The siblings had not seen each other in years. Now, two pairs of almost identical eyes met, their expressions tangled with emotion.
Confusion, uncertainty, and doubt.
All of it appeared in their eyes at once.
Hondo Eisuke was the first to break the silence.
He had far too many questions. "Emi, what happened to you? Why did you even change your name to Mizunashi Rena? And you actually..."
Mizunashi Rena heard him and, for a moment, had no idea how to answer.
Was she supposed to blurt out that she was CIA?
After weighing her options, she decided a lie would be better.
As his older sister, she did not want to drag her brother into this.
"A CIA intelligence officer."
A man's voice suddenly came from behind them.
They turned to see Shuichi Akai walk in with his hands in his pockets. "If our intelligence is correct, that's what she is."
The siblings fell silent at Akai's rather theatrical entrance.
It was a little awkward.
Eisuke froze. "CIA? What are you talking about?!"
"That's impossible..."
"It can't be..."
Yet even as Eisuke protested, the more he thought about it, the more sense it made.
Fujino had said his father's identity was anything but ordinary...
He had even suggested his father might belong to an intelligence agency.
Had Fujino actually guessed right?!
Eisuke marveled inwardly, and his regard for Fujino rose another notch.
Then he turned to his older sister.
She had merely furrowed her brow.
That alone seemed to confirm it.
He realized his father might belong to the same organization as his sister.
He asked Rena, "Then Dad..."
"..."
Rena fell silent, unable to bring herself to answer.
That was a large part of why she had avoided seeing her brother.
As long as he did not know,