The V-tuber Who Became Obsessed With Me

Chapter 96: How she became raina part 2

( this Chapter is told from raina’s pov)

A man knelt in the dirt with his hands bound behind his back.

His face was so badly swollen that I couldn’t tell how old he was anymore.

Blood stained the front of his shirt.

One eye had already swollen shut.

Standing before him...was Ojiisan.

His suit was immaculate.

Not a wrinkle.

Not a single drop of blood.

He looked less like a man interrogating someone and more like a businessman conducting a meeting.

"What did you do with it?"

His voice was calm.

Patient.

The man shook violently.

"I-I don’t know..."

"I swear..."

"I don’t know where it is..."

Ojiisan sighed.

Not out of anger.

Out of disappointment.

He removed one of his leather gloves and smoothed it carefully between his fingers, as though irritated by a crease no one else could see.

Then...

He struck the man once across the face.

Not wildly.

Not repeatedly.

Just one measured blow.

The man’s head snapped sideways before he collapsed onto one shoulder, coughing blood into the dirt.

Ojiisan waited.

He gave the man time to breathe.

Time to answer.

"What did you do with it?"

"I don’t know!"

The prisoner sobbed openly now.

"I swear on my children..."

"I don’t know..."

For a long moment, neither of them moved.

The only sound came from the breeze rustling through the cherry blossom trees overhead.

Finally...

Ojiisan slipped a pistol from inside his coat.

The man’s eyes widened.

"No..."

His voice broke.

"Please..."

"I have children..."

"I’ll do anything..."

"I’ll—"

The gunshot echoed across the estate.

Birds exploded from nearby trees, scattering into the afternoon sky.

The man’s body crumpled forward.

One second...

He was alive.

The next...

He wasn’t.

My knees almost gave way beneath me.

A sharp wave of nausea rolled through my stomach.

I stumbled backward before anyone noticed me.

Then I turned and ran.

That night...

Dinner felt unbearable.

The dining table stretched almost the length of the room.

Dozens of beautifully prepared dishes covered its surface.

Servants moved silently between us, replacing empty plates before anyone could ask.

The food smelled wonderful.

I couldn’t swallow a single bite.

Every time I looked down...

I saw blood instead of rice.

Ojiisan noticed.

Of course he noticed.

He noticed everything.

Without lifting his eyes from his teacup, he spoke.

"You saw it."

It wasn’t a question.

Silence settled over the room.

"I asked you something, Himari."

My fingers tightened around my chopsticks.

"Yes."

Another sip of tea.

"What did you feel?"

Fear.

Disgust.

Confusion.

I wanted to tell him all of it.

Instead...

"I was scared."

He looked directly at me.

"Good."

I stared at him.

"Good?"

"Fear means you’re still human."

He placed his teacup down with practiced precision.

"But humanity alone cannot protect what matters."

His eyes never left mine.

"One day..."

"You’ll inherit everything I’ve built."

My heart sank.

"I don’t want it."

His expression remained perfectly still.

"Whether you want it or not is irrelevant."

He stood from the table.

"You’ll become stronger."

He walked away.

The conversation was over.

At least for him.

The executions never stopped.

Different men.

Different accusations.

Different endings.

Sometimes they disappeared.

Sometimes I heard gunshots.

Sometimes...

They never came back out of those buildings.

At first I cried every night.

Then...

The tears stopped coming.

Not because I’d accepted any of it.

Because I had become numb.

That frightened me far more than the violence itself.

Every day I stayed there...

I felt myself becoming someone I didn’t want to be.

Someone colder.

Someone quieter.

Someone who simply accepted horror because resisting it seemed impossible.

I didn’t want to become Katsuro Arashigumi.

I didn’t want to become Himari Ishigami anymore either because she was carrying blood also

I wanted...

To become someone else.

Someone who belonged only to herself , someone who was free . Both emotionally and physically.

Freedom.

I kept wondering what it was supposed to feel like.

Was it waking up without armed guards outside your bedroom?

Was it walking through a city without someone reporting your location every hour?

Was it making your own decisions...

Without asking permission?

I didn’t know.

Because I had traded one prison for another.

Every morning, two bodyguards followed me.

If I visited a café...

They waited outside.

If I entered a bookstore...

They stood near the entrance.

If I sat alone in a park...

They remained just close enough for me to hear the crackle of their earpieces.

Ojiisan called it protection.

I called it surveillance.

One afternoon, I wandered through a busy shopping district while they followed several paces behind.

The streets overflowed with life.

Children laughed as they chased one another between storefronts.

A violinist performed beside a fountain.

Couples walked hand in hand.

Everyone looked...

Free.

Then my eyes landed on a giant poster outside a cosmetics salon.

Four smiling girls stared back at me.

The Mizukashi Sisters.

Haruna stood proudly at the front, silver hair flowing behind her while wind curled around her fingertips.

Beside her, Cleo smiled gently as ribbons of water danced around her hands.

Suki stood confidently with pieces of stone floating at her feet.

And in the center...

Raina.

Bright crimson hair.

A fearless smile.

Flames swirled around her hands as though the world itself answered her call.

Beneath the poster were the words:

Become your favorite Mizukashi Sister today! Professional hair coloring available inside!

I stopped walking.

One of the guards noticed.

"Miss Himari?"

I didn’t answer.

I couldn’t.

Because suddenly...

I wasn’t standing in Japan anymore.

"Mama!"

I ran into the living room clutching a television remote almost as big as my arms.

"Mama! They’re starting!"

My mother laughed from the kitchen.

"The Mizukashi Sisters again?"

"They’re fighting the Shadow King today!"

She wiped her hands and sat beside me on the couch.

I still remembered how she smelled.

Vanilla.

Always vanilla.

The episode ended exactly as I hoped.

Raina saved all three of her sisters .

She smiled despite being exhausted.

She never ran away.

I looked up at my mother.

"I like her."

"I know."

She gently brushed my hair behind my ear.

"Because she’s just like you."

I frowned immediately.

"No she isn’t."

"Oh?"

"She isn’t scared."

My mother laughed softly.

"Raina gets scared too."

"No she doesn’t."

"She does."

"Then why does she always fight?"

She smiled.

Then gently tapped my chest.

"Because courage isn’t about not being afraid."

She waited until I looked at her.

"It’s about being afraid...and still standing."

A week later she came home carrying a small gift bag.

Inside was a Raina doll.

Bright crimson hair.

Tiny flames molded around her hands.

Dad laughed from across the room.

"I thought she already had enough dolls."

"This one is different."

Mom handed it to me.

"My little Raina."

I hugged it tightly.

"Why Raina?" I asked smiling

She touched the doll’s red hair.

"Because fire isn’t only destructive."

"It gives warmth."

"It gives hope."

"And no matter how strong the wind becomes..."

She smiled.

"fire keeps fighting."

The memory slowly dissolved.

I found myself standing outside the salon once again.

My eyes burned.

I hadn’t remembered that conversation in years.

Not since everything happened.

Behind me, one of the guards cleared his throat.

"Miss Himari?"

I looked at my reflection in the salon window.

Long black hair.

The face everyone recognized.

The face that carried every painful memory I wanted to escape.

Himari Ishigami.

The girl who had lost everything.

The girl everyone who was carrying so much emotional baggage that it starts to hurt .

Suddenly...

I understood something.

I didn’t hate my face.

I hated everything attached to it.

Without another word...

I walked inside.

The receptionist smiled warmly.

"Welcome!"

"Would you like a haircut or coloring today?"

"Coloring."

She handed me a large color chart.

"What shade are you thinking?"

Blonde.

Brown.

Silver.

Blue.

Purple.

Then...

Red.

Bright.

Fearless.

Alive.

I pointed to it.

"I want this one."

The receptionist smiled.

"Excellent choice."

Four hours later...

The woman in the mirror looked unfamiliar.

The black-haired girl had disappeared.

In her place stood someone with vivid crimson hair that practically glowed beneath the salon lights.

For the first time in years...

I smiled.

Not because changing my hair erased my past.

It didn’t.

Not because it solved my problems.

It couldn’t.

I smiled because...

For the first time...

I wasn’t looking at Himari Ishigami.

I was looking at possibility.

Someone who could begin again.

Someone who could build a future instead of endlessly surviving the past.

Tears blurred my reflection.

I remembered my mother’s smile.

Her gentle hands.

Her voice.

Fire keeps fighting.

"I hope..."

I whispered to the empty salon.

"...you’d like this, Mom."

The tears finally escaped.

I looked into the mirror once more.

"Raina!"

The name felt unfamiliar.

Then comfortable.

Then Like it had always belonged to me.

To be continued...