Inori reclined on a bench in comfortable leisure, taking in the view, while Matsuri and the others — not far away — had fallen into a spirited game of beach volleyball with several tourists who looked like female students. The two boys had wandered off somewhere. Inori paid them no mind. The moment hadn't come yet.
She maintained the image of a serene young beauty enjoying the scenery, and in the meantime dispatched King Crimson to carry out "Diavolo's" work.
…
…
Somewhere on Ōshima, at the edge of a sparse stretch of forest far from the tourist areas, more than a dozen Funeral Parlor soldiers were setting up camp. Shu was among them. Just a short while ago, three of the core operatives — Shibungi, Ōkumo, and Argo — had headed to the western beach to surveil Souta Tamadate, the target for this operation.
—Inori and Matsuri should be over there too.
Shu wanted nothing more than to go find his classmates — people he hadn't seen in what felt like forever — but he understood the difficulty of his own position well enough not to press it. Inori had promised he could go home after the operation concluded. Returning to school should be just around the corner after that.
"This place — it's your hometown, isn't it, Shu?"
Gai walked over and spoke to him.
"It is."
Shu still hadn't deciphered what was behind those complicated looks Gai kept giving him. What Shu didn't know was that he himself had spent time on this island as a child — and back then, Gai had been a fearful, hesitant boy, while the strong-willed Shu had been the one who watched over him.
The memories came back to Gai now, and he couldn't help feeling deeply moved — while Shu remembered none of it.
"Your father — the late Dr. Kurosu Ouma — his grave is on this island, I believe."
He brought it up as if it had just occurred to him.
"You knew my father, Gai?"
"Yes. He was originally a professor at Tennouzu University — and the first person to study the Apocalypse Virus."
"Really?"
Because of the lost memories, and because Haruka had always been careful not to press painful topics, Shu was genuinely hearing this for the first time.
"You didn't know."
"I only knew he was Haruka's teacher. It's been ten years, after all."
"Since Lost Christmas?"
Gai let out a quiet breath.
That day — the memory of it — was branded into him. It was the event that had transformed Triton into Gai Tsutsugami. He had fought and fought since then, in order to grow strong enough. And Shu remembered none of it.
"Do you want to pay your respects?"
"Would that be all right?"
Shu looked up. He'd been planning to ask Gai for this anyway — it was only proper, now that he was back on the island. He didn't want to let the chance go.
"Of course. Let's go together. We can pick up flowers on the way."
…
…
In truth, Shu's memories of his father had worn down to almost nothing — between the amnesia and the reality that Kurosu had been consumed by work and rarely home during Shu's earliest years. He couldn't even picture his father's face clearly anymore. But Kurosu was still his father.
Shu and Gai walked in silence.
Because of everything Inori had done between them, the two of them barely crossed paths now. Shu knew they were the same age, knew Gai was held up as a near-mythic figure within Funeral Parlor, and accepted that — partly because it made sense, and partly because, deep down, there was a small, quiet strand of envy. Envy of someone who could be that strong. And alongside it, a thread of doubt — because in Shu's view, Funeral Parlor wouldn't have come this far without Inori. Gai was another person she was using. Just like him.
But Shu would never say any of that out loud.
He came around the corner holding a small bunch of white carnations — and found that someone was already at the grave, waiting.
A tall man. Tall enough that Shu had to tilt his head back to look at him properly. Strangely overdressed for the island heat — a long coat and a wide-brimmed hat, a silver mask covering his face. Not an inch of skin visible.
Probably a foreigner.
"You're already here."
Gai spoke from behind him, unprompted.
"Who is that?"
"Slow as ever, Gai Tsutsugami. And… Shu Ouma."
The masked man turned toward them, and from beneath the mask came a voice unmistakably male — low, unhurried, carrying a weight of presence that was impossible to ignore.
"He is Diavolo — the boss behind her."
"…"
The melancholy that Shu had brought with him to the graveside clenched into something else entirely. He looked at the masked man again — the heavy frame, the coiled muscle that not even all those layers could conceal, the bearing of a man who inhabited his own authority as naturally as breathing. This was the person Inori belonged to?
"Can I ask now — why are you here?"
He had always kept Inori out front while he operated from a distance, pulling strings, taking no risks himself. And on top of that — abusing her. Gai's contempt for Diavolo was not much less than his contempt for the GHQ. But he'd never imagined a man like that would show up personally to take part in an operation.
"Kurosu Ouma was, in a sense, an old acquaintance."
King Crimson gave a slight nod.
"…A friend of my father's."
Shu murmured it, more surprised than anything, but not much more than that.
Gai, however, felt it like a hand closing around his heart. This was the only personal detail that had slipped past the alias — the only clue to who "Diavolo" actually was. Combined with what he already knew — that Diavolo had been aware of Mana's identity, that he had to be someone connected to Lost Christmas — it narrowed the field considerably. If he pressed the search, identifying him wouldn't be difficult.
—Though perhaps it will no longer matter very soon.
King Crimson turned and moved past them both, walking to the edge of the low hillside. Below, at no great distance, a long stone staircase led down to a red torii — the entrance to what looked like a shrine.
"The Origin Stone is in there. Your deployment plan is set, Gai?"
"Naturally."
Gai answered, raising a specialized scope to his eye and surveying the area before continuing.
"The security system is tight, but nothing Tsugumi can't handle. Once Inori extracts Souta Tamadate's Void, we move in directly."
"And Shuichiro Keido?" King Crimson looked down at Gai. "I told you — he almost certainly wants that stone for himself. You've prepared for that?"
"I had the Tennouzu patriarch put people on surveillance. He's still inside the Antiviral Agency facility. You have nothing to worry about."
"Good."
…Something was off.
Reclining in her beach chair, Inori let her brow furrow almost imperceptibly.
Everything was going too smoothly. Was Keido genuinely unaware of Funeral Parlor's movements — or did he know, and was deliberately allowing Gai to take the Origin Stone? Or was she simply overthinking it? Overestimating her opponent?
Either way, once she had the stone and the No. 3 Void Genome in hand, there would be nothing left to fear.
Inori had always trusted herself.
No life is a straight line — every person, at some point, faces a sudden drop, a sudden rise, sometimes success, sometimes failure. What mattered was finding the trap called the future before it opened under your feet, and not falling in.
As long as she never fell in — Inori would remain forever in an unassailable position.
An unassailable position.