Rikuto Suzuki is a second-year high school student with a secret hobby. He secretly listens to audio recordings of a mother punishing her daughter for breaking curfew—the sound of spanking and crying makes his heart race. He thinks he's weird but can't stop.
One day on his way home, Rikuto finds an old button in an alley. When he presses it, his childhood friend Hinata Minazuki suddenly appears and starts spanking their classmate Aoi Kiryu. Smack! Aoi screams, and Rikuto's mind goes blank. The
Bad Girls Get Punished - The Light of the Atonement Stone — Four People's Price to Stop the Rampage —
The moment Suzuki Rikuto stepped into the grounds of Mikage Shrine, the color of the world changed.
The rain had stopped. But the sky was still under thick clouds. From all over the shrine grounds, pale blue light rose up. The light stretched toward the sky like pillars, faintly illuminating the underside of the clouds.
Suzuki Rikuto stopped in his tracks at the sight.
(What the hell is this...)
The stone paving beneath his feet flickered as if breathing. Each individual seam pulsed pale blue like a vein. The light flowed out from deep within the main hall, filled the grounds, and continued toward Daisho Slope beyond the torii gate.
And then, from all over the city, he could hear it.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Dry sounds. Screams. Crying. They shook the post-rain air, pressing in from afar like waves.
"Riku-kun... this is all..."
Hinata's voice, standing beside him, was trembling. Her bright brown semi-long hair hung heavy, soaked from the rain, and the side buns were on the verge of falling apart. Her large amber eyes wavered uneasily in the pale blue light.
"It still hasn't stopped. If anything, it's gotten stronger than before."
Mafuyu spoke while clutching the black Disciplinary Record Book to her chest with her right hand. A single droplet ran down her cheek from her silvery platinum blonde hair. Her ice-like pale blue eyes calmly observed the scene within the shrine grounds. The silver piercing on her left ear glinted, reflecting the pale blue light.
"Suzuki-kun. The button?"
Runa's voice was quiet, as always. But deep within it, a faint tension was mixed in. Her black hair, reaching down to her waist, was damp and heavy from the rain, and her purple-tipped ends clung to her white skin. Her slender eyes were fixed on Rikuto's pocket.
Rikuto gripped the button inside his pocket.
It was hot. Far hotter than before. The brass rim was hot enough to dig into his palm. The vibration had intensified too. As if synchronized with Rikuto's heartbeat, it pulsed with a throb, throb.
"...Yeah, I've got it."
His voice was hoarse. His throat was dry.
The four of them stopped before the stone steps leading to the main hall.
A pillar of pale blue light stretched from directly above the main hall into the sky. The light pierced through the rain clouds, seeming to be sucked up into the heavens.
And at the base of that light, it was there.
At the top of the stone steps, directly in front of the main hall.
A large stone sat enshrined.
It was about waist-high on Rikuto. Its surface was smooth and polished, glistening black from the rain. But around that stone alone, the air was different. Pale blue light crawled across its surface like flowing water, radiating a mysterious brilliance as if something inside could be seen through it.
"That's... the Atonement Stone."
Rikuto murmured.
Deep within Mikage Shrine, there was an old stone that was said to lighten your heart when you touched it. He'd heard that story from someone, long ago. Probably from a priest during a elementary school field trip, maybe.
To think that was actually this.
"Yes. The Atonement Stone. The stone at the center of this city's Principle of Compensation."
Runa stood beside Rikuto.
"Suzuki-kun. I'll tell you the last part of my grandmother's dying words."
Runa looked directly into Rikuto's eyes. Her purple eyes, in the pale blue light, were so clear they seemed to draw you in. The tear mole beneath her left eye cast a small shadow on her rain-dampened skin.
"Tell me."
Rikuto clenched his fist.
Runa took one deep breath.
"—'When the button's master acknowledges his own distortion and wishes to protect someone, the button shall return to its true form.' These were my grandmother's final words."
Runa's voice seeped into the quiet shrine grounds.
Acknowledge your own distortion.
When you wish to protect someone.
Deep in Rikuto's chest, the words echoed.
(My distortion.)
Rikuto took the button out of his pocket.
A brass button. An old button, coated in green patina. The words "Punishment Enforcement" engraved on its surface rose up in the pale blue light.
On his palm, the button was burning hot, vibrating violently.
"The button responds to your deep psyche. Every punishment you don't remember pressing—all of it was something somewhere in your heart desired. That is a part of you."
Runa's words pierced his chest.
But strangely, it didn't hurt.
(Ah, that's right.)
Rikuto slowly closed his eyes.
(I've always known. That there's a part of me that wants to punish someone. That there's a part of me whose heart races when I watch videos of girls getting their bottoms spanked. That it's messed up. That I'm the worst.)
(I've always known. All of it.)
(But I looked away. I pretended not to know.)
He opened his eyes.
The button's glow illuminated Rikuto's face pale blue.
"...Hinata."
Still gripping the button with a trembling hand, Rikuto turned toward Hinata.
Hinata's shoulders gave a small jolt. Her amber eyes looked up at Rikuto anxiously.
"I... I have something I have to tell you."
His voice shook. His knees were weak.
But he wouldn't run anymore.
Rikuto looked straight into Hinata's eyes.
"I've been watching spanking videos. Since I was little. Videos of girls getting spanked and crying—I watched them over and over and over. I've always thought my tastes were abnormal. I've always thought I was the worst."
His voice grew wet with tears.
"If you found out, you'd definitely hate me. That's what I thought, so I couldn't say it. But I can't hide it anymore. There's that kind of feeling inside me. A dirty feeling that wants to punish someone—it's always been inside me."
The tears wouldn't stop.
His vision warped. Hinata's face blurred.
(I said it.)
(It's over now.)
Rikuto closed his eyes.
But that was the moment.
"Riku-kun."
Hinata's voice came from right beside him.
When he raised his head, Hinata had taken a step closer to him.
"The fact that you're you, Riku-kun—that hasn't changed."
Hinata was gazing straight at Rikuto.
Her large amber eyes were filled with tears. But deep within them, there was no color of rejection.
"You know, I'm really scared of being spanked. I have memories of being hit by my parents when I was little, and even now, when I hear that sound, my body freezes up."
Hinata's voice was trembling.
"But that part of you is also a part of you, right? Then I want to know. I want to know all of you. Knowing that, I still want to be by your side."
Hinata smiled through her tear-soaked face.
"If you think you're the worst, then I think you're the most amazing person in the world. Because you're trying to face your own weakness. That takes so, so much courage."
Hinata's words seeped gently into the place deep in his chest that had grown cold.
(Hinata...)
Rikuto couldn't speak.
Instead, tears overflowed endlessly.
"...I'll speak too."
Mafuyu's voice resonated quietly.
When he turned around, Mafuyu was standing in the pale blue light, still holding the Disciplinary Record Book to her chest.
"I also have an impulse to inflict punishment. Not for the sake of order. A desire to give someone pain—it's always been inside me."
Mafuyu's voice had its usual dignified tone. But deep within it, there was a faint tremor.
"As Disciplinary Committee Chair, every time I cracked down on a violator, there was a part of me somewhere in my heart thinking that I should punish them more harshly. That then, that girl would cry more. I was terrified of myself for thinking that."
Mafuyu turned her pale blue eyes toward the Atonement Stone.
"But now I understand. I can't make that feeling disappear. It's a part of me. So, acknowledging it, I remain Disciplinary Committee Chair. I use the desire to punish for the sake of protecting someone. Because I believe that's what I can do."
Having said that, Mafuyu smiled faintly.
A dimple formed on her right cheek.
It was the first smile he'd ever seen from Mafuyu.
"...The Principle of Compensation isn't a principle for denying punishment."
Runa quietly opened her mouth.
"It's a principle for shouldering others' pain while embracing the dark parts of people. That's what my grandmother said. The desire to punish and the desire to be punished—both are parts of a person. Without denying them, holding them close, and still reaching out a hand to protect someone. That's the true meaning of the Principle of Compensation."
Runa's voice was clear, like the air after rain.
Rikuto looked at the three of them in turn.
Hinata. Mafuyu. Runa.
All of them carrying their own distortions, and still, standing here.
He wasn't the only one who was messed up.
That's what he could feel.
Rikuto brought his button-gripping hand to his chest.
The button was still hot. Still vibrating.
But the fear he'd felt until moments ago was gone.
"I'm distorted. I'm the worst. That can't be changed."
Rikuto forced out his voice.
"But even so—it's not that I want to hurt someone. I want to truly understand someone's pain. The pain of someone suffering just like me—I want to understand it."
A tear fell onto the button.
On the brass surface, the tear burst apart.
"I don't want to hurt anyone with this button. I want to use this power to protect someone. That's my wish!"
The moment he shouted.
The button's heat rapidly subsided.
The heat that had been like fire grew cold as if he were gripping ice, and then returned to the warmth of human skin. The vibration, too, slowly quieted.
And then.
The pillar of pale blue light that had filled the grounds of Mikage Shrine crumbled without a sound.
The light became countless particles, dancing up into the sky.
As if countless fireflies had taken flight all at once.
The particles of light dissolved into the post-rain night sky, and eventually, vanished.
At the same time, the sounds of punishment that had echoed across Daisho Slope stopped completely.
The dry sounds that had been chaining together—bang, bang—vanished without a single one remaining.
The screams, the crying, everything.
Silence returned to the city.
A deep, deep silence.
Only the scent of rain remained in the shrine grounds.
The four of them couldn't move for a while.
Rikuto sank to his knees on the spot.
The strength drained from him.
It was as if all the strength in his body was crumbling with a sound.
"...Is it over?"
Hinata murmured softly.
"...Yes, probably."
Runa answered quietly.
"...This might be the true meaning of the Principle of Compensation."
Runa's voice seemed to be looking somewhere far away.
"If my surveillance target acts on his own, I won't take my eyes off him from now on either."
Mafuyu said that, looking somewhat embarrassed.
"Riku-kun, let's keep being friends!"
Hinata clung to Rikuto's arm.
Through her damp uniform, Hinata's body warmth transferred to him.
"...Yeah. Let's."
Rikuto smiled with his tear-streaked face.
He put the button back in his pocket.
Its weight was different from before.
Not a weight for hurting someone.
It had changed to a weight for protecting someone.
That's what he felt.
—That was when it happened.
"Well done, reaching this far."
A low, calm voice came from deep within the main hall.
The four of them looked toward the voice simultaneously.
From the shadows of the main hall, an old man appeared.
He wore white priest's robes and had his white hair tied back. Deep wrinkles were carved into his face, and his eyes, sharp beyond his years, surveyed the four of them.
Mikage Shizuma. The head priest of Mikage Shrine.
"Shizuma-san..."
Rikuto raised his voice.
He had met him once before, when he'd visited this shrine previously.
Shizuma slowly approached the four of them.
"This is merely the first stage of atonement."
Shizuma's voice was quiet. But his words resonated heavily in the four's chests.
"What do you mean?"
Mafuyu stepped forward.
Shizuma looked at Mafuyu.
"The full scope
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