Chapter 32 – Suzune ②
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On September 20th, the court held my retrial on the case of sexual assault. The things I admitted during the first trial four years ago were all true, but I hadn’t revealed everything.
Mom and Nagisa were sitting in the visitor’s gallery right now.
When I got back to my cell after meeting Yuuta-sama, the meeting, which had always been turned down so far, was permitted for some reason. Mom and Nagisa came to see me immediately. As soon as they entered the visitor’s room in the prison, they started to cry. There, I informed them about the possibility of my case being reopened at court.
However, I didn’t expect that it would happen so quickly. Apparently, Yuuta-sama’s wish gave it a strong push. Even during the retrial, Yuuta’s recount of the situation back then became the main subject. He told the judges all the details of what occurred back then. How he actively asked me to hug with him, how he reaffirmed me when I made sure with him whether it was really fine to go ahead with the hug, how he was happy to recall the kindness of his mother from being hugged by me from behind, how the movements of my hands gradually became more intense, how Yuuta-sama started to feel pleased by it, and how he gave his approval when I checked with him whether it was fine to continue.
After Yuuta-sama told his side of the story, I informed the judges about what I hadn’t mentioned four years ago. It was about my misunderstanding of Yuuta-sama’s approval―out of arousal―as consent for more, how my emotions immediately cooled down when Yuuta-sama told me that I was like his mother, and that I had misunderstood Yuuta-sama, who was merely seeking motherly love.
When I finished, Yuuta-sama addressed the judges once more. He told them why he sought a mother’s love. He also argued that he was heartbroken when he had to bid farewell to his mother before entering elementary school and that he always wanted to meet his mother.
It’s only natural for children to desire their mother’s love. We, women, can always live with our mothers. But men are forced to leave their mothers before entering elementary school.
But this was my trial, not a place to debate the rules about mothers and their sons in this society. It concluded in the morning. The prosecutor and my lawyer also participated, but they didn’t say much. Yuuta-sama and I were the ones addressing the presiding judge and his lay judges.
And then I would receive my judgment in the afternoon.
The fact that the whole process was carried out within one day was clear evidence of how special this retrial had been.
My Mom, Nagisa, and I had lunch together with Yuuta-sama and his party during the lunch break. Usually, it’d be unthinkable for the offender and victim to eat lunch together, but Yuuta-sama insisted on inviting us. He bowed his head and apologized to my Mom.
Mom and I were surprised and immediately asked him to raise his head. Nagisa also seemed to be very surprised. Learning about the actions of Yuuta-sama during the incident, she got pretty angry. So I gave her a stern warning not to stir things up with him, but when she saw him apologize and bow his head, she apparently had the wind taken out of her sails.
During the lunch break, Yuuta-sama told us that he wanted to support us in the future. My prison term would likely be set to end in the afternoon. More than four years have passed since my imprisonment, but we anticipated that the penal term for me would be set to four years. That meant I’d be able to go home to Yokohama together with Mom and Nagisa.
I intended to look for new work over there, but rumors have apparently spread, so it’s hard to tell whether I’ll be able to find a job.
Yuuta-sama proposed that we move to Makuhari and work there. He didn’t just mean me; he also meant my Mom and Nagisa. He offered to prepare a house for Mom and me as well as one for Nagisa. He even said he’d help us get a job.
As for the job place he had in mind, it’d be Dreamseducer Land, which had recently been constructed in Makuhari. I wasn’t aware of the thing called Succubus Suit, but Mom and Nagisa knew it. Nagisa apparently possessed one herself. But, for some reason, she emphasized that she hadn’t used it. She mumbled something about having bought it without knowing, or some such, but I couldn’t make head or tail of it.
Dreamseducer Land was scheduled to be opened in November. It sounded like we would be hired for clerical work at the operating company. That company in question belonged to the Yoshiwaras and was an incredible enterprise.
I considered this all a good deal, but I wanted to hear Mom and Nagisa’s thoughts on it, so the three of us took the liberty of moving to another room. When I asked the two about their opinions, both seemed positive about accepting the offer.
I think their lives in Yokohama have been difficult…sorry…it’s all because of me.
Once we got back to the room with Yuuta-sama and his party, we told him that we’d love to accept his proposal by all means. Yuuta happily smiled when hearing that.
In reality…Yuuta-sama hasn’t done anything to feel guilty about, so he doesn’t need to worry about me so much. But if it lightens his emotional burden somewhat, it makes me glad. And it’s a big help for us as well.
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The retrial resumed in the afternoon. The verdict was announced right at the start of the second session. My sentence was lowered from life imprisonment to four years of penal servitude. Since I have already finished that term, I’m a free woman now.
Hearing the judgment, Mom broke out in tears of joy. Nagisa also said that she could only feel really relieved when she heard the sentence out of the judge’s mouth. Yuuta-sama looked slightly irked about his crime not having been addressed at all. But that’s because Yuuta-sama hadn’t been accused of a crime in that incident.
As the retrial came to an end and I prepared to go home, Yuuta-sama told me he wanted to speak with me alone, and we moved to another room. There, he bowed his head and apologized to me once more. I hurriedly bowed my head and apologized to him, telling him that I was the one at fault to begin with. After all, I did commit a crime because of my silly, shallow thinking back then. Both of us repeatedly bowing at each other was slightly funny, in a way.
After the apology battle ended, Yuuta smiled and asked me something, looking somewhat hesitant. He wanted to know whether I was planning to give birth once things calmed down a bit. I confirmed that.
To begin with, I had been scheduled for artificial insemination, and even now I wished to have my own child. Given that it’d be hard for me to become pregnant immediately after getting hired at Dreamseducer Land, I planned to wait for around three years. For caution’s sake, I was planning to redo the sperm compatibility examination. I don’t think it changed, but I’ve lost a lot of weight during those four years, so it’s become necessary to prepare my physical condition for the sake of artificial insemination.
Yuuta-sama told me that it’d be fine to give birth as soon as my physical condition allowed it, instead of waiting for three years. He apparently planned to shoulder my salary during the break from work.
I was unsure whether it’d be alright to receive so much from him, but since Yuuta-sama insisted on letting him do that, I decided to accept his goodwill gratefully.
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On the way back, Yuuta-sama’s party drove us back to Yokohama in their car. Tomorrow, someone from the Yoshiwaras will come to our home to talk with us about the future.
That evening, Nagisa, Mom, and I ate dinner together at the house where Mom has been living so far. It was very, very delicious. Mom and Nagisa cried while smiling brightly. Their days must have been quite painful after I was sent to prison. Even though Nagisa could have stopped all the pain and bitterness if only she had cut off her relationship with me. But always being accepted and loved by Mom and Nagisa made me feel truly exuberant.
I had committed a crime. That was an unshakable truth. I was a criminal. During the last four years, I offered prayers of atonement to Yuuta-sama every day. And today, my atonement ended, and I was allowed to start a new life.
When I realized as much, I ended up crying too. Or did I end up crying because Mom and Nagisa were crying so much? Ah…my tears simply won’t stop.
Those four years…they’ve been hard. I suffered over having caused grief to Yuuta-sama, Mom, and Nagisa. My days in prison as a sex offender against a man, who wasn’t permitted to meet anyone, were a harsh trial. They were painful, heartbreaking, and challenging, but as the fool who had committed the crime, I believed I wasn’t allowed to cry and thus locked up the bitter feelings in my heart. But the more I tried to seal them away, the bigger the pain became…resulting in me crying every night.
However, the tears now streaming down my cheeks aren’t painful. Those tears warm my heart as they run down while I’m smiling with Mom and Nagisa.
Aahh…I’m alive. I’m still alive. How…how blissful, that is…
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