Radical Evil

"You're really awful."

Masumi Kamuro looked at Star Color with undisguised disdain.

That look really hurt. Fortunately, Star Color thought he was strong enough inside not to be intimidated by a beautiful girl's gaze.

Kamuro really was pretty. Come to think of it, why were there so few unattractive girls at this school...

She wore her hair in a single ponytail tied in the same direction as Miki Yamamura's. If the two of them merged, would they become a pair of twin tails? That was an intriguing thought. Ahem... Though her figure was slightly less impressive than Tamiya's, she was still a standard-issue beauty. He really couldn't understand why a girl like her would commit crimes.

"I've got some hot cocoa. I just bought it. Want some?"

While observing people in his daily life, he'd noticed that Kamuro seemed to prefer cocoa drinks.

"Have you been observing me again?"

"Absolutely not."

Star Color smiled.

"I don't believe you."

"So, why do you steal things, Kamuro?"

"That's none of your business."

"Socrates once advised his students to keep looking in the mirror. If you're beautiful, then work hard to become someone worthy of that beauty. If you're ugly, make up for your looks with good manners. Kamuro, you're very beautiful..."

Hearing Star Color's lavish praise, Masumi Kamuro stared at him in surprise.

"...but you don't have the manners to match."

Masumi Kamuro's face twisted with humiliation, and she lost her usual haughty composure.

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

"What do you know about me?!"

Masumi Kamuro shouted angrily.

Star Color simply unwrapped a lollipop and put it in his mouth as if it were a cigarette. For some reason, Masumi Kamuro felt that the fragile-looking Star Color gave off an air of an [adult]...

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

"Once you've experienced that thrill, you can't stop. You slowly make your way toward the abyss. That's human nature at its worst."

"Right now, you can use your status as a student to escape punishment. But what about when you're an adult? That thrill will stay with you, lodged in your mind, and control you. You'll steal one more time, just once... You won't get caught."

"If you don't stop, someday the people who love you will find out. Adults will stop trusting you, and more and more bad people will surround you. People who want to drag you down will come closer, too. And you'll face the consequences imposed by the rules of the world..."

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

"Maybe it's because of your family, or maybe it's something personal. I won't pry. You probably feel that stealing is a way to mock the world and adults, and that it gives you a sense of satisfaction, right? It relieves stress. When your worries and unease build up inside, you can only get rid of them this way."

Star Color took a sip of hot cocoa, then looked at Masumi Kamuro, whose eyes had begun to show her panic. She wasn't that hard to figure out. At least, his current theory seemed right.

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

"[Kleptomania] often develops in people who experienced regret as children or didn't receive enough love. Because they lacked something in childhood, they feel a hunger for whatever it was they lacked. Before they know it, they're driven by that impulse, consumed by that desire. In truth, they're just looking for a substitute for [love]."

"Whatever happened in your past, you can't whitewash it. Theft is a way of hurting others. You made yourself feel good, but you hurt the convenience store clerk. In the end, that's evil."

Star Color's words pierced straight into Masumi Kamuro's heart. He'd seen right through her... It was as if she'd lost all sense of boundaries, as if she had no privacy left, and he'd even dug into her heart. She felt utterly powerless, and her breathing was completely out of control.

"What Kant called [Radical Evil] is the human tendency toward evil. First comes [the frailty of human nature], then [impure motives], and finally [the inversion of the heart]. Self-love should take precedence over moral principles: stealing to fill your stomach, killing for your own benefit. That's the inversion of the heart. It isn't an illness, and there's nothing special about it. In the end, it's just something everyone has in their heart to some extent."

"So, rather than Kleptomania, I think you're more like a case of the heart's inversion. You can choose for yourself; I have no right to lecture you. If you want to escape the Abyss of Evil, it's too deep for anyone else to save you. Goodness can only reach so far..."

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

"But when all's said and done, you've only fallen down, Kamuro. If you want to, you can get back up at any time."

"Words can't move someone who won't listen, and beating them with a switch won't help either. But you, Kamuro... you listen better than most people."

Star Color looked at Masumi Kamuro. The haughty look on her face, the one that warned people to stay away, had vanished. In its place was the purest, most fundamental [human self].

She felt humiliated and angry that he'd hit so close to home, and powerless because she'd listened to what Star Color had said.

"Go apologize properly to the convenience store staff. Pay them back for what you took; they won't give you a hard time. If you feel like [stealing] again, and can't escape that feeling as you search for [love] and the desire to [be needed], come find me. I'll accept you until that emptiness inside you is completely filled."

"You have to 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 in the world, they'll surely find the path that suits them best. The world's love will answer you, too."

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

"Of course."

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

"Mm..."

Star Color simply nodded with his eyes closed, affirming everything Masumi Kamuro had said.

She was so desperately seeking a sense of [being needed] that she didn't need to think about whether his words were true. She only needed to listen to my voice and step away from the words around her, the ones she couldn't tell were true or false.

As Masumi Kamuro felt the comfort of accepting such simple words, that emotion and desire [transferred] to... the extraordinary, fragile... adorable boy in front of her.

She could feel her own guilt and unease. He understood it all. He neither judged nor affirmed nor held any expectations for me. In truth, he didn't care at all. I knew it. He was watching me...

As Star Color carefully drew back the hand pointing the lollipop at her, she did the boldest thing she'd ever done in her life.

Masumi Kamuro snatched the lollipop with her mouth.

"Ah... My candy."

"Then I'll come find you from now on. You said you'd accept me, so you'd better satisfy my need to be [needed] by someone."

Star Color simply smiled faintly.

Thank goodness. He'd corrected her [evil] through conversation alone. If he couldn't correct it, he didn't mind using another method. [That method] would at least leave an indelible wound in her heart, one she'd carry all her life. Whenever she felt the [urge] to steal, she'd immediately remember that heart-wrenching [wound].

Star Color was sincerely glad he hadn't needed to use that method. What a [Happy Ending].