I observe Setsuna, who after some time fell asleep with her body trembling from the cold. She seems so peaceful like this, you wouldn't even think she's willing to do anything to help her "sister".
'Tsk, she found out so quickly.' This is slightly irritating. I didn't imagine she would discover so quickly that I was affecting her mind. I disappear into a black mist, appearing on top of a building.
"Oh, Hexael, I thought you wouldn't come," a girl standing on the edge of the building says, looking at me as I appear out of nowhere.
"Pentael, of course I wouldn't miss this," I say, looking at her. She's a girl with long red hair and completely black eyes. She has medium-sized breasts and a curvy body.
She's currently wearing a cute little dress in white, black, and pink, as if trying to look cute, even though her eyes are too scary for her to be truly cute.
"Hexael, but if you're here, it's because something irritated you, did your ideas fail? Pfff hahaha, I bet you were too hasty again, huh?" She mocks me for past "mistakes".
"Haa... You're right," I was too hasty in trying to mess with Setsuna's head. She's different from normal humans, and I have to take that into account.
"You have so much interest in this person. Honestly, it makes me want to go after her to see why you find her so interesting."
"..."
"Hexael, don't look at me like that or I'll get scared!" Pentael says with irony and mockery, hugging me in an annoying way.
"I won't go after your protégé. She's yours, you found her, I'm just curious. You're usually not so hasty, even though you normally are hasty and a little impatient."
"Tell me what failed?" Pentael says, sitting on the edge of the building and placing me on her lap.
"Since we started our contract, I was messing with her head, but she noticed very quickly that I was intensifying negative tendencies to the extreme to make her kill people and lose the last bit of morality she has."
"Hmmm, uhuh, complicated. Why did you do it so quickly?"
"Besides, others are also curious about this undertaking of yours, after all, you even did the favor of giving that body to her," Pentael says, referring to the reason why the current Setsuna is a girl.
Of course, the fact that Setsuna has been transformed into a girl has a reason, and the reason is really very good.
"..."
"Hexael..." Pentael whispers, tilting her head down and covering the view of the surroundings with her hair, while looking at me with her empty black eyes.
"You're not trying to get ahead, are you? You don't want to be killed before your time, Number 6," she says in a disturbing tone, as everything seems to darken even more, leaving a spotlight on her eyes, which are like an abyss.
"Don't call me Number 6, or I'll start calling you Number 5, and I'm not trying to get ahead," we both dislike being called by numbers.
"Great, I'd hate to have to kill my cute kouhai. Don't forget you're the lowest in our ranking. If you step out of line, you'll be killed faster than you can imagine."
"..."
"Number 1 won't like at all to know that you're doing things behind our backs. You shouldn't have given the body of an angel to a human," Pentael says, knowing exactly that Setsuna's current body is the one of an angel we killed together.
The body of an Angel is a difficult find for several reasons, and even so, I spent one giving it to Setsuna. This can really cause me a lot of problems with the others.
After all, I should have delivered the body to Number 2 or Number 1, and not have kept it for myself and modified it to give to Setsuna.
"Don't worry, Pentael, I swear I'll be successful in my plans," I say to her confidently. I think the risks are worth it.
"Is it worth the risk?"
"Yes, I'm absolutely certain it's worth the risk. Setsuna is special."
"Special? To me, she just seems like a simple mentally ill human who loves another human madly."
"You wouldn't understand. None of you would understand," I make it clear that from Number 5 to Number 1, none of them would understand why Setsuna is special.
"So if this human is so special... why don't you tell Setsuna about the mortal weakness of her ability? Why don't you talk about the cause and effect?"
"..."
"Every time she goes back in time, the cause and effect increase based on her target. Every time she goes back in time to save her sister, the future will get worse, becoming more difficult, getting worse and worse."
"Why don't you tell her this fact? Why don't you inform her that her power will make her attempts even more difficult?"
Pentael ironically corners me in this situation.
"It doesn't matter, she'll find out on her own," I hate how Pentael has already informed herself so much about Setsuna. Pentael has such annoying abilities.
"Hexael, I really don't understand you. Honestly, you're so strange. Why can't you be more like Number 2 or Number 4?"
"I will never be like those ignorant fools."
"... You know best, Hexael, it's your life. But remember, not everything that glitters is gold," She makes it clear that Setsuna may disappoint me, but she's the one who doesn't understand.
I'm not a fool, I know very well what I'm putting my bets on, and Setsuna is the most suitable being I've encountered since I've been alive.
"Hahaha, Hexael, you're so crazy, you know? You say she's special, but you don't help her, you say she's not a failure in your plans, but you try to manipulate her head. You talk too much, you know? But where are the results?"
"Just because you're the youngest doesn't mean we'll go easy on your actions. If you fail whatever you're trying to do, Number 1 will come to collect, oh yes, and I'm sure he won't like it."
"You've already bet too much on this human, giving her the body of an angel. You know that just because you modified the angel's body a bit doesn't mean other angels won't notice that she resembles an angel too much."
"What will you do if your dear undertaker becomes a captive or, worse, is killed?"
"That won't happen. I have my methods, don't worry. Other angels won't be able to notice her body as something special, especially if they see Setsuna fighting."
I'm 99% sure other angels won't notice this.
Never would an angel consider Setsuna an equal if they saw how her magic is.
"Really? And why do you say that?"
"What's so special about the way that human fights?"
"Hihihihi, I can show you if you want, or better yet, I can make you experience directly on your skin what I mean," Pentael steps away from me, placing me on the building and looking at the moon.
"Show me, I'm curious why," Pentael says disbelievingly, but soon I'll perfectly show what would make Setsuna obviously not be identified as an angel, through a sample of Setsuna's liquid obsession that I barely managed to collect.
"... Is that it? This black goo is your big trump card? What's so special about it?" She says as the liquid corrodes the magic flask it's in. I simply hold the flask with my mouth and throw it at her.
"...Ghhgf..." She makes a strange sound as the flask melts and that dark mass falls on her body, dissolving her flesh.
"..."
"That's... disgusting," Pentael says as her leg quickly melts and falls off the building, falling down below. She doesn't care much about the lost leg, she can just replace it later or change bodies.
"Yes, it's really repulsive, something no angel could ever replicate in any way." If Pentael thinks this is "disgusting," then what would an angel think of it?
"There, what is this goo? Did that human create this?" Pentael questions, still not noticing what it is.
"Let's just say she created it, but not in an artificial way," I give an easy clue.
"... You're joking that this is her feelings?" Pentael asks, looking at me with an ironic smile.
"Of course, what else would it be?"
"Wow hahaha, this is what I call true madness. How serious is this feeling for it to be so repulsive? Is it hatred?" Obviously, Pentael doesn't know what feeling this is.
'It seems she hasn't investigated Setsuna that much after all. Looks like she's only investigated Setsuna's power.' This is good, I don't want her snooping around my things. She may know some things about Setsuna, but she doesn't understand Setsuna's essence.
"No, it's worse than hatred." Hatred has a limit, hatred ends when its source is destroyed, or it will just change target, possibly reducing drastically or disappearing over time. But obsession has no such limit. It's worse.
Although it's a rarer emotion than hatred, it can be greater than any existing hatred, and have a much worse area of effect than any hatred. I think even Setsuna herself doesn't realize how high her obsession really is.
Probably because she's mentally ill, so almost all her general emotions are repressed. This also makes her own obsession be repressed by her lack of feelings.
This liquid obsession she releases is just the feelings she's been holding back, and one day I'll make all this obsession come out, not just as projectiles, but as what it really is.
On that day, I wonder what will happen. The girl who, just by being manipulated by me, almost killed people for lacking most emotions, now having all her obsession unleashed I wonder what she'll become.
Setsuna is dangerous even to those she loves, but she doesn't realize it. Setsuna has the power to hurt and kill her "beloved" sister as much as she wants without consequences.
And one day, when her obsession explodes, she'll realize that too. Then I wonder, affection or obsession, which one will win? Now that Setsuna knows I'm affecting her mind, she'll avoid killing people as much as possible.
So I'll change my approach. I tried to corrupt her too quickly, and she noticed. So I'll corrupt her slowly. In the end, there's no one to stop me from drowning Setsuna in the ocean of obsession she hides.
"Worse than hatred? I have no idea what that could be." Pentael loses interest, she doesn't like guessing games much.
"You'll find out in the future if everything goes right. Just root for me." I say, not wanting to talk about it anymore.
"Of course, I'll always root for you as long as you don't step out of line. Then I'll let you fend for yourself." Pentael makes it clear she'll only be on my side as long as I don't screw up.
"I understand." I don't expect much support from them anyway.
"I'll stay here for the next few hours, I hope you can put up with me." I say playfully, to which she agrees with a smile. She likes to squeeze me because of my cat-like body, so she seems satisfied with my presence.