Soul for a Girlfriend?

It was a rather normal day at school and I was surprised at the fact that Shiraishi didn't talk with me after what she did last day. She appeared quite adamant about hearing my answer to her proposal.

Well, not to mention that I tried my best to avoid her the whole day because I needed some time to prepare myself to face her. She was the type of girl I absolutely hated, but I had to talk with her no matter how much I hated it.

For me, it was an ideal situation as my target was asking me out from her side, which made things easier for me. But everything was sailing too smoothly, so I was a bit skeptical about this ordeal. I was wondering if going out with her would be a good decision or not.

Considering that she just cheated on her boyfriend last week and she was already hitting on me, it showed that she had no feelings for him whatsoever, or anyone in general. So the possibility of her having feelings for me was low.

She indeed had some sort of infatuation for me, but what I needed wasn't something temporary like that. She would easily get bored with me in a week or so and will search for a new person. My priority was to make her keep attached to me.

But for a girl like Shiraishi, it seemed rather impossible. I wasn't expecting someone like that to become my target. Generally, girls like her are popular and fulfilled. They have friends and a rather colourful life, but it seems like things weren't how it appeared.

She had some underlying problem, but I could only get a hold of it by becoming close to her. I feel like an asshole for the way I was thinking at that time. Getting hold of her weaknesses to make her submit against me.

With all those thoughts running wild in my mind, I reached home and Lilith opened the door as usual. Her face was rather pale and I could see a bit of sweat on her forehead. She appeared tired, so I didn't ask anything further.

I was changing clothes while Lilith was reading a new manga I got from Tsūmen on the couch outside my bedroom. I was wondering about what my neighbours thought about me staying with a girl in the same room who was apparently the same age as me.

Also, the fact that the landlord wasn't in my door banging for extra rent was weird. Maybe she could control the perception of others towards her, which could explain easily how my sister was able to see her.

But didn't she make herself invisible to her?

I was done changing and got out of my bedroom and headed towards the kitchen. On the way; I noticed Lilith sitting on the couch with her knees in front of her chest. She appeared to be quite immersed in the book, so I didn't bother her.

For the past few days, she was acting quite weird. She wasn't talking as much, and her vibes seemed quite pretentious. As if she was trying to hide something from me. She appeared sick to me, but then again I thought it wasn't possible for devils to get sick, so I threw away that possibility.

Later that night, I was lying on my bed as my room was dark with nothing but silence around me. The tranquillity of winter night was setting up on me as I was under my warm blanket, staring at the ceiling, thinking about something.

I was still thinking of my hypothesis regarding how the contract was buffing up my appeal towards the target. I knew Lilith was awake and was aware of what I was thinking, but she kept quiet for some reason.

I assumed she was waiting for me to strike up the conversation, but I was wondering if it'll be useful to talk about this with her knowing she won't be able to provide me with any useful information. 

I was curious about what her reason might be for keeping everything confidential from me. Because being the one doing the contract, I had every right to have the legal and necessary information about it. But maybe laws are different in hell, unless she was lying to me.

I always had a strong gut feeling that ever since she came, she has always been lying more or less about this contract. If she was lying, then the question that arose was why was she lying? Everything about this contract was sketchy, not to mention that I already captured three targets.

Thinking for a while, I turned towards Lilith and noticed her lying wrapped around in her blanket on the futon. As I was about to call out her name, I noticed that she was breathing quite heavily. My eyes shifted down a bit, and I noticed her fists clenching on the futon.

Getting up from my bed, I leaned towards her and called out her name, "Devil-chan? Oi, you good?"

Her tensed body relaxed for a bit as she instantly turned towards me and her surprised eyes looked at me. Her cheeks were red, as she replied in an agitated tone, "Huh? Yes… I'm fine. Why?" 

I extended my left arm towards her forehead. Putting aside her messy hair which was on her forehead, I touched it with my palm and it was scorching hot. I looked at her and asked, in "Are you sick?" 

"I'm not." Slapping away my hand, she replied while glaring at me with narrowed eyes. She was quite embarrassed, and was breathing heavily because of talking too rapidly. 

"You definitely sound weird." I said in a hesitant tone, to which she replied in an irritated tone as she wrapped herself in the blanket again, "It's none of your business."

I was confused, looking at her reaction because she was trying to act tough for some reason, but I knew that she wasn't feeling good.. It may not be sickness, but there was clearly something wrong with her health.