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Saito unlocks the door of Boss’s house after getting there from the directions in Boss’s memory.
It’s all from memory—over and over, going through the motions. That’s how he lives now, not by his own choice, but by following footsteps until he finally reaches where he needs to go.
It’s the way he smiled at Ota while in Iris’s body, avoided the bile in his throat at being his father, and now Boss. Before that, it was months upon months of Shoko, and Renju was a bridge towards the rest of Date’s life. It was easy, it was simple.
All to lead to the closest person to Date, the one who kept protecting him.
Boss is so different from him that she rests uncomfortably on his soul. She cares too much, and Saito explores the intricacies of her head without reserve—if he’s going to pretend to be her, he needs to understand her. He dives into her memories, begins to understand the sick way she cared for Date.
He also knows that she has a secret—one she never wanted Date to know.
In Boss’s house, there’s a room that has a smaller bed than Boss’s, and a girl who sleeps there. In Boss’s memories, she’s small and quiet some times, especially when Boss first adopted her, and sharp at other times. She’s a good match for ABIS—or, at least, Boss thought as much.
Mizuki Kuranushi, who has the same name, hair, and eyes as Mizuki Okiura, should be home.
The room is quiet as Saito slips off Boss’s shoes, making an appropriate amount of noise. He goes to the kitchen, turning on the light, and is about to start looking for something to eat—even though he doesn’t care about his current body, he still needs to do that much—when he sees movement in the corner of his eye.
His eyes flicker to it. It’s Mizuki, as expected, leaning against the doorway.
Her eyes are grey, and one of them looks unfocused while the other is sharp. Her hair is pulled into braids, strands flying out at the edges. She’s messy at home, Saito gathers from the small remnants of Boss’s memories at the edge of his vision.
Mizuki is a bother, but Boss cared about her. It makes it harder, since Boss isn’t coming home to somewhere Saito can relax and plan—but it’s nothing he can’t deal with.
“Hey,” he says, leaning back against the counter. He doesn’t know how much Mizuki knows about Boss’s job yet, but he’s willing to know she at least knows the basics—as a future Psyncer, she’d have to eventually, especially living so close to the commander of ABIS.
Mizuki looks at him with a measured gaze, like she’s seeing through him in some way, looking for Boss’s vulnerable spots. “Is everything okay, Mama?”
Saito smiles bitterly, shaking his head with a sigh, the same way Boss would have done. He knows he can’t be perfect this whole time, but he will try. Mizuki knows Boss well—maybe better than anyone else, considering Boss’s lack of other family, and Date’s amnesia. If she notices something is wrong, he’ll have to take care of her.
A wrench in his plans—a life he’s not supposed to take advantage of, because Date has no idea she even exists.
If he did kill her, how would he protect himself from suspicion? How would Saito get closer to Date then? Boss is already as close as he can get. His tongue runs over his teeth—he’s so close he can taste it.
Just a little more. He just needs to get through Mizuki.
“This case just keeps getting more complicated,” he says grimly. “Five people are already dead. But don’t worry,” Saito smiles, stretching concern over Boss’s face. “We’ll catch them before more victims are found.”
Mizuki looks worried, which is annoying. Saito doesn’t think Boss knows her well enough to predict well enough how she’d react to this—that, or those memories weren’t transferred.
“You need to catch them,” she says, and Saito thinks he can see her shaking, her clenched fists trembling like she’s on the edge of an outburst. For the moment, though, she’s quiet, a child full of emotions Saito will never understand.
Mizuki Kuranushi is so far from him or his goals that he would rather leave her for dead.
In a way, that’s their fate—for Saito to leave children without parents, for Mizuki Okiura to suffer again and again. Saito isn’t unaware of what he’s doing—same with killing his father, or Boss, and leaving Mizuki and himself stranded without parents.
The difference is that he could care less that his father is dead and gone. He deserved everything he got.
Unable to smirk or sneer at the way his bubbling hatred boils inside him, he keeps his face cool as Mizuki looks at him, one eye unseeing. If Boss were still alive, she’d be on the track to become a Psyncer, to remove that eye and become one who looks through dreams. Without Boss, that dream is dead in the water.
Saito knows a lot about her and Boss—how Boss took her in for work rather than family. But Saito has taken her mother nonetheless—he doesn’t care. An 18 year old can survive in this world without one.
Saito doesn’t understand Mizuki, so he just nods. “I will.”
Mizuki looks away. This pressure means nothing to Saito, so he waits, turning away himself and grabbing some snack from the counter that Boss liked. It tastes sour in Saito’s mouth.
“Mama,” she says after a moment. “Is Mizuki going to be okay?”
Mizuki?
Saito doesn’t know why she’d ask that. It obviously isn’t about herself—she hasn’t been referring to herself in the third person so far, but Saito doesn’t know anything about her knowing the other Mizuki, the only one she could ask about when two of the victims are Mizuki Okiura’s parents.
He doesn’t remember. Boss’s remaining memories give him nothing. She’s taking more and more from him—first his body with Date inside, now a way out.
Saito will just have to grin and bear it. Like an animal, teeth bared, Saito will struggle out of this situation, going until he either gets what he wants, or dies. There is nothing else Saito can do in this room, in the middle of a journey he doesn’t know the ending of.
He gives a soft smile. A motherly smile, unnatural on his lips and Boss’s—an awkward comfort. “We’ll protect her. She won’t get killed.”
Mizuki lets out a soft breath. He doesn’t know if she believes him or not, but it hardly matters.
Saito wonders how it would feel to watch this girl have her hope of Mizuki Okiura living crumble. He wonders how Date would react—Saito has never killed someone so young, but the idea makes him wonder. It’s not something he anticipated, and yet the possibility sits with him—but he’s too far from her, unable to reach her.
So he won’t. He’ll let Mizuki live her life believing that she’s still safe despite the death of Mizuki Okiura’s parents—let her continue, whatever reason she wants Mizuki Okiura to be safe. Is it because they share the same name?
What a joke.
“Thank you,” Mizuki says quietly, oblivious to everything waiting to collapse in her future. She looks up at Saito—at Boss with relief in her eyes, and steps forward to lean next to her, to grab some of Boss’s snacks. They’re too close—but Saito knows that Boss would’ve put her arm around her daughter.
“This is going to be hard,” Saito smiles. Mizuki is warm against him, life flowing in her veins. Saito, too, is alive, still reaching towards his goal.
A goal that ends in tragedy for everyone else—a goal that means the end of Kaname Date.
“I know, Mama. But protect Mizuki.” Mizuki’s voice strains with desperation—like she can’t do anything herself, even though Saito knows Boss would have let her if she really needed to. Maybe Boss was keeping Mizuki from interfering. Maybe not.
Saito doesn’t care—it’s better if Mizuki does nothing, simply watching others suffer.
“I will,” he lies easily. “Everyone will be safe.”
Soon this will be over. Soon, Saito will be alive, fireworks in his veins, back in his own body. For now, he lets go of Mizuki with a smile and says something about a long day. The light in Mizuki’s eyes doesn’t go out, but Saito smiles knowing it will.