"Kukuku, interesting", Haein said with the most cringy snigger I've heard since middle school days.
"Erm, you don't think it's a bit… bad?"
Just what's up with her this time?
"Not at all. I find the whole thing amusing"
What do you mean amusing… you can hardly hide your excitement.
"So yeah, basically the more 'evil deed' I do the stronger I become. Not sure how it can be effective because the Hell Beast is incomparably stronger but at least it's an interesting finding", I didn't quite tell her that my 'evil deed' involves actually killing people.
"Interesting, indeed"
"I'm glad you believed me straight away. The last few times it wasn't so easy to convince you"
"That's hard for me to imagine, but to know that there were 'me before me' who were all different makes me feel… powerful"
You are not the one with any power here but,
"Well, you are certainly an anomaly"
"I've known that all my life. This is just a final confirmation that I did not need"
This version of Haein was just chuuni as fuck.
"So… knowing what you know now. Do you have any idea what plans might work?"
"Hmm, let me think. Logically speaking, if you get more powerful the more evil things you do, then surely the goal should be to do more of what works, no?"
Well, she certainly has no problem with this.
"I suppose"
"So how may I help you, the evil one?"
Cringy. But maybe her warped mind could come up with something I had not thought of.
"What I'm thinking now is that you could be some kind of bait. The last time I encountered it we split to run away and it followed you instead of me"
"Risking my life to save the world, tsk! I guess I could do that although I'd rather watch it burn"
"Don't worry. If you survive long enough during our encounter, you will see plenty of disasters"
"Kukuku, excellent"
Her pretentious 'evilness' didn't quite match with her chomping on a cream cake like a child as we held our first talk in the Some Place cafe just outside the Yongsan Shopping Mall.
"So… I guess that's that for today. I will get some 'evil plans' ready and maybe get back to you in a few days", for some reason I wasn't that up for spending too much with this juvenile chuuni version of Haein.
"Not so fast, evil one", she halted me.
"Could you please not call me that…"
"Right then, Darling"
Who the fuck does she think she is?! Zero Two?
"That also sounds a bit weird"
"Nevertheless, DARLING, why would you leave? If you are about to make evil plans then surely you need my help. I'm an expert in this. I've lived my whole life making such plans"
Hm. She might be right.
"OK. So what's your genius idea?"
"How evil are we talking about?"
"I'd rather not go into that"
"I need to know the extent of evilness we need to aim for. Although I do not believe YOU would be ready for what I'm thinking"
"Oh, believe me. I've done far worse than what you think I might be capable of"
Yup, and one of those things was done to YOU.
"Kuku… can you, for example… kill someone?"
"Don't worry. I've done it before. A few times"
Haein was obviously shocked and tried her best not to show.
"Ex…excellent"
"So, I guess it's too much for you after all, eh?", I felt like teasing her a bit.
However, unexpectedly, the initial shock in her expression quickly faded and now she was looking extremely serious.
"Say, Darling"
"Don't call me that, please"
"If you have to kill someone anyway, I have a list of people that would be suitable candidates"
Now this was a shock to me.
"Why would you have such a list?"
"My old enemies… they are better off DEAD", there was a sudden anger in her voice.
This girl really meant it.
"I'm sorry, I don't think I can do that. I try not to kill people with 'reason'. That feels like a line I shouldn't cross"
"So you'd rather kill random people?"
"No, I don't want to kill people out of spite or anything like that. That would make me feel like I'm killing them for my own interest, not for the sake of stopping the apocalypse"
"But wouldn't it make you more evil, if you murdered people to serve your own interest?"
She had a point.
"But hang on, if I did… THAT to people you pick for me, that's not on me, but on you"
"I don't mind adding to my sins"
"Just what exactly have you done wrong that could be called 'sins'?"
I could hardly believe this self-absorbed chunii girl could have done anything serious outside of her so-called evil imagination.
"Do not ask any further, Darling. Your heart won't be able to take it"
Yeah, right…
":Sigh: I will consider. Why would you want to kill these people?"
"I have my reasons"
"I will only do it under two conditions. First, I want to know the reasons. Fine, it would make me more 'evil', but you are right. I'm not ready to do something THAT evil yet. I want to at least be motivated to do it. Although I said I've done it before, it's not as easy as you think to bear with the guilt"
"And second?"
"They have to be convenient targets and I need ways to get away with it. I can't stay in prison twiddling my thumb till the doom's day. I need to get things done"
"The second condition I can help with. I have a lot of possible plans for this I've already thought of"
"And how about the first?"
"These guys… and girls… are horrible. And they deserve to die"
"You want me to just take your word for it?"
"Yes, Darling"
"I don't like it. It makes me feel like I'm just gonna be a pawn to solve whatever petty grudge you may be holding"
"They are truly bad people. You won't feel bad at killing them at all"
"But if I kill those who deserve it, is that still evil? You are back paddling"
"They… :murmur:"
"Hm? What did you say?"
"They… bullied me… back in middle school"
For Christ's sake. So it was just a chuuni girl holding some grudge. Judging by how she was she probably thought 'giving me a funny look' was reason enough to hold a grudge.
"I'm not convinced"
"Come stand behind me"
Haein ordered with a resolute voice.
"Sure"
I did as I was told and once I stood right behind her, she unbuttoned the top two buttons of her shirt to make it loose and pulled the back of her shirt down a little so as to show me a pretty bad burn mark that ran along her spine.
"They did this to me"
Doing this to Haein's body?
Unforgivable.
"I will do it"