"If this is a trap, it means my father knows I've been monitoring the Butcher. It means he's aware of exactly how much I've been watching. So what happens if this trap fails? If I never take the bait?
"He goes silent."
"Exactly. He goes completely dark. New routes. New methods. New faces. He rebuilds from scratch, and we lose every thread we've been waiting to pull. That alone makes this worth walking into. We can't afford to let him reset."
Hiroko nodded slowly but didn't look convinced.
"But here's the part my father didn't think I'd see." I leaned forward. "If this is a trap, he won't be there. The Fox never sits inside his own traps. He watches from a distance. That's his way.”
“Then, who will be there?”
"A new puppet. A new commander. Someone my father trusts enough to put inside the trap itself. Someonevitalto carrying out his instructions. Someone he can't afford to lose in this war, and if he can't afford to lose them. . ."
She raised her eyebrows.
"Then the trap has safe points. Built into the design. Escape routes. Protected positions. Places where this person can be shielded if things go wrong.”
Hiroko relaxed.
“That's my father's way. He sacrifices pawns, but he protects his generals." I sat back. "So we have two possibilities.”
“We find your father today and kill him or we walk into a trap with safe points.”
“Exactly. And we're not walking in to fight the trap, Hiroko. We're walking in to find the safe points. Because whoever is sitting in those safe points is the person my father needs most right now. And when we take them. . .we take his ability to operate."
Silence stretched between us.
She let out a long breath. “Okay. I’m understanding.”
"Good.” I looked at the Claws as they returned to readying themselves to kill. “My father thinks we're going to enter Yoshiwara the way anyone would. Through the front. Through the streets. Through the obvious routes. He's planned for that. He's built the trap around that assumption."
I looked at her. "But we're not going in that way."
Hiroko met my gaze. “We’re not.”
"He knows we don't know the tunnels beneath Yoshiwara. He's counting on that. He's certain of it." I held her stare. "But he doesn't know we have you."
Hiroko's expression shifted, and doubt left. "I know every tunnel. Every passage. Every door. I walked those tunnels for many years."
"I know."
"There are routes even the Fox has forgotten."
"I'm counting on it."
She looked out the window at the city approaching below us. When she looked back, her jaw was set. "Then let's go take him or his puppet."
I winked. “Exactly.”
Hiroko went quiet again and from my peripheral, I could see her looking at me with the same softness that reminded me of the way my mother used to look at me when I was younger. "I'm so proud of you, Kenji."
I blinked. "What?"
"I know your mom's not here anymore," Hiroko continued. "But I remember her. She was an exquisitely classy woman full of love and sweetness."
I didn't know what to say, so I just listened.
"She used to come to the red-light district," Hiroko gave me a sad smile. "Not for herself, but for us. She would bring doctors and nurses. Later, she set up free clinics. Did you know about the clinics she started?"
