Three days had passed since that night. Lying on Nadula's bed, Kain gazed blankly at the pipes on the ceiling. The green light of a chemical lamp flickered across the stone walls. His broken ribs still ached, but it was much better than two days ago. The sharp intake of breath had stopped happening every time he moved his body. Echo had said to rest. Kain was obeying. He was obeying, but he had nothing to do with his hands. Rin sat in a chair beside the bed, eyes closed as she leaned against the wall. It was hard to tell if she was sleeping or awake. Her long purple hair flowed to one side. The pale blue light in her right arm swayed quietly today as well, and just as Echo had said, the progression of the fusion remained halted. Kain glanced at Rin's right arm for a moment, then looked away. (I remember exactly what I said in that abandoned warehouse...) Recalling his own words, Kain quietly pressed his face into the pillow. Something about "I'm going because I like you." Said loud enough for all the roughnecks to hear. It took some effort to suppress the groan. "Your wrist." Rin's voice came. Kain lifted his head. Rin opened her eyes and looked toward him. "The bandage is coming loose." Sure enough, the edge of the bandage wrapped around Kain's left wrist was fraying. The one Echo had wrapped yesterday. Rin stood up and approached Kain's bed. She pulled a fresh bandage from the drawer and lifted Kain's wrist without saying anything. Kain completely froze in that moment. Her fingers were slender. Her left hand—not armored. A real hand, warm flesh. The same hand that had wrapped around his three days ago in the basement. (Calm down, calm down—) As Rin unwound the old bandage, she repositioned his wrist in her grip. Her face was close. She had a concentrated expression. Her golden eyes looked only at his wrist. Kain tried to say something. He tried to say something normal. "Your hand is softer than I expected." He regretted it one second after speaking. Rin's hands stopped. Her golden eyes slowly turned toward Kain's face. They narrowed. From the back room came a sound—*huff*. Echo. The sound of Echo, who should have been organizing shelves, desperately holding something back. "...Focus." Her voice was flat. He couldn't tell if she was angry or exasperated. But her hands didn't stop wrapping the bandage. Carefully, precisely, checking even the final clasp. Kain couldn't say anything else. He made a gesture of covering his mouth with both hands, then realized his hands were covered in bandages and felt a bit foolish. Rin finished wrapping the bandage and released Kain's hand. At that moment, Echo poked her head out from the back room. Her mouth was trembling quite a bit. "Well done." It was unclear who she was talking to. —— That night, Echo went out. "I need to deliver medicine to some patients nearby. I'll be back in about an hour." The door closed, leaving only Kain and Rin in Nadula. The lamp light flickered. Pipes hummed somewhere low. Silence continued for a while. Kain sat on the edge of the bed, and Rin returned to her chair, leaning against the wall. "You cried back then. At the warehouse." He regretted it the moment he said it, but it was too late. Rin answered immediately. "I didn't cry." Kain laughed a little. "That's the third time you've said that." Rin looked at him. Her eyebrows moved slightly. "...Third time?" "First in the basement, then at the warehouse, and now again. Same answer every time." Rin was silent for a while. Then her mouth curved into a straight line. "...You're annoying." Kain laughed again. Rin's mouth relaxed, just barely. It was so slight you might not notice, but Kain saw it. A quiet time continued without words. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence. It was time spent listening to the sounds of Zaun together. The distant sound of flowing water, the groan of pipes, someone's footsteps. Being beside Rin felt natural to Kain now. Back when they first met in the basement, he'd needed to psych himself up every time he spoke to her. —— Echo returned exactly an hour later, as promised. She pulled a folded piece of paper from her coat pocket and spread it on the table. It was thin, slightly torn—like part of a report. "From the information broker. I got it at noon today, but I wanted to verify the contents before showing you." Echo's voice was slightly lower than usual. The three of them gathered around the paper. "We've identified the design director of the Euphinis Project. Doctor Castihl. He's currently serving as a technical advisor to the Piltover Council." Kain looked at the paper. It was a technical document with a mix of readable and unreadable text. Echo continued, tracing the key points with her finger. "The retrieval orders sent to Servus and the others came directly from this man. The objective isn't just the control code in Rin's body. The underground device at the old Vander hideout is also a retrieval target. He knows the device is still operational." "Why would they want the device?" "I think the code and the device together are what bring the project close to completion. I don't have the details yet." Rin remained silent. She was looking at the paper. Her unmoving eyes fixed on the part where Castihl's name was written. Kain looked at Rin's profile from the side. The softness from earlier was gone. Her face was hard. The face of someone who knew something. "Do you know this man?" Rin paused for a moment. "...I know the name." She said only that and didn't continue. Kain didn't ask further. He understood this wasn't the moment to press. Echo spoke quietly. "This man has no regard for law or ethics. He uses the Council's power for himself." There was anger in her voice. Quiet, but unmistakable. It was rare for Echo to speak like this. —— "There's one more thing." Echo turned the paper over. A short memo with different information was written there. "In response to Servus and the others' failure, Castihl is pushing approval through the Council for a larger retrieval unit. It could move within days." The air in the room grew heavier. Kain placed his hand on the edge of the bed. His side still hurt. But this wasn't the time to worry about that. "So hiding here is just a matter of time." "That's right." The three fell silent. The lamp flickered. Echo spoke first. "I've been a doctor to protect Zaun's children. I have no intention of running away now." Her voice was calm. But there was no hesitation in it. Forty-four years of resolve were contained in those words. After a long silence, Rin opened her mouth. "...It's my fault you got dragged into this. That's all I'll say." Her voice sounded wrung out. Kain thought for a moment, then answered. "I know. That's why I'm here too." There was no calculation, no persuasion. Just that. Rin looked at Kain. Kain looked at Rin. Echo said softly, "Really," but she was smiling. "First priority is healing your body. We have enough time to prepare a strategy before your ribs fully mend." —— The night deepened. Echo went to the back room to put away medicines. Kain and Rin were alone. Kain thought for a moment, then extended his bandaged right hand to Rin. He didn't say anything. He just offered it. Rin looked at his hand. She looked at Kain's face. Then at his hand again. It was a long moment. From the back room, Echo opened a shelf, then went oddly quiet. She probably deliberately stopped making noise. Rin slowly reached out. She grasped Kain's right hand, cradling it in both of hers. Kain's breath stopped. It was warm. The same warmth as that basement three days ago. But this time, Rin had reached out first. Neither said anything. They just listened to the sounds outside together. The groan of pipes, distant water sounds, footsteps fading away. ——From that night in the basement on the first day, when Kain couldn't leave Rin's side, everything they'd built up seemed to exist in this single grip. That's what Kain thought. Though he couldn't quite put it into words. —— The next morning, Echo brought a new memo. The latest message from the information broker. The three gathered around the table. Echo placed the memo down. "Castihl himself will cross the Bridge of Progress into Zaun within the next few days." The Bridge of Progress—the only bridge connecting Piltover and Zaun. Enforcers guard both ends, and it's not easy for Zaun's people to cross. That bridge. Castihl himself will cross it. "It's unprecedented for a Council technical advisor to come down to Zaun directly. It's proof he's decided the retrieval is top priority. Not just sending a unit." Kain looked at the memo on the table. "Let him come." Rin looked at Kain's profile. She started to say something, then stopped. Echo continued quietly. "We need to revise our strategy. We start today." Nadula's lamp flickered. Pipes hummed. Zaun's underground was dark as always. But three people sat around the table. The time until Castihl descended into this city was running out.