12:10 A.M: An hour and ten minutes before Yuri and Dr. Higano confronted the woman calling herself Otoha Tamachi. Shota Akiyama ended a phone call and placed his smartphone on the hotel bed.
He wiped cold sweat from his forehead. His heart throbbed heavily, almost jumping out of his chest. He nearly forgot to breathe and broke out into a cough. He felt hot and took a sip of mineral water, but it seemed to slide down his throat without any effect. He tried over and over to make himself think.
He collapsed on the bed, shivering.
It can’t be, he thought. It just can’t be!
Before he had time to figure anything out, let alone prepare himself, the doorbell rang. It was time.
He carefully got up and stood in front of the door. He took a deep breath and then gripped the doorknob.
He steeled himself and opened the door.
“Ahh,” he said.
He barely managed to keep from collapsing to his knees. At this moment, there was so much he could have thought, but the only thing that drifted into his mind was that, ahh, she was the most beautiful person he’d ever seen.
He spoke the name of the woman he loved:
“Reina Myoko.”
“It’s been a while, Shota.”
It was impossible for him to mistake her for anyone else. This was, without a doubt, the woman he loved.
If there was a God, He’d evidently taken more time than usual crafting her perfect face. The veins in her neck each seemed calculated to draw out her allure. Her eyes were like the ocean—they had the power to draw anything into their depths. Her lips remained unchanged: rose-like, coated with red lipstick that contrasted with her almost transparently white skin.
Those full and shapely lips drove Shota mad.
He didn’t know why she was alive. But before he could even begin to ask this question, he began crying from joy.
He quickly lost the strength to stand. His crying turned to intense weeping. He fell to the ground and clung to her long, thin legs.
The call he’d just received from a payphone had been her actual voice, not that of an imposter or illusion.
She looked at him affectionately, stroking his chin as she would a pet.
Shota’s heart filled with love for her, and as he cried, he began to lick her red high heels as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Seeing this, Reina took her stockings in her hands and slowly rolled them down. The sight of her legs being bared alone was enough to make Shota hard. She balled up the stockings and threw them aside.
“Woof, woof!” Shota barked and rushed over to the stockings on all fours. Without using his hands, he took the stockings in his mouth and crawled back to Reina.
“Good boy,” she said.
She took the stockings from him and petted him on the head. Shota’s face erupted into a rapturous smile.
For a moment Shota remained pressed against the floor with Reina stroking his hair, but eventually he recovered enough to be able to speak. He stood, embraced her, and said, “You’re alive. So whose body was that?”
Though he hadn’t mentioned anything to Yamaji and the others, he’d been struck by a strange sensation when he saw “Reina’s” corpse.
Reina laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous. Does it really matter? All that matters is that I’m here now, and this is reality.”
But that wasn’t the case at all. Shota had heard the police saying the body was definitely Reina’s. Even if she had had a duplicate, surely that wouldn’t have fooled them.
And it didn’t change the fact that someone had died.
But since Reina had dodged the question, Shota couldn’t ask her anything else.
That was how absolute their relationship was.
“Shota, I have a favor to ask,” Reina whispered.
He looked into her eyes.
Just as always, he thought, her eyes are so deep they reveal nothing.
“Let’s tell the cops about the revenge we wanted,” she suggested. “Let’s confess. They’ll help us. If we tell them everything, they have the power to protect us from the syndicate.”
“Sure. I’ll go tell them.”
It was decided.
With Reina, Shota didn’t even have to think.
He took off his wig.
“Oh yeah.” She handed him an energy drink. “You look tired. After the investigation, drink this…all of it.”
“Thank you, Reina. Can I have it now?”
“No. After.”
Shota nodded. If that’s what Reina wanted, that’s what he’d do. That’s all he could do.
“What should I do after I confess?” he asked.
“Hmm,” she mused, and pressed a finger to her lips, as though considering. “There’s someone I want you to kill. Will you do it for me?”
“Of course.” He didn’t even hesitate.
He’d do anything for Reina.
Shota Akiyama had been turned into that kind of creature.