Radical Evil

"You're really something, you know."

Masumi Kamuro looked at Star Color with a look of disgust on her face.

That kind of gaze really stung, but fortunately Star Color felt his heart was tough enough that he wouldn't be intimidated by a pretty girl's stare.

Kamuro really was quite beautiful, actually. Come to think of it, why hadn't he found any ugly girls in this school...

She tied her hair in a single ponytail in the same direction as Miki Yamamura—if the two of them merged, could they become a twin-tail? That was kind of exciting to imagine. Ahem ahem... Though her figure was slightly inferior to Tamiya's, she was still a standard beauty. He really couldn't understand why a girl like this would turn to crime.

"I have hot cocoa, just bought it. Want some?"

From his usual observations of humans, he'd noticed that Kamuro had a preference for cocoa drinks.

"Have you been watching me again?"

"Absolutely not."

Star Color showed a smile.

"I don't believe you."

"So why do you steal things, Kamuro?"

"None of your business."

"Socrates once warned his students to keep looking in the mirror. If you're beautiful, strive to become worthy of that beauty. If you're ugly, use cultivation to make up for your appearance. Kamuro, you're very beautiful..."

Hearing Star Color's unreserved praise, Masumi Kamuro stared at him in shock.

"But... you lack the cultivation to match it."

Masumi Kamuro's face lost control from shame and anger, shedding its usual cold pride.

"Stop doing bad things, while there are still kind people around you."

"What do you know about me!!"

Masumi Kamuro roared.

Star Color just tore the wrapper off a lollipop, stuck it in his mouth like a cigarette, and for some reason Masumi Kamuro felt that the usually delicate Star Color exuded an aura of an [adult]...

"By the time things reach a point of no return, it's already too late."

"Once you enjoy that thrill, you can't stop, slowly sinking into the abyss—that's the base nature of humans."

"Right now, you can use your student status to escape punishment. But after you become an adult? That thrill will cling to your brain, controlling you. Steal once more, just once... you won't get caught."

"If you don't stop, one day the people who love you will find out. Adults won't trust you, more and more bad people will surround you, those who want to drag you down will draw near. And you'll face the punishment of the world's rules..."

"Bad people go to the right places, but right people don't go to bad places."

"Maybe it's family reasons, or personal ones—I won't dig deep. You probably think stealing is a way to mock the world and adults, to get psychological satisfaction, right? It feels stress-relieving, and the inner worries and unease that build up can only be released this way."

Star Color took a sip of hot cocoa and looked at Masumi Kamuro, whose eyes had already shown panic. Her personality wasn't that hard to guess. At least, based on his current deductions, he wasn't wrong.

"Getting psychological satisfaction from stealing is a common mental illness called [Kleptomania]."

"[Kleptomania] easily develops in people who had regrets in childhood or didn't receive enough love. Because something was missing in their youth, they develop a hunger for that missing thing. Unconsciously driven by that impulse, they generate this desire—it's really just looking for a substitute for [love]."

"No matter what happened in your past, you can't whitewash it, because stealing is a way to hurt others. You please yourself but hurt the convenience store clerk—in the end, that's a kind of evil."

Star Color's words pierced like thorns straight into Masumi Kamuro's heart, completely seen through by him... as if boundaries had vanished, all privacy lost, even her inner self laid bare with a sense of powerlessness, her breathing completely thrown off.

"Kant's [Radical Evil] is the human tendency toward evil. One is [fragility of nature], two is [impurity of motive], three is [perversion of the heart]. Self-love should take priority over moral principles—stealing to fill your stomach, killing for your own benefit. That's the perversion of the heart. It's not a disease, nor anything special; in the end, it's something everyone has to some degree."

"So rather than [Kleptomania], I think Kamuro is more about the perversion of the heart. You can choose freely—I have no right to lecture you. If you want to escape the abyss of evil, it's too deep for others to save you. The reach of good is limited..."

Star Color took the lollipop out of his mouth and pointed it at Masumi Kamuro.

"But in the end, Kamuro, you've just fallen. As long as you're willing, you can get up anytime."

"Words can't move those who won't listen, even if you beat them with a switch. But Kamuro... you're more receptive than others."

Star Color looked at Masumi Kamuro, whose face no longer wore that aloof, untouchable pride, but the purest, most fundamental [human self].

The shame and anger of being struck at her core, mixed with the powerlessness of taking in Star Color's words.

"Go apologize properly to the convenience store staff. Pay compensation—they won't make it hard on you. If you feel like [stealing] again, unable to shake that feeling of seeking [love] and [need], come find me. I'll accept you until that hollow part inside you is completely filled."

"Look at the world in the right way, with love. No matter what situation a person is in, as long as they don't give up hope on the world, they'll surely find the path that suits them best, and the world's love will respond to you."

"Someone like me... can I really trouble you?"

"You can."

"If I do this, can I really be [needed] by others?"

"Mm..."

Star Color just closed his eyes and nodded, affirming everything about Masumi Kamuro.

This urgent seeking of [a sense of need]—she didn't need to think about whether his words were true or false. She just needed to listen to his voice, to break free from the words around her that required judgment.

Masumi Kamuro felt that reassuring, simple acceptance, and that feeling, that desire, [transferred] to... the fragile, cute boy in front of her, who transcended common sense.

She could feel that her guilt and her unease—he understood it all. He didn't judge her, affirm or deny her, or expect anything. He really didn't care. She knew it. He was watching her...

Just as Star Color was about to pull back the lollipop he'd pointed at her, she made the boldest move of her life.

Masumi Kamuro simply took the lollipop with her mouth.

"Ah... my candy."

"In that case, I'll come find you from now on. You said you'd accept me, so you'd better satisfy my need to be [wanted]."

Star Color merely revealed a faint smile.

How wonderful—he had corrected that [evil] in her through mere dialogue. If it couldn't be corrected, he wouldn't hesitate to use another method. [That method] would at least leave an indelible trauma in her heart, one she'd carry for life—the moment any [urge] to steal arose, that agonizing [wound] would immediately resurface.

Star Color sincerely decided that not having to use such a method was truly a [Happy Ending].