Kaito first spoke to the emperor without knowing her identity, treating the girl behind a screen as someone who might enjoy an honest story. Friendship continued through forbidden conversations and sparring lessons. Court rules demanded distance, but recognition survived beneath titles that allowed almost no part of her private self to be named.
Tezzeret entered Kyodai’s chamber with a prototype device intended to influence the guardian kami. The experiment failed in its stated purpose and ignited the emperor’s spark. She vanished from Kamigawa without control over where the Blind Eternities carried her, leaving Kyodai distressed and the court without an explanation it could safely publish.
Kaito saw enough to remember the stranger’s metal arm. Light-Paws treated the event as an Imperial matter, but silence felt to him like abandonment disguised as duty. He left Eiganjo determined to identify the intruder and return his friend, even when the palace no longer recognised that search as service.