Villain: Your Heroines Were Delicious-Chapter 224 - 12

"I’m going to set you free."

"Set me free? Seijirou-kun, I am free. What makes you think I’m not? Look at me. I can touch you. I can feel your heart racing beneath my hands. I’m never been freer in my life." Tamaki loomed over him, her voice a discordant harmony of a dozen wet whispers.

The oily black substance leaking from her eyes dripped onto Seijirou’s chest, sizzling against his silver-gold Ki like acid on silk.

"I said, get off him!"

The air in the pit fractured as Rindou appeared behind the monstrosity, her face was pale, but her eyes burned with fury seeing the ghost over her beloved.

She swung her Ki-reinforced shinai in a horizontal arc, the blue energy whistling with lethal intent.

But Tamaki didn’t even turn around. With a sickening squelch, a new, multi-jointed limb erupted from her spine, the bone snapping into place with a wet crack.

The blackened, clawed hand caught the shinai mid-swing, the wooden weapon groaning under the pressure, then with a contemptuous flick of her wrist, Tamaki hurled both the weapon and Rindou across the pit.

Rindou slammed into the scorched concrete wall with a dull thud as she grunted in pain and dropped down to the floor, her vision swimming.

She couldn’t help but curse under her breath. The nauseating stench of the mass grave—the copper of blood, the sulfur of the fire, and the disgusting rot of twenty years of hidden death—was making her dizzy.

Every breath felt like inhaling liquid lead, suppressing her ability to cycle her Ki at full capacity.

Tamaki smiled, and the effect was nightmarish; every mouth that had manifested on her neck, her shoulders, and her arms stretched into a jagged grin alongside her main face. "Seijirou-kun, did you know? I’ve liked you for so long. Longer than any of these other girls who hover around you like flies. The reason why I transferred to Shunji was because of you."

Seijirou remained silent, his teeth gritted as he was focusing every ounce of his concentration on circulating his Ki, creating a pressurized barrier between his skin and the weight of the Living Spirit.

If he faltered for a second, the conceptual weight of her existence would crush his ribs.

"Yes, you probably don’t remember this," Tamaki continued, her voice dripping with a parasitic affection. "Or rather, you probably don’t even remember me at all. I probably don’t even exist to you back then. But I was once saved by you. Back then, at my old middle school, I was being bullied so hard that I simply stopped going. I stayed in my room until I was forced to repeat a grade. When I finally went back, I was in a new class, becoming classmates with a girl named Itoshi Emi."

Seijirou’s eyes widened at mention of the name.

Tamaki lowered her head, pressing her full, bloated weight over Seijirou’s chest as the black eyes searched his, and let out a satisfied smirk seeing the flicker of recognition. "I thought that I was finally free from that hell, but the world is cruel, isn’t it? Emi and I... we were the two targets. We were the toys for those bitches to break. Every day was a cycle of hiding in the infirmary or crying in the stalls."

Her grip tightened on his chin. "But then, like a knight in shining armor, straight from a fairytale, you appeared. You walked into that classroom and stopped everything. You broke their power with a single look. Yes, I know... you didn’t do it for me. You did it for Itoshi Emi. You didn’t even look my way. But it didn’t matter. In my heart, from that moment on, you were my prince charming. I decided then that I would follow you, no matter where you went. Even into the dark."

Seijirou’s eyes flared with a silver-gold light, his will rejecting the narrative of a tragic obsession. "Is that so? Then as your ’prince,’ let me perform one last duty. Let me free you from this nightmare and give you the peace you were denied."

"BURST!"

His Ki erupted in a violent, localized explosion as the silver-gold energy acted like a physical shockwave, the sheer purity of his Origin acting as a toxin to the corruption within Tamaki.

She let out a shriek and was forced to stumble back, her feet slipping on the slick bones of the grave.

Just then, Rindou reappeared, her movement a blur of blue light.

She didn’t go for a blunt strike this time, instead, she thrust her shinai forward, the tip glowing with a concentrated point of exorcism energy, and stabbed Tamaki directly in the center of her chest.

"AAARRHHH!" Tamaki let out a wet, guttural roar of pain as the black ichor sprayed from the wound, sizzling as it touched Rindou’s pure Ki.

Rindou didn’t let up as she reached into her pocket with her free hand, pulling out a paper talisman inscribed with crimson cinnabar.

She slapped the paper onto the flat of her blade, activating it with a surge of her ki, and instantly, the paper burst into a white flame as she hurled it toward the staggering monster.

"PURIFICATION!" Rindou declared, her voice ringing out like a temple bell.

But the fragment of the Outer God within Tamaki was not so easily dispelled.

Tamaki’s hand shot out, catching the burning talisman mid-air, then with a snarling grin, she crushed the paper in her fist, the holy flames extinguished by the black slime coating her skin.

Rindou’s eyes widened in shock. "What...? She broke the talisman!?"

"Not so fast!"

Seijirou appeared from above, having leaped off the wall of the pit and spun in mid-air, channeling the momentum of his descent into a devastating axe kick.

His heel, glowing with the intensity of a miniature sun, slammed into the side of Tamaki’s head.

The impact sounded like a sledgehammer hitting a wet bag of cement, causing Tamaki to roar in pain, her neck snapping to the side at an impossible angle, but her reflexes were supernatural.

Before Seijirou could retract his leg, she grabbed his ankle with two of her spare limbs.

"I’ve got you now!" she hissed.

"No, you don’t!" Rindou was already there.

She swung her blade in a twin-slash, cleanly severing the oily black limbs that held Seijirou’s leg.

Seijirou flipped backward, landing beside Rindou as the two of them jumped back to the edge of the pit, breathing hard.

"She’s still too strong," Rindou whispered, her forehead slick with sweat. "My talisman would just break every time I try to purity her. We need to weaken her first."

"So we beat her up until she weakens? Standard procedure, then," Seijirou said, his body glowing with his ki.

"Yes," Rindou nodded, her blue aura flaring to its maximum. "Break the shell, and I’ll handle the soul."

"Alright. Cover me!"

Seijirou vanished and reappeared directly in front of Tamaki, his speed bypassed her guard as he drove a Ki-reinforced knee into her midsection, followed by a lightning-fast combination of punches to her chest and throat.

Each strike was a concentrated burst of energy, designed to disrupt the flow of the corruption.

Tamaki growled in pain, her bloated body stumbling back against a pile of skulls. "How dare you!? Why do you fight me!? I love you!"

She roared in a frenzy, lashing out with a dozen newly formed tentacles that whipped through the air like blackened scythes.

Rindou took over the front line, her shinai becoming a blur of blue steel as she danced through the storm of tentacles, cutting them down one by one until she stood directly in front of the monster.

With a shout, she delivered a deep, diagonal slash across Tamaki’s chest, the blue energy carving a glowing line through the darkness.

Tamaki roared in agony, her physical form beginning to flicker and fade.

"Now!" Rindou shouted.

Seijirou appeared above Tamaki once more as he focused all his remaining Ki into his foot and delivered a crushing downward kick, pinning her flat against the floor of the grave.

"Rindou! Do it!"

Rindou didn’t hesitate as she took out her final, highest-grade talisman—one embroidered with gold thread.

Then, she bit her thumb, smeared a drop of blood across the seal, and channeled every drop of her remaining spiritual energy into it.

"PURIFICATION!"

She threw the talisman, and it hit Tamaki’s forehead and stuck there like a brand.

Tamaki let out one final, world-shaking roar, her body began to glow with a brilliant, blinding white light.

Then, the black oily substance evaporated into nothingness, and the grotesque, multi-mouthed transformation began to peel away like burnt paper in the wind.

Seijirou jumped away, landing beside Rindou as the light intensified.

When it finally faded, the monster was gone, and in its place sat the original Kusana Tamaki—the shy, orange-haired girl they had met that morning.

But now, she was translucent, her edges blurring into the ambient light of the basement as her body was starting to dissolve into golden sparks.

She sat up slowly, looking at her hands as they began to fade into nothingness.

Seijirou took a step forward, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade, prepared for one last trick.

Rindou reached out and grabbed his shoulder, her touch soft. "Don’t. It’s over, Seijirou. She won’t last much longer. She should be back to normal now."

Tamaki looked at her hands, a look of profound, peaceful sadness on her face before she turned her gaze toward Seijirou and Rindou.

The empty black voids were gone, replaced by soft, amber eyes that were finally clear.

"It seems..." she whispered, her voice like the rustle of autumn leaves. "I have caused you a lot of trouble, Seijirou-kun... President."

The silence that followed her words was heavy, thick with the lingering scent of ozone and the ancient, stagnant smell of the pit.

The golden sparks of the purification ritual danced in the air like dying fireflies, illuminating the translucent, fraying edges of the girl who sat before them.

Rindou took a tentative step forward, her boots crunching softly on a bed of old, weathered bone, and her face was a mask of professional stoicism, but her voice wavered with a deep, suppressed empathy. "Kusana Tamaki... before you rest in peace... can you tell us? How did you truly end up here?"

Tamaki looked up, her amber eyes shimmering with a clarity they hadn’t possessed all day.

She reached out a fading hand, trying to touch the hem of her own skirt, but her fingers passed through the fabric like mist.

She smiled wryly, a sad, knowing expression that made her look far older than seventeen. "I love Seijirou-kun. I said it earlier, didn’t I?"

Rindou nodded silently, her jaw tight.

"Back then... just a few weeks ago... I heard a rumor," Tamaki began, her voice sounding distant, as if echoing from the bottom of a well. "I heard that Kageyama Seijirou-kun was organizing a mixer. I was so blinded by the chance to finally be near you, Seijirou-kun, that I didn’t even bother confirming the details, nor did K check the sources. I just went to the agreed-upon place with a heart full of hope... but it was a trap."

She looked toward the corner of the pit, where the shadows seemed to pulse with the memory of her screams. "Those people... No, you can’t even call them people... Those beasts, they put something in our drinks the moment we arrived, and then they brought us here, to this hospital. They kept forcing us to take in substances—chemicals that burned my throat and made my mind fracture into a thousand pieces. They did it so they could do whatever they wanted while we were paralyzed. They repeatedly raped me, over and over, until everything I feel was nothing but a blur of gray concrete and their laughter."

Seijirou’s breath hitched, his silver-gold Ki flickering violently.

"Those drugs... they made me stop feeling the physical pain for a while," Tamaki whispered, her eyes unfocused. "It was like watching a movie of someone else’s life in first person. I was forced to stay awake, my head held up so I had to watch as they used their knives to peel off my skin, strip by strip. They called it ’cleaning the prize.’ Then, they said they wanted to keep my gaze on them forever... so they used a rusted spoon to scoop out my eyes. And then, while I was still alive and bleeding, they dumped me down here, into this hole, on top of the others who were already dead."

She let out a shuddering breath that didn’t move the air. "I was the last one to die that night. I lay there in the dark, and as the substances finally wore off and my mind cleared... I instantly died from the absolute, unendurable pain. My heart just... stopped."

Seijirou’s fists were clenched so hard that blood began to drip from his palms where his nails dug into the skin as a dark, boiling heat radiated from his core.

’Those bastards... they were using my name to lure people? They used my name as bait for a slaughterhouse?!’

Rindou’s face was contorted in a rare display of pure, unbridled rage, ber blue Ki flared, the spiritual pressure cracking the scorched concrete behind her.

’Those beasts deserve to die! No... death is too merciful. They deserve to experience every second of the pain they inflicted on Tamaki and the others. They deserve to rot in a hell of their own making!’

Tamaki turned her gaze back to Seijirou, and the darkness instantly disappeared from her expression, replaced by a look of profound, lingering sweetness.

"Seijirou-kun... it was very brief, and I know it was mostly because you thought I was just a scared schoolmate... but I was very happy when you hugged me protectively back then. In the lobby, when the shadows came. For a moment, the cold went away. I felt like... everything I went through, even the darkness and the pain, was worth it for that single hug from my prince."

Seijirou gulped, a lump forming in his throat that felt like lead as he looked at the girl—the girl who had died in agony because of a lie with his name on it.

He took a deep, shaky breath, and for the first time, he offered her a smile that was entirely genuine, devoid of his usual arrogance.

"Yeah," he said softly, his voice echoing with the weight of a promise. "Don’t worry, Tamaki. Maybe... if reincarnation really exists, and we meet in a world that isn’t so broken... I will hold you as much as you want. I won’t let go."

Tamaki laughed, a light, airy sound that seemed to brighten the gloom of the mass grave as tears of pure, shimmering light began to fall from her eyes, evaporating before they could hit the dirt. "That’s a promise, alright, Seijirou-kun? You can’t take it back."

Seijirou nodded, his gaze steady. "Yeah. That’s a promise. I’ll be looking for you."

Tamaki’s smile was the brightest thing in the room, a radiant, final flash of her true self. "I’m glad. I can go now... it’s not so cold anymore."

"Thank you, for finding me."

Just then, the golden light of the purification reached its peak, and her form began to fray and dissolve into a cloud of brilliant, glowing embers.

She reached out one last time, her fingers brushing against the air in front of Seijirou’s face, before she completely vanished into the ether.

The light faded, leaving Seijirou and Rindou alone in the absolute darkness of the pit, surrounded by the silent remains of the lost.