Haru turned to walk away, eyes closed. He knew Matsamaru might never see him the same again.
"I'm the target, yes," he said calmly. "That's progress in the mission. What just happened… that's what an A-rank mission looks like."
He finally faced Matsamaru again, his expression shifting—more serious now, no longer detached.
"I might return to my old self and stop speaking to any of you… but one thing is certain—we won't survive this mission if we keep seeing them as just bandits."
He stepped closer, his voice steady and resolute.
"What I did back there was a message. Whoever I am to them… I'm not ready to give up."
He paused as he stopped before Matsamaru, who had finally calmed, though still shocked.
"I will complete this mission.I will"
Haru's thoughts echoed silently: That should snap him out of it. You're no use to me if you stay like this… what a drag.
Matsamaru stared down at the ground, embarrassed.
He whispered, "What's next? What do you think they'll do?"
Haru turned his back to him and looked ahead.
"They know who I am. They know I've realized I'm the target. They know I'm too curious to let this go."
He gripped the Kurugisama tightly and shut his eyes.
"They'll set a trap for me."
Matsamaru blinked in confusion. A trap? For someone like Haru?
"A… trap?" he asked.
Haru nodded.
"Yes. One that's obvious. Designed to lure me in with information. And I'll walk right into it."
Matsamaru's eyes widened with realization.
"C-cool…" he stammered. Then whispered to himself:
So that's how Iminaqo Haru thinks… Cool! That's why he picked me. I'm the closest one who can follow his thinking. If he wanted someone cold like him, he'd have chosen Akira… but no, he chose me. Because I understand…
Ishumo's got a lot of work to do to catch up to this guy…
It howled gently, brushing past the walls and blowing loose strands of rope tied to Haru's kurugisama. The kunai at the end of it scraped lightly against the ground, dragged by the wind. Nearby, the tattered robes of the defeated bandits fluttered like abandoned flags. The silence was heavy—dense with aftermath and uncertainty.
Haru turned to face Matsamaru. His expression was unreadable, that same distant calm lingering in his eyes.
"We don't need to hide anymore," Haru said quietly, his voice cutting through the silence. "This is a game of mind and brain. Only the smartest gets to live."
Matsamaru, still trembling slightly, tried to speak, his voice low and cracking.
"H-How... is walking... into the trap..."
He stopped, his voice breaking into a mutter as he looked down, doubt clouding his thoughts.
Haru closed his eyes, as if feeling the weight of Matsamaru's fear.
"A smart move?" he finished the sentence for him, voice steady.
Matsamaru's eyes widened—surprised not just by the completion of his thought, but by the confidence behind Haru's words.
The silence returned, but it was no longer empty. It now pulsed with decisions, tension, and the beginning of something far more dangerous than either of them could have predicted.
Haru began to speak, his voice low but certain—each word layered with a deeper vision of the game ahead.
"Matsamaru… the only real choice here begins the moment I walk directly into their trap. If I try to play it safe, they'll be forced to shift tactics—and that puts all of you at risk. You're not the targets, but your lives would become collateral."
He paused, eyes focused on something far beyond the scene before them—envisioning it like a shogi board.
"Walking into that trap gives me leverage. Information. Why I was chosen. Who sent them. And maybe... something more—something about myself that even I don't know yet."
Matsamaru listened in stunned silence, still digesting Haru's calm unraveling of the danger.
Then Haru added, his tone colder now, "But I don't need to know what they've prepared for me."
"Eh?" Matsamaru blurted, startled by the confidence in Haru's voice.
Haru didn't flinch. "Because they don't want to kill me."
His hair blowing softly.
Just then, unnoticed by either of them, the door of a building behind creaked open slowly… darkness spilling from within.
Haru opened his eyes.
His gaze locked with Matsamaru's, unblinking. The weight in the air pressed down harder, like the atmosphere itself was warning them.
Haru slowly dragged the kurugisama back toward himself, the metal whispering across the ground as he spoke:
"If they wanted me dead, there'd be no reason for traps. No bandits. We'd have been gone three days ago. This isn't about killing me—it's about taking me."
He paused, tension thick in his voice. Absolute silence Swallowing the Surrounding.
"My gut says… this has to do with my Honeki being sealed. Maybe they know something I don't. Maybe they need me alive—for a reason. Whatever it is, I'll find out... and survive. Survive until the others arrive."
Haru exhaled slowly.
"They won't waste time on you, Matsamaru. Even if they send someone to eliminate you… you're not their focus. Their..."
He stopped, his voice caught off by a sudden shift. Something he has completely ignored for some time now, Not even noticing the shift.
He turned to his right.
The door behind them—now wide open. A creeping blackness spilled out from it like a void awakened.
Matsamaru turned slowly, eyes wide. He didn't even remembered a door being there, He swung his eyes in search for his sword.
"Is that… the trap?".He said,eyes still searching for his sword.
Haru nodded once, his eyes closed now, face calm but unreadable. He tilted his head slightly, facing down.
"Matsamaru...". Haru called softly under his breath, his detached face fixed on the door ahead.
Matsamaru turned to him, alert and waiting.
"Whatever you do, Do not Enter through this door".
There was another silence, one that meant it's time to depart, time to Begin the actual mission, The time to Search for the truth about himself.