Chapter Text
Now that she was back in London, Mary was doing her best to help her daughter acclimate to England. Even if Shuichi and Masumi had both taken after their mother when it came to their physical appearance, Masumi had always been more extroverted than her brother. She had never had any difficulties to make new friends, which might explain why she was already very popular at her new school, despite being there for less than two weeks. However, it was always difficult for a teenager to move to another city. Mary had noticed that her daughter was more stressed than before meeting her brother.
Ever since she arrived in the hotel room that would be their home for the time being, Masumi had tried to hide her anxiety from her mother. She hoped that she hadn’t made things worse for Shuu-nii by following him on that train platform. According to what she had seen of her brother’s colleagues, the man with the bass seemed nice enough, but the man who had called him Scotch left her the impression of being dangerous. She knew her brother was a competent FBI agent, but even he could make mistakes. She had never seen him fail before, but she didn’t know every detail of his life, so he might have done so without her knowing.
Masumi still remembered fondly the week she had spent with her elder brother in the US a few years ago. Shuichi had offered his brother to visit him in the US so that they could celebrate the end of the latter’s studies together. Shukichi had accepted the proposition, glad to see his brother again, and Masumi had insisted to be included in that trip until her mother relented. Shuu-nii couldn’t take a week off, as he was still a fairly new agent in the FBI, but he had negotiated with James so that Masumi could visit the FBI headquarters. The older man had accepted on the condition that Mary didn’t come, as she was an MI6 agent. Masumi didn’t meet her brother’s closest colleagues, but it was nice to be able to know a bit more about where he worked. Even if Shuichi had been reserved when they ate together at different restaurants every night, he had been more relaxed than when Masumi first met him at the beach.
Now, Shuu-nii was in Japan, working for – and with – dangerous people, and he looked very tense. Worst of all, he couldn’t spend time with his younger sister anymore. Masumi wondered if Shuichi had shared his intentions with their brother. Shukichi was the most intelligent person of the family, even if most people always underestimated him when they didn’t know him well enough. He had the ability to memorize even the most difficult things by seeing them only once. It would make sense for Shuichi to reach out to him and ask for advice, which was why Masumi had already called him many times since her departure from Japan. He had told her that their brother hadn’t confided in him at all about his plans, but Shuichi had asked him to ignore him, should their paths cross in Tokyo. Therefore, Shukichi had refrained from contacting his brother for a while, and he wasn’t trying to discover what Shuichi was up to.
Unbeknownst to Masumi, Mary had also called Shukichi in order to have some information about Shuichi’s whereabouts. She had learned nothing new, apart from the fact that Shuichi wanted Shukichi to focus on his passion, shogi, rather than worry about his brother’s mission. Shuichi and Mary were both very proud of the young man, as he was beginning to make a name for himself in the world of shogi. Mary wished that her husband, wherever he was, could see his younger son become a man and achieve his dream. She understood that Shuichi didn’t want his family to fret about him, so she decided to focus on her own mission: find information on her husband.
For many months, while Masumi was at school, Mary would try to think about the places she used to frequent with Tsutomu, then monitor the cameras in the area to try to pinpoint her husband in the videos. Her colleagues from the MI6 also helped her to investigate. Three years went by without finding any clue about her husband. Then, one day, as she was walking near the ice cream parlor they used to go to with their sons, Mary’s heartbeat grew faster and faster. She recognized one of Tsutomu’s berets - the one he had taken with him when he left London to investigate Kouji’s murder in New York - on some man’s head.
Mary called her colleagues very fast to inform them of what she had just seen, and she ran after the man. She couldn’t miss that opportunity to check the identity of the man. As she grabbed his shoulder, the man seemed startled but there was no doubt about him being Tsutomu.