Am I Going to Die?
It looked like some kind of palace. The massive door leading into the bathroom had a distinctly Roman flair, its handle shaped like a lion. Stepping inside felt like walking into a fantasy world. Is this… real?
Most bathrooms have a simple showerhead. This place was an entire bathing chamber. There was a regular bathtub, but also a separate hot-spring-style pool. Showers lined the walls—not one, but several.
Reina chuckled at my stunned expression and took my hand, leading me toward the pool. Before I stepped in, she tested the water temperature herself and guided me in slowly.
For the record, the orphanage I grew up in never had a bathtub. I only knew about them from manga and anime. I had visited public bathhouses a few times, though, and I loved soaking in the hot water.
At first I was nervous—mostly because of what she was wearing. Before changing, her outfit had been black. Now she wore a pure white swimsuit that contrasted beautifully with her silver hair, though it was far more revealing than I’d expected. Her skin was milky white rather than any ordinary flesh tone.
Fortunately, the steam rising from the various pools and tubs obscured parts of the room. At this level of privacy, sharing a bath probably wasn’t a big deal.
“How is it? Comfortable~?”
“Yeah… hyik!?”
The moment I answered, she grinned and pressed her body against my arm. The soft warmth of her skin made me flinch in surprise.
“Why… are you… doing that…”
She clung to me like it was the most natural thing in the world. When I stiffened, her expression darkened with hurt.
“Why…? Do you… hate it?”
Her crimson eyes shimmered as she looked at me pitifully. Panicked that she might misunderstand again, I shook my head frantically.
“Hehe! Then it’s fine!”
“Hyik! D-don’t do that! Aah!”
This time her full breasts pressed against my arm. Laughing playfully, she leaned in even closer. After a moment she asked in a careful voice,
“Hey, Yujin.”
“Y-yes!”
“Why didn’t you run away? I mean… not that I don’t trust you, but honestly, with that much time you could’ve made it to the garden at least…”
She explained that the time I’d been given happened to coincide with her subordinates’ break period. Her shoulders trembled slightly as she spoke, and her hands shook. She must have been terrified.
“I’ll be honest too,” I said.
“Mm…”
“Even if I left, I’d just get caught again, right? Besides, I already promised to listen to you and took the deposit. Running away now wouldn’t change anything. You still have my passport and phone, so I couldn’t even report anything until I reached the city… And also…”
I told her I didn’t actually want to go to the police. Reina tilted her head, puzzled.
“Why…? If you reported me…”
“I already told you. I still haven’t fully accepted you as my sister, but… at least you opened your heart to me. I don’t know the details, but… I just didn’t want to. Especially the thought of you in handcuffs, going to prison… it makes me sad.”
I didn’t understand where these feelings came from, but right now, showing them honestly felt like the right thing for both of us.
Reina stared at me blankly for a moment. Then the anxiety in her eyes faded, and she broke into a bright smile, hugging my arm again.
“I like you so much, Yujin! Hehe!”
She clung to me coquettishly, her ample chest pressing against my arm once more. The skinship was far more forward than when we’d been on the sofa, and I found myself unable to speak.
“Are you embarrassed?”
“Huh? Ah, y-yeah… Of course I am. Even if we’re both in swimsuits, having such a pretty sister right next to me…”
“Hee, pretty sister? Now that you mention it, you call me pretty a lot, don’t you?”
She grinned mischievously and hugged my arm tighter. My heart pounded. Her thigh brushed against mine. I stayed silent—not because I disliked it, but because I was too embarrassed to speak.
In the quiet that followed, I gathered my courage and spoke first.
“Um, Sis.”
“Yeah~?”
“Do you usually work in the mornings and afternoons? When you brought me here it was morning, but by the time we arrived it was already afternoon, right?”
I still had no clear idea what the Kurotsuki Syndicate actually did. With yakuza and mafia mixed together, it clearly wasn’t an ordinary organization. It also seemed strange that the boss could just wander around freely.
Reina thought for a moment before nodding.
“We split the work into morning and afternoon shifts.”
“Shifts?”
“Mm. And we usually rest in the evenings or late at night. Only when something urgent comes up do we go out.”
She then asked curiously if I wanted to know what kind of work they did. I said that if it was confidential she didn’t have to tell me, but since we were living together, I thought I should at least have some idea. Even if we were calling ourselves siblings, we were also exploring the possibility of a relationship, so I figured I had the right to know.
“R-relationship?! You just said we’re exploring a relationship?! Hehe! That makes me so happy!”
She beamed and pressed her chest against my arm again. When I glanced sideways, her white swimsuit had gotten wet and clung to her in a way that felt dangerously suggestive. Afraid of what might happen below the water, I quickly kept the conversation going.
“So… what exactly do you do?”
“Ahem! I am the boss of the Kurotsuki Syndicate! Our organization handles all sorts of things, but most of it is business management! Even if I don’t look it, I—”
She cleared her throat like a child pretending to be an adult and spoke with confidence. What she said next shocked me.
She had earned a doctorate from one of Tokyo’s top universities—something only the top one percent could achieve—and had done so through a special program without even attending graduate school. She was also personally acquainted with prominent figures overseas.
I wasn’t just surprised; I doubted my own ears. No way… She says whatever comes to mind and acts like an idiot, but she’s actually an incredible person?!
It didn’t sound like a lie. She even demonstrated her fluency in multiple languages right there, switching effortlessly between several major ones.
“But I do other things too! Management and supervision, problem-solving… and sometimes…”
She suddenly stopped, covering her mouth with her hand as if she’d said too much. I didn’t press her, assuming it was confidential.
“Then… do you also do things like… assassinations? Or punishing traitors?”
“What?! N-no! Absolutely not! We almost never do that sort of thing! O-of course, there are times when it becomes necessary, but I always try to resolve things peacefully!”
She shook her head frantically, clearly worried I might be frightened. She even held out her pinky and promised she would never do such things. Still, she had admitted there were times when it was unavoidable.
“So you have done it… a few times.”
“Huh? U-um… Well, there might have been a few times… But! Those were truly unavoidable! Like I said, I always try to end things peacefully!”
At the same time, she made it clear that as the one responsible for the organization, she sometimes had no choice. If I had heard this when I first arrived, I would have been terrified. Now, though, I was only worried about Reina.
Without thinking, I took her hand. She looked at me in surprise, her crimson eyes wide.
“Yujin?”
“Sis… have you ever killed someone yourself?”
It wasn’t just worry. If what she said was true, she was a murderer. My body had started trembling. I desperately hoped it wasn’t so.
“I… have.”
“What?”
“But it was truly unavoidable. If I hadn’t killed that person, they would have killed me… and my subordinates too.”
Her calm voice carried a cold edge. She gently stroked my cheek and spoke softly, telling me not to be too scared. Already frightened, my body flinched every time her hand touched my skin.
“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to scare you. I should’ve just kept quiet…”
“No… I’m the one who asked.”
Honestly, what she described could be considered self-defense. Still, the fact that the boss of a syndicate had done such things didn’t sit well with me. Despite the warm air in the bath, my chest felt increasingly cold.
I asked one final question.
“What if… I betrayed you? Or tried to escape and ambushed you… Would I die by your hand?”
Before the words left my mouth and after they did, the same thought echoed in my head: Did I really have to ask something so selfish and cruel? I scolded myself, yet I needed to know the answer.