The service tunnel ended at a rusted hatch, and the hatch opened onto rain.
Kai got his shoulder under it and pushed. The metal groaned, shifted a few centimeters, and then gave with a screech that went straight through his teeth.
Cold air poured into the shaft carrying the smell of wet concrete, diesel, and the brackish drainage canal behind the Grand Imperial's loading yard.
He climbed out first, checked both directions along the canal wall, then reached down for Akira.
She took his hand and came up slowly, favoring her ribs.
Mei's burst hadn't penetrated the ceramic plate in her jacket, but stopping the bullets hadn't stopped the impact. The bruise underneath was already spreading.
Akira pressed a hand to her side and breathed through her teeth.
"Still alive," she said. "You owe me a massage session after this, Kai."
"Sure..." He sighed.
Then, he shoved a length of rebar through the hatch handle and bent it against the frame.
The hammering below had stopped about a minute earlier.
Taurus had either given up or found another way around.
Kai didn't believe the first one.
He pulled off the balaclava, the wet wool stinking of someone else's cigarettes, and dropped it into the canal, shook the rain from his white hair, and stood there for a second letting cold water run over his face.
It was the first time in an hour he'd felt open air.
"Are you okay, Akira?" Kai said, his voice softening.
She nodded. "I guess... yes, but I'm pretty tired."
Then, both earpieces crackled, making both of them snap.
"...Kai? Akira? Please tell me one of you can hear me." Sakura's voice came through thin and fast, static chewing at the edges. "The underground cut me off completely. I've been trying for twenty minutes. Say something."
"We're out," Akira said, touching her ear. "We're by the canal behind the hotel, and we're walking now."
"Thank God." Sakura took a breath. Then her voice came out sharp. "Listen carefully. I don't know how long this channel will last. Follow the canal wall east for two hundred meters. There's a break in the chain-link where the boat crews used to haul their gear through. Cross the road. You'll see the old fish market, blue shutters. Loading dock three. Detective Saito will be there with one of Rei's generals. They've got a vehicle." A burst of static. "Four minutes. No more."
"Detective Saito? Why? Shouldn't he stay with the police?" Kai asked.
"Because he can get you out of the district before the perimeter closes." The line hissed. "Four minutes, Kai." Then silence.
Akira looked at him. "Well, you clearly don't like it."
"It's strange." Kai started walking. "Let's go."
The hole in the fence was exactly where Sakura said it would be, a ragged gap in the chain-link, its edges bent outward from years of people forcing equipment through.
They crossed the road one at a time. The street was empty in a way a city street at this hour shouldn't have been.
The old fish market sat dark under its blue shutters. Half the roof had been torn away years ago and never fixed, leaving the tiled floor open to the rain.
Loading dock three was a sloped concrete ramp with the steel door rolled up.
A police van waited at the bottom with its lights off and the engine ticking. White body, blue stripe, and even the department crest. One corner had been scraped down to the metal. The license plate belonged to a different kind of vehicle.
Kai noticed, and so did Akira.
Then, after they were close enough, the driver's door opened.
Detective Saito climbed out wearing a coat streaked with ash. His tie was gone, and his hands looked worse than the coat.
His eyes found Kai and stayed there. For half a second, relief softened his face. Then it was gone.
"Kai." He crossed the wet concrete and stopped just short of touching him. b"You're alive. Thank God. I thought they—" He shook his head. "Never mind. I don't have much time. Yuki knows that you're alive and she suspects me. We need to move."
A broad man with a gray field coat and heavy shoulders sat in the passenger seat with his hands folded over one knee. He lowered the window two inches and looked at Kai the way someone inspects a weapon before buying it. Then he moves his gaze to Akira, and then the sky.
The window went back up.
"He's our ally," Saito muttered. "Don't worry about it." He turned to Akira. "The drive. Do you have it?"
"Yes. I do." Akira's hand went straight to the chest pocket she'd zipped shut back in the vault.
The zipper was open, and the pocket was flat.
She checked again.
Then the other pocket. Then the inside lining.
After finding nothing, her face went pale, and in that moment, Kai caught her wrist.
Without looking at her, he reached into his sleeve and pulled out a black drive about the size of a deck of cards and a USB drive. He held it toward Saito.
"Everything's on it. I'll wait for new orders."
Then, Saito took the drive carefully and smiled at him like a father. "You made the right choice, Kai." His fingers shook once before closing around it.
For a moment, he only stared at the boy in front of him, the one who was supposed to be a victim not long ago. There was a question there, but he didn't ask it.
"Thank you," Saito said, turning the drive over once and slipping it into his coat. "I'll make sure it gets where it needs to go."
Then, quieter: "Stay alive. Both of you. I mean it. I promise that I'll do my best to give you a peaceful life after that." He climbed back into the van.
Then, the engine caught, but the headlights stayed off.
The van backed down the ramp, turned into the street, and disappeared between the warehouses.
Neither Kai nor Akira spoke until the engine noise was gone.
"Kai?" Akira sounded careful now. "Why didn't you..." She stopped. "That was supposed to go to Rei. That was the whole point of the plan. Why did you give him..."
"I had the drive." Kai opened his jacket, revealing a second black drive resting in his hand.
Akira stared at it, then at her empty pocket, and then back at him. "When?"
"In the tunnel. You stumbled after the junction, and I caught you." He put the drive away inside his pocket. "The one I gave Saito is another one I had found earlier." Kai shrugged. "I don't know what's inside."
Akira blinked. "You really pickpocketed me." She sounded impressed. "Congratulations. Nobody has ever done that, not even Hina."
"I wanted the real one away from everyone until Hina gets out. She asked me to give the drive to her, and other than that, when Rei finds out we have the real one, every kind of malicious thing he has in mind against us can wait."
"Smart boy." Akira smiled, patting his shoulder.
Then Kai looked back toward the hotel. Its upper floors still glowed through the rain while the lower levels had gone dark.
"The ledger is the only thing the people behind this actually care about. If the wrong person gets it before she's out, Hina stops being useful alive. I'm sure of that."
Akira stared at him for a few seconds, and then she shook her head and laughed once, breathless.
"You've really grown, haven't you? Has Hina possessed your body?" She winced and touched her ribs. "God help us."
Then, a sudden explosion came from the east. Far away.
A dull thud rolled over the rooftops and shivered the puddles around their boots. Then another, north this time, but closer.
Orange light climbed behind the apartment blocks.
Then a third followed, and by the fourth, sirens had begun rising across the city in different pitches, overlapping until the whole district seemed to be screaming.
Somewhere, an alarm bell rang without stopping.
Kai and Akira stood under the rain and watched smoke build over the skyline. At least five columns. Maybe more.
"Guess that a serious war is starting right now," Akira said. "Those explosions weren't in our plans, I'm sure."
"No," Kai said, his voice flat. "Now the military is officially involved. Time is short."
She watched another glow spread behind the buildings.
"That's a big problem..." Akira sighed.
"Yes," Kai said,
Then, she turned toward him and stared at his face for a few instants.
'He surely has changed... or... he just discovered who he was.' She thought.
Not long ago, he was an innocent young man who was enjoying a normal life, but an hour earlier he'd killed a very dangerous man with his bare hands.
Now he stood in the rain, watching the city catch fire as if he were trying to understand the pattern.
Her mouth lifted at one corner. "You know, you're a lot more attractive now."
Kai breathed out through his nose. "You're hurt, exhausted, and sleep-deprived. Don't say things you don't think."
"Mm." She grinned. "That too."
"I'm serious." His voice was still flat.
"So am I."
Kai looked at her and smiled.
Then his attention returned to the skyline, one hand resting near the knife at his hip.
Something was coming, and whatever it was, it wasn't far away anymore.
Then, the earpieces clicked again, but the next voice wasn't Sakura's.
It was a familiar young woman, calm, almost amused.
"Kai. I know you can hear me."
Akira turned sharply while Kai didn't move.
"It's me, Emi."
Silence.
"Don't be afraid. I'm on your side. I intercepted your channel about three minutes ago, and I'm going to talk quickly, so listen." Her voice stayed flat. "I know the kidnapping story is a lie." Rain tapped against the steel loading door. "Rei has a plan for the Grand Imperial. He's going to blow the building."
Akira's expression changed.
"With Hina inside. Sabushi inside. Everyone else who happens to be there too."
Kai's jaw tightened.
"I got it from one of my people embedded in Rei's ranks who was playing the part of Sabushi's man. He told me everything before Protocol 9 killed him." A pause. "I'm sorry. I can't prove any of this from where I am."
Kai said nothing.
"I'm sending a van to you now. Plain white courier van. Your earpieces are tracked, and Rei is watching your position on a screen right now, so you need to move quickly."
Akira touched one of the devices in her ear.
"The driver will ask for the address of the Grand Imperial. The password is 'Neko.' Say it and get in." Another pause. "That's everything I can give you." Her voice softened. "Good luck, Kai."
Then, the line went dead. Only the sirens remained.
Akira pressed both hands against her ears as though the message might still be trapped inside them.
"Kai." Quiet now. "Whoever this girl was… Is she lying?"
"I don't know." He stared toward the street. "But we don't have another choice."
Kai then turned to her, his eyes sharp. "Akira. Call Sakura. Use the tablet and ask her where Hina is right now." His voice sharpened. "I need to know everything. Now."
Akira hesitated once. Then the tablet came out of her vest.
She woke the screen and worked through the menus, rain dripping from her fingers.
"Sakura. Come in. This is Akira." Static. "Get straight to the point. Where is Hina right now?" More static.
Then Sakura answered, breathless. "Oh! I didn't expect for that to work— wait… Hina is... wait. Give me a second, I'm pulling..." A long hiss filled the channel. "She's..."
Sakura stopped. "…We lost the signal." Keys clattered faintly somewhere on the other end. "Akira, I've lost the feed, I can't..."
Then, a click cut through her voice and someone else came on.
"She's on the forty-ninth floor at the moment," Rei said.
Akira froze, while Kai closed his eyes, connecting all the pieces together.
'A black duffel bag. White hair. A dead man's face. A severed head Hina had carried through half the building because Sabushi needed to believe I was dead. And something small enough to hide inside it. Something patient enough to keep broadcasting.' Kai thought. 'Rei only needed the bag to reach the right floor. What happened to Hina afterward was irrelevant.'
"Thank you, Rei," Kai said, opening his eyes. His voice was calm. "I'm going to help Hina now."
"I'd strongly advise against that, Kai." Rei sounded almost kind. "You saw what kind of monsters are in that building right now, didn't you? It's not a joke. Even you can't fight against those. They're under Yuki Nakamura's control." A pause. "Going back in is a suicide, and we can't lose you. You're important for this plan."
Kai remembered Taurus's hammer, Mei walking across the roofs of parked cars with uzis in both hands, and even the sniper he'd never seen.
"I'm going, Rei." He reached up and removed the earpiece. "Don't worry about me. I'll survive, and I'll bring Hina back."
Kai then dropped it onto the concrete and crushed it under his heel.
The plastic cracked open, and a tiny blue light flickered inside, then died.
He ground the rest into the wet floor.
Then he turned to Akira. She hadn't moved, the tablet still in her hand.
Kai stepped close—closer than he'd ever stood to her— and put one hand on her shoulder, then carefully removed the earpiece from her left ear, and then the right.
His fingers brushed her jaw. Akira stopped functioning for about two seconds.
Then Kai dropped both devices and crushed them.
"Throw the tablet away too," he said. "Change of plan."
Akira's face had gone pink all the way to her ears.
Without a single word, she looked down at the tablet, set it on the concrete and stepped on it until the screen cracked beneath her heel.
She didn't dare to ask a single question.
Then, the van promised by Emi arrived a minute later.
It looked like a classic van used by the couriers for delivery, white and with a strange logo of a shopping site. It rolled around the corner of the fish market at a perfectly ordinary speed.
There was even a cardboard box taped to the dashboard.
The driver was thin, wore a delivery cap, and had a clipboard balanced on one knee. He looked like a man who had been ordered to appear harmless and had taken the assignment personally.
He stopped at the base of the ramp and leaned out the window.
"Excuse me!" He squinted at the clipboard. "Do you happen to know the address of the Grand Imperial Hotel?"
Kai looked at him. "Neko."
In that moment, the driver's expression vanished.
He put his clipboard down and jerked his thumb toward the back.
"Get in. Son of the Suzukis." He said.
And then, the rear doors opened.
Kai helped Akira up by the elbow and climbed in behind her.
As soon as they were inside, the doors slammed shut.
The cargo bay had been stripped and fitted with two benches facing each other.
A dim red lamp burned overhead.
Four people sat inside wearing black tactical gear and matte masks that showed only their eyes.
Each mask had a small hawk feather stitched near the temple.
Two men. Two women. None of them looked older than twenty-five.
"Welcome aboard." One of them said.
The nearest man was lean and loose-limbed, one leg stretched into the aisle. His eyes had the bright look of someone who wasn't sure whether to be nervous or excited and had decided to try both.
"Code name Tsubame. Swallow. I'm the one who talks too much, so I'm apologizing now."
"Karasu." The second man was built like a wall and sat with his arms folded. "Crow."
"Hibari." The woman beside him nodded once. Her hair was tied beneath her hood, silver rings running along one ear. "Lark. Medic. If you're bleeding, tell me."
The last woman didn't look up from the scope lens she was cleaning.
"Mozu." She was narrow-faced, sharp-eyed. "Shrike." She finally glanced at Akira. "That's the bird that sticks its prey on thorns."
Akira stared at her.
Mozu went back to the lens. "Don't make that face. It's just a nickname." She said, her voice flat. "Nice sniper by the way."
"Thanks." Akira said.
Kai nodded.
"Kai."
"We know," Tsubame said, grinning beneath the mask. "Everyone knows. Boss told us to treat you like glass because you're childhood friends."
"I guess so… it's complicated." Kai sighed.
"Kai, grab this." Karasu said, his voice deep. He threw a soda can at Kai, who grabbed it easily. "Drink. You need energy."
"Thanks," Kai said before opening the soda can and drinking. "Well… I really needed this." He then looked at Akira. "Do you want some?" He asked, offering the drink to her.
Akira smiled and nodded. "Yes, thanks. I need some sugars, actually." She then grabbed the soda can and drank. "Ah well… so refreshing…"
Then, the van lurched into motion.
Akira shifted with it and ended up pressed against Kai's side, one arm hooked firmly through his.
The young man let her stay like that.
During the ride, Akira inspected the four masked strangers one at a time.
Then she raised her chin.
"My name is Akira, by the way." A beat. "I'm with him."
Tsubame looked at Hibari.
Hibari looked at Mozu.
Mozu's hands stopped polishing the lens.
Karasu's eyebrows rose behind the mask.
"I know," Hibari said.
After a few minutes, the van took a corner.
Outside, the sirens changed pitch and slowly faded behind them.
Kai leaned back against the steel wall. "Where are we going?" He asked.
Mozu answered without looking up. "To see the Boss Fujimoto." She held the scope toward the red ceiling light and checked the glass. "She's got a special helicopter ready for the last operation."
Kai said nothing. He just looked up at the riveted ceiling.
"Okay." He then said, while the van kept moving. "Then we'd better hurry."