How Many People Were in That Room
Mizunashi Rena was beginning to get a measure of the boy's insufferable personality. Seeing that he was still waiting for her answer, she could only nod wearily, confirming what he had just said.
"Tsk tsk." The Wanderer shook his head, feigning deep lamentation. "I told you. Apart from one or two people at the top who actually know what they're doing, the FBI and the Organization are just a couple of flailing chickens pecking at each other."
Rena's lips parted, fumbling for a rebuttal, but for the life of her she couldn't decide where to begin. She hesitated — and in that hesitation, her attention was dragged elsewhere by his next words.
"You were in FBI custody for too long. Even if you went back to the Organization now, they'd never trust you — which makes sending you back nearly useless. So Akai Shuichi plans to have you kill him in front of the Organization, right in front of their eyes, so you can win back their trust."
"And Hondo Eisuke, being the leverage they're holding over you — and needing protection besides — will naturally be shipped off to their home base."
"What we want from you is this: once you're back in contact with the FBI, you report to us regularly on everything you learn about them. Especially anything involving Akai Shuichi. Even intelligence you uncover inside the Organization that you intend to pass along to the FBI — we want a copy of that too."
Changsheng had suddenly started squirming around inside his pocket, prodding him that time was running short. The Wanderer knew he didn't have the luxury of preamble anymore, so he abandoned any pretense of small talk and laid out the entirety of Akai Shuichi's plan along with his own specific demands in one breath.
Before Rena could even begin to digest what she'd just heard, he pressed on with the threat. "I'd advise against playing the obedient servant while plotting behind our backs, or leaking information on the side. We know as much as we do about this situation — do you imagine we wouldn't also have ways of finding out what you get up to? Oh, and don't bother trying to hint anything to the FBI either. If we find out..."
The Wanderer let out a cold laugh. "Think about your little brother. If we truly decided to do something to him, you honestly believe that lot at the FBI could keep him safe?"
No. They couldn't.
The answer came instinctively, in the privacy of her own mind.
Her heart sank like a stone. The boy was right — right now, she truly had no room to refuse.
From what he had just laid bare, this group that had appeared out of nowhere clearly commanded no small amount of power. At the very least, they had people planted in both the Organization and the FBI, and people of considerable standing at that.
In truth, Rena had already formed a suspicion about which organization the boy belonged to — Teyvat.
Only that mysterious syndicate — one that had surfaced from nowhere, whose strength was unknown, whose known members were all exceptionally capable, and which had dared to cooperate with the Black Organization — had both the possibility and the power to pull all of this off.
Having settled on that conclusion, and faced with the boy's impatient, hurry-up expression, Mizunashi Rena nodded and agreed to his demands.
She genuinely could not gamble with her brother's safety. And if these people really belonged to the organization she suspected, then judging by how they had conducted themselves so far, the harm they posed to society probably wasn't on the same level as the Organization's.
Besides, they were only asking for intelligence — which meant which intelligence she actually passed along was something she could control, at least a little.
At this point, that was the only comfort Rena had left to cling to.
With his affirmative answer secured, the Wanderer had no intention of lingering. He turned and headed for the window.
"Wait." Rena reached out and stopped him. There was still one thing she couldn't puzzle out. "Just now — were you the only one in this room?"
"Of course not." The Wanderer gave her a look usually reserved for idiots. "Aren't you and that FBI agent people?"
"That's not what I meant. I heard your accomplice's voice earlier." Rena glanced around the hospital room. It really didn't look like anywhere a full-grown person could hide.
She had no choice but to look back at the Wanderer and try again. "Um... so where is this accomplice of yours now?"
"You misheard. I came here alone today." His face was perfectly placid. "What you heard was the sound coming out of my earpiece."
"......"
Rena was fairly certain this boy was treating her like a complete fool. Whether a voice had been spoken in the room or relayed through an earpiece — was he seriously suggesting she couldn't tell the difference?!
But judging from his demeanor, he clearly had no intention of explaining further. Though the whole exchange left her with a faint, crawling unease, Rena let the question drop.
"Oh, right — there's a listening device under your hospital bed. Probably planted by that little boy. I jammed the signal just now. Be careful after I leave — don't let the people on the other end of it overhear anything they shouldn't."
With those final words of warning, the Wanderer swung himself out through the open window, pulled the window shut behind him from the outside, and was gone.
Rena stared, dumbfounded, as he climbed out of the room's window — and then, standing on nothing at all outside the glass, calmly drew it closed before dropping out of sight.
She gazed at the view outside for a while. It was deep into the night, but by the lights below she could still confirm that her room was nowhere near the first floor. Which meant that boy had just been standing on thin air to close the window?
If circumstances had permitted it, she would have gotten out of bed and opened the window herself, just to check whether there was some hidden mechanism at work.
But the thought of the listening device made her abandon the idea. Besides, she didn't have the strength for it right now anyway.
Rena slowly lowered herself back into position, smoothing the bedding without making a sound, then closed her eyes and once again resumed her performance of the unconscious patient.
Before long, she heard footsteps approaching the room, followed by a few knocks on the door, and then it swung open.
By this point, the drug keeping the FBI agent stationed in the room had largely worn off. At the sound of the knocking, his groggy mind snapped instantly awake.
He turned, saw that it was Akai Shuichi coming in, heard him tell the man to go get some rest, and left with his mind at ease.
Walking down the corridor, he rubbed at his neck, baffled by how sore it was. From start to finish, he hadn't noticed that he'd dozed off at all.
What the man himself hadn't noticed, Akai Shuichi knew even less — that right under the FBI's nose, someone had just poached one of their own.
He walked to Rena's bedside and studied her for a moment, letting out a low, thoughtful hum. Something felt off, somehow — though on closer inspection, he couldn't find a single thing out of place.
Just as Akai began to wonder whether it was merely his imagination, there came another knock at the hospital room door, and a colleague's voice called from the hallway: "Emergency notice — there's a strategy meeting."
Akai answered, cast one last glance at Mizunashi Rena, and left, closing the door behind him.
Rena listened to the sound of his footsteps fading away, and then the hospital room fell quiet once more.
She understood — this was the FBI creating an opening for Eisuke. She found herself praying, silently, that Eisuke wouldn't show up.
But alas, the door to the hospital room opened anyway.
And then a familiar voice rang out...