Departure

Karasuma entered Building A of the Ministry of Defense headquarters with his briefcase in hand. Though he held himself as tall and proud as always, exhaustion lined his frame. He could fight innumerable enemies or raid enemy bases with ease, but dealing with the media was an entirely different beast.

At least it was over. All of it—the good, the bad, the unbelievable—and life would slowly be returning to normal. At the start of this madness, he would have been all too happy for this moment, but now it didn't feel that rewarding.

Well, there was nothing to be done but to soldier on.

The walk to his office took at least double the usual time as various colleagues approached him to talk. It was a stark difference from the cold way his higher-ups were treating him; they were still unhappy with how he had undermined their authority to aid the students, while others knew little about that and only cared that they were still alive to see another day.

Finally, when he had reached his office, he found Sonokawa waiting for him. She and the rest of his subordinates had been handling things at the ministry while he was busy, for which he was immensely grateful.

"Sir," she greeted him and he nodded.

"Catch me up on things."

"The collaborations and projects surrounding the target have been disbanded, but the ministry is planning a last set of covert operations to ensure that details of the anti-matter research are fully destroyed. Also, all contracts with international assassins have been cancelled..." Sonokawa paused, looking uncertain for a moment before she plowed on, "Including with Irina Jelavić, whose immunity on Japanese soil will be revoked in one hour, the moment her flight takes off."

Karasuma froze. Irina... he hadn't spared a thought for her.

"Her flight?"

"JL23, sir. Tokyo to Belgrade, Serbia, via the Haneda Airport."

Of course, now that things were settled, Irina would leave. He knew it. Months ago, he had told her exactly that—that their time together would end with either the world or the mission. He had been prepared for it...

But in the midst of everything, during the last assassination plan and later, somehow it had slipped his mind. The last he had seen her was just a few hours earlier, during the graduation ceremony.

He didn't even remember when she left, having been too occupied with the media and his fellow agents at the time.

Did the students know? She hadn't contacted him.

"Sir?" Sonokawa's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

Right, JL23. To leave in an hour. From the Ministry of Defence, the airport was about half an hour by car...

"Sonokawa, please excuse me."

He turned, took in a breath, and rushed out the door, deaf to the startled sounds of the people around.

Getting past security and all the queues was a simple matter of flashing his government employee ID at the airport guards. There were only ten minutes left when he reached the boarding gate. He was almost out of breath too, less from exertion and more from the panic swirling in him for every second he lost.

He couldn't spare a single one.

He scanned the crowd, looking for a head of blonde hair or a glimpse of azure-blue eyes. Within a few minutes, he found her leaning on a wall, dressed in a modest navy cardigan and reading a book. There was a wheeled suitcase next to her, the only luggage she was carrying in addition to her handbag.