An actress in our midst!, Chapter 1&2

Synopsis:

Jessica always loved two things: Acting and the magical girls.

So when some demonic spirit appears before her and invites her into the demon army to fight against the magical girls? It couldn’t be more perfect.

Using her skills as an actress, infiltrating her idols’ enemies should be a piece of cake!

1 - Invitation!

“The demon army, huh…?” the girl asked as she stared at the odd dark creature in front of her.

“That’s right! I sense a lot of potential from you! You could probably eventually be more powerful than even Pretty Flame!” the odd cat-like shadowy creature replied.

“Hmm… stronger than even the strongest magical girl, you say? That sounds cool…” she said with the most disinterested tone possible whilst leaning back on her chair.

Jessica, being a huge fan of magical girls, wasn’t all too thrilled about the offer. Getting magical powers would be amazing but becoming an enemy of her idols in exchange wouldn’t. Not to mention the shadiness of all of this.

“So what exactly would I need to do to join?” she asked anyway.

“Very simple! You only need to set up a contract with me,” the cat assured her.

“A contract?” She narrowed her eyes. “Ah, I know that one. You’re gonna say you are doing me a favor while having me sign a contract to work eighty hours a week with minimum wage, no vacation days, and shitty work conditions, right?” Just like dad always complained about.

“Wha… No, nothing like that!” The cat shook its head. “A demonic contract is different from the human paper contracts.”

Jessica quirked an eyebrow at him, prompting him to continue.

“A demonic contract means that a demonic spirit – that’s me – fuses a part of themselves with your soul, turning you into a demon, granting you powers, and becoming your overseer.”

The whole ‘fuse with your soul’ sounded very suspicious and unsafe. Or maybe it was like becoming a cyborg? Except for the soul?

Jessica decided to focus on something else for the moment. “Overseer, hmm? So you’ll always be watching me or something?”

“That’s right!”

“In other words, whenever I go to the toilet or take a shower, you will be there, staring at me? Staring from inside me?”

“Huh? No, uh… that’s not…” The little shit suddenly looked flustered.

“Ahh, so that’s how it was.” Jessica threw a death glare at the creature whilst crossing her arms, making it flinch. “You aren’t some demonic spirit sent directly by the demon lord. You’re just an opportunistic ghost of some creep.”

“No! That’s not it! I swear! Look I… I’m already watching over hundreds of demons! It’s not like I’ll be watching you all the time! We can arrange something! It will all be a part of the contract!”

“Suuure, like that’s what they all say.” Jessica rolled her eyes, unamused. “One second I agree to a shady contract, and the next, you are lounging in my soul, rent-free, reading my mind, and inviting all your demon cat friends to come dig through as well.”

“Wh- what are you even…? I won’t be reading your mind or anything! And I don’t have any demon cat friends to invite over!”

“Oh…” Jessica’s expression visibly fell and her voice got a lot softer. “Sorry… I didn’t know you had no friends…”

The pure darkness that made the cat spirit up somehow managed to redden. “That’s not what I meant!”

The girl instantly returned to her glare, as if the displayed sympathy had only been an act, and shrugged. “Well, anyway. You aren’t very convincing right now. I mean, it’s a demonic contract. I bet once I sign the papers and find out it’s a shitty deal, there won’t even be any way out.”

“Like I said, there are no papers… And anyway, demons quit all the time! The contract doesn’t need to be permanent! If you decide demon life isn’t for you, I’ll just detach from your soul, erase your memories of the demon army, and you can be on your merry way!”

“Reaaally now…” Her cold judgemental voice stabbed at the cat creature. “You’re not trying to scam me here, are you? I’m not gonna find tiny text at the back of the paper in invisible ink, am I?”

“T-there… is… no… papeeer…”The creature deflated on the floor as it drew out the last syllable with a defeated sigh.

Truth be told, Jessica was a bit surprised she would be allowed to quit in the future. Well, assuming the little shit wasn’t lying, of course. And assuming he wouldn’t mess with her memories beyond the confidential demon stuff if she quit.

She recalled a past memory. A memory of being saved by, and then having a short chat with, Pretty Flame.  An idea began to form in her head. A very dumb and dangerous idea that could have very real consequences. But she couldn’t bring herself to care at the moment.

“Alright then. Before I agree, though, I have a few questions.”

The creature perked up at her words.

“First of all, the whole… surveillance thing. I’m not a big fan of that. How far does it go? You said you won’t be reading my mind. Is that won’t or can’t?” The girl continued to give her best death glare to the shadow cat whilst crossing her arms.

“Uh, well, no. I really can’t read minds, even when part of me has fused with your soul. I can only sort of sense your general feelings. Not much beyond that.”

“Hmm…” the girl hummed whilst keeping her eyes on the little demonic spirit.

Sense general feelings. Not ideal but she could work with that.

“Moreover… I usually only watch over new demons. Just think of me as a tour guide. Once you get familiar with how things work, that part of me in your soul will go dormant. I won’t be watching over you anymore.”

“Is that so…”

She rolled the ideas in her mind for a little bit, letting her little home invader stew for a bit. He looked quite uncomfortable at this point.

“Second thing. As a demon, what would be my obligations and rights?”

The cat sighed in relief internally.

“That… depends on the contract. But in general, you’ll be asked to participate in attacks on humans and you’ll have to report your activities every week. In exchange, you will be free to use the castle’s facilities… like the library, the gym, and so on.”

“And…? That’s it? I get to read books in exchange for having to go on raids all the time?”

“T-there are books about magic! You’ll find much more there than in any human library! A-and it’s not like you will be forced into raids all the time! We can negotiate the number of raids every month too!”

Once again, the poor demonic spirit found itself being scrutinized by the demonic, but still somehow still human, eyes of Jessica.

“Hmm, fine. Lastly, I want to ask, are promotions even possible in the demon army? Or am I going to be a low-level minion forever?”

“Oh! Of course! If you work hard enough, gather reputation, and become powerful, you can climb the ranks and maybe even become one of the demon generals!” The cat was jumping with enthusiasm.

Jessica merely gave an evil grin. “Good.”

It all still seemed like a terrible idea, but she just didn’t give a damn right now. This would either be amazing, or it would blow up in her face.

“I’ll give this demon thing a try then. Let’s negotiate a contract.”

The demonic spirit in front of her nodded and they got to negotiating. Inside his mind, he was thrilled! He had managed to recruit a girl who was basically already a demon in all but physical form! That demeanor, that aura, that darkness emanating from her very being… He couldn’t wait to brag about it to the other demon spirits!

Naturally, he had no idea what he had just unleashed upon the demon army.

2 - Infiltration!

A demon minion walked down the castle corridor. She wore the usual bland black bodysuit with a non-descript mass-produced white minion mask. Her finger-sized horns were poking out just above the mask, and her demonic tail swung behind her. The only distinguishing feature was the pattern on her chest, marking under which general she worked.

“So, what do you think so far, Jessica?” a voice in her head asked, giving her an impression of a smile.

“Hmm…” she hummed out loud as she continued to scan the surroundings.

“Honestly, a bit disappointing.”

“... huh?”

“The initiation was lame, the speech boring, the general is a stuck-up bitch, and my squad leader can’t even properly fight.“

“...”

“Hell, he doesn’t even know the basics of magic.”

“No, it’s more surprising that you do already. Where did you even learn all of that? Only demons and magical girls should know anything about magic!”

“The dark web is an interesting place.”

“... seriously? That’s wrong on so many levels.”

Jessica shrugged. “Blame the burnt-out demon who started a blog on the dark web.”

Her overseer sighed internally.

It had been a shock to everyone that Jessica had already known all basic and intermediate theory on magic. It hadn’t taken long for her to learn it in practice now that she had access to magical powers herself.

“Well, would you like to get reassigned to another general then?”

“Eeeh…” The overseer could feel the disgust in her voice. “They are all even worse than Salem.”

“...”

“I mean, one of them is a self-centered creep and probably a molester.”

“Err…”

“The second one is an aggressive douche, like some football fan or something. He’s totally the type to get himself defeated off-screen and then never mentioned again.”

“Off-screen…? What?”

“And the last one is just a hyperactive kid with too much power. I’m pretty sure she’s not qualified to be a leader of any kind.”

The overseer sighed once more. The last one, he couldn’t really argue with. The other two, he didn’t even want to know what had given Jessica those impressions.

With nothing else to be said, they made their way to the castle’s library, passing by countless other minions on the way.  Jessica checked in with the librarian – also dressed in the minion outfit – and got to work. She searched through every nook and cranny, looking for books on a specific topic. Once she’d gathered a few, she got herself comfortable at a table.

Reading with the mask on was a bit of a pain, but for whatever dumb reason, minions always had to wear the outfit and the mask when in the castle. Yes, even when working off sweat in the gym, which was as gross as it sounded. Although, at the very least, the shower could then be used without it.

Such weird rules.

“So… why are you studying sealing magic again?” her overseer asked as he glanced over the books she had picked out.

Jessica grinned. “Know thy enemy. I know demon generals have this weird tendency to get sealed by Pretty Frost if they make too much noise. I would like to avoid that fate if possible. So the more I know about this, the better.”

“Err, well it’s true, but… It’s not like they actually stay sealed. We usually resummon the human part of their soul and body back, and leave the demonic part – the part of me that’s dormant anyway – behind as a decoy.”

Jessica quirked an eyebrow. “The hell? You can do that?” Jessica thought back to all those ice sculptures that didn’t seem to be empty at all. “Then where are all the previously sealed generals now, if not encased in ice?”

“Well, once the soul is separated from a demonic spirit, it’s not possible to re-fuse, so they can’t become demons again. They are usually let go from the army at that point.”

“... Why even do all of that? Why not release the seal and let them continue being demons?”

The spirit sent an impression of a shrug to Jessica. “It’s the rules. If you get sealed, you are fired. It’s about our image, I heard.”

Another weird and specific rule.

“Well, that just gives me another reason to learn more about sealing magic then.”

“Err, I mean, sure. But you’re only a minion, you’re not gonna get sealed. You’ll probably just get knocked around by the magical girls. There’s no need to study sealing magic.”

Jessica’s glare turned cold. “Well, I don’t plan on staying just a minion. When I finally become a general, this information will be vital.”

“Well… you’re certainly ambitious.”

The girl ignored him in favor of focusing more on reading.

Of course, self-defense wasn’t the only reason she had decided to research sealing magic, but the little shit didn’t need to know that. In fact…

“Hmm? Sealing demonic spirits?” Jessica mused out loud. “Interesting…”

“Uh, you can… ignore that section. There’s nothing useful in there.”

“Ooh…?~” Jessica grinned, which somehow sent a chill down her overseer’s non-existent spine. “Maybe I should use this and seal you away whenever I go take a shower. You know, just to make sure.”

“We already made a contract about that! And anyway, with how you are doing, this part of me will probably be going dormant soon.”

“Oh, but I didn’t mean just this tiny part of you…”

The overseer grunted. “If you wanna seal my main body, I would need to be severely weakened first. You’re not powerful enough to seal me on your own.”

Her grin only got darker. “Oh-hoh?~ I see… severely weaken you first and then seal you away forever. Got it.”

“Ugh…”

The spirit groaned to himself. At this point, he couldn’t tell whether she was joking or not. This girl was just way too good at being a demon.

They passed the time in more silence while the overseer continued to observe.

“You know…” he spoke up again, after about an hour. “You are surprisingly diligent. I’m glad I scouted you.”

The girl scoffed. “Getting sentimental on me already, Nomed? It hasn’t even been a week.”

“Well, yeah… But still… Something tells me you really have what it takes to become one of the generals one day,” Nomed said, his voice distant.

Jessica fell silent for a second, pretending to be thinking about what he had just said. “Well, this is it for today. I’m going home.”

“Oh? Already? Alright… I’ll be leaving then…”

As per their agreement, when Jessica returned back to her home in the human realm, Nomed would temporarily go dormant. No speaking, looking, or listening allowed.

After Jessica left the library, she headed for the human world portal, did the usual check with the gatekeeper, waited a second for the coordinates to calibrate, and stepped through.

When she found herself back in her room, she took off her minion costume and mask, transformed back into her human form, and changed into casual clothes before sitting on her bed.

“Hmm…” she hummed out loud, mulling over everything she had experienced over the last few days.

Surprisingly, demons weren’t all that different from humans. Or rather, just like her, they were all humans who had agreed to a contract. She had been surprised to see that, yes, all the minions she had previously watched be swept up like trash by the magical girls were, in fact, real people, with personalities, likes, dislikes, and yes, they could even talk.

Just not during raids. For whatever reason, minions weren’t allowed to talk to the magical girls during their battles. Only scream whenever they got beaten up.

Yet another strange rule.

Oh, and they were paid. Despite what the little shit Nomed might have claimed, a demonic contract was exactly like a contract for a job position. At least as far as she knew from what her dad had told her.

In fact, most minions considered it a part-time job. Hell, some of them were probably going to the same school as her. It was so weird to think about that.

Initially, Jessica hadn’t been sure what to do, but after some slight adjustments to her plans, she realized this was way better.

After all, aside from the demon lord himself, everyone working for him was a former human with a grudge or seven, not some soulless puppets from other dimensions without any individuality.

And humans were good. She knew how to work with humans.

An involuntary yawn left Jessica’s mouth as her eyes teared up, interrupting her musings. She needed to get some sleep now. It was a school night, after all. She had to keep up with that as well.

She stood up and headed for the shower, still tossing some thoughts in her mind.

All in all, her infiltration was going very smoothly.