Chapter 1258: Akane’s Forced Anger

I met her eyes through the mask and spoke quietly.

"I think you deserve it more than me. With this... I don’t have to worry about you getting hurt. It can give me peace of mind, knowing you will not be in any danger."

Akane went completely still. A single tear slipped from the corner of her eye, then another, trailing down beneath the black mask and disappearing into the fabric. More followed, quiet and uncontrolled.

"...You..."

I stepped closer, reached up, and gently wiped the tears that had escaped with my thumb. My voice stayed soft.

"Don’t feel guilty about it, okay? I chose this. You didn’t force anything on me."

Her composure finally cracked. A soft sob broke from her throat. She didn’t push my hand away, but her shoulders trembled once under the black cloak.

"Tell me the truth," she said, voice unsteady. "Why are you so good to me? Just because I am Yuko’s master? Is that the only reason?"

I stayed quiet for a moment, reading the sharp, desperate thought that flashed through her mind.

[I need to know... I need the real answer, not the kind one.]

Then I answered.

"When I found out about you... I knew how good you were to Sister Yuko. Saving her. Teaching her. Giving her a home when she had nowhere else. I just wanted to help you."

I paused, then continued more quietly, holding her gaze through the mask.

"But when I met you... I don’t know how I fell in love with you. I really don’t. It wasn’t planned. I just can’t see you hurt in any way. I feel like I would die if something happened to you. That’s the truth."

Akane froze as if the air had been knocked from her lungs. Her fingers twitched at her sides.

Her thoughts exploded in a chaotic, heartbroken rush that she couldn’t contain.

[He... is confessing to me. He’s actually saying it out loud. What should I do? Reject him immediately? Get angry? Push him away hard enough that he never says it again? He already has a girlfriend... this is cheating. I’m the other woman even if I never asked for it.]

[But if I reject him right now, the look on his face... it will break his heart. I can already see it forming. Why does that hurt me so much? Why does the idea of hurting him make my chest ache like this?]

[Why am I getting flustered like this? My heart is beating too fast. No. I don’t love him. I don’t. I can’t. I don’t even like him... not even a bit. I’m just... surprised. That’s all it is. Surprise.]

I watched her carefully. Her eyes darted away, then back, then away again. A faint flush had risen under the edges of the mask. Her hands, still near my arms, trembled slightly.

Akane’s voice suddenly sharpened with forced anger, though it cracked on the first word.

"What nonsense are you speaking? I am your mother’s age. You haven’t even seen what I look like under this mask... and you already have a girlfriend. Do you hear yourself?"

She took a half-step back, though her body didn’t fully commit to the distance. Her voice rose again, trying to recover control.

"No—it is not a matter of whether you have a girlfriend or not. I don’t like you. Do you understand me? I don’t. If you gave me your ability just because of these... these feelings, then take it back. Right now. I never asked for it."

I let my expression fall, voice soft and deliberately wounded.

"I am sorry... I know I shouldn’t have feelings for you. I know it’s wrong. But I just... can’t control myself. I am sorry for being so disrespectful. I know it puts you in a difficult position, and that was never my intention."

Akane stared at the heartbroken look on my face. Her own heart twisted so painfully that another tear slipped free, then another. Fresh thoughts spilled through the link, rawer than before.

[I love him... damn it, I do love him. I’ve known it for a while, and I’ve been ignoring it every single day. Every time he almost dies, every time he looks at me like I’m the only one who matters, it gets harder to pretend. But he and I can never be together.]

[How will I face Yuko? Her little sister is his girlfriend. If she ever finds out that I... that I stole her sister’s boyfriend... she would never forgive me. I would never forgive myself.]

[Why did he have to say it out loud? Why couldn’t he just keep it to himself? Now I have to hurt him. There’s no other choice. I have to be the one who ends this before it destroys everything.]

"I know you don’t want to see me after this," I continued quietly. "Just accept this ability. This is my heart... for you. And I am sorry, Master Akane. Truly."

She stood there in silence for a long moment, tears still quietly soaking into the edge of her mask. The infinite healing factor hummed steadily inside her body like a second heartbeat she could no longer ignore. When she finally spoke again, her voice was low and strained, almost pleading.

"You can’t just say things like that to me. You can’t look at me with those eyes and expect me to... to simply accept it and stay quiet. I am not someone who can stand beside you openly. I am not someone who should even be having these thoughts in the first place."

Her hands curled into tight fists at her sides. She forced the next words out one by one.

"You already have someone. You have Yuko’s sister. And I... I am the one who is supposed to protect her, not the one who takes what belongs to her. So stop looking at me like that. Stop making me feel like this. Take the ability if you must—keep it, I don’t care—but don’t... don’t give me your heart. I can’t carry it. I don’t know how."

Even as she said the words, her thoughts betrayed her completely.

[I want to carry it. That’s the problem. I want to. And I hate myself for wanting it this much.]