Asai Clinic — second floor.
After going upstairs, Asai Narumi couldn't hide her impatience and blurted, "Um… how did you meet my father?"
Shiraishi Rei dropped onto the sofa and answered without hesitation, "We met abroad. He was a fine pianist."
He'd already prepared his line before coming and added, "Our work was different, but that doesn't stop mutual respect."
Narumi opened her mouth to ask more, but Shiraishi Rei cut her off impatiently. "Don't ask so many questions. Answer me — are you coming or not?"
"If it weren't for all you've gone through for revenge… and the fact you even had gender-affirming surgery… I wouldn't even be here asking. I'd have handled it myself." Narumi's voice carried a mixture of bitterness and stubborn pride.
She fell silent for a moment, then asked, "So what's your plan?"
"Easy—find them, then kill them." Shiraishi Rei said it as he reached behind him and slammed an AK-12 automatic rifle down on the table.
Narumi jumped back; she'd never expected him to be hiding an automatic rifle. Akemi, who'd come along, was just as surprised — they had walked together and she hadn't noticed a thing. Where had that been hidden?
"Come on, we're talking about taking out drug traffickers — why plan so much?" Shiraishi Rei grinned. "You just take them out."
…That line convinced Narumi she wasn't being tried or toyed with. This was a real outlaw, not someone bluffing.
She hesitated, then said slowly, "Actually… I already have a revenge plan. Once next week's memorial for the former village head is held, I can put it into motion — I'll take them all out."
As she spoke the last part her voice softened with plea; she wanted him not to interfere, to let her finish her revenge herself.
Shiraishi Rei snapped, irritated, "You think I just came here for simple revenge? I want to kill them, sure — but I want the money, too."
That line — so blunt, so crass — oddly made Narumi trust him more. People don't travel this far just for honor. If he was after both blood and cash, that explained a lot. She realized inviting her along probably meant he planned to use her skills.
She felt a stab of resentment. She'd spent years preparing for this revenge, even undergoing surgery to become female to see it through. And now this stranger arrives and makes a mockery of all those years — as if it were nothing.
But if she refused, she might lose the chance to take out the people who had ruined her life.
"What do you want me to do?" Narumi inhaled, clenched her fist, and finally said, "I can't use a gun…"
"Come with me, then." Shiraishi Rei didn't waste words. He picked up the AK-12 from the table and led the way downstairs.
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Shiraishi Rei guided the two of them silently toward the Kuroiwa estate.
"Are you planning to barge in?" Narumi asked, eyes fixed on the rifle.
"That'd be reckless." Shiraishi Rei frowned. "Bursting in would make so much noise they'd run. Too risky."
Akemi wanted to mock that — it wasn't the sort of line she expected from someone with his reputation — but she kept it to herself for the sake of face.
"So what do we do?" Narumi whispered.
"Wait here." Shiraishi Rei slipped into the nearby brush. When he reemerged, both his hands held C4 charges.
Narumi and Akemi both stumbled back two steps, stunned. They had not expected him to be carrying something that dangerous.
Shiraishi Rei outlined his plan simply: "I'll hit the stash where they keep the drugs. People will go to help them."
He continued, calm and precise: "I'll bury the C4 along the driveway of the Kuroiwa estate. The moment you see a vehicle leaving, detonate it and send them flying."
"They'll be too terrified to come out, and then I'll come back and clean up the rest."
Narumi's eyes widened. Start with C4? No wonder the police called him a ruthless criminal — the nickname fit.
She hesitated. "Isn't this plan a bit… crude? Maybe we should think it over?"
"If you've got explosives in hand, why overthink? Do it." Shiraishi Rei didn't see a drug gang as worth careful planning. He had enough firepower and ammo; if this didn't finish them, what would?
"But…" Narumi pressed, "what if there are too many cars? What if we can't take them all out?"
"Who said we only had one?" Shiraishi Rei pulled aside a clump of grass to reveal a wooden crate with hazardous-material stickers on it.
He said confidently, "Thirty charges in here. They're not getting away."
Akemi and Narumi instinctively took a couple more steps back, swallowed hard in the dark.
"Narumi, come help me bury the C4." Shiraishi Rei tossed a block toward Narumi.
She flinched and snatched it up in panic. "Wait—don't throw things at me! If I drop it we're all finished!"
"Yeah, yeah! Be careful, Shiraishi-san!" Even easygoing Akemi found herself scolding him.
Shiraishi Rei laughed at their fear. "You folks should learn a bit. C4 is stable. Burning it or shooting it won't make it go off. Only a detonator or other explosive will set it off."
"You can throw it on the ground — it won't explode. Don't believe me? I'll show you."
He reached as if to slam one down as demonstration, and both girls went pale.
Akemi grabbed his arm, urgent. "We believe you! Don't! Focus — we need to get this done."
After half an hour of hard work the two of them had buried the crate — thirty charges spread along the approaches to the estate.
"This is the detonator." Shiraishi Rei handed a remote-looking device to Narumi and showed her how to use it.
"If you can't remember which block is where, you can just blow them all at once," he added.
"I'm studying medicine — my memory's good. I'll remember where each one is," Narumi said, cradling the detonator carefully.
Shiraishi Rei thought a moment and gave her a night-vision monocle to make sure she could see. Considering Narumi's male-built body, he also left the AK-12 with her and handed over ten extra magazines for self-defense.
After repeating his warnings not to chicken out, he took Akemi and went off toward the traffickers' lair.
Narumi stared at the detonator in her hand, then at the AK-12. Her emotions were tangled.
If she'd had this kind of firepower back then, she wouldn't have needed to change her body. She wouldn't have had to suffer and hold herself back all these years. She could have gone to the island and taken them out right away.
Now, finally, she would get revenge.
Her hands trembled around the rifle — not from cold, but from the thrill of the moment.
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