(M) Chapter 33 – Embracing the Darkness
Chapter 5, Part 6
Novel Title: 融愛~Melt Down~ (Melted Love ~Melt Down~)
Author：風結子 沙野 (Fuyuko Sano)
Illustrator：雅良 水名瀬 (Masara Minase)
Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)
Protagonists: 葉越海理 (Yougoshi Kairi -MC), 葉越翼久 (Yougoshi Tasuku -ML)
*Please read at Novels Space.space, the original site of translation. TQ*
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At the blatantly needy gestures, Tasuku’s voice holds a touch of confusion. Yet his hips continue their relentless, tightening thrusts.
The white pulses are carved into him, thump after thump.
The darkness is being purged by Tasuku.
…By the same Tasuku who brought the darkness himself.
Kairi’s earliest memory is of darkness.
Tasuku was still a baby then, so he probably doesn’t remember any of it.
And Kairi himself was only around 4 years old when he experienced that darkness.
He was locked in a closet.
It was a dark space. Clawing at the unyielding door, his hoarse voice crying “Mom, let me out!” His father was far away, driving a truck for work. So he knew no one would come.
Kairi was curled up in a corner of the cramped space with his knees hugged to his chest. He was crying as he tried to protect himself from the darkness threatening to crush him.
And in that moment, he felt resentment for his little brother.
It was all Tasuku’s fault that he was trapped here.
Tasuku, with the concentrated energy of every single cell in his tiny body, would wail intensely. His eyes sparkled with interest at anything and everything, shoving random things into his mouth. The tissue box was always empty, its contents pulled out by Tasuku.
Caring for Tasuku alone already kept their mother fully occupied. She hardly paid any attention to Kairi. Though the adults often praise Kairi as a ‘good child’, their mother still sees him as a nuisance. She even locked him in the closet like this, while taking Tasuku out with her. It’s nighttime now, so they probably won’t be back until morning.
――I don’t need this, I don’t need any of this…just disappear…die!!
Kairi was startled by the heavy, dirty, black thing surging up from within him.
He hastily pressed a hand to his chest, where that feeling was coming from. But then he was even more surprised. Even though he was touching what should be his chest, he felt nothing. He couldn’t even tell where his hand was, where his body was…Straining his eyes, his form had dissolved into the darkness…
It was terrifying.
The terror wasn’t from the darkness of the closet.
It was from the endless darkness welling up from within him. His body and mind were filled with that darkness, merging with the outer darkness…until he disappeared completely. That was what he was so desperately afraid of.
“Help me…”
But who could help him?
Who could forgive this filthy heart of his?
“Someone, please… I’m sorry, I’m so sorry-“
――Forgive me.
Kairi’s existence had already begun to flow out into the darkness. The physical sensations were gone, his mind alone floated in the closet’s darkness. And even that was gradually dissolving into the blackness…
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Despite having feared the darkness so much, Kairi’s skin is now soft and relaxed. His breathing is also calm. If the reason he’s no longer afraid is because Tasuku is here with him, how wonderful that would be.
He wants his brother’s special affection. He wants it desperately.
In his eagerness to confirm his own importance, he’s done so many terrible things that his brother hated.
“Aniki……”
And afterwards, he always gets scared. Afraid that this time, he’ll be abandoned and left behind by his brother.
“I’m sorry.” His apologetic tone sounds a bit pathetic, even to himself.
“――No, I’m the one who was wrong.”
Kairi’s voice is almost inaudible.
“Tasuku, you could’ve hit me, you know.”
“Nah, I could never hit you. I was just so pissed that ‘that woman’ was hitting you. I even wished that ‘that woman’ would just die.”
“…”
Silence falls. He wonders if he’s offended Kairi by mentioning ‘that woman’. But it’s the truth, so there’s no helping it.
“I’ve always wanted just you, Aniki.”
He tightly embraces the darkness shaped like his brother.
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*Translator’s Note: I think the internal conflict is settled here. But they have external conflicts to deal with soon. Nothing too heavy though… -K
*GLOSSARY:
- Onii-san / Onii-chan / Nii-san / Nii-chan / Aniki = (Big/Elder) Brother
☝🏻I’ll be using these throughout my translation.
Illustration 8 (available on the blog)
Next update: 2025.01.28
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