Memories of That Day (2)
I got complacent.
Noah was not the type to regret things. She made a point of never creating a situation she would have to regret in the first place. Every choice shifted too much. That was why she always tried to pick the best one.
But now she asked herself: had this been the best choice?
"Why didn't you stop her?"
"...Because she went herself. Should I have... tried to talk her out of it?"
The room was clean, just as Yuria had left it. There was no sign of a struggle. And beyond that, Suzuki did not lie.
I shouldn't have gone to Dad.
She had been born the daughter of a yakuza. Guards had followed her since she was small, and every little problem had been handled for her. It was nothing like her past life, when she had had to look after her own meals and her own life. Maybe that was why she only now understood how much she had come to lean on the people around her.
Why didn't I try to solve this myself?
Noah turned the thought over as she walked, her steps unhurried. She picked up a firearm laid out neatly and slung the strap over her shoulder. With the gun seated diagonally across her body, she asked Suzuki a question.
"Any other orders?"
"...Lady Kako told me to stop the young boss from leaving with a gun."
"You gonna stop me?"
"...Yes."
Suzuki stared at the floor, fingering the hilt of his wakizashi.
"Gonna cut down your own master?"
"N-no."
His voice was timid.
"I just... don't want to die either."
There's something else going on.
She hadn't thought it was serious. A simple marriage problem. Chise had only gone to sort it out herself for a little while. But a strange instinct prickled at her — the feeling that if she sat still, she would end up regretting it. So Noah decided to move.
"Out of the way."
"I'm sorry."
Suzuki showed no sign of moving. He was her direct subordinate, but it was thanks to Kako that he had been chosen as Noah's bodyguard. The Minamoto family's yakuza were strict about hierarchy to begin with. Even if you served someone, you followed the word of the person above them to the letter — whether you liked it or not.
"What are you sorry for? Just move."
"I can't."
Noah pulled the gun off and tossed it onto the bed. She asked him with a cold look.
"That do it? She told you to stop me from leaving the room with a gun."
"..."
"I'm just paying a formal visit to the Fujiwara Clan Estate. Move."
Suzuki stepped aside and bowed politely at the waist.
"I'll have a car waiting."
The Fujiwara Clan Estate. Security was tighter than usual. Several black cars pulled into the grounds, and a chauffeur in white gloves opened the rear door. Chise stepped out, her face expressionless.
"Young miss. This way, please."
"Yes."
At the entrance of the mansion stood an old man, aged but with eyes still very much alive. It was Sejo Ian.
"It's good to see you, Uncle."
Chise greeted him. Ian waved a hand vaguely and started walking.
"Follow me."
Chise fell in behind him.
Can I do this?
The air of the estate was already choking her. Noah had always been at her side. Being apart like this was something she hadn't done in a very long time.
...I have to pull this off.
Chise clenched her teeth. There was only one reason she had come to this estate alone. To stand proudly at Noah's side. To be recognized.
Chise had always been doubted within the family — whether she was truly fit to be the Fujiwara heir. The Sejo house's current bid for power had sprung from that same crack: a flaw in her own capability. The Minamoto protected the Fujiwara. But beyond that, the Fujiwara's role was not to become a nuisance. No matter what excuse she offered, she had failed to play a proper Fujiwara's part.
Chise had come here to settle everything herself before Noah grew tired of it. This estate was a nightmare with not a single ally in it — but if she could not even overcome this, she had no right to stand beside Noah.
"I didn't think you'd come on your own two feet. And leaving the Minamoto behind — your only lifeline."
"This is Fujiwara business. I came to handle it myself."
"You?"
Ian looked at Chise and let out a scoff of disbelief.
"Did you truly believe that would be possible?"
To Chise it sounded like: without the Minamoto, you are nothing. And that was accurate.
"The only reason you hold that position is luck. This generation's Minamoto is far too indifferent — she just happened to pick you the first time she saw you."
Ian stopped walking and opened the door beside him.
"And yet... I can hardly believe it. You came to settle this alone? If you'd just hidden away in the Minamoto estate, you might have had a sliver of hope."
Chise spoke with a calm face.
"So you thought that was an option."
"...What?"
Chise looked into the room.
"You seemed to think you were the one with a choice."
Several large men in suits stood inside with their hands behind their backs. Chise showed no surprise at the sight.
"One warning, Uncle."
She looked Ian straight in the eye and nothing else.
Ian's brow twitched. Then one corner of his mouth lifted.
"A defeated wretch who walked in here because she was afraid to die — and she talks a good game. I'll give you this much credit: coming alone was the better choice. Thanks to that, your fate just changed from execution to imprisonment."
Ian jerked his chin at the guards. They approached Chise, reaching for her arms. She held her head high.
"I'll go in myself."
The door creaked shut. Looking at the closed door, Ian spoke to the man beside him.
"Extract every scrap of information you can on the Minamoto. If she won't talk, you're free to rough her up a little."
"Yes, sir."
"And the Chairman?"
"...Given the complete lack of movement, it appears he intends to look the other way."
Ian slipped a hand into his pocket. Everything was flowing in his favor. He especially hadn't expected Chise to come to this estate alone. That meant there was no longer any need to overreach. He had meant to kill Chise, but the Minamoto might have become a variable. Now she was neatly in his grasp.
"Stupid bitch."
Ian sneered and took out his phone.
"Tell Sakura to get ready."
"Hahaha, to what do I owe the honor? If you'd sent word ahead, I would have prepared something."
Ian laughed heartily and offered his right hand. Noah gave it a perfunctory shake and looked around.
Reinforcements. More than usual. Obvious as hell.
Security at the Fujiwara house was always tight. Today it felt excessive. Professional troops who looked like special forces veterans. Helicopters that seemed ready to scramble at a moment's notice. It had all the look of someone preparing for an intrusion.
"Where's Chise?"
Noah went straight to the point. Hearing that from someone young enough to be his granddaughter, Ian's expression hardened.
"...Well, wouldn't the young miss know that better than I?"
He answered while doing his best not to show it.
"Aren't the two of you always together?"
"I heard Chise came here."
Ian furrowed his brow as if he had no idea.
"Is that so? First I've heard of it. She hasn't been here."
"That right?"
"...Yes."
Noah stared at Ian. The stink of a lie was overwhelming.
Noah disliked Ian. There wasn't any particular reason. She knew he was two-faced, but as a rule she didn't much care as long as someone treated her well. This was more of an instinct. Talking to Ian always left a filthy taste in her mouth. It did now, too. He was being perfectly courteous, and she hated every second of it.
"Hahaha, more importantly, do come in. I'll have tea prepared."
She wasn't naive enough to believe Chise wasn't here just because he said so. Noah nodded and followed where he led.
She visited the Fujiwara Clan Estate often, but since they had recently moved to the dorms, the furniture arrangement had changed.
"Lot of paintings I don't recognize."
"It felt a bit lonely, so I hung a few."
This estate in Minato Ward was not the Fujiwara main house. Once you became the heir, you were meant to live here, close to the Minamoto. Which meant Chise was the one who managed this place. And Chise didn't care for things like these paintings. She was modest by nature and despised luxury.
...So he just walked in and remodeled the place without asking.
She'd been gone a short while and he'd done this without the owner's permission. Ian's already rock-bottom likability dropped another notch.
"Take them down."
Noah warned him. Packed into that single take them down was: get out, you freeloader occupying this estate without being its owner. She just wasn't good with words, so it came out that way.
"Hahaha, that's a bit of a problem. The Minato Ward estate is too fine a place to leave empty."
Ian stopped walking and spoke to Noah. There was a faintly lecturing tone.
"Isn't it only natural that things change with a new occupant's tastes? Not everyone shares the same preferences. Some people dislike paintings, and some people..."
"It's the same."
Noah grabbed one of the paintings and dropped it on the floor.
"Nobody wants to die, do they?"
"..."
When people get extremely angry, they often go cold instead. Ian was no different. The Minamoto. He had known they weren't ordinary, but he hadn't imagined she would go this far. His facial muscles twitched as he came to a stop before a massive door.
First I need to do something about that attitude.
Beyond this door, troops obtained through cooperation with the Tachibana were waiting. A psychological device to show that the game had completely shifted to his side — and a device to tilt the coming "negotiation" in his favor. Ian smiled in triumph and opened the door.
In that instant—
Tadadadadang!
A dizzying burst of gunfire cracked from behind him. By the time he had blinked a few times, special forces men lay there with their heads blown open, never even having had time to scream.
Ian slowly turned his head. There was a gun in Noah's hand. White smoke drifted from it, as if to prove she had just fired.
"Th-that's impossible."
She'd been carrying a gun? And in that short a time she had killed more than ten people? More than anything—
...There wasn't a shred of hesitation in killing them.
Noah cracked Ian across the back of the head.
Whack—!
"Guh!"
"You point guns at a guest?"
This time a kick came flying. It buried itself cleanly in his gut, and Ian crumpled, clutching his stomach. Noah drove her heel into the back of his skull. She controlled the force carefully, considering he was an old man.
Ian spoke in a dying voice.
"S-spare me."
"You've got to be kidding me. You hire mercs to kill people and then you want your own life spared?"
Thoroughly worked up, Noah grabbed Ian by the hair and dragged him along the floor.
"I-I wasn't going to kill anyone! I swear!"
"Hah? Might as well say you drank but you didn't drive, you maggot."
"If you kill me!"
Ian shrieked as if in a fit.
"Fujiwara Chise will die! I mean it! I anticipated this and set something up in advance!"
That was a bad move. Noah dumped Ian on the floor like garbage and put the gun to the back of his head. The cold muzzle made him flinch and throw both hands up.
"Pick. Right or left."
"W-what?"
"I'm taking your kids' and your parents' eyes. And what food do you like? You know army stew? You want your mama as army stew, or your kid's brains boiled? Clean your plate and as a prize I'll mince what's left of your family and toss it in a pigpen."
Minamoto Noah. There was a reason she had never sat through a single lesson on how to be an heir.
She was already a perfect yakuza.