Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist      Editor: Weasalopes

【Episode 4: Day and Night, Part 4】

So it was this lord who told Yugao-chan about my power? And that's why she tried to kill me?

「That's right. This ability's core is it's owner's heart. If you manage to obtain that heart and replace your sister's heart with it, there might be a chance for her to continue to live normally.」

「But… will I… will I really be able to obtain it? Such a power?」

「That is beyond even my knowledge, but I'm sure that with that curious trait of yours, with the power to make any Knight's blood go mad with l.u.s.t, you might just have a chance. Of course, you might as well just fail miserably.」

「Now, what are you going to do? Are you going to accept my Gift, grant your sister a temporary body and work hard to one day reclaim the life that was stolen from her? Or perhaps…」

「P…. ease…」

「What was that? I couldn't hear you clearly, young lady. Could you repeat that one more time?」

「Please… I'm begging you! Give me the power to save my sister! My… My Lord!」

Yugao-chan screamed in a hoa.r.s.e voice, declaring her intentions.

「Well done.」

The mysterious Lord had a satisfied smile on her face as she extended her pale hands towards Yugao-chan in a welcoming gesture.

I wanted to stop her. I wanted to tell her not to do it, but then I remembered that it was just Asagao's memory. Her sister made a deal with the devil for her sake, and all she could do was to watch silently. Even though it was so painful she wanted to die, she's never wanting to get better if the price was to be that high.

「Now, young lady. Allow me to grant you a Gift that will help you achieve your goal. A power of an angel who had all life under his control. The power to turn the dead into dolls of flesh and mud and command them as you see fit. Yes, one of the powers I hold within myself, the power to turn miracles into reality… 『The Angelic Gift Azrael』.」

The moment she said that, the woman's shadow extended towards Yugao-chan and combined with hers. And then, a pair of enormous black-feathered wings erupted from her back, creating the gusts of wind that extinguished the h.e.l.lfire that surrounded them as if it was never there to begin with.

After the winds died down and feathers fell onto the ground like a black snow, all that Asagao could see were the tears running down her sister's face.

「I'm sorry, Onee-chan… just… just wait a little bit longer…」

「Geez. Yugao, you're… such a headache sometimes… you know?」

Those were the last words that Asagao said to the crying Yugao-chan.

And then, Asagao's body was wrapped in a dazzling white light, and quietly dissipated into a white ash.

「Apparently that was how my current body was made.」

Only now have I noticed that the scenery around us changed again. We were now in a dimly lit place that looked like a kind of a warehouse.

「H-Hey, close your eyes for a second!」

The one who screamed that was Asagao, and I realized why she wanted me to do it just a tad bit too late. The entire room was littered with dolls that looked just like her, and none of them were wearing any clothes, so of course me seeing them would be extremely embarra.s.sing for her.

That being said, I'm not some kind of pervert who feels s.e.xual attraction towards dolls, so we're all good. At least I think so.

「I don't know why but somehow looking at your face both sets me at ease and p.i.s.ses me off.」

No kidding. All right, if she doesn't want me to look at the dolls that look like her the that's fine with me, but just so you know, this room is also filled with a ton of dolls that resemble Yugao-chan. Is she really fine with me looking at them? Also, in addition to fully a.s.sembled dolls there was also a lot of various body parts scattered around the place: arms, legs, torsos, just like in the bathroom where I thought against her together with s.h.i.+ki, but their sizes were all different. Ah, I see, those must be…

「Bingo. Everything you see here are my spare body parts made to reflect my growth. That was Yugao's solution to my current predicament. Using my ashes as a base for her 『Azrael's』 ability, she created the replicas of my body for me to use. And the newest part she promised me was a brand-new heart that was supposed to look just like the most beautiful red gem in the world. And once I'll have it inside me, I will no longer be just a pretty doll… I will become prettiest doll there ever was, without having to worry about disappearing! And thanks to that, I'll be able to be together with Yugao one day. That is what she told me.」

I wonder if that was actually one of the dolls that attacked us in that bathroom? Looking at what was around me, it was certainly not impossible.

「Bullseye again, Monjiro-san. With my body I, the main puppet, am able to control the others with just my willpower.」

So does that mean that the one I'm talking to right now is the real Asagao, and not just one of her dolls with her consciousness inhabiting them?

「….Yup. I myself cannot leave this s.p.a.ce, so all I can do is either watch everything from here or experience the outside world through one of my dolls, but you can probably guess that it's not the same as truly living. But I guess that's not so bad, considering that I'm currently stuck in this weird limbo between being dead and being alive. Not to mention that it's normally suuuuuuuper boring in here without anyone to talk to, so having you here is a much-welcomed change of pace for me, Monjiro-san.」

Maybe something like that was possible because I myself am an irregular existence that crosses the path between life and death? Could our meeting here be called just a lucky accident, or maybe there was some larger force behind it?

「You got that right! Man, could this really be the work of fate? Monjiro-san, do you think it's possible that you're my soulmate?!」

It makes me happy that you think that way, especially if it helps with taking your sadness away, even if just a bit of it.

「Sadness? Oh, I'm not sad. I might be stuck in this here darkness, but even from here, I've been always watching over Yugao. But this is exactly why I'm so worried about her. You know, she is such a good and honest child, but for the last four years all she was doing was trying to bring me back from here, and she did just that, forsaking her own happiness (including any kind of interaction with the opposite s.e.x) as a girl for my sake! So you can probably imagine my surprise when she owned you like a noob back there when she took your heart!」

Well sorry for being a noob when it comes to women, but to my defense she was acting in a way that would make pretty much every guy drop his guard around her.

「Ahahaha, if you think so even after you witnessed the power of her blood and will firsthand, then you must really be a hopelessly good person, Monjiro-san.」

Yugao-chan's blood. That caused me quite a bit of trouble indeed. I knew I was weal when it came to woman, as was evident from my interactions with the girls around me, and she effectively capitalized on that weakness and used that to her advantage. And the best part? She didn't even have to do that! Since she's so cute then I would have probably reacted just the same, and that stung me the most. I really need to start working on improving that aspect of myself, or else people like s.h.i.+ki or Asagao will continue to make fun off me for it, and that was the prospect that genuinely scared the living c.r.a.p out of me.

Thinking like that, something has dawned on me. The real Asagao is always here, that's why I can talk with her like that. But then, what about the dolls on the other side? I mean, they were acting so much like a real human that I've never realized… does that mean…?

「Yugao did her best for my sake, so naturally I wanted to do the same for her. That's why learned how to program my own heart and implant it into the dolls in the real world. Everything that was in my heart, I imparted into them: things that I liked, things that I hated, my hobbies, my principles, opinions, habits, fixations, mindset, things like that. It took a sickeningly large amount of time, but I did everything that was in my power.」

Program.

So she did all of that to ease Yugao-chan's pain of not being able to be with her? And to do so to such an extent… I had no words to describe how amazing that was.

「Hehe, thank you for the praise. Monjiro-san, the Asagao that you've been talking to all this time has been nothing but a doll with my pre-programmed personality. A robot. An artificial intelligence. At first it really sucked at it and legitimately sounded like something artificially made, but with enough time and effort, I say I managed to make it sound pretty darn authentic, wouldn't you say?」