Thrills and Crime

Ryuuen watched Kamuro Masumi slip into his room, then lock the door behind her.

Standing outside the door, Ryuuen prepared to wait for the rabbit at the tree stump. The rooms on the ship were enclosed, so if Kamuro wanted to get out, she could only use the door.

Leaning against the door, Ryuuen deliberately knocked on it. The sound must have frightened Kamuro Masumi. Though he could not see her expression from outside, she was surely nervous inside.

Unable to hear anything from the room, Ryuuen knocked several more times. Each knock grew harder and louder, striking directly against the heart of the guilty Kamuro Masumi.

After knocking for a while, Ryuuen's knuckles had turned red. He stopped knocking and waited outside for her to come out.

The ship's room doors had no peepholes, so Ryuuen was not worried that Kamuro would notice he had not left and was still waiting outside.

But after two minutes, Kamuro still had not come out. That was strange. Ryuuen had the room key, and unwilling to wait any longer, he decided to play a game of cat and mouse with Kamuro Masumi.

He made a deliberately exaggerated show of opening the door, making the noise as loud as possible, then shouted at no one in particular, "Ishizaki, get your ass out here."

Ishizaki was not in the room at all.

"Why didn't Ishizaki even turn off the lights? His manners are seriously awful." Ryuuen inspected the room's layout as he complained to the air.

Although Ryuuen appeared to be cursing Ishizaki, the person he was really scolding was Kamuro Masumi. Both Ryuuen and Kamuro knew perfectly well who had left the lights on.

There were no obvious signs that the room had been searched. It was a boys' room, and one shared by several boys at that, so it was far from tidy to begin with. At best, it could be called sanitary. Even if Kamuro Masumi had rummaged through it several times, the boys would have had a hard time noticing anything unusual. They would probably just think they had failed to clean up after themselves.

The ship's room was not large, with a layout much like an ordinary hotel room. There were very few places to hide. Ryuuen first checked the bathroom and found no one inside.

Then he returned to his bed. The only remaining place in the room where someone could hide was beneath the beds.

There were three beds in the room: Ryuuen's, Ishizaki's, and Albert Yamada's.

Ishizaki's bed was the messiest, with the blanket carelessly thrown on top and his clothes piled there as well. Ryuuen's bed was fairly neat, though the blanket was still rumpled. Albert Yamada's bed, on the other hand, was the tidiest. His blanket had even been folded into a neat block and placed at the foot of the bed.

Ryuuen first jumped onto his own bed, making the bedframe creak.

He continued speaking to the empty room. "Strange. Where did Ishizaki and the others go?"

Naturally, Ryuuen did not immediately check beneath the beds to see whether Kamuro was really there. That would take away too much of the fun.

Ryuuen jumped down again and deliberately kicked one slipper beneath Ishizaki's bed. He used considerable force, and the slipper slid in from the left side of the bed and out the right.

Looks like she isn't under Ishizaki's bed.

Then he kicked the other slipper beneath Albert Yamada's bed. Ryuuen smiled when it did not slide out. That meant someone was under there.

"Where did my slipper go?" Ryuuen stretched his bare foot beneath Albert Yamada's bed and kicked around wildly. He certainly could not hit Kamuro, but he could still disgust her.

"Looks like I can't find it. I'd better go out and get another pair." Ryuuen spoke loudly.

Talking to himself like this was actually strange, but Kamuro, whose nerves were stretched taut beneath the bed, had no mind to question it.

Ryuuen walked to the door, turned off the light, opened the door, then shut it again. The noise was loud, but he had not gone outside at all. Instead, he held his breath and stood beside the door.

Kamuro Masumi was truly patient. A full minute passed without any movement. If it went on much longer, Ryuuen would have no choice but to breathe.

In the darkness, Ryuuen heard rustling. The room was so dark that he could not see her figure at all, but he could sense Kamuro stumbling toward the light switch. She seemed to bump into the bedframe, and he heard her hiss.

Kamuro did not go for the switch beside the bed. Instead, she felt her way through the darkness toward the door—toward Ryuuen.

What did it feel like to be grabbed by someone in the darkness? The answer was that it scared the life out of you.

Ryuuen directly grabbed Kamuro Masumi by the neck. He had meant to grab her shoulder, but he could not see her movements in the dark and could only guess at her position. Kamuro happened to be bent over, resulting in the current situation where Ryuuen appeared to be choking her.

"Don't move!"

The instant Ryuuen grabbed her, she drove her knee into him. Subduing Kamuro in the dark was not difficult, but deprived of his sight, Ryuuen kept accidentally touching the soft parts of the girl's body. Kamuro was also wearing her School Uniform, with her thighs exposed beneath her JK skirt. With one careless move, he could grab her leg or butt, giving Ryuuen the feeling that he was committing a crime.

So he did not make excessive contact with Kamuro. He turned on the light, exposing them both beneath its glow.

But there was something wrong with Kamuro's expression. She did not look like a thief caught red-handed, guilty and ashamed. Instead, she looked thoroughly delighted, her face flushed, her breathing ragged, and her chest constantly rising and falling.

She was excited.

"Now that really is a peculiar fetish." Ryuuen flung Kamuro onto his bed with one hand. He knew Kamuro had a penchant for thrills. Sakayanagi had gained control over her because she had caught her stealing at school.

Although Ryuuen could imitate Sakayanagi and control Kamuro now, that would mean she had to obey two people at once, which could easily cause problems.

Compared with threats, Ryuuen preferred cooperation. You agreed to his conditions, and he fulfilled your needs. Human society had developed to this day precisely because of trade and cooperation.

"Tell me. What did you want to steal?" Ryuuen stood beside the bed, blocking every possible route Kamuro could use to escape.

Though it was obvious she could not escape, Kamuro still tried. The result was that Ryuuen grabbed her and threw her back onto the bed again and again.

Finally out of strength, Kamuro lay on Ryuuen's bed with lifeless eyes. "I didn't steal anything!"

"Do you think I'd believe that?" Ryuuen would not think she had simply come looking for thrills. Even if it really had been a momentary whim of Kamuro's, he had no intention of letting her off so easily.

"Believe it or not, I didn't steal anything!" Kamuro turned her head away.

Ryuuen did not indulge her. He reached over and searched her body, finding something in the pocket of her JK skirt.

Hiyori's handkerchief. What was there to steal about that? Ryuuen could not understand it for the moment.

"Why did you steal this?"

Kamuro said nothing. She had not struggled when Ryuuen searched her just now, as if she had completely given up resisting.

"Your heart couldn't deceive me." Ryuuen tossed the handkerchief onto Kamuro's chest, where it rose and fell with her breathing.