“Hmm…?”
Moreover, Will no longer seemed capable of a light peck, but continued to press his tongue and lips harder, lingering on Shuna’s lips.
However, the kiss was abrupt and rough, making Shuna wonder how Will’s kissing skills hadn’t improved at all after kissing three people.
She had thought many times about the environment in which she would have her “first kiss” with Will, but had never imagined it would be on such an occasion.
He was completely unreasonable, like a machine callously “responding to love,” as if he had been tamed by those women to act this way, stubbornly believing that responding to love would solve all problems.
“You… Wait, I… I didn’t mean you could just lay hands on me after everything I just said…”
She pushed Will away.
Her face instantly turned red from the roots of her ears.
She hadn’t even realized she was such a high-attack, low-defense person; a simple kiss from Will made her blood rush to her face.
What was he thinking?!
Did he have to respond to a confession from any woman with a kiss?
Shuna felt she had said enough for him to understand.
“You… You don’t think I’m someone who can be appeased with just hugs, kisses, and being carried around, do you?”
She held her panting chest and looked back at Will, who had returned to his chair after she let go of him.
“Just like with them… it’s the same… what you want is… is my love, right? I… I can see it.”
“I’m tired. I feel like I’ve accomplished nothing. I bow down to this damn world and this damn fate, is that okay?”
“Anyway, you just want to demand love. Look, I can give you what you want… anything.”
As he said these words, his eyes weren’t even looking at Shuna.
His eyes were hidden beneath his slightly damp, grown-out brown hair, looking unfocused at the black room beyond her waist.
To Shuna, his deep blue eyes, like the deep sea, holding secrets, were still the same color, but now seemed like an abyss containing nothing.
He appeared “ripe for slaughter,” unwilling to refuse suggestions from anyone who “loved him.”
She suspected that at this critical moment, he wouldn’t refuse if she suggested they have sex right here.
Unlike the “scalding hot stone” from before, although he was still radiating love, it felt like the leftover energy of a stone being burned, carrying a despair that would eventually dry up.
“You—!”
Shuna understood. Will indeed hadn’t changed in some ways. Just as he, with his previously strong spirit, couldn’t be easily defeated.
If he was defeated and decided to do nothing, letting them control him, it would be hard for him to stand up again, believing that this would solve everything.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t someone who could easily get back up from despair with just a kiss and some sweets.
Especially when receiving love, the very thing that defeated him, how could he easily rise again?
—But even so, she had to confess!
—If she didn’t say it now, he’d be manipulated even worse and wouldn’t be able to hear her.
“Okay, I get it. For you, just praising, confessing, and telling stories won’t appease you.”
She had already told such a long, long, long story! She thought she had clearly explained the reason she fell in love with him and her connection to him! She… she had finally managed to deliver the confession she had prepared for years…
“Shuna… give up. I honestly feel like this is fine. Of course, if you’re willing, binding me and taking me to the next place to imprison me isn’t out of the question…”
Yet, he still intended to compromise, not returning to his original state!
He didn’t even have the spirit of revenge to be toyed with!?
“Forget it… in the end, it really is my selfishness…”
Then she would use a more stimulating, more thorough method, completely unrelated to love, the same scene she saw in his memories, exactly like her…
“I don’t think you’re cool at all when you’re desperate. Even if you kidnapped me, this isn’t the you I want—just like you said before, Treya’s way of loving you was wrong, so you had to teach her a lesson to correct her.”
“Hm?”
Suddenly, Will felt himself being lifted up forcefully. After a brief moment of weightlessness in the air, he was slammed fiercely against the wall by her.
“Now, it’s my turn to correct you.”
His back pressed against the cold, damp brick wall, he felt the impact and pain, then immediately felt the icy coolness around his neck.
Shuna’s new black dagger was pressed tightly against his neck, specifically along the bottom edge of Iaar’s collar, which he had just put on.
It was only two or three millimeters away from his throbbing artery, capable of drawing blood.
Death…
The death he thought would only happen to some Slime was now in front of him.
An incredibly serious “black” aura emanated from Shuna; she didn’t seem to be joking.
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.
Will felt his heart pounding, and his arms trembled along with it.
He…
He truly felt more alive in this world, genuinely afraid as an unexpected death approached him.
“I want to tell you that you’ve done very well. You’ve not only changed them, but you’ve also changed me. It’s because of you that I am who I am now.”
“Therefore, you have two choices—”
“Come with me, sort out your thoughts properly, break free from your death, teach them properly what the love you want is, and take revenge on the bastard fate that toyed with you.”
“Or, die in their love—one of your spirit or your body will be ruined by the three of them.”
The knife Shuna held against his neck seemed to tremble slightly.
Will looked up along the black dagger on his neck and Shuna’s arm.
“I am different from those women. I have seen my future without ‘you’.”
“Since it was you who made me understand the meaning of being alive.”
“If you are no longer the person I love, and can no longer create the experiences I desire, then I will kill you and we will die together.”
Will saw—
As her blade touched his neck, she…
Her other dagger, the one she always held, was also pressed tightly against her own neck.
“That’s right, just like this.”
Her hand clearly tightened, and he could even see that Shuna’s other dagger had lightly drawn a blood streak on her own neck.
Her face still had a slight flush from his kiss—but that kiss had brought her no satisfaction or forgiveness; instead, it had only intensified her emotions.
In her black eyes, reflecting the flickering firelight behind him, a tear flowed from the corner of her eye, rolling down her cheek and onto her chest.
In her eyes, a mixture of firelight and tears, was a resolve that forced him to move forward.
He was not at all surprised that this woman, always assertive, impulsive, and driven by her own logic, would do something like kill herself and him.
…
She had never been “healed.” Born from death, surrounded by thoughts of death, she was a fierce person who could put her life and others’ lives on the line for her goals.
Perhaps there wasn’t a woman who loved him who was “completely not a yandere,” “completely not blackened,” or “had completely escaped that state.”
Shuna might be a more terrifying yandere than the other three.
Perhaps not even by his hand, but from the beginning.
But…
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.
Will felt his heartbeat accelerate further, his blood flowing faster, and because of this, he felt every nerve in his brain working at high speed.
But… this feeling wasn’t… wasn’t him fearing death?
Even…
It was a “question,” a “doubt,” and… “stirring of the heart” from the depths of his soul.
Why? This action… this composition…
Pressing someone against the wall with a knife in a forceful manner, one hand aimed at others and the other at oneself…
“So, have you decided? Time is running out, I’ll give you ten seconds to give me your answer.”
Will had indeed considered—since there was a future where he’d be crushed to death by a Slime, being killed by the “protagonist” here would be more heroic.
“Ten.”
Besides, dying together with an absolutely beautiful girl didn’t seem like something unacceptable.
But why, why, when he had despaired, believing he had achieved nothing and had no will of his own to fulfill in this world…
Was his entire being boiling over for this one scene right now?
“Nine.”
You have seen this scene before.
It is a very familiar scene.
It is extremely, extremely, extremely, extremely important.
You will surely remember.
Quickly.
Quickly recall it.
Staring at this scene, gazing intently at Shuna’s lips, Will’s mind seemed to lose control, constantly giving him prompts.
“Eight.”
He swallowed.
Even he couldn’t describe what was happening in his mind right now…
The Shuna before him—a Shuna who could be seen as colorful and alive—was slowly losing her color. The “real” human form was gradually transforming into abstract lines.
The more this happened, the faster his heart seemed to beat, and his heart rate sounded more chaotic.
“Seven.”
It was as if a memory sector in his brain, a forgotten memory sector, had suddenly unlocked…
A tremendous amount of information flooded his mind.
The more this happened, the more Shuna before him…
She became more like an unfinished CG draft…
“…Six.”
Even her voice gradually became noisy and blurred.
The overexposed white light increasingly resembled the lights of the conference room he frequented.
Her voice sounded like the random white noise emitted by a broken television.
“Five…”
These were things he wanted to forget, yet had never forgotten.
In the remaining four-second countdown, as his life was about to end, he seemed to realize something, a mystery he had been pondering since arriving here, the endpoint of all the missions he had written…
He…
Was he dying for this… purpose?
Beep—
The sound cut off. He didn’t blink, but all he saw was white.
…
…………
—”Brother Will? Are you okay?”
—”I’ve felt like you’ve been distracted ever since that meeting this morning.”
—”This meeting is very important, you can’t fall asleep.”
