Back To The Overworld  

By the time the four of us exited the Rathole, our minds were drained and our body ached for rest. Given the state of my bloody fingers that although felt much better, the horror of watching the nameless skin them to nerves and bones was making them jittery about senseless.

"We should all, just sleep for now," parting ways with Hibiki and Ifrit at the lower apartment floor, Mizuki and I headed over to our place.

Settling in, it didn't take us long to fall asleep. When we woke up next, it was already high morning and time to get ready for school once again. 

"What the hell?" While taking a bath, I noticed something scribbled by my ribs. Getting a closer look at it in the mirror, it turned out to be an inscription of some kind, the very same ilk which crawled all over Mizuki's skin.

Running my fingers over the mark, I felt a surge of clarity. The doubts, and the fears, were all drawn away; left in their place was sheer focus on my current objective and the willingness to do anything to achieve that end.

"You like my little gift?" The moment I came out of the bath, Mizuki was standing there by the exit with a snarky smile on her lips. "It should help you stay focused, if you want I can do a lot more than change your mood too. Not to mention we can use my ability to torment anyone you want as well."

Had those doubts still lingered, I would've been more reserved about the whole ordeal, however, after touching that symbol, I felt more than inclined to use any measure necessary.

"Very well, our first target is Miss Yuuko, how do you wanna torment her?" Drying myself off with a towel, I walked over to the bed where my clothes were laid out. "You said torturing humans is how we earn Malice, right? Maybe that'll be our chance to earn some Malice of our own instead of borrowing it from Hibiki."

Flying up beside me, Mizuki loomed right by my ears.

"She likes you already, doesn't she? A love meter rating of four, only four more and she'll be your bitch," having just the faintest clue where she was going, I kept getting dressed and let her lay out everything she had in mind. "Imagine how much of torture it'll be for her and Hero when she succumbs to your charm? All those negative emotions, all that energy it'll keep me fed for days, not to mention earn us enough scratch to buy whatever the hell we want from Rathole."

Reminded of the deranged place, the sights of many magical items, and weapons popped inside my mind. From what I knew, both Mizuki and I were cannon fodder without any means to protect ourselves, and if I wanted to change that, I needed to get myself some weapons that could harm demons and humans alike.

"Also, now that I have my baby back, all my tattoos are working as intended so I don't have to feed as much and waste precious Malice for my hunger," in essence, Malice was any form of negative energy drawn from human that can either be consumed by demons to keep themselves alive or turn it into Malice for exchange of goods and services.

"About what you mentioned before, being the lowest rank, even if we buy stuff won't your powers remain the same?" I asked, finally done dressing myself.

Flipping around in mid-air, Mizuki crossed her legs with her arms at the back of her head. Bobbing her head left to right, she hummed something to herself before replying to my question.

"The more I feed, the more powerful monsters I can draw powers from, however, ultimately you're right, we're still going to be small fries if we're going by pure strength alone," her response didn't exactly inspire confidence, but there was not much that can be done to alter the current situation.

'I suppose taking on Mikato's support might be crucial then.' Although I had no clue what she saw in me, I was hoping it was enough for her to provide us with gear and protection in case we needed it.

"Time to take down the first target," pushing that matter for later, I was off on my way to high school.

"What's the plan?" She asked, following me with her flight.

"I doubt Akane will show up to school today much like Sakura and Saki she must be sick after that memory alteration," shooting her a sideways glance, I hinted a warning to her. "Perhaps, be a little less destructive this time, okay?"

Shying her gaze away, she gave off an awkward smile. Turning to face me again, she held her hand forward and made the inkwell spider emerge out of her skin as if it were molten wax taking form.

"I have a catalyst to channel cosmic horror, not taking them on myself will make the whole deal a lot more stable," explaining that to me, she made it disappear by waving her hand over it. 

"I'm not risking it yet, we're gonna rely on plain old manipulation," going through everything in my mind, I let her peek in so the explanation wouldn't take as long.

The further I went with the idea in my head, the wider her eyes opened up. On its conclusion, however, her shock turned into pure maniacal amusement. Cackling to herself, she sounded like a witch.

"I'm so glad I chose a human as broken as you," uttering those words, she kept on laughing.

"I would've been glad if I had a choice," despite the insult, she didn't seem to mind it at the moment.

Meeting with Hibiki down the road, she told us she couldn't accompany us today since the person they hired wanted to meet with them to collect more information. Ideally from what Mizuki told me later on, nobody went through such deals without Mikato acting as an intermediary to avoid bothersome situations like mercenaries selling their client's information to their target for a higher sum of Malice.

"That's why everyone works for Mikato and does not just offer these services themselves, they know that if something goes wrong and a contract is broken, she'll make the breacher pay in blood," concluding her explanation with that, Mizuki only raised my concern for Hibiki some more.

'So Mikato offers jobs to her workers without letting them know who the client is, making sure the client can't be traced back. Then why did she not do the same for Hibiki?' The clarity given by the mark led me to only one plausible explanation.

"She doesn't care if Hibiki dies," Mizuki spoke my mind before I could even finish that thought. "Or she knows that we'll arrive at this conclusion and say yes to her offer to make every consecutive deal with her secure."

'Dammit…' She had us trapped from all sides.

"We'll check on Hibiki as soon as we're done with today's plans," putting a spring to my steps, I was ready to get things done as soon as possible.