Chapter 19
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Akane
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-Screech, thud.
I pry open the dented iron door and step into the swimming pool area.
Splashing water echoed from the pool.
"Huh? Already done?"
Akane's thoughts reached me, still utterly relaxed.
There wasn't the slightest hint of guilt for what she'd done.
As I walked further inside, the pool came into view.
And in it, a single figure swimming.
Akane, in her swimsuit.
"Who's there?"
A clear, bright voice rang out across the outdoor pool.
I waved toward Akane.
"It's me."
"Naibusu?"
"Why is Naibusu here? Did Shuji get taken out?"
Splash, splash.
Akane leisurely backstroked her way over.
"Naibusu! Let's swim together!"
"Pass. No swimsuit."
"Come on, just strip and jump in! Like old times!"
Old times.
A hollow laugh escaped me.
She was talking about some ancient era.
"Akane, you come out. I don't want to dirty the pool water."
"Hmph. You're so selfish."
Who was the selfish one here?
Grumbling all the while, Akane still climbed out to the pool's edge.
-Tap, tap.
Akane ascended the pool stairs to the side deck.
Water droplets rained from her long, slender limbs.
Water in her ears, maybe? She tilted her head to one side and hopped in place.
With each bounce, her breasts jiggled like pudding beneath the swimsuit.
Then she hooked a finger into the wedgied back of her swimsuit and yanked it free, adjusting the fit.
Slap, slap. The elastic fabric snapped back against her plump rear.
If I didn't know this witch's true nature, I might've been a little tense.
Every one of her movements felt like a deliberate seduction.
"Phew! Naibusu, what happened to Shuji?"
"He's dead."
"Oh?"
Even hearing he'd died, Akane casually removed her swim cap.
The long hair hidden inside cascaded down with a wet slosh.
She wrung out the soaked strands like a rag, squeezing hard.
Once roughly dried, she swept both arms behind her head, gathering the long locks into one.
Her deeply cut swimsuit laid bare her armpits and sideboob in vivid detail.
It was a suit designed for exactly that purpose, after all.
But Akane paid it no mind.
Whether anyone was watching. Whatever was showing.
She simply used the swim cap like a hair tie to bind the gathered hair.
Actions that seemed crafted to tempt a man.
Yet they were just Akane being Akane, utterly unfeigned.
That's the kind of woman she was.
"So, you're gonna kill me too?"
"Yeah."
"I don't wanna die."
Her tone was perfectly flat.
It felt like hearing someone say, "I don't wanna eat cucumbers."
Akane shook the water from her body.
She pressed her sleek skin with her hands, sluicing away the moisture.
Arms, breasts, belly, legs.
Each press deformed her body softly.
The sight was breathtakingly beautiful, without a trace of pretense.
Pretty face, pretty figure, pretty movements.
By appearances alone, she was undoubtedly the top beauty in our year.
But that was all there was to it.
Akane had no such thing as pure love.
Twisted affection, obsession, madness.
Naibusu and Akane were like water and oil—we could never mix.
"Can't you spare me?"
"No. You've gone way too far."
"Why? Because of Yuu?"
Akane's obsession with Yuuki bordered on insanity.
Some stories portrayed yandere traits as heroine charm points, but seeing Akane made it clear that was fiction only.
"Akane. Why'd you go that far?"
"Hehe. Because Yuu became a girl?"
"That's not an answer. It doesn't make you hate Yuuki."
"Incredible. How'd you know?"
In the original game, Akane had pulled something similar.
To isolate Yuuki and make her dependent.
But the real Akane hadn't shown any signs right up until now.
So I'd thought it would be fine.
Her love for Yuuki, at least, was genuine.
Loving someone naturally meant wanting to protect and cherish them—that's human instinct.
I'd figured Akane wasn't any different.
But even now, she'd gone and done it.
She'd even orchestrated a gang rape that didn't exist in the original game, trying to shatter Yuuki.
And Nanami too, who'd tried to help Yuuki.
I just couldn't comprehend it.
"Do you know why Yuu became a girl?"
Akane asked, her face a touch sulky.
...Why did Yuuki become a girl?
From wishing on her father's relic?
"It's your fault, Naibusu. You made Yuu a girl."
"Ha."
That again.
The president had spouted the same nonsense—an absurd false charge.
I didn't have any such power, and even if I did, there was no reason for me to turn Yuuki into a girl.
"You don't get it, huh. You know Yuu's rune better than anyone. If she didn't want to become a girl, no pathetic curse like that could've stuck."
Yuuki's rune was the Aegis Rune.
It blocked all harmful attacks coming her way.
Physical, mental, status ailments—everything.
I hadn't even considered it until Akane mentioned it, but with Yuuki's rune, shouldn't a status change like becoming a girl(?) have been blocked too?
"So Yuuki... accepted becoming a girl?"
Why?
Akane looked at my bewildered expression like I was the idiot.
"You're sharp where it doesn't matter and total dullard here. I'll say it again. It's your fault, Naibusu. You made Yuu a girl."
"...Me...?"
Akane's words still didn't click.
No, I grasped the meaning.
That Yuuki had accepted womanhood because of me.
But my heart rejected it.
Akane laughed self-deprecatingly, "Ha ha."
"Ever felt what it's like to have the guy you like stolen by some not-even-a-real-girl guy? Tsukimiya Akane's greatest humiliation in life."
Stolen by a guy.
And I knew damn well that "guy" was me.
So that's why Akane had snapped upon seeing girl-Yuuki.
Just like in the original game.
"So I decided to break her. Yuu's rune would bounce it all back, so no actual rape. But the fact of being 'raped' would stick. Then neat-freak Naibusu would toss her aside like trash."
"...I..."
Wouldn't abandon Yuuki—
That's what I'd meant to say.
But the words wouldn't come.
I didn't want to imagine it, but if that situation actually happened, my inner unicorn would reject her first, regardless of my will.
I might care for Yuuki outwardly, but I had no confidence I'd truly accept her deep down.
"Naibusu turns his back, friends turn away, family turns away. Yuu would have no choice but to cling to me. Because I'm the only one in the world who can accept Yuu as she is."
Akane smiled with cruel allure.
She didn't care if Yuuki broke.
As long as she could possess Yuuki completely.
In fact, better if she shattered.
Then she could reassemble the broken Yuuki.
A crazy psychopath with zero regard for others' feelings.
Naibusu and Akane truly couldn't mix.
There was only one thing left to say to such an Akane.
"Crazy bitch."
"Hehe. If only Naibusu hadn't gotten in the way—"
Akane thrust her palm toward me.
"—I could've become Yuu's one true love."
Akane's palm burst into flames.
Soon, the heat engulfed my body.
Flames devoured the surrounding oxygen like a raging storm.
"Bye, Naibusu."
Akane smiled innocently as the inferno swallowed me.
The heat was unbearable for any normal person—flames hot enough to char flesh and bone.
My uniform ignited in an instant, crumbling to ash.
But my body...
Not a single hair was singed.
"...Wha, dodged...?"
Akane's confusion was utterly pure.
She stared at me with a childlike innocence that didn't suit the "witch" at all.
"Akane."
-Shing.
I drew Moonlight amid the roaring flames.
"You're just another victim of this trash game."
A character programmed by trash devs to act like trash.
Akane was guilty only of following her script.
But.
That didn't make everything forgivable.
"I warned you. Don't cross the line."
I kill all perverts.
That's an absolute, unchanging rule.
So if you hadn't done that...
I could've forgiven you.
"Bye, Akane."
I thrust Moonlight forward.
The blade of Moonlight tore through Akane's swimsuit.
Sliced her skin.
Cleaved her bone.
Pierced her heart.
Having fulfilled its mission of stabbing Akane's heart, the blade emerged from her back.
"Ah."
Akane blankly parted her lips, unable to comprehend what had happened to her body.
The wound was minimal.
At least she'd die while still beautiful.
That was the last courtesy I could offer her.
"Na, I..."
Akane's thoughts flowed into me through the Moonlight piercing her heart.
It was her life flashing before her eyes.
Scenes from Akane's childhood onward paraded past like a panorama.
A much younger Akane walking hand-in-hand with Yuuki.
Akne with scraped knees crying, Yuuki struggling to piggyback her.
Akane and Yuuki beaming together at the Rune Academy entrance ceremony photo.
Yuuki being dragged away by armed Self-Defense Force soldiers on conscription, Akane sobbing farewell.
Akane tearfully welcoming Yuuki's safe return.
...And standing beside her, that arrogant blond punk. Me.
From that point, Akane's memories were no longer just hers and Yuuki's.
There was always the side character Naibusu glued to Yuuki's side.
Akane wanted to monopolize Yuuki.
She wanted Yuuki to look only at her.
Akane clung harder to Yuuki, but it was futile.
Akane badmouthed Naibusu to Yuuki, but futile.
Akane flirted with Naibusu hoping to spark Yuuki's jealousy, but futile.
At some point, Akane realized Yuuki paid her more attention than Akane.
Yuuki wasn't jealous of Naibusu hanging with Akane—she was jealous of Akane hanging with Naibusu.
And then, Yuuki became a girl one day.
Akane couldn't forgive it.
Me.
Yuuki.
And herself.
If she could, she'd destroy the whole world.
But she couldn't.
So she decided to destroy everything around her.
Me, Yuuki, and herself.
But in the end, only she was the one broken.
"Yuu... help me... Naibusu is..."
Even after committing such acts, in her final moments, the one Akane called for was Yuuki.
Akane's flames grew violent.
Last gasp flare-up.
Like a candle burning brightest before extinguishing.
The flames blazed furiously to take me with her one last time.
But those flames soon exhausted their power alongside their master.
"Yuu—"
The flames died down.
Akane's body slumped.
Impaled on the blade, her limp form leaned against me.
-Drip. Drip, drip.
Blood from Akane's heart trickled down Moonlight, staining my hand.
The droplets soon fell to form a small pool of blood on the floor.
Half-burnt scraps of my uniform fell like trash.
My body was a mess of soot and melted synthetic fibers from Akane's flames.
-Swish.
I withdrew the blade from her body.
Supporting her now unsupported form, I laid Akane gently on the ground.
"...Next life, be reborn as a proper pure-love heroine."
Akane's sleeping face was profoundly serene and beautiful.
...If only you'd been honest with your feelings to Yuuki from the start.
You could've been Yuuki's pure-love heroine.
Leaving me with that bitter aftertaste alone,
Akane died.
-Chapter 2. Akane Complete-