The Yakuza’s Mute Bride novel Chapter 96

Chapter 96

The room tightened around us as if the walls themselves had leaned closer to listen.

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At first, I did not move. I could not. My body felt strangely light as though the danger I had narrowly escaped had not yet decided whether to let go of me completely or pull me back under. The voices around me blurred into a low hum-guards murmuring, orders being issued, footsteps shifting against polished wood-but all of it felt distant, unreal.

Tadashi stood alone in the center of it.

For the first time since we arrived, I truly saw him as he was in moments like this: solitary, immovable, unguarded not because he lacked protection, but because he did not believe he needed it. There was no Gio flanking him, no Ota at his shoulder, no Yukito standing one step behind. Just Tadashi Masayoshi, straight-backed and deadly calm, as though danger was an inconvenience rather than a threat.

My chest tightened.

He should not be alone.

I stepped closer without thinking, my hand brushing the sleeve of his jacket, grounding myself in the simple fact that he was still here, still breathing, still untouched.

Then I noticed it.

No-someone.

The absence struck me with sudden clarity, like a missing note in a melody I had been humming unconsciously.

My gaze moved instinctively to the doorway, then to the corners of the room, then to the hall beyond.

She was not there.

The woman.

Tadashi noticed the shift in my posture immediately. He turned his attention locking onto me with unsettling precision, as if my unease had sent a signal only he could hear.

“What is it?” he asked.

His voice was low, controlled, but something in it sharpened when he saw my expression.

I swallowed and leaned closer, lowering my voice so only he could hear.

“The woman,” I whispered. “The one who brought me to the tea room. The one who prepared the set. She is not here.”

His brow creased.

“A woman?” he repeated.

I nodded. “She wore a kimono. She spoke politely. She guided me there.”

For a fraction of a second, something flickered behind his eyes-calculation, recognition, danger assembling itself piece by piece.

He straightened and spoke to the guards without raising his voice, yet the authority in it sliced through the room.

“Search the premises again. Full sweep. Every corridor. Every exit.”

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17:30 Thu, Jan 22 GDD

Chapter 96

The guards moved instantly.

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I remained where I was, my pulse pounding too loudly in my ears. Tadashi’s gaze returned to me, searching my face as though weighing the truth of my words against the silence of the room.

Then he said something that made my blood run cold.

“There is no woman assigned to that wing.”

The words landed slowly.

He did not accuse me of being mistaken. He did not question my memory. He simply stated a fact.

Meaning-

My breath caught.

Meaning she had never belonged here at all.

“Find her,” Tadashi ordered sharply, turning away from me as the full implication settled into the room. “She cannot have gone far.”

At that exact moment, the door slid open again.

Ai rushed in first, her face pale, eyes scanning the room until they landed on me. She crossed the distance in seconds, her hands gripping my shoulders as if checking to make sure I was real, intact, breathing.

“Naomi!” she breathed. “Are you hurt?”

I shook my head quickly. “I am fine. But—”

Ota and Gio entered behind her, already assessing the space, their expressions grim. Yukito followed last, his eyes going immediately to Tadashi, then to me, and then narrowing with sharp focus.

“What happened?” Yukito asked, his voice tight.

I told them everything. The tea room. The scent. The realization The absence.

Yukito listened without interrupting, his jaw tightening with every word. When I finished, he nodded once and turned toward Tadashi, stepping closer to confer with him in low, urgen tones.

Ai stayed with me, guiding me gently toward a chair when she noticed my hands trembling.

“Sit,” she urged softly. “Please.”

I obeyed, my knees suddenly unsteady now that the adrenaline had begun to drain away.

“A woman?” Ai asked quietly once I was seated.

I nodded. “She brought me there herself.”

Ai’s eyes darkened with understanding-and fear.

“What if you had not noticed?” she murmured. “What if you had drunk it?”

The thought hit me like ice water.

Or worse.

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17:30 Thu, Jan 22 GDD.

Chapter 96

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What if I had offered it to Tadashi?

The image flashed in my mind without mercy: him lifting the bowl, trusting the ritual, trusting the moment, trusting me.

I pressed my hand to my mouth, my breath coming shallow.

“Oh God…”

Ai noticed immediately. She crouched in front of me, her hands warm and steady as she held mine.

“You are safe,” she said firmly. “You are here. Nothing happened.

But we both knew how thin that margin had been.

The sound of a struggle broke through the air.

RUT! RUSB30! (Let me go! Release me!)

I froze.

That voice.

My head snapped up, my heart slamming violently against my ribs.

They dragged her in through the doorway-two guards gripping her arms tightly as she fought them, her composure shattered, her earlier gentleness stripped away to reveal something sharp and furious beneath.

Her gaze found me instantly.

And she smiled.

“I see,” she said in perfect English, her eyes gleaming with satisfaction rather than fear. “The foreign woman is not dead yet.”

The room seemed to tilt.

Ai gasped softly beside me.

I could not move. I could not look away.

She had spoken English deliberately.

Not to communicate.

To make sure I understood.

To make sure I knew.

It had never been Tadashi she was after.

It had always been me.

The realization spread through me slowly, painfully, like ink bledding through paper.

I had been the target.

I had been the problem.

And standing there, restrained and exposed, the woman looked at me as though she were disappointed-not because she had failed, but because I was still breathing.

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17:30 Thu, Jan 22 GDD

Chapter 96

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For the first time since he had woken in that hospital bed, there was no cold judgment in his gaze. No distance. No cruelty. Only something raw and unguarded flickering in his dark eyes.

Confusion.

Shock.

And something dangerously close to wonder.

I was crying openly now, uncaring, my tears falling onto his hands, his shirt, his blood.

“You did not even hesitate,” I choked. “You stepped in front of me. You always do that. You always protect me.”

He did not pull away.

He did not push me aside.

Instead, his uninjured hand lifted slowly, hesitantly, as though unsure of its own intention, and hovered near my cheek.

“You…” he murmured hoarsely.

The word faltered, unfinished.

He had never seen anyone look at him like this before.

As though his pain mattered more than my own.

As though his life was worth more than fear.

As though loving him was as natural as breathing-even when it hurt.

And in that fragile, blood-soaked moment, something inside Tadashi Masayoshi cracked.

Not memory.

But instinct.

And it terrified him more than any enemy ever had.

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17:30 Thu, Jan 22 GDD