Page 99 of Mercy Written in Blood

"I am standing."

"Poorly."

"I'll improve with practice."

She placed his arm over her shoulders. Haruki almost objected. Then accepted the help.

Public devotion was easy. People expected it from him. He attended funerals. Paid hospital bills. Settled disputes. Remembered children's names and which elderly shopkeepers needed their rent delayed during winter. Everyone saw those things. They did not see the moments after. The office emptied.The meetings ended. The responsibility remained. He had built a life around being necessary because necessity did not leave. It did not grow bored. It did not decide someone else would be easier to love.

Perhaps that was why Dr Takahara had unsettled him. Renji had not needed anything. Had not wanted favour. Had not cared whether Haruki could offer power, money or protection. He had looked at him covered in blood and seen only someone who should live. Haruki had spent years surrounded by devotion. Indifference should not have felt intimate. Yet it had.

"Stop smiling," Reina said.

"I'm not."

"You are."

"I'm in pain."

"That is not your pain face."

"You know too much about my face."

"I'm your sister."

"You're my Security Chief."

"Same thing in a Family."

Haruki sighed. She helped him towards the door. Ayako walked ahead, already issuing instructions to staff.

Haruki told himself the hospital visit was necessary. The dressing required attention. The survivors needed reassurance. Takeda and Minamoto possessed information relevant to the investigation. Jun deserved to hear that his Family had not forgotten him. All valid reasons. Professional. Responsible. Entirely unrelated to the memory of calm dark eyes and a voice telling him his name changed nothing.

The drive to Takamori University Medical Centre took fourteen minutes. Reina spent all of them informing Haruki that he was an idiot. He watched the city pass beyond the tinted window and allowed her to continue.

Morning traffic had thickened around the central districts. Delivery vans crowded the side streets. Students crossed between cafés and lecture halls. News screens displayed vague reports of an industrial accident beneath the southern warehouse district. The Accord's version had already begun. Structural collapse. Hazardous materials. Restricted access. No mention of murder. No mention of masks. No mention of the old chamber or the people killed for finding it.

Haruki watched the report disappear behind them.

"The lie protects the peace," he said.

Reina looked over.

"What?"

"Something their leader said."

"The attackers?"

"Yes."

"What did he mean?"

"I don't know."

She studied him.

"You'll find out."