In full irritation, Eri demanded, “Then what? What do you want? Aren’t you a fan of mine?”
“I’m not your fan.”
“If you’re not my fan, then just go away.”
“I’m not going away,” the man said firmly. “I need something from you. So I’m not going away.”
Eri gave him an exasperated shrug. “You’re making absolutely no sense at all. You don’t need my autograph, you don’t want my picture, and you’re not even my fan, and yet you need something from me? Just tell me what the hell this is about!”
The man sniffed. “I have a favor to ask of you. Although, technically speaking, it’s less of a favor and more of a command.”
“A command?”
“That’s right. I want you to come to my room.”
For a moment, Eri appeared confused, but eventually her cheeks turned red with rage.
“Do you have any idea what you’re saying?” she demanded. “You’re insane. Why the hell would I ever go to your room? Get real!”
The man held out a palm to stop her outburst. “It’s an order. I’m not asking you. I’m telling you.”
“Y-you’re crazy. Get away from me. If you don’t, I’ll scream for help!”
“If you want to scream, then go right ahead.” Again, he showed her the disposable camera. “Do you know what this is? Sure you do. It’s a camera. But do you know what pictures are in this camera?”
The man’s expression contorted into something nasty. “You know what’s in this camera,” he said. “The sex you just had. You and that tall man. That’s what’s in there. I have his penis going into you. That’s what happens when you don’t lock the door.”
Eri felt like a hammer had just knocked into her skull. After she had been so careful not to be seen with Naoto, this man had found her. And worse still, he’d taken pictures. Eri’s mind went on overdrive.
If these pictures go public, my life as an idol is over. There’s no talking my way out of being naked, on a couch, in the arms of a lover. For now, I need to do what he says until I can think of some way to take that camera from him. If he wants me to go to his room, he must be after sex. That would be a small price to pay for that camera.
Eri gave him a grin. “Oh, so you have pictures?” she said casually. “Guess I don’t have a choice, then. All right. I’ll go with you to your room.”
IV
As soon as Eri set foot into the man’s room, she began to cough violently. The stench of rotting meat filled the dwelling.
“It stinks in here,” she said, waving her hand in front of her face in a futile attempt to clear away the smell.
The man locked the door behind her and flatly stated, “It’s rotting skin.”
In confusion, Eri said, “Skin?”
“Yeah. A little girl’s skin.”
Eri nodded, just to move things along, but she failed to comprehend the gravity of what he’d just said. Then, noticing the piles of video tapes that filled the room, she spoke in surprise. “What are all those tapes?”
The man kept an eye on her as he slid open the door to his closet and dug around for something within. Finally finding what he sought, he emerged with a roll of brown packing tape.
Watching for an opportunity to steal the camera and run, Eri made her herself sound pleasant. “Oh, so you want to box up all these cassettes, is that it? Let me help you with that.”
The man peeled off a strip of tape and lunged at Eri, taking her by surprise and tackling her to the floor.
Flailing her arms and legs, Eri shouted, “Wh-what are you doing?”
Putting his entire weight upon her, he efficiently worked the tape to bind her limbs together. First wrists, then ankles.
Robbed of her freedom, Eri rolled about on the floor like a caterpillar. She unleashed a barrage of curses at him, adding, “Do you think I’ll let you get away with this? This is a crime. Once I tell the cops, they’ll arrest you in no time. But look, if you take off this tape—just take off this tape—then I won’t say a word to the
police.”
The man’s face remained placid throughout her verbal assault. As she struggled on the floor, his beady eyes kept flicking to the opening of her skirt. These glances didn’t escape Eri’s attention.
“How about we make a deal?” she said. “You want to fuck me, don’t you? That’s fine. I’ll let you. But in return, you’ll untape me first. Untape me and give me that camera, and my body is yours.” She punctuated the offer with a suggestive twist of her hips.
The man loosed a howl and flung himself upon her with crazed desire. With her hands and feet still bound, he tore off her clothing. With his powerful muscles, her lightweight blouse and black leather skirt were quickly reduced to shreds.
“W-wait a second,” the idol protested. “I told you I’d have sex with you, didn’t I? So—so just take off this tape!”
Ignoring her words completely, the man brought his lips to slither around her nipples. Their pink, firm tips pushed back at him inside his mouth.
Eri moaned, her face twisted in pain.
The man sucked in her breast so forcefully she feared it might come right off her chest. At the same time, he ran his right hand across her face. His hand moved from her face to her neck, then down to her chest, and further—to her stomach, and below. When his hand reached her black, low-rise panties, he tore the garment away.
V
Her hands and feet still bound by tape, Eri regarded the man with scorn. A sticky mass coated her partway below her stomach. The sensation disgusted her, but her mind worked at finding a path to freedom.
Kicking her feet, she said, “Well? You’re finished, aren’t you? Are you satisfied now? Then let me go.”
With the post-release spasms still running through his body, the man desperately fought to keep his rising anger in check.
Twisting herself, Eri whined, childlike, “Come on, let me go. That’s the deal.” Each kick of her legs introduced a slight change in the shape of her exposed pubic mound. As he watched the shifting shape, something snapped in his mind, and suddenly he was straddling her.
“You!” he howled and slapped her face. “You bitch!”
Crazed, the man slapped her, again and again.
As Eri cried out, she kicked up her entwined legs at the man’s back, catching him by surprise and sending him teetering. She curled up her body like a shrimp to evade his next strike.
“What are you doing?” she shouted. “Don’t you see you’re hurting me? Have you lost your mind?”
The man’s shoulders rose as he took a deep breath, and once again he was on top of her, grappling with her.
As if possessed, the man shouted, “You, you, you!” He begin pinching her, all over her body.
With each rough pinch, Eri cried out in pain. She spat on his face. “Stop it!” the idol yelled, as rage burned in her eyes. “What did I ever do to you? You’re the one who brought me here. You’re the one who tied me up. You’re the one who had his way with me.”
The man wiped away her spit with a finger and pointed at her in total earnestness.
“It’s you women. You’re all crazy.” As the man spoke, his anger built and he started swinging his arms in the air. “And you are too, always putting yourself on TV dressed like a whore. Am I wrong? You’re always wanting men to put their things inside you. You women are filthy through and through.”
Eri laughed out her nose and sat up and faced him. “Call me a filthy whore all you like, but who’s the one who brought me here and did filthy things to me? That was all you.”
The man grabbed her arms. “That’s not true! I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. Yes, I brought you here. But—but it wasn’t to have sex with you. You’re the one who made me do all that! You’re the one who made me want it.”
Eri showed him a shrug. “Believe what you want. But if that’s how you think it works, you could say it about any woman. There isn’t a woman out there that doesn’t make a man feel desire. If there is, she’d have to be really ugly.”
The man responded with an almost inhuman shriek. His already high-pitched voice took on an even more ghastly edge as he cried, “Is that what you have to say for yourself?”
Not following him, Eri furrowed her eyebrows.
The man repeated, “Is that what you have to say for yourself?”
He continued, saying, “That’s how you women always talk. You try to conceal your depravity. Well, I’ll state this as clear as can be—whatever else is true, you, Ochiai Eri, are filthy. You don’t deserve to be an idol!”
The man scooped up an armful of video tapes from the piles around him. “I love idols. You see all these mountains of tapes? They’re all recordings of idols. I want women to have purity, and these idols symbolized that innocence.”
Eri snorted and said, “I hate to shatter your fantasy, but I’ve seen a lot of idols, and not one of them is pure.”