The air in Mayume’s throne room was thick with enchantment, the violet nterns pulsing softly, their glow shifting like breathing embers. I sat at the base of her dais, my body still reeling from the sheer disparity in scale—she was a colossus, draped in liquid silk, reclining on a throne that was not stone, but a living thing pulsing with power beneath her form.

  Her violet eyes flickered as she studied me, head resting lightly against her fingers, her long nails tracing slow, absentminded patterns on the armrest.

  "You intrigue me, Jin."

  I exhaled sharply, my pulse still racing from the way she had effortlessly crushed Masanori and Rin moments before.

  "I’m honored," I muttered dryly.

  She chuckled, the sound like silk unraveling.

  "Flippant," she mused. "Even in my domain, you still act as though you are in control of your fate."

  I wasn’t, and we both knew it.

  "I’m just not interested in pying mind games with you."

  "Oh, but you already are," she purred, leaning forward slightly, the subtle shift in her massive form sending a ripple through the throne beneath her.

  "I have to wonder," she continued, idly studying her nails, "how someone like you ended up here… with a past so foreign, a connection to a goddess, and yet—"

  Her eyes narrowed slightly, her gaze flickering with something… curious.

  "There is something else, isn't there?"

  I stiffened.

  I didn’t know what she meant.

  But she did.

  She inhaled slowly, as if tasting the air.

  Then—her lips parted slightly.

  A slow breath, her eyes darkening, her pupils contracting just barely, like a predator who had just caught a scent.

  "How strange."

  She straightened, her fingers flexing once against the throne’s surface.

  "Something about you… doesn’t belong."

  I felt a cold weight settle in my gut.

  "No shit," I said, keeping my voice steady. "I’m from another world. Of course I don’t belong."

  "No, Jin."

  Her smile widened.

  "Not just your past."

  She leaned forward, looming above me, her shadow swallowing the entire space between us.

  "Your body… carries something it shouldn’t."

  Her fingers moved before I could react, her massive hand lifting gracefully, reaching toward me with a slow, deliberate elegance.

  And then—she touched me.

  Not with force, not with brutality, but with a single finger, pressing lightly against my colrbone.

  A strange pulse ran through my body—cold and foreign, yet deep, like something inside me responding without my consent.

  I flinched violently, gritting my teeth, my vision blurring for a second.

  Her eyes gleamed.

  "Oh," she murmured, and the satisfaction in her voice sent a bolt of unease through me.

  "There it is."

  I tried to pull away, but she moved faster, gripping my jaw with effortless ease, her fingers long and elegantly firm, keeping me in pce like I was a delicate piece of porcein she was inspecting.

  "This… is interesting," she whispered.

  Her grip tightened.

  I winced, my heartbeat spiking.

  "I need to see more."

  And before I could stop her—she moved.

  The Pain of Curiosity

  I didn’t have time to react before she shifted her hold, her long fingers curling with precision, pressing against the side of my ribs—and then—

  A sharp, piercing pain.

  A sudden burst of pressure, so precise it felt unnatural, and I bit back a choked sound as a thin stream of warmth trickled down my skin.

  She had drawn blood.

  Not in brutality—she could have ripped me apart in an instant if she had wanted to—but with surgical grace, extracting exactly what she needed with a motion so fluid, so controlled, it was like she had done this a thousand times before.

  I shuddered, my breath ragged.

  Mayume lifted her hand slowly, her long fingers now stained with crimson, watching as the blood dripped zily from her fingertips.

  Then—she brought it to her lips.

  I watched, horrified, as she pressed the tip of one bloodstained finger against her tongue, her eyes slipping shut for a brief second, tasting.

  And when she opened them again—

  I saw something new.

  Something sharp.

  Something hungry.

  "How fascinating," she whispered.

  My breath hitched.

  "You aren’t just a human from another world, Jin."

  She exhaled, tilting her head slightly, the very air warping around her as if her presence alone had bent the space itself.

  "Your blood carries something… foreign. Something that should not exist in this realm."

  I clenched my teeth. "You’re insane."

  "Perhaps," she admitted, still staring at her fingers, watching the blood smear against her skin.

  Then—she smiled.

  "But this changes everything."

  I forced myself to steady my breath, trying to ignore the lingering sting where she had drawn the blood from me.

  "What do you want from me?" I demanded.

  Mayume wiped the blood from her hand with a flick of her fingers, violet energy dispersing it like ink dissolving into water.

  "More," she said simply.

  Then—she leaned in closer, until her massive presence filled every inch of my vision.

  "You’re far more valuable than I thought."

  I swallowed hard.

  Because I knew, at that moment—

  I wasn’t just a prisoner anymore.

  I was something else entirely.

  And whatever Mayume had just discovered in my blood—

  She wasn’t going to let me go now.