The V-tuber Who Became Obsessed With Me

Chapter 107: Promise me you’ll get him out

( this is a continuation of the previous Chapter told from Ethan’s pov)

Kuro had always been lean.

Now he looked hollow.

The grey prison uniform hung loosely from his shoulders, as though he’d lost enough weight over the past month that even the prison had not caught up with it. His hair had grown longer than I’d ever seen it, falling unevenly across his forehead, and dark stubble shadowed his jaw in a way that spoke less of choice than neglect. The skin beneath his eyes had sunk noticeably, leaving bruised crescents that made him look years older than the man I’d worked beside only a month ago.

His wrists were secured in steel cuffs connected by a short chain to another wrapped around his waist.

The officers guided him to the chair opposite mine.

One unlocked the cuffs with a practiced click.

The metal fell away.

Kuro rubbed his wrists almost immediately.

It wasn’t a deliberate gesture.

It looked instinctive, like scratching an itch.

Only then did I notice the faint red grooves circling both wrists where the steel had rested.

The officer stepped back but remained close enough that he could have reached Kuro in a single stride.

Kuro didn’t look at me straight away.

His eyes swept across the room first.

The guards.

The exits.

The cameras mounted high in each corner.

The visitors at nearby tables.

The officer standing behind me.

Only after satisfying himself that nothing had changed did his gaze finally settle on mine.

That was what struck me most.

Not the weight loss.

Not the bruises.

Not even the prison uniform.

His eyes.

They belonged to someone who had learned that survival depended on knowing where everyone else was before thinking about himself.

A tired smile touched his face.

"I’m glad you came."

For a second I couldn’t answer.

"You look terrible."

He gave a quiet snort.

"That’s prison."

His voice carried the same dry humour I remembered, but something about it had changed.

It was flatter now.

More economical.

As though he’d learned to spend words the same way prisoners learned to spend everything else.

"The food’s bad."

A shrug.

"The sleep’s worse."

His fingers drifted unconsciously toward the marks around his wrists before stopping halfway, almost as though he’d caught himself.

"You get used to it."

I wasn’t sure whether that last part was true.

Or whether he’d simply decided it needed to be.

"I didn’t know," I said quietly.

"I only found out after Jade called me."

He watched me for a long moment before shaking his head.

"You don’t owe me an apology."

His fingers tapped lightly against the metal table.

"I knew where this could end."

Another pause.

"I spent twelve years planning for every possible outcome."

His jaw tightened.

"I planned for police."

"I planned for prison."

"I planned for dying."

A faint, humourless smile crossed his face.

"I just forgot one thing."

"Katsuro doesn’t react to problems."

"He creates the ending before everyone else even realises they’re in the story."

Silence settled between us.

Around us other families continued talking in hushed voices.

A child laughed somewhere near the back of the room before being gently shushed by his mother.

The sound felt strangely out of place.

Kuro leaned forward.

Not enough to attract attention.

Just enough to lower his voice.

"We don’t have much time."

His eyes flicked toward one of the guards before returning to me.

"Katsuro has people in here."

"You know that?"

"I know him."

His answer came immediately.

"I don’t know whether it’s a guard... another inmate... someone in administration."

His shoulders lifted slightly.

"I don’t need to."

"If I were him, I wouldn’t leave something like this to chance."

A cold weight settled beneath my ribs.

"I need you to get Jade out of Harrington."

There was no hesitation in his voice.

"No."

He corrected himself.

"I need you to get him out of the country if you can."

"I don’t care where."

"Just get him somewhere Katsuro can’t reach."

"He told me."

Kuro frowned slightly.

"About the two of you."

For the first time since he’d sat down, something softened in his expression.

"He actually told you."

"He thought I already knew."

A quiet breath escaped him that might once have become a laugh.

"That sounds like Jade."

"He probably spent five minutes panicking after seeing your face."

"He nearly dropped his drink."

A genuine smile appeared.

Small.

Gone almost as quickly as it arrived.

"We wanted to keep it private."

He looked down at the table.

"Not because we were ashamed."

"It just felt..."

He searched briefly for the word.

"Safer."

His thumb absently brushed over one of the fading marks on his wrist.

"I kept telling him this would all end eventually."

"I told him we’d have our life afterwards."

His voice grew quieter.

"I don’t think I’m getting that chance anymore."

The words landed harder than I expected.

"Kuro..."

He raised a hand slightly.

"Don’t."

His tone remained calm.

"I made my choices."

"I can live with those."

A faint smile touched his lips.

"If living’s still an option."

I stared at him.

Not once had he asked me to help him.

Not once had he asked me to find him a lawyer.

Or prove his innocence.

Or get him out.

He wasn’t trying to save himself.

He was trying to save Jade.

Only Jade.

For twelve years revenge had been the centre of Kuro’s world.

Now, sitting across from me in prison, revenge barely seemed to matter anymore.

"Kuro..."

I lowered my voice.

"What about you?"

He looked at me for a few seconds before smiling again.

This one carried something close to acceptance.

"I’ll deal with me."

Then his expression hardened.

"But Jade..."

"He doesn’t belong anywhere near this."

He looked me directly in the eyes.

"Neither does your family."

"Nathan."

"Selene."

"Jonathan."

"Keep them away from Katsuro."

"I will."

He studied my face carefully, almost as though deciding whether to believe me.

Then he nodded once.

"Good."

His fingers found the faint marks around his wrists again before falling away.

There was something heartbreaking about how unconscious the gesture had become.

Like his body had already accepted the cuffs, even if his mind hadn’t.

He took a slow breath.

"And Ethan..."

I waited.

"Stay away from Katsuro."

"I already plan to."

He shook his head.

"You still don’t understand."

His gaze sharpened.

"I’m not talking about Katsuro."

A chill crept slowly through me.

"I’m talking about his granddaughter."

He never said her name.

He didn’t need to.

"I’ve been trying."

He watched me in silence.

Then spoke so quietly I almost missed it.

"No."

"You’ve been trying to stay away."

"That’s different."

He leaned forward another fraction.

"If Raina decides she wants you back..."

He paused.

"she’ll become more dangerous than Katsuro."

The certainty in his voice sent a shiver through me.

Not because it sounded threatening.

Because it sounded like fact.

As though he’d already watched it happen.

Before I could ask what he meant—

BZZZT.

The buzzer cut through the room and every conversation stopped.

"Visitation is over."

An officer stepped forward. Another moved to Kuro’s side and began securing the waist chain and handcuffs. Kuro stood and the officers moved him toward the steel door and he turned back as they were pulling him away.

"Ethan."

"Get Jade out. Promise me."

"I promise."

The door slammed shut.

I stood there looking at the steel where he had been for longer than I realised before the officer beside me indicated the exit.

The walk back through the corridors felt longer.

The same doors. The same buzzers. The same announcements through the hidden speakers. I collected my belongings at the screening area and signed out and walked through the outer gate into afternoon light that had gone flat and pale while I was inside.

Jade was where I had left him.

He stood up the moment he saw me, searching my face before I had reached him.

"What did he say?"

I looked at him. Really looked at him. He had no idea. No idea that inside those walls there was a man who had spent the last month more worried about Jade’s safety than about his own survival.

The knot in my throat took a moment to work past.

"We need to talk," I said. "Go home. Pack a bag."

He frowned. "Ethan, what—"

"We’re getting you out of this city."

His expression moved from confusion into something slower and colder.

"Today," I said.

He stared at me.

And the fear that crossed his face was the confirmation that somewhere, somewhere in the back of his mind, he had already known this conversation was coming.