"Your damn voice is hurting my ears."
Yoru dug at his ear, not even sparing A a proper glance.
He casually flicked away a bit of skin from beneath his nail, then leaned back against the leather chair.
The pressure in the conference room was so heavy it felt suffocating.
The Raikage, A, who had just been slamming the table like an enraged black bear, now looked as though a bucket of ice water had been poured over him from head to toe. Every bit of heat in his body had been extinguished.
His intact left fist remained suspended in the air, its knuckles squeezed white.
Yet he could not bring it down.
"Brother Yoru, your tea has gathered dust. I'll have someone bring you a fresh cup."
Ōnoki sat beside him, rubbing his callused hands together, smiling so broadly that all the wrinkles on his face had bunched up.
That old fox was shrewd. He did not join the argument, merely sat there and watched the spectacle across from him.
He raised his own cup and took a loud sip. He looked so pleased with himself that he was practically one step away from jumping up to dance.
Yoru ignored Ōnoki's fawning and merely tapped the tabletop twice, neither too hard nor too softly.
"Tap, tap."
Just those two taps.
The enormous floor-to-ceiling window covering one entire wall of the conference room suddenly emitted a muffled hum.
The dull gray rock-like camouflage on the wall rippled violently like water, and the concealing barrier was instantly dispelled.
The formerly sealed wall became completely transparent, allowing the blazing sunlight and windblown sand outside to pour in directly.
"What's going on?"
Mei Terumi instinctively raised a hand to shield her eyes. Even her long false eyelashes trembled.
Her long legs wrapped in