Chapter 349: A Disease

"...So this is... him?" I ask Eve as I stare at a chained, blindfolded, and gagged angel, the only movement I see is his chest rising and falling.

"Yes, that's him, and he's awake, so he's going to suffer quite a lot... unless you want to knock him out with your powers quickly so he suffers less, it's your choice, Shizuka," Eve says while I think about the Contamination power I have.

'Haaa... I just need to show Eve how it works, and get good results...' I look at my hands, the condition of the power is that I have to scratch specifically with my nails.

'My power allows me to cause damage that generates diseases, infections, or viral, bacterial, or parasitic plagues inside the targets that have been hit, but it only works exclusively with wounds made by my nails...' I take a deep breath with some fear of what I'm about to do, but I press on to get what I want.

"Can I do whatever I want?" I ask Eve, wary that I have to follow something specific.

"Yes, do whatever you want, as long as the results are good."

"..." I stare at the angel and then look at my nails, they're quite sharp though not that long, because of my red skin the nail cuticle and the nail are a light reddish-pink.

"I'm sorry, angel, but I need to secure my happy future..." I approach the angel who moves his head and then with my nails I scratch the angel's face, starting the test with a disease first.

"!!!" At the site of the scratch, red spots and very large blisters appear, it reminds me a bit of [Bullous pemphigoid] and I didn't expect it would be so easy to make someone sick.

"Already?" Even Eve is surprised.

"It seems so, Eve... he's been infected by a disease, though I don't know what I infected him with..." I'm confused, was it supposed to be that easy to make people sick? I know the power is about that, but was it really supposed to be so ridiculously easy for someone to fall ill from a simple scratch?

"Test another," Eve says as I look at the angel's arm, I think about the parasite power, how does that work? Parasites are living beings, right? It's very different from causing a disease.

"Haaa..." I tear into the angel's arm with a deep scratch, my nails proving to be much sharper than I initially expected, it only takes a few seconds and then disgusting white larvae writhe in the angel's skin as the angel thrashes.

"A-Ahh!! S-So gross..." I take a step back seeing dozens of larvae in the flesh, the grotesque sight makes me nauseous, because some kind of parasite really appeared just a few seconds after a scratch.

"I recognize this, it looks like a lunar parasite," Eve says touching the angel's arm and picking up one of the larvae that writhes in her fingers.

"They're not really strong, and they feed on dead remains, so it's no big deal putting them in someone... do you think you can choose what kind of parasite appears?" Eve says showing me a book.

"I got this book from Evelyn-sama, it has a lot of content about diseases and parasites, see if you can replicate one of the parasites from the book," she says placing it open midway, the pages show various illustrations and written things, I can read it somewhat, though the letters are still a bit confusing for me.

"Th-This one?" I see one and try to make it, I scratch the angel's other arm thinking that I want specifically that parasite, and after a few seconds a kind of thin, long, completely green larva appears, it crawls under the angel's skin going upward, I step back in disgust watching the larva pass through the neck and the face, before reaching near the eyes and sinking in.

"What was that?" Eve asks.

"W-Well the book said it was a parasite that lodges in the brain and drains the fluids in there..." I say feeling very uncomfortable with this power, it's much more unpleasant than I thought it would be just seeing the description.

"It seems you don't even need to know the parasite, just have a clear idea of what it does and your ability selects the parasite that meets the characteristics, probably with diseases it's the same thing."

"As long as you want a specific symptom your ability will cause a disease that has that symptom," Eve explains something that makes sense.

"Eve, so theoretically even if something isn't a real disease I could generate an effect of it?" I ask curiously, thinking about the absurd and less disgusting effects I could generate.

"Hmmm..." Eve seems to think for a moment.

"I think so, from what I sense from the parasites, everything you generate comes from Hikishin, so creating diseases, parasites, or bacteria from scratch is possible, I believe that if something doesn't exist in nature something new will be created, that's because you're kind of a super marionette," when Eve says that I get excited to test it, I look at the angel thinking about what to do.

...

...

...

"Eve!! Look, Eve!!! How incredible!!" Shizuka says animatedly to me while I stare with some disgust at the angel, the state of his body is deplorable, a twisted and foul amalgamation of flesh.

A horrifying result that looks like someone took and ground up a bunch of hideous pieces of meat and put eyes and a mouth on it, honestly even I'm nauseous.

As for Shizuka, who was initially nauseous, now she can't contain her excitement, because we discovered that besides being able to accumulate diseases, bacteria, and parasites in the enemy's body, she can also put more than one effect in a single scratch, and she can indeed create new effects.

"Shizuka, let's get out of here, kill this angel already, honestly I'm starting to feel sorry for him," I can't believe this angel is alive, it's a horrifying cruelty to keep this angel alive, killing him now is a mercy.

"B-But I still have things to test!!"

"Test later, you succeeded, okay? Your talent is truly terrifying, it hasn't even been half an hour since you even knew how to use this power, and now you're already creating variations of effects by combining different things."

"So just kill this angel once and for all, look at him, his eyes are begging to die!" Never before have I seen eyes with so much desire to die, even though you can also see small, thin worms crawling inside the eye socket.

"Fine... I will," Shizuka seems sulky about not being able to continue testing, and then she makes one last scratch on the angel, she quickly backs away from the angel's body which bubbles and then sprawls like deformed meat on the floor, it's like it melted, all the flesh deteriorated so fast I can smell the rot.

"What did you do?"

"I killed him like you asked."

"...Let's leave this place, honestly I'm extremely nauseous, I don't think I'll be able to eat today," I say to her just wanting to get out of here as soon as possible.

'Shizuka's power is so deceptive... the description didn't make it clear that it was so strong... it didn't even make it clear that she could literally create new diseases, bacteria, and parasites... A single scratch can simultaneously generate, Parasites. Necrosis. Fever. Nerve degeneration. Tumor growth. Secondary infections. All at the same time... how bizarre,' I swallow hard looking at Shizuka who follows me.

I thought only her other two abilities were strong, but no, all three of her abilities are ridiculously absurd, she is literally a walking package of destruction.

Literally Evelyn-sama's strongest marionette without a doubt, I myself don't see myself reaching that level, even though Shizuka is stuck with only three powers and I don't have that limitation, there's no scenario where I would beat her when she's experienced.

'Shizuka's power seems more like Forced Evolution of Pathologies or a Manifestation of Negative Biological Concepts than really just contamination... unless Shizuka's own body is considered the infection zero pathogen... wait... could it be?' I look at Shizuka who seems oblivious to this.

Maybe the point is that it really is a contamination, and Shizuka is "Patient 0" but who can't be affected by the problems she carries within her own body.

'That also means that Shizuka is like an endless sea of pathogens, and her ability just searches within that chaotic ocean for something that meets what she wants...' The more I think about it the more bizarre Shizuka's power seems, even though I have no guarantee that's how it is, it's still the most logical deduction that answers where all this comes from.

"Hey Eve, you're my girlfriend now, right?" Shizuka pulls me out of my daydreams with a question.

"Huh? A-Ah yes, it's... I think so... you did well so you're kind of right," I say to her as we arrive at a clean room, even though we didn't get dirty and she already cleaned her hands with magic I want some time before leaving down here.

"So you're mine now?" She asks while I take off the jacket I was wearing, I'll throw this away later.

"Yes, yes, I'm yours now," I didn't expect she would show me something that left me shocked, I expected her to fail, but a promise is a promise.

"Ghhhhmmm!!!!" I let out a painful moan almost a scream when I feel my back being scratched, the burning sensation in the cut makes me gasp as I kick backward knocking Shizuka down.

"W-What is your problem?!!" I scream at her angrily, but then I fall to the floor feeling my legs weak, my heart races as I feel very hot down there, I look at Shizuka with confusion feeling very strange.

"You said we were going to have sex, but you seemed so disgusted and scared of me!! But Evelyn said I could have the things I wanted as long as I helped her! Obviously I understand I can't have Evelyn! She's scary!! And she would kill me if I tried anything!!"

"But there's you! You're just like Evelyn, and you accepted being with me! But I don't trust anyone other than Evelyn, so I infected you, you know they say love is a terrible disease, right? Besides, love is just chemical signals in the brain, it's not hard to make a disease that simulates that," I fall to the floor feeling how my vagina becomes drenched and the burning sensation spreads throughout my body.

"Y-You bitch..."

"Don't worry! It's just love!! And a little bit of lust, thank you for all the lessons, Eve! I learned a lot from you, now I want my reward!" She says with a big smile as her serpentine tail sways from side to side with joy.