Akane continued glancing over her shoulder as her tail waved in a relaxed pattern.
"Are you sure this is the right guy, Lady Natsuki? He looks so harmless. And look, he's already hurt! It wouldn't be fair to kill him right now."
Natsuki's eyes narrowed as she struggled to hold her temper.
"Akane, we told you..."
Shizuru casually stepped back into the courtyard and interrupted Natsuki in a delicate tone.
"With all due respect, Lady Natsuki, I feel she's is right. The prisoner is no danger to us. There's no reason to trample on Meister Akane's curiosity."
This resulted in an expression of surprise from the other four Columns. The five girls quickly gathered in a group and began speaking in hushed voices that Kazuya couldn't hear and Akane, even with her more sensitive ears, was too occupied in her study of the prisoner to notice. Nao had the first objection.
"Shizuru, I know you're having fun with this little experiment and all, but do I need to remind you we don't exactly know if the memory erasure is permanent?"
Shizuru calmly shrugged as she responded.
"And what if it isn't? Her GEM only has a provisional connection to mine. If her original personality returns and she becomes too feisty, we can just terminate the connection."
Mahya objected next.
"But Emperor Kazuya's ring is still bound to his body from Akane's original contract, so it can't be removed as long as he's alive. He might figure out he could just renew his contract with Akane. That would bypass our limit completely."
Shizuru grinned, not wavering from her position in the slightest.
"I've already defeated the poor girl once. She would never risk putting her precious emperor's life on the line again with the five of us constantly around her."
The four other Columns shook their heads in defeat. Natsuki glanced over at Akane, who had now taken to brushing her ear against Kazuya's shoulder and giggling, and waved her hand to signal the group to return to their original positions. She cleared her throat and spoke.
"Very well. Akane, take the prisoner to the guest quarters and treat his injuries. You can have guard duty tonight."
Akane listened to Natsuki attentively and nodded. She climbed to her feet and helped Kazuya back up before slowly guiding him toward Garderobe's bedrooms. Kazuya, completely puzzled by these events and dealing with a painful limp, remained mostly silent along the way.
Night had fallen, and Akane quietly paced through the hallway outside of Kazuya's bedroom. Her ears pointed back as she heard the young man's muffled voice through his door.
"Aka... Meister Akane, my shoulder is hurting again. I think my collarbone might be broken..."
Akane turned toward the voice and opened the door with a worried expression. Her worry quickly turned into surprise as she was roughly pulled into the room. Kazuya quietly closed the door after poking his head out to glance down the hallway, then guided Akane to sit beside him on his bed. He was still wearing his torn imperial trousers, but was otherwise naked except for various bandages placed on his body and face. He let out a soft groan and held his bandaged abdomen as he sat down, but seemed to be feigning his shoulder injury. He turned his head and his eyes peered into Akane's, but she only curiously blinked in return.
"They really did it, didn't they? You don't remember any of it, do you?"
Kazuya spoke in desperation, looking for the slightest hint of hope in Akane's expression. She appeared to have a wondering look in her eyes, but otherwise stared at Kazuya like he was a stranger as she responded.
"Remember what?"
Kazuya clenched his fists in anger. He had only one chance left, he thought, and all signs pointed to him being dead by the end of this no matter what he did. To Hell with it.
"You said I seemed familiar, right? I hope this sparks your memory..."
Kazuya reached out in a flash and grabbed the back of Akane's head to bring her lips to his. Akane initially squirmed in surprise and resistance, but quickly subsided and closed her eyes. Kazuya could feel a slight tingle under his nose as the girl again took in his scent as she did earlier that day.
Akane's eyes fluttered back open with a new awareness as she continued to be held in the kiss. Kazuya slowly let her go as he noticed this reaction, and her face filled with glee.
"Kazu, it's you..."
She remembered everything up until the moment Shizuru injected her with that shot, and then... her transformation. Akane quickly distanced herself from Kazu, raising her hands to her head to cover her ears and coiling her tail under her skirt.
"No! I must disgust you! I'm a freak!"
Kazuya reached out and slowly guided Akane's hands into her lap. Her tail re-emerged and began waving hypnotically as he did this.
"It's fine, Akane. Do you really think I'm going to hate you for something so simple?"
He reached back to the top of her head and ran his fingers across the soft black fur of her ears. This resulted in Akane closing her eyes and giving off a sigh of delight.
"Besides, you look cute with these."
Kazuya felt fully relieved as he continued to speak.
"Akane, let's get out of here. Everyone else is asleep. We can make it out of here and find somewhere to hide."
Akane responded with a worried look in her face.
"We can't do that. It would only be a matter of time before the Columns find us. We already tried living like that, and it only made things worse. If we stay here and listen to them, they won't hurt either of us."
Kazuya's voice became worried as well.
"They're afraid you're going to use your powers against them, aren't they?"
Akane shook her head.
"Not right now, at least. I Materialize through a connection to Meister Shizuru now, so they could disconnect me any time they wanted."
Kazuya looked toward his ringed hand as he spoke.
"I could try..."
Akane quickly placed her hand over his to bury the ring and interrupted his words, knowing exactly what he was going to say.
"Anything but that! I'd rather live as a prisoner than risk getting you killed again!"
Akane peered down into her lap and slowly came to the conclusion their bid for freedom was hopeless.
"Even if you didn't contract me again right now, I think they're afraid I might use the Pure Heart Malachite at SOME point. The Columns will never let me just run away like this, especially Meister Mahya. Let's just stay here and do what they tell us."
Kazuya had an idea. He slowly lifted his hand to Akane's chin and turned her head toward his.
"Akane, if I... decommissioned you tonight, and we just left the ring and GEM here, they would have no reason to chase us."
A deep blush appeared on Akane's face as she gave an expression of uncertainty. What Kazuya was alluding to was a possibility. An Otome typically retired through marriage and, subsequently, sexual intercourse with her husband. In this case, the protein in Kazuya's sperm would permanently disable the combat capabilities of Akane's nanomachines upon entering her body, and then both Akane's GEM and Kazuya's signet ring would be deactivated entirely and could be removed safely. However, Akane was still left with some doubts.
"What if that just makes the Columns angry? I wouldn't be able to protect you, and they could execute us both."
Kazuya only smiled in response.
"Mahya only found you the first time because of me, right? The Columns War has already voided my power as Emperor, so I'm certain they won't chase us again. This will work."
Akane stared downward nervously, conflicted by her options.
Go with Akane's plan: Go to Chapter 24
Go with Kazuya's plan: Go to Chapter 25