After dinner, Katakura Hayabusa took his sister Katakura Kazue by the hand and vanished into the elevator, returning to the small home that belonged to just the two of them.
Gao Sijin’s throat tightened as he recalled how Kazue had just been on all fours like a dog, eating food from a bowl on the floor. A stifling heat burned in his chest, accompanied by an indescribable throbbing—as if someone were violently squeezing his heart.
This pain cut deeper than the day he lost his freedom. Kazue was just a girl in the bloom of youth. Why had she been reduced to this?
Pale-faced, Gao Sijin walked to the window, longing to weep. Yet the thought that even Katakura Hayabusa hadn’t shed tears for his own sister made Gao Sijin feel he had no right to cry.
“Gao-kun, what’s wrong?” A pair of snowy-white feet in wooden geta entered his vision. Looking up, he saw the breathtaking, peerless beauty of Tsukiyuki Rio.
“Rio…”
“Is it a headache? You saw the doctor before and took medicine. Does it still hurt?”
“No, I’m just…”
“Just what?”
“That child, Kazue, is too pitiful.”
“Oh, so Gao-kun is worried about Kazue. That makes sense. Gao-kun’s ‘Gao’ is the ‘Gao’ of haughty—even trapped in a cage, you still look down with compassion from on high. Though your compassion is, to others, utterly insignificant.”
Tsukiyuki Rio’s bewitching smile held a trace of mockery as her slender jade fingers naturally interlaced with his.
She was always like that, unwilling to be apart from Gao Sijin for even half a second.
“But Gao-kun, that scene just now—couldn’t it provide some material? A brother willing to act like a dog just to ease his sister’s mind. If written into a story, it would be absurd yet deeply moving.”
Gao Sijin shook his head.
“I have no desire to write Kazue’s story. If one day, after she recovers, she were to see my book, it would undoubtedly tear open her wounds all over again.” He stared out at the vast night. “Using the suffering Kazue really experienced to entertain readers would be far too cruel to her. Pain should be buried, not paraded around or made into something others relish discussing.”
“Gao-kun really is a gentle and kind person.”
“I’m just putting myself in her shoes.” Gao Sijin glanced at the dark crimson pupils of Tsukiyuki Rio and added with a veiled barb, “But in this world, not everyone can understand what it means to put themselves in another’s place.”
“After all, no one here is a fool.”
Feeling Tsukiyuki Rio’s body press closer against him, Gao Sijin suddenly spoke up.
“Rio, I want to ask you for something.”
“Whatever Gao-kun asks, I will agree to.”
“The human trafficker… must die for me!”
“So Gao-kun really is angry. Come to think of it, it is rare to see him like this.” Tsukiyuki Rio beamed. “Rest assured, Gao-kun. Even if you didn’t beg me, the trafficker who sold Kazue would still die. I’ve already promised Katakura that he can kill that trafficker with his own hands.”
Gao Sijin fell silent.
Kazue’s tragedy was far from an isolated case.
Thinking of all the children still suffering misfortune from being trafficked, Gao Sijin was seized by an overwhelming urge to wipe every last trafficker from the face of the earth.
And they absolutely must not die easily. Even applying every single one of the Ten Great Tortures of the Qing Dynasty wouldn’t quell the fury in his heart.
“Actually, Gao-kun, there’s no need for such rage. For the Katakura siblings, this outcome is already quite good. Even though Katakura just now acted like a dog to comfort his sister—ridiculous and laughable—wasn’t that, in its own way, a kind of happiness?”
Could that truly be considered happiness?
Gao Sijin let out a long sigh and fixed his gaze outside the window. He saw Katakura Hayabusa holding his sister’s hand as they gradually disappeared down the path.
Tonight, the streets of Kabukicho were once again ablaze with light.
And how much evil lay hidden behind that light?
Gao Sijin didn’t dare even imagine. Back when he was just an ordinary office worker in Bincheng, he had never glimpsed such deep, suffocating darkness.
“Huh?”
Suddenly, he thought he saw her.
Looking down from the thirtieth floor, people seemed as tiny as ants. But there was one person who looked strikingly similar to Feng Xiaohe.
It must have been a mistake.
After all, Xiaohe and Xiaona had already gone to Magic City, and Xiaohe had a respectable job there.
That earlier dream might have been some fragment of a parallel world, or just his own delusion.
She couldn’t possibly be in Tokyo.
Gao Sijin rubbed his eyes and looked again. Sure enough, there was no trace of Feng Xiaohe.
“By the way, how many words did Gao-kun write today?”
Tsukiyuki Rio suddenly asked beside him, her voice soft and slow.
“Didn’t write much today.”
Still weighed down by heavy emotions, Gao Sijin had completely forgotten he was supposed to write today—and also forgotten that failing to produce words would result in punishment from Tsukiyuki Rio.
“Gao-kun, shall we play a game together?”
“What kind of game?”
“I’ll think of something, and Gao-kun will guess.”
“How am I supposed to know what you’re thinking?”
“You can propose a category, and I’ll say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ I’ll even throw in hints. You get ten chances in total.”
“Fine, let’s do it.”
He was pretty bored anyway.
He’d seen a similar game before in the anime series Kaguya-sama: Love is War.
“First of all, is it something to eat?”
“No. Though I suppose you could eat it if you wanted.”
Gao Sijin mentally eliminated food. So it was something a normal person wouldn’t normally eat.
“Is it a living thing?”
“No, but it shares a name with a certain living creature.”
“An object?”
“Yes.”
Yet Gao Sijin remained baffled. Who knew what kind of trick Tsukiyuki Rio was pulling?
“Is it stationery?”
“No.”
“Does it have ornamental value?”
Tsukiyuki Rio paused briefly, then smiled.
“Of course. To certain people, it’s a very ornamental thing indeed.”
Could it be some sort of precious artwork, like an oil painting?
Still, some people with peculiar hobbies also collect the strangest things.
“Is it something that can be used?”
“Yes, I use it every single day.”
Good lord.
Now the scope had suddenly narrowed quite a lot.
If he just concentrated, he could definitely find the answer.
“Is it hard?”
“Sometimes it is.”
Sometimes?
“Is it soft?”
“Same as before—sometimes it is.”
For some reason, Gao Sijin’s mind went to a rather unsavory place.
“Is it hot or cold?”
“Naturally, it’s burning hot.”
Gao Sijin could already see the heart shapes blooming in Tsukiyuki Rio’s eyes.
He swallowed. Today was going to be another night with no escape.
“Is it a human body part?”
“So clever. Seems Gao-kun has already guessed what it is.”
Tsukiyuki Rio’s smile blossomed, while Gao Sijin’s face grew paler.
That figured.
After all, he hadn’t written any words today.
“Go on, what is the thing I’m thinking of, Gao-kun? If you get it right, today you’ll get a reward.”
“Can I forgo the reward?”
“No can do. Now, hurry and say what it is.”
A dark cloud hung over Gao Sijin’s face.
That thing was, of course…
