The Mask of an Angel
Even on the sixth day, the education continued without pause. Once again, knowledge and proper posture as an angel were instilled through the device. After each session, Linda would act out a troubled expression because of the tears that flowed down her face. Those tears, whose reason she herself did not understand, would continue for some time before vanishing without a trace. With expressions that had grown somewhat familiar, we followed the supervisor in training to internalize the injected knowledge. Appropriate responses to another person’s words, suitable facial expressions, proper gestures—the process of repeating these various lessons by practicing them directly until they became part of the body continued on and on.
The supervisor praised both Linda and me as outstanding trainees. I performed an expression of gratitude and spoke the appropriate words.
That afternoon, during bath time, Linda acted anxious, saying she felt as though she were losing something important but could not tell what it was. She seemed to possess a genuine talent for acting. To any observer she would have appeared as nothing less than a woman gripped by unease; her dead eyes, stripped of all light, furrowed in concern. I responded according to the knowledge on how to comfort someone who was anxious. My own acting must have been lacking, however, because her furrowed brow shifted into an expression of sadness as she comforted me in return. Unsure how to respond when the person I was comforting ended up comforting me instead, I simply remained silent. In the end she vowed to herself that she would never forget me.
The morning of the seventh day arrived. It was the final day of basic education. The supervisor announced that we had completed the basic course with excellent results and congratulated us on being reborn as angels.
We placed onto our heads a device with far more wires than the one we had used before and leaned back in the chairs. The maid and supervisor bound our bodies tightly. The unusual behavior raised questions in my mind, but I stayed silent. Linda performed her anxiety. I felt more injections than usual and a heavier static inside my skull; then I lost consciousness. In my fading awareness I thought I heard Linda’s scream, but there was no time to dwell on it.
I awakened in the usual hazy state of mind. Yet something was different this time. My head felt refreshingly clear in a way I had never experienced, making the world itself appear changed. Linda, seated beside me, was shedding tears once more. But unlike before, the flowing tears no longer concerned me.
We were ordered to rest and do nothing that day. Linda returned to her book while I exercised again. When I met her in the bathhouse after dinner, she was performing her expressions with polished skill. Until yesterday she had occasionally slipped into strange faces; now those slips were nowhere to be found. I, too, could feel that I was acting far more naturally than the day before.
Though only a week had passed, the body I saw in the mirror had changed considerably. Whether from the increased meal portions or some other reason, my breasts had grown slightly larger and my overall figure had filled out. Still, the consistent exercise kept me looking firm. One of an angel’s duties was to maintain an attractive appearance. Since my figure had never been impressive, I needed to keep exercising for the sake of that duty.
On the morning of the eighth day, full-scale professional education began. After discarding one’s past self and being remade into an angel, everyone started out roughly the same—colorless, odorless. The professional course was designed to train those blank angels until they could pass for human.
Within these three weeks we had to establish our own individuality as angels and learn to perform angels that matched that individuality. Individuality meant every trait one could act most convincingly: personality, tastes, attitudes, bearing—everything a person might possess. It was a process of deciding on all those elements, performing them, and integrating them into the body until they became natural.
For angels who could feel no emotion and had already abandoned their pasts, the process proved more difficult than expected. In the end it came down to trying everything, one by one, and selecting what fit best. Because it was such a crucial stage in forming an angel’s persona, the training was intense.
I did not struggle much. For some reason I had retained most of my memories of Elisha, and acting as her felt by far the most natural. It was Linda who suffered. She seemed to have lost too much of her former self and found it hard to build a personality. So I taught her about the Linda who lived inside my memories: the bright and lively Linda, the sociable Linda who approached strangers without hesitation, the Linda who was physically affectionate with those close to her, the Linda who treasured her family. Thanks to my guidance, Linda steadily acquired her new self.
Alongside individuality came education on our primary duty—resolving the desires of others. Angels usually engaged in any work that satisfied desire, most of it prostitution. Unlike ordinary prostitutes from foreign lands, however, whether or not we worked depended entirely on our own will. A client could only spend the night by persuading us or winning our favor. Of course, because it was in our nature to ease worries and desires, we usually accepted; still, each angel set her own preferences according to her established persona. That was also why every angel had a specific method of approach, though ordinary people would never know it.
Hmm. Since this body is still a virgin, perhaps I should try the iron-wall-girl concept. But slightly different from the usual—once someone grew close, I would gradually offer service in every way except actual insertion. I studied various materials and refined the concept step by step.
As time passed, Linda and I grew accustomed to performing our respective roles. Eventually we could act without conscious effort. After three weeks the professional education ended, and we successfully graduated as official angels.
“Thank you.”
“Thank you.”
With the supervisor’s words as our farewell, Linda and I left the training center.
“Elisha, let’s meet again without fail.”
“Take care, Linda.”
We exchanged smiling farewells and walked our separate ways.
Hmm. What sort of expression did Elisha usually wear? I recalled that her default face was that of a slightly smiling, somewhat ditzy girl. I shaped my features accordingly, walked like Elisha, and headed toward my first destination.
The streets of Eden after a month looked exactly as I remembered. Yet now that I had become an angel, I noticed things I had never seen before. Eden’s own citizens were almost free of pretense, but the eyes and expressions of foreigners were thick with it. Tiny shifts in micro-expressions and body language revealed the true intentions hidden beneath their facades.
An angel was a being who had to read the other person’s heart and accept their desires. One had to observe not only oneself but the opponent’s reactions in order to see through to their inner thoughts. I made my way to the laboratory with practiced steps. The people I often saw there greeted me. This person was genuinely pleased to see me. This person’s goal was my body. That person offered a greeting but held no real interest. Acting as Elisha, I returned their greetings, and no one realized I was performing.
The time was eleven o’clock. Master would be in the laboratory now. I knocked and entered. As expected, Isabel was there.
“Elisha? It’s already been a month. Good to see you.”
“It’s been a while, Isabel unnie.”
“Hmm. You’ve become a perfect angel.”
Master looked into my eyes as she spoke.
“When someone becomes an angel, the light vanishes from their eyes and they turn into the eyes of the dead. A side effect of personality manipulation, I suppose?”
“I don’t really understand what you mean.”
“A doll performing Elisha. That description fits the current you perfectly.”
“But I am Elisha?”
“See? Not a flicker of anger even when someone denies your very existence. Well, you probably haven’t learned this scenario yet.”
“That’s mean, unnie.”
It seemed Master already knew a fair amount about angels. Hmm. I should remember that anger was the correct response here. I adjusted my acting to appear slightly upset, and Master laughed.
“You really are an excellent doll. Receiving feedback and immediately correcting your reaction—AI hasn’t reached this level of self-learning yet. Eden’s technology is terrifying.”
“Unnie, we haven’t seen each other in so long. Are you going to keep teasing me?”
“All right, shall I stop joking?”
Snap. Snap. The two quick finger snaps were the signal between Master and me to return to the slave state. Even as my sense of self had grown faint, that deeply implanted recognition had become the core identity of the angel called Elisha.
“As expected, the preliminary conditioning still works even after you’ve become an angel.”
Master sat down in her chair. I naturally knelt before her. She manipulated her tablet computer and continued.
“Angel education is, in truth, human modification through brainwashing devices and drugs. It is an act close to personality murder—erasing emotion, destroying the ego, and rebuilding it. My hypothesis that pre-conditioning with drugs and brainwashing before the education could influence the resulting angel’s ego was correct.”
“Personality murder… how frightening, Master.”
“Stop acting.”
At Master’s command I ceased performing Elisha. The fearful expression returned to blankness. The hand that had been stroking my arm moved back to proper posture. As I stood there expressionless, Master’s face showed both pity and resolve.
“An angel who has stopped acting is nothing more than a living doll. Cruel as it may sound coming from the one who turned you into an angel, it was necessary for our purpose. I will accept your resentment on the day everything finally ends.”
“I hold no resentment, Master.”
Master smoothed her expression back to normal.
“Build your position well as an angel. We will need it later.”
“Yes, Master.”
“We are planning body modification for the next stage of the plan. Come here when I call you.”
“Yes, Master.”
I accepted the communicator Master took from the table and handed to me. When I operated it according to the implanted knowledge, I found only basic functions installed.
“Use that communicator. Keep it with you at all times and remain ready to receive contact. You may use it freely otherwise.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Good. Never speak of these orders to anyone. Now resume your acting and behave as usual.”
“You’re simply giving me this communicator?”
I began acting normally again. How would an ordinary person have reacted to talk of body modification? Perhaps there was no need to react at all.
“Tell me more about angel education. I’ve been curious about how it actually proceeds.”
“Hmm, that brainwashing device? It injects knowledge about angels directly into your mind. The sensation is like…”
I spoke at length about angel education until my mouth grew dry. Master expressed curiosity about both Linda and me.
“You remember everything about Linda?”
“Yes. It helped greatly in shaping her personality.”
“Fascinating. Were your memories of Linda that important, or…”
The process of destroying the ego to create an angel’s personality required the collapse that came from memory deletion. Therefore they overloaded the brain by forcibly injecting vast amounts of knowledge in a short time using drugs and brainwashing devices. In the process of crushing the important memories that sustained the self, recollections of oneself and close acquaintances suffered the heaviest loss. The shorter the period and the less important the person, the more completely those memories vanished. My case—retaining most of Elisha’s memories—was apparently unusual. Master had originally expected an entirely different angel who merely shared the name Elisha.
“I am Elisha.”
“Yes, who says otherwise? That child told you on the night of the sixth day that she was losing important things and felt anxious, didn’t she?”
“Yes. When I comforted her, she ended up comforting me instead. Strange, isn’t it?”
“That girl is impressive too. To notice her memories disappearing.”
“Yet she became an angel in the end.”
“You truly cannot feel any emotion. I can clearly picture the terror she must have experienced.”
“It was already the sixth day.”
Perhaps she had simply tried hard to think that she was afraid. An angel was a being without emotion. She had already been an angel on the sixth day.
When I explained the concept I had created, Master burst into laughter.
“Iron-wall girl? Ahahaha!”
“Tsk, what’s so funny?”
“Hahaha—an iron-wall girl who starts serving once you get close!”
“I thought about it quite seriously. Is it strange?”
“No, no. For an emotionless doll, you actually did a decent job.”
“Right? I had a feeling it would work well.”
Master praised the high degree of completion for a concept I had devised myself. It seemed my talent as an angel was genuinely useful.
“Learning the details will help my research. Turning you into an angel was truly a divine move.”
“Eden’s God?”
“Eden’s God is not a god… No, it is not yet time. At any rate, with this much you should be able to establish your position as an angel on your own.”
“I will work hard.”
“Good. Good children deserve rewards. Come here.”
And so, after a month apart, I received a generous reward from Master. In the emotionless lives of angels, the only joy available was the pleasure of climax. Even that joy was an artificially induced emotion that could only be felt at the peak, yet for angels living in a world without feeling it was an overwhelmingly intense stimulus. I suspected that one of the reasons angels actively accepted others’ desires—alongside their sense of duty—was the pleasure they gained through climax.
“Doesn’t this feel like the carrot and the stick?”
“The analogy is a little odd, but it’s not entirely wrong.”
After receiving my reward for some time, I parted from Master and headed to the dormitory for the first time in a month. Emma unnie was probably still away at training camp, so only Kate unnie would be there. Entering the familiar dormitory room, I greeted her in Elisha’s style.
“I’m back!”
“Huh? You’re finally here?”
“Yes, I finished the education safely and returned.”
“Wow, Elisha completed angel training in only a month. As expected of my partner.”
“It turns out I have quite a lot of talent as an angel.”
Kate unnie welcomed me warmly. My performance as Elisha was clearly effective; even Kate unnie, who knew me best, noticed nothing amiss. She leaned in close, studying my eyes.
“The eyes of angels are fascinating every single time. How do they end up so decadent?”
“It’s an angel’s secret.”
“That’s what everyone says. I don’t understand why angels have so many secrets. The angel training process is obviously classified too, right?”
“It’s a-all a secret.”
“They say secrets make a woman beautiful, but angels take it too far. How about telling just your partner?”
“Unfortunately, I can’t.”
Unnie kept begging me to tell her, but what could not be told could not be told. It was forbidden both as an angel and by Master’s orders.
“Well, can’t be helped. Hey, Elisha, since it’s been a while, can I give you a belly punch?”
“I only just got back today?”
“I’ve been abstaining for a whole month. Please? Pretty please?”
“Can’t be helped, then.”
“Yay! Thank you!”
Because it had been a month, unnie was especially enthusiastic. I referenced the experiences and knowledge in my memory to perform the maximum possible pain and pleasure while she struck my belly. After a long time, satisfied, she fell asleep first. I sat alone at the desk, looked into the mirror, and reviewed my schedule.
First, I had to remain ready for Master’s call at any time. I also needed to find a place to work as an angel. Perhaps I should ask unnie where Madam worked. A shop run by a workaholic like Madam would likely be a good environment. I could also receive advice from senior angels while I was there.
Before lying down on the bed, the expressionless angel with dead eyes in the mirror once again put on the mask called Elisha.