The radio was playing.
Lemon, by Kenshi Yonezu, filled the interior of the car with that recognisable melancholy from the very first chords: the piano, the voice, that particular way of making a song seem to speak of something one did not always want to remember.
Kato was singing it under his breath.
Not for Yuna to hear, nor to draw attention to himself. He sang in that distracted way one follows a familiar song without thinking too much about it, one hand on the wheel and the other resting near the window. From his posture, anyone would have said the journey had nothing special about it.
Yuna was watching him from the corner of her eye.
She had been doing so for several minutes. Not with irritation, but with the silent discomfort of someone who has had a question ready for a while and has still not found the right moment to ask it.
"Can I ask you something?" she said at last.
Kato turned down the radio without taking his eyes off the road.
"You don't have to ask me if you can ask me," he said. "Just ask."
Yuna breathed slowly.
"Why was everything that happened kept hidden?" she asked. "The war. Zetsuen. All of that which almost destroyed the hunters. Why did it end up a secret?"
Kato did not respond immediately.
The song kept playing for a few seconds more, quieter now. The piano, the voice, the melody Kato had heard on this same road, in the opposite direction, not so long ago.
Then he sighed.
And stopped joking.
"Before, the world of hunters wasn't organised the way it is now," said Kato, in a lower tone. "There weren't several important headquarters. Tokyo was practically the absolute centre. The rest were places where hunters lived: towns, areas, small groups. But they didn't have the structure you know now."
Yuna listened without interrupting.
"After the war," Kato continued, "after Zetsuen and everything that happened, Kana understood that if everything kept depending on Tokyo, a single fall could destroy all the hunters. That's why she reorganised the system. The current headquarters — Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Sapporo and Kyoto — exist because of that decision. Over time some changed their leaders, through death, retirement or whatever. But at the beginning Kana personally chose the first leaders of each one."
Yuna looked at the road ahead.
"And when she brought them together?"
"They had to face a problem without a good answer," said Kato. "How did they explain the death of so many hunters without revealing that there had been a war against intelligent, organised remnants?"
Yuna said nothing.
"The truth could have destroyed the morale of the new generation," Kato continued. "If everyone knew that remnants existed who could speak, organise themselves, form strategies and almost exterminate the hunters, many would never want to train."
He paused briefly.
"And without hunters, the remnants would keep appearing all the same. People would keep dying. Just without anyone capable of doing anything about it."
Yuna pressed her fingers slightly against her knee.
"So they lied."
Kato did not defend himself straight away.
"Yes," he said at last. "They lied."
The answer, being so simple, sounded worse.
"Kana didn't want to," he continued. "Not like that. But she couldn't tell the truth without putting at risk everything she was trying to rebuild."
Yuna was quiet for a few seconds.
"And what version did they give?"
Kato took a moment to answer.
"Ryuichi proposed a way out."
He said it carefully, as though the name still carried something that was not wise to touch carelessly.
"Say it was me," said Kato, quoting.
Yuna looked at him.
"He said that?"
Kato nodded.
"The official version ended up being that Inoue Ryuichi had betrayed the hunters. That his betrayal had caused the downfall. Not necessarily that he had killed them all with his own hands, but that what he did, or what he failed to do, depending on how it was told, had caused the death of a large part of them."
Yuna looked down for a second.
"I grew up hearing that he was a traitor," she said, more quietly.
Kato did not respond.
"Every hunter who appeared after what happened heard that."
The car kept moving. Lemon ended and the radio moved to another song that neither of them was listening to.
"Kana and the others were opposed," said Kato. "They didn't want to put it all on him. Nobody did. Ryuichi was already going to be judged for his mistakes as a leader. He had failed. He had made decisions that cost the lives of people who should not have died."
He paused.
"But he understood something. If his name could be used to hide the true scale of the danger, then he could carry that hatred. To him it was better for hunters to hate a man than to fear all remnants."
Yuna looked at the road again.
"That's why they call him 'The Traitor'."
"Yes," said Kato. "That's why."
For several kilometres, neither spoke.
Yuna processed the information in silence. She did not seem exactly angry, but there was something in her expression that had hardened. It was not easy to discover that a part of the history one had learned from a young age had been built on a lie, even if that lie had a reason behind it.
"Kana visits him," said Kato suddenly.
Yuna looked at him.
"Who?"
"Ryuichi. The holding cell. Almost every night."
Yuna blinked.
"Still?"
"For years," said Kato. "Since he went in and she took the ring. She goes down to talk to him. She tells him how the headquarters are doing, what problems there are, what new hunters have appeared, what decisions she has had to make. All of it."
Yuna looked ahead again.
"For everyone he's the Traitor," said Kato. "For Kana he's also the man who carried a lie so that the hunters could keep existing."
There was a pause.
"And more importantly... he was her master."
"She tells him how the world he built after him is doing."
Yuna did not respond immediately.
"That's cruel," she said at last.
"Yes."
"For both of them."
"Also."
Yuna looked at him from the corner of her eye.
"For someone who is never at headquarters, you know a great deal."
Kato barely smiled.
"I know everything about everyone."
Yuna could not tell whether he was joking or not.
Probably both.
"We're here," said Kato.
Machida at night had a different rhythm from Tokyo.
It was not silence, but nor was it that constant density of people and noise that forced one to think about every step. The streets were alive in a more contained way, with low lights, scattered conversations and the occasional car passing as though nothing happening beneath the surface concerned them.
Kato parked near the alley.
Yuna got out of the car and looked around. There was something nostalgic in her expression, but also a discomfort that had not quite decided on a single shape.
"It's been a long time since I came here," she said.
"It's changed quite a bit," replied Kato.
"I can see that."
"Some things are the same."
Yuna looked at him.
"Is that good or bad?"
Kato smiled.
"Depends who you ask."
They went down some narrow stairs towards a semi-hidden establishment, the kind that did not need a very clear sign because the people who were supposed to find it already knew where it was. At the entrance there was a large guard, broad-shouldered, with the quiet presence of someone who did not need to raise his voice to make others reconsider their decisions.
Kato clapped him on the shoulder.
"How's it going, big guy?"
The guard looked at him, nodded once and opened the door without asking anything.
Yuna entered behind Kato, taking in the place attentively.
"Be serious about this," she said to him, before stepping fully inside.
"It's difficult to be serious in here," replied Kato.
The inside of the establishment had a deliberate darkness. It was not a lack of light; it was a choice. Wooden tables, low lamps, old smoke impregnated in the walls, and conversations that did not quite mix, as though each table had its own small world.
"Kato."
The voice came from the left.
Low, controlled, with a cadence that seemed deliberately chosen.
Kasumi Shirogane walked towards them with her white hair loose and that way of moving that was casual only in appearance. Every step seemed to say that she knew perfectly well who was watching her, even if she did not need to look back.
"Strange to see you here again so soon," she said, coming closer.
She touched Kato's arm with a familiarity that did not go unnoticed by Yuna.
"What are you looking for now, Ginjiro?"
"Genzō Kuroda," said Kato.
Kasumi smiled.
"Genzō is busy. But I could help you if you like."
The tone made it fairly clear she was not talking only about information.
Yuna coughed.
Kasumi turned her head towards her with the speed of someone who had known perfectly well she was there from the beginning and had only chosen to acknowledge her in that moment.
"Oh," she said. "Yuna. I hadn't seen you."
"It's good to see you too, Kasumi," replied Yuna, with a smile so correct it almost cut.
For an instant, the two of them looked at each other.
It was not an open threat. Not even hostility. It was something finer, more irritating, the kind of tension that appears between two people who smile because both know it would be too obvious not to.
"Mei is doing well," said Kato, as though he had not noticed anything. "In case you wanted to know."
Kasumi relaxed barely.
"I'm glad," she said. "She always knew how to get herself into trouble. I'm glad she's still alive to do it."
"My eyes must be deceiving me."
The voice came from behind them.
Kato turned.
The old man watching them would have been somewhere in his late seventies. He had white hair, a slightly stooped back and the tired look of someone who had lived too close to too many secrets. But his eyes were not tired. They were sharp, attentive, and his smile had the infuriating calm of someone who always knows something the others do not yet.
Genzō Kuroda looked Kato up and down.
"Ginjiro Kato," he said. "And there I was thinking you had finally got yourself killed."
Kato smiled.
"Good to see you too, Genzō."
Genzō looked at Yuna. Then back at Kato.
"Congratulations," he said. "You finally got yourself a girlfriend."
Yuna responded too quickly.
"No!"
Genzō looked at her.
"She answered very quickly."
"Fellow hunter," Kato clarified.
Genzō nodded slowly, as though that explained something worse.
"Ah," he said. "Worse."
They sat at a table set apart from the others. Kato and Genzō ended up facing each other; Yuna and Kasumi at the sides, maintaining a distance that seemed casual but was not.
Kato did not waste time.
"I heard a rumour," he said. "About a remnant that hunts other remnants."
Genzō smiled.
"Straight to it. I'm glad you haven't changed."
"I don't have time to play games."
"I do," said Genzō. "And you know how this works. If you want information, you have to pay."
"I don't have any money."
"Then there's no information."
Kato looked at Kasumi.
Kasumi raised her hands with a smile.
"That information is his alone," she said. "I'd help you with other things, but with this there's nothing I can do."
Kato sighed. He already knew the conversation was going to end there.
"All right," he said. "What do you want?"
Genzō did not respond immediately. He just smiled.
Then he looked at Kasumi.
"Shirogane."
Kasumi understood immediately. She got up, went to the bar and came back with a deck of cards that she set on the table.
"Let's play," said Genzō. "If you win, I give you the information. If you lose, you give me something in return."
"What do you want?" asked Kato.
"I don't know yet," said Genzō. "Offer me something interesting."
Kato thought for a moment.
Then he raised a finger.
"If you win," he said, "you get to keep Yuna."
Yuna turned towards him.
"What?!"
Kasumi covered her mouth. The laugh came out anyway.
Genzō looked at Yuna for several seconds with the calm assessment of someone considering a business proposal.
"I'll pass," he said.
Yuna opened her mouth.
"What do you mean, you'll pass?!"
"I like them with more chest," said Genzō, with complete serenity.
"What is wrong with you and my chest?!" said Yuna.
"Nothing," said Genzō. "You seem to be the one with the problem."
Yuna went even more red.
"My chest is perfectly normal!"
Kasumi laughed without trying to hide it.
Yuna turned towards her.
"And what are you laughing at? Everything you lack in brains you make up for in chest."
Kasumi's smile disappeared.
"What did you say?"
Yuna took a step towards her.
Kasumi too.
Kato sighed.
"Can we finish the game before someone destroys the place?"
Yuna turned towards him with an expression that had too many things inside it to come out in any order.
"You had better win," she said.
"Don't put me off," said Kato, sitting down in front of Genzō.
The cards were dealt.
The game began with a calm that only two people could have who had played too many times to pretend that the cards were the only thing that mattered at the table.
"You still get yourself into trouble," said Genzō, looking at his hand.
"Trouble usually finds me first," replied Kato.
"That's what they all say," said Genzō. "The ones who look for it and the ones who stumble into it."
Kato played a card.
Genzō responded without hurrying.
Yuna watched with her arms crossed. She knew the bet was not real, but that did not make her want to see Kato win any less. Kasumi, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy the process more than the result, though every now and then she looked at Yuna with a smile that had not yet quite forgiven her for the earlier comment.
At first, Kato seemed calm.
Too calm.
Genzō won the first hand.
Then the second.
Yuna frowned.
"Kato."
"Don't put me off."
"You're losing."
"That's putting me off too."
Genzō let out a dry laugh.
"Your companion has good eyes."
"Too much mouth," said Kato.
Yuna looked at him.
"Would you like to repeat that?"
"After I win."
Genzō played another card and leaned back slightly in his chair. For a moment, he appeared to have the game exactly where he wanted it. His smile was small, confident, almost invisible.
That was what made Yuna uneasy.
Kato, on the other hand, lowered his gaze to his cards and stopped smiling.
The change was minimal, but Yuna noticed it.
Genzō did too.
"There you are," said the old man.
Kato raised his eyes.
"Where?"
"In the part where you pretend you only just started playing."
Kato barely smiled.
"You found me out."
"You always do the same thing."
"And yet you keep falling for it."
Genzō narrowed his eyes.
Kato's next card changed the table.
Not in any spectacular way. There was no exaggerated gesture or immediate reaction. Only a piece that fell into a place that had seemed useless until it was not.
Genzō looked at the card.
Then at Kato.
"How unpleasant."
"Thank you."
The game went on for a few more minutes. Kato was not playing only with what he had in his hand. He was playing with Genzō's pauses, with the way he looked at a card before discarding it, with that minimal movement of his eyebrow when something went better than expected. He read people with the same ease with which others read a road.
When it was over, Genzō sat looking at the cards on the table.
For a moment, he said nothing.
Then he picked them up.
"Well played."
Yuna let out the breath she had been holding.
Kato leaned back in his chair.
"Right," he said. "Talk."
The tone changed.
Genzō set the deck aside and the smile lost some of its mocking edge.
"The information comes from a contact of mine in the south," he said. "According to him, there's something in Kagoshima killing remnants before hunters can get there."
Yuna leaned slightly forward.
"How reliable is it?"
"That's what my contact said," replied Genzō. "Several cases. Remnants appearing, signs of combat, destroyed remains. But no registered hunter in the area at the time of the attacks."
"Are they sure it's a remnant?" asked Yuna.
Genzō looked at Kato.
"From the signs of the attacks, that's what it looks like. No ordinary human could cause that kind of destruction. And no registered hunter was anywhere near."
Kato's expression did not change, but something in his eyes did. The lazy attention disappeared and something else took its place. A cleaner, more dangerous concentration.
"Whoever is down there," Genzō continued, "does not seem to want to be found. The signs are clear, but there's no trail. Nobody who has tried to look for it directly has come back with anything concrete."
Kato stood.
"Then it's probably what we're looking for."
Yuna looked at him.
"Kagoshima."
Kato nodded.
"Kagoshima."
They got ready to leave.
Genzō gathered the cards slowly, one by one, at the rhythm of someone who had no need to hurry because he had seen too many things arrive sooner or later.
"Ginjiro."
Kato stopped.
Genzō was looking at him with more seriousness than at any point during the evening.
"I don't know what you're looking for down there," he said. "But if that rumour is true, I don't think it wants to be found."
Kato looked at him for a moment.
Then he smiled. Not like someone dismissing the warning, but like someone who had understood it perfectly and was going to press ahead anyway.
"That's what people usually say about me too," he said.
Yuna followed him towards the exit.
Kasumi watched them from the table. First Kato. Then Yuna. There was something in her expression that could not quite decide between amusement, concern, and something harder to name.
"Take care, Kato," said Kasumi.
"Thank you, Kasumi."
"I exist too," said Yuna.
The Machida street at night received them with the same noise as always.
Kato walked towards the car with his hands in his pockets.
"Kagoshima then," said Yuna.
"Looks like it," said Kato.
In the south, a remnant was hunting remnants.
And for some reason, Kato felt that rumour had just started moving towards them.