Zeto

Cold Yuichi leaves the witness apartment with Mika’s folded final message protected inside his jacket. Jaricho stays behind with the elderly witness, while steady rain darkens the street.

Near a shuttered storefront, a sharply dressed young adult man hangs upside down from a fire escape. His black suit remains immaculate, silver hair falls toward the pavement, and one pale eye watches Yuichi directly.

The stranger’s voice reaches him clearly through the rain, though no ordinary passerby reacts. He does not climb down or approach, remaining suspended above the empty sidewalk.

Rain taps against the storefront awning. The stranger reaches into his coat and produces a sealed black envelope, holding it between two fingers as the street waits.

Cold Yuichi reaches up and takes the sealed black envelope. The stranger releases it without resistance, but its sharp seal nicks Yuichi’s palm, drawing a thin line of blood.

The upside-down stranger studies the blood on Yuichi’s hand. Rain slides from his silver hair as his pale eye narrows, and distant footsteps echo beneath the awning.

The envelope grows damp at its edges in Yuichi’s grip, while the cut in his palm stings. Sable remains suspended, watching to see whether Yuichi trusts the warning.

Sable releases the fire escape and drops lightly onto both feet. His immaculate suit does not crease. He faces Yuichi beneath the awning as rain runs into the gutter.

The black envelope rests damply in Yuichi’s hand, its seal unbroken despite the blood at his palm. Sable watches him without reaching for it.

Cold Yuichi breaks the black seal beneath the awning. The envelope gives a sharp crack that echoes along the storefront, and the cut in his palm opens again, staining the paper’s edge.

Inside lies Mika’s folded letter, its pages dry despite the rain. Her steady handwriting names the Ashen Veil faction and Captain Oren Vale, the Blanko officer who ordered the search.

Mika writes that the faction feared Yuichi’s mixed blood would awaken powers beyond their control. They suppressed his access and marked him for removal after she hid him.

A second paragraph gives an address beneath an abandoned medical office and identifies Dr. Halen, the last practitioner who knows the restoration method. Mika warns that the process may permanently change him.

Rain blurs the final lines, but not Mika’s closing instruction: trust Jaricho with the truth, and never let the faction take Yuichi alive.

Sable studies Yuichi beneath the awning, then glances toward the rain-dark street. The black envelope remains open, but the address is no longer a demand.

He takes a clean handkerchief from his coat and offers it for Yuichi’s cut palm. The sealed letter stays with Yuichi, its warning preserved and its choice respected.

Across the street, headlights pass through the rain without slowing. Sable steps back from the awning, leaving the path home clear and the restoration untouched.