Shiraze Rinna was carried by Kurose Hisaki into a rather upscale residential complex.
She peeked out from over Hisaki’s shoulder with a pair of sky-blue eyes, glancing around a few times.
Hmph, a capitalist nest.
She let out a cold laugh inwardly, then continued playing dead.
Do your best, observe the environment, gather intel.
That’s what a qualified escapee does.
When they passed a building, she caught a glimpse of a huge golden Arabic numeral “2” embedded in the exterior wall.
Got it.
She closed her eyes.
No need to remember it too clearly.
She wasn’t coming back here anyway, so there was no need to etch the route into her brain.
She carried her through the complex for about three or four minutes, finally stopping in front of a fancy-looking glass door.
The access control system was a glowing touchscreen…………
Hisaki freed one hand and typed a string of numbers on the screen.
A soft “beep” sounded, and the door lock clicked open.
Hisaki pushed the door open, and warm yellow light spilled out from the lobby, falling on Rinna’s face.
She instinctively squinted, then realized she was being carried into an exquisitely decorated apartment lobby.
The floor was milky white marble.
How extravagant.
She muttered inwardly.
Just then, Hisaki lowered her head.
Rinna could feel the weight of that gaze landing on her face.
She didn’t open her eyes, maintaining her “I’m tired and don’t want to deal with you” fool-proof mode.
“The door password is 520630.”
Hisaki’s voice came down from above…
“After you enter it, I’ll get a call and open the door for you. Remember it.”
Rinna’s eyelids twitched.
Wait, hold on.
She snapped her eyes open, her sky-blue pupils filled with utter disbelief.
She tilted her head up and put every ounce of effort into making her tone sound as nasty as possible.
“No need to tell me that, you perverted lunatic kidnapper. If I get out of here, I’m not coming back.”
Hisaki heard that. She didn’t get angry, didn’t argue back, didn’t even move an eyebrow.
She just smiled.
Disgusting!
Rinna screamed those two words at the top of her lungs internally, then buried her face back into Hisaki’s shoulder, refusing to engage in any further eye contact with her.
Hisaki carried her through the lobby and into the elevator.
The elevator car had the same warm yellow lighting, with mirrors on three sides, casting countless overlapping reflections of the two of them.
She closed her eyes.
Out of sight, out of mind.
The elevator chimed with a “ding” as it stopped on the 23rd floor.
When the doors opened, there was a short corridor ahead, the floor covered in dark gray carpet that muffled all footsteps.
At the end of the corridor were only two doors, one marked 2301 and the other 2302.
The distance between them was absurdly wide, signaling that neither household was short on cash.
Hisaki walked to the door of 2302 and stopped.
Rinna felt Hisaki’s body shift slightly to the side, presumably entering a password.
She instinctively glanced up, her gaze just sweeping over the keypad on the door.
Then she noticed something.
This woman was blocking.
The angle of her body turn perfectly shielded the keypad, and her shoulder hid most of the finger movements as she typed.
Given the angle Rinna was nestled in her arms, she should have had the best vantage point, but she couldn’t make out a single digit.
Rinna clicked her tongue inwardly.
But she couldn’t show weakness out loud.
Since she couldn’t see the password, she’d turn that “not seeing it” into a weapon.
“What’s this?”
She raised one eyebrow, her tone dripping with ten parts sarcasm.
“Not going to tell me the password here?”
Hisaki’s fingers paused.
Then she turned her head, looking at the White Fur Ball in her arms.
“Afraid you won’t come back.”
Rinna felt a chill run up her spine.
“Afraid I won’t come back, then why not tell me the password?”
Hisaki didn’t explain further.
She simply looked away and pushed the door open.
The world behind the door halted Rinna’s verbal assault for half a second.
It was a spacious entryway.
How spacious?
Three or four people could stand side by side with room to spare.
The entryway floor was slightly lower than the corridor, tiled in light gray, with a floor-to-ceiling shoe cabinet lining the left wall.
Warm yellow sensor lights flicked on the moment the door opened, their glow softly filling the entire space.
Hisaki carried her into the entryway, and the door closed automatically behind them.
Past the entryway, the space opened up before them.
It was a living room walled by a single floor-to-ceiling window.
At 23 floors up, there was nothing blocking the view outside. The city’s nightscape spread out before them like a painted scroll, countless lights flickering on and off in the darkness.
So this was her battlefield for who knew how long.
Rinna quickly scanned the surroundings.
The floor-to-ceiling window looked like one fixed pane, with no openable sections.
Though at 23 floors up, she wouldn’t jump even if there were a window.
She wasn’t here to die, she was here to escape.
Those were fundamentally different things.
Hisaki carried her into the living room, stopped in front of the sofa, then bent down and gently set her down.
Rinna’s feet finally touched solid ground after who knew how long.
Before she could fully adjust to the feeling of “having her feet on the ground,” Hisaki’s voice fell again.
“What’s your name?”
Rinna looked up.
Hisaki stood before her, nearly a head taller.
The living room’s main lights were off, with only the city lights from outside the window and the warm yellow glow from the entryway intertwining, casting a soft play of light and shadow across her face.
Those dark red eyes were fixed on her intently, waiting for her answer.
Like she’d tell her.
Rinna ran through calculations at lightning speed in her head.
Her name…
Shiraze Rinna, there’s no way she was saying that one.
What if she escaped and the other party used the name as a lead to track her down?
“I’m not telling you, you kidnapper.”
She turned her face away and hurled the words out in the most infuriating tone she could manage.
Hisaki still just smiled faintly.
“In that case,” Hisaki tilted her head slightly, her black hair slipping off her shoulder.
“I’ll call you Shiro.”
Shiro?
Rinna’s eyebrow twitched.
She whipped her head back around, sky-blue eyes screaming protest.
“What do you take me for? Isn’t that the kind of name you’d give a pet!”
“Hm?”
Hisaki blinked, a flicker passing through those dark red pupils…
Rinna swore she wasn’t imagining it…
A flicker of genuine delight.
“Since you call me a kidnapper, what’s wrong with me naming the person I’ve taken?”
Rinna opened her mouth.
A logic closed loop.
Just as expected, a yandere’s brain didn’t work normally.
Hisaki watched her face scrunch up from thinking about who knew what, her gaze sliding from Rinna’s furrowed brows down to her pressed lips, then to the smear of grime on her chin that hadn’t been wiped off yet.
Dirty, but cute.
Messy, but cute.
Puffed up with anger, doubly cute.
“Let’s go take a bath together.”
Rinna’s brain short-circuited for a full second.
“W-Wait a minute…”
“You’re too dirty, Shiro.”
Hisaki took a step forward, closing the distance between them.
“You need to get properly cleaned up.”
Rinna instinctively stepped back, her heel bumping against the sofa leg, her body swaying.
Hisaki reached out and steadied her shoulder, her palm warm, the pressure of her fingers just right…
Enough to keep her standing, and enough to keep her from running.
“Don’t be scared,”
Hisaki lowered her head, her dark red pupils like two quietly burning embers in the dim light.
“It’s just a bath.”
Rinna’s throat moved.
She looked at the impossibly gentle smile on this woman’s face, heard that “it’s just a bath,” and had only one thought.
Like hell I believe you!