It was pitch black. Outside the window, there were no stars, no moon—only the silhouette of the neighboring house floating in the darkness. Kanata's family home. Dark windows now, with no one inside. If he could just go back there, he should have been free. But. Asuka's sleep-talking echoed in his head. *—Don't go.* That voice had lodged itself in his heart like a tiny thorn, and he couldn't pull it out. Kanata stared up at the ceiling, remembering himself from five days ago. That day he'd been talking with Risa in front of the station. The day Asuka had pulled him by the arm and locked the door. All this time, he'd thought of nothing but how to escape. Could he break the window lock? Where was his phone? While Asuka was asleep— But what would he do if he escaped? (*I don't know anything about her.*) She'd been next door since they were little, yet Kanata had never properly asked about the night her parents died. He'd been too afraid to touch it. All this time. Kanata quietly sat up. He leaned his back against the wall and hugged his knees. (*I'm done running.*) The words rose from the very pit of his stomach. Morning came. Pale winter light filtered through the gaps in the curtains. The smell of toast drifted in from the hallway, and soon the door lock clicked. "[gentle]Good morning, Kanata. Breakfast's ready." Asuka came in carrying a tray. Toast, a fried egg, and a small salad. She wore her usual innocent smile. But she couldn't hide the dark circles under her eyes. Even her silvery-white hair seemed to lack its usual luster—it was painfully obvious she hadn't been sleeping. Kanata didn't take the tray. "Asuka." Her violet odd-eyes wavered, just slightly. "Tell me about the night your parents died." Asuka's hands stopped dead. *Crash.* The plate with the toast fell to the floor, the fried egg splattering messily. Yellow yolk spread across the flooring. "[scared]What... are you saying?" "I've never properly asked you. What happened when you were six years old." "[crying]Why are you bringing that up now?! It doesn't have anything to do with this!" Asuka's voice grew shrill as she tried to head for the door. But Kanata stood up and placed his hand against it. Her slender shoulders flinched violently. "Don't run." This time, he was the one directing those words at Asuka. The moment he realized that, something bitter spread through his chest. He didn't intend to trap her. But if he let her run now, he'd never— "I knew." Kanata kept his hand on the door as he sank down to the floor. "That you were the only one who survived when you were six. That it was an accident on a rainy night. I've known all along. But I was too scared to say anything." Asuka stared silently at the floor. She just watched as the yellow yolk slowly seeped into the flooring. Then, unsteadily, she walked to the wall, hugged her knees, and sat down. "[crying]If you knew... why didn't you say anything?" Her voice trembled. "I was alone the whole time." Tears spilled from Asuka's violet eyes. When her emotions ran high, the blue-violet of her left eye and the silver of her right gleamed like wet glasswork. "No one ever talked about that night. Not my grandparents, not my relatives, not my teachers at school. Everyone just looked at me like I was some poor, pitiful child... The truth is, no one really wanted to hear what I had to say." Her voice grew smaller and smaller, threatening to fade away entirely. "The oncoming car's headlights were so bright... Dad turned the wheel... and then there was this terrible sound..." She buried her face in her knees. "The next thing I knew, I was in a hospital bed. No one was beside me—just a white ceiling... Even when my grandparents came to take me away, I still thought Mom and Dad were coming." Kanata listened in silence. He didn't interrupt. He just kept watching Asuka's trembling shoulders. "Ever since then... I've been so scared. That everyone important to me will disappear. That one day I'll wake up in the morning and everyone will be gone again." Asuka lifted her face. Tears traced down her pale cheeks and dripped from her chin. Her odd-eyes stared straight at Kanata. "[crying]If even you disappear, Kanata... I'll die." Those words sounded like a prayer. "You won't die." Kanata stood up and sat down beside her. "I'm not going anywhere." "[crying]Really?" "Really." "[crying]Promise?" "I promise." He repeated the same words over and over, like an incantation. But words alone wouldn't reach her. Kanata could feel it. Asuka's shoulders were still trembling, and the walls around her heart were deflecting his words. What she needed was something more certain. For the first time, Kanata reached out on his own. He pulled Asuka's slender shoulders close and held her. This wasn't like before, when he'd just been swept along. He was the one seeking her now. "[surprised]...Huh?" Asuka's body stiffened in confusion. But Kanata didn't loosen his arms. "I'm watching you." He said it quietly, right by her ear. "I'm really watching you." The tension drained from Asuka's body all at once. As if a taut string had snapped, she collapsed against Kanata's chest. "[whispers]Why... at a time like this..." "Because you need it." Kanata lifted her up. She was so light. With a body this light, how had she managed to carry everything alone all this time? He gently laid her down on the futon and sank down beside her. Asuka's silver hair fanned out across the sheets. Her violet eyes, still glistening, looked up at him. Kanata reached for the buttons on her clothes. One by one, he undid them. Her white skin was laid bare. He pressed his lips to the hollow of her collarbone. "Ah..." Asuka let out a small breath. Kanata didn't stop his hands. He traced them over the swell of her chest and pinched the soft peak with his fingers. "Nnnh...!" Asuka's back arched sharply. But she didn't resist. She just gazed at him with tear-wet eyes. "It's not scary." Kanata shed his own clothes and covered her body with his. Their skin touched, their body heat mingled. He could feel the beat of Asuka's heart against his own chest. He slid his hand between her thighs and gently parted them. She was already hot there, and when his fingers traced over her, they came away wet. "[whispers]Your fingers... are inside..." "Do you hate it?" "[crying]...I don't hate it... more..." Crying, Asuka wrapped her arms around Kanata's neck and clung to him. With the defenseless gesture of a child clinging to a parent. Kanata lifted her hips slightly and pressed the tip of his hardened cock against her. The head touched her slick entrance. "I'm putting it in." "[crying]Yeah... come..." *Squelch.* The head sank into her. Hot. Inside, she was drenched, easily accepting him. "Ah, aah...!" Asuka gasped. Kanata gripped her hips and thrust all the way in at once. "Hyaah!" Her vaginal walls squeezed his cock tight. Kanata began to move his hips back and forth. Slowly pulling out, then pushing deep again. Each time, wet, squelching sounds echoed through the room. "[crying]Ah, ah, Kanata... Kanata..." Asuka kept crying. But it wasn't just tears of sadness. Her body trembling with pleasure and her face sobbing like a child's mingled strangely together. Kanata pinned both her hands to the sheets and drove his hips in deeper. "You're not alone." He kept up the piston-like rhythm as he looked straight into Asuka's eyes. "Don't leave me alone anymore." "[crying]Really...? Promise...?" "I promise." With those words, Kanata thrust his cock in to the very deepest point. The head bumped against her cervix. "I'm— I'm coming... I'm gonna come...!" Asuka's vagina began to spasm. Kanata was at his limit too. "I'm coming inside." "[crying]Do it... fill me up... please...!" *Spurt, splurt...!* Kanata came deep inside Asuka. The sensation of his semen pouring into her womb. Asuka reached her climax at the same time, her vagina contracting as if milking his cock. "Aaaaaah...!!" For a while, neither of them could move. When Kanata pulled out, thick, cloudy fluid overflowed, trailing down Asuka's thighs and staining the sheets. Her entrance was still twitching faintly, as if trying not to let a single drop of the seed inside her escape. "[whispers]Kanata..." Asuka murmured, utterly spent. "[crying]Don't go... stay with me forever..." She clung to Kanata's chest, crying without making a sound. Kanata stroked the sleeping Asuka's hair and stared at the ceiling. It wasn't over yet. She had cried. She had opened up, just a little, about the wounds of her past. But—she still hadn't admitted, not with a single word, that what she'd done was wrong. The key was in the pocket of Asuka's pajamas. He could feel the faint touch of metal against his hip. Until she offered that key of her own free will, this locked room would not end. As the light of dawn began to whiten the world outside the window, Kanata quietly closed his eyes. Their real battle might not have even begun yet.