Raizen stared at Eiden for a second too long.
The words didn’t even feel real at first. They sounded like sothing you said to a student who got caught sneaking into a lab - not sothing you said to soone sitting in a quiet cafe with cats crawling all over him. Raizen’s mouth opened, then closed again. His brain tried to find the safest answer, but all it found was a ss of half-truths and things he definitely couldn’t explain in public.
Eiden watched him without blinking, calm and unreadable.
Raizen finally managed, "I -"
Eiden lifted one hand slightly, stopping him before he could dig a rabbit hole.
"Oh well" Eiden said, tone easing as if he decided the interrogation wasn’t worth the effort. "I suppose she can’t do anything with you, anyways."
Raizen frowned. That sounded like it should comfort him, but it didn’t. It sounded like Eiden had been weighing Mina as a variable in an equation, and just crossed her out with a neat line.
Raizen swallowed and tried again, more stable this ti. "I knew Miss Mina from before, so it’s alright. I trust her. Why?"
Eiden’s eyes sharpened a fraction. He leaned forward a little, elbows near the table, lowering his voice like he wanted to say sothing that shouldn’t exist outside this corner.
He opened his mouth.
Then stopped.
His gaze flicked briefly to the cats - one curled on the chair beside Raizen, another stretched on the table like it owned the place - then to the rain streaking down the glass.
"Oh" he said finally, light and dismissive. "Oh, it’s nothing."
Raizen didn’t move. He just stared at Eiden with the calm patience of soone who’d survived enough chaos to recognize a lie when it tried to hide behind a polite tone.
Eiden saw it instantly. He sighed, long and quiet, as if giving up on pretending.
"It’s not really nothing" Eiden admitted, more to himself than to Raizen. "But it might beco nothing, if handled properly."
Raizen’s fingers moved absently, scratching the cat in his lap. The pleasant purring didn’t match the tension at the table.
"What is it?" Raizen asked.
Eiden’s voice stayed controlled. "Today, soone has been watching the Echelon."
Raizen’s eyes narrowed. "Watching?"
"Silently" Eiden added. "Not directly. Not like an idiot. Like soone who knows how to hide."
Raizen’s stomach tightened. "Is the Echelon doing sothing illegal or worth even hiding?"
Eiden shook his head imdiately, almost offended by the idea. "Nah, not really. And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t start constructing conspiracy theories in your head. They’re scientists. They’re arrogant. They’re exhausting. But they’re not criminals."
He paused, then continued anyway, quieter now.
"I don’t care if soone is curious" Eiden said. "Curiosity is natural. I care if that curiosity becos public. I care if information leaves that room in the wrong hands. I care if a person who doesn’t understand what they’re looking at decides to make noise."
Raizen’s grip on the cup tightened slightly. "So you want to know who it is."
Eiden nodded. "I already have an idea."
Raizen leaned forward a fraction. "What do you know?"
Eiden hesitated, just for a beat. Then he spoke like he didn’t want to, like the words tasted unpleasant.
"A young woman" he said. "Small. Quick. Clever. She doesn’t really move like a civilian."
Raizen listened carefully, pulse steady but heavy.
Eiden continued, eyes focused on the rain as if he rembered the details from a reflection. "Pale green hair..."
Raizen’s brain stuttered.
His expression didn’t change imdiately, but inside, everything tightened.
Pale green hair?
He didn’t even hear the rest of Eiden’s sentence, because his mind filled the gap with Enya’s grin, Enya hanging upside down from vines, Enya’s voice saying she wouldn’t tell anyone - and then, a few hours later, Eiden sitting here telling him soone already left traces near the Echelon.
Raizen’s first instinct was disbelief.
His second was annoyance.
His third was an exhausted, quiet acceptance that this was exactly what Enya would do.
Indeed, she kept her promise! She didn’t tell anyone. She just... Started poking at mysteries herself.
And if she got caught doing it, Raizen could already imagine her using whatever na kept her safe. Mina’s na, for example. Because Mina was a professor. Mina was believable.
Raizen exhaled slowly through his nose.
Eiden watched him now, eyes sharp again.
"So" Eiden said, not accusing, just testing. "Does that description an anything to you?"
Raizen took a sip of his herbal tea. Warm, calming. The calm didn’t reach his head.
A cat bumped against his wrist, demanding attention. Raizen scratched behind its ears automatically, buying himself a second to think. He couldn’t pretend he didn’t know. Eiden wasn’t stupid. And if Eiden suspected Mina, that could drag Mina into trouble too.
Raizen set the cup down carefully.
"Yes" Raizen said. "I know her."
Eiden’s brows lifted. "Oh? Is she at least trustworthy? You know... Not to tell anyone what she saw?"
"I’m pretty sure, yeah" Raizen looked Eiden in the eyes. "Look, I’ll figure out what she’s doing. And I’ll make sure she doesn’t cause trouble for you. Or for the Echelon."
Eiden studied him for a second.
Then, unexpectedly, he smiled.
"Thanks" Eiden said. "I knew I could rely on you."
Raizen’s throat tightened slightly. It shouldn’t matter. It was just words. But Eiden didn’t give out trust easily, and when he did, it felt weird.
Eiden leaned back in his chair, tension easing just a little.
"And anyway" Eiden added, more casual, "I doubt it’s anything truly dangerous. Ukai has eyes everywhere. If she was doing sothing catastrophic, she’d already be hanging upside down from a tree for punishnt."
Raizen blinked. "That can happen?"
Eiden’s expression stayed amused. "Nonono, I’m just ssing around."
The cafe door chid again, then a soft voice called out an order. The woman behind the counter moved, and a mont later she approached their table with a cup on a small tray.
Eiden’s coffee.
Raizen watched as she set it down. The cup was simple, dark ceramic, steam curling up in the warm air. Eiden thanked her quietly, then waited for her to leave before he spoke again.
The cats didn’t approach Eiden too much. They remained dedicated to Raizen, like they chose their favorite.
Eiden wrapped one hand around the cup, warming his fingers against it. He looked at Raizen again, gaze calr now.
Then he changed the subject so smoothly it almost felt unfair.
"I heard so stuff about your prototype" Eiden said.
Raizen blinked hard.
For a second, he genuinely forgot the prototype existed. Between the Silent Hand, Anathema fragnts, contracts, black lotuses, missions, and Enya, his grappling system might as well have been from another life!
"Y-yeah" Raizen said, catching himself. "I’m still trying to figure things out."
Eiden took a small sip of coffee, then nodded. "As far as I’ve seen, it’s pretty solid."
Raizen’s eyes widened slightly. Praise from Eiden wasn’t common.
Eiden continued, casual as if he didn’t just validate months of work. "It only needs a few minor refinents."
Raizen stared. "Minor refinents?"
Eiden’s eyes sparked, and Raizen imdiately regretted speaking.
"Yes" Eiden said, and then he went off like a gate opened. "The alloy is too heavy for long-term strain" Eiden began. "If you lighten it, you’ll reduce drag and improve recovery. The harness structure also presses into the wrong points of your ribs - you’ll bruise yourself repeatedly unless you adjust the padding distribution. The chanism is accurate at short distances but loses efficiency when the anchor point is moving, which ans your hook shape needs to be rebalanced, your hook shape itself is too aggressive for so surfaces - you’re wasting penetration where you need grip. Your directioning is decent but your recoil timing is inconsistent, which ans the tension line needs a smoother release curve. Also, the spool system will jam if debris enters it. And since you insist on using it in environnts full of debris, that is, unfortunately, your problem....."
Raizen stared at him.
The list didn’t end. It just kept going, flowing out like Eiden had been thinking about it for weeks and now finally had permission to unload it.
Raizen tried to keep up, but after the fifth sentence, his brain simply gave up.
He sighed and leaned back in his chair, letting a cat climb further into his lap like it chose comfort at the perfect mont.
Even when he tried to relax, he couldn’t.
Eiden finished his rant with a satisfied sip of coffee, as if he did a good deed.
Raizen rubbed his face with one hand. "Professor... I ca here to drink tea."
Eiden’s eyes held amusent. "And you did! You’re drinking tea. Technically, you’re succeeding."
Raizen groaned quietly.
He wanted to change the subject before Eiden started talking about manufacturing tolerances and friction coefficients.
So he asked the question that bothered him.
"Why did you follow here?" Raizen asked.
Eiden’s brows rose imdiately, and for the first ti, his expression looked genuinely confused.
"Follow you?" Eiden repeated.
Raizen nodded. "Yeah! You tracked here to ask about Mina"
Eiden leaned back as if the idea insulted his intelligence. "I didn’t track you here! This is rely coincidence."
Raizen stared. "Coincidence?"
"Yes" Eiden said firmly. "After a whole day of equations, calibrations, and being trapped in rooms full of people who enjoy hearing themselves talk, I wanted to relax. And I chose the nearest place with warmth and tea."
Raizen hesitated. "And... cats."
Eiden’s face didn’t change, but the corner of his mouth twitched.
"Yes" Eiden said, as if it was obvious. "And cats."
Raizen looked at him like he was seeing a different person.
Eiden noticed imdiately and let out a short laugh.
"What’s with that look?" Eiden asked. "Can’t a man love cats?"
Raizen blinked once. Twice.
Then he finally nodded slowly.
"I an..." Raizen started. "Fair enough."
Raizen glanced down at the cat in his lap, then scratched behind its ears again. The cat purred louder, completely pleased with itself.
Outside, rain kept tapping against the glass.
Inside, for the first ti in a while, Raizen’s breathing felt a little easier - even with the mission still sitting in his chest like a stone, even with Enya’s na now attached to danger, even with Eiden across from him acting like this was normal.
Because sohow, in the middle of all of it...
There were cats.
And coffee.
And a man who hid his identity for years, calmly admitting he ca here for both.
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