Tina's palms were ice-cold, and her small hands were trembling.
The instant President Saitake and his two bodyguards attacked, she had realized just how dangerous all three of them were.
Even facing any one of them alone would have put her at risk.
That was why she had thought her chance had finally come.
Yet just as she was about to act, her body had failed to move. For some reason, her reflexes seemed to lag.
No, that wasn't quite right.
She had remembered the look Kain had given her earlier, and her body had instinctively frozen.
That brief hesitation was all it took for the fight to end.
His reaction had been impossibly fast. No human should have been capable of moving like that. Even the strongest person she had ever met couldn't have matched him.
In an instant, Tina had clamped her hand around the miniature device she was about to reveal, hiding it again. Sweat soaked her palm.
If she hadn't hesitated, she would have ended up just like them.
Now she completely believed he could kill her before she made a single suspicious move.
"I've dealt with both the employer and the assassin for you. Handle the rest yourselves. You can tell the public I killed him."
Kain put away his bolt pistol and turned to leave. His bodyguard assignment was finished.
After taking a few steps, he stopped.
"Tina, are you staying for dinner?"
The young assassin shuddered.
She was so frightened that she stumbled as she hurried to turn around. The object in her sweaty palm slipped free and landed at Kain's feet.
He bent down and picked it up.
It looked like a compact, finely made miniature shooting device.
He looked at Tina.
More cold sweat beaded on her face.
When he stepped closer, she trembled.
Then he reached toward her, and she closed her eyes in resignation.
"Hold on to it."
Something familiar was placed in her hand.
Tina opened the eyes she had squeezed shut, staring blankly at the device in her palm.
Only when the elevator chimed and its doors opened did she snap out of it.
She scrambled to her feet and rushed after him, slipping inside just before the doors closed. Then she stood quietly beside him.
As the elevator doors slid shut, the silver-haired Seitenshi finally recovered from her own shock.
She stared helplessly at the wreckage of the meeting.
She had never imagined things would turn out like this.
"Mr. Kikunojo, what are we supposed to do...?"
"There is no need for concern, Lady Seitenshi. If anything, it is other people who should be worried."
Tendo Kikunojo's expression had barely changed throughout the entire encounter.
Saitake dying here had been among the possibilities he had considered.
He simply hadn't expected him to be dispatched quite so quickly and decisively.
And apparently, the man who had killed him also harbored a deep dislike for the Five Wings Association.
That was even better news.
At last, that vast, troublesome organization had provoked someone, or some force, far more dangerous than itself.
He was looking forward to seeing what happened next.
At the research institute in the Outer District, Miori turned to Kisara.
"What do you think that old fox Saitake will offer to win him over?"
"No idea."
Kisara seemed uninterested in the subject.
"Speaking of which, what kind of deal did you make with Mr. Kain, anyway?"
Shiba Miori changed the subject to the question she most wanted answered.
She simply couldn't imagine what Kisara had offered to secure that mysterious man's help.
Having left the Tendo family, Kisara had very little influence of her own. Her resources were nowhere near those of the Shiba family.
If it came down to looks, well, Kisara was certainly pretty enough.
But Miori was confident she had plenty of advantages of her own.
"You know, I really don't like the way you're looking at me."
Kisara stopped filing her nails.
By the time she finished speaking, she had already reached over and seized Miori, yanking her forward by the front of her kimono.
"Ow! Let go, you jerk!"
Miori cried out and immediately fought back.
Unable to get a good grip on Kisara's clothes, she settled for grabbing her cheeks and pulling.
The two of them promptly descended into a scuffle.
"...Breaking news. President Saitake of the Osaka Area has just died during a meeting with Lady Seitenshi."
The television's sudden news bulletin brought them both to a halt.
"Wait. He actually killed him?"
Miori straightened her kimono, struggling to believe what she had heard.
How long had Kain even been working as Seitenshi's bodyguard?
Subtracting the time it took him to get there, it probably hadn't been half an hour.
On the screen, a reporter spotted Seitenshi and Kikunojo and immediately hurried over, hoping to learn what had happened.
"President Saitake's sudden death is regrettable. However..."
The old fox Kikunojo paused, appearing to observe a brief moment of silence, then continued without disclosing the details.
The general impression he conveyed was that Saitake had brought his death upon himself. He had been the first to display hostile intent, and that hostility had cost him his life.
Kikunojo never explicitly explained what had happened or identified the killer.
Even so, anyone who knew enough could read between the lines.
It had been Kain, just as expected.
Finally, Kikunojo announced that a formal press conference would be held to explain the day's events in greater detail. He also hinted that Saitake might have been hiding some unsavory secrets, including membership in a clandestine organization.
The reporters still had plenty of pointed questions.
Among them was the situation with Monolith Thirty-Two, an issue that could no longer be kept under wraps.
Some suggested that Saitake's death might have been an act of desperation by Tokyo's leadership.
Perhaps they had failed to secure his assistance and decided that if Tokyo couldn't be saved, they would drag the other areas down with them, starting by killing the president.
Before long, the scene had descended into chaos.
As for the man who had actually killed him...
Well, he was already back.
Miori could see him entering the institute, a small girl trailing behind him.
She glanced at Kisara.
Kisara didn't seem at all surprised that Saitake had been killed.
Suddenly, something occurred to Miori.
"Kisara, you weren't joking earlier? You really wanted him to kill President Saitake?"
Just before Kain left, Kisara had suggested, in what sounded like a joking tone, that he might as well kill that old fox and be done with it.
After all, Saitake was currently the person most likely to arrange Seitenshi's assassination.
"You're the one who didn't believe me."
That was what Kisara said, though she really had been half-joking at the time.
Still, he was dead now. So be it.
A little more chaos wouldn't hurt.
Let Kikunojo deal with the headache.
As for the little tagalong Kain had brought back, she was another addition to their ranks.
She was probably the biggest prize of the whole trip.
(End of Chapter)
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