I, Who Longs To Be A Dependent, Have Decided To Be Owned By A Yandere - Chapter 23

tln : long chapter, also end of Maria’s Arc

Yura and Maria’s Showdown

“…I finally remembered. The girl from that time.”

Minatsuki quietly muttered, releasing Kinugasa from her restraints.

“What a waste of ‘kindness from a junior’, how sad…”

“Eh?”

“If you’d checked the shoe locker, you’d know whether Akira-kun had come to school or not.”

Shocked, Kinugasa’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“You mean… you didn’t read the letter…?”

“No, I read it.”

“I picked it up from ‘inside the trash can’, painstakingly restoring it after it was torn to pieces! I even went to your house! It’s not like ‘You never came’ ~!”

Oh no, this is bad. I can feel a nasty turn of events brewing.

“What do you mean?”

“If you’re going to put a letter in, do it yourself.”

Sighing, Minatsuki shook her head.

“Did you think leaving it to a junior who was internally rebelling would lead to anything else?”

Standing up, Kinugasa staggered from the shock, dumbfounded with a black wig fallen.

“I… I mean, Maria… I… didn’t know she came to my house…!”

“Calm down, Yura. Cool down. I’ll buy you your favorite snack, up to 100 yen.”

Seemingly not listening, she began muttering curses while clutching her head.

“Fine!! I’ll buy you up to 150 yen!!”

“Onii-chan, I don’t think it’s about the price.”

You’re kidding, right?

“I’ve been betrayed… thought we were friends… a traitor… a purging… a purging!”

Reacting to Yura suddenly running off, I started chasing her at full speed, seeing an opportunity to escape the situation.

“Hey, Akira-kun.”

Minatsuki, easily keeping up with my sprint, smiled brightly.

“The one who put the letter in the trash can was that junior girl… so, who is the one who shredded the letter?”

“Minatsuki Yandere!!”

“Correct! I made sure you couldn’t read it, but you’re so perceptive, Akira-kun!”

Maybe she deserves a reward, like being submerged in a melting furnace.

“Hey, onii-chan, why bother? I don’t know the details, but she fell for you and self-destructed, right? Why does it have to be your fault?”

“Because it’s easier for me to be the bad guy!”

Thanks to that, I’m on a death probability increase campaign!!

Chasing after Kinugasa led me to a general residence where I had been tricked into coming by her.

“Why… why did you betray me…!”

“Ah, so it was you, a believer following me… I thought I’d seen you somewhere.”

Sitting leisurely, Maria faced Yura, poised as if she had expected this to happen.

“Kiriyama Akira, that guy―”

Maria, pretending to be a follower of the Akira religion, pierced me with a gaze filled with hatred.

“Because he’s trash!”

“Huh?”

Three overlapping responses, and there I was, defended yet probably doomed.

Exposed to the murderous intent from the three of us, Maria faltered.

“Whoa, whoa, let’s calm down.”

If anyone were to ‘explode’ just once, it would be goodbye then and there. It would be a problem if that happened, so I stepped forward to shield Maria.

“It’s my fault. She just created the opportunity, right?”

“Why are you stating the obvious!? It’s all your fault!!”

I swear, I’m gonna shut that mouth that’s making things worse with my fists!

“Do you not understand that Akira-kun did it with good intentions? He resolved Yura Kinugasa’s bullying with just 1000 yen and even introduced her to a friend. If the outcome was bad, is it Akira-kun’s fault? Are you stupid?”

How do you know the ins and outs of this situation so well?

“Even then, if she hadn’t done something to make me misunderstand–”

“Huh? The one who misinterpreted my brother’s good deed is you, right? In the first place, if you had properly delivered the letter, none of this would have happened, right? Aren’t you just trying to shift the blame?”

It seems, we’re only on good terms at times like this.

“Yura-senpai! I thought about you and!!”

“No way that Maria would betray me… you’re, you’re a fake… you’re a fake Maria…!”

As if she’d had an agony, Yura froze in her tracks.

“If that’s the case, the day I was rejected by Akira-sama was…? That…? Maria did… that… something’s wrong…”

“Yura.”

As I called her name, she slowly turned towards me.

“I haven’t dumped you. And Maria hasn’t betrayed you either. She just wanted to help you, whom she adores, by continuing to follow me, someone she detests.

She’s your friend.”

“A-Akira sa――”

“It’s Akira-kun, right?”

For the first time in a while, I smiled without any ulterior motives.

“Let’s start over, your love… Confess, and I’ll respond.”

I’m dead! Definitely dead! Even if it’s self-inflicted, I’m dead! Maybe I should take Yura and run away from Minatsuki-san! Well, whatever happens, happens!

“Y-Yura-senpai…”

Yura’s cloudy eyes cleared, as if showing the misunderstanding was resolved, she looked at Maria with tears.

“Why… why have you stayed with me all this time…? What should I――”

“Isn’t it obvious!!”

With her face a mess of tears and snot, Maria shouted loudly.

“We’re friends, aren’t we!? The first person I felt I didn’t have to hide myself from, right!? Don’t you want them to be happy!? Don’t you want to be with them!? Is it wrong to think I love you!?”

“M-Maria…?”

Surely, for the first time, she called out to the ‘real friend Mariya’.

“Yes…!”

Maria held Yura firmly in her embrace.

“It’s Maria… Kinugasa Maria… Ah, I’m… the same Kinugasa Maria as your senior…!”

Tears moistened her face as she raised her head, beaming a bright smile.

“You finally looked my way, didn’t you?”

Having learned to “cry,” Kinugasa Yura embraced Maria with muffled sobs, clinging to her chest and shedding tears.

Minutes later, Yura, having ceased her tears, stood up briskly, capturing me with her intensely red eyes.

“Ah, Akira-kun, I, uh, want to talk with you alone…”

“Ah, I don’t mind.”

I held back the two who followed me as if they owned the place with both hands.

“Trust me. I’ll definitely come back (a blatant lie).”

“I like your kindness, Akira-kun… but don’t betray me, okay?”

It seems she’d chase me even into hell.

Following Yura, we walked to a desolate residential street, where she removed her black wig and smiled as Maria.

“I thought I’d say goodbye to Kiriyama.”

“Are you going to disappear?”

Her full-faced smile suggested it was the best course.

“Seeing as my Yandere Sensor didn’t react to you… you and Yura are practically different people, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Why do you need to disappear?”

“It’s fate.”

With a puzzled frown, Maria (Yura) chuckled softly.

“It’s thanks to Kiriyama. You brought the real Maria into reality, so the imaginary Maria is no longer needed.”

“If that’s the case, isn’t it my fault?”

“No, it’s different.”

With a serious expression, the imaginary her stared at me.

“She needed to reassess reality. That’s why I, along with the girl Maria, switched places with her and attempted to secure your heart through a self-made match pump. I knew that we could swap personalities with the removal and fitting of the black-haired wig.”

“So you thought that if your feelings for me were fulfilled, Yura would return to normal? For that, you made Maria simulate Yura, making it seem like there were two of them, then ‘change Yura to Maria’ after obtaining my heart through the self-made match pump.So, if you disappeared and took off the black-haired wig, all that would be left is the girl I fell in love with.”

“That’s right. But, it didn’t work out.”

Candy and whip – Maria is Candy, Yura is whip… She probably planned to corner me with Yura’s terror and capture me with Maria’s kindness.

“Placing hair and nails in Kirigaya’s shoe box was part of it… The black hair was a wig, and I was deceiving the nail length with artificial nails.”

“Then, your goal wasn’t my confinement, but—”

“To retrieve Yura’s heart.”

Under the clear blue sky, Maria laughed joyfully.

“Now that it’s been granted, there’s no need for the imaginary friend Maria . After all, there’s already a real friend, Maria-chan”

Whether she truly believes it or not, her expression shows not a trace of melancholy. It’s a lively smile, reminiscent of a cloudless sunny day.

“Hey.”

“What is it?”

“If I accepted your feelings of love, wouldn’t you be able to stay without having to disappear? Then you would become indispensable to Yura.”

“But then, Kiriyama would have to continue dealing with both Yura and Maria—”

“I’m a genie of the lamp.”

Maria opened her eyes wide in surprise.

“I’ll grant your wish—just one more.”

After a few seconds of hesitation, Maria smiled nostalgically.

“Please make her happy.”

You idiot…

“Kiriyama, you were awful,”

She gently kissed my cheek.

“But still, I had the greatest love for you, Kiriyama.”

Her expression vanished with those final words. Catching the collapsing Kinugasa who’d lost consciousness, I realized Maria was gone.

“If you don’t wish it,”

I looked up at the clear blue sky.

“I should have kept the wishes to two.”

The clear sky continued to project a beautiful blue, unaware that someone had disappeared from this world.

“Hey, Maria? Yeah, yeah… did it go well? Ah, I understand. You don’t have to thank me. All I did was provide ‘false information’ to Minatsuki through other teachers. I’m glad everything was settled safely. What? You’ve declared that teacher as a disciple of the Akira teachings?”

In an old cemetery integrated into the rural landscape, a woman in a suit was having a phone conversation.

“Well, I did instruct them to hide my existence… It can’t be helped. Clear up the misunderstanding later. I don’t think Kiriyama or Minatsuki will spread rumors, but just in case. Eh? You don’t want to talk to Kiriyama? What did he do to you?”

After the call ended, the woman lit a cigarette, drew the smoke deep into her lungs—realized something, and repositioned the phone to her ear facing the grave.

“It’s okay. I’m watching over that guy, Kiriyama Akira. Even closer than you think. Yeah, there’s no need to worry. He’s doing well.”

The woman casually tucked her phone away as if satisfied, and looked up at the sky with a lazy expression, cigarette in her mouth.

“Kiriyama.”

She followed the curling smoke with her gaze—in place of incense. The woman, known and admired as “Unya-sensei,” was absent-minded.

“I wonder what future you will choose?”

The purple smoke she exhaled danced momentarily in midair, then silently disappeared.

tln : Purple Smoke : Referring to the smoke from the woman’s cigarette, it is described as “purple smoke”, suggesting a poetic or stylized visualization.