Using a hidden ledger I spotted earlier (thank you, Akira’s silent hints), I negotiate a split that saves face for both sides. No blood. No police. Just profit.
When we return home, Hiroshi Kun is waiting. He doesn’t praise me. He simply sets a place for me at the head of the children’s side of the table. My step family -Ch.2- -Kun family-
Our relationship in Chapter 2 is a cold war. He leaves a envelope of cash on my pillow—my “allowance.” But tucked inside is a single bullet. “For emergencies,” he says. “Or for traitors.” He’s testing whether I flinch. I don’t. That’s when he starts to watch me instead of ignore me. The youngest sibling, Akira, is never at dinner. He’s 16, brilliant, and selectively mute after an “accident” two years ago that no one will explain. He communicates through a tablet, typing in clipped, predictive phrases. He’s the family’s hacker, its surveillance eye, its keeper of secrets. Using a hidden ledger I spotted earlier (thank