“Are your burns okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m used to getting hurt when
Ange gets careless.”
Rapha’s entire body was wrapped in
bandages, but he made sure to smile gently while greeting Micha.
They were in the area the angels defended,
which was the closest place to what was known as the “sky” in the human world.
They were in heaven. They walked to the brightest area in order to give a
report together.
They stood side by side in front of their
boss who wore pure white wings like a cocoon.
“We are ready for our report.”
The mission involving the activation of
Metatron had been a failure. As the leader of that mission, Rapha reported on
the current states of FeTUS, the human world, Fujita Mutsuki, and Ange.
Their non-humanoid boss had no face for an expression,
but they could tell he was displeased.
The mission had been a failure and FeTUS,
the greatest source of fear for the angels, still existed.
But after Rapha completed his report,
someone else spoke up before their boss could.
“And based on those results, I have a suggestion,”
cut in Micha. “Ibekusa Machina, one of the FeTUS Witches, defeated a demon that
– while low-level – we had assumed humans had no means of resisting. And even
if some irregular factors were involved, Satowa Lucia displayed a power that even
a Seraph like me had trouble opposing. For those reasons, the stalemate between
angels, man, and demons is beginning to fall apart.”
“Mh…”
“We had been at the bottom of the three
sides, but I believe we did an excellent job of proving we are a threat to
FeTUS. If our purpose is to deter any mutual interference, doing great damage
and keeping Metatron alive should be very useful.”
She rattled off the argument she had come
up with in advance.
“Thus, I believe it would be best to leave
Metatron…leave Ange on earth as Fujita Mutsuki-kun’s bodyguard.”
“Hm. You have a point.”
The leader of heaven opened his bent wings
and revealed the glowing body within.
The light was wrapped in beautiful radiant
wings, but it lacked the violent glow of life seen in Ange after transforming
into Metatron. He seemed as fleeting as a firefly’s light.
He had no physical body. This was a mental
form with no life.
He had nothing that could be called a will
of his own. He simply enforced the laws of heaven and would listen to his
subordinate’s suggestions to do so.
“Very well. Continue as is.”
“Okay.”
“Understood.”
After waiting for their answer, he vanished
higher into the sky.
Once he was gone, Micha and Rapha breathed
a sigh of relief.
“It somehow worked out. Fujita Mutsuki-kun
can be indecisive, but he is driven. We can rely on him.”
“Say that to him. He doesn’t seem to like
you very much.”
“Now Ange can rest for a while. This was a
difficult series of events, but I’m glad everything is headed in a better
direction now.”
“Sigh… You’re willing to die with her if she has to blow herself up and you’re
willing to use the legendary power of Adam to save her. You’re one hell of a
siscon.”
“Heh heh. How could I not be with such a
cute little sister? And…”
Rapha gave his usual inscrutable smile,
narrowed his eyes, and stared at Micha.
“When an adult does something, it has more
than one meaning, right?”
“…”
Micha responded with a thin smile of her
own.
Two sets of damp laughter rang through the
unsullied pure white of the heavenly territory.
Suddenly, Rapha frowned.
“By the way, does that Mutsuki boy really not
like me?”
“You hadn’t noticed?”
“Exposure to Metatron at such close range
has proved useful.”
Miss A, aka Alice, removed pins from
Machina’s body as the girl lay on a bed.
“The angel’s flames purified all of the
lower demon’s genetic alterations. None of the fluid it pumped into you
remains.”
“I see.”
A total of eighty golden pins were lined up
along Machina’s naked body. They were stabbed quite deep, but no blood came out
and no hole remained when they were removed.
They were in the never-before-used Second
Lab since the First Lab had been destroyed, but it was equipped well enough for
the experiment they wished to run.
The small room contained a bed, a chair,
and a woman’s lower stomach soaked in formaldehyde.
That was enough for FeTUS’s most important
research.
“A womb altered by a demon. Dr. Strangelove
would probably want this.”
Red flesh – a human organ – was dropped
into the bottle of formaldehyde containing a new lower stomach. After it was
contained in the center of the empty female body, the bottle was carefully
closed.
Machina got up. Her stomach had been sewn
shut with golden thread just below her navel and the surrounding area had been
wiped clean of blood with the rag next to her. After removing the thread, no
mark remained.
Miss Alice frowned as the girl calmly
handled her own surgery.
“Wasn’t it painful to be attacked by a
demon and…treated so roughly?”
“It is not a problem. I discovered a means
of resisting demons, so we should say I was fortunate.”
“Not what I meant.” Alice spoke a little
loudly and Machina looked up. “It was painful, wasn’t it?”
“…”
Machina was always emotionless, but when
she saw Alice frowning sadly, she looked down a little.
“…It is not a problem.”
Even so, she did not complain.
“I am Fujita-k-…Adam’s tool. As long as
that is certain, nothing is painful.”
“I see.”
“Ahh, ahh.”
The school had lost its clock tower. The library
building that had faced the tower had an arched roof thanks to its planetarium.
“They’re getting ahead of me.”
Lucia crouched at the peak of the arch despite
the wind and rain. He tugged at his shirt to peek at his own chest as he sighed
quietly.
“Do I have to be a girl?”
He peeked at his flat boy’s chest.
And he sighed again.
“…Oh.”
He closed his eyes and focused his mind.
As his skin grew brown, a change came over
his revealed chest. The fat which was spread out evenly across his body
gathered in his chest so it bulged out.
It became a girl’s chest.
“Uuh…”
But it only lasted a few seconds. His skin
grew white again before long.
“Sigh… It doesn’t last long without
Mutsuki-kun’s power.”
His proportions also returned to those of a
boy.
“That old hag is always so cruel.”
The next day, the typhoon had passed and
the skies were clear and sunny for the closing ceremony.
The ceremony began at half past nine, so
they had to be at school at half past eight just like normal.
“Sigh…”
At 8:26, Ange arrived in the classroom a little later than usual and collapsed
into her own seat.
“Morning, Mutsuki, Jiyuuni.”
“Good morning, Ange-chan. …What’s the
matter?”
Sakae and Saya immediately walked over and
found the girl’s exhaustion odd since they had just had a day off.
Mutsuki only smiled bitterly to avoid the
subject. He could not exactly say the two of them had been “fooling around” for
the entire day off except for the little sleep they had gotten.
“You smell like Mutsuki-kun.”
Lucia caught on almost immediately, though.
“What the hell? It took months before he would
do me, but you pulled it off in just one night? Take this. And this.”
Noticing her weakness, he dug his elbow
into her.
“Shut up! I’ll burn you to death!”
“Oh, how scary! Mutsuki-ku~n, this girl’s
scary~”
“Ah ha ha. She seems to be pretty sore
today, so leave her alone.”
Mutsuki let the demon embrace him in mock fear.
Both arms and legs, her back muscles, her
belly muscles, the base of her legs, her groin muscles, and the front and back
holes. Her muscles and more were apparently aching or throbbing, so Ange was in
an especially bad mood today.
“I’m not sure I get it. Oh, is this what
they call ‘that time of the mo-...gfh!”
Sakae made an unnecessary comment and was
quickly purged by a backhand blow from Saya.
“Are you okay, Ange-chan? If your stomach
hurts, I know a medicine that works pretty well.”
“Thanks, but leave me alone.”
“The second day? It must be pretty bad.”
But Saya’s unnecessary comment only
irritated Ange further.
She was truly in a bad mood now, so she
turned to look out the window. Concerned Saya and teasing Lucia both had to
give up.
“Ange-chan sure is unlucky if she’s feeling
bad on the most exciting day of the year.”
Mutsuki suddenly realized that Saya, Sakae,
and the rest of the class were cheerful.
“Yeah. It is the closing ceremony, after
all.”
“Yes, yes♪ And you know what that means starts
tomorrow, right?”
“Summer
breeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak!”
“Yes, yes,
yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!”
Sakae shouted and Saya hopped up and down.
No one in the classroom seemed bothered by
all the noise.
Summer break began the following day, so
they all felt in the mood to shout.
“Ohhhh! Let’s party until we drop, Mutsuki!
We need to get together to plan it out, but let’s go to the mountains! Let’s go
camping in the mountains! Or the beach! Either one’s fine! I don’t care where,
but let’s go enjoy our summerrrrrr!”
“Y-yeah. Ow, ow.”
Shouting seemed to have filled Sakae with
even more excitement because he began slapping Mutsuki’s back.
“Camping? That sounds like fun. Count me in♪”
Saya began slapping Sakae’s back.
“What? You’re coming? I guess one of the
tents will have to be extra-large.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re several sizes larger than
the average- ow, ow, ow, ow!! Don’t pinch me like that!”
Their exchange was par for the course and
Lucia looked up while happily rubbing his face against Mutsuki’s chest.
“Camping is where you sleep outside, right?
Then I’m going too♪ Eh heh heh. I get to sleep with Mutsuki-kun❤”
“Y-yeah.”
Mutsuki had a feeling he meant more than
just “sleep”. And then…
“…”
“Oh, good morning, Ibekusa-san.”
“…Good morning.”
At half past eight, Machina arrived at the
exact same time as always.
What would happen between her and Ange
after the latter had nearly destroyed FeTUS headquarters just two days before?
Mutsuki was a little nervous.
But neither of them said a thing. Machina
walked silently past like always and took her seat in front of Ange.
When she noticed Mutsuki’s gaze, she
glanced out the window at the partially-restored clock tower. The students had
been told the typhoon had destroyed just the top portion and it would soon be
repaired. She glanced at her headquarters where repairs were beginning.
She had no intention of changing their
position as “passive enemies”.
Or rather, she did not want to make this worse
if she did not have to.
And…
“Hey, hey, Maki-nyan.”
“?”
Saya embraced Machina from behind.
“You come camping too, okay? Let’s all go
together.”
Ever the optimist, Saya did not hesitate to
invite the girl who seemed out of place in the class.
Machina seemed confused, but she figured it
out when she saw Mutsuki’s bitter smile.
“Agreed.”
“Okay. I’ll get you the details once we’ve
worked them out.”
“Positive.”
“That’s one more! This is looking fun♪”
“By the way, what is ‘Maki-nyan’?”
The girl seemed confused again, but Saya
moved to the seat behind her.
“Ange-chan, you’re coming too, right?”
“What?”
Saya did not even hesitate to invite the
blatantly upset girl.
Ange had been listening and she hesitated a
little, but…
“Of course I’m not going on something so
ridiculous. I’m not interested in making friends.”
She glanced at Machina and glared at Lucia
as she spoke.
“Ehh? C’mooooon. You’ve gotta do these things
while you’re young!”
“I don’t care.”
“We’ll bring a bunch of fried chicken?”
“Do you think I’m a dog?”
Ange looked away again.
Saya puffed out her cheeks and sought help,
so Mutsuki gave her a bitter smile that said he would persuade her.
Either way, she was his bodyguard, so she
would be going if he was.
And more importantly, Ange was showing no
sign of opening up despite everything that had happened. That was just like
her, but he still sighed.
“Time for homeroom. Get to your seats.”
Their homeroom teacher, Katsue-sensei,
walked in, so Sakae and Saya returned to their seats and Lucia took his in the back.
Katsue-sensei, aka Schwarze, looked across
them all and finally glared at Ange.
That girl had destroyed their headquarters
and their teacher was not as forgiving as Machina.
But she made sure to do her job as teacher.
“Today is the closing ceremony. We will
move to the gym at 9:15, but I will be handing out your summer homework first.
Take one and pass the rest back.”
She calmly got to work.
She started passing out enough printouts to
fill the class with depressed looks. But…
“Oh, right. First, here’s what you asked
for, Fujita.”
“What? Oh, yeah. Thanks.”
She waved an object toward Mutsuki.
“What is it, what is it?”
He took it and Lucia peered in from the seat
behind him. Mutsuki held it out so the demon boy could see.
“It’s a student handbook. Mine was ruined
in the rain the day before yesterday, so I ordered a new one yesterday.”
On the way back from school and during
Micha and Lucia’s fight, his handbook had been soaked by the rain and its contents
had grown illegible.
While everyone passed back the homework, Mutsuki
quickly wrote his name, class, and attendance number in the new handbook.
That would normally be the end of it, but
he had one more thing to do.
He pulled a card folder from his bag.
In it was his collection of photo booth
pictures of himself with his friends. He liked to place those photo stickers of
his good friends on the back of the handbook.
He started sticking them on. They ranged
from nursery school to quite recently.
The very top was reserved for his favorite
ones. That had only been one with Sakae until recently, but now he had another
one there too.
“…Huh?”
He looked to that new sticker.
His fingers stopped on that photo with Ange.
They had only taken the photo two months
before and he had only used one of the stickers for his previous handbook, but
two of the stickers were missing.
He tilted his head, wondering if he had
dropped one somewhere.
He had stored the card folder in an
unlocked drawer at home, so someone could have easily walked into his room and taken
it. But…
He looked to the girl sitting diagonally
behind him.
“…”
Ange had been glancing over at him again
and again, but she blushed when their eyes met.
She made the usual lopsided frown and
looked out the window once more.
Fight-on my friend.
ReplyDeleteDespiar all their said there still have someone like me that check your blog looking for this LN update almost everyday
Dude you might wanna work on your spelling
DeleteFight-on my friend.
ReplyDeleteDespiar all their said there still have someone like me that check your blog looking for this LN update almost everyday
yup ))) second that
Deletethanks for the translation btw
DeleteThanks for the volume!!!
ReplyDeletewait...Machina lots is womb?..thats sad...now she cant have a baby from Mutsuki-kun Y,Y
ReplyDeletepoor girl
ReplyDelete