Underneath the Red Trees

CHAPTER 73: PANDORA'S BOX

Dashi's pulse had gone completely still. Chihiro sunk to her knees. Her body trembled with the disbelief of what she had helped bring about.

She had just helped Akira Soma kill a person. She was an accomplice to murder. What had she gotten involved in?

"Doctor!" an ERIS agent stood at the entrance to the operating room. His eyes widened when he saw the dead girl on the table. The agent squeezed his eyes shut, shuddering.

"What is it?" Akira's back was to the agent while he packed away the ECT machine.

The agent swallowed. "The President wants to see you."

Akira's eyes widened. He looked at the agent over his shoulder.

The President of ERIS had never once asked for him. The stranger had employed Akira when he was a teenager.

After he murdered his parents, Akira believed he would go to prison. Instead, ERIS took him into their custody. It had been a woman that he had interacted with, then. She informed him that ERIS wished to create Artificial Wielders. It was not long after this, that Akira was employed as a surgeon.

Akira—much like Daisaku—had an excellent memory. He did not need notes or memoirs to remember exactly what he had achieved in his past life. Nevertheless, the President provided his old notes. Well, not exactly. His original notes had long since been destroyed, but the President was able to provide Akira with transcripts of said notes.

In the last eleven years, the man had only ever communicated with Akira through assistants, but now, they would finally meet.

Akira started toward the lift with the agent shortly behind him.

He couldn't deny his curiosity about the President. Akira looked down on most anyone and everyone. A difficult feat when the President was always above him.

A different man was waiting for him at the lift. Inside, he swiped his card and the lights flashed as the lift climbed upward. The top floor was the only floor that Akira could not access. He had never had clearance before. The only people who did were the assistants and the President himself. His current assistant was the man beside Akira. He was the fifth assistant since Akira had started his employ here. Akira didn't know what happened to them, but it must be something sinister.

The lift dinged. The doors slid open to reveal the top floor office. The Akano family crest was here, too, as it was on every floor. Akira had always liked the ominous concept of the snake devouring its own tail.

"The President will be with you shortly," the assistant said, "Please take a seat, doctor."

The assistant entered the lift to his own office a floor below.

Akira did not sit down on the sofa's arranged around the coffee table. He stood in front of the window spanning the entirety of the west wall with his hands clasped behind his back. It was night-time and the lights of Tokyo flashed like millions of little fireflies.

"Do you like the view?"

Akira glanced over his shoulder, and his eyes went wide. He inhaled sharply. "Father?" he asked. It was all he could say.

"Hello, son." Katsu came to stand beside him.

"You're the President?" Akira stared at Katsu while he stared down at the city nightlife.

Katsu sighed. "I am."

Akira swallowed his spit, he still stared at Katsu. Even in his second life, his father's expression was unreadable. "How are you alive after all this time?"