I kept glancing at my phone.

Every few seconds my eyes drifted back to the screen, searching for a message that wasn’t there, waiting for Tengu’s men to tell me they had found Rhonda, waiting for something—anything—that would tell me this entire trip hadn’t been a waste of time. while I sat here asking Kuro about his childhood and his dead family .

The stalling was working.

Or so I believed until Kuro set his empty mug on the table, looked at me with something that was not quite amusement and said, "Don’t bother."

I looked up.

"Excuse me?"

"Don’t bother." He said it again with the same mild certainty, the same way someone said something when they were not trying to convince you but merely informing you of a fact. "They won’t find anything here."

For a moment I just stared at him.

What was that supposed to mean?

Kuro got up from his chair, he picked up the coffee cup he’d been drinking from earlier and walked toward the tiny sink built into the trailer’s kitchenette.

The cup was empty now.

He rinsed it slowly.

Calmly.

Like he had nowhere else to be.

I turned in my seat and watched him.

Waiting.

Expecting him to explain himself.

He didn’t.

The water stopped running.

He dried the cup.

Placed it back exactly where it had been.

Then returned to the table and sat down.

Only then did he look at me.

"You’re here because of Rhonda right ?."

I sighed.

"I already told you I’m not here because of her. I’m here to—"

"To hear my side of the story."

He cut me off before I could finish.

"Yeah. You mentioned that."

His fingers tapped lightly against the table.

"But you see, Himari..."

His eyes narrowed slightly.

"I don’t believe you."

Something cold settled in my stomach.

"You’ve been checking your phone ever since you got here."

His voice remained casual.

"My guess is you’re here for something else."

"I don’t know what you’re talking about." I said looking away .

A humorless laugh escaped him.

"So you’re telling me you don’t have men outside right now?"

I said nothing.

"You’re telling me they aren’t searching every trailer in this park while you sit here pretending to care about my tragic backstory?"

Jesus Christ.

How did he know?

"Am I wrong?"

I said nothing.

He leaned back again. "I’ll take that as a no."

A pause..."Rhonda isn’t here," he said. "I’m not that careless."

"For what it’s worth, it was a decent plan. Better than what most people come up with."

I folded my arms " oh really?".

I shifted slightly in my chair .

"If you think I have men outside," I said, "what’s stopping me from calling them in right now and letting them take you instead and make you tell me where she is ? "

A smile slowly spread across his face.

The kind that never reached his eyes.

"Because, Himari..."

His voice dropped.

"You’re not the only one stalling."

The confidence in his tone made my pulse quicken.

"What does that mean?"

"You came here with a plan."

He nodded.

"Smart plan too."

Then he pointed toward me.

"But while we’ve been talking..."

His smile widened.

"My people have been moving."

The trailer suddenly felt smaller.

Hotter.

More difficult to breathe in.

"They’ve probably dealt with your men already."

He was bluffing.

He had to be bluffing.

He could not have known. I had not told anyone outside of Tengu what I was doing today. Nobody in my circle knew I was here, knew about this specific trailer park, knew about the plan to search while I talked. Tengu had arranged the operation himself and Tengu was loyal to my grandfather and my grandfather had sent him here specifically to protect me.

Kuro was reading the situation and making a calculated guess and trying to rattle me and it was working because I was letting it work.

Think clearly. Think.

Then I heard footsteps on the gravel outside.

Coming toward the trailer.

My heart rate climbed despite everything I was telling it.

One set of footsteps. Unhurried. The footsteps of someone who knew where they were going.

Kuro looked at the door.

"Right on time," he said quietly.

The door opened.

I braced....

Tengu stepped in.

The relief that went through me was so immediate and complete that I exhaled before I had decided to. I felt my shoulders drop. My hands loosened around the phone. Because of course. Of course it was Tengu. Of course Kuro had been bluffing. Of course this was exactly what I had planned, Tengu appearing to confirm his men were in position and the situation was under control.

"Looks like mine got here first," I said.

Kuro said nothing.

Tengu said nothing too...

That should have been the first sign.

But I didn’t notice.

Not yet.

I stood up.

Picked up my bag.

"It’s been nice."

I adjusted the strap over my shoulder.

"But unfortunately for you, this conversation is over and you are coming with me."

Kuro remained seated.

Silent.

I turned toward the door.

"Tengu."

Nothing.

"Grab him."

Still nothing.

I frowned.

"Tengu?"

He didn’t move.

Didn’t speak.

Tengu was looking at the floor.

Not at me. Not at Kuro. At the floor. In the specific posture of someone who had already made a decision and was finished discussing it with themselves.

"Tengu," I said.

Then kuro laughed dramatically...

"You know," Kuro said, standing too, "I have to give you credit again . This was genuinely a good plan. You would have pulled it off if not for one small problem."

He walked toward me slowly. Not threatening. Just deliberate.

"Use that head of yours," he said. "Think about what’s actually happening in this room."

The silence that followed felt deafening.

Then Kuro looked past me.

Directly at Tengu.

"Tengu-san."

His voice was calm.

"Grab her."

Before my brain could process what I’d just heard, a hand closed around my arm.

Hard.

I twisted immediately.

"What—"

The grip tightened.

"Tengu!"

I tried pulling away.

The movement barely budged him.

"What are you doing?"

No response.

"Tengu!"

Nothing.

" Let me go" I struggled

His face remained expressionless.

His eyes stayed fixed on the floor.

As if looking at me was somehow harder than what he was doing.

The struggle left my body all at once.

Not physically.

Mentally.

Because suddenly...

Suddenly it all made sense.

The timing.

The information leaks.

The way Kuro always seemed one step ahead.

The way every plan somehow failed before it even began.

The realization hit like a punch to the chest.

Tengu was not here because my plan had worked.

Tengu was here because Kuro had known about my plan. Known about the men searching outside, known about my presence in this trailer, known about my approach well before I arrived. And Tengu was the only person who had known all of those things.

I had called Tengu. I had told Tengu.

And Tengu had told Kuro.

Kuro had not been looking for a way to win this morning.

He had already won it before I arrived.

Kuro stopped directly in front of me.

Close enough that I could see every detail of the bunny mask resting beside him on the table.

"Good."

His voice was almost gentle.

"You finally figured it out."

Then the anger came ... Violent and hot

Burning through the shock.

"You bastard."

My eyes locked onto Tengu.

"You sold me out."

Still nothing.

Not even a defense.

Not even an excuse.p

Kuro looked amused.

"For someone so clever..."

He tilted his head slightly.

"You can be surprisingly slow sometimes."

I wanted to hit him.

Wanted to wipe that expression off his face.

Instead I remained trapped in Tengu’s grip.

Powerless.

Then I stopped struggling.

Not because I had given up. Because fighting Tengu physically was a calculation that had no useful outcome and I needed the energy I was spending on it for something more constructive.

"Tie her up," Kuro said to Tengu. "Put her in the car." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

He looked at me then with the expression he had worn in every X Reveals video, the one I had never been able to read properly through the mask because what it actually was was not cruelty but something far more patient than cruelty.

"We’re going for a long ride," he said...