Volume 4, Chapter 3: Double Question Part 6
After I made sure Manabe's gang has left, I re-entered the room. Karuizawa probably heard the door opening, but she continued to squat on the floor and cried. Perhaps her overwhelming sense of fear had prevented her from noticing me.
So this is the true face of the egotistic and unyielding class' girls' leader?
Thanks to the suggest I gave to Manabe, Karuizawa's uniform and exposed skins were more or less intact. If her uniform was ripped or someone cut her hair, it would be difficult to fool others. While bullying is common, this school's uniqueness makes bullying much harder to contain.
If one has to find something to be concerned of, it'd be that her face was a bit reddened due to the physical abuse; By tomorrow it should subside.
"Karuizawa"
I called her name. She lifted her head and finally noticed me.
"Wh, how...?!"
The man she never thought of seeing here, had seen the thing she does not want anyone to see. She started to panic.
But the experience was too traumatic for her to stop crying at once and pretend everything is fine.
I will eventually stop crying. I will eventually calm down. As long as he leaves before that- this small and futile wish of her will not come to pass. I silently waited.
After a while, Karuizawa sobbing gradually turned to quiet subdues.
if you put 2 people alone in this dark and isolated environment, they can't help but mentally feel closer. This works even if the 2 people normally hated each others. This is what humans do.
"Calmed down yet?"
"...More or less..."
Karuizawa used her sleeves to wiped her swollen eyes. She is still paralyzed and couldn't get back up. I reached out my hand to help her up, but she didn't take it.
"Where is Hirata......"
"Even though you two were supposed to meet here, but I believe the teacher called him. I was with him then, so I came in place of him."
This explanation should be sufficient in explaining how everything ended like this.
For now I don't need to let know know the truth. First item on the to do list is to make her let her guard down and fill the cracks in her psychic.
"So, why are you crying?"
"It's Manabe and her gang......I will not let them get away with this."
Looks like she is remembering what just happened to her. Karuizawa's body started to shook. Even if she doesn't want to show me this humiliating side of her, but the fear that tainted her body is not so easily removed.
"Do not tell anyone that I cried. If you do I will not forgive you."
Karuizawa's weakness is that she cannot report what happened to her to the school. If Manabe and co's physical assault on Karuizawa is known, then the school would want to find out the reason behind it. To protect her social status, she cannot let this happen. Which is why she is now planning to use Hirata to get back at the girls.
"You know, to get back at them, even someone like you can do it. They are just girls after all."
"What an unreasonable request."
"Are you afraid that they will payback? And you claim that you are a man......"
"It is apparent from Sudou's incident that a simple 'payback' is not going to solve anything. An eye for an eye would only escalate the conflict. It would also brings the school in and start an investigation. This is not what you wish, yes?"
"So you are telling to suck it up?"
I know how to answer her, but I choose to remain silent.
"Like, they would, no, for sure they would continue to do all kinds of things to me......"
Karuizawa's body continued to shake. True, there is no guarantee that Manabe would stop at this. There are more escape points once we return to the school campus, but Karuizawa can not continue to play hide and seek for the rest of her time here. At the same time, our classmates would start to notice Karuizawa's changes. As both sides close in, Karuizawa will have nowhere to run to.
Karuizawa realizes this and is now extremely anxious at stopping this. And this anxiety is what I have been aiming for all along.
"It would be a shame if things returned back to how they were before. I can empathize with you on this."
"Ah......? What did you say? What do you mean?"
Karuizawa is trying to see judge how much I know. I saw that Manabe's gang was bullying her, but I shouldn't know of her past. If I truly don't know, then her past is something that she must hide from me.
"What do I mean? Exactly what the sentence meant. Against all odds you escaped to this isolated ward, and even claimed the throne of the D class leader. But the fact that you are a victim of bullying has not changed."
"Who, who did you say is a victim of bullying!"
"I mean you, Karuizawa!"
I grabbed Karuizawa's wrist and dragged her up.
"Wait, what are you doing!"
I pinned Karuizawa onto the wall and forced her face towards me.
"You were being tormented by Manabe, weren't you? They dragged your hair. They slapped your face. They kicked your breasts, you waist, and your stomach. And that's how you ended up on the ground, miserable, humiliated, pitifully sobbing."
"!?"
Even though she did not want to face to face with me, but she cannot get away.
As if we are getting suck into them, we stared at each other's eyes. There's no romance involved- what we shared here is darkness itself.
"Ever since you were little you were a victim. Grade school middle school the bullying was non-stop. Isn't this why you want to put a stop to it?"
"Did you hear...from Hirata?
"I don't know if I should tell you this or not. Hirata fancies himself as everyone's trusted companion. He will help you, and he will help others. Even if you did secure your place in D class by pretending to be his girlfriend, he will not be much use to you in situations like this. In other word, as a parasite, he is not a good host."
Karuizawa is much smarter than her appearance. She understands that Hirata's neutral alignment, so initially she didn't do anything stupid in the Usagi group. Too bad for her, to show her social status, she picked a fight with Rika and by extension her gang. This leds to her download.
She couldn't possibly show this weak side of her to the rest of D class girls.
"Why you......What gives you the right to pretentiously lecture me!"
"My right? You haven't realize it yet? You should know your place. Do you know who is in front of you? It's not Hirata. It's me. I know your checkered past. I know about the fake relationship between you and Hirata. I know that Manabe just physically assailed you and all you could do was haplessly cried. I know all these."
Everything Karuizawa Kei doesn't want others to know. I, an outsider, now knows all of them.
"In other word? If you become too much of a handful, I can at any time release these information."
How terrifying would it be? Karuizawa should know it very well.
"Don't, don't joke around! Who do you think you are!"
"Someone who knows the truth. That's all there is to it. Isn't this all you care about?"
As I closed in on her, Karuizawa turned her face away to avoid looking at me. I grabbed her cheeks and forced her face back towards me. She desperately wants to avoid my gaze, but a man's stength is too strong for her to resist. She closed her eyes in a furtile attempt to escape.
"What! What do you want from me! Are you aiming for my body?"
"Your body huh. That might not be a bad idea."
My finger tips slides across Karuizawa's thighs. The softness I feel is almost inhuman. The smoothness of her skins is very different from what I know and what I have.
"No!!"
She desperately tried to get away from me. I strengthened my hold on her cheeks and made her look into my eyes.
"Do not resist. If you do then I will release everything about to the school."
This line, like a curse, had cursed her body into a constrained stiffness.
Anger, horrified, fear, despair. Yes, how much emotion has Karuizawa been carrying?
She should notice that right now I am completely different from the persona I projected in everyday lives.
"Spread your legs."
I ordered. Karuizawa's tears began to dropped as she slowly spread them.
Even if she knows she will be violated here, she will wants to protect the place she has right now.
The pain from her bullying has taken control, and this is the proof.
I placed my hand on my belt and intentionally played with the metal buckle. Even then, Karuizawa did not run away.
She is trying desperately to accept this new reality. She looked at me with hollowed eyes, and muttered to herself.
I stand correct. Karuizawa Kei is a usable tool.
My goal is not her body. I am threatening her to see how far she would go to protect what she has.
It is a risky gamble for me to reveal my true nature. If Karuizawa runs away and reports on me, then our positions would be completely reverse. But this girl can not do it.
She is afraid of her past more than anything else. Afraid that she will lose the place she has. To protect this she is even willing to use her body. That is how much this place means to her.
"I will not bow down to you......I am not being bullied by you......You merely got hold of my weakness and used me! You asshole just do whatever you want and violate me!"
Karuizawa howled, as if she is exposing her raw anger to the world.
"But it's fine. This is not the first time I've succumbed to forces..."
She mockingly laughed. Karuizawa turned and looked at me in the eyes.
"Ho ho......Hey, do you know? When a immutable truth is presented, how do humans react......?"
She shook and hugged herself. With a hollowed and dulled smile, she gave me a faraway stare.
"I give up. Yes, I was preyed on and devoured. I was reduced to mechanically reacting to stimulus. I couldn't even muster the courage to resist. I couldn't do anything else. All I can do is receive them."
As she finally comes to term with this decision, Karuizawa herself lifted her skirt, and placed her hands on her panties.
I grasped her wrists and hold her against the ship's wall.
"What did you received. Where were the pains that tormented you?"
"What......Of course everything I had. My shoes were tacks put in. My table drawer was filled with dead animal carcasses. When I go to washrooms I get splashed on with dirty water. My uniforms were written with words like 'prostitue'. My hair was dragged on. Punches and kicks were so numerous they were not worth mentioning. Any kind of bullying that you can imagine, I've experienced it. What I said was just a selected sampling. They were so relatively 'gentle' I could laugh. So why don't you start laughing? Laugh at me who was continuously spit on and bullied?"
After experiencing all this, it is impressive she can still muster up her courage and throw herself into battle again.
Her 'core' is strong, and this is why she can still stand up and enter this high school.
So this is what's going on.
But......This is not enough to explain some of the things I noticed.
"Are these the only torments that you experienced?
"What......"
"What you said, were they the whole truth?"
I feel feel there is still something critical that shattered her heart.
That abnormal way of showing her terrors couldn't help but make me think that there's something else behind it.
Karuizawa is hiding something that is worth as much as giving up her body.
"What, are you hiding?"
"Wha, nothin......"
In an instance, Karuizawa turned her head and her gaze to her left waist.
I noticed that, and reached my hand to touch it.
"St, stop!"
Her shout were rudely contained by the surrounding walls, and echoed in the empty hallway.
But, my suspicion was confirmed by her yelling. I grabbed her uniform and pulled it up. On her beautiful skin laid an ugly scar. A scar that can only be caused by a sharp blade slicing deeply though it.
"Is this your darkness?"
"Fu, hu, huhu.....!"
This scar is not a product of mere kids tormenting each other.
A scar this deep must have gravely endangered her life.
Even if her past carries such baggage, she still chooses to stand up.
In the last few days I have been observing this woman called Karuizawa Kei. This person, to protect herself, forcefully dragged surrounding people into her camps. Even if she receives disdains from her action, she still want to protect her status.
"Despair comes in many shapes and forms; But what you have experienced was, indisputably, despair."
Karuizawa's darkness. Her pupils. They overlapped with him.
Those who choose to carries their darkness with them are attracted. And then, devoured upon by one another.
And finally, those who carries darkness, will envelope the other's darkness with themselves.
"Wh, what....You......!"
If this person is being restrained by her past, then all I need to do is forcibly release her from its binds.
Even if I do not know her deeply, but I can feel the darkness she has.
Yes......This world has much more things that Karuizawa has not experienced. In deeper places, even more vile darkness has taken root.
"I can promise you one thing, and that is from now on I will protect you from intimidation. I am much more reliable than Hirata and Machida."
"You mean you can stop Manabe and her gang......?"
"What you should do now is to decide how trustworthy my words are. A tiny kinder is easy to blown out, but a larger flame would have the opposite effect. At the end, the fire will evolve to something that no gust or wind can extinguish. You will act on my behalf. I will act on your behalf. Your emotion does not and should not come into play here. Do you agree with this relationship?"
"First let's get rid of your worries."
I said, and held my phone out.
"I have a way to stop Manabe's actions."
And then, I turned on my screen.
On my phone was a photo of Karuizawa being assaulted by Manabe's gang.
"This is......"
"If I send this to them, they should reconsider doing any more things to you. If they still decide to pursue you by spreading rumors, this would give me good ammunition to intervene."
As for Manabe and co, this particular incident should sooth their anger. Needlessly going further would only put them into unfavorable positions.
I let go of her cheeks, then with an emotionless tone I told her-
"I am only seeking someone to assist me. I hope that in the future, you will be my aid when needs arise."
"What, my aid? What do you want me to do......"
"If the current situation continues, D class will never overtake A class. While D class's members' individual abilities are passable, but we are severely lacking in cohesion. We are like beach sand. However, if you can control the girls for me, this situation will gradually turn for the better.
And that makes you, a more valuable being than Horikita, who only knows how to fight alone.
"You, what are you doing......"
She must have thought that I am just a normal everyday person, so seeing me in this state must have creep her out. But I won't explain myself. The less words, the more terrifying, and the lesser she resists.
"The first step of our cooperation shall be to lead our group to victory for this exam."
"Victory? But how do-"
"Because you are-, isn't that right?"
When she heard the key word, Karuizawa widened her eyes and looked at me.
As if the truth is reverberating inside the pupils, and mind, her eyes. I presented the truth to her.
Karuizawa looked slightly puzzled, but that might just as well.
Because a parasite can only live by attaching itself to a host.
And now that Karuizawa has attached to me, a new host. Her life now has no way to move forward but with me.
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