It was already the next day after I'd shaken hands with Mikato and agreed to a deal based on mutual benefits. Yet, having had her arm chopped off. Mizuki wasn't too pleased about the whole thing. While walking my way to school with Hibiki and Ifrit on my side as well, she kept growling one complaint after the other.
"I thought you were the one to suggest I do it at first, so what's your problem all of a sudden?" Tired of her complaints, I shrugged her off of my shoulders.
"That bitch's bitch cut my hand off and then the Nameless almost attached it backward!" She must've repeated the same line for the hundredth time today, but she obviously didn't care.
"For the love of god, Mizuki shut the fuck up!" My fists clenched tight, I stopped on my path to glare down at her. "What the hell do you want?! Always complaining about something or the other!"
A sudden whisper from the distant bystanders across the street reminded me that I wasn't alone. Looking across the path, I noticed plenty of people staring at me confused as they probably wondered who I was talking to.
"Not today, just give me some space for once…" Pleading to her in a whisper, I resumed my walk to school once again.
But alas, I had a demon riding on my shoulder again in a matter of seconds. Ignoring her completely, I made my way to class as fast as I could. Before the first class even started, a trickle of rumors was passing from one ear to the next.
'Seems like recording Mizuki's torture of Yuuko was worthwhile after all.' Following the advice of the nightshade, I blurred out Yuuko's face in the recording and put it up on the internet via a private account with the simple username of 'A'. At first, the two of us were going to have Mizuki shapeshift as my old body but then we decided not to tow that line and instead went with my new frame. 'Thankfully I had enough scratch to buy a laptop to edit out our faces, but undeniably, Miss Yuuko's likeness to the woman would still be noticeable.'
"We dropped the video in our school groups too, too bad they got taken down so quickly," Mizuki whispered into my ears.
"How many fake accounts are you gonna need if you keep doing this?" Asked Hibiki, the one in charge of racking up fake accounts for whenever we need to drop those videos.
"A handful, I don't intend to do the same thing over and over," although now that I've seen those memories fed to Yuuko, my heart was slowly being swayed to push things further.
"You're not gonna have sex with her though, right?" Seeming indifferent, Hibiki tried to dig further.
"You should," floating off my shoulders, Mizuki moved to my side before adding. "Given our bond, you sleeping with that woman will allow me to grow stronger which in turn will expand your options."
"You're a pain enough as is, I can't imagine what you'd do if you were a lot stronger," though tempting, I would have to think about the proposition before deciding to commit to it. "Besides, I don't have a good history with women and their intimacy."
Reminded of my Aunt and what she did, I scowled with deep scorn and disgust. Perhaps some other time, but right now, I was not at all interested in a sexual conquest.
"Rise!" The command from the class rep had the whole class instinctively stand up.
Turning to the entrance, the nervous frame of Miss Yuuko waltzed into the class. Avoiding eye contact with everyone, she kept her head down while heading for her desk. Once behind it, she gulped deep enough to be visible before slowly lifting her angsty gaze.
"G-good morning!" She yelped as if trying to blurt out the words as quickly as possible.
Turning around without another word, she began scribbling away at the green board. Acting as if nothing at all had happened, she continued on with the lecture with a few quick glimpses at my face. From what I remember, she shouldn't have a clue about what really happened at the hotel, and those memories of me threatening her must've been erased.
Staring at her back for a while, I had her list of stats flashing before my eyes.
'Plus eight on the love meter; the most hated person is still Hero, as for the favorite.' Running my eyes down the list, I finally noticed my name. 'Seems like it worked.'
"Time to ensnare her further, to make that bitch of a son suffer from the rumors, ehehe!" Mizuki's chuckles into my ears just made me wanna punch her.
With how everything's going, it was quite clear that if I wanted to manipulate Yuuko I would have to get at least a little romantically involved. Then only can I push her further and learn anything and everything I can to reach Kimura.
'Kimura…' Reminded of that bastard, Hakumi's face flashed before me. She too seemed to have it out for Kimura, or at least seemed resentful against Matsuri who was closer to him than anyone else from her group. 'Then there's Sakura, I should probably go and check on Saki too.'
"Oi, it's lunchtime," tugging on my shirt, Hibiki pulled me out of my thoughts.
"Wh-what?" Shaking my head, I glanced around the glass only to find most of the students as well as the teacher missing. "How long was I out?"
"For a few hours, you seemed too lost in thought so I didn't disturb you," tugging at my shirt again, Hibiki directed her left hand's index towards my bag. "You got Miss Saki's lunchboxes again?"
"No, I don't why?" I asked, bemused.
Shaking her head and then shrugging her shoulders, she fanned her hand in front of me as if asking me to forget she never asked.
"Doesn't matter, I'll go now," grabbing Ifrit's hand, Hibiki was off on her search for her family like usual.
'Still no progress, huh?' Watching her storm off, I realize how little I truly knew about her. 'Maybe I should tag along with her next time to get to know her more.'
With that thought, I decided to meet up with Akane at her usual spot around recess.