Chapter - 14

"Ehehe, I've been waiting for you, Yohei──"

The voice was deceptively cheerful, emitting a strange echo in the dusky evening room.

It made my skin crawl with goosebumps.

"Hic...!"

I tried to resist, but then I was shoved.

I quickly lose my balance and fall to the floor.

Crunch──metallic sound. It's the same as before.

The sound of the cuffs being placed on her other wrist.

After hearing that, it was useless to struggle.

The freedom of her hands was already gone.

I was crawling on the floor like a sweet potato beetle.

I remember seeing it, but──the low visibility and dim darkness made the room seem like another world.

"I'm sorry."

The weight on my back, the opposite of an apologetic voice.

I try to jump and shake it off, but I'm held back.

"I'm sorry."

I'm sorry.

"I'm sorry."

The carpet on the floor is in my mouth, and it's painful.

I can't stop my saliva from drooling uncontrollably.

"But──I don't think Yohei is bad, do you?"

Kukukuk. A secret laugh. I couldn't look into his face because I was behind him.

There was nothing to look into.

The object that will appear with the soundtrack of a movie is silently approaching from outside the field of vision.

Green, the hue of a plant.

But it was no longer a root, a stem, a vine, a leaf, or any of those descriptors.

The horror flashes back, the horrifying figure from the night before, ravaging his eyeballs again, and he screams.

"Uh──────!!!"

My voice was muffled by the carpet, but that was probably for the best.

Alas, the slithering, writhing thing was like a collective creature.

A thin layer of mucus covers its surface, reminding me of a squid's legs.

Tentacles──I can only call them tentacles.

A metaphor for the Kurumi, which has surpassed the stage of a carnivorous flower and is transforming into a cannibalistic flower with unimaginable advancement──That tentacle!

I don't even have to look at the body that these tentacles are rooted in.

It is simply a matter of recalling it from memory.

But it's a nightmare that I wanted to end, never to return again, if I could.

The reality that the boy next door is a monster because he's obsessed with the same thing as me.

I don't want to think about it. I don't want to look back.

I never want to see that!

Rampage. I resisted with only my abs and spine──a futile effort.

Even if I were a girl, there's no way I could fight against Kurumi, who is training for a club, and I'm a blunted old man.

"Be quiet..."

A blow to the side.

It doesn't have the weight of a fist, but a sharpness that passes through the opposite side from the point of impact.

"KUCK!?"

A stabbing hand──I froze in pain as my insides burned.

The fear of pain immediately immobilized him.

"Don't talk too much, it's a nuisance."

He whispers, his voice a gentle persuasion.

It sounds so gentle that I don't recognize it as having just been violent.

For a moment, even I, the victim of violence, wonder if it was an illusion.

But pain doesn't lie.

My side, still throbbing, was a reminder of the violence she had inflicted.

"I don't want to punish Yohei either."

She slapped him on the back. Kuluk coughed and coughed.

"Really, but."

It's not a fist or a stabbing hand. It's a palm.

But it's a palm, and it's loaded with momentum, so even a single punch hits my lungs and disrupts my breathing.

Zap, zap──The dreaded tingling sensation descends in short bursts.

A series of blows, delivered over time.

"If you don't teach your body thoroughly like this, you'll quickly fall prey to the fire fox."

She adds a sad tone to her voice, but she doesn't hesitate to add another blow.

The sound never rises or falls, always a steady, mechanical task that continues to inflict pain and fear.

"But I forgive you."

The pain. The tingling. I drift in and out of consciousness in the grayish room.

I can't tell if the coiling tentacles are a dream or a metaphor.

"I'll forgive you, Yohei... just stay still."

The will to resist fades lightly as you're bound by the silent repetition of scarless violence and writhing tentacles.

In the blink of an eye, he's succumbed to the tenacity of a boyhood friend he's known for years.

I offer no resistance as my belt is yanked off and my pants are pulled down.

His hands are still cuffed.

Even if I resisted, I would only receive unlimited violence in the name of "punishment."

My heart was freezing, but I was accepting the situation.

It's nothing, it's nothing, it's nothing, this is nothing.

I try to force it down. I feel like crap with a rumbling nausea and a headache.

No matter what Kurumi does to me, I won't die. You can survive.

So there is no such thing as -──.

Kurumi's hand reaches for my underwear.

I wonder if she has any hesitation in exposing the pussy of such a childhood friend... who has been playing with her for years and eating the same meals.

I stare into her eyes.

There was no such hesitation anywhere.

There is only excitement. Her pupils are so watery that they remind me of a bottomless swamp.

My teeth were chattering. The chills and vomiting that crawl through my body are overwhelming my reason.

"He's distracted, isn't he? He didn't really mean to have sex with that girl, did he?"

I rub my lower abdomen as I speak.

He runs his fingers over her emaciated pussy, which shows no sign of rising.

His touch is somewhat awkward, but he has an unbalanced finesse, knowing just where and how to stimulate.

"I've been watching you for a long time..., so I know all your weak spots."

He smiles proudly. Even as he laughs, he doesn't stop wringing his hands.

"You can't use Loricom... because it's a crime to lust after a girl like that."

Slowly, the irritation turns to pleasure. But he's a long way from an erection.

"You're in trouble, Yohei."

She pinches his skin with a light touch. A sharp cry of pain escapes him.

Kurumi doesn't stop.

Instead, the tentacles become more active.

Sticky, sticky, sticky, sticky, sticky, sticky──

A complex web of green tentacles circled the room, dripping slime incessantly.

It is a cobweb wet with morning dew. The scale of the flower far exceeds Kurumi's own body.

Rather than the flower already blooming on Kurumi, it is Kurumi inside the flower.

The lower half is covered in slippery leaves, making it hard to make out.

It's buried in the cannibal flower, so only the top half seems to be emerging from the plant.

Kurumi was a flower. A flower in human form. She is no longer a person.

The upper body that remained in view──the breasts that stood out in particular.

She bent down and came in while shaking it.

Come to think of it, he's never had milk in his coffee before──I'm abstracted.

"Anyway, since it's like this, I'll show my sincerity too──"

The corners of his mouth curl up.

A broken expression takes over his face.

"I'll give you a body that won't be satisfied with just empty milk."

He begins to undress, dreamily.

Just then, the nest──a horde of tentacles closes in on them.

A cage...of green and meat...running in all directions, a wire fence...there is no way to escape.

Kurumi's room was meant to be anything but a prison.

I feel my chest tighten and close my eyes.

Both the metaphor and Kurumi shut down and disappear.

Instead, a thick, burning odor assaults your nostrils.

A savage scent that reminds me of the tropical wilderness.

Something filled with the sweet savagery of cannibalistic flowers──

No, the metaphor is only a metaphor. Nothing to excite the olfactory senses.

Then this.

I open my eyes involuntarily.

There was Kurumi, undoing her clothes. Half-naked.

The color of her flesh peeks through the cracks.

The color of her flesh peeking through the cracks.

The source of the odor comes from there.

...Ah, is this her body odor...

The brain is paralyzed. Instinct kicks in, except for will.

You want to get drunk, let go of everything, and indulge your carnal desires. That's all the mind can think about.

"I'll take it all away from you──."

The muttering was faint.

I didn't have the heart to refuse, so I naturally accepted and replied.

Somehow, I'm thirsty. Very thirsty. I must drink something.

Even if it is some kind of poisonous liquid...

That day.

I was eaten.

Kurumi's mother was about to return home when she was freed.

Sensing somehow that I had been tricked, she unlocked the handcuffs, threatening me with a glare and saying, "Come back again."

She threatened me with a sly glance and said, "Come back again." She also threatened me with what would happen if I didn't.

I had been forced to ejaculate six times by then.

Kurumi was the first, but she acted as if she knew everything about me, and she was manipulative and desperate.

Even if I had had the idea of holding back, it would not have been physically possible.

Whatever the history, he had been a frequent nightly side dish in the past.

While I was feeling Kurumi continue to serve with enthusiasm, I was feeling the relief that had arrived.

A boyhood friend who realizes pleasures beyond imagination, with a devotion far beyond imagination.

Despite the betrayal of my trust, I was blessed with a pleasant feeling that sent a tingle down my spine.

Our relationship was probably doomed from the beginning when we realized that we were both consciously using the other as an object of desire.

The wallpaper of "friend" and "childhood friend" had already rotted away.

I blame myself for my weakness in not rejecting Kurumi early on, even though I sensed her danger.

Since I chose Maya, I didn't deserve to be so kind to Kurumi, to comfort her, and then to break up with her so firmly.

And yet──I couldn't bring myself to leave Kurumi alone.

If I had left her alone for a while, I might have been able to avoid today's situation.

I couldn't imagine what she would do if I left her alone for too long.

Would she take her own life? Or turn the blade on someone else.

I'm the type of person who gets scared to close my eyes when faced with horror.

I push myself by imagining what's happening while I can't see it.

That's why I was so afraid of Kurumi's "monster," wanting to look it in the eye, wanting to make sure everything was clear before I stepped on it.

The result was disastrous.

I was betrayed by Kurumi.

At the same time, I betrayed Maya.

Even if you're the victim, there's nothing to say about the injustice you committed because your body didn't resist, even if your mind did.

I feel like crying. I wonder if I was betrayed or if I betrayed her. Maybe both.

I can't tell.

I don't know where my own thoughts lie.

I'm torn between thinking about Kurumi, and thinking about Maya, and feeling sick.

I entered into a relationship with Maya because I felt comfortable with her dependence──

I let my guard down with Kurumi because I felt sorry for her.

There is no subject. There is no firm line of action.

What did I want to do, and what was I avoiding?

I coveted the flesh of the underclassman in my arms.

Savoring the sweet taste of blood while committing a crime against a childhood friend I had known for many years.

I can't help but realize. You're already out of line.

The bounds of common sense, normal relationships, all of that.

And what I saw at the end of that aberration, I──didn't hate at all.

It was only three days, in terms of days.

Having lost my virginity and experienced reverse rape, I realize in my shock-shaken mind that I am at a stage in my life that I cannot see from my previous perspective.

A storm of red, poisonous cannibal flowers and cocooning ivy.

A grassy, metaphorical jade field.

Perhaps it is a sign of a broken heart that I am beginning to think of this as beautiful.

The tears wouldn't stop.

I couldn't recall any of the feelings that my "old self" held.

Am I falling apart, or am I falling apart prematurely?

A melody seeps into my dazed mind. La-Marseillaise──dial tone.

My cell phone is crying. The tears on my cheeks are already drying.

I looked at the display. "Araki Maya". My heart leaps at those five letters.

Why from her. Maybe from a while ago.

A chill ran through my head, which was like a thick soup, and my consciousness grew white.

With a trembling hand, I press the button.

"... Hello?"

"Would you mind stepping outside for a moment?" she asked quietly.

Red ivy crawled out and tangled around her pinky finger.