Chapter 35: Obvious inconsistencies
My partner Flora and I walked down the street in silence. Flora is currently wearing her normal clothes, because when she transforms into a magical girl, an outfit overlays what she's already wearing.
And when she detransforms, she returns to her previous outfit.
"Master, what will you do about the other villains? Your defeat has caused the equipment prices to rise again, and unfortunately 7 more costumes are now unusable."
'...'
"How much would it all cost..." I ask, recalling the previous prices.
'Please don't be too expensive.' The prices charged are already enormous normally.
"95% of the bank's stolen budget for the purchase of all damaged equipment and the extras that were ordered."
"WHAT A ROBBERY!" We stole the money and now they're robbing us with outrageous prices, how ironic.
"Master, if you did...that...we could get the equipment for free," Flora says, hinting at a specific plan.
"I won't do that."
'Not even the Shizune of this world wanted to do that...' The plan is to kill the crime boss and start controlling him, so we'd get everything for free.
'Is she really an ex-magical girl? Her morality has completely disappeared...' This plan was proposed by Flora a long time ago, and sometimes when financial problems arise, she mentions this plan again.
"Master, we also have the option of increasing the number of robberies..., but with that, more broken equipment is guaranteed...we could also do small robberies instead of just large-scale attacks."
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"No," I deny the plan for smaller attacks immediately, as these smaller attacks would lead to the deaths of many.
I was considered the biggest villain because all my attacks are always on valuable things or well-known locations.
But this is done this way to avoid harming civilians.
'What irony...I'm the biggest villain, but I've practically never killed anyone...' only one innocent has been killed by accident.
"Flora, please stop thinking of strange plans." Flora is very strange, Shizune never saw any problems with her, but to me it's clear that this girl has several issues.
She clearly is a bad influence because she's always thinking of strange plans that will clearly kill many people.
"Flora...why do you think?" I stop walking and look at Flora with a certain strangeness.
"What do you mean, Master?"
"...Well..." I bite my lips as I look at the many memories I have, and I've just noticed something rather frightening that the strange morality of the Shizune of this world has never allowed her to see.
For some reason, Flora has many plans that always involve deaths and chaos in a way that harms thousands or even millions of lives.
Up to this point, it's all "okay," after all she's here to help me, so she should always be helpful and assist in the plans.
But...what's strange is the fact that she really "thinks" about these things, to begin with, the dead don't think, everyone other than Flora only responds to direct commands.
However, they don't "think" even though they have a semi-consciousness, they are not capable of getting out of a certain programming.
But Flora, for some reason, is not like that, and that's where what I find frightening comes in, the dead cannot deviate from their personality and previous memories.
In other words...a dead person who was a good person will not be evil, their personality will be good and their "plans" will also be good, even if I order them to do evil, it's not because they want to, but because I want to.
Basically...why does Flora, who is supposedly "good," have plans for murder and chaos? Unless this was already in her mind, she should never be able to think of these things.
This makes me look at Flora in a new light, before her aura was helpful, kind and monotonous, now it is a cold, heavy and mysterious aura.
'Flora...did she want to kill people when she was alive? Also, why does she have so much free will?'
The dead I control generally do not speak unless they need to, but Flora speaks even if I don't talk to her.
"Flora...were you a powerful magical girl?" I ask Flora a question that is ridiculously obvious.
'Flora...is stronger than me...' Flora is able to fight with Rose and Azuli...without using magic, Flora has never used magic since I've "known" her, the Shizune of this world thought it was because Flora was dead and no longer had access to magic.
But Flora can fly and become a magical girl, and that is a form of magic, yet in all the fights she has only used hand-to-hand combat and still manages to fight with two magical girls who are fighting seriously and using magic.
'Flora when she came to get me, she barely had any injuries other than some minor burns...'
"Uhmmm, I was a little strong, Master," She responds to what I asked without any problems, but this makes me feel the cold air of the dark street more clearly.
'Thinking about it, why was Flora's corpse preserved? And why was it in a heavily locked mausoleum?' The me of this world only wanted allies at that time, so they never questioned something so simple.
Why was Flora's body in an extremely locked mausoleum, to the point where she herself had difficulty invading it, reinforced iron bars of some kind that are so resistant that bending them was difficult, even though I can crumple reinforced tanks like tin cans.
And worst of all, why did Flora's coffin seem to be made of crystal and didn't have a very detailed shape? Why so much security with a corpse instead of just cremating it?
There are no corpses of magical girls because normally they retire and live normal lives when they reach a certain age, in other words, their corpses are in normal form.
But why was Flora's already transformed? The reason is obvious, it means she died in the form of a magical girl and they couldn't destroy her corpse because it was too resistant.
Then the question arises...how was a magical girl killed? Our resistance is colossal, modern machines cannot kill us, ordinary bullets don't even scratch us.
And if...in fact they didn't destroy the body because they couldn't, and if in fact other magical girls killed Flora because Flora was a false and manipulative villain, and in the end the crystal coffin was actually an attack and not a common coffin.
"Is there a problem, Master?" Flora asks because I'm looking at her strangely.
'...I don't know, there's no evidence, just speculations made by my paranoia..., but one thing is certain, when alive, Flora wanted to kill people' if she were 100% good, she would never talk about plans related to the death of innocents.
'...It doesn't matter, whether she was bad or good, she's dead now and is under the control of my ability.'
"Flora, how did you die?" I ask her.
"...I died in a common way, Master," Her answer is evasive.
"Tell me without beating around the bush how you died," I speak to her with some haste.
"..."
"In a common way, Master."
"...Why are you avoiding the question? No, how are you avoiding the question?" I look at her seriously.
"FLORA, HOW DID YOU DIE?" I yell, stressed with her. Shizune may not have noticed how strange Flora is, but to me it's obvious that this girl is not just a common magical girl.
"......................" She just stares at me in complete silence.
"I died in a common way, Master," She repeats the same thing, never saying how she died, only that she died in a "common" way, whatever that means.
'She doesn't seem able to completely avoid the orders..., but how can she divert the answer I'm asking for?'
"Flora, it's an order, tell me now how you died, and you're forbidden from saying you died in a common way."
If the order is that clear, she won't be able to evade the question.
'...do I really have total control over Flora?' This makes me wonder if I really have 100% control over Flora.
'Maybe it's better to turn off her personality...' The "me" of this world left her personality active because she felt lonely and liked Flora's kindness, but the current me sees no need for that.
In fact, the very act of her demonstrating kindness without being ordered is already bizarre, showing that she has a consciousness that she shouldn't have.
"...I died..."
"...? I KNOW YOU DIED" I'm already getting completely stressed about this, she found another way to not answer.
"Flora..." I take a deep breath.
"Tell me exactly how you died, you can't say anything more or less than the exact way you died, and you can't be silent, it's an order." I think this should cover all the loopholes.
"..."
"Flora?"
"...Flora, answer?"
'How can she stay silent?' I notice something slightly strange.
"...Flora, open your mouth." Flora obeys and her tongue soon falls off.
"!!!" She bit and tore off her own tongue just to avoid telling me how she died, I quickly heal her and she's intact again.
"Flora, why don't you want to tell me how you died?" I ask her seriously.
"Master, I don't know what you mean, I already said I died in a common way."
"...Okay, you win, I won't ask anymore, let's go home..." I give up on this approach that won't work.
'I need to get rid of her personality...' She still obeys, but not with 100% precision, in other words, I don't really have 100% control over Flora.
I don't know the reason, but Flora can somehow have more self-awareness than the other dead I control.
'Maybe it's...' I come to the only thing that can be the answer.
"Flora, what was your magic when you were alive?"
Her magic must be the reason she has more consciousness than other dead people.
"..."
"...It was a common magic."
'She doesn't want to talk about it either...'
"Flora, why don't you obey me completely?"
"But I obey you, Master."
"Flora, from now on you have no more consciousness." I give the command, erasing her personality.
She soon enters a rigid position, her eyes go out of focus, and her expression becomes completely cold and expressionless.
'S-She's pretending!!' That's not how the unconscious dead should be, Flora has never seen how they should be, so she doesn't know how to pretend correctly.
But the unconscious dead simply collapse to the ground until they receive a standard order and start obeying, in other words, Flora should have fallen to the ground until she received an order.
'...Damn it...' Flora has just disobeyed an order, completely ignoring my magic.
"Flora, you now have a personality." I give the command and she stops pretending.
"...Flora, let's go home." I say, pretending that everything is normal. I don't know why she is like this, but she has been with me for years and has never done anything, so for now it shouldn't be a major problem.
'I need to find out who Flora really is, the reason she can have more consciousness than the others is certainly the magic she had when she was alive...'
The reason I don't just ignore this and leave it as it is is because I need to make sure she won't screw me over in an emergency situation when I give an order, after all, I already have a Yandere with her eyes on me.
If necessary, I had thought of using Flora as a shield to defeat Angelica.