The city rolled past outside the tinted windows in muted streaks of light as Malik drove through Harrington’s evening traffic.

Raina sat quietly in the back seat, one hand resting against the leather armrest while her eyes stayed fixed ahead. The AGRESSA towered above the rest of the city skyline even from several streets away, its glass exterior glowing against the darkening sky like something untouched by the rest of Harrington.

The most expensive residential building in the city.

And currently the temporary home of Tengu Mayaki.

Her grandfather did not own the AGRESSA. Katsuro Arashigumi preferred hotels, rentals, temporary locations. Places easy to leave behind. Places that did not root him anywhere too permanently.

That was one of the first things she learned about him.

People like her grandfather never stayed still long enough for the world to catch up.

Malik pulled up near the entrance.

Two men in dark suits were already waiting outside.

Of course they were.

One stepped forward immediately and opened the car door for her.

"Miss Takahashi."

Raina stepped out onto the pavement and adjusted the sleeve of her coat. The men fell into step beside her without another word as they guided her through the marble lobby toward the elevators.

The AGRESSA smelled faintly of polished wood and expensive perfume. Quiet conversations drifted through the lobby. Somewhere nearby a piano instrumental played softly through hidden speakers.

Normal people lived here.

Wealthy people.

The elevator doors slid open.

One of the escorts pressed the button for the top floor.

As the doors closed, Raina watched the floor numbers begin to rise.

And her mind drifted backward.

Years backward.

To the first time she met Katsuro Arashigumi.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

She had been seventeen going on eighteen.

The playground sat nearly empty beneath the pale orange glow of the evening lamps, swings creaking softly whenever the wind pushed against them. The air smelled like cold metal and wet grass.

Raina sat alone on one of the benches with her knees drawn close to her chest, forehead resting against folded arms.

Her mother was dead.

Her father barely looked at her anymore without seeing something ugly.

The police had ruled it an accident.

Just as her father wanted .

She remembered staring at the gravel beneath her shoes and thinking that maybe everybody would have been happier if she had died too.

Then a shadow fell across her.

Raina looked up.

An older Japanese man stood before her in a dark coat, silver threaded through his hair, eyes sharp enough to make her instinctively tense.

Yet his expression remained calm.

Measured.

"Hello, Himari," he said.

She frowned immediately.

"Who are you?"

The man studied her for a moment before answering.

"I’m your grandfather."

Her eyes widened slightly.

"Grand...pa?"

"I see your mother never told you about me."

"No," she said quietly. "She didn’t."

A faint humorless smile crossed his face.

"Of course she didn’t."

He gestured lightly toward the swing beside her.

"May I sit?"

Raina nodded slowly.

He lowered himself onto the swing with surprising ease for a man his age, hands folded neatly over the head of his cane.

For a while neither of them spoke.

Then he finally said,

"I heard about what happened with your mother."

Raina stiffened.

Not what the police reports are saying, he meant.

What really happened.

"How?" she asked softly.

Katsuro glanced toward her.

"I have my ways."

Raina swallowed hard.

"I’m sorry," she began shakily. "It wa—"

"it wasn’t your fault."

He cut her off gently.

"I already know it was an accident."

The words hit her harder than she expected.

Her father had never said that.

Not once.

Katsuro looked ahead quietly as the swings moved slightly in the wind.

"Your mother and I wanted different things from life," he said. "She wanted peace. Normalcy. A quiet little existence far away from everything I built."

His voice carried no anger.

Only certainty.

"Then she met your father." His mouth tightened faintly. "That vermin filled her head with fantasies about ordinary living and she followed him here because she loved him."

Raina listened silently.

"So no," Katsuro continued calmly. "What happened is not your fault."

One sentence.

That was all it took.

Something inside her cracked open.

Because those were the exact words she had needed somebody to say.

For days .

For months.

Her vision blurred suddenly.

Tears rolled down her face before she could stop them.

Katsuro looked over just as she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him.

For a brief second he seemed surprised.

Then one of his hands rested gently against the back of her head.

"Do not worry," he said quietly. "Grandfather will take care of you now."

And he kept that promise.

He paid for everything.

Her schooling.

Her apartment.

Her college tuition.

Every single thing her father stopped caring about.

The elevator continued upward.

And another memory surfaced.

One she wished never had.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Glass shattered across the room.

Raina stumbled backward breathing hard, her ears ringing violently as Felix collapsed onto the floor beside the broken table.

Blood spread slowly beneath his head.

Too much blood.

"Oh God."

"Felix?"

No response.

"Felix."

Still nothing.

Her hands shook violently as she dropped beside him.

No ! no ! no! no!—

She touched his shoulder.

Cold already.

Panic exploded through her chest.

She grabbed her phone with trembling hands and called the only person she could think of.

Katsuro answered immediately.

"Himari. What’s wrong?"

"I screwed up," she choked out. "Grandpa I screwed up bad."

"Himari."

His voice sharpened instantly.

"Calm down. Speak clearly."

Tears streamed down her face.

"I think he’s dead."

Silence.

Then—

"Who?"

"...Felix."

Another pause.

"My boyfriend."

Katsuro’s tone changed immediately.

"What happened?"

"I didn’t mean to hurt him," she choked out. "We were arguing and I got angry and I hit him and he fell and—"

"Calm down."

"I didn’t mean—"

"Himari."

His voice sharpened enough to cut through the panic.

She forced herself to breathe.

"Where is he?"

"In my room."

A brief silence followed.

Then—

"Listen carefully," Katsuro said calmly. "Do not touch anything else. Do not call the police. I’m sending Tengu right away. Do you understand me?"

"Yes."

"Good. Stay where you are until he arrives."

The line disconnected.

Raina spent the rest of that night sitting in the corner of the room staring at Felix’s body.

Unable to move.

Unable to think.

The next evening Tengu arrived in Harrington with six men.

She remembered opening the apartment door and seeing him standing there in a dark coat, expression unreadable.

No judgment.

No surprise.

Just efficiency.

"Miss himari," he said calmly. "Please step outside."

His men went to work immediately.

Professional.

Methodical.

Like they had done this before.

One photographed the room.

Another collected shattered glass carefully into evidence bags.

Two more wrapped Felix’s body in white linen before carrying him away.

Others scrubbed the blood from the floor using industrial chemicals strong enough to sting her eyes from several feet away.

Not a single stain remained afterward.

Not one.

Tengu supervised everything personally.

And before they left, blood taken from Felix earlier during cleanup was deliberately placed elsewhere inside the apartment.

Insurance.

Just enough to support her original statement if police ever investigated.

The body disappeared that same night.

Buried somewhere deep enough never to be found.

Raina never asked where.

And Tengu never volunteered the information.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

The elevator doors opened.

Raina blinked once as the memories dissolved.

The escorts led her down a long hallway toward the penthouse suite.

Two more guards stood outside the entrance.

One opened the doors immediately.

Warm light spilled outward.

And the first person she saw inside was Tengu himself.

He stood near the massive windows overlooking the city in a charcoal suit, hands folded behind his back.

"Raina," he greeted calmly.

"Tengu."

The room itself looked less like a penthouse and more like a private executive lounge. Expensive furniture. Dark wood. Soft lighting.

Katsuro sat near the center of the room drinking tea.

The moment he saw her, his face softened.

"Raina," he said warmly. "There is my granddaughter."

He stood and motioned for her to come closer.

She walked over and sat across from him.

"Grandpa," she said carefully. "What’s so urgent that you had to call me here?"

Katsuro studied her for a moment.

Then asked quietly,

"Do you remember what I told you the first day we met?"

Raina frowned slightly.

"You said you’d always take care of me."

"Correct."

He nodded once.

"And I always keep my promises."

Something about his tone made her stomach tighten slightly.

Katsuro glanced toward the men near the doorway.

One sharp nod.

The guards disappeared briefly.

Then returned dragging a man . The man’s wrists were bound in front of him. His hair was dishevelled. His suit, which had once been expensive, was creased and loose at the collar.

He looked up.

Their eyes met.

Raina froze .

"Dad?"