Under the setting sun, Shido ran wildly until he rounded several corners and the apartment building was completely out of sight before he dared to stop.
He leaned his hands on his knees, gasping for breath, his heart pounding wildly, and his cheeks burning hot.
(I... I got away...)
The soft touch, the close scent, the dependent yet adoring gaze from moments ago... all intertwined with Kotori's ear-splitting roar in his headset, creating an overwhelming impact.
He took several deep breaths before he managed to calm down, forcing himself to look nonchalant, and only slowly made his way home after night fell.
As soon as he pushed open the door, a wave of low pressure washed over him. Kotori sat by the dining table with a sour expression, aggressively biting her lollipop. Reine sat quietly beside her.
"I... I'm home."
"Oh—you're back," Kotori drawled. "How was escorting your 'dear sister' home, my idiot older brother?"
Shido felt his scalp prickle. He slipped into the kitchen, tied on an apron, and tried to distract them by cooking: "It... it was fine... I just walked her downstairs..."
"Walked her downstairs?" Kotori followed him to the kitchen entrance. "I think you walked right into her heart!'So warm'~ 'I want him to be my older brother'~ Hmph!"
Shido's hand trembled as he chopped vegetables: "That... that was just something she said casually..."
"Of course it was something she said casually!" Kotori stomped her foot. "Reine analyzed it! It was flattery! It was a tactic!"
At this moment, Reine slowly walked over, leaned against the kitchen doorframe, and began a calm review:
"...Target Chinatsu's voluntary physical contact and emotional expression contradict the aloofness she previously displayed. Combined with her suspected Spirit identity, this action is highly purposeful. It was most likely aimed at Shido-kun's easily softened heart, and also..."
She glanced at Kotori. "...A precise provocation aimed at the Commander's personality."
"See!" Kotori pointed at Reine while speaking to Shido, her tone filled with the indignation of 'I knew it.'
"She did it on purpose! To make me angry! This kind of cheap attempt at sowing discord..."
Shido tossed the vegetables into the pan, using the sizzling sound to cover his embarrassment: "I didn't... I just didn't react fast enough..."
"Slowness to react is also a crime!" Kotori huffed.
"In short! This operation was a total failure!...Wait, Reine, let's go over this 'Chinatsu' again. What exactly does she want? Not only did we fail to get information, but we were led around by her and she took advantage of the situation! Shido, your training volume tonight is doubled! No! Tripled! You must put skill points into 'Charm Resistance' and 'Lie Detection'!"
Shido: "..." (Internally: Do those skills really exist?!)
Mid-sentence, Kotori's voice suddenly hitched, and the angry expression on her face instantly froze.
As if struck by an invisible bolt of lightning, she abruptly turned to glare at Reine, her pupils contracting sharply as she suddenly realized a terrifying fact.
"Wait, wait a minute... Reine..." Her voice rose, tinged with disbelief and horror.
"She... she just called me Sister Kotori... That's nothing, that kind of thing can be found out with a little investigation. But... the implication of her words... she clearly knows about me."
"She knew Shido was approaching her! She knew I was watching! She could even predict my reaction! She wasn't trying to sow discord between 'Shido and me,' she was... calling me out?!"
This question was like a stone tossed into still water, yet it stirred up a terrifying storm.
Kotori, who had only been angry about being provoked, instantly felt a chill shoot up her spine.
Sowing discord between siblings was a low-level maneuver, but accurately predicting and mocking the 'observer' herself was a concept on an entirely different level.
She fiercely stared at Shido, her tone urgent but her goal extremely clear:
"Shido! Think back immediately! Was there any moment today when she might have noticed your headset or that I was communicating with you? Any unnatural movement or expression?"
Shido was startled by Kotori's drastically changed expression. He immediately tried to recall, then shook his head with absolute certainty:
"No! I swear I was very careful! I only covered my ear after she finished speaking and had turned her back!"
Receiving a negative answer, Kotori's expression completely darkened. Her previous annoyance was replaced by a deeper, colder vigilance.
She and Shido exchanged a look, both seeing the same shock and confusion in the other's eyes.
"Then... how did she know?" she murmured. But immediately, the most direct and logical suspect popped into her mind.
"—It must be Koushi!" The words practically burst out of her, but immediately, she vigorously shook her head, rejecting the idea.
"No... impossible! Even though Koushi is an idiot, there is absolutely no way he knows about Fraxinus, and it's even less likely he would deliberately leak my information to pull this kind of prank! He's not that kind of person!"
Shido immediately and firmly agreed: "Exactly! Koushi would never do something like that!" His trust in his friend was absolute.
Both of them knew perfectly well: Koushi Hōoin, their normal friend who liked surfing the net and occasionally had a sharp tongue, could absolutely, positively not know about the core secrets of "Fraxinus," the "Commander," or "real-time surveillance."
This wasn't a matter of trust; it was a matter of foundational knowledge. The possibility of a leak simply didn't exist from the start.
Just then, the still-open communicator in Shido's ear suddenly transmitted the noisy background sounds of the Fraxinus bridge, along with Kyohei Kannazuki's intoxicated voice:
"Ah, ah~ What steadfast friendship! What fervent trust! Itsuka Shido, the light you shine in this moment is enough to illuminate all shadows! To choose to trust your dearest friend even when faced with such suspicion, that in itself is the ultimate romance~!"
"Bang!" (A familiar striking sound)
"Shut up, pervert!...However, Shido is right."
Kotori said into the microphone, then turned back to Shido and Reine.
"Koushi is innocent; that much is basically confirmed. So the problem still lies with Chinatsu herself."
Kotori frowned deeply, her fingers unconsciously tapping the dining table:
"But... that makes even less sense! If Koushi didn't tell her, then this 'Chinatsu'... how exactly did she find out about me? Does she really possess an ability to pry into information that we don't know about?"
Reine's voice sounded at the appropriate moment, cutting coldly to the heart of the issue:
"...After eliminating all impossibilities, the remaining conclusion, however improbable, is the truth. Target Chinatsu is aware of our surveillance activities and the Commander's reaction patterns."
"Her source of information... is unrelated to Koushi Hōoin. She must possess an unknown, extremely specialized information acquisition ability, or..."
Reine paused, then voiced the more unsettling hypothesis: "...Or, she already possesses a certain level of understanding of our organization and its operational methods, including the Commander's personality traits, that exceeds our expectations."
This conclusion meant that the target might not be 'acquiring' information, but rather 'confirming' information she already possessed.
She paused, then delivered the crucial judgment: "...Target Chinatsu's volume of information is far beyond what was expected. Not only has she likely seen through Shido-kun's 'mission,' but she may have... long been aware of the existence of Fraxinus and the Commander. Her provocation was not a blind attempt to'sow discord,' but a precise'strategic strike' based on intelligence."
A terrifying feeling of being completely seen through—as if the opponent knew the color of her underwear—instantly overwhelmed Kotori.
The opponent wasn't dancing on the chessboard she had set up; she had been standing outside the board all along, smiling as she watched all of them move like pieces according to her will!
The previous "provocation," viewed now, seemed more like a condescending, malicious "declaration."
Shido finally realized the seriousness of the situation, his face turning pale: "She... she knew about Kotori and... Fraxinus? Then everything she did before was..."
"An act," Kotori bit out, finishing his sentence, her voice carrying a subtle tremble and lingering fear.
"It was from the very beginning. She knew we were watching, she knew Shido that you were approaching her with a purpose, and she even knew exactly how to provoke me the most..."
She tightly clenched her fist. Her previous complacency and anger were completely replaced by a strong sense of vigilance and unease. Her concern for Koushi and her wariness toward Chinatsu intertwined.
The kitchen fell into a brief, suffocating silence. This conclusion completely overturned all their assumptions about the situation.
They thought they were observing an unknown target, but they hadn't realized that they themselves might have been exposed in the opponent's view from the very start.