The unpleasant conversation with Kitami did not leave much gloom in Yui Yuigahama's heart; instead, she felt faintly excited because she had "defended" Kanjuro. She hadn't walked far from the school gate when she saw Kanjuro standing beneath a cherry tree on the street corner, seemingly waiting for someone.
"Kanjuro-kun!" Her eyes lit up, and she quickened her pace, ignoring the discomfort in her knee, and walked over.
"Where did you go just now? You disappeared in the blink of an eye." Kanjuro asked with a gentle smile, his tone mild, yet his deep eyes seemed to have seen through everything already.
Yui Yuigahama chuckled, a little smug: "It was nothing! Just... just some stranger suddenly came up to me and spoke ill of Kanjuro-kun." She pouted, mimicking her dissatisfied tone at the time. "Saying weird stuff like you're dangerous and will hurt me, but I angrily talked back to them!"
Hearing this, Kanjuro appropriately showed a slight surprise, which then melted into deeper tenderness. He reached out and gently stroked Yui Yuigahama's cheek, his fingertips cool to the touch.
"Is that so..." His voice was deep and magnetic, carrying an indescribable intimacy. "You are truly so adorable, my dear Yui. Standing up for me like that."
"W-what are you talking about!" Yui Yuigahama's face instantly flushed crimson, the heat spreading rapidly from her touched cheek to her earlobes. She subconsciously wanted to step back to avoid this overly intimate contact, her heart pounding like a drum. "Don't say things like that... I'll get embarrassed... Besides, we only just met..."
Although she said this, she shifted her feet slightly, intending to create distance, but her wrist was gently held by Kanjuro. The grip wasn't strong, yet it carried an air of inescapability. Yui Yuigahama's struggling motion stopped, and she ultimately didn't pull away, allowing him to lead her, only lowering her head further until even her neck was tinged pink.
(Heh... women, they are all like this, indeed.) A trace of mocking laughter flashed through Kanjuro's heart, accompanied by the cold indifference of one who understood human nature. (Saying one thing and meaning another, playing hard to get. Even if she carries my blood, even if she is my daughter, this fundamental nature hasn't changed in the slightest.)
Watching Yui Yuigahama's shy and implicitly expectant appearance, a subtle disappointment arose deep within Kanjuro. It was too easy... If she completely succumbed this quickly, like a docile lamb, wouldn't this game lose much of its fun? He enjoyed the process of slow corrosion, watching the prey struggle between rationality and surrender.
The night deepened, and the streetlights came on. Kanjuro still held Yui Yuigahama's hand and escorted her home. Unexpectedly, the atmosphere at the Yuigahama house tonight was vastly different from yesterday.
The dining table was set with even more lavish dishes than last night. Yuigahama Yui wore an apron, her face bearing a gentle, almost compliant smile. She was no longer tense and wary like yesterday; her gaze toward Kanjuro was complex and hard to read, but it clearly held less resistance and a little more... fatalistic dependence?
"Kanjuro, thank you for bringing Yui home again today." Yoko said softly while serving the dishes, her tone so natural it was as if he were already a member of the family.
The three of them sat around the dining table, and the atmosphere held a strange harmony. After dinner, Yuigahama Yui cleared the dishes, hesitated for a moment, but couldn't help looking at Kanjuro, her eyes holding a trace of imperceptible pleading and lingering affection: "It's getting late... why don't you stay the night, Kanjuro? I always keep the guest room tidy."
"Eh? S-stay the night?" Yui Yuigahama, who was holding a water glass, nearly choked upon hearing this and looked at her mother in surprise. "Is that okay? After all... Kanjuro-kun is a boy..." Her voice trailed off, and the blush that had just faded from her face reappeared.
"It's fine!" Yuigahama Yui immediately shook her head, interrupting her daughter's doubts with a deliberately manufactured ease. "You child, you really overthink things. Kanjuro is not an outsider." As she spoke, her gaze turned to Kanjuro, carrying a hint of plea, as if anticipating his consent.
Kanjuro looked at the mother and daughter before him—one actively inviting, the other shy and nervous. He elegantly wiped the corner of his mouth, letting his gaze linger for a moment on Yuigahama Yui's face, which was filled with complex emotions, then swept over Yui Yuigahama's flushed cheeks, finally settling into a meaningful, slight smile.
The night gently enveloped the house, and the relationships within were quietly undergoing twisted and profound changes. In the dead of night, the Yuigahama house was shrouded in silence. Kanjuro lay on the guest room's tatami mat, not asleep, but resting with his eyes closed, as if waiting for something.
Sure enough, a faint sound of the sliding door opening was heard, and a figure slipped in silently, carrying the faint scent of a recent bath and a hint of nervousness. It was Yuigahama Yui.
She knelt by Kanjuro's pillow, gazing at his handsome yet indifferent profile by the faint moonlight filtering through the window. The emotions that had accumulated all evening finally breached their dam at this moment.
"Kanjuro..." Her voice trembled, filled with years of longing and suppression. "I know I shouldn't have come... but I couldn't control myself. I haven't stopped thinking about you for a moment all these years."
She began to recount, her voice soft and lingering, as if immersed in fond memories: "Do you remember? Back at Sacred Scripture Academy, everyone said Reika Kitami was inauspicious and told everyone to stay away from her. Only you... only you didn't care about the gossip and still befriended her. I felt back then that you were different from everyone else, so special, so brave..."
Kanjuro still kept his eyes closed, but a cold arc curved at the corner of his mouth.
Seeing his lack of reaction, Yuigahama Yui seemed encouraged and continued to confide, her tone now laced with a hint of guilt and a twisted sweetness: "And Seiga... Yukinoshita Yukino, she was my best friend. But later, I... I went behind her back. She was hospitalized at the time, and I still slept with you..." Her voice dropped, carrying shame, yet strangely mixed with a morbid satisfaction. "I know I wronged her greatly, but... but I really liked you too much. Liked you enough to disregard everything, liked you enough to... betray my best friend."
Her breathing quickened, and her body leaned slightly forward, almost pressing against Kanjuro: "Kanjuro, besides... besides Yui, I can give you anything! My body, my heart, my everything! I am yours... I have nothing to hold back from you!"
Just as she tried to move closer, Kanjuro suddenly opened his eyes. In those eyes, still sharp in the darkness, there was not a trace of emotion, only sheer mockery and coldness.
"Slap!"
A crisp slap landed mercilessly on Yuigahama Yui's face, the force not light, causing her to fall sideways, her cheek stinging painfully.
"If you can't live without my body, just say so," Kanjuro's voice was like ice, carrying undisguised contempt. "Why bother wrapping yourself up in such deep affection? Did you think I didn't know? Your so-called 'love,' in the face of your craving for my body, makes you like an addict, unable to leave me, eternally faithful to me. Truly... a disgusting performance."
Yuigahama Yui covered her face, looking at him incredulously, her emotions a mix of grievance and rage, tears instantly welling up. "Yes! I can't live without you! Just because I can't leave you, does that mean my love isn't real? I love you! Is that wrong?!" She almost screamed the question, her voice particularly piercing in the silent night.
Kanjuro sneered, propping himself up and looking down at her, his eyes like he was viewing a piece of trash. "That's why I said you're fake, Yoko. If you truly 'loved' me as you claim, why are you always trying to demand a response from me? Demand attention? Demand the so-called 'only one' status?"
His words were sharp as knives. "True love? True love should be unconditional, shouldn't it? Then why can't you be a little more honest? For instance, right now, you ran into my room in the middle of the night and lay next to me—isn't that just seeking something else? Seeking the comfort this body gives you, to fill your empty and pathetic soul?"
Every single word he spoke was like a heavy hammer, shattering all of Yuigahama Yui's pretense and self-deception.
She collapsed there, her face pale, her whole body trembling, completely flayed by his analysis. That so-called heartfelt confession seemed so pale and ridiculous under his all-seeing gaze, leaving only the ugly core dominated by desire and curse.
The night was deep, and the only sound left in the room was Yuigahama Yui's suppressed, despairing sobs.
Kanjuro merely lay down again indifferently, turning his back to her, as if the person beside him were just an irrelevant mass of air.
Kanjuro's cold and cutting mockery was like chilling ice water, dousing Yuigahama Yui from head to toe. She slumped on the cold floor, her cheeks swollen and red, tears silently streaming down, her self-respect and deep affection utterly crushed.
However, just in this suffocating despair, Kanjuro suddenly changed the subject, adopting a tone of careless, almost condescending tolerance.
"Forget it," he said lightly, as if the previous cruelty had never occurred. "Women are essentially no different from men; they are all bound by the seven emotions and six desires. Although you are not the kind of soulmate I am looking for—one who can truly understand my darkness and stand beside me overlooking the mortal world..."
He paused, his gaze seemingly penetrating the wall, accurately catching the approaching, slightly hesitant footsteps in the hallway—Yui Yuigahama was getting up in the middle of the night. The corner of his mouth curved into a calculating smirk, and he deliberately made his voice clear and gentle:
"...However, it's impossible for me not to take responsibility for you." He reached out and seemingly gently stroked Yuigahama Yui's swollen cheek, yet the action carried an unmistakable sense of control. "After all, you... gave birth to such a lovely baby girl for me."
This sudden promise of "responsibility" and the mention of their daughter were like a lifeline, instantly pulling Yuigahama Yui back from the edge of the abyss of despair. She could barely believe her ears; immense surprise and the humble joy of recovering something lost overwhelmed her. She forgot the pain, forgot the humiliation, and, like a drowning person clutching driftwood, she sobbed and threw herself into Kanjuro's arms, hugging him tightly, as if trying to melt into his very bones.
"Kanjuro... Kanjuro..." She called his name incoherently, her tears soaking the front of his shirt.
Meanwhile, in the hallway.
Yui Yuigahama rubbed her sleepy eyes, yawning, and was heading to the restroom. However, just as she passed the guest room door, she distinctly heard her mother's voice from inside, tearful yet unusually soft and sticky—"Kanjuro... Kanjuro..."
Following that, there were faint, indescribable sounds of clothing friction and muffled sobs.
Yui Yuigahama's footsteps suddenly halted, her half-finished yawn frozen on her face.
Although she was pure-minded and well-protected, she wasn't a high school student completely ignorant of matters between men and women. This sound... this clearly was... Why?
Why would Kanjuro-kun be in a room with Mom?
And in the middle of the night?
And Mom's voice... sounded so strange?!
A terrifying scene she had never imagined suddenly burst into her mind, shattering her previously innocent worldview. Kanjuro-kun... the gentle, handsome classmate she had developed feelings for... and her mother... "Boom—!"
It was as if a thunderclap had exploded in her mind. Yui Yuigahama's face instantly turned paper-white, completely drained of color. She froze in place, her hands and feet icy cold, her mind blank, forgetting even how to breathe.
(Impossible... this is impossible...)
(I must have misheard, right? I definitely misheard!)
(Mom and Kanjuro-kun... how could they... Sigh)
A massive wave of shock, absurdity, and the panic and revulsion of being betrayed simultaneously by the two people closest to her, swept over her like a tsunami. She instinctively took a step back, hitting the wall behind her with a faint sound.
The sounds inside the guest room immediately ceased.
Yui Yuigahama frantically covered her mouth, forgetting all about the restroom. Like a startled fawn, she turned and stumbled back to her own room, slamming the door shut with a "bang." She slid down the door panel to the floor, her heart pounding wildly, her whole body shaking uncontrollably.
Her entire worldview was completely shattered at that moment by the ambiguous and cruel sounds from outside the door.
Inside the guest room, Kanjuro listened to the sound of hurried footsteps fleeing and the heavy door slam. Feeling the woman in his arms still trembling, immersed in false "tenderness," the dark curve of his lips became even more pronounced.
Destroy, and then rebuild.
That is the most interesting game, isn't it?.
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