Chapter 24 - Diabolical Monkey Part 3

Lilith's POV

He sat up from his bed and covered his face with his left hand. He took a deep breath and looked at me from the gap between his middle and ring finger as his palm covered his face. He had this smile on his face and the glowing insignia almost made me think it was his real eye that was glowing in red colour.

"Devil-chan, it was me. I broke her from inside, and detached her friends from her so that I was the only person she would depend on for emotional support." He took a slight pause and laughed.

"I was the one who fixed her after breaking her with my own hands. A broken girl like her would be prone to seek support from anyone she could get."

I didn't bother interrupting him, as he seemed to have a lot of thoughts in his mind at that moment.

"It was me." He looked at me once and continued. "I wrote that letter."

"But it was her handwriting. I have seen your handwriting, it's different." I was enjoying this.

"I have a photographic memory, Devil-chan. Remembering a pattern of words isn't difficult for me."

"So you copied her handwriting and wrote that letter in place of her?"

"Exactly."

"But how did you know what to write?"

"I once had a conversation with one of her friends named Yoshiwa, and that girl spilled some beans while demeaning Tomose." He had a smile on his face, which resembled the satisfaction of a predator cornering his prey.

"Are you crazy?" This was my genuine reaction.

"Maybe." He tilted his head and laughed.

"But how did you know what was bothering Tomose-san?"

"I noticed every subtle behaviour pattern of Tomose. She was fiddling with something when she used to talk in front of her friends. That meant two things. First, she is lying. And second, she is having difficulty speaking her mind. Anxiety."

"You can just tell that from looking at her subtle actions?"

"I can, you shouldn't be surprised since you can just read someone's mind."

True. I was fascinated by the fact that Sakamaki was talking so genuinely to me for the first time since we met. And also the fact that he is crazy.

"I talked with her some more to get to know her better, while on the other hand I kept my friendship with Kana good too, since she was the leading figure."

I nodded, and he continued.

"After talking to Tomose, I found out that her friends especially, Sakura and Yoshiwa, were gaslighting her. I got a hold of her weakness. From that point, it was already a checkmate." He laughed.

"So you used her weakness to make it seem like she hated Sakura and did all that drama. So that finally you can comfort her and grow her attachment towards you?"

"You're smart, Devil-chan."

"I'm pretty sure that's not how love works." I sighed.

"Is that so?" He said in a sarcastic tone.

"But what if that plan failed? What if they didn't believe that Tomose was the one who wrote that letter?"

"I had made sure that it wouldn't happen. After this event, I purposely tried to convince Kana that there was someone who was framing Tomose, but that accurate handwritten letter did its work. Kana was 99 percent sure that it was Tomose and she just did that to vent her feelings."

"What if Kana didn't fall for that trap?"

"It bound her too. She is a girl. Her friendship with Tomose was of merely 4-5 months. And girls aren't faithful in friendship. If it were boys in question, then this plan would've failed." He said.

"What if they were indeed good friends?" I tried to check the limitations of his reasoning.

"If they were, then Tomose wouldn't have been my target in the first place."

I like his thinking process.

"But if Tomose confessed not knowing anything about the letter, do you think they would've believed her?"

"Ah yes, I took that possibility into account, and manipulated Tomose into saying something that I could later use against her. Which I did. Though I know she didn't mean it in the wrong way, but the right time and right context can make even an innocent sentence sound awful. I made sure that there aren't any holes in my plan."

Sakamaki was smarter than I thought. He was already thinking steps ahead of me about this ordeal and was preparing his moves accordingly. I knew I wasn't wrong about choosing him.

But this human was diabolical. That thought made me chuckle a bit.

He made Tomose say that stuff so that even if Kana said that Tomose might be innocent, Sakamaki would've said this and that would've closed the case right there.

But he didn't even feel bad about doing this to Tomose, who was already so depressed. He misled her into trusting him and made her fall for him. But did he even care for her in the slightest? And his methods were really dangerous too.

"What?" Sakamaki said as I was staring at him. He made me speechless. I never expected this type of scheming from a mere human like him. He reminded me of someone.

"Did you even care for her? For even a second?." I asked honestly.

"Honestly, I didn't have time to think about that stuff." He shrugged.

There was silence again between us. The sound of his mobile vibration broke the silence between us.

"I don't care if my methods are wrong, as long as the results satisfy me, I'll use any method at my disposal." He said.

"Any method? What if your method is risky?"

"I'm willing to take the necessary risks as a part of my bidding. As long as I'm winning in the end nothing will matter. Neither the method nor the sacrifice." He said while staring right at my eyes.

I could tell that he wasn't lying. He was as I expected him to be. At first, I was a bit uncertain about my decision of choosing him as the monkey but it seems I was right after all.

"You're a human as well, but you lack moral values."

"Morals, huh? What do you think morals are?" He asked me while checking something on his mobile. The light from the screen of his mobile illuminated his face.

"Some set of ideals in an individual's conscience that tell them to do good things?" I said because I don't know what answer he was expecting from me.

"So you must have moral values too?" He asked suddenly. I don't know if my answer was to his liking or not.

"I don't, I'm a devil." I said. "Even if I do, they are terrible," I added.

"Moral values can neither be good nor bad. It's a contradiction. Who do you think decides whether a moral is good or bad?" He threw that question towards me.

"The consequence of following those values?"

"Exactly." He gave a smile which demonstrated the satisfaction on his face.

"And, if I were to ask you about your morals, what would be your answer?" I asked him.

"There are no morals in this society. Only the stereotypes of the past that people act upon."

He looked at me for a slight moment and continued. "A man with good morals may be a good man, but not a smart man. But a man with the ability to improvise his morals may not be the best man, but he is definitely a smart one. As for me, I would rather be the latter."

Though the answer was vague, I understood what he meant. I didn't even have to read his mind this once to understand him.

"In short, you're a piece of shit?"

"Yes."

We shared a small chuckle and then turned around because we spent quite a few hours talking and he had school tomorrow.

This was Sakamaki's true nature.

He was indeed a jerk.