Underneath the Red Trees

CHAPTER 64: CLIPPED WINGS

Touma sat on the queen-sized bed in the bedroom he had become confined to. The door was no longer unlocked. Akira locked him in.

He had come to occupy his thoughts with his loved ones. He had to, else he might actually lose his sanity. He thought of his parents and their kindness, he thought of his siblings and how he cared for them, and he thought of Hayate, he who he had come to love as he had loved Ryogetsu.

Ryogetsu...

How had he lived his life after Yuuki had gone? Had he lived well? Had he moved on? Had he found new love? Had he married?

He wished there were some way he could find out.

But too many centuries had passed since then.

Touma fell back on the pillows.

He hated that Akira had this hold on him. He could never threaten Ryogetsu, but he could threaten Hayate.

But what if he couldn't...

What if Touma were the one that defended him?

He wasn't Yuuki Akano anymore. There was no need to be afraid.

He sat up and crossed his legs. He closed his eyes.

He called out... deep within his soul. Tenko...

There was no answer.

Where was she?

And, come to think of it, why had he never suffered suppression? Had Tenko gone to sleep in order to protect him from that? Or had she abandoned him?

Click... click... click...

The door opened. Akira stood there. "Come on," he said, "We're going somewhere."

Touma did not speak as he stared out the passenger window of the silver sedan. Akira did not say where they were going.

"Do you know what I always found curious?" Akira asked. Touma kept himself tight-lipped. "Your lack of curiosity."

Touma did not want to react, but he did glance at him. "What do you mean?"

Akira chuckled. "My mother, Momoka... you never wondered why she hated me so much while she adored Naozumi." Touma shook his head. It wasn't that he was not curious, he just did not care. "You see, it's connected with my hatred for sex."

Memories came to him: Daisaku's thoughts and opinions on sex... He despised it. Whenever he found one of the Akano soldiers committed rape, Daisaku would kill the soldier—that is, if he were in a good mood on the day. If not, the soldier would end up either castrated or a human Guinea pig in Daisaku's dungeon of hell. He had known Naozumi was a rapist, and yet he had not treated him the way he did others. That, he had wondered about.

Touma still did not inquire further. Akira continued. "You see, she hated me because I did not let her. I stabbed her with a letter opener the first time she tried. Naozumi never fought back, that's why she liked him."

"What are you talking about."

Akira momentarily glanced at Touma. "My mother was a paedophile." He chuckled lowly. "Why do you think Naozumi turned into a sexual defiant? Being victimised was all he knew in his childhood, so he turned into a predator when he reached adulthood." Was that why he had never punished Naozumi? Was it because he found solace in the thing Naozumi turned into? Touma shuddered. Akira's tone was too casual. "I'm telling you this because I don't want you to be saddled with guilt like you were."