A luxury model black car with tinted windows rolled up shortly after the door was forced shut. Midoriko, still in shock by what had just transpired, was compliant as Akira dragged her to her feet and put her in the back seat.
"I should've known somethin' was up when you willingly agreed to come here," Akira moaned, rubbing his temples. "How much of that did y'all plan?"
Midoriko could only laugh bitterly in response to his question. How could she even begin to explain that all of it was planned, yet none of it was. Hardly a single part of their plan went the right way, but the most important thing was that Itoko got away thanks to Xiǎomíng.
What on Earth was that boy thinking? She couldn't help but worry about what happened to the kids after that door closed.
Midoriko felt the urge to pull out Ryouma's phone and message Xiǎomíng. She had to know if he was okay—if he was alive. But she stopped herself from reaching for it. If she pulled it out now, they very well might take it away from her or break it.
After a short drive, they arrived at the Ambition Group Grand Hotel. Having grown up in Nagoya, it wasn't an unfamiliar sight for Midoriko. It was an up-and-coming hotel chain, and this was the flagship hotel—luxurious inside and out.
She would never in a million years have guessed she was an "heiress" to this company—nor would she have guessed that it was owned and managed by Yakuza. The fact that her father resided at the top of the tower made the way it rose above all the surrounding buildings feel so much more imposing.
If they were bringing her there, then that could only mean something had happened to Ryouma. She never got the chance to ask Xiǎomíng what happened to him, but now it was becoming clear that he'd been captured. They wouldn't be moving so openly and confidently if he weren't.
Was Ryouma still alive? No matter how hard she tried, Midoriko couldn't push that question out of her thoughts. That dream she had was still fresh in her mind and just as unsettling as ever. She knew in her heart that he absolutely would die for her, but that was the last thing she would ever want or ask of him.
The elevator ride to the penthouse felt agonizingly long. By the time she stepped out onto that top floor, Midoriko was ready to collapse.
It didn't go unnoticed by Akira. He tried to put an arm around her shoulder, but Midoriko shrugged out of his grasp. The rejection stung, but there were bigger things on his mind at that moment.
Akira stilled his shaking hand and knocked on the door. Shishiba's men opened it and welcomed the two of them into the penthouse with a respectful bow.
"You're late," Shishiba said, his back facing them as he looked out a window, overlooking the city.
"I… I'm sorry, sir. We took a detour," Akira said, stiffly bowing out his apology.
"I heard." He turned around, looking over Midoriko and Akira with an icy gaze. "So where is she?"
"She… Got away…" Akira said through gritted teeth. He lost the child in a way that bruised his pride as a neutralizer. Not only was he unable to counter that door trick fast enough to block their escape, but he'd been completely fooled by that damn kid's disguise. There was no way Shishiba wouldn't punish him for that.
"It was my doing," Midoriko cut in. Her hands were balled into fists behind her back to hide their tremble, but she stood tall in front of her father. "I planned it from the start. She's somewhere safe now."
Shishiba let out a rare laugh, startling both Akira and Midoriko.
"Midoriko, you're so much like your mother," he said with a fleeting, tender smile. Shishiba strolled across the room toward her. "You're headstrong and cunning. That's why I made sure to have leverage."
"What do you mean…?" Her throat felt dry.
"It's easier to show you…" Her father pulled out his smartphone and, after a few taps, held it out to her. On the screen was a camera feed showing Ryouma strapped to a chair in a stark white cell, similar to the one they'd just rescued Itoko from.
"R-Ryouma…!" Had he been there that whole time, right under their noses? Was Xiǎomíng aware of that? No… He couldn't have been, or he'd have gone to Ryouma first.
"Is that his real name or another alias?" Shishiba asked, taking the phone back and stepping away.
"What have you done to him?!" She lunged forward, but Akira grabbed her.
"C-calm down!" He held her back as she struggled.
"I haven't done anything yet." Her father sat down on the sofa and crossed his legs. "He came to meet me earlier, but we just couldn't seem to see eye-to-eye on things," he explained, shaking his head solemnly. "I offered to trade the child for you, but he refused. He was simply too greedy in his demands."
He what? Ryouma never told her that he was going to go directly to Shishiba. That wasn't part of their plan. Was he trying to avoid involving her again? If he had just stuck to the plan they came up with together, they wouldn't be in this situation now!
But she couldn't find it in herself to be mad at him when his life was at risk.
"Please… Don't kill him…" Midoriko pulled away from Akira. Trying to hold back her tears, she clenched her fists hard enough that her nails dug into her palms. "You have me now, so just–"
"But I don't have the shinigami child," he interrupted.
"Th-then I'll bring her back!" Midoriko didn't know how she'd be able to fulfill that promise, but he didn't need to know that. Since she'd only ever traveled to that place using the magic doors, sometimes it felt like it existed in another dimension. It was so isolated that she wouldn't even begin to know where, in the entirety of Gunma Prefecture, to start looking for it.
"That's not enough. How little do you value this man's life?"
"P-please! I'll do anything!" Midoriko dropped to her knees and prostrated herself. "I'll do what you want me to do. I'll become who you want me to be. Just let him live!"
Shishiba leaned back against the couch and waved his hand flippantly. "But if I let him go, he'll just become a bigger problem later."
He wasn't wrong. She knew that if he let Ryouma go, he would come tearing through everything belonging to her father like a force of nature. He said it himself that he would do anything for her.
The Enishi Ryouma she'd originally met was cold and calculating, keeping his distance from others for his own protection. It was because of Midoriko that he'd become more driven by his emotions, wasn't it? Everything from the moment they met up until this point was because of her.
So if she wasn't in his life, wouldn't things be better for him?
"I'll tell him to forget about me then! I'll make it clear that I want him to stay away from me!"
"Hmph. Get off the floor," her father commanded.
Midoriko sat up and slowly rose to her feet. Was he finally going to budge?
"It's still not enough," Shishiba said curtly. He stood up from the couch and approached Midoriko. "I would need something more to keep someone like him under control…" He placed a hand on her shoulder and lowered his voice. "Like his real name."
Midoriko's heart sank. Was this truly the only way for him to live? If her father didn't kill him, eventually his curse would. But even so, there was still a chance that the curse could be broken—with or without her around. He at least deserved the chance to live.
"E-Enishi… R-Ryouma…" she mumbled. Please forgive me…
"Good. I'm glad you have more sense than your mother." Her father patted her shoulder, then walked away. "Go get changed for dinner—both of you. I'll have someone bring you something presentable."
Midoriko hung her head as one of Shishiba's men led her away. Whatever fight she had left in her was gone now.
Akira's heart raced and his stomach churned while he watched Midoriko plead desperately for that man's life. He'd wanted nothing more than for her to look his way, so to see her reduce herself to this for the sake of another man made him unbelievably jealous.
But that wasn't just it, was it? There was something else Akira felt towards Midoriko in that moment that he couldn't quite put his finger on.
Whatever it was, he hated it.
***
The woman sent to Ryouma, disguised as Midoriko, knew his name. That was certainly troublesome, but the only thing on his mind in that moment was getting to the real Midoriko. He wouldn't put it past Shishiba to use threats of violence on his own daughter to coerce her into anything he wanted.
Ryouma was about to pull the door open when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the tan woman pulling something out of her pocket.
"Don't move." She froze at his command. He crouched down and stole an injector pen out of her hands. "What's in this?"
"I… I don't know! Th-they told me to use it on you if you fought back!"
Ryouma pulled the cap off, but the vial inside was unlabeled. Was it more ketamine, or was it something meant to kill him? If it was the latter, there was a long list of things it could be, and this woman definitely had no idea either.
"Have you ever killed someone?" he asked, putting it back together and pocketing the injector pen.
"N-no…!" She was crying now. It was ugly and pathetic with snot dripping out of her nose. Not at all lovely like Midoriko's tears. "P-please forgive me, Mr. Ryouma!"
"Then keep it that way," he said. Ryouma put his index finger to her forehead, right between her eyes. "And let's go ahead and get that name out of your head while we're at it."
Her eyes glazed over as he erased her memory of him. It was just a little bit, but it was extremely powerful magic like the healing magic he'd used on himself before. While it made his curse spread even more, it was necessary to make her forget his name and face.
After leaving the cell, Ryouma found himself in a maintenance hallway. It didn't look like the service areas of the hotel from what he could remember. Was it just an area he hadn't seen, or did they move him to an entirely different place?
Something clattered to the floor beside him. Ryouma turned his head toward the sound to see a cell phone at the feet of a pudgy guy with tattoos—one of Shishiba's men.
Normally, Ryouma would try to run away, but at that moment, he felt like going on a rampage. He only held back on that woman because she was still wearing Midoriko's clothes. But if it was one of Shishiba's men? Well, that was simply one of his intended targets anyway.
"...Shit…" The man scrambled to pick up his cell phone before running in the opposite direction, while Ryouma calmly pursued.