—Little Inori, why are you having Diavolo appear in front of Triton? That's extremely dangerous!
—Because I'm uneasy. I don't know what Gai is actually planning. His reaction earlier wasn't normal.
Time was ticking down. The deadline for the Origin Stone's transfer was nearly upon them. Gai moving first to seize it was something Inori had fully anticipated — rational, entirely in character. But try as she might, she couldn't dismiss the odd way he'd behaved during their conversation. Better to be safe. She'd made the last-minute decision to bring "Diavolo" onto the board; a stable position from which to handle anything.
As long as the other identity was present, she was absolutely secure.
—Triton isn't who he used to be. I can't predict what he's thinking anymore — but I have faith in you! Give it your best.
…
…
Another uneventful, quietly productive day.
Shu Ouma had gradually settled into the rhythm of life at Funeral Parlor — sleeping and waking on schedule, barely any downtime outside of meals. When he wasn't pushing through physical conditioning, he was talking with his fellow members, which was, admittedly, not especially exciting. But this was a path he'd chosen. He'd declined Segai's overture and rejoined Funeral Parlor under the label of "traitor."
His original motivation had been the chance to spend more time near Inori. But days at Funeral Parlor turned out to be good days — every morning brought rigorous training under the brisk guidance of Ayase Shinomiya — pretty, sharp, and uncompromising even from her wheelchair, and somewhere along the way he'd discovered what he was actually good at.
He could feel himself growing. He wasn't the useless ordinary student he'd been. If he kept at it, kept his feet on the ground, he'd eventually earn more than he had now.
"Shu, are you in?"
A knock at the door. A girl's voice.
Shu didn't think too hard about it — assumed it was Ayase coming to brief him on the next day's operation — and shuffled into his slippers, walked over, and opened the door.
"What is it, Ayase — if it's urgent you can just message me — ? Inori! Inori?!"
A wave of faint fragrance hit him. The moment the door swung open, Inori's clear, unadorned face filled his vision.
She was wearing a black off-shoulder dress that ended well above her knees, hair pulled into a side ponytail, a red clip at her brow — entirely her own style.
Shu didn't look happy. If anything, he took a startled half-step back.
Inori understood. This was the first time they'd seen each other since the incident with Mana.
She didn't stand on ceremony. She walked in and pulled the door shut behind her.
"You keep a fairly clean room."
Inori glanced at the gleaming floor and dust-free desk with something like approval.
"I always assumed boys were messier."
"Inori… what are you doing here?"
Shu kept his gaze low, doing his best to breathe evenly. He'd been managing, these past weeks — pressing down the longing he'd felt for her — and now here she was, coming to find him herself.
"Briefing you on an assignment."
Inori settled directly onto his bed without any particular delicacy, crossed her legs, and looked him squarely in the eye.
"That's usually Ayase who does that."
Shu glanced away, not quite able to meet her gaze.
"I've been watching what you've been doing, Shu. I was right to bring you along."
"…I just didn't want to let someone's goodwill go to waste."
He wasn't foolish enough to have fantasized about Inori developing feelings for him. She'd approached him at school and recruited him into Funeral Parlor almost certainly to plant an informant from the inside. He understood that. Even so, Shu had wanted to help her in the way that was genuinely his — that was the only honest resolution he'd come to.
"Tell me what you need, Inori."
"Come with me."
Inori said it flatly, expression unchanged.
"Huh?"
"Tomorrow, we're executing a mission on Ōshima. You'll come with me. Everyone else from class will be there too — Matsuri, Kanon, and your friends Souta and Yahiro."
"Wait!"
Shu suddenly tensed.
"Why, Inori — are you dragging them into this? You and Matsuri are close, aren't you! You've even — "
He flushed. His straightforwardness had limits; that particular word wasn't one he could bring himself to say out loud.
"You seem to remember that very clearly."
Inori gave him a flat look.
"…It was all over school, the photo of you and Matsuri…" Shu's voice dropped to nearly nothing. The Inori in front of him felt different from the girl he remembered. She hadn't smiled once since arriving — and she was someone who smiled all the time. Was that a good sign or a bad one?
He genuinely didn't know.
"Set that aside. If this is a military operation, why pull everyone else into it? Are you planning to use them? Inori… like you used me."
It was entirely possible, Shu thought. Maybe Inori herself didn't want to. But what about Gai? What about Diavolo, the man pulling her strings? The man Shu had no way of reaching.
"I have a special ability." Inori blinked and turned her hand over to show him the branching mark on the back of it. "It's called a Void — it lets me draw out the power that lives inside another person. That's how I got you all out that night."
Shu nodded. Ayase had already explained the concept to him. But what did that have to do with his classmates?
"Souta Tamadate's Void is needed for this mission."
"…Souta? Why — why him?"
Shu stared, genuinely thrown.
"You know I don't have time for gossip, and I have no interest in your friends." Inori recrossed her legs, her voice carrying a faint note of impatience. "Inviting him alone would make my school life unpleasant — so I invited more people."
"Don't worry. It's a simple infiltration and retrieval — no large-scale engagement. Only Ayase, Argo, and the core Funeral Parlor members will be involved. As far as Matsuri and the others are concerned, it's just a seaside trip."
"But I'm not much good in a fight."
Shu said it with an uncertain note. He wanted to go — but he was afraid. Afraid Inori would set another trap for him to walk into, afraid he'd have no choice but to walk into it anyway.
"Are you afraid of me?"
Inori read him instantly, raising an eyebrow.
"No — that's not — "
Shu denied it immediately, though the denial made it no less obvious.
"Once the operation is over, you can go home. Returning to school will take a little more time, but trust me — it won't be long."
Inori finally let the ghost of a small smile surface.
Shu went still again. He'd been surprised more times in the last few minutes than in the past two days combined. Inori sat on his bed; he stood there dumbly in the middle of the room, like a suspect before a magistrate, or a child who'd done something wrong.
"I don't understand."
A bitter look crossed his face.
"Your mother misses you. Not just because of your late father's wishes — she genuinely cares about you." Inori felt herself saying more than she'd planned, but pressed on anyway.
No — it wasn't that she wanted to say more.
It was that someone else, living within her, needed to say it.
"You hurt the family member most important to you once before. Don't make the same mistake again."
"Huh?"
Shu's head swam slightly. He couldn't parse the words, not yet — his memories of ten years ago hadn't returned. He only had the vague impression that it might connect to the time Inori had called herself his "sister."
—Little Inori…
Inori felt an unexpected sting at the corners of her eyes, then realized: the stinging wasn't hers. It was Mana's.
"Enough questions."
Inori patted her pale, almost-glowing knees and rose from the bed in one sharp motion, declaring the conversation unilaterally closed.
"Get some sleep. We leave tomorrow morning."
"Okay. …Okay."
Shu wanted to ask so much more, but couldn't find the beginning of any of it. The questions piled up, the words dissolved. He'd been hoping for a day when Inori might sit with him quietly and talk — no agenda, just genuine curiosity. But looking at the situation now, that was probably too much to hope for.
After all — just like with Souta, she'd made her obvious impatience and disgust entirely clear — she couldn't even be bothered to give him that fake smile.
—Time to face facts.
Shu gave a small shake of his head and let the thought go, walking over to get ready for bed.
> Author's Note: I should mention — the auto-scheduled midnight post failed somehow, I genuinely don't know why. Also: I've felt for a while now that the fake NTR content is something that works once or twice but quickly becomes off-putting. What came before was only filling in earlier scenes anyway — so going forward, there won't be any more of that.