Falling from heaven to hell sometimes takes no more than a single phone call.
Staring at the call that had just been cut off, Sakura felt her breathing seize up.
It was the middle of summer, yet a bone-deep chill spread through her body, as if she had been dropped into an icy abyss.
"Rin… please, please be safe…"
She looked down at Ryoma, unconscious on the ground like a discarded corpse, and an overwhelming wave of regret surged through her chest. The fact that the other party could so precisely name her personal details was proof enough of how terrifying their intelligence network was.
As an assassin, Sakura had always known she would eventually fall on some job. That was the fate of people like her.
She just never expected retribution to come this fast.
She had barely caught sight of hope, barely believed she could finally pay for her sister's treatment, when everything collapsed in an instant, even dragging the person she cherished most into the abyss with her.
Panic clawed at her nerves, but the last remnants of rationality forced her to pick up Ryoma and head toward the location the caller had designated.
Sakura had assumed the meeting place would be some remote wasteland or an abandoned factory.
Instead, what greeted her was something completely different.
Stone steps stretched upward, flanked on both sides by cherry trees in full bloom. A gentle breeze swept through, petals rippling like waves, threatening to swallow her whole in a sea of pink.
At the top of the steps stood a vermilion torii gate, quiet and solemn.
On a massive stone beside the path were two carved characters: Yae.
This was a shrine.
Sakura had no idea what the other party was planning, but she could only pray that her sister was unharmed.
Gripping Ryoma in one hand, she climbed the steps quickly, passed beneath the torii, and entered the shrine.
Only then did she notice how new everything looked. Inside the spacious grounds, construction materials were still piled around, as if the place had only just been completed.
And enshrined at the altar was not any familiar deity, but a lifelike statue of a giant fox.
Even so, Sakura silently prayed to this unknown god for her sister's safety.
She tossed Ryoma aside and scanned the area, searching for the one who had taken her sister.
But—
"Why is there no one here?"
She walked the entire shrine grounds. Apart from herself and the unconscious Ryoma, there was not a single other living soul.
Frowning, she took out her communicator, ready to message the other party.
Just then, footsteps echoed from the stone steps outside.
With a flick of her wrist, a cold-glinting dagger slid into her hand. She turned toward the shrine entrance and saw a young man walking up the steps.
Black hair, gray eyes, a streak of white in his bangs. Handsome to an almost irritating degree.
It was Li Mu.
Sakura frowned slightly.
"Is this guy a tourist… or—"
"Miss Sakura, looks like you arrived on time."
Her heart sank. She knew immediately. This was the one who had taken her sister.
"So kidnappers can be late too?" she started to sneer, then suddenly remembered she herself had been late during a kidnapping not long ago.
Li Mu replied calmly, "Sorry for standing you up. Your sister's hospital was pretty far. It took some time."
Sakura's eyes widened.
"What… do you mean?"
"Oh. I used that time to go kidnap your sister."
"…So when you threatened me earlier, you hadn't actually taken her yet?"
Li Mu nodded honestly and flashed her a bright smile. "But now Rin really is in my hands."
"..."
Her grip tightened on the dagger. A surge of regret flooded Sakura's chest, so sharp she almost wanted to stab herself.
But she held on to her sanity.
She hoisted the unconscious Ryoma up with one hand and pressed the dagger to his throat with the other. "Let Rin go! Or I can't guarantee Ryoma's safety!"
At this moment, the president of ME Corp was the only card she had left. Since this man clearly cared about Ryoma, she could use him as leverage.
But when she said it, she noticed the strange look in the young man's eyes.
Like he was looking at an idiot.
"You're holding Ryoma. Why should I let anyone go?"
Sakura pressed the blade closer, convinced he was bluffing.
Yet even as blood seeped from Ryoma's neck, Li Mu did not react at all, as though he were watching a ridiculous comedy.
"No need to bluff," Sakura said, clenching her teeth. "If you didn't care whether he lived or died, you wouldn't have threatened me into bringing him here."
The look in Li Mu's eyes grew even stranger.
"When did I ever tell you to bring him?"
Sakura froze.
Thinking back carefully, she realized he really had never told her to bring Ryoma. He had only threatened her sister to force her here.
Everything else… had been her own assumption.
Meeting Li Mu's calm gaze, Sakura finally accepted it.
He really did not care whether Ryoma lived or died.
She looked at Ryoma in her left hand, the dagger in her right, then back at Li Mu.
Her brain shut down.
She genuinely did not know whether to keep holding Ryoma or just drop him.
"What do you actually want?" she asked hoarsely.
"You."
"..."
An eerie silence settled between them until a breeze brushed past Sakura's hair, snapping her back to herself.
"…Huh?"
Watching her face cycle between pale and flushed, Li Mu said evenly, "Sakura, I think highly of you. So, are you interested in selling the rest of your life to me?"
Her expression turned bizarre. "So you kidnapped my sister just to recruit me?"
"What else?"
"..."
Seeing her fall silent, Li Mu fiddled with his communicator.
A moment later, Sakura's own device vibrated.
After hesitating, she dragged Ryoma farther away before checking it.
A transfer notification.
The moment she saw the balance, her breathing quickened. Rows upon rows of zeros held her gaze hostage.
"Well?" Li Mu said lightly. "Want to work for me? The treatment is way better than Poison Cocoon treating you like disposable trash."
Sakura bit her lip, fighting the temptation.
She was an assassin, but she had principles. She could not just defect because someone paid more. How was she supposed to do business that way?
Ding.
Another transfer notification.
More zeros. Far more. More money than she could earn in a lifetime of killing.
With this, she would never have to worry about her sister's treatment again.
She was shaken.
But then she thought of Poison Cocoon's brutal purges of traitors, and the heat in her chest was doused with cold water.
Li Mu knew exactly when to deliver the finishing blow.
"I can cure your sister."
"..."
"…In that case, I only have one choice."
Sakura let out a long sigh, dropped her dagger, tossed Ryoma aside, and walked straight toward Li Mu.
"If you do not abandon me, then Sakura is willing to serve you with everything she has."
Sorry. He was offering far too much.
Li Mu was very pleased. Another actor had joined his script.
At that moment, Vill-V sent a call.
Seeing Sakura standing nearby and Ryoma sprawled unconscious on the ground, Vill-V smiled.
"Looks like things are settled. But I've got some interesting info."
Her tone was full of schadenfreude as she shared a live feed.
Not far outside the shrine, autonomous mechs were approaching in formation, clearly headed this way.
Li Mu studied the image.
"United Government mechs. What are they doing here?"
Arresting him?
He dismissed the thought immediately. He was not exposed. There was no reason.
That left only one possibility.
His gaze fell on Ryoma.
They thought this was the real Ryoma and had come to rescue him?
But another question surfaced.
How did they know Ryoma was here?
Li Mu frowned, suddenly reminded of Eden's kidnapping.
It felt familiar.
Were they trying to replay the heroic rescue trick? Using Sakura as expendable bait?
Looking at Sakura's confused face, Li Mu felt speechless.
"Are assassins just tools for farming goodwill now?"
"And these people are really unprofessional. Reusing the same plot. Don't they know audiences get harder to impress?"
"Want me to clean them up?" Vill-V asked cheerfully.
"Do it. I don't have time to play."
Cocolia's office.
"Cocolia, are you sure repeating the same trick won't cause problems?" her military contact demanded.
"Major, absolutely," Cocolia replied confidently. "The plan itself is sound. Last time was just an uncontrollable accident. We can't be unlucky every time."
"Ryoma is clearly not an ordinary man. His future is limitless. Now that he's taken off, attaching ourselves now is just icing on the cake. Far inferior to helping him in a crisis."
"And this time, we're saving him."
How the crisis came about was irrelevant. As long as Ryoma believed they saved him, she could ride that momentum.
Many in the Far East scoffed at the Second New Nagazora plan, but Cocolia believed in it wholeheartedly. If she could join as a partner, the resulting achievement would be massive enough to propel her forward.
"You'd better be right," the voice snapped. "Do you know why I got demoted from colonel to major?!"
A transmission came in from the mech unit.
Cocolia's eyes lit up. "Well? Did you rescue Ryoma?"
"Apologies, Commander. Our mechs spontaneously self-destructed en route."
"..."
A long silence.
Then a furious roar.
"Cocolia, you—!"
"Didn't you say it was foolproof?!"
"I will never trust you again! Take your damn hero rescue and—!"
…
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