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Scene: "Strategic Hostility and the Case of the Missing Trainee"
(Continuation)
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Location: BC Sol Conference Room
Time: 9:30 AM – "The meeting that tested everyone's blood pressure"
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Valt, trying to act like a functional captain again, sat at the oval conference table surrounded by BC Sol's analysts and senior bladers. Beside him—uninvited but unavoidable—sat Shu, perfectly calm, eyes half-lidded in that way that somehow radiated dangerous focus.
Valt whispered, "You don't need to sit through the meeting."
Shu leaned closer. "I do if half the people in this room can't look at you without blushing."
Valt sighed. "You're being paranoid."
Across the table, one of the young analysts attempted to greet Valt with a smile.
Shu's gaze flicked up—cool, razor-sharp, the kind of look that could vaporize lesser men.
The analyst immediately found the ceiling fascinating.
Valt pressed his face into his notes as shu whispers in his ear while caressing valt's waist. "Paranoid, huh?"
Valt blushes furiously glaring at shu. "SHU KURENAI--"
Shu cuts valt off with a wink. "Focus on the meeting baby."
Valt: 💢💢💢😳
---
The meeting began. BC Sol's coach outlined strategies for the upcoming world exhibition: team rotations, match seeding, publicity schedules.
Every time someone leaned too far into Valt's personal space to show a chart, Shu's arm somehow slid around the back of Valt's chair.
Every time someone said "Valt, maybe you and I could—"
Shu: "No."
It wasn't loud. It wasn't rude.
It was just final.
Free, lounging at the end of the table, raised an eyebrow. "Man, you're efficient. You could run security."
"I am," Shu said evenly. "Personal security."
The room went quiet again.
---
After the Meeting
Everyone filed out in a hurry—everyone except a new trainee named Leo. Young, bright, and evidently suicidal.
He lingered by the door, pretending to check his launcher, waiting until Shu was distracted talking to Free.
Then he cleared his throat nervously. "Uh—Captain Valt? I was wondering if maybe… after practice, you'd wanna grab a coffee? You know—talk blading, strategy, maybe—"
He didn't finish the sentence.
Because Shu turned. Slowly.
Expression blank.
Eyes deadly calm.
The kind of look that promised paperwork, not witnesses.
Leo froze. "O-on second thought, you probably have a… schedule. Busy. Totally understand!"
Valt sighed. "Shu—"
"I didn't say anything," Shu replied mildly, though his smile did not reach his eyes.
---
Later That Day
BC Sol rumor mill, 2:00 PM:
> "Did you hear about that new trainee?"
"Leo? Yeah, he asked the captain out for coffee."
"And now?"
"No one's seen him since breakfast."
"You think Shu—?"
"Don't finish that sentence unless you want to join him."
Valt, overhearing as he passed the hallway, pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Shu, what did you do?"
Shu looked up from his tablet, completely unbothered. "He's alive. I just reassigned him to the satellite training branch in Valencia."
"Valencia's three hours away!"
Shu shrugged. "Safer distance."
Valt groaned. "You're unbelievable."
Shu finally looked up, smile softening. "But you're smiling."
Valt realized—he was. Just a little. "Yeah. Against my will."
Shu reached out, fingers brushing his. "Good. Keep it that way."
---
To be continued…
(Next: BC Sol's exhibition match begins. Shu joins the commentary desk "to support his boyfriend," and the broadcast quickly becomes fifty percent blading strategy, fifty percent possessive flirting heard by the entire world.)