Rin's gaze sharpened, but his expression remained calm. Inside, though, gears turned.
"So this is it. Kai was right—even my own people hate me. At the time, I dismissed it as one of his cruel jokes. Empty words meant to get under my skin. But looking down the barrel of Evgeny's gun now… it wouldn't hurt to confirm things."
His voice cut through the tension like a blade. "Did Japan or the U.S. give the orders?"
Evgeny tilted his head slightly, his smirk widening. "Doesn't matter."
Rin leaned forward in his chair, eyes locked on Evgeny's. "Come on. Can't you do that much for me, if you're going to kill me anyway?" His voice wasn't pleading—it was commanding, precise, the voice of someone demanding a final calculation before checkmate.
Evgeny scoffed, the gun steady in his hand. "Everything's over now, so why do you want to know?"
"It's because everything's over now." Rin replied coldly.
Something in the conviction of Rin's voice made Evgeny's hand lower slightly. He let out a low laugh, finally conceding. "Well, if you insist… the orders were from Japan."
The words hit Rin like a thunderclap. His chest tightened, his jaw locked.
"WHAT?" His voice cracked out sharper than he intended, betraying the shock he usually kept buried.
Evgeny leaned back against the bed, shrugging as if he were commenting on the weather. "But it was the U.S. that promised me the funds." His eyes narrowed with a cruel glint. "You know, I've been curious myself. What did you do in your homeland, Rin? Why did your own country want you dead?"
For the first time, Rin leaned back heavily in his chair, his composure shaken. He ran a hand across his face, then let it drop with a heavy sigh.
"I'd like to know the answer to that myself."
And in his mind, the pieces crashed violently against one another.
"So it's true. The one who ordered my death wasn't the enemy. It wasn't the U.S. It wasn't Russia. It was Japan. My country. My so-called homeland."
His fists clenched tightly against his knees.
"The irony is bitter enough to choke me. I left everything behind, convinced I was fighting for them, for the greater stability of the nation. And all the while, they've been sharpening the knife for my back. The same people who trained me, who gave me my orders, who molded me into their weapon—they also decided I was expendable."
He swallowed, his throat tight, but his mind remained sharp.
"So what does that make me now? A rogue agent? A failure? Or just another of Kai's broken toys to laugh at?"
His gaze hardened as he looked at Evgeny again.
"And the U.S. promised him funds. Meaning they're not simply observers—they're investing. Evgeny wasn't just some pawn; he was meant to become something bigger. A free piece on the board. A player. Perhaps that's why he's still alive."
A bitter thought surfaced.
"So both of us were being used. Evgeny was bought, and I was betrayed. Two sides of the same coin, tossed into the air by powers who don't care which side lands face up. And yet here we are, sitting across from each other, pointing guns not at the real enemy but at each other."
His hand flexed unconsciously, nails digging into his palm.
"Japan betrayed me. The U.S. is exploiting Evgeny. And Russia—the Romanovs, Kai—they're laughing at all of us. The labyrinth is tighter than I imagined. The truth isn't about Persephone anymore. It's about power. And if I don't untangle this web soon, I'll be strangled by it."
He let out another breath, calmer this time, his face regaining its mask of composure.
"Once i get to Japan I need them to explain themselves."
"Let's put this aside. There are more things I need to discuss with Evgeny." Rin thought, tightening his grip on the chair's armrest. His expression gave nothing away, but his mind was already shifting, layering question upon question.
He raised his voice, calm, deliberate. "Kai—" he caught himself, "I mean, Tsar… shot and killed a politician who attended the party at his house." Rin's eyes flicked toward Evgeny, gauging every microreaction. "I thought we'd have a bounty on our heads right away, but nothing like that happened."
His tone sharpened as his thoughts pressed forward.
"If he was invited to the Romanovs' manor, that must mean he wasn't just some ordinary guest. He had to have been from a powerful family himself. Someone with influence. So why was his death erased instead of avenged?"
Evgeny raised an eyebrow but remained cool. "I heard about that as well. Believe it or not, it was the work of the Romanovs."
Rin's jaw flexed almost imperceptibly.
"Of course. Who else could scrub something like that from the world so quickly? No official investigation, no headlines, not even a whisper on the black channels. The Romanovs bury corpses and truths with equal ease. But why would they let Kai, their precious Tsar, pull a stunt like that in the first place? Unless… unless the whole spectacle was orchestrated."
His voice cut in again, steady but laced with a quiet steel. "Then what about the fact that I was told top-secret Russian intel despite already being found out as a spy? Was that also because of the Romanovs?"
Evgeny studied him, his smirk returning faintly. "Top-secret Russian intel, you say? Well, that would depend on how top-secret we're talking about."
Rin didn't flinch. His gaze locked on Evgeny's, unwavering. "I heard Russia is developing a new ballistic missile. SCYTHE-9, I believe it's called. It had a problem, which a Japanese technician was brought in to fix."
Evgeny blinked at that, but Rin pressed on, the weight of his memory hitting him like a hammer.
"I thought that was Persephone… so I followed that bastard."
The room seemed colder now.
Evgeny fell silent, staring at Rin with sharp, assessing eyes. His thoughts, however, betrayed his disbelief.
"so let me get this straight. the psycho took a foreign spy to the party despite knowing exactly who he was. he leaks information about a new weapon to him. he even kills a powerful politician in full view of half the russian elite. all of that, just to pretend to be his partner? I doubt even the infamous tsar nochi would be able to get away with all that scot-free."
Rin's voice was quiet, but it cut through the silence like glass.
"What if there's a reason he gets away with everything…"
Evgeny arched an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Like??"
Rin's eyes sharpened, the faintest glimmer of calculation hidden behind his calm exterior. "Like what if he has Persephone."
Evgeny scoffed, his smirk twitching with disbelief. "That's impossible. It's a weapon Russia and Japan worked their asses off to make for years. There's no way they would've let some young punk—who hasn't even hit his middle twenties—get his hands on it."
Rin didn't argue. Instead, he pulled a tightly rolled bundle of papers from inside his jacket and tossed it onto Evgeny's lap. The weight of it landed with a dull thud.
"Well… all the deceased on that list are those who partook in developing Persephone. And they all conveniently died on the same day. Either through an inevitable 'accident'… or under mysterious circumstances."
Evgeny's smirk faded as he unrolled the papers, flipping through the names, the grainy photographs, the sparse death reports. His brows drew together.
"Are you implying that they were murdered?"
Rin leaned back, his expression unreadable, his voice slow and deliberate.
"Yes. If everything Tsar told me was true, then think about it. What would happen if the development of Persephone was a failure? Russia and Japan wouldn't want that news to leak outside. Just the name Persephone was enough to shake the world. Even unfinished, it forced nations to move, to spend, to fear. That fear alone was power."
He paused, watching the weight of the thought settle over Evgeny.
"This isn't about a weapon. It's about narrative. About perception. Once a name gains mythological weight, you don't let it vanish. You either deliver it—or you bury the truth so deeply no one can ever question it again."
Rin continued, his voice sharpening.
"But if it came out that Persephone was never completed, the aftermath wouldn't stop at failure. The original power—the dread behind the name—would collapse. Even if they started over, no one would take it as seriously. The threat would lose its teeth. The myth would die."
Evgeny's jaw tightened, his fingers gripping the papers harder.
"So perhaps they didn't just want to hide the outcome. Perhaps they wanted to erase the fact that development ever started at all. And in order to do that, they needed to first silence everyone who knew about Persephone and its development." Rin's tone was ice, merciless in its logic.
Evgeny's eyes flicked up from the papers, narrowing. "Then you're saying…"
Rin leaned forward, his gaze unwavering, every syllable deliberate.
"Yes. They killed everyone."
The room fell into a tense stillness, broken only by the faint hum of the hospital's fluorescent lights.
Rin's tone was calm, but the words he spoke carried a grim inevitability.
"They would've had to quietly take out dozens of people at once. Who do you think was in charge of that?"
Evgeny barely hesitated. "Well, obviously the FSB…"
Rin's eyes narrowed, cutting straight through the easy answer.
"The FSB couldn't just send anyone to do such a sensitive job, could they? Too many witnesses. Too many leaks. This wasn't a cleanup—it was an eradication. The kind of operation where one mistake topples the whole façade. Who could they possibly entrust with that?"
The silence stretched. Evgeny's smirk faltered as the weight of Rin's reasoning settled in his chest. Then, his mind snapped to the only answer that fit.
"Wait… hold on…" Evgeny thought, his breath catching.
The only one who could've done it… was him.
The lone phantom inside the FSB's Oprichniki. The executioner the government itself feared. And not just any agent, but blood of the Romanovs themselves. The fourth son—the one whose family poured obscene amounts of money into Persephone's development.
Evgeny's pulse quickened. "It was him…"
Rin said nothing. He simply watched Evgeny arrive at the inevitable conclusion, his stillness more damning than any confirmation.
Evgeny gritted his teeth, the thought dragging a bitter weight through him.
"But why? Why would the government even tolerate that? They had no reason to keep a literal nuclear weapon of a man alive. He completed his mission—he killed everyone tied to Persephone. They could've wiped him and his entire family out as soon as it was finished. That would've been cleaner. Simpler."
Rin leaned forward slightly, his gaze sharp, his voice low but steady.
"They didn't because of Tsar."
The name dropped like iron between them.
Evgeny froze, staring, his thoughts tumbling into place against his will.
If he possesses the failed blueprints—if he didn't just clean the mess but pocketed the scraps, salvaged what no one else could—then everything changes. If he solved the weapon's defects, even partially, then the Romanovs aren't just another oligarch clan. They're holding the world's nightmare in their hands. And Moscow has no choice but to turn a blind eye to the chaos he causes.
His grip tightened on the papers in his lap, crumpling the edges.
That explains why he moves like a man untouchable. Why he kills, leaks state secrets, even humiliates powerful men—and walks away untouched. He isn't protected by the state. He's holding the state hostage.
Evgeny scowled, almost defensive, as though Rin's deductions were cutting too close to something he didn't want to admit.
"That's just your speculation," he muttered, shaking his head. "You've strung together shadows and rumors. Nothing more."
Rin didn't immediately respond. He only studied Evgeny in silence, his expression unreadable. Then, with deliberate calm, he reached into the folder at his side, pulled out a neatly folded article, and placed it on the table between them.
"Look closely."
Evgeny glanced down. It was a grainy newspaper clipping, dated several months back. A man's photograph stared back at him, his name printed in bold under the headline.
"This is Ao Takeda," Rin said, his voice steady, almost surgical. "The technician supposedly sent to Russia to 'fix' the Scythe-9 missile defect. A perfect cover, wouldn't you say? Technical expertise, a legitimate reason to be in Moscow, government clearance to move around. But that's not why he came."
Evgeny frowned at the page, then back at Rin. "What are you getting at?"
Rin leaned forward, his eyes glinting with the cold fire of certainty.
"I saw him. At the Romanov villa. Not in some laboratory. Not anywhere near a missile site. At their manor. Now, why would a Japanese missile technician end up there of all places?"
He let the question hang in the air before continuing.
"And here's the real detail you've overlooked. His father's name. It appears right here." Rin tapped the edge of another page, a list of the scientists tied to Persephone's development. "His father was one of the developers. One of the many who 'mysteriously' died during the purge."
Evgeny's expression shifted, the resistance in his face faltering, his lips pressing into a tight line.
"You think Ao Takeda came to fix a missile?" Rin said, his tone sharpening. "No. He came for blood. He came to avenge his father. And where did he go? Straight to the Romanovs' doorstep. Why? Because he knew. He knew Kai was the one who murdered his father."
The silence that followed was heavy. Evgeny looked down at the article again, his jaw tightening, his hand clutching the page as though he could wring the truth out of the ink.
Rin sat back, his face stern, his thoughts racing beneath the surface:
Takeda's presence wasn't coincidence. It was confirmation. The Romanovs weren't just sponsors of Persephone—they were executioners of its creators. Kai himself wasn't merely involved; he was the hand that silenced them. And Takeda's hunt proves it. Even across borders, even years later, vengeance traced back to Kai's door. Proof enough for anyone willing to see.
His eyes bore into Evgeny, sharp as a blade.
"Now do you understand? This isn't speculation. This is proof. Proof that the lunatic wasn't just tangentially involved in Persephone—he was the purge itself. And if that's true, then it's no longer a question of whether he has Persephone. It's a question of how much of it he already wields."
Evgeny exhaled sharply through his nose, but his silence betrayed him. He wanted to resist, to dismiss Rin's words as paranoia, but the article in his hand felt heavier than steel.
No… not just speculation. He's right. The bastard was knee-deep in Persephone from the start. He didn't just inherit its secrets—he carved his way into them.
Rin's voice dropped, final, unflinching:
"So tell me, Evgeny. Do you still think this is just speculation?"