Chapter 751: Crossover Part 13

"...Pandora, what the hell is that? Both your hands are glowing — are you doing something shady? Please don’t blow up the house," Ayla asks as we watch a mark appear out of nowhere on the backs of both my hands. One of them, I can feel the energy of the Omnipotent Pandora, and the other, I don’t quite recognize — it vaguely reminds me of Oriane’s.

"I have no idea! They just appeared out of nowhere this morning, and they’ve been glowing like this the whole time, though they’ve been getting less bright. Even cutting my hands off and regenerating them, the mark still stays. And I’m not going to blow up the house — what’s with all the suspicion toward my magic?"

"I’ve never given you reason for that. You wound me," I say in a falsely sad tone.

"It seems to be part of me now, but I don’t know what it means. Please, let’s take this seriously, okay, Ayla?" I tell her, kind of confused myself about why I’m like this too. Usually, I have an answer for almost everything — finding something that leaves me this confused is rare.

"...Hmmm... there’s a lot of magic leaking from those marks. Both are frighteningly large. Could it be some kind of blessing? Or a curse?" When she says that, I look more closely.

The symbols themselves don’t remind me of anything specific. Both are complex magic circles in terms of design, carved into my flesh and clearly into my soul as well.

"Nah!! There’s no way it’s a blessing, because the Omnipotent Pandora would never bless me, but it’s not a curse either, because Oriane would never curse me!" I say, confident in that. Neither of them would do that.

"Well, at least they’re cool," she murmurs as Shizune walks into the room. We’ve already been to several universes, and I’ve already dominated all of them. They luckily haven’t noticed because my plans worked out, even though Shizune has started to get suspicious that I always disappear.

’I need to figure out a way to hide my power. It’s been growing because of the universes I’m contaminating. Soon Shizune will notice this increase and find it strange...’

"What’s that on your hands? There’s a lot of magic," Shizune points at my hands, and I decide to play a little prank.

"Pandora is—" I put my hand over Ayla’s mouth, stopping her from ruining the moment.

"Oh no!! Shizune, you won’t believe it!! I’ve been cursed!!!" I run over to Shizune, showing her my hands while covering the main traces with a curse I created myself.

"Look!! I can’t believe the bad luck I had. I think it was the last universe we went to — something latched onto my hands and I can’t get it off." She takes my hands.

"But Pandora—" I use magic on Ayla’s throat, blocking her from speaking. I want to see how long it takes Shizune to figure it out.

"..." Ayla looks at me, offended by what I did, and stomps one foot on the floor.

"...It looks like a strong curse. There’s a layer on top — what’s underneath? If you want, I can help. I’m good at breaking curses. If I have some time to study it, I can figure out its base," she says in a very empathetic tone.

"Thank you, beautiful!! You’re wonderful! It’s a conditional curse! Could you give me a kiss? I think it would help me feel calmer about its supposed effects."

"..." She drops my hands and steps away.

"Of course it would be another one of your jokes. Just say it — what’s underneath? What are those marks on the backs of your hands?"

"Oh, really? What gave it away? The kiss request?"

"Obviously!!"

’I see, so she really is taking it as a joke.’ I avoid smiling, realizing that all these pranks have desensitized her to what I want to hide. Perfect.

"Ugh, you’re so boring." I’ve been pulling constant pranks to hide my misdeeds, and it’s been working to a certain extent. The two of them have been more relaxed around me because now my odd behavior gets immediately labeled as a "joke" — a perfect way to hide the real motivations behind everything I do.

’It’s not going to work to push it much further... doubling down will make everything worse. I think it’s time to cut back on the jokes and pranks and ramp up my plans to contaminate the multiverse.’ I remove the second layer and let her see the real one.

"...They look like two marks," she says, looking at the designs on my hands.

"Oh, you don’t say. If you hadn’t told me there are two marks, I never would have guessed."

"...Not in that sense. Maybe it’s something good? I don’t feel the magic going anywhere. It feels like when two entities mark something. Maybe Oriane and the Omnipotent Pandora are betting on something?" When she says that, I get curious.

’So she’s not completely ignoring me anymore... good!! I’ll make it so she can never ignore me again...’

"That’s cool, though I’d like to know if they really are betting on something using me as the event. Well, I guess I can consider myself lucky they didn’t come to kill me, hahaha."

"And why would they try to kill you?" When she says that, I freeze, realizing I said too much.

"...No reason..." I know myself. I always imagined the Omnipotent Pandora wouldn’t just let me try to replace her, so I was prepared for her to kill me. But for that to happen, it means I did something wrong, and now both of them just got indirect confirmation that I’m up to something.

’Looks like they didn’t notice...’ I sigh, throwing myself onto the couch, kind of frustrated that I had to rebel for the Omnipotent Pandora to finally remember I exist.

"..." Ayla looks at me, frustrated that I’m still silent. I remove the magic from her throat while Ayla and Shizune stare at me.

"Why did you suddenly look all sulky, Pandora?" Shizune asks me as I just stare at the map.

"Nothing, just ignore my frustration. I have a lot going through my head! And you know me, I’m a little crazy."

"You should be less volatile, Pandora. A second ago you were fine, all cheerful and pulling pranks, and now out of nowhere you’re sulking... weird girl." She walks away while Ayla follows her, saying something.

’The two of them are teaming up against me... I need to focus on one of them. I need at least one ally, and that ally can deceive the other for my goals... but which one... Ayla is smarter than I expected. She keeps a lot to herself and stays distant, so it’s complicated...’ I take a deep breath. It doesn’t matter if the Omnipotent Pandora has finally noticed I still exist — I have my own big goals.

"This reminds me of when I was at the academy. I used to plan a lot of things too... it’s... nostalgic." I give my own face two little slaps to focus and stay locked in on what matters right now.