TBETW Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – Not Doing It

Main Story 1, Chapter 2, Part 3

Novel Title: 獣はかくして囚われる (The Beasts are Ensnared This Way)

Author：風結子 沙野 (Fuyuko Sano)

Illustrator：小山田 あみ (Oyamada Ami)

Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)

Protagonists: 鹿倉 陣也 (Kagura Jinya -MC) & ゼロ (Zero -ML)

*Please read at freenovels.net, the original site of translation. TQ*

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Kiriyama turned on the monitor on the wall, displaying a view of the rear captured from the rearview mirror.

“It looks like they’re trying to box us in.”

“I’ll call the police.”

“That won’t be necessary. Pull over to the shoulder.”

As instructed, the car slowed down and stopped, followed closely by a van that almost rear-ended them as it halted.

Seeing figures emerge from the van, Kagura reflexively started to rise from his seat.

A sharp knock on the window next to him startled him. Kiriyama extended his arm and pressed the switch, lowering the window.

Zero’s tense face came into view.

Through the contact of their shoulders, Kagura could sense Kiriyama’s faint shudder.

The sheer, overwhelming pressure both men exuded compressed the atmosphere of the space around them, making it almost suffocating.

“Hand him over.” Zero’s hoarse voice broke the silence. Kiriyama smirked, running his hand slowly over Kagura’s shoulder in a provoking manner.

“You speak as though he belongs to you.”

Zero furrowed his brow, his eyes narrowing into slits, resembling a beast about to pounce on its prey. “I don’t care who you are. If you interfere, I won’t hesitate to use any means necessary.” 

Kiriyama, uncharacteristically filled with aggression, lowered his voice. “Right back at you.”

Both men were outside the bounds of ordinary people.

If either willed it, they would unhesitatingly choose to erase the other from existence. Kagura, feeling the hair on his skin stand on end, realized this truth with clarity.

“Jinya.” Zero’s voice brought Kagura back to himself. He opened the rear door and stepped out. As he moved, Kiriyama grabbed his arm and whispered into his ear.

“Think carefully about what I told you.”

Shaking off Kiriyama’s grip, Kagura slammed the door shut behind him.

Even though it was late at night, they were in an area with some foot traffic. Kagura couldn’t just get into Zero’s car. Without exchanging any words, he left the scene.

Not long after, his phone buzzed with a message.

“Sakura.”

That single word was all it said. It was Zero’s directive to head straight to the specified apartment complex.

Kagura took the subway from the nearest station to Nakameguro. When he arrived, Zero was already there.

Zero sat deeply on the sofa, his face still contorted with an animalistic irritation.

“What were you doing with him? What did you talk about?”

Unable to bring himself to sit beside Zero, Kagura stood near the sofa and answered.

“He just gave me a warning.”

“What kind of warning?”

“…He told me I don’t deserve to step into your world as I am now.”

Clenching his fists, Kagura muttered, “I’m soft. I can’t make decisions without holding back.”

Zero’s lips relaxed slightly.

“Yeah, you’re soft. You didn’t let me kill Renjou.”

Even if the same situation repeated, Kagura knew he still wouldn’t let Zero kill Renjou. There was a line he simply couldn’t cross.

“If I don’t change, we can’t fight together.”

Zero’s dark, intense gaze bore into him before drifting into space as he spoke unrelatedly.

“I was a child who wasn’t supposed to exist. My mother told me to stay hidden from the world.”

As an unregistered child, his very existence had to remain a secret.

“But at night, I’d often sneak out. I’d run with all my might, hide when people were around, and in the darkness, I felt like I could exist. Like I could live.”

The vivid image of a young Zero running through the night filled Kagura’s mind.

“I don’t need light. Once I realized that, it felt easier.”

“Light…”

The words Zero once said came rushing back to Kagura.

“If a speck of light appears in a place of complete darkness, I’ll forever be ensnared by it.”

Zero had once told Kagura that he was that ‘speck of light’.

Standing from the sofa, Zero moved to stand directly in front of Kagura, cupping his temple with a firm hand.

“I don’t want you to come over to my side. …Maybe you’d find it easier if you did, though.”

As their lips pressed together heavily, Kagura recalled Kiriyama’s words in the back of his mind.

“Be conscious that you’re standing at a crossroads.”

To avert his eyes from hell, or to face it head-on?

“Conscience? What good does that do?”

Renjou’s words had been like blades.

“Will your conscience protect Renjou?”

The laughter of that beautiful yet ferocious man echoed in Kagura’s mind—a cry from one who had seen hell.

Kiriyama’s words intertwined with that mocking laughter.

“There are things that can only be protected by stepping back.”

If he blindly rushed forward, brandishing his ideals, only to self-destruct, that would be one thing.

But he mustn’t endanger Zero or Enwu because of his weakness.

“…!” A sharp pain in his lower lip brought Kagura back to the present.

Zero stepped back, gripping Kagura’s arm as he began to lead him toward the bedroom.

“I’ll make it so you can’t think about anything.”

Drowning in sex, Kagura could escape regret, guilt, and his own helplessness.

He had enclosed himself in that haze to flee.

When Zero’s hand was shaken off, he turned back with a puzzled expression.

“What’s wrong?”

Kagura looked at Zero once more, taking in the man before him.

This was a man who had stared directly into hell and still held onto his conscience.

And if necessary, he is prepared to cast aside his conscience.  

Without that resolve, he would never have been able to save or unite the unregistered children.  

―――My conscience is shallow.

Driven by an obsessive desire to save Haruka, all his actions had been for the sake of his own feelings.  

The haze around him had slightly cleared, revealing the pitiful contours of his true self.  

“I’m not doing it with you.”  

“…What do you mean?”  

A menacing pressure emanated from Zero.  

“Exactly what I said.”  

“Is there someone else?”  

“It’s not about that.”  

Zero grabbed his shoulder.  

“Would you do it with someone else, then?”  

“…”  

If it wasn’t with Zero, it wouldn’t be enough to drown in or serve as an escape.  

“If it’s with anyone else, it doesn’t matter whether I do it or not.”  

“I don’t get what you’re saying.”  

Even through the suit, Zero’s grip felt like the talons of a raptor sinking in, causing Kagura’s bones to creak audibly.  

Just the intensity of Zero’s emotions directed at him was enough to shroud Kagura’s mind in convenient fog once again.  

“I’m too dependent on you. If I don’t break away, I won’t even be able to fight.”  

Zero’s narrowed gaze gleamed coldly, with a dangerous light.  

That primal intensity triggered a wave of goosebumps.  

“So, you’re saying I’m in your way?”  

It felt as though a hand were tightening around his throat, suffocating him.  

“Hey, Jinya.”  

Zero’s voice, laced with a disarming sweetness, questioned him.  

“Have you forgotten? It’s already too late.”  

If he wanted to, Zero wouldn’t hesitate to act without regard for the means.  

He had the power and determination to handle someone like Kagura Jinya, a mere ‘Citizen’, however he pleased.  

“…As before, I’ll share any information necessary to take down Toono and the Eastern Alliance.”  

Kagura fixed his gaze on Zero, his eyes brimming with resolve.  

“Don’t forget what matters most.”  

Zero’s face twisted, as though struck by an unseen blow.  

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*Translator’s Note: Okay. We got one that can’t handle rejection haha. -K

Next update: 2025.11.22

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