After that suffocating meeting with Kanjuro, Akai Hideyoshi felt as if he had crawled through hell. His soul seemed to be torn in half—one half screaming in resistance, the other morbidly longing to complete the "ritual" and touch that illusory realm of being "invincible." In a daze, he found Miyamoto Yumi, who had just finished her patrol and was preparing to get off work.
Yumi felt conflicted upon seeing Hideyoshi. Yesterday's pain had not yet subsided, and Kanjuro's confession today had cast a huge ripple in her heart. Seeing Hideyoshi's pale, haggard face and wandering gaze, the interrogation and coldness she had planned turned back into worry.
"Hideyoshi? What... what's wrong? You look terrible."
Hideyoshi didn't look at her. His gaze drifted toward the void, and he spoke with a dry voice as if reciting a scripture that had nothing to do with him: "Yumi... I have always... been very interested in chess, longing to reach the peak... but I cannot defeat Mr. Kanjuro..."
Yumi was stunned for a moment, not expecting him to start with this. "And? What does that have to do with your current state?"
"Mr. Kanjuro... he is willing to teach me." Hideyoshi's voice began to take on a strange tremble, a shiver mixed with shame and excitement. "But... he told me that in the Way of the Board, if one wants to reach the highest realm, one must... must sever the weak attachment of love..."
Miyamoto Yumi's heart sank suddenly, an ominous premonition welling up in her mind. "Hideyoshi, what on earth are you trying to say?"
Akai Hideyoshi finally turned his head to look at Yumi. His eyes were hollow, yet deep within them burned an unsettling flame. The muscles on his face twisted, as if he were struggling, yet also as if he were enjoying some morbid pleasure.
"I... I just... I saw you and Mr. Kanjuro eating together..." He swallowed, his voice turning hoarse. "I watched you... watched him smile at you, watched you talk to him... My heart... it felt terrible, but... but my mind was so clear, even... even excited!"
"What?!" Yumi's eyes widened in disbelief, thinking she had misheard.
"I found... I seem to... really like seeing you like this..." Hideyoshi's voice suddenly rose, carrying a madness of desperation. "I like seeing you with Mr. Kanjuro! I like seeing him being nice to you! I like that... that painful yet stimulating feeling! And... and I found that when I think this way, my thoughts seem... seem to truly approach the realm of the 'Chess Saint' that Mr. Kanjuro spoke of!"
He suddenly grabbed Yumi's shoulders, his knuckles turning white from the force. His eyes stared at her with fanatical intensity, like a cultist who had succumbed to inner demons:
"So! Yumi! I want you to go be with Mr. Kanjuro! I need you to go! I want to watch! I want to see you two being intimate!" He almost roared it out, his face wearing a twisted, almost pious longing. "The more intimate... the better! That way... that way I can experience that feeling more clearly! I can... I can become stronger!"
Time seemed to stand still at this moment.
Miyamoto Yumi stared blankly at the man before her who looked like he had gone mad, at this face that was once familiar but now utterly alien. Her ears were buzzing, and her brain could not process the information she had just received—so absurd, so trampling on human nature, so soul-crushing.
He wanted her to be with another man?
He liked to watch?
The more intimate, the better?
For the sake of... the Shogi Way?
"Slap—!"
A crisp sound of a slap rang out.
Miyamoto Yumi used all her strength to slap Akai Hideyoshi hard across the face. Her palm stung, but compared to the sharp pain in her heart, it was nothing.
She didn't cry, nor did she even curse. She only gave Akai Hideyoshi one last look—cold, desperate, and with eyes that were completely dead, as if looking at a pile of filthy trash.
Then, she turned around and left, step by step, extremely slowly yet with absolute determination. Her silhouette stretched long in the afterglow of the setting sun, filled with endless sorrow and resolve.
Akai Hideyoshi clutched his burning cheek, standing blankly on the spot. The pain from that slap was far less than the coldness and emptiness brought by Yumi's final gaze.
He had done it... He had completed Mr. Kanjuro's instructions... But why... why did his heart feel so empty?
The anticipated "power" and "sublimation" did not arrive.
There was only boundless cold and a sense of utter despair, as if his soul had been completely hollowed out, falling into infinite darkness.
And this was perhaps exactly what Kanjuro pursued, the true beginning of the "Way of Heartlessness"—the dead silence of desolation after everything beautiful and human had been completely destroyed. Miyamoto Yumi's resolute, heart-dead silhouette was like a cold file, scraping Akai Hideyoshi's hollow chest bit by bit. The liberation and power expected after "severing attachments" did not descend; instead, an unprecedented, terrifying sense of nothingness swallowed him. Just as he was about to be submerged by this nothingness, the silhouette stopped.
Yumi stood where she was, her shoulders trembling slightly. The setting sun stretched her shadow long, filled with traces of struggle. She found that even though Hideyoshi had said such soul-crushing words, even though her heart was chilled to the extreme, the feelings accumulated over the years—that habit and reluctance deep in her bones—were like countless tough silk threads, firmly binding her footsteps from leaving.
For him... if he really needed this to become stronger... if this was what my "sacrifice" could bring... an absurd, humble, yet significantly sacrificial thought sprouted in her broken heart. She thought of Kanjuro's gentleness—the "normalcy" and "beauty" that formed a sharp contrast to Hideyoshi's current madness—which also seemed to cast a layer of self-deceiving cover over this decision.
She took a deep breath, as if using up the courage of a lifetime, and slowly turned around. The cold and desperate expression on her face had vanished, replaced by a deliberately crafted calm that carried fragility and a strange flush, even... a trace of twisted "allure."
"Hideyoshi." Her voice was somewhat hoarse, but she deliberately softened it.
Akai Hideyoshi looked up abruptly, a glimmer of disbelief flashing in his hollow eyes.
Yumi walked up to him, coming very close, close enough to see the red mark on his face she had just slapped. She reached out, her fingertips lightly brushing over the mark, her movements carrying an unprecedented teasing quality that was inconsistent with her personality.
"I promise you," she said softly, her eyes fixed on Hideyoshi's reaction. "Since... this is the 'realm' you want."
Hideyoshi's body suddenly stiffened, his breathing becoming rapid.
Yumi continued, her tone deliberately taking on an innocent yet subtly suggestive air of wantonness: "Besides... Mr. Kanjuro is actually quite a good person, gentle, handsome, and so capable... Being with him, I feel... it should be very 'comfortable,' right?" She tilted her head, her eyes hazy as if longing for something. "You said just now... you want to see us being intimate? Then... to what extent do you want to see? Like a normal couple holding hands and hugging... or... some 'deeper' interactions?"
Every word she spoke was like a poisoned dagger, stabbing both herself and Hideyoshi. She was gambling—gambling that there was still a trace of a normal person's emotion deep within Hideyoshi that would make him angry and stop her.
However, she was disappointed.
The moment Akai Hideyoshi heard these words, his pupils first contracted violently, showing instinctive discomfort, but immediately after, a more obvious and twisted sense of excitement erupted from his eyes like lava! His cheeks flushed unnaturally, his breathing became heavy, and he even unconsciously licked his somewhat dry lips.
Instead of stopping her, he seemed greatly encouraged. He grabbed Yumi's hand that was stroking his cheek, his grip so strong it caused her pain. His eyes stared at her feverishly, as if admiring a beautiful sacrificial offering about to be offered up.
"Yes... that's it!" His voice trembled with excitement, carrying a hair-raising sense of appreciation. "Yumi... you... keep talking! I want to hear! I want to know... what you and he... will do..."
He liked it! He actually liked hearing these things! He was even impatient to hear more details!
At this moment, Miyamoto Yumi's heart sank completely into the depths of an icy sea, crumbling into powder. The last trace of luck and hope was completely extinguished. A massive sorrow and a reckless, almost self-destructive impulse made her laugh instead—a smile that was both beautiful and desperate.
"Alright..." She leaned close to Hideyoshi's ear, whispering even more explicit and unspeakable words, describing "intimate" scenes with Kanjuro that had never happened but were vivid in her mouth.
As she spoke, she clearly felt Hideyoshi's grip on her wrist tightening. His body trembled slightly from morbid excitement, and the strange light in his eyes grew brighter and brighter.
She had succeeded.
She had satisfied his twisted desire.
She had also... completely killed the simple Miyamoto Yumi who once deeply loved Akai Hideyoshi.
At this moment, she was like an exquisite doll with its soul hollowed out, performing a nauseating play according to a set program. And the only audience was her former lover—a stranger drifting further and further away on a dark path, feeding on her pain and degradation.
In the distance, Kanjuro stood before the hotel's floor-to-ceiling window, as if "seeing" this wonderful scene from across the distance. He gently swirled the red wine in his glass, a cold, extremely pleased smile curling at the corners of his mouth.
Carrying a numbness after being completely hollowed out and a reckless, almost self-destructive resolve, Miyamoto Yumi left Akai Hideyoshi, who was still in a state of morbid excitement. Like a puppet being pulled along, she went straight to the door of Kanjuro's hotel suite. Without hesitation, she raised her hand and knocked on the door.
The door opened quickly, and Kanjuro appeared. He seemed to have just bathed, wearing a loose bathrobe with damp hair. Seeing Yumi, a trace of appropriate surprise and concern appeared on his face.
"Yumi? Why are you here? You look so pale, what happened?" His voice was gentle, carrying a reassuring power.
Miyamoto Yumi did not answer, but simply walked into the room silently. She stood in the center of the living room, her back to Kanjuro, her shoulders trembling slightly. After a long while, she turned around and raised her eyes to look at him. In those originally bright eyes, there was now only exhaustion, emptiness, and a deep confusion.
"Mr. Kanjuro..." Her voice was very soft, as if it would break at any moment. "I... I don't know what's wrong with me..."
She took a deep breath, as if trying to organize her words:
"Hideyoshi... he's become so strange, so terrifying... He said... he said he wants me to be with you, he even... likes to see us being intimate..." Her voice was choked with sobs, but more of it was a calmness after the death of her heart. "I feel... like I don't know him anymore. The Hideyoshi I liked seems to be dead."
Kanjuro listened quietly without interrupting, his gaze deep.
Yumi looked up at Kanjuro with a complex gaze and continued: "But... it's strange. On the way to find you, I found that I... actually don't dislike you. Even... there's a very strange, familiar, and reassuring aura about you... It's as if... as if we've known each other for a long time... though I don't know where this feeling comes from."
These words caused Kanjuro's brow to furrow almost imperceptibly. A familiar? Reassuring aura? His mind stirred, and deep within those profound eyes, a trace of an extremely subtle glimmer that an ordinary person could not detect quietly flashed—he had activated the "Eye of Truth."
Invisible power, like the most precise scanner, instantly enveloped Miyamoto Yumi, penetrating the surface and tracing back to her very source of life. Time seemed to freeze at this moment. On Kanjuro's always calm face, a trace of genuine, hard-to-conceal astonishment appeared!
In his "vision," Miyamoto Yumi's life coding had a clear, unmistakable, and inseparable resonance and connection with his own source! This connection was exactly the same as what he felt with Ai Haibara and Sera Masumi, or even... clearer and stronger!
Miyamoto Yumi... was actually his daughter?!
This discovery, even with Kanjuro's temperament, brought a sudden shock. He looked at the girl before him, her eyes vacant, arriving in his room with a moth-to-a-flame-like determination. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant. Akai Mary... it turned out that even earlier, she had... But this sudden truth didn't trigger even a hint of guilt or fatherly love in him; instead, it was like a drop of cold water in boiling oil, stirring up a deeper, dark excitement and desire for control. The weaving of fate was so "ingenious," delivering the continuations of his bloodline one by one before him to become the most interesting toys in his palm.
He quickly retracted that bit of astonishment, his face returning to calm, even more gentle than before. He didn't point out this relationship; a darker, more thrilling plan instantly took shape in his heart.
He slowly stepped forward, not immediately answering Yumi's confusion about the "sense of familiarity." Instead, he reached out and gently stroked her cheek, his movements carrying an unprecedented, almost precious tenderness.
"Yumi," he called softly, his gaze so focused it made one's heart tremble, "that sense of familiarity... perhaps it's the guidance of fate."
He reached out with his other hand, and with a "click," softly locked the door. The movement was light, yet exceptionally clear in the silent room, as if isolating everything from the outside world and signaling the irreversibility of certain events.
Then, under Miyamoto Yumi's somewhat dazed yet expectant gaze (perhaps an expectation of escaping the pain brought by Hideyoshi), Kanjuro opened his arms and gently, yet irresistibly, pulled her into his embrace.
His embrace was warm and solid, carrying the fresh scent of someone who had just bathed. Unlike the slightly aloof power he usually displayed, at this moment, it was filled with a sinking sense of security. Yumi's stiff body gradually softened in his arms, her broken heart seemingly finding a temporary, illusory safe haven.
Kanjuro lowered his head, his chin resting lightly on the crown of her head. Using that deep, magnetic voice, he whispered a confession into her ear that was more direct and passionate than the one during lunch:
"Since you don't dislike me, and since you feel that 'familiarity,' then don't think about those things that cause you pain anymore."
"Yumi, I like you. Not as a joke, not as a test, but for real."
"Stay by my side and let me take care of you, protect you, okay?"
"Forget Hideyoshi, forget those unpleasant things... From today on, your world only needs to have me."
His words were like the sweetest poison, poured into Yumi's defenseless, fragile soul. A father's embrace (unbeknownst to her) and a lover's confession (as she believed it to be) overlapped strangely. That natural sense of closeness originating from the bloodline, combined with the extreme tenderness and security Kanjuro deliberately created, completely crushed her final line of defense.
---------------------------------
I hope you're enjoying the fanfiction so far! If the story has you hooked and you can't wait to see what happens next, you can unlock 30 chapters in advance over on my Patreon: patreon.com/TLHimejima1
Every bit of support means the world to me so if you're loving the ride, don't forget to drop a Power Stone and let me know.