Kaoru Hoshitani had a Dream.
At first, the dream was shrouded in a sacred, hazy white glow.
He seemed to be standing inside a delicate, compact chapel. The air was filled with a faint floral fragrance and the solemn, soothing music of an organ.
Sunlight filtered through stained-glass windows, casting dazzling, shifting patterns of color that slowly moved across the floor.
He lowered his head and looked at himself. He was wearing a perfectly tailored, light-textured pure white wedding gown. Layers upon layers of lace and gauze looked dreamlike, outlining his slender figure.
A veil rested softly over the back of his head. He could sense that delicate makeup had been applied to his face; his skin was smooth, and his lips were tinted like newly blooming cherry blossoms.
Ahead of him stood his bride—Aina Saiten.
She was dressed in a simple yet elegant white Suit, her face glowing with a gentle smile so full of happiness it almost brought tears to the eyes.
Her eyes sparkled, holding nothing but his reflection.
With both hands, she devoutly held a deep blue velvet ring box. The lid was open, revealing two understated platinum rings that shimmered with a soft yet unwavering light.
Then she knelt on one knee before him, looking up at him.
Her lips moved slightly, as if reciting those sacred vows, waiting for him to extend his hand so she could place the ring that symbolized an eternal Promise onto his ring finger.
Everything was so beautiful it felt unreal, like a fairy-tale Ending.
However, just as he was about to reach out and touch that ring that symbolized happiness, a sudden change struck.
A cold, powerful sensation of restraint came without warning, as if invisible shackles had instantly bound his limbs and body.
He realized he could not move at all—not even a single finger could bend.
More terrifying still, almost at the same moment, a pair of hands burning with astonishing heat, like venomous snakes that had been waiting for their chance, silently yet with undeniable force, slipped beneath the many layers of his white wedding gown and directly grasped his waist.
Those palms were rough, scorching hot, carrying an extremely familiar sensation that made his Soul tremble. They began to caress and roam slowly, possessively.
【No—!】
He screamed wildly in his mind.
How he wished—how desperately he wished—that the hands touching him right now belonged to Aina, who was kneeling before him, gazing at him with eyes full of love!
But Rationality cruelly told him it was not.
Aina’s hands were holding the ring box. Her touch was always gentle and cherishing, never aggressive like this, never with a force that felt as if it wanted to crush him apart.
He could not lower his head. He could not turn around. He could only remain rigid, facing Aina.
He could see a trace of confusion gradually appear in her eyes, as if she were wondering why he had not yet extended his hand.
Her smile remained, yet it was veiled by a faint shadow because of his stillness.
Kaoru Hoshitani’s face—already breathtakingly beautiful under careful makeup, enough to be called stunning beyond compare—had completely drained of color, leaving only a deathly pallor on the verge of collapse.
His pupils dilated in extreme terror, his body trembling slightly under the unseen restraint and the desecration of those hands.
He wanted to scream. He wanted to tell Aina that he was being violated, that he wanted to break free from this nightmare!
Who was it… whose hands were they…?!
As if answering the roar in his heart, another hand just as scorching and powerful reached out from behind and to the side, gripping his long, fragile Swan Neck with irresistible force.
The fingers slid along the curve of his neck, then firmly lifted his chin.
Kaoru Hoshitani felt his head, like a lifeless doll, being forcibly and slowly turned to the side by those hands.
His vision spun.
A face burst into the corner of his sight at close range, then completely occupied his field of view.
Shoulder-length light-gold hair, wheat-toned skin, sharp, well-defined jawlines, and those eyes… those inorganic, ash-gray eyes that were now locked tightly onto him, filled with amusement and deep desire.
It was Rika Kawasaki!
She had appeared at some point beside the altar that should have held only him and Aina, wearing a black leather outfit utterly out of place at a wedding, a playful yet certain curve at the corner of her lips.
Her gaze was like that of a hunter admiring a beautiful Victim that had fallen into a Trap, unable to struggle.
Kaoru Hoshitani’s breathing completely stopped. Despair, like icy floodwaters, instantly drowned his mind.
He wanted to scream, to beg Aina—who seemed separated from him by another world—for help.
But his throat felt as if it were being tightly strangled by an invisible hand, unable to produce even the faintest sound.
His lips opened and closed uselessly, like a fish out of water.
Then, under Aina’s confused and worried gaze, accompanied by the solemn wedding march, Rika Kawasaki’s face slowly lowered, with a deliberate motion that proclaimed ownership.
Kaoru Hoshitani watched helplessly and felt it—his lips were completely covered, invaded, and tainted by another pair of scorching, domineering lips.
“I… at my wedding with Aina… right in front of Aina… I was forcibly kissed by another Woman…”
That realization was like a final thunderbolt, shattering the last remnants of his consciousness.
Darkness, like the throat of a giant beast, instantly swallowed everything.
The chapel, the sunlight, Aina, the rings…
All images shattered in his vision and returned to a single Void.
Kaoru Hoshitani was like a drowning person, his awareness plunging into a cold, dark, endless abyss…
“Ahhh—!”
Because holding her fragrant, soft, warm Boyfriend was simply too comfortable and reassuring, Aina Saiten, not long after waking up, could not resist the temptation of that warm embrace and drowsily fell back into a light sleep.
The Bedroom was quiet and warm, filled only with their gentle breathing and the occasional distant white noise of the City drifting in from outside the window.
However, this peace did not last long.
She felt that she had closed her eyes for less than half an hour—maybe only ten or so minutes—when a shrill, distorted scream filled with extreme terror and Despair, like an icy dagger, suddenly pierced the silence of the Bedroom and stabbed viciously into her eardrums!
Aina Saiten was so startled by the scream right beside her that her whole body jolted. She instantly woke completely from her hazy sleep, her Heart pounding wildly.
She immediately opened her eyes. Her first reaction was to look at the person in her arms—only to see Kaoru Hoshitani with his eyes tightly shut, his handsome face twisted in indescribable pain and fear.
His body struggled and writhed violently in her embrace like a fish thrown onto shore. His hands and feet flailed and kicked unconsciously with astonishing strength, nearly hitting her chin.
The thin blanket had been kicked away, bunched messily around his waist.
A low, broken whimper vibrated from his throat, and a fine layer of cold sweat instantly beaded on his forehead, glistening wetly in the Morning Light.
“Akane! Akane!”
Aina Saiten quickly realized that Akane was trapped in a terrifying nightmare.
It was not that she had never seen him have bad dreams before. Sometimes he would sob softly or mutter indistinctly in his sleep, but she had never seen a reaction this intense.
Her fear was instantly overwhelmed by heartache.
She hurriedly tightened her arms, pulling his trembling body closer and holding him more firmly, trying to draw him out of the nightmare with her warmth and familiar scent.
She gently patted his taut back while soothing him in the calmest, softest voice she could manage, right by his ear:
“It’s okay, it’s okay, Akane. I’m here. I’m right here. That was all fake—it was just a dream. Don’t be afraid…”
However, Kaoru Hoshitani, deeply mired in the nightmare, seemed to still be trapped in that horrific scene of being restrained, violated, and tainted at a wedding.
This inescapable embrace, filled with warmth and force, may have overlapped in his twisted dream perception with the aggressive restraint that came from Rika Kawasaki.
Not only did his struggle fail to ease, it grew even more violent from his inability to “escape.”
The whimpering in his throat turned into short, painful gasps, his body spasming as it writhed.
“Let go… let go of me…”
He seemed to be using every ounce of strength to fight an invisible demon, his voice so broken it was almost impossible to hear.
Aina Saiten’s heart clenched painfully, but she did not dare loosen her hold. She could only repeat her soothing words again and again.
Just when she thought the nightmare was about to pass, the body in her arms suddenly convulsed violently several times, completely out of control, as if struck by a high-voltage current.
Then, all struggling and sound stopped abruptly.
His entire body went limp in an instant, all his weight sinking into her arms, motionless.
This sudden silence was far more terrifying to Aina Saiten than the screaming and struggling before.
“Akane…? Akane?!”
Her voice trembled with panic. Carefully, with slightly shaking hands, she cupped his cheeks and gently lifted his face from where it was buried against her chest.
What met her eyes was a face soaked with cold sweat and tears.
Kaoru Hoshitani’s eyes were open, but those eyes that were always clear and lively, Little Deer Eyes filled with gentleness or reliance, were now frighteningly hollow.
His pupils stared unfocused at the ceiling, or at some distant nothingness, devoid of any light, as if his Soul had not yet returned from that terrifying abyss.
Large tears rolled silently and endlessly from the corners of his eyes, sliding down his pale cheeks and disappearing into his hair and pillow, leaving dark, wet stains.
His lips were slightly parted, but no sound came out—only the faint rise and fall of his chest with weak breaths.
Aina Saiten felt as if her heart were being tightly crushed by an icy hand, the pain nearly stealing her breath.
She had never seen Akane in such a… shattered state.
Even when he had woken from nightmares before, he would quickly snuggle into her arms for comfort. He had never been like this—seeming to have lost all sensation and response, left only with silent tears.
“Don’t cry, Akane. Don’t cry. It’s okay. It’s all over…”
Flustered, she used her fingertips, the back of her hand, even tugged over the soft sleeve of her pajamas to wipe away the seemingly endless tears on his face.
Those tears were scorching hot, burning her fingers and burning her heart.
As heartache and worry flooded over her like a tide, a question quietly surfaced in her mind, carrying deep unease:
【Just what kind of nightmare… could scare Akane like this?】
After a long while, under Aina Saiten’s continued gentle stroking and whispered comfort, the emptiness in Kaoru Hoshitani’s eyes slowly faded, his focus gradually returning.
He blinked his tear-soaked lashes, his gaze slowly shifting to Aina Saiten’s face, which was filled with concern.
Then, as if all his strength were spent, he closed his eyes extremely slowly and weakly, burying his face back into the hollow of her neck, his body still trembling faintly.
When his breathing finally completely calmed and he stopped crying, Aina Saiten asked softly:
“Akane, just now… what did you dream about? You were so scared.”
Kaoru Hoshitani remained silent against her neck for a long time—so long that Aina Saiten thought he might have fallen asleep again or did not want to answer. Only then did he speak in a muffled, hoarse voice thick with a nasal tone, barely audible:
“…I had… a very scary nightmare.”
“What kind of nightmare? Can you tell me? Saying it out loud might help.” Aina Saiten gently stroked his hair, trying to guide him.
But Kaoru Hoshitani only curled more tightly into her arms, shaking his head. His voice carried a fragility that was almost pleading:
“…I don’t want to say.”
He would never, ever allow even the slightest chance for any detail from that nightmare to become reality.
Just thinking about it was enough to send him plunging back into icy Despair.
And Aina’s warm body temperature and heartbeat in his arms were the only lifeline he could grasp to fight against that boundless fear.
——
At the same time, inside a Villa on the other side of the City.
“How much has the Leader had to drink…? Did something happen?”
A girl with bright pink hair, wearing a studded leather vest, clung to the edge of the archway leading into the Living Room.
She cautiously poked out half her head, lowering her voice as she spoke to her companion, her eyes fixed on the figure in the center of the Living Room, slumped on the Living Room Sofa and drinking straight from a bottle, filled with awe and confusion.
“No idea…”
Another girl with dreadlocks and heavy smoky makeup also shrank back against the wall, her voice tinged with confusion and faint worry.
“I’ve followed the Leader for so long, and I’ve never seen her like this… It’s like she’s got nowhere to vent her anger, so she can only pour it into her own stomach.”
The Villa that this small group of Delinquent Girl members used as their gathering base was filled with an unusually oppressive atmosphere.
The music had long since been turned off. The girls who usually laughed, joked, smoked, and drank were now like startled quails, huddled in the Dining Room, Corridor, or at the corners of the Stairwell. They barely dared to breathe, communicating only with glances and the faintest whispers.
They had been doing what they usually did—blasting ear-splitting music in the Villa, laughing and messing around, sharing stories about their latest conquests, enjoying unrestrained indulgence.
Then, the Leader, who had not been seen for several days, suddenly returned.
She did not say a word, did not even look at them.
She went straight to the Bar Counter in the Living Room, which was lined with all kinds of hard liquor.
She grabbed an opened bottle of whiskey at random, yanked out the stopper, and tipped her head back, drinking straight from the bottle.
Her long golden hair was slightly disheveled, her eyes dark and unreadable. A low-pressure aura radiated from her, like a live volcano on the verge of eruption.
The Junior Members, keenly sensing that something was wrong with the Leader, immediately quieted down, quickly tidied up the scattered items, and silently retreated to the edges of the Living Room, leaving the entire space to her.
“Could it be…”
A third voice joined in. It belonged to a petite girl with blue highlights in her hair. She hesitated, whispering even more softly as she guessed,
“…because of a Man?”
That speculation made several of the girls look at each other, their faces filled with disbelief.
In their impression, their Leader—who had never been involved with men and was only interested in Motorcycle engines and raw power—would drown her sorrows over a man?
Just then, among the figures standing not far from them and leaning against the wall, a Boy who was clearly still wearing a High School School Uniform, yet had makeup far too heavy for his age, overheard their whispers.
His eyes suddenly lit up as he looked toward the figure on the Living Room Sofa—who, even while drinking, still radiated astonishing wild charm…
(Just to mention it once: I will not write anything toxic.)