Aii nodded hard, tears still sliding down her cheeks even as her smile widened.
Whatever he told her to do, she'd do it. No hesitation, no questions.
He'd given her back her eyes and the world that came with them, and her mother's face in it.
He'd pulled her out from under the people who hurt her, out of a life lived without daylight.
He'd given her warmth, and hope, and a reason to keep going.
She'd meant what she said. Nothing left to regret.
If he sent her out to fight Gastrea tomorrow, if he asked her to walk into something dangerous, she'd probably say yes to that too.
As long as she got to stay near the man who'd handed her a second life, she'd do anything.
Watching her, he found himself turning something over.
Since arriving in this world, his luck with small girls had been remarkable.
Enju Aihara came first, bright and loud and endlessly energetic, trailing after him like a tail and chattering the whole way.
Yesterday he'd picked one up off the roadside and brought her home. Today, another.
Two small shapes beside him now. One quiet and careful, one all noise and light. Something warm moved in his chest at the sight.
Then he thought about the rest of Tokyo, about the countless children out there just like these two, and the warmth went out of him.
What he'd done here, the handful he'd pulled out, amounted to nothing against that number. A cup of water thrown at a fire.
Others were still down there in the dark, living in wet drainage tunnels, huddling together through winter for heat, enduring insects and stench through summer. Grown men and women spat at them, beat them, drove them off like vermin. Leaving cover to find food could cost them their lives.
They wanted warmth. They wanted someone to care. They wanted a roof that kept the rain off. What they got was a scrabbling, half-starved existence.
He let out a breath, straightened up, pulled the phone from his pocket, and found Seitenshi's number.
It barely rang twice. Her voice came through bright, faster than usual, something eager underneath it.
"Mr. Gojo."
His own tone softened. He leaned back against the wall, gaze drifting toward the horizon. "Yesterday's business is settled. Both officers picked up additional charges: attempted murder, endangering a minor. They won't be a threat to any child again."
"Thank you. I'm in your debt."
Relief flooded the words. She'd been tracking the case the whole time, afraid those kids would get hurt twice.
"There's something else, though. A favor."
The warmth left his voice, replaced by something flat and immovable.
"Ask. If it's within my power, I'll do it."
She'd gone serious too. He didn't ask people for things lightly, and she knew it.
"It's like this..."
He gave her the whole account, start to finish, without embellishment. Meeting Aii. What had been done to her. The state of the Cursed Children in the 39th Area. The woman who'd answered that apartment door.
The line went quiet on her end. All the brightness drained out of it.
He could hear her breathing though, gone shallow and quick.
When she finally spoke, the weight in her voice came with steel underneath. "Mr. Gojo, would you come to the Holy Residence this afternoon? I'd like to discuss this in person. All of it. I want to work out what we can actually do for those children."
"Fine by me."
He agreed without a beat of hesitation.
He'd wanted this conversation anyway. Alone, he couldn't shift the situation; he needed her, and the machinery of a government behind her.
Going back to the apartment first would waste the afternoon, so he took Sumire, Betty and Aii and headed straight there.
Nobody objected. Nobody ever did.
Betty kept hold of the girl's hand the whole way, murmuring to her, pulling her attention onto small things so she wouldn't circle back to what had happened outside that building.
Sumire, meanwhile, couldn't sit still with it. Her expression had gone tight, arms crossed, fingertips drumming against her elbow.
"Listen."
She'd been chewing on it for a while before it came out, unease running through the words along with something close to complaint. "Am I supposed to believe walking into the Holy Residence like I own the place is going to end well?"
The thought of standing in front of government leadership again, in front of the people who'd once wanted her locked in a lab working for them, put a knot in her stomach.
She'd walked out of that research institute without a word and vanished. They'd burned enormous resources hunting her and never turned up a trace.
Now here she was, strolling in through the front door, straight into the line of sight of every official who'd ever wanted her back. If someone recognized her, the fallout wouldn't stop at a job offer.
Getting caught wouldn't just mean being put to work. She'd be labeled a defector, and there were consequences attached to that word.
"Relax."
He glanced sideways at her, a faint smile pulling at his mouth, entirely unbothered. "I told you already. You're my personal advisor. Your safety's on me."
"With me standing there, nobody touches you. That part isn't worth worrying about."
He said it lightly. The confidence underneath was absolute, the kind that suggested no problem existed he couldn't handle and nobody would dare test it.
The knot in her chest loosened a fraction. Not all the way. She rolled her eyes and muttered, "I've lost my mind, going along with this."
"But we had a deal. The moment that research facility exists, you let me actually research something."
The nerves evaporated at the word. Excitement replaced them, sharp and undisguised. Japan's leading scientist, the finest mind in the country, one of the Four Sages, and the work had always been the thing she loved past reason.
"Don't worry. You'll have plenty to play with."
He smiled and let it go, picking up his pace toward the Holy Residence.
The car pulled up below the building, and a reception was already waiting at the entrance.
Crisp uniforms, straight backs, serious faces. They moved forward the moment the vehicle stopped and stood aside, waiting.
He glanced up at the sky. Midday, sun high, light coming down through the leaves in scattered patches.
Rubbing his stomach, he turned to the others with amusement tugging at his mouth. "It's lunchtime. We might as well mooch a meal off them first, then go up and see Seitenshi."
Sumire rolled her eyes again. "Only you would waltz into the Holy Residence to cadge free food."
She didn't argue with the plan. The kitchens here cooked better than she did.
Betty had no objection either. Aii stared up at the building with her mouth slightly open, head turning every direction, curiosity fighting with nerves. She held Betty's hand tighter and stayed close.
The guards led them inside, into vaulted halls and immaculate finish work. The floors held reflections. Paintings hung along the walls, each of them worth a fortune, and something faintly floral scented the air.
Nobody here was surprised to see him. He'd come before, and the staff knew whose teacher he was.
The company he'd brought, though, drew every eye in the corridor.
Aii for the obvious reasons: filthy clothes, tangled hair, entirely out of place against all that polished stone. But Sumire drew more.
Japan's former chief scientist, its greatest mind, one of the Four Sages, and every senior official in the building knew her name.
She'd done work that mattered enormously and been treated accordingly. Then, for reasons nobody had ever established, she'd disappeared without notice. The state had spent years and a fortune looking and found nothing.
Most had concluded she'd left the country, or died. Not that she'd stroll back into the Holy Residence in broad daylight, walking a step behind Satoru Gojo.
Guards and staff stole glances at her, faces full of shock and confusion. Several drifted aside and reached for their phones.
The news traveled like it had wings. Within minutes it had spread through every senior office in the building.
He noticed none of it. He ambled toward the dining hall at an unhurried pace, blind to every stare, as though none of them existed.
After the meal he took the group up to the top floor, to Seitenshi's rooms.
The finish work up here matched the rest of the building but felt lived in. Books filled the shelves, small ornaments sat on the surfaces, and the windows ran floor to ceiling, opening onto all of Tokyo below.
She'd been waiting. The moment they came through the door she rose and crossed the room quickly, a careful, respectful smile on her face.
"Mr. Gojo. You came."
Nothing in her manner suggested she ruled a city. She stood there the way a student stands in front of a teacher, and meant it.
He nodded, then looked down at the girl beside him. "Could she get a bath? And a change of clothes."
Aii was filthy, and the smell came with her. She'd been shrinking into herself the whole walk over, ashamed of how she looked.
He'd been watching. A bath and clean clothes might let her stand up straight.
Seitenshi turned to look at her, already knowing the story from the phone call.
The worn-through clothes. Dust on her face, exhaustion under it. The way she held herself small. Something soft moved across that composed face, and beneath it, an ache.
"Of course."
Not a moment's hesitation, and her voice came out gentler than seemed possible. "I'll have it arranged now. Clean clothes and hot water."
She turned, called over a female guard, and gave quiet instructions to take the girl to her own bathroom.
The guard nodded, crossed to Aii, crouched down and smiled. "Come with me, sweetheart. Let's get you a hot bath and something clean to wear. How does that sound?"
Aii hesitated. She looked up at him first, uncertainty and dependence written across her face, waiting for permission.
He gave her a nod. "Go on. You'll feel a lot better once you're clean. We'll be right here."
That was all she needed.