He Is My Destination!

The night had deepened, and all was silent outside the window, save for the occasional chirping of insects drifting through the night breeze.

In a room within the girls' dormitory, the bathroom was bathed in a warm, yellow light.

Steam rose in thick, swirling clouds, coating the mirror in a hazy white mist that blurred the girl's figure into a soft, gentle silhouette.

Karuizawa Kei stood alone under the showerhead, letting the warm water cascade down from above.

Droplets snaked down her honey-colored hair, trickling past her slender neck and over her delicate collarbones, then tracing a path down her smooth spine before shattering into tiny splashes against the tiled floor.

The bathroom was filled with the faint, floral scent of body wash, which, mingled with the steam from the hot water, wrapped the entire space in a warm, hazy embrace.

She stood in the spray with her eyes closed, letting the hot water wash away the exhaustion and dust of the day.

After a long while, she slowly opened her eyes, lowered her head, and fixed her gaze upon her flat stomach.

The skin there was fair and smooth, glowing with a healthy luster under the warm light, as delicate as jade and without the slightest blemish.

Yet, her fingers moved involuntarily to touch that patch of skin, her fingertips sliding gently over the center of her abdomen—there was nothing there, as smooth as it had always been.

However, her body gave an involuntary, slight tremor at that very moment.

A chill surged from the depths of her memory, piercing through the warmth of the water and making her shiver.

Because she still remembered it clearly—that knife.

The dagger that had glinted with cold light in the dim alleyway, its tip pressed against her stomach. Through the thin fabric of her clothes, she could feel its icy touch, heavy with the chill of death.

The thug leader's hideous grin, the vulgar shouting, the faint sound of the blade slowly piercing through her clothes—if not for that person descending from above, if not for those powerful hands that had knocked the knife away—

That wound would likely have remained on her stomach forever.

No.

It wasn't just the wound.

She closed her eyes, and a deeper fear surfaced in her mind—even if the wound had healed, the scar would have remained there forever, like a thorn, reminding her of that dark past.

And more terrifying than the scar was the shadow etched into her soul.

"So, everyone is afraid when faced with death..."

She murmured to herself, her voice sounding somewhat ethereal amidst the rushing water.

A bitter smile tugged at the corners of her lips. At the time, she had been completely paralyzed by terror, her body too stiff to move, unable to even let out a scream.

Her mind had gone blank, with only one thought echoing repeatedly—I'm going to die, I'm going to die, someone save me...

And it was right then that he appeared.

Mazumi Mami.

Like a god descending from the heavens, he appeared in that dark, filthy alleyway, appearing in her world as it stood on the brink of collapse.

He didn't even say a word; with just a few clean, efficient movements, the thugs who had been acting so viciously just moments before were left wailing on the ground.

She would never forget that scene for the rest of her life.

Thinking of this, a smile bloomed involuntarily on Karuizawa Kei's lips.

It was a smile filled with warmth, reliance, and nostalgia, a stark contrast to the bitter expression she had worn when mentioning death just moments ago.

She recalled the time she had spent by Mazumi Mami's side.

Though brief, it had been like a ray of warm sunlight in winter, illuminating her entire life.

The boy had been covered in wounds, yet he still stood in front of her; he had needed rest himself, yet he still dealt with everyone who had ever bullied her.

Those who had once bullied her—some knelt before her, weeping and repenting; some had their evil deeds exposed, becoming social pariahs that everyone despised; and some—

She lowered her eyelids slightly.

Some simply never appeared in her life again.

They vanished without a sound, without drawing anyone's attention, as if they had never existed at all.

Combining this with the memory of how covered in wounds Mazumi Mami had been when they first met, Karuizawa Kei could certainly guess that the fate of those people was far from a simple "transfer" or "moving away."

They were likely at the bottom of the deep sea somewhere right now, keeping company with the fish and shrimp, holding an endless "diving competition."

To an ordinary person, the thought might be terrifying.

But Karuizawa Kei did not think so.

She even felt it was only natural.

Those people had harbored malice toward her and tried to ruin her life, so wasn't it only right that they pay the price?

She lacked the strength to take revenge, but so what? She—she had Mazumi Mami.

Mazumi Mami's strength was her strength.

Mazumi Mami's will was her will.

This bond was something no one else could ever replace.

She was like a hornbill that had finally found its mate.

"Legend says that if one mate dies, the other will neither eat nor drink, mourning by its partner's side until it starves to death..."

This was the information she had once seen in a biological encyclopedia.

She felt that this kind of relationship was fine; she was simply a hornbill circling around Mazumi Mami, and this was her way of survival. She didn't see anything wrong with it.

To that end, she had even neglected her studies during her third year of junior high.

It was all to track down Mazumi Mami's trail.

Of course, there was also the factor of escaping her own terrible family situation.

At that time, she truly had the impulse to just end it all; after all, there was no place left in this world for her to call home.

But her homeroom teacher had pulled her back, analyzing from various angles that Mazumi Mami likely came from the upper nobility, so he recommended she study at Yingtai Advanced Nurturing High School.

A drowning person will always grab at a straw, regardless of the cost.

Even knowing the hope was slim, Karuizawa Kei still found a glimmer of possibility, and she studied desperately, wanting to enter this school.

But time wasted cannot simply be made up whenever one wishes.

To be honest, when she walked out of the exam hall, she had already despaired, because she didn't believe she could pass.

If it hadn't been raining that day, with the water levels rising, she felt that jumping into the river would be too unsightly, so she would have just jumped right in.

Fortunately, after it was over, she received her acceptance notice.

Although she didn't know why she had been accepted, it was a good thing for her.

Fortunately, heaven never closes every door; she had finally found her place to belong.

She tucked her damp hair behind her ears and tilted her face up, letting the hot water wash directly over her, as if wanting to wash away those stale memories and leave only the warm parts behind.

A moment later, she turned off the shower. The sound of water ceased abruptly, leaving only the ticking of droplets hitting the floor tiles in the bathroom.

She stepped out of the bathtub, her bare feet pressing into the soft carpet. Moonlight spilled into the room through the half-drawn curtains, spreading a sheet of silvery radiance across the floor.

The girl's figure stood within that moonlight, her wet, long hair draped over her shoulders, water droplets sliding slowly along the curves of her body.

Her skin glowed with a pearlescent, soft luster under the reflection of the moonlight—her slender waist, long legs, and delicate collarbones—the whole of her was as beautiful as an elf born from the moonlight, untainted by a speck of dust.

She walked to the window, pulled back a corner of the curtain slightly, and gazed at the tranquil night sky outside.

There were no stars in the night sky, only a crescent moon hanging lonely, cold and bright.

But her eyes were brighter than the moonlight; it was the peace of having found a home, the wild joy of recovering something lost, and a devotion bordering on religious faith.

"Mazumi-sama..."

She whispered softly, her voice as light as a sigh, yet carrying incomparable firmness.

"You are my only light; you are my sun."

She pressed her hand gently against her chest, feeling the steady and powerful heartbeat within.

The reason this heart was still beating was because she had to find him.

From the moment she met him, her life no longer belonged to herself.

Everything about her—her joy, her hope, the meaning of her existence—was all tightly bound to him.

"You are above all else, my only one..."

Her voice echoed softly in the silent room, carrying the weight of a solemn vow.

"Therefore—I will definitely become your maid, and I will definitely stay by your side forever."

She clenched her fists, the moonlight reflecting in her violet eyes, flickering with a resolute light.

"This time—I will never let you leave again."

The night breeze gently stirred the curtains, the moonlight was like water, and the girl's figure stood quietly in that silver expanse, as if declaring her determination to the entire world.

No one could stop her.

No one could ever separate her from her sun again.

In a voice only she could hear, she made this vow in the depths of her heart, and she would spend her entire life fulfilling it.