CHAPTER - 173 - GATHERED_PIECE_[1]! /14.2/

Nakano's fingers flicked across the transparent display, shifting the log files from one screen to the next. Shadows from the flickering holos danced across the tired, grim faces gathered in her fortified living room — the air thick with the acrid smell of old smoke from Kuroyami's lingering shadows.

The room had felt too tight ever since she'd uttered that single word: traitor.

But no one could look away. No one dared interrupt her now.

Nakano's voice was steady — the kind of calm that only made the truth feel sharper.

"I told you there was more. The rest of the drive makes something else very clear," she said, tapping her nail on a digital page scrawled with Goto Gaya's personal logs. "From the very beginning — from the first moment she met Ichinose Itsuki — Goto was already acting under Priest's orders."

Itsuki's fists curled in his lap. The usually slick ex-pilot looked gaunt under the harsh glow of the projection.