Haruto shakes his head. "I gave them a mission report, and they said things had worked out as they'd hoped," he says, bitter now that he understands exactly what that meant. "I don't know how that helped, but it must have."

Any positive feelings he'd been nurturing toward the Initiative have officially dissipated. He'd hoped they were going to give him a chance to do what he was really good at, and their dossier had certainly suggested as much on that front, but it hadn't said anything about their projected result. Probably because he'd have gone straight to the network with it.

"And even if I did fix the next attack, what about the one after that? Or the one after that? If people were that angry, they'd eventually get what they wanted." Especially if what they wanted was death, and wholesale destruction. He's not meant to live out his life protecting a commune. There's work to be done here, and at home.