Did You Even Ask for My Opinion?!

Why do you look so expectant??

Saber’s pleasantly surprised expression didn’t look like someone who had been threatened with a spanking, but rather like someone whose long-cherished dream was finally about to come true. She looked like a masochist who had just found her ideal sadist.

Yukino was momentarily speechless. She finally understood that Saber had long since discovered that there was a limit to human perversion, and now that she had already transcended humanity, she had no weaknesses! She had achieved a higher state of being!

Yukino helplessly gathered her black hair, reached out with a small hand that would look stunning holding a calligraphy brush, and pinched Saber’s waist with the precision of an acupuncturist, just as her ex-girlfriend used to do to her.

Seeing Saber’s eyebrows shoot up in pain, a satisfied Yukino turned and walked towards the room Saber had just pointed to.

We quickly followed, and under the guidance of the flashlight beams, we turned into the open doorway.

This room didn’t look much different from the one downstairs. It also had three iron bunk beds for six people. The only difference was that the long wooden table and chairs in the middle of the room were gone, obviously moved by the homeless man to block the stairs.

Having learned from experience, the three of them immediately pointed their flashlights at the trash can by the door. Sure enough, there were some bits and pieces inside. The most conspicuous was a piece of paper, and next to it were scattered many curved, dirty, flaky objects.

“What are these flaky things?” I was a bit confused. I filmed them with my phone’s camera, but even on the stream, it was impossible to tell what they were.

Everyone was curious about the true identity of these strange objects, but no one dared to reach in and pick one up to take a look.

“Sigh, it seems it’s up to me again.” The one who stepped forward was, unsurprisingly, the sole tough guy, Saber-chan.

She straightened her navy blue vest, squatted down, and reached her right hand into the trash can. But halfway there, she pulled it back. It seemed she had suddenly remembered that this was the same right hand that had just had intimate contact with Yukino’s small, elastic posterior. As the saying goes, the fragrance of a slapped butt lingers on the hand, and she couldn’t possibly defile that sacred fragrance.

So she pulled back her right hand and extended her less-fragrant left hand into the trash can, taking out a dirty, slightly curved, flaky object and placing it on her fair palm.

The lights and camera both focused on it. Up close, we could see that the flaky object was translucent and beige or yellowish. The dirty stains on its concave surface seemed to be dried blood.

“Is this…” A horrifying guess, like a mad ghost in the night, climbed into my mind. “…This isn’t a human fingernail, is it?!”

Not the crescent-shaped kind of nail you get from a normal nail clipper, but a nail that seemed to have been ripped out whole with pliers, from the root where it grew, from the flesh, and then thrown into this trash can.

I was so shocked I couldn’t even blink. I slowly moved my gaze from Saber’s fair palm to the trash can.

“One, two, three, four, five, six…”

I counted. Including the one in Saber’s hand, there were a total of twenty blood-stained fingernails, the number from a person’s hands and feet combined.

After recognizing what was in her palm, Saber’s arm couldn’t help but tremble. She quickly flipped her hand over, dropping the nail back into the trash can with a soft clink.

The moonlight and the darkness were both as cold as water.

Exusiai pushed back the bangs covering one of her eyes, staring at the cruel evidence in the trash can, her lips moving. “The girl captured by the homeless man… not only had her hair shaved, but all the nails on her hands and feet were pulled out??”

We were speechless for a moment.

If it was just shaving her hair, that would be relatively manageable. After all, shaving hair at least doesn’t cause pain or do any real physical harm. But to have her nails pulled out… this was already a very cruel form of torture.

According to our previous thinking, the purpose of a homeless man capturing and imprisoning a girl was obvious: to vent his own desires. This behavior was evil and despicable, but it was at least within the realm of human understanding. We could understand why he would do it. But now, this homeless man’s actions had crossed into the realm of the psychopathic, beyond the imagination of ordinary people. Why would he do this? Why torture this girl? Did he have a grudge against her? Or was it simply because he was a psychopath?

Yukino’s grave voice echoed in the silent, abandoned dormitory. “I think… the girl who was captured is probably already dead. That homeless man has very serious violent tendencies and is extremely cruel. He’s far more dangerous than we initially thought.”

“Let’s see what’s written on the note,” Saber said, taking a deep breath and mustering her courage again to reach into the trash can and take out the piece of paper.

Unfolding the crumpled paper, we saw that it was written in the same crazed, messy, and forceful handwriting as the previous note:

[I’m done for! I’m done for! I’m done for!!!]

I could feel the overwhelming despair coming from the note, a scream trapped in ink.

“This is really…” I straightened up, my lips moving, but I didn’t know what words to use to describe the horror.

Exusiai rubbed the back of my hand with her smooth thumb, comforting me, and also comforting herself.

Saber dropped the note, pushed herself up from her knees, and narrowed her intoxicating eyes. “Looking at it now, our main enemy is that homeless man we saw at the entrance. But he didn’t look very strong; he’s no match for me. When we run into him, just watch me perform!”

Yukino subconsciously nodded at her words, but then, as if she had suddenly remembered something, a tragic look appeared on her stunning, snow-woman-like face. She shook her head. “Don’t jump to conclusions. Trust me, from my life experience, if we jump to conclusions, we’ll all die miserably.”

Hearing Yukino’s words, I immediately understood what her “life experience” was referring to.

Yukino’s ex-girlfriend was very beautiful and had a very coquettish way of speaking, very good at acting cute. So someone had once advised Yukino, who was still a “he” at the time, “Bro, your girlfriend is such a flirt, you’d better keep a close eye on her. Don’t get cheated on without even knowing!”

Yukino was not happy to hear this at the time. “Hey, my girlfriend and I have already met each other’s parents. We’re just waiting to get married after we graduate and have our own income. Except for a marriage certificate, she’s already my wife, okay. If she were to cheat on me, I would, on the spot! Eat this table!!”

And the result? Didn’t she get played for a fool?

That was the consequence of jumping to conclusions and letting her guard down. As expected of Yukino, who had read many books and was very good at contemplating life, she could draw so many lessons from a single failed relationship.

I had just opened my mouth to say something when my vision suddenly went white, and I felt the familiar sensation of being pulled into another vision.