With a heart full of conflict and self-loathing, Aoko finally left that domain symbolizing darkness and temptation alone and despondent, walking toward the "home" in her memory. With every step away from that Mansion, the void in her heart seemed to expand. That twisted attachment to a dark kinship, which Kanjuro had deliberately provoked, gnawed at her reason like a maggot on a bone. She hated herself for it, yet she couldn't completely sever that damn attraction stemming from her bloodline.
However, as she dragged her heavy steps and was about to enter a relatively familiar neighborhood, she keenly sensed something unusual in the surrounding atmosphere.
Several uniformed police officers were patrolling nearby. When their eyes met Aoko's, they first showed shock, which quickly transformed into an extremely complex set of emotions—disbelief, deep suspicion, and even... a faint trace of fear and disdain.
One of the young officers couldn't help but whisper to his companion, "Look... it's Inspector Nakamori's daughter... She actually... came out alive?"
His companion, a slightly older officer, scrutinized Aoko with sharp eyes, his tone carrying suppressed doubt: "Coming out of that place... unscathed? How is that possible? It's a field of corpses in there..."
"I heard that demon Kanjuro... towards women..." The other man didn't finish his sentence, but those unspoken words and meaningful glances were more damaging than any direct accusation.
The whispers were like venomous snakes, slithering into Aoko's ears from all directions.
"Did she reach some kind of agreement with that demon?"
"Maybe... she traded for her safety in some'special' way?"
"Inspector Nakamori is so upright, how could his daughter..."
"Coming out of that devil's den, can she still be clean?"
These discussions weren't loud, but they were like cold needles, densely piercing Aoko's already battered heart. She finally understood the meaning behind those looks—in their eyes, being able to leave Kanjuro's Mansion safely was itself a cardinal sin. They didn't believe she had escaped through will or luck; they preferred to believe she had made some unspeakable, dirty deal with the demon.
A surge of immense grievance and anger instantly flooded her heart, almost suffocating her. She wanted to refute them loudly, to tell them how painfully she had struggled to leave, and to describe what a terrifying demon Kanjuro truly was! But she opened her mouth only to find her throat blocked, unable to make a sound.
How could she explain? Explain that she really was Kanjuro's daughter? Explain that twisted, inexplicable fluttering she felt for her biological father? Explain the dark blood flowing through her body? These truths were more absurd and shocking than any speculation!
She could only bite her lower lip hard, lower her head, and quicken her pace, trying to escape those ever-present eyes filled with scrutiny and gossip. Every step felt like walking on knife edges, and the familiar streets became alien and malicious. She felt like a marked outcast, completely isolated by the world that was supposed to protect her.
Once, she was the beloved daughter of an inspector. Although rumors of her mother's early death left some mysteries about her origins, at least she lived in the light. Now, simply because she walked out of Kanjuro's Mansion, she had become an impure, suspicious person in everyone's eyes, someone colluding with a demon.
This external discrimination and stigmatization intertwined with her inner struggle and self-loathing, forming an even more desperate web. She not only had to fight the temptation of darkness within but also endure the unjust, cold gazes cast by the outside world.
"Even they think I'm dirty..." Aoko curled up in the corner of a small alley not far from home, burying her face in her knees, her shoulders trembling slightly. Tears mixed with humiliation and a sense of powerlessness fell silently.
Kanjuro didn't even need to imprison her himself. He simply let her go, letting her taste for herself what it was like to be rejected by the normal world, making her realize that once associated with the name 'Kanjuro,' she could never go back to the past. This feeling of being abandoned by the world was perhaps more capable of pushing her into the abyss of darkness than any physical imprisonment.
She began to doubt if there was any place for her in this world besides that dark Mansion. How much gossip could her father Nakamori's trust withstand? The road ahead seemed like a fog; no matter which way she went, it seemed filled with pain and thorns. And Kanjuro's deep, seemingly magical voice seemed to echo faintly in her ears, carrying temptation and mockery.
Carrying her weariness and humiliation, Aoko finally returned to the home that once represented warmth and safety. However, what awaited her was not her father's comfort, but an even more intense reaction from Nakamori Ginzo.
When Aoko pushed open the door, Nakamori Ginzo was sitting on the sofa with a grim face. He clearly already knew through colleagues or informants that Aoko had not only gone to Kanjuro's Mansion but had also returned "unscathed," triggering public outcry.
He stood up abruptly, his voice trembling with anger and fear as he pointed at Aoko and roared, "Aoko! Do you have any idea what your status is now?! You are that demon's daughter! That is an unchangeable fact! Since you already knew, why didn't you stay home properly?! Why did you run to that kind of place, getting yourself covered in filth and making people look at us that way?! Do you know how dangerous this is?! How am I... how am I supposed to account to your late... to your mother?!"
His words were like ice picks, stabbing into Aoko's already shattered heart. The phrase "Daughter of the Demon" nailed her completely to a pillar of shame. She had still harbored a sliver of hope that her adoptive father would understand her pain and struggle, and give her a safe harbor.
But the reality was that even her closest relative viewed her as a stain because of her parentage, believing she should hide herself away like a plague.
"Dad... even you..." The light in Aoko's eyes died out completely. She looked at Nakamori Ginzo, tears surging out, her voice broken, "You think I'm dirty, don't you? You think I've embarrassed you?!"
Just then, Kaito Kuroba, who had followed her out of concern, also rushed into the room. Seeing Aoko's collapsed state, he immediately stepped forward to try and comfort her: "Aoko! Don't be like this! Uncle Nakamori didn't mean it that way, he's just too worried about you! We're all worried about you!"
"Worried about me?!" Aoko violently threw off Kaito's hand as he tried to support her, letting out a shrill, desperate cold laugh, her gaze sweeping over Nakamori Ginzo and Kaito, "You don't understand at all! You don't understand anything!"
Her emotions spiraled completely out of control. All the accumulated grievance, anger, self-loathing, and the fear of her contradictory feelings toward Kanjuro erupted at this moment like a volcano.
"All you know is to tell me to hide, to be a good girl! But where can I hide?! My blood is dirty! That's a fact that can't be changed! That demon is right there, he's watching me, he even... he even makes me feel..."
She almost blurted out the treasonous thought that "only with him do I find understanding and belonging," stopping herself just in time, but the pain and struggle on her face were fully exposed.
"You don't understand how much pain I'm in! You don't understand that I'm fighting with myself every day! You just think I'm causing trouble! You think I'm a nuisance!"
She looked at Nakamori Ginzo's pained and helpless eyes, and at Kaito's anxious yet uncomprehending expression, feeling an unprecedented loneliness. This world seemed to have no place left for her. The world of light rejected her, the world of darkness tempted her, and her original harbor was about to close its doors to her.
"Fine... fine... you all think I'm a nuisance, the Daughter of the Demon, that I shouldn't exist..." Aoko backed away while weeping, her eyes becoming hollow and resolute, "Then I'll go! I'll leave this place! I won't embarrass you anymore!"
After saying that, she turned to rush out the door again.
"Stop!" Nakamori Ginzo let out a roar of near despair. Seeing his daughter on the verge of collapse and potentially turning toward Kanjuro, an immense fear overrode everything. He couldn't let Aoko leave; he couldn't let her fall into Kanjuro's clutches, nor could he let her get hurt outside or hurt others (given her awakened potential)!
He suddenly looked at Kaito, his eyes filled with pain and a desperate resolve: "Kaito! Stop her! We can't let her go out again!"
Kaito instantly understood what Nakamori Ginzo meant, his heart also filled with struggle and pain. He knew what this implied, but looking at Aoko's current state and remembering Kanjuro's terrifying power and the mountain of corpses outside the Mansion, he had to admit this was perhaps the only way to "protect" Aoko and others for now... At the moment Aoko was about to step out of the house, Kaito grabbed her from behind, holding her so tightly she couldn't break free.
"I'm sorry, Aoko... I'm sorry!" Kaito's voice was choked with sobs, yet exceptionally firm.
With bloodshot eyes, Nakamori Ginzo strode to the door, and with a "click," he used a prepared, stronger chain to lock the door from the inside. Then he turned around, looking at his daughter who was struggling and screaming frantically in Kaito's arms, and with all his strength, he tremblingly announced the cruel decision:
"Aoko... don't blame Dad... From today on, you... you can no longer leave this house. Until you've completely come to your senses, or... until we find a way to resolve all this, you can only stay here."
Permanent imprisonment.
The words were like a final sentence, crashing down on Aoko's heart.
She stopped struggling, as if all her strength had been drained. She went limp in Kaito's arms, her eyes completely losing their luster, leaving only boundless darkness and despair.
She wasn't imprisoned by Kanjuro in his dark Mansion; instead, she was imprisoned by those closest to her, in the name of "love" and "protection," inside the home that was once full of sunlight. This time, the doors and windows would be completely sealed, the guards would be stricter, and she had lost her last bit of freedom—and seemingly, her last hope of being understood.
Her world, from then on, consisted only of these four walls and the never-ending, cruel war between light and darkness in her heart. And Kanjuro, as if he had foreseen all this, wore a cold, all-controlling smile on his dark throne.
The sound of heavy chains rang out outside the door, like a death knell to a prison. Light was shut out by thick curtains. The once warm home had now, in Aoko's eyes, become a meticulously crafted, magnificent cage built in the name of "love." Nakamori Ginzo and Kaito left, leaving her alone in this deliberately created "safe" darkness to face the surging demons in her heart.
Time lost its meaning, with only despair settling and fermenting with every passing second.
There was no comfort, no understanding, not even an argument. There was only dead silence and the occasional sound of the captors' hushed conversations outside the door, which now sounded like the patrols of prison guards.
Aoko curled up in the corner of the bed, wrapping herself tightly in the quilt, as if she could ward off the chill spreading from the depths of her heart. But it was no use. That chill stemmed from the pain of being betrayed by her closest relatives, from the total negation of her own existence, and from the boundless future where no hope could be seen.
Her tears had long since run dry. Her eyes were bloodshot from prolonged crying and lack of sleep, feeling parched and burning, yet she could no longer squeeze out even a hint of moisture. She simply hugged her knees tightly, burying her face in them, her body trembling slightly with suppressed sobs.
Why... why did it turn out like this... She only wanted to seek the truth, only wanted to understand who she was.
She had obtained the truth, but at the cost of losing everything.
Her adoptive father viewed her as a stain that needed to be hidden, imprisoning her with cold chains.
Her childhood friend, using the excuse of "it's for your own good," had become an accomplice in her imprisonment.
The people of the outside world, with their eyes full of disdain and speculation, had isolated her completely.
What did she do wrong? She just... couldn't choose her own birth!
And that demon, regarded by everyone as the source of all evil—Kanjuro.
The man who gave her this "sinful" bloodline.
Recalling it now, he had actually become the only existence in her shattered memories who had ever given her a sliver of "warmth" and "acceptance."
In his dark palace, he hadn't bound her with chains, but had instead reached out his hand to her.
He didn't condemn her as a "Daughter of a Demon," but calmly told her that this was her "home."
He even... let her leave, giving her the right to choose (though that might have just been a more sophisticated manipulation).
By comparison, who was more like a demon?!
This thought, like a venomous snake, suddenly burrowed into her almost stagnant mind, making her snap her head up!
Her bloodshot eyes flickered with a near-maniacal light in the gloom.
That's right... her father and friend, who repeatedly claimed to love and protect her, had given her the sturdiest cage.
While her biological father, viewed as the incarnation of evil, had given her a false yet enticing "freedom" and "validation."
"Heh... hehe..." A raspy, tearful laugh escaped Aoko's throat, filled with self-deprecation and the madness that follows despair.
The darkness she had fought so hard against didn't seem as cold as she had imagined.
The light she had desperately tried to hold onto had personally pushed her into a deeper abyss.
An unprecedented resentment, like black vines, grew and spread frantically from the darkest corners of her heart—resentment toward Nakamori Ginzo and Kaito's "betrayal," resentment toward the unfair gossip from the outside world, resentment toward this world that had pushed her to a dead end, and even... resentment toward her mother, Eri Kisaki, who had given her life but brought her endless pain!
And all this resentment eventually transformed in a strange way into a twisted, pathological identification with and... yearning for Kanjuro.
If the light was destined to abandon and imprison her, then why should she struggle so bitterly?
If the darkness was willing to "embrace" her, giving her strength and a "sense of belonging," then what was wrong with throwing herself into the darkness?
At least... there, she wouldn't need to hide her filthy bloodline, wouldn't have to endure the strange looks from others, and wouldn't be kidnapped and imprisoned by so-called "love"!
"It's you... you forced me..." she muttered to herself, her voice hoarse but carrying a heart-stopping coldness and resolve. The bloodshot veins in her eyes seemed to come alive, weaving a network of madness.
She no longer cried, nor did she tremble. A completely different aura began to emanate from her—a dangerous aura mixed with despair, resentment, and a first-time active craving for dark power.
The seed of corruption, buried by her closest kin within a cage of "protection," absorbed the nutrients of pain and betrayal, sprouting and preparing to bloom into a destructive flower of evil.
She slowly stood up and walked to the locked window. Through a gap in the heavy curtains, she looked out at the world of light she once cherished but now found utterly hypocritical. A cold and eerie curve formed at the corners of her mouth.
"Kanjuro... Father..." In a voice only she could hear, she softly uttered the title she once feared and resisted. Now, it carried a strange thrill, as if she had found her place. "You were right... perhaps, that is my 'home'."
She turned and looked at the locked door. In her bloodshot eyes, there was no longer pleading or pain, but a cold and steady light, almost like that of a predator.
She wanted out.
At all costs.
Back to the side of that... demon, who at least wouldn't use "love" to imprison her.
This time, it wasn't because she was tempted, but because it was her own choice.
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