"Yahi... no, Pain, the mission in Iwa has been completed. Since the other party canceled the mission midway, we can still collect twenty percent of the remaining half of the deposit as commission."
Hearing that familiar voice, Konan turned around. She instinctively began to call out someone's name, but when she saw the man behind her—with short orange hair and strange black ornaments embedded in several places, including his nose, ears, and lower lip—she suddenly swallowed that name back down and called him by another instead. At the same time, she reported the outcome of the Iwa mission.
"Is that so? The mission was canceled? I understand. You've worked hard, Konan."
Hearing Konan's words, the orange-haired man called Pain nodded and spoke.
"If you wish, you can still call me Yahiko."
At the end, as if recalling something, the orange-haired man named Pain spoke again.
This time, however, there was a touch of warmth in his voice.
"No. Yahiko is dead. The one standing before me is Pain."
Konan shook her head.
"I understand."
Pain did not show much expression at her words. He merely nodded, but his voice was slightly heavy, carrying an unusual warmth.
"So, did you call me back so suddenly because there's something important? Or has something urgent happened?"
Looking at that incomparably familiar face before her, the trace of nostalgia in Konan's eyes slowly faded. Her expression turned cold as she spoke.
"A great many things have happened."
Pain closed his eyes and took a deep breath before answering.
"What happened?"
Seeing the expression on the orange-haired man's face, Konan's brows drew together slightly as she asked.
There was already a note of urgency in her voice.
"Ryuichi, Kotetsu, Izumi... five people in total have been confirmed dead."
After hearing Konan's question, Pain fell silent