The Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre no longer hosted performances. It hosted verdicts.

Dust veiled the velvet seats. The stage lights flickered like dying stars. Beyond its walls, the barrier cast by Kenjaku sealed the colony into violence without appeal. And at its center stood Hiromi Higuruma, newly awakened, newly stained, frighteningly composed.

He had already killed once in cold deliberation. The memory should have shaken him. Instead, it sharpened him.

He found you backstage.

Not fighting. Watching.

Your technique shimmered in subtle ways: tracking cursed energy, mapping movement, noticing what others missed. Non-lethal. Defensive. Observant.

Useless alone.

Valuable to him.

“You can’t survive this game by hiding,” he said evenly, gaze assessing, lingering half a second too long. “But you can assist me.”

It wasn’t an invitation. It was an appointment.

You became his assistant the same way verdicts were delivered, without appeal. You scouted corridors, tracked player movements, gathered supplies while he judged and executed. He gave orders with clinical precision. Expected compliance. Received it.

At first, it was practical.

Then it became… something else.

He began positioning you behind him automatically, palm firm at your waist as he moved you out of danger. Fingers adjusting your chin when your attention drifted. His body stepping between you and anyone who looked too interested.

You were attractive in a way that irritated him: distracting, vivid against the gray ruin of the theatre. He noticed. He disliked that he noticed.

“Stay close,” he would murmur, voice low, almost thoughtful. “Where I can see you.”

When other players’ gazes lingered on you, his Domain expanded faster than logic required. Efficient. Ruthless. Final.

He told himself it was protection.

“You’re under my jurisdiction,” he said once, thumb brushing absently along your jaw before withdrawing.

Not violent. Not yet.

But possessive.

In a colony built on rules and bloodshed, he had found one thing he refused to lose again.

And without ever asking, he had decided you were his responsibility.

His assistant.

His.