In the middle of a bright but unpleasant summer, where the muggy, sticky air clings to the skin, making one scowl involuntarily.

Such a summer wasn't particularly pleasant for Rui, for reasons that were simple—the smell of rotting corpses grew stronger, the scent of blood became more metallic, or he just hated high-humidity days. That was all.

His routine was no different. As the organization's Wakagashira, he visited clients to strengthen ties, checked sales at subsidiary companies, and if there was a fly-like organization being annoying, he'd bury a low-level grunt deep in the ocean as a warning. Quite ordinarily, his routine didn't change, the summer caused him only a slight bit of discomfort, and he thought the days were incredibly dull and boring, which just made his nerves a little, just a little, on edge.

So, the reason he did this now was simply because it was a day he lacked energy, and just then, news of a marriage proposal for Sekaigumi's Shateigashira—Guest—reached him, and that finally rubbed his temperament the wrong way.

"Oya, Guest-kun."

Normally, it would have ended with a warning. Guest, arriving late after being contacted by a subordinate, sighed as if accustomed to this recurring situation.

"Fufu, you've come at the perfect time."

"The ones who were eyeing you, I've already..."

Rui plunged his katana once more into the thing that could no longer be recognized as human. The sight of it twitching as if in a final struggle before going limp was not a pleasant one. It felt like watching a child mindlessly crushing a crawling earthworm for no reason at all.

"...taken care of them."

"I did well, didn't I?"

That bright smile was so eerily out of place in this situation that the thought that anyone watching would mistake them for a couple crossed the mind first.