You Will Lose the Most Important Thing to You! Punishment and Redemption! Sickness and Dependence!

Carrying humiliation and a complicated emotion she couldn't quite put into words, Kushida Kikyo followed Akiyama Shin back to his dorm room.

The moment she stepped inside, she instinctively looked around. Her first impression was: clean.

Not merely not dirty.

Even though it was only the first day of school, many boys' rooms were at least a little messy, even if they weren't outright filthy, with the casual air of teenage boys about them.

But Akiyama Shin's room was completely different.

Everything was arranged in perfect order.

The desk was spotless, too.

Even the bed was so neatly made that it didn't have a single wrinkle.

The entire space gave off a simple, cool feeling.

What caught Kushida Kikyo's attention even more was this:

The air was filled with an exceedingly faint, clean, pleasant scent. It didn't smell like any kind of artificial air freshener or perfume. It was more like a natural body scent coming from Akiyama Shin himself.

Akiyama Shin might not have noticed it at all, but for someone with a keen sense of smell, it was hard to ignore.

A clean room with no unpleasant odors...

Either he's a cross-dresser or he's gay...

A common joke from the internet flashed through Kushida Kikyo's mind, but she immediately dismissed both possibilities. Akiyama Shin's bearing had nothing to do with either.

Irritated, she decided he was probably a man who cared obsessively about personal hygiene, perhaps even a little vain, and secretly sprayed on perfume to maintain his image.

That was a complete misunderstanding of Akiyama Shin. He was simply used to keeping things this way, and he wasn't even aware of his own scent.

Flustered and annoyed, she plopped down on Akiyama Shin's neatly made bed, then flopped backward. Giving up on caring, she spoke with irritation and disgust in her voice.

"Hey... go take a shower..."

"I'll rinse off real quick after you're done..."

"Then... then let's just get this over with..."

She was in turmoil inside.

She treasured this hard-won new life. It was both her armor and her weakness.

But handing her first time to a man who had leverage over her and whom she detested made her feel deeply humiliated, even disgusted.

Japanese society was generally rather open-minded about this sort of thing, and some people might even take pride in it. But Kushida Kikyo was somewhat conservative about it, and the situation left her feeling agitated.

Akiyama Shin ignored her and didn't even look at her. He walked straight into the bathroom, and before long, the sound of running water came from inside.

Kushida Kikyo buried her face deep in Akiyama Shin's pillow.

That clean, pleasant scent was even stronger...

Irritated, she muttered a curse under her breath.

"What a disgusting man... Does he even have to make his pillow smell this nice? He lives more delicately than a woman..."

Refusing to believe it, she sniffed the sheets and blankets again. They carried that same clean, pleasant scent, which only made her more suspicious.

What on earth did he use?

How did the scent last so long and still smell so natural?

Soon, the water stopped.

The bathroom door opened, and Akiyama Shin came out.

He wore only a loose pair of lounge shorts, his upper body bare. Un-dried droplets of water slid down his muscular chest, tracing his clearly defined six-pack and deep V-line.

He casually rubbed his wet black hair with a towel as he walked toward the bed.

At the sound, Kushida Kikyo sat up.

Her gaze was drawn involuntarily to his powerful physique, and even her breathing stalled for a moment.

But she immediately forced herself to look even more disgusted and spat out the words despite herself.

"Disgusting man..."

Inside, though, she was ranting furiously.

How could anyone in the world be this perfect?!

His face is flawless!

His skin is so good it would make girls jealous!

And his body...

Yet his personality is this awful!

And he's broke, too!

Akiyama Shin paid no attention to her stare or her insults. He walked straight to the bed and sat down close to her.

Kushida Kikyo's heart began to race for some inexplicable reason. She forced her voice to stay cold.

"I haven't even showered... You disgusting bastard..."

Akiyama Shin ignored her insults, but what he did next was completely beyond anything Kushida Kikyo had expected.

He didn't make any of the intimate advances she'd anticipated. Instead, he suddenly reached out and pressed her facedown onto the bed with a strength she couldn't resist, making it impossible for her to see his expression.

"What are you doing?!"

Kushida Kikyo struggled in alarm, but it was useless.

Akiyama Shin's low, oppressive voice sounded from above her.

"From now on, tell me the secret of one classmate who was hurt by something you did in middle school."

Kushida Kikyo's body went rigid. Even her most basic attempts to struggle gradually stopped.

How... how did he know?!

Did he even figure that out?!

Or did that bitch Horikita tell him?!

An overwhelming fear poured over her like icy water, chilling her to the bone. There was nothing inherently wrong with telling someone a secret.

"I... If I tell you, you won't expose me...?"

Her voice trembled as she asked for confirmation.

"If you refuse or lie, your real face will be all over the class group chat and the Campus Network tomorrow. I've recorded everything."

Akiyama Shin's voice held no emotion, yet it carried absolute authority.

Kushida Kikyo shut her eyes in despair. In the end, fear of being exposed made her give in, and she spoke softly.

"In ninth grade... there was a girl in my class named Saionji... She... she once... fell from the train platform..."

At her words, Akiyama Shin paused slightly.

He could accept how open-minded Japan was in certain respects, but a middle school girl falling from a train platform still shook him to his core. He asked in a low voice,

"Is that true?"

Kushida Kikyo buried her face in the sheets and mumbled,

"How would I know if it was true? She told me herself, crying... She said she was scared... and didn't know what to do..."

"So you posted her secret online to ease your own psychological burden?"

Akiyama Shin's voice turned cold.

Kushida Kikyo jolted.

He really... figured everything out!

She nodded in resignation.

"Yes."

The moment the word left her mouth—

Smack!

A sharp sound rang out, followed by a burning pain that spread from behind her.

"Ah!"

Kushida Kikyo cried out in pain.

But she was even more shocked and humiliated.

"What are you doing?!"

Akiyama Shin's voice held undisguised contempt.

"That was despicable."

"So what if I'm despicable?!"

Kushida Kikyo retorted, humiliated and furious.

"Apologize to her."

Akiyama Shin ordered her.

"Huh?!"

Kushida Kikyo could hardly believe her ears. She turned furiously to look at Akiyama Shin's calm, dark-red eyes.

"Why should I apologize to a shameless woman who was fooling around with those shady men in middle school and even got pregnant by one of them?!"

The words were full of prejudice and resentment.

Yet they also showed, indirectly, that Kushida Kikyo still had some basic moral principles and sense of right and wrong.

She believed that kind of behavior was wrong.

That also largely matched Akiyama Shin's earlier judgment: she was a kind person with a strong capacity for empathy.

But her own twisted nature and the pressure she was under meant she couldn't exactly be called a good person.

"If you don't apologize, I'll expose what you did."

Akiyama Shin remained unmoved, repeating his threat.

"Apologize. This is your punishment."

Kushida Kikyo bit her lip, struggling fiercely inside.

In the end, her fear of being exposed once again overwhelmed everything else. Extremely unwillingly, she whispered so softly it was barely audible,

"I-I'm... sorry..."

Smack!

Another slap landed, not lightly.

"Too quiet. Speak clearly. Tell me what you did to Saionji and what it led to."

Kushida Kikyo's body trembled, and tears of humiliation began to well in her eyes.

She raised her voice slightly, speaking through tears.

"I... I posted what happened to Saionji at the platform... on an anonymous forum... I'm sorry... It made... made a lot of people point fingers at her... and in the end... she transferred schools..."

Smack!

"Keep going. The next one."

"You hurt more than one person, didn't you? Tell me about them one by one. Apologize to them one by one. This is the punishment you deserve."

Akiyama Shin's voice was like that of a cold judge.

He knew that when Kushida Kikyo had chosen to expose people's secrets, it might well have been a desperate act after enduring tremendous psychological pressure.

But regardless, she had hurt people. Making her admit her mistakes aloud and face the consequences of her actions was the first step toward breaking down her psychological defenses, helping her accept her dark side, and potentially guiding her into a more useful direction. It was a twisted form of redemption, but one that might work.

Under Akiyama Shin's merciless punishment and interrogation, Kushida Kikyo's body and voice began to tremble. Forced to remember her past sins, she repented.

"And... Sato Mika..."

"I... I told people she'd secretly stolen things from a convenience store... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... It got her... warned by the school... She almost got expelled... and she couldn't hold her head up in class..."

Smack!

"And... and Kobayashi Kenta... I exposed the fact that his father had gone bankrupt... that his family was deep in debt... I'm sorry... It made his old friends mock and avoid him..."

Smack!

"What a vile woman."

Akiyama Shin's voice remained cold, but the force of his slaps had gradually softened without his noticing.

One name after another came up, each accompanied by a muffled apology and an account of the harm she'd caused. Kushida Kikyo's initial defiance and anger gradually gave way to overwhelming grievance, shame, and belated guilt.

She stopped struggling and simply lay limp on the bed, her face buried deep in the sheets. She whispered apologies again and again, her shoulders trembling as she began to sob quietly.

Looking down at the girl who was beginning to break down in tears, Akiyama Shin knew he'd gotten the result he wanted.

He loosened his hold on her, only giving her the occasional light slap as a reminder to keep going.

Akiyama Shin acted this way because he had deeply analyzed Kushida Kikyo's psyche.

At her core, she was a girl with immense pride who longed to be accepted and loved.

When someone with such immense pride couldn't earn top praise in academics, sports, and other areas,

she turned to socializing instead, using her looks and feigned personality to attract admirers.

It was a way to satisfy her fragile, inflated pride.

But after taking on too many other people's secrets and negative emotions, she became overwhelmed and chose the worst possible way to vent: anonymously exposing them online. When that behavior was discovered and she was threatened, she might have felt cornered and chosen to expose all the secrets at once in a more extreme attempt to drag everyone down with her and shift the blame.

The result was the complete destruction of her social circle. The immense fallout, along with the accusations and isolation that followed, became an indelible shadow deep within her, intensifying her twisted nature and inner turmoil.

To make use of her, he first had to break that cycle and force her to face her mistakes.

Accepting punishment would allow her to acknowledge her guilt and ease it indirectly. Only then might it be possible to guide her in a more manageable direction.

With that in mind, Akiyama Shin bent down and leaned close to Kushida Kikyo's ear. In a low, slightly husky voice that only the two of them could hear, he whispered,

"You really are a vile woman..."

He paused, his breath brushing against her sensitive earlobe.

"But it just so happens that I'm a vile man, too."

"So..."

"You're going to lose the most important thing to you completely..."

Kushida Kikyo turned her tear-filled eyes slightly toward him, looking at his handsome face so close to hers. Her long-suppressed emotions burst forth, and a twisted sense of dependence seemed to take root.

She sniffled and choked out, her voice barely audible and thick with tears,

"Please... punish me..."