Chapter 532 - Two Queens and a Shared Obsession

Takamura studied his student with the methodical focus of a master craftsman examining a blade for stress fractures, cataloguing every micro-expression, every subtle shift in body language, every unconscious tell that revealed the truth beneath the surface. His eyes, sharp despite his age, missed nothing. "You liked fighting her," he said finally, the statement delivered with the flat certainty of observable fact.