Mara was miserable. This is not an unusual state of being for her, but still. You spend all your time and demonic energies trying to undermine some Goddesses and get some energy for Hell, and what do you get?
"Slave, my throat is parched," Ryoko said, ringing a bell. "Bring me some ice water. With ice scraped off the top of Mount Everest and purified via your arcane magical abilities."
"Neptune's ice is purer," Mara said without even thinking about it. "Tastes better too - Ah! What am I saying?! I'm not your slave! I'm a demon!"
"Everyone is a slave to the Mendo family," Ryoko sighed, absently switching the radio to a rock station. Cue one dancing demoness. "Even if they don't realise it."
Grk! That's what she gets! Now she could see why Hild herself had an interest in this girl, she's an expert in picking out a person's weaknesses and exploiting them to her fullest advantage.
"I'll get your iced water!" Mara said, trying and failing to stop herself from making all kinds of stupid poses. "Just... shut that blasted radio off!"
"I'm pleased to see that we understand each other," Ryoko said. She shut off the radio, and Mara snapped her fingers to summon the best damned ice water she'd ever have. There was even a dainty straw. Ryoko sipped a little. "Not bad, but I have tasted better."
Mara resisted the urge to throttle this girl, but only because - again - Hild had a personal interest in her. Summoning that water was quite probably a drop in the bucket compared to what she'd already made for them, and would go on to make in the future. It was sort of the same thing as those people in supermarkets who offer free food samples.
"So, let me see if I understand your situation," Ryoko said. "You've contracted with my brother." Mara nodded. "He'll provide your realm with energy." Another nod. "In exchange for which, you are to provide him with Ataru Moroboshi's harem." Mara's shoulders slumped. "Well. Far be it from me to see my brother getting what he asked for, but have you considered creating a copy of Moroboshi's harem."
“That would require creating life, which isn’t something I am allowed to do. Besides, one of them is a Goddess.“
"Yes, I can see the problem with that..." Ryoko mused. "Being able to create exact replicas of your biggest rivals does seem a little too much..."
Of course, Mara could see right through what this girl was actually doing. She was tormenting Mara while pretending to help her. Making deliberately unhelpful, yet also seemingly intelligent suggestions. While also probing for an understanding of how Mara's abilities worked so she could use them to her own advantage.
Pretty clever for a human. It was easy to see why she thought she might wind up running hell inside of a year. Heh. As if. Hild was too strong and too smart to be taken down by a human. She was thousands of years too inexperienced to even begin to try. Might be fun to watch her try though, get knocked down a peg or three million.
"My only option is to somehow get Ataru's current harem away from him and onto your brother... and then also make up a new harem for Ataru," Mara said. "Given his wish cross checked with your brother's the divine force and the infernal force will cross swords, causing all kinds of havoc that neither side wants."
"You could always tell that to the Goddesses," Ryoko suggested.
"Hah! Ask them for help?! Forget that!" Mara boasted."My pride won't let me do something like crawl on my belly to those wretches."
"Amusing," Ryoko sniffed. "Mara is often depicted as a snake, but you won't crawl on your belly."
"Do I look reptilian to you?"
Ryoko switched her radio back on. The fiend! She really was no help at all! It took everything Mara had to dance her way out of the room. The door was a bit of a pain in the ass, but eventually she was able to get it open and scooted along the corridor until the music was out of sight. This took a while, because the place might be big but its acoustics were <I>amazing</i>. In fact, it took up until she was actually in Shutaro's bedroom that the sound was blocked at all. The walls were probably soundproof, and Ryoko had likely left her door open specifically to mess with Mara.
But never mind that. Finally! She could stop dancing, and didn't have to deal with that pest anymore!
"Ah, there you are my divine agent of providence."
On the other hand this guy's attitude was kind of a worse thing to deal with. Normally Mara liked some pride. Hell, she was a proud demon herself! Pride let demons manipulate their targets quite freely. Compliment them a little and they'll bend over backwards to help you out in some cases. But this guy. This guy was insufferable. Every atom of him screamed superiority complex.
"I have signed up for the school that Moroboshi attends, so that I might defeat him personally."
Nooooo, that makes it so much woooooorse! If he tried anything physical against Ataru Moroboshi while being contracted to a Demon, it would cause literal divine intervention! If he escalates it high enough then it could potentially trigger some fairly major issues!
"Are you sure you wish to attend such a lowly school?" Mara offered. "Surely it's beneath you."
"You underestimate my resolve," Shutaro said, turning his nose up. "Your divine assistance may already make this a guarantee, but I have also decided to enjoy the look upon his stupid face when his harem becomes mine"
Noooooooo! Give her the rock and roll! Give her the manipulative bitch! Anything over this idiot!
"And while I'm at it, I shall endeavour to protect other young women from him."
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!
That was literally the worst thing he could do! Even if, somehow, Mara managed to convince a freaking Goddess, an alien and a completely ordinary but pretty girl to jump ship from Moroboshi to this rich brat then all it would mean is that Ataru Moroboshi would be bereft of harem - which again was something that the Divine Force would look at and wag its giant universe creating finger at. And Mara - by dint of her contract - would be compelled to leap in the direct path of said finger like the bodyguard of some cheesy romantic thriller!
"E-even so, there's no need to attend the same school as him," Mara said. "I mean... Who knows how it might be, having him close might cause... difficulties with our contract."
"Have no fear. I have already taken precautions."
Then he opened up his jacket to reveal that he had lined the inside of it with <i>oh shit it buuuuuurns!</i>
"I paid a priest quite handsomely to give me these wards, to warn off his evil magic."
<i>I swear to Hild I will kill him once our contract is over!</i>
That was the trouble, though. He was making it impossible to fulfill the contract - but she couldn't break it in spite of that. She had to make every attempt to fulfill it, even knowing nothing would work because there was still a one in a hundred billion chance that she might pull it off. The only one that could break the contract was him, and there was nothing in the universe that could make him do that. This boy was jealous of Ataru's harem, and he wanted -
That was when an idea hit Mara. A wonderful idea. A terrible idea. A wonderfully terrible awfully funny idea. Would that work? Could it work? Yes, maybe. There was no way he'd want the contract intact if that was true. No, never. It wouldn't be possible for him to want it after that.
Sure, it’d be helping the Goddesses but Evil manipulating Good for their own ends was a long and storied tradition. If she sold it right to the higher ups she’d get a promotion! Furthermore it would massively increase the long term suffering of Ataru Moroboshi and those in his harem while also helping to satisfy the man's own wish! Hah! They could gain energy, actual honest to evil energy from a wish granted by a Goddess! How often did that happen?
And all she'd have to do... was figure out a way to persuade Ryoko to join a certain boy's harem.
- Meanwhile, Urd is having fun watching Sakura trying to train Ataru.
- Urd takes a different approach. Tries to teach Lum/Shinobu/both how to seduce their man.
- Skuld has a brilliant idea.
- Mara starts 'Operation, Harem Sister'
- Something else
No comments:
Post a Comment