Soul for a Girlfriend?

I walked out the main gate and turned, only to notice a pair of amber eyes staring at me. It was Shiraishi who walked towards me with an exasperated expression, "What is wrong with you!?"

I ask myself the same question.

Her impulsive demeanour caught Gaisen and Tsūmen, who were with me off guard as they stared at me in confusion and I just shrugged. 

"Depends on what context you're asking, " I replied, and heard Tsūmen chuckle lightly. I turned around and gestured to them to continue without me since I knew this conversation was going to be a long one.

"Don't… I'm not in the mood for your sharp tongue right now, boy." She rolled her eyes and tilted her head to express her annoyance.

I glanced behind her and noticed someone who I wasn't expecting to be there at all. My eyes met with her blue ones as she momentarily averted them, only to return my gazes with an awkward smile while waving at me.

"I'm sorry… I know why you're pissed."

"Shut up! Keeping aside answering calls, you couldn't even reply to a single text?" 

"I can explain…"

"You didn't even come to school, and ignored my texts and calls… you know…" She stuttered over the end as I realised what she was talking about and quickly assured her, "Nah, it's not your fault. Don't sulk over it…"

"Then what was it?" She asked, and added, "That you didn't even get time to reply to a single text?"

"See… I passed out from overstress…" I started and yes, I was outright lying to her. But both of them definitely were not expecting such an answer as they're surprised, "What the…"

"Yeah, and I live alone… so you're smart enough to connect the dots now." 

"Are you okay, now?" Moriko asked with a hint of concern in her voice as I nodded and replied, "I mean I'm standing in front of you, having a fully functional conversation… seems okay."

"You made me worry so much… I thought it was because of me…" I heard Shiraishi mutter under her breath, "I upset you."

Was she actually worried about me?

I glanced at her and noticed her ember eyes not staring towards me instead; they were gazing over Moriko. I could tell that she was feeling embarrassed for acting the way she did, but paid no attention to it.

"When I woke up, I noticed all the texts and calls but wasn't in the condition to reply to them so…" I continued and she just nodded, "It's alright… I understand. Sorry for overreacting."

Looking at her, almost made me think she was genuinely concerned for me, but my intuitions were telling me otherwise. Briefly, because of the discrepancies in her behaviour, I couldn't make sense of anything she was doing.

"Nah, I understand… you're worried. All my friends were, and they scolded me a lot too." I glanced over at Moriko for an instance to notice her expression, but she seemed rather unfazed by everything.

What a waste!

As we're talking, I noticed Seryoku walking out of the main gate. His eyes shifted towards me and a grin formed on his lips. He stood there staring at me for a few moments before starting to walk towards me.

Great!

What does this bastard want?

He waved at me in his usual friendly way as I waved back at him. Looking at me, both of them turned around towards him and he smiled softly at them. I was observing him carefully as I noticed his eyes shifting towards Moriko, then towards me. 

Not paying much attention to them, he walked up to me while stopping for a moment to whisper in my ear, "Don't worry, I'll make sure Moriko despises you."

"See you tomorrow, dude!" He waved at me and walked away casually as I stood there trying to comprehend the meaning behind those words.

He was determined to make me mess this up and fail the contract, eventually.

But why?

I know there was a sort of rivalry between Lilith and Asmodeus. They were competing for their position in the upper ranks, but then Lilith got thrown into the human realm with this contract to complete before stepping on the grounds of hell again.

Maybe, from stopping me to complete the contract, he was planning to trap Lilith in the human realm forever. And thus, he was eliminating his competition for years, if not eternities.

That's the only logical answer I could come up with.

"Oi… oi? Oi!" I felt a hard punch on my shoulder, making me realise that I was immersed way too much in my thoughts.

"Wh… what?" I said in a hesitant tone as Moriko raised her eyebrows and Shiraishi asked me in a concerned voice, "Are you okay? You are looking a bit pale… are you sick?"

"I think he still hasn't recov…" Moriko said, moving her hand from my shoulder, as I interrupted her a bit agitated, "Recover from what?"

"Yo… you're clearly sick… What's with that reaction?" She narrowed her eyes at me, as I averted my gazes and said in a low tone, "Uh… nothing. I gotta go."

I couldn't afford to stay with them because my mind was in complete turmoil.

Glancing around into the empty street in front of the main gate, I realised that we spent quite some time having conversations with each other. I glanced back at Shiraishi and could tell that she was a bit worried about me.

Ignoring that, I turned around and started only to be stopped by Shiraishi's words, "Sai… Take care of yourself, you dimwit!"

Glancing over my shoulder, I looked at her staring at me. Probably waiting for me to return those words she said, as I chuckled slightly and waved at her, "You too… love you."

Unfortunately, it doesn't matter how diligent or caring she was because she was useless to me at that point in time.

All that mattered was making Moriko fall for me again.