Daniela drew her gun and aimed it at Reiji.
“Reiji, what’s going on? Don’t tell me you’re behind all of this?”
Amakusa Reiji, a major figure in the underworld, had appeared.
The situation had become even more dire than when Obsidian had appeared in an instant.
“Hm? Of course not. I’ve come to turn myself in to Agent Gru.”
Click!
Gru, who had approached at some point, fastened a pair of pink plastic toy handcuffs around Reiji’s wrists.
Everyone’s eyes turned toward the child.
Thinking they were all staring because she had done something incredible, Gru rubbed her nose proudly.
Daniela’s mouth fell open in shock.
Reiji had come to be arrested of his own accord? And he was wearing those toy-like handcuffs?
The Bureau employees watching were no less bewildered.
“Is, is that really Reiji?”
“Amakusa Reiji?”
Murmurs spread through the crowd.
If they had not just seen the Grim Reaper’s apparition appear, no one would have believed that man was Reiji.
Yet no matter how hard they tried to make sense of the situation, seeing Reiji captured by the pink handcuffs of a five-year-old girl was far beyond the bounds of common sense.
While everyone stood in confusion, Jin Siwon stepped forward.
He directed the employees to arrest Obsidian’s mercenaries.
Perhaps because of what had happened to their comrades at Reiji’s hands, the mercenaries were arrested without resistance.
“Well, now that’s a big catch.”
Several of the employees let out hollow laughs.
Obsidian and Reiji, too?
Meanwhile, Jin Siwon read Reiji his Miranda rights and escorted him to the temporary detention facility.
Reiji followed quietly behind Jin Siwon, as though the pink handcuffs really had sealed away his power.
Jurim sighed as he watched Reiji leave after giving Gru a playful wink.
The Bureau agents then arrested Obsidian and headed for the detention facility as well. Just as Jurim was following them with his eyes—
—……?
Pat pat pat.
Gru was following solemnly beside Jin Siwon.
When Reiji asked her if she had been well, Gru answered promptly, “Yeees.”
Jurim reached out and grabbed his fearless daughter by the scruff of her neck, lifting her off the ground.
—What do you think you’re doing!
“Eeeeeing—”
Gru flailed her arms and legs, begging to be put down.
—Why are you following them there?
“Gru caught him!”
—So?
“Gru’s taking Mister Reiji to jail.”
—Didn’t you see that scary skeleton earlier? That man made it! Are you supposed to follow him or not?
“Skeleton?”
—Yes, the scary skeleton you saw earlier!
Gru blinked.
A black curtain had suddenly descended, and a Grim Reaper carrying a massive scythe had appeared.
“Cool.”
Gru’s eyes sparkled as she added, “Totally the strongest.”
Honghong pressed a hand to her brow as though dizzy. Gru had only been expressing her honest opinion.
Gru stuck out her lips and grumbled.
“Honghong, you’re a spoilsport.”
She had to follow him and get praised for catching Mister Reiji.
Tch. Gru clicked her tongue, while Honghong took a moment to breathe in and out deeply before saying,
—If your father finds out you’re acting like this, are you going to get scolded or not?
Gru puffed out her cheeks in displeasure.
“Honghong doesn’t know anything! Daddy says Gru is the strongest!”
“Bbi?”
Mephisto stared at Gru in astonishment at such an outrageous lie.
—……!
Honghong was feeling exactly the same way.
Tremble, tremble.
Honghong’s shoulders began to shake.
Why, why was she acting like that? Gru shifted her eyes uneasily.
As though she could not bear it any longer, Honghong threw off her mascot head.
“Gasp!”
“Bbi?!”
When Jurim’s stiffly frozen face appeared, Gru covered her mouth with her tiny hands.
Why was Daddy here?!
Jurim asked like a volcano on the verge of erupting.
“Who said what about being praised?”
Eek! Sensing danger, Gru squirmed and latched onto Jurim’s neck. Then she hugged him tightly with her stubby arms.
It was almost an instinctive movement.
Had he seen everything?
From the moment she had played First-Grade Secret with Gru to the moment she had been using her fork?
Suddenly, her conversation with Honghong flashed through her mind.
The moment Honghong had told her to call Daddy whenever she was in danger, and she had jeered that it sounded boring!
No choice!
Clinging to Jurim’s seemingly furious neck, Gru rubbed her cheeks against him vigorously.
“Gru missed Daddy.”
“……”
“Gru was so scared……. I was shivering.”
“You said it was fun.”
“……”
“You said it was cool.”
Was that not enough?
Tch. Gru tilted her head with an innocent expression.
“D-Did Gru say that?”
“When we go home, I’m buying you a thinking chair. You can sit there quietly and think about this.”
“Eeng!”
Gru hated the thinking chair! She was sniffling and clinging to Jurim, trying to charm her way out of it, when Daniela hurried after Reiji and grabbed him by the shoulder, forcing him to stop.
“Reiji!”
“Hold on, Daniela.”
Despite Jin Siwon’s flustered attempt to stop her, Daniela rushed up to Reiji, seized him by the collar, and demanded,
“Reiji! Did you kill Chloe?”
Reiji looked at Daniela and asked in return,
“Chloe?”
“Yes, one of the researchers you killed and went around killing!”
“Ah……. So that’s why you’ve been looking for me.”
Reiji replied calmly, and Daniela snarled,
“Dr. Chloe Han! Did you kill her?”
The moment Daniela uttered the name ‘Chloe Han,’ Jurim, who was holding Gru, turned toward her.
Gru, nestled in his arms, looked up at Jurim, who was staring blankly at them.
“Daddy?”
Jurim stood as though frozen, blinking slowly.
Chloe.
Chloe.
Suddenly, On Ijo’s voice rang in his ears.
The last request On Ijo had left him with as he headed toward the hundredth floor.
“Jurim, please look after Chloe.”
Chloe.
A shiver ran all the way to his fingertips.
*
Reiji sat in an interrogation room with one mirrored wall, idly fiddling with the pink handcuffs.
He had refused to change them and insisted on keeping the pink ones until the very end.
As though reminding everyone that he had allowed himself to be caught by Gru.
Despite having turned himself in to a five-year-old child, Reiji seemed quite pleased as he asked Daniela, who was glaring at him,
[“When will I be allowed to use the phone?”]
[“Answer me first. What about Chloe?”]
[“Chloe……”]
Reiji tapped his fingers against the table. Then he clasped both hands together like a tower and raised the corners of his mouth in a faint smile.
[“I never laid a hand on Dr. Han. That wasn’t my commission.”]
[“Wasn’t your commission to kill every researcher involved in the On Ijo Project?”]
Reiji merely smiled in silence.
Daniela bit her lip.
Yes, whatever Reiji’s commission had been, there was no need for her to question him about it.
What mattered more was the story of her precious friend.
[“Tell me the truth. Please.”]
Daniela furrowed her brow in anguish.
Reiji studied her and asked,
[“Is there another reason you’re so desperate to find her?”]
As though his words had struck the heart of the matter, Daniela fell silent for a moment.
[“Chloe is like family to me……”]
[“That’s a boring story.”]
At his indifferent reply, Daniela continued,
[“……There were rumors that Chloe had a child.”]
[“Now this is getting interesting.”]
[“Then answer me. What about Chloe? What about her child? You didn’t kill her, did you?”]
[“That’s right. I swear. I never laid a hand on Chloe Han.”]
Reiji answered leisurely, and Daniela slammed both hands down on the desk.
[“Then are you saying Chloe simply disappeared?”]
[“Who knows? How would I know the whereabouts of someone who wasn’t even my target?”]
Concluding that she could get nothing more from Reiji, Daniela rose roughly and left the interrogation room.
[“Hmm……. I suppose the phone is out of the question?”]
At Reiji’s words, the door suddenly flew open with a bang. Daniela left again, setting her phone down behind her.
Reiji let out a low chuckle.
He examined Daniela’s phone from one angle and then another, before taking his own phone from his pocket, calling someone, and saying,
[“The last commission is complete. Alex Vaughn should be dead by now.”]
As he spoke, Reiji checked his watch.
He had sent the Grim Reaper after Alex Vaughn earlier. By now, he had probably been found as a corpse in the prison to which he had been transferred.
Just then, Daniela flung open the door with a rigid expression.
She had confirmed through the mirror that Reiji had not been calling with his own phone.
As Reiji watched her come back in, he whispered softly,
[“But I heard something even more interesting. I’ll tell you as a final service for the commission……”]
[“Reiji!”]
Daniela tried to snatch the phone from Reiji’s hand, but his phone had already vanished.
As Daniela stood there dumbfounded, Reiji handed her phone back to her.
[“That was useful.”]