On Your Side
"Well? Pathetic, isn't it?"
"..."
"Go ahead and despise me. I'm the one who literally wiped a whole village off the map."
I already knew all of this. Orca was a playable character, after all. Thanks to my experience playing the game, I was well aware of the tragedy in her past. That was why I had used Hypnosis on her, forcing her to drag up the story she kept buried deep inside. I wanted to create a scenario where she confided her secret to me, hoping it would ease her heavy burden, even if only a little.
I thought the shock would be milder since I already knew the facts, but...
"Even when I want to die, I can't because of the bastard parasitizing my body. There's absolutely nothing I can do."
It seemed a few lines of text dryly listing the facts in a game database couldn't possibly convey the sheer weight of Orca's emotions. Hearing the story directly from her lips, raw and dripping with pain, made my own chest tighten with melancholy despite already knowing the outcome. The helplessness of being unable to do anything, the crushing guilt of killing everyone she held dear, and the despair of believing nothing would ever get better—the murky, suffocating cocktail of Orca's emotions felt almost physical, choking the air out of the room.
But even if she had given up on herself, I refused to give up on her. The entire reason I had resorted to Hypnosis to make her speak of an event she undoubtedly loathed to remember was to help her. I had no desire to watch Orca spend the rest of her life writhing in lonely agony.
"Is that why you push people away?"
"What?"
"Did you think I wouldn't notice? I may not look like much, but I am a counselor. I can see when students are keeping their distance. I know you're acting wild on purpose, Orca."
"...Ha."
Orca's public reputation was terrible because of her reckless, aggressive behavior. Of course, the fact that she was a Devil Possessed played a massive role, but that wasn't the only reason. Even though she had only recently enrolled, the reason Orca was feared and shunned by the other students was simple: she wanted it that way.
She threw tantrums and picked fights over the most trivial things just to be avoided. She wanted to be feared; she refused to let anyone get close. Consequently, she didn't care if people looked down on her. In fact, she preferred it.
She was like a wounded cat—hissing and baring its claws at anyone who dared draw near. Picking fights over nothing, intimidating others, and naturally inviting contempt were her defense mechanisms. It was the only way she knew how to protect herself.
"Cut the crap. I've always been like this."
"...Right, of course. I'm sure you've been acting like this since you were a little girl."
The very fact that she had shared a brief conversation with Leo, followed us to the orphanage, and was now sitting here talking with me was normally an impossibility. So how had we managed to get this far? The answer was simple: Orca's insomnia had been alleviated, even if not completely cured.
Because of the tragedy in her past, she was hyper-sensitive about losing control of her body. This meant she hadn't had a single night of decent sleep since the day her village vanished from the map. Naturally, if a human goes without proper sleep, it's a miracle if they only become irritable instead of completely losing their mind. While Orca's rough behavior was partly to keep people away, a significant portion of it was likely born of sheer, sleep-deprived exhaustion. Having finally slept comfortably recently, she had grown a bit more tolerant.
"Don't worry, Orca. You did nothing wrong."
"...What?"
"The devil is the only one to blame. ...Right?"
"Teacher, stop talking nonsense! I'm the one who woke the devil! I'm the cause of all of this! Didn't you hear me? Let me spell it out for you again. I was the one who coaxed the other kids into going to that mansion! I was the one who found the box and couldn't overcome my damn curiosity, so I opened it!"
Orca was violent now, but she hadn't always been this way. Once, she had been a sweet, gentle girl who looked like she had stepped straight out of a fairy tale. Ironically, her childhood kindness was exactly what had ruined her. She couldn't bring herself to shift the blame onto others. She couldn't rationalize it by thinking, 'If only the other kids had stopped me,' or 'If only the adults hadn't opened the door.' Her inability to self-justify had broken her. ...Tsk. The game developers must have been absolute psychopaths. If the player didn't intervene, they just had to watch these characters spiral into tragedy.
"No, I don't think so at all. ...Isn't that right, Haze?"
"Indeed. It is entirely my fault."
"?!"
Orca clutching her throat in sheer panic was actually quite cute. She must have been utterly terrified to hear another voice suddenly echoing from her own throat.
"W-What the hell?! Again...?!"
"There is a common misconception among the Devil Possessed."
"Teacher... you know something, don't you?"
"Yes, I know quite a lot."
"Spit it out!"
People often assume that as long as the host maintains their sanity, the devil inside can't do anything. ...The problem is, that's a complete delusion.
"Orca, a devil isn't something you can block just by staying awake."
"W-What?!"
"Your entire premise is wrong from the start."
"...What do you mean?"
"I mean, devils don't only seize control of the body when the human is weak."
It was simple. The devil and the host shared a single body, but they certainly didn't coexist in harmony. It was closer to a constant war over a single vessel. Now, a question: what is the most basic strategy in warfare?
"You strike when your opponent is at their weakest."
"...And that's when they're asleep?"
"Bingo."
Most of the Devil Possessed had their minds broken before long, allowing the devil to usurp their flesh. It was because their mental barriers crumbled. However, no one in this world knew this. Devils would rather die than be captured and studied by humans, so the available information was extremely scarce. Honestly, if I published even a fraction of what I knew, I could probably win some global academic award—though proving it would be a different story.
"Most devils are simply acting efficiently. They bide their time, gather their strength, and then—bam! All at once."
"..."
"While the human is forced to stay constantly vigilant and slowly wears down, the devil conserves its energy and waits for the perfect opening. That's why the Devil Possessed usually suffer fits at night. It's when human fatigue peaks."
"It's true. Most of my kin steal bodies that way," Haze chimed in.
"T-Then..."
"Yes. If they don't care about conserving their strength, they can easily move Orca's body even during the day. Borrowing your mouth to speak is child's play."
The moment she heard that, Orca's face drained of color. ...She really didn't need to worry so much, though. Without conserved strength, such attempts were easily blocked. This was the tragedy of the Devil Possessed. None of them survived long enough to gain experience, and there was no one to pass down information on how it worked.
"T-Then..."
"I could have taken your body at any moment, Orca," Haze sneered.
"Hieeeek...!"
"Don't worry, Orca. Haze can't harm you anymore."
"W-What...?"
"That's the nature of our contract."
"Hmph. It's true."
Seeing Orca on the verge of a full-blown panic attack, I quickly reassured her of her safety. The contract I had established with Haze forbade her from performing any bad deeds for the rest of her life. Naturally, stealing someone else's body fell squarely under the category of evil. Orca had absolutely no reason to fear losing her body anymore.
"H-Hold on. I don't get it. What the hell is going on? Why do you know about the devil inside me, and what contract...?"
"It's fine if you don't understand right now. I'll explain it to you slowly whenever you get confused. That's my job as your teacher, after all."
To add a bit of context, the reason Haze hadn't stolen Orca's body despite being able to do so at any time was simple: she found it amusing. She apparently took great pleasure in watching her host writhe in anxiety and waste away, terrified of when her body would be stolen. Seriously, the hobbies of devils are utterly incomprehensible. ...Well, she couldn't do that anymore anyway. Thanks to my Hypnosis, Haze now found doing good deeds far more pleasurable than doing bad ones. At this point, Haze was nothing more than a glorified battery for Orca's powers.
To be honest, I had wondered if completely exorcising the devil from Orca's body would make her happier than just hypnotizing it... but I didn't dare try, fearing the butterfly effect would be too massive to handle.
"I don't... I don't understand. I don't know what you're talking about all of a sudden."
"I know. I understand. It's a lot to take in, so it's natural to be confused. But please, remember just one thing."
I offered Orca a warm, gentle smile.
"I am always on your side."