AUTHOR
Yamada Fujii held the silence for a moment longer, letting the stark truth of his assessment settle in the room. He was not just defecting; he was eulogizing an empire and praising its executioners.
"I saw it coming," he continued, his voice regaining its steady, pragmatic tone. "The over-leverage, the arrogance, the blind spots Shunsuke cultivated like prized orchids. I warned him. I told him the world had changed, that a new kind of predator had evolved, one that hunted with algorithms and data, not just brute force and family name." A faint, weary sigh escaped him. "He refused to listen. He called me a coward, clinging to the old gods while a new one was being crowned. And now… here we are."
His gaze, heavy with unspoken history, then settled squarely on Paige. This was the pivot, the moment the past was formally offered up to the future.
