"Why are you afraid of me? Didn't you say you'd be loyal to me — that you'd do anything for me, Shu?"
Inori stepped up beside him and stopped. She bent down, pressed a finger lightly to her lips, tilted her head, and widened her bright crimson eyes at him.
"But — Inori — you, you killed Gai…"
Shu was in no state to appreciate the close-up performance Inori was putting on. His pupils were shaking violently. His emotions were in chaos, fear pressing down on him like a landslide — he couldn't breathe under it, couldn't move a single finger.
He had never felt this kind of fear for anyone, this bone-deep, all-consuming terror. And what made it even harder to accept was that she wore that beautiful face all the while. Looking back now — when she'd sold him out — that had been her own idea, hadn't it? The pathetic part was that he'd actually made excuses for her, running a kind of mental loop, forcing himself to believe Inori had been deceived by Gai and Diavolo into doing it.
"My, you saw all of it?"
Inori's tone carried no surprise.
What she did find surprising, however, was that Shu Ouma had such a keen nose for trouble. If he'd stayed outside with the others, he'd never have been caught in this.
"Who let you in?"
"…I did. On my own."
Shu forced the words out with visible effort. His face held nothing now but the hollow despair that comes after the body has endured more fear than it can bear. He couldn't even think of anything to say in his own defense.
"I was just… worried about you. So I followed."
"I know. Even if I told you right now that I'd never say a word to anyone, you wouldn't believe me."
Shu let out a bleak, resigned laugh, head bowed — the kind of laugh a man gives when he's accepted the verdict. A ruined smile.
He really was too weak. That was why a woman like this had played him for a fool so completely. He no longer cared about finding out why she had specifically chosen him as her mole — because his short seventeen-year life was about to end.
"I believe you."
Inori crouched down in front of him, chin resting in her palm, examining Shu's miserable, flustered expression with leisurely interest.
"…Huh? What?"
Shu's head snapped up. He was certain he must have misheard.
"Because Shu Ouma is a cowardly, useless waste of space."
She smiled at him exactly the way he had always imagined the perfect girl would smile — and said the words that cut most precisely to his soft, vulnerable center. Shu bit down on his lip hard enough to draw blood, knuckles whitening. Even if he privately held the same opinion of himself, hearing it said out loud was something else entirely.
Especially from someone he had once liked.
"Do you know what?"
"I got Yahiro to join Funeral Parlor too."
"What?!" Shu went pale. "What did you do to Yahiro?"
Unlike his canonical counterpart, Shu had never lived through Yahiro's betrayal — and so Yahiro and Souta were still the only two real friends he had at school. Even if Inori silenced him now, he desperately wanted at least the students on this island to come through unharmed.
"If the one sitting in front of me right now were him, I'd have already killed him to tie up loose ends." Inori said this with breezy ease, absently twirling a strand of hair around her finger. "But you — that's simply not necessary."
"…Why? Aren't you afraid I'll tell everyone the truth?"
The words were out before Shu could stop himself, and he immediately regretted it.
What am I doing? She's already indicated she's not going to touch me — and now I've basically just asked her to reconsider. I'm practically inviting it.
But — but if he just rolled over like this, accepted this without clarity — Shu knew the rest of his life would be nothing but shadow. He would live permanently inside this woman's grip and never escape. He would lose every shred of dignity and freedom he had left as a person.
"Ha ha ha ha."
Inori covered her mouth, shaking with laughter.
"You don't have the nerve, Shu~. And besides — to make sure you could go home safely, your mother Dr. Haruka paid a great price. I can't possibly let her down."
"Haruka — did you do something to Haruka too?"
Shu's voice cracked with panic.
He'd already suspected something wasn't right. By any reasonable measure, all he'd done was clear the standard Funeral Parlor training benchmarks and catalog a few batches of supplies — where was the merit in that? What could possibly justify being granted permission to go home, to return to school? Now it made sense: Inori had made a deal with Haruka.
"Do you think I'm the kind of person who just kills whoever annoys me?"
Inori held his gaze, expression smooth and easy.
"I simply made a straightforward trade with your mother."
"So there's no need to worry about your safety — at least until our arrangement is fulfilled, I'll keep you alive."
Inori rose to her feet, brushed the dust from her pants, and let the smiles fall away. The look she gave Shu now was serious — the same look she'd had during that brief exchange before he'd left.
"But everyone has their limits."
"I know you don't have the nerve. Even so — just to be clear — even if circumstances prevent me from killing you outright, that doesn't mean you go unpunished."
Inori frowned slightly, and her voice was level.
"I hear you like horror films?"
The question was delivered as an offhand aside — and it made every hair on Shu's body stand on end as his mind immediately filled in the blanks.
"So you must know some wonderfully exotic methods of punishment. For example — cutting off your hands and feet, turning you into a human torso. Or cutting that thing off and dressing you up in women's clothing. I think that sounds rather nice~"
"I won't say anything — please, please don't—" Shu pulled at his own hair. Just hearing Inori describe those scenarios made his lower half go cold. If it was her — she would do absolutely anything. She'd killed Gai just because her cover was blown — the leader of Funeral Parlor. How would they even explain this? What would happen to Funeral Parlor now?
"Self-awareness is a virtue, Shu. Think carefully about what you need to do to keep me happy."
Inori patted him on the shoulder, felt the shudder he couldn't quite suppress, and smiled with deep satisfaction.
"I hate liars. Since you promised to do anything for me, you should have the awareness to follow through — that's right, find ways to please me. Like a dog wagging its tail and acting cute for its master~"
"..."
Shu's fist trembled and clenched and trembled again. Even he couldn't take an insult like this without it cutting deep — but what could he do? He was a worm squirming in her grasp, and the moment she lost patience he was finished. He had no means of resistance whatsoever.
"What are you actually trying to do, Inori… You have such a perfect life. Why would you do something like this?"
Shu forced the words out from between his teeth. It was the thing he couldn't understand most right now. He wanted desperately to believe this was all a nightmare. He couldn't accept the person Inori truly was.
"Hmph."
All she gave him was a dismissive sound.
"To survive, obviously."
"To survive?" That answer hit Shu like a live wire and he snapped — surged forward and seized Inori's smooth pale wrist, voice cracking with fury. "You've gotten so many people killed! And now you're telling me it was to survive? Do you actually think I'm that stupid?!"
"Oh my — a little backbone after all."
Inori glanced down at the hand gripping her arm. She wasn't angry. If anything, she found it vaguely interesting.
"Shu — you are extraordinarily lucky. You have a sister who would die for you. A stepmother who loves you. You were even able to lose your own memories after what happened — to forget, from the safe haven of ignorance, the sins you committed — and then stand here and pass judgment on others."
The words landed like a thunderclap and left him blank, dazed, as though living inside a dream. His eyes flickered — fragments of memories he'd buried ten years ago surfacing like splinters through cloth.
Shu's grip went slack. Inori broke free instantly, then caught his wrist and torqued it, taking him down in a single fluid motion. Shu hit the floor with a yelp of pain, forced face-down. Inori pinned his arm up behind his back, pressed her knee into his spine, and gripped a fistful of his hair with her other hand.
In that hold, she said, voice cold and flat.
"I was not that fortunate. The people who wanted me dead were many. The people who wanted to use me were even more."
"So to reach what I want — I will kill anyone who stands in my way."
"Remember this: the only reason you're still breathing in front of me right now is my arrangement with your mother, and my agreement with your sister. But I have limits too. Don't test them."