Chapter 107: Kikyo Kushida's Tears, The First Embrace (Two-in-One 5k) (Patreon)

Night had fallen deep. Naruse led Kikyo Kushida forward, and neither of them said a word the whole way.

At the door of Room 905, Naruse pulled out his key, unlocked it, and stepped aside to let Kushida walk in.

"Get in."

His tone was cold, edged with something close to a command. He'd decided he was going to teach Kushida a lesson tonight.

Kushida hesitated for about a second. She knew perfectly well Naruse hadn't invited her in to take advantage of her, but it still put her on edge.

"What, you want me to shove you in from behind?"

"No need." Kushida stepped inside. Truth be told, if Naruse hadn't been holding her secret over her, she never would have been this cooperative.

Once inside the living room, Naruse flipped on the light. The white fluorescent tube on the ceiling flickered to life, lighting every corner of the room. He walked over beside the sofa and gestured for Kushida to sit down too.

Her body language was compliant enough, but inwardly Kushida stood firm — if nothing else, she was determined not to let her expression give ground.

Once Kushida had sat down, Naruse remained standing, looking down at her from above.

"So. I'll give you one more chance. You can answer my question now."

Hearing that, Kushida kept up a puzzled expression, as if to say she had no idea what he meant.

"Naruse-san, what are you even talking about? Is this really why you dragged me to your dorm?"

"I've warned you more than once already. You really are a foolish woman."

Naruse snapped, then went on.

"With me holding your secret over you, does it bother you enough that you decided to stir up trouble for me?"

In the next instant he moved — fast. He closed the distance to the sofa in an eyeblink, one hand landing precisely on Kushida's shoulder, and shoved her straight down onto the carpet.

Thump!

Her back hit the soft carpet. It didn't hurt, but the sheer sense of being overpowered sent a shiver through her whole body.

The next moment Naruse leaned in closer. He moved his right hand off her shoulder and pressed it firmly against her chest instead. With that spot pinned down, no matter how hard she strained, she couldn't sit back up.

The distance between them suddenly shrank to barely ten centimeters.

Kushida could see clearly the coldness in his eyes. She asked, almost reflexively,

"What are you doing?"

"Heh." Naruse gave a cold laugh, ignoring her question, and pressed on instead.

"I know Sakura's personality pretty well, actually."

The answer had come easily to him — after all, aside from himself, the only other person who'd ever been alone with Airi Sakura was Kushida.

"Even if she worked up the courage to do something, it would've taken her ages to prepare herself for it mentally."

"The fact that she made up her mind so fast means somebody had to be pushing her along."

Kushida's eyes went wide the moment she heard that.

"Besides me, you're the only one who was ever alone with Sakura that day."

"Do I really have to interrogate you before you'll answer?"

His voice turned colder still.

The pressure of his hand grew heavier by degrees. Kushida felt as though a boulder were crushing down on her; even breathing became difficult.

"You... what exactly do you want from me? I just gave her an idea, that's all. Doesn't she like you anyway?"

Kushida's 'little angel' mask had slipped. Pinned down as she was, her expression had turned just as cold as his.

"If she does something like that, aren't you the one who benefits? Naruse-san, you really do like to play innocent after getting exactly what you wanted."

"Insolent!"

Naruse reacted in an instant, slamming his free hand down on the sofa right beside Kushida's head.

Crack!

The blow landed right next to her ear, the smack of palm against leather sofa loud enough that her whole body jolted, every hair on her body standing on end.

"What exactly are you trying to do?"

Naruse ignored her outburst. His right hand slid slowly upward and closed around Kushida's throat.

"Have you been playing the class's 'Little Angel' for so long you actually think everyone can be pushed around at your whim?"

His voice dropped low, and his expression sharpened into something fierce.

"Me treating you gently doesn't mean I let everything slide. What you did might've worked out fine for me, but you completely ignored how Sakura herself would feel about it."

With his hand around her throat, Kushida's despair climbed to a whole new level.

His grip wasn't tight yet, but the sensation of having her most vital point held, her very life seemingly in someone else's hands, soaked her back in cold sweat.

It was the first time she'd ever been in a situation like this.

She was genuinely starting to feel afraid.

"Ever since I found out your secret, I've kept my end of the deal properly — I haven't told a soul."

"Do you really think—"

"—that you can provoke me again and again and I'll just let it go every time?"

His fingers tightened a fraction more, wringing a near-suffocated whimper out of her.

"Sakura does like me, that's true, but your prodding piled a lot of pressure onto her. Not everyone can casually blurt out a confession — for someone like Sakura, that took everything she had."

"Once a confession's out, there's no taking it back. I'm sure Sakura agonized over it, weighed everything, before she finally worked up the nerve."

"And you... did you even think about that when you were feeding her ideas?"

"Or were you just in it for the entertainment?"

His voice grew colder still. With someone like Kushida, playing nice never worked. There was only one way to make her behave.

A proper beating-down.

"Do you understand now?"

"Exactly how you're supposed to deal with me."

Feeling the hand at her throat slowly tighten, Kushida suddenly grasped something terrifying.

After struggling to break free several times, she realized his one hand alone was enough to hold her as fast as a set of shackles.

In that moment, her life and death truly hung on nothing more than a single thought of his.

Staring death in the face shattered every ounce of her pride and pretense in an instant.

Her hands and feet thrashed wildly. With her throat gripped shut, she couldn't get out a complete sentence, but by then all she wanted was to beg for mercy.

"S-sorry, Naruse-san, I— I was wrong!"

Naruse studied her face, gone pale with fear, and continued.

"I hope you remember exactly how tonight feels. I've made myself perfectly clear."

He tightened his hand once more, draining what little color remained from her face.

"Do right by me and I'll keep your secret safe. If there's ever a problem you can't handle, you can come find me too."

"But—" Naruse looked coldly at her face.

"Don't provoke me."

"Whatever darkness lives in your personality, whatever skill you have for playing people — none of it poses the slightest threat to me."

"If you ever dare pull something like this again, I'll show you what a real hell on earth looks like."

With that last line, Naruse finally let go.

The instant she was free, Kushida curled in on herself, both hands clutching her throat, gulping down air in great heaving breaths.

Like a fish stranded on the sand, finally shoved back into the sea.

After a while, once her breathing and emotions had settled, she looked up at Naruse with a face full of grief and fury.

She touched her own throat, and a wave of anger and resentment surged up all at once.

Then—

the girl broke down crying.

It wasn't some calculated performance of tears. It was real — she'd genuinely cracked.

Fat tears slid from her eyes, ran down her cheeks to her chin, and dripped into her collar.

Drop after drop, like beads spilling from a broken string.

"You bastard, couldn't you have just said it properly?"

"You bully!"

Naruse looked at Kushida's tear-streaked face, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

Honestly, he was starting to crack a little too.

His 'interrogation' had been harsh in tone, sure, but he wasn't some sadist — at its core, all he'd wanted was to give her a good scare.

With [Combat Mastery] at his command, he'd kept his strength precisely measured the whole time; there'd never been any real chance of hurting her.

Still, watching her suddenly burst into tears left him a little awkward.

So he cleared his throat, faking composure.

"Just... as long as you know you were wrong, that's fine."

He got up, grabbed a box of tissues off the little wooden table beside him, and made to hand it to her.

Except the next instant, Kushida suddenly lunged at him.

She moved like a cat bolting out of a corner, shoving him straight down onto the floor.

Then her fists came down like rain on his chest and shoulders.

"You bastard!"

"How dare you bully me! I'll kill you!"

Straddling his chest, Kushida kept pummeling him — her punches weren't strong, but they came fast and relentless.

Even as she hit him, her tears never stopped.

Naruse felt the warmth on his chest, Kushida's tears dripping down onto his face.

All he could do was sigh, resigned, and reach out to pat her gently on the back.

"Okay, okay. As long as you don't screw up again, I won't do this again."

That's what he said, but once Kushida ran out of steam, she just collapsed onto his chest and kept crying.

They say women are made of water — this one cried for a solid five minutes.

When she finally finished, Kushida sat up off him at last.

She wiped her tears away with her sleeve, her eyes swollen red from crying, the tip of her nose faintly pink.

"Cried it all out?"

"I'm done crying!"

Kushida climbed off him and shot him a glare.

"That's enough, then. Learn your lesson from this. It's late — go back to your dorm, I need to rest."

Kushida said nothing more. She smoothed out her wrinkled clothes and walked out without a backward glance.

Thud. The door shut behind her.

Naruse looked at the closed door, then glanced down at his own chest.

His t-shirt was soaked through.

He sniffed at himself. Great — on top of Airi Sakura's scent, now he'd picked up Kushida's too, from being pressed together with her just now.

"Time for a shower."

Naruse peeled off his shirt, shaking his head helplessly.

What an exhausting day.

Meanwhile, once Kushida stepped out of Naruse's dorm, she walked fast, reaching the elevator door in no time.

Her pace was hurried, but what raced even faster was her heartbeat.

Thump-thump-thump!

The reason it was pounding so hard traced back to being pressed against Naruse just moments ago.

Her emotions were a tangled mess, and her face was still a little flushed.

Truth be told, she'd actually stopped crying during those last two minutes.

Once she'd calmed down, she hadn't gotten up right away — she just felt too embarrassed.

It had been ages since she'd last let her guard shatter like that; just now, she'd stopped caring about anything at all.

That was why she'd stayed sprawled on top of him instead of getting up — she needed a moment to collect herself. If he'd looked at her, he definitely would have laughed.

Looking back on it now, Kushida realized that time spent sprawled on Naruse's chest was actually the closest she'd ever been to a boy.

His chest had been broad and warm, his heartbeat steady and strong, every beat carrying clearly to her ear.

The hand patting her back had been gentle, the kind of touch that made you want to relax on instinct.

That feeling was utterly foreign to Kushida.

She'd grown up used to facing every problem alone; the masked version of herself had never needed a man's comfort.

But this time was different — a first.

That bastard had had his hand around her throat just moments ago, threatening and terrifying her — and then in the end he'd soothed her, held her, patted her back.

"Bastard!"

The sheer contradiction of it all left her mind in a state of chaos she'd never felt before.

She didn't know how to define what she felt for Naruse.

Did she hate him? Not really, not that much.

Was she afraid of him? A little, sure.

But beyond that... what else was there?

Walking down the corridor, Kushida reached out and pressed the elevator button, muttering under her breath.

"It's all that bastard Naruse's fault!"

"I will never let this go!"

She rubbed hard at her swollen eyes, took a deep breath, and shoved down the whole tangled mess of feelings inside her, at least for now.

By the time she stepped into the elevator, the smile was already back on her face.

By the time she reached the girls' dormitory floor, she was once again everyone's beloved 'Little Angel,' Kikyo Kushida.

Time slipped by, and soon the last week of June arrived.

At six o'clock after school, Naruse finally finished his last set of the day at the gym.

He set the barbell back on the rack with a steady hand, a dull metallic clang ringing out.

Sweat trickled down his forehead and temples. He glanced at the equipment around him, then turned his attention to his system panel.

With Student Council business keeping him so busy through late June, today was the first chance he'd had to finish the task.

"Finally done."

There was a note of relief in his voice.

His gaze settled on the system panel as lines of pale gold text slowly surfaced.

[Body Comeback Quest issued: Go to the gym for two months of physical training. Any type of exercise is allowed. Train five days a week, at least one hour per session.]

[Quest Reward: Body Remodeling (Intermediate)]

[Body Remodeling (Intermediate): Further increases in explosive power and endurance; physical strength approaches the limits of an adult body. Stamina +3.]

[60 days completed.]

[Quest Complete!]

[Reward granted!]

With [Body Remodeling (Intermediate)] acquired, Naruse took stock of the changes in his body. Going by his previous experience, this would likely be another two-hour-plus remodeling process, one that would leave his body running hot and flushed.

So he headed straight out of the gym, walking briskly toward the student dormitories.

Last time he'd gotten a reward like this, Yamamura Miki and Ai Morishita had caught him off guard, and he'd nearly lost his composure in front of them. He wasn't going to be careless about it again.

By the time he reached his dorm door, a glance at himself showed the first signs of his skin flushing red.

He quickened his pace, and just as he reached the bathroom door inside his dorm, the phone he'd left on the table suddenly rang.

It was a text message. He opened it and saw it was from Kei Karuizawa.

"Hikaru-kun, Tanabata's a little over ten days away — is there anything you want as a gift?"

Given how close the two of them had grown, both physically and emotionally, the whole 'pretend girlfriend' premise had long since become a formality in name only.

Kei had never brought up 'making it official' herself, but more often than not she already carried herself as his actual girlfriend, and Naruse had never bothered to correct her on it.

"Whatever Kei picks out, I'll like it."

"Then does Hikaru-kun like me?"

"If you're offering yourself as the gift, I wouldn't mind."

Naruse smiled, tapped out that reply without much thought, and started typing that he was about to go shower.

But the next moment, another message from Kei came through.

"Okay, Hikaru-kun. On Tanabata—"

"I'll give myself to you!"

"...?"