Because I Love You..♡
Dragon stared fixedly at my face.
I hurriedly wiped my tears with my free hand.
"Could you... let go of my wrist?"
She didn't let go.
She only kept staring at me with trembling eyes.
Squeeze—
She gripped my wrist hard enough that it hurt a little.
When I winced, she hurriedly released me and began writing on the ground.
Why are you crying?
And where were you trying to go?
I didn't answer those questions.
Instead... I asked her something of my own.
"Dragon, is there something you're hiding from me?"
Dragon flinched, her body giving a little shudder, then shook her head from side to side.
Her beautiful sapphire eyes wavered with unease — as if she already knew what I was about to say.
"...I heard everything."
She tilted her head as though she hadn't understood, her tail swishing left and right with restless anxiety.
"I said I heard everything! From Lamia...!"
I spoke a little... louder than I'd meant to. Loud enough to startle her.
"I really thought... you were sick... sob..."
I wasn't supposed to cry...
But the tears streamed down stubbornly anyway.
"I thought you were in pain... I spent the whole day worrying about nothing but you... But... but...
I found out that the whole time I was misunderstanding... and you just went along with it like it was fine. I know everything now."
I spat the words out like a hollowed-out shell of a person.
"That you've been using me as a tool to satisfy your sexual desires... that too."
Thud—
The bundle she'd been carrying dropped to the floor. Probably full of whatever she'd brought back from the hunt.
"..."
Dragon wordlessly took a step toward me.
When she reached out a trembling hand—
"Don't touch me."
I stepped back as I said it.
She flinched in surprise and bit her lip anxiously.
"Haha... Why of all days did you come back early from hunting?
Was it just good luck that the hunt finished early... or...
Did you hurry back so you could pretend to be sick like usual and make some lewd request of me?"
"Hic."
She started hiccupping in shock. As if she couldn't believe what was happening, the membranes of her wings fluttered and vibrated.
"Honestly... if I said I wasn't disappointed in you, Dragon, that would be a lie. Maybe I was just too... naive and stupid.
So... right now... I want to be apart from you."
Her face grew paler and paler.
"And those times you touched me every night... did you think I wouldn't notice?"
"Hic."
Dragon's face went ashen.
"And you clearly said you'd lost my underwear while doing laundry. But I never imagined you'd stolen them... haha..."
"Hic. Hic. Hic."
Dragon was trembling all over now, as if panic had fully taken hold, her breathing turning irregular.
"I'm sorry, Dragon... so... right now... I want some time away from you.
Surviving alone in the wild will be hard, but you don't have to worry about me.
Of course, I don't think relying on others is a good idea anymore... but if it really gets too hard to survive, I'll go to Fox's house and ask for help."
When the word Fox left my mouth, I felt Dragon's gaze snap — like something had broken clean through.
"So... I'll be going. Right now, I want to be away from you. I'm sorry.
Thank you for everything. After all, you're the one who saved me. I'm sorry for imposing on you so much."
With that, I turned and headed out of the cave.
Thud thud thud—
Whoosh.
Dragon wrapped her arms around my neck from behind and pulled me into an embrace — as if she would never, ever let me go. She pressed her cold-sweat-soaked body against mine.
"Dragon...?"
"Don't... go..."
A pretty voice whispered against my ear.
"Please... I... can't without Yuan... so... stay with me. With me. You can rely on me as much as you want... please... so... please..."
She hugged me tighter — so tight my throat constricted and my breath caught in ragged gasps.
"Dragon..."
I could hear her heart pounding, but I forced myself to ignore it and kept talking.
"Maybe it isn't your fault, Dragon."
"W-what do you mean..."
"I just... started thinking that maybe I'm the problem."
"Huh...?"
Dragon trembled, unable to understand.
"Just... maybe being stuck with me all the time is hard on you.
Sexual desire is a natural biological urge for living things, right...?"
"N-no... don't say that... please... please... I'm... I'm the bad one..."
Dragon's breathing heaved as she forced the words out like something she was vomiting up.
"No. Just... right now... I don't think this is the time for the two of us to be together."
I took hold of Dragon's arms and pried them off.
Surprisingly, her arms went limp and let go.
"I'm sorry. I'm going."
Now for real. Out of the cave.
Could I survive alone without Dragon's help?
Still... I had to try somehow—
Grip.
"Ugh...?"
Suddenly the back of my neck was seized in a cold grip — a force incomparably stronger than before. My breath caught in my throat.
I didn't need to turn my head to know.
"Dragon...?"
The breathing behind me had changed. It wasn't her usual soft breath. Rough, rapid, sharp — like a howl.
And then—
"Heheh..."
A low, trembling, mad-sounding laugh leaked out right behind my ear.
"No... Yuan... no... no..."
The hand gripping the nape of my neck tightened just a little more. My breath cut off in an instant.
"Without Yuan... I... can't...
Do you know how lonely I've been... how much I've suffered... how much... how much..."
The hand clutching my nape trembled faintly.
"Don't even think about leaving me.
Yuan is... mine. Heheh...♡ You're mine."
Not so much a whisper as a strange voice caught between pleading and threat.
"Stay only with me... only with me..."
I instinctively shuddered.
"Dragon... I... can't breathe..."
She didn't stop. Instead—
"You're not going anywhere. Never, never."
She gripped even harder. My legs buckled and swayed.
And then, in an instant.
Whoosh—
A sensation of being dragged, and then my back slammed into the cave floor with a thud. The air left my lungs.
"Ghk—!"
I'd been thrown down hard enough to make my vision swim.
When I looked up, Dragon was straddling me — completely pinning my body so I couldn't move. Both hands drove my shoulders into the floor, and her long legs wrapped tightly around my lower waist, leaving absolutely no room to escape.
"I love you...♡ Do you know how much I love you..."
Her sapphire eyes reflected my face, flashing with an abnormal light.
"You think I'd let you go anywhere...? Hmm...? Heheh..."
It was a tone of voice I'd never heard before. Her breathing was irregular, her chest heaving and shaking with heat and madness.
"Yuan... do you know how much I like you... why are you trying to leave...? Why are you trying to abandon me...? Hehe... heheheheh..."
Between her ragged breaths, a sound that was neither quite crying nor laughing mixed in.
"Don't go... stay by my side... I... can't live without Yuan... really... I'll go insane..."
And then her hand stroked my cheek with trembling fingers. It was a gentle touch — but madness was tangled in that tremor.
I twisted my body trying to escape—
Press.
Dragon's legs clamped even tighter around my waist. A position where I could barely even breathe. The complete pose of a predator sealing off all escape.
"If you run... I'll catch you.
If you run again... I'll catch you again...
Again... and again..."
Her lips brushed my ear.
"But... that would be such a hassle, wouldn't it...? So..."
She seized my right ankle with both hands in a powerful grip.
"W-wait, you're not—"
"I love you... I love you... I'm doing this because I love you..."
Crrrrrack—
My ankle twisted in a grotesque direction. A horrific pain shot through my entire body.
"Gyaaaaaah—!"
My heart seemed to scream as my chest plummeted, and my vision flashed white and blanked out.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry... I'm sorry...
But... I love you, right? Heheh... because I love you..."
Tears were already streaming from my eyes. She stroked my tear-soaked cheek.
"If you injure an already hurt ankle again... it'll take even longer to heal... heheh... heheheheheh...♡"
The mad woman poured out words like she was vomiting them.
"Heheh... what have I done... heheh... I'm sorry. Ah... I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But... I love you. I'm doing this because I love you. Because I love you... heheh...
With Yuan... with Yuan by my side... I could breathe... but if you leave... I... again... again...
I'll fall back into that pit again...
I'll go back to a place with no one again...
I hate it... I hate it... I hate it...!
Being alone was worse than dying...
If Yuan runs away... I can't... I can't breathe... my heart feels like it'll stop... I really... feel like I'm going to die...
So... so... so I did this.
A life without Yuan is too terrifying...
I... I... I... I... I can't. I can't without you. Heheh... heheheheh..."
The Dragon before me was not the person I knew.
Her eyes were completely unfocused, trembling. Tears and cold sweat mixed and ran down her cheeks; her lips quivered. Her breathing made a strange sound, a blend of crying and laughing. Every time her chest heaved, her wings fluttered and made a soft friction sound.
That expression... crying, laughing, clinging, threatening, and pleading all at once. Twisted beyond anything that could be called a human expression.
Ah. Right. She isn't human.
"Heheh... I love you... I love you... I love you... sob... heheh..."
The horrific pain rising from my right ankle felt distant — my whole body had frozen solid with tension and terror. I couldn't move for even a single moment.
And so I was trapped.
Together with Dragon.
Inside the cave.