Stimulation and Crime

Ryuuen watched Kamuro Masumi sneak into his room, then lock the door from the inside.

Standing by the door, Ryuuen decided to wait her out. The ship's rooms were enclosed, and the only way Kamuro could get out was through the door.

Leaning against the door, Ryuuen even deliberately knocked. The knocking must have startled Kamuro Masumi. Although Ryuuen couldn't see her expression from outside the door, she must have been nervous inside the room.

Hearing no sound from inside, Ryuuen knocked a few more times, each knock harder and louder than the last. Every knock struck the heart of the guilty Kamuro Masumi.

Ryuuen knocked for a while until his knuckles turned red, then stopped and waited by the door for her to come out.

The ship's room doors didn't have peepholes, so Ryuuen wasn't worried that Kamuro would realize he hadn't left; he just stood there waiting for her.

But two minutes passed, and Kamuro still hadn't come out. This was strange. Ryuuen had a key to the room, so not wanting to wait any longer, Ryuuen decided to play a game of cat and mouse with Kamuro Masumi.

He deliberately exaggerated the sound of opening the door, making it as loud as possible. Ryuuen even shouted, "Ishizaki, get out here!" as if out of nowhere.

Ishizaki wasn't in the room at all.

"How can Ishizaki not even turn off the lights? He really has no manners," Ryuuen muttered to the air while examining the room's layout.

Although Ryuuen was overtly scolding Ishizaki, the person he was truly scolding was Kamuro Masumi. Both Ryuuen and Kamuro Masumi knew perfectly well who hadn't turned off the lights.

There were no obvious signs of the room being rummaged through. A boy's room, especially one shared by several boys, was hardly neat. It could only barely be called sanitary. Even if Kamuro Masumi had searched it several times, a boy would find it hard to notice anything amiss, most likely just thinking he hadn't tidied up.

The ship's room wasn't large, similar in layout to a typical hotel room, with very few places to hide. Ryuuen first checked the bathroom and found no one there.

Then he returned to his bed. The only remaining hiding place in the room was under the beds.

There were three beds in the room, belonging to Ryuuen, Ishizaki, and Albert Yamada.

Ishizaki's bed was the messiest, with his quilt casually thrown on it and his clothes piled up. Ryuuen's bed was relatively tidy, but the quilt was wrinkled. Albert Yamada's bed, however, was the tidiest, with the quilt folded neatly like a tofu block at the foot of the bed.

Ryuuen first jumped onto his bed, and the bed frame creaked.

Ryuuen continued speaking to the air: "Strange, where did Ishizaki and the others go?"

Ryuuen naturally didn't go directly under the bed to check if Kamuro was really there; that would take away a lot of the fun.

Ryuuen then jumped off the bed and deliberately kicked a slipper under Ishizaki's bed. Ryuuen kicked it with great force, and the slipper slid directly in from the left side of the bed and out from the right.

"Looks like she's not under Ishizaki's bed," Ryuuen thought.

Then Ryuuen kicked the other slipper under Albert Yamada's bed. Ryuuen smiled because the slipper didn't slide out, which meant someone was under the bed.

"Where did my slipper go?" Ryuuen stretched his foot under Albert Yamada's bed and kicked around wildly. Although he certainly couldn't kick Kamuro, he could still annoy her.

"Looks like I can't find it. I'll just go out and find another pair," Ryuuen said loudly.

This self-talk was quite strange, but Kamuro, whose nerves were tightly strung under the bed, had no mind to ponder this issue.

Ryuuen walked to the door, turned off the light, opened the door, and then closed it loudly. But in reality, Ryuuen hadn't left at all; he was holding his breath, standing by the door.

Kamuro Masumi really had patience; a minute passed with no movement. Any longer, and Ryuuen would have to breathe.

In the darkness, Ryuuen heard rustling sounds. Although the room was very dark and he couldn't see any figures, Ryuuen could feel Kamuro stumbling in the dark towards the light switch. She even seemed to have bumped into the bed leg, as Ryuuen heard Kamuro hiss.

Kamuro didn't go for the light switch by the bed; instead, she fumbled her way towards the door, which was Ryuuen's direction.

What does it feel like to be caught in the dark? The answer is being scared half to death.

Ryuuen directly grabbed Kamuro Masumi by the neck. Originally, Ryuuen had intended to grab her shoulder, but in the dark, Ryuuen couldn't see her movements clearly; he could only roughly guess her position. And Kamuro happened to be bent over, which resulted in Ryuuen seemingly choking her.

"Don't move!"

The moment Ryuuen grabbed her, she knee-kicked him. Subduing Kamuro in the dark wasn't difficult, but due to the loss of sight, Ryuuen always inadvertently touched the soft parts of the girl's body in the dark. Plus, Kamuro was wearing her school uniform, with her thighs exposed beneath her JK skirt. Ryuuen could easily grab her legs and butt, which gave Ryuuen a sense of committing a crime.

So, without too much contact with Kamuro, Ryuuen turned on the light, and both of them were exposed in the illumination.

However, Kamuro's expression was a bit off. She didn't look like a thief caught red-handed feeling guilty; instead, she looked quite pleased, her face flushed, panting, and her chest heaving.

She was very excited right now.

"What a peculiar fetish," Ryuuen said, flinging Kamuro onto his bed with one hand. Ryuuen knew that Kamuro had a penchant for seeking thrills; she was controlled by Sakayanagi precisely because she had been caught stealing at school.

While Ryuuen could now emulate Sakayanagi and control Kamuro, doing so would mean Kamuro would have to obey two people, which could easily lead to problems.

Instead of threats, Ryuuen preferred cooperation. "You agree to my terms, I satisfy your needs." Human society has developed to this day precisely because of transactional cooperation.

"Tell me, what did you want to steal?" Ryuuen stood by the bed, blocking all possible escape routes for Kamuro.

Clearly unable to escape, Kamuro still attempted to, resulting in her being picked up and thrown onto the bed by Ryuuen over and over again.

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

"Do you think I'll believe that?" Ryuuen didn't think she was simply seeking thrills. Even if it was just Kamuro's whim, Ryuuen had no intention of letting her off easily.

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

Ryuuen didn't indulge her. He reached out and searched her, and sure enough, found something in her JK skirt pocket.

Hiyori's handkerchief. What was there to steal about this? Ryuuen was momentarily perplexed.

"Why steal this?"

Kamuro didn't speak. She hadn't struggled when Ryuuen searched her just now, as if she had completely given up resisting.

"Your heart couldn't fool me," Ryuuen said, tossing the handkerchief onto Kamuro's chest. The handkerchief rose and fell with her chest.