Chapter V: Dinner with the Devil – A Single Drop for a Trip to Hell

"Say 'ah~'" said Shogo, holding toward Alexandra 's mouth a spoon of the legume's pottage she made.

"A… Aaah…"

Her body tensed, Alexandra took the spoon inside her mouth – her strand of hair waved in a Z fashion.

"Is it good?" asked Shogo.

"Y-You already asked it ten times!"

"I like to hear you say that."

"..."

"Is it good, marshmallow girl?"

"It is good okay?! Leave me alone, will you?!"

"I am glad. Now it's your turn. Ah~..."

Shogo closed her eye and opened her mouth, waiting for Alexandra to put a spoon of food inside her mouth. Alexandra twitched. Reluctantly, she looked at her plate to see a place Shogo hadn't tasted yet. Once she located one, she took a spoon there and put it into the doll's mouth.

"Hum… that's good. My turn again."

Shogo took a spoon at the exact same spot Alexandra chose earlier.

"Say 'ah~'"

Alexandra squinted her eyes.

"(Why am I in this situation?)"

"You wanted me to prove the food wasn't poisoned." Shogo replied.

"Umm… mind reading doll…"

"Call me Shogo."

"S-Sho… Umm… Mind reading doll, could you stop looking into my thoughts, please? It is disturbing."

"I can't."

Alexandra frowned. This situation was the worst. 

Earlier, she ended up going down with a knife in her hand more as a sign she wasn't submitting, than a sign she was ready to fight. Expressionless as always, Shogo was waiting for her, standing close to a table…

"Here." she said, showing a chair.

Of course, Alexandra was doubtful, but she still sat down. In the table in front of her, was a plate with seemingly healthy and delicious legume's pottage.

"It will get cold," said Shogo, standing behind her.

"Hey."

"Call me Shogo."

"This is poisoned, isn't it?"

"It isn't."

"Liar."

"I am telling the truth."

"You already killed me twice! You can't expect me to believe you!" said Alexandra getting up.

"I didn't kill you even once."

"Liar!!!" she yelled angrily, turning to Shogo.

"Anyway, it is bad manners to talk while eating. It is displeasing."

"I know that much, and I don't care about displeasing you! Besides, I am not eating, so I didn't do anything wrong!"

"You sure talk a lot."

"You… You will hear my thoughts anyway! It's not like it makes any difference whether or not I talk! So—"

"—you decided you should as well take out your frustration on me… is it?"

"See? I can't hide a damn thing because of you! Get out of my head!"

"I can't."

"..."

Alexandra sat down again, frustrated. Yelling at this thing wasn't enough to calm her down. It was too unresponsive for her to get any satisfaction. If Shogo acted truly arrogantly, Alexandra could get angrier and yell louder, but she knew the doll only responded with its limited and mysterious logic.

"You… wish to have satisfying conversations with me?" suddenly asked Shogo.

"What? This isn't what I said!"

"But you wish to get a form of satisfaction by interacting with me, don't you? Even a sadistic one."

Alexandra looked at Shogo warily.

"And what if I said yes? If I said that I wanted to hurt you, what would you do?"

"I would like that."

"... What?"

Shogo took another chair and glued it to Alexandra's.

"Marshmallow girl, you said you were afraid of the food being poisoned, didn't you? Here's my proposal. You choose a spot on your plate, and feed me a spoon. Then, if I don't die, I will feed you back. What do you think? Does this seem fair to you?"

Alexandra got a bit farther from Shogo.

"Yeah right! It doesn't prove anything! You could be immunized to that specific poison!"

"You sure are demanding."

"As if you can talk! Asking me to trust anything you say after what you did is way too much!"

Shogo stayed silent for a moment. Again, she rolled her eye to think, but didn't seem to reach a satisfying conclusion even after several seconds. 

Alexandra got nervous. She didn't know how Shogo would react, but she wouldn't have been surprised if the doll suddenly stabbed her again. And, as if to confirm her prediction, Shogo got her knife out.

Alexandra jumped out of her chair and pointed at her with the knife she was still holding herself. She wasn't sure she could handle a fight against her opponent , but at least, she was bent on not making her third assassination an easy task.

However, Shogo didn't seem to be interested by her at all. She got up and searched into one of the little closets hanging in the living room. After a little while, she seemed to have found what was looking for – a little vial of an unknown product. 

"This is poison." she said, showing the vial to a dumbfounded Alexandra.

The teenage girl frowned. 

"So there was poison after all! Too bad for you, I saw it coming! You won't get a third death out of me that easily, you filthy doll!"

"Do you happen to listen to other people than yourself? I want to show you something."

Shogo used her knife to cut deep enough into her right cheek for blood to come out. She then let her blood stain her silver knife until its blood was completely red. Alexandra was completely taken aback, forgetting to ask her what she was doing. 

"Now, look at what happens when my blood makes contact with poison."

She put her knife on the ground and opened the vial of poison. Carefully, she let a single drop of the product fall on the blade. Almost immediately, the point touched by darkened. Words appeared into the air above the knife in rapid succession.

[Shogo is alive] 

[There is poison]

[Shogo is killed by poison]

[Is Shogo alive?]

If [Shogo is killed by poison] then…

[Shogo is killed]

[Is Shogo alive?]

If [Shogo is killed] then…

[Shogo is dead]

If [Shogo is dead] then…

Evoke [Death]

A dark mist covered the knife and the ground around it. The silver blade started losing its shine and broke. The wooden floor around it when through the same process, growing more and more rotten and dry. In the end, there was no knife or floor to speak of anymore, just rotten and broken pieces.

Alexandra looked at the scene, trembling. 

What she just saw was so frightening that her legs gave up almost instantly once it was over. She didn't want to fight anymore. She clearly didn't have the level, even with her grimoire.

"As you could see, I am cursed. If my blood gets in contact with poison… Well, I guess I will die gruesomely."

"H-Hey…"

"Call me Shogo."

"S-Shogo… that… that was bibliomancy, right?"

"It was."

"D-Did you do that to yourself? The curse, I mean…"

"No. I am not a bibliomancer. I don't even know how to read or write."

"T-Then! Who?! Who did that to you?!"

"That would be my Master."

"Your… master?"

"Yes."

"The same that healed me?"

"Yes."

"I-I see."

Alexandra was confused. Her eyes didn't lie to her earlier – she saw a code being able to evoke the concept of 'Death' just with a simple sentence. Maybe Shogo didn't understand herself since she wasn't a bibliomancer, but evoking life or death just by writing the corresponding words was ridiculously difficult. It was way easier to kill by describing how the victim will die rather than just saying 'The victim is dead'.

Moreover, creating a curse which instantly kills a target with a condition as simple as 'get in contact with poison' was not less difficult. What is a 'poison' to begin with? The only person able to define the term is the bibliomancer that created the curse in the first place. 

Whether it's used to curse or to heal, the more a code's conditions are hard to attain, the stronger the resulting effect is. Normally, Alexandra would be pushed to think that the said poison was a specific substance, explaining the power of the curse – the logic was that it is more difficult to be in contact with one specific thing than a group of things. However, after seeing that, her miraculous healing, and the time travel earlier, she wasn't so sure anymore.

"Anyway, marshmallow girl, as a bibliomancer, you probably understood what happened better than me. Do you believe me now?"

Alexandra lowered her head.

If that doll's master was hostile, she was as good as dead. Besides, why did she curse her own doll to die instantly from contact with poison? Dolls can be unreliable, sure, but the curse in their collar is generally enough to keep them in line. Is Shogo so dangerous that its master needed to have an easy way to kill it at any time? Well, if it truly can travel through time, it is probably way more dangerous than most angels.

Shogo approached Alexandra and squatted, her hands on her knees. 

"You think too much."

"... Maybe…"

Shogo extended her hand to Alexandra.

"I won't kill you again today. Can you at least trust that?" she asked.

"Do I have a choice here?"

"What do you think?"

A bitter smile drew itself on Alexandra's face. She looked at Shogo and took her hand. 

"As if you don't know!"

***

And that's how she found herself eating with Shogo. 

Needless to say, Alexandra didn't like the situation she was in… AT ALL. 

She was just checking if the food wasn't poisoned, but the way Shogo acted made it look like they were lovers having a way too sugary diner-date. She wasn't really embarrassed by the situation, no, she was disgusted. She was just trying to restrain herself from puking.

A doll was the lowest possible filth that could be. Being in a situation that seemed even remotely romantic with one was like being in a relationship with a pig – just the idea was revolting to her. 

Yet, she didn't have any choice.

Even though she wouldn't admit it to herself, Alexandra was afraid of Shogo. She didn't want to do anything that would anger her even slightly. She was always trying to follow her whims since the doll was difficult to read – expressionless, toneless, and with an alien mindset. For instance, she put the little bottle of poison just in front of Alexandra's plate while only saying: "You can use it."

The question was:  "For what could she use it?"

If Alexandra dropped that bottle's content on Shogo, it would instantly kill the doll, but earlier, it did say that it would murder her again if she attacked. Sure, Shogo did also promise not to kill her again today, but Alexandra didn't buy it.

The reason?

Earlier, Shogo denied having killed her at all, which was contradictory – if Shogo did indeed not kill her, it meant that the promise wasn't valid since murdering her wouldn't count as killing her AGAIN – if Shogo did kill her, it was even simpler since it proved the doll was a liar.

So…

If Shogo put that bottle at Alexandra's reach, it was either as a trap, or as a way to tell her to kill herself with it. The result would be the same anyway.

"Say 'ah~'"

Then again, maybe the doll wanted her to think that way... She was overthinking this whole thing wasn't she?

Alexandra looked at Shogo with tired eyes. Even in psychological battles, the doll had an advantage, but she wouldn't give up just yet.