Shuten stepped toward me barefoot, as if the gruesome remains strewn across the ground meant absolutely nothing to her. Her steps were light and seductive.
When she reached me, she practically collapsed into my arms. Through the kimono that revealed enough to make a person dizzy, I could feel her soft curves and body heat all too clearly.
When was the last time I felt another person's warmth like this?
Ever since I was young, I had been hated and rejected by countless people. Because of that, I had almost never been held by anyone like this.
I had even been abandoned by my parents as a child.
No one had ever embraced me with genuine affection. Not really.
And now, for the first time, it came not from a person, but from an oni. My life really was a strange one. Still, it didn't matter if she wasn't human.
People had never liked me either, so I had never craved their love.
Not being loved had become an ordinary part of my life. Yet now, I was receiving it from an oni branded a demon.
"There's no way something like you is human. A monster like you is a curse just by being nearby!"
Maybe this had always suited me better. I had never been treated like a person to begin with. I had always been treated like a monster.
Shuten rose onto her toes and wound both arms around my neck like a snake.
In the eyes gazing up at me swirled a sweetness so thick and clinging it made my stomach turn, enough to erase all trace of the brutal slaughter she had just carried out.
"Go on, praise me. I wanted you to dote on me, so I crushed all those bones up real pretty for you."
I silently looked down at her as she burrowed into my arms. Even with burning ash drifting through the air, not a speck of dust clung to her red horns or her softly gleaming hair.
Praise, huh.
It wasn't as if I had never praised anyone before. But whenever I did, they reacted with extreme disgust.
Once, during volunteer work, I praised a child for gathering up a lot of trash and throwing it away. The kid burst into tears, and the volunteer supervisor threw me out.
No one wanted kindness from me. They only wanted me far away.
I let out a quiet sigh, then gently ran my hand through the hair of the girl clinging to me, as if lightly mussing it.
"Yeah. Thank you, Shuten. You saved me."
My voice was flat and dry, but the moment Shuten-Douji accepted my touch, a heated breath slipped from between her lips.
"Ah... this is driving me crazy."
She rubbed her cheek hard against my palm, moaning as if she were some beloved pet being showered with affection.
Her gaze tangled around my lips and eyes with sticky intensity, and between her slightly parted red lips, her alluring tongue slid over her own fangs.
"How can your eyes be so cold and distant, but your touch this gentle? You really mean to melt me down and swallow me whole. My love, you could chew up my body and even this rotten Spirit Origin of mine down to the bone, and it still wouldn't be enough. If you wanted, I could tear open my own throat and offer you my blood right here and now."
It was a love so blind and heavy it was almost terrifying.
In this twisted life, where everyone in the world rejected me and looked at me like I was vermin, only this wicked temptress standing at the pinnacle of evil loved me this destructively.
What an absurd, ironic twist of fate.
But at least here, inside this hellish Singularity, her existence was my only refuge.
No, maybe in this whole world.
For some reason, my chest tightened and warmed. So this was what it felt like to be loved by someone.
Just then, a red light flickered at the edge of my vision.
[Tutorial battle complete. Main quest updated.]
A blue translucent window projected onto my retina displayed new text.
[Main Quest: Defeat a Shadow Servant. Locate and eliminate one Heroic Spirit wandering nearby. Reward: Random Craft Essence Summon Ticket x1, Heroic Spirit Summon Ticket (Evil alignment guaranteed) x1, Forced Opening of Basic Magic Circuits.]
"...Defeat one Shadow Servant."
When I read the text aloud, Shuten tilted her head while still holding onto my neck and followed my gaze into empty air.
As expected, she didn't seem able to see the system window that was visible only to me.
"Master? What'd you just say? Shadow what?"
"Ah. It's like a game status window only I can see. If I kill a Servant, it gives me a reward."
I dismissed the system window with a wave and swept my eyes over the ruined wreckage around us.
If it wasn't an Assassin, even I should be able to sense its presence. So it probably wasn't nearby.
And on top of that, an evil-aligned guaranteed summon. I couldn't tell if that was good news or not.
In the end, was my very existence being judged as evil? To be loved only by evil... how had I been born like this?
After hearing me, Shuten smiled with a sultry curve to her eyes and buried her face against my chest.
"A shadow scrap? Hm. So some worthless trash like that thinks it can bother my Master? Just wait a little. I'll run over there right now, squeeze that shadow brat's head flat, and roll it back to your feet nice and pretty."
She whispered it as lightly as if she were talking about picking up ingredients for dinner.
"More importantly, you must be burning up in this heat. Want something to wet your throat?"
Shuten stepped about half a pace back from my arms and lightly swept her empty hand through the air.
Out of a purple mist, a heavy gourd tinged with red appeared.
When she pulled the stopper free, the rich scent of divine wine rushed out, so strong and intoxicating that it completely smothered the stench of blood in the air.
But instead of handing me the bottle, she lifted it first and took the liquor into her own mouth between those red lips.
With a soft gulp, a clear drop slid sensually down the white line of her throat.
Shuten, her mouth full of liquor, approached me with hazy, unfocused eyes.
She rose onto her toes, caught my chin, and just as she was about to press her lips to mine and pour the crimson liquor directly into my mouth—
"Who would ever like someone like you? Your very existence is a nuisance. Can't you just die already?"
I quietly turned my head to avoid her lips, then gently took hold of the small wrist that had grabbed my chin and lowered it.
"Sorry. I need to stay clear-headed right now."
Why did those bad memories keep surfacing? Even though I knew she was different from those people, my body rejected it on instinct.
I wasn't a misanthrope, but maybe distrust of people had sunk too deeply into me. By now, at least with Shuten, I shouldn't have needed to keep this kind of distance.
Shuten swallowed the liquor in her mouth with obvious reluctance and smacked her lips.
"Tch... what a shame. I wanted to feed it to you nice and proper with my own lips. You really are hard to break through."
Her tone was grumbling, but her voice carried a deep delight, as if she was enjoying this situation itself.
It seemed that every part of my behavior—keeping her at arm's length without pushing her away—was, to her, a cruelly delicious form of entertainment and proof of love.
It wasn't that I wanted to shut her out.
Could someone like me really change now? No... was I even allowed to?
Even if there was someone who wanted me, the world itself hadn't changed. Other people still...
"I'm sorry, Mr. Togabito. Could you please not come near me?"
...No. Stop thinking about it. I was already used to it anyway.
In the end, if their attitude would never change, what meaning was there in any of it?
"Let's go, Shuten."
I stepped forward into the ash-gray street where flames flickered and danced. Behind me, the most beautiful and terrible oni in the world let out a rapturous laugh and began following in my shadow.
If only the two of us could stay alone together from now on... maybe that would be happier. Even if it ended with me being devoured by an oni, wouldn't that still be a better life?
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