You are once again reluctant to wake up and greet the new day. You'd been sleep deprived for so long that your body seems to desperately want to catch up on it. But you cannot afford to give it that luxury, your time is too valuable at the moment. You blink and grow more aware of your surroundings. You're currently resting your head against your mother's chest while at the same time clutching your sister tightly to yours. Both of them slept through the insanity of last night, you are hoping whatever spell Aria used on them wears off shortly.
You cannot help but groan as your thoughts return to last night's conversation. Did all that really happen? You focus your concentration and yes, you can feel the connection now between you and Lucy. It's faint right now but it'll continue to grow. But what would you even do with Lucy's soul once you have it? You really have no idea right now. Best to push it to the side right now and reflect on your conversation some more.
Aria was surprisingly and suspiciously helpful considering. She provided you with a large amount of information about souls, about your surroundings and also gave you some insight into the demon world. She also gifted you a soul brand and gave you an opportunity to stave off your sadist bitch of a mistress, at least for now. Aria also happens to be a lolicon pervert who enjoys transforming young children into dolls and playing around with them. You cannot help but wonder if she was only so helpful to you because of your current form. How will she interact with you when you inevitably leave this body?
She's made you a challenge, obtain three pairs of panties from females of a similar age to you and promised you eight souls if you can pull them off. This means you'll need to interact with her at least once more, to collect your prize. Which leads to the question. Can she be trusted? Should you consider her a potential ally, a helpful acquantaince or someone better kept at arms length until her motives are made clear?
Can Aria be trusted? No way, you don't even trust yourself, how could you trust anyone else? And her answers to you last night, while useful, felt minimal. She was definitely holding back on you, stopping just short of giving you information that would be of real benefit to you. Almost certainly that was on purpose. She's put the bait on the line and now wants you to bite. So you'll have to be careful.
But as much as you may not like it she's much more knowledgeable and far more powerful than you. If you can get on her good side, without jeopardising yourself in the process, you'd be in a much better position. An image comes to you. Aria standing besides you, dressed in a maid outfit. Waiting on you hand and foot. Her face contorted in anger and frustration as she helplessly obeys your commands. How you'll enjoy toying with her until that angry face is transformed into one of absolute joy. Until it's her greatest pleasure to serve you! Yeah, you had to admit Aria was hot, in a crazy, more likely to gut you than kiss you, kind of way. But you are a long way away from being able to assert any kind of authority over her. Better shelve that idea for now, unless you want an easy way to obtain a new host...
You were busy spending time with your family last night so you didn't get your work done. You don't want to get in trouble at school, yet, so you hastily pull out your homework and quickly finish it. It really isn't difficult at all, though if you found yourself struggling with work meant for a seven year old you'd really feel like shit!
Homework finished you head to school with your family. A quick once over indicates that neither of them is any the worse for wear from last night, though you don't have the time to confirm it. Next you need to decide how you are going to spend your school day.
You decide on your strategy in the car. You'll use your new Corrupting Aura to influence your classmates and maybe even your teacher as well. While you are doing that you'll focus on class and try to impress everyone with your knowledge. If you become the class golden boy that would make it easier to get away with some more nefarious work afterwards. In that line you decide to make your aura inspire 'admiration' in the others. You doubt it'll have too much of an impact immediately but it'll work out eventually.
As for your challenge, you know a trio of friends who would work out perfect for your needs. Your sister is also a viable target, but obtaining her underwear will be a formality. You can leave that in reserve. You still have two more days before you need the souls, you can afford to spend today leaving the groundwork. Then tomorrow you can go in for the snatch. If you can set up some sort of study session with the girls tomorrow that would be ideal. Somewhere more private where you'd be unlikely to be interrupted. Now you just needed to decide if you'd leave your Aura on all day or use it just in class.
You aren't planning on using your Aura on Sherry and her friends. They should be friendly enough to you to that you won't need to. And you would rather not run the risk of affecting someone you don't intend to. It would be one thing for your classmates to admire you, if random kids that don't even know you suddenly started admiring you that would probably raise eyebrows.
So you'll play it safe and turn it off during lunch then back on again afterwards. That will only leave you with 10 Mana left to play with in the evening. Hopefully you wouldn't need to use many more Suggestions on Elisa to make her melleable to your wishes, whatever they may be. For now though it was time for class.
Class is as dull and simple as before. Your mind wonders inspite of yourself and a suggestion pops into your head. Likely it was one of the other parts of your mind. The suggestion is more of a vague image than anything else, and it takes you a moment to process it. Something about leaving Zach in charge while your mind busies itself with other matters. Is that even possible? You don't know enough about how all of this works.
What you do know is that your Aura is having something of an effect. Nothing major yet, but that's almost certainly to your advantage. You wouldn't want it to take effect too quickly, anyway. That would be more suspicions. Oddly enough, it seems to be affecting Ms Erikson a little bit more than the rest of your class, who are of course closer to you. Perhaps your Suggestion from the day before is lingering in her mind and has resurfaced due to your Aura. It's unfortunate that you are too busy right now, it would be interesting to see exactly how much your previous Suggestion is still affecting her.
But today you have more important matters, and you'd probably be busy tomorrow as well, unless you can arrange an evening meeting. You vacate class the moment the bell rings for lunch break, remembering to turn your Aura off as you leave the room. Today you'll just spend lunch chatting with the three girls and try to arrange some sort of study session for tomorrow, either at lunch or during the evening. Ideally you'd arrange for the three of them to visit you at your house, though likely it'd be easier to arrange for a meeting at one of their houses.
For now you need to find them. You'll approach Maria first, she seems to be encouraging Sherry's crush so she'll probably be happy to invite you to sit with the three of them. She'd probably be your best bet for arranging an evening study session as well, though of course meeting at school during lunch would be the easiest to arrange, even if it isn't preferable. You'd still need to decide what to aim for.
Of the three girls, Ami is the one you know the least. All of your memories have her hovering in the background while the other two do most of the talking. Sherry was the one with the crush, thus she'd likely be the least likely to allow you into her house. Maria was the one pushing Sherry, so she'd be more likely to accept. But Ami was the girl you know the least about. And you do need to get to know all three of them if you want to pull this off. The more information you have the easier it will be to word your Suggestions to be the most convincing.
Finding Maria is easy enough, and subtly encouraging an invite to eat with the three of them is equally easy. She seems even more excited than you are, it must be quite exciting for her. She even leads the way.
'Sherrrrrrry!' She greets, 'look who is here!' Sherry's face immediately goes very red and she averts her gaze. Ouch, you can already feel her emotions grinding away at you. You'll just have to endure it for now. Instead you focus on Ami, who greets you politely.
'Good afternoon Zach,' she greets you. You echo her greeting and make a point of sitting down next to her. Maria clucks her tongue at you, and tries to shuffle Sherry into the seat opposite you. Unsurprisingly, Sherry stubbornly refuses to be moved. Their banter gives you the opportunity to speak to Ami individually.
'I was wondering,' you begin, 'I'm having a little bit of trouble with my History project, I've heard that you are pretty good at History. Would you mind looking over it for me? We could make a study session out of it, all three of us!'
Ami's tone remains polite:
'I'm not sure I'm really that good at History, Zach,' she replies, 'but I don't mind having a look at your project with you. Though it can't really take place at my house. My older sister always gets upset when I have people in my room, she says it distracts her from her own studies.' You keep the smile on your face:
'There isn't anywhere else in the house we can study?' you push, 'we really wouldn't be that loud,' she still seems unconvinced.
'I believe that from you,' she continues, 'but Maria here, on the other hand...' Maria's ears perk up at the implication.
'Hey!' She protests, 'I am perfectly well behaved! Your sister is just too sensitive!' Ami frowns.
'You were yelling a lot though,' she comments. Maria remains unrepentant.
'Once! That happened one time! How many other times had I been round your house? She didn't complain any of those other times!' You let them talk amongst themselves. Trying to insert a Suggestion in this situation will be difficult, but you aren't sure how to make it work right now, anyway. Your first impulse is to play up whatever irritation Ami might have about her sister, but the more you listen to her conversation the more you think this would be a bad play. Ami doesn't sound resentful of her sister at all, instead she seems to be defending her. You should approach this from a different angle.
You raise your hands up, defensively.
'I'm sorry,' you tell them, 'I didn't mean to start an argument. Maybe we could study in the living room instead?' Ami considers this. This is probably your one and only chance. You'll need to be careful how you word this:
'We'll do our best to be quiet, it couldn't hurt if it's only for a little while, right?' You carefully insert your Suggestion into the tail end of what would otherwise be a perfectly reasonable question. It isn't going to be a strong Suggestion, but it is necessary. You are sitting at a table with two others, after all. You can't be too bold, without raising suspicion. Ami blinks, her eyes losing focus for a brief moment as your Suggestion hits her.
'Alright,' she relents, 'but you really do need to keep it down! Ok?' She looks back up at Maria and the argument begins again. You tune them out. You've gotten your permission, the rest isn't important. You just need a bit more time to work on them before you make your move. It might be a good idea to save your mana tomorrow as you'll likely need a lot of it to pull all of this off. You finish your lunch with the girls and say your goodbyes after making your arrangements. You've lost three malice! Love sure hurts sometimes! Current Malice Reserve now at 32
You reactivate your Aura and rejoin class. You really need to find a better way to spend this time. Still another couple of hours for everyone to soak in your Aura isn't a complete waste. Though if you want this to really take route you may need to keep this up for a few more days. You cannot help but notice the eyes that are looking at you now each time you raise your hand to answer a question. It feels pretty good, it's certainly the first time you can think of that you've been popular like this. You really could end up as the king of your whole class!
Another image assails you. You're still in the classroom. But it's your classroom. Ms Erickson is on her hands and knees in front of you, acting as your desk. Roger in a similar position underneath you. He's your designated chair for the morning. All the other students are listening to you with unwavering expressions, soaking your words in as though they are the only things that matter. On the board behind you are your instructions, the rules by which they'll be living by from now on. And you grin as they repeat the rules back to you in unison. This class is just the beginning...
Fuck, these damn images need to stop. They are getting weirder and weirder. Is this why all the other demons you've met are so fucked up?! Is it part of the territory to be a complete lunatic with no morals? Or is it simply because you were broken before and you continue to be broken? Either way you should try and do something about these other parts of you before they get impatient and start to influence your actions any more than they already have.
You are even more happy to hear the bell signalling the end of class. You make your way past your teacher on your way out. You notice in the corner of your eye she opens her mouth to call out to you, only to stop herself. It will be interesting to find out what she wanted to say, but you don't have time for it now. Time to head home.
In the car on the way home you consider your options. You eye your mother from the front passenger seat. You'd pushed her quite far last night. If you spent some more time with her this evening how much further could you go? She's bathed and slept with you and would hopefully continue to do so with a little encouragement. Would it be possible to push her to wear less in the house? Quite possibly. Would that be of any real help to you? Probably not. Pushing your mother into further depravity would be cool but it won't serve much of a purpose other than for your own sick enjoyment.
Instead you glance at your darling little sister, Lucy, in her booster seat at the back. She smiles at you, seemingly undisturbed by your new grasp on her immortal soul. Such a sweet little thing, perhaps you should spend the evening enjoying Aria's present. But again, is that really going to help you? According to Aria, a willing soul is very valuable. But you don't really have any way of making use of them, regardless of how valuable they are. If you have more abilities maybe that could change. For that you need malice.
A truly devious plan occurs to you. You've been bouncing ideas around in your head for the longest time. How to make a lot of malice quickly while keeping your own head down. Your options are limited in your current form. You are always either at school or at home. There are so many people at school that it would be difficult to get away with anything big. That left home. But how many truly malicious acts could you get away from at home? Short of killing one of Lucy's pets, and that makes even you wince.
But there is a way around it. Malice, as far as you understand it isn't so much about your own evil deeds, but people's reaction to them. You killing yourself the other day had been a complete accident, but it netted you far more malice than anything else you'd done so far. The reaction of your would be assailant had been far more important than the act itself. So then, so long as you get the right reaction, the actual action isn't important. Killing Lucy's pet rabbit would be awful. Only a true monster would do something like that. And that wasn't you. Yet, at least.
But what if you just led her to believe that her pet was dead? It could very well be a way to further her corruption and drastically increase your malice at the same time! You'd just need to move Sprinkles. Make out that he had died or gone missing and then hide him somewhere safe. Lucy and Elisa would think that something had happened to him and you'd comfort them, promising to find Lucy's pet for her. You'd leave her to stew for a day or two while you increased your hold over her.
Then, all of a sudden you retrieve Sprinkles from his hiding place and give him back. Lucy's gratitude to you for 'finding' him would give you a free pass to her soul. The only issue would be where to hide the rabbit while your plan is in effect. And even if it was fake, the pain Lucy would experience would be real, if it was only for a few days. Could you do it?
You decide that you'll fake Sprinkles 'going missing,' rather than 'dying.' It will be easier to fake and it will be easier to explain your recovery of the pet later. The rabbit usually lives in a hutch in the back garden. You just need a little bit of time to move him without being noticed. Without anywhere else to put him you'll have to leave him in your room. Rabbits don't make much noise, so as long as you can keep him in a box or something and make sure neither of your family members finds him ahead of time the plan should go swimmingly. Perhaps a Suggestion to Elisa to keep her out of your room just to make sure. You've got just enough Mana for it, after all. But first you need to make your move.
You go into the house first while your mother is still unloading your sister. From there you go straight to where she keeps the key to the rabbit hutch and then straight outside. Lucy usually goes up to her room first to deposit her outside teddy before coming out to get the rabbit. If you are fast enough you can make it seem as though he escaped while everyone was away. You open the rabbit hutch and fish Sprinkles out. While not as used to being manhandled by you as he is by Lucy he doesn't seem to mind you carrying him.
From there you head back into the kitchen and put the key to the hutch back in place before hiding. Elisa is in the living room, getting the television ready and a moment later Lucy comes hurrying past to get Sprinkles. As she enters the garden you dart out from your hiding place and make your way quietly up the stairs. Trying not to make a noise. Lucy's scream rings out next. Ever the devoting parent, your mother is quick to respond. You make yourself scarce as she hurries after her daughther.
You cannot help but frown as you enter your room. This doesn't sit well with you and that feels weird. You'd killed two people and then killed yourself. But moving this rabbit was making you feel actually bad. Perhaps it was indication that you've been stuck in your house for too long. A loving familial relationship isn't something you are familiar with. Doing something like this doesn't sit well with you. If anything you should finish corrupting your sister to get this feeling to go away. You'd never be able to complete your revenge if you got choked up on things like this. You'd likely need to do much worse things than this in the future.
You quickly empty out one of your toy boxes and empty Sprinkles into it. Then you pile some cushions on top to make sure he can't get out. Then it is just a case of coming running to the sound of your sister's scream and crying like a good brother would. You spend a good amount of time consoling Lucy and more time 'looking' for Sprinkles with the rest of your family. With no sign of him, obviously, you end up having to give up and return home. You spend the rest of the evening with Lucy, Elisa not leaving our side either. Though you do make sure to pretend to head to the toilet so you can bring Sprinkles some food to prevent him from getting upset and to make a more permanent arrangement for him. Oddly enough, he really doesn't seem that bothered by the change in his situation!
Your corruption of Lucy is now 50% She'll obey simple instructions from you without really understanding why, just that she loves and trusts her big brother and should do as she's told!
Your 'fake' evil deed has caused some serious distress! Plus 100 Malice from a child's loss of her pet and another 40 from a mother's distress at her child's misery. You now have 172 Malice in reserve!
You decide to take advantage of your new ability to manipulate someone's dreams. As to who you aren't exactly sure yet. At present you can likely only target your family or the residents of the houses on either side of yours. Assuming they are actually asleep. But first you need to decide where you are going to sleep. Though it would probably make sense to sleep in your own room to make sure Sprinkles doesn't actually escape, you really want to sleep in the same room as your mother again. And considering the state that Lucy is in right now it should be easy enough.
After giving both Elisa and Lucy a Suggestion to keep them out of your room you speak to your mother about sleeping in her bed again. Using Lucy as an excuse it's easy enough. Now you just need to decide who to use your new power on while they sleep.
You really aren't sure who you want to use the new power on. Using it on Elisa would make sense as it's likely going to be the best way to make serious adjustments to her right now. But targeting the neighbours also has a nice ring to it. Still, it might be worth just getting used to the power first. So that would mean using it on Lucy first. After all, she's already been corrupted to a certain extent so there likely won't be any serious repercussions if you fuck something up. So you decide to explore your darling little sister's dreams tonight.
You settle down with your mother and sister on either side of you, just like the night before and wait for the two of them to drift to sleep. Once you are convinced you are the last one awake you activate your new power and reach out towards your sister's dreams.
You aren't entirely surprised by what you see inside. She's having a nightmare about Sprinkles, of course she is. Another pang strikes your chest. You did this to her, after all. That's the only reason you even have this power. And now she isn't safe from you even here. But, this time you might actually be able to help her, right?
At the moment she's inside what you assume is her rabbit's empty cage. Except now it's as large as your house. Lucy is looking all around inside, trying to find her lost pet, crying and calling out to him and getting only the echo of her own voice in response. How miserable, but it should be easy to tweak this in away to make things better for you. Now you just need to decide where you want to push her. Do you want to come in like a white knight and make her see us as her saviour, elevate yourself in her mind above all others?
Or would it be better to push her into even further despair, farming her misery all the more at the risk of breaking her fragile little mind? Come to think of it, what even is your long time goal when it comes to Lucy? Are you corrupting her like this just because you can? You briefly remember that messed up vision you had of her as your adorable little pet. Is that actually what you want from her? Or are you still uncertain? It would probably be a good idea to get your priorities straight before you start tampering with Lucy's soul any further.
As much as tormenting the poor child would probably be the most efficient option, you are a little worried about how her mind will handle the pressure. If something breaks inside of her that could cause problems. And you want to keep your options with Lucy open, leaving her mind intact would be the best way of ensuring that.
So instead of pushing her further, you try to help Lucy relax. You stamp down on her misery and her fear and instead try to redirect her feelings back towards you. You lower the affection she holds towards her pet rabbit, and heighten the affection she feels for you. Her dream changes as an metal projection of you appears outside of the cage, calling to Lucy and asking for her to come out. And the moment she comes out of the cage the dream changes to her spending some quality time with her bruhba. Satisfied, for now, you ease back. Lucy's sleep is much more comfortable now. Soon enough she won't even care about her rabbit anymore. You'll be her entire world. Though you'll probably want to adjust Elisa first before then to prevent her from becoming suspicious.