The night stretched long and silent around Yuki, each ticking moment of the grandfather clock in the living room amplifying the tumultuous battle within her mind.
Haruto's words, and the impossible proposition he'd laid before her, echoed relentlessly. Kakusei Academy. A government institution, the symbol of the authority her father had fought against, the entity she herself sought to defy.
Pride warred with pragmatism. Her father's memory, his last defiant stand against the encroaching shadow of the Council and the factions that had betrayed him, fueled a burning need for vengeance within her.
To abandon that pursuit, even for a moment, felt like a betrayal of his legacy. But what good was vengeance if she was eliminated before she could even begin? The thought was a bitter pill, yet she forced herself to swallow it.
