[Sending a core Hei member to escort an outsider, one with no blood tie to any of the Big Three families, through Zenin territory said plenty on its own. That one night had rewritten your place here from the ground up. In a clan that only respected power and blood, you'd beaten the word "Lord" out of them the hard way.]
[You followed Ranta deeper in. Unlike that night, all shadows and firelight and forced entry, this was your first time walking the estate in broad daylight. Through the front gate, too. No rush. No one chasing you.]
[Workers crowded the corridors on both sides, busy with repairs. Murky Plume's bulk and stray lightning had done a number on the place. Fresh-cut wood scented the air, mixing with the old rot baked into the estate itself. Weird combination.]
[The layout matched the ugly memories from the Simulator almost step for step, but the feeling wasn't even close.]
[Back then, you'd crept through these halls with your head down, like a stray waiting to be kicked. One wrong glance had been enough to earn a beating. Now you walked with your chin up and your pace easy, taking your time.]
[And people were watching. Behind shoji screens, beside pillars, from the mouths of side corridors, Zenin clan members tracked your every step. Their stares were a mess of emotions. Anger, fear, disbelief. And from some of the younger ones, something stranger than the rest.]
[Reverence.]
[Blind, instinctive awe for raw power. A long way from the sneering contempt burned into your memories.]
[At the next turn, someone came from the opposite direction.]
[Ogi Zenin.]
[His steps were stiff. The loose kimono couldn't hide the bandages wrapped hard around his neck and chest. Dark stains had already seeped through in places.]
[Your handiwork.]
[Ranta stopped at once and bowed.]
["Lord Ogi."]
[Ogi ignored him.]
[He just stood there, staring at you with bloodshot eyes that looked dull at first glance and vicious if you kept looking. Resentment churned under the surface. Humiliation too. Hatred, old and hard and packed down until it had the weight of stone. His chest rose and fell with rough breaths. Every part of him looked ready to draw steel and try his luck.]
[He didn't.]
[After a few seconds of that stare, while you looked back without the slightest ripple, Ogi snorted through his nose, whipped his sleeve, and shoved past you. His injured body carried him down the corridor and out of sight.]
[Ranta led you through a string of courtyards and deeper into the estate. At last he stopped outside the clan head's private chambers, slid the heavy door open, bowed again, and stepped aside with the kind of relief he probably thought he was hiding.]
["You came."]
[Naobito Zenin sat cross-legged behind a low table, looking perfectly at home in the center of everything. The lazy set of his posture didn't hide the authority in it. His mustache twitched when he spoke.]
[You stepped forward and offered the expensive sake you'd brought as a gift.]
[Naobito accepted the bottles with zero ceremony. He skipped every step of proper form, tore the seal off with his hands, and brought the bottle to his nose. One deep breath. The sleepy haze in his eyes vanished on the spot, replaced by a gleam that was almost embarrassingly sincere.]
["Oh? This is the real stuff. Look at that color. That smell. You actually put thought into this. Not bad. Not bad at all."]
[He laughed, loud and open, like a man whose home definitely hadn't been wrecked recently. Then he reached for one of the white porcelain cups and poured. Amber liquid splashed in with a mellow, rich scent.]
[What caught you off guard was where that first cup went.]
[Naobito Zenin, a man famous for loving sake more than most people loved breathing, didn't drink first. He slid the cup across the table to you.]
[Small gesture. Not small meaning.]
[In a Big Three clan obsessed with seniority and hierarchy, the clan head personally pouring the first cup for a junior, especially one who had kicked in his front door not long ago, said a lot. Invitation, test, recruitment pitch. All of it at once.]
[You looked down at the cup. Your own reflection stared back from the clear surface.]
[After a moment, you left it where it was and answered plainly.]
["I appreciate the gesture, but I prefer to keep my head clear. I don't drink if it'll dull my judgment."]
[Naobito's hand stopped mid-pour.]
[He looked genuinely surprised.]
[As head of the Zenin clan, he lived surrounded by people who'd probably drink poison from his hand and call it an honor. A young man willing to refuse him to his face, while sitting in his own house, was not something he ran into often.]
[It didn't annoy him, though. If anything, compared to the endless stream of polished nonsense he usually heard, your blunt honesty was a lot more interesting.]
["Ha. Now that's something."]
[He pulled the cup back with no sign of offense, raised it to his lips, and emptied it in one swallow.]
["Ahh... now that's good."]
[He smacked his lips, set the empty cup down with a solid tap, and let the easygoing drunk act slip.]
[The change was immediate.]
[Something sharp flickered behind those half-lidded eyes, thin and cold as a blade. When he spoke again, his voice had dropped into the tone of a man used to giving orders and being obeyed.]
["'Keep my head clear,' huh. Sounds nice."]
[Naobito leaned forward a little.]
["If you were really as rational as you say, would you have pulled that stunt?"]
["..."]
[The room went still.]
[You didn't move. You met the old man's stare and said nothing.]
[Naobito reached for another cup and filled it with the same steady care as before. A little spilled over, wetting the surface of the low table. He lifted the full cup and offered it again, speaking like he was dissecting a specimen.]
["You stormed a Big Three compound alone. Smashed straight through the Hei's defense line. Put Ogi in critical condition. Turned half the courtyard into rubble."]
[He cut himself off there and shot you a sideways look.]
["And in the middle of all that, with your life on the line, you still held back. You were pulling your punches the whole time, like you were tossing scraps to beggars. One beast in the sheep pen for a full night, and not one clan member actually died."]
[His voice dropped lower.]
["You call that kind of arrogance, that kind of balancing act, rational? Kid, from where I'm sitting, you lost your mind the second you stepped through that gate. And you knew exactly what you were doing. If you didn't, you wouldn't be sitting here now."]
[He nudged the cup a little closer. The smile at his mouth said he'd already seen straight through the act.]
["If you're crazy all the way down, why bother pretending to be polite with me? At this point, do you really care about one more cup of sake?"]
[He'd cut right to the core of that night.]
[Maximum spectacle. Minimum casualties.]
[The nastiest show of force possible, controlled so tightly it never tipped over into slaughter.]
[You looked into Naobito's murky eyes and knew the old fox had you. There wasn't much point in keeping up the act now. It would only make you look cheap.]
[So you didn't refuse him a second time.]
[Your hand reached out, steady as ever, and closed around the cup.]
[You tipped your head back and drank it in one go.]