However, in that suffocating silence, the playful smile on his face gradually faded, replaced by an unfathomable calm.
Both Mrs. Hikitani in his arms and Komachi Hikigaya snuggling by his side sensed the subtle change in his aura.
"What's wrong? Husband?" Mrs. Hikitani looked up at him dependently, her eyes filled with absolute trust.
"Dad Kanjuro?" Komachi Hikigaya also called out timidly; her altered cognition filled her with a distorted sense of closeness and fear toward Kanjuro.
Kanjuro didn't answer them. His gaze fell on Komachi Hikigaya with a scrutiny that was almost cold. Then, he lightly and casually snapped his fingers.
"Snap."
The crisp snap of his fingers was like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, instantly whipping up a monstrous wave in Komachi Hikigaya's mind!
The power of the Authority that had forcibly overwritten her cognition and woven false memories suddenly receded like a tide. The suppressed, distorted real memories, carrying all the bloody, horrific, and painful details, rushed back into her consciousness frantically!
The tragic sight of her father's neck being pierced by tentacles and his head torn off... the demonic figure of Kanjuro walking into the house carrying her father's head... the strange appearance of her mother snuggling up to their enemy after her memory was altered... her own helpless struggle and her brother's heart-wrenching roar when she was forcibly embraced and taken into the bedroom... and... and what had just happened in the bedroom, that violation of morality that made her soul tremble... everything, every detail, pierced her brain with sharp clarity in an instant!
"Ah——!!!"
Komachi Hikigaya let out a scream of extreme agony and suddenly recoiled from Kanjuro's side as if she had touched a red-hot iron. She stumbled back until her back hit the cold wall. She clutched her head tightly with both hands, her body trembling violently. The look in her eyes, previously one of confused obedience, was instantly replaced by immense pain, unbelievable shock, and deep-seated hatred.
She looked up, tears gushing out like a dam breaking. Her blurred vision locked onto Kanjuro's still-calm face, her voice distorted by extreme pain and anger:
"This... is this your so-called game?! Kanjuro!! You monster!! Demon!!!"
She finally understood that from the very beginning, the so-called "game" was a complete, cruel fraud!
Hachiman Hikigaya, slumped on the sofa, was also stunned by this sudden turn of events. Seeing his sister suddenly regain her senses and look so grief-stricken, his mind was in a mess. He couldn't understand why Kanjuro would tear open this bloody truth after giving them the deepest despair. "Wh... why is this happening?" he muttered to himself, his voice hoarse.
Facing Komachi's accusations and Hachiman's confusion, Kanjuro instead showed a very slight, spine-chilling smile. He turned his gaze toward Hachiman Hikigaya, his tone actually carrying a hint of persuasive "gentleness," as if he were teaching an ignorant child:
"Hachiman Hikigaya, actually, from the very beginning, I was testing you." His voice echoed clearly in the dead-silent living room. "Testing whether you were willing to let go of your prejudice and truly trust me. I gave you a chance, showed 'goodwill,' and even visited your home, behaving like a perfect guest."
His tone gradually grew cold, carrying a hint of regretful mockery:
"And you? You chose not to trust. You hid in the shadows, scrutinizing me with eyes of fear and suspicion, convicting me in your heart. Since you were unwilling to trust me, then naturally, I must 'repay' you and your family. Those are the rules."
His gaze swept back to Komachi, who was curled up in pain:
"As for Komachi... this was indeed a 'game' she and I played before. She naively believed I wasn't a bad person, so I let her experience for herself exactly what kind of things the 'good person' she trusted could do."
"No!!!" Komachi Hikigaya let out a blood-curdling cry, her tear-stained face filled with remorse and despair. "I regret it! I regret it!! If I had known it was this kind of game, I wouldn't have chosen it even if I died!! Give me back my father!! Give me back my mother!! Give me back my original life!!!"
Looking at her breakdown, Kanjuro slowly shook his head, his eyes as cold as ten-thousand-year-old ice:
"You didn't have the right to not choose, Komachi. From the moment you said 'I believe you are a good person,' the game had already begun. You personally handed me... the key to toy with your fate."
He took a step forward, closing in on Komachi who was nearly collapsing on the floor. His voice was low and cruel as he asked the ultimate, heart-piercing question:
"Now, I have killed your father, altered your mother's cognition, and defiled your body and soul... Tell me, Komachi, how do you 'view' me now? How do you still... 'believe' in me?"
Komachi Hikigaya was completely crushed by this question.
She looked at the being before her, as handsome as a deity yet with a heart darker than a demon's. She looked into those eyes that seemed capable of swallowing all light. All words were stuck in her throat, leaving only boundless, suffocating pain and despair. She collapsed to the floor, her tears soaking the cold ground, her body twitching violently from immense grief, yet she couldn't even make a sound.
The final answer of the game was presented before her and Hachiman Hikigaya in the bloodiest, most cruel way.
Trust did not bring salvation, but a hell from which there was no return.
And Kanjuro, the creator and master of this game, just stood there quietly like an indifferent spectator, appreciating this tragedy of ultimate human sorrow that he had directed. Komachi Hikigaya slumped on the ground; through her tear-blurred vision, she saw Kanjuro's face, as featureless and ripple-free as a cold sculpture. Immense guilt and despair almost tore her apart—it was she who had invited the wolf into the house, she who naively believed in this demon, leading to the tragedy of her father's brutal death, her mother's manipulation, and her family's collapse! And now, even her brother... When she saw Kanjuro slowly rise and walk toward Hachiman Hikigaya, who sat on the sofa like a walking corpse, a fear stronger than what she felt during her own violation seized her. She scrambled forward, clutching Kanjuro's leg tightly, looking up with a tear-streaked face full of pleading, her voice shattered:
"No... don't! Kanjuro! I beg you! Don't kill my brother! It's all my fault! It's all my fault!! If you want to kill someone, kill me! Let him go! I beg you!!"
Kanjuro stopped and looked down at her. There was no pity in his eyes, only a hint of playfulness, as if seeing a toy produce the expected reaction. He sighed softly, his tone even carrying a bit of disappointment:
"Komachi, can't you afford to play this game? It's only halfway through, and you want to call it off?"
"I didn't know... I didn't know the game was like this!!" Komachi cried out in a breakdown. If she had known the so-called "game" used the flesh and souls of her loved ones as stakes, she would rather have never known Kanjuro.
"It's alright," Kanjuro's voice suddenly became exceptionally "gentle" again. He leaned down, lifting Komachi's chin with his finger, forcing her to look into his bottomless eyes. "You still have a chance. One last chance."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over the lifeless Hachiman Hikigaya on the sofa, and spoke as if delivering a sentence:
"This chance is—whether your brother's life can be saved depends on your next choice."
"Komachi! Don't listen to him!!" Hachiman Hikigaya suddenly looked up and roared hoarsely. The last flicker of flame burned in his eyes—a determination to die rather than let his sister be manipulated further. "Let him kill me! He's a monster! He'll only torture us in even more cruel ways! Don't agree to anything he says!!"
Hachiman Hikigaya saw through it; Kanjuro's "chances" were always deeper traps.
But as Komachi looked at her brother's desperate yet concerned gaze and heard him say he'd rather die to protect her, her heart felt like it was being twisted by a knife. She had already lost her father, and her mother had become a stranger; her brother was her last relative! She couldn't watch her brother die!
She looked up at Kanjuro, lost and desperate, like a drowning person clutching at a final straw, and asked with a trembling voice: "Kanjuro... tell me... what do I... have to do to save my brother?"
Looking at her eyes that still held a hint of pleading naivety, Kanjuro shook his head helplessly, his expression as if lamenting a student who just wouldn't learn.
"Komachi, you're still not very smart." His voice carried a hint of persuasion, yet it was bone-chillingly cold. "I said from the beginning, the end of the game isn't necessarily bad; it depends on you. I said at the very end, you still have a chance to change everything... why don't you understand even now?"
His words were like a mist, trapping Komachi firmly. Change everything? A chance? Now that her father was dead, her mother controlled, and she herself disgraced, what chance was there to change anything?
Kanjuro seemed to have completely lost his patience. The last trace of "gentleness" on his face vanished, leaving only pure indifference as he looked down at the struggles of common mortals.
"Fine." He straightened up, his tone disinterested. "This game isn't fun at all. I have been searching for something... but you cannot see it."
The meaning in his words was incomprehensible to anyone, as if this tragedy were merely a boring diversion in some grand pursuit of his.
Then, he reached out and, quick as lightning, seized Hachiman Hikigaya by the neck, lifting him off the sofa like a chick! Hachiman's feet left the ground, his face instantly turning purple from lack of oxygen. His hands feebly clawed at Kanjuro's iron-grip hand, but he couldn't budge it an inch.
"Ugh...!" He let out a painful whimper.
"No!!" Komachi Hikigaya let out a piercing scream.
Kanjuro didn't immediately crush Hachiman Hikigaya's throat. Instead, he turned to look at Mrs. Hikitani, who stood quietly to the side, her eyes hollow and filled with nothing but absolute obedience to him. His voice was flat as he issued the ultimate, dehumanizing command:
"Take the knife and kill him."
Mrs. Hikitani did not hesitate, and there was not even a ripple on her face. Like a robot receiving a program, she turned and walked into the kitchen, returning a moment later with a gleaming kitchen knife. Her eyes still looked at Kanjuro with attachment, as if what she was about to do was as ordinary as preparing dinner for him.
Step by step, she walked toward Hachiman Hikigaya, who was being strangled by the throat by Kanjuro and struggling desperately.
"Mom... no... don't..." Hachiman Hikigaya watched his own mother walk toward him with a sharp blade, his eyes filled with a fear and despair deeper than death.
"Mom!! Don't!! He's my brother! He's your son!!" Komachi Hikigaya cried out heart-wrenchingly, trying to rush over, but she was firmly bound in place by an invisible force, only able to watch helplessly as this human tragedy moved toward its final chapter.
Mrs. Hikitani stopped in front of Hachiman Hikigaya and raised the kitchen knife high. The cold blade reflected the light with a chilling gleam.
Kanjuro gripped Hachiman Hikigaya's neck, looking on coldly as if displaying a sacrificial offering.
The final conclusion of the game, in the most cruel and perverse way, was about to draw to a close. In Komachi Hikigaya's pupils were reflected the blade swung by her mother and her brother's look of total, gray despair... Her world, at this moment, completely collapsed and shattered into nothingness. Just as the cold kitchen knife in Mrs. Hikitani's hand was about to swing down, severing the last thread of blood and hope—
Time seemed once again to be captured by an invisible force.
Mrs. Hikitani's movements froze in mid-air, the blade halting only an inch from Hachiman Hikigaya's neck, unable to descend further. Her face still wore a look of hollow obedience, like a machine with its pause button pressed.
It was Kanjuro.
His hand gripping Hachiman Hikigaya's throat did not loosen, but his other, free hand merely twitched a finger. The authority originating from the [gospel of luke] then forcibly froze this final slaughter.
In the entire living room, only Hachiman Hikigaya's heavy gasping from suffocation and fear remained, along with... Komachi Hikigaya's tearful accusation, sounding like a cuckoo weeping blood.
She no longer looked at the suspended blade or her dying brother; instead, she turned all her tears, all her pain, and all her remaining strength into a gaze directed at Kanjuro, who seemed like both a god and a demon.
"Why... why did it turn out like this, Brother Kanjuro!!" Her voice was hoarse, yet it carried a pure power that pierced through all hypocrisy and darkness. "The Brother Kanjuro I knew... was clearly so gentle and such a good person at first!! You would buy me toys in the shopping street, you would listen to me patiently, you would smile at me... It was because of that you that I was willing to believe you, that I agreed to play this game with you!!"
Her tears surged down, mixed with endless grievance and confusion.
"I... I never imagined... the game would be like this... that it would be so painful, so cruel!! Watching Dad... watching Mom... watching Brother... and myself..." She choked up so much she could hardly continue, her body trembling violently.
But she wiped her tears away forcefully and forced herself to look up. Those eyes, washed by tears, actually emanated a strange, almost holy and unyielding light amidst the extreme pain. She looked directly into Kanjuro's eyes, which were as deep as an abyss, and questioned him with all the strength of her soul:
"But... but even now, I don't understand, Brother Kanjuro!! Why are you doing this?! You killed Dad, you made Mom like this, you want to kill Brother... you've destroyed everything of ours... in the end, what can you possibly gain?!"
There was no hatred or curse in her voice, only a deep, almost childlike confusion and sadness.
"Power? Pleasure? Satisfaction? Are these... really what you want?"
"In my heart... I don't want to hate you at all... really... even though you've done such terrible things to me... I... I can't bring myself to hate you..."
These words, like the lightest yet heaviest feather, fell into the dead air. Even Hachiman Hikigaya, who was struggling nearby, was stunned, looking at his sister in disbelief.
"I just... I just hope..." Komachi's voice lowered, carrying a final trace of humble, pure pleading, as if it were the final cry of her soul. "Brother Kanjuro... can you... stop? Just end it here... okay? Please..."
"You idiot!! You still believe this piece of human trash even now!!" Hachiman Hikigaya roared with his last bit of strength, his voice filled with the despair of seeing his sister fail to learn. He could not understand why, even at this stage, his sister could say things like "I don't want to hate you."
However, Kanjuro's reaction exceeded everyone's expectations.
He did not laugh at Komachi's "stupidity," nor did he get angry at Hachiman's cursing.
His hand that was gripping Hachiman Hikigaya's throat actually... slowly let go.
"Cough! Cough, cough!!" Hachiman Hikigaya fell to the floor, clutching his neck and coughing violently, greedily gasping for air while looking at Kanjuro with suspicion and uncertainty.
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