Bam!
Kiriryuin Kaede, with ghost power coiling around her fist, smashed it onto the eyeball ring sitting on the table.
The whole table shook several times, but the eyeball ring didn't react at all.
Standing before the table, staring at the ring, Kaede's face was full of frustration.
From the three hours she had bargained for with Hikari, half an hour had already passed.
In this half hour, she had tried several different experiments, but none yielded any results.
Even earlier, including the past few days of research, all the intel she had gathered was trivial scraps.
Staring at the red orb of an eyeball on top of the ring, which made her heart faintly shudder when she gazed at it directly, Kaede was unwilling to accept defeat.
Truthfully, though the ring was strange and roused her curiosity, even if she didn't study it, it wasn't a necessity.
There was no real reason she had to understand it.
But if after all these days, she had only scratched the surface, while in exchange for it she had given Hikari so much intel, even divulged things about the Kiriryuin family, wouldn't that be a huge loss?
'No way. I, Kiriryuin Kaede, can't accept that!'
With that thought, unraveling the secret of this eyeball ring had almost become her obsession.
She set the eyeball ring back on the table and finally couldn't hold back.
"Forget it!"
Reaching into the swell of her chest, Kaede pulled out her ancestral exorcist hammer.
Raising it high over her head, she brought it smashing down onto the eerie eyeball ring.
Bang!
A crisp sound rang out.
Nervously she looked. The ring fortunately wasn't damaged.
What delighted her more was that, with her strike, the ring actually responded, faintly flickering with a strange red light.
Although the glow quickly faded, that change still filled her with excitement.
Because this was the biggest reaction she had gotten from all her experiments on this cursed object.
Wasting no time, Kaede raised the hammer again, this time with even greater force.
Bang!
This time her strength was enormous, so much that with a crack, she actually smashed the table apart.
The ring, falling to the floor, suddenly burst into a surge of red-and-black sinister radiance.
Yet Kaede's expression showed little reaction.
Because at the very instant the eyeball ring emitted that weird glow, her gaze grew vacant, her whole body stiffening as if frozen.
Her scarlet eyes slowly seeped with an eerie black-purple tint.
"The ring is… it's fine, but so hot… my body feels so hot…", She didn't even glance at the broken table or the glowing ring on the ground.
As though drawn by some force, she turned, opened the door, and walked out.
Sitting on the sofa, watching a nature program about animal reproduction, Hikari turned his head when he heard the door open.
Kaede was walking toward him step by step, head lowered, vacant-eyed.
Before he could speak, her words came, "Fight… fight me! Hikari, I want to fight you!"
Her words left Hikari baffled, "Are you insane? Did you eat something rotten and it went to your brain?"
Kaede shouted, "I've long hated you, human!"
"Using a broken ring to trick so much intel out of me!"
Speechless, he said, "Wasn't that our agreed trade?"
She flung her hand "I don't care! You tricked me!"
"And you, every night you bully Yukino-chan! Every night you make her live and die, damn you!"
Before he could reply, Kaede, enraged, clenched her fist and swung at his face.
Hikari snapped his mouth shut and dodged aside from the sofa.
Kaede chased after him relentlessly, kicking and punching in furious succession.
Seeing her irrational rage, with no way to talk sense, Hikari had no choice but to fight back.
BANG! BANG!
Tables and chairs in the living room were smashed to bits.
After a few minutes, Hikari, while fending her off, noticed something strange in her state.
Her skin glowed with a bizarre crimson hue, her face flushed red like a ripe apple.
The oni girl was panting heavily, chest heaving as if about to burst her shrine maiden garb.
Her demonic eyes burned hotter than usual, with concentric circles swirling within, vacant and dull, like hypnosis.
Judging from this, Hikari suspected she had used some improper method to study the hypnotic ring, only to be backlashed by its power.
Her state was peculiar.
Half-hypnotized, yet still retaining some consciousness.
As he pondered, Kaede suddenly roared.
Her body instantly cloaked in black ghost energy, her speed leapt higher, and she recklessly lunged at him with immense force.
BOOM!
Her sudden burst and reckless charge caught him off guard.
The next instant, she slammed him down onto the tatami.
Looking at his startled face beneath her, Kaede smirked triumphantly.
Her rosy lips curled into a crooked smile, "Come on, let me see how strong you are, the one who makes the snow woman live and die every night."
Saying so, she puckered her lips and swiftly pressed down, forcing a kiss onto the human beneath her.
Feeling his lips suddenly crushed by soft petals, Hikari was stunned.
Eyes wide, staring at Kaede above him, there was no trace of lust in his gaze.
Only blazing flames, anger.
Because Kaede right now was utterly deranged.
Though it looked like a kiss, her teeth inside were viciously biting his lips, even trying to catch his tongue.
With such force, it was practically murderous.
Blood filled his mouth, and Hikari's fury erupted.
He braced both hands on her chest and shoved her away hard.
Standing up, he wiped the blood from his lips, voice harsh.
"Are you crazy?"
Kaede's lips were streaked with crimson, making her beauty look even more dangerously alluring.
She laughed low, "Yes, I'm crazy. What of it? Does it hurt? I've long wanted to bite you hard, damn human!"
At that twisted smile on her bewitching face, Hikari's hand rose without hesitation.
Slap!
A resounding smack echoed through the room.
"Wake the fuck up!"
Clutching her stinging cheek, Kaede stared wide, "Y-you hit me? You dare hit me?"
Slap!
Another crisp blow on the other cheek, leaving symmetrical marks.
"So what if I hit you?"
"No one in my family has ever hit me! I kissed you and you hit me?"
Furious, Kaede raised her hand to strike back, but Hikari quickly stepped back, dodging it.
Frowning, he studied her.
From their earlier kiss, a faint dizzy energy had seeped into him, but he had dispelled it with his Vajra Demon-Subduing Strength. Still, the backlash from the ring seemed somewhat eased in her.
Coupled with his heavy-handed slaps, Kaede's eyes had regained some clarity. Half her gaze back to its usual scarlet instead of that black-purple.
But her emotions were still manic, like a drunken girl half-sober, venting her discontent through madness.
She lunged again, flailing, as if desperate to slap him back.
Though he dodged her swats by turning his head, her pressure forced him against the wall.
Her body wreathed in dark ghost energy, the oni's raw strength pinned him tightly.
Leering, she mocked, "How's it feel being pinned? You've pinned Yukino-chan plenty, haven't you?"
"Let me tell you, it's not only men who can press women down!"
Hikari said coolly, "Yukino often pins me down too."
Kaede froze, then her pale face flushed crimson, "Y-you shameless bastard, I don't want to hear about you two!"
Seeing her flustered, Hikari sneered coldly.
A virgin was a virgin oni or not, their skin was just as thin.
Though Kaede vented her pent-up emotions in madness, she was still dreaming if she thought she could dominate him, a seasoned veteran.
One sentence was enough to break her defenses.
Kaede quickly realized it too, fluster turning into rage, as she shoved her face closer again.
Now their eyes were less than a fist apart, noses almost touching.
Her lips curved with a taunting smile, teasing, "Hikari-kun, am I pretty, am I beautiful, do you want to…"
Before she could finish, Hikari cut her off.
"Get off me first, then talk."
Staring at her exquisite, enchanting face so close, there wasn't the slightest excitement on his own.
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