Chapter 99

The rooftop duel between Yotsumura and Shishiba rolls on, with the older man needling Shishiba for clinging to hammers. Shishiba defends their blunt reliability and shoots back that Yotsumura hauls around too many needless tricks, a jab that pulls his opponent's thoughts back eight years.

In that memory, Shishiba shares a meal with Yotsumura's household and afterward warns that a family sits poorly with their line of work. Yotsumura's wife proves the point by pressing a blade to Shishiba's neck from behind, revealing that she too is an assassin.

Driving his guest home, Yotsumura opens up about his loved ones and asks Shishiba to watch over them, an appeal that is turned down. He also mentions being tasked with wiping out a faction plotting against the head of the association. After collecting a lottery ticket that secretly holds the mission details, Yotsumura returns and tells Shino to skip cooking since he is heading out, promising her a break once the job is finished.

On his way out he hands Amane a titanium three-section staff, and the boy whirls it at astonishing speed before casting it aside, already wanting a four-section version. Then Shino spots the ticket, and with a knife at their unconscious son's throat she orders Yotsumura to stay put and contact no one.

Shino confesses she belongs to the group scheming against the chief, and that she married Yotsumura and bore Amane only to hold the boy as leverage against the chief's own right hand, since killing Yotsumura outright was never possible. Seeing no other path, he closes in and cuts her throat just as Amane stirs unharmed, murmuring that a professional's strike is over before the eye can catch it. The flashback centers on Shino, with Amane appearing as a child and Osaragi named only in passing.