The next day, at Sobu High School.
A strange atmosphere permeated the campus. During breaks, students gathered in small groups in the hallways and classrooms, whispering in low voices with expressions of shock, sympathy, and a hint of subtle curiosity.
"Did you hear? Hachiman Hikigaya from Class 2-F..."
"Is it for real? He became a vegetable?"
"Apparently, it happened suddenly at home last night... so sudden!"
"His sister Komachi didn't come to school today either..."
"How pitiful..."
Rumors spread through the school as if they had grown wings. Hachiman Hikigaya, who always radiated an aura of aloofness with his dead eyes, had overnight become a vegetable who could only lie in bed, having lost all consciousness. This news was too abrupt, too bizarre.
Yukino Yukinoshita sat quietly in the classroom. The stray bits of conversation from outside the window were like cold needles, piercing her reason one by one. Her fingers tightened around her pen, her knuckles turning white.
(Hachiman Hikigaya... a vegetable...)
(Last night he came to find me, with such fear and despair, pleading with me to stop Kanjuro...)
(Only one night has passed...)
She suddenly stood up, her chair making a harsh scraping sound against the floor, drawing the attention of the surrounding students. But she didn't care. Her cold face was like it was covered in a layer of frost as she walked straight toward Kanjuro's classroom.
She intercepted Kanjuro in the hallway as he was about to head to the rooftop for some air. Sunlight streamed through the window onto him; his uniform was crisp, and his face was handsome. He seemed to exist in a world apart from the tragedy everyone else was discussing.
"Kanjuro." Yukino Yukinoshita's voice was like ice cracking silk, carrying a suppressed rage to the extreme. "What happened to Classmate Hikigaya... it was you, wasn't it?"
She didn't need evidence or reasoning. That method of thoroughly destroying a person without taking their life, transcending common sense... that precise punishment inflicted on those who dared resist him... she couldn't think of anyone else besides Kanjuro.
Kanjuro stopped in his tracks. Facing Yukino Yukinoshita's questioning, there wasn't a hint of surprise on his face; instead, a knowing and slightly playful smile appeared. He leaned down slightly, approaching Yukino, and lowered his voice to ensure only the two of them could hear:
"Yukino, you're very smart." He didn't deny it, his tone as calm as if discussing the weather. "It started when he chose to doubt me. As for the cause of this matter... you should be very clear about it in your heart."
He was referring to Hachiman Hikigaya's bone-deep fear and his act of seeking her help yesterday. In Kanjuro's twisted logic, all of this was the inevitable result brought about by Hachiman Hikigaya's 'distrust' and 'attempted resistance.'
Yukino Yukinoshita looked at his face so close at hand. In those deep eyes, there was no guilt or hesitation, only an indifference and a calmness that seemed to be admiring her current anger. A chill rose from the bottom of her heart, making her almost unable to control her body's trembling.
"How could you... how could you so easily... take away a person's life?!" Her voice carried a trace of imperceptible sobbing, not just for Hachiman Hikigaya, but also seemingly for everyone shrouded in Kanjuro's shadow, including herself.
Kanjuro shook his head gently, as if lamenting her "lack of understanding." He didn't answer her question directly, but changed the subject, that inscrutable gentle smile hanging on his face once again:
"Yukino, after school, wait for me at the school gate."
His tone carried a hint of being brook no refusal, and even faintly revealed a trace of... expectation?
"I will give you a... 'surprise'."
After saying this, he didn't wait for Yukino Yukinoshita's response. He straightened up and, as if completing an ordinary daily conversation, walked past her composedly toward the rooftop, leaving Yukino Yukinoshita standing frozen in place alone.
"Surprise"?
Coming from Kanjuro's mouth, this word carried a hair-raising chill. Thinking of the tragic state of the Hikigaya family, and Kanjuro's unfathomable authority and twisted nature, Yukino Yukinoshita could not imagine at all what would be waiting for her.
Was it a more cruel truth? A new threat? Or... some kind of irresistible "arrangement" directed at herself?
She watched Kanjuro's back as he disappeared at the end of the corridor. The sunlight stretched a long shadow behind him, like an abyss swallowing the light. The "surprise" after school weighed on her heart like a heavy boulder, making the surrounding air become stagnant and suffocating.
She knew she had no choice. No matter what that "surprise" was, she could only face it. Because the initiative of the game had never been in her hands.
The after-school bell rang as usual, and students poured out of the teaching building like a tide. Yukino Yukinoshita stood under a cherry blossom tree near the school gate, her figure cold and lonely, out of place with the noisy and cheerful atmosphere around her. Her gaze was fixed on the exit of the teaching building, her heart beating uncontrollably faster in her chest, both from anger and from an uneasy premonition of Kanjuro's so-called "surprise."
Finally, that slender and familiar figure appeared. Kanjuro still wore his impeccable gentle smile, walking unhurriedly. However, when Yukino Yukinoshita clearly saw the two people following behind him, her breath suddenly hitched, and the blood in her body seemed to freeze instantly.
It was Komachi Hikigaya and Mrs. Hikigaya.
Komachi was wearing the Sobu High School uniform, following closely at Kanjuro's side. Her face bore a kind of... a nearly hollow calmness that Yukino had never seen on her face before, and there was even a faint, stiff curve at the corners of her mouth. She intimately held Kanjuro's arm, her body leaning slightly against him, as if he were her entire support.
As for Mrs. Hikigaya, she was wearing decent casual clothes with exquisite makeup on her face. Her eyes were submissive and dependent, completely immersed in the world of Kanjuro's existence, seemingly indifferent to everything outside. She also pressed closely against Kanjuro's other side, forming a bizarrely eerie picture of a "family of three."
How was this still the Komachi Hikigaya who would cry in fear and shout in anger yesterday? How was this still the Mrs. Hikigaya who gently managed the household?
Kanjuro led them directly to Yukino Yukinoshita.
"Yukino, sorry for the wait." Kanjuro greeted her with a smile, as naturally as if he were just bringing family to pick up a friend. "I said I would give you a 'surprise'."
Yukino Yukinoshita's gaze was deadlocked on Komachi Hikigaya, trying to find a single trace of her former vibrancy or pain in her eyes, but all she saw was a forcedly smoothed-over, stagnant silence.
"Komachi..." Yukino Yukinoshita's voice carried a hint of imperceptible trembling. She forced herself to calm down and asked in as steady a tone as possible, "Are... are you okay? What... exactly happened at home?"
Komachi Hikigaya raised her head and looked at Yukino Yukinoshita. There were no ripples in her eyes, and her tone was as flat as if she were narrating someone else's business:
"Sister Yukino." Her voice was also very calm, even carrying a bit of a strange sense of lightness. "It's nothing. It's just that Onii-chan accidentally got sick and became a vegetable; he might need someone to take care of him from now on. And Papa... there was an accident, and he passed away."
She paused, and the stiff curve on her face seemed to deepen slightly. She held Kanjuro's arm more tightly, leaning her head on his shoulder, and continued in a nearly boastful yet emotionless tone:
"But it's okay. Now Papa Kanjuro is taking care of me and Mama. We are very happy being with Papa Kanjuro, really happy."
Happy?
Her brother is a vegetable, her father died tragically, and her mother has become a stranger... this is the "happiness" she speaks of?
Yukino Yukinoshita felt a strong sense of nausea and dizziness. Looking at Komachi's obviously distorted and manipulated demeanor, looking at Mrs. Hikigaya's completely dependent appearance on Kanjuro, and then thinking of Hachiman Hikigaya lying unconscious in the hospital... a cold anger mixed with immense sorrow almost swallowed her whole.
And Komachi Hikigaya didn't seem to think it was enough. She tilted her head, looked at Yukino Yukinoshita with those hollow eyes, and actually issued an invitation:
"Sister Yukino, Papa Kanjuro is a really good person, very gentle, and treats us all especially well. Do you want to... join us too? That way we can be together forever and be happy forever."
These words were like the most vicious curse, making Yukino Yukinoshita's whole body go cold. She snapped her gaze to Kanjuro, her eyes filled with unbelievable alarm and fury.
Kanjuro seemed very satisfied with Komachi's "invitation." He gently stroked her hair, as if rewarding a well-behaved pet, and then met Yukino Yukinoshita's gaze. The smile on his face deepened, carrying a suffocating pleasure of having everything under control.
"How about it, Yukino?" His voice was full of temptation and a sense of danger. "Komachi's suggestion... what do you think? Are you satisfied with this 'surprise'?"
He pushed a completely destroyed family with distorted perceptions in front of her like displaying a trophy, and invited her... to sink together with them.
People came and went at the school gate, the noise continuing as usual, but in Yukino Yukinoshita's perception, the world seemed to only consist of Kanjuro's demonic smile and the hollow, eerie "happy" expressions of the Hikigaya mother and daughter. This so-called "surprise" was a naked, ultimate interrogation and mockery of her conscience and will. The afterglow of the setting sun stretched the departing figures of Kanjuro, Komachi Hikigaya, and Mrs. Hikigaya. That distorted "family portrait" scene was like a red-hot iron, deeply branded onto Yukino Yukinoshita's retina, burning her reason and conscience. She stood in place for a long time until those figures completely disappeared at the street corner. Only then did the surrounding after-school noise pour back into her ears, yet it seemed so hollow and piercing.
Heart-wrenching was not enough to describe her current feelings. It was a mixture of helplessness, anger, fear, and a deep confusion about her own fate. The tragic state of the Hikigaya family was right before her eyes; it was the most direct manifestation of Kanjuro's power and will. What should she do? What could she do?
Returning all the way in a daze to the cold and empty Yukinoshita Mansion, Yukino Yukinoshita didn't go back to her own room, but walked straight toward the study of her mother, Seiga Yukinoshita. She knew her mother was usually there at this time handling family affairs.
She knocked on the door and entered after receiving permission. Seiga Yukinoshita was sitting behind a large desk, flipping through documents. Her well-maintained face bore its usual calmness and aloofness. Seeing Yukino, she slightly raised her eyelids.
"Mother." Yukino Yukinoshita's voice was somewhat dry. She walked to the desk, her hands clenched slightly, and looked directly into her mother's eyes. "I... have something I want to ask you."
Seiga Yukinoshita put down the documents in her hand, crossed her hands on the table, her expression calm and waveless: "About Kanjuro?"
Yukino took a deep breath and nodded, directly throwing out the question that had been circling in her heart for a long time but had never been truly confirmed: "Mother, please tell me... am I Kanjuro's daughter?"
The air seemed to stagnate for a moment.
Seiga Yukinoshita quietly looked at her daughter for a few seconds. In those ice-blue eyes that were extremely similar to Yukino's, there was no surprise, no panic, only a deep calmness as if she had long anticipated this day. She sighed softly, a sigh carrying a trace of unspeakable, complex emotion.
"You finally... noticed." Seiga Yukinoshita's voice was still steady, but a few degrees less than its usual absolute coldness. "Yes, Yukino. Your biological father is indeed Kanjuro."
Despite having guessed it in her heart long ago, the moment this answer was confirmed by her mother's own mouth, Yukino Yukinoshita still felt a bout of intense dizziness, her body swaying slightly. She grabbed the edge of the table, forcing herself to stand firm.
"...I knew it long ago." Yukino said in a low voice, her voice trembling slightly. "Since I was very young, from the way he looked at me, from the way he showed... an unconventional concern and intimacy toward me and Sister Haruno, I faintly felt it."
She didn't question why her mother hid it, nor did she cry about the troubles her birth had brought. She simply looked up, her gaze sharp as she looked at her mother and asked the most crucial question:
"I want to know... back then, how did you and Kanjuro... actually meet? What... what exactly is he?"
This was the root she truly wanted to explore. Kanjuro's inhuman power, that curse of eternal youth, that cruelty that viewed all living beings as playthings... what was the source of it all?
Yukinoshita Yukino's gaze seemed to pierce through Yukino, casting back into the distant past. In those eyes that were always calm and self-possessed, a rare ripple appeared—a complex expression mixing fear, infatuation, and a profound sense of helplessness.
She remained silent for a long time, so long that Yukino almost thought she wouldn't answer.
Finally, Yukinoshita Yukino spoke slowly, her voice carrying the ethereal quality of recalling the past:
"That was many years ago... when I was still very young." Her fingertips unconsciously stroked the smooth tabletop. "By a chance accident, in a... fringe area that didn't belong to the normal world, I met him."
Her description was vague, but Yukino could feel the abnormality represented by that 'fringe area.'
"Back then, he was exactly the same as he is now—young, handsome, with a lethal attraction, as if darkness itself had condensed into brilliance." A bitter curve formed at the corners of Yukinoshita Yukino's mouth. "In the beginning, my acquaintance with him started with me hurting him."
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