The Black Knight's Shadow
The ground shook with a heavy thud. Thud.
I had never imagined this. Never thought I would find my life threatened by a Dracore.
The deep, resonant footsteps echoed nearby. Every time the vibrations traveled up through the floor and sank deep into my lungs, I caught my breath without realizing it.
We had barely managed to slip inside a nearby building. But unfortunately, the Dracore controlled by the Black Knight had chased us immediately and now blocked the entrance, pressing down on it like a living wall.
Which left us trapped, with nowhere left to run.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Every time the building’s ceiling trembled faintly, concrete dust and flakes of rusted steel drifted down slowly.
This place felt like a prison that could collapse at any moment. The harder I tried to hold my breath, the heavier the tension pressed down on my chest.
The one small mercy was that the Dracore the Black Knight was piloting wasn’t in perfect condition either.
The machine prowled threateningly around the entrance, circling without yet showing any sign of movement powerful enough to destroy the building.
In that uneasy game of hide-and-seek, when a helpless laugh was about to escape me at how unreal the situation felt, I suddenly glanced sideways.
Luna was trembling violently, her face pale with terror. She had both arms wrapped tightly around her knees, shoulders hunched like a child who had just heard something far too loud.
Strangely, the sight overlapped with the young Luna I had seen only moments ago.
The girl curled up among the rubble. The way she had shrunk back in fear upon seeing a living person for the first time. It all came back so clearly.
The Luna beside me now was obviously several times more grown, a seasoned Dracore pilot living in the real world, yet…
In this moment, she looked like nothing more than a small, fragile girl who had never truly escaped that place.
So I reached out carefully. Just like I had back then.
The moment my fingers gently brushed the back of her hand, she flinched and lifted her head.
I didn’t avoid her eyes. I simply took her hand and held it firmly. Right now, I wanted to convey only one thing without words: that I was here beside her.
Thanks to that, Luna slowly began to calm down.
At first her hand had been limp, but strength gradually returned to it. Eventually she curled her own fingers around mine.
As if surrendering herself to that warmth, her trembling slowly faded.
Her lips remained tightly pressed together, but I could feel the fear swirling in her eyes gradually sinking away.
It really felt as if everything that had happened back there had become reality.
The ruined streets. The two of us hiding while holding our breath. And the presence of an Outer circling nearby.
In that dizzying sensation where the boundary between dream and reality seemed to crumble, I lost all sense of how much time had passed.
“…It hurts.”
Luna’s murmur sounded like a child’s.
I reacted instantly to that small whisper. Had she been injured somewhere I hadn’t noticed? Maybe she’d been hurt during our escape from the Dracore.
My heart sank for a split second.
But the next words that left her mouth stopped me in a completely unexpected way.
“…My butt hurts where you spanked it… It keeps throbbing because I’ve been sitting on the floor…”
“…Ah.”
I had no excuse for that part. No matter how I thought about it, I could only conclude that I hadn’t been in my right mind at that moment.
Striking your partner in the middle of Coupling was never normal under any circumstances.
But strangely, Luna didn’t look like she was blaming me at all. Quite the opposite. Instead of vague resentment, her eyes shimmered with something closer to pleading.
I couldn’t look away from that gaze. While I stared at her in a daze, she carefully shifted closer, pressing herself against my side.
Our arms touched. Our shoulders brushed. She leaned in so close that her whisper brushed my ear.
“…But maybe it’s because it was you, Yuto? I don’t really hate it.”
“…What?”
What on earth did she mean by that? Even she seemed unable to handle her own words—her cheeks flushed bright red in an instant.
And at that moment, the ground began to rumble again.
Thud—! Thud—!
The heavy vibration traveled through the building’s walls. The dusty ceiling shook without pause.
Startled by the tremor, Luna flinched and clung tightly to my arm. The fear that the Dracore might smash through the wall and thrust its head inside at any second pressed down on the air.
The shaking grew clearer. And the more it did, the more Luna pressed herself against me.
At first she leaned her shoulder into me, then wrapped her arm around mine, and finally rested her head against my chest.
That warm body heat slowly seeped into me, making even my own breathing stop.
Luna’s movements were like a cat that had been left alone for too long finally burrowing into its owner’s arms. She pressed her whole body against me, seeking comfort.
“…Luna. You’re too close.”
“…I’m scared, that’s why. If you don’t like it, you can spank me again.”
“…No, that’s—”
That was too unfair a thing to say.
“…And if you stay by my side like this, Yuto, even if we die right here, I think I’d be less afraid. I wouldn’t feel lonely either.”
I couldn’t tell if she was joking or speaking her true feelings in the face of death. I struggled to keep my expression steady and answered.
“Just in case, we should move to another spot. The ceiling’s been unstable for a while now…”
“Eit.”
Before I could finish speaking.
Luna pressed her palm against my chest. At first the force felt light, almost playful, but the pressure gradually deepened.
Pain spread below my knee and dizziness overlapped with it. I couldn’t even resist as I toppled backward.
The cold sensation of the floor against my back hit me at the same time Luna’s shadow fell over me.
“…What are you doing?”
“Revenge. Inside the Dracore you treated me like an object, spanked my ass without mercy, and even cursed me in your head, calling me an annoying woman.”
“……”
The look in Luna’s eyes as she stared down at me changed into something dangerous.
It wasn’t quite bloodlust. It was more like an indescribable desire laid completely bare.
With slow but unwavering movements, Luna straddled my lower body.
She locked her knees around my waist, the soft flesh of her inner thighs pressing tightly against me, letting me feel her body heat vividly.
As her center of gravity settled over my groin, the faint pressure transmitted through her suit began to stimulate me.
I tried to tell this version of Luna to stop, but my throat had gone completely dry.
In the midst of it all, Luna braced herself with one hand on my body to keep balance,
then assumed a position like she was mounting a cockpit and began to gaze down at me intently.
From this angle, her eyes were dizzyingly focused solely on me. As if nothing else in the world existed.
For a long time Luna remained perfectly still, not even seeming to breathe. But in that silence, I could feel the beating of her heart.
In that state, with her knees still locked in place, she slowly tilted her waist forward.
Her silver hair brushed against my chin. Her lips hovered so close they nearly grazed my ear.
Finally, Luna whispered right beside my ear.
“Yuto. Have you had sex with Yuzuki?”
“……”
I gave no answer.
But Luna seemed to read everything from my eyes, my breathing, and the faint tremble of my pupils. The corner of her mouth slowly curved upward.
We weren’t even Coupling, yet it felt like our emotions flowed through our skin like electricity.
“Hehe… So you haven’t… yet? That makes me feel a little bad for Yuzuki… I wasn’t originally planning to do this…”
As she spoke, Luna took my hand and placed it on her breast.
The soft, elastic sensation transmitted through her suit sank into my palm. At that moment, her eyes looked so seductive it sent a shiver down my spine.
Under the faint light filtering in from somewhere, the only things reflected in my eyes were Luna’s crimson irises and the heat blooming across her cheeks.
“Luna… What exactly are you trying to do right now?”
“You already know, since we’ve come this far. Why are you acting like you don’t?”
“Are you in your right mind in a situation like this?”
The Dracore’s vibrations still echoed clearly nearby. The memory of us running for our lives was still vivid on my skin. We could die at any second.
Yet Luna’s eyes and movements felt like they belonged to an entirely different world.
“…It’s strange. I know you’re going to get angry like this, but just thinking about it makes my heart beat even faster.”
Her voice as she stroked my chest was coy and seductive, like something meant only to tempt a man.
“No matter how I think about it, this is all because of you, Yuto.”
“…Why is it my fault?”
“Do you really not know?”
This time I wasn’t even given a chance to speak. Without hesitation, Luna leaned down.
Her warm, soft lips covered mine, cutting off the words that had been about to leave me. As if telling me not to speak anymore, she sealed my mouth with her own breath.