I recounted the detailsâthe special room, the extensive scanning, Washingtonâs strange behavior when I mentioned not knowing anything about my father. Every piece of the puzzle seemed to have jagged edges that didnât quite fit together, like someone had taken fragments from different jigsaws and forced them into place.
"And they gave you that," Kimiko pointed at the monitoring bracelet on my wrist.
"They said itâs standard for late manifestations," I explained, running my thumb over the sleek metal band.
"Thereâs nothing standard about this, Satori. Nothing at all."
"You think theyâre tracking me because of my father?"
"I think," Kimiko said carefully, "that itâs quite a coincidence that you suddenly manifested an Aspect after eighteen years as a Zero, right as youâre about to take the entrance exam for New Vein Academy. The same academy where your fatherâs research partnerâs granddaughter is the current star."
Seraphina Vanceâthe VHC Presidentâwas the granddaughter of Kenjiâs research partner. The woman who controlled the entire Hunter industry, who decided which threats were real and which were silenced, had a direct connection to my supposed father.
Did she have a younger sister?
"Do you think Seraphina knows something?"
"I donât know," Kimiko admitted, wrapping her cardigan tighter around herself as a cool breeze swept through the park, rustling the nearby trees like invisible fingers through hair. "But I do know thisâwhatever your father discovered, whatever got him taken, it must have been significant. Earth-shattering, even. And now youâre suddenly on their radar."
She reached out and took my hand, her slender fingers wrapping around mine with surprising strength. Her touch was warm, maternal in a way Iâd never experienced in either of my lives. Something about that simple gesture made my throat tighten unexpectedly.
"Satori," she said, her voice low and intense, her hazel eyes boring into mine as if trying to see past them to what lay beneath, to the stranger wearing her sonâs skin. "Iâve watched you change these past weeks. At first, I thought it was just growing up, finding your way. But itâs more than that, isnât it?"
My heart rate kicked up, hammering against my ribs with such force I was certain she must hear it. What did she suspect? How much could she see? Had I underestimated this seemingly ordinary housewife? Had the Red-hot Habanero spotted the predator hiding behind her sonâs glasses?
"Iâm just trying to be better," I said, aiming for sincerity. "For you and Luka. For myself."
Kimiko squeezed my hand. "You know you can tell me anything, right? Anything at all. No matter how strange or difficult."
For a moment, I almost believed I could tell her everything. About Kaelen Leone, about dying in another world with a knife in my back, about waking up in her sonâs body with a System that fed on my ability to entertain them. About how I wasnât really her son at all, but something else entirely, wearing Satori like a borrowed suit.
The same instinct that kept me alive in my last life slammed the door shut. Some truths are too dangerous, even for mothers who seem like they might understand. Some secrets, once spoken, can never be taken back.
"I know, Mom," I said, squeezing her hand back, the lie bitter on my tongue but necessary, another brick in the wall of my deception. "Thank you."
She nodded, seemingly satisfied for now, though something in her eyes told me she hadnât fully abandoned her suspicions. "We should head back before Luka organizes a search party."
As we stood, Kimiko looked out at the city one last time, the countless lights of New Vein reflecting in her eyes like stars captured in amber. "I want you to be careful, Satori. Especially at the academy. Especially around anyone connected to the Vance family."
"I will be." This, at least, wasnât a lie. Self-preservation was my specialty.
"And if you start remembering things... strange things, things that donât seem like your own memories..." She hesitated, her voice dropping to barely above a whisper, each word laden with significance. "Come to me first. Before anyone else."
"What do you mean?" I asked, tension coiling in my gut like a serpent.
Kimikoâs smile was sad, tinged with a knowledge that seemed far beyond what a simple housewife should possess. "Your father had theories about Aspects, about what they really are. He thought they might be more than just powersâthat they might carry something else with them. Knowledge. Memories."
"From where?" I asked, though part of me already knew the answer, could feel it resonating with a terrible truth in my bones, in the very core of my stolen existence.
"From somewhere beyond the Gates," she said simply, her eyes reflecting the distant city lights like miniature portals, windows into another reality. "Somewhere else. Beyond our world, beyond our understanding... places we were never meant to reach."
"Come on," Kimiko said, turning back toward home with a gentle tug on my sleeve, pulling me from my spiraling thoughts. "Itâs getting late, and the night air gets chilly this high up."
If Kenji Nakano had been researching cross-dimensional phenomena and had disappeared because of it, what did that mean for me? Was there a connection between his research and my presence in Satoriâs body? This was no coincidence. The universe wasnât that lazy or that cruel.
And most troubling of allâif Kimiko suspected something wasnât quite right with her son, how long before she pieced together the fragments of truth? How long before the maternal warmth in her eyes hardened into something more dangerous?
I glanced at her profile as we walked side by side down the path. She looked peaceful now, as if sharing her story had lifted a weight from her shoulders. But Iâd seen the steel beneath her gentle exterior. The "Red-hot Habanero" was still in there, dormant but ready to ignite and burn anyone who threatened what she held dear.
I just hope that potential threat doesnât include me.