The End of a Long Day
Smiling?
Me?
Leviathan opened the iron door and stepped inside. He approached me slowly and flicked the chain connected to the clamps with his fingers.
“Gyaaagh! Ah… aaaah!”
In that instant I thought my nipples would tear clean off. Drool spilled from my mouth, and my eyes—forced wide open against my will—locked onto the single finger Leviathan had hooked through the chain, unable to blink…
Even though refusing to blink made them burn.
I could not afford to miss a single movement. Whether he flicked the chain or left it alone was entirely at Leviathan’s whim, yet the terror that if he stopped I would drown in even worse agony kept me frozen in place.
“It’s really fascinating. Looking at Mazo bitches like you, I always wonder how you can feel anything from this kind of thing. Yet every time you go on about how painful it is, how hard it is… and in the end you cry and thrash about, but once you cross the limit, you smile.”
“Ah… uuh.”
“Just like you right now.”
I’m smiling?
I refuse to accept that…
The shape of my mouth, the tears streaming down, my wide-open eyes—nothing about the movements of my body felt like a smile.
“What? Doubting it? Well, it’s your first time, so you might not know. I’ll show you.”
— Click.
A photo taken with his terminal.
“Ah…!”
My face, faintly catching the light from outside the torture chamber, was unmistakably smiling. Enough that a majority out of a hundred people would have judged it a smile. Just that degree of smile frozen solid on my features.
“Ah… hic…”
Even though it hurts this much.
Even though I’m in this much agony.
Why am I smiling?
Of course I already knew the answer. The smell rising from between my legs was more than enough. What I smelled… was not only sweat and blood.
“Today’s schedule is finished. Let’s go.”
“Uuh… hic. Yes.”
Announcing the end, Leviathan first cut the rope binding my upper body. The sharp knife sliced through the rope, which was soaked through with sweat and had burst threads in places—probably from the repeated expansion and contraction as I tensed and strained.
“U… haah. Haah.”
The moment my arms were free I hurriedly braced both hands against the back of the Triangular Wooden Horse, trying to take even a little of my weight off it. Meanwhile Leviathan removed the weights and shackles from my ankles; last of all he released the clamps that had been biting into my nipples.
“Kyahk! Ah… uuh…”
When the clamps that had clamped my nipples for so long were finally removed, a pain like an electric shock settled over my entire chest. The sudden draining of strength truly felt like the signal that it was over.
“Haah… haah. Haah.”
So the torture really is finished. If I just get down from this Triangular Wooden Horse, this hellish stretch of time will end.
…Or so I thought.
“Get down.”
“…What?”
“What are you doing? You climbed up, so you get down yourself. Don’t tell me you’re hoping I’ll scoop you up and lift you off?”
“Ah… I understand.”
No gentle liberation was granted to me. At Leviathan’s command I supported my weight on both arms and began to move my lower body little by little. I tensed my thighs and shifted slowly, carefully, trying not to strain the torn flesh—yet what had formed between my legs was no ordinary wound.
Between the split crotch.
“Aaaagh!! Ah… ahk… ugh…! Ha. Haaah. Hic… huuk…!”
Without realizing that fact, the moment I spread my legs even slightly I felt pain beyond anything the hours of torture had delivered. My body locked solid and refused to move.
What is this.
It hurts so much!
It hurts.
It hurts, damn it.
It hurt so badly that tears I thought had long since dried began to flow again, and sweat poured from the hairline at my forehead. My mouth would not close. Impossible. Truly impossible.
“What are you doing? Want to stay up there longer?”
“Ah, no.”
“If you don’t get down right now I’ll leave you up there all night. Hurry and get down.”
“Yes, I’ll get down. I’m getting down. U… uuhk.”
But I had no choice. If I spent the night on this thing, wouldn’t my womb at least be split in half? The chance of irreversible damage was high. To prevent that I had to endure the pain and climb down.
Even if it was impossible.
Even if it was too hard.
In this prison there was no one who would show me any consideration. That was why I had to do it. Even if I couldn’t, once the order had been given, I had to.
“Why? Want help?”
“Yes! Please help me!”
Then Leviathan smiled and offered. What? Ah… was he showing consideration for a newcomer like me? Or…
I was suspicious of the unexpected kindness, but I was in no position to be choosy. Instead of thinking it through I immediately begged for help as a desperate gamble. If I could just get down from here, I needed anything.
“Heh heh. You like it even like this?”
“Aaaagh! Kyaaaaagh!! Uuuuh! Uuuk!!”
My unease proved correct. Leviathan stepped close and immediately seized my nipples—already crushed by the clamps—between his fingers. His grip targeted exactly the places the clamps had bitten. Then, applying force greater than the clamps themselves, he hauled my body upward.
“Ah… ahk!! Uuuuugh!!”
Veins stood out on my neck. I had to choose: put more strength into the hands bracing the back of the Triangular Wooden Horse, spread my legs, and climb down—or try to stop the hand gripping my nipples. In reality there was only one path open to me. I could not dare refuse a guard’s touch, so I had to treat his grip as genuine help, lift my body, and get down.
“Aaaaaagh!! Kyaaaaagh!!”
I forced my legs wide. An involuntary scream tore free—a scream that ripped my throat raw. If I didn’t scream I felt I would go mad from the pain. It was too much for my brain to bear alone.
“Uwek…! Haah. Haah. Uuk…!”
Fortunately I managed to get down from the Triangular Wooden Horse. Whether he truly meant to help or not, Leviathan’s grip on my nipples had guided me and made the movement a little easier.
“Now. Get up. You can rest once you’re in the cell.”
“Ah… ahk… Yes.”
I had collapsed onto the floor after climbing down, yet no rest was given. I wanted to say I couldn’t move another step, but I could not bring myself to. The problem was that this was no act.
“What are you doing. Come out!”
Leviathan stood at the iron door of the torture chamber and barked at me, but I could not rise. Even when I dragged every last scrap of strength from my body, the moment I was about to push up from the floor my strength failed and I sank back down. My trembling thighs refused to obey, and my ankles—swollen from hanging under heavy weights—were useless. Trying to move my legs for a step, the wound between my crotch blocked me; my body, locked for hours in one position, was as rigid as if iron rods had been driven through it.
“A713. Are you resisting?”
— Smack!
“Uuk! Ah, no.”
In the end corporal punishment was applied for my hesitation. Leviathan fetched a cane from somewhere inside the chamber and struck my buttocks as I crouched awkwardly on the floor. A searing heat bloomed.
“Get up!”
— Whoosh! Smack!!
“Uuhk! Ah. Aah… uuh. I, really…. Uuk!”
— Whoosh! Smack!!
“Kyaau! Ha. Haa…”
“I won’t listen to excuses. Get up. I’ll say it again. If you want to rest, go to the cell! Now!”
It’s not that.
I’m not faking it—I really can’t walk.
Resentment piled up until my chest felt ready to burst. But the beating cut off any words. No matter what excuse I offered he would not listen, and even if he did, asking Leviathan to carry me would only invite greater danger.
If he…
If he decided that since I couldn’t walk I might as well go back on the Triangular Wooden Horse and put me there again, I would never escape. Regardless of whether the fantasy could come true, the image flooded in and I screamed silently inside that it must not happen.
— Whoosh! Smack!!
“Hurry and get up!”
“Uuhk…! Haah. Haah. Uuk…!”
Even so I could not simply keep taking the blows. On top of the torture wounds, fresh marks from the cane would be added; to take even one fewer stroke I had to find another way.
And so, while more than ten strokes continued, the conclusion I reached was…
“Le, Leviathan-nim!”
“You dare call a guard without permission to speak?”
— Whoosh! Smack! Smack!!
“Kyaauk!! So, sorry. Haah. Uuk…. Haah. Haah.”
“Hoo…. Fine. What is it?”
Only after several more blows did I voice the only solution that might let me escape this situation with any dignity left.
“I… really can’t walk. Uuk… my legs won’t move… so…”
“So what? You want me to help you up? I already told you—inmates do not make requests of guards.”
“Ah, no. It’s not that… I… that is… could you allow me to crawl…?”
“…Huh? What do you mean?”
“Really… the wound is so deep… huuk! Between my legs it hurts too much and I have no strength left… please allow me to crawl on all fours like a dog to the cell. Please… please, I beg you.”
I pleaded with everything I had. Afraid he would refuse, I forced myself into a kneeling posture even in that state and clasped my hands as if in prayer.
“Hmm. Fine, alright. But if you crawl too slowly, know you’ll taste this cane immediately.”
“Yes! Thank you. Thank you!”
Fortunately Leviathan granted the request. Permission given, I planted both hands on the floor and began to crawl forward slowly. It was hard, yet in that posture I could move.
“No different from a complete dog. Good. While you go to the cell in that posture, every time you get hit you bark like a mutt. Understood?”
“Yes!”
— Smack!
“Woof!!”
“Oho. Good.”
The cane cracked across my crawling back; the instant it landed I barked like a dog. It was humiliating, but this much I could endure. Fortunately the torture session had run so long that no other inmates or guards were in sight.
“Now hurry along.”
And so I crawled on all fours. Leviathan followed behind carrying a bag and the cane. We left the torture area and entered the corridor. My knees scraped against the cold, hard asphalt and it hurt terribly—yet even that was nothing compared to the pain of a torn crotch and ripped nipples, so I could silently endure and keep crawling.
“Haah. Haah. Haah.”
Crawling because I could not stand. Put another way, it meant my body was that wounded and exhausted. I could move forward, but crawling was far from easy. It was slower than walking upright, and the friction pain in my palms and knees grew worse with every meter.
And if I slowed even a little…
— Smack!!
“Bark!”
“Hurry up. Going slowly only cuts into your sleep time. If my quitting time is delayed, you’ll be the one who pays for my frustration.”
Leviathan’s cane flew. There was no mercy in his hand. Every stroke landed hard enough to hurt and sting. My buttocks swelled from the beating, and my crawling speed slowed still further. On top of that my breasts—swollen from the ropes and clamps—swung under gravity; whenever a nipple scraped the asphalt, pain and a strange sensation stopped me cold.
Each time that happened—
— Smack!!
“Woof!!”
— Smaack!!
“Bark!! Bark bark!!”
The blows continued. My buttocks burned until they felt ready to burst. The skin had softened until even a breeze would have stung. Still… I had to crawl. Even if my ass split open, Leviathan would not care; he would keep striking until blood flew.
Just one day. Even counting last night, the time we had spent together was not long—yet the man I had come to know was a harsh and cruel guard.
I have to obey.
I must not defy him.
The way he treated not only me but every other inmate, and the way he could drive anyone into the pit of despair with nothing more than Demeanor Penalty Points, had already made him a figure of pure terror to me.
“Haah. Haah. Hic…! Haah. Haah.”
My vision swam. Still I crawled desperately, and somehow I reached the destination. I was on the verge of collapse, yet I had managed to keep my buttocks from being completely destroyed.
— Smack!!
“Keuhk…! Bark!”
The final stroke landed.
“That’s enough now. Can you get up?”
“So, sorry. That…”
“Hoo, fine. Crawl in like this.”
Leviathan announced the end of the day’s work. He opened the bag he had brought, took out handcuffs and shackles, and fastened them on my collapsed body. The same posture as yesterday. My wrists, still marked by rope, were cuffed behind my back; thick metal shackles locked around my ankles, still blue with bruises.
Now it was time to enter the cell. But first, saying he had something to do, Leviathan took something from the bag and smeared it on his hand. Cream? Gel?
“Spread your legs.”
“What? Ah… ahk!! Ah… aaagh!!”
“Shut up.”
“Keuhp!! Hup! Eum…!”
Leviathan, having coated his hand thickly, thrust it between my legs and spread the substance around the open wound. Touching the wound itself sent dizzying pain through me, yet I had no choice but to obey the order to spread my legs. Gritting my teeth at his “shut up,” I felt a fierce, itching heat between my thighs.
“That’s a treatment to keep the wound from getting worse. It’s not a commercial product—an experimental prototype with no known side effects.”
“…!”
“In case you develop a rash or any other problem, take note. Now hurry into the cell.”
What does that mean…!
In other words, I was to become a clinical trial subject for an unapproved medical product. And there was no promise that anything would be done if a problem arose—only the bare instruction to take note.
“Hic… ah… huuk.”
It was a fresh reminder of what it meant to have no human rights.
— Clatter. Clang. Clang.
The cell door opened, and I crawled inside with a miserable heart.
The long, long day was ending.