Yukinoshita Yukino held her breath, listening as her mother described Kanjuro's inhuman nature in a tone so calm it was almost cruel. When she heard 'Observer' and 'Destroyer,' she felt a chill seep into her marrow. But she knew this wasn't everything.
"Mother," Yukino's voice carried a hint of urgency, "how exactly... did you meet him? Was it... like how he treats other girls?"
Yukinoshita Yukino shook her head. A cold light, sharp as a blade, flashed in her ice-blue eyes—the gaze of a warrior honed over long years, though its edge was now covered by deep-seated exhaustion.
"No, it wasn't like that." Her voice lowered, heavy with the weight of memory. "Initially... I was the one who sought him out."
Yukino's eyes widened slightly.
Yukinoshita Yukino continued, her tone holding the calmness of stating facts: "At that time, relying on my family background and my own abilities, I already possessed certain resources and an intelligence network within the police system. I realized that in the shadows of Tokyo, there existed an extremely dangerous individual—Kanjuro. He was involved in multiple bizarre deaths and disappearances. His methods were clean and efficient, without a single flaw, yet all clues pointed faintly toward him. He was an... elegant and efficient murderous demon."
Her fingertips tightened unconsciously: "Out of duty, and perhaps out of... the arrogance and sense of justice inherent in the Yukinoshita Family bloodline, I decided to personally investigate and arrest him. At that time, your uncle, Yukinoshita Kiyomasa, also participated in this operation. We mobilized all the forces we could and laid an inescapable net."
At this point, a faint, almost self-mocking bitter smile appeared on her face.
"But we far underestimated him. Not only did we underestimate his personal, unimaginable power, but we also underestimated the... behemoth involved behind him."
"Morimoto Leona." Yukinoshita Yukino murmured, thinking of that woman who held immense power in school and had an ambiguous relationship with Kanjuro.
"Exactly," Yukinoshita Yukino confirmed. "Morimoto Leona, the young miss of the Morimoto family. At that time... no, even now, she is still the principal of Sobu High School, a woman who can call the shots in both the political and business circles of Japan. She is one of Kanjuro's strongest shields. When we were about to touch Kanjuro, immense pressure from the high-ranking police, within the government, and even from all walks of life instantly submerged us. All investigations were forcibly terminated, evidence 'disappeared,' and the operation was ordered to stop. We... failed utterly."
Yukino could imagine her mother's frustration and anger back then. Striking out in the name of justice, yet failing to even touch the hem of the opponent's clothes before being easily crushed by the even larger dark forces behind him.
"Then... what happened after?" Yukino pressed, her heart in her throat. "What did Kanjuro... do to you? Did he change your memory, like he did to Mrs. Hikitani?" She thought of the Mrs. Hikitani who had become a stranger, nestling in Kanjuro's arms, and felt a pang of pain in her heart.
Yukinoshita Yukino slowly and firmly shook her head. Her gaze became deeper, churning with a pain more profound than having her memories altered.
"No. He didn't change my memory." Her voice held a strange calmness, a mixture of humiliation and some complex realization. "On the contrary... he made me remember everything clearly. Every detail, every sensation, is as vivid as if it happened yesterday."
She looked up, staring directly at her daughter. Deep within those eyes that were always cold, there seemed to be a fire burning—an indelible mark that had been forcibly branded upon her.
"What he did to me... was far more terrifying than simply changing my memories."
"What exactly was it?" Yukinoshita Yukino felt a surge of palpitations and couldn't help but ask. Yukinoshita Yukino closed her eyes as if to push that humiliating and chaotic memory back into the depths of her heart, but in the end, she chose to be honest with her daughter. Her voice became even lower, carrying a bitterness that had not dissipated even after being honed by time.
"Later... he personally took action." Yukinoshita Yukino's voice was almost inaudible. "Using his abilities, he easily bypassed all security and infiltrated the Yukinoshita home... Like the lowliest thief, he... abducted me."
Yukino's heart sank abruptly. She couldn't imagine how her once-powerful mother could have encountered such an unspeakable scene.
"He took me to a deserted place known to no one." Yukinoshita Yukino's tone was terrifyingly calm, as if she were narrating someone else's story. "He... violated me. And at that time... I didn't even know it was him. He might have used some method to hide his face or distort my perception... I only remember that nightmare-like experience and a blurred, powerful, malicious figure."
She paused for a moment, her breathing slightly hurried, but she quickly forced herself back to calmness.
"Afterward, he threw me back onto the street like discarded trash. I returned to the family with physical trauma and immense mental humiliation. This matter was classified as top secret, and it was only claimed externally that I had encountered an accidental attack. I swore to find that demon and tear him into ten thousand pieces... The investigation became even more frantic for a time, but all clues vanished into the sea."
As Yukinoshita Yukino listened, she felt waves of nausea and anger. Kanjuro had actually used such despicable means!
"And then?" Yukino pressed, she had a premonition that the more cruel part was still to come.
The corners of Yukinoshita Yukino's mouth curled into an extremely distorted arc, something between a cry and a laugh, filled with self-mockery and despair at the tricks of fate.
"And then... just as I was exhausted in body and mind, during a seemingly accidental attack planned by rival forces targeting me... he appeared."
Her eyes became hollow. "He appeared in a... posture like a descending hero, easily resolving those threats and'saving' me from the desperate situation."
"At that moment..." Yukinoshita Yukino's voice carried a hint of trembling. "Looking at his young, handsome face, feeling his incomparably powerful strength, and associating it with that previous nightmare-like violation... I actually... I actually foolishly and pathetically... regarded him as the only light in the darkness! I even... felt gratitude toward him, felt... a distorted dependence and fondness!"
She suddenly looked up, her eyes filled with bloodshot veins and a near-collapsing self-loathing.
"I only realized later... that it was all a play he directed and acted in himself!! That so-called 'attack' was entirely arranged by him! He first destroyed me in the most cruel way, then used the 'hero saving the beauty' trope to capture me!! He toyed with my body, and he wanted to toy with my emotions and reason as well!!"
"He tore me between hatred and gratitude, made me sink into fear and dependence! He let me keep the clear memory of being violated, yet made me unable to control the... undue emotional attachment I felt toward him as a person!!"
Yukinoshita Yukino's voice finally carried an uncontrollable sob:
"That's what he did to me... Yukino. It's more cruel than erasing memories... He let me clearly watch how I fell into the trap he wove step by step, how I changed from a hunter chasing him into a... pathetic creature toyed with at his whim, unable to even feel pure hatred!"
Yukinoshita Yukino froze completely in place, her whole body cold.
First committing atrocities in the guise of the lowliest bandit, then appearing as a savior to harvest gratitude and dependence... This method of completely trampling on human dignity and even manipulating the victim's emotions was far more cruel and distorted than she could have imagined.
She looked at her mother's face, which, despite trying hard to maintain calmness, still revealed deep pain and humiliation. She finally fully understood her mother's extremely complex attitude toward Kanjuro—hatred stemming from being violated, complex feelings from being saved (even if it was fake), despair at her own inability to resist, and even more, fear of that power that controlled everything.
And she herself was precisely an unwelcome 'by-product' in this cruel game.
The truth, like the thickest darkness, completely submerged Yukinoshita Yukino.
Not only did she have a demonic father, but her birth originated from a meticulously planned double devastation and trampling of her mother's body and mind.
As Yukinoshita Yukino listened to her mother recount those meticulously planned atrocities and deceptions, she only felt a chill rush from the soles of her feet to the top of her head. She couldn't imagine how her mother could still maintain her current calmness after experiencing such devastation and toying—even if beneath that calmness was an endless wasteland.
"Then... what happened after?" Yukino's voice was extremely dry. "What did Kanjuro... finally do to you, to the family? Did he... continue to coerce you?"
Yukinoshita Yukino's gaze became even more hollow, as if she were looking at some distant, blood-stained past. Her voice was ethereal, yet carried a heart-palpitating calmness:
"Coerce? No... after that, such low-level methods were no longer necessary."
She paused, as if recalling some predetermined, unchangeable conclusion.
"He showed... his true power, or rather, he lost his patience." Yukinoshita Yukino's tone was as flat as if she were narrating a weather forecast. "Your uncle, Yukinoshita Kiyomasa, because he cared about me, was killed through the joint actions of myself and Kanjuro!"
Yukino's heart tightened suddenly.
"The result... was without any suspense." Yukinoshita Yukino closed her eyes, her long eyelashes trembling slightly. "Kiyomasa... was killed by Kanjuro like crushing a bug. He didn't even leave an intact corpse."
Although she had a premonition, hearing of her uncle's tragic death with her own ears still made Yukino feel a suffocating pain.
"But this... isn't the end." Yukinoshita Yukino reopened her eyes, which no longer held tears, but only the dead ashes of silence. "Every single person in the family was eventually exterminated by Kanjuro."
She looked at Yukino, her gaze complex and hard to decipher:
"He used the most direct and bloody method to erase all potential threats, completely crushing the backbone of the Yukinoshita Family's resistance."
Yukinoshita Yukino felt a chill throughout her body. The grudge of family murder, the hatred of a destroyed home... these were almost the most difficult conflicts to resolve in the world.
However, what Yukinoshita Yukino said next made Yukino feel as if she had fallen into an ice cellar, feeling a deeper sense of fear and absurdity than when she heard about the bloody massacre.
330
"But... Yukino," Yukinoshita Yukino's voice carried a strange, almost dreamlike confusion, "it's very strange... I... I don't hate him, because I love Kanjuro."
Yukino looked at her mother in disbelief.
Yukinoshita Yukino seemed to be trying to dissect her own twisted heart; her brow furrowed slightly with confusion and a sinking sense of acceptance:
"When he appeared in that'savior' posture... when he looked at me with that impeccable face, that extremely gentle tone, and those eyes that seemed to embrace and understand everything... when he later intervened in my life with that 'perfect' image, giving me false care and protection..."
Her voice grew lower, with a hypnotic quality:
"That disguised tenderness and kindness... it was too deceptive, too... perfect. So perfect that... it even made me feel that all the cruel things he did before, the killings, the violations... perhaps they were just... just his unavoidable difficulties? Or maybe I misunderstood something?"
She shook her head forcefully, as if trying to rid herself of this absurd thought, but her eyes became even more confused:
"No, I know it wasn't. I remember everything clearly. But... that feeling of being wrapped in carefully woven 'goodwill,' that illusion of being'specially treated' by a powerful existence... it's like the sweetest poison, eroding my reason and twisting my emotions."
She looked up at Yukino, her eyes filled with complete, chilling resignation and surrender:
"Hatred requires strength, it requires persistence. But in the face of his pervasive, false 'gentleness,' my hatred... seems so pale and weak, so... fragile. It has... surpassed everything I could hold onto."
"So, I don't hate him." Yukinoshita Yukino finally gave this twisted answer, her tone frighteningly calm, "I cannot hate a... demon who performs 'gentleness' to such a pinnacle that I am willing to drown in it."
Yukinoshita Yukino stared blankly at her mother, unable to say a word.
She finally understood where her mother's deepest despair came from—not from physical harm, not from the destruction of the family, but from the capture of the soul, the disintegration of reason, and the complete distortion of emotions.
Kanjuro had not only killed her people but also destroyed her heart. He made her, while conscious, voluntarily give up the right to hate and even develop a twisted dependence on the perpetrator.
This was the ultimate, inescapable cage.
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