Aka's pupils shrunk to the size of a pin-sized hole as she almost screamed.
There was a fucking flower growing in her head! No, Aka knew it wasn't just any flower…
In a panic, she flung open a cabinet and grabbed a pair of scissors in the midst of knocking over a few bathroom products.
She hurriedly took hold of the scissors and prepared to cut with them, attempting to clip the stalk in half with full strength.
But just as she was about to slice this lotus in two, her fingers in the finger holes of the scissors stopped responding. No matter how much thought she put into pressing down on the scissors, her fingers stayed motionless.
"Human, I would not do such a stupid thing if I were you.", a voice rang out in Aka's head.
Hearing this foreign voice in her head, her worst thoughts had truly become reality.
She lost strength in her knees and dropped the scissors in her hand, falling and making a 'clang' sound. Her eyes watered as she was about to cry.
She had been infected by a blood path parasite. As soon as she realised that her body had already been taken over, her own life and death was no longer in her hands.
The speciality of blood path monsters was to manipulate the minds and bodies of living beings, whether it was their own or of others. Knowing this, it was extremely frightening when it comes to parasitic type monsters.
No other path of parasitic type monsters were as effective as the blood path ones.
These blood path parasites could, when they have infected their host, take absolute control over a person's thoughts and actions, making them their slave.
Evidenced by the fact that she couldn't cut off the parasite's exterior just now, her actions were blocked from hurting the parasite. Soon, her thoughts and actions would be taken over as she would, essentially, die, and replaced with the will of the parasite.
Aka couldn't believe herself. Why did she go after such a stupid lotus anyway? She never had even cared about things like rings and bracelets before!
A good smelling, unique red lotus amongst the rest, sightings of blood path monsters… It was a trap from the start, and she fell right into it!
Maybe, she could…
"Human, that plan will not work. I will fry your brain before you can get to the mages. Even if you scream, no one will save you in time.", the foreign voice, or rather the parasite, laughed.
The parasite had already infected her so deeply that it could hear her own thoughts. What was she supposed to do?
"You do not need to worry, human. If I wanted to, I could have taken control of you much before you realised my existence."
The parasite followed up with, "Let us return to the bedroom and have a civil chat between ourselves."
Aka was still slumped as she felt her heart racing. She had no choice but to comply.
She returned the scissors, unlit the lamps, and glanced in the mirror to realise that she looked like she had just aged 10 years.
Entering the bedroom with an emotion that was best described as 'scared shitless', Aka slowly closed the door and shakily sat on the bed.
"Wh- What do you want from me?", Aka thought to the parasitic monster.
"Human, you are quite interesting. I have taken a look at your unusual past this morning. The concept of living after death is much entertained among various races, but to think it was true."
"Listen to me, human. I believe what they call me on Earth is a 'symbiotic' parasite. That means you help me, and in return I help you. A mutual cooperation."
"Mutual… cooperation?", Aka was not in the greatest state of mind. Many of the parasite's words flew over her head. All she heard was 'help' and 'cooperation'.
The parasite sounded displeased at Aka's fear, "Human… I shall reduce the effect of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. One moment."
"Huh… Wait, what are you doing with my body??", Aka immediately felt more fear at the parasite messing about with her body, but a few moments later, she felt calmer.
She still felt some fear, but it no longer felt like she was about to die. It was like the difference of having a deadline for a 10 page essay in 2 hours and 2 days. The fight-or-flight in her was greatly weakened and was almost gone.
"I've worked with more complex beings before. The human neuronal structure is primitive compared to them.", the parasite bragged.
The human brain, or more specifically the central nervous system, was hardly understood when Aka left Earth. But this parasite was saying that it was primitive!
Now that she was able to think straight, Aka landed into an awkward position. Should she be thanking the parasite for calming her down or should she be even more fearful over the parasite's control?
"Neither, human. You should be taking in my words properly.", the parasite purposefully sounded annoyed.
"Now, human. I shall put the conditions of our cooperation into layman's terms. You must feed me blood. The higher quality the being's blood, the better. In exchange, I shall unlock your mana potential and improve your body's capabilities.", the parasite spoke slowly to let Aka take in the information.
Aka raised her brows, "I feed you blood for my magic potential? That's absurd! It is impossible to unlock magic potential after birth!", Aka denied this the most because internally, this was the benefit she wanted the most.
"Human, your own ignorance and lack of knowledge fails you. You do not know what magic is or where it comes from in the body. I can very easily open it right now, but I will not do so until enough blood has been fed to me."
Aka red eyes lit up. She was 99% convinced that the parasite was messing with her, and that it was impossible to gain magic after birth. But if it really were that 1%...
Although the words that the parasite had said were suspicious, they were also logically sound. If the parasite's intention was to take over her body and straight up kill her, it would not spare effort to mess with her like this.
"Indeed.", the parasite affirmed.
"As for why I'm not taking complete control over you to go and feed myself blood, as you're about to ask, is because it is unbeneficial for me to expend so much energy controlling a human body."
"Therefore, you are safe. I will not kill you, but you must feed me blood. I will serve to benefit you too. Again, this is our mutual cooperation, human."
Mental silence ensued for a few seconds as Aka lightly muttered, "Mutual... cooperation."
If she could gain the ability to use magic and become stronger…
If she could surpass her sister's, Ao's, ability and become even stronger…
If she could prove to herself that she could make the world quake under her feet and become even stronger…
Thoughts swirled in her head, as she saw a flickering light in the vast darkness.
The light suddenly went out from the lamp, as if it was extinguished from Aka's increasing aura.
"This damn parasite. It seems like God had not given me the gift of magic to encounter this! So be it.", she thought resolutely as her face was heavily blackened out, leaving only her red eyes in the dark. Her fear from before was long gone, and was replaced by a sense of aspiration and excitement.
"A being who controls all has planned this, is it? Then let him continue.", the parasite snarked.
Aka nodded as she asked, "Also, I can't just keep on calling you 'you' or 'parasite'. What is your name?"
"I don't have one, human. You can choose one.", the parasite was not bothered.
Aka lightly smiled as she declared,
"Then I will call you 'Red Lotus'."