Over the next three days, Daisy quietly investigated the Yashida family's financial flows. Goods could be fudged and covered up — but numbers couldn't. Bank account transactions left no room for disguise.
In a globally integrated economy, every purchase left a paper trail. Daisy doubted the old Yashida patriarch would withdraw everything in cash and send HYDRA operatives out shopping with duffel bags.
Three days without leaving her room. Selective filtering. Big-data analysis. She found plenty of red flags.
Her conclusion: all the supplies had entered South America. Beyond that, the trail went cold.
The timeline stretched across thirty years. The total volume of goods shipped out was astronomical. Daisy couldn't say with certainty it was HYDRA-related, but something this large demanded attention — she had to give Baldy a heads-up.
Whether the S.H.I.E.L.D. Tokyo field office had been compromised by a HYDRA mole, she suspected it had been. Fortunately, she had Nick Fury's private encrypted line.
The call connected quickly. His voice was heavy. "What is it?"
Daisy laid out everything she'd confirmed.
"Why didn't you go through the local S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison?" Fury asked, genuinely curious.
"I don't trust them."
"...Good. Question everything. You've got the makings of a top-tier operative." The compliment left her slightly bewildered. How does not trusting people make me an elite agent?
"Send me the files. Let me take a look."
Daisy went online and transferred the data to Fury.
Half an hour later, her phone buzzed again.
"Tell me your read on this."
"There's only one explanation for a demand this size," Daisy said. "A secret facility — large population, completely off the grid. That's not really S.H.I.E.L.D.'s jurisdiction, is it?" She added the last part quietly, afraid of triggering a false alarm.
"Not that I know of. Agent Johnson — I need you to get to the bottom of this. Keep Shingen's offer dangling for now, and find out the exact location of that facility."
Fury hung up. From the way he'd spoken, she could tell he wasn't taking it too seriously — the same way he'd once gone days without a word when Dr. Hank Pym was abducted by hostiles.
Why wasn't Baldy treating this as urgent? Maybe they were just looking at the problem from completely different angles. In both her past life and her current one, Daisy had always been a small player — she couldn't feel the elevation of someone who moved pieces on the board.
Still, there was an upside to being off the director's radar: she had room to maneuver. Daisy weighed the pros and cons, then headed back to the Yashida estate.
At the gates, she spotted two people she'd been expecting: the towering Wolverine, and Yukio — a mutant the old Yashida patriarch had summoned to Japan.
Wolverine looked rough. Hollow-eyed, disheveled — hair and beard wild, like something out of the wilderness. Tall and built, with a sharp, wary gaze. A kind of bone-deep exhaustion radiated off him, keeping everyone at arm's length.
Beside him stood a Japanese woman with red hair — round face tapering to a sharp chin. What stood out were her eyes: far more white showing than normal, and she had a habit of rolling them. The moment she noticed Daisy looking, she stared back with a wide, almost bulging glare.
A mutant with a pretty obvious genetic marker. Not a great look. Daisy silently raised an eyebrow. Whatever games Yukio might be playing, Mariko was still far more pleasant to look at. The old man had picked a real prize when he chose his granddaughter's companion.
She walked into the estate without breaking stride. A guard led her to Shingen.
It was almost funny — the old patriarch held the real power, but here, on the Yashida family grounds, it was Shingen who commanded the room. The household staff knew the old master was on his last legs. Naturally, they gravitated toward Shingen Yashida: middle-aged, well-connected in Japan's upper circles, and clearly next in line.
As a guest of the "dying" old master, Wolverine was treated with barely concealed hostility — patted down, questioned, practically harassed. Daisy, by contrast, received nothing but deference. The difference was stark.
This third meeting with Shingen felt different from the first two.
He looked like a man waiting for a verdict. His gaze drifted slightly downward, avoiding direct eye contact, though his tension was plain to see.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. needs you to demonstrate your value," Daisy said. "We need to know where those supplies ultimately ended up."
Leading with his biggest chip, Shingen's eyes flashed with a hard, dark edge.
Daisy acted as though she hadn't noticed and continued. "In exchange, we'll support your rise to the top and guarantee your safety."
After all, the old man was faking his death within the next couple of days — Shingen taking power was a foregone conclusion. The man's constitution was remarkable; even Viper hadn't managed to kill him with her poison, which suggested some form of enhancement. As long as Wolverine didn't run him through at the end, Daisy's promise would fulfill itself.
She had insider knowledge that the patriarch was nearly gone. Shingen, as his son — playing the devoted heir — could read the same signs. Such a breezy promise left him visibly unsatisfied.
Daisy gave a cold smile. "Does Mr. Yashida think I'm young enough to be played with? Those people have stripped Yashida Corporation bare, drained your funds, and undermined everything you've built. Aren't they your enemies? We're sending operatives in to eliminate your enemies and making significant commitments — and all you have to do is share some information. If that isn't a show of good faith, what is?"
The two of them stared each other down, the air crackling — and then, almost in the same instant, they both smiled.
"Miss Johnson is a remarkable talent. S.H.I.E.L.D. truly is full of exceptional people."
"Mr. Yashida has real vision. I have no doubt Yashida Corporation will come back stronger than ever."
With both sides' limits now understood, the atmosphere thawed instantly. A few more pleasantries were exchanged.
Shingen was the urgently motivated party. He had to mobilize every contact he had to pin down the enemy's location — without that leverage, everything else was just hot air.
The Yashida estate fell quiet as night settled in. Shingen had gone to work his network. Mariko tried to find her father to confront him, but he was nowhere to be found — the father-daughter argument from the original timeline never happened, which meant Wolverine never crossed paths with Mariko.
Daisy had no idea the ripple effects of her arrival were quietly reshaping the plot. She lay on the tatami in her yukata, staring at the ceiling, trying to figure out how to get her hands on the Yashida family's cellular research data — maximum gain, zero exposure.
She turned the problem over and over. Sleep wouldn't come.
Just as she was closing her eyes and mentally counting sheep, she heard the shoji screen slide open with a soft rasp.
Light footsteps. A young woman. Something in the frequency of the movement — warm on the surface, with a cold and lethal intent threaded underneath.
The moment the intruder cleared the doorway, she started undressing — a faint rustle of fabric in the dark.
What...? Daisy was briefly thrown. Shingen sent his daughter to keep me company so I don't feel lonely? That makes absolutely no sense.