“Do what you want to do? What do you mean? What are you planning?”
“Oops, I slipped up. Never mind, forget I said that. You’ll find out eventually. Besides, I’m quite thorough. If I see a poisonous insect on my path, it’s better to squash it beforehand, even if it isn’t a threat.”
“Are you thinking of”—Masamichi was startled, realizing that Kagiroi had come with the intention of fighting Shino again and crushing him—“going after Shino?”
“Well, I am injured at the moment. I thought I’d wait until the evening to take care of the matter, but since I have a lot of time on my hands while recovering, I decided to do a little research and quickly learned where he lived. He doesn’t look like he’s trying to hide, so out of boredom, I came to check the place out. Then that Shino—”
“…He what?”
“He’s a specter, yet he seems to have learned all kinds of weird magic from his master. He’s put up an annoyingly powerful barrier around his home.”
“A barrier? I didn’t know that.”
“It’s harmless to humans but a strong poison to us specters. It’s only about as annoying as a spiderweb getting in my face if I was in my usual condition, but it’s a bit much at the moment. It’s a brand-new barrier. He must have hastily put it up after fighting me in Kyoto. It appears he has thrown away his pride as a specter somewhere, using a sneaky human trick like that.”
It was annoying how Kagiroi kept belittling Shino. But Masamichi couldn’t help being interested in the things the talkative specter told him about his master, who wasn’t the type to speak much.
“Shino put up a barrier…?”
“To protect you and himself. Well, anyway, I’m only here for a preliminary inspection today. I’ve taken a few pokes at the barrier and let you know I’ve stopped by, so I’ve done what I came to do. This park is right outside the barrier, so it’s comfortable for me here.”
“…Is that so?”
Masamichi was touched that Shino had diligently taken steps to protect the two of them without saying anything.
It wasn’t because Shino was dismissive about Kagiroi that he seldom mentioned him. He was doing what he could so I could keep living like I usually do.
It was Kagiroi who broke Masamichi out of his heartwarming thoughts.
“You interest me a little.”
“Huh?!”
“That old comb that Tokifuyu Tatsumi cursed? It would take considerable power to release a curse like that. Shino Tatsumi wouldn’t have that kind of magic power. I thought back, considered that, and reached the conclusion…that it had to be you.”
“Me?”
Kagiroi looked at Masamichi, who sat there stunned, and smiled thinly.
“Yes, you. You embraced Shino and kissed him. By doing that, you gave him an enormous amount of chi, which turned into a frighteningly strong force inside Shino. That’s the only viable explanation.”
Masamichi blinked in disbelief.
“That can’t be.”
It was true that Shino had said Masamichi’s chi was the same color as that of his late master, Tokifuyu Tatsumi. But Masamichi had never imagined that his chi could have so much power.
“You don’t know anything, do you? But you don’t need to understand it.”
“Huh?! Ngh!”
Masamichi didn’t have time to wonder what Kagiroi meant.
The next moment, Kagiroi suddenly got right in Masamichi’s face and grabbed his chin with his icy hand. Masamichi was about to cry out in pain.
But the scream was sucked up by Kagiroi’s lips.
“…?!”
His lips were cold like Shino’s. But his thick lips felt completely different as they sealed Masamichi’s mouth shut.
Despite his desire to escape, his chin was fixed in place with a grip as strong as a vise, and Masamichi couldn’t even twist his neck.
“…! Ngh!”
Kagiroi’s long tongue was cold like a block of ice, yet he moved it deftly and sinuously as he shoved it in. Masamichi could feel it wriggling around in his mouth, scraping away at everything.
…No. No.
The shock of having his body violated was greater for him than the surprise of being kissed so deeply for the first time in his life. He felt a sickening sensation that made his stomach churn.
Shown the overwhelming difference in their power and forced to endure unwanted physical contact, Masamichi was scared to the core. At the same time, a sense of intense sadness and anger consumed him.
He hadn’t felt this much disgust when Shino forced him to the ground when they first met. Thinking back, Masamichi realized that perhaps his affection for Shino had already started to grow at that time.
But this was something he didn’t want.
He could never, ever accept it. Even if he ended up offending Kagiroi and suffered terrible consequences, so be it. He couldn’t take something like this, where Kagiroi so casually hurt his dignity as a human being.
He’d forgotten to breathe; his vision flickered, and his head hurt.
He could feel the strength draining from his body. Kagiroi was robbing him of his chi. If this went on, Masamichi would soon be unable to move at all.
Before that happened—
—Masamichi focused his attention on his hands, which had been hanging limply without him realizing it.
He had probably dropped the box containing his Christmas tree, but this wasn’t the time to worry about it.
With the awkwardness of a robot that had been activated for the first time and was trying to move, Masamichi raised his hands. He felt around, found the chest area of Kagiroi’s jacket as the monster continued to devour him, and tried to push him away with all the strength he could muster.
However…
…he was partly successful and partly unsuccessful.
Kagiroi’s lips were off his mouth, but he didn’t budge. Masamichi was the one who fell off the bench.
“…Ow…!”
He had slammed his right side on the ground and groaned, unable to get up right away.
Nevertheless, he wiped his soiled mouth with the cuff of his sweatshirt, which poked out from under his coat sleeve, and glared at Kagiroi, who remained on the bench.
“…Please don’t do something like that,” Masamichi said in a hoarse voice, unable to catch his breath just yet.
Kagiroi looked a little disappointed and stroked his red lips with a fingertip.
“Oh? I imagined you would be as sweet as the nectar enjoyed by the gods, and it was certainly of very high quality, but in the end, it’s just human chi. A disappointment. Or…does your energy become sweeter if we form a master-servant relationship? Perhaps that’s it. Although the chi of my audiences who go wild over me is of inferior quality, it is indeed sweet. All right, I’ve made up my mind.”
After talking to himself, Kagiroi extended his hand toward Masamichi.
“We’ll give it a try. Stop serving Shino and come to me.”
“Huh?!”
Masamichi was stunned by the sudden offer and backed away, his bottom scraping against the ground.
“Yeah, that’s it. I’ll give you all the luxuries you want. I am a popular musician in this era. I promise you conditions that a miserly specter like Shino could never match. In return, you can worship me with the same devotion you have for Shino.”
“……”
Masamichi stiffened like a stone as he listened to the selfish specter. Unconcerned, Kagiroi remained in a good mood and waved his index finger like a conductor as he continued to speak.
“I’ll let you be my assistant. You will always be with me so I can get the finest chi whenever I want it. Of course, you’ll be responsible for all kinds of chores. Yeah, that’s a good idea, having a treat that follows me around. I can take massive amounts of chi from my audiences when I need it, but it goes without saying that tasty chi is better for light snacking on a daily basis.”
Masamichi shuddered at the terror that consumed his body.
Thinking back, Shino seemed to have said something similar when they first met, but there was something that was decisively different. Masamichi’s instincts were telling him not to dare listen to Kagiroi, and of course, his heart was saying no way.