Page 292 of Mercy Written in Blood

Mori looked at him.

"Would I?"

"If you expected answers."

"And what do you think I expect?"

Haruki leaned back.

"Obedience."

The room remained still. Renji looked towards Haruki. He had known this meeting would be difficult. He had underestimated how quickly Haruki would remove the possibility of courtesy.

Mori sat.

"You inherited your father's directness."

"I inherited the consequences of his restraint."

"That sounds rehearsed."

"It wasn't."

Mori considered him. Then turned to Renji.

"You opened the first chamber."

It was not a question. Renji felt Haruki's attention shift.

"How do you know?" Renji asked.

"Because three monitoring stations registered a Hemomantic activation beneath the Takahara estate."

"You monitor the estate."

"Yes."

"For how long?"

"Since before I was born."

Renji's disappointment arrived quietly. That made it worse.

"You knew the Archive existed."

"We knew something existed."

"You never told me."

"No."

"Why?"

Mori folded his hands on the table.

"Because we did not know whether you could open it."

"That is not why."