--Friday, June 12, 2172
[Immediately.]
At her master's command, the beautiful fairy answered in a serious voice while her wings shone in different colors. But to the surprise of the master–assistant pair, the sniper suddenly began to come apart along with his weapon—turning into a puddle of water in a matter of milliseconds, which quickly evaporated, taking away any proof of his existence.
"Son of a—" Kai could only curse with a grim expression as he extended his Observation Haki in all directions, searching for more attackers.
"Kai, let's go!" Yumiko, visibly alarmed, looked at Kai and shouted. Kai looked around for a few moments, then headed to the back of the camera-less alley with the two moms.
…
"Who was it?" Upon returning to the house with Accompany, Keiko let her voice slip out between teeth clenched tight with rage. Kai, with an equally dark expression, replied in a cold voice.
"I don't know, but the restaurant was chosen at random, no one knew where we were going to be, no one followed us, and I can assure you they didn't use nearby electronic devices to track us—much less Quirks—or our defenses would've activated."
"Did the driver sell us out?" Yumiko asked, glancing back. Kai replied in a serious voice.
"It's possible, but unlikely. I didn't detect anything off about him at any time, and in ten years he's never had a problem. I'll check him, though."
"If it's not the driver, there's only one reference point to know our location."
Keiko commented with an incredibly dark expression as she turned to look at Yumiko. Understanding Keiko's insinuation, Yumiko's eyes widened with a hint of incredulity that quickly turned into almost murderous anger as she whispered through clenched teeth.
"Haruto… damned rat…"
"I don't think that son of a bitch is that capable. I didn't notice the sniper until the last moment, though he's undoubtedly involved." Kai commented in an incredibly cold tone, then looked at Keiko.
"Let's get to work."
"Let's. I won't leave a single stone unturned." Keiko nodded, her eyes unbelievably cold. Yumiko quickly added in a similar voice.
"I'll make some calls."
The trio quickly split up, with Keiko and Kai running to the workshop, while Yumiko went into the house and started making calls. Inside the workshop, Keiko kicked off her heels into a corner and sat at a table across from Kai. There, using the supercomputer terminals, they started typing at a blistering pace, while Sage—who had become visible—was surrounded by hundreds of holographic screens.
…
"Did he know we'd be there? How? Did he see the future?"
After a while, Keiko couldn't help but murmur in visible disbelief. After all, by gathering all the videos from security cameras and different mobile devices in the area, they managed to build a perfect timeline of the man's movements. The man entered the building from which he attacked them exactly 40 minutes before they arrived. In other words, he seemed to know where they would be even before they did.
"Any use of direct clairvoyance should automatically trigger [Secrets Keeper]…" Kai commented with a dark expression as he turned to look at Sage. It was the first time he'd run into something like this—his abilities had never failed.
"I think I know how they did it, master."
Sage spoke in a serious tone as she presented Kai and Keiko with a holographic screen showing a map of the area with different markers and a probability factor on each, along with a video. In the video, a man dressed exactly like the one who attacked Kai could be seen entering a different building, but at the same time.
"This is a map of nearby restaurants and the likelihood you'd pick them based on distance and Keiko and Yumiko's preferences. My hypothesis is that someone overheard that you were going out to eat, so they quickly identified the nearby restaurants and sent assassins to the most likely ones—and there was indeed another assassin at the second most likely."
"That makes sense." Kai commented thoughtfully. "They reported in using a satellite phone after we left, and they never watched us directly with Quirks, so the [Secrets Keeper] didn't activate… The question is, why didn't they? Do they know about our defenses?"
"Also, they didn't send 'another' assassin—it's exactly the same man. Probably with a replication Quirk." Keiko commented seriously while scrutinizing the video and, in parallel, infiltrating other likely locations to confirm the hypothesis.
"Wait, the same one?"
Kai stopped his train of thought and looked at the video again, realizing it wasn't that he was dressed the same—he was exactly the same man. With a thoughtful expression, Kai quickly ordered.
"Let's check the other positions."
Before long, Sage, Keiko, and Kai presented their findings: six videos in which exactly the same man entered, at the same time, buildings with a direct view of the most likely restaurants and the nearby alleys. Kai couldn't help but murmur, visibly surprised.
"Is it really a replication Quirk? Then why didn't the weapon's shot make a sound? Was that not a Quirk—or… multiple Quirks? Was it the Quirk thief?"
"It's not just about the Quirks." Keiko replied, incredibly serious. "If Sage is right and they made the decision the moment we decided to go eat, then in under 30 minutes they secured six viable firing points. They got to the locations even before we decided where to go, so whoever did it isn't just anyone."
"That doesn't look like the Quirk thief's modus operandi." Sage commented seriously, to which Kai nodded, then ordered.
"Sage, check all the cameras in the building where we met with Haruto and what he did after he left."
Sage's wings began to shine rapidly in different colors, and after a few seconds she replied in an angry voice.
"There are several glitches in the video files, master, and according to Haruto's phone, he went straight home."
"I'm going to call the lawyers." Keiko said darkly, then picked up her phone and made a call.
Meanwhile, Kai and Sage focused on investigating the driver's movements and everything that happened throughout the day, trying to find anything else. After a few minutes, Keiko set her phone aside and explained in a serious voice.
"I'm told there was emergency maintenance scheduled this morning for the surveillance system due to errors that have been occurring for two days."
"Looks like I have to go see that rat Haruto personally."
Kai spoke with visible irritation. Keiko could only let out a heavy sigh. Although they were never in real danger, being attacked like that wasn't something she was willing to let slide—especially because they attacked her Kai. Attacking her directly might even have been forgettable, but she would never let anyone get away with touching her reverse scale.
"Sage, keep a close eye on the family. Even though they attacked me, it's better to be careful." Kai ordered seriously. Then he turned to the pensive Keiko and asked.
"Keiko, has your [Secrets Keeper] ever activated?"
Hearing the question, Keiko came out of her thoughts and shook her head, then stood and walked over to Kai, speaking in a thoughtful voice.
"… Not that I remember."
"I see…" Kai nodded pensively, then looked at Sage and ordered.
"Sage, ask the others if their Secrets Keeper has activated at any point."
"Immediately."
Sage nodded and quickly sent text messages to every family member. At that moment, Keiko dropped into Kai's lap and took the hand with which he had intercepted the bullet, then asked with concern.
"Does it hurt?"
"Not at all. Though, interestingly, it was an anti-tank round, so they probably assumed my defenses are similar to my father's [Iron Fortress]."
Kai shook his head and explained in a calm tone. An angry look crossed Keiko's face for a few seconds, but she quickly breathed and focused on inspecting Kai's hand for any wound. At that moment, Sage reported in a serious tone.
"Master, only Chatora and Momo report that their swords activated. Momo's was during the sports festival, and Chatora's was a few days ago."
"What happened in Chatora's case?" Kai quickly asked, serious. Sage explained while showing a report of Chatora capturing a villain near the mountain where they operated.
"It was during the capture of a pervert in a camping area. The sword activated, but he assumed it was due to the villain's Quirk, since it allowed him to spy on women at the site."
"Where is the pervert now?" Kai asked, his gaze full of suspicion. Sage answered after a few seconds, in a serious tone.
"… He was released this morning since he had no prior record."
"Find everything you can about him."
Kai ordered as he began to reflect, and Sage quickly nodded and got to work. For her part, after confirming Kai was perfectly fine, Keiko kissed his hand and spoke in a soft voice.
"I'm going to leverage my connections to see if I can uncover anything. For now, let's meet up with Yumiko and see if she found something."
Kai, still pensive, nodded and walked with Keiko to the house, where they found Yumiko on the phone. Keiko arrived with Kai in front of the couch where Yumiko was sitting and took a seat, then asked as Yumiko set her phone aside.
"Did you discover anything?"
"Just one thing: the office and home of the private investigator who uncovered Haruto's cheating suffered fires. Although there were no casualties, all his records were lost."
Yumiko answered with a cold, dangerous expression, clearly harboring murderous thoughts against her now ex-husband. Kai and Keiko looked at each other with equally cold expressions, practically confirming there was something up with the man.
"Although I doubt it was directly him—I doubt he has the capability—he's undoubtedly involved with the attack." Keiko commented in a cold voice, to which Yumiko nodded with a heavy expression, then looked at Kai and spoke with a voice full of guilt.
"I'm sorry, Kai. Because of me…"
Seeing Yumiko's expression, Kai quickly stood up and came to her side, then hugged her gently and spoke in a firm tone loaded with sincerity.
"You don't have to apologize. It's not your fault, and even if it were, your problems are my problems. Or would you leave me aside if I caused some trouble?"
"Never!" Yumiko answered loudly, almost offended that anyone would doubt her, which made Kai chuckle softly.
"The feeling is mutual, so you don't have to feel guilty or anything like that."
"But I can't help it… Because of me that trash entered your life…"
Yumiko lowered her head a little and hugged Kai tightly, visibly dejected. At that moment, Keiko couldn't help but smile with mischief and cunning, then she hurried over to Yumiko and Kai and whispered near their ears like a sexy devil tempting innocent souls.
"You can always let Kai take revenge and work it off with you… I bet Haruto would vomit liters of blood if he found out his beautiful ex-wife fell into the hands of the boy he hates so much…"
Hearing Keiko's voice, Yumiko couldn't help but look up at her in disbelief. Keiko only showed a "wicked" smile, then took one of Kai's hands and brought it to her ample chest, speaking in an incredibly seductive, almost hypnotic voice.
"We could even take 'revenge' in a big way, have a threesome, and record a video to show him. I'm sure his expression would be very fun to see…"
Even Kai couldn't help looking at Keiko in disbelief, hardly believing how "Machiavellian" the beautiful black-haired mother was. At that moment, Yumiko, with a slight blush on her cheeks, quickly scolded her firmly.
"Keiko, those 'jokes' are too much."
"It's not a joke." Keiko replied with a playful smile as she slowly began to lift her dress, revealing she wasn't wearing underwear.
Seeing the incredulous expressions on Kai and Yumiko's faces, Keiko laughed like a little devil who had achieved her goal. She had already noticed Kai's reluctance to take another step with her—but, fortunately, she had realized that more than a lack of will or desire, what held Kai back were Momo's feelings, which had a simple solution.
She just needed Kai to understand that Momo wouldn't get hurt if they took one more step in their relationship, and the best way to achieve that was with a "reference case."
She, who had known Nejire since she was a child, knew how curious and mischievous she could be, and she hadn't missed the subtle hints Nejire had made to Yumiko, nor the looks Yumiko herself gave Kai.
Nejire was trying to bring Yumiko and Kai together sexually, and that was an opportunity fallen from the sky for her. Since she would have to share Kai with the others anyway, she might as well go all in and bring Yumiko into the mix too.
That way Kai would realize that a mother and daughter sharing love wasn't impossible, and, if everything went well, her secret fantasies could finally come true with the man she loved.
***
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