World Isekai

Maël crossed her legs, her eyes set on Mori.

She had an expression that he couldn't totally read. Her eyes were empty, but there was still warmth somewhere in there.

She didn't fully hate him, or he thought. Yet, he could see traces of it here and there.

Even now.

"You're truly the emotional type," she said.

Mori frowned.

"I've been quite logical so far."
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"Oh, don't get me wrong, I've seen glimpses of everything. You're not totally dumb."

Mori shook his head, giving up debating her choice of words.

"But, while you've taken right decisions, most of them had an underlying emotional cause. You seem to take all of you decisions based on emotions."

"Wh-... What? Are you insane?"

"You don't think so?"

Maël's face turned away, and faced him again while looking quite different.

She had Aura's face. It was a horrible sight, Aura's head on Maël's body.

"You disgust me."

"Wow, that's your friend, no need to insult someone who's not here to defend themselves," said Maël.

"You know what I meant."

"Well, I've done some digging on your actions, Mori. Want to know what I found out?" she asked.

Mori wasn't answering, but she barely even waited for an answer before continuing.

"You've lived life passively, hoping one day things would improve while not doing anything to actively improve it. Only once your mother died, you started to take actions for yourself. I don't understand everything from your world, but it's clear working your different jobs wouldn't just fix the issue your mom had, did it?"

"What else could I have ever done? Nothing I could've done would've paid for those bills. Killing myself and selling the body parts wouldn't even cover a recovery."

"How about, for starters, digging into why she's in that situation in the first place? I've seen glimpses of your memories, and even I can tell something's wrong in them, and I don't even understand most of what's happening."

She got up and took a log, throwing it in the fireplace.

The flames seemingly increased, brightening the room.

"And every time you take a big decision, like becoming an 'antagonist', only follows your inability to act without being emotionally damaged. Your mother made you a villain. Maya's death made you finally deal with your inaction with dustriver. And now, look at what Aura slowly dying is making you do. Isn't it pathetic?"

"Circumstances force me to act, you call it emotion, I call it reaction."

"You could've became an antagonist before your mother's death. You could've dealt with Dustriver right away. This Kindle farm strategy you came up with, you had it for a while. Why not start with it, instead of using it only when learning that Aura is unwell?"

Mori chuckled, turning it into a laughter that lasted a short moment.

"You're killing me. Haha, unbelievable. Context is everything. You think hitting first and asking questions later works? Sometimes, taking a step back and analyzing-"

Black cloth straps came from behind the armchair, tightly wrapping Mori to it, the last strap gagging him.

He fought against it, but it felt like stabbing the sea in hopes of killing poseidon.

Whatever he tried doing was vain and futile, the little control and freedom he had was gone.

"'Context is everything', huh," said Maël.

She feigned a shocked expression, bringing her hand before her mouth while rounding her eyes.

She waved her arm before her face, changing it back to her own.

She walked toward Mori again, sitting on his lap once more.

Both her hands were on his shoulder, while she looked at him with pity and disappointment.

"You know I've seen a lot of what you've seen. What's the point of this?" she asked.

She brought her palm up, a long needle appearing out of nowhere into her hand.

In a quick motion, she brought it down into Mori's shoulder, piercing it easily while he screamed in pain.

His screams were muffled by the gag, yet still sounded like music to Maël's ears.

"You're treating me like one of them, and I hate that."

She grabbed another needle out of thin air, piercing Mori's other shoulder.

Another short scream left Mori, widening Maël's smile.

"This is so exciting..."

She was tracing his face with her finger, looking into his eyes that were now slightly red.

"I'm not one of those dregs. Aura, Maya, Lilae, Xannos... Don't treat me like them, alright?"

She leaned in, kissing Mori's forehead gently.

As she leaned back, Mori's eyes were still staring at hers. She cared little, however.

"All of them might be morons, and you'd most likely trick them. Do I look like a moron to you, Mori? Am I a stupid bitch, Mori?"

Without waving her hand, or looking away, she remained inches from Mori's face while changing.

Her face turned into Maya's dead face. It turned into Torynn, into Jeff's kid, into his mom.

And that's where she stopped.

With his mom's face.

"What is it? I can't hear you, with this in your mouth."

Mori's insults and rage were ones of the worst kind. The kind he couldn't act on. He could only stay there, and endure it, while she seemingly mocked him.

"Yeah, maybe you think I'm as stupid as her, huh?"

She had a short laugh. "You look like you want to kill me."

She got up, and walked around the room, her face changing into different people Mori had met. Most of them he recognized.

"See, you're here, lying to me about something you know I know. Right. Like, how would you like it if I argued here and now, that I'm not the one who stabbed your shoulders?"

Mori stayed still, looking at her face changing shapes.

"You knew what was happening. It's not that you didn't know, it's that you didn't want to know. With you mother, with Maya, with Aura, with everyone really. You'd let everyone die and take action after the fact. That's how you operate. That's what you've done so far."