—1 week later…—

Weirdly enough, things have gone smoothly so far. I work as an English teacher and, since I have all the knowledge of the previous owner of this body, it’s not that hard, obviously a bit tiring, but still not that bad. I didn't show any sign of any kind of power, and those rhombus things on the palm of my hands are still there; they don't glow anymore but I have to cover them while at work because they look like tattoos, which is not a good thing to have in Japan. Obviously, this calm couldn’t continue forever.

One evening, while I was returning home through those streets, that felt so unfamiliar like it was not my home, I was thinking about how that day was probably the most tiring one and couldn't wait to just eat some instant noodles and call it a day. I arrived at my apartment, opened the door and… 

"Hi, brother!" a kid’s voice came from the kitchen.

My mind was quickly put at ease. "Oh right, it's just my little sister." I thought while going in and closing the door behind me; it was while removing the shoes that I remembered: 

"Wait…I don't have a sister…" 

The girl spoke again "Why are you still at the entrance? Come here! I want to cook with you!"

My heart started beating fast, only now I could sense something malicious coming out from the kitchen. I was going to leave but when I was about to open the door, I felt like a hand was touching my shoulder.

"Are you leaving already, brother?"

The hand was emanating a weird but familiar scent.

"Death" this word and the image of that "Devil" I met were invading my mind as I continued thinking in fear, the girl's hand started pulling me.

"Come on, turn around! What are you afraid of?" with some unnatural strength she turned me around and what I saw was the same girl but…alive. The black eyes didn’t look dead, the skin wasn't pale, she wasn't as skinny as before, the scent had disappeared and now the hair was black.

"Let's cook together! Always eating instant ramen is not good for your health!" she grabbed my hand and dragged me into the kitchen. I wasn't completely sure of what was happening but seeing her smile gave me the courage to play along with her "game", so we tried to cook something and by "we tried" I mean that we almost burned the kitchen and we ended up eating instant ramen instead.

We sat at the table and she looked really sad 

"I'm really sorry…"

I laughed a bit "It's fine, I'm not good at cooking too" 

While eating we had a pleasant and funny chat, it really felt like we were siblings for a moment.

———

I was the first to finish eating, the smile I had from the conversation had disappeared and I suddenly said

"You are not good at interpreting the part of a 16-year-old girl."

"Oh?" She smiled maliciously and her voice changed, it was a mix of multiple voices speaking at the same time. 

"So, you can also be a bit intelligent when you are not scared."

I tried to not care about her mocking and said "I knew Dai would have had a sister…is this how she would have looked?" 

She looked me in the eyes "So you remember another part of Dai's life…" She paused for a moment and then continued.

"Yes, she would have looked just like this, but as you know the parents died in a car accident while going to the hospital…but if they managed to survive, the kid would have been born with an unknown illness."

“You know a lot. Did you plan everything?” I dared to ask.

“Heh. I didn’t, unfortunately, fate is a bitch. Do you think I’m that bad?”

“Well, after seeing that terrifying appearance you had, what do you think my answer will be?”

“Fair enough. I changed my appearance that way just to scare you and I must admit, I was surprised by your question…” she changed her voice into mine “And what if I refuse?” and then changed it into a girl’s voice “I would have never thought someone could be this dumb in front of someone that could kill easily them.”

‘I thought she was going to compliment me for a moment.’ I thought and since she seemed chatty I dared to ask something that tormented me for a while 

"...why…why am I in his body?"

"Because the previous owner was already on the brink of death and his body was perfect to contain my powers. Those signs on your palms are proof that I was right."

I closed my hands in a fist, even if it wasn't my fault, I still felt bad for using that body and wondered if it was really the only choice.

“Hey.” the girl's voice interrupted thoughts “He was going to die and instead of letting his corpse rot, we are giving him a new life, so don’t feel bad about it!”

The way she was speaking about it so lightly was nerve-wracking, especially because she wasn’t considering Dai’s friends and relatives. What would they think if they knew that I’m not him?

“Now let’s talk about serious things!” she suddenly said like that argument wasn’t even important “Did something happen to those signs? Like lighting up or something like that?” 

"Oh yeah, they did glow up right after appearing and then they stopped."

"That's normal." she pointed at herself "I did that to see if they would explode."

"Explode?!" I instantly panicked but she reassured me

“Don’t worry, it was more to see if your blood wasn’t bothered by them, since my powers are based on it. But I’ll tell you more in detail another time.”

‘Why can’t she tell me that now-’ I was thinking before she interrupted me

“Because there is a time for everything and I’m getting tired of explaining.”

“O-Oh, ok…” I said ‘Did she just read my mind?’

The girl answered my thought “Yes, I can read your mind because we are linked since I shared my powers with you”

“Isn’t that like… invading my privacy?” I genuinely asked and she looked at me like I was the dumbest person on Earth.

“Are you seriously asking this? You are talking to someone who made you live through that nightmare. Do you think I care about that?”

“...Right.” Useless to say, I felt so dumb and decided to change the topic “You said you changed your appearance to scare me. You are not going to do it again, right?” 

She leaned on her elbow and looked disappointed. "I could but your mind is protecting you from showing that since our first encounter was a trauma for you. I could easily break that protection but I decided to be kind this time. Now, I know you also have another question, go for it."

I scratched my left cheek. "If you know the question just answer it."

She crossed her arms "As you wish. As per contract I gave you my powers and a new life, so you have to do something for me, that is killing other people with powers like you."

I was not surprised. An evil being who gifts all of this couldn't have asked for something nice.

"But I have never killed someone and I don't know if I could do this. Can I-"

She looked at me seriously "Boy…You can't choose anymore. The moment those signs appeared, it was like every other entity received a message stating the existence of a new calamity. As I said before you are a rare case, you were the worst human in centuries and now you have powers. You are dangerous and everyone will want you dead. Simple enough to understand no?"

Gulp My mind was going all over the place 'How can she say this with such calm? I have a bounty on my head and I don’t know how to use my powers to defend myself.' The only thought of being haunted like a deer was terrifying.

The god saw my preoccupied face and said "But be reassured because your powers aren't active, so they can't know where you are precisely and it won’t be easy for them to find you…"

I sighed in relief and stopped being nervous, it looked like I was going to melt on the chair for how calm I became.

She suddenly resumed speaking "...but…"

I immediately sat up straight again on the chair waiting for her to continue. A "but" is never good to hear.

"...that doesn't mean you are invisible to their eyes…" she wasn’t looking at me at me anymore but at something behind me.

I slowly turned around and found an old man, with short white hair and a white beard, his back against the wall and staring at me. He was massive, you could tell he wasn't normal just by looking at him, he had a plaid shirt and pair of short jeans that barely fit him. Maybe he came out from “Baki”?

The man was examining me with his stare "So you are the kid they talked about? You don't have a very strong aura."

I was petrified 'Wtf am I looking??' I thought. How could a beast like this even exist among humans??

In the man's hands a big axe appeared out of thin air "I guess it will be easy" he charged his attack "Nothing personal kid." and then swung his axe towards my head.

I closed my eyes waiting for my death and…nothing happened. When I opened them back, the man's axe was close to my neck and his whole body was rigid.

“W-what is this power?” The man's mouth was shaking and only now could see who interrupted his attack. “Y-You?! Shouldn’t you be-” his mouth suddenly close and it looked like he was fighting against his own body just to speak.

I slowly turned around and the girl I was speaking with before was different, not her appearance but she was emanating a nauseous scent and I started seeing something that looked like a black flame surrounding her body. She was pointing her index finger against the man 

"Nobody can touch this guy. Die." 

she suddenly lowered her finger and the man's body split in half vertically.

It all happened instantly and I saw everything but didn't scream. As the halves of the body and the organs fell on the floor, I had the urge to puke and ran to the toilet. I don't for how much time I remained in there even after vomiting. I didn’t want to go out.

‘Is that…what awaits me…?” I thought both in fear and disgust ‘I’m not prepared for this…’

"But you have to." the devil was behind me looking at me with a calm face. 

"We made a contract. You can't run from it and I’ll be sure to prepare you."

"But I don’t want to!!” Tears started running down my face  “I could end up like that guy at any moment! You never said that something like that could happen and I'm not strong enough for this!!"

The devil was staring at me without an expression, not even pity, she just sighed. "...Just go to sleep now, we will talk tomorrow."

"DO YOU THINK GOING TO SLEEP WILL HEL-" She touched my forehead with two fingers, I started feeling lightheaded and then passed out.