Soul for a Girlfriend?

It was the last week of October and the weather was getting quite cold, especially in the night and early morning. Some people were already starting to wear our winter uniform, which was nothing other than a sweater and cardigan. I had the cardigan since it was easier to wear and more comfortable for me. Though I wasn't wearing it at the moment because it still wasn't that much cold for me considering that I wear full sleeved shirts.

I was gazing at the board as our mathematics teacher was writing down the general set of formulas required for solving a first degree differential equation. I was taking it down on my notebook, but my entire focus wasn't on the board at that moment.

A week has already passed since I captured Naoto, and everything has been going smoothly since then. There have been none new targets and my life was sailing quite normally. And after what has been happening to me for the past few months, my definition of 'normal' has changed a lot.

Though it was weird thinking about the fact that the girl I was dating for the first time ever got erased like that. And it was the same situation with Saki too, but things were different back then.

Also, about the sudden capturing of Naoto, it didn't ring any bells in the beginning, but soon Lilith started to worry as to what happened wasn't usual and the fact that her mana was gone all of a sudden was definitely raising red flags.

Lilith was stoked at the time when she got to know that Naoto was captured but later on, after giving it some thought herself and talking with me about it, both of us indeed found the occurrence weird.

I was sure that she wouldn't be captured that fast because I just manipulated her that day only and in the interval of a few hours, she suddenly got liberated? Now, it was weird, and even if there was someone who pulled the strings from behind, the crucial question comes up to be, "Who?"

There wasn't even a single person who was aware of my predicament. Even though their actions might affect the target, they will never be able to do such a drastic step as to just liberate it. It can only be done by me, or this was what I have heard from Lilith, at least.

But then again, the question arises,

"Who?"

"What are their objectives?"

I have a feeling that Lilith didn't tell me all the truth, or rather, she was hiding something about this whole thing. She definitely knew the reason, but couldn't tell me at that moment. Also, there was always the possibility of a normal mana anomaly though, I had no idea about this mana and stuff.

I was observing Naoto for the past few days and she appeared to be alright and also she didn't have any memories of me whatsoever. I passed her the other day, and our eyes met too, but I could tell that the way she looked at me were the eyes of a stranger. 

Even though whatever weird thing that happened, at the end of the day, it became useful to me in capturing her. Despite that, I couldn't just rely on an unknown source to secure my targets.

Whatever it was, the sooner Lilith finds out about that, the better it is for us. I know that she also wouldn't want a strange occurrence to mess up this contract because it meant a lot to her for some reason.

Reminiscing about the moments I spent with Naoto, it was probably the first time I ever got so intimate with one of them. She would definitely be a good girlfriend if I actually dated her and my circumstances were different. But sadly, I wasn't interested in making one.

It was lunch time already, and somehow the first four periods didn't seem like much of a pain that day. Probably because I had a lot of other things going on in my mind. I looked towards Tsūmen sitting next to me, who was putting his belongings back inside his bag.

His jades shifted towards me and caught my glance as he smiled, "And… our mid sem exams are closing in…"

It was true that our mid-term exams for the second semester were closing in as November was already about to start in a week. The midterms were probably in the first week of the next month. Returning with a bored glance, I sighed and said, "Yeah… I don't feel like studying at all."

Tsūmen slammed his palm on my desk and a few people looked towards us but soon realized that we were doing nothing except bullshit. Pointing his finger towards me, he exclaimed, "It doesn't matter whether you study or not, you'll score the same marks!"

He had a complete misunderstanding about me as I studied a lot and it wasn't just my photographic memory which helped to write down answers like I was taking my answer sheet out of a printer.

Shaking my head in disapproval, I sighed and leaned back in my chair while saying, "You do understand that I have to study a little bit before exams too, right?"

Suddenly, a smug expression formed on his face as he tilted his head and wiggled his eyebrows with a mischievous smile. Taking a small and dramatic pause, he asked in a deep voice, "Anyway… so what about you gir…"

But before he could finish his sentence, he looked at me in confusion, as it appeared that he was lost in his thoughts. I narrowed my eyes and asked, "Huh?" 

"Wait… I just thought that you had a girlfriend…" He said, with a troubled expression, but it was also normal since his memories always get erased after I complete capturing a target. For him, it was a mere illusion, but it was my reality.

"Really?" I asked in a surprised tone, and since I've been doing this a few months now, my ability to lie has become as smooth as spreading butter over bread.

"You're like dating her and stuff, but I can't seem to recall her class." He said in a hesitant tone while rubbing his chin between his index and thumb finger, as I chuckled slightly and replied, "First of all, look… me and having a girlfriend don't go well together."