Volume 1: So 'Kagerou' was sold into sexual slavery by his grandmother, while Kichou was in an abusive household before ending up at the brothel. Kagerou is very young and inexperienced in love and sex, whereas Kichou has already had multiple sexual partners before his mizuage (coming of age ceremony) and basically molests Kagerou here and there in secret, maybe in an attempt to get him used to it because he knows Kagerou will have a hard time when he has to start taking on clients.
This volume ends with >! Kichou forcefully taking Kagerou, Kagerou having his mizuage and Kichou instigating a rivalry with him to make him stay instead of being bought by the mizuage partner.
Volume 2: So if Kichou is >! a noble, could he buy Kagerou and then set him free? I guess it depends on if he thinks doing that or just continuing to save up money would be easier to deal with.
Volume 3: omg Kichou's wearing a yukata and has shorter hair in the illustrations at the front, he looks so good, so seems my guess might come true?
Why would Kichou having sex with Kagerou be considered a punishment by the higher ups?! They know Kichou took Kagerou's first time already and that they have ambiguous feelings for each other. Rape by one of the torturers would be a punishment.
I bet Kichou felt weird having shorter hair for the first time in years, and of course wearing a suit! Bet the pants felt stifling.
I know this is BL but they're prostitutes, wouldn't they know about lube?? Then again, this manga has self-lubricating assholes what did I expect.
Kichou: "Well, I might want to be on the receiving end one day." Ahh I want to see that!
I would have liked to have seen an epilogue later down the line where Kagerou has stepped out a little and found who he wants to be outside of what he was forced to be as a prostitute, like picking his own clothes, hair and work/hobby. And for Kichou to throw away the master/slave contract because that kind of gave me the ick, especially when Kichou was like 'dress up like a bride and I'll act like I'm assaulting you because I'm your master now'. Dude's kinky and I respect that, I just think it fits the theme of the story to drop the binding contract to really start their new lives together as equals. I would have loved to have see the two reclaim their real names. 😢
Overall my problems with the story weren't about the rape parts, if a story supports it enough I may hate it but it makes sense. My problems were all with how melodramatic it was. Kagerou was taken as a boy and forced to change so much about himself and then become a prostitute, I don't blame him for being as childish as he was when he could get away with it, I just didn't like it personally lol.
(It was never addressed what if anything happened between the guy who watched over them and Kichou, maybe I misunderstood though. 🤔)
Edit: Okay I just took a closer look on chil-chil and there are more entries in this universe in novel form! They focus on other characters, even Tamafuyou gets one, but Kichou and Kagerou appear or are mentioned in at least one of them.
CWs: Underage, sexual slavery, molestation, rape as the start of a relationship, rape+attempted murder/choking, torture (water torture, drugging, voyeurism)