You have to admit, you slept well last night! Sure, you now have a new objective in addition to your soul gathering mission, but this one might be possible to complete to your own benefit if you can manage it. With a Soul Contract in hand you have the power to completely bind someone else to your will. Find a way to force them to sign, corrupt them fully so that they are firmly your creature and maybe even fiddle with their soul a bit to make it more resistant to anyone else's tampering.

The big problem, will of course be that your boss expects you to hand the soul to her once you have it. No doubt she'll aim to put that person through the same ridiculous ordeal she put you through. But if you can fully corrupt said person first, and somehow convince her to hold off you could have a useful tool at your disposal. Or you could just form a quick deal with someone you hate or couldn't care less about, hand them over and just leave it at that. That would mean relying on your tormentor's better nature to obtain more favorable treatment moving forward. Assuming she even has a better nature, that is.

But at least it's an opportunity, one that shouldn't be too difficult to fulfil, at least to the minimum requirement your boss expects. Find some desperate shmuck, make them a promise you can reliably fulfill and get them to sign up. Anything you choose to do after that would only be a bonus. Though if you intend to make more use of the contract you'd be better doing it sooner rather than later to give you more time to work on your new colleague.

The Reality Notebook you received yesterday has the potential to assist you with that, should you choose. With limited pages and limited space per page it's important that you plan your uses for it carefully. Wouldn't be good to waste precious space for no reason. The way you see it the best ways to utilise the book would be to target the strongest opponents around you, or to target the less powerful but less easy to encounter targets. It could also be used to strengthen your allies if you ever get any worth improving.

While it would probably be easier to work on the less powerful targets, this notebook is really the only thing you have right now that stands a chance of working on your strongest rivals. The only problem is this True name requirement. As much as you'd love to fuck your boss up you have no idea what her actual name is, let alone her True name. The same goes true for most of the others. If you aren't careful you could end up blowing this opportunity and wasting your time.

Of all the individuals closest to you, Aria is likely the one you have the best chance of figuring out. You are unsure if 'Aria' is her true name, seeing as it was effectively assigned to her by The Conductor. But you still have access to her soul fragment and should be able to ask it for more information. And so that is exactly what you do. A quick Sleep on your mother in a safe place, followed by a Dream Invasion and you are back where you need to be. A bit expensive but hopefully you won't need too much mana today.

Your conversation with Aria's fragment is relatively brief. She reveals that her name before she was taken in by The Conductor was 'Lisana' but that only her mother called her that. Her father, who she was closest to at the time had a pet name for her that the fragment doesn't remember but it was always Aria's wish to be known as 'The Dollmaker' even if that name was taken by someone else. With so many different names it is tricky to decide exactly which one is the key to Aria's soul. And getting it wrong just once will lock you out from affecting her in the future. You'll need to plan your next move carefully. Or just say fuck it and jump in, there are plenty of other people you could work on. It doesn't have to be Aria! As much as you'd surely enjoy toying with her for a change!

You take some time to consider what you know about Aria. Always bored, always looking for entertainment. She likes to toy around with people, likes to ruin people's lives like it's just a game. She doesn't seem particularly attached to The Conductor so it is unlikely that she will be identify herself using the name he gave her. And her pet name could be anything so you'll have to dismiss that through sheer lack of information. So either her real name, or The Dollmaker. Without any knowledge that she was attached to her original name and with information that she did want to be referred to as The Dollmaker you decide to write that into the book as you picture Aria's image in your mind.

You strain as much as possible but the pen won't move, the ink isn't flowing and the name won't appear on the paper. It appears as though you were wrong. Fuck... As you think about it some more you remember that the times she seemed to be enjoying herself the most had been when you had been standing up to her and pushing back. Would someone who truly enjoyed such interactions call herself 'The Dollmaker' in her heart? Perhaps that is the facade she has always used to hide her true feelings, or perhaps she isn't even aware of her true feelings herself. Regardless, you won't be able to take advantage of her this way, at least until you can work on the soul inside the notebook so that it allows you to try again.

Having spent a frustrating hour or so achieving little you decide to put the Reality Notebook to one side for now. To have such a powerful item to hand but find yourself thwarted by such a silly restriction that you hadn't percevied to be a problem at the time, it's certainly frustrating. But it also isn't the end of the world. Aria is someone you have a shakey arrangement with, you'll have other opportunities to influence her, least of all is the fragment that is even now warping your mother. You decide to spend the rest of the morning rushing through all your homework. You are certainly looking forward to a day when you won't have to waste your time on this shit anymore.

Your darling sister Lucy has been hovering around you all this time. She's probably looking forward to spending some time with you, but you aren't really sure what you can do with her over the weekend. She's been a helpful little troublemaker during the week but you can't really have her go outside and cause problems for you. So you could either bring her with you wherever you go or leave her hear to keep Elisa company. Either way you've pretty much decided you'll be visiting Roger this afternoon. You can't really leave the skeleton in the house alone for any longer. And if Ina's people are sniffing around you'll need to try and hide it better.

First thing's first. You head upstairs to see what is left of the man you killed and to dispose of it in a slightly more reliable way. Though likely this will just involve packing the remains away in a box and shoving it in the attic. You can't afford to take them outside as there's a chance you are being followed and monitored. Dog is of course in the room waiting for you. You take a moment to check him over, rubbing his head and giving him a few cursory orders. Yep, he's still as obedient as he was before, gazing up at you with brainless adoration. You spend a couple of moments stroking him as you glance around at the room. Little more than bone and offal is left.

The leftover bits of organ can be chopped up and thrown away, the bone will be trickier. Still, Dog has done a pretty good job disposing of much of the evidence. Next you get him started on cleaning the bones and making sure any leftover bits of flesh are gone. While he does that you decide to spy on next door as discreetly as possible. Using your Heightened Senses you can tell that there is indeed someone living there now, possibly more than one, in fact. But you cannot tell if they have any dogs with them or are deliberately keeping their animals inside. Regardless it is a matter of some concern.

You gather up the skeleton and give it a quick wash before bundling the bones up in a bag, sticking the bag in a box and then hiding the box in a dusty corner in the loft. It isn't great but so long as there isn't a full on search of the premises you should be fine. More importantly, you can now spend the last part of the afternoon with Venus. You know you should be training, you really don't understand why you keep trying to brute force your way through this problem but it did yield some results last time. Then again, perhaps you can use this new information to scare Usa into giving something away?

Curses! You thought you were on to something yesterday! You were so close to leading Venus into a more suggestible state. But you can't seem to capitalise on it! Did Usa notice what you were doing and change something? Or is your frustration from earlier affecting your ability to focus? Now you are even more frustrated than you were before. You have to admit that Usa's methods are rock solid. There must be a better way to get your claws into Venus than this...

At the very least you know that Ina is going to be making a move soon, you should probably come back here tomorrow just in case. But for now you need to head back. It's almost time for Ami's visit and you'll need to decide what your strategy for her is going to be...

On your way home you consider what you want to do with Ami. She won't be as easy to manipulate as Sherry, but it wouldn't be difficult to steer her into the position you want her to be in. All you need to do is impress her with your tutoring, leave her wanting you to tutor her more, earn yourself an all access pass to her house and you could use that to leap frog your way into targetting Ami's sister and father, likely more valuable targets.

But at the same time if you are going to be working with Ami anyway it seems like a waste not to make use of her at least. Again, you aren't entirely sure how useful she could be, but you feel as though you should make some use out of her. The question is what? At this point one of your other personalities gives you a nudge. You aren't even sure which one it is at the moment. But the nudge is clear enough. Use your tutor position to establish a position of authority over her. Belittle her, encourage her submissive side. Get her used to doing what you and only you tell her to do. Then push her into enjoying obeying you. Given your powers and Ami's likely feelings of inadequacy it might not be that much of a jump.

So you decide to do that, you'll keep pushing this girl until she's your slave in all but name. Once you're done with her she'll relish the thought of handing over her soul to you! And you won't even have to do anything drastic this time! Though that also means less malice. You'll need to start thinking of more ways to farm malice. With more and more individuals falling under your thrall it should become easier, right?

Your tutoring session with Ami goes as well as you had hoped. You activate your Aura focusing on Trust for now, figuring you've already upped her Obedience a bit. You want her to get used to you being around. So you start sitting side by side, working together, she asking the odd question here and there. Once she's grown comfortable with you being present you start looking over her shoulder, pointing out mistakes she's made and instructing her on how to find the right answers.

Once Ami's work is finished you start teaching her something a little more advanced. Actually it's 'a lot' more advanced. This isn't even anything that Ms Erikson has worked on with you but something you've pulled up from your own time as a student. There's no way a girl of Ami's age would know any of this material. But you drill into her that it's not particularly difficult to learn, poking and proding her and seeing where she's most sensitive. As you suspected, mentioning her sister seems to rial her up the most.

But you make sure not to push too far. Ami isn't like Sherry, she's much more likely to push back if you overstep. So you play your role as the stren but passionate instructor and help her to learn, even if you make a show of 'dumbing' down the material for her. By the time you are finished her confidence is shaken, she's somewhat humiliated and she's convinced that you are leagues ahead of her in terms of your grades. All that remains is to use Suggestion to enforce in her head that learning from you is beneficial and that she wants to do it as much as possible. Now you should be free to visit her whenever you want, and possibly squeeze in some 'studying' at other times.

Gained 40 Malice from Ami's frustration

You can now study with Ami in the evenings at her house or yours. Additionally you can arrange a quick study session at lunch, though you may not always be alone!

Not wanting to risk being caught by sneaking outside you go to bed. Invading the police officer's dreams would be too risky right now so you probe the mind of your other neighbour. To your surprise this one seems to actually suck you in. You find yourself in a dark room. The only light you see belongs to a single candle sitting in the middle of a circular table. For some reason the candle itself is set into a skull. A large pentagram is written in chalk on the table around the candle. Sitting before the candle on the other side of the table is...

'Oh demons from the blackest pits of Hell!' she chants, 'appear before me and grant me your power! Give me the means to unleash terrible vengenge upon my foes and bathe in their blood!'

Well, this is a pleasant surprise. It's certainly unusual to see so much of the work already completed for you. It's actually suspicious how easy this feels. Then again is it really as easy as it looks? You are still inside her dream, after all. You find it difficult to believe you could get away with having her sign a real Soul Contract in a dream that you can easily manipulate. Surely that wouldn't actually work, otherwise everyone would be doing it like this, right? The ability you are using is Level 1, after all. There's no way all these other demons don't know it. Maybe you should speak to someone about the Soul Contract before you actually use it, you wouldn't want to fuck something up and be ostracized from demonic society before being properly introduced to it!

Still, no harm in playing the role at least! You could have her sign a fake agreement or simply stall for now. Hell, you could do whatever you want, including trying to manipulate the situation so that the dreams blend into reality, confusing her into being unable to distinguish between the two. Regardless you probably shouldn't use the real Soul Contract on the first person you come across after receiving it, right? For now you can just take advantage of the unique situation to have a bit of fun in someone elses's head.

You make a big show of blowing out the candle, plunging the room into darkness. The girl swears and jumps backwards, stumbling around in the darkness for something, maybe the lights? Before she can find it you relight the candle. Except this time the fire is purple, like her hair. More fires, pink and purple begin to spring up all around, spreading out and encircling the girl in shifting, writhing flame. Despite the situation, she doesn't seem remotely scared. Instead she's acting as though this is the coolest thing she's ever seen.

You snap your fingers, making sure the sound resonates through the room, the fires rush past the girl and coalesce into one singular, massive pink purple flame raging before her. From within the flames you emerge, laughing softly, but as you take form your laughter grows loader until with a dramatic sweep of your arms you stand before her.

You've decided that purple is the theme for the day and you allow your conjured demon form to reflect that. Purple skin, bare chested just to make sure she knows, with large pecs and thick forearms. Red eyes, because you can't have everything be purple, but you make sure you can breathe purple flames just in case.

'Did I hear some foolish mortal asking for power?' you boom, allowing smoke to bellow from your nostrils, 'you are brave to summon me, girl!' She gapes at you, wide eyed.

'Soooooo cool!' she breathes, 'this is totally rad! Where did I put that...' she turns from you and starts rummaging around on the floor. A closer look reveals that the carpet is covered by old tomes and scraps of paper, hell even scrolls made of parchment. This chick is a big occultist nut! At least inside her head she is. The girl emerges from the clutter a moment later with a large book which she begins thumbing open and poring over.

'I know I have it here,' she mutters, and it occurs to you that she's looking you up. Normally you would assume that she wouldn't actually find anything about you in some silly book, considering you created this form off of the top of your head. However, considering how active this girl's imagination is she'll probably fill in this blank herself. You soon expect her to somehow 'find' a name for your particular type of demon as well as basic information as to your abilities and the price typically associated with bargaining with them.

But while this is her dream you are the one with the steering wheel and you could very easily fiddle with this small aspect of the dream. That would allow you to control what information about you she happens to 'find,' which could give you something of an advantage when speaking with her. Or you could simply roll with current events and allow her to choose who or what you are, with all the ramifications that would come with it.

'Ah, I see,' she cries, 'you are an oni! A demon of murder and cannibalism! It is said that they frequently answer the call of those looking to slake bloodthirst and a desire for revenge with terrible wrath! It also says...' here she gulps, 'that an oni unsatisfied by their summoner may well kill and consume them as payment for the summoning!' Perhaps she doesn't realise she's reading this out loud, perhaps that's your tampering at work raising the stakes. But she turns back to regard you now with some trepidation. Though she still seems excited.

'Oh great oni,' she continues, 'I have summoned you this night to implore you to satisfy my desire for revenge! Strike down my cursed foes and devour them down to the marrow! In return I shall provide you with as much food and nourishment as you desire!'

You consider for a moment. Not what you would have chosen, if you were being honest. This particular setting doesn't really allow you to lead her in the direction you would prefer. Of course, this is only the first night and you have many more nights to twist things as you desire. As much as it might be somewhat irksome to allow yourself to be caught up in this girl's flow it also wouldn't hurt to play into her fantasy and use it as an opportunity to bond with her. Plus, encouraging this depraved mentality of hers could only lead to good things for you in the long term. Hell, if you push her far enough you could have your very own crazed killer at your disposal to unleash for some juicy souls! Though you'd need to work out how to gather them first...

'Food and nourishment, you say,' you repeat her words, 'that does sound mighty tempting! But I must say that I've made that arrangement with many others over these long years and it never truly ends up being as satisfying as I would like!' Her eager expression slowly transforms into a nervous one as she begins to contemplate your looming rejection.

'No need to look so nervous, child!' you boom, 'you look a little bit more 'together' than these other fools! And if you are really as discontent with this world as you seem then I have the perfect opportunity for you! I shall grant you your vengence, but in return I shall have you!' Her eyes widen and her mouth opens as you continue.

'You'll pledge your soul to me and I'll give you the opportunity to prove yourself worthy of being my demon bride! Would you like that, child? An opportunity to abandon your worthless humanity and enjoy real power?! But I cannot help but wonder if you are properly equipped to handle such a gift! So I'll be assigning you a series of tasks to complete to allow you to gain my favour and prove yourself. Once they are all complete I shall grant you a portion of my power and allow you to shed your mortal trappings and stand alongside me! It's the chance of a lifetime, if you are strong enough to seize it!' She gulps, clearly uncertain.

She's tempted, you can tell. Her fear and her apprehension is battling with her hatred of this world and her desire for power. You watch with amusement at the struggle, not even bothering to influence her, just curious as to her reaction. Eventually she seems to come to a conclusion inside her head.

'If I give you my soul,' she asks, 'will you give me my vengence first? Before all the trials?' You cannot help but smile. You have her, even without any tampering. Even with her very soul and a dubious fate on the line she still priorities seeing the people she despises suffer and die. She'll be a lot of fun to mould into your very own pet psycho! You hold out your hand:

'Take my hand, swear you will be mine and we'll dine on their entrails this very evening! Their gruesome deaths and blood soaked carcasses will be my gift to you in honor of our engagement!' Her smile returns, wide, eager and savagely cruel.

'I'll do it,' she cries, 'whatever you want! I'll be yours and do whatever you need! Just let me see those bitches get what they deserve!' She takes your hand and becomes yours. Though right now it's only inside her own head, you relish the thought of making this true in reality as well!

You take advantage of this being a dream to quickly transition from being inside this girl's room to being at a karaoke place. Of course, all three of your little bride-to-be's targets are inside. You can't beat a dream for convenience. The first thing you do is make sure the booth they are in is locked and would not be opening for anyone. Next you make all the other customers and the staff 'disappear' with a snap of your fingers. Next you guide the goth girl, whose name you should probably learn at some point, into a now empty booth. Another snap of your fingers and it's now showing you both a live feed into the room next door.

There are three of them, all teenage girls. All made up, with phones out, laughing and talking in sterotypical teenage bully diva fashion. You doubt any of these chicks actually talk like this in real life, it's just how Goth imagines they talk and act. Clearly she's watched too many of those strange eastern mature cartoons you know kids watch nowadays. You let Goth listen to them laughing about all the mean things they apparently did to her earlier today as though they are playing some sort of game of 'cliche bully bingo.' As imaginative as Goth is about some things she isn't so creative here. Fortunately, if there is anything your boss has taught you it's interesting and creative ways to hurt people.

You start by cutting off the power to their room. Building a bit of atmosphere is always a good idea in these situations. You watch them react to the sudden power outage in predictible ways. First they are annoyed, angry with only the light of the television to see by. One tries the door only to find it locked, another picks up the phone and comments that it's dead. You let them stew for a while until their anger and irritation begins to transition into anxiety and maybe even fear. They start calling out, trying to get someone's attention. Goth is already loving this and you haven't even properly started yet!

Next you decide to make a big, dramatic entrance. You make yourself appear inside the television in their room and begin to slowly climb your way out of it! Genius! They should pay you to make a film about this shit! Naturally this is the part where the three bullies freak the fuck out, as well they should. They are screaming and scrambling and tugging on the door, clawing at each other in their desperation. Of course, they aren't going anywhere. Goth won't let them even if you weren't pulling the strings right now.

You finish the first one quickly, with a machete. You say quickly but the blade goes through her shoulder blade and gets stuck there, forcing you to tug on it until it comes back out. Blood sprays across your face, this is something you aren't actually used to. None of your previous victims have actually bled before. That's kind of conveniant now you think about it. Another blow to the top of the first bitch's head and she's good and dead.

The second you kill with just your hands. As she reaches out an arm, to defend herself or beg for mercy you don't know or care, you grab it and break it with a powerful snapping sound! More screams of pain as you pull her towards you and slam her head into the table. Once, twice, three times. You follow this up by tossing her head first into the television. An explosion followed by a crackle of electricity as the body jerks and shudders from the sudden current passing through it. That also probably wouldn't happen in real life. Just a dream, who cares.

You take your time with the last one. Tying her down onto the table and pulling out a knife you play the demon you are. Slicing off pieces of her flesh, cooking them then eating them. You aren't actually eating her, of course. But the video feed in Goth's room sure makes it look as though you are. You show her as much of the grisly scene as she likes before she's satisfied. Finally you let her into the room itself to really soak in the blood caked atmosphere. She actually picks up a piece of roasted arm and gives it a try! Yes, this chick is truly a lost cause. Good job you found her, then.

'My name is Karnock,' you tell her, plucking the first halfway impressive name out of your head. Goth, weirdly enough, blushes.

'I'm Abbey,' she replies, 'but I prefer to go by Rogue!' You nod. Makes sense. Feminine name, bullied at school. Rebelling, probably has daddy issues. You can work with that.

'Well then, Rogue,' you conclude, 'I believe this is the start to a wonderful relationship! Make sure to work hard! I always have room for dessert, after all!' She nods at the implied threat, too ecstatic at watching her tormentors get what they probably didn't actually deserve, to even care. There is certainly room to have a lot of fun with this one. Just so long as it doesn't distract you from more pressing issues...