Substitute Toyokawa Shoko, you can become stronger by breathing

Her brain was working rapidly.

Don't panic, absolutely don't panic...

She took a deep breath and tried to make her voice sound normal.

"Xiao Xiang, have you encountered something unhappy? That's why... you came to talk to me in this way?"

She tried to attribute the other party's "weird" behavior to some understandable "emotional loss of control."

Kujo Renji chuckled.

"Something unhappy?"

He spoke slowly, with a hint of a sigh in his tone:

"Well, maybe you could say that."

He paused, his amber eyes staring at Nagasaki Suye's face, which was a little pale due to nervousness, and his voice suddenly became a little low and meaningful.

"But, Su Shi, do you really think that I came to you tonight just to 'chat'?"

Nagasaki Suyo's heart sank suddenly!

That look didn't belong to the "Toyokawa Shoko" she knew!

She suddenly realized that her previous speculations about "monsters" and "ghosts" might not be completely groundless.

"Su Shi, haven't you been looking for 'me' all along?"

Upon hearing this, Nagasaki Suyo subconsciously wanted to refute.

Kujo Renji looked at her slightly opened red lips. He slowly, word by word, uttered the words that were enough to completely shatter Nagasaki Sushi's entire world -

"It's not... 'Toyokawa Shoko'..."

"It's 'I'."

"..."

Nagasaki Suyo only felt that her brain seemed to have completely stopped working at this moment!

She stared blankly at the "Toyokawa Shoko" across from her who was still smiling faintly. An extremely absurd thought, which she had to believe, like the most ferocious beast, slammed into her mind fiercely -

The person in front of me...

This "soul" that occupies the body of "Toyokawa Shoko"...

Could it be...

The one who should have been hit by a car and turned into a vegetable, should have "disappeared" from this world long ago

——Kujo Renji?

This name emerged in her mind.

She opened her mouth and wanted to say something, but found that her throat could not make any sound.

Nagasaki Suyo sat stiffly on the sofa, her hands tightly clenched on the clothes on her knees, her knuckles turning slightly white from the force.

She lowered her head, her hair covering her eyes, making it difficult to see her expression. But her slightly trembling shoulders and the way she almost curled up into a ball silently spoke of her inner fear and helplessness.

The words of "Toyokawa Shoko" - no, perhaps they should be called "Kujo Renji" - have shattered all her cognition and common sense.

Monster? Ghost?

Even more absurd and unbelievable than those.

One that was supposed to be long gone, had taken over the body of her best friend.

This kind of thing....

Nagasaki Suyo only felt that her brain was like a ball of tangled wool, and she couldn't make any sense of it at all.

She is afraid.

Feel the fear from the bottom of your heart.

Nagasaki Suyo, wanted to escape.

But for some reason, at this moment, the girl thought of her childhood.

......

When Ichinose Suyo was very young, her home was like a broken porcelain bowl that could never be put back together.

My father left, and left very quietly.

As for my mother, she is always busy. She is always in a hurry.

The girl knew that she was doing this for this family, for herself. But she still felt... empty.

That feeling was like playing hide-and-seek as a child. Everyone found their hiding place, but she was the only one standing there alone, not knowing where to go.

The families of the classmates at school seemed to be different from Su Shi's.

Their parents would attend parent-teacher conferences together and cheer them on at sports meets. Their lunch boxes were always filled with steaming hot bento boxes made by their mothers.

But in Sushi, most of the time it was just her mother who came, and her lunch box was often a cold sandwich bought from a convenience store.

It’s not that my mother is a bad person.

She is very nice, really very nice.

She would buy herself beautiful clothes, enroll me in various tutoring classes, and try her best to meet all my material needs. But it seems that what the girl wants is more than just these.

She can act coquettishly without restraint, can talk to others without any scruples, and can take the feeling of being hugged for granted.

She had only vaguely experienced that feeling when she was very young, and it had never happened again since then.

The girl often wondered if her father left because of me.

Is it because I'm... not good enough? Not obedient enough? Not brave enough?

If I had been a little braver at the beginning, could I have held his hand and not let him go?

If I could be a little more sensible, could this family have been prevented from breaking up?

These thoughts, like little bugs, always crawl out quietly in the dead of night and gnaw at the girl's heart.

She started to become very cautious. She was afraid of losing and being abandoned. She tried hard to be nice to everyone and make everyone like her.

She learned to read people's expressions and hide her true emotions, wrapping herself in a thick, gentle shell, thinking that this would make her safer.

She is afraid of losing.

She was afraid of losing everyone who was kind to her, just like she lost her father.

Just like...now.

Nagasaki Suyo slowly raised her head.

She looked at the "Shoko Toyokawa" opposite her who was still leaning leisurely on the sofa.

Yes, she was afraid.

Afraid of this "inhuman" existence in front of me.

Afraid of those bizarre possibilities that are full of unknowns and dangers.

but...

She was even more afraid that the real Xiangzi was in some unknown corner, suffering pain and despair alone.

She could no longer watch the important people disappear from her life like she did in the past, but was powerless to do anything.

She couldn't be a coward anymore.

I can no longer...pretend I know nothing.

An inexplicable courage, like a seed buried deep in her heart, quietly broke through the ground at this moment, grew rapidly, and dispelled the layers of fear and anxiety in her heart.

Concern for friends ultimately overcame the fear of the unknown.

Nagasaki Suyo took a deep breath, and the hands that had been trembling slightly due to fear, now unexpectedly stabilized.

"Xiao Xiang...the real Toyokawa Xiangzi..."

She paused, then asked clearly, word by word:

"Where is she...now?"

Nagasaki Motoyo's pair of blue eyes filled with moisture were fixed on the "Toyokawa Shoko" opposite her who still had a faint smile on her face.

Kujo Renji did not answer her question immediately, but stood up from the sofa leisurely.

"Miss Xiangzi..."

He paused, his voice calm as if he was stating a perfectly normal fact:

"She's fine, nothing happened. She just needs some quiet environment to rest well."

He turned around and looked directly into the girl's eyes with his amber eyes.

"So, you don't have to worry about her."

"Once I have achieved my goal, I will naturally leave."

"By then, 'Toyokawa Shoko' will still be the 'Toyokawa Shoko' you are familiar with."

When Nagasaki Suyo heard this, the huge stone that had been hanging high in his heart seemed to... fall a little.

However, immediately afterwards, Kujo Renji's words, which were somewhat meaningful, made her heart, which had just been relieved, rise again.

"but..."

Kujo Renji's gaze returned to Nagasaki Suyo's face, which was filled with tension and anxiety.

"I...do need some 'help' from you."

"help?"

Nagasaki Suyo repeated subconsciously:

"What...help?"

Kujo Renji did not answer directly, but walked slowly back to the coffee table.

He did not sit down, but leaned down slightly and took out something from the black backpack he brought with him, which seemed incompatible with the usual elegant style of "Toyokawa Shoko".

It was a... collar.

“Before that…”

Jiujo Liansi's voice was still as calm as ever:

"I need you... to verify your 'attitude'."

The moment Nagasaki Suyo's eyes touched the collar, her whole body was frozen in place as if she was under a spell.

Her cheeks suddenly turned red!

That red was not the light blush that comes when one is shy, but it was like being burned by fire, spreading from the ears to the neck, so hot that it almost bleeds!

Her breathing suddenly became rapid, her chest heaving violently, and her blue eyes, which always held a gentle smile, were now wide open, her pupils contracting violently due to shock and...an indescribable sense of shame.

She opened her lips slightly, wanting to say something, but found that her throat seemed to be blocked by something and she couldn't utter a word.

What...what is this?!

He...what does he want to do?!

Countless absurd, shameful, and blushing thoughts flooded into her mind.

Kujo Renji took in the look of Nagasaki Suyo, who was filled with shame and anger but dared not to show it due to some concerns. A hint of satisfaction flashed in his amber eyes, like a hunter admiring the prey caught in a trap.

He slowly and methodically placed the collar on the polished glass coffee table, making a crisp sound that was particularly harsh in the quiet living room.

Then, he raised his head, his eyes once again fixed on Nagasaki Suye's face, which was flushed red with shame and anger, and his tone was still so gentle:

"Ms. Nagasaki..."

He paused deliberately, and spoke slowly, word by word:

"You don't want anything to happen to Xiaoxiang, do you?"

PS: This chapter has 5,000 words.