A Quiet Betrayal

The spear kept Pestilence pinned to the wall as E.T. watched from a distance, ignoring her false pleas. The hallway grew dimmer. He must have also noticed the lack of bloodthirsty fairies. Maybe realizing that his plan had failed, he dispelled the spear and took off before Pestilence could react.

He zoomed through the corridors, his eyes scanning every corner, his hand clutching Cloudie awkwardly without its sheath. “Karasuya-san! Where are you?” But there wasn’t an ounce of concern on his face; it was the same neutral expression. He rounded the corner, about to pass the hidden janitor’s closet where Pestilence had stuffed Raven.

Like astronomers hoping to catch sight of a comet, I waited until he was the closest to Raven before I made my move. My hands squeezed around his neck; his body flung slightly over and swung back again like a pendulum. It would have been simpler if his neck had just snapped. His eyes twitched as he recognized me, his throat gurgling for air. I should have done this earlier; I should have killed him at the first opportunity.

He grasped my hand, but his hand only passed through mine. He swung Cloudie at my torso, but its blade hit nothing. His face turned pale. He tossed Cloudie aside and reached out his hand; I already knew what would follow.

The OP Spear appeared in his hand, crackling with sparks. He thrust it into my waist. I expected it to do nothing again, but the stab connected to my torso, and a surge of pain hit me, forcing me to loosen my clasp.

E.T. gulped down a mouthful of air while he pushed the spear forward, pinning me to the wall, between two paintings. After a few coughs, he focused his gaze entirely on me.

“Yonna-san, so it was you.” The raw coldness in his voice was devoid of anger, merely stating a fact.

I glared back at him. “They know your real name. You can’t stay in the shadows anymore. Do you think Raven will be happy to know that you’ve basically declared to the world that she is your accomplice?”

“She will understand.” He drove the spear deeper into my spirit body. The pain intensified, but was still bearable. There had to be a limitation to the spear; otherwise, he would have used it in every fight. I only had to pressure him to tell me. My attention was no longer on worldly deaths and the whispers of the past, but instead, only on the man before me.

“If you are so certain of that, why didn’t you tell her your plan?” My grin was filled with spite.

He tightened his grip on the handle. Finally, a hint of emotion. He strained his face, patching up the leaks in his inner world. His knees shook, barely keeping him standing. Beads of sweat flowed down from his forehead.

“The company security team has just entered the lobby. They will get here soon,” I continued taunting him. Judging from how he had been staring at Pestilence when the spear was pinning her, it might need undivided attention to function. Unless he just enjoyed watching an attractive woman whine.

“I don’t want to be killed by you!” E.T. yelled.

Oh? It seems like I’m right. Then…

“I hope your parents enjoyed being evaporated by magic!” I shouted.

E.T.’s eyes widened, and all the muscles in his body tensed up. The spear shattered into nothingness as it had before. I reacted quicker than E.T. could, swooping to snatch Cloudie. And with no pause, I jabbed the blade at E.T.’s neck, where the Feather Mantle couldn’t cover.

Clank.

Clank? What? It took me a second to realize that I was back in Raven’s body. I didn’t feel the blade hitting E.T.’s flesh. Raven had woken up at the worst possible moment. Unaware of the kill she took away from me, she stretched and opened her eyes to the dim janitor’s closet.

“Hello? Anyone here?” She fumbled through the dark, knocking over mops.

“Raven, E.T. is a danger to you.”

“What?” Raven stopped moving. “You’ve stayed silent for so long, and this is the first thing you say?”

“Listen, Raven. I don’t give a shit anymore. He tried to kill every high-income person in the world except you. He has been a murderer since the day you met him. And he will continue to kill. Is this the kind of person you want to align with? Oh, and he basically let the world know that you two are criminals.”

“Are you done trying to gaslight me? Help me get out of here.” Raven started flailing her arms around again in search of the exit.

“Ask him.” I steered Raven’s arms to the sliding door; our commands to the muscle combined into an awkward movement, but we still managed to open it.

“Karasuya-san, there you are!” Once E.T. noticed Raven, he pulled her into an embrace. But his face still displayed no concern.

“Did you try to kill the rich assholes?” I controlled Raven’s mouth to raise the question. How great my self-control was for me not to reach out and strangle E.T. right this moment. I wouldn’t be able to overpower him, not with Raven against me.

Raven raised her arms, flapping them around. “Sorry for asking such a stupid question. Of course, you-”

“Yes, but I think the plan failed,” E.T. stated.

Raven froze for a second; her muscles seemed to be dragged down by a mysterious addition of weight. She tried to smile. “What plan?”

E.T. dragged Raven along in a hurry. “I wanted to use the servers against the elites, so I rewrote the commands on their servers to create fairies that would kill-”

“Why are you telling me this now?” Raven cut in.

Her interruption paused E.T. in his tracks. “You asked about it.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before we came here?”

E.T. raised his eyebrows. “Because I thought that I should act first and convince you with the end result.”

“Convince me? Convince me of what?”

E.T. glanced at his surroundings and took a deep breath. “That it is better to do things my way. You are too naïve. To improve the world, we need to strike fear and terror into the souls of the rich. To make them know they are judged. And killing the richest ones can achieve that. All for a better society.” He seemed to have more to say, but stopped himself.

Raven’s frown sharpened. She yanked her arm away from E.T.’s grasp and crossed it with the other. “But they are lives.”

“Why are you suddenly not fine with this? We have always talked about how worthless the rich are.” A slight irritation rose in E.T.’s voice.

I felt a distinct twang in Raven’s chest, as if something was clawing at her heart. She lowered her head and whispered, “Death-san, do whatever you want.” Finally, the words I wanted to hear.

The corner of my eye spotted Cloudie still lying on the floor. I deepened my smile at E.T., twirling my hair. “You’re right. Let’s kill all those money-hungry pigs, my love.” I took a casual step towards Cloudie.

Just when I was about to take another, E.T. snatched Raven’s purse away and backed off. His eyes regarded Raven with suspicion. “You aren’t Karasuya-san. You’re Yonna-san. Am I right?”

This instinct might have been granted by the Robin Hood memes or honed from the past month of his time with Raven. Either way, my chances of killing him had just gotten much lower. I charged at the sword, but a surge of toilet water knocked me to the side. And when I stood back up, E.T. was nowhere to be seen.