Creating a Scandal, Part 2

May 7, 2026

“It’s official,” Ruka said to Yoshiro and Hana as the trio all met up during lunch and she showed them an email on her phone. “Sakamoto Ken has resigned as Agency President following the revelation that he cheated on his wife multiple times. He sent a video message along with the email.”

“And with, among others, Furukawa Ai’s mom to boot,” Yoshiro replied. “Holy shit, this is bad.”

“He also apparently banged at least two magical huntresses, although at least they were both eighteen and older,” Ruka also explained. “Still, that’s a major breach of ethics within the Agency.”

Hana asked her, already knowing the answer, “How old were they?”

“One graduated high school last year, and he apparently started having sex with her about a month after she turned eighteen but before she graduated, and the other is twenty-one, so they’re both still pretty young compared to him.”

Yoshiro remarked, “And he’s been doing this for at least two years given the texts to Furukawa Ai’s mom. His career is done.”

“Hang on. Let me play the video he sent out real quick.” Ruka then pulled up the video and pressed play while Hana and Yoshiro watched intently.

In the video, Ken Sakamoto, an older man in his fifties, was sitting at a desk in his office. He began by first standing up and bowing towards the camera before sitting back down and beginning a speech announcing his resignation. “Good afternoon. To all of those who work for the Protection and Research Agency, and all of those who hunt for it, I have come here today with some very unfortunate news. I let you down as your Agency President, and I did not tell you the truth about several things for the past two years. First, I want to make it very clear that any decision I’ve made in my capacity as Agency President was a decision I made because I truly believed it would benefit those working under me as well as my country. Second, there have been a lot of reports about personal problems within my family, and I would like to state that those matters are private, and I will be dealing with them privately.”

Hana thought to himself, “He’s actually admitting to all of it instead of denying anything. That’s unusual.”

“In regards to a contract we made with a certain electronics company last year for new computers and radios, I will tell you now that I did not personally accept any bribes or any other form of monetary compensation for that contract. However, several people I appointed to positions under me did accept bribes, and as the Agency President, the buck stops with me. If I had known of this, I would not have signed this contract. All four of the people involved have been fired as my last act as Agency President, and I have instructed my successor to cooperate with any potential criminal investigations that may come about, if any were to occur. Now, in regards to a different matter, that being a contract with a catering company owned by a family friend for events at Agency Headquarters, I must admit that I did accept some monetary compensation for that contract. I thought I was helping a friend, but I instead broke your trust, and I am sorry.”

Ruka commented as he finished this part of the speech, “And here comes the affairs…”

“Finally, I will admit that there have been problems in my marriage for several years now, and I made decisions that, with the benefit of hindsight, only hurt those around me and, again, violated the trust that all magical huntresses and magical huntsmen put in me, not just the trust that all other administrative employees of the Agency put in me. Let me be clear now that I did not, under any circumstances at any time, force or coerce anyone to have sex with me, offer anyone sex in exchange for benefits such as, but not limited to, jobs within the Agency, secretly record and/or distribute my sexual activities with anyone in any form, or have sex with anyone below the age of consent. This previous statement, of course, means that I have not been entirely faithful in my marriage for the past two years. The issues between me and my wife are issues that I will deal with privately as they should be. However, I cannot dedicate the time to do this while remaining Agency President. Therefore, effective today, I have resigned from my position. The Agency needs someone who can dedicate themselves to lead it, and unfortunately, I can no longer do that. Thank you for your understanding and your support for the past seven years as Agency President. Under my leadership, we were able to weather the COVID-19 pandemic, improve our effectiveness in battle, and increase our numbers to ensure better coverage across Japan, and words cannot express how proud I am of those who made it possible. I wish my tenure would have ended under better circumstances, but alas, it was not meant to be. Thank you, and have a wonderful day.”

Once the video ended, Yoshiro commented, “He was more honest about it than I thought he would be. He straight-up admitted to cheating on his wife and taking a bribe.”

Hana asked Ruka, “Does the email say who will become the next Agency President?”

“I think it does…” Ruka then scrolled down to the bottom of the email and found her answer. “Aha! Here it is! The next Agency President will be Yamanaka Hiroto.”

“So Tomoyo-san’s father,” Hana replied. “Not surprising at all. He’s been itching to have that spot for a while.”

“Hopefully,” Yoshiro replied to Ruka. “He won’t fall victim to what did in Sakamoto-sama.”

Kyosuke then walked over to where they were sitting, making a beeline right for Yoshiro as Ruka quickly put her phone away. “Yoshiro-kun, you’re not gonna believe what’s been going on with my uncle’s family!”

Faking surprise, Yoshiro asked him, “What’s up, man?”

“My aunt’s been fucking some guy employed by the government, and now that guy’s wife is super pissed off at my family!”

“Woah, no way!” Yoshiro thought to himself, “So far, so good. Being a magical huntsman means you have to be at least somewhat decent at lying to people who aren’t in the know about it.”

…

May 8, 2026

Ruka and Hana were battling a Class Four magical beast together in an alleyway after school. The beast, which bore resemblance to a panda but had four eyes and two mouths, growled at them, the dead body of a feral cat it had killed and partially eaten lying behind it. “Pretty odd to see a panda eating an animal,” Hana remarked as she readied her sword against the beast. “Although this is no panda.”

“You got that right,” Ruka replied as she raced in and went for a strike, swinging her sword down but missing when the beast pushed her sword out of the way, causing a small cut on its right forepaw. In response, Ruka turned around and managed to cut off the paw completely, causing the beast to scream in pain before it lunged at her, trying to bite her left arm.

Ruka quickly dodged the bite as Hana ran up and slashed across the beast’s neck, delivering a fatal blow and a quick end to the battle. The beast screamed as blood poured from the wound and into the gravel below before slumping over. With this, the beast was dead. Hana told Ruka, “It almost got you.”

“Whatever,” she replied with a chuckle. “I was fine anyway.”

Hana then sheathed her sword and turned to the half-eaten corpse of the cat, her expression turning to one of sadness. “It’s too bad we couldn’t save the cat in time.”

“Yeah,” Ruka nodded as she sheathed her sword. “It always sucks when these monsters kill animals in our world. At least we’ve avenged it.”

Then, they both heard two people run up to the scene, with one of them yelling, “Aw man, don’t tell us we’re too late!”

Ruka turned to the duo and recognized them both to be the twins she had met before. “Huh? You two again?”

Kana and Kazu both immediately stopped upon seeing that Ruka and Hana were the ones who had stolen their kill, with Kazu being rather intimidated by them as he stammered out, “Oh, uh…”

Kana meanwhile asked Ruka, “Did you kill it?”

“We killed it,” Hana clarified. “Who are you two?”

Kazu told her with a stutter, “No- None of yo-“

“Were Ozawa Kana and Ozawa Kazu,” Kana then interrupted her. “We met that other girl before. What was your name again?”

“Kishio Ruka,” Ruka replied with a bow. “And this is my friend, Miyashita Hana, leader of the Fox Knights.” Hana also bowed to the two of them, giving them a warm smile to show she meant no harm.

“He- Hello…” Kana awkwardly waved at Hana, having never met her before and being a bit nervous. “Nice to me- Meet you.”

“No need to be nervous,” Hana assured her with a pat on the shoulder as she walked over, causing Kana to blush slightly. “You two seem pretty young. How old are you guys?”

“Eleven…”

“Eleven years old? Wow. I was ten years old when I began doing this, too. I’m sixteen now, and so is Ruka-san.”

“Woah…” Kana, as Sayaka had been in the past, was taken aback by Hana’s presence and her charm. She thought to herself as she continued to stare at her, “Hana-oneechan looks so pretty… So does Ruka-oneechan…”

Ruka, amused, thought to herself, “There she goes again, wowing people with her looks.”

“Come on,” Kazu then told his twin sister as he grabbed her by the shoulder, pulling her away slightly from Hana. “We should go home before our parents thro-“ He then stopped himself from finishing his sentence. “Before, uh… Before we’re too late for dinner.”

“But I-“

“Come on, Kana.”

Dejected, Kana replied as she walked away with her brother, “Okay, oniichan.” She turned her head to see Ruka and Hana one last time, waving to them and saying, “Bye-bye!”

As the young twins walked away, Hana asked Ruka with a hint of confusion in her voice, “What was that about? Her brother seemed to drag her away.”

“Yeah,” Ruka replied in agreement, also confused and concerned. “And he cut himself off when he began talking about their parents… Hana, I don’t like where this is going.”

“I’d try not to get too involved. This could be a misunderstanding.”

“It could, but… I don’t feel entirely comfortable leaving it at that. For now, though…” Ruka then pulled out her cellphone to begin documenting the kill. “I’ll have to wait and see if I run into them again.” As she took photos of the dead magical beast and the surrounding alleyway, she sighed and whispered to herself, “I hope they’re alright…”

…

Later that night, Ruka was having dinner with Daisuke and his family, talking about the events of the day for both of them. “It was an interesting day at the office,” Daisuke said to her after finishing a glass of water. “Everything is pretty much on fire right now, proverbially of course. President Sakamoto’s resignation threw everything into chaos.”

“I can only imagine,” Ruka replied. “Speaking of the Agency, this is gonna be an odd request, but do you have any information you can give me on a magical huntress and a magical huntsman?”

Curious, he asked her, “What kind of information, Ruka?”

“It’s about a pair of twins. Ozawa Kana and Ozawa Kazu. I’ve run into them twice in battles, and something just seems off about them.”

Daisuke’s wife asked her, “How so?”

“I don’t know how to describe it,” Ruka sighed as she struggled to find the word to properly explain why she was so nervous about the twins. “It’s like… It’s something about how they act, specifically the male twin, Kazu.”

Daisuke asked her, “How old are they?”

“Eleven.”

“That’s pretty young, but… Well, we do have rules about privacy within the Agency. I can’t just give out personal info about magical huntresses to anyone. I’ll also need something more specific about your concerns.”

“Maybe they have a bad home life?”

“Ruka,” Daisuke told her. “You’d be surprised how many of you guys have bad home lives. The two of us are far from unique. That alone isn’t enough to take action.”

“Point taken. Most teenagers that sign up for this tend to not be ones with stable home lives.” Ruka sighed and went back to eating her dinner, thinking to herself, “He’s right. There isn’t much any of us can do based on what limited information we have about the twins. Even so, if I ever run into them, especially if I run into Kana by herself… I’m gonna ask her what’s going on. I can’t rest until I figure this out.”

…

May 10, 2026

Ruka was awoken early in the morning when she heard a banging at her door. She quickly jumped out of bed and put her transformation ring on before running to the front door of her apartment, saying to whoever was knocking as she adjusted her pajamas to make sure she did not accidentally flash the visitor, “Hang on! I just got up!”

When she opened the door, she was greeted by a man in a business suit that she had never seen before. “Hello. Is this the residence of Kishio Ruka?”

Something about the man and his appearance both confused and concerned Ruka. “Uh… Yes?”

“I’ve been told to give you something.” The man in the business suit then showed her a briefcase. “It’s in here. I’m from the Agency.”

“This seems sketchy as fuck,” Ruka thought to herself as she looked him over. “I’ve never seen this guy before in my life. Is he really an Agency employee?” She demanded from him, “Show me your identification. If you’re really with the Agency, you should have it on you.”

The man tried to get away with not showing it by saying to her with a shrug, “I left my wallet in the car.”

“Then go back and get it,” she insisted. “I’m sorry if I’m being difficult, but I don’t want to let just anyone into my apartment. If you show me it, I’ll let you in, no questions asked.”

Tomoyo then wandered out of her bedroom, having been awoken by the conversation. “Kishio-san,” she said with a yawn as she stretched her arms and then rubbed her eyes. “Who’s at the door?”

Upon seeing her, the man tried to push past Ruka as he opened his briefcase, revealing a gun. Ruka yelled out in panic, “Fuck! Get down!” She then rapidly transformed, blinding the man just as he was about to grab his gun from the briefcase, and as soon as she was done, she unsheathed her sword and slashed the man across the chest, cutting through his suit and splattering his blood on the wall and the floor.

The man yelled as he pulled out his gun and aimed it at Ruka, “You fucking bitch!”

Before he could fire, Ruka cut his right hand off, which caused the gun to fire into the ceiling and miss both her and Tomoyo as the man screamed in pain and blood poured from the stump. When the man then lunged at her with his uninjured hand, Ruka kicked him and used her free hand to grab his gun and shoot him twice in the chest and head, killing him and splattering his blood on the wall behind him. With the attacker dead, Ruka took a deep breath to calm herself down. “Hah… I… He’s dead…”

Tomoyo was crying out of fear and cowering behind a counter in the kitchen. “Is… Is he gone?!”

A man then shouted from down the hallway, “What the fuck?!”

Ruka ran out and saw another man in a suit draw a gun, aiming it right at her. Ruka took cover and fired four rounds at him before her gun jammed. “Damn it!” The second man meanwhile fired twelve rounds in the direction of Ruka before he ran out of bullets, the sounds of gunfire reverberating off of the walls of the apartment building and temporarily deafening both of them. He then attempted to load another magazine into his pistol, prompting her to run out and ambush him with her sword before he could finish reloading. He sliced into his abdomen as he punched her in the nose, knocking her back a bit and causing her to bleed profusely down her face before she swung down and cut deep into his right shoulder and chest, delivering a fatal blow.

Tomoyo ran out, concerned about Ruka and fearing she got hurt. “Kishio-san, are you okay?!”

Ruka was standing over the man, having sheathed her bloody sword and wiping the red liquid off of her face, both from getting her nose broken and from killing the second man. “Get me some towels. This bastard punched me hard in the nose.” She turned around and saw that Tomoyo looked terrified, both of what had almost happened to her and what Ruka was capable of. Wanting to assure her everything was fine, she switched to her more polite tone of voice and smiled. “I am fine, Yamanaka-san. It is my job to protect you, after all. I knew one day I would have to do this.”

…

At an Agency Hospital, Ruka was sitting in a hospital bed, having come in as a precaution and so she could get interviewed in regards to what happened. As she sat in a hospital bed, she checked her phone and texted back several people who were concerned for her after hearing what had happened. She also watched a daytime variety show on the TV in the room, commenting as the host was interviewing a voice actor for an anime she watched, “Wow, she looks really pretty in real life. Almost as pretty as Minako-chan.”

Then, Yoshiro walked in, having come to visit her. “Hey there.”

“Yoshiro,” she replied as she turned the TV down. “I’m surprised you’re the first to visit me out of everyone in the Fox Knights.”

“Hana-senpai is tied up with family stuff,” he explained. “Murata-san is coming down with Miyamura-san later. How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” she assured him. “That bastard got me in the nose, but it’s not broken, thankfully. I thought for sure it was with how much I was bleeding.”

Surprised she was taking it so well and seemed to not at all be worried, he asked her, “That’s not the first time you’ve killed a person, right?”

“No,” she shook her head. “I’ve killed people before. Truthfully, when you think about it, even the magical beasts we’re killing are living things, too. We’re in the business of death, Yoshiro. If it bothers you a lot, you shouldn’t be a magical huntress.”

“No arguing with that.” Changing the topic, Yoshiro then asked her, “How is Yamanaka-san doing? The attack was targeted against her, wasn’t it?”

“It was. She wasn’t hurt, but she’s still pretty shaken up by it. Who wouldn’t be when two armed men tried to kill you?”

“Now they gotta figure out who sent them.”

“Sakamoto Ken-san might be behind it,” Ruka then let loose, catching herself too late from revealing something that was supposed to be a secret. “Ah shit, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Huh?”

Realizing she could not take back what she said, she sighed and told Yoshiro, “Tell nobody else this. I wasn’t supposed to let loose what I said at all.”

“You really think the former president is behind the attack?”

“Like I said, don’t tell anyone else this, but there’s proof he might have contacted someone in the Yakuza to do a hit on her. It might be a rival of Kawase Hideo.”

Yoshiro, recalling what Hideo had done to Hana several years prior, replied with revulsion, “Even hearing that pedophile’s name makes me sick.”

“I know,” she replied with a sigh. “I can’t believe that somehow I ended up on the same side as someone like him, but the Agency might go after the Yakuza opposed to him. It’ll benefit him in the short-term, but it’s better than Yamanaka-san getting successfully kidnapped or killed.”

“If I had the chance, I’d beat the shit out of him for what he made Hana-senpai do.”

“I’d describe what I’d do to him, but it would probably make you sick. Besides, I think it’s best if we let Hana kill him if the time comes. She’s the one most directly affected by this.”

“Do you really think she’d do that? She seemed adamant about sleeping with him, even if it traumatized her. I know her pretty well.”

“And so do I,” Ruka pointed out.

Yoshiro argued back, “But you haven’t known her for as long as I have.”

“I’m not saying I have, Yoshiro. I’m just saying that as a girl, I can relate to her in that way. I think she’d be willing to kill hi-“

“That doesn’t matter,” he interrupted her. “I’ve known her since we were in elementary school. You’ve only known her since we were in middle school. I don’t think she wants to. I’ll be the one who does it when the time comes.”

“Didn’t you just say if the time comes and not when the time comes?”

“Whatever,” he dismissed her. “We shouldn’t argue about this anyway. This isn’t the place or the time, Ruka.”

“Agreed.”

Curious about why she felt so strongly about what had happened, Yoshiro asked her, “Why are you so concerned about this anyway?”

“Don’t I have the right to be? I’m Hana’s friend, too. Right now, the two of us are the only ones who know what she did with Kawase, and she would like it to stay that way.”

“Yeah, I guess, but is it personal with you?”

“No,” she flatly denied, lying to him about her past. “I’m just a person with common decency.” She thought to herself as Yoshiro sighed and remained silent, “Like Hell am I telling him about what happened to me all those years ago. Only Hana knows, and that’s because it happened to her thanks to Kawase.”

Accepting her answer, Yoshiro sighed and sat down in a chair next to the bed, noticing the fact she had on a hospital gown and not her magical huntress outfit. “Did you change out of your outfit?”

“I changed back into my pajamas, but they got covered in blood when I did,” she explained before side-eyeing him, thinking he had ulterior motives by asking her such a question about her clothes. “What? Are you curious as to what I’m wearing underneath, Yoshiro?”

Blushing in response, he replied to her as he turned away, “N- No!”

“It’s nothing but underwear on the bottom,” she replied. “I had to shower when I came in, and all of my clothes from before had to get tossed. They gave me underwear, but no bra unfortunatel-“ Ruka stopped herself when she realized just how much she had told Yoshiro. “Shit,” she thought to herself. “I gave him way too much information, didn’t I? Why didn’t I stop myself earlier?” After a few seconds of awkward silence between the two, she turned a bit away from him and wrapped an arm around her chest, telling him, “Sorry, I said too much.”

“No, no, no, it’s fine,” he assured her. “I, uh… I’ve seen Hana-senpai without clothes before, actually…”

Confused, she turned back towards him and replied, “Wait, hold up, what?!”

“It was, um… It was the day she met with Kawase at the hot springs…”

Fearing the worst, Ruka reached over and grabbed him by his shirt sleeve, pulling him in and demanding from him, “What did you do with her?! Why did you see her like that?!”

“Nothing! Let go of me!” When Yoshiro backed away, he explained with a somewhat angry tone, “I found her showering by herself, okay?! That’s when she told me what she did with Kawase! I wasn’t trying to spy on her or rape her! Calm the fuck down, Kishio!”

Growing silent in response to Yoshiro, she backed off and thought to herself, “Rape her… What was I thinking? Did I really let my own past get the best of me? He wouldn’t do that…” Feeling guilty for implying that he had done something bad to Hana, she apologized with, “I’m sorry… It’s just that after what happened with Kawase, I’m a bit cautious. I shouldn’t have assumed you would do that.” Seeing that Yoshiro did not reply to her apology even after over ten seconds had passed, she sighed and told him, “Look, Yoshiro, I actually really appreciate you coming down to visit me.”

Surprised, he replied, “Really?”

“Yeah. It means a lot that you took time out of your weekend to do this. It may not seem like it since we bicker a lot, but I do genuinely think of you as my friend.”

Then, Daisuke and Kumiko both walked in together, with the former asking Ruka as soon as they came in, “Ruka, how are you doing?”

“I’m fine, Uncle Daisuke,” she replied to him. “Me and Yoshiro were just talking a bit about what happened.”

“Thank God. When I heard about what happened, I got out of the office as fast as I could. I was in a meeting to go over Yamanaka-san’s ascension to Agency President.”

“I still can’t believe they sent guys with guns after you and Yamanaka-san’s daughter,” Kumiko then added. “They’re pretty hard to get in Japan.”

“Unless you know the right people,” Ruka pointed out. “If you ask me, whoever sent these assassins has ties to the Yakuza. They’re one of the few groups in our country that has illegal access to firearms.”

Kumiko then noticed that Yoshiro was in the room as well. “Oh, hey there, Arikawa-kun. I’m surprised you came to visit her first.”

“It was just a matter of me getting here first,” he replied with a slight blush. “I wasn’t here too long before you guys.”

…

A few hours later, Hana was meeting with Ruka at her apartment, which had been cleaned up by the Agency. As the two sat down at a table, the former asked her, “Is Yamanaka-san with her father?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “She’ll be staying with him for the rest of the weekend. It makes sense given what happened. I was told to consider either moving in with another magical huntress or having another move in with me, but how the Hell would I do either of those things?”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” Hana assured her with a smile.

“Maybe I will.” Ruka then sighed and stretched her arms and back. “Man, I’m glad to finally be wearing proper clothes after spending hours in that hospital gown. It sucks I had to toss those pajamas I wore.”

“Were they covered in the assassin’s blood?”

“It had both of their blood on it, actually. I really should have taken my magical huntress outfit off and showered before de-transforming. I guess I was too focused on making sure Yamanaka-san was alright.”

Hana then pulled out her phone and showed her a screenshot of what appeared to be an email. “Not to change the subject so rapidly, but there’s a reason why I was delayed in visiting you. The girl mentioned here is a new threat we’ll have to face, and given Yoshiro-kun is in our ranks, it’s only a matter of time before she comes to us.”

Ruka looked at the email, which also contained a few pictures of a girl that was about their age, and began to silently read over its contents. As she did, she began to understand the gravity of the situation.

CONFIDENTIAL EMAIL

CLEARANCE LEVEL: TOP SECRET

Miyashita Kaito,

The Protection and Research Agency has identified a magical huntress on the Rogues List as being active in your area. Information about the rogue is below.

Name: Tsuda Mari

Age: 17

Badge Number: Yokosuka 24462

Age at recruitment: 12

Placed on Rogues List: 2025 September 25

Rogue Level: Red (effective 2026 May 9)

Reason for inclusion: Murder of other magical huntresses/huntsmen, murder of father, falsification of Agency documents, forgery of Agency documents

Weapons used: Unknown, last used a steel pike, may have access to firearms

Special information: Tsuda Mari is misandrist and will attack any magical huntsman with zero provocation. She has also been known to attack magical huntresses who try to defend magical huntsmen they are friends with or romantic partners of. She is believed to be transient and engaged in various crimes to make money, and has been known to steal money from the Agency bank accounts of magical huntresses/huntsmen she kills.

On May 3, a magical huntsman named Eguchi Kenichiro (Yokosuka 90373) was found dead from what appears to be a stab wound from a pike plus several gunshots to the head and chest. Upon examination of his Agency bank account, it was found that the entire account had been withdrawn on May 2, with all of the funds redirected to an account made under a fake name. Within a few days, it became clear that Tsuda Mari was behind Eguchi’s death, and following the murder of an older man not related to the Agency on May 5, the Agency was informed by the National Police Agency and the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Department that evidence tied Tsuda to this crime as well. Thus, Acting Agency President Yamanaka Hiroto made the decision to upgrade Tsuda’s Rogue Level to Red effective on May 9.

Given Tsuda’s status as a Red-level Rogue, she is to be killed on sight by any magical huntresses or huntsmen that come across her. This information will be disseminated to magical huntresses and huntsmen in the Yokosuka area over the next few days.

“I bet my uncle got this email too,” Ruka pointed out. “How did you get this?”

Hana explained, “My father had it open on his computer. I screenshotted it and downloaded the pictures to my phone. The Agency probably won’t tell us for at least a few days if not a full week, and I want to get ahead of them before this girl goes after us. All the chaos surrounding President Sakamoto’s resignation has caused delays in payments to us, messages getting sent, and so on. My father has been working nonstop ever since the 7th to get things running properly again.”

“I see. My uncle’s also been working a lot. I guess no one was prepared for President Sakamoto’s resignation.” She then affirmed to Hana, “If I come across Tsuda, I’ll put an end to this. Have you told anyone else in the group yet?”

“Not yet,” Hana shook her head. “You’re the first person I’ve told.”

“Not even Yoshiro?”

“He’ll be next. My concern is that Tsuda might be too much even for him.”

“And not for me?”

“You have more time under your belt than he does. Also, you’re not a boy, so you could lure her into a false sense of security.”

Ruka realized what Hana was getting at. “I see now. You want me to pretend to be sympathetic to her or something. That way, I could catch her off-guard and kill her.”

“Correct. It’s the safest option we have.”