Raizen drifted away from Atman and toward the Ruler's home, letting the fog swallow him. Within three steps, the platform behind him already faded into nothing, and he had to rely on memory and the faint sense of direction to figure out which way to go.

He walked slowly, trying not to look like a person sneaking around. Which was difficult because he was, in fact, a person sneaking around.

"This is wild" Raizen thought, not for the first time. I'm not supposed to be climbing trees like an idiot.

He circled the Ruler's home once, then realized he couldn't actually tell if he'd circled it or just walked in a confused loop around a random trunk with branches.

The fog made everything feel like the same five meters repeating forever.

"Okay. Think." Raizen forced himself to stop, breathe, and listen.

There was a low, constant sound of leaves. The distant creak of Ukai's wooden structure. Somewhere, he could hear water fall. But close by, near the Ruler's home, there was a faint hum of quiet activity - guards shifting, doors clicking, someone's soft footsteps on wood, walking away.

Raizen squinted and moved toward the sounds.

A branch appeared through the fog, lower than the others, thick enough to hold him. It jutted out at an angle like it had always been a ladder and had been waiting for him to notice.

Raizen stared at it like it was a gift.

Then he remembered his ribs.

He'd been running on adrenaline all day, and adrenaline was lying to him. His chest still carried the dull ache of wounds that still weren't fully healed. He was better than he'd been, but "better" didn't mean exactly "fine."

He sighed and grabbed the branch anyway.

The wood was damp under his palm. He pulled himself up, and his ribs immediately protested with a sharp, hot sting that made him suck in air through his teeth.

"Yeah-" Raizen grunted. "Great idea."

He hauled himself onto the branch, paused to breathe, then reached for the next one. The fog made the depth of things look weird. The distance between branches looked shorter than it was, then longer, then short again. His eyes couldn't trust anything.

He climbed carefully, one branch at a time, trying to be quiet. Which was hard because apparently every living piece wood in Ukai liked to creak at the exact moment he shifted weight.

By the time he reached the second branch, his arms were trembling slightly. By the third, his chest felt like it was being squeezed from the inside.

He grimaced and looked upward.

He was almost above the Ruler's window now. The small side window was a darker rectangle in the fog, barely visible, but it was there. A few more meters, and he could lean down and see inside without being seen from the ground.

One more branch.

And… That was the problem.

The next branch was higher, and just far enough that reaching it would mean stretching his whole body out like a stupid flag in the wind. He tested the distance with his eyes, then with his hand, swinging it forward like he was legally blind.

He shifted his weight, and reached even further.

His fingers barely brushed air.

Too far.

Raizen's jaw tightened.

He looked down, then immediately regretted it because the fog below looked like an abyss. There was no ground. No safety. Just darkness and the idea that if he fell, he would experience becoming a pancake.

He took a breath.

Then another, worse than the first.

Then, because he was apparently committed to dying in the dumbest possible way, he jumped.

It wasn't quite… A big, heroic leap. It was a pathetic, desperate lunge that made his ribs flare with pain. His hand reached out, and for a split second there was nothing.

Then his right hand caught the branch.

His left hand slapped onto it half a second later, and relief surged through him so hard he almost laughed.

Until he felt something under his left fingers.

Something small.

Something moving.

Raizen froze.

His brain processed it in one clean, horrifying second.

Bug.

Raizen's entire body recoiled on instinct. His left arm whipped away like it was on fire, and his grip loosened completely.

For a split second he was hanging by his right hand only, chest and ribs hurting, fog yawning below him like a hungry mouth.

Raizen made a sound that sounded like it was a strangled hiss of a homeless cat.

The bug, terrified by the sudden panic, shook off Raizen's hand and fell into the abyss below.

Raizen stared after it with wide eyes, still hanging one-handed like a complete idiot, his right arm shaking.

"You" he whispered at the void, breathless. "You absolute demon."

Then he realized he was still hanging by one single hand.

He scrambled, slapped his left hand back onto the branch, and clung to it with both hands like his life depended on it, which it kind of did.

His heart pounded hard enough to make his chest hurt worse.

When the shaking eased a bit, he forced himself to move. He gritted his teeth, pulled his body upward in a slow, painful muscle-up, and felt every ounce of strain in his ribs.

He ignored it. Of course he did.

He got his chest over the branch, then his stomach, then finally swung one leg up and rolled onto it like a sack of potatoes.

He lay there for a moment, cheek against damp bark, breathing hard.

"This is the mission, huh?" he whispered to himself. "This is the elite stealth operation. Me. Versus insects."

Then he pushed himself upright and crawled along the branch until he was positioned above the window.

He settled with his back against the trunk, one leg hooked for balance. The fog made everything quiet and surreal. He could barely see his own hands, but he could see the window now, and that was enough.

He tucked the knife into his sleeve, then immediately pulled it out again and checked it like it might suddenly decide to do something useful.

Still no red threads.

Raizen exhaled and leaned down carefully.

From this angle, he could see into the room through a small gap between curtain and frame. The view was limited, but it was a view.

…At least he reached a good watching point.

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