The First Pawn Stationed
"This would be easier if I had my baby back, but…" Standing by Akane's body, Mizuki sunk her finger into her arm until a trail of blood seeped down her hand. "I guess we have no other choice yet."
Dipping her nail in Akane's blood, Mizuki drew a circle on her palm before tapping it lightly. Surging into Akane's body, the mana created a semi-transparent film of mist and cold. Slowly dissolving into her skin, the spell expelled steam through Akane's body as if it was purging out her very soul.
"Is she okay?" I asked, yet not willing to take Mizuki at her word, I walked closer to the body to check for myself.
"She should be fine, but-" Covering her mouth all of a sudden, Mizuki turned invisible without a warning.
Looking around I tried to find her, and even as I called for her through my mind no reply got back to me. Deciding to check on her later, I pressed my hand against Akane's forehead to check on her fever.
"It's…Gone?" Whatever it was that Mizuki did seemed to have worked just as she promised.
Turning around, I tried scanning the place for Mizuki, but she was still nowhere to be found.
"I feel like…Puking," turning visible again, however, she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and clamped on me like a spider. "Don't wake me up unless it's for food or either of us are dying."
With those words spoken, she drifted into dreams and snores. Although everything seemed to have resolved temporarily, there was still much left to do such as using the forged evidence to blackmail Hero's mom, not to mention the nurse was soon going to be there and talk my way out of this isn't going to be an easy task.
After a while, as she returned, however, instead of a frown she had an ecstatic smile. Almost as if she'd been to heaven and seen god himself. Since she didn't exactly seem mad at the moment, I assumed the two had a decent time despite my lie. Although, I wasn't gonna stick around and wait for that to change.
'Let's leave.' Saying that to the sleeping demon on my shoulder, I left the place before the nurse's mood changed even slightly.
Pushing the blackmail to tomorrow, I wandered around the school trying to figure out where Sakura was as she too had been a victim of memory alteration from Mizuki yet I haven't met her yet to discern her situation. Eventually, though, I came to learn from the cheerleading club that she hadn't come to school that day.
Hoping both she and Saki were okay, I waited around for the school day to end. On my way back home, I ran back into Hibiki not far out from the school gates. Joining her on the path, we only managed to reach a bit further until Mizuki woke up to the sight and leaped at Hibiki's demon.
"Oi, oi…" Stumbling closer to Ifrit the moment we were reunited, Mizuki grabbed him by the collar and struggled to pull his head closer. "Time to give us our share of Malice points."
"Remind me," grabbing Mizuki's hand, Ifrit shrugged it away from his collar. "For what do we owe you exactly?"
"Hibiki," instantly calling out to his master, I wanted to shut this down before things escalated. "I think we both know it's better not to draw this out."
Snatching Mizuki away from Ifrit, I awaited her answer. After a moment's pause, she reached eyed Ifrit and then gave him an assuring gesture.
"We're allies, remember?" She said, and for some reason, Ifrit's eyes lit up.
Instantly dropping all hostility, he reached for one of his red steaming horns and simply clipped it slightly off the top. Holding the piece of broken horn in front of Mizuki's eyes, he waited for her to take it off his hands. In the short time that Mizuki lunged at the piece, Ifrit's horn and demeanor reset back to their brittle honor.
"By the Mistress…Finally!" Drawing a contented deep breath, Mizuki cackled.
Reaching for between her breasts, she took out a broken heart pendant and simply laid the horn on top of it. Clutching both items within her grips, she fused them together with a slight burst of glistering dark mist slipping through her fingers. Opening up, the only thing left in her hand was the necklace as for the horn it was consumed till the last atom.
"That's…" Peering upwards, she raised her finger in front of her eyes and then began drawing something invisible through mid-air. "Twenty tho-TWENTY THOUSAND?! THAT INVISIBLE FUCKER HAD MORE THAN TWENTY THOUSAND MALICE?!"
Her screeching made all three of us cover our ears. As her voice died down I noticed her pouncing around like a kid who'd been given a new toy.
"Forty-two thousand to be exact, he probably robbed other people or perhaps he naturally collected Malice through making regular people's lives hell," Hibiki explained, trying to recover from the screeching by shaking her head.
"Oi oi, then where is the other one thousand? Why do you get the larger sum?" Mizuki complained, seeming full of energy all of a sudden.
"Stop complaining," I retorted, pulling her back once more.
"What the hell?!" Glaring at me, she gritted her fans.
"Just be grateful we got nearly half," I tried to explain.
"I don't care about nearly, I want more!" Her reply really made me wonder if I was willing to waste my trying to teach a demon about morals.
"We're going to the Rathole after a bath, you wanna join or just complain?" Breaking our quarrel, Hibiki took the heat off of Mizuki's head.
Shifting her attention back to her, Mizuki blinked a few times and as her expression mellowed out she nodded.
"About time I showed Akira what the Rathole is like, a little familiar company in that place might not hurt,'' as if she'd switched personalities, she seemed much more reasonable all of a sudden. "We'll both need to look out for any stalkers as well when we go in and get out so keep your eyes peeled, b.r.o.t.h.e.r.rrr!"
Saying that last part with emphasis while looking at Ifrit, she once again showed a flicker of her annoying personality.
'An excessively unlikeable succubus. I wonder if anyone who summoned her ever got a happy ending or just a mind-breaking session of verbal bdsm.' Blinding each other of our differences, the four of us finally made our way back to the apartment complex. On our way there, I kept an eye out for Hakumi on the same bridge, however, this time she wasn't there. 'I might have to keep an eye on her attendance…'