Chapter 21 Accusation
Chapter 21 Accusation
“You,” Yui said, her voice cold enough to freeze the air between us. She turned her whole body toward me, eyes blazing. “Did you get her pregnant?”
Mom and Dad went rigid, like someone had just pulled the plug on them.
“What did you do?!” Yui screamed. She lunged, crossing the distance in a blur of motion, hands reaching for my throat.
I barely managed to throw my arms up and catch her wrists. “Wait—! This has to be a mistake! She’s probably just sick or something!” My voice cracked with desperation. How could she possibly think that?
Yui thrashed against me with a fury I’d never seen from her before. Her whole body trembling as she tried to wrench free. I held on tighter, heart hammering so hard I could barely hear anything else.
Then Alice slowly turned to face us.
Her blouse hung open at the front, revealing her midsection—small, but with a clear, unmistakable bulge. My brain short-circuited. The gears in my head spun wildly, teeth grinding against nothing, refusing to catch. Everything around me seemed to freeze in place.
I stared at her face, searching desperately for any sign that this was some kind of sick joke.
Beside her, Haruka stood half-hidden in shadow, one hand clamped over her mouth. “Why… why… no… this can’t…” Her voice shattered into a broken whimper.
Alice drew in a slow, deep breath. Her expression was strangely calm, almost gentle. “Sorry, everyone. I guess we really messed up… but what’s done is done. We just couldn’t control ourselves.”
For a second, the room was dead silent.
Then both of my parents whipped around to face me at the same time.
“Iryoku!”
A sharp, stinging slap cracked across my left cheek, snapping my head to the side.
It wasn’t my parents.
Haruka was on me before I even registered she’d moved. Her eyes were wild, face twisted with betrayal. “We had an agreement!” she snarled, voice shaking with fury. “Why did you break it?! Why couldn’t you keep it in your pants, you goddamn delinquent?!”
Mio stood a few steps back, arms crossed. “I knew it. This guy’s been a creep since day one. Always staring at our chests, our legs… like we’re just meat.”
Reina’s voice sliced through the air. “He’s been a pervert from the very beginning. He probably pressured her into it. Our Alice has always been pure and innocent—she would never do something like this on her own.”
“No… we never had sex,” I said.
The words left my mouth, but the strength in my legs vanished at the same time. My knees buckled. My thoughts scattered—useless, frantic, refusing to form any kind of sense.
“Bastard!” Yui screamed, her voice raw.
She finally ripped her wrists free from my grip. Before I could react, her nails flashed across my face—four burning lines of fire tore across my cheek and jaw. I threw my arms up to shield myself, but she was already changing targets. Her knee shot upward, aiming straight for my groin.
“No—!”
I shoved her with everything I had.
Yui flew sideways and slammed into the floor. The impact knocked the breath out of her. Everyone gasped.
I stood there, chest heaving, ragged breaths tearing in and out of my lungs. Thin lines of fire blazed across my face where her nails had ripped the skin. A deep, cold pain spread through my chest—heavier than anything physical.
The twins didn’t hesitate.
Mio and Reina snatched whatever they could reach from the kitchen counter—a long kitchen knife, a heavy rolling pin, and a cast-iron frying pan—and began advancing on me with murder in their eyes.
I spun back toward Alice, still clinging to the desperate, stupid hope that this was all some twisted prank. “Please… Alice. Why?”
Her eyes narrowed, pupils blown wide, the corners of her mouth curling upward in a chilling, almost playful arc.
“Are you going to run from your responsibilities… Iryoku?” she cooed, her voice sickeningly sweet She gently rubbed her rounded belly. “From our cute little baby?”
My fists clenched so hard my knuckles turned bone-white. “But we never—We never did anything!”
She turned to the others, tilting her head with an innocence, her voice light and sing-song. “You know… we stopped at a hotel on the way here. Just a quick little detour before coming over.” She let out a soft breath. “He was so eager. Kept whispering, ‘Let’s have a quickie, just once,’ over and over. I tried to say no, but… he wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I had to go along with it.”
Her cheeks were still flushed pink, but a darker shadow had settled over her features—something cold and calculating that hadn’t been there before.
“Is that true, Iryoku?” Mom asked, her voice trembling with disbelief.
“Check his jacket,” Alice said calmly. “The proof is right there.”
Before I could even move, Dad stepped forward and grabbed my jacket. His hand dove into the pocket and pulled out a small, crumpled slip of paper.
Everyone crowded around him at once.
Fantasy Love Hotel
Room: 303
Theme: Standard
Time: 19:15
The paper trembled in Dad’s hand. The room went dead silent for half a second—then exploded.
“Iryoku…” Dad’s voice cracked as he rubbed his forehead like the weight of everything had just crashed down on him. “How could you do this? I’m… I’m so disappointed in you, son.”
My head shook from side to side, denial burning through every nerve.
“Man up already,” Dad pressed. “Why are you still lying to our faces?”
Mom had completely broken down, sobbing into her hands. “I didn’t raise you like this… I didn’t…”
Every pair of eyes in the room was locked on me—the Fushigi girls, all of them—teeth bared, ready to tear me apart.
“I didn’t do anything wrong!” I finally snapped, voice raw.
I spun on my heel and bolted for the front door.
“Wait, you motherfucker! Where the hell do you think you’re going?!” Yui roared so loud the windows rattled. Haruka was already charging right behind her.
I reached the door, hands shaking so badly I could barely grip the lock. My fingers felt numb, useless. Come on, come on—!
CRASH!
A heavy frying pan slammed into the door exactly where my head had been a second earlier. The impact rang through the wood like a gunshot. I jerked sideways as more projectiles came flying—a knife, a rolling pin, spoons and spatulas rained down around me.
“Don’t you dare run, you coward!” Yui’s face was completely unhinged, eyes wide and bloodshot, saliva frothing at the corners of her mouth. She gripped a kitchen knife. “Don’t you dare run from your responsibilities! From my dear Alice!!”
She lunged forward like a wild animal. “Be a fucking man for once in your goddamn life!”
Behind her, Haruka, Mio, and Reina rushed me as one—a single, furious pack closing in fast.
I finally yanked the door open and burst out into the pouring night.
I ran like my life depended on it—lungs burning, legs shaking so badly I could barely stay upright. Snot, sweat, and tears streamed down my face, mixing into a disgusting mess as I gasped for air. My heart hammered.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!” I screamed, the sound raw and broken, tearing out of my throat and vanishing into the night.
I didn’t know where I was going. I didn’t even know where I was anymore. Cold rain began to fall, heavy drops soaking through my clothes in seconds, plastering my hair to my forehead and blurring my vision.
The chasers were long gone.
I turned a sharp corner at full speed and—
CRASH.
I slammed straight into someone’s body. We both went down hard. Pain exploded through my knees as I hit the wet pavement. My palms scraped against the rough ground, stinging instantly.
“Shit…” I groaned, trying to push myself up.
The guy I’d crashed into sat up, rubbing his head. “Who the fuck—watch where the hell you’re going, you—!”
Then his eyes widened in recognition.
“It’s you.”
I scrambled to my feet, ready to keep running—
—but when I turned, a wall of muscle was already blocking my path.
A tight black tank top clung to his broad shoulders and thick chest. Loose sports pants hung low on his hips. Towering over me with a cocky smirk was Kenta—the third-year. That guy.
“Well, well…” he said, his voice low and amused. “Look who decided to show up.”
I didn’t care. I darted past them and kept sprinting. They didn’t even try to stop me.
Then I heard it.
“So he’s that cuck?”
The comment barely reached my ears—yet it still made me stop.
I skidded to a halt and spun around, my eyes bloodshot as I glared at them.
“You!”