"Yūgao, we're here."
Evan loosened his grip around Yugao's waist.
The moment he let go, Yugao's entire body lost its strength—
she slid to the ground like a ribbon folding in on itself, breath uneven.
"Heh… little Yūgao, what's this supposed to mean?"
Evan crouched down, casually removing the cloth binding her eyes.
The dim light touched her face.
Her cheeks carried a faint, unnatural red.
Her eyes—normally sharp, precise, fierce—glimmered with a hazy, shaken confusion.
Evan's lips curved.
So this woman really has never taken that final step with Moonlight Hayate…
Even a little proximity had flustered her this badly.
"Hmph…"
Yūgao bit her lip, turning her face away.
The humiliation burned her chest, but her voice came out cold—or rather, it tried to.
The result sounded more like a wounded growl.
She forced herself upright, glaring, taking a guarded half-step back.
The tension in the air was almost tangible.
"What's wrong, Yūgao? Feeling unwell?"
Evan asked with mock innocence.
"I'm fine."
Her voice trembled despite her best efforts.
She glanced around.
Dark stone walls, reinforced pillars, no windows.
A sealed underground room.
A hideout.
"Where… is this?"
"My secret den," Evan replied. "A rabbit always needs more than one burrow."
Yūgao's heart lurched violently.
So this really is his lair…
"Evan," she whispered, "let me go. I won't say anything. I swear."
"I don't believe you."
Evan stepped forward and caught her wrist.
Yūgao's breath froze.
Her body tensed, struggling instinctively—
but with her chakra sealed, she was no different from any ordinary woman.
"Calm down, Yūgao," Evan said softly.
"Right now, stopping is still possible."
"S-Stop what?!" Yūgao's voice cracked, shame and fury warring inside her.
Evan leaned in.
"Yūgao… I want something."
Before she could even understand what he meant, his hand lifted.
There was a sudden shift—
a closeness, a pressure, an invasion of personal space that stole her breath and reason at once.
Her mind blanked.
Her heartbeat crashed wildly in her ears.
Memories of Hayate flickered—
small, gentle moments—
then shattered under the weight of the present.
"Hayate… I'm sorry…"
Two tears escaped her eyes.
Her voice trembled.
Evan clicked his tongue.
"Hayate? Hah.
Yūgao's taste is truly something…"
[Yūgao Uzuki — Hatred Value +100,000]
"You bastard— I will kill you—!"
"Go ahead," Evan said lazily. "Try."
"I—!"
"Quiet."
Time lost meaning after that—
Yūgao's world reduced to confusion, humiliation, and the crushing realization that she had been utterly powerless.
At some point, her breathing steadied enough for words to return.
"Go… away…" she whispered, voice raw.
"Not done yet. Be quiet."
Her eyes went wide with shame and fury.
Her clothes lay scattered beside her, and atop them—her blade.
Her blade.
An opening.
Evan, engrossed in the moment, had undone the seal on her chakra earlier.
Yūgao's fingers twitched.
She lunged.
Steel hissed.
Her blade arced with lethal precision—
aimed at the place that would destroy him completely.
Let him suffer.
Let him lose what he stole from her.
Let justice be carved with her own hands—
CLANG!
The shock rattled her bones.
Not flesh.
Not even resistance of muscle.
Metal.
As if she had struck a steel wall.
"What…?"
Yūgao's eyes trembled.
No matter how she swung—
again and again—
CLANG.
CLANG. CLANG.
A screech of metal on metal.
"Yūgao," Evan sighed, "are you performing a concert?"
Her breath caught.
Eight-Nine Arcane Art—
even at level one, it granted a body like hardened gold.
"Impossible…"
Evan stepped back, the blade scraping harmlessly across him with an ear-piercing screech.
"Enough. Lie down. You're injured."
He gently—almost mockingly—helped her back down.
Tears welled in her eyes again.
Shame. Rage. Despair.
"Hayate… I'm sorry…"
The blade trembled in her grip.
She turned it toward her own pale throat.
If she couldn't reclaim what was taken—
—then she would reclaim her dignity with death.
Evan caught the blade between two fingers.
Steel cracked slightly under his grip.
"You're being dramatic again."
"You—"
"Just moments ago, you were very cooperative," he said softly.
"Now you want to die?"
Her breath shuddered.
Her hatred burned—but her hope had already collapsed.
And Evan smiled.
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