The silence in the room was heavy, broken only by the sound of Aiko's own breathing. She stared at Kaito, trying to reconcile the man who had risked his life for a teapot with the man who had just used a child as a threat.
"His daughter?" Aiko finally whispered, her voice laced with disbelief and a hint of horror. "Kaito, she's a child. She's innocent in all of this."
Kaito's face was hard, carved from stone. There was no remorse in his eyes. "And so are you," he replied, his voice dangerously quiet. "Takeda Kageyama made the mistake of targeting someone outside the game. He brought an innocent into his war. I am simply showing him that I am capable of doing the same. I am speaking the only language a man like him understands: fear for his own blood."
"But we're not supposed to be like them!" Aiko argued, stepping closer to him. "That's the whole point, isn't it? You told me your clan values loyalty, partnership... you don't threaten children, Kaito. That's their move, not yours."
She was challenging him, holding him to the higher standard he himself had set. For a moment, a flash of raw anger crossed his face, but it was quickly replaced by a deep, ancient pain. He looked away from her, towards the dark city skyline.
"When I was ten years old," he said, his voice a low, rough murmur that seemed to be pulled from a deep, dark well, "a rival clan, the Yamaguchi, tried to force my father's hand. They sent him a message. A threat against my mother."
He paused, and Aiko held her breath. "My father was an honorable man. He followed the old codes. He refused to be intimidated. He retaliated through official channels, challenging their honor, calling a council. He did everything the 'right' way."
He turned back to face her, and the look in his eyes was so full of grief and fury that it made her ache.
"While he was busy being honorable," Kaito said, his voice breaking with a rage that was decades old, "they kidnapped my mother. We never saw her again. My father's honor cost him his wife. It cost me my mother."
He took a step closer, his gaze burning into hers. "I learned a lesson that day that my father never did. There is no honor in fighting monsters. There are no rules. When someone threatens my family, I will not challenge them to a duel. I will not call a council. I will find what they love most in this world, and I will put a knife to its throat. I will make them feel the same terror they tried to visit upon me. I will not lose what is mine. Not again."
The confession, the raw pain of the little boy who had lost his mother, hung in the air between them. Aiko finally understood. This wasn't just a Yakuza tactic. This was a deeply personal, trauma-forged conviction. It was the armor he had built around his heart.
She reached out and laid her hand on his arm. The muscle beneath his shirt was tense, coiled like a spring. "I don't like it," she whispered honestly. "But... I understand."
The tension in his shoulders seemed to ease just a fraction. He looked down at her hand on his arm, then back to her face. The moment was broken by the sharp, demanding ring of his personal phone.
He glanced at the screen. A grim, predatory smile touched his lips. "Takeda Kageyama," he said. He answered and put the call on speaker.
A man's voice, shaking with a mixture of pure rage and undiluted fear, screamed from the phone. "Ishikawa... you son of a bitch! If you touch her, I'll kill you! I swear to God, I'll kill you!"
Kaito waited patiently for the shouting to stop. When it did, he spoke, his voice the calm at the center of a hurricane.
"You have one hour," he said simply. "Deliver my man, Ryo, unharmed, to the steps of the Senso-ji Temple. Then you will deliver yourself and a list of every clan member involved in your trafficking ring to my estate. That is the only way your daughter will sleep safely in her bed tonight."
"You're insane!" Takeda screamed.
"You have fifty-nine minutes," Kaito replied, and hung up.