I didn't have much to observe through the sniper scope, after all Ayane stayed inside and I didn't even know what floor she was on, so I was kind of forced to wait for her to come out since I couldn't see her.
'I wonder if it's going to take long...' I have no idea, without knowing what she's doing in there, I can't know, and with nothing to observe, the time feels so slow, incredibly slow.
"Well, well, Setsuna is spying on her sister again?" Hexael appears by my side, speaking with sarcasm.
"..." I look briefly at him, but don't respond, I'm not very happy to know that he was messing with my head, because of that, I ended up having to create my own makeshift moral compass to prevent me from crossing the line.
I know being evil is inevitable if I want more power, but I have to stay within a certain acceptable range, and I have to try my best not to be someone so horrible that it would make my sister feel total disgust.
My sister is a very good person, but even good people have their limits, and I know I have to follow those limits too, even if she doesn't know about the things I do.
"Is Setsuna mad at me?" Hexael asks, climbing on my back.
"No..." I'm not angry at Hexael, or rather, even if I want to be angry, it's not like I can, so I'm more uncomfortable than angry, because I know this demon can do things even to me without me realizing it.
Strangely, even though I feel disgusted when people touch me, I don't feel disgusted touching Hexael or when he just randomly climbs on me like in the current case where he's using my back as a bed.
"Great, if you're so curious, why don't you go sign up as a magical girl at the base?"
"I don't want to." Hexael proposing that I go in there is suspicious, now everything he does will seem more suspicious than before because he's not trustworthy, and trying to trust him will be a double-edged sword.
"Hahaha, are you getting scared? Okay, but how about weighing the advantages? That angel won't ask too many questions, to begin with, there's only one angel on Earth right now."
"And he's the only one creating magical girls, so that obviously makes you a suspect because he hasn't given you powers, but he also has a lot of respect for others' privacy."
"So he'll never interrogate or question you too much, even if you're a suspect, after all, if he were less respectful of others' privacy, he would have easily discovered traitors."
'...He's right...' That angel was stupid not to have discovered traitors much earlier when he could have.
"Hexael, I've deliberately avoided questioning you about certain things...but now you're just making me want to ask new things." I've never asked about the future, I deliberately ignored it because I know he'll charge a price for the answers.
"Hexael, why are monsters going to attack the world in mass, can you give me that answer?"
"I can't give it, you'll have to find out on your own, you currently can't afford to pay the price for that answer, since you'd have to do an evil deed at a level you're not willing to."
"But there are some things I can tell you for free, for example, only you and I know the future, some others know certain things, but no one knows what we two know."
"Demons?" I question who the others are that know.
"..."
"You're right, other demons may know that I came from the future with you, but the majority don't know, the number is very limited, what really gives away our position is that we ended up creating a space-time anomaly because it's not a very stable trip."
"..."
"But don't worry, unlike me, you don't create these little time anomalies, your time travel is perfect, so every time you go back in time, no one will know."
"...So...does that mean the time travel ability is completely mine and not yours?"
"..." Hexael falls silent, realizing that his little "innocent" phrase gave away an answer he didn't want to give.
"You're really a damn observant one, tsk." He speaks irritatedly, having been too hasty and not thought before speaking too much.
'So the source of power I have comes from him...but the powers themselves are mine...' This is interesting, it means that if Hexael needs a perfect time travel ability, he will necessarily need me, and I'm willing to make a profitable deal for that.
"Has anyone ever told you that you're too hasty?" I tell him the reason for his mistake.
"Yes, all the time, think of it as a little flaw of mine, but it doesn't matter if you know, what matters is that you know this is your power, if in the end you still need me?"
"...You're right." He's absolutely right, the power may be mine, but I still need him, so we're almost at an impasse where one depends on the other, although I depend on him more than he depends on me.
In the end, what I imagined is exactly what happened, no matter how much I ask about the future and why it ended up that way, this demon won't answer without me paying first.
And the worst part is, all I have to know about the future is a poorly written diary, blurred by tears, and with very poorly defined dates and people, the only real advantage I have is knowing that bad things happened and the fact that I can go back in time.
'...'
"Hexael...does my power have any flaws?"
"Who knows?" He speaks, evading the question, my power seems too convenient, it must have some weak point that I need to discover.
"Okay then, if you don't want to talk, I suppose it does...why do you want me to enter the magical girl base to sign up as one?" I question, seeing my sister finally come out of the base.
"Because it's convenient, they have an interesting group system that can help you be evil without as many problems, and you can even try to join the same team as your beloved sister."
"And the best part is, you can get privileged information that you couldn't get outside the base, and the reason I'm telling you to go in now is obvious, and you should have already realized it."
"..." I think about my sister's diary and what is most different between the beginning of the diary and the end of it, and the most different thing is the frequency with which she suffered, which has a rather obvious meaning.
'The number of monsters will gradually increase...' If she suffered more and more, it means she was going on more and more missions, which naturally means the monsters increased in number.
And this also means that the security at the magical girl base has become more rigid and probably more selective, since there are monsters that can try to sneak in disguised as humans or even magical girls at the base to steal information.
And if I, a "magical girl" who appeared out of nowhere and that the angel doesn't recognize, showed up during this increase in the number of monsters, I might end up being rejected as a suspect.
"Does this increase in monster activity have a reason and a connection to the great attack on the world they will make?" I question him with doubts.
"Hihihihihi, do you think I'll answer that?"
"I don't think so, but it doesn't hurt to ask." I say coldly.
"Do what you want, Setsuna, I can only give advice, it's up to you to trust them hihihihi." Hexael says, disappearing in a cloud of black smoke, leaving only his laughter in the air.
'...I feel like a chess piece...' I feel like a pawn, Hexael is clever, a little crazy and talkative, but without a doubt clever, and unfortunately he's smarter than me.
That's why I don't know if I should trust his word and try to join this group of magical girls, or if I should avoid it and wait, one thing is obvious, if I take too long to enter in the future, it will become difficult.
What seems most tempting in Hexael's proposal is the salary I know there is, I need money, but I have no way to work and protect my sister, but if I'm paid to be a magical girl, I can earn money and have ridiculously flexible schedules.
In addition, the magical girl salary seems relatively high, of course I've never seen this money in my life since my sister donated her pay to charity, after all we both had a stable financial life due to the death of "our" parents.
Who had quite a bit of money saved for emergencies, in addition to having life insurance that paid us very well, which met all our needs and allowed us to live well as long as we didn't spend excessively.
Although the life insurance was quite strict and I didn't receive anything, all the money went to Ayane, who was their biological daughter, the laws are very strict on this issue and the insurance only paid for Ayane.
The laws have changed a lot compared to several years in the past, and as an adopted child, I didn't have many real rights.
But Ayane always gave me the insurance money and access to the emergency money if I asked, right now she must also be living on that money.
However, I don't have a single dollar, I don't have bank accounts and I don't have a job, in addition to living in pretty precarious conditions.
Working as a magical girl and getting paid for it would help my situation a lot, in the end I need enough money to maintain several things.
For example, going on outings with Ayane as friends, I would necessarily need money to pay for things for myself and for her.
In addition, Ayane is so naive that she gave away all the money she earned from this base for charity, thinking it would help others just as she once helped me, her purity is undoubtedly a gift to this dirty world.
"Clever demon..." He incited me, I know he talked about this just to remind me that I'm totally poor and need money, and the only options are to steal money or work.
And I don't want to steal because that's exactly what the demon would expect, so in the end the only option to get an income to live is to register at the magical girl base.
"You won, Hexael...you won this one..." I murmur uncomfortably, Ayane who came out of the magical girl base seemed tired, so I deduce that she's going home, which should be safe.
So I guess I'll use the time I have now to sign up as a magical girl, I hope it's not too difficult and that it's not a mistake to fall into this demon's trap.