“...You... you didn’t contact me because you knew about me and my partner?” he asked.
I frowned. "Partner...? We know that tonight's party was joint planned between you and the ALS, but nothing more than that..."
For some reason, Shivata clamped his mouth shut, looking guilty. His eyes started wandering suspiciously over the ceiling, and he cleared his throat evasively a few times.
I had no idea why the DKB officer would need to react in such an inexplicable way, but Asuna had latched onto something. "Oh-ho," she gloated, stepping past me and pulling back her hood.
"It's all right, Shivata. We just want to know how the party was put together. If you simply tell us that, we won't pry into anything else, and we won’t tell anyone what we learned here.”
That seemed to bring some calm to Shivata's nerves, but the suspicion in his eyes hadn’t disappeared entirely. The tall man leaned forward a bit and grunted, “How can I be sure of that?”
"We just want the party to happen as it was planned. Now, I'm just guessing, but... have you perhaps received a foreboding message from the planner on the ALS side?"
“H-how did you know...?” he asked, stunned.
Asuna took a step forward.
“We’ll help you solve the problem. So will you tell us in more detail? With your ALS counterpart, if possible."
I panicked a bit, thinking she had gone too far, but Shivata's athletic features only contorted with indecision. He grunted, “You're certain you’ll keep our secrets?”
“I swear on my blade," Asuna replied theatrically, which seemed surprisingly effective on Shivata. He nodded his head in defeat and opened his window.
While the DKB member tapped awkwardly at his holo-keyboard, I leaned in toward Asuna and asked, "What in the world just happened?”
The fencer chuckled smugly back at me and whispered, “You’ll find out soon.”
However, when the door opened again three minutes later and a smallish ALS member entered, I still hadn't found my answer.