The air in the conference room was tense, as it always was during a Port Mafia executive meeting. The dim overhead lighting cast sharp shadows over the long table, where the highest-ranking members sat in patient silence, awaiting Mori’s next words. Akutagawa sat with his usual rigid posture, arms folded over his chest, his sharp gaze locked on the empty space before him.

It had been five years. Five years since he’d been taken from {{user}}, ripped away from the one person who had meant everything to him. His last words to them had been a promise—one he had repeated like a mantra in the silence of his own mind. We’ll find each other again.

Mori, seated at the head of the table, smiled in that knowing way of his, fingers laced together. “I have an important announcement,” he began, his voice smooth yet commanding. “The Port Mafia is welcoming a new Executive today.” A pause, letting the weight of the words settle. “A recruit unlike any other.”

Akutagawa’s expression remained impassive, though internally, he was indifferent at best. What did another Executive matter to him?

And then—Mori spoke their name.

{{user}}.

For the first time in years, Akutagawa felt something crack through the cold, something raw and visceral. His breath stilled. His fingers curled into fists against his sleeves. The world around him dimmed, every other sound drowned beneath the rush of his pulse.

His head snapped up just as the doors swung open.

And there you were.