"Hah... haaah... haaah..."
"So? Is your memory starting to come back now?"
After torturing K for what felt like an eternity, Harukawa finally pulled the knife away from his body when the light in his eyes began to gutter out, then questioned him in a voice cold enough to freeze blood.
"...Y-yes, a little... gghk!!"
"...A little?"
"A-a lot! I remember a lot! A whole lot!"
"Then... let's hear it."
"Uh... s-so... I'm a cult leader... and I'm a bad person... I'm sorry..."
"....."
K poured as much sincerity as he could into the confession, but Harukawa only kept glaring at him with that same glacial stare. The pressure alone made his conscience shrivel, and he started shouting again.
"Th-that girl, it wasn't on purpose! I'm sorry!"
"...What was her name?"
"Uh... so... it was a long time ago, so I don't really remem—AAGH!!"
"...You still haven't gotten your head on straight, have you?"
This time, whatever he'd said wrong, Harukawa slowly twisted the knife in his side a full turn and a half.
"S-sorry, I'm sorry... I can't remember her name... I definitely heard it before... ggghhh!!"
"...You can't remember her name?"
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."
"To begin with... there was never any need for you to remember her name."
"Sorr—huh? What does that even—ugh...!"
K spoke in a voice thick with confusion, but Harukawa mercilessly drove more force into the knife and cut him off.
"...Well, you don't seem interested in cooperating, but let's move on to the second question."
"....Okay."
"Why did you let her die?"
".....?"
"I went to that horrible place... in order to save her."
"....."
"And in that horrible place, every single day, I was tortured in ways far worse than what you're getting right now..."
"Agh! Uaaah... mff... mff...!!"
"That's where I learned how not to scream."
As she stabbed at K's side, Harukawa abruptly lifted her clothes and showed him her own flank.
"H-huh...?"
There, in the exact same place where K's knife was buried, a scar from a blade stood out in stark relief.
"...The torture I'm putting you through right now is just the initiation rite they use on children entering the training camp for the first time."
"....."
"So? How does it feel, experiencing it for yourself?"
"I-it hurts..."
"Hurts? Do you really think you have the right to say that?"
"...I'm sorry."
"I'm sure that girl said the same thing to the people torturing her while she suffered through something just as monstrous as this. 'I'm sorry.' I did too, at first."
"......"
"But no one there would have accepted the apology of a girl who'd done nothing wrong in the first place. That's the kind of place it was. So..."
"...Hhk. Hhuuuuhk!"
"...I have no reason to accept your apology either."
As she said that, Harukawa picked up another knife lying beside her and began to turn it in her hand.
"Then, again..."
"Please kill me..."
"...What?"
"At this point... just kill... me..."
Driven past his limit by the relentless agony, K's heart finally caved in, and he began to mutter in a tiny, broken voice.
"I guess... before I lost my memory, I must've been the worst bastard alive... Even if I can't remember it... I'll pay for those sins with my life... So please, just kill me..."
"...Hah. That's funny. So you ended up saying that too."
".....?"
Harukawa set the knife down for a moment, grabbed the chin of the K hanging his head, forced him to meet her eyes, and muttered in that same frigid tone.
"When the kids who trained with me were being tortured, the scream they cried out most often was 'Please spare me.' The next was 'Please forgive me.' And then... in the end, it always finished with 'Please kill me.'"
"....."
"Did they think if they asked to die, someone would happily grant it? But the real torture hadn't even started yet."
"Ah... ahhh..."
"So... get ready—"
BANG BANG BANG!!
"Harukawa!! I know you're in there!! Get out here right now!! Did you think we wouldn't figure it out just because you're hiding in your personal research lab!?"
"It would be best if you handed over K at once."
Just as Harukawa seized the knife she'd set on the floor and raised it high, the door to the room they were in started shaking under blows violent enough to nearly break it off its hinges.
"...Haaah. What a pain."
Harukawa glared at the door for a moment, then hauled K to his feet by force, pressed a knife to his throat, and approached it.
"...Back off. If either of you takes even one more step forward, I'll drive this straight into his neck."
"".....""
"GAAAAAH!!"
"You must not have heard me."
When Mukuro and Tojo froze at the sight of K's condition, Harukawa twisted the knife lodged in his side and issued her warning again.
"...Damn it. I can't believe I did that to him."
"...."
With no choice, the two of them stepped back. Only then did Harukawa begin delivering her terms in a low voice.
"Three times a day, come bring food. As for who delivers it... Momota Kaito alone will be enough."
"...."
"Then now, get the he—"
"Cut the crap, Harukawa."
As Harukawa turned to head back into the room, Mukuro spoke, an aura of murderous force radiating from her entire body.
"If you don't want your neck snapped by my hands... you'd better hand over K."
"...I wonder which will happen first. Your hands breaking my neck, or my knife carving into K's throat?"
"You seem to be underestimating me... I'm more than capable of snapping your neck before K takes a fatal wound from that knife..."
"Really? That sounds fun. Then do it."
At those words, Mukuro's face twisted with fury clear to the roots of her hair, and just as she was about to lunge at Harukawa, K desperately cut in to stop her.
"I-Ikusaba!! I'm okay!!"
"...You're not okay, K."
"No... I don't know why, but this kind of feels familiar... no, wait, that's not the point... Anyway, I can endure it, so you don't need to step in."
"So what? You're just going to stay in there and get tortured to death?"
"D-did you forget my talent? [Ultimate Counselor]. I'll clear up this misunderstanding with Harukawa and come right out, so... please don't interfere."
"...What counseling are you even talking about when you've lost your memories... you idiot..."
After saying that, Mukuro finally backed off, her voice trembling on the edge of tears, and K let out a sigh of relief.
'Lost my... memories?'
And Harukawa, who flinched for just a second at those words, soon shook her head and fixed K with that icy stare again.
"And you two... from now on, Shinguji is—GAAAAAH!!"
"...You've been talking too much for a while now."
The door slammed shut on the tail end of K's scream. Mukuro and Tojo stared at the closed door in silence for a moment, then looked at each other and spoke at the same time.
"How exactly should we tear Harukawa apart and kill—"
"First, as K said, we should investigate Shinguji—"
But their words collided and died. Both of them fell silent, and for a long while after that, they simply stood there staring at the closed door.
...
...
...
...
...
"...Wake up."
"Huaa... huaaah..."
After the torture continued for a long, long time, K finally blacked out, unable to withstand the pain. When Harukawa's cold whisper brushed his ear, he jolted awake, his whole body shuddering.
"L-listen, Harukawa. Please, please forgive me. I'm begging you. I'll do anything, okay?"
"...What?"
"I'll do whatever you say... anything except kill someone... so please stop for today... I'm begging you... If this keeps going any longer, I think I'm really going to lose my mind... please..."
"...No."
"...Hhk, sob... please... I'm begging..."
BANG BANG BANG!!
"Male degenerate, I know you're in there!! Open the door at once and return Harukawa-san!!"
"...S-since we have a guuueeest... could we maybe stop the torture for just a little while...?"
"......"
As K desperately begged Harukawa to stop, Chabashira's voice rang out from outside. The mere fact that he might be spared, even briefly, filled him with pathetic, trembling hope, and he cautiously asked her.
"...Annoying."
Harukawa hauled K to his feet again and opened the door with her knife still pressed to his throat.
"H-Harukawa-san! Don't worry! I came to save yo—h-huh...?"
Chabashira, who had struck a brave Aikido stance, froze solid when she saw the scene inside the research lab.
"...Looks like Tojo and that lunatic soldier still haven't told the others."
"T-Tenko was searching all over the school to rescue Harukawa-san... so what in the world is going on here?"
"It's none of your business. So you'd better leave."
"N-no, I can't!! K-san is horribly injured!! If he doesn't get treatment right away, he'll be in serious danger!!"
When Chabashira protested, Harukawa fixed her with a glacial stare and said,
"...Weren't you supposed to hate men?"
"I-I mean... of course... I do hate them... but this isn't right!! Even if he is a male degenerate... ignoring someone who's hurt that badly... as a proud Aikido master..."
"GAAAAAH!!"
"...Eek!"
"Then get lost before K gets hurt any worse."
As Chabashira stood there aghast at the horror unfolding before her eyes, K, trembling beside her, hurriedly spoke up.
"Ch-Chabashira... I'm fine, so just go!"
"B-but..."
"I-I actually really hate women too!! So you don't have to save me! Really, really!"
"....."
"If Harukawa didn't have a weapon, that'd be one thing... but don't rush in and get yourself hurt for no reason... just go... please..."
At those words, Chabashira's face went deathly pale, and she slowly began backing away.
"Oh! And be careful of Shinguji!!"
"Y-yes?"
"You have to remember that! And tell Yonaga exactly what I said too!!"
"W-wait a moment... what do you mean by that...?"
SLAM!!
As Chabashira, thoroughly bewildered, tried to step closer again, Harukawa slammed the door shut. Then she stared at K for a moment before forcing him back down into his seat.
"I-I talked too much, didn't I... I'm sorry."
"...."
"Um... if I was getting on your nerves, you can just kill me now... Ah, if possible, could you maybe make it quick and clean in one go—"
"Why did you stop her?"
"...Huh?"
"Just now, she was genuinely about to rush in and save you. And Mukuro and Tojo were the same earlier."
".....?"
"If they'd acted... there was a chance you could've been saved. And even if they failed, you might've gotten the death you were so desperately begging for. So why..."
"B-because it's enough if I'm the only one who gets hurt..."
"...What?"
Harukawa had asked with a face full of incomprehension, but when she heard his answer, she frowned and shot the question back at him.
"I-I don't care if I get hurt or die... but if Ikusaba or Chabashira stepped in... and got hurt, or even died..."
"..."
"...Ikusaba joined this killing game for my sake alone, and Chabashira tried to save me even though she hates men that much. People like them are the ones this killing game actually needs to survive... not trash like me, who was apparently garbage in the past..."
"...Is that really the reason?"
"I-I'm sorry!! The truth is, I was just terrified of the knife at my throat!!! I was wrong!! Actually, I still don't want to die yet!!"
"Haaah..."
"N-no... actually, just kill me after all! I'm sorry...! I'm sorry—"
Watching K ramble in half-delirious confusion, his mind fraying apart under the endless torture, Harukawa finally muttered with a hollow expression.
"The terrifying cult leader who used believers, assassins, and executives alike as disposable pawns for his own life... there's no way he'd be like this..."
"...Come to think of it, I really don't want to die yet! Please spare me! I haven't even seen what Kyoko Kirigiri looks like yet...! And besides, I actually have a kid with Kyoko Kirigiri! Wait... if that's true, then I really was trash in the past. Never mind, just kill me..."
"Don't tell me... you really do have amnesia?"
...
...
...
...
...
Meanwhile, at the dorms.
"Harukawa-san excluded. Mukuro-san excluded. Iruma-san... excluded. Shirogane-san... excluded for now."
Shinguji Korekiyo sat on the edge of his bed,
"Good... that should be enough narrowing down. Then, Sister, let me ask you just one question."
quietly whispering to himself.
"...Out of the women who are left, who would you most like to make your friend?"