CHAPTER 35: A WAY OUT OF A LIFE OF HUMILIATION

«I-I didn’t think you were that eager to get fucked properly, sweetheart,» Renji sneers, the smirk on his face just a mask for the fear and embarrassment roiling inside him.

Right after Eliss finished her shift, he did as agreed and waited for her outside the Moonlight Club. He never expected her earlier offer — to "serve him his special order" as in herself — to be dead literal. Eliss had caught him totally off guard.

«M-My body’s been burning with desire ever since you first spoke to me... P-Please, Renji, take me somewhere dark and secluded — somewhere you can fuck me hard, like the real man you are!» she had moaned, completely throwing him off. Then she grabbed his arm and dragged him to the most desolate spot around, the old abandoned industrial district, about a twenty-minute walk from the club.

And now Renji finds himself with his back against a warehouse wall, Eliss before him, her eyes brimming with lust and wicked anticipation.

Renji’s heart pounds. At most, he expects some playful flirting that might end with a kiss — something he can later brag about to Miori as "proof". He never imagines he’ll be one step away from actually going all the way.

Excitement and desire surge through him — but not just those. He swallows hard, struggling to keep up appearances and hide the suffocating dread and gnawing sense of inferiority inside him. He’s terrified, fully aware he’s teetering on the edge of the deepest humiliation imaginable — the embarrassing secret only Miori knows might soon be exposed to Eliss as well. He can already see it: her bursting into laughter, mocking him, saying even Aoshi is better equipped, then leaving him to drown in shame and disappointment. Once that happens, the secret will spread, and soon everyone at the university will know.

No matter how hard he tries to hide it, that terror doesn’t escape Eliss.

«What’s wrong, ladies’ man? Where’d all that earlier confidence go?» she teases, flashing a cruel grin. «Don’t tell me you’re just a pathetic coward. Well, I guess it’s not that surprising—you already proved it yesterday when you beat up a younger, weaker guy. Real manly of you, huh?»

«S-Shut your mouth and suck my cock, you little slut!» Renji snaps, his voice betraying a nervous tremor that completely undermines his words.

«Cut it out, for God’s sake — you’re just embarrassing yourself,» Eliss grumbles, shaking her head.

«Believe it or not, before I became Aoshi’s girl I had an endless line of suitors — at least a thousand, and that’s just counting the ones my father allowed to try. I’ve met plenty like you. The more they talk, the less they’re worth, and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if you already came in your pants while I was dragging you here. I don’t blame you, though — it happens more often than you’d think, especially with me around. Anyway, I didn’t bring you here to stroke your ego.»

Eliss extends her arm, pointing a single finger at Renji — no violet demonic glow, no wings.

«My darling Aoshi is waiting at home — all because of you he can’t even walk to the bathroom, and I’d rather not have him wetting himself — so I’ll be brief.»

Her voice turns cold and flat. «In a few seconds, you’re going to die, and there’s nothing you can do about it. I won’t say something like "tell me the truth and I’ll spare you", because that’d be a lie — I’d kill you anyway. I could mess with your mind and squeeze out every bit of information I want, but if you save me the effort, you’d be doing me a favor — and I might even consider killing you without making you suffer... too much.»

«A-Are you out of your mind?» Renji explodes, his eyes fixed on Eliss’s handbag.

She’s bluffing — obviously. There’s no way a girl so much weaker than me is going to threaten me without even pointing a weapon at me. Hell, not even a knife would faze me, and I don’t think she’s stupid enough to try that. Does she have a gun in that purse?

People don’t walk around with loaded guns in their bags, and since we’re no more than three meters apart she wouldn’t even have time to draw and cock it. Mind control? She’s definitely unhinged — completely crazy. Now I see how Aoshi could end up with someone like her.

How dare that tramp mock and threaten me?! I’ll teach her a lesson!

Renji lunges at Eliss, arm reaching for her bag, planning to rip it away and deprive her of the weapon he’s convinced she’s hiding, but— PEW!

A wrenching scream rips from Renji’s throat as he’s thrown backward, slamming into the warehouse wall after a thin beam of purple energy — pure demonic power — erupts from the tip of her index finger and blasts through his shoulder.

«W-What the fuck was that...? W-W-What are you?!» Renji shouts, agony and terror mixed in his voice.

«Does it matter now? I don’t think so, and anyway knowing won’t save your life,» Eliss comments with a shrug. «Now behave and tell me what I want to know. I’ll know if you lie, so don’t try any tricks unless you want to suffer. You know, I’ve never personally carried out torture, but I’ve seen some — and I admit it fascinates me in a way. Call it the macabre’s strange appeal. So, what are you going to do? Tell me why you hurt Aoshi and I’ll kill you on the spot — or would you prefer I use you as a test subject for some torture experiments?»

Renji presses his hand to the hole in his shoulder, blood pouring out in a steady stream — one useless attempt to staunch the flow. He looks up at Eliss, terrified and unbelieving; she stands before him with her arms crossed, eyes shining with a cold, murderous glint. Finally he lets out a long, defeated sigh—the sound of a condemned man reluctantly accepting his fate.

«Miori Yukinaga... she’s the one who told me to beat up Aoshi,» Renji grits out through clenched teeth, his voice cracking with pain.

«Miori Yukinaga...?» Eliss repeats. «She’s Aoshi’s ex, right? Why would she ask you to do something like that?»

«To have an excuse to get close to Aoshi again and renew her ties with him — that’s all. Apparently I’m not good enough for her anymore... Yes, she asked me to rough him up like that just to create a stupid pretext, and I obeyed without hesitation like the submissive I am...» Renji pants, his voice growing weaker and more strained as his strength slowly drains away with his blood.

«Y-You’re telling me that that bitch intends to seduce my Aoshi?!» Eliss snaps, stamping her foot so hard the asphalt cracks.

«That’s how it seems... and unfortunately for you, Miori always gets what she wants, I can tell you that. It doesn’t matter how much Aoshi loves you or how much prettier you are than her. Miori is undeniably beautiful, but her cunning and cruelty far surpass even her charm. It’s only a matter of time before she succeeds in driving you apart...» Renji mutters weakly, collapsing onto his side, now lying in the spreading puddle of blood beneath him.

«You think so? We’ll see about that,» Eliss hisses with a malicious grin.

«A-Are you going to kill Miori too...?» Renji murmurs.

«Yes — after all, she’s the one who ordered the beating of my Aoshi and she must pay for her crimes just like you. But as I told you, there’s no point worrying about that, since you’re going to die now as well,» she replies, voice flat and expressionless.

Eliss points her finger at Renji once more — a small sphere of purple energy ignites at the tip of her finger.

«Worry about Miori? Don’t make me laugh...» Renji rasps, forcing a crooked grin. «Instead, there’s a favor I’d like to ask before you kill me — think of it as the classic last wish granted to the condemned.»

Eliss doesn’t move or speak. She just watches him, intrigued, waiting for his final request.

«P-Promise me... that you’ll make Miori suffer until her very last breath... I beg you...» Renji sobs, his glassy eyes filling as tears mingle with the blood on his face. It’s the quiet, hopeless crying of someone who feels life slipping away — but also of someone who, in his final moments, relives it all in an instant.

A life far from happy or fulfilling — one marked by loneliness and humiliation long before Miori ever appeared. The life of someone forced, in his first year of high school, to quit the basketball club because of the physical defect he’d always been ashamed of — a flaw he hadn’t thought much about until the day he saw his teammates naked in the locker room... and, more importantly, when they saw him.

Endless ridicule and mockery followed him for three miserable years, leaving him ostracized and humiliated until he finally transferred far from Tokyo — his hometown — to Ueda, hoping to start over and bury the reputation that had haunted him.

But that hope vanished the moment he met the irresistible Miori. So beautiful, so sweet, so gentle — the kind of girl it’s impossible not to fall for. She gave Renji everything he’d always dreamed of: acceptance, admiration, the feeling of finally belonging among the "cool ones", the guys he’d only ever watched from afar in high school — the ones every girl wanted and every guy envied.

Yet that dream soon twisted into a nightmare when Miori revealed herself as the cruelest of his tormentors, turning what Renji thought was heaven into the worst kind of hell — a hell he thought he’d never escape from... until now.

Should I be scared? Anyone in my place would be. And yet... I feel so relieved. So light.

Finally... finally, this will end. Finally, no one will mock me anymore.

Finally... a way out of a life of humiliation.

«Don’t worry, I was already planning to make her suffer like an animal even without you asking,» Eliss concludes.

Renji lowers his gaze, shuts his eyes, and— PEW!

A thin whistle tears through the night for an instant — a second beam of energy erupts from Eliss’s finger and pierces his skull from one side to the other, killing him instantly.

Eliss lifts her face to the sky. «Raelor, come here and clean up,» she orders in a firm, impassive voice.

«What a sight, Princess Eliss — I didn’t think you’d noticed me,» Raelor says from atop the warehouse roof.

«I didn’t know where you were, but since you watch over me twenty-four/seven, I guessed you’d be nearby,» she replies, stepping away from Renji’s corpse.

Raelor drops from the roof with the grace and silence of a cat landing on its feet. He extends a hand toward the body, and from his open palm a faint mist of violet, luminescent particles begins to spread, thickening into a small dome over the corpse. Within moments, both the body — clothes and all — and the blood splashed on the asphalt start to vanish, eaten away from the outside in by those same particles, like a school of piranhas devouring prey without leaving a trace. In the blink of an eye, it’s as if nothing ever happened: not a single hair of Renji remains — he is entirely consumed by Raelor’s powerful demonic magic.

«Princess Eliss, I’ve told you a thousand times it’s not wise to use your powers in such open spaces — you risk being seen by some Monster Slayer, and if that happens it’ll be a real mess if they come after us,» Raelor reproaches, shaking his head in disapproval. «Anyway, what are you planning to do now?»

«Isn’t it obvious?»

Eliss smiles — a calm, innocent smile layered over a deep hunger for revenge. «I’ll make that Miori meet the same fate this boy did, and the same fate will befall anyone who dares hurt my Aoshi.»

«Please be discreet,» Raelor reminds her.

«Ugh, who do you think you’re dealing with? I’ve already thought everything through, don’t worry. Approaching her directly to seduce her and get her alone, like I did with that guy, is out of the question — Miori doesn’t strike me as the type who falls for pretty girls like me — so for now I’ll just keep an eye on her for a few days, study her movements, and wait for the best moment to kill her out of sight. O-of course, I’ll need to ask my boss for permission to take a few days off — otherwise he’ll be furious and refuse to pay me, and that would be a big problem for my beloved Aoshi. Also, this week I’m swamped with bookings, so I think I’ll have to start tailing her next week... oh, who cares! Now that I know who dared hurt him, I’m in no particular rush — I can wait a few days. Anyway, I think it’s going to be a lot of fun — it’ll be like being a private detective!»