«Attention, passengers. The plane is now landing at Kobe Airport. Please fasten your seatbelts.»
The captain's announcement wakes Hakuto after nearly a full day of travel, a flight that began in Rome with a stopover in Tokyo.
Only two days remain until the meeting with Tony Caspada and Velshekar, and Hakuto has chosen to spend these last moments of peace in Ashiya—the city where everything began—driven by the desire to see both his mother and his dear friend Itsu again.
It feels like a ritual for good luck, the same path he followed before leaving for the mission in the Amazon Forest to hunt Eskari—a mission that ended successfully, apart from Alexia's death.
Waiting outside the airport is Misaki Yuunami—his mother.
«It hasn't even been a month since we last met, and yet it feels like a lifetime…» Misaki murmurs with a gentle smile, holding Hakuto's hand as she drives toward Ashiya.
«Yeah, tell me about it…» he replies.
