Congratulations! The corruption of Zach's soul has reached 200%! He now accepts your complete domination of his very being! You can now begin giving him instructions and priming him to be (potentially) your very first minion! Now you just need to decide what you are going to do with him! And work out how to do it! Further rewards to follow!
The pounding of your head snaps you awake prematurely. This aching was somewhat familiar... Almost as though you are running on autopilot you climb out of bed and make your way out of the room. Something has changed... It's calling you, isn't it? Is this to do with Zach's soul? You can feel it now, it feels different. You instinctively understand that it is yours now! You'd feel elated about that, but right now you are finding it difficult to feel much of anything. Is this because of the Diary as well?
You fish it out and... FUCKING AGAIN! THIS FUCKER! The words once again emblazon themselves on the back of your head:
Impressive, it hasn't been very long but you've already obtained a willing soul. Let's hope you know of the value of what you have and don't squander it! You're progressing well but don't get too confident. The more prominent your powers the more likely you'll be detected while using them! Even though I say that, I'm inspired to reward your success! Try not to waste this! We'll talk more later! And you feel the Diary resonating with you...
God damn it! You look down at your arm. Another mark carved into your arm. Are they really necessary? These tattoos are so strange? There must be some sort of power at play here, hiding them from view. No one has noticed them, certainly. You cannot even remember them yourself most of the time. Not even Aria seemed to notice them. It makes sense, of course. These markings wouldn't exactly be subtle, and most demonic abilities are all about subtlety. You are fairly certain that 'item' everyone is looking for is the Diary. It would make sense, a powerful tool like this, left behind by the Demon Lord would certainly be craved by most of the less powerful in their society. All the more reason to keep it hidden from the others.
After the pain and weirdness subsides you go about your morning as normally as you can. Though your view of 'normality' is likely to be very warped now. Lucy is still upset over Sprinkles. Of course, it wouldn't be easy to get over it that soon, or this plan wouldn't work. You have your 'study session' with the three girls this evening, meaning you'll likely be returning the rabbit to your sister tomorrow. For now though both of your family members are too worked up to spend much time for you. As such your options for this morning slot are limited.
Gained 15 more malice! It will likely continue to trickle in throughout the day!
Having grown a bit tired of evil schemes, you decide to spend what is left of you morning adjusting yourself to this new world you are in. From what you can tell you that bitch had been tormenting you for almost sixty years! That's a lot of time, no wonder you are so messed up in the head. Was she trying to use pain to break your soul into a willing one? Did she even understand what that meant? Probably not... But thinking about her is just going to make you angry again, so you push those thoughts to the side.
Instead you decide to use your mother's computer. They have certainly gotten more sophisticated since your time. And what is this Intanet thingy? Wait, seriously! There's so much stuff here! It cannot all be on this computer's hard drive, right? Wait, you can use the Intanet to look up the Intanet, yes? Oh, it's 'Internet'. Great... Wait... Really? Elvis died in 1977? Fuuuuuuckk! That's the real evil here! Oh... that's what they meant when they were talking about Dirty Harry... Hmm... Hmm... Wow, these guys are assholes! Ah, you see, people can hide their identity on these things! Interesting...
You now know how to use a computer and (sort of) understand how the Internet works! More actions will now be available in the evening and nights!
Today you decide to lay off on using Corrupting Aura on your classmates, let them digest the effects of the previous day before you let them have anymore. You are trying to be careful, after all. But you haven't used your Aura on the girls yet, none of them are in your class so they haven't experienced it yet. As such it should be safe to 'prime' them for this evening to make things easier. Now you just need to decide how you want to influence the girls.
Class is as dull as ever. It's a struggle to remain awake. At least this afternoon you have P.E. It should be interesting, or at least more interesting than the rest of class. Your lunchtime should be a bit more interesting. It will unfortunately involve suffering under the effects of Sherry's crush for a bit longer, but what can you do? You wonder if using your Aura to enhance her feeling of affection for you would prevent you from taking any further damage from it. It might be worth experimenting with when you aren't on the clock. For now you'll just encourage them to be willing to obey your instructions. It should make them accept your Suggestions easier. Of course, if you'd opted for Suggestion Level 2 this would be much easier. Never mind, hindsight is 20/20 after all.
You are on your way out, same as yesterday when a voice calls out to you.
'Hey, on your way to the cafeteria again?' Roger comes up to you, 'mind if I come with? It feels like it's been a while since we hung out!' You shrug, if Roger joins you for lunch then he'll end up caught up in your Aura as well. Not that such a thing would be awful. It will be a different emotion than yesterday so it shouldn't impact him too badly, right? Then again, Roger was Zach's best friend before you took over his body. He's more likely to notice any major differences in your relationship. Would it be better for him to come, or not? But you don't have any reason to deny him, and saying no without a decent reason would be just as likely to worry him as anything else. So you allow him to accompany you.
'You've been seeing the girls a lot recently,' he asks you. You glance at him, but he doesn't look suspicious or upset, in fact he's beaming at you with a surprising amount of warmth. Considering the two of you were best friends before he was probably most affected by the Aura from yesterday. You shrug.
'I wanted help with my History,' you lie, 'you know I'd rather spend more time talking about cars and playing football with you guys. But mum's been getting more interested in my grades for some reason.' Roger nods.
'I did wonder why you are suddenly doing so well in class,' he comments. You eye him and his eyes widen in sudden alarm:
'I don't mean you were bad at it before,' he corrects, 'it's just...' he trails off. His reactions are interesting. You chuckle.
'Don't worry about it,' you tell him, 'I get it.' He smiles.
'That's good,' he replies, 'hey, you wanna come to my house sometime over the weekend? Mum's been talking about making more of those cookies you liked!' You take a moment to consider this. Zach has pretty good memories of Roger's mother. A friendly woman, she doted on Zach like she was his own son and would always bring them snacks and drinks. The last time Zach had finished she baked cookies shaped like mini race cars. Meaningless information right now, but it might be something you could take advantage of.
'Sure,' you reply, 'we can do a sleepover and stay up late playing games!' He grins.
'Cool,' he cheers, 'I'll let Mum know.' He holds out a fist and you bump it with yours. Then the two of you enter the cafeteria. It doesn't take long to find the girls.
You spend your lunchtime with the girls and Roger, making small talk while trying to work out exactly what kind of effect it was having. On Ami and Maria, the answer is not much effect at all. You barely notice any change at all with them. Roger and Sherry on the other hand become notably more attentive to your words. It makes sense, the two of them would be more susceptible to your abilities given their prior attitudes to you. Still, you'll likely have more time to work on the other two girls this evening. It might be a good idea to save up as much Mana as possible, just in case. You had been contemplating using a Suggestion on Ms Erikson again...
Speak of the devil, your teacher is alone in the classroom when you arrive. You only have a single class with her this afternoon while the rest of the time will be deticated to P.E. She looks up and frowns at you, likely still struggling with the effects of your power.
'Ah, Zachary,' she begins, 'is it time for class already? You've been doing very well recently, it's almost like...' she seems confused. Is this a good opportunity?
You currently have 40/50 Mana.
There are plenty of different ideas for messing with your teacher's head. But perhaps what you need the most right now, as far as she is concerned, is more time to work on her. Scraping together a few minutes here and there between classes isn't going to cut it. If you can get some private time with her then you can work on her further much easier. With the issue of gathering souls almost at hand you should have some more time for self indulgence. And what is the best way to convince a teacher to spend more time with a student? Teaching, of course! It sure helps that you are such a good student, doesn't it?
'Zachary seems bored in class, maybe I should give him some more advanced tutoring?' Is the Suggestion I implant in her head. Once again her serious expression falters for a moment as it takes root inside her head.
'Zachary,' she begins again, 'I cannot help but notice you've been doing well in class recently. Very well, in fact. I'm worried you might be finding the work too easy.' You pretend to look conflicted.
'Um, I guess,' you remark, noncommitally, 'I mean Mum got all serious about my grades all of a sudden, so I started putting more work in. Maybe I read a bit too much?' She nods.
'I did seem as though you were looking less interested.' You make as though you look embarrassed.
'I'm sorry!' you say, 'I really like school! All my friends are here and it's good to learn new things! It's just...' you pretend to be struggling with words. You are supposed to be seven after all. She seems to come to a decision as she watches you 'struggle.'
'If you are finding class too easy,' she suggests, 'then perhaps we should work on something a little more difficult. I'll check my schedule, perhaps we can work together on some more advanced work. You are a smart kid, and I'd like to see you do as well as you can.' You don't need to fake this next emotion.
'Really?' you say, 'that's really nice of you, Ms Erikson! Thank you ever so much! I'll need to talk to Mum, of course. But I'm sure she'll agree!' Your teacher nods, looking satisfied.
'Good,' she concludes, 'I'll let you know next week when we can meet up.' And with that your conversation is finished. Too easy, you are starting to get good at this.
You try to keep the smug expression off of your face during your class and try not to stare at Ms Erikson too closely. She for now isn't really regarding you any differently than usual. But that would sure change. For now you had your in with her. Now it is just a matter of time. She will be yours! You aren't even going to argue with yourself this time.
P.E is an interesting distraction from your thoughts as well as something of a wake up call. Your class is divided up between boys and girls and join up with the other class of your year. You spot Sherry's group and give them a quick wave. Sherry's face immediately goes red again. But you don't get to spend any more time with the girls, they are off to do something else while the boys play football.
The game is both a good indication of your current influence on your classmates and a good indication of your current physical condition. Without any Body upgrades at all you are still stuck in a seven year old's body and your Tier 2 Mind has finally fixed your brain's limiter. You are just as capable as a normal little boy, as in not very capable at all. And as much as you enjoy the exercise you cannot help but find yourself lacking. Fortunately, you aren't inept, Zach's muscle memory helps you make your way through the game without embarassing yourself.
The effect of your Aura certainly helps. The positive emotions your classmates feel for you allows you to essentially become the team leader. Your sharper mind allows you to coordinate your teammates far better than the rival class and in the end that is what leads to your success. And this same admiration leads your classmates to the conclusion that you are the one who is responsible for their success which reinforces that admiration. How wonderful! It sure is helpful when people indoctrinate themselves for you! Perhaps this is what it feels like to lead a cult?
Your mum is distracted when she picks you up. A quick question reveals that Lucy stayed at home today, still mourning the loss of her dear pet. You shouldn't need to let her stew for much longer, tomorrow evening should be long enough. For now you quickly change your clothes, make sure Sprinkles is well fed. You have a bit of time to check the Diary before you are due round Ami's house.
Thanks largely to your sister you currently have 153 Malice in Reserve. You only have one more Tier 1 ability you can purchase. Please note that, due to Insight you are now aware that you will require Level 1 Sleep in order to unlock access to the Tier 2 abilities Level 2 Sleep and Level 1 Trance
You decide to save your malice for now, at least until you've had a better chance to take advantage of your Insight to plan out exactly what you want most. On it's own Sleep isn't massively useful. You'll need to examine your other options before you know for sure what you want. Next you need to decide what Aura you are going to use while at Ami's house.
You aren't entirely satisfied with the effect your Aura had on Ami and Maria at lunch. Another dose will probably be necessary to make sure they are nice and pliable. Which leaves one final question. Are you really satisfied with just obtaining a few pairs of underwear? Sure that is important, if you don't pull this off and trade them for souls to fend off your boss you'll be back on that damned hook! But you'll be there for a good few hours, you reckon. That should give your Aura enough time to have a more substantial effect. Maybe not so much on the more resilient girls. You doubt you could make much progress with either of them.
But Sherry's a different story. She already likes you, that makes her easy prey. You just need to decide if you want to prey on her, and if so to what end? Then there's Ami's family, including an older sister who will hopefully be closer to your preferred age range. Would this not be a good chance to try and get to know her a little better? Or maybe you are spreading your net too wide. Perhaps you'd be better off maintaining a narrower focus for now. It's difficult to know for sure what the best way to proceed is. It might be worth some more in depth consideration.
Yes, a narrow focus is best, you should stick to the primary objective for now, anything else should be secondary. Besides, there's no way to know what is going to happen in the future. You could encounter misfortune at any moment. And if you die again basically all of your progress will be wasted. Until you can work out how to arrange to carry all of this over to your next life, of course.
So you'll focus on obtaining the panties you need. With your Aura you are fairly confident that it won't take much to achieve your goal as far as Sherry is concerned. And Ami, well it's her house, after all. You wouldn't need to take them from her personally, five minutes of time in her room will secure what you need. Maria will be the challenge, but even if you cannot procure hers you'll just take a pair of Lucy's instead. Thus you aren't worried about the task at hand. But it would still make sense to focus on clearing it first. Anything else you may or may not achieve can be addressed after you've already achieved your main goal.
Instead you focus inwardly, spending the last few minutes in the car examining the new information your latest ability imparted on you. It's certainly a lot, so many different abilities you can obtain. It's enough to make your head spin. Which ones leap out at you? Well Suggestion has provn to be your staple ability so far, so upgrading that will certainly be advantageous. You are getting some pretty good mileage out of Aura as well so upgrading that would be nice. But there are a bunch of others that you haven't even begun to explore yet.
Like Body, for instance, that's an entire third of available abilities you haven't touched yet. Though you have to admit the first few Body abilities don't sound all that fun. Probably useful, but they wouldn't really be all that helpful with your goals, except perhaps for making it easier for you to kill people. What Body likely will be good for will be for when you start gathering up subordinates. Being able to pass your learned enhancements onto your minions sounds like a great way to build up your powerbase! In no time at all you'd have a group of brawlers that would be able to go toe to toe with some of the best fighters this world will likely have to offer.
Of course, that will require you to actually have subordinates. Until then Mind and Soul have been doing well for you. You could always invest further in Mind. Trance sounds like it would be very useful. A pity it's only short term. But you could probably combine it with Suggestion, that would be a lot of fun. Although it looks like most of the juiciest meats will be in Soul. That makes sense, seeing as levelling up your Soul is the equivalent of notching up the difficulty. At the moment you are probably set to 'Easy' so going up to Stage 2 Soul would be increasing it to 'Normal.' And considering you died while playing on 'Very Easy'...
But there a number of useful Soul abilities that will help improve your possession and even allow you to use it of your own will, rather than leaving it up to the whims of fate. And then there are the Special options. Dream Prison, Puppetry, Summon Familiar, so many fun toys for you to play with. But many of them will be significant investments. It might be worth deciding what you really want the most and then planning how to get there step by step. And in order to do that you'll need a more reliable method for obtaining malice. Maybe you should ask Aria about it the next time you see her.
You arrive at Ami's house precisely on time. Good, punctuality is a good way to make first impressions. Ami's mother greets you at the door. Considering your previously determined goal you adopt a polite manner when speaking to her. You don't know very much about Ami's family situation but there's no need to go into that right now. You are waved into the house while the two women speak amongst themselves. Time to switch on your Aura. Maria greets you in the corridor:
'Hey Zach,' she says loudly, 'we are in here, come on!' With a smile you place a finger on her lips and she pulls a face and sticks her tongue out at you. You enter the living room. Yes, even though you were exactly on time you are the last one here. Is this a girl thing? Why do they always have to travel in packs?
You spend the first hour doing exactly what you said you are here for. You bring out your History project. It had been something Zach had been working on before you took over, research involving the ancient Egyptians. You'd taken it over and ammended it a little. Zach's project had originally been a naive criticism of their ruling system and the slave labour they famously relied on. You don't actually know all that much about Ancient Egypt. But you know that Zach didn't know much either, and likely neither do these seven year old girls.
So you've switched his childish report on it's head, instead singing praises about the pharoahs and their rule. You speak about the pharoah's power, mandated by God and that his subjects and subordinates believed him to be a vessel blessed by the Gods themselves. You comment on how it must be satisfying and liberating for the slaves to believe themselves to be working as part of a divine mandate, arguing that having such a strong sense of purpose is arguably more empowering than anything they'd be able to achieve while free. It probably isn't the sort of thing a small child would write, but even if you submit it as it is you doubt you'll get more than some raised eyebrows. As it is, it should be a good way to test your influence on your study partners.
Ami reads through it first, passing it round to the other two.
'It's quite detailed,' she remarks, 'you obviously put a lot of work into it.' You nod and smile, she's acting very neutral, seemingly avoiding discussing the subject material and talking about it's composition. Maria starts to snort and laugh.
'Seriously?' she splutters, 'you think they were happy to be slaves? Slaves are forced to do things they don't want to do and can't do what they want! It sounds really bad!' You pretend to be taking her silly opinion seriously.
'That does sound bad,' you reply, 'but your parents make you go to school when you don't want to, right? We have to obey the rules and can't do what we want. Isn't that bad?' Maria frowns:
'That's different,' she protests, 'our mums and dads love us and want us to be smart and successful. And we need to learn how to behave so...' She carries on in predictable ways for a while.
'That's fair enough,' you counter, 'but you can say the same about Egypt. The pharoahs are trained from a young age to rule the country, they know far more about how things should be run than regular people. And he or she has been tasked by God to look after the country. So the pharoah is basically just like the father or mother of the whole country. So of course the slaves should be happy to do as their told, right?' It isn't exactly difficult to run rings around these little girls with your warped logic. You are sure any adult would tear your flawed reasonings to shreds. But it's the reactions to it that matter right now.
Sherry is hanging on your words with wide eyes, you even see her nodding every now and then. Maria doesn't seem happy. She doesn't have the mental aptitude to rebuke your arguments but she doesn't like what you are saying and understands deep down that you are wrong. She's been oddly resistant to your power. It might be worth trying to find out why at some point. Ami is more difficult to read. She seems impressed by your reasoning but she doesn't take any side, making it difficult to determine exactly how obedient she's feeling right now. You could probably push her in the way you need, just as you did to get to where you are now, but at the same time you don't actually need to.
You continue your nice guy act. Inwardly your scheming begins. You immediately give up on Maria as a lost cause. You don't know how she's resisting you, maybe she just really doesn't like being told what to do. But it doesn't matter. It will be very difficult to get what you need out of her. Hell, she's even wearing jeans! What the crap? What seven year old girl likes to wear jeans? Nevermind! Maria is a mountain you aren't feeling brave enough to climb for now. Ami should be easier. You could simply loot her bedroom, but it might be more satisfying to work on her some more. Sherry will be easy, you just need to get her alone. Hell, you can probably just tell her to meet with you privately and she'll agree.
So you'll work on Ami first, engage her in conversation and see if you can find a thread to tug on that will tell you what you need to crack her.
You spend another half an hour of conversation with the three trying to subtly find our what you can about your host. Your conclusion is that Amisandra DeLacey really, really doesn't like talking about herself. Even with your Aura affecting her she politely resists all your efforts to draw her into casual conversation about herself, seemingly far more interested in the study session. Added to this you have Maria running interference, chatting almost constantly about nonsense, and trying to draw your attention back to Sherry. The blonde girl at this point has given up on trying to hide her nerves or embarrassment and is now openly staring at you with a kind of wonder. You'll probably need to refrain from using Aura on her again for a while.
Fortunately, you receive assistance from a bizare source. Ami's mother had just brought us drinks and Maria is in the process of enthusiastically telling us an amusing story about her pet dog, Rust. Before she can reach the punch line another, clearly digruntled, figure appears in the doorway.
'Amisandraaaaaaaaa,' the newcomer drags out, tersely, 'what did I say before?' This must be Ami's older sister. She's much older than you assumed. Is this one of the reasons she doesn't like talking about her family? Ami's mother doesn't seem that old... Ami quickly gets to her feet.
'Sis, good afternoon,' she greets, 'I thought if we studied down here and kept quiet...' eyes drift towards Maria.
'What?' she protests, 'I'm not being that loud! We're all the way downstairs it can't be so bad!' Ami's sister regards Maria, her face betraying little.
'Your definition of loud and mind are clearly quite different then,' she comments, 'maybe if you kids were actually studying then there wouldn't be an issue.' Maria's face goes a little red and creases with anger. She stamps her foot on the ground.
'We were studying!' she yells, 'we only stopped for a moment! And what does it matter to you? Just 'cos you don't know how to have fun doesn't mean the rest of us need to be meanie, boring sticks in the mud!' Ami's sister sighs.
'This is why dealing with children is so tiring...' she mutters, more to herself than to your group. She fixes Ami with a stern gaze.
'Amisandra, try to keep your 'friends' under control, alright?' Ami simply nods, looking rather miserable.
'Yes, Sierra,' she replies, 'I'll make sure they keep it down.' Sierra takes another glance around the room, her expression cold and unfeeling. Then she nods once and departs, leaving Maria fuming behind her. Maria quickly grabs her juice and takes a drink.
'Ooooh that old witch, she really makes me mad! Argh!' She cries. She sits, slamming her glass down on the table. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, she slams it down too hard. The force causes the juice to leap out of the glass and splash across the table, coincidentally hitting Ami. Seeing an opportunity you leap to your feet, your face a picture of concern:
'Oh no!' you cry, 'we need to get that cleaned up, I'll grab some paper towels!' You quickly hurry away, trying to hide your triumphant smirk. You have a number of options now...
You aren't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Waiting any longer is likely to be ineffective anyway. You grab some paper towels and start to dab at Ami's clothes.
'Oh dear,' you say, 'it looks like the juice has soaked all the way through,' you insert a Suggestion into your words. Ami, suddenly embarrassed by you pawing at her belly and crotch doesn't resist your words, suddenly becoming even more embarrassed. She quickly leaves to change her clothes. Another Suggestion convinces a concerned and guilty Maria to go check on her. Leaving just you and Sherry. Perfect, it' time. Sherry is still standing by the tables, looking somewhat overwhelmed by the sudden situation. It doesn't even look like she's realised the two of you are left together now.
'Sherry,' you begin, immediately her eyes swivel to regard you, her face flushing. She really is cute. Not that the other two aren't cute as well, but maybe it's just something appealing about the quiet, shy girls. And there's just something about how the blush colours their faces to make them more appealing. If only they were older...
'Can you look the other way for a moment?' You ask her. She seems confused, but she's already turning around.
'That's great,' you continue, 'now could you put your hands on the wall please?' Again she does as you ask, though you doubt she understands why.
'Like this?' she asks, though she doesn't turn her head. Such a good little girl.
'That's really good,' you praise her, 'it might feel a bit odd but you are really helping me out here. Last one. I just need you to ignore my actions for a moment.' She actually shudders as your Suggestion takes hold of her. That's the first time you've seen that. But you don't want to push your luck. Someone could come in here at any moment. You step forward and lift up Sherry's skirt. Bunnies, how adorable, Lucy would be proud. You pause, seeing if Sherry reacts, but she doesn't so much as turn her head.
'Zach?' she asks, 'how much longer do I need to stay like this?' No reaction at all. You peel down her underwear and, lifting her foot, slip the item off her and into your pocket.
'That's fine,' you conclude, 'thank you ever so much. I just wanted to check something. How did that feel, doing as I ask?' She smiles at me.
'It felt a bit odd,' she admits, 'but not bad. More like, I wanted to do what you wanted. It made me happy to know that you liked it! Is that weird?' You smile your best smile at her, wondering how much further you could go...
You probably could go pretty far with Sherry at this point, but doing so right now in the middle of someone else's house is asking for trouble. Besides it won't be of much benefit to you at the moment. You need to finish what you came here for.
'No, that's fine, thanks Sherry,' you tell her, causing her to blush again, 'I actually need to go to the toilet, excuse me, please.' You leave Sherry in the living room and head upstairs. The sound of voices from the bathroom tells you where your targets are currently. You decide to hover by the door.
'I really am sorry,' Maria is saying.
'It's fine,' replies Ami, 'it's just a bit of juice, no problem.'
'Your sister really is so mean though!' Maria continues, 'we were just having a little bit of fun for a few minutes. Why does she always have to be so annoying!' Ami sighs, in a way similar to her sister.
'She's very busy,' she replies as though that explains everything.
'You are always doing that,' Maria yells, 'you always take her side! I'm your best friend, right! You should side with me sometimes? Right? She isn't even your real...'
'Maria!' Ami's voice suddenly becomes very sharp, cutting her friend off mid rant. 'That's enough. Can you go and fetch me a change of clothes?' You quickly make yourself scarce as a sulky Maria comes out of the bathroom, Ami's dirty clothes in her arms. You follow her to Ami's room and then wait for her to reemerge with some clean clothes. You duck into the room and find that Maria has just left Ami's dirty clothes lying on the bed. A small pair of purple panties lies pride of place on top. You quicly snatch them up and leave. Now you just need your sister's and you'll be golden.
After disabling your Aura and saying your polite goodbyes to Ami, her mother and the others, you leave with your spoils safe in your clutches. A car ride later and you are back at home. You pop in to see your sister and find she's still upset about Sprinkles. You'll give him back tomorrow, she's almost ready anyway. By way of demonstrating, after a bit of time cheering Lucy up you ask her if she'd give you her underwear. She blinks her big eyes up at you before removing them herself, handing them over to you. She doesn't understand why you want them, but you give her a hug and a pat on the head and that's enough to satisfy her.
As an afterthought you pilfer a pair of your mother's more mature underwear out of the laundry basket. Aria only wanted the three pairs but it couldn't hurt, right? You finished your homework at Ami's place so you don't need to worry about that. So the rest of the evening is uneventful. At least it seems that Elisa has given up questioning you over sleeping in her room. Now you just need to decide whose dreams you are going to meddle with. You decide to leave Lucy alone for now, she's already at a point where she'll pretty much follow any order you give her. Push her much further and people will start to notice the change. So then, who else can you work on?
Your mother's dreams at present are not particularly noteworthy. Mostly mundane or ludicruous matters that aren't really worth meddling with. Her concerns about Lucy are the most prominant issue at play here, but you aren't really sure how screwing with those emotions will aid you. Perhaps it might net you a bit more malice but nothing majorly noteworthy. So instead you try to guide Elisa's sleeping mind towards yourself, allowing you to have a look at how she views you.
With a bit of prompting you can have a look at how she currently sees you. Yes, she's concerned about how 'clingy' you've become all of a sudden and she's noticed a half dozen other small differences in your behaviour that might well pile up and lead to a more genuine worry. It doesn't seem too dangerous right now, but it might be worth nipping in the bud. Or maybe you'd be better off exacerbating her concerns, giving you more malice to feed off of. Perhaps it depends on what you actually want to do here, if you are given enough time to actually see your goals through to the end.
You spend some time trying to smooth over your mother's largely reasonable concerns. Fortunately she's a young mother and doesn't have a lot of friends in similar positions to her so it's fairly easy to convince her that issues like these are normal with a growing young boy. You even give her an urge to encourage you. She should be much more accepting of your 'clingy' behaviour now. You won't be able to test it yet, but you can at least enjoy snuggling up with her tonight, and probably as many more nights as you want. Lucy clings to you like a teddy bear and you stroke her hair, she's been a good source of malice but you'll need to find a new once at some point.
Tomorrow is Friday. One last day before the weekend. You should be glad you don't live in one of those countries that have schools on Saturdays. You really aren't sure how anyone can handle that! You can't even tolerate five! Maybe you should fake an illness tomorrow or try to find some other way to get out of going to school...
You decide against taking the day off of school. You don't really have that many options out on the street, after all. Most people, seeing a young child wondering the streets on his own would be quick to approach him, asking him where his parents are and the like. It's due to good intentions, but good intentions are the exact opposite of what you want at the moment. How much trouble would it be possible to get in over the weekend like this? Perhaps you actually do have more options during school. As frustrating as that is.
Your sleep is once again disturbed by a familiar pulse of magic. Is that Aria again, putting your family to sleep? You sit up in bed and glance over at the window, expecting to hear the rapping of Aria's crow form against the glass. Instead a small figure jumps up onto the bed, making you jump.
'Yeah, yeah,' the small creature says in a high, female mew, 'take a good look, yeah? I'm small and cute, totally adorable and not even remotely dangerous! Feel free to lower your guard as much as you want!' Having unlocked Insight you can accurately identify what this creature likely is.
'Nice to meet you,' you manage, 'shall I assume that you are Aria's familiar?' The creature cocks it's head as it regards you.
'Hmm?' it purrs, 'so you already know what I am? I guess you're less hopeless than we supposed!' You stare the creature down for a moment. Aria has evidently sent it here to finish your business. A bit of a surprise, and more than a bit irksome to think that she didn't consider it worth coming herself. Still you do feel more comfortble with this one, even if she's likely far more dangerous than she actually seems.
'You came here for the goods?' You ask, a little bit embarrassed to admit exactly what the 'goods' are. You may be an amoral individual but even you understand that using magical powers to steal young girls' underwear is pretty scummy and not something to be easily admitted to.
'Yeah,' it inclines it's head, 'that's right. Mistress wants panties. Hell if anyone knows why! But I wasn't summoned to ask stupid questions I don't want to know the answers to. So...' She shook her neck, drawing attention to the box hanging around her neck, 'you put them in this box and take out what's inside.' You nod and climb out of bed, fetching the underwear and laying them out on the bed.
'Three pairs,' the creature comments, 'and a spare, belonging to an older woman. Well I'll take them as well, but you should know what kind of person my Mistress is, right?' You shrug.
'I figured, why not?' you respond. It tries to imitate your gesture.
'Why not?' she mocks you, 'but you did what you needed to at least. Maybe this is the start of a beautiful friendship.' You duck to avoid the sarcasm being fired at you and instead deposit your ill gotten gains into the box. At the same time you retrieve what appears to be a small white sphere from inside the box. You can feel the power inside it. Yes, this thing is more than what it seems.
'As long as you aren't as dense as hell granite,' the familiar continues, 'you must have noticed that the souls you wanted are inside that sphere. You can keep that jewel, you probably don't have any other way of storing souls, after all.' You consider this. You have the Diary, an item that draws power from and grants power according to gathered souls. Surely it can store them as well? You've never actually had reason to try before. You look from the item in your hand to Aria's familiar.
'We finished now,' she asks, 'or did you want to hang out a bit more, paint our nails, watch some soaps. Things like that?' You restrain the urge to roll your eyes. Another winning personality you've encountered here. But she hasn't left yet. Maybe you could fire a question at her before she disappears.
'Before you leave,' you ask, 'you got any advice for gathering malice? It seems important and there doesn't seem to be much I can do in my current condition.' The creature stretches itself atop your mother's bed.
'Oh? Easy question. Lots of noobs struggle with malice,' She comments. 'Well isn't that a common human occurance? If you can't do something, get someone else to do it for you? It's not that difficult. Corruption and seduction is in a demon's very nature. If you can't get enough on your own get people to help you. Find a group of people, get in with them, get them into a position where they'll hang on your words and then 'direct' them.
'It's indirect malice so it isn't as potent as comitting misdeeds yourself, but even if it's only half as effective if someone else does it you only need three people working for you to make it worth while, yeah? Once you've got enough people commiting evil deeds on your behalf you can sit around jerking your pathetic little dick all day and you'd still be so deep in malice you'll be choking on it, ya? That should be enough to get you started at least, as far as free advice goes. You need anything more than that well, you'd be ready to fork something over! Well then, chow!' And with that she leaps off the bed and onto the floor. Except that she sinks through the floor and is quickly gone. Cheeky little shit!