly.

YF breathed in and out several times, the sound of it resonating through his helmet.

“Give me your receivers,” said YF through a voice distorter in his helmet. “Slowly.”

The two people obeyed, reaching into their pockets and pulled out their receivers, placing them on the ground.

“Get on now,” YF ordered, quickly pointing to his side with his gun before pointing the nozzle back at them.

The two employees hurried past the three men and descended the steps as fast as they could.

“Aritomo has hovercraft that can land on the roof you know,” said Uraga as they reached the next floor. “I’d give it about five more minutes before everyone at the top escapes, based on how far the airfield is.”

YF stopped in front of the door. “What do you suggest then?”

“We won’t make it in time,” said Uraga. “See if there’s a battery backed terminal online somewhere and we’ll take what we can.”

YF turned and opened the door to the eleventh floor. Inside, a few of the terminals were still turned on, providing enough light for them to see the entire area. YF strapped his gun to his back and approached the first terminal he could find, pressing the buttons for blood sample authentication.

“Don’t ask, because I don’t know why either,” YF said out loud. He pressed his finger into the sanitized collector needle and then pressed a button to retract it.

“Scan complete. Sakai Hiroyuki detected.”

YF turned to Uraga, who, though frowning, did not react in any other way.

“I think he’s telling the truth,” Ryoji muttered. “Let’s just get the files we need and get out. Hiroyuki will have to answer for his crime in the courts.”

Though YF could hear the disappointment in Ryoji’s voice, he himself was glad that the plan turned out as he wanted.

“No,” said Uraga.

YF held his finger over the screen.

“We’re going to get these files and the files will stay with me,” said Uraga. “I will personally deal with anyone who tries to take them from me. Then, we are still going to search the building for Hiroyuki if he is here. I am not leaving without Fujii.”

YF had been so caught up with the events of the lobby and basement and thinking of ways out of killing Hiroyuki that he had completely forgotten about Fujii.

“We will find Fujii,” said YF as he pressed on the terminal buttons looking for anything noteworthy.

“And shoot Hiroyuki if we need to,” Uraga added. “You will do what must be done if it comes to it, will you not, Sakai?”

YF stopped pressing on the terminal but did not turn. “I’ve already done what needs to be done,” he said forcefully. YF thought about the old man slumped in his chair in the reactor control room. Thinking back on it he was not sure whether he shot out of instinct or because he actually thought the man might be a threat. Would he hurt Hiroyuki if he had to? It was a tough question. “Don’t worry about my commitment to the operation,” he said finally.

The intranet of Aritomo had hundreds of common servers for various projects and teams, all with number-only names. All of them required passwords to enter, something unusual for a system that took blood authentication, though Hiroyuki was always a careful person.

“I can’t get into any of the servers,” said YF out loud.

“You have any idea what he would use as a password? Any important dates?” asked Uraga.

“If it was an important date it would have to be one he doesn’t talk much about…” said YF.

“Is there anything like that?”

YF thought for a moment before entering the date of the Kamakura Boulevard bombing. The first server he tried it on returned “failed.” YF continued to try the same password on each server.

“Hurry up!” Uraga urged.

YF continued to type the same password for every server, the repeated “failed” message lulling him into a monotonous pattern until one server unexpectedly opened up.

“Good, Sakai, find what we need,” said Uraga.

YF looked through multiple folders of rather standard looking documents for a few minutes before reaching a folder with file icons that indicated they were for live streaming feeds. He hovered his finger over the file where there was an image of somebody laying down in the thumbnail. YF pressed it and instinctively glanced away. Uraga pushed Ryoji’s supportive arm off of his shoulder and ran over to the terminal, shoving YF to the side.

“Kaori!!!”

YF clutched his mouth, shaking as he grabbed onto the side of a desk to support himself.

“We need to find her,” said Ryoji calmly, approaching Uraga from behind but stopping a safe distance away. “Is there anything in the video that could help us locate her?”

Uraga did not respond, his hands growing paler and paler as he gripped the side of the terminal. Ryoji hesitated for a moment before moving closer, now standing directly behind Uraga.

“Let me move the camera,” Ryoji whispered.

It took Uraga a few seconds to calm down enough to shift over to the side. Ryoji stepped forward and pressed on the live feed, dragging his finger slowly so that he could see a clear picture of the room. He stopped when the image showed multiple large empty tanks situated at the far end.

“The ceiling is an odd shape to fit those containers,” said Ryoji.

Both YF and Ryoji looked toward the south side of the eleventh floor to see a wall with two doors.

“I’ll take a look,” said Ryoji. He used his hands to guide him around the island-desk, his gaze fixed on the far wall. Ryoji then raised his rifle to his shoulder; his footsteps seemed to echo with each step that he took away from them. As he got closer to the far wall, he veered off toward the right door, taking his left hand off his rifle to get ready to open it. Upon reaching the inactive door, Ryoji pulled the manual lever slightly before readying his rifle again. He then stepped slowly to take a peek through the crack. Just as he did, all the terminals in the room went dark, and all of the light-up displays on their rifles cut out as well. Without any source of light, YF’s eyes would not adjust to the darkness.

“What’d you see?” he called out in the direction of Ryoji a few seconds later.

YF could hear footsteps as Ryoji walked back toward them. “How far am I?” Ryoji called out a few moments later.

“Take ten shaku,” said YF.

Ryoji stopped when he bumped into Uraga. “We’re right above them. I think Fujii is in the room below, where those two came out. We’ll go together,” he said in a low voice.

“What happened?” asked YF. “The rifle displays are gone.”

“EMP weapon. The rifle displays aren’t the problem, they probably won’t fire anymore either,” said Ryoji. “Ah, wait a second.”

YF could hear him patting his armor before the sound of a crack and then a dim glow stick illuminated the area. Within a few seconds, YF could see everything in the room.

“Didn’t think I would ever get to use this,” said Ryoji.

“I’m going after my brother,” said YF.

“I will investigate the room downstairs with Uraga,” said Ryoji. “You go ahead.”

“No…” Uraga interjected in a choked voice. “He’s coming with us.”

“That is out of the question,” said Ryoji, his commanding persona from the manor seemingly restored. “If there is any chance Hiroyuki has not left yet, he will need to go ahead unburdened.”

“I don’t trust him,” Uraga muttered.

“If it weren’t for him we wouldn’t even know where Fujii is,” said Ryoji. He stood up straight. “I evacuated everyone from the K.S. Eternal incident without casualties. You can say what you want about my shot but operationally I believe I am correct.”

Uraga seemed to ponder that statement for some time. “You have a standard issue tactical?” he suddenly asked.

Ryoji reached into a compartment on his chestplate and pulled out a knife in its sheath, flipping it and handing it handle first to YF. When YF took it, Ryoji pulled out an inactive glow stick and handed it to him as well.

Uraga pointed at YF. “If I find out you let him go I will make sure the rest of your life is a living hell, even if I have to chase you to the deserts of Ard and back.”

“Understood, sir,” said YF.

Ryoji nodded toward YF. “Go on first,” he repeated. “May Reoa hide you.”

YF nodded back. “May Reoa hide you.”

YF cracked the glow stick and took off at a run for the door. When he opened it, he ascended the stairs as quickly as he could.

***

The top floor’s layout was different from the typical office space like the one he, Ryoji and Uraga had been in. Ahead of him was a narrow hallway with multiple-sectioned display glass on the right filled with what seemed to be expensive art pieces. On his left were the heavily tinted windows, where daylight constantly pressed against them and threatened to fry anyone removed from their protection. YF advanced through the hallway slowly, taking a right turn at the first intersection. In the next hall were two doors on either side. YF came close enough to the doors that when he raised the light he could tell they were clearly conference rooms.

YF backtracked to the first hall and continued on.

“What makes a person’s blood pure?” YF could hear as soon as he passed the third intersection. He turned around just as a streak of lightning ripped across the sky, the tinted windows on the far end unable to completely dim the resulting light. That brief moment illuminated the full face and figure of Hiroyuki, his white designer dress shirt splattered with blood.

YF turned to face his brother. “What…did you do…?”

“More for you than you know,” Hiroyuki responded coolly.

“Nothing can justify what I know you’ve done.”

“Your thinking is too small,” said Hiroyuki, waving his hand back and forth in front of his face. “Answer my question YF. What makes a person’s blood pure?”

YF lowered his glowstick. “In the name of the sacred laws that bind Kazen, you are under arrest for the murder of Fujii Kaori.”

“And should I arrest you for the murder of Fukunaga Kotaro?”

The guilt of what YF had done in the basement shook him to his core. Even so, he tried to recall what had happened and why it had happened. “I...I panicked. I didn’t know if he was a threat or not.”

“Ah yes,” said Hiroyuki. “You’re going to say something about how you don’t belong to the armed police. You didn’t have the adequate training to know how to act calm with a firearm. Your intent was pure.” Hiroyuki nodded mockingly. “What did I always tell you, little bro?”

YF didn’t answer.

“Your intent doesn’t matter, YF. There is only action and consequence. And there is no place on the planet and no realm of hell where you can run from those consequences.”

“And what of your consequences?” asked YF.

“At first I thought that the idea of pure blood was bullshit,” said Hiroyuki, completely ignoring the question. “Pure blood is a concoction of the old nobility to keep people like you and me down. At least, that’s what I thought. I’m sure that’s what you still think.”

YF continued to stare at him.

“But no,” said Hiroyuki shaking his head. When we conducted Project Force of Nature we discovered there was something special about the pure blooded. The potential of unlimited power, something predestined by birth, something inaccessible to anybody else.”

“That’s complete nonsense, and you know it.”

“No, it’s true,” said Hiroyuki. “And the sole purpose of my continued work was to make it accessible to all the people of our nation. This power, this ladder of opportunity, this asset of national security.”

“Let’s say your plan succeeds, and we all end up like the ARC subjects,” said YF. “Where would you get all the blood to sustain people before they die?”

“The next step is to enlist the help of the daywalkers…” Hiroyuki murmured. “We’d have to make sure they stay alive through the process…”

“You were planning on farming the daywalkers for blood…?” YF shuddered.

“You’re putting it in the wrong terms,” said Hiroyuki. “And you have not seen what I have seen. You think the streets of Itsugo is a place where dog eats dog. No, that’s very cute. The world up here is even worse. Here the dogs chain down other dogs and drink their blood until they are on the verge of death before reviving them and nursing them back to health so they can feed on them again.”

YF had heard enough. He dashed forward and unsheathed Ryoji’s knife, plunging it up to the handle in Hiroyuki’s gut. The glow stick bounced along the ground. “You forgot one thing from Itsugo, brother,” said YF. “The man who lands the first blow wins.” YF pulled the knife out and plunged it back into Hiroyuki’s stomach. “This one’s for Ryoji,” YF spat.

Hiroyuki pushed YF off of him and staggered backward, chuckling. “Ryoji...heh. What a fool. Thought he was good enough for Naka Ai...she fell for his charms initially until I fixed that. It’s easy to control someone when they’re hooked to the poppy...and her body can take that too, crazy pure bloods. I was going to sober her up a bit and give her to you so she could bear your child. Would’ve guaranteed the Gift of Power for you and your descendants. Forget that Erika bitch…”

YF clenched his fists in rage, winding up and landing a hard cross on Hiroyuki’s chin, sending him flat onto the ground. But Hiroyuki got up from the hit unexpectedly quickly. It was only then that YF noticed that Hiroyuki’s stab wounds looked like they were healing.

“And I haven’t even gotten to the best part, brother,” said Hiroyuki, spreading his arms. “That I intended to give all of this to you if I could not complete my work. When have I not taken care of you? When have I stopped thinking of you? Even as you betray me now, I am giving everything I have to you. Society spat on you, society looked down on you. But I loved you. I never forgot about you.”

Another streak of lightning arced across the sky, revealing the crazed expression on Hiroyuki’s face. YF thought about their time together as children. He thought about all the things Hiroyuki did to step up for their family after their father had fled.

“I know...you love me…I know” said YF. An unexpected tear streamed from his eyes to his cheeks. “But I don’t want this. I didn’t ask for this. And because I love you, I need to stop you, no matter what the cost.”

YF raised his right fist to his face and pushed his left foot forward with his left hand in front in a traditional guard. Hiroyuki rushed toward YF and dropped low at the last moment, arms extended wide to shoot for the legs. YF hopped back and pressed down on Hiroyuki’s shoulder to break the lunge, slamming his right knee into Hiroyuki’s nose. Hiroyuki let out a loud cry, blood streaming from his nostrils as he staggered back. YF hop skipped forward and wound his right arm back, punching hard diagonally downward at Hiroyuki’s face, knocking him flat on his back. Hiroyuki staggered back up, the streams of blood over his mouth slowing down by the second. YF then stepped forward and led with a left jab which Hiroyuki parried before adding a right cross which Hiroyuki weaved to the side to avoid. YF backed up too late and ate a left hook to the cheek, which knocked the side of his head against the wall.

Before YF could stabilize his footing, Hiroyuki front kicked him in the face, sending him flying backward until the back of his head hit the hard metal floor. YF was completely dazed at this point, unable to move when something hard hit him between the eyes. He laid there in the darkness for several seconds, closing his eyes in preparation to accept defeat.

“One thing neither sis nor I will accept is someone who takes half measures.”

YF could see the face of Toa, and then the face of the old man in the basement.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!” YF jumped up and rushed at the blurry image of Hiroyuki, using his shoulder to slam into the latter’s body. When he heard Hiroyuki groan in pain, YF brought his left hand up and wound up his right elbow, pivoting forward and striking toward Hiroyuki. The sound of his elbow cracking against Hiroyuki’s skull rang throughout the room. YF could hear his brother gasp before falling down. After a few jerking motions, Hiroyuki seemed to stop moving. When YF’s vision stabilized, another streak of lightning arced across the sky, revealing Hiroyuki’s motionless body on the ground. It was only then that YF noticed the sound of multiple hovercraft approaching the building, growing closer and closer until they created a deafening noise over the roof of the Aritomo building.

Not long after, the clamor of dozens of boots filled the halls. YF turned to see teams of maroon armored National Policemen taking up positions to prevent him from escaping. When he looked down, multiple laser dots crawled back and forth across his body.

“Freeze! In the name of the sacred laws that bind Kazen, you are under arrest!”