--Saturday, July 4, 2172
In the back of a sleek, spacious sedan, Keiko and Yumiko clung to Kai's arms, their heads resting on his shoulders as they chatted about random topics in a warm, loving atmosphere. But Keiko, whose fingers were intertwined with Kai's on her lap, couldn't help but glance at the handsome young man's profile with a hint of concern in her eyes.
Though Kai looked perfectly fine, showing no trace of discomfort, she knew him too well and understood that it was just an act to make them feel at ease and secure. He was someone who overthought everything, so he would never easily accept the relationship she had pushed him into. Combined with what had happened today with the 'ghost,' it was easy to guess the tangled mess that was her beloved's mind.
As Keiko pondered, the car came to a stop, so she and Yumiko prepared to get out, letting Kai be the last to exit. But when she saw a fleeting, reflective, and worried expression on Kai's face as he stepped out—an expression he quickly erased—Keiko clenched her teeth and made a decision. Though she didn't like the idea much, since she loved being the one who understood him best, at that moment, there was only one person who could lighten her Kai's burdens.
That woman who had stolen him before anyone else, something that still angered her to this day and that she only tolerated to avoid worrying her beloved, but at the same time, the one who had opened the door to her current happiness. If there was someone in the family who held the first place in Kai's heart, it was none other than Nemuri. Someone who, despite not fully sharing her beloved's worldview, occupied an unbeatable place in his heart.
"I'm gonna finish something I left pending at the workshop. See you at dinner." Kai said with a calm smile as he got out. Keiko and Yumiko nodded casually before waving him off.
But the moment Kai was far enough away, Yumiko couldn't help but look at Keiko with a mix of panic, guilt, and a hint of regret as they watched him walk toward his forge workshop. His temple for reflection and calm when his heart was restless. With a serious expression, Keiko nodded at Yumiko, then glanced at the house and whispered.
"I'm going to talk to Nemuri."
"We'll go together." Yumiko replied with a serious and determined tone. Keiko nodded, and they walked toward the house together.
…
…
…
Standing in front of the forge workshop door, Nemuri looked at Keiko and Yumiko behind her, then nodded to them and slowly opened the doors. As a wave of heat hit her forcefully, Nemuri took a step forward. Immediately after, she closed the doors behind her, her gaze fixed on the young man hammering a piece of metal against an anvil with a giant hammer, his expression focused.
Without saying a word, Nemuri walked toward the focused Kai amid the resounding clash of metal, then tied a bandana she had brought around her head and picked up a pair of long tongs from a table. With the tongs in hand, Nemuri stood in complete silence as Kai hammered until soon, the young man set the massive hammer on the ground. As if it were a signal, Nemuri picked up the hot, elongated piece of metal with the tongs and carried it to the furnace.
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Kai set aside the tongs in his left hand and picked up a small brush nearby to 'sweep' the anvil. Soon, Nemuri placed the red-hot piece of metal back on the anvil, which Kai gripped with his own tongs before starting to hammer in silence. Without either of them saying a word, time passed, and soon the elongated piece of metal began to take the shape of a kitchen knife.
After inspecting the knife with one eye to check if it was straight, Kai began hammering it with a smaller hammer to correct minor imperfections. At that moment, he spoke in a calm, almost resigned voice.
"I… I slept with Keiko and Yumiko…"
"I know."
Nemuri replied in a steady voice, looking at her beloved with eyes full of tenderness. Kai let out a heavy sigh, set his hammer aside, and looked into Nemuri's eyes, speaking seriously.
"I'm sorry."
"You don't have to apologize for anything." Nemuri stepped forward and hugged Kai, then added in a sweet, almost maternal voice. Kai shook his head and spoke in a heavy tone.
"I do… I thought I was better than this, but in the end, I'm just like everyone else. I gave in to temptation. Even though I set the rules, even though I know Momo and Nejire could get hurt, without consulting anyone, I did it… In the end, I'm nothing more than a rat…"
"You're not! You didn't do anything wrong! It was our fault! We planned everything! I planned everything!"
Upon hearing Kai call himself that, Nemuri's expression paled considerably and almost in a panic, she held Kai tightly and declared loudly, her heart constricting as guilt knotted her throat. But without letting Kai say another word, Nemuri continued.
"Do you remember what Nejire whispered to me that day at the secret house? She said she wanted to have her first time with Yumiko, and I thought it was the sexiest idea in the world. That's why I started planning how to make it happen, since there was a chance. We had all already noticed that Keiko had those intentions and that Yumiko looked at you with 'those' eyes, so we'd been talking about it for a while and were okay with it. But since we knew you might not agree, we avoided bringing it up.
"But when I still didn't have a solid plan, Momo told me that Keiko had confessed her feelings for you to her and that she was okay with it but didn't know if she should talk to you about it since Keiko had asked her to keep it a secret for a while. The very next day, Keiko came to me and told me her plan to 'win you over,' so the girls and I discussed it, and after a vote, we agreed to support her.
"That's why Nejire became so 'proactive'—she was following my advice. That's why, even though today was such an important day for Yumiko, the day the company would finally be back in her hands, the day that painful chapter of her life closed, only you went with her. The Pussycats took a mission in another province, even though it wasn't urgent, as an excuse not to go. Momo, Nejire, me—we all came up with excuses.
"Our idea was to give you time alone so Keiko would have the chance to shake things up, something we knew could happen because, despite all our efforts, we know you're not satisfied at night. That's why we deliberately delayed including Tomoko in our nights together, so you could 'let loose' with Keiko and Yumiko later. But I'm so sorry; I let myself get blinded by lust. I didn't think about your feelings; I didn't think about what something like this could do to you… Forgive me, Kai, I'm so sorry… I betrayed you again…"
As she explained, tears began to well up in Nemuri's eyes. Soon, she started to sob, eventually breaking down and crying like a little girl while clinging to Kai's chest. She truly regretted it, knowing how much 'betrayal' meant to Kai and how devastated he must be feeling now for being a 'traitor' himself. But as everything unfolded, she did nothing to stop it.
And that wasn't the worst part, because she even encouraged it by giving Nejire advice on how to seduce Kai, to keep him aroused and 'lower his defenses.' She told Keiko how to dress, what underwear to wear, and even what to say and when to say it to turn him on completely. She even helped the others come up with perfect excuses that wouldn't make Kai suspicious. More than Keiko, she was the one to blame for everything. She had hurt her Kai in pursuit of satisfying her twisted perversions.
"…Don't cry… I'm the bad guy here. Even with everything you did, I should have stayed firm… But I failed. I failed myself…" Kai hugged Nemuri and comforted her with a soft voice, which only made her cry even more uncontrollably.
"No… You didn't do anything wrong… It was me… It's all my fault… I did it. I caused everything… I should have talked to you, but I was dying to see you with a mother and her daughter… I'm a disgusting pervert, the worst woman in the world… I ended up hurting you again… I don't deserve you…"
"It's okay… Don't cry and don't talk about yourself like that… I'm the weird one. Any man in the world would be jumping for joy in my position… Only I find problems in paradise… I'm sure anyone would curse me to high heaven if they saw me right now…" Kai said in a gentle, comforting voice while softly stroking Nemuri's back, though she couldn't stop crying.
"I don't care what others think… I care about what you think, and I hurt you… And the worst part is I never stopped to think about it… I just kept going without considering your feelings… I'm disgusting; I don't deserve you…"
"Then let's say we're a perfect match, a pervert and a hypocritical rat…" Kai replied in a soft voice. This made Nemuri lift her head, cup Kai's cheeks in her hands, look straight into his eyes, and declare between sobs.
"Never say that… You're a wonderful man, the love of my life… Everything that's happened up to now is my fault… I raised you; I know you, you'd never do anything wrong on purpose… It's the world that pushes you to act badly…"
"That's not true… I'm not as good as you think… In reality, I'm a 'villain.'" Kai said with a self-deprecating smile. Nemuri replied in a serious and solemn tone.
"You're not. Not wanting to save the world doesn't make you a villain. I know you're not a hero to the world, but you're not a villain."
"…" Kai fell silent but ultimately couldn't hold Nemuri's firm, sincere gaze. He looked up at the ceiling and spoke in a bitter voice.
"I am… I've done terrible things behind your backs."
"You're talking about the disappearance of Spotlight and Kanamori? It was you, wasn't it, Kai? You killed them."
Nemuri said in a serious tone, causing Kai to lower his head and look at her in shock. Nemuri smiled with a hint of bitterness, then continued in a serious tone, looking directly into Kai's eyes.
"I knew. I've known for a long time. From the start, I suspected they might have been involved in the attack because they were close; one was a jealous, two-faced guy, and the other was obsessed with money. So I started investigating them secretly and indirectly. But one day, Spotlight 'retired,' and no one knew what happened to him—not even the authorities could find him. Then Kanamori disappeared.
"From that moment, I had my suspicions because I know you. If I suspected them, you would too, but you never said a word, as if you'd completely forgotten about them, which isn't like you. The more time passed, the more certain I became because no one found even the smallest clue about their whereabouts, as if the earth had swallowed them up. And I only know one person smart and decisive enough to do something like that—you.
"I know that while you can be the brightest light in my life, you're also impulsive, vengeful, and ruthless. Even when you were a child, you didn't hesitate for a moment to try to ruin people's lives just because you didn't like how an anime turned out, and you never felt guilty or apologized for it. You're as 'bright' as you are 'dark,' just like Alisa-san in that sense.
"But even knowing all that, I fell in love with you, even though it went against my values and principles, against my dream of being a heroine. And honestly, I'm no better. I fell in love with a child, someone who was like my little brother—no, even worse, like my son—and practically, no, literally, I raped you like the worst kind of pedophile. I'm a filthy, immoral pervert, a disgrace of a hero who should be in prison, but here I am, enjoying my love and perversion with the man I love.
"But even though I'm that kind of woman, there's one thing I'm 100% sincere about. I love you, Kai, from the deepest part of my heart. I love you, not the idea I have of you or what you make me feel. I love you, this ambivalent man who can be the best man in the world, protect me from all harm, and make me the happiest woman in the universe, while also being capable of killing in cold blood for revenge.
"I never confronted you about it because at first, it was hard for me to process, and then I accepted it and decided to play dumb because, selfishly, I didn't want our relationship to change. I was happy, and I wanted it to stay that way. But I want you to know that I'm your woman in body, heart, and soul. Just as I bask in your light, I'm also willing to sink into your deepest darkness. Whatever happens in the future, I'll stay by your side. I'll be with you until the last day of my life."
After speaking, Nemuri leaned in and gave a deep kiss to the stunned Kai, who seemed to doubt reality itself. The kiss seemed to snap him out of his strange dream. When Nemuri ended the kiss, still looking into Kai's eyes, he couldn't help but speak in a somewhat odd voice.
"Well, actually… They're not actually dead… Though they might wish they were."
"Huh?"
***
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