Planning

FRED POV

***

"How bored I am..." an **** mumble escapes my mouth as I look up at the night sky.

I’m currently standing on a ledge above the alley where Aria lives.

It’s been two days since I received the information from the thieves' guild.

After separating from the informant, I set to work to create a plan.

With the information I originally received, I came up with a simple plan.

I would simply wait for aria to come out drunk, and attack her into submission with my slime.

However, as quickly as I put that stupid plan together I discarded it. First, there were too many variables to take into account.

Will she go alone? What if she's with her party buddies? Besides, will I be enough to subdue a martial artist long enough to take over her body?

I didn't think so...

So after discarding that and other plans, I opted for a more indirect option. I would camp near her house and wait for the right moment.

However, that left other possibilities open and it was missing something. So I polished this idea until I got something more precise.

My current plan consists of the following: Hire a group of mercenaries from Pocamonta to wait for Aria during the last few nights in "la ballena". Once I see her, I will wait for her to come to her house and wait for the right moment when she is drunk enough to attack.

I had a hard time finding a mercenary group or even anyone who wanted to accept that mission.

It made sense. After all, who would want to take on a grade A martial artist?

However, anything is possible with enough money. The mercenaries I found were baffled by my request.

They warned me that not only was it crazy, but the chances of winning were slim.

They also asked me for 5 gold coins per night and an extra 10 gold coins in advance if I wanted to go through with this stupid idea.

Without hesitation I paid the fifteen gold coins and hired them. So for the last two days this mercenary group has been waiting for Aria in "The Whale".

To begin with, I had no faith that the mercenary group could even cut a hair on Aria's head, but the mercenaries were good for one thing: to hurry a drunk Aria back to her home where I would be waiting.

That said, I am at my wit's end. Between maintaining the mercenaries and bribing Aria's landlord to get me up on her ledge, the small fortune Morgan had given me is almost completely gone. Besides, if Aria isn't back by tomorrow, I'll have to rethink how to take her.

The magic stone lamps light up the night streets of Vam like fireflies in a field.

"Well... at least the view isn't bad," I muttered as I took out my chewing tobacco. Lately the effects of tobacco have been greatly diminished to the point where it practically didn't affect me anymore, but instead acted like a stabilizer, faithfully ingrained in my body. Something that I continued to use to calm myself down.

As I think about this nonsense, just before chewing my tobacco, I catch something out of the corner of my eye. At the entrance to the long alley, a woman is walking slowly.

Her steps are firm but slow, walking confidently through the alley. At a glance she looks normal, but I notice that the woman is using one of her arms to guide herself through the alley by touching the wall, as if she were drunk.

Putting my tobacco aside, my heart begins to pound, a brief thought crosses my mind. Could it be?

Expectantly, I focus my eyes on the woman walking down the alley. Using the faint light coming from the lamp that hangs from the entrance of the residence, I’m able to see the woman’s features more clearly.

Her brown skin, characteristic of people from the north, glows in the light of the lamp as if greeting me. She is wearing a tight black leotard that exhibits a proportionate musculature and a toned body that borders on perfection.

Her identifying highlight is short ear-length hair with a blonde streak, which matches Aria Vandervoort's signature feature. My heart pounds as I realize how obviously drunk Aria is.

I don't know if the mercenaries succeeded, but I know "This is my moment."

I quietly put my head on the edge of the ledge and open my mouth.

A drop of deep blue viscous liquid falls on Aria, and the world before my eyes immediately goes dark while a feeling of weightlessness comes over me.

Even though I never went into slime mode before, I somehow instinctively know how and what I have to do to take over Aria's body.

I simply have to slide through her head and into her brain. Even though I’m afraid that I’ll be blind when I become a slime, I realize it’s an unfounded fear.

I’m able to understand the world around me through my core, even though it’s proper sight.

Using my human body as an anchor, I begin to stealthily fall towards Aria, who is having trouble opening her door. When I’m about a meter above her head, I extend a tentacle and slowly lower it.

Very slowly, and without her noticing, I position it right next to her ear and wait for my time. A moment later, when Aria inserts the key in the lock, I attack.

I release my whole body over Aria's head and rush into her. A part of my body slips through her ears, but the larger portion, along with the core, enters through her mouth and nose.

Even though Aria throws a couple of punches in the air, it’s too late, she has lost.

Aria's body falls to her knees in front of her door as I enter her entire body. A part of me disperses into her bloodstream, the nucleus seeking a way to lodge itself in her heart, becoming much smaller in the process.

However, most of my slime body is directed towards Aria's brain.

As my body reaches Aria's brain, I begin to spread out, to penetrate every crevice and crease I can find.

In a matter of what seems like seconds, I feel my senses return. The cold of the night hit me, and the next thing to return is the sensations of my body.

Little by little, I feel as if something is slightly different with my crotch, little by little all my senses return until I regain my vision.

When I open my eyes I'm lying in front of Aria's house. Even though it seemed like only a few minutes had passed, looking at the night sky I can tell that at least an hour had passed.

However, there is no time to think about it, I need to see myself right now!

Even though my legs are a little weak, I **** my body to get up and enter the house.

Closing the door behind me, I hurry to find a mirror inside Aria's house.

Without knowing why, I open a drawer and find a hand mirror. With trembling hands I take it out and look at myself.

"..."

Looking back at me in the mirror… is Aria.

"It works..." I say while caressing my features. Aria let out a soft murmur.

Even though I followed all of Morgan’s instructions, I never truly stopped suspecting that she had set me up.

Still in shock, while not taking my eyes off the mirror, I make my way to a simple sofa in the living room of the house.

I plop down on it and, for a moment, a giggle escapes my mouth, but what started out as a nervous laugh quickly turns into uncontrolled laughter.

I lay down on the couch in the middle of this frenzied laughter. When the last laugh comes from my stolen lips,I look back at myself in the mirror and say, "Now you will help me whether you want to or not..."

In the middle of that thought, an attack of drowsiness hit me. My heavy eyelids close, and in a matter of seconds I fall asleep.