"Ah, my comic."
Mashiro, who had been peacefully lying on her bed drawing a manga, was suddenly pulled into a completely black space, leaving her confused.
[You have entered the Sin Trial - Sloth]
[To unlock the special title 'Capital Sin: Sloth' complete the mission]
[Mission: Earn the recognition of the Sin Judge]
Mashiro read the information and frowned. It looked like a hassle.
Looking around, she noticed a giant man carefully observing her.
"Sin Judge?" she asked.
"It seems you're intelligent" said the enormous man with long white curly hair and ancient noble garments. "Normally it's enough to give a mission, but your situation appears to be special, so I'll be here to determine whether you pass the trial or not.
Normally, everyone's trial consists of going to a world extremely influenced by the chosen sin, but for you... we'll go to a special world."
Out of nowhere, something changed around Mashiro. The black space within a certain range in front of her transformed into a plaza, as if it were a 3D movie projection.
There, a person waited irritably while occasionally looking at a photo of a blonde girl and searching for her in the crowd.
"Sorata?" Mashiro recognized him instantly, tilting her head.
"That's right" the judge's voice sounded, though he was nowhere to be seen. "This is the person you trust as much as your lover. However, it seems you never decided to do anything or resolve the situation, you never chose either of them. Although you avoided the situation out of fear, deep inside you claimed it was sloth. As the Judge of Sloth, I will not allow you to use it as an excuse."
However, contrary to what the judge expected, Mashiro's expression barely changed. There was no fear or nervousness on her face, only a faint trace of confusion, as if she didn't understand what the judge was talking about.
"To force you to choose, I will show you a world where you never met Takayama Kaito" said the judge, deciding to ignore Mashiro's puzzled expression.
"But is it sloth?" asked Mashiro, confused.
"It isn't sloth, you're just hiding your feelings behind sloth" repeated the judge.
Meanwhile, in the vision, Sorata finally met Mashiro, whose first question was what his color was.
Sorata reacted with confusion at first before trying to think of an answer.
Upon seeing this first encounter, Mashiro finally reacted, frowning.
"What's wrong? Have you finally realized you can't hide your feelings?" asked the judge.
"This... was a long time ago" murmured Mashiro.
"That's right. This is your entire life if you had never met Takayama Kaito" the judge explained again.
That produced the strongest reaction Mashiro had shown so far. Her eyes widened in surprise as she looked at him in disbelief.
"That... is going to take a long time," complained Mashiro. "Don't you have a couch?"
"..."
The judge became increasingly puzzled by the girl's attitude. Deciding she was probably still running from herself, he chose to indulge her wishes. Starting with the couch, then popcorn to watch with, and every few days he would even pause the vision so Mashiro could sleep.
Thus, around two months passed, two months in which the vision continued advancing at incredible speed while Mashiro enjoyed it like a movie.
"What did you think?" the judge finally asked the girl on the couch once everything ended.
"Boring, incoherent, stupid decisions" murmured Mashiro.
"I'm talking about your own life. Could you elaborate a little more?" complained the judge. He had already grown accustomed to Mashiro's personality after so much time.
"Boring, incoherent, stupid decisions" repeated Mashiro, before adding something else. "I wouldn't do that."
"But you would. This is the exact life you would have if you had never met Takayama Kaito. This is your original life."
"...Good thing I met Kaito" said Mashiro after thinking about it for a moment.
"Oh? It seems you've chosen someone? You're finally ready to make your decision and stop running away?" he asked with interest.
"It's just sloth" repeated Mashiro once more, claiming that was the only reason she had never decided.
The judge looked at Mashiro as if she were a child in denial and clicked his tongue.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Poor soul in denial. Fine, let's continue the trial."
The vision disappeared, returning the surroundings to complete darkness. There, besides the judge standing before her, two familiar figures appeared for Mashiro, Sorata and Kaito.
"Now then, this is the end of your trial. You must kill one of these two. They aren't the real ones, so they won't feel anything or defend themselves the way the real ones would. However, they are genuinely connected to them through the Gaia system. If you kill one, the real person will lose a life. And of course, they will know the reason for that lost life.
Remember, Sorata only has one life. Killing him is equivalent to depriving him of the possibility of ever returning to Gaia.
However, although Kaito has six and seems like the obvious option, killing him would mean betraying his trust. With so many women around him, in addition to the ambiguous relationship between you two, who knows what might happen if you do that.
Now tell me, what do you cho..."
BOOM!
Before the judge could finish speaking, Sorata's avatar exploded into a thousand pieces from a compressed fireball that detonated on contact.
"Do you realize what you just did?!"
"You talk too much. Can I leave?" asked Mashiro before adding with a frown as she remembered his words, "It's not ambiguous, he's my boyfriend."
"But you never made anything official?"
"...Sloth." Mashiro shrugged.
"But... you never chose between them."
"Sloth" she repeated.
"But..."
"I spent forty years in another world" interrupted Mashiro. "Without seeing either of them. I only missed Kaito."
Upon hearing that statement, the judge fell silent for several seconds, unsure what to say.
"Could it be... you had already chosen long ago? But then why..."
"I was too lazy" said Mashiro again, unable to understand how the giant in front of her failed to grasp such a simple sentence.
"This is a mental trial. It's created based on your own thoughts" said the judge, unable to understand the situation.
This wasn't a case of the judge creating a trial based on his personal judgment. The trial itself was a manifestation of Mashiro's mind. The judge didn't think she hadn't chosen, it was Mashiro's own mind that believed she hadn't chosen.
Suddenly, an idea formed in the judge's mind, an idea so absurd that he began laughing out loud at its ridiculousness.
"Ha... hahaha! No way. Could it be that you... don't understand yourself?"
"It doesn't matter" said Mashiro with the certainty of someone stating an absolute truth.
"It doesn't matter? Someone who doesn't even understand herself, how could she understand others?"
"I don't need to understand myself. Kaito understands me."
"I see. You have extreme trust in Takayama Kaito. This led to the current situation where you don't even need to understand yourself because someone else will do it for you. A level of trust that results in absolute sloth.
From a normal point of view, it's an extremely dangerous situation, but from the perspective of a Sin Judge, your mentality is... the epitome of sloth.
I hereby declare you, Shiina Mashiro, the Capital Sin of Sloth."
Before she could react, the surroundings around Mashiro returned to normal, transforming back into her room.
"I'm back" she murmured to herself.
She checked her rewards.
A domain with a radius of ten kilometers where everyone's sloth was multiplied by ten, slowing their movements and weakening their abilities, and an improvement to her communication with fairies, allowing her to communicate with them telepathically.
Finally, after doing so, Mashiro disappeared from the room.
...
"N-no, it can't be! Why?" In a dark room with the windows covered by newspapers and food wrappers scattered all over the floor, Sorata muttered in disbelief.
"It can't be. I... died? I won't be able to return to Gaia?"
"Why? Shiina, why? It's Lucifer's fault, it's that Lucifer's fault. He must have forced her. I'll kill him, I'll kill him no matter what it takes!" he said hatefully as he imagined Kaito's familiar face with murderous intent.
As he thought this, he began hearing shouts from outside.
"Wait, Mashiro, don't go in, if Kanda sees you the..."
Mashiro ignored Misaki's pleas and slammed open the door to Sorata's room.
Seeing Mashiro there, Sorata reacted immediately.
"Shiina, you've come to apologize? Don't worry, I know he must have forced you. Don't worry, I'll find a way to free you from his grasp. Trust me."
Mashiro frowned, not expecting Sorata to have fallen so far in only a few weeks since they last saw each other.
"Sorata..." murmured Misaki.
"Shut up!" Sorata interrupted her. Only Mashiro mattered in his eyes. "Shiina, what's wrong? Could it be that Lucifer did something to you? I..."
"Sorata" interrupted Mashiro. "Let's end our relationship."
"W-what? Shiina, what are you talking about?"
"I don't want any kind of relationship with you. From friends to simple acquaintances, nothing" said Mashiro, using a detailed explanation, something unusual for her.
"I-it's because of Lucifer, right? He told you to do this. Don't worry, I was planning something to..."
"Sorata, Lucifer can find people who have bad intentions toward him. You're only alive because he doesn't want to kill you" said Mashiro.
"No! Impossible! My plan was going to work. If I hadn't died, I would have managed to..."
"Sorata! Let's never see each other again. And don't try anything in the real world, or he'll kill you."
"No, I..."
Sorata fell silent, but far from understanding, the hatred in his eyes only increased until something else appeared in them, a pale blue reflection.
"A system?" he said in surprise.
"System?" Mashiro, who had been about to leave, was drawn back by his reaction.
And as if he had discovered a new hope, Sorata began speaking.
"Look! Shiina, this is the Gaia system. In the real world, it's a second chance for me, for us. Gaia hasn't abandoned me. It's pretty weak and I only have a few basic abilities, but with Gaia's training I can... look!"
Deciding it was easier to show than explain, Sorata created a small fireball in his hands.
Mashiro looked at Sorata in confusion, unable to understand how he could use that after being expelled from Gaia.
"With this, with this I can save you" he said hopefully while looking at her, but froze when he saw Mashiro's expression. There was only disappointment in her eyes. "What's wrong?"
"Please... leave Kaito alone" pleaded Mashiro, even forgetting to hide Kaito's real name.
"Don't worry, I can save you. I'll kill..."
"I'm sorry" interrupted Mashiro as a tear rolled down her cheek. "Thank you for being the first person I could trust. And for teaching me that trusting someone once doesn't mean trusting them forever."
Soon, a fireball several times larger than Sorata's formed inside the room. The reflection of the flames in Sorata's eyes grew larger and larger until he could no longer see it.
Outside the room, Misaki watched the situation in disbelief.
"...Misaki."
"It's okay, I... understand" said Misaki, interrupting her. "I saw what he became. Maybe it was my fault, maybe I could have prevented all of this" she murmured more to herself than to Mashiro.
"It wasn't your fault" said Mashiro as she hugged her.
Misaki was surprised by the gesture for a moment, but then simply hugged her back and began to cry.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)