54 Betrayal

A person in a white coat walked through the door.

"Visitors? Is it one of your friends, Celty?"

After putting down the medical kit, Shinra noticed an unfamiliar face in the living room.

Celty stood up and quickly typed out the words Hojou Kyousuke had just spoken, passing the tablet to Shinra.

Then, she anxiously looked at Shinra, hoping for reassurance or encouragement.

After all, he was the person she cared about the most.

"You're joking, right, Celty? You're you—non-human you. How could you possibly become human?"

To her surprise, after reading the words on the tablet, Shinra's face darkened instantly, and he immediately rejected everything.

"If I can find my head, I can truly blush and become a real human!"

Celty had imagined Shinra would share her joy, but when that didn't happen, she urgently typed "truly" twice.

Shinra, not even bothering to change his slippers, excitedly strode over to Celty.

Startled, Celty retreated quickly.

"Celty, you, the non-human you, are so beautiful, so captivating. Why would you want to become human? Even if you find your head, it won't change anything!"

Uh-oh. He'd let something slip.

His face changed, and Shinra quickly turned to flee outside.

"How did you know? How could you possibly know that even if I find my head, it's useless?"

The black mist inside Celty's body surged, transforming into a spider web that blocked the door, trapping Shinra.

"Shinra, why are you running away?"

"Oh, it's nothing. I just remembered I left the scalpel inside the patient's stomach. I need to get it out quickly."

Shinra grabbed the medical kit and tried to squeeze through the gaps in the web.

"Shinra, don't even think about escaping!"

Celty extended the black mist, wrapping Shinra tightly in the web, then handed him the tablet.

"What do you really know about my head?"

Why wasn't I mute? Shinra cursed his own well-functioning body at this moment.

"Your head and body were never really connected, so even if you find your head, it won't turn you into a human," Shinra said with a pained expression, knowing he had no way out now.

"How could you know that?" Celty was stunned.

She had spent so long searching for her head, and the clue had been right beside her all along.

"Your head was stolen by my father. He used the cursed blade, 'Zai Geng,' to sever the soul connection between your head and body," Shinra said, defeated.

'How could that be?!' 

The words came straight from Hojou Kyousuke's mind.

He watched as Celty staggered back, looking as though she had just received a huge blow.

When Celty had returned from Shinra's place, she had shared her joy with him first.

It was clear she trusted and depended on this man deeply.

"You've known all along?" Celty's mind raced.

Maybe Shinra had only learned this recently and had been trying to figure out how to get her head back from his father's clutches.

Perhaps he hadn't told her because he wanted to surprise her?

"Tell me, Shinra! Why didn't you tell me?" she wanted to know.

"Of course I knew. But I was afraid you'd leave me once you found your head, so I couldn't bring myself to tell you," Shinra confessed.

Celty's mind reeled as she connected the dots.

"So when I was following the scent of my head and ended up at the beach, that's when I met you and your father on the cruise ship headed to Japan."

"It was then you stole my head and went back to Japan..."

She was in disbelief.

The kind-hearted people who had given her shelter, the ones she trusted and cared for, had betrayed her.

"I remember your father saying, 'If you let me dissect her, I'll give you a place to stay.' And you, a four-year-old Shinra, were part of the dissection, weren't you?"

Celty trembled as memories of that horrifying time surged, and black mist poured from her neck.

Kyousuke, standing behind Celty, could clearly see the words she typed.

He was filled with dread, his skin prickling with goosebumps, as an intense, painful feeling flooded him.

'Dissected while conscious? A child involved in dissection? What kind of twisted father-son duo is this?'

"Do you know how terrified I was when I woke up to find my head gone?!"

Celty's body trembled with emotion.

"Celty, when I participated in that dissection, I didn't know any of this. I only found out later," Shinra tried to explain.

"Do you know how it feels to have memories from my body fade away, and not knowing how many memories my head still holds?!" Celty's frustration boiled over.

"Does it really matter if it's hundreds of years of memories? You're fine just as you are," Shinra said, eyes closed in pain. He felt like he was losing Celty.

"Hey, hey, even I can't stand this. 'Hundreds of years of memories don't matter'? You can't even handle losing twenty years of memories, can you?" Hojou Kyousuke interjected, unable to hold back.

"Shut up! I haven't even started dealing with you yet."

"If it weren't for you, Celty wouldn't be like this, and I wouldn't have slipped up! I'm going to kill you!" Shinra struggled, desperate, knowing he couldn't escape Celty's black mist.

"Enough, Shinra! Do you know how close I am to forgetting what my own face looks like?!" Celty's words rang out with despair, her emotions clearly conveyed.

Kyousuke could feel every ounce of Celty's anger, sorrow, and desperation as he read her words.

Her trust had been shattered, and she was questioning the meaning of her existence.

"Hojou, let's go for a ride," Celty typed, finally dropping the tablet.

She shrank the spider web around Shinra, opened the door, and motioned for Kyousuke to join her.

"Coming right away," Kyousuke replied, stepping over to grab the wooden box containing the knife, and deliberately bumping Shinra's stomach as he passed.

"Hey, you jerk! Get back here! You're not going anywhere with Celty!" Shinra yelled.

By the time Kyousuke had sat on Celty's motorcycle, he turned to give Shinra a mocking grin.

Normally, he wasn't the type to act childish, but against such a selfish creep, he took pleasure in this small act of defiance.

Watching Shinra fume, helpless and furious, was satisfying.

"Hold on tight," Celty typed, lifting the tablet one last time for Kyousuke to see.

Then she used black mist to secure both their bodies together.

And with a roar, Celty's motorcycle leaped off the ground, crashing through the window of the hallway and speeding out.

Kyousuke now understood why Celty had wrapped him up with black mist.

As the bike fell, the mist extended and pulled the motorcycle toward the wall, creating a path for them to ride safely to the ground.

"Where to?" Celty typed.

"Go straight along Theater Avenue for two kilometers, then turn onto the 5th Ikebukuro expressway. My men are waiting there," Kyousuke said without hesitation.

His associate, Satoshi Katagiri, had told him about the plans before leaving. They would meet at the headquarters after having some fun here.

As for his own ride, Kyousuke didn't even mention it.

Could his bike ever compare to the warmth and comfort Celty provided?

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